#shadowy stories

[screamingeyepress]

Ever felt the pull of a shadowy city street? Noir fiction wraps readers in mystery and moral complexity. Check out this piece to learn why these tales still captivate:

Unmasking the Secrets of Noir and Hardboiled Fiction

By Lothar Tuppan

It’s Noirvember! Time to enjoy all things Film Noir, Roman Noir, Chocolat Noir, and Pinot Noir. Silly as that last sentence was, it does make plain that the French word “noir” just translates into English as “black.” So what exactly is “noir” in relation to cinematic (“Film Noir”) and literary (“Roman Noir”) fiction? What is its relationship with the, often associated, term “Hardboiled,” and what is its connections and relationship to Existentialism, Nihilism, and Philosophical Pessimism? This short essay is just a very brief introduction to a, surprisingly, complex topic. Whole books have been written on the subject (see bibliography below for some examples) and I encourage those who find the topic as fascinating as I do to pick them up.

[ask-ok-hero]

[gachagon]

Love your Eden’s Garden analyses my dude. Seriously, you’ve tackled aspects of certain characters I hadn’t even considered. I agree about Eloise being one of the blackened, girl is hiding nerves of steel behind a thin layer of shyness. I also think she’s gonna be connected to Desmond as the thing he guards and trusts the most (in reference to what was described in his blackmail). Upon further analysis, Desmond strikes me as someone who wants people to trust him, but has issues trusting others, outside of maybe Eloise. In a nutshell, he wants people to trust him without him putting his trust in other people. That’s his hypocrisy, in my mind at least.

I’m also gonna keep an eye on Grace in the chapter(s) going forward, in addition to Diana and Kai. Her silence after Eva’s execution speaks volumes. Mayhaps she’ll be going through a character arc? I feel like even SHE thought that execution was way too cruel.

On to my questions though! Out of curiosity, with what you’ve said about students’ deaths being linked to their hypocrisies, who do you think is the least hypocritical in the cast? By extension, who do you think is most likely to survive and/or die, at least within the next chapter or two?

Thanks so much lol I'm glad people ave enjoyed my thoughts so far and I've loved hearing everyone else's opinions and theories as well this whole week!

As to answer your question, I've got to say I think the "least" Hypocritical student so far is actually a controversial opinion of mine since I've noticed lots of people don't like his character T_T

It's Kai Monteago. (Note: I have NOT done everyone's FTE's yet but I'm gonna watch each one for this update soon!)

Now, this does not mean I don't think Kai lies or is a hypocrite, just that I think out of everyone on the cast so far he's the one who's the most honest about how he actually feels.

If Wolfgang is the most Hypocritical person because he hides everything he's feeling and doesn't let anyone know what he's actually thinking, then I think Kai is the least hypocritical out of the student body (minus Damon & Diana bc I think they're both being set up obviously as the protag and antag) because he's so honest about everything about himself and doesn't actually feel the need to hide his own insecurities, worries, fears, and anxieties.

Whenever anything goes remotely bad, Kai is always the first out of the cast to admit he didn't actually trust anyone, he's also the only one who's outwardly always wary of others and nervous. He just doesn't like thinking about the potential for someone murdering him or someone winding up dead. But it's pretty clear just from how he acts in his FTE's, trial, and body discovery that he not only doesn't trust anyone there but that he's not afraid to admit that openly when shit hits the fan.

For Kai, it seems like he's fully aware of the situation and thus knows that just agreeing with whatever the rest of the cast is talking about will keep him safe. He obviously is still a bit of a hypocrite because he's judging the ones who openly admit to not trusting other people, but he's also the first of the cast to always admit he had reservations about trusting them to begin with.

In a way, I can't exactly say Kai is a bad person because of his hypocrisy. He's only been an Ultimate for like 1-2 years, which is way less time than most of the student body. All of this is very new to him, he reminds me of Makoto in that sense where he was someone who would've never thought they'd be an Ultimate, or someone who became one by chance. Even the story he shares of how he became The Ultimate Influencer makes me believe that it really was just dumb luck that he got his title.

