#muse: cornelia

[chaosandcrimson]

Cornelia Belmont: Character Inspirations

Mercy Graves from DC Comics Zhu Li Moon from The Legend of Korra Pepper Potts from Marvel

[coreofgold]

@rainbowmuses for Cornelia

"There's gardens here." Stolas was amazed. "I love gardens. Will give me ideas of flowers to buy." He can finally get back to it without Stella looking down on him for it.

[evermore-deluxe]

Sat on the roof, you and I // And at every table I'll save you a seat // Sit with you in the trenches // Now I just sit in the dark and wonder if it's time //

I'm searching the room for an empty seat // I’m sitting here thinking it through // Sitting eyes wide open behind these four walls, hoping you’ll call

cornelia st//lover//peace//youre losing me

x

the story of us // cold as you // I dont wanna live forever

[musedbyalli]

Cornelia Open Starter

“Trust me, I can get it to grow.  I have a knack for these things.”

[the-caramel-poet]

i really really hope I don't lose you, i wanna be someone to you

[ice-sculptures]

as a followup i wanna say that i think her artistry shines through best when you don't immediately know who or what a song is about

the best way to listen to taylor's music is to ignore everything you know about her personal life

[luxmaeastra]

Stephanos couldn't watch this any longer. It didn't matter what they told of him. It didn't matter what road they'd paved for him. He would not keep letting people die for him.

"Enough! Pe - Perah I said stop!"

He moved stepping between Cornelia and his tutor. He knew the duty he had to his people. He knew it was on him to call their Gaurdians. He knew with his blood it would be his power that could do it.

The Asteri needed them and they would not die here. Still wasn't he allowed to be a child at least some of the time?

He looked to Connie, fingers on her wrist.

"You're hurt. Let me call a medic and -"

//The wars and the moving sundered the Stelari from the Asteri they are meant and sworn to serve???//

Stop. Why did he yell stop? Why did he get involved? Her heart hammered, her blood thundering within her ears as she couldn't help but just sink further into herself. The sudden silence, the lack of pain, of being pushed.

Cornelia's eyes only rose when she felt his fingers upon her wrist, she swallowed as she shook her head and tried to pull away.

"No, no. I am okay. It will heal." She tried to dissuade him. Yet something told her to let him care, to let him do as he asked.

[theafterglow83]

Cornelia St and Maroon leaves no room for a muse discussion.

Say her name Taylor Swift- say her name

“And baby, I get mystified by how this city screams your name”

There’s only one muse’s name NYC has ever screamed and her name is Karlie Kloss.

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[bettyshoweduptotheparty]

1989 - The story of two muses

Back to my first and forever love – Lyric analysis!

1989 is very close to my heart, and I have always found it noticeable that this album has quite a contrast between love songs about a very up and down/anxiety filled relationship on one hand, and the very raw and heartfelt romance as portrayed in ‘This Love’ and YAIL on the other.

And the 5 new vault songs we have on Taylor’s version now have added quite a bit of detail to the picture that emerges and I’m more convinced than ever that there are two distinct relationships/muses being described and I fancied doing a deep dive into how each one is described in the music and how the themes connect to other songs. (And it may even explain the beach theme 😉)

Ok, so, I have actually sorted every song from 1989 that is about a romantic relationship, including the 5 new vault tracks, into this scheme (even though I found some really hard!)

Muse 1 – “The heartbreaker” This relationship is described as very up and down, very anxiety-driven, something you can’t walk away from like an addiction, “against your better knowledge but can’t help myself” kind of way. Taylor has described this person as ‘the one that might one day interrupt your wedding, because you’re never truly over’.  Break up: ‘you left me’.

Muse 2 – “The one that came back” While this relationship is by no means described as perfect, it has a very different tone to it. It’s very much based in secure feelings, ‘us against the world’, any difficulty faced is worth it. Break up: ‘had to let it go’. And the person came back when it counted.

