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Chapter 40

when there were human rights. this chap was 11k... what if it was worth 2 points… - rb

Chapter 42

dear district 11 olive,

thank you so much for your chapter of in the end. due to legal reasons, i hope that it is your last. please contact either my father or moxie adegoke as they are serving as my attorneys at this time.

best,
Ladyqueerfoot - linds

YAY MARCY! this chap was 34k... i implore you... multiple points… - rb

marcy gardening arc. friendship with vito and matty. zoe alive! - moose

i feel like i will never be able to fully express my thoughts on this epilogue because not only is it the end of this verse, it's in a lot of ways also the end of an era in my life. i’ve always been the sort to get overly sentimental over the smallest things, so it’s only fitting i be overly yet somehow adequately sentimental about the conclusion of something so so big.

the first chapter of 1tc was posted not even a month after my 18th birthday and now i’m halfway between 21 and 22 so like… this was a long period of time. when this fic started, i had no idea where i would be going to college and now i’m one semester early from graduating just about the last place i thought i’d attend school. it goes without saying that so much has changed, but this verse has always remained a consistent part of my life. you too, em, have remained a conistent part of my life and you already know how grateful i am for our friendship so i’ll spare myself the hysterics now and instead talk about the epilouge.

i know most people didn’t expect marcy to win, and i’ll admit as much as i wanted it, i didn’t think it’d happen, but this epilogue showed why she’s the perfect victor here. she’s so meek and timid that she was of course the best one for dr. liu (much like my son i refuse to call him alan) because he needed somebody to experiment on to such a severe degree considering what’s happening with the un and the protestors/other winners. marcy was unfortunately the perfect choice for this, and there was also something so deeply ironic about the “worst of the worst” being a tiny 16-year-old who never directly killed anybody. the imagery with the colors of fire and then the grayness was lovely, by the way. your writing is always very lovely.

i knew that marcy’s journey would be miserable, and it was, don’t get me wrong, but it was also so beautifully hopeful. i think all of her adorableness also made her the perfect candidate for somebody who could make dr. liu soften even a little bit. the last scene where she asks him “shouldn’t i get a choice?” honestly lives in my head rent free. marcy is such a special good girl and i’m so happy she’s not dead. her interactions with vito and matt made me so fucking feral. they were real mensches for returning to the hospital in the first place, and it was just so precious watching them be so gentle with little marcy. they were so good and so patient and it was simply exactly what she needed. i’m also happy her parents have decided to be good parents now and she’s so so loved. truly what she deserves and then some.

i like how overall the ending isn’t “wow everything is perfect now,” because that just would not be realistic. i know it’s a good thing to hope for, but this is a cast of nuanced individuals who have various definitions of a happy ending. also, there’s no way canada was going to completely cancel the cut when it’s just so much of a success. the new rules are better, but still. at least there’s hope for a brighter change in the future. it’s bittersweet but it’s the truth.

for all their ptsd, it seems like all the winners are going to be fine in the long run, which i really love. there’s just something so beautiful in the sentiment that even though things will at times be awful, there will always be a community to embrace because they’ve been through the exact same thing. i also like to think that things will be getting progressively less awful. as for the survivors, i think rory and val will be okay and the basement gang will get there at some point.

i’d be remiss to not mention vito because he played a decent role in this fic and then also i just love him. he is my baby. i’m so damn proud of him for everything he did. it was devastating when he didn’t fit in with the rebels and earlier winners but he was a true hero when he spoke out against dr. liu to the un and when he and matt went back to in a way atone for what they did to the basement gang and also because marcy so desparately needed them. i know i thought that he’d be confronting damien/his bio family, and for a while i hoped for that, but what you did instead was better. he doesn’t need to spend time dwelling on the people who haven’t really been his family for a while now, and seeing them again would’ve just made him miserable. now he gets his true happy(ish?) ending with matt and his family. finally, he has a brother again, and this one is so much better than the last. thank you so much for writing him and finishing such an incredible arc. he’ll always be a part of me and i’m not even talking about the tattoo. he just has become an integral part of my existence on this website and i’m glad you love him too.

i’m tearing up now, which i do not want to do, so i will probably end this review here. i know there’s so much more i can talk about when it comes to this epi / this verse / this fic (need to yap abt vasi and noam eventually lol), so you’ll obviously still be hearing from me.

for now, all i can do is congratulate you on such a momentous achievement and smile because i get to follow you as you go on this next journey. it’s been an honor, friend.

all the love,
linds

Congratulations for finishing

so…can i still volunteer for the cut season 11?

