Pepey_LePew
It's cool. Also on the topic of political intrigue when writing it remember It's all about interests and desires. They have either or both and the plans they make to obtain them can be simple. Think of it as building the world is building a house and an evil scheme requires knowing every brick. When the villan enacts that plan they take it apart brick by brick. If you want headache inducing intrigue read Kingdoms and Bloodlines. That made Three Kingdoms look easy.
Pepey_LePew:I really did try and came kinda close in writing 2 chapters last week, but I fell short of that since I have less time to write than I did before. I'm pretty much finishing writing the chapters a day or so before I post them right now.
I agree with your assessment about genius characters. Just don't do it unless you have a lot of experience and the willingness to rewrite the mistakes. Instead I actually prefer Characters like yours that are more relatable if not a bit impulsive or straight up block headed sometimes but still far from dumb. For the intrigue part I would suggest either just don't write about it and let it be handled off screen, let it happen but Rictus just doesn't understand it and since he is our PoV it should be easier to write or (my favorite) just try and learn ;-)