#to burt. in some ways they still do. he believes that love is still a part of him

[consultingfujoshi]

inspired by this post by @king-wens-king that says if burt recorded that retirement video after finding out about his innie's "entanglement" then he was saying goodbye directly to the person he'd fallen in love with and I couldn't stop thinking about it

[athetos]

Some thoughts from severance s2e3, and the season in general:

I 100% assumed the reason the goat people were asking to see their bellies was to see if they had belly buttons. Since the prevailing theory is that the goats are for cloning purposes, i figured they wanted to make sure they weren’t clones (clones not having belly buttons because they weren’t birthed/have need for an umbilical cord). If we take the pouches line at face value, I’d guess that they were told a rumor that MDR had pouches, to sow division and fear between the departments (like the fake uprising told to MDR about O&D, and vice versa).

The Export Floor. The fact that O&D used to deliver things there themselves, but then a courier was used. My theory is that someone saw something there they shouldn’t have. I don’t know how o!Irving knows about it, but I’m not here to discuss that right now. What I want to talk about is the name. The obvious one is exporting goods (or even ideas) to other countries, and this could simply mean it’s where stuff made by O&D gets sent up to the ‘outtie’ world. But there’s another possibility - export as in transferring data to another software/format. I think it’s this meaning that is critical, and has big implications for Gemma/Ms. Casey. They could be transferring the data MDR has refined to her chip, or in some way or another, working on “Cold Harbor.”

I am very firmly in the ‘that’s Helena’ camp now. I don’t think this is in character for Helly, as the extremely awkward conversation in the hall with Mark as well as telling Irving they ‘got him’ sealed it for me. I’m fairly certain that management knows it’s Helena; after all, they don’t activate her chip, although I won’t rule out she paid someone off/threatened them to do it. That said, I like to believe she compromised with the board to go down as herself, instead of as Helly. This would also mean that she can encourage Mark to go places that Lumon specifically wants him to see, instead of ones that are much more confidential. However, I think she’ll end up siding with the innies by the end, simply because the connections she will forge with them will be the only genuine and loving relationships in her life.

I didn’t mention this before, but i’m pretty sure Irving knows that Helena/Helly is lying, because he was the only innie who spent enough time outside to know that it was winter and she couldn’t have been gardening. He distrusts her, that’s why he only told Dylan about Burt.

Upon immediately seeing Dylan’s wife I assumed she was a hired actress. However it genuinely appears to be her (granted, I’m faceblind, but the voice sounded the same when she was with his outtie later in the episode). Lumon clearly thinks that this perk will keep i!Dylan in line, but I think it might backfire spectacularly, or at least cause significant drama - his wife is going to fall in love with his innie. Think about it, if their marriage is going through a rough patch, and she gets to spend time with a version of her husband who lacks all of the assumptions/grudges he has against her - basically starting all over… yeah, it’s gonna get strange. The way she talked about it to o!Dylan was like she was hiding it from him, almost like it’s the beginning of a potential affair…

(I also am still of the mind that either she or one of their children is terminally ill in some way, hence the benefits/insurance that Dylan is always looking after. He also complained a few times about having sore arms and jokes he works out. I feel this might be related somehow? But not sure…)

I stand by my theory that the board is actually the motherboard and is Kier’s (and his successors?) consciousness, or something of that ilk. The board was referred to as “it” in this episode (also “they”, but I believe that was meant as in plural, including Natalie). So I think we actually don’t have any proof that it’s multiple people or even people period. It will be like the export double meaning I mentioned earlier. Again, the board is hot on Mark staying and working because it wants him to finish Cold Harbor so it can begin the revival of Kier’s family (the rotation could potentially mean their minds being uploaded. Or something of that nature.)

No big theories or details to chew on here, but things that got big reactions from me: the Black Kier portraits I was expecting but still not prepared for. I desperately want to see Natalie’s portraits that she received; were they all biracial, all women, or both? The idea of genderbent biracial Kier family is killing me. This is like Hamilton (I think). Cobel definitely was going to die if she went into the building, she made the right call, I was terrified that her car might explode as she left. Phew. Next episode is going to be a roller coaster, I can tell. Shocked that he’s starting reintegration so soon but I’m here for it. Worried that Devon is going to get murdered. And I’m waiting for Cobel to get hunted down by Mark or for her to willingly seek him out as she realizes this is her only chance left to… do whatever the fuck it is she wants to do.

[lesbiancolumbo]

Hi! I saw your posts about the swimmer and how interwined it was with burt’s life at the time, so i qas wondering what books/articles did you read about it?

this is the only essay i've really read on the swimmer (there are lots you can find out and about) and it's a great one - the Thing about burt is his body, his physicality, and this essay really breaks down what it is about him that continues to captivate people.

there's a fascinating snippet on the swimmer from one of david thomson's essays on sweet smell of success, which i won't link (since it's... yknow, about sweet smell of success) but will excerpt here for you.

The case of Burt Lancaster is more complex. He was married three times, and he had five children. But we are past believing that such credentials settle all interests. The best biography on Lancaster, deeply researched and written with care and respect by Kate Buford, does not believe he had an active gay life. That book was published in 2000. On the way to a celebration of its publication at Lincoln Center, I had dinner with an old friend, George Trescher, a man who did nothing to conceal his own homosexuality, and he assured me that in fact Lancaster had led a gay life. Later still, some documents were released from the F.B.I. and the Lancaster family that did not name names but that revealed that Lancaster had often been “depressed,” that he was bisexual, and that he had had several gay relationships, though never on more than a short-term basis. With that in mind, you might look at Lancaster’s strangest film, The Swimmer (1968), directed by Frank Perry and taken from a John Cheever story. It’s a fable about an apparent Connecticut success, Ned Merrill, who takes it into his head to swim home one summer Sunday by way of all the pools owned by his acquaintances. Cheever, who had a tormented gay life, watched the filming with awe and amusement, as Burt, at fifty-five, in simple trunks, made Ned’s way from sunlight to dusk and dismay. Why did they make that movie? you’ll wonder. Because Burt wanted to do it.

(emphasis mine)

i read this excerpt from the thomson article almost six years ago, and it's haunted and vexed me ever since. burt, who was in the midst of a prolonged and complicated divorce with the woman who had been his longest marriage and mother of all his children, who was terrified of the water and did not know how to swim prior to filming, who at the age of fifty-five let his entire body -- his Thing, remember -- hang out in display in a film about how denying the passage of time and denying your inner truth makes you crazy and ruins your life, who was described by the author of the short story as "very sexy and commanding in the girl scenes but half the time he looks as if he were going to cry", who insisted for the rest of his life that out of the entire body of his career, a career that inspired many, many hits and iconic films, that it was the swimmer that was both his best performance and his favorite of his films.

why? i ask myself this a lot. why? i love the swimmer, it's my second favorite of burt's performances and films, but it's such an oddity. thomson calls it the strangest of burt's films, and while i disagree, i think he's not far off. and yet it clearly moved burt in a way that none of us will ever know.

anyway, you didn't ask me to wax poetic about the swimmer, but i find it to be such a hauntingly beautiful piece of art and it always feels so personal. it is. because burt wanted to do it.

