#galoak

3. By contrast, what was the moment that first made their ~heart~ Soft for the other person? Not necessarily a conscious realization of “I love this person,” but a moment that had them like “Oh...I adore them...”

For Tarlyn, til the bitter end it was not conscious. I think the closest he got to being really aware he adored Gal was when they cast the spell he developed (Hourglass Hideout), and they worked hard to get it right the first time to impress him. They did. 🥰

For Oak... At the tail-end of the Act2 of our campaign, when they took him to the top of the Betrayer's Rise (a Calamity-era fortress -- knowing Gal is obsessed with Calamity history) in Bazzoxan and first kissed him. Gal cast a modified version of Hallucinatory Terrain to impress them. He did. 🥰

In both cases, they had already learned Gal's spell (Drain Potential) and there was this recognition of - Ah. Here's someone whose passion and creativity can match mine. I could spend hours watching him cast, and creating with him. Tarlynoak wasn't just impressed by Gal's hard-earned arcane prowess, but enamored of his pride in it. Gal's happy, self-satisfied and confident eye-crinkles after excelling at something made, and still make, Oak's heart warm.

9. What do they think about commitment? Is a long-term partnership the goal? Are they thinking about building a life with their partner, or are they focused on the present?

Oak never wanted a relationship because it just never crossed their mind at all untill remembering what Gal and Tarlyn had, and wanting to try again -- and do it right. They realized very quickly they wanted it to be committed, monogamous and lasting. And yet, at the very same time, they're aware that theirs and Gal's life expectancy and aging are painfully incompatible, and because of that they make the very conscious choice to enjoy what they have by focusing on the present. They know Gal approaches it the same way: the life-transcending power of their love and the intentional, laborious commitment to each other coexist with the unspoken awareness that nothing lasts forever, least of all an interspecies relationship like theirs.

10. What scares them about entering a relationship?

Exactly what was said above. ^ The certainty that it will end, and that one day one or both of them will have to experience unbearable pain over losing the other.

Which they will bear, actually, because they are both emotionally strong, and pain is as ephemeral as anything else in this world. Fear is no reason not to give their whole heart to him, or share their entire life with him while they can. They somehow hope that losing each other will in fact reduce them to a sobbing, temporarily unfunctional mess -- that will mean it was real, and worth committing to. If parting is easy, it might mean it stopped being important, or joyous, before it was even over.

11. What fears, past traumas, etc. would be hardest for them to talk about with their partner?

Tarlyn's relentless family trauma and, more specifically, the ways in which that made him so vulnerable in his relationship with Gal. How Gal's selfishness blinded them to how they were hurting Tarlyn, even if Tarlyn was the one calling the shots. It was something extremely painful to talk about, which they both did more than once quite early on because they had to get it out of the way as soon as possible -- I think Gal needed to be sure Oak wasn't falling for him naively unaware of how things began between him and Tarlyn, and Oak needed to see how Gal handled them bluntly expose his selfishness and envy and arrogance and misjudgments even if they had already forgiven him for all of that. 😭

20. When would they say “I love you?” Do they say it first? Do they say it often, or is it reserved for special moments?

Oak says "I love you" on the reg to every single friend, so those casual instances don't even count. They hold back the urge to say it with gravitas, so Gal is the one to do that first, but there are alternative ways it could happen. Maybe they're working on a spell and he looks at them and says it. Maybe they're working on a magic item and they suddenly ask "Gal, do you love me?" and he tells them so. Maybe a secret third thing; who knows!

29. What compromises are they making in their relationship?