Pavlova Cookie is a bit annoying with his penchant for sticking his nose into everything with little regard for if it’s wanted or asked for, so that is something that people may want to avoid, but the main reason for this opt-out is his primary ability. Pavlova has the ability to essentially look into a person’s heart and see their relationships. This is not limited to romantic relationships, as he can see both romantic and platonic relationships, as well as being able to sense if a person wants certain relationships. If it has to do with their relationships in any form he can find it out from poking around long enough. From unrequited love to lies people tell themselves in relation to their perception of their relationships, he can see it all. If he focuses hard enough he can even read the story of a particular relationship. It’s a very specialized power, but it’s also very powerful. So I’d like to know if for one reason or another you’d like him to Not Do That. Or if you’d like to opt out of interacting with the little shipper entirely. The descriptions offer suggestions for people opting in, but opting out is always alright, and you can just put “No” into all of the sections. You can also just put what he can sense and nothing else if there are parts and pieces you don’t want him picking up on.
Opt out: Yes/No
Relationships he can read: This is the fun part! Tell me aaaaall about your character’s relationships. All of the important ties they have! This can be as detailed or simple as you like, or as you feel befits the importance of the relationship. If your character has a billion and one friendships with npcs, you can just say that. Have fun with it!
Beliefs they hold: Essentially, what parts of their relationships are they misinterpreting or lying to themselves about. Have they been willfully ignoring someone’s advances because they’re nervous the other isn’t serious about it? Have they been arguing with a friend over a total misunderstanding? Do they think that a relationship they want won’t work out for some reason? Do they want romance but don’t think they’re cut out for it because of their occupation or situation or something? He can sense that! Put it in!
Tropes: He is the CRK equivalent to a kid who reads fics on Ao3 to stave off depression. If you want him to call your character cringe I can see what I can do to make that happen. He’s already wrapping his head around Shadownilla Toxic Yaoi. This is also a less intensive option for those who don’t want him peeping their whole romance.
How does their heart look: I often like to embellish my writing with things like this, so sometimes I might refer to a character’s heart as though he is seeing a representation of it tangled in its relationship strings. Are there a bunch of severed ones hanging there? Are the strings squeezing it too tightly? Are the strings threatening to break? Loose? What are the strings made of? What does the heart itself look like? Is it like glass? Literally walled off? Drained of color?
Additional considerations: Anything you think is important that might not fall under the prior sections! His "knowledge of relationships" is very vague in it's scope so if you'd like him to learn something specifically to call them on it, this would be a good place to note that.
May I contact for more info: Yes/No. This is just here in case things change organically over time and/or i’m writing something specific and want to double check about the specifics of something mentioned above. “No” is for those who only want him referencing what is mentioned and nothing else.
Opt out: No, this man is an open book please read him—
Relationships he can read: oh boy i'm gonna split this into two different cuts so that you're not scrolling for 8 hours.
relationships from his canon So Ain is from a group of (counts on fingers) 15 losers... Elsword lore is very complex and there are different Canon-AU "routes" of each character but he's from what's considered the actual Canon-Canon routes. I know it's complicated stay with me here. Anyway, he loves his 15 losers. Like his entire identity and who he chooses to be as a person is entirely shaped by his experiences given by these people, because as an angel he really shouldn't have a) emotions or b) the want to be more "human" or c) the will to guard over what is essentially a tiny population of mortals when what he's Supposed to do is stabilize the planet's existence and keep everything rolling for every person and not just these ones. However, again, he loves his losers. They're called the El Search Party and he is their healer/guardian angel (literal)/overprotective idiot. He is in general Pretty Possessive over them in a way that's not really a red flag in and of itself, but it can also get pretty alarmingly red-flaggy really quickly if he perceives anyone as a Threat to them. Luckily most threats to the party are just, people that want to kill them all dead... Ain's possessive ass did not give anyone permission to die though so gl.
Unfortunately I don't know how to give you the deep lore without 300 wiki links so you can put names to faces (for flavour) do not feel obligated, but: Ain's feelings per idiot are as follows with nicknames in parenthesis-
Elsword: Hoo boy. Of the entire cast the Boy They Named The Game After is his #1 person. He's the only person out of the canon main party Ain calls by name and not by nickname. He is implied to have Mega Super Crush Feelings on Elsword (to the point where in another canon-AU they're?? made canon in all but the devs outright stating it??). They can literally sync up and sense each other. Elsword is the only person in the party who can get Ain to stop doing what he's doing (usually: getting into trouble/starting shit because he Can). Elsword literally takes a bullet for him once. This guy is pretty much the entire reason Ain chills out in canon and starts to actually see appreciation for life/living/humanity in general. He is down HORRENDOUS for this redheaded himbo with a sword.
Aisha (Ms. Magician): They have a friendly relationship. She taught him to sew when they were kids (well, she was a teenager and he was a younger-looking stupid immortal creature) (but kids, y'know). He thinks she's very smart.
Rena (Ms. Elf): She's "team mom" and Ain thinks of her as such. They don't have too much going on but Ain generally appreciates her supportiveness and expertise in the field.
Raven (Mr. Half-Nasod): Raven is a pretty stoic like, field commander/military leader type of person. This is another person Ain appreciates the expertise of. That said, there are things he doesn't exactly "get" when it comes to Raven, like he doesn't quite understand why referring to him as "half" of something (in this case a race of robots that deeply traumatized him lmao) might be offensive to him. They're largely over this plot point now, Raven is used to Ain's nickname, but Ain holds onto this as a point of confusion still. He also trusts Raven with his life (and thinks he's hot).
Eve (Ms. Queen): Surprise Eve is a Nasod (race that traumatized Raven) (it was not her fault though and they're all good now). Ain thinks she's very noble. He's given advice to her before so he thinks she can be a bit unsteady and not assured of herself, and he wonders why this is because in his mind she's probably the most put-together person he knows. He doesn't think she has any reason to doubt herself, but here we are.
Chung (Mr. Guardian): Chung strikes Ain as someone who's pretty deeply insecure too, and Ain is usually worried about him for that reason. He feels a lot of frustration for Chung, because Chung's personal quest involves finding his missing/demon-possessed father and getting him back from the demon who has him... but it's been like, 6 years and they have no leads still. So he gets the frustration and general sadness, but he's also extremely worried about Chung's closure.
Ara (Ms. Fox): This is another girl he gives advice to!!! In his mind he's faking it til he makes it, but Ara appreciates his advice so he's like "I must be doing something right somewhere". They have a generally friendly relationship. He worries about her habits of being extremely clumsy despite being a martial artist, and has a fair bit of interest in the fox spirit that lives in her hairpiece, but otherwise they have a solid relationship of coming to each other to vent.
Elesis (Ms. Knight-Captain): This is Elsword's (scary) elder sister and Ain would not cross blades with her ever because he knows she'd beat his ass lmao. That said, she's also someone who could potentially be of uh... religious/historical importance to the canon (it's complicated), so he frequently worries what'll happen to her and her relationship with everyone else if she's selected for this. She's a good friend and he doesn't want to lose her, nor does he want Elsword to suffer that loss.
Add (Mr. Ancient*): Closes my eyes okay SO. These two started off their entire relationship by constantly beefing and trying to blackmail each other. At one point early in their history Ain essentially told Add to go fuck himself and fuck off, but Ain knows things about Add no one else knows and out of not wanting Ain to tell everyone those things, Add became something of a kiss-ass in their beefing. And then eventually they get to the point where Ain's passive-aggressive comments become more just. silly razzing/joking around, and Add sighs in irritation but he's not Actually Mad. They have one braincell between them and that one braincell is dialled into "being a hater" and "Ain asks increasingly stupid questions to see if Add gets mad about them". They would unfortunately kill for each other. Obviously Lavvy plays Add in this game, and by this point they've already started dating, so he's no longer "Mr. Ancient" and has been granted name status... but that nickname might linger/come up in the future because it's how Ain referred to the man for like 4 years.
Lu (Ms. Demon) and Ciel (Mr. Half-Demon): Ain's relationship with these two started off ROUGH because Lu (the short girl) and Ciel (tall guy with the gun) are both of demonic origin... and he's an angel and he's pre-wired to fucking Hate them. They beefed for yeaaaars until Ain came to see them as actual people and learned not to hate :') Lu to him is someone who's fun to tease and she will tease him right back. Ciel is someone who he knows he can razz as much as he wants and Ciel will just take it on the nose some days or spin it back on Ain the next. With Ciel specifically, Ain has had several heart-to-hearts with him that basically amount to apologies and "I understand you now" conversations. It's also generally said that whenever Ciel is cooking anything he goes to Ain first and if the food passes Ain's taste test, then everyone else will definitely like it. Unfortunately this is another man Ain would probably kiss on the mouth,
Rose (Ms. Sharpshooter*): So this is kinda sad but. In general Rose just Isn't a character as far as this game's company is concerned, and Ain and Rose literally Never speak to each other despite occupying the same space for 95% of their days. Her nickname is one I made up because the dev team fucking hates her and still hasn't given her one (it has been YEARS at this point). New characters are getting nicknames immediately and Rose is out here being clowned on. Anyway, canonically their relationship isn't much. Headcanonly because I refuse this >:( they are weird little friends and Ain finds her expertise with weaponry fascinating. He doesn't understand it, but he does like watching her work. She is also the useless lesbian to his useless gay so they Have To stick together, it's in the LGBT clause.
Laby (Ms. Mirror Friend): Laby is a little girl with a fantasy-ified version of DID... he cares a lot for her, they have kind of an apprentice relationship right now because he is teaching her healing magic and how to patch up wounds if you're in a pinch. He finds her energy infectious and likes hanging out with her. This is Daughter.
Noah (Mr. Shadow): Noah is another kid they've picked up who's super anxious and therefore super fun to mess with, although Ain tries to keep it relatively harmless (such as teasing Noah for his overly-formal manner of talking to everyone else). He has a lot of interest in Noah's weapon, which contains the spirit of an elf in it, and finds their conversations very entertaining as he's the only other one in the party who can hear them without holding the weapon itself.
relationships from sticks specifically He has a CR chart that I uhhhh maybe will update one day lmao, in general that's supposed to be a source of truth but whoops my executives are dysfunctioning. Out of all of this, the most important relationships right now are:
Wolfwood: This is his first ever proper boyfriend. Ain trusts him with his life despite their numerous ups and downs. Wolfwood is "Nikolaus" to him, playing off of Ain's particularly thick German accent which he absolutely purposely thickens just to say Wolfwood's first name. One of his huge worries with Wolfwood though is that Ain isn't Enough for him and never will be, and he fears losing Wolfwood when they all get out of here. If they all get out of here.
Ezell: Hoo boy he LOVES Ezell. Ezell is soft and needs to be protected. Ain is often worried that Ezell will take something Ain says the wrong way, so he tends to be less sassy with Ezell and more just "haha heehee silly" instead. He's also constantly fretting over Ezell's level of depression and wishing he could help, usually berating himself mentally if he can't.
Livio/Razlo: Livio is New and Soft too him. Ain feels like he has to try really hard to woo him, and is a little worried he might not be Soft Enough for Livio's tastes. He does generally try not to push too much with Liv and doesn't tease much because, again, he really doesn't want to hurt Livio's feelings. Razlo, meanwhile... he likes Razlo a lot, he thinks Razlo is very cute, but my god does Razlo also drive him fucking crazy sometimes. They definitely have their differences and disagreements, and Ain is still hurt over a conversation they had at the bar once that amounted to Razlo not really understanding why Ain liked him/sort of pushing him away a bit.
Vash* (dropped at time of writing): Vash was really important to Ain and he had this stupid puppy crush for like, half a year before deciding to be Brave about it and confess. In general though he wouldn't say they were as close as he tries to convince himself they were. He really loved Vash, and right now he's heartbroken because he saw his corpse out in the middle of the Grove :'( and because in their sort of last moments of being alive together, Ain was mad that Vash kept picking on Add when Ain had previously told people to stop picking on Add.
Add: Elaborated on above
Aventurine: Hoooooo boy Ain is down Horrendous for this blonde gambler. Aven gave him jewellery he's constantly wearing and SIX THOUSAND DOLLAR PERFUME??? and Ain thinks he is so beautiful and so charming and has No Idea how to go about navigating this. Boy is Vibrating in his crush feelings rn.
Beliefs they hold: For the most part my blurbs contain all the insecurities in them woohoo, but the one thing about Ain that's incredibly obvious is that he struggles to think he's doing enough for anyone, ever. He's also previously been called "the town whore" so now he's cagey about getting into new relationships even though he's like, the most Loving Person Ever. A lot of his worries right now are that the Forest is going to take his partners away, and that he won't be able to "keep" anybody (and this is realistically probably true in some capacity), so he's uh. Getting Worse mentally about it, slipping into what I'd call "soft yandere". He's going to start biting people.
Tropes: I think Ain legally being classified as Yandere Lite™ counts?! Me above: Yeah his possessiveness isn't inherently a red flag... but Also. (Like, he's not possessive in a "my polycule can have polycules" context but he is possessive in a... if you ever left me I would tie you down and never let you go" kind of situation right now. Oops.)
How does their heart look: The heart is bright, warm, and colourful. And the strings are squeezing way too tightly. They're liable to snap if he squeezes any tighter. He does not emotions good. :(
Additional considerations: Idk if Pavolva can sense this but? Ain has linked his emotions to each of his partners' with the bracelets Ydalir has. So he is not only feeling his emotions but Everyone Else's. He's using this as a way to monitor them to make sure they don't? die?? that way if they're in danger he can feel their fear and location and come Running. as you can see he took vash's death extremely well in a very healthy manner and there are no issues here,
May I contact for more info: Yes, if you are prepared for an essay,
Relationships he can read: Gosh this is the fun part holds my head
So, Joshua basically does not hate anyone. It is so hard to make him legitimately hate someone. He has favorable views of everyone in the Grove. That being said, his closest relationships are:
• Clive Rosfield: No longer in the Grove. Joshua's older brother, though they were separated when Joshua was 10 years old and did not reunite until he was 28. They were only reunited a short time before coming to the Grove, and they only got to spend about 3 months together before Clive vanished. He thinks the world of his brother and loves him dearly even after eighteen years apart, and Clive's disappearance almost two months ago hurt him greatly. • Dion Lesage: No longer in the Grove. A childhood acquaintance that he had the fortune of meeting again at age 28, who grew to be a dear friend and valuable ally. They had just begun dating in the Grove and had only been together for nearly two months when he was brutally murdered by Suri, and never returned from death (read: was dropped). This only canonly happened 3-ish weeks ago, so it is still a very fresh wound. • Jill Warrick: Has not been in the Grove. His and Clive's childhood friend, raised alongside them like a sister. They, too, were separated when Joshua was 10 and did not reunite until he was 28. She is a comforting presence to him, and he cares for her a great deal and values her insight. • Jote: Has not been in the Grove. His attendant, who has been by his side since he awoke from his coma at age 15. She has looked out for his wellbeing, protected him, and followed him on his journey to gather information. She cares deeply for him, and Joshua cares for her as well, though the exact way that he cares for her is never explicitly stated. Some interpret it as romantic, but I tend to interpret it as deeply platonic, at least on Joshua's side. • Luca: One of his first friends in the Grove. Luca is also Phoenix-related and was, at one point, dating his brother. They've become closer because of it, and even more so now that Clive has disappeared, leaning on each other for support. He cares for Luca dearly, as if Luca was his own brother. • Ezell: One of his first friends in the Grove. Ezell has helped him through tough times, and Joshua appreciates it. He only realized that Ezell was flirting with him just before Dion officially came to court him. While he is very much aware of the existence of polyamory, it is still a relatively new concept to him, so he had opted to focus on his relationship with Dion before adding more, so that no one felt left out. But, he does still have some feelings for Ezell. • Verso: While new to the Grove, Verso is almost like a startling shade of Clive while not quite being like Clive at all. There is some similarity in looks, but Verso's voice is identical to Joshua's ear, and perhaps those two things helped to endear the man to him in the fresh absence of his brother. He finds himself drawn to Verso, both for the similarities being almost a soothing balm on such a raw wound and because of the man's charming personality and way of going about his life. He wants to get to know him more, and to make sure he is taking care of himself, because the way he's almost waved off Joshua's concerns about clinic visits, etc. is a little worrying.
Beliefs they hold: A lot of what kept him from pursuing any kind of relationship back home was the looming heaviness and potential finality of their confrontation with Ultima. Here, though, he is currently in a tender spot where he hasn't recovered from Dion's death and also blames himself for it, to an extent. It's hard to say when he will feel like he can open himself to the possibility of dating again.
Tropes: Go here and click on the "Margrace" drop down. There's just about anything you could possibly want.
How does their heart look: His heart is made of fire and exudes a welcome, loving warmth like a fire in a hearth, but it sits within a bird cage. The door to the cage is wide open, but there his heart sits, content to stay. Many severed strings hang from his heart, made of leather cord and appearing as though they have been ripped violently rather than cut neatly.
Additional considerations: iiiiiii cannot think of anything good to put here, I'm sure there's something that will probably come up later
Relationships he can read: closes my eyes. dropdowns again-
relationships from his canon Flamebringer, despite being a dick, has a LOT of friends. It is impressive how many friends he has because he's the sort (and Pavlova will be able to tell) to be like "ra ra ra I'm soooo fucking scary don't talk to me don't even come near me I'll kill you" and then he will turn around and take an entire gatling gun's worth of shells for you and then some. He also really, really loves kids and makes this fact super obvious (which means unfortunately for Pavlova he's going to get hit with the "aww a baby :)" beams Very fast). Very important friendships below-
Lena: She runs the greenhouse he works at. They are Gardening Buddies. His biggest fear right now is that she shows up here because he does not want her to witness the horrors. She's probably one of like three people who could actually wrangle his temper.
Podenco: Daughter. Baby girl. Works in the greenhouse, he's protecting her from bugs all the time.
Lisa: Daughter, baby girl. She, Lena, and Flamebringer raised a plant together once. It became, uh... a little unruly (it grew really really well and no one knew what to do with it because it got out of hand).
Popukar and Shamare: Daughters. Baby girls. You get it — anyway these two once went to Lena and asked for her help delivering a metric Shitton of flowers to Flamebringer's door after it was revealed he's really fond of plants.
Wiš'adel: His relationship with her is complicated... at one point they were very close friends, but Wis'adel is sort of known for being just as much of a turncoat as Flamebringer is. He sort of betrayed her when he left the group they were both part of. She tried to kill him. He lived. It's complicated. Wis'adel herself has no beef with him and he has no beef with her (anymore), buuuut:
Hoederer: Hoederer, who is Wis'adel's friend, fucking HATES his ass. Flamebringer doesn't exactly get Why that is but it's known lore that Hoederer wants to put Flamebringer in a chokehold, so uh. Oops.
Theresa: Although he didn't know her personally, Theresa was a very important figure in Kazdel's history, a very beloved King of Sarkaz/Lord of Fiends who all the Sarkaz (his race) looked up to. Unfortunately she died :') in a coup staged by THE GUY WHO WOULD LATER BECOME HIS BOSS i am so serious.
"The Doctor": This is the guy who would basically become one of FB's bosses later. They don't remember anything, they're also the player character so it's kind of hard to say much about their specific relationship. Flamebringer is said to have "an interest" in The Doctor due to the events of Theresa's death, but they're on a sort of shaky alliance right now. Flamebringer could betray them at any moment; they trust that he won't do that. And to be fair, he hasn't.
Ezell: This is the complicated one. Ezell came to Flamebringer with one mission, which was to ask Flamebringer what his home country of Kazdel is like because a child in Ezell's care named Cecelia is looking for her father, who is From Kazdel. Flamebringer does Not want to talk about Kazdel; it sucks there, it's dangerous, the whole place is constantly falling apart because other races on Terra (especially Sankta like Ezell) are very very racist against the Sarkaz and want them all to be wiped off the face of the planet. That being said, Flamebringer has some recognition that not all people are like that now that he's out of the country, but it's still a touchy topic. He loves Kazdel just as much as he hates it, so... in comes this Sankta strolling in to ask him questions, and Flamebringer's temper gets the better of him because Ezell won't listen when Flamebringer essentially says "you're an idiot and you shouldn't ever go there especially with a small child what the fuck is wrong with you". He pins Ezell to a wall about this I wish I was lying, and essentially tries to intimidate him with the "all Kazdelian Sarkaz are like me, and I could kill you right now if I wanted, and THEY won't be so merciful" before he lets Ezell go. Of course as far as FB is concerned, this was an act that was meant to scare Ezell out of going to Kazdel... little does he know Ezell still goes later on so lol lmao way to go buddy. In Sticks though... these two idiots have smoothed things over so hard they're now engaged. Ezell is basically the stars in Flamebringer's sky and he's usually comparing Ezell to the flowers he loves so much, he's very overprotective of Ezell and wants only the best for him. He unfortunately keeps bumblefucking their relationship (from his own perspective) but Ezell is like, 75% of his daily thoughts. Every single thing in his brain about this boy is the equivalent of "I miss my wife Tails" whenever they're apart, and he's the ambien wife guy when Ezell is around. It's gross. One of his big insecurities/fears wrt Ezell right now is that he's never explaining himself well enough with regards to his own dreams and ambitions, and he thinks he's horrid at comfort or keeping Ezell out of harm. They have a lot of disagreements... he's never sure how to fix them. He genuinely also struggles to comprehend Ezell's very deep depressive disorders, so that puts a strain on things. They're still in great standings, it's just like... a paranoid & depressed force meets a very forward and goal-oriented object. They cannot make their goals align sometimes. They'll figure it out maybe, he hopes.
relationships from sticks
Wolfwood: Closes my eyes... he and Wolfwood got off on the WRONG foot and hated each other for so so long. And eventually like with all things regarding FB, hate kind of turned into love, but it's like... dark and twisted. If Ezell is sunflowers and butterflies, Wolfwood is thorny brambles and vines he can't get rid of. They love each other but in a way that they don't exactly define as Love in a traditional sense, and refuse to put labels on their relationship. Part of their rituals involves beating the everloving fuck out of each other daily in some sparring match because this is how fighty boys relieve tension ig, sometimes they make out afterwards. They are always there for each other. They will never call each other lovers or boyfriends. Also they were married in their past lives here so oops—
Stan: This is FB's like. Grandfather figure. He has an older male figure in his life he actually likes and trusts finally. He would murder hundreds for Stan Pines. Unfortunately neither of them are keen on keeping the other out of trouble so much as jointly causing it so lol lmao.
Mamika, Mafuyu, & Mayoi: These are his children he found them outside. They are small to him and he is protecting them. Mayoi was also his son in his past life, so! That's fun!! Flamebringer is sometimes haunted by the guilt of Mamika dying in an earlier event but he tries not to let it stick, he tries very hard to keep the past in the past.
Beliefs they hold: Pretty much the above! Flamebringer will run circles around himself to convince himself and others he's unlovable but that, uh... has been demonstrated to Not be true ever. He's actually soft as hell. Shhh.
Tropes: Somehow he's always enemies to lovers????
How does their heart look: Fragmented; one half of it is a dilapidated city with nothing in it, not even people but just ruins. One half of it is a beautiful field of flowers. Flamebringer walks on both sides, and he is fully prepared to sever any of the strings holding onto one side at any moment... or so he tells himself anyway.
Additional considerations: can't think of anything now!
May I contact for more info: Yes but it will be essay time :)
Relationships he can read: no dropdowns now I can summarize this one succinctly! I think—
Elysium: From his canon, Elysium is like. His #1 Person Ever. They are very close... friiiiends? It's complicated, canon technically portrays them as Very Close Friends but Elysium has also canonically written a BOOK. a BOOK! about Thorns and called him "Gallant Captain Thorns" the ENTIRE TIME. He and Elysium wind up forcing anyone else they're together in the room with into third-wheeling. They refer to each other as Partners ??? If you have 30 seconds please watch how they are in the newest story event it's insane. Anyway judging by CN Gacha and Prior Evidence they're gay and in love. There's a lot more in their relationship than just this but Pav is going to get the sense that Thorns generally will do Anything for Elysium even if he pretends to throw a fit about it. They tease each other, they push each other around. They are Making Out idk.
Aulus: From his canon. HOO BOY Thorns HATES this fucking guy. This man raised him (partly), then proceeded to do a bunch of heinous cult shit in front of him including murdering other children like him and claiming that their lives weren't worth living because they were "others", and also trying to turn people (Thorns included!) into monsters part of a hivemind... so yeah Thorns is on a quest to murder this man dead. Fuck this guy.
Sidney: From Sticks obviously... they aren't too close yet, but Thorns has a bit of an "I have to impress him" type puppy crush on him. This will surely prevent him from doing stupid shit in the future right (no it will not). Anyway he's super into Sidney's caretaker side, he's nebulously trying to say things about this but they're kind of in the baby stages of it. And Thorns is an idiot who doesn't know how to confess things, so.
Beliefs they hold: Thank God that Thorns is relatively secure in his relationships and doesn't have any weird doubts. He's been long-distance with Elysium before (they call each other on the phone. a lot.) but I guess the one thing he does have in general, not just interpersonally but with just Existence In General, is this doubt that he's actually going to be able to keep people safe. His pirate crew, his friends, etc — he's usually going out of his way to make sure people stay safe, but he can be quite reckless in so doing and usually makes the danger worse. He has not broken out of this habit despite awareness of it, so.
