Aaron and Nate: Flirting Disasters! (Patreon)

Momentum, the in-my-head story that’s kept me sane through my years of chronic illness tragedy, with my powers of hindsight applied, especially to the early stuff established by teen Chrispy, is a hilariously an obliviously asexual story. Because Chrispy didn’t realize preference and drive were separate spectrums until his mid-30s, and once he did A LOT OF STUFF SUDDENLY MADE SENSE.

Once I clued in, I made it a feature of the story, and it really worked well – if you’re the forces of fate, and looking for people who will drop everything in their lives to go on a quest, it makes sense to single out people with intimacy issues, cuz they won’t have people at home they’d want to stay with!

So let’s celebrate the one couple of the main story: Aaron and Nate, and all the clumsy awkwardness around them! The only way they could pair up in MY story is to be clueless idiots who can’t get over all their hang ups. Cuz they’ve got QUEST stuff to do, and the author doesn’t think on any other terms! (Momentum the story is considered four books/seasons long, with Aaron and Nate’s first kiss being the final moment of book two. The halfway point of the story! Also: Shenanigans in book three’s storytelling, and It Going Down in book four means we’d barely touch on their growing relationship. Hahahaha!)

This post combines some ideas that I had scribbled down while thinking about this twosome, and the above inked sketch, that was the subject of this amusing Twitter thread. (Which was ALSO inspired by the following text.)

So here we go with Momentum pondering:

I often scoff at the trope where a person finds love in the FIRST person they meet - even tho it’s easily just a variation of the “an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” concept* over writers trying to save time. Naturally, in this new Precociousverse version of the Momentum story, I’m abusing the heck out of it!

(*Basically: If the nearby option works for you, TAKE THE EASY WIN and embrace it! If there’s a family business, you start out learning that, because you get extra experience and instruction with it. If you take to it, huzzah! Good for you! And, for the romantic angle, the first person you meet in a new area is likely to give you some extra attention, with you doing the same with them. If there’s a spark, congratulations on the good luck! See where the boost from extra focus/familiarity takes you!)

In this version – technically, Meret’s version of the story, the CANON one, as Momentum’s gimmick is that it unwinds differently depending on who you choose as the main character – Aaron and Nate meet on their way to the big ritual site, which is where all questers lock in their “You’ve been chosen to quest!” discs and *officially* join the story, and the two have early time together to bond, since the story is focusing on Meret/Phoebe/Kimban instead! (Aaron/Nate even sidequest on their way, and get the light stone before they lock in! Uh, the great quest has the eight chosen by those discs traversing the continent to find various stones of power, if you hadn’t picked that up from prior posts.) The pair’s whole deal is impossible-to-ignore vibing, mitigated with them being utterly clueless, having their own issues, and finding all kinds of ways to deny what’s happening.

Their deal in this narrative is that awkward, essentially-raised-in-a-bubble Nate meets Aaron shortly after she gets her disc and agrees to join the quest. He knows what’s up, and has all the answers - and is practiced at showing off, with his scholarly/nerdy charms - so she, uncertain and nervous, makes him agree to be her escort. She’s new to the wide world and needs a buffer. She can’t dive in to EMOTIONS, because she doesn’t have the experience to know what’s a good, genuine experience, and what’s a rookie mistake you mess up and learn from. Aaron, if you care about her, and want this quest to succeed without drama tearing it apart before it even officially begins, you’ve gotta honor her desire and ease her into this world safely! And he gets the bonus of the emotionally safe frame helping him dodge his own intimacy issues! He can put on his “I am chosen by FATE to be the interpreter of the quest, and explain how this whole thing works” professor attitude (even those he’s not a real professor, WHILE NATE IS) to create emotional distance.

So that’s what the Meret/Phoebe/Kimban trio stumble upon when they reach the ritual site: Two vibing people who have set firm boundaries to prevent them from acting on it, and are rather oblivious about their self-sabotage. With Aaron, choosing to focus on Nate fully means unweaving himself from Rhenna and their kinda-toxic, kinda-spectacular, definitely-powerful partnership. And Nate… has no idea how to flirt and court. Or deal with anyone her own age, much less a BOY. Her life experiences have been, like, at best (this is theoretical, not canon), summer camp flings and maybe using some random delivery boy for practice??? Falling for the *first* guy her age she meets seems like such an OBVIOUS trap, one even a naive girl like her can spot. So she needs to meet a lot of new people, and get to know them, before comparing notes to see if her Aaron vibes are valid, or just her grabbing onto the novelty. And, haha, by *then* we’re in full-on group dynamics situations. Pairing up would be awkward as folks are settled into a comfy rhythm. (Plus, Aaron would have to break his escort promise.) Group situations mean it’s not a date! They’re all equal parts of a collective, and these cowards are happy to let the group dynamics keep them from facing their emotional issues and getting into relationship/vulnerability stuff!

…And that’s it. That’s the topic I explored in the notepad on my phone. (With lots of editing as I made this post, which was NOT good for my body, and defeated the point of this being an easy post made by combining components made over multiple days. Whoops!) Hope you had fun. I love these two dorks, and I hope you enjoy them too.