swapping OC gears for a bit here

Sourire met Ellipses during the start of the Lungmen-Chernobog crisis, which definitely doesn't make for an ideal romantic setting. It was during the fight with Skullshatterer and Ellipses was struggling to give orders to her team thanks to her frail constitution at the time. In the nick of time, Sourire swooped into the situation and fought off Skullshatterer who was going in for the kill on a distracted Amiya, providing assistance to Ellipses' team for the remainder of the battle.

Despite being "a civilian", he chose to stay by Rhodes Island's side and continued to fight against the Reunion forces invading Lungmen. For this, once all was said and done, Ellipses personally vouched for Sourire to be admitted to Rhodes Island; both for his Oripathy infection and to vouch for him as an potential Operator.

Over time after joining Rhodes Island, Sourire never really parted from Ellipses or her team, instead only getting closer to them as he slowly adjusted to his new family and friends. Bonding over their love of music and playing instruments (Sourire the guitar and Ellipses the saxophone respectively), showing and teaching her skills belonging to both a bartender and a barista and just being able to confide in one another about the horrible traumas they've had to live through eventually culminated with them becoming inseparable.

Aperture met Closure for the first time when Theresa asked the doctor to escort Closure from her home to the broken down landship.

For Aperture, it was rather unceremonious. Theresa had described their new engineer as being bright and bursting with potential, but as she found Ada curled up in her dark little den, the attic of her family home, she began to question this. She had never really heard many good things about Sarkaz as it was; it'd be wise of her to not take Theresa's word too seriously after all. Still, if this Sarkaz could give her a way to escape her exiled land of Kazdel, she'd be more than willing to give her a chance.

To Ada, the soft, subtle light of the woman's halo in the dark of her den- a light that was not the glow of a computer screen, for once- might've just been the most beautiful thing she had ever witnessed. The sun had set hours before. And although she had never ventured outside into it before, she likened the feeling of their meeting to seeing the sun rise for the first time. It was a moment she'd never forget.

Their trip back together started quietly, awkwardly. Under the night sky, Ada watched out the window as her family's home move further and further towards the horizon until she couldn't see it any longer. Though terrifying, the thought of newfound freedom with this new Sankta woman proved to be exhilarating for Ada. She cut through the silence with seemingly endless questioning of Aperture- what Babel's plans were, where they'd go first, what needed fixing on board... and although they had just met, Aperture reminded Ada that they all had high expectations of her. That being born a noble meant nothing if she couldn't prove her worth.

And although it would take some time for Closure to overcome her struggles and anxiety to finish her life's greatest work of getting Rhodes Island off of the ground, she swore she would prove herself again and again if she had to.

(I’m sorry this is so long I know you were probably expecting a shorter answer akskdjskndmsnd)

It wasn’t exactly a pleasant meeting that’s for sure. Blaze had heard about Crux from before he lost his memories, and hardly anything said about him was good. After he woke up from his coma, Crux was seemingly a whole different person, his demeanor had changed drastically from the ruthless bastard he was said to be. Crux was tasked to go into Chernobog with a team of operators to determine his tactical capabilities, Ace & Scout left for that mission with him, and didn’t come back. So after all these horrible things that were said about him, leading into the possibility of a different man waking up, two elite operators wound up dead, and they just happened to be Blaze’s closest friends. She had some…choice words for Crux after that. A few weeks and several broken ribs later, everything in Lungmen started happening, and Blaze was assigned with Crux again. There wasn’t much that could be said about what had happened, both of them just knew they needed to push forward, it’s what Ace & Scout would have wanted.

These two didn’t really get close to one another until after everything in Lungmen happened, with Crux carrying Blaze back to the medics himself, and visiting her every day he could in the hospital. There was a lot of buildup to this, but those moments in the hospital are where Blaze really got to meet Crux, and Crux got to meet Blaze. Neither of them had the same regrets they did before, and while the pain was still there, it was possible to get through it together.