#...make the audience happy not traumatised

[note-boom]

Okay but when Ranpo told the audience that they were the angels and how the staged murder was about a reversal of roles, that was so Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint of it, I -

[jytan2018]

I read the comic in one sitting less than an hour after finishing the movie, and wow I have many Thoughts™.

- It's very obvious the two versions were meant to cater to different audiences AND tell different messages. I don't get why people are going "But the comic was better! It had more nuance!" just because Nimona was easier to root for in the movie.

- The comic was written back when ND Stevenson was still trying to process a lot of stuff, so all the characters are morally grey/straight up evil and the climactic battle is between a Ballister who regrets turning against Nimona, even if it was to save others vs. a Nimona who's too hurt to care if her lashing out was going to hurt innocent people.

- By the time Nimona got a movie adaptation, ND was a lot more secure in his sexuality, so the climactic battle was Nimona vs. the Director, the symbol of religious oppression and bigotry. It's not just about your friends turning on you because you're "too much" for them anymore, it's also about a society that would rather bring itself to the brink of ruin than coexist with you.

- (I totally get why people were upset about Ballister's surname change, though. Like come on, the media dubbing him Blackheart just to be mean was RIGHT THERE).

- Nimona's metaphor for not shifting is such a neurodivergent thing. Even in the comic, Nimona's parents insisting she's a monster who replaced their daughter is reminiscent of the changeling myth, which is what many parents thought their neurodivergent kids were—changelings who replaced their "real" children.

- Ambrosius being trained to cut off HIS BOYFRIEND'S WHOLE FUCKING ARM instead of merely disarming him is a very cop thing to do. As much as cops claim they're trained to de-escalate situations, their training still teaches them to treat everyone as a potential threat, and that level of constant vigilance can turn anyone into a trigger-happy/arm-choppy bastard. Even the Director, who can use a sword but probably hasn't actually fought someone in ages, STILL can't see Ballister reaching for the squire's phone without assuming he has a weapon.

- And on that note, the Queen getting killed simply because she was trying to reform the Institution and allow commoners to become knights? That's the best "no such thing as a good cop" metaphor I've seen. Because even if there ARE good cops and they ARE in leadership positions, the system will crush them before they make any meaningful change. It's not a good institution that turned rotten, it's an institution that only exists to spread its rot and refuses to be good.

- That's why Ballister's characterisation is so different in the movie vs. the comic. Comic Ballister had 15 years to come to terms with his trauma and the Institution's evildoing, while Movie Ballister is still freshly traumatised and hasn't found a way to define himself beyond the role he was assigned by the Institution.

- Not to mention Comic Ambrosius was not very noble to begin with and genuinely believed Ballister was better suited to villainy than heroism, while Movie Ambrosius never wanted the glory that came with his lineage in the first place and only antagonised Ballister because of indoctrination he needed to unlearn (which he did, all by himself, after witnessing the lengths the Director will go to just to kill Nimona).

- It really shows how important it is to surround yourself with loved ones who are open to change. Comic Ambrosius can love Ballister all he wants, but he'll still blast his arm off because he thinks Ballister deserved it anyway. Movie Ambrosius will stop to question what "the right thing" even means, even if he didn't love Ballister enough to defend him unconditionally.

I have so many more thoughts bubbling beneath the surface, but I'll probably address them some other day. In conclusion:

[ID: A pink-haired Nimona grinning evilly while holding up a knife.]

Watch Nimona. This is not a request.

Edit: Added more thoughts!

[homunculus-argument]

A show that alternates between being a somewhat-bittersweet slice-of-life of a group of characters who have clearly been through absolute hell together, and flashback seqences of the grand adventure that they embarked on once. The Current Time scenes are peaceful, scenes of living a somewhat mundane life of recovery and learning to live a normal ordinary life, in stark contrast to the flashbacks that are bright and fantastical.

The current time scenes are quiet, slow and in muted colours, a majority of the characters are now disabled in some way and clearly traumatised, and they feel bleak in contrast to the alternating brightly coloured and much more lighthearted and fantastical flashback scenes, where the same cast is shown as young bright-eyed adventurers giddily leaving off on an awesome quest.

The condition they end up in feels omnious in comparison, the audience is shown how a character who used to be the strong and boastful fighter of the gang learns to hobble on with crutches long before it's shown how, exactly, she loses the leg that she no longer has in the current day scenes. Everything has the air of Something Horrible Is Going To Happen.

Then as the adventure of the flashbacks gets more grim and serious, the colour scheme of the show keeps getting darker, though just as dramatic. You know exactly what is going to happen to each of them, but not how or when. And as the stakes of the flashback adventure keep rising, the current day scenes slowly get brighter, no longer coloured in dull and bleak shades of brown and grey but gradually turning into soft pastels as they gradually learn to live with their losses and make do with how life is going to be like from now on. And actually learning to be happy.

In the end it's irrelevant whether they actually end up reaching the goal of the original grand adventure or not. You could cut the flashback storyline and the current day storyline into two different stories - the first one being an initially lighthearted fun adventure that gets dark really fast, and the other one being a slow and gentle recovery slice-of-life of gradually getting better - and watch them consecutively as two completely separate stories.

And as a last-episode plot twist, it turns out that a character who was prominent in the flashback story but glaringly absent in the current-day one, didn't actually die. They were just living somewhere else during the recovery story, and shows up again in the last few scenes. In the last scene at the end of the story, everyone is sitting in a sunny garden having tea.

[finnlongman]

About Me, My Books, and My Research (2024 Edition)

Hi, I'm Finn, a writer, medievalist, and all-round nerd. You may know me as the author of The Butterfly Assassin, "that person who wrote the trans Cú Chulainn article", the weird nerd in the Tumblr corner writing excessively long and incomprehensibly niche posts about their research, or something else entirely. I am all of those things! (Well, depending on what the 'something else' is, anyway...)

Currently, I'm a PhD student at the University of Cambridge researching friendship in the late Ulster Cycle (c. 12th-17th centuries). I have an MA in Early and Medieval Irish from University College Cork, and wrote my thesis about Láeg mac Ríangabra, my best beloved. I also have an undergrad degree in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from Cambridge, and wrote my dissertation about queer readings of Táin Bó Cúailnge, including transmasculine readings of Cú Chulainn.

You can find out more about my research on my website, which also includes info about all of my academic publications. This includes the aforementioned "trans Cú Chulainn article", an article about Láeg in the Death of Cú Chulainn, an article about the seven Maines, and a discussion of a conference on Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire from the perspective of my own work on lament and grief. Whenever possible, I try to make my research available Open Access. If you're ever having trouble finding one of my articles, please contact me!

If you want recommendations for books about medieval Irish (or Welsh) literature, this list on my Bookshop page has all my go-to recommendations. If you buy via this link, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, so this is a great way to support me.

I am also an author, and I write both YA and adult novels. Again, my website is the place to go for all the info and links, but a quick summary:

The Butterfly Assassin trilogy (The Butterfly Assassin, 2022; The Hummingbird Killer, 2023; Moth to a Flame, 2024): YA thrillers about a traumatised teenage assassin who is trying (and failing) to live a normal life in a fictional closed city in Yorkshire. Featuring friendship, street art, Esperanto, zero romance, and a whole lot of murder, as well as increasingly unsubtle commentary on the UK arms industry and the military recruitment of vulnerable teenagers.

