Intermission

As the two of you look around the conveniently set up food stands (which notably weren't here this morning), conversation about the first Act of the play inevitably breaks out. Irina breaks the ice first, "I'm really not sure that they thought through the chemistry of the characters." You inquire as to what she means, and she's only too happy to elaborate. "I mean in theory a three-way relationship between the paladin, the squire, and the princess would work, but let's be real: the princess is clearly being cast as the villain of the narrative; there's no way they're going to have anything romantic or sexual around her being more than manipulative or token." You can't help but concede her point; after all, the story does have clear-cut good guys and bad guys, albeit the squire is a bit of a dunce, which you point out. "Yeah, but I mean that's just to make the paladin seem that much smarter - a foil to the paladin, so to speak."

Hmm, if the squire is the paladin's foil, then that means the brother of the cleric would have to be such for the cleric. "Precisely. Which means obviously the cleric and paladin are going to wind up together in the end." You do have to wonder aloud why they can't just have everyone get together, though. "Oh please. Like they would ever even think about that. I'm sure you've noticed at least a bit that Giovanni gets a bit of flack for being in a relationship with multiple people — and he's a noble, which lends him a certain amount of protection. Even if someone on crew thought about that, they would risk having someone burn down the theater for such a taboo combination of factors. I mean, I'm half-surprised someone hasn't already started trying simply for portraying a vampire as a normal person — and good on the theater, on that one, too." After a brief pause, she sighs, "no, in most people's minds, all a polytair is is a group of particularly horny adventurers who get together as a matter of convenience."

By now, the two of you have found your food and drink, and have sat down to eat before the theater reopens. As the two of you eat, you can't help but curiously wonder about the cleric and princess. "I mean yeah, there's obviously meant to be some tension there, but the two have zero chemistry — not that the cleric and paladin have much chemistry either."

"Besides, when they've already gone to the extent of making the vampire deuteragonist an actual person, they're not gonna have her go so far as to accept the princess's offer." You inquire as to what she means by that. "Let's just say that the vampires back during the Vampire Empire's rule weren't exactly the good guys most of the time. You can ask Aaron about it some time if you want more info; after all, he is from Tono. Being from Edheren, however, I'm nowhere near qualified to go anywhere near in-depth on the rather . . . complicated history of vampires on this continent. Just know that a lot of people from this continent still blame vampires for what happened then, especially seeing as monstrous vampires are a bit hard to come by."

The two of you finish eating, and start to head back to the theater. "Anyways, what's your thoughts on the princess, cleric, and paladin?"