hmmmm... i mean tbh my ocs mostly exist in pairs, anyway, but i'm really bad at picking favorites

like, Anthony and Elias are kinda fun in the way that they transition from like... just kind of coworkers with Anthony in somewhat dominant position in the dynamic (as he owns the Starlady, he's the one with experience in how life and society works in the Outer Sectors, and he invited Elias to join him in the first place) and Elias not quite trusting him, into friends, into... honestly i don't know. I meant to make them lovers, originally, but that was years ago and more recently I don't know what they are, friends or lovers or queerplatonic or what. Probably I just... won't label it, and will let people come to their own conclusions

Meldie and Alyssien, in a way, have two different dynamics. In their backstory, and then in the future when they're reunited.

In their backstory, it's very sweet and romantic, sort of a courtly love-ish deal going on? like, they can't actually be together bc they're of such different social class, and they're kind doing it with the understanding that eventually they'll go their separate ways because Lyss is going to make a politically convenient match and everything, like they fully intend for it to be a temporary thing they'll grow out of. But they do love each other nonetheless, in those little stolen moments they manage to snatch whenever the lord that Meldie serves has business in the palace. It's all cute and sort of innocent, in its way.

I also think that it's because it's cut off and they're torn apart in a very sudden and dramatic fashion, that really cements that relationship in their hearts. Like, if their lives had gone on as they thought they would, I do think they would have amicably ended things in time, and gone their own ways, remembering the relationship fondly but as a somewhat silly thing of their youth that they grew out of. And I think they'd still have been happy. I don't think they would have considered it a huge loss if things had gone like that. But because Meldie is accused of treason and exiled and all that drama happens, they never really get to say goodbye or kind of let things go in that way, and so instead the relationship is left as this hanging thread full of what-ifs and confusion and grief at the way it was ended by outside forces, and while in some ways during their time apart they each start thinking about it as a silly thing of their youth that, like i said, they always knew was not going to last anyway, they don't really forget it or move past it in the same way. It becomes a fond memory of a more innocent time for both of them, and Meldie especially hangs onto it through her long wanderings in exile, as a lonely mercenary who doesn't really know how to set down roots anywhere anymore. And when Alyssien is taken captive, it becomes also an especially important thing to her, a happy memory of something she had for herself, outside of all the political games and calculations, outside of the service to her kingdom

A sorceress queen who was shown no mercy and now has none to give either. A fiercely loyal right hand, captain of the royal guard, who will not flinch from any kind of carnage, leaping to fulfill her beloved queen's command, as ruthless and unstoppable as a hurricane. Magic crackling soft blue at Lyss's fingertips to heal Meldie's wounds, hands gently tracing old scars. Meldie being the only one allowed to touch Lyss; anyone else will at best lose their hands, at worst meet swift death.