#gretna

As for Daunte... it's complicated, and weird. Meeting in the Vigil, they straight up couldn't stand each other for the first years, annoying and one-upping each other constantly, then things somehow snowballed from yet another of the charr's petty jokes into sudden intimacy. They weren't technically dating, they were more "rivals with benefits" than anything romantic, but they cared for each other and whatever they had going on was comforting to both of them. They often joked about each other's death, but losing Daunte in the Heart of Maguuma hurt Hagan more than he could have ever imagined.

The relationship with Gaell started out as a simple one night stand between friends who had too many bad feelings they struggled to express, but they figured they could try to make it work, and it lasted for about a year (during LS4). At first it was intense and overall nice, but the more time passed, the more they started butting heads over nothing, as the human noble turned Priory Scholar was a bit too much of a primadonna for a headstrong down-to-earth himbo like Hagan. Eventually they decided to cut things off before they got bad, and they managed to remain friends after the awkwardness passed and having each others' back stuff took priority (during LS4).

* * * * *

Zehmik had plenty of "exes" as well during the nearly twenty years he spent in the Mists, though he considers even the longest-lasting ones as flings or "companionship of circumstances", because the only one that ever mattered is the one he had to leave behind in the first place, [name pending because I can't decide yet, gonna call him Plenn]

Zehmik had been part of a fairly reputable pirate crew for a while when he met Plenn in Lion's Arch, and they hit it off right away, spending all the time they could together and making big plans for the future. Plenn was a brilliant mind kept away from opportunities due to part of his parentage (who was badly exiled from Rata Sum after a clandestine experiment ended up blowing up half the lab and 3.5 members of the krewe), while Zehmik and his sister Bemme had been struggling on their own since they were young. Zehmik wanted to earn enough gold to allow the three of them to live a comfortable life in Metrica as they chased their dreams, and he just needed to work for a while longer to get them there and quit for good.

When his captain died of "sudden causes" and the new captain seemed to bring bad luck, Zehmik followed some of his friends into a group of mercenaries, much to Plenn's and Bemme's worry. That job seemed to go even better, until one particularly high-risk-high-reward gig in Orr, where others made a series of poor choices that killed most of them, left Zehmik scarred (and magically enhanced), and had the Inquest sic a recovery team on their trail to get the loot they were promised. Zehmik managed to barely escape them twice with his life (the only other survivor got murdered the second time), and as he hid in Lion's Arch he had to make a choice: go back to Plenn and lead danger to him (and potentially his sister and everyone else he knew), or run away so that danger would only follow him. He chose the latter, and in a moment of desperation he took the only way out he had available, joining the Mist War in the process. He stayed there for nearly two decades, only managing to send one of his earrings and all the gold he had left to Bemme through a trusted friend he made there, yet unable to do anything about Plenn, too afraid to know what he'd think of him and heartbroken.