The Wolf and His King (coming Spring 2025 from Gollancz): a queer retelling of 'Bisclavret' by Marie de France which uses werewolfism as a metaphor to explore chronic pain and illness. Also very much about yearning, exile, and the mortifying ordeal of being known.

The Animals We Became (coming 2026 from Gollancz): a queertrans retelling of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi looking at gender, compulsory heterosexuality, and trauma, through the medium of nonconsensual animal transformations.

To Run With The Hound (coming 2027 from Gollancz): my take on the Ulster Cycle, looking at why Táin Bó Cúailnge is a tragedy and what it means to be doomed by the narrative, but not in the way you thought you were. Featuring a lot of feelings about Cú Chulainn, Fer Diad, and Láeg.

You can find out more about my recently-announced medieval retellings in this blog post.

I generally tag personal posts and selfies as “#about the author”; other than that, I think I’m pretty straightforward with my tagging system.

I’m very happy to answer questions about medieval Irish lit, my research, or my books, or just generally to chat. Send questions via asks, chat via DMs, and if you're looking for my articles, you can email me at finn [at] finnlongman [dot] com, which is also the best way to contact me for professional enquiries, whether academic or fiction related.

You can also find me on Bluesky, on Instagram, and on YouTube, where I (infrequently) retell medieval Irish stories for a general audience with lots of sarcasm and hand gestures. Technically I'm still on Twitter, but I'm trying to leave.

And finally, if you’ve found my research interesting or just generally want to support me, I have a tip jar and am always immensely grateful when somebody helps me to fund my book-buying habits: http://ko-fi.com/fianaigecht. You can also tip me directly on Tumblr if you like. I’m also a Bookshop affiliate, and you can buy books from my recommendation lists to support me and get some great reads at the same time.

[ashkav]

Rainy, her baby, and the Laughing Samurai theory

So Shioli Kutsuna's character has been revealed! Rainy, a pregnant woman on the crew of the Magellan who has the ability to cause rain fall (Shioli said this during the Tokyo Games show, though I can't find the relevant clip.)

several very interesting things are said during this cutscene, and when combined with what else we know from the promo materials and also from DS1, I think they can be combined to form some ideas. And boy, do I have Ideas about Rainy.

First, the foundation, all (very few) info from previous media that I think is relevant to Rainy.

a) The Songs:

We have so far had three songs about babies/ children in the promo material. Lou's lullaby twice, both connected to Higgs, on the electric guitar and then again with Troy Baker singing it very ominously. And then the broken down rock-a-bye baby tune right at the very end of the state of play announcement trailer during the credits. Obviously, songs to do with children that are usually happy or peaceful now inverted from comforting to something scary and unsettling = Bad Things are going to happen to the kids.

But Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head is not a song that has been made sad or unsettling - yet.

I absolutely feel this song is going to be called back to at a climatic moment in the story, possibly at Rainy's own death, possibly as the last thing she says to her baby. The song itself seems like a bad omen to sing to a fetus, what with Rainy's name being what it is and the lyrics being about perseverence through hardship - difficult not to instinctually think Rainy and her baby are about to suffer some pretty awful trauma that ends with one or both of them 'falling' to the Beach.

Raindrops keep falling seems very likely to continue the same pattern of a comforting song for children introduced at a peaceful time only to warp into horrifying due to a climatic moment - the only reason it hasn't already been warped is because the audience has to hear it the first way first and it didn't exist in the last game to be set up the same way, unlike the other two.

b) 'I just can't wait.'

This is a pretty innoccuos statement for a pregnant woman to say irl, but within the game verse, Rainy is literally the second woman we've ever seen who has expressed an actual desire to have children.

Let's very quickly run through the list of female characters who have children in DS1:

Lucy, Sam's wife who killed herself because the visions she was getting from Sam's DOOMS afflicted baby were so horrible she couldn't continue living.

Lisa Strand, Sam's bio mother who became brain dead early on in her pregnancy due to a car accident and who we never hear from, even in supplementals, and is shot in the head by Sam's dad.

Bridget Strand, Sam's adoptive mother who revived him after accidentally killing him and kept him to raise out of guilt, traumatising Sam so badly throughout his life that he suppresses his memories of her and doesn't really want to speak to her even as she lays dying of cancer in front of him.

A whole host of unnamed still-mothers, impregnated after brain-death and farmed for the BBs they produce.

and finally, Lockne, who actually wanted a baby not because of the baby itself, but because she wanted some part of her lover to live on even after his death. Due to issues with her uterus, she is incapable of becoming pregnant, and even when her twin agrees to surrogate, the baby and Mama both die in a terrorist bombing at the hospital.

(for the purposes of this list I am not counting the mountaineering couple, since they don't matter except to create stakes for that one timed mission.)

There's a pretty clear trend here - almost no one wants children, and those that have them are in incredible danger of losing the child or themselves. This makes sense in a world where hospitals no longer exist and the very act of childbirth is incredibly dangerous and mostly everyone is pretty much asexual anyway, so it's a massive outlier that Rainy expresseses wanting the baby, even if it would be a normal thing to say in our world.

Maybe this is a stretch, but I can't help but feel there's some thematic parrellel here between Rainy, who wants her baby to be born very much, and still-mothers, who are made pregnant but never truly give birth and who cannot ever consent - not that they don't consent, but that they are incapable of consent in the first place. All their children, except three (Sam, Lou, and the BB Coffin managed to save), die in the womb. They're always bridges and never babies, never born, never really living or dead. They are nearly unanimously incompatible with the concept of life, or growth, just the same as their still-mothers are incompatible with the idea of wanting them.

More on this later.

C) The Samurai

The Samurai is visibly pregnant. There is only one pregnant character in the cast (so far). There HAS to be a connection here.

This is not the first time we've seen a visibly pregant character do crazy insane shit - Sam, for instance, is 'pregnant' with Lou's glass womb for the whole first game and probably the second too, and he does some intense stuff.

The circumstances with Rainy are different though. For one, her womb is made out of the squishy human stuff, not bulletproof glass, and she can't take it off. Rainy doesn't seem particularly athletic either: in her and Tomorrow's intro, where they're stacking boxes into a shelf, she moves slowly and with effort, not to mention that the Samurai is taller than even Higgs (Troy Baker is 6'3), where Rainy is shorter than Sam (Norman Reedus is 5'10, and Shioli Kutsuna is 5'3). Plus, the Samurai suit has no way to see out of it, so even if somehow it augmented her height, strength and speed, she still wouldn't be able to see what she was doing.

It is very, very unlikely that she is the one inside the mech suit. No, instead, I think it's her baby in there.

Sounds insane, but listen: we've already seen Higgs' robots have some connection to BT's, floating like they do and having visible strands leading up like they do and potentially being vessels for them. Dollman is explicitly stated to have been a normal adult human person who used his medium powers to possess the doll and got stuck there when his human body died. Even Lou seems to have the ability to haunt her old pod, with the ghostly winged BT form and tentacles. The technology and precedent for soul-to-machine connection exist, the Samurai makes baby noises, it looks pregnant. And thematically...

