#This is just a theory I have

[nobodysdaydreams]

I have a theory about why Petey’s reintegration failed, what it will take for someone to properly reintegrate, and how this could complicate the endings they choose to give to Helly, Mark, and Gemma.

Haven't severance posted in a while, but I had to get this off my chest, because it fascinates me. Sorry in advance for a ridiculously long post/ramble.

I've been thinking a lot about Petey's reintegration and why it failed, and honestly I think the heart of it is the answer to the question: are the innies and outties two separate people, or the same person? Because I've seen arguments for both perspectives on Tumblr as well as third positions that say it's "kind of both/complicated", and all of them make compelling cases, but there's other aspects of the innie and outtie relationship that I don't think are talked about enough, and they could have very strong implications for how reintegration is going to affect our characters.

Let's start by using Petey as an example. Part of his reintegration problem was the timeline in his mind. Severance felt as far away as his fifth birthday, which makes sense if you take the perspective that the innies and outties are two people. This way of thinking certainly helps Lumon dehumanize innies as the “other” and pits the innies and outties against each other and appears to be what's happening from the viewers perspectives, as innies and outties disagree with each other and sometimes take steps to undermine each other.

But there's interesting implications when you reexamine the show's stated science behind it. While it seems like the innies are their "own separate people" that happen to share a body, it's notable that the innies aren’t created as a duplicate or other consciousness, not exactly. If that was the case, then the independent consciousnesses could theoretically be active in the same body at the same time, each with their own thoughts and unable to access each other's memories and experiences (though once aware at the same time, they would make memories and experiences together, much like a split brain patient). But thus far, as the science has been explained to us in the show, what severance does has nothing to do with duplicating or dividing consciousness in the brain, but memories, and that's an aspect of the procedure that could easily haunt many characters later and has interesting implications for what a successful reintegration could eventually look like if they decided to become "one person".

Let's take Mark, for example. Think of the moment he wakes up on the table. To Mark S, that's when "his life" begins, but "his life" is really just Mark Scout + amnesia at that point. His memories are there, but something is blocking his access to them, and when he goes up the elevator, his memories return, but now with something blocking access to other memories. So while an unsuccessfully reintegrated timeline might look the way Petey's did, with waking up on table = fifth birthday and he sees them as two separate lives he lived, a successfully reintegrated timeline for a character might look something like this:

"I was depressed so I took a job at Lumon, agreed to severance, and went down the elevator. Once down the elevator, I forgot everything, so I started working, and I hated my job. Then I went up the elevator. Once up the elevator, I forgot the whole work day, but remembered everything else, so I when home I made these decisions, which lead me back down the elevator. Once there, I forgot everything again, but remembered the day before. However, since I forgot, (for example) that I was married, I started falling in love with this person, or since I forgot that I have these values/fears/ideals, I did this action when I normally wouldn't. Then I went up the elevator and forgot the whole work day again, but remembered everything else...."

And it just continues like that. One perfectly integrated timeline for one person because the only thing separated was their memories. Sure, characters made different choices with access to different memories, but people make different decisions with different amounts of information, like stories where a character gets amnesia and acts different as a result because for better or worse, key memories are gone, but that doesn't make them "not them". The amnesia is part of their story arc, and the changes in the character are obvious, but I’m in multiple fandoms with that storyline, and we don't look at them and necessarily think "boom! It's a new person now, the old one died" and when/if the memories come back, it's not like there's suddenly two people now, even if the character might feel conflicted due to their new experiences when they couldn’t remember their previous life. It's just that unlike most amnesia stories where it happens in one big accident and characters forget one set of information they knew, the characters in severance are in a constant back and forth of "I forget this but I remember that, I forgot these memories, but I have these ones back now" and both innies/outties are selective amnesiacs.

