#the Graham incident

[doctor-the-13th]

These cards have me dead. Thirteenth could also benefit from them.

[dailypacesetter]

DAY 86

[cheesy-bagels]

caesar after joshua graham failed to win the first battle of hoover dam:

(source: dayshift at freddy's)

[elvisqueso]

Kendrick has another track after 'not like us' mark my words: that was just the falling action and now we're waiting on the denouement

[hunterisnearme]

when will my crossover crimes end

[grahamcarmen]

[mylifeinfiction]

My Most Anticipated Books of 2024!

Each year, I plan on making an effort to read more of my favorite authors' backlogs. However, each year I also get caught up in the incredible slate of new releases I find myself needing to read. 2024 looks like yet another year that will find me building my reading schedule around my new-release library. These are the ones I’m most excited about, so far…

1. You Like It Darker by Stephen King

I'm not the biggest fan of short story collections. But, I'm a bigger fan of Stephen King than I am not a fan of short story collections, so, unsurprisingly, this is my most anticipated read of 2024... if only for Rattlesnakes.

2. Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

I’ve yet to read a Malerman that I haven't (at least) thoroughly enjoyed. And I'm already hearing amazing things about this one, whose story sounds genuinely terrifying.

3. The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones

I had some serious issues with My Heart is a Chainsaw, but overall really enjoyed the book, and was blown away by its ultra-violent climax. Don't Fear the Reaper corrected the issues and doubled down on the action and violence. Whatever he delivers with The Angel of Indian Lake is sure to be a pitch-perfect ending for the badass final girl that is Jade Daniels, and I can't wait to experience it with her.

4. I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

I get two Stephen Graham Jones books, this year?!? Awesome! This one sounds as fun as its gimmick sounds interesting.

5. All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

I adored We Begin at the End, and while I still haven't taken the dive into his backlog, I've been waiting for his next book ever since the moment I finished that one.

6. City in Ruins by Don Winslow

Excited to wrap up this crime trilogy, but dreading the fact that this is supposedly Winslow's final book.

7. The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

I really enjoyed The Devil and the Dark Water, and have had The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle for years (though I still haven't gotten to it). The premise and stakes in this one make me all the more excited.

8. Middle of the Night by Riley Sager

Riley Sager isn't a favorite, but he always seems to deliver books that are enjoyable, quick reads... so count me in.

9. The Queen by Nick Cutter

I've yet to read anything by Cutter, but have heard amazing things about The Troop and The Deep, and that's more than enough to get this one on this list. Hopefully I'll get to at least one of those two before this one drops.

10. Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

I've had major issues with Tremblay's endings of pretty much every book of his that I've read so far. I'm sure there's something better that could take this spot, but the premise here has this dorky cinephile ready to read. There's no doubt I'm either going to love this book or absolutely hate it!

These are definitely not the only books I’m excited for, this year. But the others have either somehow flown under my radar, or have simply not been announced yet.

What books are y’all most looking forward to in 2024?

Enjoy!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

[my-newest-obsession]

Hannibal and will go to therapy

[liberty1776]

Drone Incident Black Sea

Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio are fools! US still treats Germany as an occupied nation.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Jessica Wildfire

Our friends and family think they understand their immune system because George Carlin explained it to them in the 90s:

"Where did this sudden fear of germs come from? What do you think you have an immune system for? It's for killing germs. But it needs practice. It needs germs to practice on. If you kill all the germs around you, and lead a completely sterile life, then when germs do come along you're not going to be prepared. What are you gonna do? I'll tell you what, you're gonna get sick and you're gonna die and you're gonna deserve it because you're f-ing weak and you've got a f-ing weak immune system."

George Carlin was right about a lot of things, but he was wrong on this one.

(He got plastic wrong, too.)

Unfortunately, this part of his 11th HBO standup special became permanently lodged into the American cultural memory. I only saw it once as a kid, but it stayed with me for the rest of my life.

Not even AP Biology could dislodge it.

