#like there doesn't have to be romance involved. it's just something that all parties agree to

[spinnysocks]

In the Three Queens au how would the family bloodline continue?

if the three didn't want to have kids of their own, then kion could continue the bloodline. i haven't fully developed him in this au yet, especially not who i'll ship him with if anyone at all, so i suppose that could leave room for him to have biological cubs in the future?

other than that — family lines don't have to be blood. take timon and pumbaa being uncles to simba and bunga for example! kiara, tiifu and zuri could adopt a lion cub or another animal if they so wanted :)

but if they did want biological cubs, they'd have someone be a sire. probably kovu, assuming that the outsiders pride redeemed themselves... or even if they didn't, UNTIL kovu sired the three queens' cubs. imagine the birth of those cubs being a reason why the outsiders reformed, now that'd be interesting lol

[drenched-in-sunlight]

I'm sorry but like, how are ppl believing that Rellana and Messmer are a thing when the evidence provides otherwise? Apparently there're a lot of small details that have been surfacing lately and apparently it confirms that they're a couple? Even though there's a lot of evidence that there's also not? Like what's the truth? Also I'm reading some Japanese text as well, which they're also unsure of, but they're still concluding that it's one sided. Can you tell me lore wise what's going on?

i mean if ppl ship something then every small details can become sth to talk about (i literally look at Rellana's sword having gold engraving and claps my hands "gold? gold. oh she's in love with Marika i knew it." 😂😂)

i don't ship those two, so i can only give you a rundown of something that doesn't involve any romantic connection, cuz i don't think there's one. so idk whatever i said can even be considered "lore wise"?

but there's one lore implication i find fascinating: Ymir probably has a hand in convincing Rellana to follow Messmer, so he can gain access to LoS and Cathedral of Manus Metyr via her (he was her mentor + at the place where you find her dueling shield, there’s a glintslab firefly). we know how much of a manipulative rat he is so i don't put it past him to do so.

also, in an absence of any items confirming outright mutual affection, you turn to character dialogue. and Messmer and Rellana have no dialogues involving each other, even in cut ones (which i know ppl are upset about, but i find it funny ajdfd). hell, everyone only agrees Ciaran has a crush on Artorias because Hawkeye Gough's cut dialogue confirms it so.

have you seen Godfrey's cut dialogues about Marika? if From wants a canon romance they can very much write it cuz what the hell is "Dearest Marika is precisely what I must take back." "Dear Marika, do not fear. I am returned." "Oh Marika, I will take thee in mine arms once more." (he's so real for that).

so like... believe whatever you want, you can ship something from one throwaway detail, you can ship something because it's canon, you can do whatever. a validity of a ship doesn't have to rely on "truth" (which is always vague in From lore to begin with), and even if a ship is canon, you can choose to ignore it too. ppl do that all the time lol. just don't crash other ppl's party. leave each other alone and enjoy our own crops.

[csphire]

I think what really breaks the Solavellan romance in VG for me is how much closure for the Inquisitor is sidelined in favor of Solas's half of the relationship. I get it. Forgiveness is important and it's his lowest moment but after everything Lavellan as a character had to go through and experienced, everything the character canonically loses, there's something off about seeing it all kind of end with an anti-climactic "Lavellan joins him in fade prison so he doesn't have to be alone." It feels almost like she's his reward. I'm glad for some people they like the ending but, man, it just doesn't sit right with me. Who comforts Lavellan over her lost friends? Who is there for her while the blight destroys Southern Thedas? Who helped her adjust to life after the loss of her arm? And unlike with Solas, none of that was the result of her choices or due to mistakes she made. Idk maybe I'm just wildly off base but I feel like while at least some of the writing has compassion for Solas there is none that is tangibly afforded to the Inquisitor. It feels like compared to the Warden and Hawke at least, a Solas-manced Inquisitor gets such a lack of care. They do almost all of the giving and they lose so much but it's never really tangibly acknowledged within the VG romance. people like to say "just head-canon it" but why am I doing the writers job for them? They had this romance span two games and involve a major antagonist, there should have been a more thoughtful and nuanced ending for VG.

I agree, with all the build-up in Trespasser it felt set up for the Inquisitor to play a bigger part in DA4. And out of all of the companions, it also felt like Varric was the one who helped the most, for not just Lavellan but any Inquisitor, to pick up the pieces after Solas left. He gave them a Kirkwall title, and key to the city, and basically rolled out the red carpet to help them feel like they had a place to call home when they would inevitably leave Skyhold behind for good. I feel like he led the charge in tracking down Solas in what I've seen in the comics too. So his death is a gut punch to any Inquisitor but it's just brushed aside and minimized for the plot twist and so a Lavellan can choose to go with Solas into the Fade. Please keep in mind, one thing I've not gotten a clear answer on, as I've not made it so far into the game is, did Rook know Varric was dead when he encourages the Inqusitor to redeem Solas? But on another note, the Veilguard broke at least one rule when it came to party sizes so I don't understand why we could not have broken another rule and had two protagonists to control when it came to dialogue at least. And many of us would have loved to have seen our Inqusitor fighting again as a temporary companion too because so many in the past in FB groups would drop ableist comments on how the Inqusitor cannot fight anymore with just one hand. It sickens me BioWare seemed to double down on this. With all the tough things out there they have handled in the past to address racism, sexism, gay and trans rights they shy away from addressing ableism? Like with Neve if we told her to take it easy because she was hurt at the beginning she could have had a talk with Rook about coddling her because of her artificial leg. But that didn't happen or any comment made about it at all. On one hand, not addressing that injury and focusing on her character might be cathartic for someone in a similar situation in real life. But honestly, I feel like Neve missing a leg was just put there to silence any criticism of benching the Inquisitor and in your words turning a Lavellan into Solas's reward. But I have seen some comments here and there that Mike did not want a Lavellan happy ending to happen at all. And it was the writers who pushed for it to happen for the sake of the Solavellan fans. So I sit here with a lot of mixed feelings about the whole thing. Two of my favorite characters in the whole Dragon Age series and one of them murdered the other and it leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth. I don't think Solas should have been so much of an antagonist in Veilguard mainly because he was not in the Inquisition. For me, Solas felt so out of character in Veilguard. Plus what he did ruined any chance for my Lavellan to reconcile with him because he's now killed two of his friends one of them a mutual of our Inquistor's. For me at least one does not run off with someone who has a track record like that ten years after he dumped my ass. Plus giving Solas a second chance feels... dirty, like an insult to Varric's memory. That and Lavellan deserved better than to sacrifice her safety, comfort, and possibly even life for Solas at this point. And I hate how the writers and the whole game set things up that leaves me feeling like that.

[mermaidsirennikita]

In the year of 2025 when we're just saying what we wanna say, I'm gonna list off some romance pet peeves (which extend to pet peeves about the romance community):

—People who only read about virgin heroines. I think it's weird. If you prefer it over heroines who aren't virgins, fine, we all have preferences, but if it's a requirement for your reading experience, then what the actual fuck tbh.

—Books where the heroine just lies back and does nothing while the hero goes to town. It is not 1973. She can do things to him. She should do things to him.

—"Why choose", and especially those wherein the sword don't cross. It's not inherently bad as a concept, but I have yet to read a book with this angle that doesn't basically read as a female fantasy versus a romance. I think it is excessively difficult for people to write a poly book above a triad wherein all parties actually feel like equally well-drawn characters, and that is simply an understandably artistic limitation.

