carissa gidrondell
— gigi was close to her mother until she remarried. one of the biggest issues between them is how quickly her mother prioritzed her new family over gigi and how she sided with her sisters over her. its infuriating for gigi, and when she thinks of her mother she thinks of all the times that her mother told her to acquiesce for the sake of peace within the new family unit.
clint viotto
— gigi never was particularly close with her step father. she doesn't know him well and expresses minimal interest in being close to him, but prior to the affair their relationship was never tense. generally, she can accept that clint makes her mother happy and that was the main concern that gigi had, but she finds that clint tends to prioritize his own daughter over either gigi or basil, and encourages her mother to spoil lilli as well. when the affair comes to light, he is the main force that convinces her mother to ostracize her from their circles.
lilliana viotto
— it is no secret that they do not like each other. lilliana has always been nasty to gigi and refuses to ever see her as anything but an immature brat, while gigi views her older step-sister as a spoiled brat who is intolerant to anyone or anything that falls outside her narrow view of the world. not only do they squabble about their roles in the family, they fight about the way that their youngest sister should be accomodated, and it came to a head with the affair. gigi knows that lilli is the favorite child, and after the affair came to light she was forced to realize that her step-sister would always be seen in a better light. so gigi left, all the while lilli is satisifed that she no longer has to worry about gigi embarrassing their family.
basil viotto
— the baby sister of the viotto/gidrondell family who was born deaf and served as one of the instigating factors between the conflict between lilli and gigi. despite the way that her sister's birth was the cause of the rift between gigi and the rest of the family, gigi really loves basil. due to the large age gap between herself and basil, gigi often feels that basil is her baby and feels awful for abandoning her in the family. depsite the poor relationship she has with the family, gigi tries to send letters to basil.
.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.♡.
adeline
— gigi finds it very hard to say no to adeline and her bountiless requests. one of her greatest conflicts is that gigi struggles to refuse tasks due to her guilt, which makes adeline and her frequent projects to improve mistria so overwhelming. gigi doesn't want to disappoint adeline so she tries to reciprocate the excitement that adeline has towards the improvement of the town, often leading her to accept more tasks than she can handle. aside from that, they tend to get along outside of work.
balor
— he is a very suspicious figure to gigi and she is a little wary of balor initially due to the secrets that he is clearly hiding. despite her dubious opinions of him, gigi attempts to hide that wariness for the sake of maintaining a cordial appearance. this becomes more sincere as she gets to know him and begins to realize that balor clearly cares about the town, which helps to endear him to gigi and lead her to trusting him just a fraction more.
caldarus
— she . . . doesn't necessarily know what to make of the talking statue that lives on her farm and tells her what to do. on one hand, gigi is convinced that his voice is a symptom of some kind of breakdown but, on the other hand, so many strange things happen in mistria that gigi almost can't help but believe that caldarus is some spirit trapped in a statue. it takes her a while to warm up to caldarus, though.
celine
— gigi is really fond of celine !! she was the first person that was kind to celine and taught her a lot of what she needed to do to run a farm, especially since gigi had never grown anything in her life previously, and the fact that they're neighbors allowed celine to check up on her. they ended up developing a close relationship together, and celine is the first person that gigi feels really wants to see her succeed.
darcy
— this is the first stall that she hits every saturday market. gigi is such a slave to sweets that she can't help herself, and darcy has taken it as a personal challenge to find a drink that gigi would like since she isn't fond of chocolate or coffee. as of now, they're trying teas to see if they can find something sweet enough for gigi.
dell
— gigi adores dell and would babysit her literally at any point in time. the kids are all so sweet, and she likes to hear about the adventures that they get up to. dell is the most mischievous of the kids, though, and it reminds gigi of her own childhood which makes her all the quicker to turn a blind eye to the mischief that she got into. she does tend to borrow dell during the fall to help pick apples on the farm, though, and rewards her with apple juice.
dozy
— though she has reservations about juniper, gigi adores dozy. she tries to remember to bring him a stick whenever she comes to the bathhouse, and calls it the bath tax.