(Sorry about the pictures, I couldn't fit a table in any other way)

I am really impressed with how much just five new songs have furthered the story of these two relationships and I (personally) love how much this is filling in the blanks and makes everything make so much more sense. 'You can hear it in the silence' vs 'Now your silence has me screaming' almost killed me, honestly. She really found the love that needs no words. 🥰 And the direct contrast of the metaphors, one relationship as an addiction with very high highs and very low lows, and the other as the calm waves on the shore that continually come in and out with the tide, is just so masterfully done, I love it. And I think given the beach theme of the 1989 TV covers, we can guess which of the muses is being honoured in this re-branding.

Lyrical connections to later albums

Perhaps not surprisingly, these two muses and their lyrical themes show up again in Taylor’s music in later albums. The connection I’ve already seen a lot of people make is the playing cards reference from Say Don’t Go (‘I’m trying to see the cards that you won’t show’) linking to Cornelia Street (‘back when we were card sharks, playing games’). And I love how this tells the story of someone whose previous relationship impacts how they react in a new relationship. Because the person in Say Don’t Go really did lead her on and played her and then left, whereas the Cornelia Street muse didn’t but Taylor thought as much based on her previous experience (‘I THOUGHT you were leading me on…but then you called, showed your hand…’).

Another parallel to Lover songs is the ‘light in the dark’ theme that starts in This Love with “lantern burning/ flickered in my mind for only you”, which feels very similar to “chandelier still flickering here” from Death by A Thousand Cuts. This relationship/lover is the light that perseveres in the dark, even if it’s just flickering, it never goes out. It lights up the darkness (‘glowing in the dark’), whereas the other relationship is a “shot in the darkest dark”. We obviously get a whole lot more songs in later albums that reference love as light in the darkness, most prominently in Daylight, the Lover album closer. But more subtly, I also think that “Takin’ your time in the tangerine neon light” from Slut, and “hang your head low in the glow of the vending machine” from Cruel Summer follow that same pattern. Something that illuminates the darkness. And just btw, Slut and Cruel Summer give me a very similar vibe in terms of different takes on the same situation…anyone else get that? But one last, maybe more subjective, connection is the line “I’ll pay the price, you won’t”. Which everyone immediately took as a comment on double standards between men and women, but I think it could also be interpreted to mean ‘I’ll happily pay the price and take the hit, so you don’t have to’, if you interpret the song to be about dating a man in public to keep a female partner out of the public eye.  With that in mind, the line becomes very reminiscent of ‘I can never give you peace’ from folklore, both expressing that Taylor wants to shield her lover from the media scrutiny that comes with dating her.  

Suburban Legends alone has so many links to later songs that I had to give it its own paragraph. The chorus ‘I didn’t come here to make friends’ is so ‘I don’t want you like a best friend’ coded, and ‘We were born to be suburban legends’ gives me big reputation/big conversation vibes. Other people have already pointed out that ‘flushed with the currency of cool’ draws links to Gold Rush and Gorgeous (‘You’re so cool it makes me hate you so much’) and ‘so magnetic it’s almost obnoxious’ is very similar to ‘magnetic force of a man’ from Lover. All painting the picture of a person who is so cool and alluring that they feel almost unattainable. The whole premise of the song being that the narrator didn’t come to make friends, but instead is on a mission to get what they want, feels very Mastermind to me. The background music over the outro confirms that, as it’s the same production as Mastermind (I call it ‘game show music’ 😊) and the lyrics saying that the muse now doesn’t knock anymore, suggests to me that maybe the masterplan has worked. Lastly, the conclusion of the song being ‘my life is ruined/I always knew it’ is a different way of saying I’ll happily ruin myself for you, as in ‘for you I’d ruin myself a million little times’ from Illicit Affairs.

We don’t get nearly as many references to the first muse’s themes in later music, but ‘fell from the pedestal, right down the rabbit hole” from Long Story Short is a nice drawback to the wonderland theme. Bottom line though, ‘It was the wrong guy…’.

