#the fact that they've never kissed in canon is a crime

[flxmekeepr]

&  juliette + shirly .    —     01     /    ??       mutuals   can   reblog.

[addictedtostorytelling]

I'm curious, in you headcanon, do you think that Grissom and Sara had sex in SF or only in LV?

hi, anon!

something in-between?

so i give my headcanon on this topic a bit of play in the two most recent chapters of my canon-compliant wip, if you're interested (see here and here).

heads up for anyone who's still following that story: my response here spells out some ideas that so far have only been hinted at in the fic, so, uh, beware of (mild) spoilers, i guess.

for the more "barebones" version, check under the "keep reading."

__

so my headcanon for grissom and sara pre-vegas goes as follows:

they meet and fall in love at first sight at the 50th annual forensic academy conference (held in san francisco, california) on february 9th, 1998.

they spend the next three days attached at the hip not only during conference hours but in the evenings, taking long, meandering, and very romantic strolls around the bay city. each night, grissom drops sara off at her front doorstep before returning to his hotel.

on the final night, february 12th, 1998, he finally summons the courage to kiss her for the first time under the porchlights. the next morning, she drops him off at the airport, and they part with more kisses.

thereafter, they keep in regular contact, both via phone calls and longhand snail-mail letters.

in october 1998, sara works a homicide with a badly decomposed body ravaged by insect activity that she can't make any sense of. asks grissom if he'll consult, and he ends up flying to san francisco and spending four days in town, helping her get the solve. for propriety's sake, he stays at a hotel for the duration of his visit, since he's in town in the capacity of an official sfpd crime lab consultant™ and they want to keep everything on the up-and-ups (particularly as he may eventually have to testify as an expert witness, should the case ever go to trial).

however, in what limited free time they have during the investigation and after the case is concluded, he and sara do very much comport themselves like a couple. though they don't have sex, there is a definite physical component to their relationship: lots of handholding, kissing, and even a few hot-and-heavy make-out sessions on the beach.

in my headcanon, this visit is when they take that photo that appears in both the deleted scene from episodes 08x12 "grissom's divine comedy" and 09x05 "leave out all the rest."

over the course of the next two years, they continue to see each other annually at the forensic academy conference (held each year in february) and on a handful of other occasions—on one particularly memorable visit: grissom tells sara he'll be in california visiting his mother over a long weekend and asks if he can see her while he's there; she of course says yes, clears her schedule; he shows up in san francisco and they spend a lovely saturday afternoon together; he only admits on the tail end of their time together that in point of fact his mother lives in los angeles and he traveled seven hours north to get to the bay area; suffice it to say, sara's jaw drops—and while their time spent together is always romantic and affectionate, never do they label the nature of their relationship or make claims on each other.

because they are each painfully aware that they live and work 400 miles away from each other and only get to see each other a couple times a year at most, neither one of them is brave enough to say or do anything to really "rock the boat" between them. for as strongly as they feel about each other, they've never "dated" or been able to share their lives, so they're not to a point where either one of them would feel particularly comfortable declaring anything, much less making a bold move. instead, they just savor what little time they get together and idly daydream about a "someday" where they can actually have a full romantic relationship.

of course, in the meanwhile, whenever they see each other, they continue to express their affection, and their physical relationship gains traction. they get close to having sex a couple of times but never actually manage to "cross the threshold" before being preempted or without one or the other of them (typically grissom) backing down.

sara assumes that grissom is just being a gentleman, trying not to take advantage, and to some extent, she's right.

however, he also has some very deep-seated trepidations surrounding the possibility of having sex with her, not because he doesn't want to—just the opposite, in fact—but rather because every romantic relationship he has ever had previously has gone off the rails once things turned sexual, and he doesn't want to risk losing sara in the same way he has his past girlfriends.

god bless his poor little demisexual heart.

in february 2000, two years after their first meeting, at what will be their final forensic academy conference before sara ends up moving to vegas, grissom and sara rendezvous in reno.

