#Sfth mark

[i-may-be-an-emu]

Ok I have thoughts about Mark and his dad.

(Warning probably kinda dark/heavy stuff, pretty much what was in the play)

ok so (this might be long)

We know that Marks mother died and it’s alluded to that Marks father was responsible because he was DUI and crashed.

The play is set in New Jersey, and if that’s where this occurred then the charge for vehicular manslaughter while DUI is apparently 5-10 years in prison (plus a fine I believe) (Let’s say 10 years for plot reasons >:))

Marks father mentions that Mark lives with him, but also that he was 7 at the time of the incident.

Surely Mark would have gone to live with family or been put into foster care, and probably had a lot of complicated feelings about his father- so how did he end up living with him after he got released?

Personally I’ve been thinking that Mark just felt responsible for his father, he was notified that he got released, went and picked him up and then took him home so that he could live with him.

I wonder if the guilt of what marks father had done, killing his wife and leaving his son without parents, had taken a toll on his mind. I wonder if when he got out of prison if he was a wreck or if he was doing better, but slowly it crept back up on him.

I wonder if Mark had gone to visit him when he was a kid and hated his father for what he’d done, or if he’d even understood it at all. Maybe he went when he was little, confused and scared because his father who’d always been drunk and possibly abusive was now locked away. He was told he had to go visit him because he was his father, but maybe he didn’t want to. Maybe when he started to understand it all as he got older he stopped going, and then when his dad got out he was the one who reached out to Mark.

Maybe Mark actually ignored him. He was 17 and hated the man for what he’d done and how he’d acted, and now he wanted to be back in his life?

I like to think that by this point Mark was living on his own, dropped out of school and got a job to support himself to get out of whatever situation he’d been put in.

Maybe his father guilt tripped him. Telling him he had to care about his father- they were blood! Telling him he should care for him because he’d sacrificed everything by going to prison when really it was Marks fault. Telling him lies until he caved and let him stay with him.

Then his father turned back to alcohol, Mark tried to stop him, pouring bottles down the sink. But it wasn’t any use.

And now he’s stuck, trapped back with the man who he never wanted to see again and living half believing that he was the reason for everything that had happened.

idk it just. makes me think :)

[solo-walker]

Mark. I have so many thoughts about Mark. A boy growing up with an alcoholic for a father (he still hasn't stopped. Perhaps he can't, thinks Mark. Or won't). He turns to the local priest, seeking solace, but finds more jibes. More ridicule. More reminders of the fateful day when he failed to stop his father from getting behind the steering wheel. It's his fault, isn't it? Who cares if he was seven, he was already holding the tattered household together, he should've been more forceful, should've scolded and fought and gently guided his reeling father back inside should've done more but he didn't. He couldn't. He failed them and all he had to show for it was a coffin and his father's racous voice calling his name and a scar he swore he'd never let anybody touch because he'd be damned if he let anybody ignore him the way his father had when he'd spoken up, asking him, pleading him, to get out of the car. He'd be damned if he ever let anybody make him feel that powerless and small ever again.

Mark is such a great character and such a great example of how one's childhood affects one's behaviour as an adult. I love how you can see the traces and effects of the incidents of his childhood and his upbringing in his behaviour in the play. I love how you can see him try to deal with his problems but in all the wrong ways. Because he needs to hear an apology. He just needs his father to own up and say “i'm sorry”, to say, “it wasn't your fault, it was mine”.

But he ends up seeking this sense of closure through Clarissa.

[artstantpansies]

clarissa suzanne/mark/amanda designs i frantically did yesterday :3 featuring kinda gelphie coded clamanda

[h3adph0nez]

I just felt like making a venn diagram for this thought

[fireat-will]

I love the rare AJ and Luke kisses because AJ always goes for a dip and it's so fun and dramatic

[instantpansies]

cannot BELIEVE clarissa suzanne fumbled a dyke so hard. couldn't be me.

[letsbesharkfriends]

oh wow. this freeze tag. they were chaos menaces as usual

[boviform]

Shoot From The Hip + AO3 Tags, Part 6

(Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

[thecoppersoulbox]

Gotta say, it’s fun to see AJ playing an Everyman type of character, I feel like that’s not something we see very often. Like when Mark answered the phone I had a moment of “oh yeah he is just like. A guy huh. A guy who got dealt a bit of a shitty hand.” Meanwhile everyone around him is falling apart over this DIY wedding and all the other shit they got going on.

