#while raine is like 'please for the love of god just TALKK TO ME you tiny child'

[crimeronan]

Empress Luz AU: Obsessed with Luz finding out more about Eda and Raine's relationship. Especially that she's hearing it from Raine's perspective. A big aspect of what became the tipping point for them back then was being completely shut out by Eda who refused to accept any help while Eda was trying to suffer through her curse alone because she doesn't want to end up hurting anyone else.

Just. Raine maybe using the story as an opportunity to try to nudge Luz in the direction that confiding in people she can trust and reaching out for help is good and okay and that they're always available if she ever needs them, even if just to talk. (Just really hoping that maybe she might open up about the things Raine & Darius already found out via the mindscape)

Meanwhile, Luz just sorta zeroed in on all of the negatives of the story and how things are mirroring just a bit too closely and Eda and Raine haven't spoken in decades and the internal screaming has reached up to whistling teakettle and she's completely missing Raine trying to be supportive.

HEAD IN HANDS. THIS IS SO SWEET AND TRAGICALLY HILARIOUS AND HILARIOUSLY TRAGIC OHHH GOD.

luz being like "oh no, raine can tell that i'm keeping secrets and they're trying to nicely tell me to fuck off and even if they HAVEN'T clocked me, i should never have gotten so comfortable and i should be better at handling my stuff alone because i am emotionally unavailable and Bad :(((" is SO DEEPLY IN CHARACTER IT'S KILLING MEEE. she did almost EXACTLY the same thing to hunter, back before they worked their shit out. i am fucking yelling. GOD. LUZ MY SWEET ANGLE

it's especially interesting if luz is working semi-regularly with a still-kinda-resistant eda. and eda is definitely keeping her cards close to her chest because like HELL is she going to be emotionally vulnerable to The Fucking Empire. and so luz sees even more of herself in eda through these interactions than through raine's stories. all of eda's wariness and hesitance to trust and the way her guard only comes down during moments when luz is being disarmingly kind or excited....

i feel like in this scenario, luz WOULD eventually break down in front of raine and tell them.... well, a lot. whether she admitted to patricide would depend on the circumstances, but Certainly she'd fess up about the amount of stress she's under. luz has been playing politics really well and subtly unraveling the empire, but she's also aware that there are Enormous risks if she chooses the wrong allies or makes the wrong decisions. and the only person who Fully knows what happened or what she wants or who she is... is hunter. and hunter will bounce ideas off her and tell her if he thinks she's making a mistake, but he's also 100% loyal to whatever she decides to do. which is scary for her!

and she's sixteen. seventeen if this is a few months into her reign. seventeen is old enough to run a country if you're a YA protagonist, but Oh God the concept is Fucking Terrifying in any other genre. she's under SO MUCH PRESSUREEEE

luz knocking on the door of raine's room and barely managing to get inside before she's bursting into tears like "i asked the titan to help me and i promised i'd fix the world if he did and i don't know if i can even keep that promise i'm ruining it i killed my father and i promised not to be like him and i can't HELP being like him and i don't know what to do i don't WANT to be like him i don't want to be like this i don't want to ruin everything"

and a startled raine not even being able to calculate a response beyond just. "i know."

and luz is like.

wh.

you. you what????