Remember that earlier section, where I was talking about Rainy wanting the baby vs still-mothers who cannot want and produce babies who cannot live? Also remember how parents with DOOMs very often pass the trait onto their children, and that an adult with DOOMs (Sam) and a BB with DOOMs (Lou) connected through the umbilical made some very strange things happen?

I think that Rainy's desire for a child interacting with both of their DOOMs will produce something very strange. I have two major theories about what could happen to get the baby in the machine:

The baby and mother cannot both be on the same plane at the same time. Rainy's baby suffers some strange accident while Rainy is giving birth (maybe she gives birth as the Magellan is travelling through the Beach?), and the connection between them becomes like a still-mother and BB, but only in some aspects. The connection between the living and dead is swapped constantly between mother and fetus instead of mother alone tethering to the world of the dead. Metaphorically, you could compare this to a Drawbridge, evolving out of the previous Bridge-style that BRIDGES created with the still-mothers. With Rainy and her baby, either side can be 'drawn up', and the burden is shared between them. The tragedy of this is that even though both Rainy and her baby survive, they can never truly meet or meaningfully interact, as one must always be on the Beach when the other is in the living world. Possibly this could be made more extreme, where instead of being seperated in mind only they are also unable to interact physically - one must physically be in the Beach if the other is in the land of the living. We know it's possible to live on the Beach because Tomorrow confirmed it, even if Sam described it 'like hell', so maybe they build the baby a suit that it's pod can slot into to help it survive the time it has to spend on the Beach - we know BBs are quite smart and have an abnormal amount of dexterity and also increased senses that allow them to see BTs, so it could be possible that the BB became skilled at piloting the suit because it was literallly fighting for it's life on the Beach. This would thematically mirror Bridget/Amelie, or at least the lie that Bridget/Amelie told the world - that Amelie was Bridget's daughter who couldn't be removed from the Beach.

The baby is psychic pre-birth. The baby is believed to have died inside Rainy because it stops moving and scans show that it's funtionally brain dead - plot twist being that the baby is alive, but has just accidentally astral projected into a machine. The Samurai is an upgraded version of Higgs' BT robots that either Higgs built or Drawbridge built after they'd studied some of his work, and the pregnancy bump is an unconcious change that the baby makes to the robot, like how Dollman can minorly alter his appearance when he's mad.

I think this would give Dollman an interesting double - adult in a small, powerless puppet vs baby in a big, deadly, hypermobile machine. Brain vs brawn, thought vs impulse. It even fulfills Jester vs Sage if we want to get Jung's archetypes in here, what with the Samurai laughing and Dollman being an expository friend you carry with you, like Mimir from God of War.

The second one is the one I feel is most likely - it ties in so neatly and honestly I'm not too sure that Rainy would survive her time swapped out on the Beach if whatever the baby samurai was fighting was strong enough to make it so skilled against Higgs, even if there does seem to be a community there to help her.

Whatever ends up being the case, Rainy absolutely definitely is not going to have a 'normal' baby. There is no such thing as a normal baby in Kojima land.

[lcdrarry]

LCDrarry 2024 Round-Up Post | Week 3

On Sundays during our posting period, we won't post a new work, instead you have time to catch up with the works that posted during the week and hopefully leave lovely comments for our creators.

Happy reading, commenting and sharing! ;)

~Your LCDrarry Mods

PS: Please have a look at the author notes and tags on AO3 for additional information. Thank you!

PPS: Please share far and wide! Thank you!!

***

Podfic

***

"The Pirc Defence" by sleepstxtic

Prompt: "The Queen’s Gambit", 2019, Scott Frank Written by: @sleepstxtic Narrated by: Anonymous Podfic Length: 01:05:00 Rating: Explicit Warnings: None

Summary: They were rivals, and they were lovers, and they were the greatest chess players of their generation. Exactly in that order.

Listen to it now on AO3.

***

Art

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Draco's Moving Castle

Prompt: "Howl's Moving Castle", 2004, Hayao Miyazaki Prompted by: @Somethingveryodd (newskyillusion on ao3) Author: Anonymous Art Medium: Digital Rating: General Audiences Warnings: None

Summary: Art for LCDrarry2024 fest. Prompt was Howl's Moving Castle.

Read it now on AO3.

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Fic

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we were born to be national treasures

Prompt: "Legally Blonde", 2001, Robert Luketic Prompted by: MoonyEmilie3017 (ao3) Author: Anonymous Word Count: 4,979 words Rating: General Audiences Warnings: There is nothing triggering in the work, although it does heavily rely on the subject of needing academic validation as a woman in a patriarchal society.

Summary: Danica Malfoy is determined to study law and move forward in life. But is anything really ever that simple?

Read it now on AO3.

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End of Beginnings

Prompt: "All of Us Strangers", 2023, Andrew Haigh Prompted by: Anonymous Author: Anonymous Word Count: 5,324 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: Canonical Character Death

Summary: As Harry and Draco start developing a relationship, Harry finds himself drawn back to the Potter house in Godric's Hollow, where his parents appear to be living just as they were on the day they died.

Based on the movie All of Us Strangers (2023) though you don't have to have seen it to understand the fic.

Read it now on AO3.

***

The Potters : Possessed case

Prompt: "The Conjuring", 2013, James Wan Prompted by: Anonymous Author: Anonymous Word Count: 12,039 words Rating: Mature Warnings: Horror, blood, vomiting, mention of suicide, possession, exorcism

Summary: After a lecture, Harry and Draco meet a frightened woman, telling them that her entire family is scared to death of their new house.

But Harry and Draco wanted to take a break after a traumatising case. Maybe it's just natural causes and the house isn't haunted, right?

Read it now on AO3.

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By the Book

Prompt: "The Proposal", 2009, Anne Fletcher Prompted by: Anonymous Author: Anonymous Word Count: 14,586 words Rating: Teen and up Warnings: None

Summary: It’s hard being Draco Malfoy: workaholic publishing professional extraordinaire. Between revolutionizing the Wizarding World and fighting with Harry Potter, his chief of staff, it makes sense Draco forgot to check his mother filed some paperwork. Oops. Easy enough to avoid deportation by saying he’s engaged to said manager.

Too bad that plan involves visiting Ottery St Catchpole, a gaggle of redheads, and defrauding the government.

Read it now on AO3.

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this strange effect

Prompt: "Killing Eve" (2018 - 2022) Prompted by: Soulmates Drarry Author: Anonymous Word Count: 30,670 words Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Violence, Blood and Injury, Assassinations, Killing Eve AU, Murder, Light Poisoning, Obsessive Behavior, Reference to past addiction issues, Presents

Summary: Harry hated his job, his cousin, and his inability to figure out how to fit into the boring, depressing world around him. He kept his peace until Draco Malfoy turned out to not be dead like Harry thought he was. Deadly, though? Harry was going to figure that out.

Read it now on AO3.

