In response to a question about how many portraits of Kal there are floating around:
I've been going back and forth about how many there are tbh. I meant for this one to be the same as the one Lucian showed Kal earlier, but originally it was going to be a different one so that Marcus could continually flip out about how Kal Is On Display And It's Not Proper over a few chapters, but I decided I didn't like it and Marcus was too insufferable. I think there's more than one but not many, just 2-3 total, so if I decide to come back to it as a plot device in a one shot I can. (This is how most of my writing decisions are made lol).
How Kal feels about it is more or less part of his arc in the past POV parts, but he basically looks at it the same as sex: cheesecake portraits are fine as long as everyone involved is consenting and can say no, which he didn't get the chance to. Next Kal chapter will touch on the relative lack of social stigma attached to it, like Elasus did a lot of modeling before he got married and it's not something that someone more conservative like Apollonia would be thrilled about Marcus or Antony doing but it's also not socially damaging per se. I've been thinking of it like 19th century actresses who got married, like they're not totally respectable because of the acting/modeling, but it can be a way into a respectable marriage if the acting/modeling ends with marriage.