Tropes: "Idiots in love" is a good one— also friends to lovers. my god.
How does their heart look: It's very, hm, steady? Quite unwavering in conviction, and it feels a bit like riding on steady ocean waves. Bumpy here and there, but not stormy or turbulent most of the time. The strings are strong and sturdy and don't seem as though they'd be easy to cut.
Additional considerations: can't think of anything now!
May I contact for more info: Yes, for a smaller essay this time-
Relationships he can read: Lmao lmao okay so Passenger has one. ONE. person he actually cares about in any world he's gone to ever. It's horrendous. Like, there are a couple people from his canon that he has a Relationship Of Some Kind With, such as The Doctor and Kal'tsit, but it doesn't go too deep so I won't go into it too much here.
The SINGLE person Passenger actually gives a shit about is Sesa. He's had a rotating cast of solid friends in Sticks but at the end of the day none of them actually matter too much in the grand scheme of things because he has this dark, twisted love for Sesa. It is So Bad that the devs named their story "Fatal Attraction" like unironically. Passenger is like... deeply seriously trying to drive Sesa to Commit Murder, a thing Sesa Does Not Do, solely because it gets him off a little bit when he thinks about Sesa taking revenge for the wrongs that were committed against him?? I'm so sorry I have to write it this way I don't know how else to describe it. The things Passenger says to Sesa are Not Okay. He is legitimately obsessed with this man in a body and soul way that WOULD be super romantic if it weren't tinged with this layer of yandere unhinged shit. Passenger is Mentally Unwell about this man.
Now!! If Pavlova has the ability to read this too, he will find that Passenger's entire psyche is fragmented; he, in his head, talks to a younger childhood version of himself (Elliot) that acts sort of as his actual emotions and conscience and also Questions Passenger's Actions. Little Elliot loves everyone; he misses people like Timekeeper Cookie, A.B.A, and he really likes Dipper and the other Terrans. Elliot questions whether Passenger's attachments to Sesa are healthy (THEY ARE NOT), and generally tries to steer the both of them toward something better than what they've done in the past. Which was a lot of revenge and bloodshed and murder, canonically.
Beliefs they hold: Honestly think I covered it pretty well :') Passenger is just deeply unhealthy all around.
Tropes: yandere, all i fuckin play are yanderes,
How does their heart look: The whole thing looks like a fire burning in a desert village. The strings have already all been cut, burned at the edges.
Additional considerations: can't think of anything now!
"Canon" Relationships: -Kiera Canorus Aurelius: Luca's sibling. He found them in the middle of a heavy snow, believing them to be a lost child. For over a decade, he maintained that belief, never once doubting their sibling. He fought to fiercely protect them like any good big brother would. When he did learn of their betrayal, Luca left Renova. While ultimately he did not leave because of their allegiances, but rather his own grief and guilt, he's well aware of how things looked to them. For a long time, both he and Kiera were on poor terms.
The development of Luca and Kiera's relationship is a divided one now that Luca has regained memories from home. Back home, Kiera would stubbornly stick by him even as he insisted that he was not worth loving. When they learned of his intent to work with the Emissary Alazon to end his life, they struck a deal of their own, asking for time to find another solution. Kiera's stubbornness, in tandem with Alazon's presence, would eventually break Luca free of his shell. They would stand by his side when he struck down the Phoenix once and for all.
However, in Sticks, Kiera continued to challenge Luca's beliefs, ultimately breaking him down and convincing him to spare Zonari. In Luca's own words, this changed everything for him, allowing him to steadily warm up to the idea that maybe he was still worth loving. Nevertheless, for a time, he resented Kiera as he believed they were doing nothing to prevent his misery under the Phoenix. He was entirely unaware that they had attempted to make a deal with the Phoenix to accept its Blessing in its stead. After Luca's canon update, he and Kiera are working on shoring up their relationship and reestablishing their trust.
- Cyrus Aurelius: Luca's father. Having been shunned from his own family due to his poor health and lack of Blessing, Cyrus spent many of his early years whoring around and determined to undermine his family's authority. When his brother abruptly died, leaving him as the only heir to the family, he took the latter responsibility to the next level, determined to reshape Renova by emphasizing the importance of the common man. At the same time, his former habits of sleeping around would result in his son, Luca.
Having seen the worst of what his family name and Blessing could bring, Cyrus was determined to raise his son like any other child. Thus, Luca was taught to respect everyone, regardless of their station. At the same time, he was kept out of many of the early, court-faring responsibilities that a young heir might typically be involved in. It was only once Luca showed his own interest in taking on that responsibility that Cyrus allowed him to do so. His love for Luca was so deep that he willingly stepped in front of a blade meant for his son, succumbing to a terrible poison before Luca opted to end his misery.
Never once did Luca doubt in Cyrus's love for him. Every day, he aspired to be like his father and guide Renova right. Thus, after Cyrus's death, he felt that he had ultimately failed the man — not just for failing to protect him, but because by allowing his death, he watched several families crumble, and the very peace and prosperity he fought to protect fall apart. He continues to agonize over Renova's grief to this day, as well as the senseless loss of his father.
- The Phoenix: Luca's "god," so to speak. Luca's world is ruled by five Beasts, with each of them distributing a fragment of their power as a "Blessing." The Renovan Beast is the Phoenix, and unlike the others, its gift is not distributed at random, but strongly aligned with a single bloodline. As the last remaining Aurelius, the Phoenix had become deeply overprotective of Luca. At times, it would painfully punish him to prevent him from acting, or even deny him power outright.
For the first seventeen years of Luca's life, the Phoenix kept its ultimate gift a secret — it could revive Luca should he die. After Luca fell through ice and drowned, he woke to find himself sopping wet but unharmed. Later, when an assassination attempt was successful, Luca yet again woke up unharmed. He confronted the Phoenix, finally learning of this gift, and ultimately coming to realize that his father had died in vain. This awoke a deep resentment of the Beast, which only grew with each time that the Phoenix kept its powers from Luca, or otherwise punished him.
Luca became determined to kill the Phoenix at all costs, even going as far as seeking out an Emissary's help. Though these efforts failed, they would ultimately attract the attention of another Emissary, one that Luca was deeply familiar with. Desperate, it hijacked Luca's body and attempted to race away from the Emissary. They were caught, however, ultimately leading to the Phoenix's demise. Even now, he wonders if he did the right thing, and continues to grieve his loss of innocence and trust in the divine.
- Emissary Alazon ("River"): One of the seven Emissaries of Cataega, the agents closest to its queen and the only Blessed in the country. River resembles a Lionfish, especially when in his aquatic form.
Luca and Alazon met in a bar, introducing themselves as Luke and Alexei respectively. After a brief affair, they went their separate ways. Several weeks later, Luca would learn of Alazon's true identity, resulting in a bloody fight that Luca lost. Over the course of several years, Alazon and Luca would butt heads, becoming vicious rivals. These fights would culminate in the Emissaries joining up with Alazon against his will, seemingly killing Luca. However, when Alazon returned to investigate the body, he realized Luca had disappeared. Thus, he chased after him, leading him to Renova, which was already playing host to the Cataegan peacekeeping embassy.
In the name of diplomacy, Alazon would request to work with Luca closely, something that head Councillor Aquila Caelius would have to accept so that Cataega did not believe they were working against them. After another bloody fight in which Luca willingly allowed himself to be killed, he tried to convince River to kill him. Alazon agreed to do so if he ever grew bored, and instead insisted they work together.
Over the course of planning security for the upcoming harvest festival, Luca and River grew close to one another, with Luca eventually developing feelings for him. However, after a brutal murder meant to resemble the death of his father, Luca began to doubt their relationship, especially as he learned of several crimes that may have implicated River in working for not just Cataega, but Castilla as well. Luca confronted him angrily, and his attempt at killing the emissary was witnessed by a number of guards, who dispatched the information to Cateaga. Though the two made up, it was far too late, as another Emissary was dispatched to deal with the issue. River would be the one to rescue Luca after the Phoenix hijacked his body, though he was unable to avoid a confrontation with Meretrix. After Luca gained the ability to confront the Beast once and for all, River stood by his side and even offered his weapon up for Luca to finish the deed.
Shortly after, Alazon left the country, leaving Luca unsure of their future, but filled with a sense of longing. Even now, he misses River, and frequently has to do double-takes when he passes in the vicinity of Callan.
- Aquila Caelius: Luca's childhood best friend. At one point, her father had attempted to arrange a marriage between the two of them. Cyrus quickly put a stop to this, after both children confessed they had no interest in the opposite gender.
Both grew up to be chivalrous knights in their own right, challenging each other to grow stronger and stronger. When Cyrus's death would inevitably lead to her father's own execution, Luca couldn't help but feel a deep level of guilt, feeling that he had failed his best friend by not being able to save his father. If he had simply prevented the assassination, everything probably would have gone much better.
Returning to Renova was difficult, as he continued to believe that Aquila would not want him around. He was no longer the boy she grew up with. However, Aquila was adamant that nothing had changed. Luca is secretly relieved that she inherited his role as head Councillor due to his absence, as he wants nothing to do with his father's old role.
- Caius: A young Renovan knight. Luca felt a budding attraction to him, but it was quickly overridden by Alazon's presence. Nevertheless, he felt deep guilt when, after being all but rejected by the Aurelius, he left the harvest festival and was promptly murdered.
- Laurentia Aurelius, aka Meretrix: An extremely powerful Emissary, bearing traits of a Lion's Mane Jellyfish. She was dispatched to Renova after word of Luca and River's fight reached the Queen of Cataega. She captured Luca after he attempted to flee, and used her abilities to both impart her memories and temporarily brainwash him, overriding the Phoenix's control. With this, he was able to reach the Phoenix and kill it. As of right now, he is unsure if he should resent or be grateful toward the Emissary, who returned home just as swiftly as she arrived.
- Giselle: Luca's surrogate mother figure. Part time nanny and part time nurse for Cyrus due to his ailing health, she was a prominent figure in the Aurelius house, and played a heavy role in raising him. He has not made an attempt to contact her since returning to Renova, feeling that she would hate the man he had become.
Sticks Relationships: - Zahliya: One of Luca's first friends in the Grove, and currently his ex. The two bonded over cheese and singing, eventually flirting with and falling for one another. However, Luca secretly bore resentment toward Zahliya as a form of self-sabotage, forcing himself to believe that the gargoyle was intentionally neglecting to help Luca with the Phoenix. This came out after Clive's disappearance, and after Luca accused Zahliya of not caring as much as the former did, Zahliya ended their relationship. Though Luca would apologize after his canon update, Zahliya asked for time and space. Luca feels... unsure how to proceed, regrets his actions, and heavily doubts that he'll ever be able to mend that relationship. - Mamika: Luca's baby sister, at least in his eyes (he hasn't said this to either her or Kiera). Initially scoffing at her innocent world view, during the events of Zahliya-quest 2, she managed to convince him to stay his hand. Much like with Kiera, he credits her with being the first to convince him to change his ways. He owes a lot to her, cares deeply for her, and hopes to be able to protect her from the evil of the forest. He wants to ensure that her view of the world is never shattered like his was.
- Ain: Luca's catty gay best friend. The two love to gossip with one another. He's pretty worried about Ain of late, but isn't sure he's the best person to help bring him out of his funk.
- Livio: HE HAS A CRUSH ON EVERY BOY.
- Zonari: Luca still holds a level of distrust for Zahliya's sister, especially the closer she and Kiera get. He's pretty convinced she's plotting something, and even outwardly attacked her during the Clive crisis
- Clive Rosfield: A former client of Luca's bar. At first, Luca was only interested in his aesthetic appeal. However, between his endearing obliviousness to Luca's flirting and his determination that Luca was not doomed to his fate, Luca found himself falling for him. Clive would ultimately be the first person to take a step in freeing Luca from the Phoenix. Luca was certain that he was in love with the man and preparing to tell him just that when he disappeared, leaving him devastated. Though his canon update would quickly belie some of these feelings, a hole still exists in his chest where Clive once occupied.
- Joshua Rosfield: Clive's brother, and arguably one of Luca's best friends. Once, he had a crush on the young man (yes at the same time as Clive. He inherited Cyrus's whoring leave him alone), but ultimately chased friendship as he pursued Clive instead. In the wake of Clive's disappearance and Dion's death, Luca feels an obligation to protect Joshua and keep him afloat. He knows just how devastating loss can be, and he doesn't want to see Joshua's bright spirit be shattered.
Beliefs they hold:- Luca believed for a long time that Zahliya and Kiera didn't truly care about him. Neither of them seemed to be taking action to save him as he suffered because of the Phoenix. - He truly believes he has bungled the relationship with Zahliya entirely. - Due to his back to back widowing/breakups, he thinks he isn't meant to love. - He suspects Alazon is hiding something from him. Maybe more than one thing.
Tropes:ENEMIES TO LOVERS! TOXIC YAOI! HURT COMFORT.
How does their heart look: Luca's heart is bruised and wreathed in a shield of protective flames. His heart is criss-crossed with damaged and severed strings, as well as ones that have been patched together. Only some of these strings have managed to cross the flames without issue. Others were destroyed by the very flames themselves. The color is a bit washed out, as if once it were greyscale but is now steadily allowing itself to bloom once more.
Additional considerations: There may be a faint flicker of something within Luca's heart that isn't his own. Sometimes it looks a bit like a fledgling bird. Other times it looks like a dragon hatchling. Strange!
May I contact for more info: Absolutely! Please do!
- Vash the Stampede: The epitome of "it's complicated." Meryl stuck her neck out for Vash on several occasions, and ultimately did everything she could to save his life. In a lot of ways, she blames herself for what happened to him. For the last two years, she believed him dead, only to learn that he was in fact alive here in Sticks.
Unfortunately, they never managed to catch up with one another, and Vash would turn up dead shortly after. She's doing her best to reconcile her long held crush on him.
- Roberto De Niro: Her mentor. Though they had a very argumentative relationship, with Meryl bristling every time the man failed to respect her, she still cared deeply for him, and valued his insight. When he died saving her, she was filled with a regret she still carries to this day.
- Nicolas D. Wolfwood: She hates him. Fuck this guy. He's the worst. A stinky scammer, even if she might be grateful for him saving her life.
- Zazie the Beast: While Meryl is still a bit angry over the kidnapping attempt, she also appreciates how forthcoming the worm has been with information. They're probably the only person that didn't lie to Meryl. At least after the first time.
... They did eat her though. Negative points for that.
Sticks Relationships:
- Kiera Canorus: Initially, Meryl was very brusque toward Kiera, who had told Meryl off in an attempt to keep her safe. After feeling guilty over their clear suffering, Meryl decided to give Kiera some of her blood. She quite likes them, and may or may not be looking forward to the modeling session she promised the dhampir.
- Livio: Technically, she knows him from home, but it's... complicated. This isn't the Livio she met. He seems way more in control and much softer than the killer that she watched die. Still, he's nice enough, and she feels bad for the fact that he's lost someone he cared for.
- Razlo: She's convinced he's a big, weird pervert, and he isn't keen on stopping her.
- Flamebringer: He likes messing with Wolfwood, therefore they're best friends now. She will supply him with embarrassing pictures of Nick.
Beliefs they hold: - She caused Vash's death. - She definitely doesn't have a crush on Wolfwood.
Tropes: Noooot really any at this time.
How does their heart look: Bruised, and walled off. The cement on the bricks around her heart is fresh, and some of the bricks are haphazardly placed. There are some very obvious cracks where certain threads sneak through. The whole thing seems shoddily put together.
Additional considerations: Not really. She's very new right now so she doesn't have a lot of relationships.
"Canon" Relationships: Okay so as a word of warning things are about to get complicated because of course the French game is a clusterfuck. Many characters in this game have two iterations of themselves. These are going to be defined as “Real” and “Painted” (IE: Real Renoir vs Painted Renoir). These relationships will be clumped together under one name. However, “real” relationships will be notated with a double asterisk.
- Verso: “Huh?” So as I mentioned there are painted and real versions of Verso. The Verso I play is his painted version, and boy does he have thoughts about his real counterpart. There’s also a fragmented version of Verso as well.
In a lot of ways, Painted Verso is jealous of his real counterpart, because he got to die. He also loathes the man for dying, considering the grief and destruction it brought upon his family.
At the same time, he pities his fragmented soul, who has worn away so much that he cannot remember the names of his loved ones. He wants nothing more than to end the misery of this poor soul, especially as it means ending his own misery.
- Renoir: - His father. For a long time, Painted Renoir was Verso’s closest ally. He truly believed in protecting the Paintress for a period of time. However, after Julie’s death, their relationship began to fray and fracture, culminating in Verso drawing a line in the stand by siding with Expedition 33 in their attempts to kill the paintress.
**Real Renoir, on the other hand, is someone that Verso can deeply understand, even if he won’t say it outloud. As far as Verso is concerned, Real Renoir is his only hope of salvation, as he wants nothing more than the Painting to be destroyed so that he can finally rest. Nevertheless, he does bare some resentment toward the man for being the reason behind the Gommage, the yearly ritualistic deaths that claim anyone at or over a certain age (the number of which is painted on the horizon)
- Clea: Verso felt no small amount of love for Painted Clea. They spent their early childhood years painting their version of Lumiere together. He was quite upset to learn that the real Clea had painted over and essentially destroyed her painted counterpart. Nevertheless, he was devastated to watch her brutal death.
**Real Clea is a bit complicated. He loves his sister dearly, but he has to admit that her methods are brutal. There’s a bit of pity in there as well, knowing how much of a load she’s taken on as a result of his death.
- Aline: His mother. Also known as the Paintress, she is seemingly the cause of all suffering in the painted Lumiere. However, she is only trapped and grieving, watching and feebly trying to warn the world of the real Renoir’s attempts to steal power in the world by killing off its longest lived citizens.
Verso is so very concerned for her. Spending too long in a painting will drain one’s life and eventually kill them. Because Aline has been in the painting for so long, he worries deeply for her. At the same time, he can’t help but feel resentment and even a bit of hate toward her. In the painted world, he doomed his youngest sister to a scarred and mute existence. She blames Alicia for his death, and he hates her for carrying out such a punishment.
- Maelle: His adopted but not really younger sister. Maelle is technically the avatar of his sister Alicia, who was “overwritten” when she entered the painting and given new life. He worries deeply over her. However, the two have something of a toxic relationship, with Alicia idolizing him in her grief over the real Verso’s death. She will stop at nothing to keep him alive in whatever capacity, while he wants nothing more than to end it. He resents her due to the fact that she killed the Painted Alicia without giving him a chance to say goodbye. At the same time, he not only allowed her surrogate father/adopted brother Gustave to die, but manipulated her into carrying out his death by killing the Paintress and allowing the Real Renoir to attempt to destroy the Canvas once and for all.
While he does go through with Maelle’s plan to confront the Real Renoir, he feels conflict the entire time. He easily sees through Maelle’s promises to only stay for a little while longer, and knows that her love for him will kill her.
- Painted Alicia: His dear sister. He cares so very deeply for her, and is angered by the fact that Aline has taken so much out on her. He wants for her to find her own feet, reminding her that “my beautiful sister doesn’t need this ugly mask.”
- Esquie: Verso’s best friend. He’s a walking, talking wineskin thanks to the fact that Verso stores all of his wine in him. Like. sloshing together. Nasty ass. Anyway, Verso cares deeply for his friend, even if said friend often says things that are deeply insightful and simultaneously a little too pointed for Verso’s comfort. Nevertheless, Verso deeply loves his outlook on life, such as the Whees and Whoos of existence.
**Real Esquie is Verso’s childhood plushie. I just think you should know this. It’s cute.
- Monoco:: Verso’s best friend….. 2! He’s a gestral with an obsession with feet. I wish I was joking. It’s how he gains his abilities in the game, it‘s a whole thing. He and Verso have stood by each other’s sides for years, working together against the monsters of the world. They have a very teasing and jokingly combative relationship with one another. More than once, they’ve led each other into danger. Verso wouldn’t change it for the world.
**Real Monoco was the name of several of Verso’s dogs. Over the years, they have had three dogs named Monoco. This cycle of “rebirth” was the foundation to the gestral cycle of rebirth, in which gestrals come back as something “similar but different,” not unlike adopting a dog of the same breed after losing one.
- Noco: Monoco’s surrogate son, and likewise a Gestral. He is close friends with the young gestral, and was devastated after the creature was killed in a fight with Renoir. He works with Monoco to bring him back, and still misses the gestral he once was.
**Real Noco is also the name of one of Verso’s dogs.
- Julie: Verso’s former lover. Things ended bitterly when she learned of Verso and the Painted Renoir’s deceit. At the time, he wanted her to believe that he was protecting this world by keeping the Paintress alive. Many years later, he regrets these actions, and what became of her.
- Simon: Verso’s old friend. It pained him to see the monster that the Real Clea had made him, and he was determined to put the beast out of his misery.
- Sciel: A member of Expedition 33, and his former lover. The two had a very casual affair, before they mutally ended things when she realized that Maelle could bring back her deceased husband. While he does feel a flicker of resentment toward her, as well as carries a candle for her to this day, he also considers her a close friend. He is plagued with guilt, knowing what will become of her and her dream to see her husband again, should he get her way.
- Lune: Verso sees a lot of himself in Lune, who is plagued by the expectations of her parents despite their deaths. He encourages her to become her own person, telling her that the voice guiding her choices has to be her own. He also enjoys that they share a similar love for music, and had once hoped to perform a duet with her. While he does feel a flicker of feelings for her, he never acted on them.
- Gustave: Verso is almost jealous of Gustave. He had such a loving relationship with Maelle, his own sister, and it wounded him. He knew that Gustave would only hold Maelle back, and thus allowed the man to die. While he regrets the effect it had on Maelle, he isn’t sad that the man is gone.
Sticks Relationships:
- Kiera: A rather pretty thing that Verso has become enamored with. They’ve flirted a few times, and made out at the SesaPass wedding. However, given the fact that Verso is notorious for catching feelings, he’s reluctant to keep seeing them, as they don’t seem the relationship type.
- Joshua: A young man that Verso accidentally upset by sitting at his brother’s old seat at the Watchtower Bar. Things got even worse when Joshua confessed that he and his now missing brother sounded identical to one another. He feels a bit obligated to watch over Joshua now, and worries for his wellbeing.
- Passenger: Probably Verso’s favorite person in the grove. He took Verso’s weirdness in stride and even joked with him in turn. He likes the guy quite a bit.
Beliefs they hold: - The Grove is his punishment for attempting to destroy the painting back home.
Tropes: Found family. Old Man Yaoi
How does their heart look: Old, withered, and greyscale. Nevertheless, it beats hard and passionately. It’s accompanied by the gentle sound of piano music.
Additional considerations: He is such a mess please bully him.
Relationships he can read: Ford Pines: His twin brother! They have a long past that was strained for most of their lives. If represented by a string to his heart, it's been cut and re-tied in several places - things were very rough between them for a long time for various reasons, but for the most part they actually get along well now! They've both grown and changed for the better in their own ways, and Stan's glad they get to have each other in their lives from now on. Dipper Pines: His great nephew! Came to stay with Stan when he was 12, and after a series of misadventures across the multiverse, he's become more of a son than Stan was ever expecting. He basically raised him through some of his more formative teen years, and now he's an older teen and it's such a weird feeling. Their string is frayed in places but sturdy and unlikely to snap. No matter how much they fight sometimes, he's proud of the young man Dipper's turning into. Other canon relationships: These folks aren't in the Grove and have never been in the Grove, but there are also strings for Mabel (Dipper's sister, they all miss her terribly since the last world they were in), Soos (his sonployee back home), Wendy (actual employee back home), Waddles (some pig I guess). There are also a number of cut threads from old love interests that didn't work out for various reasons, mostly women but occasionally men! Most notably he was married for about six hours once. And it seems he married a gold miner statue once...? Other game relationships: Weird category! Since he's a CRAU he's gotten close to people in other places as well. The biggest ones are Fern (Adventure Time, his grass kid), Varian (Tangled the series, his grass kid's boyfriend unfortunately), and Ruby (RWBY, first mate of his angry mob, a good friend, and the person who made his sick gun cane). There are others but these are probably most likely to get mentioned - if any others come up I'll give you a heads-up! Sticks (in game):
Flamebringer: Bonded with him over a weirdly similar shared cultural history? Since then he's become something of a grandfather figure and kind of a bad influence, but they understand each other in a very specific gruff way. He trusts him implicitly because he reminds him a lot of himself, but also he's someone he can get into mischief with, who will listen to all his stories.
Mamika: A magical girl who is over at the Pines' so often she basically lives there. She can never, ever get his name right but to be honest he's been called so many different things in his life that he's stopped trying and will respond to whatever name she's calling him lately. She reminds him and the whole family a lot of Mabel, so there's a little bit of heartache in this line, but he's still very fond of her and she can usually bully him if she needs to.
Odile: Immediately started chatting her up because there aren't many older folks here who actually look older (he means it as a compliment, really). They both sort of have gathered a lot of found family over the years, and they keep an eye out for each other's kids as needed. She's smart and picks up on things quickly, but she's also fun to rattle now and then. Someday he's going to get her to laugh out loud at a dumb joke of his. Her line is different not because of any romantic chemistry, but because Stan just sincerely doesn't have friends in his age bracket who aren't related to him.