I, too, used to think you built your immune system up by exposing yourself to harmful germs. How could the great prophet George Carlin be mistaken on something that made so much intuitive sense, especially when you dropped a few f-bombs in there? I also thought it was a good thing to exercise your way through a cold. Then I opened myself up to the possibility that I was wrong.

In the words of Carl Sagan, I'd been bamboozled.

In early 2020, this Carlin bit inspired countless reaction videos that still litter the internet. Anti-science zealots have used George Carlin's monologue on disease thousands of times over the last four years to ridicule masks, vaccines, and clean air. Everywhere you look, that piece of standup looms in the background, and it's getting revived again for bird flu. But even George Carlin got the idea from somewhere else.

You can trace this misguided notion back to hygiene theory, proposed by David Strachan in 1989. Strachan argued that a whole range of health problems in the late 20th century had roots in "a lower incidence of infection in early childhood." Basically, our immune systems weren't getting enough exposure to bacteria and viruses. He was mainly talking about the rise in childhood allergies as the result, but the media began printing loose interpretations of his studies and jumping to conclusions that less exposure to disease was a bad thing in general. So the public developed the idea that somehow getting sick was good for you. So began the myth of the "bored immune system" that needed practice in order to stay healthy. Gurus and quacks latched onto this idea. So did talkshows.

And then comedians...

It wasn't until 2003 that Graham Rook offered a more accurate description of the situation. As he explained, "microbes have evolved into an essential role in regulating our immune system... the microbes involved are not infections, but friendly microbes which make up our human microbiome. These are acquired by exposure to other humans or animals and microbiota from our natural environment."

This became known as the "old friends hypothesis."

The old friends hypothesis now serves as the dominant model for how microbes work with our immune system. According to immunologists, kids need to be playing outside more and eating fresher, healthier foods. That's what helps their immune systems.

Getting sick all the time just hurts them.

Like many debunked ideas, hygiene theory and the myth of the bored immune system have become entrenched. A couple of years ago, hygiene theory got repackaged as "immunity debt." Now Americans, Canadians, and many Europeans think they need to get sick to stay healthy. The elites have absolutely no problem with that. It saves them countless billions to let everyone continue thinking they're better off letting diseases run around in their cells.

So:

Your immune system doesn't work like a muscle. It doesn't get stronger the more it's exposed to different harmful germs.

It doesn't need practice.

Phillipp Dettmer gives a vivid, accessible breakdown of the immune system in his 2021 book, Immune. You can show it to any internet troll who brags about their knowledge of the immune system. Dettmer destroys misinformation, explaining how your adaptive immune system actually works, as well as your gut microbiome.

As many articles and books explain, your body has an innate immune system that already knows how to fight off pathogens. You can help your immune system by feeding it the nutrients it needs. (That's an entirely different article.) You can protect your immune system from pollution, cigarette smoke, and other toxins. But genetics determines a lot of your immunological makeup. You can be born with an immune system that doesn't work the way it should, and it's not your fault.

You also have an adaptive immune system that stores chemical blueprints of pathogens in memory T and B cells. According to a 2024 article in Nature, these cells respond better to specific pathogens your body has seen before. Those blueprints last only as long as your memory cells. Sometimes those cells mature and stay around for years, even decades. If they don't, then your body won't remember the pathogen.

Your body doesn't need exposure to viruses.

Your immune system responds to harmful microbes and it can develop memories from previous infections. Most of the time, those memories apply specifically to that specific strain, variant, or clade of the virus. For example, immune memory to one type of adenovirus or rhinovirus doesn't confer automatic, guaranteed protection against all of them, and there are hundreds.

Sometimes, cross-protection can happen, but it's limited and hard to predict. When it does, like with the original smallpox vaccine, it's a big deal. If that were easy, we would already have a universal coronavirus vaccine and wouldn't have to update flu shots every year. Most of the time, getting sick with one virus doesn't train your body to respond any better to other viruses, especially when those viruses aren't related.

