on luke's top-up ssr
And I must share my thoughts somewhere because
I have wanted desperately to see more of how Luke having a super-dangerous job affects their relationship (see: Peaceful Place), because most of the time the fact that he's a secret agent is just written as Luke can easily take out any of the bad guys, he's just that good at his job rather than he could seriously get hurt.
I was expecting mhy to totally skirt the suggestive PV scene (cough, SotT card voicelines, cough) with some oh-they-weren't-actually-doing-anything context but oh MAN they did not disappoint this time.
First off, I should mention that the card is like... half angst (of course). Luke comes back to MC presumably very injured (even though he insists that it's not a serious injury). NSB protocol is to not let agents out and about until they're fully healed, no matter how light their wound, but the higher-ups made an exception for him, and he arrives at MC's door with Aaron, all bandaged up and clearly not okay.
He's literally telling MC all this in a hoarse voice because he breathed in smoke from the explosion but haha, no it's just a light wound, a minor accident!
(bonus: he mentions that the reason why he managed to get out with only light wounds was because of MC's protection from afar. And he means that literally because he brings the little trinkets MC's gifted with him everywhere -- the key necklace, the badge from their visit to Hoyoland, the bracelet she gave him on his birthday.)
Part of hiding the nature of his wounds from MC is because the information he handles is confidential. But when MC heads to the bathroom to search up how to treat his bruise, she recognises from the search results that it was blunt force trauma from a bat, not an accidental bump into the bar counter like he'd explained. Here's MC trying to put on a brave face so she can tend to his wounds quicker instead of crying in the bathroom.
(I love lukerosa sm they're really one and the same -- while Luke's trying to downplay his physical pain, MC is doing the same with her emotions, because they don't want the other to see it, because seeing the other like that would hurt them more.)
The thing is, we've all been through Luke's relentless 'I'm actually okay and not seriously hurt at all, I don't you to be worried!', and MC has (rightfully) called him out on it quite a few times. But in this card, as she's treating his wounds, as he keeps talking about how he's not very hurt at all, his wounds and words weigh on her heart.
Luke Pearce is lying. But she knows that she shouldn't be telling him off about not keeping himself away from danger so stubbornly.
Instead, she says this:
(This is. relationship development at its finest. Because they're both so overprotective of each other. Neither want to see the other hurt but they both realise it's something that they can't avoid sometimes.)
(Watch how hard I can CRY)
And this is where the card goes from angst. to exactly what the 3rd evolution art is implying. This is the first time I've ever seen MC's sprite with this expression:
So it turns out that Luke Pearce did actually take some painkillers that the NSB gave him. Except that they had some side effects.
(The Very Questionable Explanation)
(Note: Luke's line here is actually a way of saying thank you, but the more literal translation does it more justice... I think)
(They didn't let Luke finish his sentence :()
---
Literally the next scene is MC finding that the other side of her bed is empty. And Luke calling her downstairs for breakfast.
So.
In short, I am flabbergasted they actually just did not bother with any oh maaaaybe they did but it's all up in the air nonsense this time. Good night to all lukerosa enjoyers this whole card was a feast. There was an extra chapter and a phone call but I'll edit this post later if I feel up to it, because mainly I just wanted to rant about how happy I am with the way they handled MC dealing with Luke's job this time.
Thank you for the meal