And there we have it, the story of the two muses of 1989. If anybody here is even remotely as excited by lyrical analysis as I am, this one is for you, and feel free to have a friendly chat in the comments if I’ve missed anything!

[torturedheart]

“Some people see someone and assume they’ll want to hear every single problem they have.” Daniel shakes his head “There’s some problems I wouldn’t share with my closest friends, let alone some random stranger.”

"It can become rather overwhelming when just about anyone walks up to you wanting to vent. Nothing wrong with having boundaries" she said and shrugged. "I also have never really understood how people can be so comfortable with sharing things with people they hardly know"

[chaosandcrimson]

Drowning in the Blue Nile He sent me 'Downtown Lights' I hadn't heard it in a while My boredom's bone deep This cage was once just fine Am I allowed to cry? I dream of cracking locks Throwing my life to the wolves Or the ocean rocks Crashing into him tonight He's a paradox I'm seeing visions, am I bad? Or mad? Or wise? What if he's written 'mine' on my upper thigh Only in my mind? One slip and falling back into the hedge maze Oh, what a way to die I keep recalling things we never did Messy top lip kiss, how I long for our trysts Without ever touching his skin How can I be guilty as sin? I keep these longings locked In lowercase inside a vault Someone told me There's no such thing as bad thoughts Only your actions talk These fatal fantasies Giving way to labored breath Taking all of me We've already done it in my head If it's make believe Why does it feel like a vow We'll both uphold somehow? What if he's written 'mine' on my upper thigh Only in my mind? One slip and falling back into the hedge maze Oh, what a way to die My bedsheets are ablaze, I've screamed his name Building up like waves crashing over my grave Without ever touching his skin How can I be guilty as sin? What if I roll the stone away? They're gonna crucify me anyway What if the way you hold me is actually what's holy? If long suffering propriety is what they want from me They don't know how you've haunted me so stunningly I choose you and me religiously

cornelia & tanner || @sparepcrts

[coreofgold]

@rainbowmuses for Cornelia

Baymax was pulling everything out of his backpack, from a first aid kit to epi-pens and candy until he found a pen. "Ah here is the pen. . .oh dear; They left." Guess they took too long to retrieve the pen. "How sad . . ."

[jfleamont]

Hey for your jily muse, out of order <3

Okay this is unforgivable, I know. You sent this prompt over two months ago. TWO. This ask has been sitting in my inbox since the 18th of January, so you probably won't even remember sending this but I promise you I've been thinking about it constantly and waiting to have free time to work on it and I have this tendency to leave things unfinished so this is me working through that as well lol

Without further ado, here it is ❤️

Out of Order - 744 words

Evans is in the boys' bathroom. She's in the boys' bathroom and she's crying.

One of her hands is gripping the sink, while the other fruitlessly wipes the tears that keep escaping.

She hasn't noticed his arrival, and Sirius doesn't bother clearing his throat. “I'm sure there's a perfectly logical reason for this.”

She makes a startled noise and turns to face him, her expression a mixture of anger and sadness. It's comical, really, so Sirius laughs.

“There is,” she mutters as she wipes her nose with the sleeve of her jumper. Her voice lacks the edge she usually aims at him— and at James, too, though Sirius can't help but notice a slight difference there.

He walks towards her and hands her his monogrammed tissue - he's never used it for this purpose specifically, but it has proved to be useful during the occasional prank or after a rough full moon - which she grabs immediately. She doesn't thank him, but he doesn't expect her to.

“Ah well, that's all I needed to know. It's not like you're invading my personal space or something.”

She lifts an eyebrow and eyes him curiously, looking more like her usual self. “I'm sorry, is there a plaque or an inscription that I haven't noticed? Does House Black monogram bathrooms as well as tissues?”

“Not that I'm aware of, no. Don't give my mother ideas, though, she might actually try to do that.”

