u/PeachasaurusWrex

Yes, I am looking for Thane Krios from Mass Effect in another font.

I'm surprised that I wasn't able to find any previous requests for this trope in the sub!

If you're not familiar with Thane, he is a contract assassin who is also deeply romantic and spiritual. His story is tragic from start to finish, but its also beautiful and moving (trained to be a killer from a young age, fell in love, had a kid, wife was killed as revenge for one of his jobs, and he is struggling to re-connect with his son, who is also a mercenary). You can romance him in the game, but, as if all his previous backstory wasn't enough, he also has a terminal illness and dies after the final mission.​

I would LOVE it if I could find a happier ending for this story. Would also be great if the main characters were older (>30), and if the writing style is not too contemporary/modern sounding.​

More of a rant than anything, but maybe other folks can relate.

I literally don't understand how the hell we are so busy as a childless married couple.

we're in our 30s and it seems like every waking moment outside of work is being spent on other (admittedly important and worthwhile) things. We're cleaning our house, mowing the lawn, doing other adult tasks and errands. We're spending time with our (large, extended) families and friends, babysitting our baby nephews, helping my parents and grandparents around the garden. We're trying to cook and pack our own meals and exercise regularly.

Sunday is home maintenance and chores.

Monday night is babysitting.

Wednesday night is date night (we play games together on the couch).

Thursday night is meal prep.

Friday night is D&D/Magic night (our one "solo" thing we've been able to keep up, which is still a social thing since we still interact with other people).

And then every single Saturday, there is a family or friend event happening.

Tuesdays are our only "free" night, and we end up filling it with more chores or other adult admin BS that we are always behind on.

I don't remember the last time I actually had a moment to just relax and be by myself or do my own thing. I only ever have maybe 15 minutes to sit and read a book, or do any other calming, creative hobby, between all the other tasks, events, obligations, and responsibilities that are happening any day of the week.

My grandparents are aging. They live 10 minutes away. I KNOW that I could and should be spending more time with them. I love them and care about them. But my god it just feels like yet another plate to spin.

I am so glad that my spouse and I are on the same page with regards to kids (not for us, thanks), because I DONT KNOW how the FUCK we would even manage if we did.

Disclaimer: I'm only about 30% through reading it.

This book has been pretty intriguing so far, specifically because of the dual first person POV. The male dragon MC's chapters are written as though he is retelling the events of the novel directly to the reader/the human MC from a point in the future, so he'll often comment on his impressions of "you", what "you" and he were doing and the events the two of you were going through. I don't think I've read something like this before, so while I'm still quite early on the book, I'm still interested.

The setting is seems very queer-friendly. There are mentions of other far-off nations that have very strict gender roles, but the society the story takes place in is very accepting of people being and doing whatever they want, and even includes somewhat common uses of magic to tweak one's body as one desires. The human MC is described as very androgynous in their natural appearance and uses any pronouns, but because the male MC is the confirmed to be the last male dragon, and the shrinking dragon population is a major plot point, I sort of assumed that the human MC is AFAB, or femme. Who knows though!? Maybe they'll find a magic way to increase the dragon population by the end?! And my assumption of the human MC being AFAB is probably very heteronormative/projection anyways! (I'm a cis straight woman.)

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it now, I'm getting a strong feeling that the dragon MC's chapters are specifically written the way they are (addressing the reader/"you") to avoid using pronouns for the human MC at all! This way, there is no need to commit to using a single pronoun when he describes the human MC. This avoids a lot of confusion while also respecting the MC's nonbinary-ness.

Anyways, I hope the rest of the book is good (apologies if it isnt 🥲). I just wanted to take a minute to post about it because I've been so fascinated by it so far! And also, for Pride month! 😁

edit: terminology.

also, I FORGOT TO MENTION THE UNIQUE BIOLOGY OF THE DRAGONS, WHICH I ALSO THOUGHT WAS NEAT! They are actually somewhat feathery in their dragon forms, AND, its specified that they lay eggs to reproduce and the temperatures that the eggs are exposed to determine the sex of the offspring. Climate change means that ALL of the recent dragon offspring are female.

all my subconscious biases are being called out rn. my brain was like "last male? guess the main couple is gonna have to pop out a ton of kids to save the dragons!" nope! they just need to get the next several batches of eggs somewhere cooler so they hatch male.

Spouse and I bought our first place in 2020: 2.5%, 5 yr ARM. Intro period expired last year, and our rate went up to 4.5% this year. Okay, fine.

We are looking to lock in a rate now for the stability and were offered a traditional loan at 5.99% for 20 years. We have excellent credit (both 800+) and are in a mid-sized Midwest college city.

Between the shorter loan period (20 instead of 30 years) and the ​increase in taxes in our area, and insurance, our total monthly housing payments might be going up by $400, which just seems like so much. 🥲

We are unsure how long we will be in this home, but for some perspective on us and our tendencies, we were also unsure how long we would be here when we bought the place, so 🤷‍♀️. We don't hate it, and we don't love it, but we are very used to it. Realistically, unless a golden opportunity falls directly into our laps, we will be here a while.

We COULD theoretically make the higher payment work, and but it sucks not having as much wiggle room as we did before.

Is this all just unfortunate timing, and I'm just mourning the loss of an amazing deal that I didn't fully appreciate until now?

(Yes, I'm probably gonna go shop around for home insurance after this, but that won't be for at least a month or two because we're in the middle of a claim for hail damage.)