Rina (Caleb's Anchor)

Caleb's number 1 defender 🦾 I mainly post analysis about Caleb (Love and Deepspace) and occasionally some artwork

[brainsanalysis-deactivated20210]

Hello please reblog this if you’re okay with people sending you random asks to get to know you better

[asiatic-apple]

You always go to bed holding Caleb's left hand.

It's not because you dislike his bionic arm. In the daytime, you like to hold him there and press kisses all over the skin that can't feel—just to show him that he hasn't changed in your eyes. But at night, you make sure to sleep on his left side.

Caleb is usually loud, always talking and laughing when he's in your presence. When he falls asleep, your skin prickles with unease.

You like to see him relaxed and at peace, but sometimes you swear he looks a little bit too peaceful. Like all he's missing is a tux and bouquet to complete the unsettling image of a too-silent Caleb you never got to bury a year ago.

Though you're no stranger to silence—especially the kind that followed like a heavy fog no matter how you tried to distract yourself from it—you can't handle it now. Not after he came back from the dead.

Perhaps it's silly, but paranoia eats at you when his breathing evens out to a point you can only strain to hear. You need a sign that he's still alive when he goes quiet and drifts off.

So you stay on his left, curling your fingers around his inner wrist and brushing absentminded circles over the prominent vein there.

Tonight, you get lost in the feeling of him, your other hand landing on his cheek in a soft caress. His skin is warm, and for some reason you weren't expecting the heat.

His pulse kicks faster under your fingertips along his wrist. The spike makes something in your chest loosen. It's okay. He's still here.

You pull his hand off the bed and press your lips to his pulse point—just a whisper of a kiss—soft enough that you think it won’t wake him.

A quiet gasp interrupts the stillness. Moonlight catches on the flutter of his dark lashes before he meets your somber gaze.

“Sorry. Thought you were asleep,” you murmur. A smile tugs at your lips now that you've been pulled from that weird residual grief you're still learning how to get over.

“I was trying,” he teases. He's still playful, even when you're sure he can see something is bothering you. “But it’s hard when you’re…”

He doesn’t finish that thought. He changes the subject too fast, like he always does, putting the spotlight back on you.

“Pips," he whispers, "what was that kiss for?"

Your stomach flutters at how breathless he sounds. Did your touch really affect him that easily?

For a second, you wonder just how much you should reveal. With a hum, you softly reply, "It was a 'thank you.'"

He frowns, like he’s about to ask what for. You decide to save him the trouble.

“For coming back to me.”

That's all you need to say.

His fingers intertwine with yours, forcing you to move on from his fluttering heartbeat and allow him to squeeze your hand reassuringly instead. His lips meet your knuckles, mirroring the same softness of your earlier kiss to his wrist. All the while, his careful gaze never leaves your face.

When he finally parts, he promises, "I always will."

[neverwithever]

Moments When He's Near | Beach Daze

Xia Yizhou × MC/Reader

You sighed, "Caleb, when can we go home?"

"Home? We only just got here. You want to go home already?"

You turned to him, speechless.

"Come on, it's not that bad."

Not that bad?

"Caleb, it has to be over a hundred degrees out here!" You looked down at your skin, thinking briefly of the sunscreen you left at home, and hastily reached for your swim cover-up

It was amazing you hadn't burnt to a crisp already.

"Lay down," Caleb moved towards you, gently taking hold of your shoulders and guiding you onto a beach lounger. "I remembered the sunscreen. Don't worry pipsqueak."

You really didn't want to stay out in the sweltering heat any longer, but Caleb's soft touch and reassuring tone lulled you to a state of mild content. Just enough to let him have his way.

His hands were surprisingly smooth against your back, and incredibly diligent.

“After this, I've got a little surprise for you.”

“A surprise?”

Caleb chuckled behind you, “Excited?”

“…No.” You rolled your eyes. You didn’t know why, but a part of you wanted to stay annoyed at him for dragging you out here.

But, at the same time, you couldn't help the way you perked up. And Caleb had never let you down before. So surely, the surprise would be worth it.

You crossed your arms and laid your head down, slowly relaxing as he worked his way down your body.

The sound of the waves crashing against the shore were like a lullaby, pulling you into sleep’s embrace.

“Turn over.”

