Thank you so much for such a thoughtful comment! ;A;
I'm glad you enjoyed the world building! It's something I'm pretty passionate about that I often have to temper, lest I end up with tons of dry exposition, haha. Not sure if this little tidbit of history is common knowledge, but the mining corp was actually based off old US coal mining towns, which would sometimes pay employees in a company scrip that could only be used at company owned stores!
As for Nova and MARC, I thought it would be interesting if they already had a stable, established relationship, and it was Nova's other relationships that would grow and strengthen through the story (if you choose to be invested in them), which would help them achieve their goals at the end.
And I'm sure Hollowmend/Milo is thrilled you liked Rosco, haha. He's admittedly a favorite of both of ours. An unexpectedly sweet and earnest boy. (Milo very much wants him to get his own boyfriend)