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Yeah, the lowdown again... The low down. Down by the riverside. Where the sheep go. Or something. Anyway, warning for spoilers and cursing. Yep.

Josh: All right, so the thing that went wrong in Josh’s life was that he got a crush on someone…. Actually, there is a very significant difference in this Josh’s life and the original one that goes beyond the crush, but I can’t go into detail because I haven’t written any of it yet, heh. There’s a lot here I can’t go in depth about at all. It sucks. But, I can tell you some things.

To start, AU Josh is very aggressive, arrogant and kiiinda selfish. Growing up in Zack’s shadow, before, with him being so mischievous and pulling pranks and causing trouble all the time made Josh feel something of an obligation to be good—to be better. Growing up alongside that much jackassery put a lot of things in perspective. Same with Phil. It wasn’t just that his siblings were so out there and obnoxious that Josh felt like the only sane one in the family—it was also because they were so morally reprehensible and impossible to get through to. Zack twisted things all the time and had no sense of ‘Oh, I went too far,’ and Phil was just crazy and always getting in trouble. Josh felt like he had to be responsible, to be normal, to be the glue that held it all together, or else it might all spin out of control completely. So that’s the person he tried to be. AU Josh doesn’t have any of that. He has an annoying but overall kind, thoughtful older brother, an intelligent, loving little brother, and a sweet little sister. He doesn’t feel any pressure to be anything but what he feels like being.

On top of that, Zack’s being a legend and mastermind in getting the best of people and never having others get the best of him absolutely drove Josh crazy, so a lot of his obsessive tendencies got spent on trying to beat Zack at something. Anything. God, just anything! Anything, please, anything. That was his mindset. AU Josh feels no such pressure or jealousy or competitiveness or anything towards Zack. He’s his older brother, he’s there to be leaned on and wrestled with and teased by, and that’s it. AU Josh… has a lot more free time on his hands, as a result, lol. So his obsessiveness got spilled over into other areas. Areas that it maybe shouldn’t have been spilled into. Pam is an example of this, as detailed in AU Zack’s story.

Because Josh felt responsible to be the sane and stable one of the family, he spent a lot of time bottling himself up, choking down his inner conflicts and controlling his temper. He became very quiet, and all of his problems got taken out on footballs, baseballs, punching bags and number two pencils. He tried to sweat out his frustrations, to deal with things on his own ‘cause he didn’t feel like anyone else could help him. And he kinda hated himself, in some ways, since there were some parts of himself he couldn’t choke down and kill off no matter how hard he tried. It was like they were etched into his bones; some of these were his more negative personality traits—since he felt this need to be perfect and impenetrable, like how he perceived Zack as being, it bugged the heck out of him that he had such serious defects. Again, since Zack and Phil weren’t nuts and he never fell in love with anyone, AU Josh doesn’t feel any need to restrain any aspect of who he is. And a lot of his inner negativity is free to go wherever and do whatever it wants.

And because he never got that crush and was—was… BECAUSE OF REASONS, Josh was never humbled, so he’s a hell of a lot more arrogant. He’s hot, he’s beautiful, and he’s ready for action… and ironically, he’s less competitive and obsessed with perfection because he doesn’t feel inadequate, lol. But that also means he’s more self-absorbed. Bit of a double-edged sword there.

So because he’s less competitive, Zack’s being great at baseball didn’t cause him to be up in arms and determined to be better. He just focused more on a different sport. Of course, he still played baseball, he was just more football-oriented. He and Zack were a lot closer because of this, and they had frequent wrestling matches and punched and pushed each other around like regular boys. And since he never became quiet and drew into himself and got all nerdy, he went on a lot more adventures like when he was a kid. Miles and Stella were still big inspirations to him, so he did a lot of exploring and messing around and almost getting himself killed. He liked to drag Zack along with him, and Phil became like his shadow. His angry, terrified, disapproving shadow.