And it's not that you can't or shouldn't write that angle; I just think they often read more as erotica than romance. Which is a fine thing to write. I just don't buy the *love story*. It's about the heroine getting things (again, receiving) whereas the heroes are basically fantasy stand-ins. Frankly, when they are literally all together at all times (versus in a real-life poly sitch wherein this would often involve people having metas, separate homes, different degrees of commitment) and all the men are straight straight straight, it feels borderline homophobic to me lol. Like. It's not IMPOSSIBLE for this to exist without queerness, but why?

Also, it's painfully clear that a lot of them are written by monogamous women who probably don't even have poly friends...?

Basically: I love a good poly romance. I even think that a series like Sierra Simone's Thornchapel is a great example of a flexible poly sitch wherein it's MMF but the heroine does sleep with one other guy without actually bringing him into the relationship (or frankly, being in love with him). But when you try to brand something as this emotional romance with 4+ partners and you keep them alllll in this scenario where they're allllll together.... I have YET to see that feel emotionally deep.

—Yeah, romance should be well-written and even a one-handed read can be well-written. The goal should be good writing. The genre being about having a good time doesn't excuse poor writing. We can hold this genre to a standard, and if you want people to take it seriously, you kinda gotta. You can't complain about people denigrating your "spicy books" and then say the writing doesn't matter.

We may not all agree on what a good book looks like, and not everything you enjoy has to be solid gold, by any means. But the blanket "why are you critiquing this????" bullshit is invalid. This is not fanfic. People are making money off this. Critique is acceptable.

—It's okay to lament historical romance going out of vogue in traditional publishing. I do, too. But acting like it's entirely the fault of tradpub (and trust me, I'm holding them accountable for their part) doesn't help it grow.

—Indie pub is great and I love it and I'm for it but yes we can tell when a book wasn't properly edited and yes that is why a lot of older books do feel more well-written than a lot of newer books. You can be a good writer. You still need an editor, and it will show.

—Goodreads shouldn't be trusted, and I say this as someone who posts my reviews on Goodreads because it is what is best for the author in this current climate.

—Asking people to spoil a romance novel because it's "stressing you out" makes me roll my eyes. Asking to be spoiled re: triggers, etc, totally get it. Getting stressed out because the people in a book with a guaranteed HEA are fighting... come on now. Let us develop a thicker skin.

—Slow burns can be good. A lot of slow burns are also just an excuse to piddle around and fill up 700 pages full of interruptions. Smariana Shapata.

—There's absolutely nothing wrong with an alpha hero and I love them lots. If he doesn't get his ass kicked by love what is the point

—Calling romance "for women, by women" and using that as an excuse to get hostile towards men entering the space is *homophobic* and *transphobic* and kinda gives TERF vibes.

—Rejecting writers because they're fascist supporters is good, actually

—If you don't think what's happening in America is going to affect your access to romance novels because you're not American, you're wrong and you should do some quick googling about the dominance of the U.S. in the English-language publishing industry.

—Reading outside of your own experience is important in every genre and romance is no exception.

—r/romancebooks is an overall really good alternative to BookTok. r/historicalromance is... a more complex issue.

[nica-my-beloved]

Things I Love and Dislove About Ikemen Games

These are my opinions!

CONTAINS ADULT CHARACTERS

You don't know how much this means to me because most of the time I try finding shoujo mangas I end up with stories that involve high school kids.

I'm a die heart fan of demon romance but majority of the shoujo manga that explores supernatural beings involves a 1000 year old demon king falling in love with a 16 year old high school girl. This sickens me not only because of the age gap but one of the party is a freaking minor.

As an adult, I'm so happy the Ikemen Games doesn't involve younger characters or at least characters that are 'minor' as a romantic partner.

MC's ONLY JOB IS TO SIMPLYFY THE STORY

I have said this before, MCs are just props to simplify the story and characters to us because the writers think we're too dumb to understand what the character is saying. They're like Paimon so that we don't use our braincells to understand the characters better.

I wish they didn't do that and have MCs backstories that describes their personality. I mean, all the MCs want to 'prove' to the male leads that they wanna be 'strong' but I'm tired of this trope.

Why does MCs have to always be innocent and prove themselves? Why does she always want to 'understand' the male leads? Can't we...for once have a romance that doesn't involve MCs teaching male leads true love?

Also STOP give MCs odd jobs! Book stall employee...letter carrier? I mean who is happy and satisfied doing this? How about giving the high-paying jobs like Auditor or Businesswoman or Scientist or etc etc...I know Mai is a fashion designer and businesswoman and Mitsuki is a travel agent turned maid. Alice is a baker and Yoshino is a pharmacist. The only MCs that continues to follow the path of their dreams is Mai and Yoshino.

MATURE ROMANCE

I enjoy seeing two adults slowly fall in love.

There is something different about teenagers falling in love vs adults falling in love. The romance is more realistic. They don't talk about how they're gonna plan their future together or which college they're going to go instead their chat is much more deep and that's refreshing.

NO BAD ENDINGS

Happy endings are nice. Everyone deserves one! But when there are no bad endings, the story won't have stakes.....and when there are no stakes, I can't take any gunshot sounds, blank screen and MCs saying 'Is this the end?' seriously.

Just stop being cowards writers! Put some bad endings!!

FAIR SHARE OF ROMANCE

Although I have played my fair share of Maiden games, majority of them are not that romantic.

I love cute romance moments to lighten up the mood and I really need them. Ikemen games delivers that too well....way too well...

I do have some criticism for random steamy scenes, I don't mind as long as they have context and mood.

The story is not so story focused all the time and also has time for mischievous romance which I like! It helps in calming me down and enjoy at the same time.

BULLSHIT GACHA SYSTEM AND NON-EXISTING GRINDING SYSTEM (Not very F2P friendly)

Even though Genshin's gacha system is shit (you need mf 90 wishes to get a guaranteed 5 star and 180 wishes to get the limited 5 star you want!) I still think it's ways better than the gacha system of these Ikemen Games.

Yes I agree that both the games are different in genre, one is an open world anime rpg and other is a maiden game with gacha mechanics. But that doesn't mean that I have to always pay to buy limited gacha tickets!! At least genshin gives us an open world to explore and grind primos (even though its time consuming)

Yes they do give limited tickets when you enter an event or complete the mission board but that's only ONE TICKET and you need 50 LIMITED TICKETS to get your guaranteed limited 5 star card. On the other hand, they give out many standard tickets but what am I gonna do with it if they aren't gonna update the standard banner?

These games are NOT F2P friendly and if you wanna...like say, want rank no.1 in an event you'd have to save a lot of items.

Ofc I know about the subscription thing and you do indeed get a lot of items, but the most essential thing for me is limited gacha tickets and diamonds because I wanna collect as many beautiful cards as possible and you don't get them from these monthly subscriptions. It's a waste of $5 very month. I'd rather buy a nice hair care or skin care items from that.

INTERESTING SETTINGS

I have my criticism in some of their stories but I can't deny that I LOVEE their story settings. Their premise for each game is solid to the point it makes me wanna actually try it.

This is something I find very rare in 'shoujo' genre.

For example, I don't like Vampire themed games because they suck! (both figuratively and literally) but Ikemen Vampire interests me because they take real historical figures and makes them vampire, which is a really cool idea! You don't know but I'd die to get myself in situation like that because it would be an honor to meet some great historical figures, chat with them and make them lose all their brain cells just like me. I would die to meet especially Isaac Newton and grill him for making those torturous physics theories that gave me brain tumors in my school.