eiland
— these two have a bond that only two people who would eat sweets all the time can have, but god does he talk a lot. gigi may like eiland, and its clear that he is intensely intelligent and knowledgable, but often she feels like hes more talking at her than talking to her. she is often lost when they talk about history, but she supposes that eiland doesn't necessarily mind that she doesn't follow his train of thought so long as she lets him talk.
elsie
— gigi is a romantic by nature so she loves to hear about the sordid and passionate affairs that she had throughout her life, and finds that the way that elsie carries herself is very familiar to gigi as an ex-socialite herself. she also feels generally accepted by elsie and looks to her for a lot of insight for how she should manage her interpersonal relationships; she tries to make time to speak to elsie often, and she tends to enjoy their time together.
errol
— he has a very nice presence that gigi tends to enjoy. although they don't have much in common, gigi does work hard to fill the musuem and does linger when errol is around to listen to him recount what she found in the mines or the historical background of the artifacts that she brought. unlike eiland, errol tends to understand that gigi doesn't follow a lot of historical jargon and waters it down so she can understand, which she appreciates, and generally errol makes her feel included.
hayden
— he was another person who was especially welcoming when gigi first moved in. hayden was kind enough to try and encourage her when she first started trying to maintain crops, and when she finally came around to trying to raise animals he pointed her towards the resources necessary to raise animals. after the several failed attempts to raise crops, gigi didn't want to risk hurting any animals in her attempts to learn animal husbandry, but hayden really built her confidence. generally, he's been a very sweet neighbor, and gigi hopes that she can one day be as competent and sufficient as hayden is.
hemlock
— she doesn't tend to have much to talk about with hemlock outside of the sleeping dragon inn, if only because they don't tend to have much overlap in terms of interests. she does like him, though, and he's really opened her eyes to a lot of different types of alcohol after previously thinking that she didn't like it. plus, she tends to be in his good books because she's happy to look after luc and maple.
henrietta
— gigi was terrified of henrietta at first. she never had the opportunity to interact with birds or other farm animals before, so she never really knew how to talk or pet henrietta. it didn't help that henrietta fed off her anxious energy and tended to ruffle her feathers when gigi entered the room, leading to gigi assuming that henrietta just plain didn't like her. it took a little work and a lot of baby steps, but eventually gigi was able to get to a point where she can pet henrietta and feed her from her palms without incident. she thinks henrietta is a very sweet bird.
holt
— you cannot have these two in the same room together without an inevitable exchange of awful puns. its like gigi feeds off his energy and cannot help herself but scour her mind for the worst dad jokes that she can recall, though often she has to tap out when the jokes get especially cheesy and even she is left to groan. it goes without saying that she likes holt!
josephine
— josephine reminds gigi a lot of her own mother in terms of her mannerisms and the way that she talks to her children, which makes gigi often feel a particularly poignant sense of homesickness. she does owe josephine, though, as gigi had no idea how to cook for herself prior to jo's cooking lessons.
juniper
— gigi finds it . . . difficult to get along with juniper. it may be caused by how perceptive juniper is and how quickly she realized that gigi is a chronic people pleaser, or it might just be that their personalities clash, but gigi often finds herself nervous to enter the bathhouse for fear that she might have to face juniper and one of her experiments. it doesn't help that juniper makes gigi feel a little strange and pretty much kickstarted a lot of her queer thoughts lol, so gigi really fights for her life in the bathhouse.
landen
— he can be a little difficult to deal with at times but landen tends to be inoffensive to gigi and she doesn't have much of a problem with him; hes usually very insightful on the projects she wants to start on her farm, and is pretty good at steering her in the right direction when gigi isn't sure if a project is feasible on her farm. her only complaint is that often she feels a little intimidated talking to him, almost like shes trying to impress a friend's parent.
louis
— she vaguely remembers that she was young when louis was banished from the capital but doesn't recall why it happened, plus it feels rude to focus on the past when he so clearly is trying to build a new life in the same way that she is. gigi just prays that he doesn't recognize her name so she can enjoy her anonymity a little longer in mistria and, from their occasional interactions, gigi presumes that he doesn't. she feels some solidarity with louis, but they aren't close by any stretch of the imagination.
