Yep, it's the Ringverse (post wedding), which I decided to call RingOnIt!verse over at AO3, after watching Glee. Sweet of you to notice!
You're not doing much to dispel the "all black folks know each other" notion
Guilty. I felt uncomfortable mashing Wood and Gunn together when I did The Front Lines, but once I did it I loved them and wanted them to be there to support each other later in their careers. Which is sort of the backwards point of this story, I think. Wood can't seem to accept the "other" until he finds one of his own. He probably doesn't realize how isolated he feels, until the relief of seeing his old charge/reflection puts him into a new comfort zone and he can open up, finally.
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You're not doing much to dispel the "all black folks know each other" notion
Guilty. I felt uncomfortable mashing Wood and Gunn together when I did The Front Lines, but once I did it I loved them and wanted them to be there to support each other later in their careers. Which is sort of the backwards point of this story, I think. Wood can't seem to accept the "other" until he finds one of his own. He probably doesn't realize how isolated he feels, until the relief of seeing his old charge/reflection puts him into a new comfort zone and he can open up, finally.
Still, I'm aware that it's part of the cliché, matching up like with like. I have all kinds of conflicting thoughts about real life applications of getting that balance of "us" and "them" to the place where we welcome a wide variety into the "us" camp. I'm sure this comes up a lot in your professional life. I'll stop there, because it just gets more involved...