[bumblingbabooshka]

I love Milchick...I love how he seems incapable of not lying and manipulating other people (Sending Irving the 'You're gonna get murdered if you keep getting cozy with Burt' painting without informing Cobel beforehand is when he first got on my radar) and how he wants the innies to be treated better but it seems like he only wants that so they'll be more complacent and productive and everyone on every conceivable side (Innies, Outies, Families, Kier himself) hates him for whatever he's doing or not doing and no one respects him and yet he persists even when it's pretty clear that whatever he's doing isn't even effective anymore because I don't think he knows what else to DO. It paints a picture of someone who's dedicated himself to Lumon and who knows how Lumon says it would like him to act and has no backup in case that fails. What is Milchick's personality? Though we see him outside Lumon, we never see him not working. Really the only thing we can say for certain about Milchick is that he is an extremely hardworking, persistent, and (forcefully) patient person. (Forcefully = It's implied he has HAD to be patient with others in order to advance. Think of how comfortable Drummond was with disrespecting and belittling him.) I know some people want him to be a 'Good', Kind, Benevolent Guy who sees the Innies as his friends because of his Kindness Reform thing but I'm wary of that mentality bc I know if he's not a paragon of virtue it's going to lead to a lot of negativity because black characters aren't thought of as being complex and Human in the way white characters (think Cobel, Helena) are. I really do wonder what his life looks like. You could argue that the character he most closely resembles (other than Natalie, who at this point is more tertiary) is Helena - not in her enormous privilege but in her enforced emptiness. Cobel's life was consumed by Lumon-Business work but she also had the Religion-Kier and that horrific slight working to pull her away from it all and keep going when all was said and done. I separate Lumon & Kier because...in my opinion, though they're deeply intertwined, they do seem like two different heads on one beast. Cobel had a Kier shrine, not a Lumon one. Think of how much Cobel mentions Kier as opposed to Milchick. It's of COURSE different but I think of those who leave the church while still believing in God as an example of deeply intertwined yet still different. Both Helena and Milchick are shown to be emptier than other characters. They're alike in their total lack of...displayed personhood, despite Helena's assertion that she IS a person, not Helly. How much of what she says and does is through her own will? Then, Helena sees (through Helly) her body being daring and loved. This is when she splits away from Milchick, she has found Something Else. Milchick has nothing to divide him. There's the racism and disrespect he experiences at Lumon but he's lived under that for maybe his entire life. Does he even believe in Kier? What I'm saying is that there's no other grass he can see. Cobel can dream of burning Lumon down for what they did, Helena can dream of a romance with Mark, Milchick has NOTHING without Lumon as far as we know right now. I've seen some people be of the opinion that "Milchick chose this, if he hasn't pulled away by now then let him suffer" but I don't think that's correct. I don't think it's incomprehensible or indicative of him being Evil. Think of Miss Huang, who in one episode says they shouldn't treat the innies as Human and in the next apologizes to Dylan, near tears. Think of Cobel who treats Mark like a science experiment/stupid child yet also says she cares for him. To me Milchick is a very mysterious character. Friendly and frigid, polite and unsettling. I want to know about him!! I want to see a bit of his true face and I'm sure it'll be ugly in the way many Severance characters are. And also beautiful, in the same way.

[lesbianalanwake]

Severance S2E2:

--holy shit. I see why the season is 10 episodes instead of 9. two episodes to resolve the S1 finale and wind up to the pitch. there was so much legwork in this episode, and so much tension that I could barely sit still.

--I hope they paid Milchick a big overtime bonus in addition to his new salary!!! man did all that in 48 hours!!!

--Mark and Devon.... Mark being in denial about the possibility that Mark S could have been talking about Gemma, when we later see that it's been weighing on him heavily and he needed to talk to Cobel to confront it. it's such a small, small hope.... if he believes in the possibility that Gemma is alive, and it turns out that she is not, it would destroy him completely, and he's already come so close to destroying himself while grieving the first time. but Devon! Devon is so sharp! she knows her brother, and she glimpsed a younger, lighter version of her brother that she hasn't seen in a long time, and she clocked his tone and body language and everything about the situation correctly! and she can't live with the unanswered question of whether Gemma could be alive, because she misses her sister-in-law and misses who her brother used to be! she can't stop thinking about it while Mark is doing everything in his power to not think about it! aaaaah!

--Cobel bookending this episode by being as unhinged and mysterious as ever. we don't even know if she accepted the advisory council position! what is she up to! the final scene is so fucking good because I was like "I bet she's thinking about hitting Mark with her car," and then she screams like a bat out of hell and almost does just that LMAO. and she's still telling him to quit, even though Lumon is doing something significant with Gemma and "Cold Harbor," enough that they need Mark back to finish it, and Cobel knows what it is and wants something from it, and now Mark knows for sure that Gemma is alive because he needed to look Cobel in the eye and ask. I love their weird fucking dynamic. she's so fucking mad at Lumon, but maybe cares about Mark in her own unhinged way?? and his feelings were HURT that she lied to him because he went straight for the only thing that could maybe hurt her feelings a little bit in turn ("I ate your shitty fucking cookies").

--makes me hope that Cobel gets a "villain turned weird ally" arc, and that Milchick is right behind her, because he's already getting a taste of how thankless the severed floor manager position is, getting no guidance beyond "let Kier guide your heart" and having to defend the feat he managed to pull together in 48 hours.

--which brings me to: HELENA. HELENAAA. class traitor arc INCOMING. the "behind the scenes" bit reinforced this too: she is living in a gilded cage (the shot of her on the top floor with the windows acting as bars!) and seeing that her innie of all people gets affection and respect in a way that she never has, and she is enthralled. you can do it baby! I hope you kill your dad!

- I'm glad they clarified that the correct term for complex innie/outie romantic dynamics is "throuple" because Mark/Helly is finally compelling. by itself = eh. as part of Helena's development and possibly some kind of villainous fixation that can't possibly end well no matter how you slice it because Mark/Mark S is also going through a throuple thing with his dead wife who is actually alive, and don't think I've forgotten whatever thing that Helena and Milchick had going on in S1 (which is the only thing I was missing from this ep and hope they revisit) = now we're cooking with gas. not to mention Burt spying on Irving! throuples for days.

--tentatively believing that it really is Helena down there, and they sent her to play the part of Helly R to keep Mark complacent so that Cold Harbor gets finished, because Helly is too much of an unpredictable wild card but Helena is controllable (for now!).

--it is so, so compelling how innies/outies are opposites. Helly is bold and rebellious, Helena is calm and subservient. Mark S is sweet and mild-mannered, Mark is cold and sarcastic. Dylan G is confident and driven, Dylan George is nervous and hesitant. Irving B is obedient and proper, Irving Bailiff is defiant and unconventional. and yet! bits of the other shine through, and we see it more and more, and they're slowly but surely on a collision course.

--the Great Doors interviewer says "you remind me of myself" and looks like Dylan, and I love this show because I can't tell if it's to continue the visual motif of doubling/reflections and show a "what could have been" path for Dylan, or if it's because there is truly something FUCKED going on across this whole town. or both.

--Lumon is in such a precarious position. they're a major global corporation, and they have politicians in their pocket, but there is also a lot of hostility and mistrust from the general public, enough to make a severed employee unhireable. (which further entraps their employees and keeps them dependent on Lumon.... Dylan. 😭) Lumon has to walk a fine line to continue, uh, whatever it is they're doing, without turning the public against them in a way that they couldn't recover from, hence the placating attempts at damage control. but all it would take would be a sufficiently strong spark to light that powder keg.

--because like, man.... I hope Helena and Cobel and Milchick all get their "fuck you Lumon" arcs. god. so many threads poised to unravel out of control and snap with the right push because the line that Lumon is walking is THIN. they do the most to try to control their severed employees, but they seem to take their non-severed employees for granted, and I'm wondering if that will be their undoing.

[supernatural-bias]

𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧 𝐀 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞

↳ warnings: none. brief mention of sex if you consider that a warning?