- "Solene genuinely thinks it would be easier if they'd drop dead." yikes. maybe
- "She doesn't know if she believes that but, right now, she needs to believe something." ::((( wrenching bruh

- "the toonie-sized stain" what is a toonie-sized anything?
- "Dom never realized how much she needed to find someone like Amadis." DISINTEGRATE GIF
- "If Lea were here, she would fight. If Solene were in her place, she would know what to do. Dom never has." nooo not the comparison...
- "One more time, she has to try." how do u begin to quantify that...

- oh hi dommy mommy (literally dommy's mommy)
- oh my ass is fucking stupid i read briones instead of bridges
- IS HER NAME REALLYBRIDGET BRIDGES? OHHHH MY GOD?

- "Claude suspects that even with all their furniture and belongings unpacked, their new Montreal residence will never feel like home." ouh...
- "Claude never thought that Marceline would do something like this. He doesn't understand how he missed the signs." wahhh...
- "She cried silently and Claude felt like just touching her would break her further. Thinking back now, he wishes more than anything that he'd hugged her anyway." this is a miserable sentiment

- "that she wished she had stayed even if it meant going home in a body bag." withered.
- oh god the smokes back?
- "It has to be a dream." it was in fact not a dream

- "The next, she was staring at a wall of grey that seemed to be barrelling towards her." its sentient
- "It's nowhere close to the goodbye her friend deserves." pensive emote
- "It wants her there and she will go. It's the only option." we go where the plot device smoke leads
- "Yet when her gaze lifts to the figure standing over her, Dom forgets all of that." um hewoo...

- "If there's anyone in this prison that she should want to hurt, she's standing right in front of her." wow
- "Not long enough." no kidding

- ok but the sandwich between family and contestant povs is so uniquely fucked
- "Still, every single instinct tells Solene to protect her from this." :(

- "One moment, Marcy can see the girl's face entirely as she scrambles to keep herself from falling. The next moment, she's gone completely from view." ummm...

- "She knows this game well enough to understand what that means. There are still three of them left." yes mamas you can count!
- "Dom already knows that she cannot trust Bridget." you cant trust ANYONE actually
- "It's okay," Dom says softly." head in hands
- "I'm not going to hurt you. Dom can't lie to her." christ yeah
- "I'll try to make it fast." Dom doesn't know what she means by that." haunting

- "That's not his Marceline, yet he knows that it is." boy wym ur daughter is just DOING HER BEST

- "Dom tried to do the right thing. She was trying to help the girl even though she had no reason to. And now-" HEAD IN HANDS
- "She can almost imagine Dom walking in and rolling her eyes, jokingly telling them that the house can't be that cold.

Solene doesn't want to believe that she'll never hear that again." this is extremely sickening. foul

- "They're bright, the colour of the rooftop haze, yet to Bridget they're indistinguishable from Dom's." mental illness
- "I don't have much time before they'll take it back." The words are faster, harder to understand through the static. "You don't have to do this. There's another way." HELLO?
- "The Cut will have to show them the truth, that you don't want to do this." hmmmmm
- "She closes her eyes and violent memories whip past in a frenzy. How easily her knife slid easily into Lilliana's chest. The way Omar's skin flinched around her blade despite his stillness. The blood that seemed to streak every inch of the rooftop until Riley's face was so pale it looked like wax." ouhhh fire flashbacks
- "Where have you been?" true their ass is late asf
- "Why not before I did all of this?" withered
- "That's not what she said. Marcy doesn't know what she said." :eye: wym girl

- "She doesn't know why Bridget dropped it." damn mom was egging her on!
- "She screams as the other contestant slams her foot into the side of her daughter's head." HEYW HAT THE FUCK
- "This time, at least, she knows better than to look." UMMM...

