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away-ward · 9 months

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Headcanon!

One of the things that I like about Emory and Damon's relationship is that Damon did not and could not have much control over her, be it her mind, her heart or her body. Even after roughly knowing each others' pain and burying Natalya's body together, HE was the first one to be somewhat cordial to her (in his own weird way ofc), but Emmy still needed a lot of reassurance, readiness and trust to even be friendly towards Damon. In that hallway scene with Will and Damon, it was clear that she wanted Will, and we saw Damon has somewhat opened up to her and maybe even willing to share his bond with Will (because sex and being sexual were two of the main ways how he bonds with others), but it was Emmy that rejected that bond offer (is there a better term because idk if this makes sense 100%) because even after everything, it was not enough to convince her to trust him or will, or them both. I very much love this implication because when this happens, emmy was never described as rejecting them out of pride anymore, like she did to will in some scenes privately before, but mostly out of unreadiness. Other than that, It could also mean that she probably wasnt willing to settle down through this kind of bond with these two specific people, when there were so many other immaturity, big and little issues as well as miscommunications that were not solved between all of them, so they just cannot dive together (like how Damon, Will and Winter did).

Emory Scott always expected more for and from them and everyone (as she fucking should) and not even the horsemen were exempted from this. Emory is the kind of person that don't do casual relationships, but also don't easily take people into their lives just because she doesnt want to feel alone, and not even after everything, could Damon or Will have anything of her and I like that. Not in the sense where "oh yeah these guys are not going to get everything they wanted", but in the sense where this is the first book in the series where the FMC was actively setting her boundaries and making sure that other MMCs know her expectations from them and that this is not just their world, but it's also hers. So no matter if theyre God, the President, Damon Torrance, Will Grayson or the Horsemen, if they cannot offer her something specific that she can logically respects, needs and wants, they still are not much worth to her life, and dont really bring anything much to her table. Each one of them needs to work for the other's respect, Emory herself included, so they needed to work harder to be better themselves as an individual and as friends or family members, rather than just share a few sad scenes and then have impromptu sex with each other, then POOF, expect everything to be magically solved. This was at least, what I think people like Emory would rationale her actions in that situation. The kind of trust she expected was probably something that should come from a place of sincerety, kindness, care and patience, and not some impatient, cheap and shallow view of each other, especially not when they were all still so young and she was so highly dependent on her abusive brother, and believed that no one could and would want to share her burden with her.

So thats why, I think this might also be one of the traits that Damon might appreciate about Emmy the most (among many others), because he knew he cant just get away with anything with her, but also knew that she wont vilify him wrongly based on rumours and for something that could have justifiable cause for his actions, especially after fact checking with others. Emory could be distrustful to others, but when she trusts someone, she is a very loyal person and she always got many solid reasons to trust them too, not just some surface level kind of trust, and some reasons might even be weird as fuck (usually personal), just because she could put her emotional side and be rational in certain situations like these, even when no one else can seem to understand her reasons. She also understand the difference between wants and needs, personal vendetta and circumstances etc., and when to prioritise which to deal with her situation at hand (interestingly, despite her not always agreeing with her own words and actions), and many other complicated and nuanced isues, so she is usually ahead of others when it comes to thinking maturely and critically. We know by now that Thinking maturely and critically in a very tough situation are not really the best traits shown by the horsemen or some of their wives, at least, not all the time, so this convinces me even more that as much as Emory needs them to safely be innocent, wildly and freely let go, and be whoever she had always wanted to be, they too needed someone like her to ground them back to reality and pop their Thunder-Bay-People bubble, like what Alex said in Nightfall during their first meeting. When you think about this more right, as a family, they all really did balance each other out.

