about the dynamic between Rafael and the Manager of the Royal Beth (with some spoilers about the latter)

if you want Felix to feel [loved is not quite the word - it would prefer more precise descriptors like "understood" and "respected"], always ask its going price for any favor or service you ask of it.

Rafael: touch-starved
Nathaniel: touch-starved
Nova: doing fine, actually
Mateo: doing fine on this end. very not fine on others
Lady Lemures: no thank you
Felix: touch glutton and loving it
the good doctor: has forgotten what hunger feels like

I think I've hit upon a possible name for this crew: the Lepidoptera Society.

also the OCs I ended up making ended up being a bunch of generally sweet-tempered, close-knit people and I actually... don't see them infighting as much as, say, other revolutionary organizations of note. they have their arguments periodically, but at the end of the day they're there for each other. maybe that'll change if more OCs get added to the stew, but I feel like the actual conflict they face is a sort of existential angst over how small they are, in the grand scope of things. they're a bunch of wickedly talented and extremely plucky people doing their best, but they're still only a small group against the vast economic, societal, and metaphysical forces of the Neath, against the terrible and inevitable march of time itself.

if this was a JRPG, the narrative would let them go on an epic journey, and they would get to punch god and save the universe in one fell swoop - but it isn't. (there's a reason I refer to Rafael as "the Warrior of Light analogue, but in the wrong genre.") like that's certainly not going to stop Dr. Ashveil from trying, but in the meantime, they have to settle with the changes they can make on a smaller scale, and hope against hope that it will, in the end, be enough.