nick and warrick actually attend this conference along with grissom, but they have trouble keeping track of him. he somehow manages to dodge them for pretty much the entire four days that they're there and is so entirely successful at doing so that they don't actually meet sara or even have any idea that she exists until months later, when they meet her for the first time after grissom hires her at the lab.

in the meanwhile, per their usual, grissom and sara maximize their time together, attending the same panels and keeping each other company in the evenings. however, despite being happy to be around grissom, sara is a little down throughout the conference, as she's been butting heads with her work superiors as of late and dreads having to return to san francisco once the conference concludes. thankfully, grissom is able to console her and offer sound advice. he also tells her—jokingly, she incorrectly assumes—that she should consider coming to las vegas to work with him.

this conversation is one of the most intimate and confessional they've ever had, and it segues into them spending the last day of the conference drawing closer and closer together, both emotionally and physically.

that evening, the conference caps off with a banquet and open-bar party, which they both dress up for but only attend for all of five minutes before slipping out together. one thing leads to another, and they wind up back at sara's hotel room, where she invites grissom inside, and he accepts.

to use the "sex as baseball" metaphor: they don't hit a homerun, but they do round third base, with grissom using his hand to bring sara to orgasm. the experience is incredibly intimate and connective for both of them; secretly, the best sexual contact either one of them has ever had, despite not being full-on intercourse.

grissom is secretly afraid to go further (as he doesn't want to ruin what has otherwise been a perfect thing), but he is on the brink of tossing aside his caution and just doing what comes naturally as sara turns her attentions onto him in the afterglow.

unfortunately, at that point, grissom is being paged by none other than warrick and nick, with whom he has plans to drive back to vegas that night, in preparation for their scheduled shift the next evening.

he and sara end up parting.

of course, neither one of them is happy to have to say goodbye. but they both do so under the assumption that the next time they see each other, they'll finish what they started.

over the course of the next eight months, sara becomes increasingly unsatisfied at the sfpd and particularly with a new supervisor she can't seem to please.

then, in october 2000, after rookie trainee holly gribbs is killed on the job, grissom finds himself unexpectedly promoted to be the graveyard shift supervisor at the lvpd crime lab. in his first official act as management, he brings sara on to help investigate the circumstances of gribbs's murder, then immediately offers sara a permanent position on his team. she accepts without second thought, quitting her job at the sfpd, moving across state lines, and starting work at the las vegas crime lab, all within the course of just two weeks.

sara's expectation in moving to vegas is that with distance no longer impeding them, she and grissom will be able to finally commence a real romantic relationship—and, initially, he shares her same wavelength. for the first couple of months she is in vegas, they still comport themselves like a couple off the clock; albeit, they never get back around to resuming their activities from reno. however, as grissom soon realizes just how much is at stake for him, having the (younger) woman he's in love with as his employee, within a few months, the nature of their dynamic very much shifts, with grissom emotionally retreating from sara and their interactions becoming more and more centered on the professional.

as i talk about here, the change isn't one that happens all at once or even fully sticks once it's made, so sara doesn't really wrap her head around it until she's been in vegas for over a year and suddenly comes to the conclusion that despite what she had anticipated when she agreed to move to nevada, she and grissom are actually (emotionally) further away from each other than they have ever been before.

things unspool from there as we see in canon.

they go through years of back and forth, where though they are still very much in love with each other, grissom's reluctance to act on that love traps them in a strange limbo, their relationship neither fully platonic nor fully romantic, fully professional nor fully personal, fully public nor fully private, etc.

eventually, sara tires of the runaround and dates hank peddigrew, eliciting grissom's strong jealousy.

of course, it's worth noting: part of her motivation in being with hank is that, by that point, it's been years since she's had sex, and she's sick of going without it; she can't wait around for grissom forever, you know?

however, even when she is with hank, sara still longs for grissom, and so immediately moves back to pursuing him once she and hank break up.

grissom's outright rejection of her after the lab explosion then serves as the catalyzing event for the remainder of the gsr love story, as she spirals into a depression thereafter, and he eventually realizes that he is at risk of losing her forever—a possibility which scares him more than any of the potential consequences of being with her that he had feared previously. jolted to action, grissom makes his commitment to sara clear, and, by my estimation, by s5, they finally (properly) come together as a couple.

it is at this point, i assume, they have full-on sexual intercourse for the first time.

anyway.

like i said, i've written more about the subject in my fic, so if you want the more narrative version, it's there.