Emory and Damon's relationship is definitely the first relationship that Damon had to work for with someone outside of his friend group, a relationship that he cant always control or indulge in whenever he wants. It had to come from a lot of anticipated mutual respect, and a good amount of approriateness of whats right and whats wrong. If not, he wouldnt have apologised to her about burning the previous gazebo. Building the new gazebo might not just be about emory, but also for will, and him standing up for her in the train might be because he could also understand how lonely it was to not having any allies in hideaway and kill switch + a sense of understanding, trust and loyalty from their similar pain and that Natalya burial. However, Damon by that point, other than wanting the best for Will, which means Emory scott will be their family sooner or later- Damon himslef, had no solid need to apologise to her at all for that gazebo burning, even on the behalf of will. Of course, he was partly guilty, but he didnt have to feel the NEED to apologise, like he didnt feel the need or regret for a lot of his past crimes and faults. But the fact that this was one of the things that he brought up to her, after many things that he did regret and didnt regret, he probably had given it some thought about how that couldve impacted her. He was already mature enough by then to understand the gravity of the gazebo burning, and how they did fucked up a gazebo of an innocent girl, just because their friend was rejected and "abandoned". The gazebo that she studiously work all by herself with no one else's help!

Damon also probably understood the kind of person Emory was and the kind of relationship that she expected all those years ago now, especially after not betraying him about Natalya and Banks, and even telling him that she needs to tell Will about it, because imagine if this was Rika or Kai, they probably wouldve used this as a leverage to fuck with him. After maturing, instead of having the narrative of Emory were always just a prideful person (before the locker scene), he probably understood her personality even clearer now, especially after working with her for years, and see that it was never personal to her, and it was just her setting boundaries out of self-respect, (as she should have). Thats why, i dont think there have to be any other words necessary exchanged between them by the end of Nightfall. I believe, out of the many friendships, theirs is a solid one from the start till the end because a lot of their moments in their relationship came from mutual respect, unexpected kindness, sincerety, and loyalties so they'll just be like those friends who saw different facades of the other from the rest of the world, and will have each others' back in an approriate amount. Not always enabling, but not always judging either, and i think their friendship and partnership, if pd did explore more of it, would be a natural friendship where no matter how long the other took to match their pace in life or weird the circumstances was, they could actually get along with each other even outside of the horsemen, because at the core theyre very similar, but with very different trajectory of life, so for lot of the things that they had to work with, they could agree on a lot of the same values in their work and life.

I might looked into their relationship a bit too much, but it's because i found them so different yet so similar, they're like foils to each other, thats why their friendship could work well. What do you think?

Oooh I like this this kind of talk. And I really think there’s some merit to your HCs!

Damon was definitely making a point in the school scene with Will and Emory, but I never considered the idea that he was offering something to Emory. I had interpreted this scene as a message for Will – a signaling that Damon was accepting their relationship. I mean, I know he wanted Emory to see them, to know what they were about and see what she would do with it - reject or accept them. I still never thought it was for her and not Will. But you might be absolutely right. I mean, you are correct that he bonds with people through sex, so maybe this was him reaching out to her.

I do think that Damon respected Emory regardless of her rejection. When she didn’t give in to his manipulations – either her body or her mind, she showed him what she was made out of, and I’m not sure how often he found people who could resist him that so thoroughly. He hated her for what she did to Will after prison (in his interpretation, things are done to them), but before that he respected her.

I had considered her reasons for rejecting Will in that moment was her not wanting to bring him into her life. I think she was scared and too stubborn to go back on what she had already committed to. Still, there is an argument to be made that she was really scared of what joining them could mean for her. Scared of what it opened her up to and revealed about herself. At the same time, they weren’t good enough for her. She was committed to getting out of Thunder Bay, but Thunder Bay was their playground. They weren’t going to leave, at least not for long. And Will, as he was then, would drag her down and keep her under him, and Damon would have help him.

Everything you said about Emory having standards and boundaries that she demanded be respected is so accurate and I love you for saying it. I absolutely love this:

The kind of trust she expected was probably something that should come from a place of sincerety, kindness, care and patience, and not some impatient, cheap and shallow view of each other, especially not when they were all still so young and she was so highly dependent on her abusive brother, and believed that no one could and would want to share her burden with her.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Emory isn’t quite to give her trust, but once she does, she does it completely. So solid.

as much as Emory needs them to safely be innocent, wildly and freely let go, and be whoever she had always wanted to be, they too needed someone like her to ground them back to reality and pop their Thunder-Bay-People bubble like what Alex said in Nightfall during their first meeting. When you think about this more right, as a family, they all really did balance each other out.

