TL;CR MEME

[gatonina]

1. Comment with your character.
2. Receive comments from others.
3. Reply to their comments with long ballads and explanations of your characters' relationship throughout the game.
4. Suffer as we have suffered over your CR.

Comments

[vigilantics]

normally i don't go out of order but i feel like if i get this one out of the way the rest will go faster. anyway i'm linking the grimm tlcr as a jumping point and we are moving on from there.

arriving immediately from grimm to waking up on the bus was. terrible. and honestly, steph did not care that much about her arriving in another weird place because she was just, "well! this might as well just happen ig!!" what bothered her was that belph and hikage were also there? since by grimm's end, her priority shifted to getting them to gotham and helping them adjust to life there which was going to be a lot of work for the both of them for a variety of reasons, so having an unexpected detour? threw her off so much. especially once it became apparent that the common factor between everyone there was that they all came from murdergames, so the obvious conclusion was that they were. in another one. and that was awful! and again, not for her because who cares about that, but she was not sure how either of them were gonna handle a round two. and it turned out she was right to worry but it's fine.

and the thing is like, she knew stuff was going to be different this time around just, right away? like one of the main differences was just the existence of the other bats in crau, because they were like, immediate allies that she could depend on, as long as she didn't fuck it up. and she like, very desperately wanted belph to get along with the bats, but she also knew she couldn't really force them together if they didn't want it, especially since steph had no idea what her relationship with dick or jason was gonna be like (she knew there was no hope with damian because he would refuse to work with belph just to spite her). but the fact that steph had this other support system right away besides grimm ppl, even if it was an uncertain one, did set the tone for things.

the other is that... she knew the chances of belph and steph being role partners again were really slim, even before they had the confirmation that murder was going to be happening. so she would spend like, the whole game wondering if he had a role? or if there was stuff he wasn't telling her? she learned about how roles worked in thots and how they just flat out couldn't talk about it, so after she found out about that she accepted that if belph did have one, he could just not be able to tell her. THAT SAID, there was also the option where neither of them had one (which is what ended up happening), and at the beginning she hoped the change in this dynamic wouldn't like, change other things? because she knows how much things like alliances and info sharing matter in these things, and while she didn't think belph would ever ditch or anything, she worried if she couldn't be useful if it might affect things negatively. it's fine.

BUT ALSO, even though steph really wished belph wasn't there and that he was safe elsewhere, she was also grateful at the same time to have him with her, which she felt bad about. but she does depend on him a lot, and he helped keep he sane in grimm, especially when (gestures at the varian and evan mess) stuff happened? she is not sure how she would have managed without him. so the fact that belph was here with her was... terrible, but being with belph calms her down. and she needed it! especially after w0 when it turned out evan accidentally murdered someone! the absolute worst fucking way to start the game because that completely and utterly destroyed steph!! and like, no one else really knew just how close steph was to evan? so she didn't really get like, a lot of people checking in on her or anything after, which was fair since it was the first week and all. but the fact that belph knew that she loved evan, and that he waited for her so he could check on her and make sure she was okay, meant like... the absolute world to her? because all she really wanted to do was cry and curl up into a ball but she knew she couldn't do that, so just being looked after meant a lot.

and then immediately into w1 was when their romance 'drama' got outed and i just. closes my eyes. the whirlwind. it was actually weird in a lot of ways, but one of the reasons she was hm about it she didn't mention to belph. but it was partly the fact that they spent like the majority of grimm pretending to not be close at all and only really gave up on that in the final week there. but they had no reason to do that in camp? so to go from no one in the castle knowing about them, to suddenly everyone being extremely aware of what their relationship was like (or what they thought the relationship as like), was a little jarring. it was a little uncomfortable, in the sense that she wasn't used to people knowing about her business like that, but it eventually veered into it being more funny than anything.

or, mostly funny, because it just! greatly annoyed her that people kept saying that she could do better than belph, or that he doesn't deserve her or anything, because she is the biggest belph stan in the world. and eventually she does snap and go on a rant about how much she love belph to like, the people who said this most often, but. it was frustrating, because she knows the reason they aren't dating is because belph's mental health is Bad, but she? wasn't going to tell these other people that because it's none of their business. so she just gave a vague answer about how he didn't want to date while in a mg and they thought that was dumb, but... that also annoyed steph. because on one hand, she understood the idea of how they shouldn't waste the time left they have together because they don't know how it'll end? but on the other, steph really refused to believe that things would end badly so she wanted to support belph's wishes. she didn't want to date belph if she forced him to date her. she wanted him to want to date her on his own. the next few paragraphs are all romance related i'm sorry.

i think it's like... at the end of grimm, i am not sure if she was properly in love with him yet? or at the very least, she wasn't at a point where she would acknowledge that her feelings were more than just liking him and were closer to romantic love. but she realized rather early on in crau that it was love! and like, the thing with steph is that she gets crushes rather easily? and can have multiple ones on different people? but usually when it's still on the crush stage, she gets over it pretty quickly. like when she had the briefest crush on shirasu, but she got over it pretty fast after deciding it was more fun to just chill with him than anything else. but once it moves on from crush to like, actually really likes you a lot, she sticks to you harder?? but even then she can still back off... except belph is beyond that as well, and is now firmly in the territory of steph clinging onto him. so fuckin much. i am so sorry.

because steph can get really clingy and annoying and she is truly, deeply, trying to get better about this part of her personality, and she really isn't as bad as she used to be, but she can't turn that off entirely?? it's why, even though she is genuinely okay with still being friends and waiting to see if belph might eventually want to date in the future, you could still tell that she wants to date him... because even though she is fine with not dating, she is bad at hiding the fact that she wants to date closes eyes. she is so sorry. steph mostly just hopes that belph is aware she does not mind not dating even when she gets like that.