↳ song: what the world needs now is love—burt bacharach

masterlist | commissions | carrd

• How you two got together is beyond me. Between Austin's job as one of the worlds most famous— or infamous, depending how you look at it —spies, and his constant flings with women, it's a surprise the casanova managed to narrow the dating pool to just you. And vice versa, believe it or not. People are a lot more picky about dental hygiene than they were thirty years ago in the sixties, and Austin is painfully aware of it.

• Whether it was a mission appointed to you by Basil, some random night out on the town, or even just bumping into him on the streets of England as he runs from his mob of fans, it doesn't really matter. The two of you still met, and one way or another, ended up together.

• Just. Please. Don't make fun of his teeth and you'll be positively fine. He gets a little sensitive about them.

• All in all, Austin's a pretty good guy, and it shows. He tries his best to be a good partner, especially concidering he's still trying to get used to the nineties and their different standards. He's ready to hear you and anyone else out on proper etiquette, especially when it comes to things in a relationship. Although advice may slip his mind once or twice once he gets into the swing of things. He apologizes in advance.

• You will have to explain certain relationship boundaries to him while he listens with wide eyes and the occasional 'groovy!!', but at least you don't have to go through the whole monogamy talk. He's already got that down (thanks, Vanessa).

• The new-age relationship talk applies to sex as well, although he's a bit more intrigued by that (surprise surprise). Introduce him to bisexuality or the stoplight system, and he'd probably start vibrating in his seat just from excitement.

• "You're telling me I could have been shagging women and men all of these years? Groovy baby, positively groovy!!" Austin shifts from his place on the edge of the bed. He had been sitting there for a while, just watching with a gleam in his eyes as you list off all of the, erm, more exciting things to have changed in the realm of sexual prowess since he's been around

• You have to wait until he calms down to explain nonbinary people, which just ends up sending him into another gleeful rant all over again

• Please have little fashion shows for him at his shag pad!! Make him do little one-eighties of his retro outfits as he shows them off to you. It would make his entire day to do something like that with you complimenting or at the very least watching him.

• If there's one thing Austins bringing with him to the nineties, besides a can-do-aditude and a bald supervillian, it's fashion. Complete with all the lacey cravats and velvet suits a man could ever want. So yeah, makeshift fashion shows are a must.

• Speaking of things he would love to do with you— movie marathons! Nature documentaries! Binging best-selling books! All of these things would be great acitivies for a day when the two of you are looking to wind down. He hasn't had the chance to really catch up on pop culture between his job and parties, so go ham. Show him Star Wars, or the Little Shop Of Horrors back to back. Introduce him to your favorite up and coming bands: if only to get him to branch out from Burt Bacharach at the end of the day. You love Austin and his cheesy romance songs dearly, but listening to one album for months on end is enough to drive anyone crazy.

• As a forewarning, be prepared to deal with some of Austins nemesis' while you date him. Just because you're his partner, both in crime and in a relationship, doesn't mean Dr. Evil won't use that to his advantage. And by that, I mean attempt to kidnap you for leverage. It doesn't really work all too well though once you discover how easy it is to knock his henchmen out.

• Seriously. One half hearted chop to the neck, and they go down.

• "Really guys? One punch and you're crawling back to me like a pack of wounded hampsters???" All it takes is one look from Dr. Evil to have his men wincing before him. They all stand, either clutching an apendage, or with various bandaids plastered across their skin. "They're not even a freaking super spy!! Throw me a freakin' bone man!"

• "In our defense, Doctor, we didn't know they were going to fight back. Usually the partner just. Gives up." The head of the pack mutters, pointing an arm at you and wincing. You shrug awkwardly as everyone turns to look at you, choosing to ignore how Austin beams toothily with both pride and triumph from beside you.

• "Maybe invest in karate classes for your henchmen?" You suggest helpfully. The goons around you seem to momentarily forget you're the reason they're being all being berated in the first place as they nod with pleased smiles at the idea.

• "Darling, don't give the evil mastermind ideas!"

• Really. It's moments like those you wonder how Dr. Evil hadn't been stopped sooner.

[aardvaark]

severance s2e6 "attila" thoughts and theories (SPOILER WARNING):

reghabi saying "the gemma you know is still in there": ???????? is she ????????? is this true and lumon really straight up kidnapped her and somehow affected her far more than any other employee but still left an outie-gemma portion of her brain to exist, or an empty promise? and if it’s untrue, is reghabi lying or just not privy to whatever super weird experimental stuff that lumon was doing with "employees" like gemma? i’m really unsure whether we’re gonna actually get gemma back, considering she is clearly not like the other innies.

"did everyone sever their balls in the elevator this morning?" lmao i love helly

miss huang is interesting. she’s particularly indoctrinated in the kier culty shit. i did suspect it was some kind of internship she was doing but whattttt is windertide? is it related to that school thing that cobel was a part of? what the hell is the aim of all that, anyway?

"shared vessels" oh mark

oh god i already felt very bad for mark (re: sex with helena… well, considering she was pretending to be helly, surely that’s some kind of sexual assault, right?) but now i also feel awful for helly. not even just because he didn’t realise it wasn’t her, but because in some way, even though it’s really not his fault, that would feel so violating. the way she was shaking and needed to leave and just sat in the hallway with her arms wrapped around her… "[helena] used my body to get close to you" exactly. but i’m glad helly’s decided to take back her autonomy and have sex on her own terms.

dylan’s innie vs outie relationship with his wife cannot end well, can it? if outie dylan thinks of it as cheating, or if his wife starts to only care about innie dylan, or if she resents outie dylan, or if innie dylan becomes too jealous of the life with his wife and kids that he’s being prevented from remembering… someeeething is gonna go wrong.

milchick being so focused on doing the paperclips "right" that his hands are shaking and being cruel to himself in the mirror. this terrible company!! he’s not even severed but lumon still treats him like shit, like he’s lesser than them, and there’s so much pressure on him to be 110% perfect. cobel got away with so much more when she was in his position (not just in secret either) as a white woman.

shit, lumon knows petey was reintegrating so if they realise any of mark’s current symptoms match petey’s from just before he left… that would probably not be very good.

nooooo outie burt is very pro-lumon/pro-severance procedure! and lowkey it sounds like he did something particularly bad in his youth, to be so certain that he’s not going to heaven (especially while his husband does believe he’s going to heaven and also thinks burt is going to hell. that’s pretty fucked up).

HELENA ALERT. the way i would run if i was mark. but of course outie mark only knows a tiny fraction of what she’s done. for now.

um. so helena says she "can’t imagine" what the overtime contingency felt like for outie-mark. so she’s still acting like she really wasn’t *also* affected by the OTC. surely that Situation TM during her speech made enough news that outie mark would hear about it, and surely he’d realise it’s not a coincidence that it happened right when he really did have his innie take over?? can’t believe people would buy that she was just drunk and "joking" during that speech, but it makes sense that helena would assume outie-mark believed it considering he’s still with the company. i bet there’s a huge "she was joking" vs "it was really her innie" debate going on in the general public.

at least now outie mark knows helena is dodgy because of how she brought up gemma and all that.

OH. burt’s been with lumon since about 8+ years before the severance procedure was (apparently) invented! and it’s all very hush-hush and implied that he perhaps WAS severed all the way back then. maybe that’s what he’s thinks he’s going to hell for…

fields is lowkey more fun than outie-burt. wrt thinking innies deserve love and whatnot.