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The Heart of the Heart

Prompt: "Howl's Moving Castle", 2004, Hayao Miyazaki Prompted by: @Somethingveryodd (newskyillusion on ao3) Author: Anonymous Word Count: 52,775 words Rating: Teen and up Warnings: None

Summary: Harry Potter’s boring routine comes crumbling down when he takes the wrong shortcut at the wrong time; he almost ends up in a brawl, gets rescued by a handsome stranger, successfully escapes sentient tar, learns to walk on air and then becomes victim to a spiteful, petty and undeserved ageing curse - and all that within a single afternoon! Now transformed into an old man, Harry decides to run away in search of a way to reverse the spell, but the path is precarious and the journey long. As he's trying to make his way through magic and treachery, danger and deceit, it's becoming abundantly clear that something more is hidden behind petty magic - something deeper and more valuable and connected all too thoroughly to what may only be classified as love.

Read it now on AO3.

***

Please help promote the fest by sharing your favourite submissions, so more people can enjoy all the amazing new Drarry works of LCDrarry. Thank you!

Creator reveals are on 15 June.

[smilingangel582]

Yooo I'm still at a loss for the links and I'm sorry guys...I'm such a clutz, hehe~

☆anyway never mind that let's go down a other roller coaster of tickles with genshin impact. I wanted to right for Kaveh but loss inspiration at the moment... so guys pls bear with me I'll be writing for sweet kaveh soon!

Warning spoilers for fontaine version 4.0!

Ps. Are my fics so bad that Lyney still refuses to come to me!!! I want him, so I'll keep on writing till he comes to me! Heck, his C3 sister is waiting too nyaaaahaaa~

Magic is a performance of art with picturesque illusions. Lyney often became overwhelmed by Caeser's joy in magic as he taught him several aspects of it. Indeed, he began to love it as well... especially playing tricks on others' minds as he played on.

It'd often the smaller ones thst excited kids more. Picking mora from their ears, picking flowers out from under his cloak, he could fo ample things just to get the audience happy.

It's usually days when the big magic tricks would begin, most unexpectedly he feels nervous though he had a knack for avoiding troublesome thoughts. Only Lynette read him like a book...

"Lyney!"

The sharp tone made him look up instantly, startled by his loss of awareness as he was sipping tea at his place with the traveller. Freminet was missing as always, being engrossed in diving - perhaps he ought to learn how to relax from him as well.

Ever since the trial, he became anxious about doing grand performances. He did perfect it at practice, but...he was worried if someone would sabotage his show again and create another victim...

Seeing Aether tilt his head in question to ask how he's feeling, Lyney chuckled sheepishly. "Oh dear, sorry to zone out like this... I may have been preoccupied by the fact that Paimon's not tired of floating around"

"Hey, Paimon's floating his similar to you guys walking, you know!"

Seeing her indignant reaction, he thought he had drawn their attention away from him. Still, Lynette didn't even make an attempt to sound accusing as she calmly said, "You're rigid, brother... perhaps you're nervous after all"

"W-what..? Surely you jest... I'm just more concerned about Paimon's logic to floating, " his face darkened as he lowered his head to the side to avoid any misgivings though the opposite just convoluted.

"Hey, you better not mess with Paimon!" Paimon, being Paimon, ignorantly grumbled in her chirpy voice, sounding offended presumably. Still, Aether could sense his offensive tactic being seen through. He might find it more intriguing to see past the crumbling defence he built desperately...

He shook his head now. "Lyney, we're close enough to see through your act..."

"Ah, drats..." he smiled weakly, seeing how his sister and the traveller were onto him. Keeping his tea cup to its original place on the table, he began to reason.

Now his solid defence has a crack...

"Alright, alright, guys... I am human, so I'll admit I am nervous after the water tank incident, " he offered. Now Lynette stated slight concern in her cool tone,"It's not the same trick... so why are you that worried?"

Sighing, he bit his lip, as if he got scolded by a teacher, "Making mistakes, I guess?"

Aether noticed his stiffness. He could tell the young magician must have been traumatised by the death of Cowell. Either way, they came here to cheer him on. He wondered if he could do anything for him... something to perk him up.

"Lyney" Aether began now gesturing to Paimon. "Allow Paimon to massage your shoulders... to make you relax... she's good at that"

Paimon gasped at Aether audacity to make a request unbeknowst to her, "You little! Of course, you put this on Paimon...!"

Regardless, her starry gaze genuinely desired to help, so she began "Alright Lyney let Paimon loosen you up"

Lyney anxiously waved a hand. "Oh n-no need... It's not really necessary... I really don't have stiff shoulders..."

(Cute...)

Aether rolling his eyes said, "Come on Lyney, no more secrets its obvious they are stiff..."

Before Lyney could evade the offer, Paimon was already behind him. "Relaaax, Paimon is an expert masseur. She can make you lose your fears in a snap!" She removed the pegged Cape so easily, and began to descend.

Until he staggered away, immediately stiffened by her gentle fingers reaching for his shoulders.

"D-dont Paimon... its not necessary"

She couldn't even touch him when he slid off from the couch only to stand and face her, Paimon pouted "Awww but can't you trust Paimon?"

"I...uh... It's not t-trust..."

Lynette, seeing the obvious issue and she finally pointed out, "It's not you, Paimon. He's got ticklish shoulders..."

"Lynette!!"

The casual reply made him blush but only to let Paimon's curious eyes widen in wonder. She waves her arms in frantic excitement "Nooo way Lyney! You didn't tell us your ticklish!"

Extremely nervous, he lowered his hat to hide the blush "A-Arent we all Paimon...?"

Most of Paimon's giggled converted to menacing titters as she wiggled her fingers. "So come here and let Paimon make you relax in a better way"

He had not expected this situation to collapse on him like this. He backed a little too far to bump into a seated Aether's knees and fell, half on his lap.

"Oh dear my apologihihihiies -Wahahait!" He struggled to sit up and grab Aether's sneaking fingers prodding his sides.

His squeaks contagiously threatened to leave his lips as Aether was mischievous as well.

"Are the fatuus this weak to tickling? I must say that's a bit disadvantageous"

Paimon, floating towards Lyney's upper body, began to perform her special tickly massage on his shoulders "Waiit for Paimon Aether, she wants to tickle him too!"

"Ahahha guys plehehehease" he curled now bur Aether grabbed his hips and snickered at the stream of loud and sweet giggles, "as I was saying... we could make you spill any little secret from the house of the hearth right?"

"Ihihihin your dreheheeheams I'm nohohot thahahahat weheheheheak"

"Ahhh, tsk, tsk it's not about being weak... It's about how ticklish you are, " he taunted by kneading his ribs with pure intent to torture information out of him.

Poor Lyney, on the other hand, tried to roll to the ground, but Aether got up and pinned him further to the couch, now both of the ganging on him where he's cornered.

"Lynehehehehtte!" The twin sister peacefully finishes her tea before saying,"It's ironic how his worst spots are the most exposed areas. His armpits and thighs are pretty bad, you know"

Hearing this intel Paimon snickered "ehehehehe let Paimon excell her Paimonial wrath! Your armpits are Paimons now!!!" She charged in yo perfectly fit her small hands into his delicate armpits, she even blowed at his neck to make him squeal and hiccup into louder giggles and laughs.

"This was just to make you relax, so..." Aether teasingly swiped a finger over his thighs suddenly, making him shrill in shock and squeak, "Pleheheheease!"

"So no... at least not today, " he said this, and Paimon reluctantly backed off."That was for making fun of Paimon!"