And he's only really falling in line because he obviously sees the way everyone treats you when you don't agree with the majority opinion, even if that majority opinion is rooted in rationality. In a way, it makes sense that Kai would act this way because he's an Influencer and has to deal with widespread groupthink about himself daily lol Any small action he did in the outside world was scrutinized and judged by an invisible audience, so now when he's in a situation like this he just goes with whatever will make the most people like him.

Though I can definitely see Kai breaking out of that kind of mindset the more he becomes friends with other people, and now that Wolfgang is gone, I definitely think the rest of them will act more freely instead of looking towards a leader of sorts. This is also why I think Kai will be the "support" character for Damon that we thought Eva would be. Kai is the one person left now who's wholly honest about himself, meaning he and Damon can become friends quicker that way and potentially work on investigations.

Also the two of them have very similar talents in the sense that "anyone could do this". But their ideas about their talents are swapped. Someone mentioned earlier that they think Damon might hate being a Debater or that he has some kind of insecurity rooted in the fact that he's a Debater. And I kind of agree. Where as Kai is wholly proud of his title as the Ultimate Influencer, Damon is very insecure about being seen as the Ultimate Debater and makes up for it with a big ego.

He doesn't let anyone look down on him for being an internet personality, and doesn't let lies about his past or things people wouldn't know about anyways (like the scandal he mentions in his FTE) get to him. But Damon flounders when someone even remotely challenges the idea of his talent being "useless" to society. In truth, the both of them are like foils and will probably be paired more often especially since they share a room together.

[themintman]

Cracking open a cold one with the boys before we hit the sea temple

[jarofworms]

check your halloween candy this year!!!!! someone tried to hide VOIDMARROW in this candy bar!

[rexbalistidae]

I love ghost stories dub 🙏

Joan looking through an old box she found in the attic..

Sigh obligatory tags @lesbiansupavillain ur fault @autistic-haven ur fault

[crowlore]

i remember it used to be a bit of a fandom pet peeve of mine that some people would forget that the gung ho guns and eye of michael were two separate groups with some membership overlap but then stampede came along and made the eom into a project of conrad’s backed by knives. another example of how the reboot feels like bad fanfiction.

[froggychair05]

More screenshot re-draws! Possible Bee and Puppycat spoilers:

Originals:

[potatochip-oc-dump]

what if we were both lonely

[clegfly]

Small thing I’m cooking for idksomethingclever99’s fic MITPP!! For some reason I’m having trouble tagging them but here’s the fic!!

This seemed fun to do… probably won’t get more done than this page though…

[katiethedane12]

Random sketches that mean absolutely nothing and I have no clue in this world what they are (meaning I was bored)

[carefulfears]

thinking about mulder and scully on the run, traveling from motel to motel like they did for years, hiding instead of seeking. moving from place to place when there is nowhere that is free of haunting; there is nowhere that they haven’t been already, nowhere they haven’t suffered already, nowhere they haven’t almost died already. migrating through memories in reverse. a cemetery in oregon, a bench in pennsylvania, a ghost town in georgia; the country a constellation of lost time, of something they were building that ended in nothing.

[sh1-n0bu]

managed to unlock intimacy lvl4 story of calcharo and brb i need to sob

[dndtreasury]

Twilight Phantom (Set) by Dragons & Stories

[szilverer]

whenever a storyline takes me to parabola i always gotta take a second to remember all this cool shit ain't silvering, it's just regular glasswork. advanced glasswork sure but still just glasswork.

the more time passes the more i understand complaints about silverers being boring or lacking identity. from what i gathered parabola wasn't accessible back then, and the profession kinda lost charm when it opened up to everyone. (let's not even mention the entirety of oneiropomping.)

on the other hand, the same way everyone can dabble in advanced correspondence shenanigans, that doesn't make them a professional. and thinking about it i haven't really seen the same complaints about correspondents. but maybe they're out there and i just haven't stumbled on them?

i still think silverers are wicked sick from what it's implied that they can do but. FL rly doesn't do much pushing further the more unique aspects of the profession, or providing unique choices (i can really only think of the fathomking option.) that might be a problem with all professions though so idk rly but my point stands that there's missed potential here

speaking of which. it's a travesty we don't have social actions regarding nightmares. @/fbg come on.

[czolgosz]

going from the laboratory in my beautiful main account where everything is a 74%+ chance to a name signed with a flourish in my evil side account where everything is a 56% chance maximum is so sad