Very cool setting! I can't wait to see what's in store for us in the future!!!

EVENTS ARE INSANELY BORING

I've never enjoyed a single story event from Ikemen Villains. They are boring and makes me fall asleep immediately at chapter 1. I think that kinda spread to Ikemen Prince because I barely open Ikemen Prince app now.

I honestly don't find the stories of these events interesting at all. It always feels like 'I have seen this before' maybe in some other game or some other manga.

And the Collections events.....yeah, I hate them! I wish they never existed!!! They keep the fan-loved characters at the butt-end of the list where 90% of the players don't even make it unless they burn their whole month's salary. I know that's why they do these anniversary elections because I bet if Sariel was the most voted character, his story would have been the most expensive one to get.

VERY LIKEABLE MALE LEADS

This is a personal thing but I love charismatic male leads a lot! Male leads with a lot of suave and beauty! Yes I care about these things when I play gacha games okay! I play gacha games to look at hot guys (because I know I'm never gonna get one in real life!)

But I also love that the devs puts an effort to make them feel good too. So I wanna give a shoutout to them!!! 'KEEP GOING!!! JUST DON'T MAKE TRIGGERING MEN WHO SAYS 'I'LL KILL YOU'!!!

[zonaenthusiast]

ONE PIECE CHAPTER 1141 SPOILERS

Last week I didn't say anything about chapter 1140 because I didn't feel like I had anything to say and today I feel like I have twice as much to say. What a chapter for me and my fellow Zoro stans.

But before we move on to talk about Zoro, let's appreciate Nami looking at Usopp with all the love in the world because he is happy to be in Elbaf. How she knows and remembers he always wanted to be there. I love them so much, as much as they love each other.

The downside of this is that Nami came back to the party so the Romance Dawn trio are no more, I will treasure these past few chapters and you will be missed everyday.

Now, let's talk about my man. I don't know if this is a hot take because I don't usually read other people's opinions beyond random posts that pops up on my tl but I think Zoro is the highlight of this chapter (+ that last panel, but we'll talk about that at the end)

Precisely this last couple of weeks I've been thinking a lot about Zoro and Robin regarding Luffy, following a couple of tweets I've seen, because the truth is that I think Robin matches Luffy's freak more often than Zoro. It doesn't seem like it because of the opposite personality types they have but the amount of times their thoughts are in sync for the stupidest things is super underrated. Of course Zoro also matches Luffy's freak, he and Robin are top 2 for me in that aspect, but I think he's more of an enabler than anything else. The vast majority of the time he doesn't know how to say no to Luffy's stupid idea of the day, so when he does it's always something that gets attention.

Many people are of the opinion that Zoro would do anything Luffy asked him to do but this is not true. In fact, it is Zoro's job as the unofficial protector and the closest thing to a first mate that the mugiwaras have to question Luffy's decisions if he believes they may endanger the rest of the crew. We've seen instances of this before and this is one more.

If they release Loki, they could endanger the entire country and, by extension, the rest of the mugiwara (who are celebrating, off guard because they have no reason to think that something bad could happen in an instant so if Loki is quick enough...).

In one of the previous chapters I mentioned Zoro's thoughtful reaction to the mention of Loki's reputation and here he has to think about it again. Yes, it's possible that Loki's reputation is a fabrication or exaggerated, but he doesn't want to gamble the lives of others to prove it.

Btw I saw that kick, babe.

He is such a menace shdajsdhjads

And then this. He only agrees to release Loki under certain conditions and because he has proven that he is really hurt, so the threat is less.

And yet, look what happens when Luffy finally releases Loki.

Luffy was sure that Zoro had knocked him unconscious but he got up as soon as he saw himself unshackled. So right now it seems that Zoro was right, after all Loki is known to be a powerful deceiver so it's no wonder he was able to fool these two, even if only for a second.

The art of deception involves knowing what kind of person you're deceiving and sometimes a second is all you need, just enough to get what you want. In this case, free himself.

I haven't decided how I personally feel about Loki, even with this last panel. I think it's true that he's done at least some of the things they say he's done, but I also think there's a part that hasn't been told. I believe there's a possibility that Loki felt justified in his actions because of something awful that happened to him that we don't know about yet.

We'll see where this goes, I'm SO excited about Loki as a character.

[eponastory]

Breaking down the Zutara 'platonic' relationship scenario.

As someone who is ace aromantic, I can understand the view of a platonic relationship instead of a romantic one.

So, the reason I agree to this is because I have a relationship like this (bare with me... I'm still not sure where I fall when it comes to sexual orientation and gender... mostly because of religious trauma and SA in the past. I'm recovering, and I'm trying to find my way to knowing myself) with someone I was supposed to marry. And I also want a relationship with someone that doesn't see sex or romance as a core part of a relationship as well.

These are beautiful relationships that can (sometimes) become sexual in nature if that is what both parties want. It is totally up to them. Love is love in regard to the bond you have with someone.

That being said, I really do believe that Zuko does love Katara by the end of the series. This love is known as Philia or a deep bond between friends. It's not platonic, as friendship can be intimate in many ways that don't involve sexual attraction. It's mostly the comfort level two individuals have with each other and how much they know. It's a very beautiful relationship. It truly is and it can go in more directions.

If I were to define the love between all the characters and ships, then we'd be sitting here all day. But Zuko and Katara have a good relationship after TSR because all cards have been thrown on the table face up between them. They've seen each other at their worst now, and that leads to something very deep and profound. It's just a shame that they are literally kept from developing that bond further (be it romantic or friendship) by the writers.

Instead, we have Aang demonstrating Mania (obsessive love) towards Katara. But hey, I'm no expert in love. I just know a thing or two.

I would love to see more stories with Zutara having that deep relationship... not platonic, but like soul mates. Because soul mate does not mean it has to be sexual. It can totally be friendship or sibling like.

Anyway, just wanted to put this out there.

[vitaminkenjoyer]

i think most people are willing to acknowledge brienne is unattractive when it comes to discussing the role ugliness plays in regards to morality/character (which is that physical appearance does not determine whether or not you are a good person/should be respected/etc) it's that when her looks are discussed in the context of a romance (esp a romance with a man like jaime) that the 'she's not really ugly' comments come in.

and i get that cause it does feel like an oxymoron to call brienne unattractive while discussing the merits of jaime's attraction to her. if jaime is attracted to her does she not then become less unattractive in a way? clearly her unattractiveness is not something so universally agreed upon then.

the problem really just becomes when people insist that her looks have somehow changed rather than the perception of them (it's notable that while in the weirwood dream jaime continues to call brienne 'wench', he doesn't refer to her as homely or ugly. he notes that she is just as tall and strong as he remembered, but with more of a woman's shape, whereas before he heavily scrutinized her features including her small breasts and broad shoulders. she becomes almost a beauty.)

at the same time shipping involves both a lot of self-inserting and voyeuristic enjoyment so if someone cannot see themselves in the shoes of hideous brienne or they find the sight of jaime/brienne too absurd there is the impulse to tune brienne's features until they are just palatable enough to make the relationship believable in their eyes.

it's something we all are guilty of. beauty and aesthetics do have a lot of hardline rules (certain lines and shapes and how they come together can make or break an image. things can become strikingly gorgeous or strikingly ugly or just middling depending on the harmony of features.) but attraction is more subjective on a personal level, therefore it does feel strange to continue to insist (or even having jaime himself insist) on brienne's ugliness when we are speaking of her being loved/desired in a romantic/sexual context because again it seems contradictory.

