#experiments in terror

[majosullivan]

Pluto’s expression at start of episode 123 tugged so hard on my heart strings. We have to remember that it hasn’t even been twenty four hours since Duke was freed from the wall, with Pluto having been in a consistent state of panic since he discovered Duke was missing. He just got his friend back from a near death experience and not even a day later, even if for a short moment, he thought that he just witnessed him get crushed underneath a chandelier. If I was in Pluto’s position after this, you better believe I would not allow Duke to leave my damn sight

<(95/??)>

[read more]

+Bonus!

[squad-3]

Oh rookie Joe Burrow🥹

[lurkinginnernarrator]

so. SVSSS time travel aus. know'em, love'em.

may I suggest: au wherein instead of the usual choice of Shen Yuan, or Shen Jiu, or Binghe, Liu Qingge etc, we do the one man who would probably succeed the best at a fix-it/do-over: Mu Qingfang.

Listen. Sure you have outside machinations like the OPM and the like, but Shen Qingqiu, OG or SY, has always been the leverage point of the plot. And conveniently, Mu Qingfang, atleast SVSSS:MQF would have an interest in ensuring SQQ doesn't do his typical SQQ things (dying).

I mean poor man had to figure out a treatment plan for an incurable poison, then implement it, unable to actually cure his patient. THEN that patient self-destructs, traumatizing literally everyone.

THEN (1) traumatized demonic disciple of your dead patient/shixiong KIDNAPS you and demands you figure out a way to resuscitate the DEAD.

Five years of this.

Your dead patient/shixiong shows up again, and everyone goes through more trauma once more.

So a Mu Qingfang able to prevent these things from the beginning? You bet your ass he's going to.

Do you know how much time he could've been doing more interesting things than trying to figure out necromancy?? (FIVE YEARS)

And the research time alone, looking for a cure to a poison named "Without-a-Cure"...

I'm appointing Mu Qingfang for time-travel au. Also he's a mad scientist and he deserves to be able to go feral

[synesindri]

asking a gay couple "so which of you is deteriorating physically from scurvy and which is deteriorating mentally from lead poisoning??"

[vladcvnt]

you know who would've saved the franklin expedition? HER

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

BTW RONAN RAFTERY I AM IN YOUR FUCKING WALLS FOR PUTTING THIS ON THE JIRV PLAYLIST

[toastytrusty]

ok i know I'm a few days late now BUT! full thoughts on hickey davechella.

his undiagnosed playlist is mostly instrumentals. could represent how disconnected he feels from reality, could represent him repressing his emotions/ignoring his issues/masking his true self/whatever. you get it

the non instrumentals on undiagnosed are really upsetting. was lowkey crying listening to Black Holes In The Sand. gives credence to the disconnected from reality theory

also Come Over. is the vibe self hatred, self pity, something else? lots of family issues certainly but we'll get to that later

I Would for You (on undiagnosed) is also on gibson's playlist. lol

The Sound of the End of Music (on undiagnosed) is a mash up of This is the End and The Sound of Music. This is the End was on tozer's playlist. lol

an undiagnosed hickey attatching himself to other people and mirroring them rather than developing his own sense of self? likely story. morphing how he thinks they are and what he thinks they like into something else entirely? even more likely

The Angel Gabriel on undiagnosed. just everything about that. why is he listening to christian hymns. i' m gonna freak out

the songs on undiagnosed that can only be described as Weird Noises. Shell Cameo, which is a single piano with? shower noises? in the background? Weather Three immediately after that, which is just. 12 minutes of doom sirens. he likes weird noises

Glory Only Once also very similar. anyone else hear the ominous whistling? 😂

so many orchestral pieces. what a cultured young lad

Vexations: Vexations: Thème being almost complete silence. kind of similar to the instrumentals possibly representing a disconnect from reality. there's just nothing

The Unanswered Question has a lot to unpack. i don't wanna ramble Too much about music history and the significance of this song but. it is a piece in conflict with itself, asking itself questions and leaving itself unsatisfied. it's about the inherent terrifying disorder of existence. it's about finding comfort in solitude and silence. you ever think

Don't Smoke in Bed. just. everything about that song. yeah

now on the treatment playlist. his music taste fucking rocks. we got ella fitzgerald we got father john misty we got jeff buckley we got the beatles we got peter gabriel we got bruce springsteen. he is cooking

first song on treatment, What Do You Think Will Happen Now? feels like affirmations and something he's trying to convince himself of rather than something he yet believes. prefacing the playlist with a new positive worldview, representing his journey with getting treatment? perhaps?

he immediately has more weird noises on treatment. Hocket for Two Voices: I.— is very short and i am sure there is lovely musical theory behind it that i am not smart enough to comprehend but it is kinda just weird noises to the untrained ear. A Boy Called Conjuror is also like this. a love of weird noises transcends therapy!

I'm 89 falls into a similar category. he just listens to people talk. he is clearly still quite lonely

there is still a good amount of instrumentals on treatment, but the vibe is Decidedly different. big Maybe It's All Going To Be Okay energy. Forever Held made me cry the first time i heard it

most of the songs are not instrumental though! very lyrical. something about him approaching and processing his issues.

the songs about love on treatment. All The Right Reasons is very deeply moving Made me cry a bit. Love Love Love actually made me take my headphones off stand up and walk across my room but maybe i'm just too mountain goats pilled

side note for that: the song called Love on undiagnosed is an instrumental. love was something abstract and impossible to define or put into words before, but now it feels a lot more real.