- "The longer Marcy thinks about that, the longer she stares at the weapon that's almost a meter from where the girl's body dropped, the more she doubts her own account." MARCY... WHAT HAVE YOU DONE
- "Are you still coming?" She whimpers so quietly that she's not sure the stranger would hear her even if he were still listening." THIS IS HAUNTING.
- "Congratulations Marceline Toussaint, Winner of The Cut Season 10." WOW WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST READ

dom: damn... my victor pick... baby girl ever im gonna miss her really bad :( she was so good, reminded me of tuff girls i knew grewing up. rip dom i wouldve given u anything

bridge: very tumultuous ride with bridge but she got shit done. her last minute dropping the hammer really hit. she wanted to believe that she could somehow take it all back. rip bridge

marcy: congrats baby... maybe not so baby. wo.w. what even possessed her to beat bridgets shit in. she is going awffff. head in hands. its so joever. everyone pack it up

congrats em! very exhilarating finale, uniquely painful WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BRING THE FAMILIES IN? head in hands.

bink

god this whole thing was so insane to read... highlights were def the family moments (ok idk if i can call that a Highlight exactly bit it hit really fucking hard for all of them).. bridget's whole internal monologue throughout this chap (her struggles with hatred and the person she became and wanting to be better but.. alas augh).. the way you juked me out with thinking dom would really wake up ;-; bridgets mom watching her die . and ofc marcy aughhh... her delusions and her terror.. it was stronger than her ability to wait it out like the voice was asking (and the voice ? hello? Levi is that you ;-; ?) shes going to make Such an addition to this verse i have no idea how you're gonna conclude all of this but im praying it ends with all the winners rebuilding calvins barn Please ;-; and dr liu and co getting arrested by the un or however that works BHVDHJBVFB.. really excellent writing, you blew it out of the water with these past few chaps and the finale went just as hard :heart: congrats to u and also rb ! yay ! i will miss bridget and dom too ;-;

nothing to see here, just three gals throwing rocks at each other. what could possibly go wrong?

OHHH THIS IS SO JUICY… the UN getting involved damn.. rly glad the winners were all able to tell as much of the truth as they could, get absolutely WRECKED dr liu

Bless levi for letting val and rory go ;-; the commander oughh.. ok commander vs senator steiner is an insane dichotomy of fathrhood wow.. sending ur son to the death pageant to show ur support of it vc dedicating ur life to tearing it down when ur son dies on death pageant tv show.. ahhhhh ;-; rly love also the revelation with elise.. commander is such a fascinating character. I hope he and levi can do something significant in the end ;-; so excited to see whats up ur sleeve for the finale and epilogue !

Very late to this party my bad but god… madis.. ;—; riley… rly adored everything here with amadis and dom, absolutely fantastic. Definitely heartbreaking to see amadis just. Give up bc there was nothing she could do anymore.. glad she at least got to die with dom trying to comfort her aughh.. huge fan of that.. and then riley bridget marcy.. love bridget realizing she wants to live for herself now and not the memory of someone else. I get why she didnt wanna do a murder but Damn that was so brutal how it took riley ages to die.. also marcy lingering with him because eris didnt get that :withered: really loved the dialogue from her here. (Also dom and madis, it went so hard). Poor marcy is stuck up there now :sob:

No idea who ur kitty picked as victor but my heart is rooting for dom rn ;—; all really fantastic choices though !

Levi im so sorry sweetie I really do think they would hurt the winners

That Casi / Levi brother reveal was rough ;-; making him think he’s the reason the floor crumbled under Casi…even if its true showing him that and then reeling the body thru is so rough man…..

oooh the interrogations are so interesting... are they interrogating each Winner?

WAHH VITO BEING THE ONE TO SPILL THE BEANS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE...

i repeat what was said in discord but ofc noam's dad would be a strong Cut supporter...that makes noam convinced his dad would save him hurt even more...cruel and unjust em...

OH WOW WAIT ALL THE WINNERS TOLD THE TRUTH THAT'S INSANE...GO TEAM GO

oh besties youre all not going to be okay me thinks

oh that ending was sad ;-; i hope he's right...i hope they can do something...

