Would You Like to Play a Game?

One of Arknights' greatest sleights of hand was introducing Priestess as the Doctor's dead wife, complete with flashbacks and everything, only to slowly set up the realization that it's actually the opposite. it's us. all this time we were her dead wife.

there should be like secret extra editions of dnd that wotc denounces as false like christian apocrypha

Something neuroscience-y that helps with prose: attention is selective. A character will not notice everything in a room. They will notice what matters to their goal, fear, desire, training, wound, or obsession. A jealous character notices hands. a hungry character notices food. A soldier notices exits. A lonely character notices pairs. Description becomes character when attention has a bias.

just ask that person out, the worst thing they can say is an esoteric incantation that topologically inverts your body