But the novels help me contextualise behaviour that's otherwise confusing.
[Surrounded as he had been by mercenaries whilst growing up, and marching onto the battlefield when he measured barely higher than Jeralt's elbow, Byleth had skipped more than a few vitally important development milestones in the realm of social skills. He had never even interacted with another child when growing up, so had only ever known how to approach grizzled, stoic mercenaries - all whom were scared shitless of pissing off Jeralt if they were ever mean to Byleth, so treated him with either gruff tolerance or the kind of affection one reserved for a very clever dog (but one that could still bite).
When it came to interacting with civilians or non-mercenaries, Byleth felt like he was dealing with an alien species. Novels - not just romance novels - helped him in understanding their point of view of things. He didn't always understand, sometimes the books used very obtuse, convoluted language or metaphors that he struggled to track, but it helped him contextualise some things. Romance novels, especially, were easier - they made a lot of battlefield metaphors that he understood, because love was a battle, according to many authors.
But, even that didn't really work. Byleth still struggled with aspects of socialising that people understood innately - expressions, tone, the appropriate response to set phrases, jokes, metaphors, puns. What came to Claude as naturally as breathing was an exercise in frustration to Byleth, even when he tried his best to apply what he had learned from novels into their interactions.]
People are difficult to understand, but in novels, their emotions and motivations are laid out in a way that's easy to follow. [Well, unless they were really flowery and metaphorical, then it was even more confusing.] Applying this to real life has helped me where floundering in confusion has not.
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[Surrounded as he had been by mercenaries whilst growing up, and marching onto the battlefield when he measured barely higher than Jeralt's elbow, Byleth had skipped more than a few vitally important development milestones in the realm of social skills. He had never even interacted with another child when growing up, so had only ever known how to approach grizzled, stoic mercenaries - all whom were scared shitless of pissing off Jeralt if they were ever mean to Byleth, so treated him with either gruff tolerance or the kind of affection one reserved for a very clever dog (but one that could still bite).
When it came to interacting with civilians or non-mercenaries, Byleth felt like he was dealing with an alien species. Novels - not just romance novels - helped him in understanding their point of view of things. He didn't always understand, sometimes the books used very obtuse, convoluted language or metaphors that he struggled to track, but it helped him contextualise some things. Romance novels, especially, were easier - they made a lot of battlefield metaphors that he understood, because love was a battle, according to many authors.
But, even that didn't really work. Byleth still struggled with aspects of socialising that people understood innately - expressions, tone, the appropriate response to set phrases, jokes, metaphors, puns. What came to Claude as naturally as breathing was an exercise in frustration to Byleth, even when he tried his best to apply what he had learned from novels into their interactions.]
People are difficult to understand, but in novels, their emotions and motivations are laid out in a way that's easy to follow. [Well, unless they were really flowery and metaphorical, then it was even more confusing.] Applying this to real life has helped me where floundering in confusion has not.