His voice was quiet, almost a whisper, like he didn’t want to break the silence between you two.

You moved slowly, seemingly only half awake.

You settled on your back, raising a hand to block the sun as you looked up at him.

It was barely noticeable, but his skin was a little darker now, slowly but surely gaining a summery tan.

He reached down, digging through your beach bag for a moment before slipping a pair of glasses onto your face.

You quickly recognized them as his signature aviators.

“Better now?”

You nodded.

“Good.”

With that, he got back to work, massaging the sunscreen thoroughly into your skin, lulling you back to that sleepy state.

As your eyes began to close, you let a small smile slip onto your face.

—♥︎—

“Wake up.”

“Hm?”

“Come on, baby apple, it’s time for your surprise.”

You opened your eyes at the nickname, “Caleb?”

“Did you have a nice nap?”

You stretched your arms out, slowly waking up.

What did he say?

“Are you still asleep?”

You gave no response.

He let out an exaggerated sigh, “I guess your surprise will have to wait until later then.” He stood up, “Let me know when you’re ready.”

He turned to head out towards the water, but you quickly snapped to your senses, and moved faster.

“No, no! I'm ready now!” You stood and grabbed at his shirt, “What are we doing?”

Caleb gave you a gentle smile and lightly pushed you back onto the lounger, “Wait here. I'll go it.”

You crossed your arms, huffing impatiently, but obediently waited as he ran off somewhere.

When he came back, he was lugging a cooler with him.

You raised a brow at the sight, feeling somewhat disappointed. While you wouldn’t mind a refreshing drink right about now, it didn't exactly make for the world’s greatest surprise.

He took a seat on the lounger beside yours and opened up the cooler.

You watched curiously as he pulled out an apple and…pocket knife?

“Caleb, what are you planning?”

He only grinned in response, before flipping the blade open and beginning to carve the apple.

He carefully peeled the skin off, then carved a slice from the core.

Turning, he held it out to you.

“Caleb,” You reached for the piece, but his arm pulled back.

“No,” His voice had a playful lilt to it as he held the piece out again.

You glanced between his hand and face, trying to figure out what game he was playing.

You raised your hand again, but stopped when you met his gaze once more.

He looked at you meaningfully, nodding his head toward the apple slice in his hand.

And it finally clicked.

You dropped your hand and leaned forward, taking it between your teeth. Caleb finally let it go, and you bit off a piece, catching the other half in your hand.

“Good?”

You nodded, savoring the vibrant and refreshing taste.

“Good.” Caleb reached down and pulled out a plate.

You couldn’t help but giggle a little at the sight, “Caleb, did you put everything in the cooler?”

He smiled at the sound of your laugh, “I had to keep it a surprise somehow.”

You smiled, holding back another laugh at the ridiculousness, “Who knew the farspace fleet’s colonel was so clever?”

You leaned back into your seat, watching as he continued to carve and slice the apple, each piece falling to the plate that now sat in his lap.

It was oddly peaceful to watch.

When he was done, he stabbed the knife into a piece of apple. This time, he didn’t hold it out so far, but brought it right to your mouth.

You opened without hesitation, biting down on the apple and chewing slowly as he slipped the knife away to grab another piece.

“Thirsty?” Caleb held suddenly held out a glass of water with a straw.

“Where did—” Your question cut off as he glanced down at the cooler.

Of course.

He leaned forward, bringing the straw to your lips, “Drink some water.”

You tried to take the glass from him, but he pulled it away.

“Really, Caleb?”

He gave you a playful smile.

“Fine,” You threw your hands up in surrender.

When Caleb put the straw to your lips again, you drank your fill.

It was kind of a stupid surprise, but, you enjoyed every second of it.

Being taken care of by Caleb was always the best thing.

—♥︎—

If you'd prefer to read on Ao3, here's a link:

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[rosylix143]

ugh i’m thinking about caleb now

[calebs-anchor]

A quick look at Caleb and Josephine

(Note: haha apologies for the long absence i am in fact still alive and do intend to continue with my analysis of caleb's cards and main content very soon! on top of my final exams ive also been having weird health stuff going on these past few months as well as just general life obstacles, but im back at it now!!)

