people are good

island era

claire is completely valentine’s day apathetic and sees it only as a marketing opportunity. she organizes a bunch of corny stuff like themed dinosaur merch, special vacation packs, the restaurants having specials, etc.

owen bothers her more than ever for those two weeks of febuary. he jokes about taking her to try the restaurant specials but he’s only joking if she says no. he absolutely wants to do it, he’s just too nervous about the possible rejection if he outright asks. but it’s a catch 22 because claire is never going to say yes if she thinks he’s just messing with her like usual

like many things, owen is also valentine’s day apathetic EFC (except for claire). he doesn’t generally care about the concept but her existence kind of lobotomizes him. it’s one of those things where he’s like oh okay guess that’s happening next week. until he thinks about it a little longer and realizes that if he does nothing one of the billion guys in her office will probably send her flowers and she’ll fall in love instantly and send owen an invite to her stupid weddings so he sprints to the gift shop to buy her a stupid pink dinosaur so he can be the first one to send her anything because if any clown is going to charm her in this circus it will be HIM!

and she is charmed but island era claire will die before admitting that. she’s tuff shit. the ice queen persona is very serious to her. shes all “Thank you, Mister Grady 😐” but she’s kicking her feet a little on the inside. based on my personal thoughts and what we can infer from canonical material like EoC, she is very much someone who was excluded from this growing up (because they all thought she was an autistic loser) so it’s a very novel thing. she pretends her standards are high but the actual bar is in hell. love her she’s experienced nothing but suffering.

in my island timeline, the date happens a few months prior to the indominus. it just doesn’t make sense to me for it to be a long time before. this places it in june/julyish so unfortunately no super awkward post-date v-day. but owen comes to the island and meets her some time in 2012 so they’ll have 3 in this period (2013,14, and 15).

“together for survival” era

in my personal interpretation of the facts, there will be 2 of these. 2016 and 17. they’re broken up during february 2018.

v-day 2016 has the unfortunate timing of being absolutely surrounded by legal jargon. the trials have barely begun and are taking up so much emotional capacity.

it’s owen’s excuse to drag her away from doomspiralling though. he’s like claire you have to pay attention to me it’s valentineeesss. and it works somehow. she puts the emails down for a night.

it’s a very lowkey night both because the relationship is very new and because there are paparazzi following their every move. claire in particular quite the celebrity. it’s really just a dinner date. and of course owen makes a quip like wow this is our best date yet and claire is like this isn’t a date and owen is like yes it is and they argue about that for an hour.

v-day 2017 has a way better mood. the trial is still on-going but owen’s not needed anymore and claire is rarely needed. i see early 2017 as the calm before the storm. they’re at their peak still.

more than anything, it’s just an excuse to have a date night. something exactly like they would’ve done last month but it’s special because it’s valentine’s day you see.

claire would try to start it somewhat high brow with dinner at 7pm. but I do think they’d some how end up drunk and bumbling around town until 2am. in my head claire is a lightweight so the moment she starts on something owen knows it’s time to switch to water and chaperone. she’s a very specific type of drunk I can only explain as very supportive drunk girl in the club bathroom. very endearing. owen thinks it’s cute.

break up era

this is only 2018 v-day. and it’s a really miserable day. claire is at the dpg working until midnight (she’s probably passing out on her desk) because she doesn’t want to have a single thought and owen is getting wasted. and not funny haha wasted but like black out on the floor wasted.

post-maisie era

and then we reach every v-day post 2018. I think they get pretty uniform at this point because well. they’re a committed couple. not much changes from year to year.

and I think it’s overall a pretty domestic day. sometime that week owen’ll get flowers for the vase in the kitchen, because claire loves a centerpiece, and that’s something nice for everyone to look at. they buy chocolate. not necessarily for each other but because it’s a great excuse to do so. claire would love those stupid pretentious fancy chocolates I fear. you can take the girl from the penthouse but not the penthouse from the girl. owen and maisie are really easy to please milk chocolate enjoyers

a lot of the day is spent with maisie because well that’s their daughter who lives with them. she thinks they’re gross and disgusting but is more lenient about voicing this on v-day. that’s her gift to them #generous. after maisie’s down they’d spend the rest of the evening together like usual. maybe more physically affectionate to really indulge. but like. idk they’re already glued at the hip in established relationship material we’re given. I don’t know what else they can realistically Do barring crystal gem fuse together.