Sticks (dropped): His close CR drops that are still haunting his heart are Fern (Adventure Time - not his Fern from Trench, but also not-NOT his Fern), Loop (One of Odile's "kids" - they told him a secret about them, and it's a secret that he can relate to. Cares a lot about this kid, and was absolutely ready to fight for them when it came to it), and of most interest to Pavlova - Pure Vanilla (a guy who's too fucking nice for his own good. Stan never knew how to feel about him, but he was actually kind to him?? Right off the bat??)
Beliefs they hold: HMMM. So. A lot of the beliefs he has about his relationships stem from feelings he has about himself. Despite everything that's happened with him saving the world (long story) he still tends to downplay serious accomplishments that would seem "out of character" for him - anything having to do with his own intelligence, people thinking he's a good, kind person. He got so used to hearing the opposite throughout his life that he genuinely doesn't know how to handle it. Plus, what if they want to see him replicate it and he can't? If he's going to be a fraud, he wants to be a fraud on his OWN terms. He has secret fears that everyone will eventually get sick of his shit and decide he's not worth the trouble, because HE doesn't always think he's worth the trouble. Also, the guy has some serious PTSD going on, so he has a tendency to be suspicious of people who are too nice (because they probably just want something). A lot of these beliefs are reinforced over years and years and years, but he actually doesn't remember everything he's been through. The cost of saving the world was losing all of his memories, and while most of them were recovered, he didn't have photographic or video evidence of his entire life. Some things are lost forever, literally burning in his brain, but the scorch marks are still there so to speak.
Tropes: Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Stepford Smiler, and Found Family.
How does their heart look: The strings that remain are made of sturdy nautical rope and any knots are firmly tied. There's one in particular that's thorny and frayed and burning in places but doesn't seem to tie to anyone else - this is his relationship to himself. His heart itself will appear blue - surprisingly not from depression, but because his cold blood (see below) makes his blood blue. Parts of it are charred and burnt, but it's still in tact and still holding onto those relationships tightly. His heart is basically a blue, burnt marshmallow holding everything else together. Underneath it all, he is the BIGGEST softie.
Additional considerations: Stan is a CRAU from Deer Country! This means two things - one, he has blood magic now (and is kind of part squid, just. don't think about that part it doesn't come up much) and that blood magic can corrupt the people who have it. The magic he has is cold blood, which lets him summon up blue flames but also makes him very cold to the touch usually. Corruption happens when you're using your magic but not also taking care of your mental health, and usually happens in stages - which I have a handy dandy post for Over here! Also, blue flames come up a lot for him. Originally they were a manifestation of lost memories, a placeholder in his brain, but now his blood magic appears in the same way when he uses his fire.
Pure Vanilla - Boy howdy. We know there's a lot going on here. Pav would absolutely be able to see the violence and sadism he inflicted on Pure Vanilla back in Beast-Yeast. His absolutely deranged obsession with him, his tormenting in an attempt to break him as a person, and remold him into a Cookie of Deceit. His glee at Truthless' offer of becoming one and the way they had merged their souls together before Vanilla awakened and friendzoned him.
Their souls had remained entangled, even after their breakup. When Shadow Milk turned up in sticks that remained, though initially he was violent towards Truthless, he settled down, thinking he might try and get Truthless back- no he Awakened again anyway, and while Shadow Milk felt BETRAYED x2, Vanilla remained stubborn on extending his hand. SM eventually caved, and they completely merged their souls back together. They were disgustingly in love but it was still unhealthy and toxic in places. Shadow Milk was working towards becoming better while Vanilla slowly slipped more into derangement. They were a swinging pendulum of sanity, but like. SM was happy. He felt loved. And then Vanilla died and it was like his heart and soul had been ripped to pieces. His desperation at getting him back lead to him challenging the Forest and he was killed for it. His grief is a well that threatens to spill over at anytime. He's slowly been picking up the pieces, trying to find meaning in the life he is still living.
White Lily - An all consuming burning hatred for her is where they started. The Guardian, their jailor. A mockery of freedome, the half-a-cookie. He had goaded her into attacking him once to try and hurt Vanilla (it didn't work)
Shadow Milk learned that his past self was incredibly close friends with her, and he had sacrificed everything to try and bring back both Lily and Percy (PV's past self), which lead him to look at Lily in a different light. They didn't truly start to become close until PV's death, when the two of them stricken with grief had no one but each other to cling to in order to keep going.
Their relationship is complicated and messy, but there is genuine affection there now, even if it makes him feel weird.
Candy Apple & Black Sapphire - Those are his minions! They're his, obviously, but his emotions towards them are rather lacking. He made them, sure, but he almost treats them more like toys than people. He does think of them from time to time here in Sticks, but his feelings are lukewarm-to-complicated. A little wary of the idea of them showing up and seeing how their Beloved Master has changed. He doesn't like thinking about it.
The Other Beasts - HOW COMPLICATED. His friends, his colleagues, his fellow Beasts. How lovely is it that they all fell one after another, wallowed with him in corruption and madness, and then set the world ablaze. Was Shadow Milk the first or the last to fall? Was he the first to corrupt? Did he tell the first lies that dominoed the world into chaos? Did he cultivate the rumors about the treasures in Flours caccoon? Who knows! Shadow Milk adores the other Beasts, but that adoration is sinister and possessive. He loves the idea of them and them being his, but his actual interpersonal relationships with them seeeeeem. Hm.
this is something else Shadow Milk does not like thinking about now that he is saner. Eternal Sugar is also kind of on his shitlist right now thanks to Pavlova. OOPS
Pavlova - I know you said he can't see relationships regarding himself but lets put it here for completions sake. He recalls helping ES with baking this child, and he remembers how the Fount was his father and was fond of him. Shadow Milk is conflicted with how much of that is even him vs the Fount and while Pav seems absolutely willing to treat him just as he did before, he feels like the literal wolf in sheep's clothing.
His love is dangerous, how long before it hurts Pav in the same way Sugar has?
Sticks
This man has been such a raging dumpster fire over his soul-mate bullshit that he hasn't quite gotten to the point of forming strong attachments outside of his little bubble. There's some people of interest that Pav might pick up on, like Mafuyu, Ain, Ryan and Min-gi (they're hilarious), Mamika, but those are all very small connections thus far.
Beliefs they hold: Shadow Milk describes himself as a hollow shell, a mask with nothing behind it. He has felt himself lost and adrift here even before losing Vanilla, and has been struggling to grapple with his identity. He proclaimed to the Moon Goddess that Shadow Milk Cookie was dead, just as the Fount of Knowledge is, and that is even more true now that Vanilla is gone. Who he is now, he's not sure.
He's in steep denial about how much of the Fount is still alive within him, and it's easy to see that angry aversion is fear of being hurt. Fear of becoming that lonely and miserable again.
He has also promised Vanilla to never call himself a monster again, though he does still feel as though he is, he goes out of his way to never use that word when describing himself.
How does their heart look: Dark blue stained glass with many cracks in it. It radiates an almost black aura, something twisted and dangerous, and its strings are wrapped tightly around it, they pull taut to whoever they might be attached to, though some of them are torn, bleeding.
Beneath that frightening exterior there is a light, deep within. Pavlova will have to look hard to see it, but it's there. A beacon of light amidst the darkness, that grows ever brighter, day-by-day
Additional considerations: NA
May I contact for more info: You know where my DMs are
Opt out: NEVER. i opt IN Relationships he can read: in game - LUCA: kiera's adoptive brother. they were inseparable for years after the Aurelius family took kiera in, and kiera rode his coattails for most of their childhood. despite a deep hurt caused by luca abandoning them after their father's death, kiera is still more dedicated to luca than anyone else. he is the only one they openly admit to loving, and even that is a newer development. kiera is terrified that one wrong move, one slip up, will cause luca to realize he is better off without them. - ZAHLIYA: beiwe and ourania's gargoyle son and luca's ex. kiera cares about him because he means a lot to luca, but is unsure how to show it besides giving him space and not messing with him. they don't resent him for breaking up with luca, because they think luca deserved it for being cruel at the time. - ZONARI: suri's gargoyle daughter and zahliya's sister. as part of the group that faced off with her last year, kiera was deeply upset by how much of themself they saw in her, and they insisted on working out an indefinite truce with her rather than trying to kill her. given how much they've projected onto her, kiera desperately wants her to ultimately side with the residents of the grove. they are attracted to her, but hesitant to act on it out of fear that she will think their desire to save her was shallow and not genuine. - JOSHUA (bird): brother to clive, who was also involved with luca. kiera kept their distance while clive was still around, but has found themself wanting to keep a closer eye on him since. they sympathize. - MERYL: a reporter from no man's land. she willingly gave kiera blood while they were transformed into a vampire, making kiera feel deeply indebted to her. she's fun to tease, and possibly even more fun to flirt with. - VERSO: a very old man, apparently. even though he seems like the secret heart of gold, sentimental type, kiera is attracted to him against their better judgment. - SESA: the mushroom man. no further context needed. kiera lives to tease him. from canon - CYRUS: kiera's adoptive father. a kindly, puckish man of ailing health, he was violently assassinated almost 10 years ago. his memory is still a powerful influence on kiera, as a source of guilt, inspiration, and love all at once. - GISELLE: cyrus' caretaker and something of an aunt figure to kiera. kiera loves her but remains somewhat distant because seeing her after cyrus' death has been difficult for them. - AQUILA: kiera and luca's best friend since childhood. kiera loves to tease her and test her boundaries, but does actually cherish and care deeply about her. unbeknownst to any of the children at the time, her father, Augustus, helped to orchestrate cyrus' assassination. - ARDEN: aquila's older twin brother. like luca, he left the city after both of their fathers died. kiera resents him for being raised to be the perfect copy of his father. - IUNIA: aquila's younger sister. she has helped kiera over the years both with healing wounds and sicknesses, as well as crises of faith. - BRAND: aquila's youngest brother. he's a quiet, sickly lad, and an inquisitive bookworm. kiera tries to entertain him by taking him around the city and setting up a "book club" for the two of them and aquila's wife. - RHODA: kiera and luca's childhood friend and aquila's wife. they're incredibly smart and magically talented, but a bit cagey. kiera enjoys their company for this reason. - IGNATIUS: kiera's confidant and frequent partner. their alchemical talent and penchant for mischief are always a welcome distraction to kiera's sometimes miserable life. (has previously shown up on TDM months.) - ALBI: the child of a traveling archaeologist, currently in the joint care of kiera, aquila, and ignatius. her curiosity and enthusiasm gets her into trouble sometimes, and kiera would do just about anything to protect her. - MARSHALL: the marshal of the renovan armed forces, and kiera's direct superior. yes, he is a marshal named marshall. he is a bigger troll than kiera, which makes them feel threatened (joke) (or is it). they tease one another, but also share mutual respect. - THE EMPRESS: kiera's biological mother, the vampiric empress of castilla. she raised kiera with cruelty to be ruthlessly efficient, perfect in everything she deemed necessary, and loyal to her through fear. kiera does indeed fear her above all else, specifically the chance that she discovers their betrayal and strikes out at their loved ones. - KIERA'S BIOLOGICAL FATHER: one of the empress' human fanatics. he only ever viewed kiera as a tool to remain in the empress' favor, and tried to forcefully instill loyalty to her in them. - THE BUTTERFLY: the god-beast of Castilla, kiera's birthplace. given that the empress claims to personify the butterfly's will, kiera despises it and everything it stands for. and as with the empress, they are terrified of its retribution. - THE PHOENIX: the god-beast of Renova, kiera's adopted homeland. following the trauma of being raised to submit to the butterfly, kiera embraced the phoenix whole-heartedly. they found freedom and rebirth in its supposed welcoming embrace. after learning that the phoenix let their father die and intentionally continues to let luca suffer, they feel personally betrayed by it and have grown to hate it as well. before luca's canon update in which he killed the phoenix, kiera attempted to make a deal with it in the grove in which they would allow it to possess them so long as it left luca alone. Beliefs they hold: they believe that their worth is tied to their relationships to others, and since they consider themself untrustworthy, their worth is flimsy at best. they also think they aren't made to love or be loved in any capacity, but in reality they highly value and long for deep, platonic relationships.
Tropes: tragic ice character, chosen family, functional addict, the gadfly, ethical slut
How does their heart look: made of a frost-edged, never-melting ice, at the center of which is a small, flickering red flame that seems to be in constant danger of being smothered, like a lit match in the wind. a select few of the relationship strings are inky, almost poisonous looking, and they spread black ice wherever they touch the heart. the rest (and the majority) are gold threads so fine, they look like they may snap at the slightest disturbance, though they seem to burn away the poison where they overlap the dark ones. some of these gold threads are woven gently together, presumably making their bonds stronger.
Additional considerations: kiera is romance repulsed. pavlova is absolutely free to tease them about stuff, but he won't ever see romantic attraction in them.
May I contact for more info: 💯
Edited (i forgor something VERY important) 2025-06-09 03:08 (UTC)
Opt out: opt IIIIIN Relationships he can read: from canon - RAZLO: livio's protector alter. he was created to shield livio from an abusive home and ultimately killed livio's parents, thus orphaning him. livio learned the truth of razlo's existence at a time when he felt lost, and began to defer to razlo's judgment for their life choices. this led to them joining the Eye of Michael as followers of Millions Knives. after livio's heel face turn, he attempted to "lock away" razlo, but eventually came to terms that they are inseparable and are better off working together. their relationship is companionable but tense as they learn to be "good guys." - LIVIO: razlo's core/host. unsurprisingly, livio is the most important person in the world to him, and there isn't much razlo wouldn't do to keep him safe, even if it seems cruel or otherwise ill-advised in the moment. even his suggestion to join the Eye was an effort to give livio a goal and a purpose, without which livio would have allowed himself to waste away. razlo is his most staunch defender and biggest hype-man, and gets quite upset when livio puts himself down. - NICHOLAS D. WOLFWOOD: childhood best friend. wolfwood was the first person to reach out to livio after he arrived at the orphanage and encouraged him to open up and build relationships. livio had a crush on him in childhood and, following wolfwood's death, realized he might have always been in love with him. razlo resents him both because he was chapel's favorite and because in the end, wolfwood did what was best for livio when razlo didn't. [animal cruelty mention] - JASMINE: childhood friend. a younger orphan who showed livio affection, and livio came to feel protective over. razlo saved her from a deadly fall off of the orphanage roof, and afterward killed the puppy that caused her fall. livio has briefly met her as an adult, and even though she didn't recognize him, he feels immense guilt for the part he played in her childhood trauma. - MISS MELANIE: orphanage caretaker and livio's surrogate mother figure. she was always kind and fair to him, defending him even when all the other kids blamed him for the puppy. [/end animal cruelty mention] - CHAPEL: livio and razlo's master in the Eye. livio craves leadership and purpose, and razlo craves approval and loyalty, and chapel took advantage of both of them. razlo has lost the memory in the course of his stay in the grove of chapel risking his life to defend him, so he doesn't remember why he was so loyal to chapel, even over livio. ultimately, chapel tried to sacrifice LR in his attempt to kill wolfwood, and razlo killed chapel out of an overwhelming sense of betrayal. - MILLIONS KNIVES: an independent Plant bent on destroying humanity. in the Eye of Michael, livio and razlo both worked as assassins to further knives' goal, which they believed to be a holy mission. there was a time where they basically viewed him as a wrathful god. - VASH THE STAMPEDE: an independent Plant, knives' twin brother, and wolfwood's companion. he supported wolfwood in sacrificing his own life in order to free livio from the Eye, and afterward, he held livio responsible for carrying on wolfwood's work. livio feels indebted to him for his positive influence on wolfwood, and consequently on livio himself. additionally, livio feels immense guilt over the pain he has caused vash both in wolfwood's death and in his role as one of the Gung Ho Guns, a group of exceptional killers whose job was "to bring vash the stampede eternal suffering." one thing that weighs particularly heavy on him is a period of eight months in which legato held vash captive and tortured him while livio, still in the Eye at the time, witnessed it and did nothing to stop it. - LEGATO: knives' right hand man and LR's superior in the Gung Ho Guns. even though they have admitted in no uncertain terms that legato is kind of a freak, livio never used to outright dislike him, though razlo resented that he thought he could order him around. more recently, legato used livio as bait to hurt vash, and livio believes that legato killed him. - ELENDIRA: a fellow Gung Ho Gun. she remained loyal to knives and was LR's last obstacle before legato and knives in helping vash's mission. they fought viciously and eventually succeeded in killing her. they both respected her and her power, but razlo also had a thing for her. (she found him incredibly annoying.) - MERYL AND MILLY: vash's companions. livio has only met them briefly, but he fiercely protected them from armed forces trying to stop them. - BRAD: vash's old companion. when he found out that livio was ultimately responsible for wolfwood's death, he punched livio hard enough to make him stumble and bleed. livio doesn't blame him; in fact, he thinks brad was justified. in game - NICHOLAS D. WOLFWOOD: from an alternate timeline, in which a confrontation between the two of them culminated in livio's apparent death rather than wolfwood's. he's a bit more gruff and grumpy than the wolfwood from livio's timeline, but livio has grown to cherish him all the same. in fact, given their presence in the grove, he believes this wolfwood is even more his own, because they've known each other across multiple lifetimes. he is deeply in love with and dedicated to wolfwood, and tries to be someone wolfwood can be proud of. razlo antagonizes him at every chance and vehemently denies it when people say he's flirting like a kid on the playground. - VASH THE STAMPEDE (dropped): from the same alternate timeline as wolfwood. inversely, a bit more openly goofy and friendly than livio's original vash, though they share the same goals and values. livio has done his best to adopt vash's pacifism and belief in others, and considers vash the single best person he's ever known. livio is also deeply in love with vash, and not handling his loss well. even razlo grew to care about him enough to enter a relationship. - AIN: another of livio's partners. his goofiness and affection endeared him quickly to livio, and it's been very painful to see him fall deeper into despair over the last few months. livio seems to never be there when shit hits the fan, and can only try to run damage control after the fact. razlo's relationship with him has declined, even if raz doesn't realize why – as far as he's concerned, he likes ain a lot, too, but raz hasn't tried to discuss their relationship outside of livio like he did with vash. - MERYL: from the same alternate timeline as wolfwood and vash. she's quite a spitfire, and livio and razlo both enjoy how willing she is to put razlo in his place. raz absolutely has a crush. - LUCA: this guy is even sadder than livio. yes, livio has had a crush on him since pretty much day one. - WHITE LILY: they both ADORE her. she seems very similar to livio in that she's quiet and kind and a bit goofy and seems to have Been Through Some Shit. - GNOSIS: has always been around, and has always been willing to help, even if he isn't very social. livio is grateful for him. - MIZUKI: livio feels protective over him. - PASSENGER: razlo is wary around him, but doesn't remember why. - MIN-GI: livio is trying to be niceys and get along. doesn't understand why min-gi looks at him so weird. he should probably have realized already that razlo finds it funny to harass him. - ADRIAN: the lighthouse guardian, whom livio has aided with vash a couple of times. livio is always worried about him. - HEIMR: dad. that's his dad. - NENE: god, he wishes he could take her job away from her. - MODER: he loves his moose mom. - SINANN: livio has been hanging out near them along the river since they could only communicate with a bone ring. - THE BEHEMOTH: this giant lizard is a guardian only in his heart. - BEIWE AND OURANIA: livio has never had benevolent gods before. he adores both of them. both have helped his partners in one way or another, which is all he needs to be loyal, really. Beliefs they hold: livio believes he is fundamentally unlovable due to his past actions. he also believes he is any given partner's second choice, a replacement or a supplement, and would not be worth keeping around on his own. no matter how much he denies it, razlo absolutely has a crush on wolfwood.
Tropes: friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, heel-face turn/the atoner, split personality, beware the nice ones
How does their heart look: two hearts, irreversibly intertwined. vibes of the sun trying to shine even through a terrible rainstorm. lots of old strings snapped off of it, a few appearing to have been far stronger than others, but still severed. very few are currently attached, but there are deep grooves that seem desperate for that kind of connection.
Additional considerations: liv is gay and crushes on any man who is remotely nice to him. raz is bi and crushes on men who are kind to him and liv and women who can put him in his place.
Opt out:Yes-ish. Specifically opting out in regards to Ryan, at least for now. There's no reason he can't see what's going on in Min's head (which is why this is still so long...), but interfering at this time would likely hinder more than help and Pavlova could probably see that too. Updating this to no now that confessions have happened.
Relationships he can read:
While he has had other relationships over the course of his life, there are only a few standouts. Pavlova may be able to see them, but perhaps take less interest in them.
Ryan Akagi ~ Min-Gi and Ryan were born on the same day at the same hospital, and from that day on their lives have been intertwined. Ryan is his best friend and the most important person in his life. Although Ryan is a very different to Min they're both extremely passionate about music and they care deeply about each other. Having being nearly inseparable for the majority of their lives they have a strong bond and many shared stories and in jokes. It can be hard to break into their dynamic without feeling like a third wheel, though neither of them seem fully aware of this. They're very codependent, and while this hasn't always been so healthy in the past they've made a lot of progress over the past year or so in making it work in a way that is good for both of them. Communication has been the big thing here. They both try to be more open about how they're feeling, and actually listen to each other. They play to their strengths and together they're learning to be the team they've always thought themselves to be. That said, there are still a few remaining secrets between the two.
Min-Gi has even finally confessed he has feelings for Ryan, and while it's mutual they're currently in a weird space while Min learns how to be more comfortable and open about his sexuality.
His Parents ~ This is overall a positive set of relationships! He loves them, and they love him. A lot. He's their only child and they want what's best for him. Unfortunately for Min their idea of this doesn't always align with what he wants for himself. Historically he's almost always gone along with their plans for him, dragging his feet when it comes to the things he doesn't actually want to do rather than using his words to express this to them. They have high expectations and he doesn't want to let them down. In recent times he has started to be more honest about his own wants and needs and as a result Min-Gi has travelled to America to make music with Ryan instead of studying finance at university. They worry about him, but he keeps them updated and tries to minimize their need for concern as much as he can. Or at least he did before winding up in the Grove.
Kez ~ Although they didn't know each other for all that long, Kez still became very important to Min. Enough that she still stands out as a key figure however briefly he knew her. Early on she confused him, and Min-Gi honestly didn't trust her all that much. However, he quickly learned to at least partially learn how to read her and became fond of her. She wasn't always easy to live with, but Min grew a lot as a person in the time he spent with her, and unintentionally or not she helped with that. He misses her.
Min-Gi is from the 1980s. I think that sums up a lot without me getting too deeply into things. He's gay, he does not want to be gay, and does not think his family would accept him as a gay man. He still wants to change, but in his heart he's resigned to eventually agreeing to a marriage with a girl nice enough he can be friends with but will never truly be in love with. It's. Not great.
He has Weird Feelings about how open pretty much everyone else in the Grove is about their sexuality and has no idea what to make of so many of them being in poly situations. He outwardly tries to express positivity, but again... even without powers it's not that hard to see he's a little uncomfortable with it. It scares him while also making him a little jealous. It doesn't seem fair that everyone else gets to be in love with multiple people while he can't let himself accept having feelings for even one person.
For all he tries to push his feelings down you really don't need powers to see that Min is deeply in love with Ryan. Near enough the entire Grove knows, but pointing that out would cause him to freak out, especially now. He's recently gained memories of his past life where he was in a happy and committed relationship with Ryan and was trying to find the perfect time to propose. Clearly horrifying stuff that has sent him spiralling. He's really not in a good place.
Min-Gi's heart resembles a personal library. It's neat, but lived in. Almost everything is in shades of blue, though there are hints of white and seafoam as well. Closer inspection will show while nothing is explicitly locked away, some books are tucked further back or on shelves that are inconvenient to access. These represent aspects of his life that Min does not want to deal with and will give off an ominous feeling if approached and appear as though they are further away than they were before. This is only an illusion and they can still be looked at. The books do not contain actual words but "reading" them will still give information relevant to it in as much detail as if they did.
The shelves related to his relationships with other people are the big exception to the colour scheme. These books seem to come in all kinds of colours, though the marker ribbon in each of them seems to be the same colour as the book if mixed with blue. Kez's book is grey, for example, and the marker ribbon is a steely blue. The books with people he feels closest to are sharper in colour, compared to the majority which are more faded. In every book, the ribbon is strangely long and attached to the shelf itself. The length of the ribbon seems to align with how long Mi-Gi has known someone, with both his parents and Ryan's all tying for the longest. If looked at closely, a section of Ryan's ribbon seems to have been cut completely before being neatly repaired.
Relationships in Canon: Vash: Wolfwood's relationship with Vash is Complicated. TL;DR, he was meant to basically lie to and mislead Vash into trusting him so he could get him to a specific location so his canon's bad guys can Get Him. And the thing is- at least up to his current canon point- he does deliver on that...but even in just the short-ish time he ends up spending with Vash traveling causes Wolfwood's worldview to change. He finds Vash to be reckless and naive, someone who is destined to be crushed by the world time and again for daring to hope that things can be better, and yet...he's helped to make Wolfwood less jaded. They become comrades despite their differences (Vash kindof knew about Wolfwood's betrayal all along and just never said anything), and their relationship grows even further while in Sticks. They had...multiple falling outs and a lot of hardship, but they eventually got together romantically. Their relationship remained dysfunctional with many misunderstandings and temporary breakups, but before Vash left Wolfwood did feel like he was finally starting to get on the same foot with him. Unfortunately he never fully got to see that realized, and now he finds himself feeling regretful in Vash's absence, like he could have done more. He misses him deeply but compartmentalizes it like he does most things that bother him.
