#bottomvalerius

"Aww...honey, you shouldn't have. How can I ever thank you..." "...I'm certain you'll think of something, my dear."

!!!!! [vibrating at a frequency that could shatter glass] Fantastic Inquiry Thank You.

(this got really long because j have a lot of thoughts on this scene i'm very sorry)

OK so this is going to be more of a garbled mess of Words than anything else because i haven't written the scene yet and my head is buzzing with Thoughts like a million angry bees so coherency is not my strong suit right now

so ingame i know the canon first kiss with julian is in mazelinka's house with the sleepytime soup, but tbh as cute as that scene is it's a bit boring and now that i've developed rowan far beyond the ingame mc, i don't think it really fits them anymore? like don't get me wrong they definitely make out with him anyway but it wouldn't be the first kiss. so i decided to place their first kiss in my beloved iconic garden scene instead!

so at this point in the story, rowan is going Through It. their best (only) friend/sibling figure asra is definitely hiding something important from them, they're under insane time pressure for the investigation, they questioned valerius and valdemar which raised a fuckload more questions about lucio's murder when they already had far too many (and talking to valdy was also just intensely uncomfortable), and they've suddenly found themself with massive, accidental crush on julian, which they are deeply unhappy about for obvious reasons. this is only exacerbated by them meeting up with julian on the aqueduct, because "oh my god he's so hot when he's brooding and i have no clue what the fuck he's talking about"

then to top it all off, they fall in gross plague water, get a chunk ripped out of them by an eel, and almost die? yeah, they're having a Day.

so on top of all the mounting stress they've been going through in the past few days, they now have to deal with the physical and emotional rollercoaster of "OH GOD I'M DYING" > "wait i'm alive HOW THE FUCK AM I ALIVE" > "julian has magic??" > "OH GOD WHAT KIND OF FREAK MAGIC IS THIS OH FUCK NOW JULIAN'S DYING?!" > "oh wait no he's... ok actually? well clearly he is not but he's not gonna bleed out in front of me", over a period of about... five, six minutes? so by the time the two of them actually make it to the garden (they hid there due to rowan's insistence that julian really should not be running in his condition), rowan is just an absolute mess of stressed, overwhelmed, panicking, and confused. they can barely form a coherent sentence.

how does julian deal with this? by continuing to flirt with them like he's been doing for the past few days, of course.

(note that this does not stop rowan from fussing over julian immensely, being really apologetic that he got hurt because of them, and asking him about fifteen times if he's sure he's ok despite his constant reassurances. julian finds this deeply endearing).

the flirting is what breaks rowan. at first he's just more confused ("why are you still hitting on me when i must look like a drowned rat? are you actually interested in me or is this just a really elaborate pisstake?"), but he gets into it pretty quickly. he starts flirting back again. the kicker is when julian offers him the starstrand flower. rowan is a botanist at heart, he knows a lot about and fucking loves all kinds of plants, and especially flowers. this just makes him absolutely melt, especially when julian puts the flower in his hair. this is the turning point where rowan decides "you know what, i don't fucking care that it's a terrible idea, i don't care that it's treasonous, or even that he might have killed a guy, i'm having a challenging week, i desperately need to get laid, and i am going to blow off steam by hooking up with this absolute mess of a man who is unfortunately exactly my type right now"

by this time julian has gotten a lot closer, he's holding their hand and stroking their cheek and continuing to flirt and generally being surprisingly very sweet, and all rowan can think about is how his face is now very close to theirs, and they start to laugh nervously and uncontrollably, as is pretty par for the course with them in these situations because Oh No! Feelings! julian is, again, very endeared by this and starts gently teasing them, like "careful, the guards will hear you"

to which rowan responds with "well, maybe you ought to shut me up, then." basically goading julian into kissing them. and how can julian refuse? basically every flirtatious exchange they've had up until now has been julian baiting rowan and them surprising him by actually stepping up to the plate, he'd be a hypocrite if he didn't allow the tables to be turned.

unfortunately the kiss is short, because the guards show up pretty soon after it starts, but it's no less sweet for it. it starts off gently but julian almost immediately gets clingy because it's julian. rowan is very ok with this. there's a lot of face-caressing and hair-stroking. also a little taste of julian's masochism when rowan not-so-subtly pokes his wound to see if it's still bleeding, and they're not sure if the resulting moan was one of pain or one of horny. frankly they're not sure they want to know. when they have to stop because of the arrival of the guards, they're both extremely irritated about it, but they're sure to make up for lost time in mazelinka's later.

@bottomvalerius I just picked DonDon. Thank you for sending it in. 💖

---

Oh you know it!

Arcana game asks: 

1. When did you start playing?

In more detail - we (@fullyfunctionalapprentice and I) started playing not long after the ‘save Portia’ campaign (or just before it wrapped up?  My perception of time during the last year got a bit off), with Muriel, Portia, and Lucio all being a few chapters in and Nadia, Asra, and Julian all wrapped up.

8. Who if the not playable LIs do you wish you could romance? 

I mean, of course it's this disaster:

(Yes, he has his shawl pulled up over his face.)

(Ask me about my 'Valerius was supposed to be the 6th LI instead of Lucio' tinfoil hat theories.)

23. What is your favorite ship?

Ok I hadn't mentioned this but it's definitely also Anyone's MC/LI(s) of choice - there's so much good stuff out there of everyone being so creative and I love it dearly (I see you all - you're so valid).

A few more runners up (involving just the main six) I just happened to think of while sketching (though these aren't really in any order of preference).

Portia/Nadia - Power and competency all the way through - the right amount of support and understanding that they're not background characters in their own lives.

Portia/Muriel - Ultimate peaceful vibes - living that real cottage-core life.

Muriel/Asra - Let the years fall away to nothing, embracing the comforting and the familiar - but able to call each other on their shit.

@bottomvalerius

Javi lifts a glass of his mimosa in a toast to the silvered haired man, his teeth showing from his lopsided smirk.

(drunken confessions)

Jinana pauses, looking down into hir tankard for a moment. Then, "Losing control of my magic. I can try and ride the chaos, but if I slip... there's no telling what'll happen. It might be small." S/he runs a hand through hir hair, an example. "Or it might leave a twenty-foot smoking crater where I used to be."

/rubs hands together happily