#this took so long to answer im so sorry 😭😭 i lost several drafts in the process of making it

[autumnfangirler]

Hi I’m LATE but— 7 12 20 for the couples ask and the character(s) of your choice??

i assure you it is never too late for me to talk about my little guys. i am always up for it

7. Do they (or would they) pursue the other character's affection, and if so, how? Do they tell the other character how they feel? Try to earn their admiration? Woo them with romantic gestures? Flirt with them, skillfully or otherwise?

Caine- for chen, they do indeed pursue him romantically! a bit of bluescreening here and there but hey, that kiss did happen so! caine only realized after he picked up on chens own emotions, but if they realized before, i doubt they would've done anything until chen did. hes content with what they have as friends, and they don't put much more importance to romantic relationships. no need to jeapordize anything when their friendship is fragile enough. with ortega its,,, a lot more complicated. for one thing, caine flirted with him as hark before he even realized he liked him. i have no idea whether that counts as pursuing him romantically when its technically???? not their own body????? nor was the flirting for the express purpose of wooing him. past that, caine also cant read ortegas mind. they have no way of knowing if ortega likes them back, and again, they dont want to rock the boat needlessly. thats not even beginning to mention how chen fits into this whole ordeal, because yes they still like him and i dont think theyre aware they can have both in the same body. all this to say; if at any point after the whole puppetstuck mess all three of them can have that talk about eachother, caine will be eternally grateful because this is the last thing he should be worrying about at the moment

Cyrus- again, complicated answer. back in his sidestep days, he would. he certainly proved that with the whole thing he had with ortega. back in the day, he stuck mostly to "joke" flirting. (un?)fortunately he was a lot more skilled at it than he thought, which he supposes he should thank the farm for. the problem with it nowadays is that hes trying to avoid relationships(romantic or platonic) at all costs. he doesn't want to fall back into the mistakes he made back when he was sidestep, so he'd probably avoid it like the plague 💀 if it werent for his belief that relationships are a hindrance and a danger though, he'd totally go for it. he values honesty in any relationship, so regardless of what the other person feels, he'd tell them. not to mention, he just became more confident and more skilled with flirting after the farm, so he can truly be a menace for a good enough cause

Cecilia- oh shes absolutely going for it. shes flirting(fighting), stealing chocolates and roses, getting the media in on it, the whole shebang. there really is no limit of what she'd go through for the bit. because that's what romance is to her– its just another way for her to have fun. she's here for a good time, and if it just so happens to also be a long one thats good too. maybe that'll change as time goes on, but for now, she's gonna fuck around and see what she finds out

Cynthia- cynthia would try to pursue the characters affection, just a lot less overtly than cecilia or cyrus would. i don't think she'd try to flirt?? she'd stick to acts of service and act more affectionate in general, hoping the other person would pick it up. unfortunately, her romantic interest is dense as fuck 😔 she's lucky that ortega is flirty, all she had to do was act responsive and sincere to get the point across

12. How much independence do they prefer in a relationship–do they want to share their lives as much as possible with their partner, or do they prefer to mostly do their own thing and let their partner do their own thing?

Caine- for caine, romantic relationships aren't much different than platonic ones, and with their friendships they tend to stay at their peripherals, always reliable, always there, but not necessarily always close. plus, their interests sometimes conflict (cough villainy cough), so he'd rather let everybody deal with it through their own thing

Cyrus- cyrus values independence and choice. he wants the assurance that he can live his life as he please and not be tied down to the other person. once he gets it though, he can be surprisingly clingy. he likes observing the people he loves, whether thats on a date, watching them work on a hobby, or just taking up space with them. knowing and being known in return is like, the sincerest form of love for him

Cecilia- she heavily enjoys spending time with other people, and that directly translates to trying to spend as much time as possible with her partner. she likes participating in other people's lives, and while she's willing to leave people be when they need it, she'd much rather spend her time hanging out and participating in the things they love. she's learning how to give people more space with argent, though, since she's very explicit in her need for boundaries and alone time

Cynthia- listen ok. she was already clingy back in her sidestep days. after heartbreak it got like. 10× worse 💀💀💀. she wants to spend as much time as possible with her partner because of an unconcious fear she'll lose them, and the fact that her romantic interest is ortega makes that fear so much worse because! ortegas also terrified of losing her! cynthias not an idiot! she can feel her worry! and it makes her worry in return! it is literally the worst possible feedback loop. their relationship is becoming unhealthy in increasingly interesting and concerning ways

20. When would they say "I love you?" Do they say it first? Do they say it often, or is it reserved for special moments?

Caine- they're the last one to actually say "i love you". caine is much more of a 'show don't tell' sort of guy. for him, loving the other person is a point of fact, not something that needs to be explicitly stated. as a result, the actual words don't come often. he only really says it when he thinks his partners need that assurance. that said, after everything is over, when they finally sort out their relationship and they get a quiet moment to finally breathe, they'd probably say "I love you" after getting kissed stupid by their boyfriends, just to marvel at the fact that they can choose without any secrets underneath

Cyrus- cyrus is canonically not the first one to say "i love you" because danny wears his heart on his sleeve. cyrus is desperately pretending he can't see it because he doesn't want to deal with the implications of all of that. "i love you" is far too real and far too dangerous, so in his head there are absolutely zero circumstances where he would willingly admit it. he is blatantly incorrect because he is just as much of a bleeding heart idiot as daniel is. he tries to reserve it for a special occasion, but at some point staying in herald's apartment, he gets so overwhelmed with the feeling of love and safety he can't stop himself from mumbling it into his neck. part of him hopes daniel didn't hear him; both of them know he did. maybe in the future he gets more comfortable admitting he loves him, but there's a lot of shit to work through before that happens

Cecilia- she says it often, both in romantic and platonic relationships! personally i hc her as the first one to say it to argent, buuut that's probably not going to canonically be the case rip :') she doesn't see any reason to hold back, especially when holding back clearly didn't interest argent. for her, "i love you" is a direct challenge to the universe and the farm, for daring to make her feel like she can't feel the way humans do, and for daring to take away the things she did care about. she's making sure they'll never be able to take anything away from her again. i'm sure this will not backfire on her in any way!

Cynthia- again, canonically not the first one to say i love you, but i think (when things settle down and she doesn't have to fear for her life and relationships) she's the one more comfortable with saying it. she says it often, in little moments and in big, and she means it every single time. if things just happened a little differently, if the story was a little kinder or cynthia a little stronger, she'd be able to live comfortable with the knowledge that she loves ortega. unfortunately the world is hellbent on making things as difficult as possible for them