Chuckling at her ridiculous high pitched complain Aether now cupped his cheeks to get a better look at his adorably blushing red face. "Teyvat to Lyney... you there~"

He still giggled as he said "Aaha yes, I must thank you, but... that was a bit much, wasn't it"

Meanwhile, Lynette coolly expressed, "Ignore him. He loves being tickled so you guys can knock yourselves out"

Lyney flustered now "Y-You can't just...!"

"Oh really?" Aether grabbed his shoulders now making him stiffen again "I thought I found a knot right here? Guess Paimon's masseur skills are still lacking"

"Hey!" One from Paimon.

"HEHehehey!" Another from a bewildered Lyney who giggled at the light touch now trying to move away.

"Ahahaha nohohot again! Nohohot thehehhe shoulders ahahahaha aehehehehther!"

"Let the magic begin!" Lynette smirked, joining the finale of wrecking her brother. None of them have the intention of letting Lyney go until he's cheered and satisfied.

Well... not that Lyney wanted it to stop... he liked this feeling...

[ao3feed-xicheng]

A Word From Your Thoughts

by Invisible_observer Jin Ling gets cursed on a night hunt. He gains the ability to read minds for three days. And this makes the poor kid realise that everyone he knows is either disgustingly in love, or pining over someone. He's traumatised to hear Wei Wuxian's thoughts about his beloved husband.... Absolutely shocked and blown away by the secret thoughts his Jiujiu had towards the first Jade of Lan and even more blown away by the thoughts that Zewu-jun has for his Jiujiu. But they're just pining.... And Lan Yuan seems to be pining over someone but he can't figure out who.... And he also accidentally stumbles upon the thoughts of his Jiujiu after the older man has a nightmare and has many realisations, followed by an intense and emotional conversation. Words: 3777, Chapters: 1/3, Language: English Series: Part 1 of Untamed obsession Fandoms: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: M/M Characters: Jin Ling | Jin Rulan, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, Other Characters Mentioned Relationships: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan/Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Jin Ling | Jin Rulan Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Mind Reading, Jin Ling gets cursed to read minds for three days, subtle mentions of rape, Nightmares, depictions of violence, Jiāng Chéng Needs A Hug, Jin Ling needs a hug as well, Wei Wuxian can't stop thinking about his husband, Emotional Talks, stories of the past, Happy Ending via https://ift.tt/lE7n5jH

[nalyra-dreaming]

Magnus turning lestat is gonna put us all in the hospital I fear lol

With Daniel Hart hopefully scoring it, and if they play a version of Vicious or a darker version of the music from Louis’ own turning aaaaaagghhhhhhghg

Kinda haunts me too that Rolin has said he has a very specific clear vision for what he wants for the TVL season and how he wants to tell lestat’s story and has deemed lestat’s vampire transformation to be the most traumatising of all main vampire cast….you’re right they aren’t going to pull any punches, it’s like they teased that backstory in a limited way with lestat describing it somewhat as a way to prepare us almost but seeing it will be so much worse, not to mention seeing Sam play younger human lestat so full humanity and searching for happiness with Nicki…it’s going to hurt like a fucking bitch. Him seeing Magnus’ face in the audience at the theatre and later abduction, there’s so much horror potential, or if they do the horror thing where in scenes like lestat and Nicki just walking down a Paris street theres creepy ass Magnus just in the background watching, it will be terrifying

Also the way Magnus’ physicality is described it’s very animalistic, very disturbing, it’s interesting Rolin was involved with the Exorcist Tv show because that kind of repulsive horror vibe is how I’ve always pictured Magnus or maybe it’s just the visual of how he’s described as dancing on all fours in the fire that I’m thinking about, very demonic!

Yes, I also think they're going to go full horror for it. Given how they pulled everything else up from in-between the words so far...

The Vampire Lestat has a lot of horror potential. Not just the turning, or Magnus, but the Witches Place, too. The wolves, as heroic as that may turn out. The Golden Moment. All of Nicki's depression and how Armand "handled" that (pun not intended). Les Innocents. The searching for Marius. The revenants. Going to earth. The tomb of Those Who Must Be Kept.

I'm always struck when I read Anne's book how much she glosses over some things - or, better, how she lets the characters gloss over things. Lestat is a walking trauma, just as Armand is, everyone really (Well. Maybe with the exception of Fareed? And that Doctor?^^).

And Rolin will make us look.

And I cannot wait.

[juminies]

I present myself as a Jumin bad story ending 2 hater in the grand scheme of things, but there is a lot of nuance to it. The thing is, I actually think it functions very well as a bad ending and does an incredible job of showing the negative path Jumin could fall down very quickly given the opportunity. It allows a prime look into his mindset and his brain and really opens him up to let the player properly see the deeply buried, traumatised, grimy parts we only narrowly skim otherwise. In that sense I hate it in the way you're supposed to dislike any bad ending: this is not where we should have ended up; this is not how I, the player, should have acted; it's uncomfortable and upsetting and makes you go Oh, oh no. If people were normal about bad ending 2 I would lovehate it in the way I have written long analysis posts about how normal ending is a bit fucked.

However, when I say "I hate BE2" really what I'm talking about is the way people simply were not ready for it to exist in the way it did, especially not at the time it did. A large proportion of the game's audience did not see BE2 and look through the surface dynamic, and instead completely ignored everything the game was trying to show regarding Jumin using BE2. They saw the CG and went "hehe BDSM, this is just like Christian Grey <3" and that was that. It led to massive flanderisation of his character by a concerningly large proportion of people who played and didn't play! the game. And sure, on one hand, if you really want to overlook Jumin as a character to fulfil your fantasy then okay. It's an otome game, the fantasy is the point. But it's frustrating as someone who loves Jumin so much to see people get him so wrong because they won't step away from 2016/2017 fanon. I still(!!) see people intertwining his BE2 outlook with his good end outlook, as if they're the same, which is absolutely wild considering both the layers of character development he goes through in the following days and the fact that it legitimately does not make sense that he would act like he does in BE2 if MC does not have her BE2 personality. You can obviously acknowledge that that part of him (the fear, the possessiveness) exists/ed on some level—in fact, please do! He's very multifaceted and it's important to note that he's not perfect! But you can do that without using it to heinously mischaracterise him. I could get into the ultimately what Jumin wants is whatever you want, he thrives on seeing his partner happy and feeling good side of it, but it's barely even relevant if what you're trying to do is tell me that Jumin is a sadist. He's not even a sadist IN bad ending 2

[zzzzzluv]

Hi,there. I'm quite new here so I'm gonna ask you a question and your opinion? What do you think of projek high council actually? Because im trying to spread the fandom around to some people actually and it has potential to grow as a fandom everyone no matter what country they are enjoys it,also do you have any headcanons about projek high council if so please tell me what the headcanons are.

hi!

