Next up is~

with Harlan from @candlecoo !!

“CBS Mornings” has an exclusive preview of the new Netflix series “I Will Find You,” which is based on Harlan Coben’s 2023 novel. Coben, who is also an executive producer on the series, talks about what inspired the story and how closely he worked on Netflix film adaptation. Source link

📚Do they like romance as a genre? In books, movies, games, etc.?

✅Do they have a relationship they can look up to as a positive example of romantic love?

👎Do they have a relationship that’s a perfect example of “what not to do” in their life?

🤕What are their “hang-ups” or insecurities about love and romance?

👄Are they an effective communicator in their relationships?

the THEM!!! i shall gladly do this for u

📚Do they like romance as a genre? In books, movies, games, etc.?

I wouldn't call Harlan a romance aficionado or anything, but he likes a corny romcom, he'll play a dating sim. It's one of many genres he can enjoy.

Yvonne prefers podcasts or audiobooks to movies and the like, and romances are included in that collection.

✅Do they have a relationship they can look up to as a positive example of romantic love?

Harlan had so many examples of so many kinds of relationships growing up. His parents were coparents, but were never together romantically. They each had their own partners that spiraled out into an ever-expanding polycule, and there were plenty of examples of what to do and what not to do. He doesn't look at one precise relationship to follow as a single example, but remembers bits and pieces of them, and stitches them together to form the kind of relationship he wants to have.

Yvonne credits everyone in her herd for being good role models to her, but her parents are the most apt example here. She grew up watching them gallop side by side as the herd traveled from place to place, helping each other emotionally and physically. She remembers how, when her mother sprained an ankle that left the herd at a standstill for weeks, her father did everything he could to make sure she was taken care of. The whole herd did, not in the business of leaving one of their own behind, but he barely went a few feet from her the entire time she was injured. That moment lives on as a shining example of the love she wants to cultivate in her own life.

👎Do they have a relationship that’s a perfect example of “what not to do” in their life?

The aforementioned satyr polycule gave Harlan just as many examples of bad examples as it did healthy ones. If you have never seen a relationship of seven people implode because #4 wanted to break up with everyone except #5 and #7, and everyone just kept living in the same house pretending it was fine until the family reunion when All The Drama in the past 6 years comes out in front of the kids? You have not experienced the type of "don't fucking do that" relationship that Harlan has.

Yvonne witnessed many a messy break-up where the unhappy couple were still forced to live in the same space and sleep very close together, among other things a centaur herd does as a group. She vowed not to ever stay in a relationship that would ever become so bitter that you were literally kicking your ex in the communal sleeping pile and bothering everyone else in order to do so.

🤕What are their “hang-ups” or insecurities about love and romance?

Harlan is... kinda clingy lmao. He wants to be around the people he loves all the time, maybe even too much, and that can be cute but also exhausting. He's know to blow up a phone or two, not in a "where tf are you why aren't you responding to me" way but in a "here are 87 messages about how much i love you" way, and if you tell him to maybe back off a little, it feels like a rejection.

Yvonne worries about disappointing people. In the herd, everyone was asked to contribute to the whole to ensure everything kept running smoothly, which in tough times meant "shut up and agree with the majority." As much as she misses her family, they did Do Some Shit to her, and she is very concerned with letting down the people she cares about, not living up to their expectations, or not "doing enough" to support or care for them.

👄Are they an effective communicator in their relationships?

Harlan absolutely is, he learned through example and the hard way by fucking it up himself that communication is key. He's not above having the hard conversations, even if he did something wrong.

Yvonne is a pretty nervous communicator in general, but is kinda. worse. with the people she genuinely cares about. As mentioned before, she worries a lot about disappointing people, and if something bothers her she might not say anything out of fear that it'll blow up everything forever. She's also not very good at hiding when she's upset, though, and hates lying even more, so it's not hard to coax her out of her shell and into having a hard conversation. But it'll have been building for a while, and might be a more serious conversation than initially warranted if she had just said something in the first place.