#skeleton ex

Maefys had noticed (and reveled in) Lödwyn's fascination with her when they first met, and over their next couple meetings (where I need to be so so so clear, Maefys is being an absolute piece of shit and selling out people she'd worked with to the same systems that pretty literally just put her through the wringer), she makes a point to charm her and prove her utility.

Most of it is a performance, but Maefys is a good performer, and has a knack for dropping the act and cracking a transparent joke about her intentions (all of them). I wound up dropping it because the cuckoo felt a little too culturally loaded when her ass does in fact cuck woedica, but I do think a lot about the cuckoo when I'm thinking about Maefys as a theater kid. I think she listens constantly, and I think she's got the ear and control over her delivery and the bits of hylspeak in her accent to position herself where people expect her, and then play around with it.

She's good at bouncing between being intentionally opaque and being blunt. And they both have a similar bone dry, occasionally cruel sense of humor that's totally earnest for Lödwyn, and not-quite-earnest, but intentionally pulled out of very real places for Maefys, she's already very bitter. I think most of the performance with Lödwyn there is where the cruelty is directed vs. what she holds back, but she probably feels it.

They only actually start having sex after Maefys is able to get some papers that i have not decided on yet signed and sealed by Lödwyn. There are no consequences for Lödwyn to face outside of knowing that she's doing a favor for Maefys and she can either rationalize that as being a step to get her into bed or out of the goodness of her heart, both/either of which are absolutely an acknowledgement that Maefys has tested her and won and does in fact have power over her.

The memory that Maefys gives to the Giftbearer in the quest Memory of the Deep is the location of the Burned Book of Law, and, I don't think she knows the exact literal location of it - but she's happy to get rid of the memory of the last times she saw it.

Lödwyn was entrusted with that book in Highcrown as part of her rise in station in the Garotte, and like. I've seen the way Woedica talks to her priests, it's so hot. I think she answered Lödwyn's prayers in it often enough for Maefys to really feel the presence of her in the room.

Maefys is so rarely vulnerable, that I think when she's curled up in Lödwyn's arms, genuinely feeling safe - Lödwyn is always Paladin-brained, and she has little flashes where she's like protecting this is my most valuable charge. and she really can't be doing that!!!

So in my favorite dialogue ever, there's a non-skeleton-ex dialogue that everybody gets that I have decided to put too much weight on - and it's "I even asked the god what made you so remarkable - and the Burned Queen opened my eyes to what you were."

And what I've been so hung up on is putting years between asking and receiving an answer. So - I think Lödwyn goes to Woedica with contrition. And that's when she asks why Maefys is so remarkable.

But, the Burned Queen doesn't forgive easily - so Lödwyn is answered with silence. And in that absence, that's when she pulls away - she makes a choice. She leans into her goddess and away from Maefys. And things fall apart slowly until eventually Maefys names their separation.

Eventually, Woedica shows her ass. Her specialest boy gets his soul kicked out of her claws and back to the Wheel by the Watcher. And Lödwyn gets tasked with delivering the Burned Book to the Deadfire so that her goddess can speak to the kith who actually has her full attention. And while Lödwyn is there she gets tasked with some fully pointless Garotte business in the scale of Eora. And then Maia three-bells-throughs her.

And only then, when Lödwyn's zeal and dedication brings her back? that's when Woedica has more to say to her. And sometime after that is the answer to the question that she asked Woedica. It just took a while to get it.

Yeah, so Maefys has an incredibly impotent and completely one-sided beef with Woedica. And it has nothing to do with her ideology or her deeds - Maefys really does accept Aedyran values and Woedican doctrine without much question. She's loved and been loved by a Paladin who absolutely had her wires crossed. She knows that some of the devotion she's received was meant for someone Lödwyn can't touch. And it's easier to cast her tangled feelings about that onto the one who's in her bed but not in the room than it is to risk letting it rot something that feels good. The idea that Sapadal's feelings were already tied with hers before she arrives in the Living Lands is too much for Maefys to consciously confront. But some of those raw emotions and the edges of the situation are close enough to Sapadal's pain (and their own anger at being tied up in Woedica) that echoes in the thorn probably amplify her feelings about Woedica, too.

Ruhena: What does your OC’s love interest dislike about them?

If there's no explanation for why she knows things, or how she's able to accurately predict aspects of the future, but the most obvious thing about her is that she's a godlike - then she can ensure her abilities are interpreted in the way that is most useful to her. Messages from the Gods? Useful. Whereas Ciphers would be a little more well known in Aedyr than they were in PoE1, but because they are still unknown and scary, it would damage trust more than she imagines it would help. So she'd do everything she can to keep that door closed.

And at the same time, I think she's aware that Lödwyn wouldn't have taken much note of her without the aura of authority she gets from her absent god. And her relationship with Lödwyn is so foundational, that idea that it wasn't earned and it wasn't hers hurts. Plus, the fercönyng absolutely wouldn't have noticed her. She's internalized so much Aedyran bullshit around the importance of fulfilling her duties well - I think she knows that it's possible she could be a better diplomat if she opens that door. But the possibility of confirming that the thing that sets her apart at court isn't under her control and is entirely subject to the whims of a god who won't even deign to speak to her? That'd break her. So better not touch it.

But! I think a minute after Avowed, she'd have more peace with Sapadal and her duties, so she'd be willing to actually explore what's going on. And Giatta would have a couple theories!

