okay im glad you mentioned something about the julien/aranessa age issue ppl have been bringing up because it also checks out in my mind. I was just gonna wait and see, but it's nice to know im not alone in that
you're welcome! to be fair I don't know exactly what's going on, and there could be something weird with time and Faerie or Brennan could have just messed up. But I personally assumed that it's shorthand for them being close family friends to the point of like...basically unrelated cousins. I think it could also be a nod to the fact that Julien's other relationships seem pretty surface level - he confides in Vaelus, after all, when three of his friends are present. Like...if he's around 30, and he had a lonely childhood, and we know he and his father have been at odds since he was at least in his late teens? she could be his oldest friend from childhood in that she in her mid 20s was a person he could stay with if he was fighting with his father at age 15. I think people are interpreting it as "they went to the equivalent of elementary school together" and not "they've known each other his whole life and Julien is a distant and abrasive asshole who counts Aranessa as one of the few people he actually likes and confides in."
I know I just talked about the nature of improv and intent in a longer post but like...I think people will praise the chaotic and anything can happen improv nature of actual play and ignore all the prep work and setup and discussion and intentions...and then turn around and place disproportionate weight and theorizing on a single statement that was said in the moment and not even that unreasonable given a generous interpretation, and also cannot be revised or edited the way it would be in a scripted work
