Thinking about Ren and his chronic need to suck up to women ... especially women who are Awoken and/or powerful ... He sees a Corsair and will drop everything to do her patrol and compliment the tiny part of her face that he can see ...
The funniest part is that he’s not even trying to flirt. He’s gay. Jen will be like “You know she’s not gonna fuck you, right?” and Ren goes “Jennifer! I’m just being chivalrous!”
The aesthetics of the Lucent Hive’s architecture are fascinating! I find the material’s resemblance to polished bone -- and yet its almost luminous nature -- particularly evocative.
// The funniest thing about Ren and Jen not liking Crow is that neither of them have the slightest idea that he’s Uldren Sov -- they’ve heard the name, but they’ve never seen Uldren’s face before. They just ... hate him for unrelated reasons.
In the stairwell of Bea’s apartment building, Jen stopped and looked at Ren. “So you’re gonna be a bitch about this, huh?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about,” Ren said haughtily.
“Don’t try to bullshit me.” Jen leaned against the wall and sighed. “Look, I know you’re pissed at Crow for running out on Bea and leaving her alone. So am I. But you can’t just be a dick to him. Bea loves him.”
Ren said nothing, which was unusual, but his dark expression suggested that this reminder had not improved his opinion of Crow.
Jen sighed again, this time more sad than exasperated. “I’m not saying you have to like him. I don’t. I’m just saying, you gotta be civil. If you make an issue of it, you’re the one Bea’s going to drop, not him.”
“I know,” Ren snapped. “You think I don’t know that he’s her wonderful, beloved, brilliant, scintillating best friend? That they have an unshakable bond the likes of which mere mortals can only dream?”
Jen gave him one of the looks she generally employed when his typical penchant for the verbose and dramatic started to wear on her, which was rather often. “You’re jealous.”
“Perish the thought.” Ren turned and started down the stairs, his strides long and angry. “Of what would I be jealous, Jennifer? She only worships the ground upon which he walks. The bastard.”
Jen had to hurry to keep up, which was unusual – Ren’s legs were considerably longer, but outside of combat, he tended to meander rather than stride. Opening her mouth to offer another reasonable argument, Jen found that she had none. It was unpleasant to watch Bea run back to a man who seemed to have no idea how bad he’d hurt her, how many times Ren and Jen had shown up at her apartment to find her staring at nothing, how often she’d started talking about him only to stop and look down sadly. It did hurt to know that Bea would take Crow’s side in any coming conflict – to hurry themselves out of the way when he returned as if the two of them were nothing but an interim measure, a pale substitute.
Maybe they hadn’t had to leave, really – maybe they could have stayed and hashed some of this out, tried to integrate Crow into their group – but Jen had judged it best to stop Ren from making a scene.
“I get it,” Jen said. “This sucks.” She paused. “Do you wanna go back and try to talk it out?”
“No,” Ren said without looking back. “I most definitely do not.”
Bold of you to presume I would retain my current residence! I could simply vanish into the wilds, driven by my shame, unable to ever look another neohuman in the eye again, so deeply have you wounded me!
What if I didn’t come back, Beatrice? What if the humiliation you’ve inflicted upon me today became mortal, nestling in my heart like poison, forbidding me to show my face physically or virtually, and you never heard from me again?
dailybridgerton
jbbartram-illu
snowghoul
