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TL;CR MEME
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.
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.
no subject
i hate this hhhhhhhhhhhh okay
So their first conversation I placed after Clem heard the multiple worlds theory so she wasn't AS combative about not understanding his shit at all and - Clem meets sincerity with sincerity, so they were able to just talk. About rocks and about finding their way back to their loved ones? And I think it's very funny that we look back at that now and scream because - we both forgot, which means it really didn't make an impact on either of them... Because they were immediately just Like That.
Anyway he was also confused about no monsters?? and was proactive about wanting to look around, and at the time she even remembered getting along with the other Ericson's kids so it was pretty easy to get along with him. Reading these threads makes me very upset. She was flirty? I don't think she even meant to be at that point, unlike later on. I think she was just vibing talking to someone she thought was chill, her own age. And the next time they talked they literally went stargazing and she brought up AJ for the first time. Then later Sora made her food - which most of her favorite people did pretty early on - and they continued to just vibe and she told him more about AJ. I think really that was one of the things with them is that they really easily found a balance for how to talk about their worlds where they could answer each others questions and reach a kind of understanding (even if not an agreement) without ever digging in so deep that it would derail the whole conversation. Because they just - were already enjoying talking to each other. If that makes sense?
holds my head in my hands
and then after that first execution where she wound up comparing him to Louis because - he wanted to do something to cheer everyone up. And that's how Louis is! All the card games she played with the Ericson's kids were because Louis wanted them to have something fun to do to unwind. And pretty shortly before her canon point, Clem got a speech from Violet before going to rescue Louis that - "He walks into a room and it's like - 'Look at me, watch me perform!' It's so stupid. But then I realized under all that he... he really cares about people, and he doesn't just feel it. He says it. He'll tell you every goddamn day how much you mean to him." And that's kind of what she was thinking about Sora.
After that they just kind of went through typical mg stuff together, but generally still either saw eye to eye or - were willing to brush past it. Then Clem checked Sora with her role which... I don't know. Half of me is like "Would they have been as close if she hadn't locked him in week 1 as The Other Role And Therefor Only Person I Can Tell Things"? But then I'm like... looks at their early threads. hm. regrettably, probably yes. But it did give her some confidence that like - she was given a task and she IMMEDIATELY succeeded at the task AND it was someone she already vibed with. THE REVEAL WAS. MY FAVORITE THING. And really set up a dynamic of Clem knowing things Sora didn't - between the two of them. (But not really in other contexts because he was her information source.)
Anyway it was a big comfort because like I said, she already got along with him and now she felt like she really had an ally. .... Then he told her he was dead. And she was just on the inside like: oh my mistake I was happy for a while. fuck me i guess!!! Because of course her favorite person here is dead! Why would that NOT be the case!! HAHA!!!!
But her crush was starting to solidify anyway, because they just? Got along?? I think that the start of week four is when she kind of consciously determined her boundaries with Sora. Which she proceeded to ignore, but she tried? She just thought: "Well. I like Sora. But he's dead (and also even if he weren't I don't have the optimism to believe we'll ever see each other again after we get out of this place.) So I will not pursue anything with him." Because she's really! Not shy about liking people and wanting to date who she likes! In TWD4 Clem is the one to initiate the kiss regardless of who you choose, and she flirts pretty plainly before that. Like, their relationship mess was not a matter of Not Realizing from Clementine's end, or of being afraid it was unrequited, or even of being too SHY. It was just literally "What's the point?"
Let's see. MEMSHARES! Sora is using magic! His friend has a giant car key! Mickey Mouse is there! It was a lot! But it also REAFFIRMED to Clem that - even if she doesn't understand magic fucking at all, it IS real to other people. The absurd shit he says IS his reality, and so. He really is probably dead, and... Time to double-down on the No Relationship Thing. But she didn't know how to comfort him with words, so they held hands because - sure, why not, they'd done that during physical affection week.
