#of course she knows him... sort of

[freezingwhitefire]

This one is fighting me a little but here is a small blurb of my current project that I am focusing on.

“What have you brought me this time? Another Hero to save?” She asked, her tone almost scornful.

He knew she disliked him for how he survived after his time should have passed and he accepted it. This was not the time for her dislike of him to stop what needed to be done though. So he shifted forms again, this time pushing further to assume a ghostly form that only ones with high magic potential could see.

“He was poisoned, I can fix it but he will not survive until I do so without help.”

“Why should I help?”

“Because if you don’t, the hero that saved us and defeated your trial will never be born.”

[bumblingbabooshka]

My name is [BRUTUS] and my name means [HEAVY] so with a [HEAVY] heart I'll guide this dagger Into the heart of my enemy

Something about having absolutely no choice in who you marry. About being literally forced by the law to spill blood - to accept this stranger as your husband over a man you truly care for or accept the fact that the man you love might die because you put him in danger. Something about risking becoming the wife of a man you've never even seen before a few minutes prior because you know anything would be better than putting your beloved in harm's way. Something about the trust inherent in that decision and in the way she speaks of it after. Truthfully, T'Pring doesn't know the captain and she doesn't know Spock. Either one of them could have taken her as their wife but she does know Stonn. She knows that Stonn will remain by her side no matter what. They made a plan together. They have an agreement which T'Pring believes will be upheld even though the plan changed with the arrival of Kirk. Stonn will always be there, always, and Stonn will be hers. Something about the language used around T'Pring: Ownership, subservience, non-personhood. T'Pring is an object that Spock can win. She cannot reject him, she has no say in the matter other than having Stonn 'claim' her instead. Even when Spock leaves after being very clearly rejected by T'Pring he says "Stonn, she is yours." as if despite her clear rejection he still owns her and is must formally 'give' her to Stonn. But the language T'Pring uses around Stonn is a break from that: "There was Stonn who wanted very much to be my consort, and I wanted him." Stonn who wanted very much to be HER consort and she WANTED him. The language here is very particular - It's not, for example: "Stonn wanted me to be his wife" - he is HERS. And she WANTS him. There's a mutual affection there and a strong trust - a trust which seems to be well founded since Stonn (though silent) stands by her side at the end of the episode. <- That might seem small but if Spock would reject her for 'daring to challenge' (again, the language is not 'because I don't want you' but more of an implied disgust at her having the AUDACITY to reject him) then it's not a stretch to assume that it'd be considered an insult in the TOS Vulcan society to NOT choose Stonn as her champion after a prior agreement. Anyway T'Pring was a woman in an impossible situation within a society which saw her as more of an object than a person and she wanted Stonn and Stonn wanted to be hers and she trusted that he would understand if she had to publicly pick someone else to ensure his life would be spared and he did understand.

[quietwingsinthesky]

i really do think the desire to paint ten as unambiguously The Worst™️ when it comes to his relationship with martha is out of this desire to uncomplicate their relationship. to decouple them as friends and people who profoundly impacted each other’s lives. it’s just an easier narrative to swallow: that ten was Awful to her and then martha kicked him to the curb when she realized she was too good for him. easier, maybe, then dealing with the troubles of unrequited affection don’t have to be anyone’s fault, or that ten shut martha out in a lot of ways but let her in in others that he wouldn’t let any other companion near, or that they were still friends, they still wanted to see each other and be around each other, even though it was messy and sometimes hurt. you know?

