October Answer Post (non NSFW)

Thanks for the questions, everyone! As you see, there are 8 this month - don't be shy about throwing more my way next time!

blaise brainrot ,, feel free to answer or not answer any qs !! sorry for  all the romance asks blaise really on the mind lately 😭

Oh don't worry! I'm glad Blaise is bringing you joy!

blaise w an oblivious s/o whose acquaintance blatantly has a crush on them?

I'm going to assume the s/o is the MC for the purposes of this one. Blaise is... how shall I put it... protective of the MC once they're together, even if they don't display it all the time and they often unpredictably want their own space. If an acquaintance was starry eyed over the MC, Blaise would be waspish about it. They'd be a bit passive-aggressive towards the acquaintance, veering into aggressive-aggressive if the acquaintaince actually acted on their feelings. They'd likely tell the MC in a dramatic way when trying to compliment them:

Blaise: "don't be silly, everyone loves you! Look at Acquaintance, they're obsessed with you!"

MC: "what"

What would be going on underneath would be that they're pretty insecure and would find it hard to see someone else being blatantly into their partner.

them meeting the mc's ex fiance that they can leave for blaise in one of the endings lmao (i feel like theyd be pretty smug if it were hartmann or august considering their status/having beaten them as prefect/theirmomthrowingthemintothemines and such <3)

Oooh, this would be really dramatic and angsty! The ex fiance would probably try to avoid them (if it was a less dramatic character) or would have a fight (if it was someone like Max or Delacroix, or even Hartmann might confront them). It would be very hard for the fiance because they'd likely still have feelings for the MC; Blaise would be quite brittle about it too, because they might be worried that the MC could change their mind. But they'd likely cover up any worries/insecurities by being smug and sassy: that's how they roll.

mc telling them theyd had a crush on them since theyd bumped into them in the train or even be that assuming theyd met in passing w their familys being friends before

Depending on their mood, Blaise would either be like "don't be ridiculous" and roll their eyes about the MC being overly sentimental, OR go "well, obviously I'm very compelling". Either way, they would be genuinely surprised despite their reaction. They didn't expect the MC to have such feelings even when they expressed them.

hcs for a crushing stage!blaise w an engaged mc? but like the engagement is obviously not going well (probably w august,, their mom having,, complicated matters maybe)

I could see this being hard for Blaise... they have a LOT of feelings about pretty much everything after their mine experience and they would assume that the MC wasn't interested in them that way. They might try to be a friend to the MC while their engagement wasn't going great, being a shoulder to cry on, still be hoping despite themselves, but then feel bad because under some circumstances they used to be friends (eg Hartmann, even Max).

Maybe with the right character and MC configuration they could end up polyamorous? But that would require a massive amount of feelings-work and building up trust, and that would take a long time. It might be that the MC and fiance might break up before that happened, or that Blaise distanced themself to help defuse the Feelings.

how was blaise in the mines? (e.g. what kept them going, how they felt during the outing where their former classmates were like. right There, how it changed/affected their mindset)

They spent a while feeling incredibly furious and betrayed, grieving their relationship with their Aunt Violette - who they trusted! and were close to! - and their energy would have ebbed and flowed in waves. A few times they probably tried to escape but when they didn't manage to, they became more lethargic. They made friends with Gaspard, which helped them along during the early stages, and found it incredibly difficult when he died. That would have been their lowest point.

What kept them going... spite mostly, and wanting revenge on Lady Renaldt. When Mr Blanchard/Miss Dalca get thrown in as well, that gave Blaise a bit more hope because they figured that if adults were being put there, someone else will notice. The teacher who got thrown in tried to support Blaise as much as they could, giving them some of their rations and standing up for them when times were tough. So that was a small kindness that helped Blaise think there was hope for the future. Overall, though, it was hideously traumatic and it would take a long time for Blaise to recover from it.

Since Javi is asexual would it still be possible for them to be physically intimate if the MC wanted to? I don't know a lot about the aspec, but I am not sure if they're entirely repulsed by the idea of sleeping together or not. Would they be ok if the MC found pleasure elsewhere, either autonomously or with another individual?

I'm not going to go into too much detail on this as it verges into NSFW territory, but Javi will not be sleeping with the MC in RA. However, you can have a casual (romantic or physical) relationship with Dominique as well as romancing Javi, and there will be conversations with Javi in the future about the MC about whether in general the MC would like to go elsewhere for physical intimacy.

So in CDLC if you chose to romance Auguste and you take Lady Renaldt down, they seem understanding, but also conflicted about the whole situation…how do you realistically think that this might have affected their relationship with the MC in the future? Especially if Lady Renaldt was sent to jail?

Auguste feels horribly conflicted about the whole situation: they broadly want justice and they recognise that what their mother did was terrible, but when it affects their life so directly, especially when everyone knows about it, it's hard to feel great about it. They also used to deeply admire Lady Renaldt, were close to her, and it's a huge change in how they feel about her. I could see it being a source of contention in the future, particularly when it came to things like whether Auguste visited Lady Renaldt in prison (they would want to; the MC might have feelings about that) and whether they'd resume contact once she was released.

Auguste is quite a proponent of dumping out, however. They understand that Lady Renaldt made others, sometimes including the MC, suffer hugely, and wouldn't complain to the MC about it. Indeed, it might be quite a challenge for the MC to encourage them to talk about it, if the MC wanted to.

In the world of CDLC and RA, same sex relationships are common and celebrated, which is great, but how does that work in the case of the Royal family’s, like for example  Westerlin, where generally things like ‘passing down the family name’ is important. Do they adopt outside of the family? Do they use a surrogate? Or is this not really considered to be an issue at all like it is in our world?

Yep, surrogacy is a thing as is adoption, and both are considered as legitimate ways of passing down a title as shared genetics.

Surrogacy is generally less common in Westerlind aristocracy, which tends to be more rigid in that way, and generally more common in Zaledo people, where "family" has a much broader definition culturally. Adoption is similarly common, though in Zaledo it's more common to bring birth parents (where appropriate to the situation) into the family circle. In Jezhan, where polyamorous marriage is legal, royalty has a High Consort who carries the title (Prince/Princess/Heir Darian, who Rosario can marry, is the offspring of this) and then multiple Consorts whose kids are royal but can't be heirs.

But yes, the short answer is that titles are important but genetics aren't so much.