16. What is your muse’s most strongly held belief or opinion? Does it shape their behavior? How? // 17. What is your muse’s least favorite part of their job or their everyday life? // 18. What is your muse’s favorite part of their job or their everyday life?
16. What is your muse’s most strongly held belief or opinion? Does it shape their behavior? How?
“My strongest held belief?” Lia paused, her fingers running through her long. blonde locks. “Everyone deserves kindness, compassion, empathy--everyone deserves love. I think we’ve seen what happens when people don’t chose love: war, heartbreak, pain, betrayal, jealously, loneliness. It’s the world’s worst feeling to be without love, to not know how it feels to be apart of something much larger than yourself. And it doesn’t have to be romantic love either--I think we get that confused sometimes. Love is as powerful an emotion when its between two best friends or two siblings than it is between two romantic partners. The ancient greeks had multiple words for love--eros, philia, ludus, pragma, philautia and agape. Everyone seems to be fixated on agape--unconditional love--and its an important one, to be sure. But there is something to be said that the ancient greeks had six words for love, all specific to different aspects of the verb. Love is not meant to be a stagnant, never changing emotion. It’s alive, its dynamic, its shifts and adapts and challenges and supports. I want to be the kind of person that never turns love down--and to make sure everyone I meet gets to feel what love is. Even if they’ve wronged me. Because after all, there is no braver act in the world than to love because to love is to be vulnerable and to be vulnerable is to open yourself up for rejection. And what’s braver than that?”
17. What is your muse’s least favorite part of their job or their everyday life?
“Oh, by far my least favorite part of my job is the galas--which, I know, is kind of like complaining about something that everyone else wishes they could do. But trust me, I’d never let a single one of the people I love near these things--they suck the very life out of you. And certainly not on the arm of Mr. Worthington. Being paraded around like some sort of trophy is not someone anyone deserves unless they want it, but even so--it’s just such an...uncomfortable feeling. I’ve spent enough time with people staring at me on a stage for me to know when people do it in public. Being on display has never been something I’ve liked--and not when my boss is yelling at me for not smiling enough. Just...no, no thank you.”
18. What is your muse’s favorite part of their job or their everyday life?
A slow, soft smile fills Lia’s face and she tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. “Oh, that’s easy. My favorite part of the day is when I’m getting ready in the morning, coffee in hand and I’m searching through the closet for something to wear and Jack isn’t quite up yet. The whole suite is silent and I just...have this moment of wonder--is this really happening? Do I really get to spend the rest of my life with someone who makes me laugh over silly things and burns toast if I’m not watching carefully enough? Y’know, I’ve always wanted to be a princess--for a whole lot of reasons but mostly because living in a fairy tale always sounded so much better than my life as it were. But now I wake up in one every morning and go to sleep in one every night. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more like a princess than right then, in that moment where I sip my coffee and think about my life and how magical it truly is. I suppose fairy tales aren’t always about magic spells or fairy godmothers. The true magic in a fairy tale the happily ever after--your happily ever after. And happy it is.”