if you appreciate living in a state of sanity then do not think about how both jesper and wylan, two boys with gaping wounds of shame in them, fell in love with someone who saw them as unequivocally perfect. and who vowed to convince them of that.
jesper fahey who grew up hiding his powers, who could hardly even bear to voice out loud his grisha identity, who was taught that his shame was a shield.
wylan van eck who grew up teaching himself to mask and to deceive, to stall his father’s inevitable cruelty as much as he could. who was beaten and berated and mocked, who was taught that his shame was a rightful punishment.
and yet they love each other both in spite of it all and because of it all.
jesper thinks wylan is brilliant, wylan thinks jesper is brave. they think of eachother as everything and more.
jesper convinces wylan that his dyslexia isn’t a defect nor an error, that it doesn’t make him any less of a person, any less of the remarkably clever explosives expert that saved both his and everyone else’s asses time and time again.
wylan convinces jesper that his power is undeniably a part of him, and a beautiful one at that. that maybe it isn’t easy, but neither is anything worth having.
and together, they heal and they grow and they forgive. and they convince each other that they aren’t their shame, and maybe they never were.