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

[mannatea]

Vita, a Tales of Symphonia ‘fic (& podfic!)

Words: 4,112 words Summary: Half-elves can now attend formal schools as well as teach in them. They can join the church, attend the theater, walk into any medical facility and receive treatment, and practice medicine. But they cannot marry humans. Pairing/Character: Regal/Raine, Zelos gets some lines too. Warnings: Fantasy racism, procreative sex, and literal healing sex. Rating: Explicit Genre: Oops!All Tenderness. This skews heavily into romance and longing and is ultimately a happy story. You're welcome.

The title is the link to Ao3.

Link to the podfic: here! If you have issues listening, let me know.

Notes are under a cut.

Inspiration pulled heavily from I Fell in Love Again Last Night. I very nearly named this story after the song.

These lines mess me up the most:

I fell in love again last night When you kissed me the way you've always done Like the first time you were with me and my heart just came undone

The whole mana/vita thing is pulled from a meta I wrote: Boltzman's Theory of Vitality (and The Manavita Effect).

--

Regarding Regal's apartment in Meltokio: I go to this option so often because it feels plausible. I'm sure he spends quite a bit of time there.

Half-elves and humans not being able to marry is just something I made up for this story. That said, I think it's probably more likely to be canon than not, especially in Tethe'alla.

The incident in Flanoir was a hate crime and Raine was the intended target. This could be its own story, though in here it's just a mention and serves to explain her chronically poor health.

Aisha and Harley are me just making stuff up. I always sorta just...wondered about them, I think. I could have just as easily gone with Linar and Harley, but Linar seems to have a crush on Raine.

Viscount Alaric is from Break Open the Sky. He's a minor character who will have a bigger role in Swallow the Ground. He supports half-elf rights (not always for the right reason) and has some sway with the other minor nobles.

Regal's father: I pulled this from the drama CD, at least to the degree that he bought votes and threatened people to get what he wanted. I think in Regal's current situation it would be hard not to feel despair at how, while things are changing, the change moves slowly. He could certainly buy more votes. But he is too honest a man to stoop that low, and it's one of the reasons Raine loves him.

Thaddeus is a name I always give to the most asshole male character I can find. It's a long story. Just know Regal's father fits the bill best in this fandom, so it's the name I'll use. He would definitely hate Raine.

Regal's anger about his mother is a headcanon I have that I still haven't managed to write into anything. I imagine she died while Regal was away at school, and all he got from his father was a short letter saying she was dead. He hates that he was forced away from her and to school, but he has never processed his anger and grief over the way his father handled his mother's death—as if it was an unimportant little footnote, hardly worthy of recognition.

Regal's father being a count. This is also a headcanon. While Regal was granted the title of Duke (or Grand Duke—the game low-key hints at this being the actual truth), I find it hard to believe the nobility wouldn't all hate him vehemently if he'd risen from nothing to the highest noble rank. The fact that the Bryant family has been wealthy more than 800 years (even before Tethe'alla was flourishing!) tells me they've always been a noble family, and the rise from count to duke isn't a large leap (even if the title is still deeply meaningful).

--

Procreative sex: I don't think these are characters that would moan about making babies. Like, it's very hard for me to picture Regal talking about how he's going to impregnate Raine while he's fucking her, even if getting her pregnant is what he's aiming for. That is especially true in this story, where there's a sort of sadness about even trying for a child. That said, they do try, so I had to tag it, even though it's maybe not what anyone expected when they saw the tag.

Also, the incident in Flanoir might have made her incapable of conceiving, though neither of them let themselves think about it at this point in the story.