(I had to find the scene you were talking about. Thanks for bringing it out! Love that someone – even though it was Alex – said this to Emory)

And The GAZEBO! Idk if it’s like this for anyone else, but hearing Damon apologize for the gazebo, for not trying harder to stop Will, did so much for me. Going back and reading that scene, with the new information of what Damon and Emory went through, why Damon would want to stop it really…just. I can’t articulate it!

But like… the idea that Damon didn’t want Will to burn it because he knew

Will would regret it.

It would hurt Em, who he didn’t feel deserved to be hurt at that point.

Like, he was really trying to look out for both parties in that case. And the fact that he regretted not trying harder! That he counted that as a failing on his part! Enough to make it up to her and Will by building the gazebo? Because he didn’t make any money on that. That wasn’t a job. He took the little time he had as a new father and starting a company, developing a new skill, found her plans and said i'm going to do this. Because, yeah sure Will would like it went he got back from traveling, but I also struggled with that being Damon’s only motivation. Somewhere along the way, Damon’s feelings for Emory had to have shifted away from “She hurt Will so she will pay” to “She did what she had to” and that means so much to me. One of the first people Damon starts to forgive (?) is Emory.

Okay… look. I have very normal feelings about the gazebo.

And yeah, I agree that him standing up for her on the train was more about him understanding what it’s like to be Public Enemy number 1 to these people and to also know… they’ve forgiven worse things. He’d done far worse things to them that Emory ever could, so maybe dial it back, guys?

But going back to what I said before, for most of the books, the main problem seems to be that these boys interpret things as happening to them, and not a result of their actions or a series of decisions or because bad things happen sometimes and there’s no one to blame (I mean, they are also right -- Evans' was something that happened to them, but that's the beside the point. Not everything is a conspiracy to hurt them). For Damon to be the one that learned that lesson first, and having to remind Kai and Michael that what happened with Emory wasn’t about Will or them in general, is big. He was essentially saying they're only mad because they view themselves as the heros, when in reality, he knew that they were just by-standers in Emory’s story.

Another thing I didn’t doubt was the bond between Damon and Emory at the end of NF (it’s only now that I’m realizing I didn’t even thing to put them on the poll. I’m sorry. They deserve the attention.). It’s obvious from the scenes they share they’re going to have something special, different from what they share with the others. At the same time, Damon being the favorite means he’s going to have a special and unique relationship with all of the characters. It’s unavoidable.

But I specifically love their bond.

I believe, out of the many friendships, theirs is a solid one from the start till the end because a lot of their moments in their relationship came from mutual respect, unexpected kindness, sincerety, and loyalties so they'll just be like those friends who saw different facades of the other from the rest of the world, and will have each others' back in an approriate amount. Not always enabling, but not always judging either

Yeah exactly. I don’t believe there’s any room for judgement between them. There’s too much understanding and insight and kindness and respect for them to judge the other. To even want to. They are very similar people.

New thought: if Will is Alex’s reflection, is Damon Emory’s??

I come alive for this kind of discussion. I don’t think you’re looking into their relationship too much. I think of all the friendships in the group, Damon and Emory’s has the most to inspect and analyze. There’s so many layers to the way they interact with each other, between their shared background, their bonds with Will, they’re approach to the world. But they’re also different enough to hold each other to a higher standard, which we need from friends.

Like you said earlier in your comment, Emory expected more from them, and that included Damon. But no one expected anything good from Damon, and he played into that. Sort of like “you think I’m bad, but I can be so much worse” almost? And here Emory comes, not accepting it, not playing into it. It leaves him with nothing to hide behind, and forces him to reveal a little of himself.

There’s so much here to look at and dig into, and I know I’m not skilled enough to be right about everything (or most things), but there’s also so many directions to take this in that make it fun.

All I can say is, Damon and Emory ftw

#asked and answered #devil's night series stuff #damon torrance #emory scott #my hc #head canons #asked and answered 54

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