salvia : is your muse possessive over people or things that matter a lot to them ? how do they express that possessiveness , or lack thereof ?

love is not people-possessive!  when he is consistently possessive over someone it tends to indicate a beyond average attachment to that person.  i’d say he gets more inexorable?  his curiosity, his demands, his care, they’ll all ramp up beyond his usual ease and (if he notices his own behavior) then even love doesn’t like when this happens because, again, he is not a possessive person & he becomes much less delicate when he is.  sometimes he’s even incredibly annoying lol.  or he makes decisions that are just not like his usual self.  regarding possessiveness for items... he’s attached to his stuff but you’ll notice when he’s out and about he doesn’t seriously complain about not having his 1,000 thread count cotton sheets or whatever.  or about getting an outfit trashed during a fight.  he’s able to travel light.  he likes missions that gets him out in the field.  he’s more materialistic than possessive of items, with his materialism being way more important for his sense of self.  

how does he expresses his lack of possessiveness?  his compersion is a gift.  “an empathetic state of happiness and joy experienced when another individual experiences happiness and joy.”  love genuinely does not get jealous easily, i cannot recall writing him in a state of jealousy that wasn’t ephemeral, it’s seriously impressive and not exactly something he was 100% born with, it’s something he had to learn too.  cuz as a kid you bet he had some classic fits of childish jealousy fed by a sweet, attention-hungry personality & bouts of loneliness that sparked people-possessiveness ..... the perks of mellowing out!  as they say, honey do be better than vinegar.  he still seeks out attention a lot.  and that’s ok!  when someone has something that he doesn’t, he’s able to take it in stride & be happy for them!  he loves hearing about friends’ happiness success and all their good things.  it’s very satisfying.

southernwood : how seriously does your muse take themself ? do they prefer a solemn & intellectual atmosphere or do they delight in jokes & banter ?

oooh a healthy mix of both!!  he’s so finessed at not taking himself too seriously, he has such a fun mix of natural and curated whimsy.  he loves banter and lightheartedness, he gravitates towards making & having good experiences, but he recognizes that seriousness is important to experience too.  solemnity can be rewarding too, sometimes needed to get through something.  none of those descriptors truly have to stand apart from each other!  you can feel just as present in the middle of a joke like you can during a solemn moment.

lily : how does your muse view their mother ?

haha.  they’re a bit complicated.  he loves her.  they’ve had rocky periods in their relationship.  part of the reason why love quit homeschooling and chose shade was because he needed space away from her specifically.  in this whole aladdin inspo mash-up, his mom is the benevolent sultan who loves their kid a lot but will totally miss taking care of some emotional needs, and then set up an arranged marriage.  he is not as close to his mom as he is his dad because she pressures him a lot, the kind of high expectations from parent-to-child that’s very hard to shake, and she has made some other decisions for him that he still takes issue with.  she knows he’s super filial and leans on that.  but he loves her and he knows that she’s just, you know, the sterner parent!  not devoid of softness nor good demonstrative care.  just, you know.  mom.  an elite mom.  kind of overprotective.

hibiscus : how does your muse view the gentler , daintier things in life ? as things worth preserving & caring for , or things only bound to wither & disappear ?

i like this one! another way that the book differentiated city vacuoans and desert vacuoans. love’s tribe differs from the norm though.

“Out in the desert, Velvet knew, clans rarely settled in one place for long unless there was some reason to. A rare oasis, say, or a CCT relay—something worth defending. A place to call home, until you were forced to move on.”

the clarkias have been settled for a long time & are strong and resourceful enough not to fall to forced nomadism. they have both, a rare oasis and a cct relay, which bolsters their independence. being settled presents its own problems. instead of being able to leave for safer ground they need to regularly clear out their tribe land from threats. the whims of nature is just something that they live with. but they’ve always been a warring tribe and they know how to take care of themselves, with a warrior ethos that’s still very much alive. on the day-to-day his home is a relatively safe due to their vigilance & self-sufficiency.