What’s Markus like? How are his relationships with Penelope and her fathers?
Markus and Penelope askssss.
Markus is a young scrappy warrior from the coasts of the Terrieranean Sea (it's a pun on the mediterranean if you need help with pronounciation lmao). He's ruthless in enemies and respectful to allies and upholds societal expectations for men very very well. He was born after his home state (name pending) was swallowed up by the Dogman empire, and he's very proud to be born into it. He easily climbed up the ranks for, again, his ruthlessness and confidence. He was noticed by Aurelius and Augustus, and Augustus decided to set his Better Daughter (Penelope) up to marry him.
Penelope, as a counterpart to Markus, is what the ideal polite woman in Dogman society should be. She's submissive, and nice, and doesn't complain, and just takes and takes and takes. And she's fine : ) Maybe sometimes she's stressed but she's okay : ) She promises : ) She doesn't feel strange about her mom becoming her dad and she has no complicated feelings about becoming a mother of her own. no siree.
Despite Markus being How He Is, he actually is very sweet with Penelope. He's in love with her, and feels like he's actually able to be a bit softer around her. Just a bit. Penelope also does love him, despite burying a lot of her mixed complex feelings for other's comfort, she enjoys being taken care of by Markus. It's like. They are In Love with a capital L, but even with that there are still issues and cracks just because of like. the cracks in society. Penelope is heavily pregnant for a lot of the story, but I know they have a pair of twins, one girl and one boy, over the course of the story. Which brings more problems and tension for Penelope.
now, Markus loves Penelope, he likes Augustus, he amires Aurelius a lot but Markus does notttttt like Cato <: ) .......Cato is a lot more resistant to Markus' vagabond nature around his daughter, and Markus is pissed that a "woman" is trying to tell him what to do. The two are around each other a decent amount too, since they both like Aurelius. In Markus's mind, Cato can complain all he wants, because in the end Markus knows who the real man between the two is.
As for Penelope and Juno...the two do not talk much. They were very close when they were pups, but Juno became more and more of a problem, while Penelope got molded into a perfect lady. The two still care about the other a lot, but for Penelope there's inklings of like... "Why can't you just behave like how I was made to" and resenting her (perceived) freedom, while Juno's feelings are like "Everyone wants me to be like you because you're so perfect and special" while also feeling sad for penelope in the way of like. "How can you stand being treated like this" and wishing she got her fathers' favor.
