LOVE HEADCANONS
CAESAR EDITION
as suggested by @feracie !!
For Caesar to ‘like’ someone, the standard is pretty low. It mostly stems from a lack of understanding between ‘like’ as in finding pleasant and ‘like’ as in being romantically interested. It could be argued that he has a very rudimentary understanding of romance as a whole, often blurring it with platonic affection and in some cases, even obsession and violence. There is also an intense need to be accepted and given positive attention, so anyone who provides it to him is already on his ‘like’ list. To continue to like him, on finding out that he is a shifter and that his appearances are all ‘stolen’ and to see him for what he really is ( an abandoned creature who seeks to assimilate and gain validation by being what he is not ) would be a very good starting point for him to slowly gain an understanding that it is possible to love and in turn be loved.
That said, he is pretty shameless in terms of courting because he doesn’t grasp the importance of having a significant other. He has no problem asking out people for dates, no problem throwing an extravagant event, no problem doing dangerously crazy stunts in an attempt to impress: at the end of the day, he wants validation and acceptance first and sometimes, where it comes from doesn’t register much to him, as long as he is getting it. He also, at times, wouldn’t understand that he sets up expectations in turn. He often holds himself unaccountable, brushing everything aside as lack of his own ‘true’ personality and ends up considering people fools for thinking he could ever give them anything when he believes himself incapable of giving love / reciprocal validation.
Falling in love, therefore, would be something incredibly hard for him to first understand and then admit to, but when he does come to terms with it, he is pretty much bonded for life, therefore the possibility that he would fall in love with someone ‘out of his reach’ is very low because it requires a lot of work from both sides, for them to explain and walk him through things and for him to be receptive and not clowning around. If he did come to terms with the feeling, maybe by a third party, then lovesickness would definitely be a powerful state for him to be in. He has obsessive tendencies, he’s a shifter and an artist after all. He’s also very persistent, so he’ll keep trying to insert himself into the life of whoever he’s fallen in love with / thinks he’s fallen in love with through a variety of ways. But note that he won’t be flirting shamelessly with them because by this point, he would have learned enough to appreciate that it’s not something to take very lightly. He’ll still be a bit of a clown, making jokes and appearing carefree and non-serious, but deep down, he’s really trying not to mess things up.
He’s a shifter, so looking attractive could be a negative point for him. To have a s/o who focuses on the superficial aspect of him? That’s something that would almost immediately leave a sour taste in his mouth, considering he would really want someone who accepts him for not being human and for wearing all these human faces and being a farce. He would definitely love the fact that he would now have a designated source of affection and he would honestly be trying so hard to be good and everything the other person needs / wants him to be because they would have taught him that he’s capable of love, whether it’s receiving or giving and he wants to be good at reciprocating his newly discovered ‘ability’.
REGD. MACIE: He has most definitely NOT tried flirting with her but he does acknowledge that he cares about her. She definitely fascinates him, especially with their past circus history and her current state of having feral episodes. Then there’s also the fact that she already has a pretty good idea that he’s a shifter, although she probably doesn’t know yet that the appearance he generally has isn’t even his. And that is one of the biggest hurdles to jump when it comes to really accepting caesar for what he thinks he is: an empty void who mimics those around him in an attempt to feel like he belongs somewhere, even for a brief moment. That’s what makes him start getting receptive to the idea that he might be capable of loving as humans do (since it’s now deemed possible for someone to see him as what he truly is and still decide that they like him).
