I was talking to a friend today about the weird tension a lot of people have picked up on between Caleb and Grandma Joe, and specifically about why she seems much closer and more affectionate with MC and why she seems to potentially be trying to push her towards Zayne and away from Caleb.

Now the obvious answer is that MC has no memory of the Gaia experiments and Josephine's previous role as a researcher and so holds no resentment towards her, meanwhile Caleb has more of his memories intact meaning that there was likely some form of mutual hostility particularly on Caleb's end. This is a fair assumption, and seems to be quite accurate from how we hear her speak about MC, however I do think there is a lot more nuance to it especially when it comes to Caleb.

First of all, I feel it's important to note a fact that many people seem to forget, which is that canonically Caleb does not remember his time at the Gaia centre in its entirety, as we learn from his first anecdote that he has dissociative amnesia. While we do see him having flashbacks to the experiments in the form of nightmares in both his anecdote and his standard myth, all we see are glimpses, and given his condition it seems fair to say that his memories aren't the most comprehensive. Additionally, in the flashback scene we see in Homecoming Wings from the day Josephine took them in, Caleb does not present any kind of fear or apprehension towards her, indicating that at the time he may not have even known or remembered that she was a researcher.

Josephine, however, definitely does remember that Caleb was a test subject, something she seems to display at least some level of discomfort towards. For example, in the World Underneath story "Sealed In Dust", which contains both her research and personal notes about MC, she writes:

"It's always been just me at home. But with her and...

Things have started to change."

A few things worth mentioning here:

Throughout her notes, this is the only time we see her reference Caleb, likely suggesting that she was not one of the researchers responsible for him which may explain why he doesn't seem to be afraid of her), or perhaps that she just didn't care about him enough to make significant notes about him as she did with MC

It seems odd that even in her personal journal entries, she does not actually refer to him by name, almost as if she's cutting herself off. Initially I assumed that this was simply Infold not wanting to reveal that Caleb was a test subject before the main story caught up to that point, but even if Josephine had mentioned his name there's actually nothing else about this story that would imply this. It would simply confirm that Caleb had been living with the pair since they were children, which is something we already knew, and it's fairly obvious that she's talking about Caleb anyway, so what gives?

I believe that the reason Josephine does not mention Caleb by name here is the same reason she doesn't attend his graduation, the same reason she doesn't call him "my dear", and the same reason that every interaction between them seems laced with tension and coldness: Caleb serves as a living embodiment of Josephine's actions, and the only person remaining in her life who could actually hold her accountable for anything.

Throughout both "Sealed In Dust" and the flashback we see between Josephine and Zayne in Under Twilight, we see that Josephine seems to view her relationship and guardianship over MC as a means for her own redemption, insisting that it's better that she does not remember her childhood and that "by helping her you help yourself." Because MC does not remember what was done to her in the labs nor that Josephine was one of the main perpetrators, Josephine is able to decide for herself whether she is forgiven, whether what she is doing is enough to "help herself" and whether it is better for MC to forget everything that she did to her (which, after Homecoming Wings and Death and Rebirth, we can definitively say is not what MC would choose if given the opportunity). She essentially has herself the perfect victim to use for her own salvation: a child who was hurt, but does not know she was hurt, and therefore has no power to confront her abusers for what was done to her, however the same cannot be said about Caleb.

Even if Caleb does not remember exactly what was done to him or by whom, the lasting effects of his trauma would (or at least should) have been evident to his guardian: the recurring nightmares and sleeplessness, the paranoia and anxiety, the dissociative amnesia, and the intense protective behaviour that borders on irrational and often leads to violence, just to start with. No matter how much or how well Caleb may have tried to hide these, a responsible guardian (and especially one who was aware of Caleb's traumatic childhood perhaps even more than he was) should have been able to pick up on something being wrong and tried to offer him some kind of support far beyond the little we see Josephine do for him throughout the story.

This is because Caleb's ability to at least somewhat remember his trauma, and his very clear responses to it, serve as a constant reminder that what happened to both of these children at Gaia was real, and that simply taking them in as her "grandchildren" is not enough to erase or forgive what she has done. The one person who might genuinely be capable of condemning her actions and holding her accountable for her part in the abuse and torture of children, no matter how much she regrets it, is therefore the one person she seems to hold any kind of genuine discomfort towards, which then leads to the general tension and coldness we see growing between them throughout the story.

tl;dr - There is some clear hostility or at least a lack of warmth between Caleb and Josephine, but I don't think it started with Caleb hating Josephine for what she did. Instead, I think it's due to Josephine not being able to handle the fact that Caleb is still impacted by what happened to him during the EVER experiments and the fact that she may never be able to be truly forgiven.

