#mark x hellyna

Seven months since Helena smiled at a man she didn't know, but one day, she will.

In the end, they'll find each other. In every version. In every world.

The Severance barrier doesn’t affect innate traits, and innate traits are what contribute to the characters’ ability to transcend Severance.

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Burt and Irving: Love of art that exists through the Severance barrier. Both innocent and pure on the inside, even though they’ve killed people on the outside. This purity endures even though they’re working on opposite sides of the story. (Anti-Lumon vs. Pro-Lumon.) But as their most innocent selves, they find a true connection.

Connection: Love of art and beauty.

Innate Traits: High sensitivity to aesthetics or emotion, strong imaginative or introspective tendencies.

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Mark and Helena: Very similar to Burt and Irving. Rather than loving art, it’s their sense of humour that connects them. Especially dark humour to cope with trauma. Both are good people with baggage. Both have daddy issues. (Mark’s father making him drink whiskey since he was a kid, and Helena’s father stripping her of her autonomy and independence.) Both are rebellious.

Connection: Humour and rebellion.

Innate Traits: High intelligence, high autonomy, low agreeableness, openness to new experiences, high sensitivity to injustice.

Example:

“You should meet him sometime.”

“Taking me home to dad, already?”

“Yeah, I think it’s finally time.”

“Alright, let’s do it.”

(Joking while demonstrating a high openness to new experiences i.e. humour and rebellion.)

—

Dylan and Gretchen: Although we’ve seen less of them than the more central ships, Gretchen connects to iDylan because she sees a version of her husband that used to exist a long time ago, before life has worn him down. Luckily for her, oDylan is showing signs of still having iDylan qualities inside of him.

Such as him reaching out to iDylan and seeking to heal parts of himself, as well as complimenting him (thus complimenting himself.)

Connection: Nostalgia.

Innate Traits: Emotional sensitivity, strong imagination.

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Mark and Gemma: Different from the other pairings so far, since the other pairings seem to connect over intrinsic / innate things like art, kindness or humour. These two connected over knowledge. Especially advanced knowledge they both learned as adults. This knowledge is completely lost to the Severance barrier, since it’s not innate. It was learned later in life.

Connection: Knowledge.

Innate Traits: High intelligence and possible curiosity.

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Footnote:

Innate traits that lead to the love of art —

• High sensitivity to aesthetics or emotion

• High openness to experience

• Strong imaginative or introspective tendencies

Innate traits that fuel rebellion —

• High autonomy

• Low agreeableness (some people are naturally more skeptical, questioning, and less likely to conform.)

• High openness to experience (these people crave new experiences and tend to question rules or traditions.)

The episode that never ceases to amaze me, the one I've repeated the most this year.

The episode that has shown me that life hasn't forgotten me.

The Severance MVP in my heart.

Zufumaxxxing, still at the restaurant.

Still here. Still hopeful. Still in the trenches.

Season 3 cannot come soon enough — I’ll wait as long as it takes. I know it’ll destroy me (in the best way).

Mark x Hellyna, endgame. Always.

Fuck, 2027 is painfully far away.