* Nox *

I love your thoughts !!

The funny thing is that she remains weirdly unaffected by it. At least, she's not affected by it in ways one might expect. Pandora's upbringing led to her being two things: an ambitious scientist, and a woman who cannot take no for an answer. Allow me to elaborate.

Pandora is the eagerly awaited heiress to the Rosiers' vault of occult knowledge. Because she was so eagerly awaited (and, in their minds, their only child), her parents spoiled her incredibly rotten, to the point that Pandora now takes getting everything she wants for granted. Whether it be another expensive dress, the tenth doll in a week, or yet another strange book — they bought and gifted her everything. No request she made they could deny her, no matter how odd it appeared to them (which might not mean anything, considering what they deem 'normal'). Her parents believed that any inconveniences could hinder their daughter in realising her full potential and prosper into the next devoted follower of their cause. Thus, they made sure to get rid of anything that could bother her or cause other kinds of unhappiness. Given that Pandora grew up rather sheltered from the outside world in her first few years of life, she learned this to be the standard. She is not used to things not going her way, and she can be especially mean when this happens to be the case. It is not uncommon for her to make enemies with her peers in her day-to-day life.

Funnily enough, her parents providing her with such an environment is the root cause of their daughter abandoning the beliefs of the Rosier family altogether. Pandora is and always will be a scientist, and it is due to her parents' diligent studying and the extensive education she received that she turned out to be one. Early on, she was taught to question everything, to prod and test until she has found an answer, to work hard for results she can ultimately trust, and to never abandon her inquisitive nature. The Rosier Manor offers plenty of room for experiments, and its library harbours vast amounts of forgotten knowledge. Raised like this, it is only natural for her to grow up scientific in nature, and to dabble in various projects of her own from a young age. After all, this was what was expected of her. Only that her research led to different results than what her parents had hoped for. Unlike them, who primarily focus on what has been taught from generation to generation, Pandora's (self-taught) education opened her mind to different sets of more commonly accepted beliefs. The further she conducted her own research, the more she began to consider her parents' view on science and knowledge, as well as their superstitions, misguided, if not downright false. Do not be mistaken, Pandora does love her parents — there is no ill will she harbours towards them. Yet, with advancing age, she started to see them as a pair of confused elders, who, in their confusion, are quite adorable. She regards them as most do around her: kooky and harmlessly eccentric.

“Girl, who are you trying to impress?” Mary asks, smiling as Marlene—usually so uncaring towards her appearance and throws on whatever is clean, regardless of if it matches or not—stands in front of the full-length mirror, fluffing her short, shaggy hair, applying some smoky eyeliner, smoothing out her brand new leather jacket. She has never looked so hot, which Mary absolutely hates her for. At least before, she could just convince herself that the reason why she didn’t confess her feelings was because they would never work aesthetically, and oh, how she loves her aesthetics. But now, with this new rockstar look of hers, she can’t blame such a trivial thing on her cowardice, not wanting to risk their friendship, risk losing the person who means the most to her. 

“No one. Myself,” Marlene replies. 

“That’s not no one then. You’re not no one.” 

“Yeah, thanks…” She turns to face her, Mary’s heart skipping a beat as she gets a proper look at her. “Do- do you think- Do you think this would be enough?” 

“Enough for what?” 

“To get a girl’s attention. To be cool and exciting.” 

“Babes, let me stop you there. You may look cool right now, but deep down, you’re so bloody lame, and you always will be. But that’s part of your charm, you know. That’s why I love you.” 

“You love me?” Marlene asks. 

“I- uh, yeah…” Shit, shit, shit. “I love all my friends.” 

“Oh…yeah, I love all my friends too.” 

She turns back to the mirror and sighs, shrugging out of her jacket as she mutters, “This is stupid.” 

“No. No, it’s not. I’m sorry.” 

“Just forget about it,” Marlene says as she stomps out the dorm. Well, that was just great, wasn’t it? 

In the case of them living together, how would you see that going? How would it first get proposed, would either of them be opposed to it? Would it even last?

If they do work it out somehow, how's it go in general? Are they good at coexisting together, who does what wherever they live, who pays what? How does it affect their lives and relationship?

-🫀 / @the-heart-anon

lily and barty are looking for normalcy in their life. to them, the picture of normalcy would be staying in a flat together, enjoying each other's company for as long as it lasts while never getting married. maybe eventually they become common law because its been so long of living together. so when they 'decide' to live together no actual decision is made. they merge well together, it sort of just happened that one day lily looked around bartys flat and saw that there was more of her stuff around the place than his. she had hardly any clothes at her own rental because all of them were in bartys drawers. her toothbrush was in his bathroom and she had purchased furniture for his flat.

eventually what was 'bartys' became known as 'theirs'. I think this is good to symbolize them merging into one person too.

living together is full of bickering, debating, screaming, hate sex, makeup sex, and enjoying quiet company. nothing really changes between them. sometimes lily gets so fed up with barty she leaves. sometimes he leaves. they always come back. mostly lily wonders how the fuck barty manages to blow up the kitchen whenever he tries to cook (but shes no better so she cant talk [they order takeout because theyre hopeless]) and barty wonders if lily is going bald with all the hair she leaves around the flat. chores usually go to whoever is free because theyre both sensationally busy. they dont mop as often as they should and theres always at least 5 half full wineglasses left out of place but they manage. barty is more depressed than lily so she remembers they have to wash the sheets (except its a little too late around 12 am to wash them) they take trips to the laundromat together in the middle of the night. thank god its open until 1:30. oh and they always fuck on the sheets before they wash them so its 'worth it'. barty usually takes care of the things behind the scenes. lily is preoccupied, more one-track-mind/lost in her work than he is. I feel like they fill in the gaps where each other cant reach. they know each other so well it just makes sense that they coexist fairly well together. not to say that they dont fight over petty things because they do, but thats more of a fun game for them than anything.

barty works odd jobs, he quits every once in a while but his longest standing one is being a bartender and that gets pretty good tips. he takes care of buying takeout and groceries. otherwise they usually scramble to pay rent and utilities, not that it matters anyway because in the winter the heat cuts out a lot and the windows let cold in. its a really shitty flat with checkered kitchen tile and peeling wallpaper. lily adores it. (all her life she lived in a house trying to keep up with the joneses so a flat falling a part is her kind of place. it has so much charm)

with both of them paying for schooling, they gotta pool whatever recourses they have left to pull together enough for the shittiest flat in the city. they wouldnt have it any other way. they will both live there until they die.