#domwins...

idek what to say bruh... this is so fucked up

- oh suicidal ideation poggies...
- "They're gone. Except Amadis still swears she can see the crumbled ceiling moving." casi is still alive theory GASPPP
- lesbins...
- "The timing was too specific." remember they want to kill you remember?
- "Yet, Dom can't help but feel relieved. The reason for Amadis leaving had nothing to do with her. In fact, in a backwards sense it was because she thought it would keep Dom safe." n ur ok w her taking that decision in her own hands?
- "She doesn't know if anyone's ever done that much for her." i guess she is
- "You're not pushing me away again." LES...
- "Dom needs her, even if Amadis isn't the type to need anyone." this is such a gay sentiment

- "By her calculations, this game has been going on for over a week now. Dom doesn't think she's slept a full night since." makes everyone psychologically all screwy
- doms sisters...
- ouh hidden door
- "She should've realized. She should've known. This isn't chemistry class, this is The Cut." i mean... Yeah...

- "One second she finds the huddled shape in the corner of the windowed room. The next, he's running straight for them." DUDE COME ON
- "Her knife sinks handle-deep in the side of his abdomen before he can grab hold of her." GO DOM GO DOM
- "Dom is staring so intently at the knife that she doesn't see his arms rise up again.

She hits the ground so quickly that her vision goes dark." OUHH ITS BRUTAL OUT HERE...
- "Dom wraps her in a tight hug and she softens against the girl's chest." im hurt.
- "Everyone needs a little help sometimes," her mom had whispered as she held her daughter close. "Even you." PAIN...
- "The first fist that came at Amadis when they entered the room had been hiding a knife. Amadis hadn't even seen it until it was pulled free of her abdomen. Dom had still been on the ground. She had no way of knowing. Not until right now." A
- "Amadis tightens her arms around the girl. Suddenly, she's afraid that Dom's going to leave even though time again she's proven that she won't. "I'm sorry." HEYWHAT THE FUCK OP... OP NOOOO

- "Maybe that's why she doesn't see him right away." every time riley appears its like a goddamn horror movie bruh
- "We don't have to do this." girl YOURE the one that wants to play this game so bad
- "Not because he felt Alec staring at him from behind the window." wh
- "Not so brave now, he thinks." nah fr
- riley literally should be winning the cut and its tragic he isnt
- "Riley turns the girl completely over so that Alec will be able to see." um. what the fuck? where am i
- "The hammer's claw end sinks deep into the already present wound." hueughhghg
- "The emptiness that settles in his chest doesn't make him any less desperate to keep going. It just makes his limbs feel like they've been coated in cement. The drive is still there. It has to be." DESPAIR.
- "Bridget is still trying to catch her breath when he starts to rise again. She doesn't know how." bro is a powerhouse and also a homosexual next
- "She doesn't want to kill him. She just wants him to stop. She just wants to be certain that he won't be able to find her again.

And as soon as she's certain she's done enough, Bridget takes off running as fast as her legs will carry her." horrifying

- "Red blood stains the concrete and finds its way through the many cracks. All the while, blue air watches over it silently as if it couldn't care less." very nice awful visual
- "That leads her to the simple conclusion that most, if not all, of the blood she's looking at must be his." bridget finished what dom started...!
- "It's deep but quiet in a way that she didn't think it would be." well hes sort of bleeding to death if that explains it
- "She brings her knees together in front of her and hugs her arms around them tightly. All the while, she doesn't take her eyes off him." shes just gonna WATCH HIM?
- "But not even you deserve to die alone." oh :::((((
- a doe crouching down at the paws of a dying wolf
- goes hard tbh
- "He has to believe he will see Alec again.

Anything else would've killed him a long time ago." hes literally unbreakable but hes also already broken. has been for a long time

- "She also knows who's going to last longer if it comes down to it and Dom's not sure she can accept that either." :(
- "She desperately hopes that, somehow, Amadis can still hear her.

"Amadis Navarro has been eliminated. Three contestants remain." that was fucking awful of you bro.
- "She doesn't know how long after she stopped talking she was even still conscious." whAT THE FUCJ...