[calebs-anchor]

hello i am alive and i will be posting a small analysis thing later today but first: would anyone be at all interested in a fic i am (very slowly) working on in which MC gets inside the house before Caleb does in under twilight and thus she is the one captured by EVER/presumed dead?

it would contain such things as:

Heavily depressed grieving Caleb

Heavily depressed grieving everyone, tbh

Zayne and Caleb rebuilding their childhood friendship as Zayne tries to pull him out of his grief and help him heal

Everyone hating Josephine

Xavier, Rafayel and Sylus bonding over past life/philos shenanigans

The 5 of them generally bonding and forming a genuine support group while also doing various revenge quests against EVER and slowly realising that MC is definitely not dead

A lot of character insight/digging into their motivations and how they view MC & their relationship with her

Meanwhile MC is experiencing various horrors, much like what happens to Caleb post-explosion except with even less of her memory due to a lack of black holes in her own mind

To be clear i will be writing this regardless of the results i just want to gauge interest

would you read this

hell yeah

hell no

Voting ended onAug 16, 2025

feel free to also add any of your own thoughts/questions/suggestions bc i do like to yap and discuss things if you couldn't already tell

[xialittleapple]

🧃✨ 來自烏鴉的溫馨提醒（PSA） ✨🧃

⚠️ 這只針對這張卡！！！！！其他卡都沒問題！！！！！ ⚠️ 隨著《夏以日·槐序》的釋出，有件事我要立刻講清楚： 中國的高中是三年制，也就是說在這張卡中，MC大約是16歲。而哥哥（夏以昼）已經上大學，是18歲。 如果我看到有人試圖針對這條時間線寫什麼奇怪的、不適當的年齡差內容—— 請你知道我會親自把你發射到流浪者們的點心池裡。 沒有救生圈，沒有人能救你。

這張卡是純粹的、溫柔的、甜甜的回憶。 它本來就是為了讓人微笑、感動，不是讓你寫些令人不舒服的東西。 但偏偏有些人就這麼沉迷色慾，連純真的記憶都要歪成其他樣子。 說真的，夠了。

是的，我看到了——我現在要說出來： 請不要在講這張卡的時候用英文翻譯中的「squirt」。 像是： “我想讓夏以昼讓我MC squirt”——你認真嗎？？？ 這張卡裡MC是未成年耶。這不是可愛，不是情趣，是完全不合適。

如果你知道「那個詞」的意思，那你就該知道不該用在一個明確是未成年角色的內容上。 這種行為會讓整個圈子的氛圍變得非常不舒服。 我再次強調，這只針對這張卡！其他卡是可以的！！！！！！！ 🛑 請不要把每個溫柔時刻都變成不適當的場景。

🛑 不要因為“可以寫”就越界寫那些不該寫的東西。

🛑 別再用柔軟劇情當藉口發怪文了。

你想寫浪漫或情慾內容？

可以！請選擇成年的MC與成年的夏以昼，像個懂分寸、尊重角色的粉絲一樣去創作。 這不是在攻擊誰， 而是提醒大家：圈內也需要基本的尊重。 讓甜甜的卡片維持甜甜的氛圍。讓年輕的角色，安穩地待在他們該有的記憶裡。

不是所有東西都需要被變味。 更重要的是——哥哥（夏以昼）絕對不會做出任何傷害我們、越界的事。

請不要為了寫怪文，就硬把他的角色扭曲得不成樣子。

🕊️ 讓溫柔的時刻維持溫柔。

🕊️ 讓哥哥維持溫暖的樣子。

[catleb06]

everyday I'm sad because i cant bite my caleb

[calebs-anchor]

hi rina! i hope u dont feel rushed by my ask but im wondering how the analysis for calebs myth is going c: i look forward to hearing from u dflsjflkjsdfldf have a lovely day!!

Hey there!