[anna-scribbles]

h-how do you ever finish any of your work? genuine question because you seem to be productive despite your agreste syndrome and I need to learn your ways. but also how do you ever finish any of your work

unclear. last night i stayed up and finished a report worth 25% of my grade at about 5am, arrived on time for my 9am lecture, and spent about half of it zoned out while thinking about seventeen year old emilie agreste. and i was one of the most active participants in the class discussion

[mangotelevision]

In my mcd season 3 rewrite I have a scene planned out where the gang gets caught and imprisoned like they always do and they have to fight their way to freedom in like a gladiatorial combat sort of thing. In the end katelyn unknowingly kills her brother because it's been so long and she doesn't recognize him. Kacey at the end thought his mother killed him because Katelyn looks so much like Elizabeth. Katelyn doesn't know she killed Kasey until weeks later

[tennessoui]

this has stayed in my brain for like 2 weeks: au where obi-wan gets fed up with the city council because he keeps writing them asking them to fill this pothole on his street that he hates driving around and they keep not doing it so he decides to run for city council himself on the sole platform of if he’s elected he’s going to fucking fix that fucking pothole.

and he wins because he is very charming and not a lot of people vote anyway, and he fills in his pothole and then next election cycle, he’s planning to let someone else win so he doesn’t have to be on the city council anymore because he actually hates local politics.

only there’s this asshole in university who decides to run obi-wan’s re-election campaign because he’s trying to sleep with a political science TA and he thinks she’ll be impressed if he shows an interest in local politics by doing some grassroots voting door to door work for his community service credits…..and he chooses obi-wan to support at random and very nonconsensually

so anakin skywalker becomes the bane of obi-wan kenobi’s existence. obi-wan kenobi becomes the focus of anakin’s.

(obi-wan also becomes an elected official again, mostly because of the bored housewives vote.)

(obi-wan blames this on the fact that while anakin is a very horny intense nineteen year old, he’s also surprisingly effective with his big wet eyes and his obscenely pink lips. anakin blames this on the televised debates he scheduled between obi-wan and fellow councilor maul, where obi-wan’s eyebrows are drawn and he looks furious and his shirtsleeves are rolled up to his elbows, exposing his very nicely defined forearms.)

(they fuck about it.)

[sysig]

I’m just saying I think he has a type (Patreon)

[razzledazzletrassh]

no major fic updates just yet guys TAKE MY WOY OC I MADE LIKE. April of last year IM PLUGGING SOME INFO ABOUT THIS GUY IN THE TAGS.

I may also redesign her soon or something. Make her more bug-like with some stuff. I can cook guys let me cook !!!

[fishermcn]

.

[astarlightmonbebe]

i'm only at the beginning of li tongguang's descent into obsession (eps 17-18), but already it's both hurting and hitting. hurting, because we know li tongguang's capabilities, and his level headedness, and the potential he has, that he seems to throw out due to this obsession. hitting, because when you think about it, the obsession storyline and characterization does make perfect sense. obsession like that is a double edged blade, which can turn from love to hate, childish belief and joy to embittered rage in a second.

on one hand, it's painful to watch ltg's childlike desperation when faced with ruyi again. we want to grit our teeth and think of him as idiotic, unable to take a hint. but the reality is that it's a completely normal response to be expected from him. i mean, it's a dream come true, to see the person you 'love' the most in the world to be whole in front of you. it's probably what he could only dream about, especially being the one to apparently find her bones and bury them.

on a deeper level, ltg's initial reaction is very much a manifestation of his inner child, almost peter pan-like in the 'child that never became an adult/grew up' way. by that i mean to say the desperate urge to please, the constant worrying, and the oscillation between hot and cold moods are all so indicative of someone who grew up in an insecure/unstable environment, usually with volatile or simply unavailable authority figures. from what we can gather, he had no father, his mother wasn't in his life ("she doesn't want him around, nor can she bear for him to be away, so that's why he's like that" per empress zhaojie's words to ruyi). the one authority figure that entered his life to offer some semblance of guidance was ruyi, and even though it's clear that she held care for him, she was also a twenty year old assassin used to training subordinates, not children. her mentorship style is clearly so different when you hold ltg and yang ying side by side, and we know from ruyi's own mouth that she doesn't consider herself to have taught ltg well, and wants to remedy that through/with yang ying (i'll probably make a whole different post comparing this and the affects of this after watching some more episodes lol - there are bullet points in the drafts). so even though ruyi was his authority figure, she was still an emotionally unavailable one who couldn't meet ltg on the level he probably needed at that time in his life, and which no one probably ever did. hence his up and down reaction and actions.