- "She didn't want to kill Riley, but in the end she made him suffer longer than anyone should have to." well... it is what it is

- "Tonight you may rest in safety. The set has been placed in lockdown until further notice." wow thank you so generous
- "Yet, when his name was announced, she broke down into a sobbing pile before it'd even said his last name." girl :sob:
- siiiighhh

riley: what a force. i was his hater for a while but then it just got miserable and sad to watch. and i have to respect the hustle bc bro just kept going. bro was a machine. and debilitatingly gay. i hope for both of their sakes that alec was asleep the whole time. "riley prays alec isn't watching" lives in my head often

amadis: started to really like amadis as the story progressed. u did her so mfin dirty w this death. DID U HAVE TO CRUSH HER HOPE? its so awful... what an unbearably tragic and quiet way for her to die. rest in peace sweet amadis and may the higher powers bless your yuri soul

m*ne: omo
im rooting for u: dom
ahhhh: marcy
i am decidedly not rooting for you: bridget

my victor pick is dom clearly

bink

- "She doesn't care that this is likely being shown on every screen across the country." oh thats embarrassing
- "She wouldn't have done the same for Bowie. She barely knew them." i think thats fine thats probably normal
- "But it would feel a hell of a lot better than laying here and wondering how much of the axe Bowie actually felt." WITHERED
- "You always just hope, don't you?" well damn
- "Maybe it's not even five, because as Myra crouches under the desk she still can't help but hope that Dominique will change her mind." brooo ;;;
- "She just wanted someone to look at her and decide she was what they wanted when all Myra has ever wanted was someone to stay." thank you this sentiment makes me want to kms expeditiously

- "She knows she can't simply based off the muted smile on his face when he looked down." ahhh...
- "The two of them haven't exactly built a relationship based on communication." yeah no
- "Her hands come up defensively in front of her but the knife is already plunging between them." WHAT?
- oh hi riley
- welp
- "His eyes fall above her head as Eris tries everything to get him away." oh i hate this op
- "Her palms feel like they've been shredded, but they've saved her from a few of the slashes." EUGH...
- "That's when she sees the blood soaking through the front of her shirt." oh.. its so joever
- "She still has a chance. And in the same breath, Eris accepts that she doesn't." damn
- "Eris!" Marcy shrieks" is that the first time shes said her name
- "More blood sprays up and coats 014's face, adding to the rust-colored stains that sit like dark freckles." visual goes crazy
- riley is so off his rocker bruh
- rip eris /3

- "There used to be heartbeats behind those names." :(
- "He's never seen Lawrence's handwriting, but it looks exactly like they expected it to." OUH...
- bitch i miss laurie so bad its unbelievable
- "Nothing in Lawrence's handwriting even says their name or confirms that these were put there for them. Casi just knows that they were." wahhhh ;;;
- oh death recap room. oh thats very awful.
- "This is the morgue," Casi says, their voice far more calm than he feels. "He's dead." LOVELY...!
- "They don't know if he wants to see Meg like that, but she's… so close. Casi isn't able to stop themself." brooo...
- "Every time the scene ends, every time the corpse disappears, Casi just presses it again." boy wth
- "She was the one who was murdered in front of everyone at the first trial." hahah good times
- "It still doesn't feel right, but Amadis figures that she can afford to give them a little bit longer." thats foreboding. i think something bad will happen!

- "Riley doesn't even know which day that's from anymore." that is so clean
- "Riley only ever listens to the last part now - seven contestants remain." jesus christ
- "Six more to die and he fucking lost her. It should've been easy." he malds so crazy hard whenever this shit happens bruh like calm down you will obliterate someone else soon enough jesus
- "He should've been five people away from Alec." BOY MATH
- this is a cool section i can tell who rileys thinking about even though its just pronouns
- hes going off tha deep end :3
- "Nothing is going to change between them. They can go back to the farm." we'll always have brokeback mountain
- "Riley will go back to being the idiot that forgets to check his phone and Alec will never stop complaining about it." how hopeful
- "You're doing this for him! You're doing this for the only person that fucking matters!" christ almighty HAHAH
- "Not even the fearful eyes staring back at him." OOOHHH...
- idec this section was gas

- "She wondered for most of that time if he'd trapped someone there with him and was performing some kind of torture." yeah hes torturing himself
- "There also haven't been any announcements since right after the trials ended." ? there was the eris one, no?
- "A few of them still even look wet, like they've yet to stop dripping from the underside of the workbench. She remembers a moment later the announcement that came just after the last set of trials.