No worries about rushing me, if anything I'm flattered by the enthusiasm, but unfortunately I have few updates to provide :(

I've spoken about this a little on my tiktok, but over the past few months I've been having some ongoing health issues involving frequent lapses in my memory which have (potentially) been labelled as absence seizures, which has kind of made it difficult to get anything substantial done. I finally managed to get seen for a brain scan the other day so hopefully answers will be coming on that front soon, but for now it's something I just have to try my best to work around.

I've also had a lot of academic deadlines recently, and exams intermittently from now until late June, which is also kind of impeding my progress since obviously that takes priority.

I have been working on it though! I'm thinking for now to cover 2-3 chapters per post just so I can get things out quicker and not have the posts be too long, and I am also considering creating a masterlist soon so i can have an organised directory of all my analysis posts.

Apologies for all the delays! It's very frustrating bc this is something I really enjoy doing and care about a lot, but hopefully I will have the first part out for you all soon :)

[oceanicfishies]

Drunk Caleb would cry over how much he loves you bye

[artsyririblobbu]

he wishes you good luck.

[calebs-anchor]

hyyyy rina! im not sure if its my comprehension skills on ur most frequent post but are u planning to do an analysis about calebs new myth first or are you planning to go in order?

hey! you're right i probably didn't explain this properly, but yes i will be covering caleb's new myth before anything else bc i think it will give some additional information to consider when looking at his other content, i'll probably be able to pull both cards on the first day & rank up pretty fast, so it shouldn't take me too long :)

[calebs-anchor]

ok so that was probably the last thing i expected, but i'm certifiably OBSESSED with the concept! i was staunchly on team adam & eve/fallen angel when it came to his myth, so while infold is certainly approaching it in a much different way than i expected i'm very pleased to see that those themes and symbols are still very much in there.

the one disappointment is that i was hoping we would get a sexy, shirtless, fallen angel outfit, but instead my man is covered from head to toe 😔💔

also a quick note about the future of my analysis: i will be putting everything else on hold until this comes out, including my already prepared analysis of his bond story & anecdote, because i want to go through this first & write something for it before doing anything else bc i think it's an interesting and important layer of context that we can add when looking at his present day story.

[calebs-anchor]

hyyy rina!! i just look through ur most recent analysis ab our precious boy caleb and im HOOKED, u phrase things so well and its written beautifully, do u have a specific date you release those on or are they usually on a whim? have a lovely day\night :P

hey!! first of all, this is so sweet and i'm glad you're enjoying my analysis so much 💕

as for the release schedule of my posts, i'm afraid that for now they are kind of inconsistent/on a whim due to some health issues i've been having. there are a few other parts up on my tiktok page which i will link at the end of this post, and im planning to hopefully get my analysis on his bond story and the first chapter of his anecdote on here tonight too since they're already written up.

i also want briefly go over the order that i'm gonna be covering things in, since i've spoken about it on tiktok but i don't think i've ever covered it here. I plan to go in a mostly chronological order from Caleb's childhood up to the present day, to kinda give a clearer idea of how his mental health and his relationship with mc has developed throughout his life. I've already covered the experiments, so next will be his bond story & anecdote, then the "old days" cards that are set before the explosion, his brief appearance in the early game, then finally onto his main story, myth and present day cards. This may take me a while because of my aforementioned health issues, but hopefully it'll be worth the wait as i really wanna go as in depth as possible to explain why our precious Caleb is so psychologically troubled & refute the "evil abusive yandere" allegations, it's what he deserves 💕

My TikTok:

TikTok - Make Your Day

(also quick note, for some reason tiktok doesn't let me make playlists of my videos which is REALLY annoying, so if you'd like to quickly find all the parts of my analysis series just go to my favourites and i have a folder of them there 🫶)

[calebs-anchor]

never posted artwork before but here's some shitty LADS themed tarot cards from a series i've been working on for fun

originals:

my versions:

ok that's all bye

[mousenemy]

LIKE TO CHARGE REBLOG TO CAST LET'S GET THIS FUCKER EXPLODEDED

[calebs-anchor]

caleb being such a funny bitch about his death in painful signal makes me feel like whenever he's losing a dumb argument or roast battle with mc he tells her to "have some respect for the dead!" in the most offended voice he can manage. it never works either he just won't stop fucking doing it and it's really really annoying