i think people are willing to tolerate physical imperfections when it comes to respect or kindness, but desire/genuine attraction is a whole other matter entirely and its not something that can be forced or put upon like a polite smile. the idea of jaime simply ignoring brienne's looks or loving her in spite of them is cringeworthy and not indicative of genuine love/attraction but rather pity or lukewarm tolerance. but brienne does have features that are indeed broad and coarse and mannish and that makes people uncomfortable which breaks immersion on some level, so the solution has to be making her prettier.

all this to say that everyone is guilty of this including myself and i get the impulse. the eye likes what it likes and particularly in the case of fanart it's very difficult to force yourself to draw something that you find unappealing when a large part of participating in a visual medium is figuring out how to hone composition/color/shape/technique in order to produce a final product that is pleasing to the eye.

and this is partially why i suspect that jb have been able to get this far in terms of popularity, because they made their 'debut' so to speak as words on a page and when they were adapted they were both played by two conventionally attractive people. if they made their debut on tv or film with brienne looking as book accurate as possible idk if they would have the same fanbase simply because it just does make people uncomfortable to see fiery passionate romance when one or more party in that romance is seen as hideous by about 9 out of 10 people.

people flock to entertainment as a means of escapism and that's much easier to do when observing two people with model good looks (or failing that, plain and unoffensive looks). in that way a lot of george's work is anti-escapism with it's ultraviolence, weird awkward sex, and ugly people galore.

[shipcestuous]

A bit of canon incest I wasn't expecting while channel surfing. I'll warn right now that this movie isn't a romance and the incest isn't a big component of it... but on the other hand, it's presented in a surprisingly positive manner, especially for a thriller. No manipulation or consent issues in this one!

In the 2018 movie A Small Favor, Stephanie and Emily are two moms who meet at a day care and strike up an unlikely friendship despite being as different as night and day. Stephanie is a sweet, awkward, and overzealous widow who tries to be as involved in her young son's life as she possibly can. Emily is a sharp, confident career woman who may be more fragile than she appears and seems to behave in rather contradictory ways: she can't always be present for her own son due to her work, and seems mostly tired and annoyed when she does manage to be, but she also feels like she's a bad mother because of that; she has a very passionate marriage with Sean, a man who seems to adore her but whom she keeps belittling for his one-hit-wonder career as a bestselling writer; it's not even clear if she actually sees Stephanie herself as a friend and confidant, an unpaid babysitter who's always willing to pick up her son and take care of him for her, or even a potential lover. When Emily suddenly disappears and is found dead in a lake days later, Stephanie grows closer to Sean and the two eventually start a relationship, with Stephanie and her son moving in with him. But the police are still investigating Emily's death and think Sean might be the culprit... and then, Stephanie gets a threatening phone call from Emily herself, who may not be all that dead after all.

The canon incest comes in the form of a "dark secret" Stephanie confesses to Emily one time when they get a little drunk together. She tells her about her father's funeral, when a handsome guy she didn't know suddenly showed up and her mother looked like she'd just seen a ghost. That was actually Chris, Stephanie's half-brother she herself was completely unaware of, and he looked just like their father as a young man, hence her mother's reaction. After the funeral, Stephanie was distraught and approached Chris in search of comfort, because she'd always loved her father so much and had a special bond with him, and she apparently didn't really care that he had a secret son. She and Chris immediately hit off, finding more than a connection in their pain, and... they kissed.

Obviously, we as the audience see all of this as a flashback while Stephanie tells her story, so we know that they really did much more than that. But Emily also figures it out: she can't believe Stephanie would be so embarrassed and ashamed of just one kiss, and besides, she can see the moment when she hesitates, realizes she's already said too much, and starts backtracking. Eventually, she gets Stephanie to admit she had sex with Chris and starts joking about her being a brother-fucker and stuff like that, but she doesn't sound accusatory or disgusted so much as teasing, as if Stephanie had just told her about having to do a walk of shame after a wild night of partying back in college or something.

Later, we find out in another confession/flashback scene that Stephanie and Chris kept in contact even after the funeral and became very close. Too close, according to her husband Davis, who became jealous and started to suspect Chris was the real father of Stephanie's child. At first, Davis confronted Stephanie herself with his suspicions, but she denied everything. So, he went to Chris, who agreed to drive off with him. Both men then died in a car crash, and Stephanie blamed herself for that ever since.

After hearing this story, Emily initially tries to get Stephanie to see that it wasn't really her fault and that she's not responsible for other people's actions or accidents that could happen to anyone at any moment. But when she "comes back to life," she tries to use it to make Stephanie feel guilty and blackmail her. Stephanie is shocked, but eventually she doesn't let herself be intimidated, and instead of removing herself from the picture, she becomes determined to find out the truth of what really happened.

I don't think the question of who really fathered Stephanie's child is ever actually answered, though I might have missed something. Still! I'd like to believe it was Chris. We don't get to see a lot of him and Stephanie, or of Stephanie and Davis, so we can't even compare the two relationships... but most husbands don't just see their wives' brothers as romantic rivals for no reason, right?

Hi Anon,

I'm planning to watch this movie (and maybe read the book eventually) so I only skimmed your ask for now because I didn't want to be spoiled. A Simple Favor has come up before, but we haven't had this many details so I really appreciate you giving us so much info. I really need to watch this. Maybe after Christmas I'll finally do it.

It's so great to have something like this in a main stream movie, especially the attitude towards it and everything.

[itzpris]

The Zinnie not Zinnie thiiiing

So the way this scenario would go, let's say that Zoe currently does not have a crush on anyone, and she's kinda not happy with it >:(. She likes having a crush because then she gets to date that person most likely and you know, she craves romance.

So after a while, she decides on what to do. So she goes to Vinnie (who she knows also does not currently have a crush on anybody) and just casually asks "Would you like to pretend date with me?". And Vinnie's just befuddled cause since when does Zoe pretend date? Why? And why with him most of all? He's pretty sure he's the furthest person from her desired romantic partner. So he asks because at this point he doesn't understand if she's serious or if Pepper has finally rubbed off on Zoe and she's playing a prank, a pretty cruel one if he does say so himself.

So Zoe explains. Basically, she's bored but she does not have a crush on anybody at the moment but she does want the thrill of dating somebody. However, she wants it to be non-committal cause she's sure she will sooner or later develop a crush and want to date that other person. He's right, he's not exactly her ideal type (she says it more, you know, delicately) but because of it he's perfect for being casual plus the whole not dating anyone at the moment, and they do already know each other so she can skip all the introduction stuff etc etc.

Still a bit confused but Vinnie agrees. Zoe's clearly willing and he has nothing against it, so why the heck not? And so they pretend date. If someone asks, no, they're not a couple, no, they don't have a boyfriend/girlfriend, Zoe is still very much actively trying to find someone to fall in love with.

But they do coupley stuff. I imagine Zoe would take charge of that cause well, Vinnie's still not 100% sure she's serious and of course, she's more experienced. So she takes him on dates for example, going all out of course cause she's Zoe. Expensive restaurants, movie premieres, maybe balls, parties? Lots of stuff! However, since she knows it's non-commital, she in a way soon starts getting more comfortable with him. She doesn't need to try so hard, she does not need to impress him. So while they are close, they're much more casual than she ever was about dating. They basically just hang out but there is also lots of affection involved. Again, Zoe took charge of it cause she wanted it. She started giving him kisses, hug him, as more time passes many other things. She never thought she'd be the one to have her partner on her lap, not the other way around, and yet with Vinnie is just so natural because she doesn't try to be all seductive. She can just hold him and kiss him without thinking too much about it when she craves to shower someone with kisses and all that.