So, like, this was HALF Clementine talking about her home, buuut it was also half Clementine reminding herself, out loud, to remember that Sora is a temporary happiness. And then I dumped her biggest trauma on him because that's. What we were doing to each other I guess. But in general she spent a lot of this time being very vulnerable in ways that were not quite clear, because she would phrase them aggressively or couch them as something else. Telling him she likes hanging out with him, telling him she has to remember that things are temporary, and "You said your friends are going to rescue you. Don't take that from me." That kind of thing...
ANYWAY they were cute and he gave her stickers for her gun... and they memshared again but more happy stuff... so they were able to joke around and be silly again... but he did hit on one of her big memlosses that affected her the most which was that she forgot about Ericson's as kind of like. A concept? So she remembered helping out these kids, but didn't really remember that she gets to stay with them or that she has a place. Which - this whole game just made her way more pessimistic about things because it took away her only hope spot of like "Oh, maybe I can settle down," and is also a big contributor to why she refused to think about the wish for such a long time. Anyway, THAT ASIDE, he just got a nice wholesome memory of Louis playing piano which still turned into trauma talk because *gestures at clementine*
Clem was constantly like. Kind of testing the waters with Sora? Like when she called him cute at the start of week four, that was her sincere reaction - but she was also gauging how he'd react. And then, like talking about the RSVPs after learning he'd said Yona wasn't his type. This was also Clem just very unsubtly trying to figure what his deal was. But she had. strong suspicions because by the end of the week, he was saying things like "I don't know what I'd do if we lost you before we got out of here." On one hand, Clem was really pleased about finding her whole team, but she was also trying to present a strong front to them because she wasn't ready to be vulnerable to all of Team Rabbit so instead. Knowing that she had to Do A Murder that she didn't really want to do, Sora was the one that got the vulnerability unloaded on him. Which I mostly mention so I can link more unsubtle flirting that also, in retrospect with new MoM spoilers, makes us scream! Great.
Then... Week 5 was... oof. okay.
Throughout the week there were times where she would notice how touchy-feely Sora was with everyone? And it would make her go ???? oh maybe it is just me? But then the next time they spoke or interacted she would IMMEDIATELY be like "Nope, it's mutual. He's just a fucking idiot." Onto more specifics:
SO CLEM WAS DOING A MURDER THAT HE KNEW ABOUT, SHE MET ALL THE ROLES, SORA GOT HURT which was more upsetting than the first time! Wow!
ONE: the daemons. CLEM DIDN'T LEARN THAT DAEMONS REFLECT THEIR PERSON'S FEELINGS UNTIL LITERALLY ENDGAME so she didn't think anything of it that Sora's would just curl all up on her.
TWO: The Spa Party. Clementine is not normally an insecure person, I don't think? For one, her appearance isn't a priority these days, but for two - even when she likes someone, she's never very fussy about it. But that's when. She's not surrounded by pretty people who aren't used to the grubby dirty apocalypse life? So she was already feeling kind of u///u about Lup doing her makeup and Dorothy doing her nails and just pretending it wasn't a big deal.
Anyway. Clem, who told herself to draw a boundary with Sora was already failing at that? And uh. As we both know, you and I were screaming because leaving a party early to go on a late night walk together is very fucking romantic and no one in chat said anything even though everyone was screaming about ships. ANYWAY THIS IS WHEN Clem was like "okay it's probably definitely mutual, he's just a dumbass." Even she recognized that as a particularly romantic thing to do - like. He's so sociable! And he wanted to leave the party just because he knew that her social-battery would be drained! Sora leaving a group of people having fun to spend time with ONE person she was just like ah. well.