She makes an attempt at a smile, but it quickly turns into a quiet sob.

“Apparently there can only be one crying girl per bathroom, and Myrtle has claimed the one across the corridor as hers so it's out of order,” she explains as she tries to regain control of her emotions, “and I thought this one was empty since everyone is heading down to watch the match.”

“You were right... for the most part. Why aren't you going then?”

“No reason,” she replies, her voice even, but she's not looking at him.

Sirius thinks he knows why. He suspects it has to do with the good luck kiss that Cornelia Kettleburn gave James at breakfast and how quickly Lily disappeared after that.

“Cool. I'm not going either. Fancy going to the Astronomy tower for a smoke?”

She looks taken aback. “I— wait, why aren't you going?”

In truth Sirius wants to go, and James is going to kill him for this, but lately he's been claiming that he no longer has feelings for Lily, and Sirius hates being lied to, so technically this is just payback.

“James got on my nerves so I'm skipping the match in protest,” he adds with a shrug and it's the truth, because it wouldn't be fair to lie. “So, are we smoking or not? Got a fag I can borrow?”

She's not an idiot: she knows this is an olive branch of sorts. Sirius can tell she's deciding whether to believe him or not; after a moment she sighs, and Sirius knows he's won.

“Haven't you got your own? Merlin, you're cheap,” she says while producing a pack of cigarettes from her satchel and handing it to him, a smirk on her face. He's glad to see that she seems to have calmed down significantly.

“I'm trying to quit so I stopped carrying them around,” he replies and grabs one, putting it in the breast pocket of his vest.

“Looks like it's working,” she notes as she fixes her appearance in front of the mirror and readies herself to leave the room.

“Absolutely.”

“Why are you mad at Potter anyway? Thought you two were inseparable,” she asks as she walks towards the door, a step ahead of him so that he can't see her face.

“Can't tell you, it's a secret.”

She huffs. “You lot are starting to sound ridiculous with all these secrets,” she whips her head towards him, her disapproval clear on her face, though he's almost certain this is just another way of disguising her curiosity. “Is this little group of yours a cult or something?”

“It's a counterculture,” he explains as he exits the bathroom, “how else are we going to beat those bigoted dickheads? The only way to fight a cult is with another cult.”

He's just joking, but the idea doesn't sound half bad to his ears.

Apparently Lily disagrees, because she snorts. Loudly. “Not sure about that logic but you do you, I guess.”

“Thanks for the support.”

“Anytime, Black.”

[torturedheart]

Daniel looks up at the sounds of shouting, shaking his head in disbelief over the disagreement. He carefully leans over when a woman speaks to him “Something about their pastry not being hot enough…stupid things to get in a fuss over is all.”

Open Starter || @hiddenstarters

The way DC could be one of the most hectic yet peaceful places if you knew where to look. That’s where Daniel had found himself, a quiet coffee shop on a corner where he could sit and watch the people moving about in peace. A cup of coffee in his hands, his cane resting against the seat on the table he currently preoccupied. And everything seemed all right, nothing could bother him in this moment.

[9w1ft]

chloe or sam or sophia or marcus is suchhhh a karlies perspective song 🙁

anon i was LITERALLY working on a karlie perspective interpretation of this song when i saw you send this in. i think it pings very hard! and if it has taylor singing from her perspective i do think strongly that it would still be a mix of exchanges

this is all still fresh and unsettled to me but since you happened to drop me this anon at such a good time i guess ill share some of the notes i had:

i think that it is set up to evoke the image of taylor selling her cornelia street place but she was actually renting that place so it’s not a perfect fit, so i thought it is also interesting that karlie put her famous west village apartment up for sale in late september 2019 and it found a buyer by december

there’s the maroon reference and the singer asks what would it take to make this color go away (taylor was the one seeing the maroon (after the election, imo) and she uses the words saw and bones which are also in the song maroon),

also this idea of the 2016 election leading to taylor putting distance between her and karlie’s public relationship through feuding rumors. rebuilding in 2018 and 2019 to what felt like they might be publicly friends again only for taylor to go send karlie into exile again after the masters were bought, so the song sort of touching on this cycle they’ve been through.

