What do you think life would be like as hovis’ partner and getting introduced to the cats?
oh man that’s a great question, thank you! i love hovis so i’m happy to talk about him in any capacity.
first of all, hovis strikes me as someone who tries to keep work and personal life separate, but let’s face it: because his employers are also his family, whoever he’s involved with is inevitably going to be pulled into their world of chaos. (i hc hovis as a gay man, so when i talk about a prospective partner assume i’m referring to someone who is male or male-aligned.)
i feel like one of two things would happen, in this particular scenario: either hovis is going to prepare his partner extensively for the cats’ respective quirks and habits (while additionally preparing the cats FAR in advance for his partner’s first visit), or in typical catscratch fashion the trio are going to stumble upon hovis and his beau by complete accident — probably because they noticed hovis was acting secretive, slapped some goofy disguises on and followed him to his very public date. OR they just so happened to notice the happy couple while in the middle of one of their trademark misadventures.
needless to say, option 2 is much more likely.
blik… really doesn’t take the news well. he has his own reasons for being possessive of hovis; like the fact he (canonically!) views him as a father figure — and the last remaining parental figure he has, now that edna and audrey are gone — his self-worth issues, and a spoiled rich boy sense of entitlement. at first, he’d make it clear that he doesn’t want this new person around and would likely either try to drive them away himself or keep hovis so busy that he doesn’t have time for them anymore. of course, hovis wouldn’t tolerate that and blik would be presented with an ultimatum: get over himself and accept hovis has people in his life outside of him, or find a new butler. needless to say, blik backs off.
gordon and waffle i see being a lot more accepting of hovis’ partner. the hopeless romantic that he is, gordon would be happy that hovis has found someone special. he wouldn’t approve of blik’s shitty attitude and would go out of his way to make the newest member of the family feel welcome, right down to cooking them a welcome dinner. (i can’t promise it’ll be GOOD, but it comes from a loving place.)
waffle would be mildly protective of hovis, but possessive? god, no. she’s more likely to express her concerns by having the partner fill out a questionnaire so she can better determine what kind of person they are. once she’s inevitably satisfied with that, she’ll insist that hovis’ SO come meet her newts and try to initiate them into her special newt club.
as for blik, don’t worry. he’s a tough egg to crack, but he’ll come around — especially if hovis’ partner is able to match wits with him.
