#dt spec

hey there! why i do have thoughts, thanks for asking :D

of course, as you said, the carliana train is only just leaving the station, so we don’t have a lot to work with, but here are my two cents:

so, visionaries shift through time, right? they shift bodily, transforming to any age between when they were children to the oldest age they’ve ever been before they die. now, when carmen finds liliana, she is not just old, she’s basically ancient – meaning, if nothing else, that she is extremely old when she dies, i.e. she’s going to be living on into the future for quite a while. my thesis is that she and carmen get together at some point along that future timeline, and i think there are quite a few textual clues that support it:

carmen asks liliana who she is, but we don’t see liliana ask carmen who she is, as if they already knew each other. this is actually confirmed by liliana herself in the text: 

“I think I must spend more of this year as one of the younger ages, because my memories are very distant now. I remember the moment we met well. I knew you were coming.”

so, liliana thinks she is going to spend most of this year (i.e. probably at least the next book/two books) as a younger version of herself – presumably the one she turns into towards the end, who seems to be in her early 20s

despite that being a long way in the past for her, and her saying that her memories from that time of her life feel distant and fuzzy, she remembers carmen extremely well – remembers meeting her very clearly. why might that be i wonder… ;)

sidenote: it is important to note carmen’s reaction to seeing that younger version of liliana for the first time.

Farooq-Lane’s lips parted rudely. Liliana was beautiful.

of course, aesthetic appreciation does not a romantic interest make – but there were so many other ways her reaction could have been written. “Liliana was completely different”, or “Liliana was young” – instead, she goes right for beautiful. words have meaning! 

(and yes, shawna from earlier on in the book also thought liliana was beautiful, but she wasn’t nearly as viscerally affected as carmen, rather she started thinking about her own innate beauty)

okay, now we come to the pièce de résistance. pay close attention to the body language and vocabulary choices in this part (because words. have. meaning!):

She set her hand on top of Farooq-Lane’s with such fondness, fingers slid familiarly through Farooq-Lane’s, that Farooq-Lane flinched. “I forgot”, Liliana said, going back to fussing with her braids instead. “You’re still very young. […]”

basically, what the above passage tells me is that in her own future timeline, liliana is used to holding carmen’s hand. not even casually holding it as a friend, but entwining their fingers together, which is very often used as a marker of romance (and i mean we all know about hands in the trc world, don’t we?)

however, carmen flinches back from this affection. to her, liliana is a stranger. now, we have established liliana knows carmen. she could have said something like “oh, i forgot, you dislike physical affection”. what we get instead is you’re still very young– implying that farther on in the future, carmen is not going to mind holding hands with her at all.

here are a few more markers of liliana’s fond familiarity with carmen:

Liliana said in a soft voice, “It still troubles me how fragile you are.” (sure, she could’ve been talking about humans in general, but come on)

“I wanted to see if you were all right”, Liliana said. (she seems very concerned about carmen for someone she’s only just met)

Liliana smiled as if she found [Carmen’s] anxiety familiar and amusing.

when lock is trying to convince liliana to work with them by offering her to stay in a cottage in between trips and have a moderator accompany her at all times, her first reaction is to ask “Can Farooq-Lane stay with me?”

and last but not least, our very favourite moment – right after carmen punches ramsey: Liliana looked from Ramsey to Farooq-Lane and said, “I’ll follow you anywhere.”

and look. okay. i get it. that was a MOOD. carmen just punched a sexist asshole. we would ALL follow her anywhere. but something about the way liliana says it seems like it may mean more?

it’s not “i’d (=i would) follow you anywhere”. it’s i WILL follow you anywhere. almost as if she’s just remembered this event as it was happening, and realised, oh shit, this is the moment i fell for you, of course i’ll follow you anywhere, i already know i will

ALFJDKLGDFG PLEASE

ahhh i don’t really have a way to convince you it won’t happen i’m afraid, because at this point we literally don’t know what has happened to adam and also maggie implied there’s some pretty dark stuff on the horizon ;;;; 

it is possible that the moderators kidnapped adam to use as leverage for ronan, but i also think it’s not super likely (iirc, the moderators went to declan’s flat in hopes of finding and killing ronan, rather than kidnapping his brothers?). plus i have a hunch that whatever’s happened to adam is more supernatural than just a kidnapping?? not saying the lace but the lace...