THREE: The Ball: Where Clem was trying to back off a little because she recognized that she was getting in too deep. And once again failed and just wound up - playfully, at least - admitting she would miss Sora when all of this was over. And they made plans for the next day. :)
FOUR: CYOA: Clem got stabbed? And was super stressed about killing. When she got back she almost said 'sorry i missed our date' and then was like "now is fucking not the time, jesus christ" at herself. But then she was like You Know What, Fucking Whatever, because Sora makes her feel better. Sora makes her happy. And she was so miserable because - at the end of the CYOA, they all got 'all their negative feelings they've ever had all at once' essentially. And for her it was just "Someone I love dies, someone I love dies, someone I love dies." Just 8 straight years of that, all at once. So she was willing to just. Forgo the stupid boundaries she was trying to set for herself. She wasn't going to like. Make a move??? But she wasn't going to stop herself from accepting things like - Sora princess carrying her. Or laying down and cuddling in the bed. Or even thinking about a wish. Even if not a wish to see him, like, any kind of hope that things could be better in her world and she could stop constantly losing people and being left behind. And Sora said he'd planned on giving his wish to her if he got one and she was just like BUT??? I WOULDN'T GIVE MY WISH TO YOU???? which felt BAD. Because for as much as Clem is tired of losing people, as much as she fucking hates the idea of losing Sora and him being dead, her priorities are ALWAYS going to be AJ first. She'd make his world better before she'd bring back someone dead. Even someone she loves. Because, like. She's done this before! My Clem was not explicitly dating Gabe, but - word of god etc says that she DID like him. And she watched him die, so! She knows she can DO that, it just fucking sucks. But it was the first time she was willing to humor the idea of them seeing each other again because she was desperate for something to kick her out of that mood. And again when they were snuggling at curfew, she was willing to kind of engage with optimism. perhaps. a little.
ANYWAY BECAUSE THEY WERE ALREADY LIKE THIS I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER FUCKING WHEN THE RSVP KICKED IN BECAUSE THE ONLY THING IT CHANGED IS THAT IT MADE THEM LIKE THIS IN PUBLIC. And during trial he covered for her and she did have a bit of an upwards swing in her mood because they successfully protected Jeanne and Team Rabbit trusted her and she was feeling genuinely pretty loved, and that was very uplifting.
FIVE: Then the immediate down-swing because Clem had to turn around and start sacrificing her own team. And because of the above, she really fucking didn't want to watch any of her friends die! So she was kind of leaning towards framing herself! So they fought because she had literally promised Sora multiple times that she wouldn't leave him, because they kept Being Like That at each other. And then they found Rufus who had to walk into his first role meeting where everyone was sick, Clem and Sora were RSVPed AND aggressively ignoring each other, AND everyone was just sulking and being miserable. So that was. Just amazing. Naturally, since they were RSVPed and also she loves this idiot, she went to make up with him shortly after. THE THING IS WHEN HE WAS MAD ABOUT CLEM AND LUP JOKING THAT THEY WERE USELESS NOW... Clem sincerely was joking. It was like 90% joke and only 10% self esteem problems.
Phew okay. Week 5 was a fucking lot.
Week 6 they went exploring the caves and both were very weird about not being RSVPed anymore because. They had been so touchy-feely even before it? But Clem also knew Sora was just Like That and then he suddenly was Not Like That Anymore and she was like. Hm okay. Not sure what to make of that fucking at all, but things are uncomfortable. (And yet, they still vibed and went exploring and she got a rock wow.) She was trying to just. And they went on their date, which was very romantic and meaningful to Clem. And he actually confronted her about. Them. Being Like They Are. And she just - didn't want to lie? So she said she likes him, and she knew he liked her too, but by now she was just like. Fuck it? Like fuck it, FINE? I guess?? Sora makes her happy, so. She wanted to be happy.
But they really didn't confirm anything else, like. Expectations or plans or anything, because Clem always wanted to skirt things like that. And it just didn't really occur to her? Until her mini-cyoa with Jeanne where she realized that perhaps there are some things they should have clarified. But then she still didn't.
As things wound down she just swung rapidly between being very depressed they were going to be separated and taking her babysteps into believing that maybe he really would find her. But it's really funny that her babysteps towards "Maybe we'll actually meet again" were opposite to Sora's uh. Endgame.
I didn't know where to mention it but there was a lot of DREAD I felt when I realized Clem has known Sora longer than any of her 3 canon love interests. UGh.
Anyway she can text him while he's. *gestures at kingdom hearts* sure fucking why not
okay I'm done I'm DONE