This leads back to a debate that lies at the heart of severance the show: are these two different people or the same person? And while the "two people" answer is to Lumon's benefit (a house divided can't stand against them) and "one person" seems to be suggested if my theory about the science/process involved in a successful reintegration is correct, I think the answer is actually way more complicated and going to depend on the individuals themselves. Theoretically speaking, yes, all severance does is isolate and compartmentalize one person's memories (which we know because it's not like Helena and Helly R. can be awake and aware at the same time in the same body while simultaneously not accessing each other's memories or reintegrating into one person, at least that we know so far), thus implying that all the severed are really just one person with "spatially isolated memories" as the show says. But if a successful reintegration, as I'm theorizing, depends on accepting that reality, then some characters might not be able to do that and choose to continue living their lives as if they are two separate people who happen to take turns using the same body.

I think this will be hard for the outties and innies for a variety of reasons, and one general reason is that from the way Mark Scout and Helena speak to their innies, it's clear they don't really see them as people or a part of themselves at all. Their bodies aren't "Mark S. and Helly R.'s bodies" they are Mark Scout and Helena Eagan's bodies, and while Mark Scout and Helena Eagan's decisions lead to partial occupation of their bodies (and by extension, lives) by Mark S. and Helly R., from their perspective, they still have every right to evict them. From the outtie’s perspective, innies are just using/being loaned bodies and lives that don’t belong to them. Once the outties decide they don’t want their innie anymore, then it’s goodbye. Unpleasant for the innies of course, but what are they going to do? This isn’t their body or their life? Even if the outties do see the innies as people, they still don't see them as equal people with an equal right to the body they inhabit, and they certainly don't see the innies as part of themselves rather than separate people/parasites, and since I hypothesize accepting themselves as one might be what is needed for a successful reintegration, that’s gonna be a problem. And of course, the more hostile the outties are to their innies, the more the innies don't want to accept the outties are part of themselves either, because "hey, I get this is your body and your life and all, but uh...you did create me and put me in here, okay? So pardon me for wanting to live and be a person. You see me as an enemy, but I'm a enemy you made! Remember that? Remember you putting me in "your body"? Maybe you could be a little nicer?"

Of course as I said before, all this innie/outtie hostility only serves Lumon. The more they fight, the more divided they are, the most powerful Lumon becomes. Less memories per person at any time means less knowledge per person at any time. But even if an outtie and innie were to reach an understanding, that alone does not a successfully reintegration make. They wouldn't just need to get along as two separate people, if my theory is right, they need to accept (or decide if you'd prefer to think of it like that) that they're one person. For some characters, I think this will be easy, and a stitched together timeline where you accept yourselves as one person seems like the perfect solution. Take Dylan G. for example. He gets new friends, his wife, his kids and memories of being awesome and falling back in love. Who wouldn't want that? He better get reintegrated and live his best life.

But then of course, we have Helly R./Helena, Mark S./Mark Scout, and Gemma/Ms. Casey, which is a way more complicated situation. Personally, I do not care who "ends up" with who, though I do humbly think that the situation is far less simplistic than it often gets made out to be in terms of "oh but these two HAVE to end up together if reintegrated/severed", and will be talking about it, as this does factor into the decisions the characters might end up making.

For example, and this might be the world's most unpopular opinion, but I do not think reintegration = Mark automatically choosing either woman over the other, Gemma or Mark hating Helly, or even either woman insisting Mark should obviously be with them. Let's start with Mark. What would reintegration mean for him? What would his "stitched together timeline" look like? Well, it's the story about him getting severed because of the pain of losing his wife, and spending two years getting over her, then going to work, forgetting about that, falling in love with someone new, then going back up, forgetting that again, but mourning his wife some more and trying to maybe date someone else but it goes nowhere, then he goes back down, forgets all that, and continues the romance with his coworker, goes back up, finally learns his wife is alive after two years and feels that hope, then goes back down, forgets that, and continues the romance again, etc. Overall, when put together, it's the story of a guy who sometimes forgot he had a wife, so he fell in love with a coworker after she died, only to discover his wife is alive again. None of that necessarily means he will choose one woman over the other. He and Gemma have history and they clearly care about each other, but they were also separated for a long time and it’s gonna take a while to see if they can fall back in their rhythm or if that’s even possible. Mark and Helly have a more recent relationship, but her outtie also knew his wife was being tortured at Lumon and didn’t tell him. Didn’t even act sorry about an innocent woman being tortured and killed. She also slept with Mark’s innie under false pretenses. Even if she was raised that way it still might be (understandably) hard for Mark to see past that. But none of these points might even matter at all because we have no idea how Gemma and Helly being reintegrated or not reintegrated will impact Mark's decision even if he himself is successfully reintegrated.

