Relationship between Jester and Fjord

Relationship
Jester and Fjord are close friends. They often reach out to the other to ask how they're doing, and have supported each other through their personal journeys.

The two of them grew up on the Menagerie Coast, and both have strong ties to the theme of water, as Jester's father is a Water Genasi, and Fjord used to have a sea leviathan for a patron before he became a paladin of Melora, goddess of the sea. Apart from this, however, they are very different. Jester is a very exhuberant, playful and friendly person, while Fjord is much more reserved and serious. However, as time went by and the Mighty Nein became used to each other, their personalities evolved to align more.

Jester has had a crush on Fjord since early on, although at first it seemed very superficial. Fjord acted oblivious to her flirting for quite some time. However, after spending a lot of time travelling together, Fjord began to admit that he may reciprocate her feelings. Jester, on her end, has reflected a lot on her feelings for Fjord, wondering if they were real, and if she still feels the same way.

History
Jester and Fjord met near Port Damali a few weeks (between three or four, according to how much time they've spent traveling by foot) before they encountered Beauregard and, a day later, the rest of the Mighty Nein.

Nott believed that Fjord and Jester were romantically involved, but Jester asserted that their relationship was platonic. She has since expressed her crush on Fjord - something that is sometimes played for comedy. Jester bought the erotic novel Tusk Love after realizing its hero, Oskar, is a half-orc like Fjord, and after reading it teasingly called Fjord 'Oskar' on several occasions. Jester seems jealous of Fjord's interactions with other women. During "Dangerous Liaisons", she drew pictures of Captain Avantika being stabbed with daggers following a flirtatious exchange between the two sailors. She also compliments him frequently, especially on him being 'handsome' and 'powerful'. Jester claimed that she was skilled in bed and offered to help Fjord improve his skills.

Jester was also thoroughly impressed with Fjord's ability to change his voice and accent. She pulled him aside while Beau was buying some wine to tell him that she liked all of his many voices, including his original one. Until, she was the only one who knew Fjord had been mimicking Vandran's accent.

Jester once claimed that Fjord had slept with her mother in an attempt to bail him out of an awkward situation with Ireena Clawmop, who had the impression that he wanted to sleep with her. Jester and Fjord both later admitted that this claim was, in fact, really creepy.

Fjord was impressed but also disturbed by how well Jester seemed to handle the trauma of being kidnapped by the Iron Shepherds. He told Beau and Caleb Jester sang to try and cheer up the other captives. He seemed surprised when Caleb suggested this might be a cover for her pain. Fjord was a little inspired by Jester's resilience. He did not tell her this, but later did tell Jester that her singing voice was nice.

Jester showed concern over Fjord's tusk filing and offered to support his choice either way about it. Fjord told Jester if she told him to stop filing his tusks down, he would.

While escaping the Temple of The Cloaked Serpent on Urukayxl, Jester ran out of air and began to drown. Fjord kissed her and gave her his own air supply, putting himself in danger of drowning to save her. Fjord is not aware that this was Jester's first kiss.

Although Jester has not discussed the kiss with Fjord, she has since asked for advice about men from both The Traveler and Nott. When asked by Caleb if she had feelings for Fjord, Jester said she doesn't know. Jester expressed that she is uncomfortable with the blood pact Fjord and Caleb made in Dashilla the Dreadful's lair.

Nott has on occasion tried to encourage Fjord to return Jester's flirtation, which Jester has typically been embarrassed and flustered by. After the first fight with the Incubus and Succubus in Asarius, Nott asked if Fjord and Jester wanted to room together (following Fjord enquiring after Jester's well-being), and Jester, who had already expressed irritation and anxiety at Fjord and Nott both putting themselves in further danger when the party was injured and Jester was out of spells and could not do anything to help them, reacted with uncharacteristic annoyance.

During the fight against the blue dragon inside the Happy Fun Ball of Tricks, Fjord accidentally left Jester alone with the dragon when his Blink spell caused him to vanish. Fjord seems to be trying to be more considerate of Jester since realizing how much that upset her.

As the party chased Obann though Xhorhas, they were attacked by a group of The Lost of the Sorrowsowrn. During the battle, Fjord was grappled and saved by Jester. As soon as he was freed he gave her a kiss on the cheek saying "thanks". Later during that same trip, as they were both climbing The Arbor Exemplar, the branch Jester was holding on to broke and she began to fall. Fjord immediately dived after her. With the help of Caleb and Nott's Featherfall spell, he managed to get a hold of her hand and cast Thunderstep to bamf them both back up the tree.

While in the Xhorhaus, Jester noted that this was Fjord's first official home. She pointed out that their rooms were right next to each other, and offered to magically draw a hole on the wall between the bedrooms, which Fjord asked her not to do due to Beau's snoring. Jester also noticed that Fjord seemed to be uncomfortable around water lately, which he quickly denied.

While on their quest to reforge Dwueth'var, Fjord approached Jester and asked her to cast Sending to contact Vandran. After learning that his former captain was all right and not searching for him, Fjord expressed doubts about not knowing who he wanted to be anymore. He also confided on Jester about his fears regarding Uk'otoa and him taking away Fjord's powers back in Xhorhas. He asked for her opinion of The Wildmother and Jester offered to help him find a new deity, vowing to "do anything to get [him] away from Uk'otoa," which she declared would be their new mission. Later that day, when Fjord came clean to the party about his real accent, Jester tried to warn him about the change (thinking that he'd forgotten about it). Fjord apologized to Jester for making her keep the secret.