[oosyerdad]

If I had a nickel for every time AJ assigned himself the title character only for there to be confusion when the other player wants to be that character I’d have two nickels!

(I firmly believe he wanted to be Clarissa and not mark, kind of like in Susan’s Holiday when he wanted to be Susan but ended up as the best friend)

[pulchrasilva]

amanda-centric fic about her exploring polyamory with clarissa titled after the line about clarissa suzanne being blessed with two names but only one heart

[solo-walker]

Since the nutcracker theory by @instantpansies keeps me up at night, and the popular theory that the Silver Line is a sort of perceived 'safe haven' for children looking to escape their realities...

I've been wondering.

I've been wondering how easy it would have been for a young Mark to unknowingly slip into the Silver Line's clutches. How he could have found himself on the platform after that fateful accident, boarding the train as though automated. How he could have blissfully felt the memories grow fuzzy at the edges, every taunt, every shout, and the sound of the awful crash muffled. It would be nice to stay here, wouldn't it?

I've been wondering how easy it would have been for a young Mark to meet a certain girl on that train. She asks him his name. He cannot remember. Neither can she. How long has it been? It's hard to say. She looks scared. She tells him to leave while he still can. He wonders why he would want to do such a thing. He sits down. Buys a ticket.

I've been wondering how Mark may have felt the train carriages collapsing, the world dissolving as a portal seemed to make the tunnel collapse in on itself. I've been wondering if he found himself on a pavement somewhere, struggling to remember his own address. Had he fallen asleep there? He walks home. His father hasn't noticed he was gone. How long has it been?

And I wonder if many years later, he looked across at a group of girls and saw a certain face. A certain pair of eyes that looked back at him, widening slightly. He does not know why he walks over, introduces himself. And he does not why she looks at him with such wonder as he says his name. There's nothing surprising about being able to recall one's own name, is there? Mark brushes the matter aside.

How long has it been?

[fellator]

ik amanda got so drunk in the reception party and said such embarrassing things in front of everyone. I know it in my heart.

[constellation-sapphic]

Man, I love Shoot From The Hip!

[ororthor-25]

Can I interest you in improv farmers yaois?

This is embarrassing, because the source material are just so unhinged, but I’m obsessed with them (and every thing SFTH did, really) to the point that I’ll simply fail as an artist if I don’t draw fanart of them, so I did. Anyway, I’m glad I found the fandom here, I don’t interact with people much, but more fanart to come (question mark, question mark?)

[friendofthesharks]

Initial thoughts on Clarissa’s DIY Wedding

- Holy fuck I just met her character and I’m already obsessed with Amanda. Tom is an unbelievably good person and it’s showing. I need a friend like Amanda immediately.

- Clarissa you dumb bitch

- DID TOM JUST STEAL SOMEONE’S WINE I’M CRYING

- Sam’s random side characters are my favorite part of this whole thing (besides Amanda I would die for Amanda)

- This church scene is a disaster. Give me fourteen of them.

- Is Sam’s brand in this longform just Absolute Asshole? Fantastic

- In fairness I also though AJ meant he was robbing Clarissa’s aging mother’s money

- Tom’s physical comedy is so underrated Amanda swallowing the ring has me rolling

- The return of the wine glass omfg I love Tom

- AJ. CAN. FUCKING. SING.

- A wedding to yourself…..and Amanda????? (manifesting sapphics so hard here)

- If there’s one thing Tom will do when playing opposite Luke it’s stand behind him and put his hands on his shoulders/biceps. Iconic.

- I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU AMANDA WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU

- Here for the return of Sam as Clarissa’s aging mother and Mark’s drunk father

- Drunk Lady becoming a whole character was not on my bingo card

- Oh damn they’re really going for this kiss. Okay. Here for it. Luke’s bent over at a whole right angle. Slay.

Goddamn that was good. SFTH’s family dramas/romances are always their best longforms. Time to watch more shorts and try to forget that my country’s absolutely fucked. Ok bye.