Victoria's state department of health puts it very plainly:

"The immune keeps a record of every microbe it has ever defeated, in types of white blood cells (B-lymphocytes and T-lymphocytes) known as memory cells. This means it can recognise and destroy the microbe quickly if it enters the body again, before it can multiply and make you feel sick. Some infections, like the flu and the common cold, have to be fought many times because so many different viruses or strains of the same type of virus can cause these illnesses. Catching a cold or flu from one virus does not give you immunity against the others."

You can add Covid to that list.

Some research has suggested that because catching one virus activates your innate immune system, your body's broad layers of defense offer brief protection against other pathogens. Viruses also compete with each other, meaning that infection from one virus can ward off others. That's called viral interference. Neither option means your immune system benefits from exposure to viruses.

We can't explain all of the human immune system in a single post, but here's the point. It's way more complicated than George Carlin explained. There's a lot more going on. It's not as simple as training your immune system by giving it practice.

That's not how it works.

It just sounds good.

No credible doctor or immunologist recommends building your immune system by welcoming viral and bacterial infections into your life. The costs far outweigh the benefits. Many viruses exact a price on your body and your immune system. Getting infected over and over again makes you weaker, not stronger. Vaccines don't work because they give your immune system practice. They work because they allow your body to develop a memory of a pathogen without all the risk.

Many viruses, like the flu, often leave lasting damage even when your immune system fights them off. Your immune system actually does some of that damage itself by attacking infected cells. In the wake of flu, your entire body including your immune system needs time to recover. During that stage, you're vulnerable to opportunistic infections. Other viruses, like measles and ebola, disable your immune system and even wipe out memory cells.

That's also what Covid does, among many other things.

You can't develop full immunity to viruses that evade, attack, and disable large parts of your immune system. Sometimes you can develop partial immunity, but the virus still invades and still does damage every time. Just because you can recover from these infections, that doesn't mean you're better off afterward.

Think of it like this:

Your body already knows how to heal its skin and bones. You don't have to teach it how to do that by cutting yourself or breaking your arm.

As it happens, many westerners also think bones grow back stronger after they're broken and scar tissue is tougher than normal skin.

That's also false.

Scar tissue remains functionally deficient in many ways compared to uninjured skin. Broken bones form a temporary calcium callus that's stronger than ordinary bone, but it's eventually replaced.

These misguided ideas fit in a culture obsessed with tough love, the idea that abusing someone somehow builds their character. And while it might make you interesting, it's certainly not "good" for you.

Sometimes I wonder what George Carlin would think about having one part of a standup special used to endorse bad science and eugenics. I'd like to think he would have a problem with it.

There's a lot you can do to boost your immune system.

Getting sick isn't one of them.

[willgrahamscock]

Wow it feels like a lifetime since the spongussy incident, that and the mold bread are a trip down memory lane on Will Graham's Cock

historians are going to have an aneurism trying to make sense of this in the future cause none of those words should be remotely related but they are directly tied to me and this blog

[ghoulishcraving]

"whats controversial about eating moldy bread, i do it, its fine"

Let's be honest Hannibal is 100% a Tumblr girlie. He'd be in the trenches with us. He'd be posting his art of Will's butt. He'd run a hate blog for Tattle Crime. He shares our madness.

One time he leaves the app open on his iPad when Will visits and because of course Will sits at Hannibal's desk sometimes like it's his own, Will discovers the madness. He just scrolls through the Murder Husbands and the Hannigram tags with an increasing look of surprise on his face, like a trainwreck he couldn't look away from.

After a few quiet moments, Will just looks up and goes:

"Why do you follow a blog named willgrahamscock."

[in1-nutshell]

HELLO‼️ I hope you are safe and well with the hurricane and I'm so glad that I'm able to finally send a request so here it is‼️

There's not many rescue bots oneshots and I want to change that, so in Rescue bots theres human skater buddy with their head in the clouds leading them to getting into trouble frequently (like nearly getting hit by a car or just getting into the crossfire of the rescue bots shenanigans) and it's like to a point where the whole when they are out on a mission have to keep a spare eye/optic out for the little human‼️

I hope you'll be able to get to this before it's deleted or whatever, but still, I can't wait to see what you come up with for this concept. Thanks, and have a good day/night‼️

Introducing Danger magnet Buddy! love this concept!

