#falsepretense

HI MHIZZY thank you for the ask! When the pretense is false indeed ...

9. What is one quality they have in common?

Catholic boy that no longer believes in God vs. Catholic boy that is still very much religious.

In the end, stripped to their bare essentials, they are both clearly very simplistic people who only desire the security of their childhood and the love of their families; Grimsley doesn't care about his career as much as he makes it out to be, it's only a means to provide for his brother. Similarly, Nikolai doesn't care about all his titles and his roles- he'll gladly relinquish it if it meant he could go back to a simpler time.

They both are especially fond of their mothers- Lillith was all Grimsley could lean on, and her death meant that he had to step up as Cheren's father and grow up as quick as possible. While Cogita didn't truly die, Nikolai didn't know that- so to him, losing her, and by extension, the rest of their village, was the death of his childhood and his innocence.

This post answers both this and the following question, actually!

10. What is one major difference between them?

Grimsley is grounded in reality, and never looks back at what he had lost- this is why he was able to mend his relationship with Cheren, and strengthen it. He never truly left him, and he's always kept him in his heart and his thoughts.

Nikolai refuses to accept reality as it is, refusing to look forward to the future and keeping himself in the past. He's unable to form genuine relationships because he desires his old ones, and only when he learns to move on does Grimsley, and the rest of the league, reach him.

Grimsley has a complicated relationship with the rest of the league, but seems fairly popular in Unova otherwise; Nikolai, as the league doctor, gets along with everyone fairly well, but Unova, and its neighboring regions, know of Nikolai's other personas and the sins he has committed- Kalos especially.

Grimsley sells himself as a devil- but really, his mild and simple personality gives you an image of an angel. Nikolai is highly religious and devoted- but many of his actions are twisted and misguided, you can't help but feel like he's worshipping the devil.

25. If a stranger saw them together, how would they describe their relationship?

I don't want to say allonormativity does not exist in BlightBlur (even if it would be funny for me personally) 😭 . Many mistake them to be a couple, or at least try to put a label on what they have. It really doesn't matter to either of them much what people say- Grimsley knows it's risky, but he wants to try being there for Nikolai, who he can recognize has lost the will to live and is unable to live in the modern world due to his despair. Nikolai doesn't care what people think; he just wants to go home.