Monday's romance survey
...or why I need a life...
To confuse youexplain slightly: Dree (heartof_thezone) IS Adora (bythewhiteelm), 300 years later. They are still, however, two different people, because Adora hasn't lived through Dree's experiences. To make things more complicated, Adora's future has altered (slightly or drastically) while Dree's past has not. [IE: Things that are currently happening to Adora didn't happen to Dree, when she was 'back then'.] On top of this, Dree's life has circled back on itself, so she's physically back with Wyatt, Adora and Hilary, etc.
1. Are your characters involved in romantic relationships? Did these develop organically, or did you work them into the plot?
bythewhiteelm - Adora's married to Wyatt Cain, her husband of at least 20 years (based on some sketchy canon-math). She's also taken up with hilary_booth. Wyatt and Adora is canon and PERFECT... even with the downright crappy ending they got. Hilary and Adora met last year, on St. Patty's, in a bit of RP-silliness. Halfway through their conversation, bizarra and I were 'shipping them HARD. Plot followed, more to help bizarra work on a random plotbunny, and imploded into where we are now. [See Elly's post]
heartof_thezone - Dree is currently married to elari_brooks, and recently widowed (it's been a year, but, at her age, it might as well be a few days). Their relationship grew out of plotting with Adora and Hilary - at one point, we realized that the girls had been together in an alternate thread (parallel universe/whatever). Things in that line had gone HORRIBLY wrong and ended with both of their deaths. Long story short, Hilary's soul keeps being reborn. Adora was now immortal (but didn't know it) and would go through her long life, randomly meeting variations of Hilary and Jeff (her husband).
Fun fact: when we first me El'Ari.. neither of us (nor Adora) liked her very much. After a few months and some in-progress rewriting, we got El to someone we'd want to actually spend time with. :)
Dree's also dealing with the loss of her husband and that tends to get confused reactions from most people, because they don't understand just how much it's affecting her. On top of that, being back in the vicinity of Wyatt Cain isn't helping, either, because regardless of what she tells herself, him and El'Ari, she has never stopped loving him. The easiest thing for her, in this case, is to avoid him as much as possible.
Technically, she's also the fourth-wheel in a three-way relationship, but it's only because one of them is her wife and the other two are people that Dree considers family. Which sounds a lot weirder than it is, I promise.
2. How much detail to you put into their romantic lives? Do you fade to black, or could you make an erotica writer blush? Somewhere in between?
Ahahaha! Okay, this is an easy answer: I blush at everything, therefore I have mastered the fade-to-black. bizarra, on the other hand, has NO qualms. So I paint a vague picture and she covers the rest. ♥ Though, I will admit that, on rare occasion, I have a moment and cross my own line. Well.. I lean over the fence.
3. Do you prefer to write both partners in the relationship, or do you co-write with someone? What are the pros and cons of this method for you?
There are a few scenes which I find it easier to know El's reaction, and write it myself.. but she's still not mine. So there's a lot of "Can I borrow Elly for a minute?"-messages. LOL In regards to the co-writing, though, it also helps to rethink things quickly. Dree will say one thing, and get a response to a completely different thing. All of a sudden, the response she was expecting to give isn't valid and she either had to reweave the conversation back to it, or just move on.
This has mostly come in to play the few times she's actually had the nerve to tell someone about being assaulted, and they have focused on another part of the conversation. It aggravates her, to be honest, so she stops trying to explain, which gets the one she's talking to upset and then there's a fight and no one feels any better. LOL
4. Do you think romance is an important part of a well-rounded character's life, or would you rather skip to the action? How do you balance romance time with a character's overall plot?
In our case, romance is only thing to bring us down from all the action. We threw these girls (and our other characters) onto a runaway angst train heading right for Eastwood Canyon. It's not even so much that they need the fluff, but we do, because we're emotional. In Dree's case, she's never really recovered from some of the things in her past. She knows how to put on the show, but she also knows that Elly has seen enough sides of her to call her on it. El knows what buttons to push and when to push them.
5. Do your characters have any failed relationships? How did those breakups affect their development?
Adora considers her 'failed' relationships to be with Wyatt and their kids, her father and friends, in regard to past events. She hasn't yet experienced anything to the contrary.
