#nol who just spent 20 mins in his head talking to a dead corporal and rubbing the electric burns left on his back from shellshock treatment:

[newty]

i Have to know what wwi au duck hunt is about??

duck hunt is one of the more complicated ones--i wrote it back in college and began rewriting it a year and a half ago?? it's a climactic insane moment where elliot confesses to nol and i wanted to shape it up bc it feels like this the entire way thru

theyre wandering around in the fields nearby the psychiatric hospital nol is a patient at. hes very comfortable in nature with his rifle, looking for things to kill, while eli is worriedly tagging along w an umbrella

nol kills a couple ducks and collects them, making him even more brainlessly content w himself. it starts pouring and nol leads them to a gazebo beside a heavy river w a bunch of canoes

they have this tense, awkward talk abt eating and food, then nol decides he wants to swim bc hes already wet and he's still riding this weird, unthinking high of feeling in his element. elliot's like, no wtf

so nol grabs him and runs across the canoes like a plank bridge until one inevitably shifts and knocks them into the river. eli panics, and nol yanks them back to the shore.

theres a huge physicality to the water eli gets dragged from, the shore pebbles he gets pulled onto, nol's hands on him and nol's body above his to shield him from the rain. this is not making eli feel any better, and hes like 'fml never do that again sir'

the convo becomes 'why do u call me sir. its weird.' / bc i respect u / 'no u dont. theres smth wrong w ur respect.'

so eli just explodes like yeah!! there IS smth wrong w it!! and wrong w me!! and im gonna just spell it out in the most convoluted way bc im frustrated and afraid!!

so nol sits there with a single dead braincell. barely understands any of it. and comes out of the convo with a Sinking Suspicion that being institutionalized for several manic breakdowns in Not the worst thing wrong with him, and perhaps he is in love w this medic thats been bullying him across the somme offensive

eli sits there w a braincell that feels like its being pinned to a torture table. nol tells him to go back to town, but hes like 'mmmm no' bc maybe he'd rather feel like a prey animal abt to be killed by a machisimo madman than be alone. so nol hands him a dead duck like. 'k. ur good at taking bullets out so'