it intrigues me, too, because i think, in a very subtle way, ltg is very much a character foil to ruyi in that he reflects some of her worst attributes, or more accurately represents the sort of person she was, or at least acted like (yuan lu's comment about how ltg has ruyi's gaze was meaningful outside of the jealousy arc - to me at least). i saw someone make a really interesting comment on how ltg's devotion to ruyi parallels ruyi's own devotion to empress zhaojie, which i'll also probably comment on more later.

obviously, ltg's obsession stems from an issue much larger than ruyi herself - she just happens to be the unfortunate target of it. and, clearly, i know his descent into it will be ugly, if understandable. i understand ruyi wanting to leave that part of her life behind, but also - to think that maybe many of the issues faced in future eps could have been avoidable if she'd been upfront with li tongguang about her identity early on.

[donaviolet]

Friendship is the most special thing in the world because no award could be give me bigger happiness than jumping around in my room and smiling because my pookie asked me if I wanted to match pfps

[bumblingbabooshka]

[TUVOKTOBER: Day 9] Ballet with the Captain.

[sophieswundergarten]

Consider: Sticky, Reynie, and Kate were all probably still losing teeth when the first three books took place

[softquietsteadylove]

If you have the muse for it, could we maybe get a circus au or life interrupted update? Missing those two lately! Thank you!!! 😘

"Gil?...Gil!"

"Huh?" he turned, ruffling his hair with his free hand. "Uh, s-sorry, what were you saying?"

But his friend just frowned, "you sure you're okay? I know you're a doc to the animals, but are you really qualified to diagnose yourself?"

Gil subconsciously shifted his arm in his sling. He was no expert, but he did know how to reset a shoulder. Granted, it was because of getting into fights in his school days, but still. "Yeah, it'll be fine, really."

He shrugged, picking up some of the coiled ropes, "y'know you can take it easy if you want. We can finish setting things up for tonight."

Gil nodded, looking around them. Technically, all he did was light stuff to help out here and there. He wasn't really a regular crewman. But he had hung around all morning on the excuse of checking on the animals and helping out wherever his one good hand could help. "You, uh, seen Thena yet?"

He heard a few quiet chuckles and blushed; everyone knew why he was hanging around. He was eagerly and desperately trying to get even a glimpse of Thena. He hadn't seen her since the night she had admonished Kro - and her beast of a husband had dragged her away by the arm - and he was going nuts.

Of course, no one else knew that she had kissed him, either.

He was lying awake at night! And part of it was the pain, but another part was thinking about how she had leaned in and kissed him. It wasn't just a mistake of a peck, either, it was a real kiss. He could feel how she meant it, no matter what that really meant for them. She was a married woman, and married to the man who was both their boss, in a way.

"No one's seen her," another crewman shrugged. "Assumed boss had given her some time, I guess."

It was a reasonable guess. She had suffered quite a scare, after all. But her husband was not a reasonable man, and Gil was confident in guessing that Kro would sooner put on her costume himself than give her a day of rehearsal off without injury.

Gil picked himself up and tugged at one of his suspenders. "Thanks guys, I'll grab some lunch I guess."

They sent him off with well wishes. He wasn't in any shape to do any of the usual heavy lifting he could be asked for anyway. But rather than go in search of the group lunch being cooked behind the main tents, he slipped away towards the train.

He hadn't seen Thena in two whole days. She had once said that Kro would never really hurt her, but that was the only time when Gil wasn't really inclined to have confidence in what she said. He didn't trust anything about Kro. And he was really trying not to let the kiss influence that thinking in him, either.

He couldn't let it. She was a married woman. Whether she had kissed him or not, it wasn't his place. And he was concerned about her regardless. This wasn't about him and his feelings, it was about making sure she was okay.