omg same! im also a new user lol

i like the show A LOT. idk how to say this but the show feels like a place to me to vent? like i understand what those characters were feeling because i also had gone pretty much the same thing (maybe not 100% the same but kinda similar). and oh my god the characters dude. THE CHARACTERS. im in love with corruption trope, like im obsessed. you see, fakhri was playing a hero at first, but then slowly acted like kahar. isn't it ironic that he became something that he hate before? talking about kahar, im really curious about his backstory! thank god there will be a movie about him (IM FUCKING EXCITED). ayam is a mood, i love every time he appeared on the screen. okay this is getting long lol im so sorry. anyways, i was expecting a sad ending due to the show being so depressing (i thought naim was gonna die wtf pls dont do that again) but im glad that we got a happy ending! (im a sucker for happy ending lmao) overall, i really like the writing, it's really well done. the pacing is perfect, good casts. i don't really watch a lot of Malay dramas so i cant really compare. but PHC is one of my top series now hehe. though im not sure if everyone knows this but this show might seem a bit unrealistic cuz the higher ups being involved and like there were a lot of things going on, it's actually real. it happened and is happening right now. hell, even in the public university, they still apply this high council shit.

if the producers decide to air the show globally, it could reach some international audience. maybe not a lot, but im pretty sure some people will be more invested.

hm my headcanons?

i don't remember which ep, but it was the one where kahar accidentally pushed (or kicked? im not sure) ayam and led to ayam be in a coma. they did show kahar got traumatised by that but not enough for me lol. so yea, i imagine kahar doesnt dare to look himself in the mirror because he almost killed someone. yea sure, he bullied a lot of people, misusing his power, but he was never a killer. he still has that humanity in him.

and i also imagine him having a rough childhood due to how his dad treated him. you know, constantly being compared to his brothers, thats not very nice. so kahar just swallowed the hate to idk make himself felt full? my headcanons are pretty weird i apologise

and also, since naim and fakhri are on the good terms now, im pretty sure they are awkward around each other at first. cmon, they were on each others' throat, didnt wanna breath the same air. NO WAY theyre gonna hold hands and scream "yay we're a happy family now!" like no. i know damn well that most of the time they don't even talk, but then something random happens and that will be their topic. like fakhri doesn't know how to decorate, then naim will make fun of him or saying something like "ish kau ni, benda senang pun tak boleh buat ke?" naim doesnt mean anything, it just becomes a light banter? so sorry for my bad eng and the fact that you have to read all this...

ohhhh and hakeem! it's actually funny how hakeem is the closest friend to kahar lol. i think they became friends in an unexpected way, but because of that, they became even closer. and it's actually comforting when theres someone who's willingly to become a friend with kahar without any malicious intent!

ahh thank you for the ask! im sorry for making this ans long 🙏 have a good day!

[bug-decal-kissing]

Hey friends!

I'm a god auditor not a babysitter!, by othersin, was updated today, with 2/3 Chapters released! It has a rating of General Audiences and Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, with additional tags "Fluff, Funny, Cute, ProhibitedWish, scarab is not having fun"

You can read it here:

Hey what if, Scarab got throttled, would that be crazy or what/silly. Do not be mean to the BABY, POLLY DID NOTHING WRONG </3 AND FOR ONCE I AM PLEASED THAT SCARAB IS GETTING YELLED AT/j. He'd better redeem himself in the next chapter or I'm never looking at him ever again/j.

Not That Bad, by Megastrum, was updated today, with 4/? Chapters released! It has a rating of Teen And Up Audiences and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Fluff, Angst, Prohibited wish - Freeform, Slow Burn, Touch-Starved, My First Fanfic, Scarab Has Trust Issues"

You can read it here:

PRISMO IS LEARNING <3333333 AND A SOFT MOMENT WITH FIONNA AND CAKE, YES !!!!! Which was then quickly diverted by Prismo learning what Touch is and also Scarab is traumatised :[ my poor boy </3

A new work, Wrath of the Wishmaster by Void_Ink_Studios was published today, with 2/2 Chapters released! It has a rating of Teen And Up Audiences and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Scarab has identity issues, Orbo is the worst, Prismo gets mad, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Chronic Pain, Scarab has Chronic Pain, Established Relationship"

You can read it here:

Both of the Chapters in this work are also on Tumblr, you can find them here and here :]. Let me tell you when I first read these I was losing my mind, they're so GOOD/pos !!!! Prismo just being there for Scarab was making me feel so many Emotions, I love it. I love this work !! And I HATE ORBO >:[

Whim of Wind Took Me South, by Thehyperfixationking, was updated today, with 6/? Chapters released! It has a rating of Teen And Up Audiences and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Attempted Murder, very unsuccessful attempted murder, Eventual Romance, Alternate Universe, Slow Burn, Sorry Not Sorry, Hurt/Comfort, Multiverse Travel, no beta we die like old man prismo, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, no rating yet cause the whole story isn't written may change, Enemies to Lovers, Farmworld (Adventure Time), Finn Mertens - Freeform, Jay Mertens - Freeform, Jake (Adventure Time) - Freeform, but like Farmworld Jake, Unique Weapons choice, Winter King (Adventure Time)"

IT BEGINS !!! >:}< THE STARTING OF ENEMIES TO LOVERS HAS GONE INTO MOTION; SCARAB IS NO LONGER TRYING TO KILL SOLSTICE !!!!! It only took six chapters, but that just makes it extra special/pos/j.

NSFW works are below the cut :].

I've decided to move works that are rated Mature and above below the cut; just to be safe :]. This doesn't mean that there's guaranteed to be smut or anything, but I feel better if works meant for older audiences are seperated./lh

Silly Bug, by TJade, was updated today, with 10/? Chapters released! It has a rating of Explicit and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Genderbending, Domestic Fluff, Teasing, Humor, Suggestive Themes, Awkwardness, Awkward Sexual Situations, Awkward Conversations, Communication, Healthy Relationships, Voyeurism, Oral Sex, Threesome, Frottage, Sexual Roleplay, Dacryphilia, Degradation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort"

You can read it here:

I nearly forgot that these two are in Fionna's world and seeing characters like Kheirosiphon in Ch.9 is a pleasant surprise/pos !! I have a feeling Fionna and Cake have already begun to put two and two together but I can't wait for more >:]. Please let there be no identity crises or I think I will cry/j.

[blackkat15]

The Stanley Parable made me cry and here's why:

I go into The Stanley Parable to follow Adventure Lines™, shut down mind control facilities and hide in broom closets.

I didn’t expect to actually cry over a game.

I haven’t done that since the ending of Doki Doki Literature Club.

I didn’t expect The Narrator to show me reviews from Steam.

He got so hooked on the fact that he can’t please everyone so he created a skip button to try and make everyone happy.

He cares too much about what his audience thinks.

He doesn’t realise that you can’t make everyone happy.

And so, when he locked me in a room and prompted me to press the skip button, I felt unsure.

But I had to do it. There was no other way.

The first skip was fine. The Narrator was happy.

After the next skip he started rambling on about how Cookie9 could change their review.

The third skip was when I started to feel bad. The Narrator had sat there for around 30 to 45 minutes and he said for me to not press the button while he tried to find a way out.

I actually waited for a solid hour.

I pressed the skip button again and the time that had passed had increased to 12 hours. I started feeling worse. The Narrator said that he couldn’t find an exit and then he started to ramble on about the negative reviews again.

The next skip had two weeks pass. The Narrator’s panic was starting to build and so was mine.

The next skip was a year apart. I listened to every word The Narrator said. He was losing himself. He was losing himself to silence.

The next skip I don’t hear his comforting voice and I start to panic more. Where was that voice that I enjoyed so much?

The next skip has the smoke alarm go off, it startled me and I stared at it until I could press the skip button again.