Dree, on the other hand, has two major failures constantly hanging over her head. The first is her marriage with Wyatt, falling apart. She's never forgiven herself for letting it happen and knows that she'll never be able to make it up to him, because he died before she could apologize. Because of this, Dree decided she would never let anyone get that close, again. Unfortunately, she hadn't bargained on El'Ari...
Her second failure is with a woman she thought was one of the Hilary's - and turned out to be anything but. Dree already was careful with what information she gives out about herself and her past, but she took a chance and trusted this woman with more than any previous 'Hilary' (except for Hilary Booth, of course). Following this mistake, Dree not only shut everything and everyone out, emotionally, but she refuses to have anything to do with doctors of any sort, save one, who she met through El'Ari. Doc Barnes is one of three doctors Dree trusts, and she knows everything about Dree's past.
6. Do you tend to write your characters as any particular sexuality (hetero/homo/bi/pan/trans whatever)? What is the reason for it?
I've always assumed that Wyatt and Adora only EVER had eyes for each other says the Cain/DG shipper. Up until the moment I browbeat bizarra into bringing Hilary in for the St. Patty's day nonsense, it hadn't even crossed my mind that Adora would have ever been with anyone besides Wyatt (save for one or two darker plots involving her time on the run), let alone another woman.
But, as the girls talked, it just sort of.. felt right. So we just let them go and here we are.
7. Have any characters ever developed romantic relationships, or made relationship choices that surprised you? How did that work out?
*points up* Hilary and Adora. Mostly because it was WAY!new to me, and I wasn't too sure I wanted to take Adora there... but it just flowed that way and I decided to just go with it, instead of fight it. With El, once we worked out her unendearing qualities.. to be honest, they started as nothing more than a comment to a random thread in a plotting post that quickly became an actual RP post. By the time the thread got thin enough to necessitate a new post, that was it.
Though, if you go back and look at the original plot, it's almost laughable. Dree was married to Trey, but not to El'Ari; El'Ari was with someone else, as well. Elly was mostly a bitch and then, in half a second, the angst train pulled in to the station and +IMPLOSION+ Within a month, Dree was married to El AND Trey and we were trying to redshirt #4
8. How romantic minded are your characters? Are relationships important to them, are they more interested in casual flings, or do they avoid it all together?
bythewhiteelm Adora's heart belongs to Wyatt, and Wyatt alone. Whatever this thing is with Hilary, it's right. And Wyatt's oddly okay with it. o.O
heartof_thezone Dree was in the relationship enough to be in it, but never made much effort to get deeper, because she knew that she would eventually have to lose them. Then she got burned, HARD. After that, her focus was on work and just getting through every day. She blocked most everything out, to the point of going -for lack of a better phrase- 'Tin Man'. Then she met El'Ari, and proceeded to do everything she could to push El back, once she realized El had, in fact, gotten too close. When she managed to run El'Ari off - the same as she had Wyatt, 300 years prior - Dree crashed.
When El came back, Dree was in it for the long haul, regardless of how she knew it would end. When El brought Trey home, Dree's world spun upside down and sideways (for an entirely different reason). She fought him off for six months before finally realizing that she did like him like that. He was that balance both girls needed, but couldn't be for each other.
Now that he's gone, Dree is trying to do everything she can to not think about romance, because the wounds are still to fresh for her (again, she's got issues on top of issues and her glass in constantly on the verge of spilling over). It's been suggested to her, on multiple occasions, that she spend some "quality time" with Wyatt, but Dree won't let herself... mostly because she doesn't want to open that door again.
She will, however, in a few hundred years, meet a fella named Chris, one night at work. And begin a belly-flop into the relationship pool she never expected or intended to.
9. How faithful are your characters in their relationships? Do they cheat? Are they cheated on? Would they make an episode of Cheaters look tame?
Is it considered cheating when all parties are aware and have, in essence, given their "blessing"? Well, blessing wasn't so much given, but understood. In Dree's case, she knows that each 'Hilary' will, at some point, find her 'Jeff', so she's simply keeping a seat warm. This mentality is most annoying to El'Ari (and all parties involved) - especially recently - because Dree is so very "okay" with El's new relationship.
10. Is your character (or has your character ever been) married? Did the marriage result in children if so? How is their family life?