As for Vinnie? Well, once he really gets in this mindset that they're really doing it he gets really comfortable with her too. He wants those kisses, those hugs, all this affection and compliments, why wouldn't he? And he gives her those too, especially when it comes to verbal affection cause he's like that. He's more shy with touch but soon he does start like laying his head on her lap she she leans down to kiss him or not so casually exposes his neck for her to play with.

And yes, I imagine they do the kissing on the lips. They're both okay with it and they do like it, so why not?

My point is, they're having fun with it, Vinnie gets his fix of affection and Zoe gets her dating thrill. Yeah, "dating" him is different than anyone else she ever has, but it's nice actually.

It can end in many different ways. The more lighthearted ones like Zoe finally wanting to really date someone else and they end it but in result become better friends, or they could both realize that "You know what? I like that actually, so why not just continue? Take the pretend out of pretend dating and become official." Or maybe the angst way, Vinnie does actually end up falling for Zoe which is something he never expected. But Zoe is too good for him he fears. So either he says nothing and just lets her go when time comes or he does say something and she has to tell him that she meant it when she said pretend dating.

Or the fun route. Vinnie has been aromantic this entire time and has been doing it all to be close to one of his friends in a way that is usually unattainable to him cause no one wants to act like that without the title of "romantic partners" being attached to it which is not something he desires.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Idk just Zoe and her short not-boyfriend who she can not-love all she wants

After I texted you that first message, it was taking a while to get a response, so I thought “Oh… maybe they didn’t want to send it anymore? Mkay.” But then I see the length of this and go “Oh. That’s why.”

*Buttercream voice* AAAAAAAaaanywho-!

That’s such a cute scenario! I can totally see where you’re going with this. And I like the ways it can end, too.

It benefits both if them, clearly. I like the idea that Zoe tries act like a “proper” girlfriend (stemming from her consumption of romantic media, I imagine) even if she wouldn’t really like what that entails. So the fact that she has this outlet to just be herself without worrying about “ruining” or “losing” the relationship is awesome. And y’know, Vinnie just basking in the attention. Like, he enjoys Zoe as a friend, but the fact that he gets kisses and cuddles as a bonus? Sweet.

I dunno about you, but I kinda see this (and Zinnie in general) as a QPR thing. Kinda why the aromantic Vinnie ending is my fav one. They’re not really boyfriend-girlfriend, but are still super close to the point that they’re kinda mistaken as one. So, kinda, not really. They’re not, that’s just how they are. And good for them!

I’m so sorry that this reply is so short, especially in comparison to what you just wrote 😭 But idk… I don’t have that many extra things to add for them. It’s a cute not-ship, but to me they’re just those two people in the friend group who knowof each other’s existence, but barely interact.

[cinamun]

Alright, I, me, Antwanyce do not feel like Indira Dior Destiny Drake has to commit to anyone that she doesn't want to commit to. However, like everyone else, I have the privilege of seeing both perspectives. I know we live in an individualistic society that tells us "Do You Boo" but that only works when no one else is involved or at least that's how it should work. As a person who enjoys a good study of the human condition. I'm inclined to believe that most humans are not capable of enjoying the accouterments of a "relationship" without catching feelings. Usually, when one is not capable it stems from being guarded due to past trauma, lack of natural empathy, or just plain selfishness. I just think it's wild that no one can see that. They do more than just fuck. They literally do stuff together so much so that it almost feels like he lives there. I don't care what anyone says this behavior is not normal regardless of gender. It feels like she's either guarding herself in fear of disappointment, self-centered, or both. If she cares for Charlie she should leave him alone because clearly he wants something she is not willing to give him and if she's tired of repeating herself then maybe her actions need to match her words. If she doesn't care (because it's nice to be adored) she can continue and he'll either move on or become obsessed and we know what obsession can lead to. And yes I know this is fiction but isn't discourse about fictional characters half the fun. Like, did we all not just socially online have discourse about Bridgerton, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, Grey's Anatomy, etc. Didn't book clubs meet up to have a discourse about The Coldest Winter Ever? Do we always agree, no. Do we always like the OC, also, no but doesn't that make the storytelling all the more fun and interesting, yes? Maybe I'm wrong or I just see things through a different lens. I don't know…

P.S. Why are we acting like most of the time sex doesn't make things complicated?

Sis... now you know I gotta add a cut to this LMFAO

I know we live in an individualistic society that tells us "Do You Boo" but that only works when no one else is involved or at least that's how it should work

Says who tho? What happened to communication being the key to lasting relationships be they friendships or something more? If Indira Destiny Dior Drake says she is "doing her" who are we to tell her it doesn't work that way just because she wants the benefits of orgasms with her friendships and communicates that AND all parties agree?

I'm inclined to believe that most humans are not capable of enjoying the accouterments of a "relationship" without catching feelings

Actually, humans are biologically predisposed to polygamous relationships due to the unconscious desire to preserve the species (we've since evolved into monogamy due to sociological conditions)

Couldn't those feelings just be the feelings of love or care associated with deep friendships and not the very clear romantic feeling that Charlie is exhibiting and low-key expecting from Dira?

Usually, when one is not capable it stems from being guarded due to past trauma, lack of natural empathy, or just plain selfishness. I just think it's wild that no one can see that.

But sis, no one said Dira is "not capable". Most are saying Dira doesn't want that level of romance right now. Some are saying its related to past trauma. People aren't seeing it because they don't think she's incapable. No one said she was incapable.

They literally do stuff together so much so that it almost feels like he lives there. I don't care what anyone says this behavior is not normal regardless of gender.

So you don't do stuff together with your friends? You've never heard of besties just coming to chill at your crib and watch tv, help you cook or help you move in? I don't see how that's not normal friendship behavior.

If she cares for Charlie she should leave him alone because clearly he wants something she is not willing to give him and if she's tired of repeating herself then maybe her actions need to match her words

This was brought up a few times today, its not an uncommon feeling after today's post but I need to tell y'all to stay tuned on that note.

As for everything else, I agree! I've always said the commentary is the best part and that's why we have the Ratchet Reading Room™ packed to capacity and breaking the fire code and running out of wings when shit gets heavy! Its a beautiful thing to witness.

As far as sex making things complicated, that's not always the case and it certainly doesn't have to if you (say it with me) communicate your intentions. Tre was blocked before he even got to smash so clearly he complicated shit before the sex.

Your honor, the defense rests.

[tooti-fruiti]

UNDERTALE BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND SCENARIOS

Halloween!

-TORIEL

Halloween with Toriel is a little boring to be honest.

She only hands out candy and watches kids movies with Frisk.

Her costume doesn't even match yours. She's a witch because it's the least scary thing she can think of. (She'll also get mad if you scare Frisk with your costume)

But this part is a little understandable because the only decor she has outside her house is spiderwebs and gravestones.

However, if this is what you're looking for, then Toriel is for you.

"So, (Y/n)! How do I look?"

-SANS

Halloween with Sans is always so much fun.

You two watch scary movies and later he hosts a Halloween party and all your friends are invited.

There's all sorts of Halloween themed games and desserts (thank you Muffet).

Costumes with Sans are always dirty. Something kids would think is innocent but not adults.

Such as the charger block and socket.

Or one time, Sans dressed up as a hotdog and made you dress up as a donut.

