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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39356
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39356
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm going to agree with Galastel (write a person), and wetcircuit (Celeste sounds shallow). For the latter, when I think about my lover, I never take an inventory of their physical attributes. I have images in my mind that do not get articulated, if I was describing her feelings of Marko I would, instead of listing attributes that could be on a robot, say something like "Imagining him, she felt a compelling attraction, a desire to be beside him."

Obsession and a desire for simple non-sexual physical closeness, wanting to BE with their lover, is part of the nature of new love, for both men and women; and what Marko _looks like_ doesn't matter in that equation, people fall in love with others of all sorts of appearances. Neither does the gender of the person; women in love have the same obsession, closeness and sexual desires, tunnel vision, hyper-sensitivity to relationship threats (e.g. a minor disagreement feels life-threatening), and flaw blindness that men experience. If the relationship survives this enamoration stage, it generally becomes a co-dependency.

Also, "most importantly he seemed to love her"? That is strangely analytical and computationally selective and self-centered. Is Celeste a psychopath?

The most important thing is that SHE is in love with HIM and cannot imagine her future without him in it; that she feels she will forever regret it if she DOESN'T make an effort to marry him and have a family together. And thinking upon that in this 14th century of short lives, she realizes that the sooner they do that, the better. (And given her long life, she can do her career after her kids are grown adults; I doubt the 23rd century society would make a huge distinction between a 20 yo and a 35 yo when people are having babies and raising them at age 70).

Note the same thought process could be felt by Marko; the most important thing for him is that HE is in love with HER and cannot imagine his future without her in it; and he feels he will forever regret it if he doesn't make an effort to marry her and have a family with her.

Females do not have to contemplate their feelings or motivations any more than a male does. IRL modern society, men still bear most of the burden of pursuing women and proving themselves worthy mates, while women still have the privilege of being selective of their suitors. That is a psychological evolutionary quirk rooted in disparate biology; namely that men are more expendable than women when it comes to reproduction: The next generation can be fathered by just a few men, so men lost in battle or dangerous labor are not missed, but every womb lost is a person not born. Thus men fight wars, men take risks hunting, or fighting for the right to lead, etc. (Roy Baumeister is an academic that has published a book on this topic, [Is There Anything Good About Men?](https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/019537410X)).

That said, in your post-woke society, that dynamic of social interaction should be toned down considerably. I think you **don't** know how Marko thinks, because you aren't from his time and aren't putting yourself in his shoes. Marko and Celeste should not be thinking like a "man" and a "woman", the only thing that differs between them is their **sexual orientation** ; and that is all about feelings of attraction. He is physically attracted to and excited by females that look like her, and she is physically attracted to and excited by males that look like him. He is romantically attracted to women with her intelligence, humor and attitude, she the same for him. But these should be portrayed AS feelings.

> She realized that she hadn’t seen a glass window anywhere

I'd recast this in feelings too. _Of course_ her slate doesn't work, she knows the cloud is hardware, radio receivers, etc. the word _apparently_ is jarring.

> She realized she hadn't seen a glass window anywhere.  
> "When was glass invented?" she whispered, almost silently. _God_ she missed the cloud, the instant answers, the AI that always knew what you wanted and why you asked. It felt like she'd lost a chunk of her _brain_, the number of times she had to suppress the urge to ask the Cloud for a fact, a direction, a probability, from trivial to major. She bet Marko felt the same, [Now her thoughts turn to Marko].

Original score: 4