Hope you enjoy!

Human Buddy the skater and a danger magnet

SFW, Platonic, Human Reader

RB

The Burns family had known about Buddy’s little quirks for years.

They were after all good friends with Cody throughout their childhood.

The kid had their head up in the clouds or down with their skates.

Luckily, Cody always seemed to find ways to get them back down to Earth.

Too bad there wasn’t much he could do about their terrible luck with dangerous situations.

They never mean to be in these situations, they just happen when they’re around.

It took a while for the Burns to finally understand it wasn’t their fault.

It was a small island, one was bound to get stuck in the crossfire at some point.

When the Bots arrived, Cody made sure to debrief them a bit about his friend’s tendencies.

Heatwave is convinced that Buddy is doing it for attention.

There is now way someone can be THAT unlucky.

Not even on this island.

Kade and him have little talks about Buddy being a ‘danger magnet.’

Kade: “You think they are doing it for attention?” Heatwave: “Isn’t it obvious? There’s no way they aren’t doing it for any other reason.” Kade chuckles. Kade: “We used to think that too… but after a few years of seeing their little dumb face around, you kinda start believing it.” Heatwave: “What do you mean?” Kade: “There a bit of a danger magnet.” Heatwave: “Why is that a magnet you have!?”

He does start believing the existence of ‘the danger magnet’ after a few missions where Buddy just showed up randomly.

Heatwave hates to see Buddy in the line of fire, especially when they have no control over it.

Always reminds his team to keep an extra optic out for the little skater.

Speaking of skates, Heatwave actually likes seeing Buddy skate around the bunker.

Especially when they show off some of their tricks.

Buddy is a bit oblivious to why Heatwave is so insistent to them staying with Cody on com job.

Chase and Boulder are confused.

Why does Buddy go to these dangerous places?

They aren’t durable enough to be so close to the danger.

Chase has a separate file on all of Buddy’s incidents.

Chief Burns: “Chase? You, okay?” Chase is typing on a data pad. Chase: “I am simply reporting Buddy’s latest incident on today’s rescue. Today they were stuck in the same tree as Mister Pettypaws… I still wonder how they got up there with their skates…” Chief Burns: “Oh, don’t think too hard about that Chase. That’s just how Buddy is.” Chase: “Do they like danger?” Chief Burns: “No, they just have a bad record of being in places at the wrong time.” Chase: “… I can try to clean their record if you allow me access to them.”

Boulder takes a more direct approach and asks Buddy why they keep going towards danger.

Buddy just shrugs and goes back to their skates.

The green mech decides to ask the others about Buddy’s behavior instead.

Boulder: “Is something wrong with them?” Graham: “Nothing’s wrong with them Boulder.” Boulder: “Then how come they always seem to be near our dangerous missions? Even Cody doesn’t do that too often.” Graham: “When you’ve known them as long as we have, you start believing the phrase ‘wrong place and the wrong time.’ We can’t exactly explain it, but the best we can do is look out for them. No one can control what happens outside Boulder.” Boulder: “Hmm… I guess you’re right.” Later… Chase and Boulder look at their creation with pride. Buddy is wrapped head to toe with bubble wrap. Buddy: “How am I gonna skate like this?” Chase: “Sacrifices must be made Buddy.”

The pair find Buddy’s skating to be interesting and a bit relaxing… as long as Buddy has the proper safety equipment on them.

 Buddy doesn’t like the ‘creative’ ways the bots are trying to keep them ‘safe’, but the thought is what counts.

Blades, unlike the others, fully understands the phrase ‘wrong place, wrong time.’

But he also believes an outside force is making Buddy go to these dangerous places.

Already has a bulletin board with the red string trying to figure out what could be making the little skater go to these places.