The next skip I arrive in the middle of a rant that The Narrator was having. I listened to him all the way again. He was really stewing in those negative reviews. He doesn’t acknowledge that I had returned. My panic rises.

The next skip I don’t hear him again and water starts to drip from the far corner of the room.

The silence is so loud.

The eleventh skip was the worst. The Narrator has gone insane. I don’t know how long it’s been. He’s muttering “the end is never the end is never the end” over and over. The water damage gets worse and so does my concern for the disembodied voice that I grew fond of.

The next skip I don’t hear him again. The water continues to drip.

The silence is louder.

The next skip happens and the ceiling had collapsed. All I can hear now is howling wind.

The next skip has light shine through the new hole in the ceiling. I start to worry even more for The Narrator.

The next skip calms my nerves as I see plants growing and birds chirping. I take a moment to enjoy the tranquillity before pressing that damn button again.

The next skip plunges me back into a state of fear and panic. No more plants just darkness and otherworldly noises outside. I rush to press the button to try and get away from the noises.

The next skip actually traumatised me. Those high-pitched screeching noises scared the hell out of me. It’s at this point that I silently plead for it all to end.

The final skip leads me out into the desert. I stood there staring at the room from outside as the music played. It was at this moment where I actually cried at my desk.

I had killed The Narrator. He was a great storyteller who let one measly bad review eat at him until he eventually died from insanity. I regret pressing the button and not resetting the game.

Reading trivia for this ending broke my heart even more. In the thirteenth skip the noises out in the dark are actually The Narrator calling out to Stanley. He had used the last bit of his strength to call out to me and then he had given up and died the next time I pressed that button.

During the Epilogue I nearly screamed when I saw I was in the desert again. I literally had to pause the game and calm myself down just to continue. The silence is too loud. That desert is nothing but a bad place for me.

I picked up the bucket and I felt a little better. I was glad that I put it in the escape pod otherwise I wouldn’t have made it through the Epilogue.

The Stanley button actually made me cry again. The Narrator was right. It does hit harder the second time when I needed confirmation that what I had heard was correct.

I hate the skip button ending, I have never felt such fear and panic in any horror game I’ve played. The emotions that ending provoked in me were just terrible. But it’s okay to cry.

I never want to do that ever again.

I don’t want to suffer through the silence again.

The Zending was another ending that made me cry. I didn’t keep flinging myself off the platform when I noticed that The Narrator was very worried again. I don’t understand how some of the YouTubers that I watched could just do that. I sat there in the room with the pretty lights and enjoyed a silence that wasn’t scary. It was a comfortable silence.

In other words, I cried over a game.

I cried over a game that has multiple endings and messages.

I cried over a Narrator who wouldn’t hesitate to kill me in some runs.

If I didn’t have a thirty-minute vibe session with him in the elevator I don’t think I’d care as much. When he’s not being a sadistic egotistical jerk, he can be a funny and caring dude.

My heart fluttered when he said he was proud of me and I nearly cried again during the ending where I just went up and down the elevator to the mind control facility to mess with him.

I’ve never cried over a game as much as I did with The Stanley Parable.

I love this game so much.

Rant over. I’m going back to the elevator with my favorite disembodied voice.

[denimbex1986]

A little bit over a week ago, Netflix released their adaptation of David Nicholl’s book One Day. As a fan of the novel and the panned 2011 film, I knew what to expect from the story of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, which One Day follows over the course of eighteen years. While it might come as a surprise to the critics, the film adaptation had the potential to make me weep back in the day. Alas: when I watched Netflix’s rendition, the tears didn’t come. There were a few, but they weren’t the guttural sobs that I’d expected. I had the same experience with All of Us Strangers and The Iron Claw too. But scroll X or TikTok, and you’ll find that it’s quite the opposite for most viewers of these sad-centric media, with people describing themselves as “traumatised for life” and “choking on [their] own tears” in response to One Day alone. Was it a ‘me’ problem? Or is it that misery porn is at such a saturation point that I simply can’t withstand anymore?

“The way the iron claw broke me is insane [sic] definitely ugly crying at the moment, ” reads a tweet about A24’s flick on the Von Erich brothers. “I’m dead inside” reads one in response to Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers. It’s safe to say that misery porn not only has the desired effect, but that people gobble that up. There’s no better illustration of that than the sheer amount of it. As well as those mentioned, last year saw a renewed interest in Hanya Yanagihara’s novel A Little Life, and recently we’ve been blessed (or cursed) with films like The Whale, Past Lives, and Close. While Hollywood execs aren’t going to slap it on their films anytime soon, misery porn is now almost a genre in itself...

And all of this comes at a time when we’re not only recognising our society-wide penchant for “yearning”, but wondering what it is exactly that we’re yearning for. Happiness would be an obvious answer to that question if it weren’t for the popularity of films like The Iron Claw and All of Us Strangers. With them in mind, it seems what we’re looking for is the experience of feelings, no matter how positive, negative, or how extreme. Given we’re all a bit numb – big chunks of our existence being mediated by phones and computer screens – that makes sense.

Essentially, we’re at a kind of crossroads with the genre. Still, what is it about the people, like myself, that don’t get a kick out of misery porn anymore? Some say that not crying at films makes you a bit of a weirdo. Some say it means you’re depressed. I’d hazard a guess that it’s down to the fact that, as I get older, I’m increasingly aware of the fantasy element of what I’m viewing. In this sense, you could argue that misery porn capitalises on a vulnerable audience that has something of a sell-by date...

But the idea that misery porn finds an audience unified by their shared vulnerability does tap into something important: that there’s ethical considerations that come with the genre. It’s a rhetoric that all the chatter around A Little Life comes to time and time again. Namely, is it okay to use trauma as entertainment? Or is it veering on the voyeuristic side of things? It’s a hard line of argument to pursue – you start getting bogged down with whether anyone can tell someone else if their art is appropriate – but it’s arguable that there’s a time and a place for misery porn. A landmark work of the genre, for example, might be something like Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. That feels off the table in terms of its supposed “value” as misery porn, because it was so seminal in exploring women’s mental health. The same might go for something like Ava Duvernay’s limited series When They See Us, which dramatised the events surrounding the central park five. It’s horrible to watch, but we need to see that.

Beyond that – and this is most definitely a ‘me’ problem – there’s something annoying about the inherent competitiveness of misery porn. The hordes of tweets with suicidal ideation and increasingly obscure clips… They’re grating. As it is when someone obnoxiously sniffs during the final moments of The Iron Claw. That’s no-one’s fault, per say. Directors like Andrew Haigh don’t set out to have their work diluted into a clip from Fleabag and the girl loudly weeping in the cinema is probably just responding to the Letterbox-ification of cinema in a broader sense. You haven’t watched a film unless it’s been recorded on an app, given an arbitrary rating… And sobbed because of it.

Where does all of this leave us? One thing’s for sure, and that’s that I don’t think we’ll see the back of misery porn anytime soon. That’s okay, though. These conversations are a testament to the fact that we’re increasingly conscious of who’s benefiting from the exploration of these hard-to-swallow subjects. With that, we might usher in audiences that find value outside the things that pluck at their heartstrings. While their online reception obscures it, there’s so much radical loveliness in films like The Iron Claw and a TV series like One Day. Both, in fact, are unified by their endeavour to represent the afterlife, which I’d argue is worth more merit than how much they make you cry...'