--

I don't even know how to bring this topic up, but I do want to talk a little bit about the importance of marriage to these characters. I think if the person reading this story is of a marginalized group, they don't need to have this explained. Society has been shit for so long. Interracial marriage wasn't legal in the USA until 1967. Same-sex couples were not granted full marriage equality until 2015. And even now, disabled folks face discrimination and do not have equal rights, as they often lose their right to assistance the moment they marry.

These characters could live together and they could have children together, but we don't know how the Tales of Symphonia society will treat that behavior. If the Lezareno Company functions like a company (and according to the drama CD, it does), the board could simply remove him as president. Then what happens to him? What happens to the world when the most influential person in it can't exert any influence?

It's also important to note that they want marriage because they want the security marriage offers. Raine is likely to outlive Regal, and he wants to ensure that she, and any children he has with her, will be taken care of when he dies. If they simply live together and he dies, she (and any children) lose everything.

Marriage is a HUGE deal to them.

--

Healing!Sex. Uh, look. The way Regal's healing works in-game (the closer the target, the more he is able to heal) forced my hand. This concept was begging to be written and I'm surprised I haven't even seen it mentioned before.

Jokes aside, this is straight up a kink for them, and especially for Raine. There might be something to be said here for the healer wanting to be healed by someone else, but I was mostly just thinking about how she probably has a lot of violence directed at her, and sex with someone she loves and trusts while those hurts are healed is just...very emotionally and physically gratifying for her. (At least if they're having sex when he heals her, she gets pain and then pleasure, but if the healing is standalone she only gets the pain...which she's already experienced in sustaining the injury in the first place.)

Also, the whole ejaculation + release of vita into her thing just seemed like a way to tie the healing sex in with the fact that they are trying for a baby.

As to what I imagine the transfer of vita would feel like, I pretty much explained it in the story. Generally it just feels good in the way, say, a massage can feel good. But when it comes at certain times or from certain people, or there are emotions involved, or, you know, it comes along with sexual gratification, it can feel like a lot more.

I also had a small thought here that even if she doesn't have physical injuries, he can still transfer vita to her to help boost her energy levels and that will make her feel better, too, albeit in a slightly different way.

I also just thought it would be kind of funny that they could discover it by accident. I imagine she had her arm in that sling and refused help but he decided to help anyway when she wouldn't have the chance to argue about it lmao. Oops, new kink unlocked.

As to the sex position itself, it's just a side-by-side, like this:

If he's trying to heal her while he fucks her, he'd have to choose something that wouldn't require too much thought or focus from him. This one is a good compromise where she can let him do the work at first, and then participate later when she's feeling better and they both want to get off.

--

I have no defense for "darling" as a pet name. I think he might also call her "dear" or "dearest" sometimes.

Raine calls Presea "dear" (affectionate) and Sheena "dear" (derogatory) in-game but she doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would be super into having pet names for her partner or being called by one.

Every now and then, though...she might like it. She just usually prefers her name.

--

"You're already my wife" is to show he already thinks of her this way.

It also references the earlier scene where Raine tells him he's a better husband than his father was. She thinks of him this way, too.

--

The first kiss in Meltokio was at the in-game party.

--

Regal crying had to happen. He's very empathetic and feels things deeply. What do you do when happiness comes with an immense and heavy relief? You cry.

I like the idea that post-game Zelos works hard to do his best at making the world a better place, and I wanted to include him here. He and Regal probably work together a lot and their alliance is to be feared and respected. The fact that Zelos supports him and his ideals even fifteen years later is a testament to his character and the reason Regal has remained friends with him.

Because he helped the change come about, Regal wants his name on their marriage license. (Raine would want this too, if I included her opinion.)

Her sleeping on the couch is me trying to subtly show she deals with fatigue a lot. Otherwise, she would have been waiting outside for Regal.

--

Regal has brought his mother's ring with him every year to vote.

I was attempting a slight culture difference between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla with weddings where rings are not common in Sylvarant but expected in Tethe'alla. Tethe'alla probably tends to have more elaborate ceremonies and Sylvarant veers toward simpler traditional things.

