27, 28, 29 for pretty follies <3
27. Share a piece of lore you made for the story:
ooh, this is a hard one bc there's not a ton of new worldbuilding / backstory for this one and I'm only so far into it . . . ig the closest I can find to a new bit of lore is this paragraph
“I’m sorry.” I bury my head in my hands. “I was such a fool.” My shoulders shake as if to sob, as if my eyes are not unnaturally dry. I used to cry so much as a child. Used to cry so much it was embarrassing.
with the implications of Elara limiting his ability to cry
28. Write a new summary for the fic, but badly
Mare hits her head real hard and Maven decides to be evil about it
29. If you ever made a playlist, talk about the songs on it and share a link
I'll go down the first five songs lol
Baby I'm gonna leave you drowning / until you reach for my hand
But, baby, I'm the one who left you / You're not the one who left me
both speak to a general destructiveness, whether it be to the speaker or the other person, and a simultaneously avoidance of and longing for connection, which is very Maven in general and is especially present here
this entire song is about imagining what would happen if you had a second chance with a person you lost. . . in real life this is about a guy who died and while obviously the scenario "what if I hadn't set up my crush to be executed" is very different from that, it's still got a lot of that wistfulness and regret in it
I Did Something Bad - Taylor Swift
It's just a song about doing something everyone else claims is bad with no remorse . . . which like, Maven knows on some level that deceiving Mare like this is a horrible thing to do but it's what making him the happiest he's ever been in a longgggg time so he can't bring himself to care
This is how the world works / Now all [s]he thinks about is me
in this context sends chills down my spine
Obsessed - Olivia Rodrigo
This song is just about obsessing over comparing yourself to your partner's ex to a ridiculously unhealthy degree . . . which in Maven's case is Cal
Is she friends with your friends? Is she good in bed?
Do you think about her? No? I'm fine, it doesn't matter, tell me
Is she easy-going? Never controlling?
Well-traveled? Well-read? Oh God, she makes me so upset!
The Albatross - Taylor Swift
This song is one of those love songs I put on here that's seeped in irony . . . basically the song, until the bridge, is composed of "wise men" warning the listener that their new lover is bad news
Wise men once said
"Wild winds are death to the candle"
A rose by any other name is a scandal
Cautions issued, he stood
Shooting the messengers
They tried to warn him about her
Cross your thoughtless heart
Only liquor anoints you
She's the albatross
She is here to destroy you
Devils that you know
Raise worse hell than a stranger
She's the death you chose
You're in terrible danger
Wise men once read fake news
And they believed it
Jackals raised their hackles
You couldn't conceive it
You were sleeping soundly
when they dragged you from your bed
And I tried to warn you about them
So I crossed my thoughtless heart
Spread my wings like a parachute
I'm the albatross
I swept in at the rescue
The devil that you know
Looks now more like an angel
I'm the life you chose
And all this terrible danger
which if you take in the context of this fic is basically the story Maven's telling Mare, that there are so many lies and rumors about him that have spread over the past few months and that the Guard will stop at nothing to tear them apart . . . and don't even get him STARTED on Cal
