I was waiting for his take on this qotd... Dorian 🥺❤️‍🩹

Super funny that he set off a trap in the sarcophagus chamber then chose that moment to go "oh, by the way..."

Nail in coffin for his and Ren's relationship 💀🪦

forges on with the lonely but essential work of trying to live. Ren's all about living life to the fullest despite the ever-present threat of death or worse, so they don't begrudge Emp for doing what they're trying to do themself and appreciate that Emp sees that quality in them, too.

Ren isn't sure they can be so forgiving, but Emp has given them something to think about in that regard.

Emp is also a person who has accepted that he'll likely be feared and othered for the rest of his life, yet

Ren is so intent on finding their way back to Menzo.

Finally, Ren's family also includes their spider familiars & their landlady in Menzoberranzan. Their landlady stepped in as a substitute mother figure in Ren's youth and the pair consider each other family. When the BG3 adventure begins, Ren hasn't seen her in years. She's one of the main reasons ++

even if chances to meet are few.

Ren knows this group and counts them as family, too - calls them their surface family. The surface family includes Lae'zel, Shadowheart, and the Emperor, and a couple of my other OCs. (Lae'zel & Emp probably don't consider each other as family - which - fair.)

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Given these additional members of Yves' "family", they did not have the time for, nor any interest in, having more family members. But the universe had other plans, and on their journeys, Yves has collected a handful of friends (surfacers, no less) whom they hold close to their heart, ++

being pretty much left to raise themself when not undergoing training.

Yves also considers the commoners that answer to the House a kind of extended family, in the sense that they feel responsible for their well-being. Yves does /not/ consider other nobles family, however.

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(who scouted them into the House) to be family, as they do their best friend (a wizard whose name I don't know yet) who grew up with them in the House. Both were adopted into the House before Yves was. Yves didn't have parental figures after adoption, ++

So to Ren and Yves, family will always include their bio parents (and in R's case, bio siblings). The presence/absence of affection/care is irrelevant.

To complicate matters for Yves, their bio parents are deceased & they were adopted into the House: They consider their adoptive sister ++

from whom one is descended is something to be ashamed of, and allowing one's immediate family line to die out can result in one being cast out from or ostracized by the clan. This is drilled into drow early, noble and commoner alike.

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