also i joked about this before, but if tim was in the game she would not have dumped belph for him... it would have made things more complicated from a romantic standpoint but. not because she would have ditched him for tim. mostly because steph is at a point where she is aware her history was tim is very facebook complicated and that they need space from each other for their own good, but she still loves him? so in a mg setting she would have been highkey concerned about him, but not chasing him romantically, but it would have made things awk from the belph side. PROBABLY NOT FOR BELPH, BECAUSE HE ISN'T THE JEALOUS TYPE, but steph would just feel bad because she!! wouldn't want belph to think that if her ex came along she'd just go 'bye' and nyoom away.

crying but ok. another thing that the w1 romance mess did, because we are still fuckin on this, is. make steph consider that hikage might also like belph? she never once considered this, primarily because she doesn't know what belph and hikage get up to when she isn't around. and just watching how they interact when she's there isn't the same, because when all three of them are together the dynamic changes a bit, so it's not a good way to judge? but when she actually thought about it, she realized she was not like... super surprised by the idea? especially because she knows that hikage is a jealous person but he was weirdly okay with the idea of her dating belph. so when she really thought about it, she mostly wondered why she didn't realize the possibility sooner, so she just. immediately went to belph to ask him about it to see his perspective and they were both just "huh...."

which... leads to the whole poly talk. which is another thing she didn't really think about? because admittedly, even though steph told hikage to wait because she wanted to let belph think on it to be fair, she had absolutely NO idea how she would deal with things once he did. so steph deciding to wait til they got to gotham wasn't only for belph's benefit, but also her own, because it gave her more time to sweat nervously about it all because sometimes you like two boys. but while steph knew about poly (it even got brought up at the castle during the sleepover!), she never really considered it for... herself... because like i said before, once steph fixates on a person she super laser focuses on them. but there were multiple people telling her that they should all just date each other and solve their problems that way? and. honestly even by the end of crau she doesn't know how she feels about that, at all, especially with hikage dying so early, so admittedly she'd still need more convincing in that regard but at least now she is aware of the idea even if she isn't completely sold on it yet, mostly since that is a conversation she'd need to have with them instead of other people tell her to do it laughs

especially since, as steph told belph, all of the conversations about them dating each other, steph realized that she actually was not ready to date hikage? the thing with grimm is that, her relationship with hikage focused mostly on hikage, because it was trying to make him not snap and kill everyone? but since all of the confessions were like, at the last minute in grimm, steph didn't really get to sit and think about it until now? and she had gotten into a few arguments with hikage in camp, and stuff like he didn't really know that much about her, so she was just "hmmmm i see a problem." but she didn't have that same problem with belph!! like, by game end, there is like only one really major piece of steph lore that belph doesn't know about and it's the. absolute hardest one to get and i can say that, post-game she would probably tell him eventually honestly. maybe not right away, but she'll tell him.

but in genera, figuring out that wasn't a bad thing? because like i said, all the romance stuff that happened in grimm happened suuuuper quickly, and when they thought they would have a ton of time to figure it all out, so steph wasn't like, upset or anything about realizing she had to work things out more. did she wish she was doing so back in gotham? yes. less people would care about it then. but it was better to realize before any dating happened because she is so nervous about her romantic life exploding again and wants to do whatever it takes to like. not explode. and then like, everything after that went fairly smoothly? they sucked at finding a murderer, but honestly they messed up at the castle before so it wasn't as end of the world as it would have been for people from places where they caught killers every week. that w2 task when he complimented her though gave her a gigantic doki.

but. as we are on w2, we must move onto the biggest w2 thing that, i think, pretty much completely changed the course of this relationship... hikage's death. a lot of different things changed from this, so this will be another multi paragraph part probably, but to start... belph was, once again, the only person she could really go for comfort for this. like, everyone else knew they were close to hikage? but the others didn't really know hikage, not even the other grimm people considering hikage only cared about these two cries. so, while other people would be sad about belph and steph being sad, the only person who was sad about hikage being dead was... belph. and it was difficult! because it wasn't even a case where they could be like "i have no idea why anyone would target hikage" because both of them were like, "hmmmm yea honestly it's not that surprising but it still fuckin sucks." but yea, the fact that belph was the only other person who remotely understood how she felt, she clung to him a lot.

and then they! didn't catch the killer!! which made it worse, because it meant that absolutely anyone they spoke to could have done it. and the only people steph really could take off the list was bats, because she knew that even if they were forced to kill they wouldn't go for someone they knew she was close to, and she didn't think a grimm would do it. did she think that yams or sanji wouldn't ever kill hikage? no. but she didn't think they would go for someone else from the castle before anyone else, especially if hikage didn't agree to it (which he wouldn't have). but even with all of that in mind, she also knew she couldn't completely take them off the suspect list, it was just that they were far less likely to have done it compared to everyone else. but the one single person she knew wouldn't ever kill hikage was belph. so navigating her relationship with everyone else after that was weird, and tricky, and part of the reason she was uncertain about friendships, but once again she! never had to deal with that with belph!!! so he was the one person she could really grieve with without having suspicious thoughts in her head.

but also, like said above, hikage's death did make steph cling even more tightly to belph. steph was very sincere when she said that it wasn't that hikage was a second choice or anything compared to belph. and even now, it's not that he's a second choice, but his death did set down the groundwork for steph's love for belph to go kind of turbo in progression while hikage didn't get to have that same type of development, since he. was dead. closes eyes.