Curate, connect, and discover
foaming at the mouth thinking about talon being illiterate again.. ik I've talked about it before but him being a shit reader or unable to is rather important to me. it's just so damn isolating.
I know it's not technically canon but I think about how tal's original writer thought he was illiterate and Marcus taught him symbols to use as a secret code and God how awful is that yk?? Marcus would rather communicate via a secret code rather than have talon learn to read bc keeping talon tethered and naive is in his best interest. it's so AWFUL. also I think Marcus would be a terrible teacher but that's an aside.
from an inside angle, having a secret code with your 'father' would probably make talon feel special, but he's still just being manipulated, it's kinda brutal. and I think talons hatred for being bad at stuff would ALSO make it harder to learn to read it's just heartbreaking.
I think on first glance using 'naive' is a weird word for him bc talon has experienced The Horrors, but being illiterate keeps him stuck in place and isolated and he doesn't even know it.