#rhodolite

HI EVERYONE!! HERE'S MORE ART OF MY STEVEN UNIVERSE X ONE PIECE AU BUT WITH ALNST ROUND 5 🤩🤩🤩

I'm loving my gem version of Ivsho sm JSJSJSJSJSJS

Anyway, enjoy this angst brick with Pink Opalite and Rhodolite <3

(The opalite with yellow hair is called Yellow Opalite. She's my friend's OC)

(References photos are down here)

The journal of Lyssaria la Vienrosa

This blog is home to the quiet, poetic life of Lyssaria la Vienrosa, a soft-hearted, sharp-witted, mischievous noblewoman who lives in a wisteria-draped manor on the edge of the Rhodolite woods.

Here, you’ll find two kinds of stories:

🪞Journal Entries

Written in-character—as though pulled from the pages of her private journal—and include seasonal reflections, small daily rituals, longings she won’t say aloud, and a few mysteries that may unfold over time.

🖋️Ficlets & Vignettes

Short prose stories that explore specific events in her past or present.

This story draws from Rhodolite lore, canon events like the Bloodstained Rose Day War, and character arcs from Ikemen Prince, but it’s told through an original lens, and at a much slower, more introspective pace.

✨ Expect:

Soft worldbuilding

Personal musings

Mystery, melancholy, and mischief

Sensory storytelling

Emotional slow burn

🌹 Eventually: Yes, Ikemen Prince characters will appear. Yes, there will be love. But not yet. This story believes in taking its time.

📖 Entry I – “The 9th Day of Blossomwake” 📖 Entry II - "The 13th Day of Blossomwake"

🪶 Explore the journal: #journal of lyssaria 🖋️ Read story vignettes: #vignette from wisteria manor 🎭 Ikemen tags: #ikemen prince, #ikepri, #ikemen prince oc, #ikepri oc

Thank you for visiting Wisteria Manor. The tea is steeping. The garden’s in bloom. You’re welcome to stay as long as you like.

— Sincerely, the Muse behind the journal

If you've played Ikemen Prince, you're aware that there are 8 half-brothers under one former king, all born within a 12-ish year timespan. That's a lot of women to be boinking and impregnating. And while it's totally feasible (cue the guy that had 36 kids from multiple women within 20 years or some wild shit), it brought into question what Rhodolite's marriage and relationship status quo was.

The former king only had one queen, Chevalier's mother. But judging from the estimated ages of all the guys, she was still alive when Leon was born, and his mother was also a noble woman. And considering the time that Leon's mother was still around when Yves was born, that would leave two sets of two noble women both married to the king, with children, at the same time period. Leon states in his route that the king had "other wives and other children" which meant that while not formally accepted or ascended to the throne, they were still his "wife" and not mistress. Meaning we can conclude that the king had multiple marriages whether for political reasons or personal, not all the mothers were mistresses. This really only applies to the mothers that were noble in some way, because Clavis' and Luke's mothers were not involved with the king except for conception, and we know Jin's mother was married to the king. Licht and Nokto's mother is a little bit of a mystery, and while I have guesses, I'm not going to make a call on that at the moment.

Now, this could be summed up as a translation issue since English and Japanese have different ideas for words that mean similar things. Maybe the women were "lovers" or concubines of some sort; the king would have a harem of women to produce sons, and all would be elevated to the royal court in some fashion, but only one was crowned queen. This is entirely possible. The problem is that in English when we try to label what sort of position this is, it comes with many negative connotations such as "mistresses" being secret lovers with no status, or concubines being considered sex and pleasure objects with no regard to the person, just the symbol. So we don't have an easy, equal alternative to label a woman that sits in a position of authority but is not a "wife". This is honestly a failing on English more than anything, imo. The way women were considered property for so long is seen in the terms we have for them.

But enough with all that depressing talk, let's get on to the REALLY interesting thing. Monogamy NOT being the norm.

It is never explicitly stated that monogamy is expected or even normal in Rhodolite. I admit, when I was reading the story for the first time, and even nearly two years into the game, I had been coming at it with the perspective that monogamy was normal and expected, because just like heteronormativity, monogamy is considered the "normal" thing and thus never questioned. But this is literally never brought up in the game.

I thought the game was just very sex positive in the way everyone's sleeping with everyone else. I thought they were depicting nobility as having sex parties because that's just what they did. (I don't know, I hated history and don't look into it. Tell me that drunken orgies were the norm and I'd say okay!) The way that Belle and one of the dudes would end up in sexy times sometimes outside of an actual relationship was refreshing and while it still came with the "I can only fuck people I love" from Belle's perspective, I thought it was still nice for it to not be a wait until marriage or forever after.

But what if it wasn't sex positivity? What if it's just not a big fucking deal to sleep with people because monogamy isn't the status quo? The only time monogamy comes up is treated more like exclusivity. It's hot because it's possessive-lite, but it isn't "we're a couple, you can't sleep with others", it's "I'm the only one that gets to see this" which means that it isn't a rule so much as a desire and possessiveness that needs to be stated. And that's kinda cool, when you think about it. In the way it is being presented, there doesn't seem to be a negative relationship with sex outside of a committed relationship. I'm all for that.

Monogamy is cool for those it works for. But open relationships, poly relationships, and anything else out there is also cool for those it works for. And it's just nice to see that being (silently) established as normal without having to make reasons or excuses for it. Even combing through all the event stories I can recall, I don't think there's one time that someone said, "I'm married, so I'm not interested in sex." And while that is easy to overlook because monogamy is expected in our (US) society, the absence of it is something to note, and could lead to monogamy not being expected.