One of Giatta's schticks is that she just spitballs things that are irl groundbreaking scientific theories. So when Maefys does reluctantly humor her on experimenting, I think she'd set up a blinded test to figure out if maybe Maefys can tell the future, and just, get readings on what Maefys' and Sapadal's souls are doing through all that. (And send Marius out to take Sapadal on a field trip and take notes to try and remove them from the equation for a couple of the tests.) But on a hunch maybe she'd consider that maybe her own soul is interfering too!

And if she did make it so she, as the animancer running the test, also didn't know the randomized outcomes until after all the observations were taken, then she'd see Maefys' ability to predict things disappears. 😈 Which would give her information needed to figure out that Maefys is a cipher and not an oracle lol.

And! Maefys I think would be actually very hype to confirm that the thing giving her an edge in Court is something she can work with and train. I don't think she'd express it outright but I think she would actually start engaging more with animancy and Giatta's theories enthusiastically instead of the skeptical distance she had for it. And Giatta will be a menace if she has a lab rat uhhh tech that can directly manipulate other souls. So I think they'll wind up doing a lot of fun experiments together. Some of which involve sex and drugs and many of which will not unearth anything about the soul!

3. If they complimented each other, what would they say?

Well, I think the girlies are well and truly in backhanded compliment territory, so as far as what they'd literally say out loud?

We got the in-canon "I miss your eyes glaring at me" regarding Lödwyn now being a skeleton. But honestly, that's just flirting. If they were going for the jugular?

Lödwyn would say some shit like, "Maefys is the finest weapon Aedyr has ever forged, it's just a pity the emperor has such poor grip." And also probably would say, "I have seen court vipers weave their lies and manipulations for decades. And none were as skilled as Maefys in their plots--no one else has so elegantly lead the unworthy to their destruction, ensuring it is done by their own hand. It has always left me breathless to watch her work. And this—this is her greatest masterpiece. If I had breath to hold, I would be watching with it bated, as Maefys twists and contorts herself, leading herself on her exquisite walk toward her own ruin."

And as her compliment, Maefys might say some shit like, "I envy Lödwyn's conviction and depth of faith, even as reality begins to crumble and shift. She has a sense of purpose so deep she can even invent a role for herself and claw her way back from the dead to fulfill it." And I think maybe saying it out loud would be a step too far but in the midst of their breakup she certainly thought this and probably still carries it - "Lödwyn's devotion is an unyielding and an all-consuming force, and it is a marvel to see it borne out and brought into the world only through honeyed words spoken from a burnt book. At least when I told her to kneel, I fucked her after."

But, since I want to hurt me. I'll also share some of their genuine compliments.

For all of the plots and woven webs Lödwyn imagines now, Maefys can never truly convey how grateful she is that Lödwyn was able to see her, through her own. Lödwyn saw her when no one else did, and then Lödwyn made a space for Maefys in Aedyr and allowed her to grow and sheltered her through the process. It is not the right space for her now, but it was, once.

And Maefys rarely let down her guard, so holding her in the few moments when she did—taking on the sacred burden of protecting something so beautiful in its fleeting fragility—was the greatest charge Lödwyn had ever known. Even now, in the empty hollow (skeleton reference) of her chest, she feels the echo. She literally cannot acknowledge the depth of that feeling and remain standing. And she's lucky her goddess isn't around to know.

12. Do they have differing political opinions?

Rip, not as different as they fucking should lol. Maefys has always believed Lödwyn was too blunt and Lödwyn has always believed Maefys was too subtle. But there was a time when they worked well together, and they were both able to see that. Truthfully Maefys didn't have particularly strong political convictions, but she did have a lot of self-loathing for fitting so poorly into the values of Aedyr and she projected that outwards onto everything outside of the empire. That did start breaking down literally as soon as she touched grass (got outside the palace and to the Living Lands), and it broke down completely once she had the information she needed to better understand and accept herself (and is told that she broke her oath to the empire so she had no choice). So they end with very different outlooks.

21. How have they changed each other for the better/for the worse?

I've had this image in my head of Maefys since I played that's just like - a tree that has grown through and around a plate cuirass, if that makes any sense at all lol. She is her own person, she has grown beyond that and she will continue growing, but her path has been changed and shaped irrevocably by Aedyr, and by the courts, and by Lödwyn, who pulled her into that. There are hollows in her that wouldn't be there without that piece of metal under the bark, and there are sides of her that are stronger for it, and I don't know if she even considers herself better or worse off for the experience. Just something different.

I think Lödwyn has more issues from her role in Aedyr than she will ever have the opportunity to reconcile, so she had a really limited way to understand her relationship with Maefys. Her love and her devotion and her worship are all the same thing and she doesn't have the ability to separate it. She couldn't just be with Maefys, or enjoy their time spent together, the pleasure she took had to serve something. So she built it up too high and then when her feelings felt too real, she came to see their love as a test of her faith in Woedica. Even Maefys felt like she was the other woman in Lödwyn's marriage. So Lödwyn wants to believe that she was tested and she passed, but I think she actually fears that she has had her faith shaken. And. Real talk. Maefys does end the game by breaking her faith. So maybe she was always right.

25. What moves do they know work on the other?

Maefys is a brat and likes getting thrown around a bit. I think the opportunity to take liberties and play with boundaries in an environment where she actually feels safe the whole time is huge for her. And. Lödwyn is also very on board with that dynamic, it's their usual rhythm.

What was a less usual dynamic was that occasionally Maefys would initiate them flipping the script because let's be so real - Lödwyn needs to worship. That is how she can express devotion. It's not something that Lödwyn would initiate because that's getting a little closer to her truths and her fears, but when it came up, it was hugely cathartic for her.