"Thena?" he whispered, sticking his head out and between cars and looking around like a common cat burglar. He crept around, picking his boots up lightly.

Maybe Kro had her chained up like a ruffian. Not that he really thought he would, but he wouldn't be as surprised as he would like to be by something so barbaric.

"Thena!" he whispered again, slowly making his way to their shared sleeper car. If he was found, Kro would probably feed him to the lions. But he had to know.

Once at their sleeper car, he checked around him one more time. He knew Kro was in the main tent, snapping his cane against the ring and shouting up a storm. No one had been able to ask how Thena was without getting a real earful.

Gil knocked on the door with his good hand, pressing his ear close, "Thena, are you in there?"

"Gil?"

She didn't sound hurt, or teary or anything. He gulped, "can...are you hurt? Can I see you?"

"I'm fine Gil, you can come in."

Part of him still imagined a nightmare in which he would walk in and find her on the floor, sitting crumpled like a bird fallen from the sky. But Thena was no fallen angel. He closed the door behind him as he saw her seated at the little table barely big enough for a single plate.

He had never seen her in a normal dress, but the soft, creamy fabric looked just like her hair.

"I'm sorry I worried you," she professed immediately, still sitting primly at the table. "Kro told me I wasn't to leave for the next two days. People should think I'm in recovery."

Which was very different from actually wanting her to recover from her fall, but it would make people think of the monster more favourably.

"Have you eaten anything?" he asked, still almost whispering as he dared to come a little closer. "Are you resting?"

She smiled at him, like having not seen him for days was completely normal and expected. "I'm resting fine. Kro has been bringing me food twice a day."

So, she was missing a meal, Gil surmised. He frowned, but that was the least of his worries. "Why won't he let you out?"

Thena's expression finally cracked, and he saw her eyes drift to his shoulder. "He asked if there was anything...with you."

The words she didn't say weighed a lot more than the ones she did, and Gil found himself flustered again. He had always known what his feelings for Thena meant. But he had thought it was a harmless crush on his unattainable and lovely boss' wife. The implication that she cared for him too...it was enough to have his stethoscope picking up his own heartbeat from ten paces.

"I assured him there wasn't," she looked down at the little table, tucking some hair behind her ear. "He said then there should be no reason I should want to leave."

There should be no reason for her to ask to see him--that was the threat that had kept her in here. If she asked to see him, or probably even ran into him accidentally, Kro would have grounds to suspicions. And Gil wasn't sure which one of them would face worse consequences for them.

Gil looked around the sleeper car. It was larger than the others, of course, or maybe it was just arranged neater. It had a small but proper bed, rather than just a cot and some hay. The little table, there was a trunk that probably held their collective things. There was even a little radio on top of it, as well as an oil lamp.

"It's not a prison."

He didn't feel comforted by that. She was unharmed, sure, in a physical sense. But sometimes animals could seem fine, then they'd give out the next day of a broken heart or some such. He moved even closer, even kneeling down to face her better (he wouldn't dare move the chair across from hers). "Birds get real down if they're in cages too much."

She laughed a little at the insinuation.

"Really," he whispered. Without him telling it to, his free hand drifted up to hers, feeling the softness of her pretty linen dress. "They're meant to be free. Clipping their wings...it seems harmless, but it really hurts them, even just a little bit, everyday."

Thena tilted her head at him, her hair slipping over her shoulder. She was so beautiful, and far too delicate for a cage like this.

Gil sighed as she brought his hand from resting over hers on her lap to her lips. In another life, he could imagine this would be a beautiful moment.

It was brief, but for just a split second, her lip wobbled. She whispered, "I wish I had met you a lifetime ago."

Gil's heart broke inside his chest. It fractured, just like his stupid shoulder. Oh, to have met her a lifetime ago. To have met her as a student, to have scraped and scrimped for pennies so he could buy her flowers and take her on swan boats on the lake. To have swooned over her everyday until he could kneel just like this and hold up an embarrassingly modest ring and ask for another lifetime.