Blades shows the board to the rest of the bots. Blades: “I’m telling you guys! There’s a connection somewhere!” Heatwave: “… How long have you been working on this?” Blades: “Not important.” Chase: “Blades, is it highly unlikely that something is making Buddy do these things.” Blades: “But if you see what happened last month and 5 months ago—” Boulder: “Blades, when was the last time you recharged?” Blades: “Not important.” Heatwave: “I’m calling Dani.” Blades: "Wait don’t!”

He just doesn’t want Buddy to get hurt by being in places they aren’t supposed to be.

Blades has a separate med kit in his subspace labeled ‘Buddy’s’.

The bot loves Buddy’s skates and has already asked Doc Greene if he could make a pair for him.

Heatwave has tried to stop him from getting these skates too many times to count.

He isn’t known for being the best with balance.

Buddy enjoys Blades making little videos and changing music while they skate around.

[woso-dreamzzz]

Caro

Pernille Harder x Hardersson!Reader

Caroline Graham-Hanen x Hardersson!Reader

Part of The Big Adventures Universe

Summary: The vending machine incident

The day of the incident begins like any other.

Momma wakes you up and dresses you in your you-sized green Harder jersey. She brushes your hair and serves you breakfast around getting ready for training.

You get bundled into the car and driven to practice where you have a second breakfast and essentially have free reign so long as you're in Momma's eyeline.

Practice is cool today and you get to run after stray balls, catching them in your hands and kicking them back to the nearest girl.

It's during one of Momma's media thingies that you wander off. She's sitting in front of a camera with a man speaking to her. You're sitting behind it, playing with your soft toys.

You're still very little, unable to do most things except walk and sometimes make noise. But you still have your opinions and you know that you passed one of those big black things that you press and get food out of.

You're half-dressed, having wiggled out of your shoes, socks and shorts so you manage to slip through the door in just one of Momma's long Wolfsburg jerseys and your nappy.

You stand in front of the big black thing, staring at all the snacks waiting for you. You're not tall enough to press on the buttons that Momma lets you do when she holds you so you try to stretch to reach.

"y/n?"

You turn at the mention of your second name. Momma and Morsa always call you 'princesse' so you suppose that y/n is your second name like how Momma's is Harder.

It's Caro.

Momma says she's from Norway which is kind of near Denmark but you can't like her in the same way that you're not allowed to like Morsa sometimes because she's from Sweden.

You think Caro's cool though because sometimes she wears a different jersey that's a colour that you don't know the name of yet but know you really like.

You blink up at her.

"Where's Pernille?" She asks you, knowing that you can understand her.

You ignore the question though and point at the big black thing. "Want."

"This one's broken."

You recognise that word and stamp your foot. "Want!"

She sighs, glancing back around before scooping you up. Caro's one of the people who's always a bit stiff holding you but you're happy in her arms, sucking at her shirt collar.

She carts you off up a set of stairs and down another corridor before you end up in front of the next big black thing. She fishes something out of her pocket and feeds it to the machine.

"What did you want?"

"Dat!" You say, pointing at a packet of crisps.

Caro lets you press the right buttons before sitting on the floor next to the big black thing and holding you between her legs.

You munch happily on your food, offering some to Caro which she graciously declines.

"Princesse!" There are calls of your name.

It sounds a bit like Momma so you grunt and go to move away.

Caro catches you around your stomach to keep you in place. Momma comes careening down the corner, tears dripping down her face as she crashes into you.

She does a silly kind of knee slide thing that crushes you between her and Caro - who looks just as surprised about the impact.

"Where did you find her?" She asks Caro before turning to you," Did you get lost, princesse? Did somebody take you?"

You don't answer, more preoccupied with kicking your legs out as Momma tries to slip your shorts back onto you.

"She was just by the vending machine," Caro says calmly," She wanted a snack. The one she was at was broken. I didn't want her to start crying."

"And no one was around her? Nobody took her?"

"Not that I could see."