"let’s do it. tonight" [camera pans to reghabi eating ice cream or soemthing straight out of the tub curled up on the couch]. i love reghabi. damn it mark, she was having a quiet night in! oh well, it seems like ethically & legally dubious neurological experiments are her passion anyway. she’s probably having fun prying his brain open. she does look worried though…

i love the two wave forms implying one consciousness can be so perfectly distinguished from the other. i feel like that’s not a thing but i’m gonna go with it.

devon! my beloved! ooo she kinda has a crush on a woman? awesome. hope she exposes what that lady + her husband from baby camp are doing.

imagine ur at ur brothers house and he collapses and ur really worried and then a woman youve never seen before who was clearly hiding up until now appears and tells you not to touch him. devon’s not having fun!

[1nkwe4ver]

Severance Spoilers

I see some people pointing out how strange Outie Burt’s retirement video is, considering he claims he was fired, and people are theorizing Lumon is using him to get to Irving.

I hate to admit that I believe it’s possible, but I’m hanging on to the fact I don’t think it’s likely! My thought process-

-If Burt retired willingly and that was the Truth, why would he be looking to help Lumon catch Irving at something at all? Like, I see wanting his job back if he was fired and he and Fields needed the money, but if our basis for suspicion is that he genuinely seemed to be retiring, based on that video, then it seems out of character for him to just, happily do the dirty work of his old company, unless Outie Burt is just Helena levels of nurtured into worshipping Kier on the outside.

-I distinctly remember the impression, when Burt “retired” in season 1, that the whole thing was Burt getting fired. Irving knew it, going off after watching the video about Lumon killing Burt off, and I believe the viewer was supposed to know it. At the time, I assumed they’d simply told Outie Burt they needed to make some cuts at the company and he could willingly go with some compensation or be fired or something. I thought they’d gotten the retirement video out of him out of a mixture of perhaps some contract he’d signed when he first signed up, stating such a thing would always be required if Lumon asked it of him, and/or I simply thought Milchik had pulled the whole “we’re sorry we can’t keep you, but your coworkers on the severed floor love your Innie and it would very much help moral if you made a video to be played at a retirement party, saying goodbye to them all.” And Burt was just the kinda guy to go along with it. This revelation in my head fit with that- Burt had been fired, much less gracefully than I imagined even, but he still did the video because he has some awareness that the Innies all have a life there that he doesn’t want to disturb. Or because legally he had to and he didn’t want to be an asshole during it.

-Also, just, why would Lumon pick him? This episode confirmed that their Outies did not know each other, and only have some reason to connect here cause Innie Irving basically dropped his Outie on Burt’s doorstep on the season 1 finale. Severance, the way we know it, has no real bleed over feelings-wise without reintegration. Mark received weird therapy from his dead wife and didn’t even flinch. He was making googly eyes at Helly with Gemma in the room hours after he was probably sobbing in his car with grief over Gemma. So why would Lumon expect Outie Burt to have some special sway over Outie Irving?

Edit: For clarity, I know that to some extent, Innie Mark does feel Outie Mark’s grief. As Petey says, he just “doesn’t know what it is.” That’s not the kind of bleed over I mean.

I think of a sims 4 mod I like, for emotional inertia. In that, once a sim is in a new emotion, it adds an emotional inertia moodlet for a significant amount of time, that way the emotion is a bigger, more realistic deal. There may be moodlets/reasons going on in the sims head to feel a whole bunch of things, but the inertia moodlet makes it where they’re more likely to be feeling an emotion just because they were already feeling it. This stops the sims emotions from seeming chaotic and unstable as most moodlets run out in about 4 hours, or deeply unbalanced like the handful that last for days. There are other factors(Happy and Uncomfortable do not have inertia, Uncomfortable adds to dominant negative emotions like Happy adds to dominant positive emotions, certain emotions and activities drain or prolong moodlets of certain types, moodlets from emotional traits will randomly have values from 1-3), but basically your sim is probably gonna feel that initial emotion until at least the triggering moodlet runs out, and then probably the strongest inertia moodlet. If the mood is negative and you’re trying to get them out of it, well, even if you make them their favorite breakfast, a hothead who woke up on the wrong side of their cheap bed will probably stay pissy for at least 2-4 hours (if you really work on draining those initial moodlets), then with effort may be manageable but still difficult for another 4 hours (8 hours from getting into the mood).

So let’s apply that mentality to Mark.

Say as an Outie, he has +5 Sad(from being a Widower), +1 Sad(from sitting around thinking about her), +2 angry(from Anger mourning), +3 Sad (FromEmotional Inertia)

That puts Outie Mark at +9 Very Sad, Sobbing in his car

Once he got in the elevator, and switches to Innie memories, he loses all of that context but still has +3 Sad from emotional inertia to deal with. Now this is much less intense, and it may be quickly drowned out, depending on what’s happening in the office,

[klaineccfanficlibrary]

what are your favourite long high school fics?

i’ve looked through the highschool!klaine tag but i don’t know where to start! help a girl out please!!

Hello, so here are a selection of highschool, with them at McKinley au, and then some Dalton fics. Hopefully they will start you off! ~Jen

About-Face by @quizasvivamos

At the start of the Marching Band season his sophomore year, Blaine is the youngest Drum Major in McKinley High history. However, none of his peers believe he deserves the title, especially a handful of embittered upperclassmen, including one particularly stubborn Color Guard Captain, who challenges him in more ways than one.

~~~~~

Is There a Twelve Step Just For You? By TheNameisBritney

He was still the same short, nerdy Blaine Anderson he’d always been. An easy target for school bullies everywhere. Kurt was the popular co-captain of the Cheerio’s, looking down on his kingdom like a fair but firm ruler. No one was on his level, certainly not a peasant like Blaine.”

Or Blaine tries to tell Kurt that he has a crush on him but accidentally ends up asking for a makeover instead. Oh, dear.

~~~~~

The Prom-us by @BlurglesmurfKlaine, Catcat85, Esperanto, GleefulDarrenCrissFan, grlnxtdr29, hippohead, HKVoyage (voyagehk), honeysucklepink, justgleekout, kellyb321, MissFlurry, notyourdaydream, starpunchsoup

Kurt and Blaine met just as they did in canon, and even though Blaine realizes when Kurt sings Blackbird that he's in love with Kurt, he never says anything, and Kurt goes back to McKinley. Blaine transfers to McKinley for senior year, and they are best friends, bonding on being the only two out guys at McKinley until Karaofsky comes back. And he's out and proud, and he wants Kurt. And so he asks Kurt to be his prom date, repeatedly until Kurt, in frustration, finally blurts out that someone already asked him. He said the first name that came to mind, Blaine's. On top of that, he tells Dave that they are now dating. Now, Kurt needs to convince his best friend to take him to the biggest event of their high school year, senior prom. Tropes: Fake Dating, Friends to Lovers, High school Klaine, Canon Divergent

~~~~~

What I Need verse by holdingdaylight

Blaine needs a lot of things. The one thing he can't have is Kurt. Badboy!Blaine

~~~~~

The Architects of Life by misqueue

Follows the development of Kurt and Blaine’s relationship in the canon timeline from 3x05 “The First Time”.

~~~~~

Shiftings  by @chazzam  

The shift in their relationship didn’t come out of left field at all. Beneath the surface, things had been changing all along.  This fic describes what changed in Kurt ant Blaine’s relationship to make him realize that his feelings for Kurt were more than just friendship. 

~~~~~~

Are you spying by @nineofhearts4

  Rachel graduates after the New Directions wins Nationals, leaving Kurt as the new captain of the Glee Club. He is left to pull a new team together, including finding a 12th member after auditions fall flat. He resorts to posting on a show choir forum to recruit new members, where he meets another poster by the name of BWarbler, who happens to be very fed up with his own glee Club, which is now run by Sebastian Smythe. They strike up a friendship online, never realizing that they are show choir rivals who will meet and compete against one another at Regionals. ….until they do.

~~~~~

Pretty Good Bad Idea by @snarkyhag

As a new transfer student, Rachel’s brother Blaine is looking to find his footing at McKinley. He is also looking for love. What happens when he meets a badboy who is more than meets the eye?