Take Gemma for example. You might think "Well, she's Mark's wife. She believed he would come for her, she waited years for him, she never lost hope in him, and Helly is literally Helena Eagan, who knew she was down there and did nothing. Of course Gemma is not gonna understand or care about their relationship and insist that Mark is her husband and should be with her!" And maybe that's true for Gemma. But consider what a reintegrated timeline would look like for her. Ms. Casey said the best part of her existence was "watching Helly". Seeing Mark, who was kind to her and concerned for her, fall in love. It's like when you have two friends that you ship really hard and are so happy when they end up together but in this case, uh-oh! Now you suddenly remember that actually one of them is your husband, which you periodically kept forgetting ever time you went up that dang elevator, which introduces complicated feelings, but I don't think a reintegrated Gemma would look at Mark and Helly together and be like "ew. now where did this come from?" she knows where it came from, she was there,m. Her story is a back and forth between "My husband is going to save me. He loves me and would never give up on me.” and "the best part of my existence is seeing these two together".

Then we have Helly. And her story is more difficult to stich together because we don't have all of Helena's backstory. But we know that Helena, despite having feelings for Mark, did make some pretty big missteps. Look, maybe she has secretly been working against her father and family this whole time. We don't know. But what we do know is that even if that is the case, she still slept with Mark under false pretenses and made insensitive comments about his wife knowing that she was being tortured daily, and probably has done some other shady stuff. I'm sure she did it under pressure/the influence of her father and suffered too, and I don't want to discount that, but she still did it. And Helly is not going to be happy about that, and even less happy to remember "oh yeah, when I went up the elevator and temporarily forgot my life down here, but suddenly remembered my whole crazy upbringing, that was me that did those things to the man I love and got weirdly jealous of myself like a crazy person." I could see her stepping aside so Mark and Gemma can be together because she realizes/remembers her actions and is horrified by them, but I can also see her really wanting to make their relationship work since Mark is the one thing both her and Helena seem to agree on and this is the one thing they both seem to really want. Her story is a weird back and forth between "I'm going to destroy this company" to "forget all that, we're back to either running the company or destroying it from the inside depending on what the writers do here" and back to forgetting all that again and going back to destroying Lumon with Mark. So, yeah, until we know a little more about Helena, it's hard to say what a reintegration with her would look like, but I think that "she'd realize the error of her wicked ways and stand aside so Mark and Gemma could be together, what happened between Helly and Mark doesn’t matter at all" and "no, she deserves happiness, and her and Mark belong together just forget about the complications" are not guarantees.

So in summary, where does that leave our trio? The way I see it, we have two options main options here. Option 1, which I've discussed above is everybody reintegrates. Their timelines are stitched together, and Gemma/Casey, Helena/Helly, and Mark/uh...Mark, remember everything, and all the complicated feelings, pains, self-hatred, and betrayal that comes with it, and then...they work it out. They talk through their feelings like adults. They can't change what happened, but it is what it is, and now the three of them remember everything. Their whole story. Hopefully a very qualified therapist is involved, and yes, the most likely scenario is multiple people getting their feelings hurt if not all of them, but life is messy and complicated, and sometimes this is what happens. Is it fair to everyone? No. Is this a bittersweet ending? For sure. But on the bright side, now they can talk it out. Now they have their lives back, their full, complete lives. Now they're all working on the same side as their whole selves, no separated or compartmentalized memories. That at least is something, something that could be a good place of common ground.

