Clare

“I wasn’t sure how to navigate a space filled with strangers who knew I loved what they loved. It was like going to the sauna, except our naked bodies were identical, which made the embarrassment recursive and pointless.”
― Esther Yi, Y/N

“Grief is the space between two states of being: who you were and who you are.
It’s an excruciatingly long, unlit hallway.
A staircase you have to crawl down, one interminable flight at a time.”
― Nat Cassidy, Nestlings

“You have me watching birds, and though I don’t know their names like you know them, I have seen small bright singers puff before they trill. That’s how I feel. I sing myself out to you, and my talons clutch the branch, and I am wrung out until your next letter gives me breath, fills me to bursting.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War

“I wish I were made of glass,” I said. “Then you could see right into me. I wouldn’t have to say a word to make you understand what I’m feeling.”

“It’s more likely that I would see right through you,” O said. “Which means I wouldn’t see you at all. I’d forget you’re there and crash into you like a glass wall. Flesh constitutes a tradeoff: it lets you know that a person is standing before you, but you have no idea what this person means.”
― Esther Yi, Y/N