You two have fun with it though because this sort of shit is your style.

Or, if you two feel especially lasy, you'll just wear sweats and t-ahirts that say "Error 404, costume not found" and instead of throwing a party, if you two feel lazy, you'll just go around to Haunted attractions and stuff.

However sometimes you go trick or treating with Frisk and Toriel, and if he sees any bones, skulls, or whole ass skeletons as decor, he's going to be disturbed.

"hey, you humans sure do hate skeletons huh?"

-PAPYRUS

Papyrus HATES scary movies. So don't expect him to watch any on Halloween.

The only Halloween movie he'll watch is The Nightmare Before Christmas. (He loves Jack Skellington [Sans will watch it too])

Papyrus loves to pass out candy to little kids and go trick or treating with Toriel and Frisk.

He, like Sans, also gets disturbed when he sees skeletons laying around. Including Jack Skellington.

Papyrus is also extremely torn between three costumes.

A vampire, a pumpkin, and Jack Skellington.

He loves to wear capes and being a vampire is just an excuse to wear a cape, look cool and attractive, and sharpen his teeth.

He thinks he looks really good in orange and that's why he wants to be a Papyrus shaped pumpkin.

And then Jack Skellington is self explanatory.

So he switches between the three costumes every year. And you're happy to dress up with whatever he chooses.

"(Y/N) LOOK! JACK'S SUIT HAS A TAIL THINGY!"

-UNDYNE

Since Undyne is a piranha, she thought it was only right that she was a pirate.

You two absolutely DECK the house in booby traps to scare little kids.

(Toriel and Frisk don't visit during Halloween)

You both think it's funny scaring the shit out of kids.

Once "passing out candy" is over, you two watch scary movies.

But if there aren't any new ones to watch, you two will go Haunted houses or Sans's party instead.

"OH! GOOD IDEA (Y/N)! WHEN THE KID WALKS ONTO OUR LAWN, THE FAKE SPIDER WILL FALL FROM THE TREE AND SCARE THE CRAP OUT OF THEM!"

-ALPHYS

Alphys doesn't really want to participate in Halloween.

She likes to cuddle up to you when you two watch something scary.

But she's anti-social and doesn't want to pass out candy to kids or go to Haunted Houses.

The only thing she will do that involves going outside is go to Sans's party because she knows everyone there.

And the two of you dress up like mummies. Because that's the only Alphys can really agree to dressing up to.

"O-Oh! (Y-Y/n)! Friday the 13th is on! You wanna w-watch it with me?"

-METTATON

Mettaton knows he's sexy.

And what kind costume is sexy enough for Mettaton?

A vampire.

Ever since Mettaton came to the surface, he knew that vampires had a high sex appeal, and that's what he dresses up as every Halloween (he takes very good care of his costume btw).

He knows you like seeing him look so elegant too.

Mettaton wears that costume all day until he needs to recharge his battery.

You two spend the day watching monster romance movies because it's Halloween-y and he thinks they're cute.

You two don't pass out candy or go to haunted houses either, but you two do go to Sans's party.

Fashionably late of course.

To match Mettaton's sex appeal. You also to decide to dress up in something slutty. Either it be the devil, another vampire, or even a cat.

"(Y/N) DARLING, YOU LOOK ABSOLUTELY STUNNING! GLORIOUS! RAVENOUS EVEN."

-ASGORE

Asgore, despite being able to be a fearsome king, is quite scared of Halloween.

He doesn't like getting scared and he gets scared quite easily.

More easily then he would like to admit.

So when Halloween comes around, you two just stay inside and watch comedy movies instead.

He knows you like Halloween and apologizes for getting too scared.

However, you both still dress up. Your couples costume is a demon inspired one.

"Hey. I'm sorry we can't do anything Halloween-y except for dressing up..."

-GRILLBY

Grillby doesn't care for Halloween.

He doesn't get it and he doesn't see the point.

He lets you do Halloween activities by yourself while he takes care of Grillby's

"...have fun at the party."

-MUFFET

Muffet loves Halloween. She loves every holiday, but Halloween is her favorite.

Not only does she get to make holiday themes desserts, but this is the one time of the year where monsters have feel like they belong on the surface.

She doesn't dress up, but she definitely celebrates Halloween.

"Oh dearie! Look at these cute Pumpkin Donuts I made!"

-GASTER

Gaster, like Papyrus, also really likes the Nightmare Before Christmas.

But he also likes old horror movies. Like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and The Wolf Man.

Black and white movies like that.

Gaster actually was the invisible man one year for Halloween, he created an elemental formula that allowed his bones to turn invisible.

You can bet he had funny teasing you that way.

However, he did figure out a way to make himself visible again.

Like Papyrus, Gaster switches between costumes.

Gaster will either be Dracula, Jack Skellington (when Papyrus isn't dressed up as him), The Invisible Man, or Victor Frankenstein.

You two visit everyone at the party, but don't stay for long.

Once you two get home, you'll pass out candy and watch old horror movies.

"☟︎♏︎ 🙵♏︎◻︎⧫︎ ♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ◻︎❒︎□︎❍︎♓︎⬧︎♏︎! ☟︎♏︎ ♎︎♓︎♎︎ 🙵♓︎●︎●︎ ♒︎♓︎❍︎ ♋︎⧫︎ ⧫︎♏︎■︎ □︎🕯︎♍︎●︎□︎♍︎🙵!"

(Translation: He kept his promise! He did kill him at ten o'clock!)

[Hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned for more and have a good day]

[dutchdread]

Hello Dutch! Do you think the loss of mystery and less impact on certain scenes in the narrative was caused by long-term fanservice?

Yes and no. I certainly think it was a factor, but I don't think it was the biggest one. If I had to guess, and since I am not a mind reader a guess is the best I can do, I think the biggest reason is the necessary change of the pacing of the game. In remake the developers made the (in my opinion) mistake of constantly showing Sephiroth, almost from the start of the game even. The decision to do this was based on three main factors I think. 1: "In the OG the first time you see Sephiroth is in Kalm, however, that is only a few hours into the game. If we did the same with the Remake we wouldn't see Sephiroth until game 2 and we can't have an entire FFVII game without Sephiroth." 2: "People already know Sephiroth, so the mystery is gone anyway, so it doesn't make sense to treat his appearance as one when everyone already knows him". 3: "People love Sephiroth so lets give them a bunch of Sephiroth!!!".

I personally think all of these are flawed. For one people are capable of influencing their mind state to resemble someone who is watching something for the first time. It's not exactly the same, but close enough, there is a reason people can watch the same thing over and over again and get similar responses on repeat viewings. When people love a story they are willing to watch things as though it were the first time. They can feel mystery and suspense even though they know the answer. I also think that there is enough happening in FFVII that you can keep the player occupied while playing a long game when it comes to mystery. If anything I think that the extra time to let mystery build could be used to enhance the experience, rather than making it feel drawn out. Especially in remake I think Shinra was MORE than good enough to qualify as the main villain for the story segment, and I think Sephiroth being only "a shadow on the edge of memory" for 90% of the game would make his unseen appearance in shinra HQ all the more terrifying. And ofcourse the reason people love Sephiroth is how effective he is as a villain, and part of that is the mystique. If you give people more Sephiroth you are actually giving them LESS Sephiroth, because Sephiroth isn't just the man, it's the idea, the presentation, and that presentation requires restraint in implementation.