And that’s all I have.
HEY ARNOLD! © Craig Bartlett
Life with the Shortmans © SuprSingr

Description
Yeah, the lowdown again... The low down. Down by the riverside. Where the sheep go. Or something. Anyway, warning for spoilers and cursing. Yep.

Josh: All right, so the thing that went wrong in Josh’s life was that he got a crush on someone…. Actually, there is a very significant difference in this Josh’s life and the original one that goes beyond the crush, but I can’t go into detail because I haven’t written any of it yet, heh. There’s a lot here I can’t go in depth about at all. It sucks. But, I can tell you some things.

To start, AU Josh is very aggressive, arrogant and kiiinda selfish. Growing up in Zack’s shadow, before, with him being so mischievous and pulling pranks and causing trouble all the time made Josh feel something of an obligation to be good—to be better. Growing up alongside that much jackassery put a lot of things in perspective. Same with Phil. It wasn’t just that his siblings were so out there and obnoxious that Josh felt like the only sane one in the family—it was also because they were so morally reprehensible and impossible to get through to. Zack twisted things all the time and had no sense of ‘Oh, I went too far,’ and Phil was just crazy and always getting in trouble. Josh felt like he had to be responsible, to be normal, to be the glue that held it all together, or else it might all spin out of control completely. So that’s the person he tried to be. AU Josh doesn’t have any of that. He has an annoying but overall kind, thoughtful older brother, an intelligent, loving little brother, and a sweet little sister. He doesn’t feel any pressure to be anything but what he feels like being.

On top of that, Zack’s being a legend and mastermind in getting the best of people and never having others get the best of him absolutely drove Josh crazy, so a lot of his obsessive tendencies got spent on trying to beat Zack at something. Anything. God, just anything! Anything, please, anything. That was his mindset. AU Josh feels no such pressure or jealousy or competitiveness or anything towards Zack. He’s his older brother, he’s there to be leaned on and wrestled with and teased by, and that’s it. AU Josh… has a lot more free time on his hands, as a result, lol. So his obsessiveness got spilled over into other areas. Areas that it maybe shouldn’t have been spilled into. Pam is an example of this, as detailed in AU Zack’s story.

Because Josh felt responsible to be the sane and stable one of the family, he spent a lot of time bottling himself up, choking down his inner conflicts and controlling his temper. He became very quiet, and all of his problems got taken out on footballs, baseballs, punching bags and number two pencils. He tried to sweat out his frustrations, to deal with things on his own ‘cause he didn’t feel like anyone else could help him. And he kinda hated himself, in some ways, since there were some parts of himself he couldn’t choke down and kill off no matter how hard he tried. It was like they were etched into his bones; some of these were his more negative personality traits—since he felt this need to be perfect and impenetrable, like how he perceived Zack as being, it bugged the heck out of him that he had such serious defects. Again, since Zack and Phil weren’t nuts and he never fell in love with anyone, AU Josh doesn’t feel any need to restrain any aspect of who he is. And a lot of his inner negativity is free to go wherever and do whatever it wants.

And because he never got that crush and was—was… BECAUSE OF REASONS, Josh was never humbled, so he’s a hell of a lot more arrogant. He’s hot, he’s beautiful, and he’s ready for action… and ironically, he’s less competitive and obsessed with perfection because he doesn’t feel inadequate, lol. But that also means he’s more self-absorbed. Bit of a double-edged sword there.

So because he’s less competitive, Zack’s being great at baseball didn’t cause him to be up in arms and determined to be better. He just focused more on a different sport. Of course, he still played baseball, he was just more football-oriented. He and Zack were a lot closer because of this, and they had frequent wrestling matches and punched and pushed each other around like regular boys. And since he never became quiet and drew into himself and got all nerdy, he went on a lot more adventures like when he was a kid. Miles and Stella were still big inspirations to him, so he did a lot of exploring and messing around and almost getting himself killed. He liked to drag Zack along with him, and Phil became like his shadow. His angry, terrified, disapproving shadow.

And that’s all I have.
HEY ARNOLD! © Craig Bartlett
Life with the Shortmans © SuprSingr