~~~~~

Prequel: Dalton Views by inkinmyheartandonthepage [PDF] [EPUB]

This is a prequel to Redefining Views so please check that one out first. Follows Kurt and Blaine’s developing relationship and their time at Dalton.

~~~~~

Redefining Views by inkinmyheartandonthepage [EPUB] [PDF]

Burt and Carol are getting closer and Finn has yet to meet Burt’s son, Kurt. Kurt isn’t like Finn, he’s the type of boy that Finn bullies. Finn and New Directions are about to meet the epic-ness of KLAINE!

[spaceorphan18]

Okay, I just watched the second episode of Severance

I'll put some thoughts under the cut for spoilers

So, I didn't do this for episode 1, and I should have, but I kind of have the same reaction to both?

These two episodes are the kind of standard -- back from hiatus, reacting to the previous season finale and setting up for season 2. Not a whole lot goes on in either episode, but this is a show built on slowness and details, so I'm okay with the storytelling here.

Alright, so let's talk about Mark. There is one really big thing that was revealed in Ep 2. That Mark is kind of the key for whatever Lumon is doing. I kind of wondered about that -- especially in this episode when everyone else was getting fired but Lumon had no intentions of letting Mark go.

Also, I don't think Gemma is alive. I think she is/was either a robot or a simulation or something -- but she was used to manipulate Mark, even if it was subconsciously. I do think that's one mystery we're getting into this season.

Also, also I really hope Mark's sister continues to be a force. She often seems like one of the smartest people on the show, so I'm curious as to how she'll be a key in all of this.

Meanwhile -- let's talk about Dylan and Irving. We did get to see more of Dylan's outside life. Did we know his last name was George? Is that important? Why is Dylan's life being played up as a mystery - is there something there? Or just another secret to toy the audience with?

Irving's story is going to be really pushing in on the romance with Burt (as it should!) so I'm not surprised we didn't get much of him. I do think he's going to be a driving force behind a lot of the action, though. He's definitely going to become the chaos player of the group.

So. Helly/Helen. I saw/read some speculation that Helly is not back, and it's Helen going in. I really do believe that -- between the lie and the fact that when she walked in that elevator at the end and they didn't show her change -- I think she's going undercover.

I actually wonder if we're going to see more of the inner workings of Lumon with Helen being at the forefront. It's a good way to unravel some of the mysteries around the company. We did already get to see a little of that in ep. 2.

I also bet, five bucks, that we won't see Helly return until the very end. A weird love triangle between Mark/Helly/Helen? Maybe? Helen was definitely fascinated by that kiss -- though I suspect she's doing it as a way towards manipulation.

Wtf is going on with Ms. Cobel/Selvig? I have no idea -- she is unhinged and I do think she was right in that Lumon fears her, and wants to keep her under control. She's going to be another chaos agent of the season.

One small detail I noticed -- for a show that has such crazy technology, there's a lot of old tech. I noticed the cars in the parking lot of Lumon all look like cars from the 80s/90s. Despite the fact that there are cell phones - Irving uses a payphone. That door company Dylan applies to feels... old school.

I wonder if that's just an atmospheric thing they're doing, or... what? Idk, it just seems interesting.

Oh, and speaking of atmosphere -- the scoring continues to be one of the best things of the show. It should get all the awards. The music is on point. Between the scoring and the brilliant set design, the show is incredibly intriguing.

I'm still plenty curious to see where all of this is going...

[theriddlerdiscordkitten]

PLEASE WRITE BURT OR ELI SMUT I AM ON MY KNEES BEGGINg it could literally be anything and i would love it

YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND ANON!!!!

Seven minutes in Heaven (Burt Fabelman x f!reader)

WARNINGS: Blowjob, handjob, mouth fucking, age gap (35 & 45, but never mentioned), swearing, and SMUT!!! BLAHHH!!!

A/N: THANK YOU FOR THIS REQUEST ANON!!! I’ve been hoping to do this, but I’ll probably do Eli in the future!!

Burt Fabelman looks at you the way every man doesn’t.

He looks at you with love, passion, and sweetness. Instead of a shitty way like the other men in your life.

But tonight, the way you sensed he was stressed when he walked into his apartment was quick.

Sammy, his son, was out for the night, going out with some friends.

So you stayed at the apartment the whole day and called off work.

Leaving only him to go to his work alone.

“Honey?” You walk towards him, wearing his button up shirt, and his pajamas pants.

He sets his hat on the coat hanger, before setting his forehead against the wall. “I’m gonna kill my boss, baby..I am.” He groans.

Setting your hands on his shoulders, you start to rub them slowly. “He’s not giving you that raise..Isn’t he?”

He nods to your question, sighing, “How am I gonna pay for Sammy’s stupid camera equipment?” he mutters.

You don’t stop rubbing his shoulders, wishing this could help him in some way. “Baby, I-I can do that. I have enough money.” You remind him.

He has a love and hate relationship when it comes to you helping him with Sammy.

The pros are getting used to each other, Sammy actually liking you, and others.

The cons are trying to help Burt with Sammy.

He knows his son, he loves his only son, but he’s not ready for you to be an actually stepmom to Sam.

You both aren’t married yet, but you both were married to different people.

It just feels weird to Burt, getting his flashbacks to his own stepfather.

“Baby, I-I love you, but no. You’re not paying for that.” He removes his head from the wall, before turning around, and leaning against it.

Slowly stopping rubbing his shoulders, he wraps his arms around your stomach, and leans down to rest his head on your shoulder blade.

He sighs, “Just go to the bedroom for awhile, I’ll be there when the football game is over.” he kisses your shoulder blade, before walking away, and setting his head high.

You needed to fix this. By not talking, by doing something.

-

Slipping on a pink, short, silk nightgown you found on a sears catalogue, you walk towards the mirror, before smiling.

“He’s gonna love this.” You whisper to yourself.

You turn around, walking to slightly open the bedroom door, watching Burt from afar.

He sips his tea, before setting it down on the coffee table.

You quietly open the bedroom door more, before closing it behind you after you secretly walk out.

Tip toeing to the side of the couch, he turns his head to see me quickly.

Fuck, you thought, you spoiled your prize, Burt.

His eyes widened, before softening as he looks at you in awe. “Angel?” He whispers to you.

Walking towards him, you bite your lip. It’s been months since you guys had sex, you probably guess why that’s the reason he’s cranky.

Burt gently sets his hands on your waist, looking up and down on your body. “Oh, angel,” He whispers, “you’re screwed up and brilliant.” he chuckles quietly.

You smile down at him, he slides you down on his lap, still star strucked.

“Y/N..” He whispers, setting his head onto your tits. “It’s been almost eight months and four days since I ever saw you like this.” He breathed out.

He counted how many hours, days, months, since he saw you in your true form.

An angel, he believes.

You felt his erection poke out of his work pants by the bottom of your white underwear.

Slowly running your hands up and down on his back, he closes his eyes, and then opened them back up to look at you.

“Please..Can we?” He breathes out again, which you nod in response.

“I only have eyes for you.” You remind him, basically giving him consent.

Within a second, he kisses you deeply, his hands up sliding up to grab onto your breast.

You moan into the kiss, leaning onto him. He rests back on the couch, ignoring the football playing on little tv.

Continuing to kiss him, but you trail down slowly, getting off of his lap.

He’s still in his work suit, he’ll kill you if he cums on this suit, probably gonna make you even lick it off if he’s feeling good.

Slowly getting off of his lap and onto your knees down on the floor, you separate your legs a bit as you sit on his cold, leather shoes.

Kissing his zipper, you pull away, and pull the metal zipper down.

He looks down at you, watching you with tired but love in his eyes.

He can’t handle the slow, teasing you always did to him

You were his. You had to do some teasing.

Putting your cold hand under his pants and into his boxers, you found his hard cock.

It’s seven inches, but it’s thick, really thick. Enough for you to take him within a minute in you.

Slowly pulling it out, you look up at him. “I love you.” You whisper.