It's Only A Paper Moon was very moving. he just needed someone to believe in him

Because the Night. i laughed. even treated modern hickey yearns for cannibalism as a metaphor for love. i'm joking. mostly

we still got christian themes in treatment! they are, however, less overt. like it's become a part of something else and can peacefully exist alongside him, rather than being so blatant and forceful. the jeff buckleys, father john misty (kinda.), etc

SPEAKING OF THE JEFF BUCKLEYS AND THE FATHER JOHN MISTY. New Year's Prayer is a heavy hitter. it's hard to pin down the exact vibes but it's somewhere between coping and accepting. if you get it. and Bored in the USA is one of the most reminscent of show hickey's pysche, imo. it's steeped in fear and regret and a resigned kind of hope

in line with the religion stuff. the orchestral piece, Gnossienne: No. 3, references gnosticism, a religious doctrine that supposes divinity can only be found in rejecting the material world (because it is evil) and the god that created it (because it is evil), and instead finding salvation in some secret hidden being through a different kind of spirituality. lol

Nobody's Fault but My Own is kind of heartbreaking honestly. it shows how much he Is healing and Is processing and Is taking accountability and changing the way he views the world. one of the most impactful imo

Kansas City felt very reminscent of show hickey's relationship with london

Mercy Street. so much to unpack. the daddy issues. the remorse. the begging for forgiveness.

even more family issues because the last song on the treatment playlist is My Father's House. it felt kind of like an ultimate culmination of the thesis of treatment being him facing his issues and being forced to confront and process them. there's an element of being too late to right the wrongs of your past, but there's also the element of accepting that, and forgiving yourself

now. the radioheads on both albums. both second to last song on their respective playlist. How to Dissappear Completely on undiagnosed, How to Dissappear into Strings on treatment. the first one was kind of viscerally upsetting and felt very in line with how disconnected the entire undiagnosed playlist was, almost like he doesn't feel real. one of the few lyrical songs on a mostly instrumental playlist is about how much he's Not a part of the world around him. smth smth the only thing he can put into words is that he has no words. however, How to Dissappear into Strings is Not! lyrical! it is entirely instrumental, on an otherwise predominantly lyrical playlist. like he's not thinking about dissapearing anymore, or he can no longer put words to it. it's still there, some things can't be magically cured and made go away forever, but it's less, now.

aspects of both playlists being very similar, sharing sounds and themes and artists, felt very much like healing not being linear, and treatment not entirely changing who you are. it's clearly the same person behind each playlist, with different experiences shaping them differently, but the same nonetheless. it's really beautiful

and to close out, i just want to say how meaningful this whole experience with hickey's playlists was to me. it was genuinely so truly truly moving to witness a character that is clearly severely mentally ill be given the grace and opportunity to heal and overcome their struggles, rather than it being homogenized into the rest of them. so often characters like this are not treated with the same potential to overcome, and are condemned to just being Like That forever, as if their struggles are inseparable from their essence and something that defines them. they are wholly characterized by being quirky and insane and inconsolably evil. but that clearly was not how this was treated at all (and never how hickey has been treated by the show), and being able to witness hickey's journey across these two playlists was very cathartic to me, and i appreciate it. a lot.

[meowfeverzzz]

real fan of terrorlonging

stop liking this its bad

[belphieslilcow]

It's still so insane to me that according to the anime, levi just canonically has a polybius arcade machine

[qin-qin16]

HOPE convinced her younger sibling to burn down their room just so they could sleep with their parents... again

Ethanol by @theforgottencrow

HOPE by me

[nightmare-foundation]

The fact that there aren't any fics (that I know of) talking about Dicks time(s) in Arkham Asylum, specifically the time in Batman: RIP (iirc) that he was there for a full week, and the resulting trauma from that experience, is a fucking CRIME

Like... that's a goldmine of whump and angst if that's up your alley, especially hurt/comfort. On top of that it just sucks it's never talked about or even mentioned bc that experience would be deeply traumatizing.

Like cmoooon we need fic on this

[creatureprofessor]

Declan Hannigan, photographed by Chris Allan, 2025

[daincrediblegg]

I love all the little metaphors of colonialism that hickey latently displays through modes of dress. Every single thing about him is piecemeal. His coat, his boots, his very name, and even his mentality all stolen artifacts of a society that will never be his. They wanted nothing from him so he took from them piece by piece until he was able to construct a simulacrum of a man. Things that he takes and then disposes of when the next most powerful thing comes along until when he's naked again and wills to give his tongue to acquire something even higher than men only for his hubris to eat him and render him into pieces in turn... truly a magnificent metaphorical experience.

[stinkythehutt]

also. something about palpatine being so adept at seeing into the future that all of his successes feel completely joyless by the time he achieves them because he’s just going through the motions… how fucked up and nihilistic and brutal that would make you…

[tsarjozinzbazin]

your ghost au is amazing (like, all your drawings are good, but this one has ghosts)

imagine, though, if the ghost doctors followed goodsir (some to support, stanley to criticise) and thus had seen him faced with the situation in munity camp. would they help? (can they physically help or materialise before the mutineers or only goodsir can see them?)

(I am just trying to entice you to draw more ghosts, feel free to disregard anything but the praise for your art, it's really good!)

HIIIII !

Yes this is precisely the idea!

in my head only Goodsir can see them, however I think it'd be fun to have them be able to possess that mans body for a short while (for the plot, guys. for the plot. for the trauma.)

I've had this drawing on the burner for a bit but I finally finished it (albeit lazily) so teehee

be careful of the spooky sounds in the dark, doctor!

[cosmicsproutcake]

Sonic, letting Knuckles help stretch his sore groin out: Oh, hey babe!

Knuckles, holding Sonic's thighs way too close to his butt for comfort: What's up?

Shadow, eyes locked onto Knuckles' hands, experiencing true seething jealousy for the first time: So you've chosen death?