Livio: Livio is Wolfwood's childhood friend from the orphanage and they are EXTREMELY close. Like, Livio was his closest friend, and even after Wolfwood left he spent much of the following years both missing him yet feeling a sense of relief that he was safe where he left him behind. UNFORTUNATELY...this would turn out to NOT be the case, as the same cult that grabbed Wolfwood also grabs Livio and brainwashes him. Wolfwood leaves off on his canonpoint believing Livio is dead and being really super fucked up over it. The funny thing is, the Livio in Sticks is actually not the Livio from his world, which is something they've spoken about and he's come to terms with, and he tries not to think too hard about how there even could be a difference since it still "feels" like the Livio he knew. Regardless, their relationship once more had the chance to grow in Sticks, and they've since begun a romantic relationship. Wolfwood is thankful for Livio every day and clings to the hope that he won't leave any time soon, yet still harbors deep regret over his "death" in canon and constantly worries he's going to one day be whisked back to a world without him.
Meryl: He and Meryl do not get along terribly well! When they do interact they're constantly bickering and bantering in canon, and Wolfwood acts like he doesn't really respect her all that much or take her super seriously. It's not uncommon for him to keep people at arm's length, and Meryl is no exception. However, just because they don't always see eye-to-eye doesn't make him completely heartless or devoid of emotion towards her, as his last canon point reflects him saving her from what would have been a certain death in the wake of the total annihilation of a city they were in at the time. They part ways under unknown circumstances (canon doesn't go over what Wolfwood does or where he goes during this time skip), but it can be assumed that he did what he could to get her somewhere safe before moving on. His relationship with her hasn't grown much since her arrival in Sticks, but he's secretely relieved to see that she's doing okay after everything.
Knives: Wolfwood HATES Knives. He's the sole catalyst for the cult he's trapped in existing, and he's aggressing the world he calls home. If it weren't for him, Wolfwood wouldn't even be where he is in life currently, and he holds a huge chip on his shoulder for his "employer". The two DO NOT get along, and for the brief time Knives was in Sticks, they had a very tenuous truce going on just to keep Vash happy.
Chapel: Pavlova will be able to sense a deep, dark, twisted relationship to the man who runs the cult that Wolfwood is working with, but this one in particular Wolfwood is not giving up much information about, even subconsciously. Though the man is on his mind in some way almost all the time, he keeps his feelings about him under heavy lock and key.
Relationships from Sticks:
Ain: When Wolfwood first met Ain, Ain got on his every last nerve. He couldn't stand the guy and every time he opened his mouth Wolfwood wanted to throw him out a window. They had this sort of back-and-forth bantering relationship for a while before Wolfwood got to know Ain more over time, and eventually they would begin a romantic relationship and he'd cement himself as one of Wolfwood's most important people. He has a lot of emotional and mental baggage surrounding not being able to protect Ain, and feeling like he's constantly letting him down/disappointing him in some way or another. He fears that Ain doesn't trust him, but at the same time he trusts Ain implicitly with his life. He loves him deeply and wishes he could be a better person, or at least the type of person he feels like Ain deserves.
Flamebringer: He and Flamebringer had/have(???) an incredibly antagonistic relationship. They fight physically all the time, and although they were fighting to Kill originally, these days they fight for the joy of it. Fighting is their weird love language, because over time the two ended up becoming hopelessly tangled with one another, forming a romantic relationship long before they ever learned they're actually a married couple in their past lives. Some things never change, and though they refuse to apply direct labels to their relationship (they don't call each other their boyfriends, or anything), they still mean a LOT to one another and love each other, even if it's not a traditional sort of love.
Mizuki: Mizuki is both his therapist and his little guy. One of his longest standing relationships in Sticks, Mizuki means a great deal to Wolfwood and he just wants to see him happy and okay. He feels like the little guy takes on way too many burdens for others and he wonders if he's ever as okay as he portrays himself, especially after what happened with the Arbor a couple months ago.
Others: He has a lot of CR from being in game for a while now that I won't detail it all here (this is mainly for romantic relationships/those he considers to be familial) but there's a part of him that considers the Grove to be a weird little family. At this point, he's not sure what he'd do without them all.
Beliefs they hold: Wolfwood thinks he fucking sucks, man. His sense of self worth is in the TOILET and despite his attitude and the way he goes about life, he feels a lot of the time like everyone he knows would be a lot better off if he was never there, particularly that of the orphanage which is in constant peril. It's kindof ironic, to him, that the kids are safe only because he's still breathing, which is a huge reason why he refuses to die. He refuses to take the coward's way out no matter how he feels, and would rather continue living than have someone go through what he's been through. He loves those who are close to him deeply, but he knows they could do so much better.
Tropes: Wolfwood is a true tsundere archetype. He acts like he doesn't care but in reality he's a soft gooey marshmallow inside. This man's entire reason for living is to keep an orphanage safe for god's sake.
How does their heart look: His heart is dark and heavily guarded. It seems hard to approach, yet there's light breaking through the cracks and gaps. The strings seem like they could fall away at any moment, yet are attached impossibly tightly regardless of this fact.
Additional considerations: Wolfwood's relationships involving the cult have a lot of CWs attached so if you ever wanna learn more about those (and aren't canon familiar) please keep that in mind!
Opt out: No, the opt-in option. Relationships he can read:
Canon Thankfully, Katsuki Bakugo's relationships with most of his classmates are fairly consistent across the board. He respects and cares about all of them in his own rough punkish/tsundere way. That said, he holds Izuku Midoriya in a league of his own. Shoto Todoroki also stands out as her is part of the "Big Three" alongside Bakugo and Izuku. While the series is a Shounen and doesn't dive too deeply into every dynamic, these relationships are among the more notable ones, each carrying its weight and significance worth mentioning.
Izuku Midoriya - Katsuki Bakugo idolizes Izuku in a way that almost mirrors how he idolizes All Might. To him, Izuku truly embodies what it means to be a Hero, and coming to terms with that has been a turning point in the series. While Katsuki knows he can win like a Hero, hell, and even Save like a Hero. Katsuki struggles to act like one in the same ways that Izuku himself does. He cannot echo what Izuku is, no matter how hard he tries. That gap does't hurt as much as before, but it still stirs something in him. Like an intense drive, maybe even longing, to reach that same kind of greatness.
Romantic - They can be, but these feelings are the same as fans have for idols or people have reverence for those beyond them, etc. I always backpack off these feelings personally, for when he wants to try to understand romantic love.
All Might - From the moment Katsuki Bakugo first saw that Hero on screen, he knew that he wanted to be just like him. All Might's strength, his ability to win every battle, captivated Katsuki, especially as a child who was constantly told he was destined for greatness. To Katsuki, greatness had a shape: it looked like All Might. His drive to reach that same height fueled all the effort and ambition he poured into himself. All Might means everything to him, even if Katsuki tends to act rough or indifferent around him.
Loving Parents - Masaru Bakugo and Mitsuki Bakugo, Katsuki has a loving family that adores him, and he adores them back. Their dynamic may confuse others from the outside, but to them, it is perfect.
Class 1-A & UA tbh: Loves them, with a capital L.
Shoto Todoroki - Nothing too much of note but Bakugo highly respects Shoto and hates that he calls him friend, even though, they are very close otherwise. He regards Shoto's father lowly, and calls him a piece of shit/asshole.
Best Jeanist - (x) His relationship with Jeanist is extremely healthy, and Bakugo adores him! Although he is very tsundere about himself, they have a beautiful mentor & student relationship. He ends up working with him as a sidekick when he graduates from UA.
Stixs At this time, Bakugo doesn't have any close relationships; he regards Lily Cookie with some favoritism in that he misses his mom. Though Lily is not anything like her, she is older, and so Katsuki just soaks that in. He thinks Wolfwood is cool, doesn't like that Mamika says they're a magical girl - when he feels she isn't. He thinks everyone in sticks is fucking W E I R D , he kind of hates it here. Actually, deep down, really hurt and wants to go home.
At this time I haven't worked on his stixs self yet sooo.. I'll update that when I do.
Beliefs they hold: A B O U TAt his core, Katsuki Bakugo believes in winning - above all else. This is a headcanon, but it's strongly supported by how he refuses to call anyone in Class 1-A his friend. Even Izuku.
To him, everyone is the enemy - and he means that affectionately. Accepting the idea of friendship, in his mind, means forfeiting to basically weakness in of itself. Something he works tirelessly to avoid. So he lies to himself, or outright denies having friends, not out of malice but out of a deep-seated need to be taken seriously. Whether friend or not, he wants others to see him as a rival, as a challenge - because only then will they bring their best to a fight, and he can face them at full strength. Katsuki wants nothing less; otherwise, he will interpret it as disrespecting him.
I do write Katsuki as the kind of person who, once he realizes you have feelings for him - whether subtle or straightforward, will return them in kind. But love, for him, is a loaded gun. Powerful, volatile, and not something he handles lightly or wants at all, really.
I write Katsuki as leaning aro/ace - not because he lacks the capacity for love, but because his drive to win and become a Hero leaves him with zero interest in romance. The desire to want, even naturally, is just not there for him. It simply doesn't register as a priority. That is, until he's forced to confront his own feelings, for an example, like with Izuku, when the idea of losing someone genuinely good rattles him.
What does that mean to him? What is he supposed to do with that? Romance only starts to matter to Katsuki when it's placed directly in front of him, whether as something he needs to understand himself. Or when it's personal - and even then, he has to choose to try to understand it on his own terms, otherwise, he'll just get mad. Love for him 100% is never going to be the same for other people/general person.
He'll never pursue love for love's sake. He would with Izuku, but only because of their long, situationship of 10+ years. And if someone else had shared that kind of deep-rooted situationship with him? It would be the same, so it's not just because it's Izuku, it's because he has a LONG-STANDING friendship with him. Tropes:Link
Tsundere
Possessive, not Jealous, meaning, what's his is his - and he's not afraid to lose it. He's that confident.
Obsessive.
Meticulous.
Asshole with a heart of gold.
Good boy acting bad.
How does their heart look: 431+ SPOILERS SpoilersSomeone is holding it together, with a string of its own. Maybe in how a heart is just a heart, but his is literally like a heart that is woven into shape. Made of strings now? The heart noteable was destroyed, his heart now is his own, but it was created for him to stand on his own. He is very well loved.
One little star shining bright, representing the small bit of sweat that brought him back to life. And the little members from All Might's vestige, keeping him safe just for a little longer.
For a boy who acts so brash, he has a big heart and loves everyone around him very hard. Additional considerations: 431+ SPOILERS Spoilers I take him from canon where he just died, so to him, he thinks he is permanently dead. Otherwise, I cannot think of anything else. His heart was what burst/stabbed when he died, so like... Whatever you wanna interpret with that. Go for it.
Just want to reiterate I rp him aro/ace (eventually demiace lean) when he understands himself more. He doesn't understand love, but it's a matter of him having to figure out what it means.
Katsuki loves everyone, without a doubt, just as much as Izuku. It's a weakness ,though, so he basically struggles as he is trying to contend with accepting that weakness while wanting to deny it.
May I contact for more info: Yes, always, I love things like this!
Relationships he can read: Canon RelationshipsRuby Rose (platonic, formerly romantic): A girl that Oscar has a tremendous amount of respect and affection for. He used to have a crush on her. There are still some dregs of that crush lingering on, but for the most part his feelings have matured into something deeper and platonic. Oscar believes she's dead and is in the process of mourning her.
Jaune Arc (platonic, somewhat fraternal): A good friend and surrogate older brother. Oscar cares deeply for Jaune, though there have been moments where he feared him instead. Oscar believes he's dead and is in the process of mourning him.
Nora, Ren (platonic): Close friends of Oscar, though not as close as Jaune or Ruby.
Weiss, Blake, Yang (platonic): More close friends of Oscar, though not as close as Nora and Ren. Oscar believes they're dead and is in the process of mourning them.
Ozpin (platonic, familial, extremely fraught): Here's an absolute clusterfuck of a relationship. On one hand, Ozpin inspires feelings of frustration, anger, resentment, and even fear in Oscar. On the other hand, he also inspires feelings of respect, admiration, affection, pride, protectiveness, and the sort of love someone might feel towards a father or older brother. Overall, the main word to describe Oscar's relationship with Ozpin is 'contradiction'. Oscar wishes he had never met Ozpin, and credits meeting Ozpin with changing his life for the better. He wishes Ozpin would go away, and desperately fears the idea of never hearing from him again. He holds Ozpin responsible for many of the awful things that have happened to him, and feels an extreme amount of indignant anger on Ozpin's behalf.
And as a final metaphysically weird cherry on top, while these feelings are very clearly directed towards another person they can sometimes read as being directed towards Oscar himself as well. Not in the sense that they are being directed at two separate people, but in the sense that directing them at Ozpin is somehow indistinguishable from directing them at Oscar
Sticks RelationshipsDipper (complicated, poorly defined): A version of Oscar from another universe was dating Dipper. While Oscar's own feelings towards Dipper are undeniably platonic, he is equally undeniably fond of Dipper and considers him a friend. Discomfort, sympathy, and guilt over the whole 'not actually your boyfriend' thing blanket the rest of their interactions.
Joshua, Stephanie (platonic): The two people in the Grove that Oscar is closest to (aside from Dipper). He would consider them both friends and has nothing but admiration for either of them.
Callan (NPC) (negative): Oscar is straight up terrified of this guy.
Other Sticks friends: Oscar's relationship with these characters is positive, but not yet deep or complicated enough to merit special comment: Stan Pines, Flamebringer, Sindey, Till, Ain, Pavlova Cookie, Pure Vanilla Cookie
Beliefs They Hold: For now, Oscar actually has a pretty accurate read on his relationships to other people! The main thing is that while he can admit that interacting with Dipper feels weird, he's been forcing himself to ignore how weird it feels.
Tropes:Here is Oscar's actual TVtropes page! Of particular note are: bookworm, deadpan snarker, farm boy, guile hero, it sucks to be the chosen one, loss of identity
How does their heart look?: Oscar has a small number of strings, nearly all of which are attached to him in a way that could be considered supportive and healthy. There are only two things of note.
First, there is one especially weird and tangled string, wrapped around his heart too tightly and tangled up in the other strings attached to him. It's not clear where this string is coming from, and may at times seem like it's somehow coming from Oscar himself. If you need a theme color for this one, it would be emerald green.
Second, there is an impression of 'ghost' strings surrounding him! Relationships that aren't actually his, but have somehow become attached to him regardless.
Other things to consider: If Padovana can read things thoroughly enough, he might be able to pick up that the weirdness surrounding Oscar and Ozpin is because their souls are being slowly merged into one.
May I contact for more info: Yes!
Edited 2025-06-21 20:57 (UTC)
Joins this late witha goblin child cw: for child abuse-
Opt out: No Relationships he can read: So, there is really one person Mephisto unconditionally loves. Which might be concerning, since he's only 15. There's others where love might be present, but it's muddled and gross and complicated. If Pavlova can sense the lack of love, he'll definitely see that Mephisto's default is just to loathe or be indifferent towards people. He is not open - everything is very shut off.
But the one person he does love is a boy named Sasha (or his codename, Faust). It's almost an innocent and playful sort of love. Like, they grew up together. Sasha wanted to protect him from all harm. Sasha become stronger for Mephisto. Sasha was able to eat and learn to read because of Mephisto. They did everything together. Even when Mephisto grew to hate the world and everyone in it, he still always loved Sasha. He was still always kind to Sasha. But now Sasha is dead, and Mephisto is in a constant state of grief and depression because, well, Sasha was his best friend. His true love. The only person in the world he cared about.
There's a few other people that Mephisto has sort of a "familial" relationship with. But it's complicated. One is FrostNova, who Mephisto used to see as a big sister figure, until she started to hate the person Mephisto was. It's only at the end of her life, when she died, that Mephisto realized she still cared about him. The other is Talulah, who used to care for Mephisto, until she got possessed and started treating him like a weapon-
It's a lot!!!! Basically!!!! Anyway, Mephisto doesn't know how to love anyone anymore. Even in Sticks, he's just manipulating people into being friends with him, and liking him. Lily and Till are both people he doesn't totally hate, but he sees them both as a means to further his own goals, rather than actually form a meaningful relationship with them......
Beliefs they hold: Mephisto is just very hurt, and has been emotionally and physically abused for most of his childhood, so he doesn't actually hate-hate everyone? He used to be a very shy, very loving person. He does care, he just convinces himself not to. He wants to love and be loved, but he doesn't want to be hurt, so he pushes people away and incites violence to keep it that way.
Tropes: idk if "Yandere as fuck" counts, but if he gets close, he just will not let go. Sasha had allowed this and never attempted to correct this sort of behavior from Mephisto, so he never tried to better himself. Now if he gets attached to someone, it's an icky, gross, festering sort of affection, even if it's just platonic.
How does their heart look: I imagine Mephisto's is what you would expect of someone like him. A bleeding heart, but surrounded by sharp, black, thorn-y vines.
May I contact for more info: Yes pls talk to me always!!! Discord is the best way to hmu, and I will likely slide into ur dms at some point too fair warning anyway ilu kiss u
Arthur Brown - Steph's father. A bank robber with a compulsion to leave behind clues- not riddles, clues. He's been in and out of jail a lot. He was physically abusive to Steph's mom and verbally abusive to Steph. She hates him, but he's still family, so she... doesn't love him, but does sorta feel responsible for him.
Crystal Brown - Steph's mother. Their relationship has always been a bit strained on account of Arthur, but Crystal has been making an effort lately to get closer and Steph has been reciprocating. She loves her mom.
Batman - She admires, hates, respects, pities, and sometimes fears him. He's a heartless bastard who's constantly plotting and manipulating people. He told her to quit being Spoiler every time they met. One time he gave her a mission, and she was sort of hopeful, but it turned out to be a test. He made her Robin just to make Tim jealous. He trained her, but wouldn't tell her his secret identity. He wore the cowl shirtless, for god's sake. When he came back from the dead, he gave her another dumb test. At the end he said she could keep being Batgirl like she had for the past year. She slapped him.
He also clearly doesn't know how to be a person. He's obsessed with his mission and has no real friends or family outside of the Bat team. He tries to be a parent to the many orphans he has adopted (all Robins), but he's clumsy with it. He doesn't know how to be good to people.
He's also frickin' Batman, and he's scarily competent, and he's basically a legend. His approval is like the Holy Grail. She hates that, but if you're going to respect and hate someone at the same time it might as well be Batman, right?
Tim Drake - The first time Spoiler and Robin met, he pinned her to the ground and tore off her mask, and she hit him in the face with a brick. They started dating not too long after that.
Steph likes Tim a lot, even now, but he was a terrible boyfriend to her. Like Batman, he was constantly telling her to quit and tearing down her confidence. He was very sweet and supportive of everything else in her life! But he was dating another girl when they met, and he never told Steph that. Steph was never his first priority. They fought a couple of times and were a bit on-again-off-again up until the Gang War*.
*The War Games story arc is complicated. I'll try to sum it up: Tim's dad find out he's Robin, Tim is grounded, no more Robin. Steph becomes Robin, then gets fired a few months later and accidentally sets off a city-wide gang war that was definitely 99% Batman's fault but is blamed 100% on Steph both in-character and out. Steph is tortured and ultimately dies. BUT WAIT, A RETCON! She was actually in Africa with her doctor, who faked her death to make Batman feel bad. Steph comes back to Gotham, and everyone still blames her for the gang war, and now they also blame her for faking her death, and everything sucks.
Back to Tim- after Steph comes back to life, they are determined to be Broken Up, and Tim is angry at Steph for faking her death, and also for getting killed, and also for still being Spoiler. Their relationship holds this pattern until after Steph becomes Batgirl. Then he decides he wants to get back together! Steph declines.
Cassandra Cain - Batgirl #2, Cass was raised to be an assassin and never taught to speak. She's Steph's best friend, the only person who continued to look for her during the gang war and the only person who hasn't explicitly blamed her for everything that happened. She taught Cass how to read, Cass taught her how to fight, and they laughed about their abusive families together. Cass is really the only member of the Bat Family that consistently welcomed Steph and treated her well.
Steph is a little in love with Cass. Cass is even scarier than Batman, but also the most compassionate and heroic person you could ever hope to meet, and also built like fricken Wonder Woman. Steph's not completely convinced that it's an actual crush yet, and doesn't quite consider herself bisexual yet, but it's definitely there.
Barbara Gordon - Batgirl #1, confined to a wheelchair after an infamous story arc with the Joker, now Oracle, Batman's computer expert. Babs is like if Batman had mom energy. She also trained Steph off and on, and didn't really go out of her way to make Steph feel unwelcome. They had some disagreements when Steph became Batgirl, but they managed to work things out. Babs is now her primary mentor figure, and also literally her Comp Sci teacher in college.
Damian Wayne - Batman's biological son born to an assassin and kept secret until he was like, 10. He's the current Robin, and alarmingly violent and rude. He and Steph fight like actual children, but she's come to have more of a little-brother-big-sister relationship with him. Like Cass, he was never taught how to be a person and interact with others. He also never got to have a real childhood, which Steph sympathizes with a lot. He can be infuriating, but she does her best to be patient with him. She's reasonably confident he isn't really going to stab her... for now.
Kara Zor-El - Supergirl. She and Steph met fairly recently, but became fast friends. Kara is another teenager superhero that Steph can relate to and talk to. Kara is still missing a good bit of knowledge about Earth and human culture, but she does know how to interact with other people, which puts her in a different category from Cass. Since Steph hasn't been popular in college, Kara is the closest thing she has to a normal girl friend. And she's definitely not in love with this one.
Ryan - Steph considers Ryan a (checks notes) friend. He's a nice guy who knows how to have fun, which is surprisingly rare in the Grove. Their friendship isn't super important to her just yet, but it's worth noting.
Min-Gi - Another friend. Min-Gi is a little misguided, being from the 80s and somewhat set in his ways, but he's a good dude.
Till - Another friend. Steph sees a lot of herself in Till, so she would consider murder to protect him. He's also a bit of a tsundere like Damian, and she finds that adorable.
Beliefs they hold: Steph is avoiding romance for now to focus on herself for a bit. It's recently come to her attention that her relationship with Tim made her feel bad about herself and a little bit miserable, and clearly the solution is to just not date for a while. She's not actually doing anything about any of this, but it'll work itself out, right? And it's been easy to forget about romance because she's pretty sure every guy in the Grove is gay, except maybe the old guys, who she's not actually going to think about long enough to determine one way or the other.
She has completely missed all signs of Cass's clear interest in her because Cass is just sort of awkward with people! And they're very close friends, and clearly that is what Cass has been communicating.
She's a bit in denial about her own feelings for Cass because they ARE such close friends, and Cass is so important to her that she doesn't want to risk messing that up unless she's REALLY SURE about what she's feeling. Or if Cass makes the first move. She'd be cool with that.
How does their heart look: Beat up and covered in bandages, but still going strong. She's taken a lot of pain in her life and gotten pretty accustomed to being unhappy, but she continues to roll with the punches and decided to stay positive if it actually literally kills her. She's trying very, very hard. In the end, she's still faking it though.
Additional considerations: Comics is so much. If the opportunity arises it would be fun to poke at her questioning sexuality, but there's not really much opportunity for it in Sticks? We'll see.