He grabs your hair gently, making a lazy ponytail. “I love you too, honey.” He whispers back, never breaking eye contact.

Putting the tip in your mouth, lightly sucking it to slow things down.

He gasps quietly, looking up at the celling with his eyes closed. He’s weak in the knees for you.

Only for you.

Pulling your head down more by the hair, he groans loudly. “Fuck, baby, I needed this from you.”

You start to bob your head slowly, closing your eyes tightly. He feels so good inside of your mouth.

His pubes tickling your nose each time you deep throat him just for a second.

His cock twitches in your mouth, now bobbing your head quickly, and shaking it.

He puts his hand on the back of your head, guiding you deeper and deeper.

You pull your head up to look at him, now jerking him off while smiling.

Your lips are wet, sloppy, and his pecum is even on it.

He feels your cold hand wrap around his cock, making his hips thrusts upwards in your hand.

“Wish..this..was..your..mouth.” He growls between thrusts, his teeth clenched.

He pulls your head down back on his cock, slapping your hand away.

His hips are thrusting in your mouth now, instead of your hand.

You couldn’t breathe through your mouth, grabbing on his thighs through his brown pants.

Feeling his speed, he’s already close. So close.

Then suddenly, he reaches his point.

His hips are off of the couch and against your nose, his hip twitching as his cum fills your mouth up.

“Fuuuuuuck..” He sighs in relief, a fainted smile placed on his soft lips.

Burt looks down at you, smiling. “Touchdown.” He chuckles.

[yoggybloggy]

hiii 1) i would LOVE the post about christian doctrine if u feel inclined to write it bc i don't know enough about christian doctrine to have spotted the issues? and that sounds really interesting + good context 2) this is just silly but that bit in the s2 opening where the mark-figure bumps into another and the head blows up like a balloon and then all the others' heads start blowing up reminds me of hwurmps. i've been sitting on that thought weekly and i think u'll know what i mean

🫶 THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME AN EXCUSE TO TALK ABOUT IT MWAH. honestly i am being a little reductive and its more like a combination of some parts that genuinely reads unsound to me and make me go "oh so you're just using it as a prop, then" while having it also genuinely raising (at least, to me) interesting speculative discussion. (for context i was raised protestant christian, but i dont have formal study nor have ever seriously delved into theology so i'll be real everything i say is vibes-based lol)

my main issues/points of interest:

1) the church's support of severance. instinctually a world where the church does not condemn severance and in fact claims that innies have their own souls is. CRAZILY heretical to me. sooooo many accusations of playing god. though like i mentioned in my tags i) i understand alongside alternate history alternate doctrine could have formed so honestly i'd readily believe if innies-with-souls was the stance of some off-the-rails sect. so that they specifically name lutheran is... interesting to me, at least, and tbh i dont have much more on that lol. ii) i'd be remiss to not mention how capitalism and religion (christianity) are entangled to mutually bolster each other. i'm not knowledgeable enough on this to articulate it much more beyond "well i'm sure it exists", i guess i could point to the prosperity gospel as a more extreme real-life example? anyway this is along similar lines of i), i.e. its something that could develop given the conditions bc of the way systems interact

basically, the church would have to get wack about it to get there but i can see how they might get wack to justify it with the ultimate goal of promoting severance for business reasons. now nothing in the show is actually AGAINST this it very well may be the implication that this is what happened which is what's interesting to me. however severance as a show is not about this so they will not be exploring this in any sort of depth so the possibility that this is meant to be taken for granted as a natural* extension of mainstream* christian logic (*subjective to my own experience, to be fair) is like... i dont know... i dont even care about them bitches but the pedant in me is bursting at the seams. tl;dr They Would Not Fucking Say That (but they could?)

2) burt's motivation for severing (or maybe rather fields' pressure on him?)... i think. i think the "wanting an innocent part of yourself" is. okay enough. cute. but like "i was sinful in my younger years so i think im going to hell for it" is like. WOW THATS CRAZILY AGAINST THE LITERAL ROOT OF CHRISTIANITY? the religion whose most simplest deal "jesus died for your sins so you can be saved so your wrongdoings are forgiven as long as you earnestly believe"????? like no one cares about this but i was wrapping my brain into knots about this. is it that burt still believes his wilful sinning is still ongoing and he knows that he is not a believer still? it seems like he wants to be one to me. is he creating a new self in lieu of repenting and fields is encouraging this? would that not make fields complicit in his sin shouldn't fields be encouraging his repentance instead. maybe it's intentional to make fields hypocritical that way. i don't know and i doubt the writers put that much thought into it so its just something that makes my head hurt. its literally not that serious

3) what arises from a genuine belief of innies having souls. tbh it probably very much parallels the "do children have salvation/go to hell" debate. again, not something i'm informed on enough to talk about, but at least it would be especially salient with the whole innies-as-children theme of the show. but i would also think if innie souls real they should be proselytising innies then because "all are without excuse" (romans 1:18-20 or whatever) so just because they're clean slates their innocence does not guarantee salvation once again christianity is (supposedly) not about innocence or never doing wrong or good deeds outweighing bad it's about faith. which innies would not have. so if the church believed that they have souls they should believe that they are damned to hell also <- and then we loop back to the child debate. but yeah this just annoys me bc innies = innocent and will be saved seems so theologically shallow unless you get into the weeds of supposed innocence re: children. anyway they have to proselytise them for kierism instead so that would never work

tl;dr im literally cinemasinsing the depiction of christianity in severance it's literally not a big fucking deal at all. it moreso just raises interesting questions to meeeeeee but also severance christianity should literally be a sect that is Not Normal Behaviour! martin luther would NOT approve 👎

and also re 2) my god that is funny as fuck i've never thought of that. love it

[fearoftheminotaur]

A Thematic Rundown of Severance Season 1 vs Season 2

The first season of Severance is one of my favorite TV shows I've ever seen. The second season is brilliant television that manages to answer some of the questions we have while still maintaining that sense of constant mystery and almost cosmic horror that the Lumon basement provides. I thought I'd do a rundown of how I'd thematically analyze season 1 in a vacuum, and how season 2 responds to those themes. Because season 2 being so good can distract from the question of whether the parts of season 1 that it subverts, were worth subverting - or what it means for those things to be subverted. Some themes, like corporate exploitation under capitalism are so continuous from season 1 to season 2 that I don't have much to add to that development. Others like racism and human sacrifice feel so much more pronounced in season 2 than season 1 that I similarly wouldn't put them under this purview - this is not an analysis of season 2 so much as an analysis of what season 1 is, now that it has been continued.

Innies as Children

One of the biggest thematic continuations from season 1 into season 2 is the infantilization of the innies, but not necessarily in the way we expected. Instead of being these permanent adult toddlers, in the way that Lumon kind of wants them to be, the Innies in season 2 are more akin to rebellious teenagers.

No longer is the morally uncomfortable issue of sexuality confined to clandestine waffle parties, instead we see Mark, Helly, Helena, and Dylan pursuing intimacy during their work hours. By acknowledging themselves as full, independent people deserving of rights, the Innies are no longer a pretext for the degradation of these adults and their labor, they are their own journey to adulthood.

They are their Outies' kids in a way - Mark will not love who his father wants him to love, Dylan G. has an Oedipus complex, and Dylan George a Laius complex, and Helena goes the other way and usurps her daughter's boyfriend.

