Nemariel
You can order art of yourself and your NPC crush forever, but your avatar (and by proxy you) are never actually going to be a pair with said character.
Wat?!
xp
I don't think anyone that fan girls over the NPCs has any delusions of the staff suddenly inserting them into the plot as their significant other. But it's the same reason people write fan fic; indulgence and enjoyment. Self insertion into fandoms isn't anything new, and Gaia has always encouraged people to perceive their avatars as a part of the world they have created. So if people want to imagine that a NPC is in love with their character, whatever floats their boat... just as long as everyone that likes Edmund knows they're gonna have to fight me to the death.
wink j/k. Although, at the height of my interest in the plot and Edmund, I usually played up the stalker he wanted a restraining order against angle more than someone he'd be in love with.