The last Sylvaranti wedding he attended was Colette's (to any partner you prefer teehee), but that was more than a decade ago.

--

I wanted to include SO MANY OTHER THINGS in this story, because any story 15 years into the post-game just brings up a lot of questions, like how Lloyd's expshere journey is going and who has married and who has children. I didn't even get to mention Genis in this story, which felt like a crime considering this law would matter to him, too, if only tangentially at this point.

If you couldn't tell, I really enjoyed writing this one. I even cried at one point. I hope someone out there enjoys it as much as I enjoyed working on it. 🤍💙

[the-badger-mole]

Let's say you're on the writing team for Avatar when it was just an idea Bryke had. They've stepped back, letting the writers do what they do best. While Bryke certainly offer suggestions, they don't try shoehorning in their ideas.

What aspects of canon would you change and keep the same??

Would you have elements of a one-sided Kat@@ng, with Aang learning to let Katara go, or not have it at all??

If you were to write Aang as a character you actually liked, how would you do it??

Oh! I like this ask. Bet! Get a snack, because this is a long one.

In Book 1, I would keep Aang pretty much the same, but I would frame certain things he did the way they should have been framed. Like his whole deal on Kyoshi, leaving Katara to do all the work so he could flirt. That would have much more of an impact on his friendship with her. Subtle at first, but it would be the first blow against Kataang. Katara would gradually over the course of that first season have to confront the fact that she's pinned all her hopes of ending the war on a child. I think that making her face that reality would open the door to more conversations about how he felt about what the world expected him to do, and that would in turn lead to Katara helping Aang to face what happened at the siege on the NWT, and what he was being trained to do honestly.

Book 2 would be where Aang is confronted with his duty as the Avatar and what "ending the war" would mean. By this point, he knows in no uncertain terms that he's expected to kill Ozai at the very least, and his crisis of conscience happens here, and this is where he would start trying to figure out alternatives. At the same time, the people he's meeting talk to Aang and his friends honestly about what they've experienced in the war- famine; disease; loss of homes; seeing loved ones suffer and die brutally.

It all has an effect on Aang, and makes him cling tighter to Katara. Katara interprets it as platonic and doubles down on mothering Aang, even trying to shield him from the worst of the realities of the war as much as she can. When Aang tells his friends once again that he isn't sure if he can kill Ozai, someone snaps at him- Sokka I think- and tells him how the war has affected all of his friends personally, and that they don't have the luxury of feeling bad about Ozai dying, and what did Aang really think the army they were trying to gather was going to do on the battlefield, have a tickle fight (yeah...this feels like a Sokka moment). Here is where Aang finds out about Kya, I think.

Aang still goes to (the much less racist version of) Guru Pathik, and still fails to let go of his attachment to Katara. Zuko and Katara still have that moment in the caves. I haven't decided if Zuko still turns on them- on the one hand, I do think him joining the Gaang here could work. on the other hand, I think he needed to go home and see how much it doesn't fit him anymore. I could go either way. Aang still gets shot by the lightning and Katara still saves him.

As Aang and his friends travel through the Fire Nation, they spend more time with the poorest citizens. They find out how much they've suffered because of the war, and how much they also want it to end. Katara's stint as the Painted Lady lasts much longer, and she becomes a sort of urban legend, which may or may not get back to Caldera. If Zuko is on their side at this point, they start planting the seeds of rebellion on the promise of ending the war (none of the FN citizens know who he is of course). The Footloose episode doesn't happen. It's stupid and adds nothing. Instead, there's more focus on the propaganda and fear the FN leaders are spreading and finding out that there's already a rebellion brewing among certain pockets of the people. Piando plays a much bigger role in this season. He knows who they are, and helps connect them with a growing resistance movement.

