but ultimately he is so easily manipulated because he's always trying to be his daddy and mommy's good little boy

it must be so frustrating for peter who wants to look up to his big brother and always does the right thing and sees the person he loves most keep making terrible choices

peter doesn't care about approval, so he will always do right by others. nathan on the other hand,

"i was always jealous of the way you looked at him... i wanted you to look at me that way" (STILL FERAL OVER THIS!!!!!!)

blake literally straddling ilia while BEGGING her to do the right thing

"i'll stand with you!!! ...if you'd have me"

and.... of course:

Any CRUMB I get from the Slipstream lore I will happily munch up are you kidding me. This also supports my headcanon that Mercy was one of the head doctors in charge of her case, probably leading or near the top of a team of medical doctors, researchers, quantum physicists, etc. Not only was Lena facing the effects of chronal disassociation, but she was also dealing with the physical aspect of being lost in Time for 6 months 2 years.

This included things like:

-Extreme emaciation -Extreme sensitivity to light/noise/texture/taste etc etc -Muscle weakness, resulting in difficulties standing -Speech and language difficulties, including being entirely nonverbal for the first three weeks -Psychological effects, nightmares, extreme paranoia, constant fight/flight state, extreme distrust -Several more I haven't found the words yet for

So her team had to contend with all of that, plus Lena actively fighting any kind of procedure/testing that they needed. Hair, skin, blood, urine samples were all critical to discovering if whatever she had was contagious, if there were any other illnesses that they had to content with, but Lena would actively fight them. Screaming, pulling away, hiding on the other side of the chamber away from the access point, she would do anything to avoid the masked figures behind that glass.