Serafina, eh? Not a bad choice, especially since Taylor will probably just call her-
But Taylor and Sera doesn't sound so odd.
Especially when people would hear it as Sarah and just assume that was her name, not thinking it's really short for something else.
-well, glad I checked to see if someone already said it before posting. And getting preempted by the author is fine by me. But yeah, Serafina's ability to be shortened to 'Sera,' and the fact that the latter sounds very much like Sarah/Sara, makes it a sensible choice. It hits a middle ground between a name that New Best Sister wants
and one that Taylor can find a reason not to veto immediately.
Yeah, Emma crossed a line.
@Twei and I had a pretty detailed conversation about Emma's psychology and mental processes, discussing whether Danny's death would shock her enough to unnerve her and open a chink that would grow wider after seeing how well Taylor was handling things.
Unfortunately, Danny died on the 21st, and so there was still a good two weeks before school started up for Emma to regain her footing. And then Taylor wasn't at school the first week, which only reinforced Emma's view that losing her dad made Taylor lose a part of herself, just like when she lost her mom. So when Taylor comes back, Emma actively tries harder to bully Taylor, to prove that Taylor's weak.
She does this to reinforce it to and assure
herself, while also ultimately keeping Taylor from bouncing back like she did after losing her mom (i.e. surviving, proving that Taylor had her own sort of strength, which would be similar to what happened post-Leviathan and what ended up really rattling Emma), further cementing Emma's mental image of Taylor = weakness in her mind.
EDIT: And of course, it backfired. Horrendously.
Makes sense. It even has some nice parallels between what prompted Emma to turn on Taylor in the first place: it was the
timing that mattered almost as much as the nature of the event itself.
The ABB attack took place while Taylor was away at nature camp, and it's easy to forget that after the attack, it was actually a full week...
Interlude 19 said:
"It's been a week. You can't- you can't be happy like this. We won't be here to bother you, so warm yourself up some food, treat yourself to a nice bath, maybe, watch some television? Get things a step back to normal?"
...before Emma left the house and met Sophia. And on top of that...
Interlude 19 said:
Three weeks ago, she might never have imagined that she'd be able to resume life as normal, to not be afraid.
Perhaps it was more correct to say that she was afraid, she just wasn't acting it. Faking it until she could make it the truth.
"You're going out?" her sister couldn't quite keep the note of suprise out of her voice.
"Sophia's dropping by," Emma said.
Just want to forget it happened, put it behind me. Move forward.
"Taylor got back from camp this morning," her mother said.
...it was two
more weeks after that before Taylor got home, during which time Sophia had unfettered access to an extremely fragile and pliable Emma. If Taylor had been present for any almost stage of that process, even if it was just after Emma had met Sophia, it would've been gamechanging.
Ah, almost forgot. One of the most pivotal moments of the initial rejection scene doesn't seem to get much spotlight, so I'll highlight it here. It started with this, right before Emma goes outside to meet Sophia:
She made her way to the front hall, stopped by the mirror to run a brush through her hair. It had all been cut to match the piece that had been cut shorter with the knife.
She couldn't wait for it to grow in, as that alone would erase just one more memory that reminded her of her moment of weakness and humiliation, of how close she'd come to dying or being mutilated. Until it did grow in, it was yet another reminder of all the ugliness she wanted to be able to look past.
Then, during the conversation, Emma almost backs down. Even if it meant losing the certainty of purpose Sophia was pushing on her...
"Really," Taylor echoed Sophia. The smallest furrow appeared between her eyebrows. "What's going on Emma? I haven't heard from you in a good while. Your mom said you weren't taking calls?"
Emma hesitated.
To just explain, to talk to Taylor…
Taylor would give her sympathy, would listen to everything she had to say, give an unbiased ear to every thought, every wondering and anxiety. Emma almost couldn't bear the idea.
But there would be friendship too. Support. It would be so easy to reach out and take it.
...she was
so goddamn close to reaching out to Taylor.
But unfortunately, Taylor tried to break the awkward silence...
"I love the haircut," Taylor filled the silence, talking and smiling like she couldn't contain herself. "You manage to make any style look great."
Emma closed her eyes, taking a second to compose herself. Then she smiled back, though not so wide. She could feel Sophia's eyes on her.
She stepped down one stair to get closer to Taylor, put a hand on her shoulder. Taylor raised one arm to wrap Emma in a hug, stopped short when Emma's arm proved unyielding, stopping her from closing the distance.
"Go home, Taylor. I didn't ask you to come over."
...and stepped on a newly-formed psychological landmine, and cemented the mental link that Emma would come to draw between her younger, weaker self and Taylor.
So I guess that's my long-winded way of saying that I can see why you made the choice that you did. Even after a little over a year of bullying, I doubt that Emma was so far gone that the second she heard about Danny's death was the same second that she started thinking of all the ways she could use it to torment Taylor. But because there were nearly two weeks between the fatal accident and when Emma next saw Taylor (and there had been a lull in the bullying for a good month before the start of winter break coinciding with Sophia's induction into the Wards), there was nothing to give her that extra push towards some kind of change and all kinds of reasons (namely, Sophia's reinforcement of the 'new' Emma) for it to lose traction.
It kinda happened in canon, too. Sophia's influence was rooted deeply enough that when Emma ran into Taylor at Arcadia, she had sufficient tunnel-vision when it came to Taylor that she didn't even notice that the ammunition she was using wasn't getting well-received by those around them:
Chrysalis 20.3 said:
"…because I don't really think much of you anymore. I've dealt with drug dealers, vandals, looters and thugs, and the gangs that were roving the city trying to get their hands on young girls. Hell, I was there when Mannequin attacked the boardwalk."
All true. Except… I 'dealt' with them in a more direct fashion than I was implying.
"Big girl. So brave," Emma said.
I saw one or two people on the periphery of the crowd shift position, irritated. They weren't my allies, not exactly, but Emma had just lost points, belittling what they had been through.
Although with that being said, she
did show frustration that Taylor had taken as long as she did to start pushing back, though it's dealer's choice whether she was lying about how they could've been friends again if she had done that sooner, if she was telling the truth, or something in between (to say nothing of how Taylor would react to such a proposal).
So in other words yaaaaaaay! I like your other stories, I like your overall writing, and I
really look forward to more of this story in particular!
And on top of liking everything thus far, I got an extra chuckle imagining QA preening as soon as Taylor and Sera hit the cape scene.
Queen Administrator: "The other shards all laughed when I told them I was going to give my host a sister because she was lonely and sad. Well who's laughing now, huh?
Who's laughing now?!"