Aang is still hung up on Katara, and still hasn't told them that he can't enter the AS or why. On the DoBS, he figures it won't matter since neither he nor Ozai can use firebending anyway. He keeps it too himself, and lies to his friends about being prepared to kill Ozai (well...not so much lying as telling them he's going to do what he has to and letting them assume). He still kisses Katara. They still lose this battle. The adults still sacrifice themselves for the kids to getaway.

When they get to the Air Temple, things get heated with Aang and Katara. Aang tries to run off and go play immediately, but this time, Katara lets him have it. She reminds him that she just lost her father again because he and so many other people surrendered to give them the chance to escape. She lays into him about his laziness and disregard for the people around him and tells him that he needs to shape up, or he'd get everyone killed. She becomes a lot stricter with his training at this point. Not cruel, but she's a lot less likely to tell Toph or Zuko to go easy on him, and she raises her expectations for his waterbending.

Aang gets his feelings hurt and he goes off by himself deep into the temple. He finds writings on AN culture and philosophy and actually begins learning about his people. He learns about airbending techniques he never learned. Some of it is clearly meant for battle. Aang learns that his people's views on the sanctity of life and killing aren't as black and white as he'd believed. This is also where he gets a hint of energy bending.

The Firebending Masters, Boiling Rock, and TSR still happen. Mai does not rescue Zuko and Co- that was something that never made sense to me. But then, most of Mai's characterization after CoD makes no sense to me. She's a character that needs a redo, too.

Katara and Zuko get closer during this time. Same as they do in the show. It's not quite yet a crush on either of their sides, but a lot more focus is given to the development of their friendship. They quickly become each other's go-to person in the group for support and to just hang out. Aang sees this and does not like it. It also makes his reaction to the play make a lot more sense, because he's already starting to suspect there's something between them. He confronts Katara about his feelings for her, her feelings for Zuko, and the kiss they never talk about. Katara says she doesn't really know how she feels about any of it, and she doesn't think this is the time or place to talk about it. Aang kisses her again. It's bad. Katara probably hit him this time. They don't talk alone again.

Aang is once again confronted with the expectation that he's going to kill Ozai. He has to this time, because Ozai is going to be at the height of his power, and won't hesitate to cancel Aang's subscription to Life. His friends finally realize he never actually intended to kill Ozai on DoBS, and demand to know what his plan is now. He still hasn't got one. He still hasn't told his friends about the AN philosophy scrolls he found at the air temple. He still insists that he can't in good conscience kill Ozai. Then his friends point out that millions more people will die if he doesn't. Aang goes off, gets kidnapped by the lionturtle and has the conversation with the past Avatars. They tell him he not only should kill Ozai, but he also has to let Katara go so he can use the Avatar State. Aang doesn't want to do either. Then the lionturtle gives him another way. Energy bending

The lionturle's way has consequences, though, and Aang is informed upfront that energy bending would bind him to whoever he used it on, and that it's influence was corrupting. If Aang wasn't careful, he could become as big a threat to the balance of the world as any Fire Lord had ever been. Aang doesn't understand that warning. He chooses energy bending and goes off to face Ozai.

It does not go well. There is no Rock of Destiny to magically give Aang access to the AS. There is just hyperpowered Ozai- with his decades of experience bending, and Aang, whose firebending is also strengthened, but who can't control his power as well as his opponent. He tries some of the battle techniques he read about in his scrolls. He hasn't got them down either, and some of them just feed Ozai's flames, but he manages to trap Ozai in a ball of air and suffocate him and the fire. He doesn't kill Ozai. He just leaves him disoriented long enough to energy bend him. Battle's over.

Aang brings Ozai back to Caldera, expecting to be hailed as a hero. He isn't at first, but then Iroh, Hakoda and other older and wiser people agree that it's better that Ozai gets to stand trial for his crimes. He ends up being sentenced to die anyway. Aang is furious, and then he discovers that some of his anger is Ozai's. He's bound to Ozai and now Aang has to work really hard not to let that bit of Ozai influence his personality. It's difficult, because Aang is genuinely angry enough that he can't tell what's his feelings and what is Ozai. Aang is now dealing with the fact that despite being the Avatar, people aren't willing to take him seriously, and won't not kill Ozai. He also has still not gotten over his crush on Katara and can't control the AS. On top of that Katara tells him that she doesn't feel the same way about him, and later he finds out that she's fallen for Zuko. Hard. Stupid hard. Like, they've already decided to get married in a few years, hard.