May I contact for more info: Yes, I'm sorry, Comics is So Much
Opt out: No, please read grampa's thoughts Relationships he can read: in the game, his love for White Lily Cookie, and confusion about Shadow Milk Cookie. with White Lily Cookie, Elder Faerie's love is familial, almost, not really romantic. he regards her in such high esteem and wants to protect her from harm. he's not sure about Shadow Milk Cookie, now, because he trusts White Lily Cookie's judgment. so his thoughts are jumbled there, same with his feelings towards Pavlova Cookie.
otherwise, Pavlova can see his connection to the Salt of Solidarity, and his strong friendship with him. love for other characters, like the Faeries and Silver Knights from his Kingdom are also dear and familial. Beliefs they hold: his crush on the Salt of Solidarity wasn't a crush, really! it was only strong friendship, there was no way that the other would feel that way about him, right? haaa... haha... Tropes: silentfaerie doomed yaoi Y_Y How does their heart look: a beautiful silver heart that beats faintly, wrapped in White Lily Cookie's and Silent Salt Cookie's threads. it used to be protected by threads of Faeries from the Kingdom, but, alas, no longer. Additional considerations: i am trying to stay pretty faithful to canon for him, aside from the crush on the Salt of Solidarity (if we ever get a Silent Salt Cookie in this game, i don't want anyone to feel obligated or forced into my own headcanons, so it's just a crush, for now). May I contact for more info: Yes, PM or discord me
Opt out: let me IIIIIINNNN Relationships he can read: in game - KYOJURO: the flame hashira who protected tanjiro when akaza tried to execute him. his level of power and passion captivated akaza during their fight, to the point he lost track of his original goal and of time. he offered multiple times to convert kyojuro into a demon, so that they could grow stronger together forever, and each time kyojuro rebuked him. when they both finally went all out, akaza overpowered kyojuro and mortally wounded him by punching through his solar plexus. even knowing he would die, kyojuro still refused to become a demon, and tried to hold akaza in place until the sun rose. ultimately, akaza broke off his own limbs to escape. [suicide attempt mention:] when he entered the grove, akaza was confronted by kyojuro but did not antagonize him. in fact, he asked kyojuro to move aside so that he could step into the sunlight. kyojuro recognized that akaza had changed since he died, and challenged him to continue living, to hone his moral fortitude just as he had honed his physical strength. their relationship is nothing like the demonic partnership akaza had envisioned, but that isn't a bad thing. akaza has come to greatly admire kyojuro's convictions. he doesn't yet fully realize it, but he feels emotional and physical attraction to kyojuro. however, he feels he is unworthy of kyojuro's affection, both for killing him and for being a demon with an enormous body count, so he unconsciously sabotages any progress toward a relationship. unlike his insistence during their fight for kyojuro to renounce his humanity, now akaza doesn't want kyojuro to ever compromise his morals for his sake. kyojuro bought human flesh from the shopkeeper just to keep akaza from eventually going feral, and akaza refused to eat it because he felt it would be an unforgivable betrayal of kyojuro to himself. - SENJURO: out of respect for kyojuro, akaza avoids being around him, aka no weasel rping with himself lol. - FLAMEBRINGER: once kissed kyojuro with blood, which means akaza has to fucking kill this guy. - WHITE LILY: akaza respects her and tries to be a polite young man around her. - VILDRED: he and akaza embarrassed themselves together spying on spin the bottle. vildred is obviously super into ras. couldn't be akaza! - GENYA: a demon slayer and a FREAK who ate akaza's tooth. his powers are very unique and interesting, and the kid is entertaining with how unhinged he is. akaza likes to fuck with him, but wouldn't actually hurt him. - AIRA: sonboy. he protecc. he seems sensitive and kind, the exact personality that activates akaza's caretaker instinct. akaza wants to learn more about him to better help him. - MAFUYU: daughtergirl. he protecc. she shared some concerning things at the king's game, things that he can very much relate to, and akaza wants to give her a safe space to be vulnerable. - PAVLOVA: sonboy. u get it. he comes across as tender and deeply hurt, which akaza sees his child self in despite pav admitting to being thousands of years old. even if they've only talked briefly, akaza has found it difficult to keep things from him, even the things that are usually difficult for him to talk about. - JOSHUA ROSFIELD: the healer who helped kyojuro with his wounds from their fight, as well as the wounds he received from protecting akaza at the circus labyrinth. akaza feels deeply indebted to him. - LUCA: akaza embarrassed himself by shittalking luca's cooking in his own house. he does his best to avoid luca while he learns how to be a big boy and apologize. - ZOEY: a fascinating young lady! akaza likes her. - MYSTERY: another demon, but not the same sort as he is. akaza is intrigued, but still bristles at him. how dare he pick up akaza's human. - HEIMR: at first, akaza didn't like the shopkeeper by merit of him providing kyojuro with human flesh to offer akaza. he has since spoken to heimr about it, and guesses the man isn't so bad. - BEIWE: due to her role as the sun, akaza feels an instinctual distrust and fear of her. - SURI: he tried to use koyuki and keizo to manipulate akaza. if not for kyojuro, it probably would have worked. reminds akaza way too much of muzan. can't stand him. would knock his head off in an instant if allowed to.
from canon - HAKUJI/AKAZA: hakuji was akaza in his human life, which he forgot completely after becoming a demon. he only remembered his human life within minutes of dying, and now he is struggling to reconcile both parts of himself with his entire memory intact. he actively chooses to continue going by "akaza" as a form of self-punishment for his sins. - FATHER: hakuji's only birth family. a kind, gentle man who suffered worsening chronic illness and malnourishment for hakuji's entire impoverished childhood. hakuji was his caretaker and had to steal to get money for medicine and food. [mentions of suicide and basically police brutality:] after hakuji was caught and punished multiple times, including receiving criminal tattoos and beatings of 100 lashings multiple times by age 11, his father hung himself so that hakuji would no longer feel obligated to resort to crime to take care of him. hakuji did not understand this, as he gladly would have taken any punishment to take care of his father. - KEIZO: a bare-fisted Soryu martial arts master who found 15-year-old hakuji starting street fights with multiple grown men at once. as he put it, he "beat the criminal out of hakuji" and took him in as the sole student at his dojo. he taught hakuji to channel his penchant for fighting into something healthy, and over three years became a new father to him. - KOYUKI: keizo's daughter who endured chronic illness like hakuji's father. he was designated her caretaker in exchange for his room and board at the dojo. they both brought out the kind and gentle natures of one another and fell in love over three years. they were engaged when hakuji was 18, and he promised to spend his life protecting her. - KENJUTSU DOJO: the neighboring dojo whose master, a samurai, coveted keizo's, a commoner's, land. the master's son wanted koyuki as a bride, but treated her roughly. once, the master and his son, both wielding swords, had a two-on-two duel with keizo and hakuji, who wielded no weapons, which the soryu dojo won. the kenjutsu master respected their victory and backed off. however, his son still resented them, and after the master died, his son poisoned the soryu dojo's well, killing keizo and koyuki while hakuji was away. before he could even see his family buried, hakuji entered the kenjutsu dojo and killed all 67 of its fully armed members with his bare hands. - MUZAN: the progenitor of demons, who turns humans into demons by infecting them with his cells. he followed rumors of the kenjutsu dojo massacre, which was so violent and one-sided that it was said to be the work of a demon. he found hakuji and converted him (who did not agree to it, but also did not resist) into a demon. akaza then lost his human memories and became one of muzan's strongest, oldest, and most loyal demons. this loyalty likely only existed as a biological tie, as he felt neither respect for nor fear of muzan. - 12 KIZUKI: muzan's strongest demons, consisting of upper ranks and lower ranks. akaza was Upper 3. anyone lower than him, he did not concern himself with at all. - KOKUSHIBO: Upper 1, and one of few demons older than akaza. akaza begrudgingly respected his power but still disliked him and sought to grow strong enough to defeat him. he once challenged kokushibo for Upper Rank 1, but lost. typically, the losers of these duels are absorbed by the winner, but kokushibo allowed akaza to live because he found his level of power and determination entertaining. - DOUMA: Upper 2, a demon younger than akaza who amassed power quickly and usurped him. akaza received special permission from muzan to never kill or eat women; douma almost exclusively ate women and delighted in torturing them, and constantly tried to pressure akaza into doing so. akaza, who notoriously loved talking to humans, would violently strike douma outside of duels, a taboo for kizuki, for trying to talk to him. i cannot emphasize enough how much akaza fucking hated this man. - HUMANS: akaza avoided fighting, killing, or eating women, even those in the demon slayer corps. any men who did not have the power to keep up with him, he killed quickly. those who could present a challenge, he loved to talk to and "play with" in combat. without fail, he would offer to convert them to demons, otherwise he killed and ate them. the few who ever accepted his offer did not survive the transformation. - HASHIRA: pillars of the demon slayer corps, their strongest members. over his demon lifetime, he fought and killed many hashira, each one of whom he offered to convert. every single one refused him. - TANJIRO: a demon slayer with a mutual personal vendetta against muzan. from the moment they met, he viscerally repulsed akaza. when akaza fled the sun after fatally wounding kyojuro, tanjiro called him a coward. months later, when muzan trapped the entire corps inside his stronghold, akaza confronted tanjiro again with the intent to kill him quickly. tanjiro had gained enough power and skill to impress akaza, but his passion for morality still disgusted him. tanjiro was able to achieve a state of being that akaza called "the realm of the highest," where he was able to release his fighting spirit and thus become impossible for akaza to read. in this state, he confronted akaza head on and decapitated him with no resistance, which akaza could not accept, and his headless body continued to fight, a feat that almost no demons could perform. ultimately, an exhausted tanjiro punched akaza in the face as he regenerated his head, an act that reminded him of his master, keizo. once he acknowledged his human memories, akaza accepted that tanjiro had defeated him fairly in battle and allowed himself to die with honor. now, he feels immense gratitude toward tanjiro for helping him remember who he was. - GIYU: the water hashira who fought akaza alongside tanjiro in the castle. like kyojuro, akaza greatly admired his combat skills and toyed with him. also like kyojuro, giyu refused akaza's offer to become a demon, and even akaza's attempts at other conversation. akaza found him so fascinating that he allowed giyu to live long enough to use every single water breathing technique, after which he attempted to kill giyu, which tanjiro thwarted. after tanjiro beheaded him and collapsed from exhaustion, giyu, despite grievous injury, protected the boy from akaza's repeated attempts to finish him off. giyu's defiance even with the very real possibility of his own death reminded akaza of his master keizo's own values, which initially led to him beginning to recall his human life. although it repulsed him at the time, akaza has come to admire and be grateful to giyu for reminding him of his humanity.
Beliefs they hold: a portrait they found in their grove home implies that hakuji was married to both koyuki and kyojuro in their past lives. while he isn't explicitly homophobic, akaza can't quite wrap his head around being attracted to another man, much less having multiple partners.
akaza doesn't believe he is worthy of receiving kindness from anyone at this point, romantic or platonic. even if he wasn't a demon with centuries of eating humans, hakuji still committed murder as a human, with his master's soryu style nonetheless.
he believes that being in the grove is both a sort of purgatory and a punishment for his actions in life. when he had finally accepted his death, he escaped muzan's control and became hakuji again in spirit, and the spirits of his father, koyuki, and keizo welcomed him to the afterlife and were willing to endure hell with him. here, he doesn't even get to be beside them as he is punished – and it is punishment. he still inhabits a demon body, subject to demon weaknesses and demonic hunger for human flesh.
Tropes: tragic monster, challenge seeker, determinator, slasher smile, you are what you hate, wouldn't hit a girl
How does their heart look: like a fist, the veins and arteries clenched fingers instead. it still flexes like it's beating, strong when alone but fluttery and nervous when around others. something tender and fragile pretending to be intimidating. there are scars where old strings have broken off, some uglier than others. the existing strings are various colors, each relevant to their respective "owner." they seem tenuously connected, as if each flexed heartbeat might cause them to snap off.
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lovelyredthread) wrote2025-05-11 11:34 pm
no subject
Relationships he can read: oh boy i'm gonna split this into two different cuts so that you're not scrolling for 8 hours.
relationships from his canon
So Ain is from a group of (counts on fingers) 15 losers... Elsword lore is very complex and there are different Canon-AU "routes" of each character but he's from what's considered the actual Canon-Canon routes. I know it's complicated stay with me here. Anyway, he loves his 15 losers. Like his entire identity and who he chooses to be as a person is entirely shaped by his experiences given by these people, because as an angel he really shouldn't have a) emotions or b) the want to be more "human" or c) the will to guard over what is essentially a tiny population of mortals when what he's Supposed to do is stabilize the planet's existence and keep everything rolling for every person and not just these ones. However, again, he loves his losers. They're called the El Search Party and he is their healer/guardian angel (literal)/overprotective idiot. He is in general Pretty Possessive over them in a way that's not really a red flag in and of itself, but it can also get pretty alarmingly red-flaggy really quickly if he perceives anyone as a Threat to them. Luckily most threats to the party are just, people that want to kill them all dead... Ain's possessive ass did not give anyone permission to die though so gl.
Unfortunately I don't know how to give you the deep lore without 300 wiki links so you can put names to faces (for flavour) do not feel obligated, but: Ain's feelings per idiot are as follows with nicknames in parenthesis-
relationships from sticks specifically
He has a CR chart that I uhhhh maybe will update one day lmao, in general that's supposed to be a source of truth but whoops my executives are dysfunctioning. Out of all of this, the most important relationships right now are:
Beliefs they hold: For the most part my blurbs contain all the insecurities in them woohoo, but the one thing about Ain that's incredibly obvious is that he struggles to think he's doing enough for anyone, ever. He's also previously been called "the town whore" so now he's cagey about getting into new relationships even though he's like, the most Loving Person Ever. A lot of his worries right now are that the Forest is going to take his partners away, and that he won't be able to "keep" anybody (and this is realistically probably true in some capacity), so he's uh. Getting Worse mentally about it, slipping into what I'd call "soft yandere". He's going to start biting people.
Tropes: I think Ain legally being classified as Yandere Lite™ counts?! Me above: Yeah his possessiveness isn't inherently a red flag... but Also. (Like, he's not possessive in a "my polycule can have polycules" context but he is possessive in a... if you ever left me I would tie you down and never let you go" kind of situation right now. Oops.)
How does their heart look: The heart is bright, warm, and colourful. And the strings are squeezing way too tightly. They're liable to snap if he squeezes any tighter. He does not emotions good. :(
Additional considerations: Idk if Pavolva can sense this but? Ain has linked his emotions to each of his partners' with the bracelets Ydalir has. So he is not only feeling his emotions but Everyone Else's. He's using this as a way to monitor them to make sure they don't? die?? that way if they're in danger he can feel their fear and location and come Running. as you can see he took vash's death extremely well in a very healthy manner and there are no issues here,
May I contact for more info: Yes, if you are prepared for an essay,
no subject
Relationships he can read: Gosh this is the fun part holds my head
So, Joshua basically does not hate anyone. It is so hard to make him legitimately hate someone. He has favorable views of everyone in the Grove. That being said, his closest relationships are:
• Clive Rosfield: No longer in the Grove. Joshua's older brother, though they were separated when Joshua was 10 years old and did not reunite until he was 28. They were only reunited a short time before coming to the Grove, and they only got to spend about 3 months together before Clive vanished. He thinks the world of his brother and loves him dearly even after eighteen years apart, and Clive's disappearance almost two months ago hurt him greatly.
• Dion Lesage: No longer in the Grove. A childhood acquaintance that he had the fortune of meeting again at age 28, who grew to be a dear friend and valuable ally. They had just begun dating in the Grove and had only been together for nearly two months when he was brutally murdered by Suri, and never returned from death (read: was dropped). This only canonly happened 3-ish weeks ago, so it is still a very fresh wound.
• Jill Warrick: Has not been in the Grove. His and Clive's childhood friend, raised alongside them like a sister. They, too, were separated when Joshua was 10 and did not reunite until he was 28. She is a comforting presence to him, and he cares for her a great deal and values her insight.
• Jote: Has not been in the Grove. His attendant, who has been by his side since he awoke from his coma at age 15. She has looked out for his wellbeing, protected him, and followed him on his journey to gather information. She cares deeply for him, and Joshua cares for her as well, though the exact way that he cares for her is never explicitly stated. Some interpret it as romantic, but I tend to interpret it as deeply platonic, at least on Joshua's side.
• Luca: One of his first friends in the Grove. Luca is also Phoenix-related and was, at one point, dating his brother. They've become closer because of it, and even more so now that Clive has disappeared, leaning on each other for support. He cares for Luca dearly, as if Luca was his own brother.
• Ezell: One of his first friends in the Grove. Ezell has helped him through tough times, and Joshua appreciates it. He only realized that Ezell was flirting with him just before Dion officially came to court him. While he is very much aware of the existence of polyamory, it is still a relatively new concept to him, so he had opted to focus on his relationship with Dion before adding more, so that no one felt left out. But, he does still have some feelings for Ezell.
• Verso: While new to the Grove, Verso is almost like a startling shade of Clive while not quite being like Clive at all. There is some similarity in looks, but Verso's voice is identical to Joshua's ear, and perhaps those two things helped to endear the man to him in the fresh absence of his brother. He finds himself drawn to Verso, both for the similarities being almost a soothing balm on such a raw wound and because of the man's charming personality and way of going about his life. He wants to get to know him more, and to make sure he is taking care of himself, because the way he's almost waved off Joshua's concerns about clinic visits, etc. is a little worrying.
Beliefs they hold: A lot of what kept him from pursuing any kind of relationship back home was the looming heaviness and potential finality of their confrontation with Ultima. Here, though, he is currently in a tender spot where he hasn't recovered from Dion's death and also blames himself for it, to an extent. It's hard to say when he will feel like he can open himself to the possibility of dating again.
Tropes: Go here and click on the "Margrace" drop down. There's just about anything you could possibly want.
How does their heart look: His heart is made of fire and exudes a welcome, loving warmth like a fire in a hearth, but it sits within a bird cage. The door to the cage is wide open, but there his heart sits, content to stay. Many severed strings hang from his heart, made of leather cord and appearing as though they have been ripped violently rather than cut neatly.
Additional considerations: iiiiiii cannot think of anything good to put here, I'm sure there's something that will probably come up later
May I contact for more info: Of course!
no subject
Relationships he can read: closes my eyes. dropdowns again-
relationships from his canon
Flamebringer, despite being a dick, has a LOT of friends. It is impressive how many friends he has because he's the sort (and Pavlova will be able to tell) to be like "ra ra ra I'm soooo fucking scary don't talk to me don't even come near me I'll kill you" and then he will turn around and take an entire gatling gun's worth of shells for you and then some. He also really, really loves kids and makes this fact super obvious (which means unfortunately for Pavlova he's going to get hit with the "aww a baby :)" beams Very fast). Very important friendships below-
In Sticks though... these two idiots have smoothed things over so hard they're now engaged. Ezell is basically the stars in Flamebringer's sky and he's usually comparing Ezell to the flowers he loves so much, he's very overprotective of Ezell and wants only the best for him. He unfortunately keeps bumblefucking their relationship (from his own perspective) but Ezell is like, 75% of his daily thoughts. Every single thing in his brain about this boy is the equivalent of "I miss my wife Tails" whenever they're apart, and he's the ambien wife guy when Ezell is around. It's gross. One of his big insecurities/fears wrt Ezell right now is that he's never explaining himself well enough with regards to his own dreams and ambitions, and he thinks he's horrid at comfort or keeping Ezell out of harm. They have a lot of disagreements... he's never sure how to fix them. He genuinely also struggles to comprehend Ezell's very deep depressive disorders, so that puts a strain on things. They're still in great standings, it's just like... a paranoid & depressed force meets a very forward and goal-oriented object. They cannot make their goals align sometimes. They'll figure it out maybe, he hopes.
relationships from sticks
Beliefs they hold: Pretty much the above! Flamebringer will run circles around himself to convince himself and others he's unlovable but that, uh... has been demonstrated to Not be true ever. He's actually soft as hell. Shhh.
Tropes: Somehow he's always enemies to lovers????
How does their heart look: Fragmented; one half of it is a dilapidated city with nothing in it, not even people but just ruins. One half of it is a beautiful field of flowers. Flamebringer walks on both sides, and he is fully prepared to sever any of the strings holding onto one side at any moment... or so he tells himself anyway.
Additional considerations: can't think of anything now!
May I contact for more info: Yes but it will be essay time :)
no subject
Relationships he can read: no dropdowns now I can summarize this one succinctly! I think—
Beliefs they hold: Thank God that Thorns is relatively secure in his relationships and doesn't have any weird doubts. He's been long-distance with Elysium before (they call each other on the phone. a lot.) but I guess the one thing he does have in general, not just interpersonally but with just Existence In General, is this doubt that he's actually going to be able to keep people safe. His pirate crew, his friends, etc — he's usually going out of his way to make sure people stay safe, but he can be quite reckless in so doing and usually makes the danger worse. He has not broken out of this habit despite awareness of it, so.
Tropes: "Idiots in love" is a good one— also friends to lovers. my god.
How does their heart look: It's very, hm, steady? Quite unwavering in conviction, and it feels a bit like riding on steady ocean waves. Bumpy here and there, but not stormy or turbulent most of the time. The strings are strong and sturdy and don't seem as though they'd be easy to cut.
Additional considerations: can't think of anything now!
May I contact for more info: Yes, for a smaller essay this time-
no subject
Relationships he can read: Lmao lmao okay so Passenger has one. ONE. person he actually cares about in any world he's gone to ever. It's horrendous. Like, there are a couple people from his canon that he has a Relationship Of Some Kind With, such as The Doctor and Kal'tsit, but it doesn't go too deep so I won't go into it too much here.
The SINGLE person Passenger actually gives a shit about is Sesa. He's had a rotating cast of solid friends in Sticks but at the end of the day none of them actually matter too much in the grand scheme of things because he has this dark, twisted love for Sesa. It is So Bad that the devs named their story "Fatal Attraction" like unironically. Passenger is like... deeply seriously trying to drive Sesa to Commit Murder, a thing Sesa Does Not Do, solely because it gets him off a little bit when he thinks about Sesa taking revenge for the wrongs that were committed against him?? I'm so sorry I have to write it this way I don't know how else to describe it. The things Passenger says to Sesa are Not Okay. He is legitimately obsessed with this man in a body and soul way that WOULD be super romantic if it weren't tinged with this layer of yandere unhinged shit. Passenger is Mentally Unwell about this man.
Now!! If Pavlova has the ability to read this too, he will find that Passenger's entire psyche is fragmented; he, in his head, talks to a younger childhood version of himself (Elliot) that acts sort of as his actual emotions and conscience and also Questions Passenger's Actions. Little Elliot loves everyone; he misses people like Timekeeper Cookie, A.B.A, and he really likes Dipper and the other Terrans. Elliot questions whether Passenger's attachments to Sesa are healthy (THEY ARE NOT), and generally tries to steer the both of them toward something better than what they've done in the past. Which was a lot of revenge and bloodshed and murder, canonically.
Beliefs they hold: Honestly think I covered it pretty well :') Passenger is just deeply unhealthy all around.
Tropes: yandere, all i fuckin play are yanderes,
How does their heart look: The whole thing looks like a fire burning in a desert village. The strings have already all been cut, burned at the edges.
Additional considerations: can't think of anything now!
May I contact for more info: essay :)
no subject
Relationships he can read:
"Canon" Relationships: -Kiera
CanorusAurelius: Luca's sibling. He found them in the middle of a heavy snow, believing them to be a lost child. For over a decade, he maintained that belief, never once doubting their sibling. He fought to fiercely protect them like any good big brother would. When he did learn of their betrayal, Luca left Renova. While ultimately he did not leave because of their allegiances, but rather his own grief and guilt, he's well aware of how things looked to them. For a long time, both he and Kiera were on poor terms.The development of Luca and Kiera's relationship is a divided one now that Luca has regained memories from home. Back home, Kiera would stubbornly stick by him even as he insisted that he was not worth loving. When they learned of his intent to work with the Emissary Alazon to end his life, they struck a deal of their own, asking for time to find another solution. Kiera's stubbornness, in tandem with Alazon's presence, would eventually break Luca free of his shell. They would stand by his side when he struck down the Phoenix once and for all.
However, in Sticks, Kiera continued to challenge Luca's beliefs, ultimately breaking him down and convincing him to spare Zonari. In Luca's own words, this changed everything for him, allowing him to steadily warm up to the idea that maybe he was still worth loving. Nevertheless, for a time, he resented Kiera as he believed they were doing nothing to prevent his misery under the Phoenix. He was entirely unaware that they had attempted to make a deal with the Phoenix to accept its Blessing in its stead. After Luca's canon update, he and Kiera are working on shoring up their relationship and reestablishing their trust.
- Cyrus Aurelius: Luca's father. Having been shunned from his own family due to his poor health and lack of Blessing, Cyrus spent many of his early years whoring around and determined to undermine his family's authority. When his brother abruptly died, leaving him as the only heir to the family, he took the latter responsibility to the next level, determined to reshape Renova by emphasizing the importance of the common man. At the same time, his former habits of sleeping around would result in his son, Luca.
Having seen the worst of what his family name and Blessing could bring, Cyrus was determined to raise his son like any other child. Thus, Luca was taught to respect everyone, regardless of their station. At the same time, he was kept out of many of the early, court-faring responsibilities that a young heir might typically be involved in. It was only once Luca showed his own interest in taking on that responsibility that Cyrus allowed him to do so. His love for Luca was so deep that he willingly stepped in front of a blade meant for his son, succumbing to a terrible poison before Luca opted to end his misery.
Never once did Luca doubt in Cyrus's love for him. Every day, he aspired to be like his father and guide Renova right. Thus, after Cyrus's death, he felt that he had ultimately failed the man — not just for failing to protect him, but because by allowing his death, he watched several families crumble, and the very peace and prosperity he fought to protect fall apart. He continues to agonize over Renova's grief to this day, as well as the senseless loss of his father.
- The Phoenix: Luca's "god," so to speak. Luca's world is ruled by five Beasts, with each of them distributing a fragment of their power as a "Blessing." The Renovan Beast is the Phoenix, and unlike the others, its gift is not distributed at random, but strongly aligned with a single bloodline. As the last remaining Aurelius, the Phoenix had become deeply overprotective of Luca. At times, it would painfully punish him to prevent him from acting, or even deny him power outright.
For the first seventeen years of Luca's life, the Phoenix kept its ultimate gift a secret — it could revive Luca should he die. After Luca fell through ice and drowned, he woke to find himself sopping wet but unharmed. Later, when an assassination attempt was successful, Luca yet again woke up unharmed. He confronted the Phoenix, finally learning of this gift, and ultimately coming to realize that his father had died in vain. This awoke a deep resentment of the Beast, which only grew with each time that the Phoenix kept its powers from Luca, or otherwise punished him.
