astraheart said: Quietly comes in here with a development ask off anon. What would you say are Lydia’s top two areas of weakness that she’d like to work on improving? Could be along the lines of a particular sphere of knowledge, a leisure activity, or a personality flaw. ♡ character development questions | always accepting ! ♡
first of all, thank you so much for asking ! there are definitely a couple of personal & intellectual areas lydia can improve on.
she needs to let herself feel the full effects of emotions as they’re happening & give herself permission to enjoy the positive things as they happen. she tends to be preoccupied with DEATH ( obviously ), what could go wrong, how long it’ll last or who she’ll lose next. she can be TOO withdrawn & reserved, giving herself an unintentional illusion of being frigid / indifferent because she’s been through so much trauma and doesn’t want to open herself up to that kind of pain again & she needs to stop fastidiously repressing and glazing over her feelings or pretending they don’t exist. she’s very internal & enigmatic, and she can be highly emotional but she’s created an art of hiding it. however, this isn’t healthy because she’s missing out. we know how much she regret what she didn’t get to tell stiles after the wild hunt took him, somewhere people typically never come back from. what is she waiting for ? she needs to BE HONEST WITH HERSELF about her feelings, and stop minimizing them or explaining them away with some scientific or chemical phenomenon. because she's been hurt & knows loss, she's TOO CAUTIOUS even with people she loves. but to live an honestly fruitful life, she needs to stop bottling things up out of pride & fear and allow herself to be expressive. she needs to let herself be present, not lost in the unknown.
regarding supernatural knowledge, lydia is able to communicate with spirits of the dead. she can interact with apparitions, but she wants to learn more about the veil between her world & the other side and how to contact them at will. GHOSTS have been known to access more secrets & information than other banshees and have helped her on occasion, but if there’s a way to talk to allison & lorraine as she pleases, she wants to know.