#cleo shaw

they both struggle a lot with their self-worth but it manifests in different ways. for cleo, its drug abuse and sabotaging herself. for dee, it’s narcissism and destruction. both of them are terrified of being abandoned or being hurt by people they trusted but also verbally lash out when they feel insecure in their relationships. they claim that they don’t care what others think but their behaviors often show the opposite. they’re both terrified of dying but pretend they don’t care or that they’re invincible, even though if the moment came where they couldn’t fight anymore they’d both just let it happen. but they also care a lot about their friends. they would do nearly anything to help the ones they love, including literal murder. they trust very few people but the ones that they do will have that trust for the rest of their lives if they’re careful.

but right now, at this point in both of their lives, dundee is actively working on his growth and making himself into a better person. he’s trying to heal from his trauma and make up for what he’s done and move forward. he’s maturing and learning and opening both his heart and mind. sure, he’s got problems, but not with himself or knowing his place in life.

cleo is... she’s spiraling down. she’s in a turbulent place right now. she’s overwhelmed and confused and so scared. she’s trying to navigate this labyrinth of relationships and trying to figure out who she is, what she wants, and what others are expecting of her. her support system is made of people she doesn’t remember and barely trusts. she can’t even live her life without constantly looking over her shoulder for either a sniper on a rooftop or a white peyote driving by.

and both of these are norman’s fault. entirely. see, norman didn’t take dundee’s memories of his family because dundee is great at causing chaos with their help. he didn’t need to do anything but take himself out of the picture because his original plan with dundee backfired. dundee got killed and couldn’t be his puppet anymore. this time, with dundee back to the person he was before he took the deal with norman the first time, the club trusts him again and he’s back to causing the same chaos and destruction that he’s so good at. his first month back, he got his own gang into a war with three different gangs and drove one of those gangs into making a deal with norman.

but norman did the opposite with cleo. he took her memories of her family, of the ones closest to her and the ones she trusted the most, because it would cause the most turmoil for all of them. if she had forgotten norman, she would’ve had a happy reunion and gone back to living a stable life with her family. but forgetting her family has taken away her entire support system. norman wanted cleo to not have the stability of those people because an unstable cleo is self destructive and angry and impulsive. she literally stabbed a man the first week she was back because she’s so unstable right now. she’s threatening billionaire terrorists and doing heroin and going on drug runs and helping kidnap ems. and she’s doing a lot of this because of her fear of norman and what he did to her.