luc
— oh boy . . . she thinks luc is such a sweetheart but that kid is lowkey killing her when it comes to her phobia of spiders. gigi tends to bond with him over moths and butterflies, as gigi likes to learn about their patterns and the other facts that luc has about them, but when it comes to spiders and other insects with too many legs? gigi is quietly containing an imminent panic attack. luc has taken it upon himself to try and desensitize gigi to spiders, often trying to introduce her to them and work her up to feeling comfortable handling the more intimidating bugs, but its certainly been an uphill battle.
maple
— oh, maple is the cutest thing that gigi has ever seen !! she thinks that her penchant for nobility and their mannerisms is adorable, and the way that she carries herself in such a regal way just makes gigi smile. because she is from the capital, gigi sometimes gets the occasional question about the things she might have seen while she lived there, but gigi hasn't had the heart to admit that she was a socialite.
march
— he literally cannot stand her and gigi has no idea why. she doesn't know what she did to upset march but its become clear through his continuous attempts to snub her whenever she tried to bridge the gap that he does not care for her and would rather she felt mistria altogether. not only is march intensely critical of her, but hes reluctant to offer any sort of assistance to her when he is certain that gigi will leave the moment that things become too difficult for her. worse yet, gigi feels like he's seeing right through her attempts to be kind and is seeing her for who she really is, unable to see that its insecure projection and instead internalizing it as a reason to try and rise to his high expectations. she wants him to like her, and wants to prove to him that she deserves to be liked.
merri
— gigi is pretty neutral on merri. she thinks that she is a really pretty girl, and she really likes the selections that she brings to the market, but gigi doesn't really have much to talk to her about.
nora
— she was very intimidated by nora when she first moved to mistria and, though she thinks that nora is fantastically intelligent and very concise, gigi often feels nervous that nora thinks she is in over her head. overtime, gigi starts to warm up to the idea that nora sees her as capable on the farm and doesn't feel like gigi needs to impress nora to make her approve of her decision to move to mistria, and slowly she starts to come to nora for advice on the financial decisions that come from owning a business.
olric
— these two get along like a house on fire. they have similar personalities on the surface and they tend to be a little more airheaded, which lends to them genuinely enjoying the other's company. she may not understand his fascination with rocks but gigi does appreciate that he knows so much about them and that he likes them so much. she tries not to vent her frustrations to olric about his brother, but olric often tries to convince gigi to give march another chance to make a better impression and keep her mind open to the possibilitty of march warming up to her.
reina
— gigi secretly thinks that reina could be a better cook than the culinary expert that raised her, and they really hit it off together. they tend to bond over their shared appreciation over food and a love of romance, which usually leads gigi to seek out reina for gossip and generally enjoying her presence. in return, she tries to give reina the first pick of the crops that she grows so reina can have the most fresh produce available. usually gigi is the first to volunteer as a taste-tester, especially if its sweet.
ryis
— he is one of the people that gigi envies. not only is ryis thoughtful and sweet, but hes also a very reliable person who patiently teaches her how to build essential things for her farm or for her house. she was initially nervous in hearing that ryis was from the capital but it proved to be an irrational concern, and soon gigi felt comfortable enough to foster a good friendship with him.
terithia
— she really likes going fishing with teritha. there are a bunch of times that she feels like she is intellectually inferior, but often when terithia tells stories gigi finds herself completely enthralled with stories of the world and the adventures that terithia had. it also helps that sitting around learning how to fish was a fantastic opportunity to learn more about each other, and for all intents and purposes terithia was one of her first friends in mistria.
valen
— gigi often has to see valen because she has never had to deal with a job that demanded so much from her and tends to overexert herself while trying to work on the farm during her first year. she is often embarrassed by how often she needs the services of the clinic, which usually leads to gigi making more rash decisions that exhaust herself and require more services. their relationship is very friendly though !! and gigi tries to take the advice that valen gives her, if only so she doesn't feel so miserable after she overexerts herself.
vera
— vera and gigi have a fantastic relationship, and this is her favorite vendor at the saturday market. she makes it her goal to sit in vera's chair every single week to try and change up her hairstyle or to touch up her dye job. gigi likes change and vera likes to experiment on someone as willing as gigi, so they end up having a lot to bond over. plus, gigi likes to gossip when she's getting her hair done, which fosters a closeness between them.