Momma breathes out a deep breath, pulling you firmly into her body as soon as she's wrestled you back into your shorts. "You can't wander like that," She tells you though she knows that you're either not listening or not comprehending her," You could have gotten hurt."

You ignore her, staring up at the big black thing again and then back down at your empty crisps packet. You point. "Want!"

[literaryvein-reblogs]

are there any tips you have on writing a stockholm syndrome relationship?

Writing Notes: Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome - A mental and emotional response in which a captive (e.g., a hostage) displays seeming loyalty to—even affection for—the captor.

The captive may come to see law enforcement or rescuers as the enemy because they endanger the captor.

The name derives from the case of a woman who was held hostage in 1973 during a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, and became so emotionally attached to one of the robbers that she broke her engagement to another man and remained faithful to her former captor during his prison term.

Coined by Swedish psychiatrist and criminologist Nils Bejerot (1921–1988).

Psychologists who have studied the syndrome believe that the bond is initially created when:

a captor threatens a captive’s life,

deliberates, and then

chooses not to kill the captive.

The captive’s relief at the removal of the death threat is transposed into feelings of gratitude toward the captor for giving him or her life.

As the Stockholm bank robbery incident proves, it takes only a few days for this bond to cement, proving that, early on, the victim’s desire to survive trumps the urge to hate the person who created the situation.

The survival instinct is at the heart of the Stockholm syndrome.

Victims live in enforced dependence and interpret rare or small acts of kindness in the midst of horrible conditions as good treatment.

They often become hypervigilant to the needs and demands of their captors, making psychological links between the captors’ happiness and their own.

Indeed, the syndrome is marked not only by a positive bond between captive and captor but also by a negative attitude on behalf of the captive toward authorities who threaten the captor-captive relationship.

The negative attitude is especially powerful when the hostage is of no use to the captors except as leverage against a third party, as has often been the case with political hostages.

Survivors of Stockholm syndrome report developing positive feelings toward their captors despite the threat to their lives (Graham et al., 1995).

Stockholm syndrome is a form of trauma bonding. However, while both involve a paradoxical attachment to a source of harm and fear, trauma bonding is more commonly rooted in repeated abusive interactions (Dutton & Painter, 1981), whereas Stockholm syndrome emerges from acute, life-threatening captivity (Graham et al., 1995).

By the 21st century, psychologists had expanded their understanding of the Stockholm syndrome from hostages to other groups, including victims of domestic violence, cult members, prisoners of war, procured prostitutes, and abused children.

The American Psychiatric Association does not include Stockholm syndrome in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

POSSIBLE CAUSES. It is not completely understood why Stockholm syndrome happens. Some researchers suggest that it is a survival mechanism in which further harm is mitigated by the victim showing compliance and gratitude. Another theory states that a victim’s gratitude is established after their abuser or captor perpetuates fear without actually harming the victim.

IN FICTION. Given its shaky origins and lack of clinical recognition, Stockholm Syndrome is part of the field of pop-culture, not the field of psychology.

In fiction, the idea of a captive falling in love with their captor is a popular one, and has been since long before the 1973 Norrmalmstorg robbery.

Many of these stories feel forced, starting with captivity and jumping straight to love.

The most realistic depictions include not only the kindnesses, but also the extended time needed, and clear isolation from outside influences.

Some Related Tropes

Abduction Is Love: The invoked version, where someone does a kidnapping with the goal of forming a relationship with their captive.

A Match Made in Stockholm: Two people end up becoming lovers or friends after one kidnaps the other.

Conditioned to Accept Horror: A character who is conditioned to accept a rather horrible, disturbing fate in life does so with a smile on their face.

Love Martyr: Showcase the kind of pure and selfless love that can bring out the good side in even the most damaged and embittered people.

Happiness in Slavery: Bob is in servitude to Alice, but doesn't want freedom, and is not brainwashed. There are 4 types of this:

Beloved Servant: Bob is appreciated and rewarded by Alice, who is probably a Sympathetic Slave Owner, and stays loyal because of this. However, he still either cannot leave or cannot imagine leaving. Can overlap with Property of Love and/or Undying Loyalty tropes.

