It was still a relatively early hour when Hongbin slipped out into the hall, the feeling of his regular hunter’s clothes oddly heavy and just a little bit itchy after spending nearly a week wearing those floaty, soft-silken shirts and pants the royal family had been providing him. He’d felt so awkward and out of place wearing those clothes in the beginning, but as he’s about to walk down the castle’s grand, plush-carpeted hallway out of the private wings, he has to admit he’ll miss the feeling of this short-lived comfort— but more importantly, the people that he shared it with.
He’s just pushed the set of gigantic oak doors shut on the quiet bedroom when a voice pipes up from somewhere on his left.
“You know, Sanghyuk is going to be really upset when he wakes up and finds you missing.”
“Is it just me, or is the way he’s looking at us…” Hongbin trails off quietly, the line of his back tense as they stand around the glass box, watching.
“Really weird?” Sanghyuk offers, and there’s a hum of agreement from the group.
“I don’t like this,” Taekwoon murmurs, hands clenched at his sides as he watches on. “He feels… different.”
Inside the box, amidst bundles and bundles of flowers, each so vibrant against the cold chrome of the box it feels as though the blue, purple and greens are practically spilling out of it, a pale young man stands and watches their movements with his dark eyes.
The question seemed to come out of nowhere, which in retrospect made Wonshik feel like he’s failed as the elder of the two because he hadn’t been paying attention.
He was sitting at his desk, sorting out scrap paper and scribbles he wanted to type up the next morning when Sanghyuk spoke up from the general direction of his bed.
i made a comment about wirt’s reaction to beatrice’s betrayal last year but i never got around to actually posting about it, so here are (finally) some thoughts:
@allieinarden has a great post considering Wirt’s dad and his own insecurities that have led us all, instinctively, to conclude he’s been left (rather than his dad has died), and i’m just gonna quote a small part of it here rather than paraphrase bc she’s Too Smart to not read:
It fascinates me that with all the guesses I’ve run across, even in a series fraught with specters of all shapes, I’ve never seen anyone speculate that Wirt’s father might be dead. There’s nothing to contradict it–we only have mention of a remarriage, not of a separation–and Wirt’s attitude toward his mother’s new husband could just as easily be explained by a stubborn, Hamletesque devotion to his father’s memory. But no one’s gone there, because we instinctively feel that Wirt was not merely bereaved but abandoned. His particular line of insecurity–namely, an almost total lack of trust in his fellow human beings–is very telling, as is his refusal to make a stir in the world. That children of divorce commonly blame themselves and their own actions for the separation is proverbial to the point of cliché. Wirt has survived the years since his father’s departure by keeping his head down, beset by the fear that if he does anything noticeable–confess to his crush, play the clarinet in public–something bad will happen.
Going off that, Wirt doesn’t really seem to have friends. He keeps people at a distance, and it’s more than just being nervous to talk to his crush. He watches the football game (or, well, mostly Sarah) from the other side of the fence before Greg steals his tape and forces his hand to talk to the other girls; he won’t go into the party because he wasn’t invited even though everyone seems super cool about him being there and they all say hi to him. He won’t go to the graveyard bc Jason Funderburker will be accompanying Sarah.
As Allie points out his particular brand of insecurities, too–he’s constantly explaining why he does the things he does, like he’s trying to justify it. He’s proud of his costume until someone asks him what he’s supposed to be and he just stammers out some “I just thought”s and never even gives an actual answer. He’s terrified of being Known, of, as Allie says, even being Noticed.
But Wirt opens up to Beatrice. He tells her his Secrets that are Too Secret (and she validates them! He’s normal, not Too Weird for her!). He talks about things he knows–housing styles, clarinet. He even sings and dances around her when they’re on the Frog Ferry, happy enough about almost being home that he doesn’t seem to remember to be insecure–even better! She encourages him to play the Basoon after he protests he’ll be bad at it and “nobody wants to hear that” (albeit bc she thinks it WILL be bad and she’s trying to get them kicked off the ferry but he doesn’t know that)…and…he does!! he plays the basoon in front of someone!
Her betrayal, I think, is the start of his despair. It’s funny because he’s definitely mad at her, but what he says is “I thought we were friends” and then, later, “I shouldn’t have trusted anyone.” It’s self-recrimination–he’s mad because he knew, he knew, not to trust anyone, he knew (if anyone knew him) he’d be abandoned again. As Allie reminds us: His particular line of insecurity–namely, an almost total lack of trust in his fellow human beings–is very telling
The one time he does trust someone, she betrays him. He’s angry enough to leave, but he thinks she’s left them first. He doesn’t need her, he tells Greg. He tells Greg he, Greg, can do whatever he wants. It’s an implicit he doesn’t need Greg either. Wirt doesn’t need anyone (but, lol, if that were true he would’ve been lost to the Unknown a long time ago).
