Now it's time for my ROMANTIC dream!

[shanghaiworld]

this place really needs to be used more

So, we all play in a game based on the ideas of romance. So, I was thinking, why don't we all talk about that?

By that I mean why not tell us about your characters and romance. Do they have someone they fancy/are with? Do you have plans for them in this sense? How into ladies are they? Do they enjoy longs walks, dinners or something else entirely? What would they want from a relationship? Or do they just want nothing to do with it all?

So, come on, speak up and talk about romanticism and relationships!

Comments

[branded_twin]

Mion and romance are very conflicting and confusing, as is evidenced by the fact that she's well aware of just how confused she is about the whole matter.

All her life, Mion was a 'tomboy': she was brash, outgoing, dominating, courageous, and generally possessing every 'male' quality beyond that of any of the males around her. She did not resent feminine things: for example, considering her status in her village, she has experience playing up the 'female' things and even more so while pretending to be her twin sister, Shion, who is generally more 'feminine'. She even wears skirts and very pretty bathing suits without a second thought.

She's even confident and composed about her body and its related sexuality! Despite acknowledging and bragging about being a tomboy and the manliest person in her hometown (to the point that she and everyone else calls her the Old Man, making her essentially that one creepy uncle in a teen girl's body), she'll use her breasts to make others uncomfortable as a joke.

Now, this doesn't really have anything to do with romance so far, but it is coming:

Mion's first crush is/was on Keiichi. This was the result of him 'saving' her from a group of creepy greaser thugs by singlehandedly beating the shit out of them. I put 'saving' in apostrophes because Mion was well more than capable--and likely far more capable than Keiichi--of beating the shit out of them herself, having the fighting skill superior to that of a 40-year-old professional veteran bodyguard (canon). This incident and her resulting 'doki doki' over a guy that treated her as a girl threw her entire self-perception into whack and made her think about romance for the first time.

It was then she realized she did have a 'feminine side', which made her very confused because she was totally at a loss as to how to compromise her personality and image up until then with this new part of her she discovered. Although she would never want to stop being the brash, wacky, perverted, confident, supportive ('male traits') she always was, she nonetheless wanted to be acknowledged as a girl, having feelings, and wanting to be loved.

To explain how she posed as Shion or behaved as a 'girl' for the sake of her family and her position, Mion's exceptional (whether it be a good or bad thing) at separating herself and her identity from her actions if those actions are not born from her own wants: her mimicking of Shion's 'girly' behavior was simply playing pretend, behaving 'properly' was just for the sake of tradition and ceremony, and she generally doesn't equate what she wears with 'male' or 'female'.

Now, how this applies to romance: Mion's feelings for Keiichi began and grow stronger whenever he genuinely and honestly treats her as a girl despite the way she behaves. Such as saving her from the thugs or being perceptive enough to give her a cutesy doll that most anyone else would have thought didn't fit Mion at all.

Although she has not figured it out yet due to being a confused teenager only recently thinking about love, Mion ultimately wants someone who accepts every aspect of her, even if she herself has difficulty doing so--her conflicting feelings about her crush and general femininity cause her to pick on Keiichi more than anyone else and then regret it, because she can't bring herself to do something as sensitive as admit her feelings to him.

This, however, could apply to anyone, not just Keiichi. The key to Mion's heart is treating her as a girl now and again and accepting her, and being perceptive enough to know that there is more to her than the crazy-ass perverted man-in-a-teenage-girl's-body.

Due to the teenage nature of her crush (even if she and Keiichi ARE best friends), it's fully possible and not unlikely for her to develop feelings for someone else.