Then there's option 2: one or both of the innies/outties can't or won’t accept or decide that they're the same people, so they can't reintegrate. As much as the severance show tells us "hey we just separated and isolated your memories, not your consciousness" and "It's hard to tell which "person" you are (or rather, which set of memories you have access to at a given time)", that's not what we see or what the characters see. And let's face it. If someone told you that you had another life where you fell in love with someone other than your current partner, or watched, heck, even rooted for them, to fall for someone else, or tortured and hurt your current partner and someone else who you consider a friend, would you want to remember that? And even if one character can reintegrate, a lot of their ability to move forward and make decisions about their future depends if the other two are also reintegrating or not because of how entangled their lives are now. Living as separate people might be what's easiest, whether that's what's "actually happening" during severance or not. It's giving up half a life, but if the characters decide the stitched together life isn't the one they want to remember, but also won’t kill each other to take over their life, then what else are they to do? Ironically, I see this ending just as bittersweet as the other one. I imagine at a certain time every year, Helena drives to that cabin in the woods. Mark and Gemma Scout arrive too, separate car. They just sort of look at each other, acknowledge each other. Helena knows outtie Mark is the person who chose Gemma over her, that her innie gets a version Mark and she doesn't, but at least she has control of the company now. At least she's free from her father. And of course, to Outtie Mark and Gemma, Helena is the person who knowingly let them be tortured and tried to make a move on Mark knowing what her father's company was doing to his supposedly dead wife. Sure, she turned it around and helped them, but that still happened. And all of them know what's going to happen when they walk into the cabin. Mark and Helly are going to be together, and Mark is disgusted by the fact that a version of him fell in love with the woman who tortured his wife even though he supposes "technically" it's not her, and Helena hates that it's Helly getting that romance, and not her, and Gemma is unhappy, because how would you feel if your partner was in this situation, and you were about to be turned into someone who thought that your husband and the lady who knew you were being tortured in her dad’s basement looked cute together?

But what can they do? Refuse to return to the cabin? Selectively delete their bundles of severed memories, removing them like a brain tumor? They could. But deep down, they know they can't. Even Gemma, whose innie was made through zero fault or consent of her own, can't bring herself to condemn an innocent and kind person to just "stop existing", even if she knows that "person" is just "memories she forgot + forgetting her current memories". So they go inside. And just like that, Helly R., Mark S., and Ms. Casey are back. They can't leave the cabin, though they might want to. Their world and existence are small. But it's there's, and they don't have to share it with their outties. They don't have to work for Lumon. They can be happy. And if they need to know about anyone else or anything else going on outside, they can gather on the balcony and have someone step out to activate their outtie to talk to the other two. But I feel like they might try to avoid that, if they can. Perhaps a conversation between Outtie Mark and Helly so he can see and understand how a version of himself could fall in love with her and verify that Ms. Casey is happy with her situation. But that might be it. And then, when the time is up, they leave. They don't know if they'll be back, but they hope so. Mark and Helly hug one last time, before exiting through separate doors as Mark leaves with Ms. Casey. Then they all go outside, get back in their cars, and drive away, as if the time just disappeared. They don't remember what happened in the cabin. They don't want to remember. Maybe that was them, maybe it was always them. But it's easier to act like they aren't the same person, for them and their innies. So that's how they act. Forever.

Anywayyyy... I'm not saying that this is necessarily where the show is going, but it's my theory about what makes for a successful reintegration, and you don't have to agree with it or like it, but I hope someone finds in narratively compelling. And if you're reading this and hate both these options because it ruins your beautiful ship, please know that I hope your ship works out, and you are happy. I have no control over that, and obviously that hope can't work for everyone since what everyone wants seems to contradict each other (an ironically perfect metaphor for our characters), but either way, at least we'll have fanfic.

