#7.5

It's too simple.

Moran is a handsome guy who is currently homeless. His older (female) lover got tired of him. Their relationship was never about love. That was it.

Short, sweet, wealthy Hosu comes out of literally nowhere. It takes one night for Moran to move into a new mansion and it's like a car with no breaks from there.

Moran is exhausted within a week and now he's insecure and he wants to live on his own.

Hosu is supposed to be a temporary thing.

Hosu thinks they're officially dating.

Which is shocking to Moran but not...really?

Hosu was unusually intimate and fawning for a sugar daddy.

It's an awkward misunderstanding that they work through.

Moran doesn't want to quit his job though.

Hosu seems really sincere, so Moran ignores some red flags.

I mean, maybe he's overreacting.

Is this what dating should be???

Cutie-pie sweet texts every hour all day. Sometimes Hosu waits for him outside while he's working too.

He's "the possessive type", not a crazy guy.

There's a difference.

Woops.

There's a bunch of pills Moran wasn't supposed to know about. Hosu at the bare minimum at least suffers from insomnia. His personality also fluctuates way too much. Some days he's all about intimacy....and on other days he observes Moran like he's an art piece.

Hosu is an artist by the way, and he's obsessed with hands. Moran is shocked to hear his face failed, and his new boyfriend (not daddy) fell in love with another part of him.

Also, he's keeping too many secrets.

His bubbly personality starts to feel like a straight up lie.

It does seem like he has real feelings for Moran though.

If I had to guess Hosu tried to overcompensate and cover up all of his bad side. Or he straight up has a disorder we don't know yet.

All we know is this.

Hosu did not walk up to his crush and say:

"Heyyyy I'm a reclusive artist with money and I fell in love with your hands. And I want you to quit your job and not talk to anybody but me."

No.

He said:

"Hyung please date me I'm so cute and innocent pinky promise tehe."

Which is a pretty bad thing to do.

Moran only finds out portions of the truth thanks to his coworkers. If he was more weak-willed and willing to stay at home he'd be completely at the dark.

At the mercy of his dishonest boyfriend's "mood swings".

I thought this one would be simple, but there's alot to think about.

The ebb and swell of conversation washed over Karo as she sat at one of the many tables in the Rising Stones main common rooms. It wasn't any different than any other evening that she had spent sitting in this same spot, yet at the same time everything was. The faces the same, the sounds, even the lights flickered from the same sources. It was well over a year later though, and the hall had been eeriely quiet, the shadows swallowing all sound leaving only memories to haunt the stone walls. Karo herself had been in and out before leaving for Tural, keeping her tower room tidy, despite the retainers that came through to help keep the dust away.

It had been lonely though.

"Karo! Are you alright?" Alisaie's voice broke her reminiscence, suddenly very aware of her blurred eyesight and the dampness of tears upon her cheeks. Alisaise had vaulted over the plants in her way, as she made her way to Karo's side, concern writ plainly across her face. Y'shtola and Krile looked on, even as Thancred rushed to her other side having heard the cry, abandoning his conversation with Urianger.

Karo sniffled, wiping her face with a chuckle, ears back sheepishly.

"I'm fine, just—" she took a deep breath looking around and pulled Thancred closer as she looked around the hall again. "Just a bit overwhelmed with happiness," Resting her head against Thancred, she met Alisaie's eyes once more.

"Just about everyone is home," the words came out a whisper as the bard's voice cracked. Through the tears that once more fell, she could see her friends and betrothed share an affectionate and understanding look. They all knew how anxious she got when they were apart, and the time in Tural had strained that—despite having several of them near her most of the trip. They hadn't missed her strained look at the fact that Estinien wasn't answering his linkshell again, or her eyes flickering to Riol's normal spot near the steps, but were grateful she was letting herself relax otherwise.

"It is good to be home," Thancred had wrapped his arms around Karo, holding her close before kissing the top of her head. Satisfied she was okay, Alisaise squeezed her free shoulder before going back to brainstorming with the other mages—Urianger joining them to leave Karo to be comforted by Thancred, confident all would now be well.

At least in regards to that matter…

I don't think "re-uniting the stars" means re-joining the shards with the Source. I wonder if instead it means re-creating the Convocation.

Cause I was thinking we're probably not gonna actually do a re-joining. While that would be neat cause it could potentially lead to the devs doing another re-do of the game world, it feels unlikely? How would that work? We'd still need to access older locations for certain content, right?

So what else could "stars" refer to?

And then I remembered that back in 5.3, when we picked up all the Convocation crystals, the Hythlodaeus shade said "I see you have been collecting stars".