ok full honesty everyone lol. for the new blindbet memokeepers event i got marriage of convenience and hanahaki and though i think i've decided to write for aventurine, here are some other ideas for the concept i was turning over, ft. phainon and anaxa:
phainon: you're an oracle of a small city-state, who, since birth, has been put on a pedestal as a soothsayer and prophecy giver. in a similar way to phainon, your individual identity matters very little, and so you've been stripped of it to simply be the Oracle, because nothing matters more than your ability to tell the future and what it means for your people. the oldest prophecy you've ever had, though, one that you received as a child and that you've never shared with anyone, is that the hero-deliverer of amphoreus, phainon of aedes elysiae, is going to doom you. you despise him on principle, have despised him all your life. and maybe you've built your limited claim to identity around this, the sole emotion that truly belongs to you, so it's a nightmare when you marry him. it's solely for the optics, because it's convenient to give the people something to believe in, a union between two Icons, a Hero and an Oracle, pushed through by okhema and your own city.
it's made worse because phainon is not a terrible person. you're a little fascinated to him, a little drawn to him. and the more guarded you act, the more walls you put up, the more phainon tries to breech those walls. and you know it's less because he wants to Know You, and more because it's Something He Should do, because he's a Hero. he's nice, charming, generous, and you are not immune to this, as much as you try to be. that's why it's absolutely horrific when you start coughing up petals. and you refuse to tell phainon because you know. you KNOW he would be enraptured at the chance to save you, to play both of your roles to perfection, hero and doomed oracle, and you will never give him that satisfaction. damned if you do, damned if you don't. he really is ruining your life.
anaxa: i don't have a super concrete idea for anaxa, other than i know he would enjoy getting hanahaki. perhaps a marriage is convenient on your end to leave your family and escape the pressure of a genuine suitor, to give you the freedom to participate in activities in the grove that have been denied to you previously. and anaxa is kind enough to marry you to help you, though he's also getting something out of this. funding, support, the ability to use your name to escape pesky situations. you don't mind anything he asks from you though, since both of you have made it clear this relationship is solely for convenience and nothing more. and he's helped you out, so you'll help him out in return.
when anaxa develops hanahaki, he doesn't react in a way you would expect, and though he doesn't outright tell you, he doesn't hide it if you figure it out, either. he is absolutely obsessed over it. enamored. enraptured. he knows it's for you. he also knows you don't reciprocate his feelings. and none of that matters, because hanahaki is a physical monument to his unrequited love and an invaluable research opportunity. he already views his body as expendable, and he himself is fuel that can be burned for the sake of progress. he's offering himself to you whenever you want or not, whenever you accept him or not. he doesn't care for getting you to reciprocate as much as he cares about the intense devotion itself, of roots and petals in his lungs and veins.
