(no subject)

[varadia]

This meme looks like fun.

And god knows I can expound on inter-character relationships for hours.

So. Have at!

Name either a character or a relationship between characters (not necessarily romantic) from canons I know and/or Milliways and I will a.) give my rambling opinion of him/her/it and b.) tell you one thing I really like about him/her/it.

Comments

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Raven and Moiraine.

[varadia]

So. Raven and Moiraine. What to say about them. *thinks*

Raven and Moiraine's first meeting kind of sets the pattern (oh irony) of the entire run of their relationships to date. They spoke of patterns, and Patterns, and how one might control the way a world goes. Ha ha ha.

And then they didn't talk for a while. The next thing to draw Moiraine's attention was Wash's resurrection, in which Moiraine was like 'AHA, a cure for DEATH. SWEET.' Only it wasn't. And then things kept going.

I think what cemented Ravens' affection for her, beyond the fact that she is a mischievous little scamp, but also very intelligent and clever and capable, is that she kept seeing him at his worst. Over and over and over and over. And then he kept seeing her at HER worst. And it was kind of like 'well, shit, we should band together over here'. So he tried to help her--which lead to the first teaching thing--about how to hold her world together using thread.

And it would have ended there but for Blodwen--wherein Raven saw Moiraine balefire a chair when she was crazy, and he went 'oh'. So then he told her that balefire could hurt him, and he's kind of crazy, so if Blodwen drives him entirely mad, plz kill him. And she said 'okay'. So now that her hand was on the killswitch, he could kind of relax. Around her, around other people--it was nice.

And he realized she needed to have fun, and so he'd torment her, and try to get her to eat, and pulled her hair and teased her, and eventually *gasp* she teased back! And now they have their own running joke, which is 'The Wheel weaves', and then Raven makes funny noises, or is like 'yeah, whatever, crazypants'. And it's kind of cute. And he cuddles with her when she's a kid. ANYWAY.

AND PART II (oops I exceeded the comment length, whee?)

[varadia]

Next step in the inevitable downward spiral was--I think a big leap was when Raven made way for Great Raven for a while (Thanks Nyarlathotep!), and Moiraine actually said called him her friend, out loud. And she was sad that he was different, even as she was not planning on giving up on him. (Thank Ace for that kind of thing too--really this post should be about all three of them, in varying permutations). And then she held him to himself for long enough for him to promise to come back. Which he needed to do, if he could, and which he was grateful for, even as hurting him made her feel like shit.

So that was a major milestone--Moiraine calling him 'friend', and you can bet after he came back to himself he appreciated it. Which leads to the next thing.

The two (two?) times Raven has made her cry. One of them was in the wake of--I think of Lan coming back, and the confusion of all the time-stuff, and just her being so tired of losing things and people and always needing to be 'on'. Anyway, she cried on him, and he promised not to use it against her, and he hasn't. So that paved the way for her to trust him more, even as he is Raven the trickster and maybe not always the best person to be trusting. So. And that let him see her in ways he hadn't before, and that kind of crystallized that he has a personal stake in her doing well and being happy, above and beyond his general affection for people and wanting to teach them things. He wants to teach her things that do NOT hurt.

And then of course he and Ace both watched her kind of wearing herself down, and they kind of, without talking about it, were like 'she needs a support network that is not all stiff-necked and whatever. And we like her. Let's give her lots of hugs and never let her be stupid again'. So they kind of dragged her in when Raven came back to himself. And that was where, I think, for them, it became a family thing.

Then there was Maggie, which was something like Raven's gift to her, because boy does she need to let go every so often. And then she cried again *invests in handkerchief for Moiraine*, and some bits of the family thing clicked into place. But it wasn't until very recently that she actually admitted it out loud, and I am not entirely sure why she chose to now. It's been a while. But ever since all that. They--trust each other with odd things, and with secrets, and with a lot of the truth behind the public face, and I think it's both cool and surprising. Because on the surface, they do not have anything in common at all. But underneath they are both always working toward a goal, and wearing masks to one degree or another, and they like people, and they protect the people they love, and they are silly and hilarious. And cuddly.

And god help anyone that gets in their way.

(Because Ace has a TARDIS, and she is not afraid to use it).

And do not get me started about the muppets. *solemn*