Kalvin Brnine's Polycule

Kalvin Brnine's polycule is a meme in Friends at the Table fandom regarding the numerous NPCs (and occasional PCs) who conveyed romantic feelings for or otherwise had shippy tension with Kalvin Brnine over a short span of time. The canon events that ultimately pushed the theme of Brnine's polycule into meme status happened in the 29th episode of the show's PALISADE season, which aired on Oct 15, 2023, but fans on Tumblr had been making episode reaction posts that set the stage for the meme for several months by that point.
==Evolution and Examples==
===Background: Jesset City===
Brnine's player, Ali Acampora, first touched on the issue of Brnine's love interest(s) in a July 2023 episode of Gathering Information (a behind-the-scenes bonus podcast for Friends at the Table's Patreon supporters). In the episode, Ali disclosed that the relationship between Brnine (a ship captain) and Gucci Garantine (their commander) in PALISADE took her by surprise, because in the lead-up to the season, she had mistakenly assumed that Brnine's commander would be Jesset City, another returning NPC from the preceding season. Specifically, Ali lamented not having told GM Austin Walker soon enough that she had hoped to recreate the "Primary and Satellite" relationships with Brnine and Jesset. This is a reference to historical roles in the setting that appeared in a previous season, Twilight Mirage, in which the Primary and Satellite pair who appeared "onscreen" were the fan-favourite canon queer couple Demani Dusk and Gray Gloaming.
This information was not widely remarked upon by the fandom at the time, but set the stage for the meme's future development.
===Gucci Garantine===
On Aug 11, 2023, a PALISADE episode airedFriends at the Table (Aug 11, 2023). "PALISADE 21: In Their Fear Pt. 2". Retrieved November 26, 2023. (archive link) in which Brnine and Gucci Garantine had a phone conversation with shippy overtones: Gucci expresses anger and concern about Brnine's willingness to recklessly throw themself at a dangerous mission, asks why they pretend to care about her, and perhaps most importantly, confesses to Brnine that she had imaged the two of them could work together on the planet Palisade as a Primary and Satellite. 
Fans quickly picked up on this reference, produced fanart of the conversation, and made reaction posts. One popular post from this time that delved into the dynamic between Brnine and Gucci said: 
(The furry in question is Valence, who many fans shipped with Brnine and whose death in PARTIZAN had a life-changing effect on them.)
===Gur Sevraq & The Figure===
An episode that aired on Sep 1Friends at the Table (Sep 1, 2023). "PALISADE 24: An Impossible Ideal Pt. 3". Retrieved November 26, 2023. (archive link) involved an unexpected turn of events: the ghost of Gur Sevraq began to haunt another PALISADE PC, Figure. Gur was a character from PARTIZAN who many people shipped with Valence and some shipped in an OT3 with both Valence and Brnine (this ship was called Gurbalence). Gur's death in PARTIZAN deeply affected Valence and influenced the choices that led to Valence's own death. Fans began to speculate about how Brnine would feel when they learned about Gur's ghost haunting a member of their crew:
Other posts around this time began to comment on the absurdity of trying to fit all of the Brnine love interests, now including Gur and Figure, into a single poly ship:
=== Polycule Chart ===
On Sep 17, 2023, ninthprime posted an early reference to Brnine's (and other PALISADE characters') situation as a polycule. They shared a polycule chart depicting their personal interpretations and headcanons for what was happening with the season's characters.Post by ninthprime (Sep 17, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link) Notably, Brnine appears at the centre of a web of characters that take up most of the chart. Brnine's red "definitely romantic" lines point to Gucci, Valence (referred to as "Wolf who is not appearing in this season"), and Jesset, and their green "maybe??" lines point to Gur, Thisbe, and Lattice, a strange, ghostly character from the same mysterious culture as Valence. (When Brnine encountered Lattice earlier in the season, the first thing they noticed was that Lattice "smells like Valence"; their interest in Lattice remains tied to their memories of/feelings about Valence in this way.) 
Some rebloggers made note how much of the chart came back to Brnine: 
Others included additions or tags suggesting other romantic connections or elaborations, again primarily related to Brnine: 
Around this time, some people also began to make posts about the dramatic possibilities of Brnine/Gucci/Jesset:
===Kalvin Brnine Dating Sim===
On October 15, 2023, PALISADE episode 29 aired.Friends at the Table (Oct 15, 2023). "PALISADE 29: Honesty and Integrity Pt. 2". Retrieved November 26, 2023. (archive link) It contained multiple romantically-charged interactions between Brnine and other characters, including Figure (who, watching tapes of Valence and Gur, wished so hard that Brnine were back home that they magically teleported them to safety); Jesset (who texted Brnine a string of "ambiguous"/flirty emojis); and Gucci (who visited Brnine's hospital bed, seemingly confessed her feelings for them, and told them they'd opened her eyes to the true possibilities of the revolution). 
The fandom had a field day. A number of posts highlighted the implied choice Brnine will face between Jesset and Gucci as their love interests: 
In response to the above post by ninthprime, peacereturnedtothevalley reblogged with a screenshot of a Clickhole headline, which had been edited into a meme about the Brnine polycule. It read, "Be Prepared: Experts Warn That This Polyamorous Relationship Could Expand To Cover All Of Millennium Break By 1430 PM." The image accompanying the Clickhole article had also been edited to reference Brnine (a fish), Thisbe (a goat), Valence (a dog in a ghost costume), Jesset (a young man with brown skin), Gucci (a Black woman wearing red facepaint), Gur (a ghost spider), and Lattice (a ghost floating onstage in a theatre).Post by ninthprime with reblogs by peacereturnedtothevalley (Oct 21, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
Other references to the meme were more oblique. For example, mrmarielda's Brnine/Gucci fanart depicting a conversation between Brnine and Gucci in the episode was captioned with the "ambiguous" text Jesset sent to Brnine.Post by mrmarielda (Oct 20, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
===Updated Relationship Chart===
About six months later, after several further canon developments in Brnine's relationships with Jesset, Figure, and to a lesser extent Gucci, peacereturnedtothevalley unveiled their extensive and elaborate updated PALISADE relationship chart that included canon developments through episode 44.Post by 4ri4joie (a.k.a. peacereturnedtothevalley) (Apr 11, 2024). Cohost. (archive links: post, fullsize image) 
Like ninthprime's polycule chart, this relationship part extensively featured Brnine and their relationships, with more arrows pointing to and from Brnine than any other character on the chart. peacereturnedtothevalley highlighted this with cropped versions of the chart when it was in progress and noted that they had to increase the size of Brnine's rectangle to fit all of the relationship lines.Post and self-reblog by peacereturnedtothevalley (Apr 10, 2024). Tumblr. (archive links: post, first image, second image) As peacereturnedtothevalley said in their post sharing the final chart:
The chart shows Brnine with pink "romantic connection" arrows pointing to Gucci, Jesset, and Valence, and different-coloured arrows connecting them to 14 other characters. As with ninthprime's polycule chart, several commenters and rebloggers commented on how central Brnine is to the chart:
Others, as in the tag below, explicitly referred to the relationship chart as a polycule:
For their troubles, peacereturnedtothevalley even received a shoutout from the Friends at the Table cast, who called the chart "dizzyingly complex."The Chaos Garden: What's New @ the Table (Apr 16, 2024). Public post on the Friends at the Table Patreon page. (archive link)
==References==
Category:2023 Memes
Category:Friends at the Table