Irving and Burt are almost like Montague and Capulet, grieving the loss of the love their naive deceased counterparts shared, and wishing that intimacy for themselves. I don't know if the Romeo and Juliet parallel is on purpose, but I think it's the best way I can put how the treatment of the Innies in season 2 has grown age-wise from their treatment in season 1.

Miss Huang extends this theme, being a child given power over Innies who are technically younger than her. The treatment of children also dovetails with the way that Lumon uses fertility as a sort of bait for Gemma to get involved.

Ricken Hale

One aspect of season 1 that I saw some people discuss after I'd finished it, was the sense that Ricken could become the Innies' version of Kier. A charismatic, quirky cult leader whose mix of ideology and id would make it easy to attach significance to his words. I even made a meta post about how his relationship with fatherhood would figure into that parallel.

So it's very funny to see him pretty much benched in season 2, but it makes sense with the way that the Innies are, metaphorically, not children anymore. The birth of Eleanor and the arrested psychological development of Ricken's sycophants make for lovely parallels with the age-regression themes of Mark's work at Lumon, but now the characters have outgrown them. Some say to grow up is to leave childish things behind you, and I think Severance has basically done that with Ricken, consigning him as a useless idiot to Lumon's plans.

I wouldn't be surprised though if he and his friends were more relevant in season 3 though. After all, part of growing older is, if not having children, knowing more people who do. Young/new adults are, in some ways, some of the least inclined people to interact with little kids, but many adults interact with them every day, and to some extent see their own past reflected back at them.

Harmony Cobel: The True Believer

Cobel in season 1 is probably the most devout follower of Kier that we see. She worked with Lumon even as a schoolkid, and while she has a crisis of faith and giant breakdown upon being fired, she still shows up for the company when she notices Mark S. got out.

In season 2, we learn her childhood relationship with Lumon is deeper than what we already saw - she was with them in the days that the were using more literal child labor (and they still seem to, just in a more white-collar way). She not only gave her devotion to them, but developed the designs that led to the Severance procedure.

And this all adds up to the point that severance isn't inherently evil. Unethical, maybe, but the evil was in how Lumon used it. The evil was in how their child labor practices and ether production inspired it as a workaround. Severance is used for evil, but it was also stolen from its real creator, and credited to Jame Eagan. And even if you think the severance chip should never have been created, and that it would be worse than whatever awful thing Lumon would have done to exploit their employees and streamline human emotion instead, having a lens of severance as a morally neutral thing takes us to:

Reintegration

Reintegration is the un-doing of the show's original sin, but not of Lumon's original sin. Asal sees this as the only way forward to stopping Lumon's abuses, but while this solution is not as deadly as shutting down all of the severed floors, it means absorbing the young Innie into the older, more dominant Outie. And it can still end up killing them both.

Reintegration is a correctional procedure, undoing the part of the person that is considered a mistake, and is done without the consent of the Innie, who is taken out of their familiar landscape and not entirely capable of making sense of the world they have fallen into. The allure of going "back to normal" outweighs the very real risks and lack of evidence. The Cobel, the original creator, thinks it is impossible!

One of the season's oddest choices is leaving the audience at least twice thinking that Mark is going to totally re-integrate, only for the two halves to stay separated - but the choice to leave the procedure incomplete and have Mark S. live in defiance of it, reinforces a core thematic point of Mark's romantic arc.

Irreconcilable

Helly R. and Mark S.'s kiss at the end of season 1 is tragic, because Mark is already married to Gemma, who is still alive. But as much as some people love shipping Helena Eagen with one or both Marks, I don't think this is that kind of love triangle. Mark has no trouble choosing which woman he wants to spend his life with; before even seeing the outside he has already chosen. The problem is that there are two Marks, and they've each made a different choice.

Mark S. and Mark Scout are fundamentally not the same character. If they reintegrated, maybe Mark Scout's longer relationship with Gemma would give the resulting person that preference, or possibly Mark S.'s stronger drive to live would draw them towards Hellyna. But they can't reintegrate so long as their different decisions and points of view make up the most compelling part of their personhood.

Ultimately Asal ends up being like the Whole Mind Collective - seeing true evil and knowing to oppose it, but not being able to empathize with the people affected by it, the Innies. How do you reintegrate what you can't even really see?

Hell

My favorite thing about the first season of Severance is how it makes the Severed Floor feel like Hell. The architecture is uncanny, the pure white halls are unreal, and the inescapability is existentially terrifying. This isn't a show about what if you could forget, it's a show about how the things we try to ignore and forget paint a terrifying picture of the world.

The mystery aspect is beautiful - the Innies have so much they do not comprehend that we do, and even as we, people from the outside world, get to peer inside the office, we have no idea what Lumon is doing and why. It practically looks the same from the inside as it does on the outside: mysterious and important. Like any good supernatural horror movie, the layers of secrecy are so much that even conquering the danger leaves us with so many questions.

Chikhai Bardo takes this to the extreme. Gemma's Outie lives as an Innie, trapped in a basement under a basement. Every room she goes into is a different personal hell designed for her, and the people doing this don't even want her to be unhappy - they just want to create a version of her that never experiences pain, and that means creating two dozen that only experience pain. But even the former is trapped under Lumon's influence, wishing she could just go back to her old life.

This old life being shot in a completely different style - the outside world of Kier, PE is a place outside of time, almost as surreal as the basement at times, and always gloomier. If Lumon is Hell, Gemma and Mark's backstory is the closest we get to Heaven. Still sad, still flawed, but everything just feels more real because they are ignorant of Lumon's creeping power over their lives. Heaven is not the absence of pain that Lumon and the Eagans want to create, but maybe it's the memory of every time life seemed to mean more to you than it does now.

[itsacuriousthing]

Dragon Age: Veilguard characters but its their skincare/grooming routines (or lack thereof)

ive been clearing out my notes up and found a dumb idea i'd written down around the time Veilguard came out, so, enjoy

Bellara: Would LOVE a gimmicky skincare product but defo forgets to actually incorporate it into her routine so just has a bunch of random gadgets lying around. sometimes forgets to take her makeup off and will wake up looking like a panda the next day. if makeup wipes existed in thedas that’s probably what bellara would be using anyway, i’m sorry to say

Davrin: Big fan of “natural” products made from beeswax, animal fat, all that jazz. no fancy chemicals here. if burt's bees existed in Thedas he'd be ordering in bulk in case he can't make it to the shops for a while. warm, woven flannels all the way. for some reason i hc that he’s got a little eczema so my guy is also very well moisturised

Emmerich: His skin is BONE dry unfortunately. haha sorry couldn’t resist the pun. appreciates the benefits of a good moisturiser but his favourite one was discontinued 15 years ago and he’s still sad about it. generally very well groomed and always smells nice though. defo uses a few products in his hair to keep it looking nice, man loves a pomade

Harding: Nonexistent. cold water on the face, bar of soap (5in-1). done. "it's clean and it does that job, what more do you need," she says to a dismayed Rook

Lucanis: Prison sucked so he’s making the most of his freedom. probably hasn’t had time over the course of his life to really think about this sort of thing overly; he was recently introduced to “beard oil” by emmrich and is enjoying using it a lot though. it smells nice. spite is distracted by its pleasant smell which is a side bonus.