Jester showed growing worry about Fjord's power-less status after he renounced his deal with Uk'otoa. When he got his powers back and became a Paladin of the Wildmother, Jester excitedly declared she was proud of him.

Although Jester's flirting with Fjord has seemingly subsided, compared to their earlier days, she has consistently pointed out how handsome he is and complimented his growing tusks. She also stared at him with "heart-eyes" while he got oiled up by Maruo as they both tried to keep her distracted. After Fjord made a pact with the Wildmother in Refjorged, Nott suggested that Jester take off Fjord's shirt, which she did after some reluctance. When Fjord asked for his shirt back, Jester sheepishly returned it, trying to come up with an excuse. Nott pointed out that they might have needed to resuscitate Fjord, to which he replied: "I feel well looked after."

Fjord noticed Jester's worry about the passage of time within the Heirloom Sphere as they were searching for Yussa and she was worried that she could miss out on TravelerCon. As they left through the blue dragon's lair, he approached Jester and said that he realized the last time they were in there she'd been "in quite a pinch", he also called her using Revivify on Nott remarkable, and said that he was "glad [Jester's] here." She returned the sentiment and opened up about her not wanting to go back to "all the bad stuff" in the outside world.

On Rumblecusp, Fjord expressed his concern to Jester about the Traveler. He seemed to genuinely care about Jester's safety. Fjord later expressed his fear that if people got mad at the Traveler for disengaging with them, they could possibly turn their anger towards Jester due to her acting as Artagan's high priestess. He explained that he would support Jester in whatever she did, but that if the Traveler hurt her or caused harm to come to her, he wouldn't support that. Fjord also told Jester that he felt she had been keeping her internal feelings and discussions with the Traveler to herself, and that she could tell him.

Fjord admitted to Beau that he wanted Jester to be happy. He felt strongly for her, but understood that her early feelings for him might have been whimsy. He wanted to explore the world, see lands he hadn't seen, and find the things that people were scared of and solve them. He hoped she was a part of that. While Jester was holding onto the Traveler as he was being carried away in chains, Fjord used Hex and Relentless Hex to grab onto her. He called out to her, asking her to let go of Artagan. Artagan eventually shoved them both off of him, sending them falling. Caleb caught them with Feather Fall, and Yasha and Beau kept them from landing in the lava.

While the party was briefly in Rexxentrum before heading north, Fjord gave Jester a tiny unicorn figurine he had bought earlier, which thrilled her and she kissed his cheek. She excitedly told Beau about it and they both giggled about Fjord and Yasha.

A few days after the encounter with the undead Avantika, Fjord pulled Jester aside, concerned about how Lucien seemed to be focused on her with scrying and messages. Not sure if it would help, but hoping to provide a sense of security, Fjord gave Jester the Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location that Caleb had given him. Jester then asked Fjord how he was doing after Avantika's attack and the still-looming threat of Uk'otoa. Fjord said that he was all right, but was troubled by trying to move forward with his new life when the old life was still haunting him. He said he wanted to deal with his past before moving on. Fjord also admitted to Jester that he had contracted with Kotho to find his old crewmate Sabian, and Jester used Sending to contact the bounty hunter. Jester also asked Fjord to shut her mouth when it dropped open while she was Scrying in the future, which he agreed to help with.

Before resting for the night inside the Tower, Fjord talked to Jester in her room. He expressed concern about her after the ritual with a circle of stone statues showed her a vision of the city in the Astral Plane. Fjord told her that watching her on the pillar was the first time he didn't try to stop something that was happening to her and he couldn't do anything. He realized that they are getting into more dangerous situations and he doesn't want her gambling with herself, and that he wants them to get through this and return home to the Menagerie Coast. Jester said that she will try to be safe, but if it comes to it, she wants to do everything she can to stop the city from returning. Fjord brought up the promise he made to Marion that he would look after her and said that he "cares very much for [Jester]". He pulled her in close and asked "Can I kiss you?", to which she nodded, and they kissed. Fjord said he can't promise to just let Jester throw herself into that kind of danger. Fjord and Jester observed that kissing is much more fun when they're not drowning or dying. Fjord tells her that he had been wanting to kiss her for a while. They say goodnight and Fjord returned to his room where he found little sleep. Jester went to sleep holding the porcelain unicorn figurine that Fjord had given to her.

Trivia

 * Travis, who plays Fjord, has stated that he doesn't like to roleplay D&D romance. Laura, his wife, who plays Jester, joked early on that she would flirt with him during the second campaign just to mess with him, saying he could never turn his own wife down.
 * Fjord and Jester's playlists have featured songs about each other.
 * In Jester's first playlist, the song You're Somebody Else by Flora Cash was about Jester's conflicted feelings following her kiss with Fjord. Laura's commentary was "When you think you know someone and you really like them but then they start behaving differently than you’ve ever seen and you don’t know if it’s the real them finally peeking out or if it’s just a mask they’re trying on for a little bit and you feel really confused about it. Also, they sort of kissed you."
 * In her second playlist, Jester's feelings about Fjord are explored further with the song Summer's Gone by Aberfeldy. After mentioning Jester had been desperate to find a storybook romantic relationship in the previous song, this one's description reads: "Is that someone she was looking for Fjord? She thought it was… it could still be? But it feels like the seasons are changing and she’s growing up. Can those feelings grow up with her?"
 * Fjord's second playlist hinted at feelings for Jester in the description for the song Blue Healer, which reads: "I never thought I would feel like this. And despite my stubbornness, you've worn me down - and I hope for more."