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The strict calendar system of Three Houses is both a blessing and a curse when I'm writing fanfic for it. On one hand, I don't need to speculate as to how long it is between events in the story. On the other hand, I can't just handwave time to do the equivalent of a montage - there are canon events that need to be handled.

As I've thought about and written stories about Dimileth, I've assembled a headcanon timeline for how I think their feelings evolve over the course of the story (primarily pre-skip), or at least a set of milestones I can reference off of. So I'm writing it down for my own reference.

I don't think it's love at first sight, at least for Dimitri. I think he does admire Byleth immediately and see their utility - hence the invitation. And I think he finds them physically attractive pretty quickly. With Byleth, it's always a question of what they feel and whether they know it. I think you could have them fall in love immediately, just not understand it until later.

It's around the time of the battle in the Holy Mausoleum (Chapter 4, the one where Byleth gets the Sword of the Creator) that I think things change. It is a little odd because the cutscene at the end of Chapter 3 (the one where you fight Lonato) does have Dimitri upset at how clinical Byleth is about the militia they had to kill.

Their C support unlocks sometime in Chapter 4 from what I've seen, and Dimitri has to trust Byleth in more ways than just their competence if he's asking them to help the kids. I think them considering themselves friends becomes likely at this stage.

Dimitri calling Byleth's smile "mesmerizing" at the end of Chapter 7 is a major turning point, I think. If nothing else, I think he realizes at that point that his interest in them is more than just admiration for their skills.

Then, of course, the Goddess Tower. It's definitely romantic interest at this point, and if he didn't realize that before the cutscene he certainly does after.

Today's entry: Lay's Sweet Basil

( Picture and thoughts )

I'm going to try recording food I've tried recently here, so I can remember what I like and don't.

Today's entry: Hawaiian Sun Strawberry Guava Nectar

( Picture and my thoughts )

I was right in my previous post about potential alts:

- Dimitri got a winter alt.
- Laurent came in the next Awakening banner, which was Gen 2, at the end of 2023 - maybe a little sooner than I thought, but not that far off.

So, my updates for the predictions:

- Everything I said for Roy still holds.
- Blazing Sword got a new heroes banner in November. It was cool to get Isadora and Harken! If they had wanted to give us an ascended/rearmed Eliwood, going for a Pherae theme with those two would have been reasonable, so I still think they aren't likely to give us one.
- Dimitri just got an alt, so he'll be on cooldown for a few months at least - this makes him less likely for Valentine's this year, I think. I think the kids banner is still a danger, though.
- Now that Laurent's in the game, I doubt he'll get any alts at all.

I realized I forgot a theme last time: Fallen! So, a quick rundown of that:

- I think it's unlikely Roy gets a Fallen. I haven't finished FE6, so maybe there's something there they can use, but from what I've read, I doubt there's something they can easily take advantage of.
- Fallen Eliwood actually seems decently likely - a Durandal-possessed version from the end of 28E seems doable. They've done Fallens based on short periods before, and they already took that time period for Fallen Ninian. Sadly he would be yet another sword unit, but hey, maybe they make him infantry this time. Also, his typical C skill (buffs when dragon) wouldn't make sense with that theming, so maybe something interesting would happen there.
- Dimitri already got a Fallen.
- I don't really know what they would do with a Fallen Laurent (Grima servant?), there isn't really much for them to use. As I said above, I find any alt for him extremely unlikely at this point.

So now I need to decide who I'm voting for in CYL, since Laurent actually got in!

I'm esm8m. Feel free to call me E.

I'm mostly into JRPGs on Nintendo consoles - right now, that primarily means Xenoblade and Fire Emblem.

I'm hoping to use this to post some more long-form thoughts and reviews, but we'll see how much I stick to it!