He wasn't sure when it happened, but he rose from his knee, tilting her head with his palm and kissing her as if she weren't married. As if they had this lifetime to get it right. Which wasn't true, but it wouldn't be something he would regret, either.

Thena sighed against his lips, her hand moving to his hair. She kissed like she hadn't drank in days and he was an ice cold lemonade. "I wish I could love you."

He loved her anyway, wishes be damned. "Thena-"

She pressed her fingers to his lips, breaking the spell around them and forcing him a precious few inches away. "He'll be back soon. If he catches you in here-"

He gripped her shoulder, "I won't let him hurt you, Thena. Never-"

She grasped his hand between hers, "I am not worried about what he will do to me."

So, Kro had threatened him to get her to comply with his sick delusions of ownership. And Gil hated to admit it, but in his current state, he wasn't so sure he would in a fight against the ring leader.

His heart groaned in his chest, begging not to be separated from her. He made a face, "I can't just leave you like this."

She looked him square in the eyes, and the frosty, fiery acrobat he knew - and loved - was back. "You can, and you will--for both our sake."

She was right, he would because it would be best for her, if not both of them. But he didn't have to like it. He gave her hand another squeeze, even as he picked up his feet again. "When will he let you out of here?"

"I don't know," she whispered back, their hands dragging apart like lines of a frayed rope snapping string by string. "Until he's satisfied he has nothing to fear from you."

Kro had everything to fear from him, and as soon as his shoulder was better, Gil would see to it, too.

"I'll try and find you when he does."

He turned back to her, his hand on the car door. "Don't do anything risky. If he tries anything-"

Their eyes both shot to the side. It wasn't dangerously close yet, but it was definitely Kro's voice drawing nearer. Thena eyed him, begging him to leave before their lives were changed irreparably.

Gil nodded, dragging himself out and closing the door as quietly as possible. He held his arm as he slipped away, the muscles screaming at him like a storm was on the horizon. He stopped on the other side of the car.

"Well?"

"What?" Thena's softer voice came, but Gil was relieved to hear her usual sharpness in the demand.

"Usually you're begging to know how your little boyfriend is doing!" Kro barked at her. Gil heard the rattle of a container being tossed down, perhaps one of Thena's meals for the day.

"You told me to stop bringing him up," she fired right back at him. There was a pause before she added, "dearest."

Gil felt his gut clench. He had seen Kro use that term of endearment for her, and it never failed to make her squeamish.

"Very well then," Kro snarled back at her, "darling."

Gil waited a little more, but that seemed the end of it. And he had no choice but to leave it at that, at least for now. He dragged himself away, feeling just a little bit of a coward for it, too. His shoulder was aching again.

"Hey, Gil, you get some yet?"

It was lunch time. He eyed the pot of stew. Maybe that would be just the thing. "Say, will you do something for me?"

He was heard out as he explained that he was worried about Thena--heard she was on bed rest and all. It didn't come from him, but maybe - just if there were leftovers after everyone had their share - if someone could ask the boss nice and casual if Miss Thena would like it...?

Again, everyone saw right through him. But Thena was not her husband, and the crew agreed readily that they would ask in a very normal and friendly way if Miss Thena wanted any of their extra portions for the day. The lady needed her strength and all.

And Gil needed his too. The quicker his shoulder healed, the faster Thena could stop worrying about him, and the faster he could confront Kro about the treatment of his wife.

[sleepinglionhearts]

haven’t touched Genshin in a while, but here, have some OC doodles anyway

[villain-in-love]

Honestly? I support Katarina's decision to stay out of the whole resurrection business. Good on her for noping out of all of that 😂

I hope you don't mind me sending in some questions, your post made me curious about some things !! 👀

While Undertaker was going through the whole trial and error of resurrecting R!Ciel, did she ever need to help him out? Was there any problems they both ran into? Also... I'm curious about Katarina's opinions on R!Ciel in general, since I imagine she had to be around him in the parlor a lot of the time. Did she get along with him at all, or were there any conflicts between them? Did she also have to keep him a secret from O!Ciel and Sebastian whenever they visited the parlor, and how did she deal with that?