[starchaser667]

Hey so, has anyone else like , , , thought about this??

Because I have,

And it's making me incredibly anxious

[chloesimaginationthings]

How the Bonnie bully got their FNAF mask,,

[agentlizardofowca]

Pnf theory S5

Monogram got divorced. HE GOT DIVORCED! in season 5 ep 5b (More than an intern) Carl delivers a pizza to Monogram's apartment in the inner city. Which is just kinda... gray on the inside. Probably the way it came. Note how Monogram ordered just one Pizza for himself. He's alone in there.

But in season 3 ep 20 (excaliferb) Carl visits monograms house in the suburbs where he lives with his wifeb to read him a bedtime story when he is sick. note that they slept in seperate bed

In season 5 monogram also: Got in shape and tried to look good for their portrait (Dating??? profile) AND He is spending so much more time with Carl because he's lonely They even go on day-trips together!

She DUMPED his ass!

[egophiliac]

can't believe that skeleman has turned on us, and Halloween Prom is tomorrow.

(what a top-tier UM...we are about to be just totally obliterated in the absolute silliest way. what possible use could this power have outside of bringing us to the brink of utter holiday disaster.)

[tadfools]

You guys are commenting on the fics you read right? You’re at least leaving kudos on the Astarion smut and the pairs that have less than 20 fics for them too? You’re bookmarking stories you really like that are still being updated and ones that haven’t been touched in over a year right?

You know that even the smallest interactions are like cocaine to fic writers right? You understand how important a string of emoji hearts left behind on a chapter at three am is right?? Right????

You’re treating AO3 like a community and not a content factory….right?

[afterartist]

Tiny… oversight in the planning

Re-visiting Colour theory for a Uni assignment and I can’t get over the fact that, with his red visor, Sounders would 100% be colourblind

N e ways, bonus images without the text for u (cause im proud of the perspective on Screamer okay shush)

[plagueislost]

i love being late to trends. my new years resolution is to be late to every trend ever. and you know im serious because im even late to new years.

(theres an inverse version of this by @chamiryokuroi , you should go check it out! i started making this before i saw theirs, but i think its cool that now theres both versions)

[hinamie]

big fan of panels where they look like they wld beat me up

[kodasea]

ARTFIGHT FILES #3 (Ash for starqweeen)

[lucabyte]

monologue

[thepandalion]

ok no I need to talk about this

the reason ralsei is changing is because of susie

the way he said it, darkners that are based on memories of loved ones can "only appear in specific darkness". meaning, originally, ralsei was kris' memory

and, similarly, gerson was presumably Alvin's?

except. gerson came back. it's the third sanctuary. a different dark world. but he's still here. and why?

because SUSIE remembers him. she wrote alvin the letter from him. she fought him and won and came back to look for him. because now he's in her memories, too.

following that logic, of course ralsei is in her memories too. more prominently, too, each time she returns to an adventure. he strays further from the blurry memories kris has, into something that's both theirs and hers

and, while we're at it, maybe ours, too. we shape him with our choices because we're part of this team too

[chloesimaginationthings]

Is Michael Afton gay or European in FNAF?…

[grilledcheeseandguavajelly]

“Agatha can’t control her powers and kills a bunch of people, this explains why Death is in love with her because it means she gets more bodies” No.

No no no.

I need “Agatha can’t control her powers and the first time someone blasted her with their magic they died right in front of her and she was only seven years old and terrified and alone until suddenly there was a small little girl across from her who gently took her hand and told her it was okay”

I need “Agatha can’t control her powers and had a tantrum, purple exploding out of her, but the other witch was too fast and Agatha blinked and they were dead on the ground and she scrambled back against the wall, curling up into a little ball and shaking, shaking, shaking, until someone just as young and soft as her stroked her hair back and told her they knew it was an accident”

