Adelaide's childhood was charmed in only material ways. She was doomed ever since she killed the queen in childbirth. The king resented her from the day she was born, as The Queen's life was too heavy a price to pay for a second child.

The king rarely spoke to her and she was raised by nannies. She was placed in etiquette classes, learned to sing and play the pianoforte, learned to speak many different languages, and occasionally she would attend events alongside her older brother the golden Prince Lysander.

Adelaide always begged to receive the same education her brother did. Of politics, history, strategy—everything a rule could need. However, on the advice from Lord Roland of Latheshire, The king ensured that Adelaide's education be primarily tailored with the goal of her becoming a good wife for an official. The king already saw Adelaide as her mother's killer and nothing more than a valuable pawn he could give to a disgruntled lord when she came of age. Overall, she was very emotionally neglected and completely sheltered from all the bad things in the world that she begged and begged and begged to learn about. She had purpose and power dangled in front of her face and told that she would never deserve it.

Adelaide begged her brother to tutor her, but he refused, saying he can’t go against their father. The only thing she got him to budge on was Chess. He taught her to play chess, and she instantly fell in love with it—quickly learning to beat her older brother. Though their bond was strained, he kept teaching her the strategy games he learned, and she learned to beat him at each and every one with relative ease.

Lysander and Adelaide were distant, as Lysander treated her as a girl before she was a person. And Adelaide resented him for being the golden child. However, there was a sort of unspoken agreement that they didn’t need to resent each other when they were actually near each other. They were both pragmatic children, and they mutually decided that they didn’t want to be sad or angry with each other when they could instead be brother and sister. Of course they did fight occasionally, but they really could only be kids instead of royals when they were with each other, so they just…decided to be kids

Adelaide also grew close with many of her servants, insisting on friendships with the people that worked with her. (“I don’t think you should keep your enemies closer than your friends. You’re always around, and I don’t want to be your enemy at all!”), and through that had many positive relationships with them. This both taught her to value the labor of those beneath her on the totem pole and to feel more comfortable talking to older people than those in her own age group (uh oh). Of course, there was also Roland, who was sort of a distant family friend. He was just close enough for her to think of him as a protector but never as a father figure (UH OH)

Overall, her childhood was materially good, but she was plagued with a constant feeling of dread and isolation. Adelaide tried to take connection wherever she could get it, and that vulnerability followed her into young adulthood. What ALSO followed her into adulthood, though, was her ability to improve herself when everything around her worked against her. Little Adelaide was a surprisingly cunning and mature girl.

this is such a hard question because everything about this dude is pathetic.
CW://Nonconsent

If i HAD to pick....it's the fact that he has something that I have been referring to as the Clementine club (though he does not call it this)
Rafail spends most of his time inside either his own mindscape or the one run by the school he teaches at (as it is only legal to teach mind magic within a mindscape). When in the mindscape, sometimes less experienced mind mages have images of their desires manifest without their permission. For example, if you're in the mindscape and you're really craving a hamburger, it may just appear in front of you if you have poor control over your magic.

Rafail has been practicing mind magic for almost 40 years at this point. Imagine his surprise when, one day, after a particularly charged encounter, an image of his student, Clementine, appears in his lap, asking him probing questions about why she's there. How was she able to overcome the barrier of his incredible skill and control over mind magic? Why did he want her here this badly?

As Rafail tries to ignore these thoughts, more and more of them show up. Other than the first one, they all embody different traits about Clementine that he desires. I lilac have named them but he hasn't. I'll list each club member below in the order that they appeared!! Keep in mind that all of these clones of her showed up before he even did anything to the real thing.

Devil Mouse: There is the first one that basically reflects his inner monologue back at him. This one takes a goading, almost bratty role as she tries to push him to cross more and more boundaries. He stops needing her help eventually, but a lot of the very first boundaries he crosses are due to 'her' influence.

Whore Mouse: This mouse wants to suck and fuck all day. Rafail perceives Clementine to be desperate for his approval (and she is! but as a student) and this is how it manifests. He is most embarrassed by this one, as even he can tell that this version of her that is constantly begging for sex is not true to life. She is like a teenager's fantasy version of Clementine.

Virgin Mouse: As Rafail grasps the depth of Clementine's inexperience, he eroticizes it. Heavily. He fixates on taking her virginity while she is clearly frightened of him. This is the first time that he fantasizes about raping her, rather than just having sex with an uncharacteristically willing version of her. This one is very shy, can't make eye contact with him, and rarely speaks above a whisper.

Idiot Mouse: This one challenges him and questions him a lot, but not like Devil mouse. This one clearly thinks that she knows better than him. She sometimes looks over his shoulder and asks him stupid questions about his research. He will beat the shit out of this one--even more brutally than he ever does the real one.

Slave Mouse: Kind of an evolution of whore mouse, though both stay around. However, this one is his favorite. She is good, sweet, and obedient. She doesn't overstep. She knows her place beneath him. She readily admits to her stupidity and begs for his guidance and approval. She is happy to offer her body to someone so clearly superior.

Wife mouse: The last one and the one he hates the most. She openly loves him, calls him handsome, kisses him on the cheek, and talks about running away together. It makes him sick (because if she exists, that means he wants her to in some way). He keeps this one locked away the most, but will occasionally, without really understanding why, bring her out and use her. There's just something about that sweet, loving smile....

He keeps them locked in a closet that only he knows about (Mindscape bullshit) and they only exist if the door is open. So yeah

TLDR: The most pathetic thing rafail ever did is make 6 clones of clementine in his brain that he goons to before he ever makes a move on the real clem

Adelaide's first experience with a woman will probably come somewhere in her mid-to-late thirties, after she has had a loooooong break from doing anything sexual with anyone. It would probably be with one of her very loyal spies in her personal order, someone she has come to trust. She would make it clear that if they were to lay together, that it would mean nothing to her beyond momentary, physical pleasure, and that she would not perform any kind of service for this woman. Basically, she's a stone top's wet dream.

She would take on a gently dominant pillow princess role. After being pressed into sexual service by Roland and Abraham at different times in her life, she has no interest in pleasing anyone else. She is the queen, after all. She doesn't need to kneel for another person again if she doesn't want to.

Gideon loves a good bourbon! In his age he has grown fond of earthy and woody flavors. An ideal night off is spent with a glass of bourbon, a cigar, and good company.
Also, even though the flavor isn't his favorite by a long shot, he has nostalgia for the garbage ale he drank with his buddies back when he was a new recruit. He'll sometimes drink that when he wants to reminisce.

Gideon can't really keep the pets he would want due to the travel demands of his job, but he always imagined retiring with big dogs. Maybe two of them! He'd want two English mastiffs (maybe he'd name one of them whiskey lol). I do think he has kept a couple of birds in his time to stave off loneliness, but that never really did much. He had trouble forming a bond with them. He didn't feel like he could truly befriend something he kept in a cage.