When she took over Undertaker's parlor after he fled, did O!Ciel and Sebastian ever pay her a visit to try and get his whereabouts from her?

Okay, I'm not sure if I can give satisfactory answers, because of how little we know about Real!Ciel in this timeline – by that I mean both what he's thinking about, and how the whole resurrection process went through the years.

But anyways, all in order:

"While Undertaker was going through the whole trial and error of resurrecting R!Ciel, did she ever need to help him out? Was there any problems they both ran into?"

Of course from time to time she was dragged into assisting Undertaker with bizarre dolls, including Ciel, often in a “since you have time to watch, then you could as well help me” way. Technically, he could do it all by himself, but additional pair of hands was quite welcome.

Well, Katarina mostly helped taking care of Real!Ciel’s body, perhaps assisting with possible surgeries? It’s not that different from what she does with usual “clients” as a mortician. And sometimes she might have provided some ideas to Undertaker – it’s possible that she helped in some way to come to the conclusion that the blood might help to keep bizarre dolls functioning.

“Was there any problems” – honestly, that kind of question you should ask Yana Toboso, as readers of the manga currently don’t know much about how it all went, and I don’t like speculating over those kinds of things…

Hmmm, I think Katarina definitely argued with Undertaker about Real!Ciel trying to eat her while he was still in a state of a mindless doll. She proposed sewing his mouth shut. In fact, she wanted to do the same with all bizarre dolls. Undertaker insisted that them biting is half of the fun and that sewing a “person’s” mouth shut is “inhumane”.

Figuring out how to bring back Real!Ciel’s personality to his corpse surely must have been quite a puzzle. What exactly does one need to put in the cinematic record for it to work? Restoring the motor skills was probably not an easy feat as well…

But the biggest challenge for Katarina was dealing with Real!Ciel personally.

"Also... I'm curious about Katarina's opinions on R!Ciel in general, since I imagine she had to be around him in the parlor a lot of the time. Did she get along with him at all, or were there any conflicts between them?"

My s/i have always been… wary of R!Ciel. He unnerves her, and not because of the fact that he’s a reanimated corpse. But because he remind her of the modern-day AI, and she doesn’t know what to expect from him. Plus she overall has a hard time understanding him as a person. And then there’s a bitter feeling because she knows how important he is to Undertaker, but she doesn’t think that any of this is a good idea in a context of Undertaker’s motivation. Our Ciel is not the fake one here, this thing is.

However, she doesn’t express her true thoughts and feelings. She talks to Real!Ciel a lot, trying to understand how the mind of a bizarre doll works. How the mind of this specific bizarre doll works. Definitely tried to psychoanalyze him.

From Real!Ciel’s perspective, Katarina was always slightly distant, but still showed at least minimum care. That is to say, she always treated him nicely. Real!Ciel can see that she’s doubtful and seems to view him more as a scientific phenomenon, but he doesn’t really hold it against her. She still helped Undertaker to bring him back and never meant any harm to him. He almost considers Katarina to be an older sister figure of sorts. R!Ciel is set on proving to her that he is as good as when he was alive.

I don’t really see them having any conflicts. The main conflict here is between Katarina and Undertaker, concerning R!Ciel.

She wishes Undertaker would acknowledge that what he does is only selfish – he’s not giving the ones who died a second chance. He’s not bringing anyone back, he’s making soulless copies of those people and indulging in a delusion that they are still with him. It’s basically the same thing Sebastian tried to offer Our!Ciel when they were negotiating their contract during their first meeting.

What I’m trying to explain is that my s/i doesn’t have morals that would go against raising the dead. She loves unethical scientific experiments, especially if it involves supernatural. But. In the context of the situation, she doesn’t think that this is what Undertaker truly wants or needs. As far as she can see, without bringing back the soul, the results could never be satisfactory.