Cringing Bootlick: Bob is treated like dirt by Alice, but is still loyal, due to a debt of gratitude, masochism, hope for reciprocation on Alice's part, suffers from Stockholm Syndrome, or simply doesn't know any better.

Cultural Values Dissonance: Bob belongs to a species whose Hat is Happiness in Slavery, they both belong to a culture with a Fantastic Caste System, or they need to have a Master for some reason. Bob may also be Born into Slavery and unable to imagine any other life.

Slavery Is the Lesser Evil: Bob finds slavery better than any condition he can find in freedom, either easily or at all.

Examples

Animal Farm: Mollie the mare deliberately leaves the farm and returns to the service of humanity in exchange for sugar and ribbons. According to the bird scouts, she seems to be happy with her life.

A Song of Ice and Fire: Daenerys abolishes slavery in the cities she'd conquered, and is shocked to find many of the ex-slaves trying to sell themselves back to the trader ships for sale elsewhere. It's explained that most of them are skilled or educated and would be treated well, while the city is now full of starving people and at risk of becoming a Wretched Hive. The Unsullied also have difficulty with the idea of not serving anyone and keep working for her — basically, they’re grateful Daenerys freed them, and in return serve her loyally — although they do appreciate the benefits of semi-freedom. Like being allowed to have their own names. Many of the pit-fighters also point out that now they're free their living standards are much worse then when they were slaves.

Beauty and the Beast has Beauty agree to stay with the Beast because he threatened to kill her father for stealing one of his roses if she didn't take his place and she, of course, falls in love with him — which was the Beast's secret intention all along, as he needed a woman to love him to break his curse. Whether or not this could qualify as Stockholm Syndrome varies from telling to telling, though it should be noted that almost all tellings have the Beast willingly let Beauty go back to her family at some point and she doesn't come back to him (and in some cases, even forgets her promise to return within a set time) until she learns his life is in danger. It should be noted that the original audience of "Beauty and the Beast" and related tales would likely understand the story as an allegory about arranged marriages rather than anything we would recognize as Stockholm Syndrome. The moral would likely be interpreted as a physically undesirable husband (as he was likely to be older than the bride) could still be kind and gentle.

Classical Mythology: Apollo saw the nymph Cyrene wrestling with a lion that had attacked her father's sheep. Impressed by her strength, he fell in love with her and kidnapped her to Libia. There he founded a city in her name and made her its queen. Together, they had two sons — Aristaeus and Idmon.

The Phantom of the Opera: The Phantom brings the opera singer Christine Daae down to his home in the basement of the opera house. Here he tells her that they are going to live their lives together as husband and wife. After some time, he decides that she can come and go when she wants to, and she comes back multiple times without him forcing her to because of her Sympathy for the Devil. It is only at the end of the book, where The Phantom has kidnapped her in the middle of a performance and threatens to blow up the opera house if she doesn't marry him, that it gets really serious.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Choose which of these references and related tropes would be most appropriate to incorporate into your specific characters' relationship. Also included some examples you can use for inspiration. You can find more in the links above, hope this helps!

EDIT: Additional information with corrections on the topic here. Thank you to @shewriter for sharing!

[mylifeinfiction]

My Best of 2024: My Top 10 2024 Books

1. All the Colors of the Dark (Chris Whitaker)

2. Incidents Around the House (Josh Malerman)

3. Lost Man's Lane (Scott Carson)

4. City in Ruins (Don Winslow)

5. Memorials (Richard Chizmar)

6. I Was a Teenage Slasher (Stephen Graham Jones)

7. American Rapture (C.J. Leede)

8. You Like it Darker (Stephen King)

9. Evil in Me (Brom)

10. The Angel of Indian Lake (Stephen Graham Jones)

Note: This is out of the 47 2024 releases that I read throughout the year.

Thank you all so much for reading/sharing/etc. Here’s hoping 2024 is full of good things and great books!

Happy New Year!!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.