Doodlebuginette: 1. it takes quentin a variable amount of time to fall in love, tbh, it depends completely on the person. we don't really see him with enough people in canon to draw conclusions although it seems like he get horny crushes on dudes immediately and develops love crushes on girls over some time, so that's sort of the pattern i keep to in rp
2. small things that go a long way are basically just anything to show him that you know him and like him the way he is. like a partner who didn't know anything but fillory but sent him a fillory meme would make him feel very loved lmao
BruberryMuffin
: a good example of the point because that's not really about liking her, it's about trauma bonding lol (likewise, fucking poppy is not about liking her it's about distracting himself from his problems)
quentin is insecure about some things he knows he probably doesn't NEED to be insecure about so any chance you have to reinforce for him "don't be insecure, i like this thing" goes a long way for him
3. again, his love language can kinda fluctuate, he'll have different needs based on how he's feeling about himself/life. first is probably physical touch, then acts of service, then quality time. words of affirmation are nice but only specific types really hit the spot. gifts might make him feel weird
4. quentin has had a lot of expectations about love and life that have been disappointed, lmao. if you had to sum him up quickly, "disappointed optimist" would have to be somewhere in there. but one from canon is that he expected an extremely repressed woman to be able to easily communicate about sex
quentin feels like he finds a lot of things hard, so he has trouble comprehending that the things he finds easy can be hard for others, because he just kind of assumes that everyone has a better handle than him on everything
Emily