*sigh*

What I can say for sure is that out of the twins she prefers Our!Ciel. He’s not the easiest person to deal with, that’s true, but she still likes him and is capable of understanding him much better.

"Did she also have to keep him a secret from O!Ciel and Sebastian whenever they visited the parlor, and how did she deal with that?"

Obviously she kept this all in secret. But it’s not like keeping secrets is hard. (Now she knows so many creative ways you can hide a body...) Thankfully, Our!Ciel and Sebastian are well-mannered guests and they wouldn’t go rummaging in the parlour, so hiding Real!Ciel’s body from them wasn’t that hard. Additionally, she’s a great actress and is totally okay with lying.

"When she took over Undertaker's parlor after he fled, did O!Ciel and Sebastian ever pay her a visit to try and get his whereabouts from her?"

Oh, they 100% did. It’s kind of a big thing and a certain turning point in the story.

Listen. When it comes to parenting, Undertaker is basically winging it. But if there’s anything he treats very seriously it’s his apprentice’s safety.

Ciel and Sebastian are a threat, to put it mildly. So the question was, how to ensure that they won’t hurt her in pursuit of their goals? And the solution is…

“According to my teacher’s wishes, I am going to switch sides… and play against him from now on.”

After the events of Campania, they both knew that Ciel and Sebastian will appear on the front door of the funeral house to question her. But if there’s something Undertaker and Katarina have in common, it’s being quick thinkers and knowing how to manipulate information. So the decision was this: Katarina teams up with Sebastian and Ciel and starts working with them against Undertaker, providing Phantomhives with the information she has. Not to mention, as Undertaker pointed out, she already has a motive – wasn’t she the one who was constantly complaining and trying to convince him that he's doing everything the wrong way?

Of course, there’s… a careful game of how much information she can tell and how much she will have to withhold, as well as how she can explain why she knows some things, but doesn’t know others. She can’t tell Ciel and Sebastian absolutely everything.

For instance, she didn’t tell them anything about the real Ciel. She didn't provide Undertaker's whereabouts because she genuinely had no idea where he went. Also, I imagine, at the moment when Undertaker left, sustaining bizarre dolls with blood was only one of the suggestions. She’s still one foot on Undertaker’s side and another on Phantomhive’s. She has to make things fair.

But she definitely was helping the main duo a lot during the Sphere Music Hall arc.

As a matter of fact, she hasn’t been in contact with Undertaker ever since he fled London after the Campania arc. It was done because from this point, the less she knows – the better. (Obviously, Undertaker didn’t abandon her completely. He kept checking on her from time to time in secret and sometimes helping her out from the shadows with some problems she might have run into while doing her job as the new holder of the funeral parlour)

However, after Our!Ciel gets arrested and Real!Ciel takes over the Phantomhive manor, she will come to them. Our!Ciel and Sebastian are not a threat to her anymore, at least for now – instead of hunting down Undertaker, they are now the hunted. Though she will be displeased by the whole deal with Real!Ciel and Undertaker framing Our!Ciel. Did they really have to go that far? Actually, she has many questions. What they’ve been up to this whole time?..

So during the current arc, she got back in contact with Undertaker and Real!Ciel, even though she still spends most of the time at the funeral parlour and doesn't help the Aurora organisation in the slightest. To be honest, she finds herself more inclined to take Our!Ciel's side in this whole story, but for now she doesn't say anything about. She's waiting for what will happen next.

(Additionally: Ciel and Sebastian probably suspected that she might be withholding some information, so I think that Sebastian attempted to seduce her for the sake of information at some point, like he did with Beast and that nun in the anime. It didn’t work. He’s not her type at all (even Ciel would have had more chances seducing her than Sebastian). But his ego was hurt, which was funny. Later she will definitely tell Undertaker about the hilarious face rejected Sebastian made.)