The Amell Legacy: Transgressions

[Haliel Lightsong]

"But it has nothing to do with you. I'm not sexually attracted to anyone," Haliel protests, Jassinth forgotten. And to his credit, he turns partially away, as if to give them at least a passable illusion of privacy. "And dating is about love and building a relationship. You didn't have to date Miss Isabela to have sex with her."

[Marian Hawke]

"Love isn't-- there's a lot of kinds of love. Romantic love is just friend love with sex in it. So if you can't feel sex feelings for me, we can't be in romantic love, but we can be really good friends, and I'm not trying to... I don't want to push you away, it's just, every time we're together you remind me how broken I am and I just... can't you have left it there? Can't you have just given me a great gift and I appreciate it and we hug? Why do you have to keep reminding me?"

[Haliel Lightsong]

"I... didn't? I mean..." she glances at Jassinth. "What- romantic love is just friend love with sex? That... doesn't seem right." Haliel frowns, prodding at that thought. "Love- deep, passionate, life-partners kind of love- isn't just friends with sex. There's trust and intimacy and- and- a degree of commitment that goes beyond friendship."

[Marian Hawke]

"I've never had either," points out Marian, "or familial love, to compare. But Helen of Avalea: Volume 2 goes on at length about the feelings she has for her bosom friend Diana, and they both go on to marry men. She talks about how she'd trust Diana with her life. And there's the scene where Diana nurses her back to health, where Helen thought to herself how it was almost more intimate than sex."

[Jassinth]

Jassinth can't stop himself from snorting, mind dismissing the first part of Marian's comment as hyperbole.

[Haliel Lightsong]

Haliel pauses, glancing at Jassinth with a frown. "Yes?" she asks politely, annoyance faintly present.

[Jassinth]

"Ah- sorry, I just- that sounds... edited," the merikos drow admits. "The pair were clearly lovers from the sound of it, likely bisexual, and either simply did not wish to give ammunition to those that might decry their marriages or had their account edited later on. Such things are not uncommon for bisexuals- all of it, the hiding, the being hidden, and the marrying for breeding, as social conventions make that easier. Tell me, did the pair remain close after marriage? Were the husbands perhaps also close? Or barely mentioned?"

[Marian Hawke]

"I don't know -- the volumes the library had ended with the double wedding. But the romance with Gilbert was a huge part of Volume Four. My point is just that friends can trust each other and be close and cuddle if they want to. Look at Varric and Helene."

[Jassinth]

"Good money that the pair was either a quartet or the husbands were gay and had an arrangement with the two ladies, marriage and thus respectability and children in exchange for everyone allowing everyone else to be with their true loves. I would suspect the former, given what you said about this Gilbert fellow," Jassinth offers.

[Haliel Lightsong]

"...sorry, bisexual?" Haliel interrupts. 

[Jassinth]

"Ah, sorry. It means you are attracted, sexually, to both genders, male and female."

[Haliel Lightsong]

"Both? But there's more than two genders?" the aasimar points out, glancing at Helene.

[Jassinth]

Blinking, Jassinth considers this. "I will admit to not having thought of that fact in relation to bisexuality," he admits. "Well, I suspect that I would be attracted to most if not all genders, regardless. "

[Marian Hawke]

"They're very rare," says Marian, looking away. "It happens sometimes, but it's much more likely to be straight or gay."

[Jassinth]

"Openly bisexually people are rare, yes. But really, how would you know most of the time? How often do you ask the flower vendor you're passing if they like cock, tits or both?"