anemone, magnolia (you know why i picked this one), zinnia (once more...you know why)
------ sent by @poensoror
anemone : how does your muse view the world ; as a cruel & unforgiving place , a land full of wonders , or something in - between ? where does that world view come from ( what experiences , life lessons , etc . ) ?
over the course of her life, elena has come to think of the world as a complicated, curious place. she has seen too much of the bad to be a wide-eyed idealist, but she has also seen a lot of the enduring, stubborn goodness in others. as far as she is concerned, to a certain degree, the world is what she makes it. she is privileged and single enough that she can shape her experience by making decisions of her own, by making friends and by cutting ties, by moving cities every few years . . . and she takes advantage of this.
magnolia : describe your muse’s relationship with nature & the natural world .
one cannot have been struck by lightning as often as elena was and not have some sort of relationship to the natural world. it is harmonic --- she aims to live sustainably, she tries not to kill any of the plants in her apartment ( they are usually gifts from polite colleagues, her friends have other ideas about what she might like ) and she does her best to live with nature rather than against it because she has been around for enough natural disasters to know that nature can very destructive. she is still glad she did not make that trip to pompeii all those years ago.
zinnia : how has the loss of fallen comrades and/or loved ones affected your muse ? has it taught them anything or given them any new perspectives ?
the first person elena has lost --- truly lost --- was her younger brother. it is something she has not spoken of frequently, not even with her friends who know almost everything else there is to know about her, but the incident between her and rufus has become something that she has buried deep. in this matter, age brought wisdom. eventually, she forgave him for giving her the shove, even if she has not forgiven herself for how she has handled the aftermath. the realisation that rufus, like her, is still around in the 21st century was one she was not prepared for. it is a lot. not enough for her to step back from the lessons she has drawn from the incident, but enough for her to require time to deal with this.