#:stares into the abyss:

[bigbigtruck]

and you may ask yourself....... well..... how did i get here

[spneveryseason]

[consultingfujoshi]

some thoughts wrt the two established "romances" in severance so far (burt/irving and helly/mark) inspired by @figmentof who pointed out how irving had to find out mark and helly kissed from the corporate video in s2 e1 and how he must have felt seeing his co-workers' love affair like portrayed like that, and how it ties into the queer narrative at play here which uses workplace dynamics and policies as very clear analogues for real-life prejudice against queer couples. I mean, just look at this:

it's not just documented, but celebrated. used as propaganda for how the conditions on the severance floor have improved. proof that the severed workers are happy. and how even though he is unaware of the sociopolitical meaning of all this, lumon is very not-subtly telling him that what he had with burt is inherently lower and less valuable than this.

irving doesn't even know homophobia exists and yet he is still affected by it, it still seeps into every corner of the way his and burt's romance progresses. burt is positioned as an unacceptable love interest from the jump. irv is actively discouraged at every turn from pursuing it. their friendship is viewed with disgust and apprehension from their coworkers. burt working in a different department that's hated by MDR. dylan himself not being homophobic in the sense he opposes their relationship because they're both men but his attempts to keep them apart still has a parallel sort of prejudice behind it and still ultimately has the same effect as if it WERE driven by homophobia. irving is made to feel perverse for wanting contact with burt. he's told this is for his own good.

and then, just as they manage to overcome that immediate resistance from their peers and escape to a place where they can explore this blossoming romance on their own terms, burt retires. for all it matters to irv, he's dead. and then irving is given the option to live the rest of his life with grief that will never heal, or kill himself too, because there is no reality where they get to be together. that's just the way things are. of course they wouldn't get to be together. he was unreasonable and childish for ever hoping that could happen. this is just the way it goes for innies. he's told to get ahold of himself and not make a scene.

but the thing is, the standards are not the same for all. a heterosexual romance gets upheld as the shining example of success and fulfilment for the severed employees, whilst a homosexual romance is ridiculed and invalidated, and written off as something that was simply never meant to be. and even more importantly to irving, a heterosexual romance is APPROVED OF by lumon, and by extension, by kier. irv held back from allowing himself to even call his and burt's relationship a romance, because his god had told him it was wrong, he followed the handbook, thinking this was what kier wanted, and then finding out after suffering the worst heartbreak imaginable because of it, that this WASN'T EVEN TRUE. it's simply just that someone like HIM doesn't get to have something like this. his love is not the kind of love god wants. he does not approve of irv's love. cynical and manipulative though that approval may be (even within the context of the corporate video, the helly/mark romance is only being celebrated to further the narrative that lumon care for their workers, but the point still remains that it was THEIR romance specifically used to suit this end), when your entire life has been in pursuit of that approval, it must be devastating to learn it was never on the cards for you.

he and burt even used the fact kier met and fell in love with his wife in the same circumstances as them to justify this to each other - and they were RIGHT, god does approve of falling in love with your coworkers - this simply just doesn't apply to them specifically. and if irving needed any more proof that he no longer has a place at lumon, that he's better off not existing at all than existing with this pain that cannot be remedied, pain that won't even be acknowledged for what it is, a symptom of a sickness which plagues the entire severance system, pain that he is simply expected to choke down and get over - this is that proof.

and that's the POINT. they're TELLING us that this is unjust, and there's a double standard. they're using the ways the innies experience romance and the difference in lumon's reaction (lumon being the collective of all the management we've seen, lumon as a singular entity) to burt/irving vs helly/mark to comment on how queer people are not afforded the same level of respect or validation IN REAL LIFE, for their attachments, their love, their pain, their suffering. it is NOT just incidental that irving's romance is with a man. it would not WORK if his love interest was a woman. the POINT is that they are both men and how that puts them at a disadvantage, even if they aren't aware of the prejudices of the outside world, even if they don't TECHNICALLY apply on the severance floor, there are very clear analogues which still end up oppressing them in equivalent ways that they would be suffering if this were a normal workplace in the outside world.

it genuinely sickens me to my stomach that even in a world so divorced from reality and the sensibilities of regular society, a queer couple is still made to suffer and feel inferior in a way that perfectly mirrors their real-life counterparts. how they will never, EVER be allowed to exist in a world where their love could thrive freely and uninhibited - they never get to taste the joy our world has to offer people like them, but they are still somehow subjected to all the pain it has to offer them regardless. it's such horrifically devastating writing. it makes my skin crawl. I can't stop thinking about it

[zarla-s]

this is the worst thing that's ever happened to larry

[patreon]

[weepingwidar]

Emily Mae Smith (American, 1979) - The Cave (The Studio) (2023)

[thebrainrotsreal]

When I tell you I am still so speechless over this episode.

When I tell you I am thinking about Mark who we know really ingrained Nolan's speech back in s1, only see that Nolan looks like he meant every word. That Mark was replaceable, his mother was just a pet. When I tell you I'm constantly thinking about Mark, who only saw his father cry over a planet he's only known for months, and not the family he's had for years. When I tell you I'm thinking about Mark finally calling Nolan 'dad' again only to be immediately choked and yelled at. When I think about the parallels of s1's fight and this one.

[fhtagn-and-tentacles]

ALL-SEEING ABYSS

by Erskine

[thepenguisalive7]

Same old same old

[furiosophie]

just thinking about how luke was only ever really taught to wield the force as a weapon, but never how to put up barriers in his mind, just wondering, really, what happens to you when you touch the fabric of the universe but don't know how to wash it off your hands again, if sometimes being one with every living thing feels like you are disintegrating, fraying at the seams

[oafyy]

heyy! *sacrifices*

found out you can draw pink stuffs when it's not February, chaos ensues... anyways, this was supposed to be a redraw but the peabrain did not want to unfortunately (｡•́︿•̀｡)

scurries back to bed, exhausted

[skellydun]

put my bluetooth headphones in and one of the women said 'connected' while the other said 'powering off' so i guess they're fighting :(

[elbimboo]

his favorite puppet

w/o the effects version under the cut

[consultingfujoshi]

yea this hits

[seirindono]

Hey Seirin! I’m not sure if this is a spoiler, (and if so, no need to answer) but I wanted to know! How do each pair of brothers feel about their alternates? Just curious! :)

I've omitted a few but there you go ;)

The rest under the cut! Minor spoiler?

I won't give any further context or explanation lol you may interpret it as you wish and share with the class however.

Ko-fi | Patreon | Comic | Commissions  | To support the comic

[maxverstappsthighs]

“guys, what are we doing? what the f*ck are we doing?”

LUKE HUGHES DROPPING THE F BOMB WHILE HIS MIC WAS HOT BUT NOT KNOWING HIS MIC WAS HOT HAS ME DEADDDD

[thebrainrotsreal]

DP screencap re-draw except I took so many liberties, 'cause I'm figuring out how I wanna draw Danny! And exploring my Vlad design with little tweaks :) !! Been on a drawing kick, lately, praying it doesn't end.