Luca became determined to kill the Phoenix at all costs, even going as far as seeking out an Emissary's help. Though these efforts failed, they would ultimately attract the attention of another Emissary, one that Luca was deeply familiar with. Desperate, it hijacked Luca's body and attempted to race away from the Emissary. They were caught, however, ultimately leading to the Phoenix's demise. Even now, he wonders if he did the right thing, and continues to grieve his loss of innocence and trust in the divine.
- Emissary Alazon ("River"): One of the seven Emissaries of Cataega, the agents closest to its queen and the only Blessed in the country. River resembles a Lionfish, especially when in his aquatic form.
Luca and Alazon met in a bar, introducing themselves as Luke and Alexei respectively. After a brief affair, they went their separate ways. Several weeks later, Luca would learn of Alazon's true identity, resulting in a bloody fight that Luca lost. Over the course of several years, Alazon and Luca would butt heads, becoming vicious rivals. These fights would culminate in the Emissaries joining up with Alazon against his will, seemingly killing Luca. However, when Alazon returned to investigate the body, he realized Luca had disappeared. Thus, he chased after him, leading him to Renova, which was already playing host to the Cataegan peacekeeping embassy.
In the name of diplomacy, Alazon would request to work with Luca closely, something that head Councillor Aquila Caelius would have to accept so that Cataega did not believe they were working against them. After another bloody fight in which Luca willingly allowed himself to be killed, he tried to convince River to kill him. Alazon agreed to do so if he ever grew bored, and instead insisted they work together.
Over the course of planning security for the upcoming harvest festival, Luca and River grew close to one another, with Luca eventually developing feelings for him. However, after a brutal murder meant to resemble the death of his father, Luca began to doubt their relationship, especially as he learned of several crimes that may have implicated River in working for not just Cataega, but Castilla as well. Luca confronted him angrily, and his attempt at killing the emissary was witnessed by a number of guards, who dispatched the information to Cateaga. Though the two made up, it was far too late, as another Emissary was dispatched to deal with the issue. River would be the one to rescue Luca after the Phoenix hijacked his body, though he was unable to avoid a confrontation with Meretrix. After Luca gained the ability to confront the Beast once and for all, River stood by his side and even offered his weapon up for Luca to finish the deed.
Shortly after, Alazon left the country, leaving Luca unsure of their future, but filled with a sense of longing. Even now, he misses River, and frequently has to do double-takes when he passes in the vicinity of Callan.
- Aquila Caelius: Luca's childhood best friend. At one point, her father had attempted to arrange a marriage between the two of them. Cyrus quickly put a stop to this, after both children confessed they had no interest in the opposite gender.
Both grew up to be chivalrous knights in their own right, challenging each other to grow stronger and stronger. When Cyrus's death would inevitably lead to her father's own execution, Luca couldn't help but feel a deep level of guilt, feeling that he had failed his best friend by not being able to save his father. If he had simply prevented the assassination, everything probably would have gone much better.
Returning to Renova was difficult, as he continued to believe that Aquila would not want him around. He was no longer the boy she grew up with. However, Aquila was adamant that nothing had changed. Luca is secretly relieved that she inherited his role as head Councillor due to his absence, as he wants nothing to do with his father's old role.
- Caius: A young Renovan knight. Luca felt a budding attraction to him, but it was quickly overridden by Alazon's presence. Nevertheless, he felt deep guilt when, after being all but rejected by the Aurelius, he left the harvest festival and was promptly murdered.
- Laurentia Aurelius, aka Meretrix: An extremely powerful Emissary, bearing traits of a Lion's Mane Jellyfish. She was dispatched to Renova after word of Luca and River's fight reached the Queen of Cataega. She captured Luca after he attempted to flee, and used her abilities to both impart her memories and temporarily brainwash him, overriding the Phoenix's control. With this, he was able to reach the Phoenix and kill it. As of right now, he is unsure if he should resent or be grateful toward the Emissary, who returned home just as swiftly as she arrived.
- Giselle: Luca's surrogate mother figure. Part time nanny and part time nurse for Cyrus due to his ailing health, she was a prominent figure in the Aurelius house, and played a heavy role in raising him. He has not made an attempt to contact her since returning to Renova, feeling that she would hate the man he had become.
Sticks Relationships:
- Zahliya: One of Luca's first friends in the Grove, and currently his ex. The two bonded over cheese and singing, eventually flirting with and falling for one another. However, Luca secretly bore resentment toward Zahliya as a form of self-sabotage, forcing himself to believe that the gargoyle was intentionally neglecting to help Luca with the Phoenix. This came out after Clive's disappearance, and after Luca accused Zahliya of not caring as much as the former did, Zahliya ended their relationship. Though Luca would apologize after his canon update, Zahliya asked for time and space. Luca feels... unsure how to proceed, regrets his actions, and heavily doubts that he'll ever be able to mend that relationship.
- Mamika: Luca's baby sister, at least in his eyes (he hasn't said this to either her or Kiera). Initially scoffing at her innocent world view, during the events of Zahliya-quest 2, she managed to convince him to stay his hand. Much like with Kiera, he credits her with being the first to convince him to change his ways. He owes a lot to her, cares deeply for her, and hopes to be able to protect her from the evil of the forest. He wants to ensure that her view of the world is never shattered like his was.
- Ain: Luca's catty gay best friend. The two love to gossip with one another. He's pretty worried about Ain of late, but isn't sure he's the best person to help bring him out of his funk.
- Livio: HE HAS A CRUSH ON EVERY BOY.
- Zonari: Luca still holds a level of distrust for Zahliya's sister, especially the closer she and Kiera get. He's pretty convinced she's plotting something, and even outwardly attacked her during the Clive crisis
- Clive Rosfield: A former client of Luca's bar. At first, Luca was only interested in his aesthetic appeal. However, between his endearing obliviousness to Luca's flirting and his determination that Luca was not doomed to his fate, Luca found himself falling for him. Clive would ultimately be the first person to take a step in freeing Luca from the Phoenix. Luca was certain that he was in love with the man and preparing to tell him just that when he disappeared, leaving him devastated. Though his canon update would quickly belie some of these feelings, a hole still exists in his chest where Clive once occupied.
- Joshua Rosfield: Clive's brother, and arguably one of Luca's best friends. Once, he had a crush on the young man (yes at the same time as Clive. He inherited Cyrus's whoring leave him alone), but ultimately chased friendship as he pursued Clive instead. In the wake of Clive's disappearance and Dion's death, Luca feels an obligation to protect Joshua and keep him afloat. He knows just how devastating loss can be, and he doesn't want to see Joshua's bright spirit be shattered.
Beliefs they hold:- Luca believed for a long time that Zahliya and Kiera didn't truly care about him. Neither of them seemed to be taking action to save him as he suffered because of the Phoenix.
- He truly believes he has bungled the relationship with Zahliya entirely.
- Due to his back to back widowing/breakups, he thinks he isn't meant to love.
- He suspects Alazon is hiding something from him. Maybe more than one thing.
Tropes:ENEMIES TO LOVERS! TOXIC YAOI! HURT COMFORT.
How does their heart look: Luca's heart is bruised and wreathed in a shield of protective flames. His heart is criss-crossed with damaged and severed strings, as well as ones that have been patched together. Only some of these strings have managed to cross the flames without issue. Others were destroyed by the very flames themselves. The color is a bit washed out, as if once it were greyscale but is now steadily allowing itself to bloom once more.
Additional considerations: There may be a faint flicker of something within Luca's heart that isn't his own. Sometimes it looks a bit like a fledgling bird. Other times it looks like a dragon hatchling. Strange!
May I contact for more info: Absolutely! Please do!
no subject
Relationships he can read:
"Canon" Relationships:
- Vash the Stampede: The epitome of "it's complicated." Meryl stuck her neck out for Vash on several occasions, and ultimately did everything she could to save his life. In a lot of ways, she blames herself for what happened to him. For the last two years, she believed him dead, only to learn that he was in fact alive here in Sticks.
Unfortunately, they never managed to catch up with one another, and Vash would turn up dead shortly after. She's doing her best to reconcile her long held crush on him.
- Roberto De Niro: Her mentor. Though they had a very argumentative relationship, with Meryl bristling every time the man failed to respect her, she still cared deeply for him, and valued his insight. When he died saving her, she was filled with a regret she still carries to this day.
- Nicolas D. Wolfwood: She hates him. Fuck this guy. He's the worst. A stinky scammer, even if she might be grateful for him saving her life.
- Zazie the Beast: While Meryl is still a bit angry over the kidnapping attempt, she also appreciates how forthcoming the worm has been with information. They're probably the only person that didn't lie to Meryl. At least after the first time.
... They did eat her though. Negative points for that.
Sticks Relationships:
- Kiera Canorus: Initially, Meryl was very brusque toward Kiera, who had told Meryl off in an attempt to keep her safe. After feeling guilty over their clear suffering, Meryl decided to give Kiera some of her blood. She quite likes them, and may or may not be looking forward to the modeling session she promised the dhampir.
- Livio: Technically, she knows him from home, but it's... complicated. This isn't the Livio she met. He seems way more in control and much softer than the killer that she watched die. Still, he's nice enough, and she feels bad for the fact that he's lost someone he cared for.
- Razlo: She's convinced he's a big, weird pervert, and he isn't keen on stopping her.
- Flamebringer: He likes messing with Wolfwood, therefore they're best friends now. She will supply him with embarrassing pictures of Nick.
Beliefs they hold: - She caused Vash's death.
- She definitely doesn't have a crush on Wolfwood.
Tropes: Noooot really any at this time.
How does their heart look: Bruised, and walled off. The cement on the bricks around her heart is fresh, and some of the bricks are haphazardly placed. There are some very obvious cracks where certain threads sneak through. The whole thing seems shoddily put together.
Additional considerations: Not really. She's very new right now so she doesn't have a lot of relationships.
May I contact for more info: Please do!
Expedition 33 Spoilers
Relationships he can read:
"Canon" Relationships: Okay so as a word of warning things are about to get complicated because of course the French game is a clusterfuck. Many characters in this game have two iterations of themselves. These are going to be defined as “Real” and “Painted” (IE: Real Renoir vs Painted Renoir). These relationships will be clumped together under one name. However, “real” relationships will be notated with a double asterisk.
- Verso: “Huh?” So as I mentioned there are painted and real versions of Verso. The Verso I play is his painted version, and boy does he have thoughts about his real counterpart. There’s also a fragmented version of Verso as well.
In a lot of ways, Painted Verso is jealous of his real counterpart, because he got to die. He also loathes the man for dying, considering the grief and destruction it brought upon his family.
At the same time, he pities his fragmented soul, who has worn away so much that he cannot remember the names of his loved ones. He wants nothing more than to end the misery of this poor soul, especially as it means ending his own misery.
- Renoir: - His father. For a long time, Painted Renoir was Verso’s closest ally. He truly believed in protecting the Paintress for a period of time. However, after Julie’s death, their relationship began to fray and fracture, culminating in Verso drawing a line in the stand by siding with Expedition 33 in their attempts to kill the paintress.
**Real Renoir, on the other hand, is someone that Verso can deeply understand, even if he won’t say it outloud. As far as Verso is concerned, Real Renoir is his only hope of salvation, as he wants nothing more than the Painting to be destroyed so that he can finally rest. Nevertheless, he does bare some resentment toward the man for being the reason behind the Gommage, the yearly ritualistic deaths that claim anyone at or over a certain age (the number of which is painted on the horizon)
- Clea: Verso felt no small amount of love for Painted Clea. They spent their early childhood years painting their version of Lumiere together. He was quite upset to learn that the real Clea had painted over and essentially destroyed her painted counterpart. Nevertheless, he was devastated to watch her brutal death.
**Real Clea is a bit complicated. He loves his sister dearly, but he has to admit that her methods are brutal. There’s a bit of pity in there as well, knowing how much of a load she’s taken on as a result of his death.
- Aline: His mother. Also known as the Paintress, she is seemingly the cause of all suffering in the painted Lumiere. However, she is only trapped and grieving, watching and feebly trying to warn the world of the real Renoir’s attempts to steal power in the world by killing off its longest lived citizens.
Verso is so very concerned for her. Spending too long in a painting will drain one’s life and eventually kill them. Because Aline has been in the painting for so long, he worries deeply for her. At the same time, he can’t help but feel resentment and even a bit of hate toward her. In the painted world, he doomed his youngest sister to a scarred and mute existence. She blames Alicia for his death, and he hates her for carrying out such a punishment.
- Maelle: His adopted but not really younger sister. Maelle is technically the avatar of his sister Alicia, who was “overwritten” when she entered the painting and given new life. He worries deeply over her. However, the two have something of a toxic relationship, with Alicia idolizing him in her grief over the real Verso’s death. She will stop at nothing to keep him alive in whatever capacity, while he wants nothing more than to end it. He resents her due to the fact that she killed the Painted Alicia without giving him a chance to say goodbye. At the same time, he not only allowed her surrogate father/adopted brother Gustave to die, but manipulated her into carrying out his death by killing the Paintress and allowing the Real Renoir to attempt to destroy the Canvas once and for all.
While he does go through with Maelle’s plan to confront the Real Renoir, he feels conflict the entire time. He easily sees through Maelle’s promises to only stay for a little while longer, and knows that her love for him will kill her.
- Painted Alicia: His dear sister. He cares so very deeply for her, and is angered by the fact that Aline has taken so much out on her. He wants for her to find her own feet, reminding her that “my beautiful sister doesn’t need this ugly mask.”
- Esquie: Verso’s best friend. He’s a walking, talking wineskin thanks to the fact that Verso stores all of his wine in him. Like. sloshing together. Nasty ass. Anyway, Verso cares deeply for his friend, even if said friend often says things that are deeply insightful and simultaneously a little too pointed for Verso’s comfort. Nevertheless, Verso deeply loves his outlook on life, such as the Whees and Whoos of existence.
**Real Esquie is Verso’s childhood plushie. I just think you should know this. It’s cute.
- Monoco:: Verso’s best friend….. 2! He’s a gestral with an obsession with feet. I wish I was joking. It’s how he gains his abilities in the game, it‘s a whole thing. He and Verso have stood by each other’s sides for years, working together against the monsters of the world. They have a very teasing and jokingly combative relationship with one another. More than once, they’ve led each other into danger. Verso wouldn’t change it for the world.
**Real Monoco was the name of several of Verso’s dogs. Over the years, they have had three dogs named Monoco. This cycle of “rebirth” was the foundation to the gestral cycle of rebirth, in which gestrals come back as something “similar but different,” not unlike adopting a dog of the same breed after losing one.
- Noco: Monoco’s surrogate son, and likewise a Gestral. He is close friends with the young gestral, and was devastated after the creature was killed in a fight with Renoir. He works with Monoco to bring him back, and still misses the gestral he once was.
**Real Noco is also the name of one of Verso’s dogs.
- Julie: Verso’s former lover. Things ended bitterly when she learned of Verso and the Painted Renoir’s deceit. At the time, he wanted her to believe that he was protecting this world by keeping the Paintress alive. Many years later, he regrets these actions, and what became of her.
- Simon: Verso’s old friend. It pained him to see the monster that the Real Clea had made him, and he was determined to put the beast out of his misery.
- Sciel: A member of Expedition 33, and his former lover. The two had a very casual affair, before they mutally ended things when she realized that Maelle could bring back her deceased husband. While he does feel a flicker of resentment toward her, as well as carries a candle for her to this day, he also considers her a close friend. He is plagued with guilt, knowing what will become of her and her dream to see her husband again, should he get her way.
- Lune: Verso sees a lot of himself in Lune, who is plagued by the expectations of her parents despite their deaths. He encourages her to become her own person, telling her that the voice guiding her choices has to be her own. He also enjoys that they share a similar love for music, and had once hoped to perform a duet with her. While he does feel a flicker of feelings for her, he never acted on them.
- Gustave: Verso is almost jealous of Gustave. He had such a loving relationship with Maelle, his own sister, and it wounded him. He knew that Gustave would only hold Maelle back, and thus allowed the man to die. While he regrets the effect it had on Maelle, he isn’t sad that the man is gone.
Sticks Relationships:
- Kiera: A rather pretty thing that Verso has become enamored with. They’ve flirted a few times, and made out at the SesaPass wedding. However, given the fact that Verso is notorious for catching feelings, he’s reluctant to keep seeing them, as they don’t seem the relationship type.
- Joshua: A young man that Verso accidentally upset by sitting at his brother’s old seat at the Watchtower Bar. Things got even worse when Joshua confessed that he and his now missing brother sounded identical to one another. He feels a bit obligated to watch over Joshua now, and worries for his wellbeing.
- Passenger: Probably Verso’s favorite person in the grove. He took Verso’s weirdness in stride and even joked with him in turn. He likes the guy quite a bit.
Beliefs they hold: - The Grove is his punishment for attempting to destroy the painting back home.
Tropes: Found family. Old Man Yaoi
How does their heart look: Old, withered, and greyscale. Nevertheless, it beats hard and passionately. It’s accompanied by the gentle sound of piano music.
Additional considerations: He is such a mess please bully him.
May I contact for more info: Please do!
no subject
Relationships he can read:
Ford Pines: His twin brother! They have a long past that was strained for most of their lives. If represented by a string to his heart, it's been cut and re-tied in several places - things were very rough between them for a long time for various reasons, but for the most part they actually get along well now! They've both grown and changed for the better in their own ways, and Stan's glad they get to have each other in their lives from now on.
Dipper Pines: His great nephew! Came to stay with Stan when he was 12, and after a series of misadventures across the multiverse, he's become more of a son than Stan was ever expecting. He basically raised him through some of his more formative teen years, and now he's an older teen and it's such a weird feeling. Their string is frayed in places but sturdy and unlikely to snap. No matter how much they fight sometimes, he's proud of the young man Dipper's turning into.
Other canon relationships: These folks aren't in the Grove and have never been in the Grove, but there are also strings for Mabel (Dipper's sister, they all miss her terribly since the last world they were in), Soos (his sonployee back home), Wendy (actual employee back home), Waddles (some pig I guess). There are also a number of cut threads from old love interests that didn't work out for various reasons, mostly women but occasionally men! Most notably he was married for about six hours once. And it seems he married a gold miner statue once...?
Other game relationships: Weird category! Since he's a CRAU he's gotten close to people in other places as well. The biggest ones are Fern (Adventure Time, his grass kid), Varian (Tangled the series, his grass kid's boyfriend unfortunately), and Ruby (RWBY, first mate of his angry mob, a good friend, and the person who made his sick gun cane). There are others but these are probably most likely to get mentioned - if any others come up I'll give you a heads-up!
Sticks (in game):
- Flamebringer: Bonded with him over a weirdly similar shared cultural history? Since then he's become something of a grandfather figure and kind of a bad influence, but they understand each other in a very specific gruff way. He trusts him implicitly because he reminds him a lot of himself, but also he's someone he can get into mischief with, who will listen to all his stories.
- Mamika: A magical girl who is over at the Pines' so often she basically lives there. She can never, ever get his name right but to be honest he's been called so many different things in his life that he's stopped trying and will respond to whatever name she's calling him lately. She reminds him and the whole family a lot of Mabel, so there's a little bit of heartache in this line, but he's still very fond of her and she can usually bully him if she needs to.
- Odile: Immediately started chatting her up because there aren't many older folks here who actually look older (he means it as a compliment, really). They both sort of have gathered a lot of found family over the years, and they keep an eye out for each other's kids as needed. She's smart and picks up on things quickly, but she's also fun to rattle now and then. Someday he's going to get her to laugh out loud at a dumb joke of his. Her line is different not because of any romantic chemistry, but because Stan just sincerely doesn't have friends in his age bracket who aren't related to him.
Sticks (dropped): His close CR drops that are still haunting his heart are Fern (Adventure Time - not his Fern from Trench, but also not-NOT his Fern), Loop (One of Odile's "kids" - they told him a secret about them, and it's a secret that he can relate to. Cares a lot about this kid, and was absolutely ready to fight for them when it came to it), and of most interest to Pavlova - Pure Vanilla (a guy who's too fucking nice for his own good. Stan never knew how to feel about him, but he was actually kind to him?? Right off the bat??)Beliefs they hold: HMMM. So. A lot of the beliefs he has about his relationships stem from feelings he has about himself. Despite everything that's happened with him saving the world (long story) he still tends to downplay serious accomplishments that would seem "out of character" for him - anything having to do with his own intelligence, people thinking he's a good, kind person. He got so used to hearing the opposite throughout his life that he genuinely doesn't know how to handle it. Plus, what if they want to see him replicate it and he can't? If he's going to be a fraud, he wants to be a fraud on his OWN terms. He has secret fears that everyone will eventually get sick of his shit and decide he's not worth the trouble, because HE doesn't always think he's worth the trouble. Also, the guy has some serious PTSD going on, so he has a tendency to be suspicious of people who are too nice (because they probably just want something). A lot of these beliefs are reinforced over years and years and years, but he actually doesn't remember everything he's been through. The cost of saving the world was losing all of his memories, and while most of them were recovered, he didn't have photographic or video evidence of his entire life. Some things are lost forever, literally burning in his brain, but the scorch marks are still there so to speak.
Tropes: Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Stepford Smiler, and Found Family.
How does their heart look: The strings that remain are made of sturdy nautical rope and any knots are firmly tied. There's one in particular that's thorny and frayed and burning in places but doesn't seem to tie to anyone else - this is his relationship to himself. His heart itself will appear blue - surprisingly not from depression, but because his cold blood (see below) makes his blood blue. Parts of it are charred and burnt, but it's still in tact and still holding onto those relationships tightly. His heart is basically a blue, burnt marshmallow holding everything else together. Underneath it all, he is the BIGGEST softie.
Additional considerations: Stan is a CRAU from Deer Country! This means two things - one, he has blood magic now (and is kind of part squid, just. don't think about that part it doesn't come up much) and that blood magic can corrupt the people who have it. The magic he has is cold blood, which lets him summon up blue flames but also makes him very cold to the touch usually. Corruption happens when you're using your magic but not also taking care of your mental health, and usually happens in stages - which I have a handy dandy post for Over here! Also, blue flames come up a lot for him. Originally they were a manifestation of lost memories, a placeholder in his brain, but now his blood magic appears in the same way when he uses his fire.
May I contact for more info: Of course! ♥
no subject
Relationships he can read:
Canon
Pure Vanilla - Boy howdy. We know there's a lot going on here. Pav would absolutely be able to see the violence and sadism he inflicted on Pure Vanilla back in Beast-Yeast. His absolutely deranged obsession with him, his tormenting in an attempt to break him as a person, and remold him into a Cookie of Deceit. His glee at Truthless' offer of becoming one and the way they had merged their souls together before Vanilla awakened and friendzoned him.
Their souls had remained entangled, even after their breakup. When Shadow Milk turned up in sticks that remained, though initially he was violent towards Truthless, he settled down, thinking he might try and get Truthless back- no he Awakened again anyway, and while Shadow Milk felt BETRAYED x2, Vanilla remained stubborn on extending his hand. SM eventually caved, and they completely merged their souls back together. They were disgustingly in love but it was still unhealthy and toxic in places. Shadow Milk was working towards becoming better while Vanilla slowly slipped more into derangement. They were a swinging pendulum of sanity, but like. SM was happy. He felt loved. And then Vanilla died and it was like his heart and soul had been ripped to pieces. His desperation at getting him back lead to him challenging the Forest and he was killed for it. His grief is a well that threatens to spill over at anytime. He's slowly been picking up the pieces, trying to find meaning in the life he is still living.
White Lily - An all consuming burning hatred for her is where they started. The Guardian, their jailor. A mockery of freedome, the half-a-cookie. He had goaded her into attacking him once to try and hurt Vanilla (it didn't work)
Shadow Milk learned that his past self was incredibly close friends with her, and he had sacrificed everything to try and bring back both Lily and Percy (PV's past self), which lead him to look at Lily in a different light. They didn't truly start to become close until PV's death, when the two of them stricken with grief had no one but each other to cling to in order to keep going.
Their relationship is complicated and messy, but there is genuine affection there now, even if it makes him feel weird.
Candy Apple & Black Sapphire - Those are his minions! They're his, obviously, but his emotions towards them are rather lacking. He made them, sure, but he almost treats them more like toys than people. He does think of them from time to time here in Sticks, but his feelings are lukewarm-to-complicated. A little wary of the idea of them showing up and seeing how their Beloved Master has changed. He doesn't like thinking about it.
The Other Beasts - HOW COMPLICATED. His friends, his colleagues, his fellow Beasts. How lovely is it that they all fell one after another, wallowed with him in corruption and madness, and then set the world ablaze. Was Shadow Milk the first or the last to fall? Was he the first to corrupt? Did he tell the first lies that dominoed the world into chaos? Did he cultivate the rumors about the treasures in Flours caccoon? Who knows! Shadow Milk adores the other Beasts, but that adoration is sinister and possessive. He loves the idea of them and them being his, but his actual interpersonal relationships with them seeeeeem. Hm.
this is something else Shadow Milk does not like thinking about now that he is saner. Eternal Sugar is also kind of on his shitlist right now thanks to Pavlova. OOPS
Pavlova - I know you said he can't see relationships regarding himself but lets put it here for completions sake. He recalls helping ES with baking this child, and he remembers how the Fount was his father and was fond of him. Shadow Milk is conflicted with how much of that is even him vs the Fount and while Pav seems absolutely willing to treat him just as he did before, he feels like the literal wolf in sheep's clothing.
