I just wrote a recent post about the love at first sight trope and over the weekend I wrote about my characters in my work in progress novel being in a love triangle and how it will begin once I start chapter 12 . Does them being in a long triangle mean they are affected by the love at first sight bug? Or Cupid’s arrow? As I explained in my recent post.
Well let me delve into it and analysis my own characters.
Okay so when my Main character Sirena first comes upon Cristen , who I like to call the first love interest because they interact first. Both Sirena and Cristen get this funny kind of tingly butterfly feelings when he stops her from falling (a twilight moment , but not really) They also feel like they have met each other before (spoiler ) they have . (you’ll find out about that later) .
However Sirena simply thinks this upon seeing him in chapter 5 :
Sirena’s heart raced and she panicked. That boy. That boy was the same boy at the river stream who held her in his arms and then disappeared. What was he doing here? Where did he come from? The town did not receive new residents often. Did he come from Stella City? An Actor? Dancer? Maybe? No. She would have heard of him. Maybe he was a solider or spider agent come to take her away to become a gatherer because of her outburst at the river? No . He would’ve arrested her if that was the case. Was he a new student from Umbra Valley City? If he was a new student and not a Spider Agent or Dancer where could she have seen him from before? She knew him from somewhere other than at the river.
He had a small leaf looking scar on the side of his prominent cheek bone that appeared to be imprinted or burned into his golden skin that made him appear older than seventeen or eighteen. But it could’ve been a birthmark. Stubble on his face as though he was growing a beard. Neat. He had muscles. He was fit. He worked out. He probably was a runner? Yeah he defiantly was a runner . He had these sort of deep set amber brown eyes that were kind of different as though the iris of his eyes changed colors. A spec of red maybe?
It was strange. He wasn’t fine or attractive. He wasn’t even her type at all. But his allure was strong. Sirena ogled and awed toward the boy like all the rest of the girls in her class. She drew in a breath but shook her head unclear to why she reacted that way.
Note that I write that she thought him not fine or attractive. However she is drawn to him like all the other girls. Well in my work in progress I kind of use that mortals are attracted (without knowing) to werewolves who are in their human form . So she is simply confused and curious but I wouldn’t say its love at first sight.
I also have Cristen reaction in chapter 6
When the mortal girl Sirena almost fainted he threw himself to help her. He tried to ignore her but her despair was different than the rest of the mortals. She wanted answers to her friend’s disappearance. And somehow he didn’t crave for her heart in his mind. She was like a pacifier. She subdued the cravings and the rage. There was no green-eyed abnormality to think of. Only the fluttering butterflies swarming each and every way through her thoughts. Beyond the butterflies there was this movements of a white sun; circles, spirals and rays that shown through her downtrodden yellow blue spirit . Glimmers of her sitting in a room full of people gawking at her as though deciding her fate…glimmers of her laughing with her friends- a girl and a boy…glimmers of a man laughing with joy… glimmers of a girl dancing in snow… glimmers of a women brushing her hair… glimmers of her and another girl laughing and swatting each other with a soft feather material in a brightly colored room…glimmers of her dancing.. her dancing was- was like ice droplets falling. Those glimmers of her life all spun together , uneven , disorganized , collapsing. He reached out for them and tried to settle the moments of her life, to keep them still. To go deeper into-but he couldn’t reach the white sun even if he tried. How could he make it stop?
So in this passage I try to explore that he is able to see who she truly is and how she feels . Which he wants to take away her sadness and make her happy. Because she is somehow the only one to pacify his cravings from the mortal hearts in the room and also his rage . But he can’t seem to take away her despair (he doesn’t know how. He hasn’t fully mastered his abilities yet. And another spoiler- he won’t especially when it comes to dealing with Sirena) . And he doesn’t understand why he is having these feelings about her.
So it’s not a love at first sight thing for Cristen it’s just that he is also questioning their connection with one another . And he also wants to figure out why she can settle his rage. But these feelings don’t overtake his mind dispelling his main goal which is to get off the mountain. And plus he thinks she’s mortal so . He’s not going there with that.
Let’s see if it was love at first sight with Adrian and Sirena
The first time Adrian meets Sirena in chapter 7
He leaned back and abruptly glanced down at her in his arms. He forgot he was even holding her. He gasped . He had never seen a mortal close up before, nevertheless another girl before besides own his sister. The girl was beautiful. He gazed down at her and grazed his fingers lightly against her cheek. wait, what was going on? he sniffed her. Why could he hold her and not transform into his Canine? He didn’t know why but he did know he couldn’t just leave her there …
He placed the girl next to a tree . He glanced down at her, pushed her hair gently out of her face and smirked ….
Glanced at the girl one more time and sped toward the pack…
With Adrian I can’t say it is love at first sight because he has never seen another girl before . Mortal or Werewolf , besides his own sister. His first reaction of her is that she is beautiful . But he is just curious and nothing more . Once again they think Sirena is human .
Here is a reaction to Sirena meeting Adrian for the first time in chapter 11
Adrian just looked at her as she cringed touching her head. Finally she turned looking up at him. No, more like through him, and started to stand up. She didn’t say anything. She just scrutinized him but not like the other mortals did….
For Sirena it’s definitely not love at first sight when meeting Adrian and this is not even in her POV but Adrian’s POV. But he describes her as scrutinizing him not in the way others did. You going to come to find out that she does it not out of oh I’m in love with you but out of recognition that she has seen him before but in wolf form. Strange I know, but it will be more clear once my novel is finished and you can actually read it.
With these passages they clearly show that there is no love at first sight anywhere with my characters. However when the two werewolf boy will realize that she is a werewolf herself they will get some sort of well not love at first sight but more attraction at first site . And I’m also going to mention that my novel’s story takes place in a week’s time as by the end of the book it is the main character’s birthday. And she does end up kissing one of the werewolf boys but that still doesn’t account for love at first sight.
So to answer my own questions based on my own analysis of my characters I would say no they haven’t caught the love at first sight bug and I don’t use the trope in my novel . Well… at least not yet….
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Have your characters caught the love at first sight bug in your novel?
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