(The immediate next episode, he finds Lorna and as soon as he starts kinda liking her, she tries to eat him. He manages to save Lorna, which you’d think would be a positive! But it’s not his to stay with her, or Lorna’s to leave Auntie Whipsers, and so she never really Knows him. I’m inclined to think he wouldn’t let her even if they had more time together.)
And that’s when he starts despairing–he’s been betrayed by Beatrice, who he never should have trusted or let Know him in the first place. Beatrice was also their Only ticket home–she’d promised Adelaide would help them. Their other option was to follow the Woodsman, and Wirt thinks he’s the Beast. Without Beatrice, Wirt has no plan–he can’t trust anyone to get them out of the Unknown, but as much as he says he doesn’t need anyone, he can’t get them out himself either. What else is there to do but lay down and submit to fate?
But Beatrice comes back. Greg being taken is already a wake up call for Wirt, and he’s terrified and recognizes how much he’s failed his brother, but he also has to be rescued by Beatrice and she’s the one who helps him find Greg again.
Cinderella “plot holes” I am tired of hearing about
“Why didn’t her step family recognize her?” Because royal balls were basically the candle lit equivalent of clubbing in terms of both lighting and sheer numbers. Even if they were right next to her, they probably wouldn’t get a good look, especially since it would have started after sundown. Also, she was the help; they probably hadn’t looked at her in years.
“Looking for someone based on their shoe size is stupid!” See above.
“Was he going to have every size seven in the kingdom try the slipper on?” Prior to industrialization most garments were made by hand to fit the buyer’s measurements, including shoes. It’s why poor people only had one pair. It’s a lot smarter when you consider that they would’ve fit her like a glove.
“You can’t run down stairs in heels!” I know this is a misconception resulting from historical revisionism and disneyfication, but high heels were not originally women’s shoes. They were worn by men. Women wore slippers, which were basically ballet flats. So it’s debatable.
“Glass shoes don’t make any sense!” Okay first of all, it’s called the suspension of disbelief, and secondly, they’re gold in every other version but Perrault decided to change them to something else expensive.
“She just went to the ball to find a man!” I know this isn’t a plot hole but listen. As the daughter of a widower Cinderella would’ve been running the household finances and acting as hostess if he hadn’t remarried. By demoting Cinderella to a servant, her step-mother essentially guaranteed that she would never escape the house, because the only way for her to escape and maintain her status was to marry well, and no one was going to marry a servant. It was essentially the historical equivalent of your mom stealing your college acceptance letters out of the mailbox.
this was not an analysis i was prepared for, i’ll tell you that
I just had this hyper-realistic dream and like. I don’t even know what to make of this lmao
I was sitting in this park, on a bench, looking up at the night sky and all the stars and stuff, and I blinked and suddenly the entire sky was different. I’m talking different constellations, the sky absolutely packed with billions more stars, some so close they’re massive. I’m like wtf and suddenly I realise there’s an old man sitting next to me, dressed in like 1940s clothing, also looking up at the sky.
before I can ask him if he’s you know, noticed, he speaks, without looking away from the sky.
“this is what the universe really looks like,” he tells me.
“oh,” I say. a pause. “…can you put it back?”
he smiles and nods. I look up. the sky has gone back to normal.
“what do I do with this information?” I ask, looking at him again.
he turns his head and, smiling, looks me dead in the face. "be careful.“
After succumbing to a fever of some sort in 1705, Irish woman Margorie McCall was hastily buried to prevent the spread of whatever had done her in. Margorie was buried with a valuable ring, which her husband had been unable to remove due to swelling. This made her an even better target for body snatchers, who could cash in on both the corpse and the ring.
The evening after Margorie was buried, before the soil had even settled, the grave-robbers showed up and started digging. Unable to pry the ring off the finger, they decided to cut the finger off. As soon as blood was drawn, Margorie awoke from her coma, sat straight up and screamed.
The fate of the grave-robbers remains unknown. One story says the men dropped dead on the spot, while another claims they fled and never returned to their chosen profession.
Margorie climbed out of the hole and made her way back to her home.
Her husband John, a doctor, was at home with the children when he heard a knock at the door. He told the children, “If your mother were still alive, I’d swear that was her knock.”
When he opened the door to find his wife standing there, dressed in her burial clothes, blood dripping from her finger but very much alive, he dropped dead to the floor. He was buried in the plot Margorie had vacated.
Margorie went on to re-marry and have several children. When she did finally die, she was returned to Shankill Cemetery in Lurgan, Ireland, where her gravestone still stands. It bears the inscription “Lived Once, Buried Twice.”
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