Neve: Thinks that the popular Tevinter 12-step-routine is bullshit (it also definitely 100% involves blood magic, and she's not in the business of accidentally summoning demons just after a shower), and believes in the power of finding that one really good moisturiser and cleanser combo and that’s all you need. it’s probably quite expensive but lasts a while so is economically worth it for her

Taash: Moisturiser and skin oil is a bad combination with, you know, fire. so that’s a no from taash after one time when they borrowed some of Neve’s oil-based cleanser, sneezed, and accidentally set the Lighthouse bathroom on fire. their skin does get a little dry from all of the exposure to heat though so they do use a light moisturiser and definitely some lip balm

[accidentally-in-fictional-love]

Things I Noticed While Writing Light The Fuse: Part 11, Episode 4

This one may be just about one Phoenix but finally I get to show Ethan some love hehe 🥰💛

Before we get to him though, a clock! An actual, working clock! The rare showing of time that helps me figure out how long this show is actually going for!

Here it is, my Timeline. The furthest it goes is the 23rd, and he would be checking more pages if it went further to see if she was/had been there, so I placed Cop Night on July 23rd with this scene taking place the next morning on the 24th, therefore Ethan starts dating Matty and Johnson on July 23rd to go along with Matty and Johnson's anniversary on July 1st in Fucked / Up ❤️💛💙

Going off this single date I ended up having the fic start on June 7th with Ethan arriving on the 8th by the end of my figurings, and I have a column in my notes just for dates based on what everyone says, their runs, and outfit changes, all thanks to this single crumb. And now we have all three of their Phoenixversaries, Johnson on February 2nd (with his bday), Ethan on June 8th, and Matty exactly two months later on August 8th~

This still isn't Ethan but this scene will forever haunt me WHY IS HELL ITSELF AT THIS MOTEL???

Okay now it's Ethan Time, because this scene makes me insane for a different reason. Him saying later that he literally just trusted her through everything really confirms that Ethan is a canon dumbass, like dude you can still trust her but you had to have some idea! This is why I made him so aware of what's going on that he held info away from her as well. I really loved writing this scene, I love writing all their scenes, him constantly trying to cut ties with her and failing each time she calls because of their bond is so important to me with all the angst possibilities

Like this right here, with that smile of hers knowing that he will, and him doing it. Add in the fact that he also knows he will even when he's catching on that she's not the Doris he knew anymore, I love that so much and I'm so glad I got to write it all out amidst him hanging up on her after making her panic that Burt already got to him before he namedrops Matty for the first time

Also Ethan having this convo directly next to a Pinup room when he's trying to be stealthy is so funny to me

That's because you just spoke to your adoptive mom after gaining not one but two boyfriends, of course you're feeling weird. Also since when does Ethan wear a black undershirt, that's Matty's! I'm insane!!

Comfy??? My man's all spread out, ditched the coat, he is there to stay

Matty: You heard it pays?

Ethan is so bad at lying how has Matty taught him nothing by now it should be a second language by this point

You're killin' it man she totally believes you

Meredith is so cute here, I love her genuine shock that he'd really think she'd take one of them, I wonder how many actual conversations she has in this place outside of Joel (for the most part) and Matty and her friend Tina

Ethan is so cute I love his smile so much 🥰🥰🥰

The fact that he hasn't had this talk with Johnson in canon is so weird to me, he's around him so often that I bet he'd talk about it with Matty there, I don't doubt that cause I'm obviously upping his mystery in my own way since I don't know what his actual deal is. It makes for a nice bonding scene with Meredith, but they really underutilized Johnson also being around for so long so many times which is just criminal honestly

I really wonder if she was ever able to talk about this, since it was such a big thing, a war so bad Joel's even afraid of it and she was just a child during it. I really never shipped them even before my eyes were opened to the Phoenixes being boyfriends, so them having this conversation as friends is so important to me. It's a romance that doesn't need to happen for them to stay close, just like she is with Matty, and I can only pray they stayed this way in season 2.

Their friendship is everything to me. At its basis, these are two people who need friends more than anything, people to listen and be there for them as they come to see that they're already home, if season 2 had come out and had them suddenly start making out sloppy style it might've actually made me upset and that's no joke

Episode 4 down, I can tell already that ep5 is gunna need several posts but I am so ready to talk about it hehe 💛

[yours-the-author]

Hey, I'm back from my trip and got ya'll some stick ship goodies. It's no longer fair season where I live, but I had ideas for my favorite ships going to the fair and finally decided to draw them, so here you go!

CopperRight

I imagine that Right Hand Man is either the kind of guy to actually hate fairs/carnivals/things like that, or the kind of guy to say he hates them, but actually really enjoys them. He'd probably play all of the "test of strength" games and win the the giant prizes for Reginald. Reginald doesn't actually want/need the giant prizes (and isn't really a fan of fairs, either; too loud and dirty!), but if he gets a petty sense of pride when showing them off, he can do that because he's a rat man who loves his husband.

On the other hand, though, Reginald does have a serious sweet tooth, and sometimes only a treat found at the fair can do the trick! (I imagine RHM doesn't really like sweets, but he's not gonna leave Reg by himself in a strange theme park where danger could be at any corner!)

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Curtisson

Burt actually really likes carnivals and fairs, but he acts unimpressed at every fair he goes to.

Burt: Nice theme park. Be a shame if someone broke it.

Sven, on the other hand, does NOT like fairs or carnivals. They're crowded, noisy, the food is terrible for you, and it's too hot all the time! I imagine he'd go maybe once just to say that he did, and would somehow get goaded into going on a big scary ride (or maybe even a not-so-scary ride) only to sob uncontrollably afterwards for like ten minutes.

The Curtisson date at the fair would almost be completely ruined... but at least there's a petting zoo, and they both like small and fluffy animals.

Date saved!

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PanPrice

Believe it or not, Dave's actually pretty okay with most rides. Nothing extreme, like triple loop-de-loop rollercoasters or anything, but maybe one of those "roller coasters" that just go around in a loop over and over. Dave knows what he likes and doesn't like, and can plan accordingly.

Rupert thinks he can handle a few amusement park rides. He's a trained military man who was on the police force for nearly a decade before hand! He can handle a baby roller coaster!

He cannot handle the baby roller coaster

But once Rupert gets the feeling back in his everything, it's time to play some games! Probably a shooting game of some kind; something challenging that takes a lot of skill and precision (but most importantly, something with a prize that Dave will like):

Obligatory Dave Panpa / Panda fanart

And of course, what's a fair or carnival without the FOOD! Dave loves fair food and has a hard time picking what to get. Rupert is less inclined to fried and sugary foods in large portions, but he likes to see Dave indulge every once in a while, because Dave deserves it.

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Poly Threat

A group of thrill seekers like the Triple Threat would definitely be the first in line for some rides! And they know exactly which one to start with, too...

(Fun Fact: There was actually a ride shaped like a helicopter at the last fair I went to, which is what inspired all of this art!)

Of course, there's nothing wrong with having fun in a more relaxed way. Henry might need some downtime away from the crowds, and Charles and Ellie are happy to accommodate.

Who doesn't like a little face paint every once in a while? (Bonus points if you know what the significance of the symbols are!)

A day at the fair can be long and exhausting, but there's still stuff going on after dark! Maybe Charles is a little sensitive to loud noises, or maybe Ellie is legally barred from being near gunpowder, but there's nothing like a picnic under the fireworks to wrap up a fun day!

Technically, fairs and carnivals and such are more late summer things than early winter things, but I had fun making these pictures! I hope you like them too!