It's a bad time to be Aang. Book 3 would end with him being overwhelmed by his hurt, disappointment, and anger. Roku comes to him and suggests that he go back to Guru Pathik and learn from him. And so the last scene is Aang slipping away without telling anyone he's leaving. Toph may or may not join him. IDK.

[rubysunnday]

lottie,,,,,,, i have already screamed about it's in his kiss on my goodreads (it's a crime you don't follow me there; i'm funny on that silly book website), so i'm not going to put you through the pain of a lengthy review of the novel, but, i will come into your ask box and tell you how SUPERIOR it would have been if Gareth and Hyacinth were the childhood-friends-to-lovers trope. or if they were a childhood-friends-lose-touch-after-something-dramatic-then-are-reunited-when-of-marriageable-age-to-lovers trope,,,,

i mean,,,,,, all the justification you need for my superior concept is simply that:

they already banter and engage with each other like they've known each other for much longer than canon (screaming, crying, having a mental breakdown over the fact that like,,,, 3/4th of the novel takes place in TwO wEeKs—)

and more than that, the banter could be Supreme because they know how to get on the other's nerves,,,,,,,

the amount of time they spend together would be just a little more understandable if they'd always been close (though the uptick would be noticed by family, cue to ~looks~ and the ~remarks~ that would already be commonplace, but would suddenly have more significance,,, making for a more flustered Hyacinth)

the whole "Gareth suddenly sees Hyacinth in a new light" plot point could have been so much better if he had time to actually.... see her as just a friend first

the brief "matchmaker" stint of Violet and Lady Danbury could have been an inside joke - every two years or so they try to make it happen but it fails. ~but this time???? maybe it's working better than it should???? :0 ~

the conflict of Hyacinth "pushing people away when she thinks she they could be a match" could actually lead to an entire reason why Gareth hasn't considered marrying her sooner. he genuinely thinks that she could never see him like that. Hyacinth has hard-core friendzoned him multiple times in the past, or make up some stupid argument that she stretches into a big deal to push him away,,,,, and she uses it as justification for why they can't be but it can be like,,,,,, it's the kind of infuriating thing that she does that only he could understand, since he's an expert at not letting others in too, or what have you.

the first he kisses her out of nowhere it could have been such a Big Deal because it's a lot of things boiling over at once, y'know? anger but also love?? he has a realization and the Ordeal could have been overall more acute??? Gareth could have had a breakdown in his room à la Mr. Knightley in Emma (2020)???

the tension of the first B&E scene could have been so RIPE actually because ~we haven't done something like this (so close and so hands-on) since we were kids, and since before the kiss~

it would make Hyacinth's knowledge of some of his family drama but not other bits much more understandable but also insidious.

the whole "why do you want to marry me" thing could be, yes, about the dad, but also about "was i just always there? a backup option?"

we'd just get to see more of Gregory, which is a delight (the sibling interactions of every novel are the best parts. convince me otherwise.)

Hyacinth mentioned one (1) time that she had a crush on one of Gregory school mates and pushed him away because of it and I want to read a book about that dynamic, actually.

asdfsdfghjhgfdfghjkjfd,,,, i just think that they're dynamic is so clearly a friends to lovers romance, and really, it would just heighten aspects of the novel. plus, we'd get to hear about the shenanigans of little Hyacinth and Gareth and i just think that would have been neat. netflix should listen to ME, actually, and make the change.

see i did think that but you've already got the childhood friends to lovers thing with colin and penelope (i do love that book, it is good and raunchy as fuck). i kinda like the sudden friendship between the two over lady d and the whole hidden treasure (honestly, love the hidden treasure it was hilarious) and how they just bonded bc they are so alike

just hyacinth man