His love is dangerous, how long before it hurts Pav in the same way Sugar has?
Sticks
This man has been such a raging dumpster fire over his soul-mate bullshit that he hasn't quite gotten to the point of forming strong attachments outside of his little bubble. There's some people of interest that Pav might pick up on, like Mafuyu, Ain, Ryan and Min-gi (they're hilarious), Mamika, but those are all very small connections thus far.
Beliefs they hold: Shadow Milk describes himself as a hollow shell, a mask with nothing behind it. He has felt himself lost and adrift here even before losing Vanilla, and has been struggling to grapple with his identity. He proclaimed to the Moon Goddess that Shadow Milk Cookie was dead, just as the Fount of Knowledge is, and that is even more true now that Vanilla is gone. Who he is now, he's not sure.
He's in steep denial about how much of the Fount is still alive within him, and it's easy to see that angry aversion is fear of being hurt. Fear of becoming that lonely and miserable again.
He has also promised Vanilla to never call himself a monster again, though he does still feel as though he is, he goes out of his way to never use that word when describing himself.
Tropes: TOXIC LOVE, obsessive love, yandere, enemies to lovers, attempted redemption arc
How does their heart look: Dark blue stained glass with many cracks in it. It radiates an almost black aura, something twisted and dangerous, and its strings are wrapped tightly around it, they pull taut to whoever they might be attached to, though some of them are torn, bleeding.
Beneath that frightening exterior there is a light, deep within. Pavlova will have to look hard to see it, but it's there. A beacon of light amidst the darkness, that grows ever brighter, day-by-day
Additional considerations: NA
May I contact for more info: You know where my DMs are
no subject
Relationships he can read:
in game
- LUCA: kiera's adoptive brother. they were inseparable for years after the Aurelius family took kiera in, and kiera rode his coattails for most of their childhood. despite a deep hurt caused by luca abandoning them after their father's death, kiera is still more dedicated to luca than anyone else. he is the only one they openly admit to loving, and even that is a newer development. kiera is terrified that one wrong move, one slip up, will cause luca to realize he is better off without them.
- ZAHLIYA: beiwe and ourania's gargoyle son and luca's ex. kiera cares about him because he means a lot to luca, but is unsure how to show it besides giving him space and not messing with him. they don't resent him for breaking up with luca, because they think luca deserved it for being cruel at the time.
- ZONARI: suri's gargoyle daughter and zahliya's sister. as part of the group that faced off with her last year, kiera was deeply upset by how much of themself they saw in her, and they insisted on working out an indefinite truce with her rather than trying to kill her. given how much they've projected onto her, kiera desperately wants her to ultimately side with the residents of the grove. they are attracted to her, but hesitant to act on it out of fear that she will think their desire to save her was shallow and not genuine.
- JOSHUA (bird): brother to clive, who was also involved with luca. kiera kept their distance while clive was still around, but has found themself wanting to keep a closer eye on him since. they sympathize.
- MERYL: a reporter from no man's land. she willingly gave kiera blood while they were transformed into a vampire, making kiera feel deeply indebted to her. she's fun to tease, and possibly even more fun to flirt with.
- VERSO: a very old man, apparently. even though he seems like the secret heart of gold, sentimental type, kiera is attracted to him against their better judgment.
- SESA: the mushroom man. no further context needed. kiera lives to tease him.
from canon
- CYRUS: kiera's adoptive father. a kindly, puckish man of ailing health, he was violently assassinated almost 10 years ago. his memory is still a powerful influence on kiera, as a source of guilt, inspiration, and love all at once.
- GISELLE: cyrus' caretaker and something of an aunt figure to kiera. kiera loves her but remains somewhat distant because seeing her after cyrus' death has been difficult for them.
- AQUILA: kiera and luca's best friend since childhood. kiera loves to tease her and test her boundaries, but does actually cherish and care deeply about her. unbeknownst to any of the children at the time, her father, Augustus, helped to orchestrate cyrus' assassination.
- ARDEN: aquila's older twin brother. like luca, he left the city after both of their fathers died. kiera resents him for being raised to be the perfect copy of his father.
- IUNIA: aquila's younger sister. she has helped kiera over the years both with healing wounds and sicknesses, as well as crises of faith.
- BRAND: aquila's youngest brother. he's a quiet, sickly lad, and an inquisitive bookworm. kiera tries to entertain him by taking him around the city and setting up a "book club" for the two of them and aquila's wife.
- RHODA: kiera and luca's childhood friend and aquila's wife. they're incredibly smart and magically talented, but a bit cagey. kiera enjoys their company for this reason.
- IGNATIUS: kiera's confidant and frequent partner. their alchemical talent and penchant for mischief are always a welcome distraction to kiera's sometimes miserable life. (has previously shown up on TDM months.)
- ALBI: the child of a traveling archaeologist, currently in the joint care of kiera, aquila, and ignatius. her curiosity and enthusiasm gets her into trouble sometimes, and kiera would do just about anything to protect her.
- MARSHALL: the marshal of the renovan armed forces, and kiera's direct superior. yes, he is a marshal named marshall. he is a bigger troll than kiera, which makes them feel threatened (joke) (or is it). they tease one another, but also share mutual respect.
- THE EMPRESS: kiera's biological mother, the vampiric empress of castilla. she raised kiera with cruelty to be ruthlessly efficient, perfect in everything she deemed necessary, and loyal to her through fear. kiera does indeed fear her above all else, specifically the chance that she discovers their betrayal and strikes out at their loved ones.
- KIERA'S BIOLOGICAL FATHER: one of the empress' human fanatics. he only ever viewed kiera as a tool to remain in the empress' favor, and tried to forcefully instill loyalty to her in them.
- THE BUTTERFLY: the god-beast of Castilla, kiera's birthplace. given that the empress claims to personify the butterfly's will, kiera despises it and everything it stands for. and as with the empress, they are terrified of its retribution.
- THE PHOENIX: the god-beast of Renova, kiera's adopted homeland. following the trauma of being raised to submit to the butterfly, kiera embraced the phoenix whole-heartedly. they found freedom and rebirth in its supposed welcoming embrace. after learning that the phoenix let their father die and intentionally continues to let luca suffer, they feel personally betrayed by it and have grown to hate it as well. before luca's canon update in which he killed the phoenix, kiera attempted to make a deal with it in the grove in which they would allow it to possess them so long as it left luca alone.
Beliefs they hold: they believe that their worth is tied to their relationships to others, and since they consider themself untrustworthy, their worth is flimsy at best. they also think they aren't made to love or be loved in any capacity, but in reality they highly value and long for deep, platonic relationships.
Tropes: tragic ice character, chosen family, functional addict, the gadfly, ethical slut
How does their heart look: made of a frost-edged, never-melting ice, at the center of which is a small, flickering red flame that seems to be in constant danger of being smothered, like a lit match in the wind. a select few of the relationship strings are inky, almost poisonous looking, and they spread black ice wherever they touch the heart. the rest (and the majority) are gold threads so fine, they look like they may snap at the slightest disturbance, though they seem to burn away the poison where they overlap the dark ones. some of these gold threads are woven gently together, presumably making their bonds stronger.
Additional considerations: kiera is romance repulsed. pavlova is absolutely free to tease them about stuff, but he won't ever see romantic attraction in them.
May I contact for more info: 💯
no subject
Relationships he can read:
from canon
- RAZLO: livio's protector alter. he was created to shield livio from an abusive home and ultimately killed livio's parents, thus orphaning him. livio learned the truth of razlo's existence at a time when he felt lost, and began to defer to razlo's judgment for their life choices. this led to them joining the Eye of Michael as followers of Millions Knives. after livio's heel face turn, he attempted to "lock away" razlo, but eventually came to terms that they are inseparable and are better off working together. their relationship is companionable but tense as they learn to be "good guys."
- LIVIO: razlo's core/host. unsurprisingly, livio is the most important person in the world to him, and there isn't much razlo wouldn't do to keep him safe, even if it seems cruel or otherwise ill-advised in the moment. even his suggestion to join the Eye was an effort to give livio a goal and a purpose, without which livio would have allowed himself to waste away. razlo is his most staunch defender and biggest hype-man, and gets quite upset when livio puts himself down.
- NICHOLAS D. WOLFWOOD: childhood best friend. wolfwood was the first person to reach out to livio after he arrived at the orphanage and encouraged him to open up and build relationships. livio had a crush on him in childhood and, following wolfwood's death, realized he might have always been in love with him. razlo resents him both because he was chapel's favorite and because in the end, wolfwood did what was best for livio when razlo didn't.
[animal cruelty mention]
- JASMINE: childhood friend. a younger orphan who showed livio affection, and livio came to feel protective over. razlo saved her from a deadly fall off of the orphanage roof, and afterward killed the puppy that caused her fall. livio has briefly met her as an adult, and even though she didn't recognize him, he feels immense guilt for the part he played in her childhood trauma.
- MISS MELANIE: orphanage caretaker and livio's surrogate mother figure. she was always kind and fair to him, defending him even when all the other kids blamed him for the puppy.
[/end animal cruelty mention]
- CHAPEL: livio and razlo's master in the Eye. livio craves leadership and purpose, and razlo craves approval and loyalty, and chapel took advantage of both of them. razlo has lost the memory in the course of his stay in the grove of chapel risking his life to defend him, so he doesn't remember why he was so loyal to chapel, even over livio. ultimately, chapel tried to sacrifice LR in his attempt to kill wolfwood, and razlo killed chapel out of an overwhelming sense of betrayal.
- MILLIONS KNIVES: an independent Plant bent on destroying humanity. in the Eye of Michael, livio and razlo both worked as assassins to further knives' goal, which they believed to be a holy mission. there was a time where they basically viewed him as a wrathful god.
- VASH THE STAMPEDE: an independent Plant, knives' twin brother, and wolfwood's companion. he supported wolfwood in sacrificing his own life in order to free livio from the Eye, and afterward, he held livio responsible for carrying on wolfwood's work. livio feels indebted to him for his positive influence on wolfwood, and consequently on livio himself. additionally, livio feels immense guilt over the pain he has caused vash both in wolfwood's death and in his role as one of the Gung Ho Guns, a group of exceptional killers whose job was "to bring vash the stampede eternal suffering." one thing that weighs particularly heavy on him is a period of eight months in which legato held vash captive and tortured him while livio, still in the Eye at the time, witnessed it and did nothing to stop it.
- LEGATO: knives' right hand man and LR's superior in the Gung Ho Guns. even though they have admitted in no uncertain terms that legato is kind of a freak, livio never used to outright dislike him, though razlo resented that he thought he could order him around. more recently, legato used livio as bait to hurt vash, and livio believes that legato killed him.
- ELENDIRA: a fellow Gung Ho Gun. she remained loyal to knives and was LR's last obstacle before legato and knives in helping vash's mission. they fought viciously and eventually succeeded in killing her. they both respected her and her power, but razlo also had a thing for her. (she found him incredibly annoying.)
- MERYL AND MILLY: vash's companions. livio has only met them briefly, but he fiercely protected them from armed forces trying to stop them.
- BRAD: vash's old companion. when he found out that livio was ultimately responsible for wolfwood's death, he punched livio hard enough to make him stumble and bleed. livio doesn't blame him; in fact, he thinks brad was justified.
in game
- NICHOLAS D. WOLFWOOD: from an alternate timeline, in which a confrontation between the two of them culminated in livio's apparent death rather than wolfwood's. he's a bit more gruff and grumpy than the wolfwood from livio's timeline, but livio has grown to cherish him all the same. in fact, given their presence in the grove, he believes this wolfwood is even more his own, because they've known each other across multiple lifetimes. he is deeply in love with and dedicated to wolfwood, and tries to be someone wolfwood can be proud of. razlo antagonizes him at every chance and vehemently denies it when people say he's flirting like a kid on the playground.
- VASH THE STAMPEDE (dropped): from the same alternate timeline as wolfwood. inversely, a bit more openly goofy and friendly than livio's original vash, though they share the same goals and values. livio has done his best to adopt vash's pacifism and belief in others, and considers vash the single best person he's ever known. livio is also deeply in love with vash, and not handling his loss well. even razlo grew to care about him enough to enter a relationship.
- AIN: another of livio's partners. his goofiness and affection endeared him quickly to livio, and it's been very painful to see him fall deeper into despair over the last few months. livio seems to never be there when shit hits the fan, and can only try to run damage control after the fact. razlo's relationship with him has declined, even if raz doesn't realize why – as far as he's concerned, he likes ain a lot, too, but raz hasn't tried to discuss their relationship outside of livio like he did with vash.
- MERYL: from the same alternate timeline as wolfwood and vash. she's quite a spitfire, and livio and razlo both enjoy how willing she is to put razlo in his place. raz absolutely has a crush.
- LUCA: this guy is even sadder than livio. yes, livio has had a crush on him since pretty much day one.
- WHITE LILY: they both ADORE her. she seems very similar to livio in that she's quiet and kind and a bit goofy and seems to have Been Through Some Shit.
- GNOSIS: has always been around, and has always been willing to help, even if he isn't very social. livio is grateful for him.
- MIZUKI: livio feels protective over him.
- PASSENGER: razlo is wary around him, but doesn't remember why.
- MIN-GI: livio is trying to be niceys and get along. doesn't understand why min-gi looks at him so weird. he should probably have realized already that razlo finds it funny to harass him.
- ADRIAN: the lighthouse guardian, whom livio has aided with vash a couple of times. livio is always worried about him.
- HEIMR: dad. that's his dad.
- NENE: god, he wishes he could take her job away from her.
- MODER: he loves his moose mom.
- SINANN: livio has been hanging out near them along the river since they could only communicate with a bone ring.
- THE BEHEMOTH: this giant lizard is a guardian only in his heart.
- BEIWE AND OURANIA: livio has never had benevolent gods before. he adores both of them. both have helped his partners in one way or another, which is all he needs to be loyal, really.
Beliefs they hold: livio believes he is fundamentally unlovable due to his past actions. he also believes he is any given partner's second choice, a replacement or a supplement, and would not be worth keeping around on his own.
no matter how much he denies it, razlo absolutely has a crush on wolfwood.
Tropes: friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, heel-face turn/the atoner, split personality, beware the nice ones
How does their heart look: two hearts, irreversibly intertwined. vibes of the sun trying to shine even through a terrible rainstorm. lots of old strings snapped off of it, a few appearing to have been far stronger than others, but still severed. very few are currently attached, but there are deep grooves that seem desperate for that kind of connection.
Additional considerations: liv is gay and crushes on any man who is remotely nice to him. raz is bi and crushes on men who are kind to him and liv and women who can put him in his place.
May I contact for more info: 1000% yes
no subject
Yes-ish. Specifically opting out in regards to Ryan, at least for now. There's no reason he can't see what's going on in Min's head (which is why this is still so long...), but interfering at this time would likely hinder more than help and Pavlova could probably see that too.Updating this to no now that confessions have happened.Relationships he can read:
While he has had other relationships over the course of his life, there are only a few standouts. Pavlova may be able to see them, but perhaps take less interest in them.
Ryan Akagi ~ Min-Gi and Ryan were born on the same day at the same hospital, and from that day on their lives have been intertwined. Ryan is his best friend and the most important person in his life. Although Ryan is a very different to Min they're both extremely passionate about music and they care deeply about each other. Having being nearly inseparable for the majority of their lives they have a strong bond and many shared stories and in jokes. It can be hard to break into their dynamic without feeling like a third wheel, though neither of them seem fully aware of this. They're very codependent, and while this hasn't always been so healthy in the past they've made a lot of progress over the past year or so in making it work in a way that is good for both of them. Communication has been the big thing here. They both try to be more open about how they're feeling, and actually listen to each other. They play to their strengths and together they're learning to be the team they've always thought themselves to be.
That said, there are still a few remaining secrets between the two.Min-Gi has even finally confessed he has feelings for Ryan, and while it's mutual they're currently in a weird space while Min learns how to be more comfortable and open about his sexuality.
His Parents ~ This is overall a positive set of relationships! He loves them, and they love him. A lot. He's their only child and they want what's best for him. Unfortunately for Min their idea of this doesn't always align with what he wants for himself. Historically he's almost always gone along with their plans for him, dragging his feet when it comes to the things he doesn't actually want to do rather than using his words to express this to them. They have high expectations and he doesn't want to let them down. In recent times he has started to be more honest about his own wants and needs and as a result Min-Gi has travelled to America to make music with Ryan instead of studying finance at university. They worry about him, but he keeps them updated and tries to minimize their need for concern as much as he can. Or at least he did before winding up in the Grove.
Kez ~ Although they didn't know each other for all that long, Kez still became very important to Min. Enough that she still stands out as a key figure however briefly he knew her. Early on she confused him, and Min-Gi honestly didn't trust her all that much. However, he quickly learned to at least partially learn how to read her and became fond of her. She wasn't always easy to live with, but Min grew a lot as a person in the time he spent with her, and unintentionally or not she helped with that. He misses her.
Sticks CR
Beliefs they hold:
CW: so much internalized homophobia
Min-Gi is from the 1980s. I think that sums up a lot without me getting too deeply into things. He's gay, he does not want to be gay, and does not think his family would accept him as a gay man. He still wants to change, but in his heart he's resigned to eventually agreeing to a marriage with a girl nice enough he can be friends with but will never truly be in love with. It's. Not great.
He has Weird Feelings about how open pretty much everyone else in the Grove is about their sexuality and has no idea what to make of so many of them being in poly situations. He outwardly tries to express positivity, but again... even without powers it's not that hard to see he's a little uncomfortable with it. It scares him while also making him a little jealous. It doesn't seem fair that everyone else gets to be in love with multiple people while he can't let himself accept having feelings for even one person.
For all he tries to push his feelings down you really don't need powers to see that Min is deeply in love with Ryan. Near enough the entire Grove knows, but pointing that out would cause him to freak out, especially now. He's recently gained memories of his past life where he was in a happy and committed relationship with Ryan and was trying to find the perfect time to propose. Clearly horrifying stuff that has sent him spiralling. He's really not in a good place.
Tropes: I'm lazy, so here's the page for Book 4.
How does their heart look:
Min-Gi's heart resembles a personal library. It's neat, but lived in. Almost everything is in shades of blue, though there are hints of white and seafoam as well. Closer inspection will show while nothing is explicitly locked away, some books are tucked further back or on shelves that are inconvenient to access. These represent aspects of his life that Min does not want to deal with and will give off an ominous feeling if approached and appear as though they are further away than they were before. This is only an illusion and they can still be looked at. The books do not contain actual words but "reading" them will still give information relevant to it in as much detail as if they did.
The shelves related to his relationships with other people are the big exception to the colour scheme. These books seem to come in all kinds of colours, though the marker ribbon in each of them seems to be the same colour as the book if mixed with blue. Kez's book is grey, for example, and the marker ribbon is a steely blue. The books with people he feels closest to are sharper in colour, compared to the majority which are more faded. In every book, the ribbon is strangely long and attached to the shelf itself. The length of the ribbon seems to align with how long Mi-Gi has known someone, with both his parents and Ryan's all tying for the longest. If looked at closely, a section of Ryan's ribbon seems to have been cut completely before being neatly repaired.
Additional considerations: Nothing for now.
May I contact for more info: Yes!
no subject
Relationships he can read:
Relationships in Canon:
Vash: Wolfwood's relationship with Vash is Complicated. TL;DR, he was meant to basically lie to and mislead Vash into trusting him so he could get him to a specific location so his canon's bad guys can Get Him. And the thing is- at least up to his current canon point- he does deliver on that...but even in just the short-ish time he ends up spending with Vash traveling causes Wolfwood's worldview to change. He finds Vash to be reckless and naive, someone who is destined to be crushed by the world time and again for daring to hope that things can be better, and yet...he's helped to make Wolfwood less jaded. They become comrades despite their differences (Vash kindof knew about Wolfwood's betrayal all along and just never said anything), and their relationship grows even further while in Sticks. They had...multiple falling outs and a lot of hardship, but they eventually got together romantically. Their relationship remained dysfunctional with many misunderstandings and temporary breakups, but before Vash left Wolfwood did feel like he was finally starting to get on the same foot with him. Unfortunately he never fully got to see that realized, and now he finds himself feeling regretful in Vash's absence, like he could have done more. He misses him deeply but compartmentalizes it like he does most things that bother him.
Livio: Livio is Wolfwood's childhood friend from the orphanage and they are EXTREMELY close. Like, Livio was his closest friend, and even after Wolfwood left he spent much of the following years both missing him yet feeling a sense of relief that he was safe where he left him behind. UNFORTUNATELY...this would turn out to NOT be the case, as the same cult that grabbed Wolfwood also grabs Livio and brainwashes him. Wolfwood leaves off on his canonpoint believing Livio is dead and being really super fucked up over it. The funny thing is, the Livio in Sticks is actually not the Livio from his world, which is something they've spoken about and he's come to terms with, and he tries not to think too hard about how there even could be a difference since it still "feels" like the Livio he knew. Regardless, their relationship once more had the chance to grow in Sticks, and they've since begun a romantic relationship. Wolfwood is thankful for Livio every day and clings to the hope that he won't leave any time soon, yet still harbors deep regret over his "death" in canon and constantly worries he's going to one day be whisked back to a world without him.
Meryl: He and Meryl do not get along terribly well! When they do interact they're constantly bickering and bantering in canon, and Wolfwood acts like he doesn't really respect her all that much or take her super seriously. It's not uncommon for him to keep people at arm's length, and Meryl is no exception. However, just because they don't always see eye-to-eye doesn't make him completely heartless or devoid of emotion towards her, as his last canon point reflects him saving her from what would have been a certain death in the wake of the total annihilation of a city they were in at the time. They part ways under unknown circumstances (canon doesn't go over what Wolfwood does or where he goes during this time skip), but it can be assumed that he did what he could to get her somewhere safe before moving on. His relationship with her hasn't grown much since her arrival in Sticks, but he's secretely relieved to see that she's doing okay after everything.
Knives: Wolfwood HATES Knives. He's the sole catalyst for the cult he's trapped in existing, and he's aggressing the world he calls home. If it weren't for him, Wolfwood wouldn't even be where he is in life currently, and he holds a huge chip on his shoulder for his "employer". The two DO NOT get along, and for the brief time Knives was in Sticks, they had a very tenuous truce going on just to keep Vash happy.
Chapel: Pavlova will be able to sense a deep, dark, twisted relationship to the man who runs the cult that Wolfwood is working with, but this one in particular Wolfwood is not giving up much information about, even subconsciously. Though the man is on his mind in some way almost all the time, he keeps his feelings about him under heavy lock and key.
Relationships from Sticks:
Ain: When Wolfwood first met Ain, Ain got on his every last nerve. He couldn't stand the guy and every time he opened his mouth Wolfwood wanted to throw him out a window. They had this sort of back-and-forth bantering relationship for a while before Wolfwood got to know Ain more over time, and eventually they would begin a romantic relationship and he'd cement himself as one of Wolfwood's most important people. He has a lot of emotional and mental baggage surrounding not being able to protect Ain, and feeling like he's constantly letting him down/disappointing him in some way or another. He fears that Ain doesn't trust him, but at the same time he trusts Ain implicitly with his life. He loves him deeply and wishes he could be a better person, or at least the type of person he feels like Ain deserves.
Flamebringer: He and Flamebringer had/have(???) an incredibly antagonistic relationship. They fight physically all the time, and although they were fighting to Kill originally, these days they fight for the joy of it. Fighting is their weird love language, because over time the two ended up becoming hopelessly tangled with one another, forming a romantic relationship long before they ever learned they're actually a married couple in their past lives. Some things never change, and though they refuse to apply direct labels to their relationship (they don't call each other their boyfriends, or anything), they still mean a LOT to one another and love each other, even if it's not a traditional sort of love.
Mizuki: Mizuki is both his therapist and his little guy. One of his longest standing relationships in Sticks, Mizuki means a great deal to Wolfwood and he just wants to see him happy and okay. He feels like the little guy takes on way too many burdens for others and he wonders if he's ever as okay as he portrays himself, especially after what happened with the Arbor a couple months ago.
Others: He has a lot of CR from being in game for a while now that I won't detail it all here (this is mainly for romantic relationships/those he considers to be familial) but there's a part of him that considers the Grove to be a weird little family. At this point, he's not sure what he'd do without them all.
Beliefs they hold: Wolfwood thinks he fucking sucks, man. His sense of self worth is in the TOILET and despite his attitude and the way he goes about life, he feels a lot of the time like everyone he knows would be a lot better off if he was never there, particularly that of the orphanage which is in constant peril. It's kindof ironic, to him, that the kids are safe only because he's still breathing, which is a huge reason why he refuses to die. He refuses to take the coward's way out no matter how he feels, and would rather continue living than have someone go through what he's been through. He loves those who are close to him deeply, but he knows they could do so much better.
Tropes: Wolfwood is a true tsundere archetype. He acts like he doesn't care but in reality he's a soft gooey marshmallow inside. This man's entire reason for living is to keep an orphanage safe for god's sake.