Adora's only ever been married to Wyatt; they have two children, Jeb (canon) and Kenna. They are God-parents to Hilary's daughter and will be grandparents to Jeb and DG's two sons. Jeb has vague memories of his mother being dead, but, for the most part, only a select few know that time rewrote itself with Adora's 'resurrection'. Now that Adora and the kids aren't running around the woods, and they've been reunited with Wyatt, the Cain family has resettled in a new home and, for the most part, are enjoying their life.
Dree married El'Ari roughly 20 years ago; they married Trey about five years after that. Dree and Trey had a son, Max, who just turned five at the end of October. El'Ari gave birth to twins - a boy and a girl - a few days later, so the house is busy. Aside from the kids, Dree also raised a man named Massey, from his teen years on. He's El's second-in-command and Max's wrangler. Unfortunately, he's been off-world for the last few months. Trey's father lives about an hour away, and they've been trying to see each other more, now that the family has settled on land.
Otherwise, Dree's varied family is almost always around, now, due to the converging timelines, though she really doesn't see much of her own family.
11. What would your character consider the ideal romantic evening? The best romantic gift?
bythewhiteelm - Adora can be easily "bought" by taking her dancing. Wyatt will occasionally bring her a single flower, which he steals from one of the bouquets at the palace. Hilary is constantly buying things for Adora that she doesn't really want or need, but she accepts graciously because Hilary is from another world (literally) and that's just how she is.
As for her 'ideal evening'...
+ with Wyatt: After being separated for eight or so years - and knowing what's to come, for the most part - Adora is most content to be curled up with Wyatt, on the couch, with a book and a blanket and just enjoying the knowledge that he really is there.
+ with Hilary: Adora's favorite nights are when she and Hilary sit together in 'their' room, and Hilary tells her stories of the Other Side (aka Pittsburgh, Hollywood.. 1940s Earth) while brushing her hair.
heartof_thezone - Dree can still be bought by dancing, but finding someone who can tango is difficult - Trey was a pro. If she does get to go dancing, it's more fun and loose (think swing/barn-raising-style) and usually back in her past. For the most part, as her psyche stands at present, she's most content to just sit on the porch and watch the sun go down/sun come up, with a mug of hot tea and El's arms around her.
To confuse youexplain slightly: Dree (heartof_thezone) IS Adora (bythewhiteelm), 300 years later. They are still, however, two different people, because Adora hasn't lived through Dree's experiences. To make things more complicated, Adora's future has altered (slightly or drastically) while Dree's past has not. [IE: Things that are currently happening to Adora didn't happen to Dree, when she was 'back then'.] On top of this, Dree's life has circled back on itself, so she's physically back with Wyatt, Adora and Hilary, etc.
1. Are your characters involved in romantic relationships? Did these develop organically, or did you work them into the plot?
bythewhiteelm - Adora's married to Wyatt Cain, her husband of at least 20 years (based on some sketchy canon-math). She's also taken up with hilary_booth. Wyatt and Adora is canon and PERFECT... even with the downright crappy ending they got. Hilary and Adora met last year, on St. Patty's, in a bit of RP-silliness. Halfway through their conversation, bizarra and I were 'shipping them HARD. Plot followed, more to help bizarra work on a random plotbunny, and imploded into where we are now. [See Elly's post]
heartof_thezone - Dree is currently married to elari_brooks, and recently widowed (it's been a year, but, at her age, it might as well be a few days). Their relationship grew out of plotting with Adora and Hilary - at one point, we realized that the girls had been together in an alternate thread (parallel universe/whatever). Things in that line had gone HORRIBLY wrong and ended with both of their deaths. Long story short, Hilary's soul keeps being reborn. Adora was now immortal (but didn't know it) and would go through her long life, randomly meeting variations of Hilary and Jeff (her husband).
Fun fact: when we first me El'Ari.. neither of us (nor Adora) liked her very much. After a few months and some in-progress rewriting, we got El to someone we'd want to actually spend time with. :)
Dree's also dealing with the loss of her husband and that tends to get confused reactions from most people, because they don't understand just how much it's affecting her. On top of that, being back in the vicinity of Wyatt Cain isn't helping, either, because regardless of what she tells herself, him and El'Ari, she has never stopped loving him. The easiest thing for her, in this case, is to avoid him as much as possible.
