secret gardens, lunar valleys

I solved this by switching genres for each POV. so when you're with Protactinium-231, it's a rom-com. things are bouncy and mostly fun. but when you're with Tantalus? it's a gothic horror. he's stuck in a wheel of abuse, in a temple deep underground, where his ancient mother prunes her brood. this is where the cannibal incest comes in. but there is one shard of hope: the Elder Gods seek to rise again, and in doing so, they will spread their curse, eliminating the humans who keep his family trapped in their own filth!

and then there's Fidelgard (the last POV) who's in a more traditional politics-oriented fantasy. she alone seems to understand that the other two are bringing in their own contradictory genres, and she is SO fed up with it all.

Fidelgard is my favourite character. she was barely supposed to be in the book initially, but she ended up taking over the entire plot and changing the grande finale. my original idea was: what if Protactinium had a straight man to follow him around and go “oh no!!!” every time he did something stupid. and it’d be better if they looked fussy, so what if they had super intricate medieval clothing and a Beatles bowl-cut. then for some reason (I didn’t make her do this) Fidelgard became extremely violent and skinned a man, and I realized she was the coolest person in the world. and that’s how the book became the Fidelgard show

Yeah

It's old-fashioned. It's modern. It's butch. It's femme. It's snazzy. It's practical.

Wikipedia talks about the bloomers and the leg-o-mutton sleeves, but I'm also noticing a lot of these outfits have absolute supervillain lapels, which I also like a lot.