can you elaborate on your tag meta on the socioeconomic indicators in the john backstory chapters in nona? and do you think john and G had a similar background having grown up together?

So John is a stingy ass motherfucker when it comes to definitive information, and he doesn't talk about his family or his childhood much, but what little he says when he does gives me the impression he grew up fairly poor. Probably in a community where being poor was normal.

The way John talks about his nana, it's clear he loved her in the way a child loves an adult they feel secure with. He spent a lot of time at her house as a kid, enough that playing there is one of his core memories. She may have even been his primary caretaker starting from the age of seven, because he sure never mentions having any other family. So it stands out to me that all he had to play with at her house was a box of his mother's old hand-me-downs. And while he knows it wasn't much, there's no resentment in his recollection. He didn't feel neglected.

John didn't expect to have toys of his own when he was a kid. What that says to me, as a kid who grew up on second-hand and hand-me-downs, is his family didn't buy much of anything new. It being so normal to him is also why I think he grew up in a poorer neighbourhood. Hand-me-downs are only embarrassing if you're the only one who has them.

Then there's how Nana died. Pneumonia, when John was still a teenager. Not a lot of rich people out there who die of lung infections before their grandchildren are grown.

And yeah, I do think G— had a similar background! He and John grew up on the same street, and he was (also?) raised by his grandparents. John's totally joking when he says spotting G— for mince pies when they were kids meant that of course G— would let him cut off his arm, but it's the kind of joke with subtext. Like sharing food was a big deal when they were kids. Reminds me of our Gideon being forever fond of Camilla for sharing her leftovers, and the intense barter between the children of New Rho over the lunch fruits. The childhood food insecurity of it all.