Technically, she's also the fourth-wheel in a three-way relationship, but it's only because one of them is her wife and the other two are people that Dree considers family. Which sounds a lot weirder than it is, I promise.
2. How much detail to you put into their romantic lives? Do you fade to black, or could you make an erotica writer blush? Somewhere in between?
Ahahaha! Okay, this is an easy answer: I blush at everything, therefore I have mastered the fade-to-black. bizarra, on the other hand, has NO qualms. So I paint a vague picture and she covers the rest. ♥ Though, I will admit that, on rare occasion, I have a moment and cross my own line. Well.. I lean over the fence.
3. Do you prefer to write both partners in the relationship, or do you co-write with someone? What are the pros and cons of this method for you?
There are a few scenes which I find it easier to know El's reaction, and write it myself.. but she's still not mine. So there's a lot of "Can I borrow Elly for a minute?"-messages. LOL In regards to the co-writing, though, it also helps to rethink things quickly. Dree will say one thing, and get a response to a completely different thing. All of a sudden, the response she was expecting to give isn't valid and she either had to reweave the conversation back to it, or just move on.
This has mostly come in to play the few times she's actually had the nerve to tell someone about being assaulted, and they have focused on another part of the conversation. It aggravates her, to be honest, so she stops trying to explain, which gets the one she's talking to upset and then there's a fight and no one feels any better. LOL
4. Do you think romance is an important part of a well-rounded character's life, or would you rather skip to the action? How do you balance romance time with a character's overall plot?
In our case, romance is only thing to bring us down from all the action. We threw these girls (and our other characters) onto a runaway angst train heading right for Eastwood Canyon. It's not even so much that they need the fluff, but we do, because we're emotional. In Dree's case, she's never really recovered from some of the things in her past. She knows how to put on the show, but she also knows that Elly has seen enough sides of her to call her on it. El knows what buttons to push and when to push them.
5. Do your characters have any failed relationships? How did those breakups affect their development?
Adora considers her 'failed' relationships to be with Wyatt and their kids, her father and friends, in regard to past events. She hasn't yet experienced anything to the contrary.
Dree, on the other hand, has two major failures constantly hanging over her head. The first is her marriage with Wyatt, falling apart. She's never forgiven herself for letting it happen and knows that she'll never be able to make it up to him, because he died before she could apologize. Because of this, Dree decided she would never let anyone get that close, again. Unfortunately, she hadn't bargained on El'Ari...
Her second failure is with a woman she thought was one of the Hilary's - and turned out to be anything but. Dree already was careful with what information she gives out about herself and her past, but she took a chance and trusted this woman with more than any previous 'Hilary' (except for Hilary Booth, of course). Following this mistake, Dree not only shut everything and everyone out, emotionally, but she refuses to have anything to do with doctors of any sort, save one, who she met through El'Ari. Doc Barnes is one of three doctors Dree trusts, and she knows everything about Dree's past.
6. Do you tend to write your characters as any particular sexuality (hetero/homo/bi/pan/trans whatever)? What is the reason for it?
I've always assumed that Wyatt and Adora only EVER had eyes for each other says the Cain/DG shipper. Up until the moment I browbeat bizarra into bringing Hilary in for the St. Patty's day nonsense, it hadn't even crossed my mind that Adora would have ever been with anyone besides Wyatt (save for one or two darker plots involving her time on the run), let alone another woman.
But, as the girls talked, it just sort of.. felt right. So we just let them go and here we are.
7. Have any characters ever developed romantic relationships, or made relationship choices that surprised you? How did that work out?
*points up* Hilary and Adora. Mostly because it was WAY!new to me, and I wasn't too sure I wanted to take Adora there... but it just flowed that way and I decided to just go with it, instead of fight it. With El, once we worked out her unendearing qualities.. to be honest, they started as nothing more than a comment to a random thread in a plotting post that quickly became an actual RP post. By the time the thread got thin enough to necessitate a new post, that was it.