How does their heart look: His heart is dark and heavily guarded. It seems hard to approach, yet there's light breaking through the cracks and gaps. The strings seem like they could fall away at any moment, yet are attached impossibly tightly regardless of this fact.
Additional considerations: Wolfwood's relationships involving the cult have a lot of CWs attached so if you ever wanna learn more about those (and aren't canon familiar) please keep that in mind!
May I contact for more info: Go for it!
no subject
Relationships he can read:
Canon
Thankfully, Katsuki Bakugo's relationships with most of his classmates are fairly consistent across the board. He respects and cares about all of them in his own rough punkish/tsundere way. That said, he holds Izuku Midoriya in a league of his own. Shoto Todoroki also stands out as her is part of the "Big Three" alongside Bakugo and Izuku. While the series is a Shounen and doesn't dive too deeply into every dynamic, these relationships are among the more notable ones, each carrying its weight and significance worth mentioning.
Romantic - They can be, but these feelings are the same as fans have for idols or people have reverence for those beyond them, etc. I always backpack off these feelings personally, for when he wants to try to understand romantic love.
Stixs
At this time, Bakugo doesn't have any close relationships; he regards Lily Cookie with some favoritism in that he misses his mom. Though Lily is not anything like her, she is older, and so Katsuki just soaks that in. He thinks Wolfwood is cool, doesn't like that Mamika says they're a magical girl - when he feels she isn't. He thinks everyone in sticks is fucking W E I R D , he kind of hates it here. Actually, deep down, really hurt and wants to go home.
At this time I haven't worked on his stixs self yet sooo.. I'll update that when I do.
Beliefs they hold:
A B O U T
At his core, Katsuki Bakugo believes in winning - above all else. This is a headcanon, but it's strongly supported by how he refuses to call anyone in Class 1-A his friend. Even Izuku.To him, everyone is the enemy - and he means that affectionately. Accepting the idea of friendship, in his mind, means forfeiting to basically weakness in of itself. Something he works tirelessly to avoid. So he lies to himself, or outright denies having friends, not out of malice but out of a deep-seated need to be taken seriously. Whether friend or not, he wants others to see him as a rival, as a challenge - because only then will they bring their best to a fight, and he can face them at full strength. Katsuki wants nothing less; otherwise, he will interpret it as disrespecting him.
I do write Katsuki as the kind of person who, once he realizes you have feelings for him - whether subtle or straightforward, will return them in kind. But love, for him, is a loaded gun. Powerful, volatile, and not something he handles lightly or wants at all, really.
I write Katsuki as leaning aro/ace - not because he lacks the capacity for love, but because his drive to win and become a Hero leaves him with zero interest in romance. The desire to want, even naturally, is just not there for him. It simply doesn't register as a priority. That is, until he's forced to confront his own feelings, for an example, like with Izuku, when the idea of losing someone genuinely good rattles him.
What does that mean to him? What is he supposed to do with that? Romance only starts to matter to Katsuki when it's placed directly in front of him, whether as something he needs to understand himself. Or when it's personal - and even then, he has to choose to try to understand it on his own terms, otherwise, he'll just get mad. Love for him 100% is never going to be the same for other people/general person.
He'll never pursue love for love's sake. He would with Izuku, but only because of their long, situationship of 10+ years. And if someone else had shared that kind of deep-rooted situationship with him? It would be the same, so it's not just because it's Izuku, it's because he has a LONG-STANDING friendship with him.
Tropes: Link
How does their heart look: 431+ SPOILERS
Spoilers
Someone is holding it together, with a string of its own. Maybe in how a heart is just a heart, but his is literally like a heart that is woven into shape. Made of strings now? The heart noteable was destroyed, his heart now is his own, but it was created for him to stand on his own. He is very well loved.One little star shining bright, representing the small bit of sweat that brought him back to life. And the little members from All Might's vestige, keeping him safe just for a little longer.
For a boy who acts so brash, he has a big heart and loves everyone around him very hard.
Additional considerations: 431+ SPOILERS
Spoilers
I take him from canon where he just died, so to him, he thinks he is permanently dead. Otherwise, I cannot think of anything else. His heart was what burst/stabbed when he died, so like... Whatever you wanna interpret with that. Go for it.May I contact for more info: Yes, always, I love things like this!
no subject
Relationships he can read:
Canon Relationships
Ruby Rose (platonic, formerly romantic): A girl that Oscar has a tremendous amount of respect and affection for. He used to have a crush on her. There are still some dregs of that crush lingering on, but for the most part his feelings have matured into something deeper and platonic. Oscar believes she's dead and is in the process of mourning her.Jaune Arc (platonic, somewhat fraternal): A good friend and surrogate older brother. Oscar cares deeply for Jaune, though there have been moments where he feared him instead. Oscar believes he's dead and is in the process of mourning him.
Nora, Ren (platonic): Close friends of Oscar, though not as close as Jaune or Ruby.
Weiss, Blake, Yang (platonic): More close friends of Oscar, though not as close as Nora and Ren. Oscar believes they're dead and is in the process of mourning them.
Ozpin (platonic, familial, extremely fraught): Here's an absolute clusterfuck of a relationship. On one hand, Ozpin inspires feelings of frustration, anger, resentment, and even fear in Oscar. On the other hand, he also inspires feelings of respect, admiration, affection, pride, protectiveness, and the sort of love someone might feel towards a father or older brother. Overall, the main word to describe Oscar's relationship with Ozpin is 'contradiction'. Oscar wishes he had never met Ozpin, and credits meeting Ozpin with changing his life for the better. He wishes Ozpin would go away, and desperately fears the idea of never hearing from him again. He holds Ozpin responsible for many of the awful things that have happened to him, and feels an extreme amount of indignant anger on Ozpin's behalf.
And as a final metaphysically weird cherry on top, while these feelings are very clearly directed towards another person they can sometimes read as being directed towards Oscar himself as well. Not in the sense that they are being directed at two separate people, but in the sense that directing them at Ozpin is somehow indistinguishable from directing them at Oscar
Sticks Relationships
Dipper (complicated, poorly defined): A version of Oscar from another universe was dating Dipper. While Oscar's own feelings towards Dipper are undeniably platonic, he is equally undeniably fond of Dipper and considers him a friend. Discomfort, sympathy, and guilt over the whole 'not actually your boyfriend' thing blanket the rest of their interactions.Joshua, Stephanie (platonic): The two people in the Grove that Oscar is closest to (aside from Dipper). He would consider them both friends and has nothing but admiration for either of them.
Callan (NPC) (negative): Oscar is straight up terrified of this guy.
Other Sticks friends: Oscar's relationship with these characters is positive, but not yet deep or complicated enough to merit special comment: Stan Pines, Flamebringer, Sindey, Till, Ain, Pavlova Cookie, Pure Vanilla Cookie
Beliefs They Hold: For now, Oscar actually has a pretty accurate read on his relationships to other people! The main thing is that while he can admit that interacting with Dipper feels weird, he's been forcing himself to ignore how weird it feels.
Tropes: Here is Oscar's actual TVtropes page! Of particular note are: bookworm, deadpan snarker, farm boy, guile hero, it sucks to be the chosen one, loss of identity
How does their heart look?: Oscar has a small number of strings, nearly all of which are attached to him in a way that could be considered supportive and healthy. There are only two things of note.
First, there is one especially weird and tangled string, wrapped around his heart too tightly and tangled up in the other strings attached to him. It's not clear where this string is coming from, and may at times seem like it's somehow coming from Oscar himself. If you need a theme color for this one, it would be emerald green.
Second, there is an impression of 'ghost' strings surrounding him! Relationships that aren't actually his, but have somehow become attached to him regardless.
Other things to consider: If Padovana can read things thoroughly enough, he might be able to pick up that the weirdness surrounding Oscar and Ozpin is because their souls are being slowly merged into one.
May I contact for more info: Yes!
Joins this late witha goblin child cw: for child abuse-
Relationships he can read: So, there is really one person Mephisto unconditionally loves. Which might be concerning, since he's only 15. There's others where love might be present, but it's muddled and gross and complicated. If Pavlova can sense the lack of love, he'll definitely see that Mephisto's default is just to loathe or be indifferent towards people. He is not open - everything is very shut off.
But the one person he does love is a boy named Sasha (or his codename, Faust). It's almost an innocent and playful sort of love. Like, they grew up together. Sasha wanted to protect him from all harm. Sasha become stronger for Mephisto. Sasha was able to eat and learn to read because of Mephisto. They did everything together. Even when Mephisto grew to hate the world and everyone in it, he still always loved Sasha. He was still always kind to Sasha. But now Sasha is dead, and Mephisto is in a constant state of grief and depression because, well, Sasha was his best friend. His true love. The only person in the world he cared about.
There's a few other people that Mephisto has sort of a "familial" relationship with. But it's complicated. One is FrostNova, who Mephisto used to see as a big sister figure, until she started to hate the person Mephisto was. It's only at the end of her life, when she died, that Mephisto realized she still cared about him. The other is Talulah, who used to care for Mephisto, until she got possessed and started treating him like a weapon-
It's a lot!!!! Basically!!!! Anyway, Mephisto doesn't know how to love anyone anymore. Even in Sticks, he's just manipulating people into being friends with him, and liking him. Lily and Till are both people he doesn't totally hate, but he sees them both as a means to further his own goals, rather than actually form a meaningful relationship with them......
Beliefs they hold: Mephisto is just very hurt, and has been emotionally and physically abused for most of his childhood, so he doesn't actually hate-hate everyone? He used to be a very shy, very loving person. He does care, he just convinces himself not to. He wants to love and be loved, but he doesn't want to be hurt, so he pushes people away and incites violence to keep it that way.
Tropes: idk if "Yandere as fuck" counts, but if he gets close, he just will not let go. Sasha had allowed this and never attempted to correct this sort of behavior from Mephisto, so he never tried to better himself. Now if he gets attached to someone, it's an icky, gross, festering sort of affection, even if it's just platonic.
How does their heart look: I imagine Mephisto's is what you would expect of someone like him. A bleeding heart, but surrounded by sharp, black, thorn-y vines.
May I contact for more info: Yes pls talk to me always!!! Discord is the best way to hmu, and I will likely slide into ur dms at some point too fair warning
anyway ilu kiss u
no subject
Relationships he can read:
He also clearly doesn't know how to be a person. He's obsessed with his mission and has no real friends or family outside of the Bat team. He tries to be a parent to the many orphans he has adopted (all Robins), but he's clumsy with it. He doesn't know how to be good to people.
He's also frickin' Batman, and he's scarily competent, and he's basically a legend. His approval is like the Holy Grail. She hates that, but if you're going to respect and hate someone at the same time it might as well be Batman, right?
Steph likes Tim a lot, even now, but he was a terrible boyfriend to her. Like Batman, he was constantly telling her to quit and tearing down her confidence. He was very sweet and supportive of everything else in her life! But he was dating another girl when they met, and he never told Steph that. Steph was never his first priority. They fought a couple of times and were a bit on-again-off-again up until the Gang War*.
*The War Games story arc is complicated. I'll try to sum it up: Tim's dad find out he's Robin, Tim is grounded, no more Robin. Steph becomes Robin, then gets fired a few months later and accidentally sets off a city-wide gang war that was definitely 99% Batman's fault but is blamed 100% on Steph both in-character and out. Steph is tortured and ultimately dies. BUT WAIT, A RETCON! She was actually in Africa with her doctor, who faked her death to make Batman feel bad. Steph comes back to Gotham, and everyone still blames her for the gang war, and now they also blame her for faking her death, and everything sucks.
Back to Tim- after Steph comes back to life, they are determined to be Broken Up, and Tim is angry at Steph for faking her death, and also for getting killed, and also for still being Spoiler. Their relationship holds this pattern until after Steph becomes Batgirl. Then he decides he wants to get back together! Steph declines.
Steph is a little in love with Cass. Cass is even scarier than Batman, but also the most compassionate and heroic person you could ever hope to meet, and also built like fricken Wonder Woman. Steph's not completely convinced that it's an actual crush yet, and doesn't quite consider herself bisexual yet, but it's definitely there.
Beliefs they hold:
Steph is avoiding romance for now to focus on herself for a bit. It's recently come to her attention that her relationship with Tim made her feel bad about herself and a little bit miserable, and clearly the solution is to just not date for a while. She's not actually doing anything about any of this, but it'll work itself out, right? And it's been easy to forget about romance because she's pretty sure every guy in the Grove is gay, except maybe the old guys, who she's not actually going to think about long enough to determine one way or the other.
She has completely missed all signs of Cass's clear interest in her because Cass is just sort of awkward with people! And they're very close friends, and clearly that is what Cass has been communicating.
She's a bit in denial about her own feelings for Cass because they ARE such close friends, and Cass is so important to her that she doesn't want to risk messing that up unless she's REALLY SURE about what she's feeling. Or if Cass makes the first move. She'd be cool with that.
Tropes: TV Tropes!
How does their heart look:
Beat up and covered in bandages, but still going strong. She's taken a lot of pain in her life and gotten pretty accustomed to being unhappy, but she continues to roll with the punches and decided to stay positive if it actually literally kills her. She's trying very, very hard. In the end, she's still faking it though.
Additional considerations:
Comics is so much. If the opportunity arises it would be fun to poke at her questioning sexuality, but there's not really much opportunity for it in Sticks? We'll see.
May I contact for more info: Yes, I'm sorry, Comics is So Much
no subject
Relationships he can read: in the game, his love for White Lily Cookie, and confusion about Shadow Milk Cookie. with White Lily Cookie, Elder Faerie's love is familial, almost, not really romantic. he regards her in such high esteem and wants to protect her from harm. he's not sure about Shadow Milk Cookie, now, because he trusts White Lily Cookie's judgment. so his thoughts are jumbled there, same with his feelings towards Pavlova Cookie.
otherwise, Pavlova can see his connection to the Salt of Solidarity, and his strong friendship with him. love for other characters, like the Faeries and Silver Knights from his Kingdom are also dear and familial.
Beliefs they hold: his crush on the Salt of Solidarity wasn't a crush, really! it was only strong friendship, there was no way that the other would feel that way about him, right? haaa... haha...
Tropes: silentfaerie doomed yaoi Y_Y
How does their heart look: a beautiful silver heart that beats faintly, wrapped in White Lily Cookie's and Silent Salt Cookie's threads. it used to be protected by threads of Faeries from the Kingdom, but, alas, no longer.
Additional considerations: i am trying to stay pretty faithful to canon for him, aside from the crush on the Salt of Solidarity (if we ever get a Silent Salt Cookie in this game, i don't want anyone to feel obligated or forced into my own headcanons, so it's just a crush, for now).
May I contact for more info: Yes, PM or discord me
GETS YOU GETS YOU GETS YOU
Relationships he can read:
in game
- KYOJURO: the flame hashira who protected tanjiro when akaza tried to execute him. his level of power and passion captivated akaza during their fight, to the point he lost track of his original goal and of time. he offered multiple times to convert kyojuro into a demon, so that they could grow stronger together forever, and each time kyojuro rebuked him. when they both finally went all out, akaza overpowered kyojuro and mortally wounded him by punching through his solar plexus. even knowing he would die, kyojuro still refused to become a demon, and tried to hold akaza in place until the sun rose. ultimately, akaza broke off his own limbs to escape.
[suicide attempt mention:] when he entered the grove, akaza was confronted by kyojuro but did not antagonize him. in fact, he asked kyojuro to move aside so that he could step into the sunlight. kyojuro recognized that akaza had changed since he died, and challenged him to continue living, to hone his moral fortitude just as he had honed his physical strength. their relationship is nothing like the demonic partnership akaza had envisioned, but that isn't a bad thing. akaza has come to greatly admire kyojuro's convictions. he doesn't yet fully realize it, but he feels emotional and physical attraction to kyojuro. however, he feels he is unworthy of kyojuro's affection, both for killing him and for being a demon with an enormous body count, so he unconsciously sabotages any progress toward a relationship.
unlike his insistence during their fight for kyojuro to renounce his humanity, now akaza doesn't want kyojuro to ever compromise his morals for his sake. kyojuro bought human flesh from the shopkeeper just to keep akaza from eventually going feral, and akaza refused to eat it because he felt it would be an unforgivable betrayal of kyojuro to himself.
- SENJURO: out of respect for kyojuro, akaza avoids being around him, aka no weasel rping with himself lol.
- FLAMEBRINGER: once kissed kyojuro with blood, which means akaza has to fucking kill this guy.
- WHITE LILY: akaza respects her and tries to be a polite young man around her.
- VILDRED: he and akaza embarrassed themselves together spying on spin the bottle. vildred is obviously super into ras. couldn't be akaza!
- GENYA: a demon slayer and a FREAK who ate akaza's tooth. his powers are very unique and interesting, and the kid is entertaining with how unhinged he is. akaza likes to fuck with him, but wouldn't actually hurt him.
- AIRA: sonboy. he protecc. he seems sensitive and kind, the exact personality that activates akaza's caretaker instinct. akaza wants to learn more about him to better help him.
- MAFUYU: daughtergirl. he protecc. she shared some concerning things at the king's game, things that he can very much relate to, and akaza wants to give her a safe space to be vulnerable.
- PAVLOVA: sonboy. u get it. he comes across as tender and deeply hurt, which akaza sees his child self in despite pav admitting to being thousands of years old. even if they've only talked briefly, akaza has found it difficult to keep things from him, even the things that are usually difficult for him to talk about.
- JOSHUA ROSFIELD: the healer who helped kyojuro with his wounds from their fight, as well as the wounds he received from protecting akaza at the circus labyrinth. akaza feels deeply indebted to him.
- LUCA: akaza embarrassed himself by shittalking luca's cooking in his own house. he does his best to avoid luca while he learns how to be a big boy and apologize.
- ZOEY: a fascinating young lady! akaza likes her.
- MYSTERY: another demon, but not the same sort as he is. akaza is intrigued, but still bristles at him. how dare he pick up akaza's human.
- HEIMR: at first, akaza didn't like the shopkeeper by merit of him providing kyojuro with human flesh to offer akaza. he has since spoken to heimr about it, and guesses the man isn't so bad.
- BEIWE: due to her role as the sun, akaza feels an instinctual distrust and fear of her.
- SURI: he tried to use koyuki and keizo to manipulate akaza. if not for kyojuro, it probably would have worked. reminds akaza way too much of muzan. can't stand him. would knock his head off in an instant if allowed to.
from canon
- HAKUJI/AKAZA: hakuji was akaza in his human life, which he forgot completely after becoming a demon. he only remembered his human life within minutes of dying, and now he is struggling to reconcile both parts of himself with his entire memory intact. he actively chooses to continue going by "akaza" as a form of self-punishment for his sins.
- FATHER: hakuji's only birth family. a kind, gentle man who suffered worsening chronic illness and malnourishment for hakuji's entire impoverished childhood. hakuji was his caretaker and had to steal to get money for medicine and food. [mentions of suicide and basically police brutality:] after hakuji was caught and punished multiple times, including receiving criminal tattoos and beatings of 100 lashings multiple times by age 11, his father hung himself so that hakuji would no longer feel obligated to resort to crime to take care of him. hakuji did not understand this, as he gladly would have taken any punishment to take care of his father.
- KEIZO: a bare-fisted Soryu martial arts master who found 15-year-old hakuji starting street fights with multiple grown men at once. as he put it, he "beat the criminal out of hakuji" and took him in as the sole student at his dojo. he taught hakuji to channel his penchant for fighting into something healthy, and over three years became a new father to him.
- KOYUKI: keizo's daughter who endured chronic illness like hakuji's father. he was designated her caretaker in exchange for his room and board at the dojo. they both brought out the kind and gentle natures of one another and fell in love over three years. they were engaged when hakuji was 18, and he promised to spend his life protecting her.
- KENJUTSU DOJO: the neighboring dojo whose master, a samurai, coveted keizo's, a commoner's, land. the master's son wanted koyuki as a bride, but treated her roughly. once, the master and his son, both wielding swords, had a two-on-two duel with keizo and hakuji, who wielded no weapons, which the soryu dojo won. the kenjutsu master respected their victory and backed off. however, his son still resented them, and after the master died, his son poisoned the soryu dojo's well, killing keizo and koyuki while hakuji was away. before he could even see his family buried, hakuji entered the kenjutsu dojo and killed all 67 of its fully armed members with his bare hands.
- MUZAN: the progenitor of demons, who turns humans into demons by infecting them with his cells. he followed rumors of the kenjutsu dojo massacre, which was so violent and one-sided that it was said to be the work of a demon. he found hakuji and converted him (who did not agree to it, but also did not resist) into a demon. akaza then lost his human memories and became one of muzan's strongest, oldest, and most loyal demons. this loyalty likely only existed as a biological tie, as he felt neither respect for nor fear of muzan.
- 12 KIZUKI: muzan's strongest demons, consisting of upper ranks and lower ranks. akaza was Upper 3. anyone lower than him, he did not concern himself with at all.
- KOKUSHIBO: Upper 1, and one of few demons older than akaza. akaza begrudgingly respected his power but still disliked him and sought to grow strong enough to defeat him. he once challenged kokushibo for Upper Rank 1, but lost. typically, the losers of these duels are absorbed by the winner, but kokushibo allowed akaza to live because he found his level of power and determination entertaining.
- DOUMA: Upper 2, a demon younger than akaza who amassed power quickly and usurped him. akaza received special permission from muzan to never kill or eat women; douma almost exclusively ate women and delighted in torturing them, and constantly tried to pressure akaza into doing so. akaza, who notoriously loved talking to humans, would violently strike douma outside of duels, a taboo for kizuki, for trying to talk to him. i cannot emphasize enough how much akaza fucking hated this man.
- HUMANS: akaza avoided fighting, killing, or eating women, even those in the demon slayer corps. any men who did not have the power to keep up with him, he killed quickly. those who could present a challenge, he loved to talk to and "play with" in combat. without fail, he would offer to convert them to demons, otherwise he killed and ate them. the few who ever accepted his offer did not survive the transformation.
- HASHIRA: pillars of the demon slayer corps, their strongest members. over his demon lifetime, he fought and killed many hashira, each one of whom he offered to convert. every single one refused him.
- TANJIRO: a demon slayer with a mutual personal vendetta against muzan. from the moment they met, he viscerally repulsed akaza. when akaza fled the sun after fatally wounding kyojuro, tanjiro called him a coward. months later, when muzan trapped the entire corps inside his stronghold, akaza confronted tanjiro again with the intent to kill him quickly. tanjiro had gained enough power and skill to impress akaza, but his passion for morality still disgusted him.
tanjiro was able to achieve a state of being that akaza called "the realm of the highest," where he was able to release his fighting spirit and thus become impossible for akaza to read. in this state, he confronted akaza head on and decapitated him with no resistance, which akaza could not accept, and his headless body continued to fight, a feat that almost no demons could perform.
ultimately, an exhausted tanjiro punched akaza in the face as he regenerated his head, an act that reminded him of his master, keizo. once he acknowledged his human memories, akaza accepted that tanjiro had defeated him fairly in battle and allowed himself to die with honor. now, he feels immense gratitude toward tanjiro for helping him remember who he was.
- GIYU: the water hashira who fought akaza alongside tanjiro in the castle. like kyojuro, akaza greatly admired his combat skills and toyed with him. also like kyojuro, giyu refused akaza's offer to become a demon, and even akaza's attempts at other conversation. akaza found him so fascinating that he allowed giyu to live long enough to use every single water breathing technique, after which he attempted to kill giyu, which tanjiro thwarted.
after tanjiro beheaded him and collapsed from exhaustion, giyu, despite grievous injury, protected the boy from akaza's repeated attempts to finish him off. giyu's defiance even with the very real possibility of his own death reminded akaza of his master keizo's own values, which initially led to him beginning to recall his human life. although it repulsed him at the time, akaza has come to admire and be grateful to giyu for reminding him of his humanity.
Beliefs they hold:
a portrait they found in their grove home implies that hakuji was married to both koyuki and kyojuro in their past lives. while he isn't explicitly homophobic, akaza can't quite wrap his head around being attracted to another man, much less having multiple partners.
akaza doesn't believe he is worthy of receiving kindness from anyone at this point, romantic or platonic. even if he wasn't a demon with centuries of eating humans, hakuji still committed murder as a human, with his master's soryu style nonetheless.
he believes that being in the grove is both a sort of purgatory and a punishment for his actions in life. when he had finally accepted his death, he escaped muzan's control and became hakuji again in spirit, and the spirits of his father, koyuki, and keizo welcomed him to the afterlife and were willing to endure hell with him. here, he doesn't even get to be beside them as he is punished – and it is punishment. he still inhabits a demon body, subject to demon weaknesses and demonic hunger for human flesh.
Tropes: tragic monster, challenge seeker, determinator, slasher smile, you are what you hate, wouldn't hit a girl
How does their heart look:
like a fist, the veins and arteries clenched fingers instead. it still flexes like it's beating, strong when alone but fluttery and nervous when around others. something tender and fragile pretending to be intimidating. there are scars where old strings have broken off, some uglier than others. the existing strings are various colors, each relevant to their respective "owner." they seem tenuously connected, as if each flexed heartbeat might cause them to snap off.
Additional considerations: none at this time!
May I contact for more info: ALWAYS