[rachaeljurassic]

OK folks, within the next 24 hours my video box is erasing two more episodes so I guess I'm watching them both today

🥳

I'm just really hoping this isn't me by the end of the day

Some brief thoughts though.

I REALLY hope that Phryne seeing Jack with somebody else has finally helped her sort out the emotions she's so obviously been avoiding thinking about or even acknowledging - it's funny how jealousy and devastation will do that.

AND my thoughts about Jack purposefully deciding to be with somebody else because of, well, I've decided he felt very guilty for not finding Concetta's husband's killer, and then they became close, and he kinda thought he really cared for her and it was his duty to make her happy because he had failed to solve the case and jeez Jack THAT IS NOT A REASON TO GET HITCHED 😡��‍♀️

Anyway, I am SO over that episode, obviously

😟

I don't think they CAN do such an emotionally charged episode again so soon. I mean, they wanted their audience actually ALIVE I assume!

But, onwards...

Is that Phryne coming in VERY late???

And looking a little unsteady on her legs

😆

OK, I'm sure she wasn't out with Jack because that would be WAY TOO SIMPLE AND NON TRAUMATISING

😣

Oooooo, I saw 'Collingwood' in the title, is this going to be about Phryne's past? Cool.

And mentions of the war, so maybe a whole past catching up with people episode. Still I am, as usual, getting ahead of myself

😂

Macccccccc

😍

Is Phryne going to be adopting another small child?

Oh Jack noticed the evening wear

🤨

And poor Paddy, jeez

😢

No Mac, don't go, you need to stay and roll your eyes at the Phrack nonsense

🥺

Oh Jack is getting NOWHERE, he is REALLY going to need Phryne on this one.

😁

Oh great, backstory for Phryne

🥳

"I thought you were cooperating with ME"

😂

As did we all, Phryne

[notwithout-mymuse]

Ok so how’s this for a ‘secret’ theory:

I’m probably utterly insane but still, humour me.

So… season 4 opens probably a few weeks after season 3 left off, with soft, domestic just-engaged, deliriously happy Tarlos. Insert this scene here:

I’m thinking a soft morning just-woke-up-together scene, but honestly it could be anything.

Later in the episode we see Carlos meeting Andrea for lunch mid-shift pre-frog apocalypse.

Only, what’s so important that she had to meet him while he’s in the middle of a shift? Maybe because she wanted to talk to him alone? (cause we all know off-duty Tarlos are joined at the hip).

Here, we get our first hint at the big secret. We realise that whatever it is, Andrea knows and is trying to convince Carlos that he needs to let TK in on the secret now that they’re engaged. Insert this line here:

Then, the conversation gets interrupted by the disaster of the week, and the audience is left wondering.

Sometime later we get excited TK in wedding planning mode, probably featuring a lot of this smug playful face:

Only this time, the audience senses that Carlos is hesitating, maybe thinking about his mother’s warning, but it’s not the time or place to have that conversation (and maybe disaster of the week part 2 is kicking off), so again the audience is left wondering.

Very much this scene from S2 kinda vibes, where Carlos (bless his cotton socks) thinks he’s being smooth and subtle in his deflections, but he’s really, REALLY not and TK starts to realise that something is up:

Then we skip ahead to this angsty-looking scene:

I mean, think about this from TK’s perspective, with his past and previous traumas. The show literally opened with him getting his heart broken over a marriage proposal. If this poor little poppet starts suspecting that Carlos is hesitating when it comes to them getting married, that’s gotta reopen a whole lot of old emotional scars.

I still can’t work out which order I think the two photos from this scene will fall, but either way I think it becomes - if not an argument - then at least a very emotionally charged conversation (in which we will charge Ronen and Rafa for our therapy bills after) where TK says something along the lines of ‘if you don’t want to marry me then just say so’.

And Carlos, unable to bear the thought that TK thinks he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life with him blurts out the truth:

He can’t marry TK. Not because he doesn’t want that with all his heart..

But because he’s already married.

BOOM. MIC DROP. RIP lone star fandom 2020-2023. Of course the ep ends on a cliffhanger so that we all have to suffer for a whole week without answers. Hence the “gasp-inducing revelation”.

HOWEVER (stay with me here) I don’t think it will be quite as straight-forward as like ‘oh here’s an ex boyfriend I never mentioned before and oops we got married’. For one thing, there doesn’t seem to have been anyone cast who would fit that role, and that would be the obvious route for the story to go, for TK to meet this ex - accidentally or otherwise because DRAMA. Also, how would Andrea know if TK is the first of Carlos’ partners that she has met?

But also, you know who has a role in all of this that we haven’t really been able to figure out yet?

Iris.

Again, stay with me here…

Given that we know that Carlos came out as gay at 17 and has never been suggested to be anything else, I’m pretty sure he would not have married Iris out of love.

However, Carlos has been presented as someone who cares deeply about the people around him, who will do anything to help someone in need, and who struggles with not being able to make things better for people.

So what if Iris didn’t need someone to marry her out of love. What if she needed someone to marry her because she was desperate?

Remember - the last time we saw Iris she was homeless, penniless, traumatised and extremely mentally unwell. But in the new stills she looks in much better health. So who has been making sure that Iris is taken care of financially - her unemployed sister? Her retirement-age mother? And we have no evidence that either of them are even still alive or around to help - if they killed Gwyn off why not Michelle - especially if Liv Tyler is definitely not coming back which looks likely.

So who has been paying what are presumably exorbitant medical fees? It’s not likely that she had medical insurance after living on the streets with no job. But what if she had a ‘husband’ - one with a stable job, decent income, and presumably good health insurance benefits?

Only it would have to be a secret, wouldn’t it?Because the marriage is fraudulent, and Carlos is literally an officer of the law.

Of course this makes me wonder about time frame (always a risky thing with shows like this), but I’m wondering if it happened during the Tarlos break-up era. If Carlos thought there was no chance of reuniting with TK - and lord knows the poor boy wasn’t moving on no matter what he said - then what would be the harm in pretend marrying a friend for a little while so that she could get help?

Nothing. Until TK comes back, and proposes of course!

And understandably TK would have grounds to be upset about Carlos not letting him know what was going on (which is what I think Carlos’ real ‘slip-up’ is, rather than the marriage itself) but given everything that happened after the reunion - with Gwyn dying, TK nearly relapsing, the Sadie drugging, Owen’s cancer scare and a building nearly crushing him - I can see why it might have been difficult to casually slip a sham marriage into the conversation!

Ultimately though, the solution is simple. If Iris is doing as well as she seems, then explain the situation, get the marriage annulled - problem solved!

Which is what I think this scene is about, given that everyone seems happy. (Side note: I think that the image of them in the same clothes where TK looks worried, and Carlos seems to be comforting him could be from before Iris arrives and TK is nervous about how she might respond).

But it’s all fine, she’s happy for them and they make arrangements.

Only, DUN DUN DUN plot twist! Something happens to Iris (probably linking back to some other plot that has been bubbling away in the background) and she goes missing/needs rescuing first:

Anddddd, that’s all I got.