My suspicion is that the mystery surrounding Clouds condition was approached very similarly. They figured they had the new mystery surrounding the "parallel worlds" as an overarching mystery and since people already know whats going on with Cloud that mystery could essentially be spoken about more openly. But this suffers from the same problems I mentioned above. I can totally watch FFVII as though I do not know the mystery, and experiencing said mystery was what I was looking forward to most. To me it's the best part of FFVII, and without it I barely even consider it a remake. And yes, I think fan-service did play a part. One of the things you hear most often when discussing the LTD is the retort that FFVII is not a romance story and that we're too focused on something that FFVII just isn't about, and while I disagree with that assessment, since romance ABSOLUTELY is a massive and crucial element to the story, I do agree that the romance is, for the most part, something that is in the background, it is the underlying backdrop that is required to understand the characters and their actions. But the focus is still on the actions themselves, as well as feelings and events that the romantic backdrop have caused, namely Clouds alter ego and accompanying mental problems. However, in rebirth the romance is NOT the backdrop, it's the focus of a large part of the game. Hell, the main play loop of the game revolves around you getting the party members to like you. And while it is true that this also involves, for instance, Barret and Nanaki, I think it's pretty clear that this entire core aspect of the game was implemented mostly as a way to explore romance in the game and satisfy fan desires. The question is, did that impact the mystery? And yes, I think it did. For one, everything related to Aerith and Zack in chapter 14 is PURE fan-service bait. The entire "can we save Aerith" plotline was fan-service bait from the start. And both these things, on account of both not being well handled, and overshadowing the actual mystery of FFVII, have a negative impact on how well rebirth is able to tell the story of the OG. Not only that, but SE tried to avoid burning bridges by not being clear with their story in regards to Aerith. I've heard people say that SE was wishy washy when it comes to choosing between Tifa and Aerith, they weren't, this game is about as pro-Cloti as it could be, Cloud and Tifa are a thing, if that weren't already obvious it's even more obvious in rebirth. No, the thing SE is being wishy washy about, is between Aerith and Aerith. Between the interpretation of Aerith loving Zack and simply using Cloud as a stand in, or Aerith as having "genuine" feelings. And the problem is that by trying to keep that a mystery they've made themselves incapable of properly examining either idea. There could have been deep meaningful scenes and conversations about how Aerith is still searching for the guy she lost. But they can't be that explicit without alienating fans, so they instead are vague, which results in a whole host of issues. But the most important issue for this question is that this approach creates an unfocused story, one that lacks clear direction. And a story without clear focus and direction will never be able to tell its mysteries in the most engaging and enthralling way. They want to show Zack, they want to discuss Zack, so they can't have Zack be a twist, but they also can't properly discuss Zack since that would be too explicit and so they half-ass it. They want to imply that Aerith is looking for Zack in Cloud, but they don't want to burn bridges, so they also want to hold open the possibility that Aerith actually likes Cloud for Cloud, and by doing all this nonsense you're creating a teenage love drama where you could have had a meaningful story about two people helping each other where the scenes could be directed to maximize the effectiveness of the mystery of Zack, rather than playing into a "I love him, I love him not" soap opera that got boring 27 years ago.

[mathlann]

1, 11, 28, 42, and B for Casimira? Sorry for sending so many, there's so much I want to know 👀

From this ask meme. Thank you! Ask and you shall receive lol.

1. What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do?

Answered here!

11. How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)?

She's a seek clarification type of lady. Cas will not have herself looking stupid because she made an assumption she shouldn't have. With anything genuinely important she'll make sure both parties in the conversation agree on what is being asked and what she plans to do before she does it. The exception to this is Marazhai because he will maybe let her get one question in and still won't give a straight answer 80% of the time, so in that case if she still doesn't know by Dodge Answer #2 she just goes with it until she can read whatever cue he's giving. It never ends up being that much of a problem but also he's generally not in charge of stuff like "trade routes" and "making sure the colonies don't implode" so his exception is allowable.

28. Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth? 

She prefers the unpleasant truth. A lie has a high chance of making fools out of everyone involved but an unpleasant truth can at least be worked around and come to something better. Duly note that she is a bit of a hypocrite on this, because she herself is okay with lying if she thinks there's no consequences to it, like telling Heinrix she didn't know anything about the sword shards. And when the need comes for her to approach a difficult topic she will internally grind her teeth and drag her feet to avoid the conversation until something forces her hand.

42. How badly do they want to reach their end goal? 

Her end goal here being: "make the Protectorate less chaotic and get the dynasty under the control," greatly. Cas has never had a great opinion of off-worlders in general and Imperium nobility in particular and so frankly everything that happened after her arrival on Theodora's flagship was a reinforcement of all her biases. Between Theodora's neglect and Calcazar's scheming, Cas hasn't had a peaceful night since she left Iocanthos because there's just so much she needs to do, fix one problem and five more spring up. But if she can actually get things back into some kind of working order her way that will make all the difference (and stick it to a political entity that she very much dislikes, so a mighty bonus).

B. What inspired you to create them?

Oh that's a long and convoluted answer. In short I'd say she's an amalgamation of a lot of character concepts that I've played with off an on since I got the original Rogue Trader TTRPG book a decade or so ago. The CRPG is quite different from any of the FFG 40k games but Casimira being A) high Fellowship, B) Xenos-friendly, and C) probably from Iocanthos (a favorite from Dark Heresy) were going to be givens for me. I'm always looking to play high charisma PCs in general and I also really like having characters that are from the outskirts of Imperium society in some way. Also just for the general concept I'd just finished Catherynne M. Valente's Palimpsest, and I'll say the Casimira in that book is very much her vibe (alone and in parts of her romance w Marazhai) in ways I didn't know when I first grabbed the name off of her.

The rest under the cut because it's long 😅

Mechanically, since Psyker (my usual preference) wasn't fully implemented in EA, the original Cas in EA/first half-playthrough was a Death World/Commissar/Operative (conceptually similar to how I see her older sister actually). That Casimira was more genuinely "good person" Iconoclastic, which didn't quite fit what I was going for but also I didn't really know how the Iconoclast/Heretic split was going to go at the time. This Cas was practical, had some Dogmatic moments, and generally was approaching her role as Rogue Trader by trying to be a decent person/"benevolent noble" more often than not.

Then Yremeryss kicked my ass back to Act 1 and Cas was remade as a Hiver/Noble/Officer, both for the Fellowship bonuses and because at that point I'd decided Marazhai was the one for her and frankly "You. Serve Me." being the Noble's key ability was, uh, fitting for their dynamic. That Cas was going to be from Scintilla, and I made her a bit more spoiled, callous, and scheme-y, very into crime and other light heresies because she's very sure of her power as Rogue Trader and the right to do what she wants.

The current Xenoheretical, actively Anti-Imperium, Chaos dabbler Casimira emerged partway through that playthrough. She became Iocanthan again, an envoy this time, and Hiver still fit with the nomadic background. She got some of her old altruism back but it was more out of pragmatism than genuine feeling and could be overridden if she felt wronged or that her immediate want had a greater benefit. Also her being nominally a Noble but unable to meet the proper expectations of how she should act (according to Imperium standards) became a bigger part of her arc, one that ended up resulting in the Great Heinrix Divorce Arc and her darker turn with Marazhai in the second half of the game. And with all that, the Casimira I have today!

(Honorable mention vibe-wise, Bizet's Carmen, and specifically this performance of "Ramparts of Seville" conceptually influenced quite a bit of how I see her and Heinrix in that they definitely fit the "uptight man married to his job meets a mezzo soprano and they are not compatible and won't end up together but boy will they wreck his fucking life with the time they've got" genre 🤫)

[halfbakedspuds]

Did they have a meet cute? Or was it a train wreck?

