Hey Sarnakh, for the couple questions ask game: Hamish/ Sonja, 1, 2, and/or 11?
oh boy i get to be back on my Admiral LowHaven brainrot! Thanks much stitchlingbelle!
1: family!
hoo boy. well. uh. short answer, there's very few people in Sonja's family Hamish likes, probably pretty close to if not exactly zero. At least that's older than her. She may have some theoretical much younger cousins that I could invent for OC purposes that he might not mind as much but everyone that's in her generation-- looking at you, Janacek-- and older is squarely in the 'CA dumbass' category. The feeling is, in fact, mutual, and frankly Sonja doesn't really care much for some of her family either. I don't think I've ever really gotten the feeling she liked her grandfather, the prior Baron Low Delhi. Though she apparently chose one of her other cousins for her proxy vote so who knows.
Going the other way, I don't think Sonja much minds the remaining Alexanders--Willie's all right, if politically opposed, but Sonja has always been better about keeping national interest ahead of politics and I think there's some things they'd agree on. Haven't quite figured out where they'd stand when he's His Excellency the Prime Minister Grantville, but I think by that point they'd be at least respectful to each other. And Sonja does, I think, like kids, and therefore would like Hamish's niblings. (I have some AU stuff on the back burner where she meets Lord White Haven, Hamish's father, whom she is intimidated somewhat by because BIG and Reputation but is fairly nice when not shouting someone down.)
2: friends!
i have an OC friend of Sonja's, Marie Blaise, who, once she discovers Sonja is actually properly involved w/ Hamish, finds the entire thing absolutely HILARIOUS. Marie is also from Beowulf, which may have something to do with it. There's much consternation in the Navy once things go public, mostly of the 'what the fuck? them???' variety, but everyone's generally rank-respectful enough there aren't any major problems among friends. There's plenty of ribbing, though, and QE3 also finds everything outrageously funny (not that she lets either of them know, however)
11: What good do they bring out in each other?
Despite Honor being the one to deliver the 'reason you suck' speech at the start of book 8, Sonja is ultimately the driving force behind it, and forcing Hamish to recognize that he can't just 'my way or the highway' his way through the war, and delivering a few healthy doses of humble pie to him. She also is a background motivator to him working on his temper (again, fic thing, would love to share more but. first chapter still not done. despite good emotional beats in other written scenes. help)
Hamish's big thing is helping Sonja exit from the CA as a whole. (And also reminding her that all work and no play makes Jill a dull girl. because. she does get very laser-focused sometimes and will forget to eat. or sleep. or do something that isn't engineering/occifering.) Again, fic plot point, again, way down the line in terms of what's actually written (insert discord_lament.png here). It... takes a long time, chronologically speaking, for them to get here. If you haven't read House of Steel, I highly recommend it, and if you can't find it, I should have a post summarizing the relevant ship-bits floating around my blog somewhere
thanks sm for letting me yell about these two, i haven't in a while and it was fun :3