lines like “you turned me into an idea of sorts” and “if you want to break my cold cold heart just say i loved you the way that you were” had me thinking about objet d’art and the actual muse discourse that matters—the discussion of what’s an artist and what’s a muse, and picasso discussions we have had, the picasso book on the coffee table in anti hero, the idea that taylor ended up treating karlie like picasso treated his muses, over time warping them. and the idea that karlie would have had to have changed so many things about her life and herself over the course of the decade, for taylor’s sake. and i think this could be applied to the things about herself she changed for josh as well.

that is to say i think that the song could be karlie addressing her work husband as well. the song mentions the singer’s youth in a way that makes me imagine it’s being sung to older people than the singer. plus it ends with the use of the word wonder several times, which i think links it to my interpretation of wcs, which i also think is from karlie’s perspective

i have some other stuff but these are the most complete thoughts as of this moment

[krchar]

Ok just a few days ago my mind shifted from work to evil W.I.T.C.H. AU and thinking what kind of evil would the girls be, so i need to share, behold my musings:

I have two versions for Will, sry she's my favourit girl.

She would be evil like Anakin Skywalker, bc her greatest weakness is the fear of loss and fear of her own power (Anakin is a bit more self-assured, that's truth..), doing horrendous stuff out of fear of losing her close ones to betrayal or death, till she loses them truly, because she does the horrendous stuff and then it is already too late and she's filled with furry and pain and feels betrayed. / OR she would just get fed up with all that is demanded from her, with the weight of the Heart and everything, and she would not be able to bear her burden - then she would turn entirely dark, not from powerhunger, but from deep breach (i also like the word breach) of her soul caused by the weight. So she would be like responsibility my ass, but she would never be a happy villain, rather a broken one. And when it happens everyone is like oh shit, because she has a crazy power. (Thinking about that how the hell did they actually take the Heart from Nerissa..?)

Irma would be this sassy evil bitch that makes fun of you as you are in chains and destroys your conscience before destroying the rest of you. She's got a few very close friends, with whom she regularly does evil and who she protects intensely. She has a lot of fun. She might not even have a backstory of becoming evil, just being so, having this aspect, but if she does, it would be something about just doing whatever for her friends, whom she sort of serves, trusting them, choosing, without question, friendship and love over any sense of general justice.

Taranee would be the quiet evil person with a partly sobby backstory of needing to stand her ground and fight for herself, which led her to casting aside any regard for the lives of others, cause the world failed her and she couldn't be bothered (kind of Magneto). She would make surprisingly cold decisions, until anyone steps over the grounds of her free will - she would roast them. She feels a singular fondness for someone from her past, like her brother or maybe one of the Guardians (Will maybe), but she does not share it.

Cornelia would be the dark queen, powerful and encouraging mad devotion, speaking and acting coldly, then letting you fall through an abyss just by waving her hand, with a violently dark anger that is apparent in her face, although it seems she has not moved a single muscle. She feels rightful in her destructive love, but a certain specific love for a good sistergirl might turn her. Maybe like Galadriel's potential herself had she accepted the One Ring from Frodo, only without those weird effects.

Hay Lin would be maniacal evil - a pure chaos, someone not really aware of bad or good, someone who only fleets through the world as a dark fairy and does evil, because it is fun, and who wouldn't do something so fun as hanging a person on a tree easily cause you can fly. She looks and acts cute, and the creepier is her big power and the way she uses it. She used to be a very sensitive caring person, but a great loss of everything she had, loved ones and sense in life included, turned her mind into one without any feeling, principles, or sense, or attention span.

So... my rant over.. thoughts? other suggestions?