Will definitely reach out, thanks! And yes, Phaedra is a far less wholesome story, haha (I really enjoy story involving a fatality the characters fail to overcome because it is too overbearing…)
And of course! Even from a narrative standpoint, now that I think more clearly about it, it was necessary for Conrad to do so, to prove his own feelings to Aelfric. But it also helped with deepening their connection: they understand better the weights each bears (especially with the whole Bloodbane situation), and somehow, they manage to know each other in a deeper and truer fashion.
Seeing Aelfric’s struggles was interesting too! Admittedly, we haven’t seen much of his actions as a hero, but for the endgame, but I really appreciated the fact he struggled with farm activities and with getting the cues in general. But to see him try his hardest to get better at it sounded very true and very real, which I enjoyed.
Oh, and Aelfric having ASDs makes so much sense, now that you phrase it like this! I recently wrote a character like that and really got attached to him, so it must explain it (won’t go into much details, I saw you added the game in which he appears to your otome jam collection, so I’ll let you discover it when you feel like it fgtyh). But yes, Aelfric doing things right and somehow still failing… maybe that’s also why was so disheartening about him in this scene. A friend also pointed out that, despite the fact he wants to reject it, Conrad doesn’t manage to tell him he doesn’t love him… What can I say, I’m a sucker for romance, haha…
And I’m happy you got to talk about your characters, because I’m very happy to read about them (predictable I suppose, haha)! Will definitely continue to share my thoughts with you (don’t know what is better, haha… I wouldn’t want to saturate the itch page, but at the same time, I feel like an itch notification is less suffocating than a twitter PM one, and I don’t want you to feel pressured to answer to my thoughts and confusion, haha!)