Though, if you go back and look at the original plot, it's almost laughable. Dree was married to Trey, but not to El'Ari; El'Ari was with someone else, as well. Elly was mostly a bitch and then, in half a second, the angst train pulled in to the station and +IMPLOSION+ Within a month, Dree was married to El AND Trey and we were trying to redshirt #4
8. How romantic minded are your characters? Are relationships important to them, are they more interested in casual flings, or do they avoid it all together?
bythewhiteelm Adora's heart belongs to Wyatt, and Wyatt alone. Whatever this thing is with Hilary, it's right. And Wyatt's oddly okay with it. o.O
heartof_thezone Dree was in the relationship enough to be in it, but never made much effort to get deeper, because she knew that she would eventually have to lose them. Then she got burned, HARD. After that, her focus was on work and just getting through every day. She blocked most everything out, to the point of going -for lack of a better phrase- 'Tin Man'. Then she met El'Ari, and proceeded to do everything she could to push El back, once she realized El had, in fact, gotten too close. When she managed to run El'Ari off - the same as she had Wyatt, 300 years prior - Dree crashed.
When El came back, Dree was in it for the long haul, regardless of how she knew it would end. When El brought Trey home, Dree's world spun upside down and sideways (for an entirely different reason). She fought him off for six months before finally realizing that she did like him like that. He was that balance both girls needed, but couldn't be for each other.
Now that he's gone, Dree is trying to do everything she can to not think about romance, because the wounds are still to fresh for her (again, she's got issues on top of issues and her glass in constantly on the verge of spilling over). It's been suggested to her, on multiple occasions, that she spend some "quality time" with Wyatt, but Dree won't let herself... mostly because she doesn't want to open that door again.
She will, however, in a few hundred years, meet a fella named Chris, one night at work. And begin a belly-flop into the relationship pool she never expected or intended to.
9. How faithful are your characters in their relationships? Do they cheat? Are they cheated on? Would they make an episode of Cheaters look tame?
Is it considered cheating when all parties are aware and have, in essence, given their "blessing"? Well, blessing wasn't so much given, but understood. In Dree's case, she knows that each 'Hilary' will, at some point, find her 'Jeff', so she's simply keeping a seat warm. This mentality is most annoying to El'Ari (and all parties involved) - especially recently - because Dree is so very "okay" with El's new relationship.
10. Is your character (or has your character ever been) married? Did the marriage result in children if so? How is their family life?
Adora's only ever been married to Wyatt; they have two children, Jeb (canon) and Kenna. They are God-parents to Hilary's daughter and will be grandparents to Jeb and DG's two sons. Jeb has vague memories of his mother being dead, but, for the most part, only a select few know that time rewrote itself with Adora's 'resurrection'. Now that Adora and the kids aren't running around the woods, and they've been reunited with Wyatt, the Cain family has resettled in a new home and, for the most part, are enjoying their life.
Dree married El'Ari roughly 20 years ago; they married Trey about five years after that. Dree and Trey had a son, Max, who just turned five at the end of October. El'Ari gave birth to twins - a boy and a girl - a few days later, so the house is busy. Aside from the kids, Dree also raised a man named Massey, from his teen years on. He's El's second-in-command and Max's wrangler. Unfortunately, he's been off-world for the last few months. Trey's father lives about an hour away, and they've been trying to see each other more, now that the family has settled on land.
Otherwise, Dree's varied family is almost always around, now, due to the converging timelines, though she really doesn't see much of her own family.
11. What would your character consider the ideal romantic evening? The best romantic gift?
bythewhiteelm - Adora can be easily "bought" by taking her dancing. Wyatt will occasionally bring her a single flower, which he steals from one of the bouquets at the palace. Hilary is constantly buying things for Adora that she doesn't really want or need, but she accepts graciously because Hilary is from another world (literally) and that's just how she is.
As for her 'ideal evening'...
+ with Wyatt: After being separated for eight or so years - and knowing what's to come, for the most part - Adora is most content to be curled up with Wyatt, on the couch, with a book and a blanket and just enjoying the knowledge that he really is there.
+ with Hilary: Adora's favorite nights are when she and Hilary sit together in 'their' room, and Hilary tells her stories of the Other Side (aka Pittsburgh, Hollywood.. 1940s Earth) while brushing her hair.
heartof_thezone - Dree can still be bought by dancing, but finding someone who can tango is difficult - Trey was a pro. If she does get to go dancing, it's more fun and loose (think swing/barn-raising-style) and usually back in her past. For the most part, as her psyche stands at present, she's most content to just sit on the porch and watch the sun go down/sun come up, with a mug of hot tea and El's arms around her.