Romantic Pursuits

[KumoriRyuu]

I have learned the hard way what trying to force things romantically does to not only the characters, but potentially to the Players as well off the page. And it's not always pretty.

To that end, I'm providing everyone with a cautionary bit of advice for romance in this RP: Keep! It! Natural!

Shipping characters is fine, but there's a reason it's called "shipping." Because it's based on desire rather than reality. And just because you ship two or more characters doesn't mean they're going to end up together. Neither does it mean that the player(s) who own the characters you ship yours with have any obligation to guide their characters towards your own romantically. And they shouldn't "guide" their characters, because doing so, by definition, goes against their character's natural behavior. If you have to "guide" them, you're going out-of-character.

As someone who's guilty of having done this in the past and trying to force the issue, I will confirm it doesn't work either on or off the page. It's far more trouble than it's worth to pursue a ship that's not going to sail without forcing your character out of their natural behavior or personality.

But hey, there's some good news. No romance is ever impossible. Even if the personalities don't seem to match, and the behaviors aren't really aligning or bringing them together, love still has a chance to blossom if other things happen to prove the differences are worth overlooking. So what you should do if you see the ship is in danger of sinking isn't to give up or crack under the pressure and force the issue. What you should do (which I didn't, so learn from my mistakes) is to just keep pursuing the romance in your own way. Your character can still start falling for this other character, but let them not get along if that's what's going to be natural for them.

Stick to your guns, and hold onto the hope that somewhere down the line something will happen that will reveal something about your character that this other character can respect and love. A spark may form, and if you catch on that it did, fan that spark as hard as you can and keep doing what comes naturally to your character. If that spark was strong enough to withstand the obstacles around it, a flame will burn and love may find a way.

So in summary: Keep it natural, and don't give up if it doesn't look like your desired ship is going to make it.

Happy romancing!