#when I get to the messiness of that in pof its all joever

[foefire-flame]

Ive got some lore to share! Its so interesting seeing your lil guy dating rytlock where my commanders relationship went up in smoke with him lol. Where there any rough or rocky times during their relationship?

Oh yeah! You can expect to see that once ai get to PoF into ls4 where Leo kinda Explodes at Rytlock after the whole "Ermmm I accidentally kinda freed balthazar...my b" revelation. Even Outside of even the entire conflict it started, the fact that Leo watched the commander have to cheat death (something he is very rigid about) angered him even moreso. And even though they never necessarily """broke up""" since the charr view on loyalty is so strong, it was more of Leo not even caring to finalize that bc he just didnt even want to deal with him at that point bc he was so angry at being witheld information to continously + the consequences of Rytlock's actions. Which is funny bc the commander also explodes at him (valid) so both her and Leo really dig into him because of that.

Their relationship is pretty strained up until before the beginning of ibs where they reconcile but its also not what I would describe as a perfect situation. Ive talked about how I view them as being linked by a forged red chain than a red string. They created that loyalty to each other and bc Loyalty is so deeply ingrained into them both it was hard for Leo to let go completely. Not only this, Leo sees rytlock as his only route of "normalcy" in charr society, having a long-term partner. Its kinda the biggest and at a certain point the only reason he doesnt break it off entirely. Leo already battles with just an inherent sadness of not getting to live a peaceful life like he would want with the olmakhan due to his dream of changing the legions for the better,

I have this from a prev ramble post

I think Rytlock also views Leo as like? His last chance to do right by something? He failed with Destiny's edge, he failed with crecia, Leo was like the last good thing he could try to turn around. And to be fair, it wouldn'tve worked if Leo also just the person that he is, if he wasnt just as stubborn.

On Leo's side, a relationship with Rytlock is one of the only shards of "Normalcy" Leo has. Charr don't usually form long-term relationships, if they ended things, its unlikely Leo would find it anywhere else, not with being as busy as he is and not after all he's been through, certainly not within the Blood Legion. The chance to find someone who has been there since the "beginning" of everything is nonexistant. Without that, the tiniest piece of a life he actually wants is gone. Especially bc even if they Did end things they would still be friends.

So they do end up sticking together, its just not pretty or necessarily For The Right Reasons. I've always said that after they reconcile (Leo thinks hes going to die at the end of ls4 for reasons, which is why he reaches back out to him) before ibs, theres a sort of gentleness they treat each other with thats just bc of the reality of their Not Ideal But We Are Trying To Make It Work.

I know theres a fic I wrote where theyre musing on the nature of their relationship and Rytlock says something along the lines of "I cannot give you the life you actually want" and All Leo can respond with is a quiet acceptance of "I know."

In my eyes they pretty much are having to build their relationship back up after what happened in pof bc theres just, no way two people in a relationship can have such a huge breach of trust and not come out changed. So they do Have to start a "new" relationship after that, is how I see it.