#but they've grown and learned more about one another.... they're beginning to. Understand each other

[catguangcorner]

boxing arc of LCLA goes crazy tbh we've got qiao ling busting the boys' time shenanigans (and her not believing at first until they prove it via HER being involved in said time shenanigans); we've got cheng xiaoshi's parasocial relationship w his idol shuang hai (man is obsessed); he's shaking crying downing drinks w shuang hai cos said boxing CHAKPION has no one to confide in except two twenty something year olds who did some sleuthing for him; cheng xiaoshi's all like "im your BIGGEST fan why are u being such a LOSER right now 🥲" and lu guang is sitting there quietly except for when scolding cxs for drinking too much too fast 😭😭😭 i love this show

[cloudcuckoolander527]

Honestly, I don't. Mostly because the image of 19 year-old Corvo being like "I won the Blade Verbena, got to do some cool shit with the Serkonan Guard, and now I'm a glorified babysitter" is fucking hilarious to me. Meanwhile 12/13 year old Jessamine is sitting there like "I picked you because you're good with a sword and like 6'5" so you look scary, but now I just get to boss you around"

Like, I know damn well they didn't start out thinking "yeah, there's my soulmate". They built it over time. Jessamine grew up, realizing how much the world of Court and nobility could be a snake pit at times, learning that a person she could truly trust to keep her secrets would be worth their weight in gold, because Outside knows how many times she's mentioned something to Corvo that would've made her a mockery to her other highborn "friends". And he grew up, too. Realizing how important his job was. Not just because she's the future ruler, but because, as the heiress to an empire, it's actually pretty lonely at the top and for all her moments of being wrapped up in the dramas of a highborn girl, she has a heart. She's kind and compassionate and very much alone (her mother's gone and her father doesn't pay much attention beyond "is my heir still alive").

So on it goes, where they're friends. The kind of friends who know they can trust each other beyond a doubt. Every strange fact, every embarrassing secret or vulnerability, they know and they would never risk compromising that. They're the kind of friends who understand one another. They have both lost family, they both know that if it weren't for the other, they'd be alone in this world. And as that kind of friend, they can speak to one another in ways no one else would dare speak to them (particularly Corvo to Jessamine. Most people are all politeness and deference, but him? He'll call her out to her face when something is a bad idea and she knows it).

And in that friendship over years of trust, over years of seeing sides of the other that no one else does, the question begins- first in Jessamine's mind- what if it went further? What if? What if that line were crossed (at this point she's like 18. Nothing like who she was 6 years before. And at that point plenty of men have tried to court her and they've all fallen short in her mind somehow: one was rude to a servant, one was vapid and only spoke of shallow things about himself, and many only saw her as a prize, a conquest. The Emporer's daughter. Nothing more)? Why not? Men two three times her age have courted her for what she is. But only Corvo knows who she is... the question stays in her mind no matter how many times she tries to push it back with arguments like "he's my friend," or "he's my royal protector" or anything like that. Back and forth it goes until it's finally too much and that line is crossed. There's a mix of satisfaction and confusion. A fair bit of protest (mostly from Corvo, and mostly because he hadn't thought along these lines much. He'd mostly ignored those feelings... and now it's staring them both in the face). But just as they've done for years now, as the close friends they are, they talk. They talk about how this might end badly. How this could affect them, how this could change them... and finally, they both agree. They've been Future Empress/Lord Protector, they've been closest friends, and just now, as the people they've both grown into, they've fallen in love.

And strangely enough, it doesn't take away from what they had as friends. They are still friends. They now also spend a fair bit of time finding a moment to sneak away and be alone. From ages 18-20 for Jessamine, it's a heady thing. This is love. A person you trust, a person you know as well as you know yourself. She'd never seen it between anyone else (certainly not her own parents). It's strange a new (for both of them), but for those two years, it's perfect.

Then change comes again. This time, it's in the form of a crown she thought she wouldn't have to wear for another decade at least. Her father, always a fairly distant figure, is gone for good. The only reason she feels ready to face this, is because Corvo is behind her. She may not feel ready, she may still be grieving, but he believes in her. That's all she needs to march forward. With the change of rulers comes a change between them. There isn't as much time to sneak away and steal moments of laughter and joy that are just between the two of them, but they find time. Quite spaces in Dunwall Tower where it's just them talking about all different headaches at court, or just her playing music just for him. And there's always the softness and warmth in the darkness of her room at night, where he's there waiting for her, because why bother with sneaking around on that front anymore?

It changes again when she's 21, almost 22 and finds out she's pregnant. This is where she thinks he can't possibly want to stay. For all their time together, all the laughter, tears, moments of lightness and love they've had up until then, this has to be too much. Being her lover in secret never seemed to bother him ("they may not know, but I know. That's all I need" is what he'd always tell her), but this has to be too much... but just like before, it isn't. He wants to be there at her side, like he's always done. So, he is. Everyone in the empire has their suspicions and thoughts, but he knows the truth, and that's enough. And just like that, they changed again. To the world, they're simply Royal Protector and his Empress. But in their own space they've carved out, they're a family. Something they both have lost before, but this one is worth holding on to. Worth keeping secret. Because in all the years they've known one another one thing has remained true, they've grown together.

I’m curious how many other corvojess fans throw out Arkane’s canon ages for them?