If someone flirted with or showed an interest in their S/O, how would the other react?

For anyone you'd like :)

Thanks for the ask! I'll do this for the major couples across all my WIPs.

It's long, so it continues under the cut.

Did they have a meet cute? Or was it a train wreck?

Lyanni Sverik and Adrian Castellan (Children of the Stars):

Lyanni and Adrian meeting was a very uncomfortable time for both of them.

Basically, Lyanni had slighted her people's temples by digging a little too deep into their secrets and because their word is law, she was turned from the heiress of a fallen noble house into a slave destined for the mines, or worse.

Adrian, having just won a rather brutal war for Lyanni's people, was offered a choice of slaves to choose a servant from, and she was the only one he could save without destroying a delicate political balance integral to his job, despite abhorring the entire concept with his very being.

The first thing they ever agreed on was to pretend that that whole ordeal had never happened, that their official relationship according to the documents didn't exist and that they were just housemates. And of course, that blossomed into friendship and finally into a romance of some exceptional blindness all round.

Adrian Castellan and Dima Leznitsky (Children of the Wolves):

Dima was Adrian's boyfriend before he left Callisto, and they actually met while trying to do the exact same thing.

Adrian and his siblings had tried -and rather catastrophically failed- to secure a trade deal with another clan, resulting in him booking it through the lower parts of Hab-tower 6 while being chased by another clan's warriors and eventually pulling the old "slip into the same booth as someone at a restaurant and act like you belong there" trick.

The person whose booth he slipped into turned out to be Dima Leznitsky, who was actually doing something similar to hide from a Solar Homeguard search party and to figure out what he was going to do next, which is how Dima ended up living with clan Castellan for a few months and him and Adrian becoming more involved in that sense.

Jason Haliday and Helga Ravenscar (The Tempest Prince):

I distinctly remember them meeting because Jason called Helga out for purposefully intimidating some of the younger kids that trained with them only to proceed to getting his ass beat in a duel for the next... 4, 4½ hours?

Yeeeaah, he became a magos for a reason, man's can't fight worth toffee...

It was a bit of a trainsmash, but after ironing out some kinks from both their sides, they became inseparable and a long adventure later, share the surname 'Snowsong'.

Alex Haliday and Isaac Blackwell (The tempest Prince):

Unfortunately, Alex isn't the POV character of the first few books, so there's only really snippets of their meeting (although I want to actually change this in my second draft to have multiple POVs including this scene.

Anyways, Alex and Isaac met because of the inter-city blood games, where both of them had had a sibling representing their respective city in the unascended category (basically: regular humans beating the shit out of each other, not hunters yet) and we're supporting them

They had a somewhat cute scene with Alex trying to give Isaac his number and learning very quickly that Allyria doesn't have any cell coverage, but they did hit it off and made plans to meet up again, which did work out after the chaos that was the war of transcendance.

If someone flirted with or showed interest in their S/O, how would they react?

Lyanni and Adrian:

Lyanni early in the book might've felt a bit uncomfortable, but would've brushed it off. Later in the book she would definitely go full passive-aggressive or aggro mode, and I think she actually has a line in the book where she says something along the lines of "Excuse you, b****," to someone who was flirting with Adrian in a very obvious manner.

Adrian's just fucken oblivious, but if he did manage to notice he'd handle it in classic Adrian fashion: sauntering up to Lyanni and asking a seemingly casual question while putting emphasis on referring to her as 'My love' or something along those lines. Something he just doesn't usually do, but that would signal to the other person to back off. If he missed his opportunity, he'd feel a bit jealous but wouldn't really show it.

Adrian and Dima:

Imma be honest, these two were more so a case of a very passionate and hastily made decision backfiring than anything else.

Even younger Adrian is just oblivious to these things, but considering what Dima ended up doing to Adrian and his people, I don't think he would've cared enough to feel anything about it.

Jason and Helga:

See, early Jason and Helga would just ignore this to try and not cause a scene.

By the time they start dating, they're both comfortable in their relationship to have decided to make a game out of this.

I'm going to use an example where Jason is getting flirted with and Helga watches this happen, but it works the same the other way around as well.

In this example, Jason will play really, really stupid to the interested party's flirtations, trying to throw them off and make them uncomfortable as they try to be ever less subtle to get their point across. In comes Helga, acting like a totally unknown individual who's also interested.

The goal is to see how badly they can get the other person to embarrass themselves in an attempt to flirt before giving up, and it's actually a common enough occurrence (thanks to people trying to use them for status and power) that this is how they pass the time at social functions

Alex and Isaac:

Alex has a bit of a confidence issue thanks to his power making a lot of people afraid of him or deem him as 'subhuman' (even though only the children are fully human in the hunter cities in any case), and so he'd sulk about it quite badly, but he'd just back off: believing that Isaac deserves better than him in any case.

Isaac on the other hand, is rearing to start some shit. Hallowsteel knocks out sensation for about an hour and having a prosthetic arm lined with the stuff he's not afraid to give someone temporary full body paralysis for trying to flirt with his man. In fact, one of the biggest things Alex lectures him on is to 'stop stunning people, goddamnit'

[lost-in-the-pink-mist]

Thinking about Raph and Mona again because we love them

Mona's race, the Salamanderians, are all inherently psychic, and they form permanent Connections with their partners that, socially, they consider the biggest indicator of a serious relationship. Even marriages are nothing compared to it. The Connections happen on their own, and there is no one timeline for them, so some form days after meeting, some form years later, and some never form even when all parties involved want them to. That's why they don't consider marriage (binding contracts to share assets, not too different from Earth Western marriage, just with no inherent requirement for romance or exclusivity) a big deal, the courting period is very short, only long enough for all parties to try things out and agree that they get along and would want to share their lives, and then they get married and if a Connection forms it will and if it doesn't then it doesn't. If a Connection forms before even the courting period starts then that immediately becomes a fully fledged life bond

So how does this affect Raph? Well, she meets Mona while both of them are traveling through the astral plane. They hit it off pretty quickly, and spend a lot of time together projected simply because its safer, even after having met in the physical world. Because of this, the lines that separate them as individuals are already a little blurred. They're used to sensing each other, its not odd to have lingering effects even when not projecting, and Mona wasn't exactly expecting to Connect with a non-Salamanderian (its been known to happen, but its not common), so neither of them even realise they'd Connected until Mona leaves the range of the Connection (which isn't something that can happen easily. If both parties were on opposite sides of the same planet they wouldn't be anywhere close to the limit)

The sudden emptiness that fills Raph terrifies him, all she can tell is its related to Mona somehow, and frantic texting ensues, which is a problem because it takes time for the signals to arrive (the freakout starts when there is a 20 minute delay, and Mona is traveling fast so that delay gets longer and longer), and Raph spends the next 36 hours or so freaking out as they sloooowly figure out what's going on, and then freaking out even more when Mona finally realises what happened and explains, because while he's not against it at all (like. At all. No opposition whatsoever. Excitement comes later.) she would have liked to know that they were bonded for life/alien married to their gf! That would have been very nice information to know thank you!

And you know what doesn't help Raph's stress? Two comatose big sisters! This timing is very inconvenient! (And, unknown to everyone but Donnie, a certain Victoria Shelley Hamato is a little bundle of cells forming in a tube rn)