I need “Agatha can’t control her powers and was beaten and bruised by her mother until she couldn’t take it anymore and ran off into the woods and was blasted by someone who thought she was a witch hunter, and she didn’t even realize what was happening until it was too late. Agatha climbing into a tree and scraping her cheek and trembling as she stared at the lifeless witch, something rattling deep inside of her that sounded like a stranger’s voice. And then the stranger appearing through the thick, standing over the dead body and instantly looking up, looking for Agatha. Finding her in the tree and climbing in with her. Smoothing a thumb across her cheek until it didn’t sting anymore”

I need “Agatha can’t control her powers and any spell she tries goes haywire, the final teacher that swore she could fix her grey and lifeless on the floor as Agatha sat up on the kitchen table and just stared and stared, tears falling, always falling, until that familiar face appeared through the bedroom doorway, watching Agatha, not the woman, and threaded their fingers together. Guided her to cracked, dusty skin and forced her to feel it, hand pressing hers into dead flesh and murmuring ‘exceptional’ under her breath before explaining every single step of reaping a soul. Talking and talking until Agatha wasn’t crying anymore, until she couldn’t remember why she had been upset in the first place”

I need “Agatha can’t control her powers but she also couldn’t control her temper, and suddenly half of a coven was dead before her, barely eighteen years old, and then the girl, also freshly a woman, the closest thing she knew to having a friend, sliding up behind her and placing a hand on her shoulder, wiping her tears away. Shushing her pleas of ‘why can’t I control it? Why do I ruin everything I touch?’ with soft murmurs of ‘there’s nothing wrong with you. You didn’t kill them. They simply… bent to your power.’”

I need “Agatha can’t control her powers but she sure as hell tried, until she was tied to a stake and her coven fell at her feet and her mother crumpled before her, hellbent until the moment she died to punish Agatha for things she had never meant to do. Agatha, with her grief and her relief and her freedom, finally, somehow still sobbing over her mother’s death, curled up far away and safe in the woods. Safe until Death came for her, hands cupping her face too tenderly, too delicately, and forced Agatha to meet her eyes. Death, who had somehow become the only one to ever show her mercy and kindness and compassion, leaning her forehead against hers and whispering ‘it’s okay. I am so proud of you.” Death leaning in so, so hesitantly and pressing the smallest kiss to her mouth. Breaths hitching. Eyes meeting. Long, loaded stares and trembling fingers and Death herself smiling at Agatha like she actually meant it. Agatha fisting her cloak and yanking her closer and letting Death suck the air right out of her lungs, and Agatha somehow living anyway”

That’s what I need.

[egophiliac]

So,I read silver's relaxation vigente and now I'm sad for the poor boy. If lilia broke up silver's curse why is it acting so strongly on him?

to be fair, the chronological placement of his birthday story just doesn't make any sense in general. like, it can only really take place during his second year, since Ace and Malleus are both there...yet we have seen pretty definitively what Silver was doing on the evening before/morning of his 18th birthday, and it was very much NOT his history homework. this myth?

jk jk I think it's just one of those card stories that's meant to be more...perpendicular to canon, if that makes sense? 😅 like a lot of them aren't really supposed to fit into a specific point in the timeline; instead all the characters and relationships tend to be somewhere vaguely post-episode 1 (occasionally with a bonus post-6 Ortho) except Yuu is already friends with everyone and nobody is surprised to hear them call Malleus Tsunotarou.

mostly they can get away with it, but it starts getting a bit weird with the cards that are supposed to be set at specific times. :T for those I think you gotta just kind of suspend your disbelief and take 'em as, like...little what-if AUs, or something like that! it's not exactly not canon, but more like. this is Silver's birthday if none of the narrative development happened and so his curse is still in effect, or something. 🤷 uhhhh basically Twst's timeline is an eldritch thing that cannot be perceived by mortal eyes, to try will lead to nothing but suffering, down this path dwells only madness.

that said I do 100% accept the presented canon that Silver's roommate is in eternal torment. this is the real victim of Twst right here.