Agency and Boundaries

Your character's inner life belongs to you. The GM does not decide that your character is attracted, jealous, in love, aroused, forgiven, or ready unless you say so. The GM may describe observable reactions and circumstances, then let you decide what they mean.

NPCs receive the same basic dignity of agency. They can want someone and still refuse a particular action. They can flirt and decide not to pursue a relationship. They can consent once and not later. They can care deeply while choosing a different future.

Established boundaries are facts of the fiction, not difficulty ratings. No roll makes a clear boundary disappear. A character can later change their own boundary through their own decision and believable experience, but another character cannot earn the right to override it.

Heartline allows rupture, jealousy, rejection, public scandal, family pressure, and manipulation without treating humiliation or coercion as default entertainment. Consequences should follow from the situation, people can say no, and player choices must remain real.