She's never been so thankful not to remember someone's name." OH. UM. EW.
- thats awful
- "Two of the trials ended in deaths.

It should've been three." can she stop doing this please and thank you
- "Bridget doesn't even have time to blink before a flash of silver is careening towards her." ope hello?
- i hope bridge dies
- "The girl's warnings might have alerted other people. They might be headed here right now." girl who would be comingto save you?
- ITS MYRA WHO STABBED?
- "Myra was meant to be alone. All she wants is to be alone." thats a very sharp turnaround from the first pov
- "The hammer comes down again, this time cracking against the side of her cheek." ohhh boy
- reminds me of ram myra trial
- "Ram!" ah
- wow that was brutal
- i hope youre happy bridge!

- "I don't think there's anything else to learn," Amadis says gently." bye shes trying really hard rn
- "Casi's mind flip flops between the two of them - Meg and Lawrence, Lawrence and Meg. There are so many questions behind each of their names." i wonder if they wouldve been chill if they talked to each other
- dream blunt rotation casi meg laurie
- "It's because Lawrence didn't want him doing exactly what he's been doing for the past several hours." yyyeahhh definitely.
- "She's still alive and still somehow hopeful and at this point it just makes Casi hate her even more." sob
- "Her eyes widen and she turns quickly, but at first there's no sign of what's causing the sound." hmm inch resting
- "but it's hard to focus on anyone but the girl in front of her. "Dom?" oh shit?
- why did the morgue start caving in

- oh its the whole building i think
- "Casimir Kaminski has been eliminated. Five contestants remain." damn he got squished
- "Now, she has every reason to believe that she caused this too." girl what
- oh fire damage...
- yoinks...
- marcy is so goddamn miserable
- which isnt unique to this pov this has been her permanent condition all games :sob: its just that now its substantiated by the consequences of her actions/what she didnt do. oops...

eris: rest in peace bro, honestly not much to say except i thought she was chill and i liked her tentative friendship w marcy. an awful way to go #thanksriley

myra: similar to marcy she was miserable from start to finish but she had really cute moments with ram and then since then never caught another break ever again. pat pat pat. sleep tight myra

casi: :((( really liked casi and then everything went downhill after meg died. loved his friendship(?) with laurie. its sad to see someone so smart go out like this but i guess they've always been rather obsessive. rip bro

m*ne: omo
im rooting for u: dom, amadis
ahhhh: marcy, riley
i am decidedly not rooting for you: bridget

bink

okayyyy rambling about 3tc time. this is probably gonna be a little incoherent bc i have a lot of thoughts to process but that's fine

amadis. how could you do that to amadis. i'm so upset. why why why why why. i can't believe you. i was neutral on amadis for a long time mostly bc her povs have had lots of subplot in them and puzzle stuff and i have not the easiest of times with those things in that fic, although i did always appreciate that there were povs that would consistently try to explain them to me. but oh man. ohhhhh man. watching amadis's spirit break in this chapter broke something in me. i'm getting teary about it AGAIN just thinking about it. the way she died with a broken heart has ruined me. it's so so so awful. and if i'm being so real i think part of it's because i really thought she could do it. i know there are survivors in this verse and i'm confident it'll happen again (stares at a few contestants in particular) and i really really thought it could be her. i thought if anyone could pull it off it would be her. to see all of this come to what it has is just so. it's so. ohhhhhhh man. and then the FAKEOUT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YOU LET US THINK SHE WAS OKAY AND THEN RIPPED IT ALL AWAY? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS EMILY? amadis has always been so alive and active and clever and just so a Part of Everything and then she dies, unconscious, curled into a little ball? are you FUCKING serious? something about amadis going out so quietly like that ohhhh fuck i'm crying again. FUCK YOU! ! ! ! ! I HOPE MY EXCLAMATION POINTS DON'T GET EATEN BY EVIL FFN. FUCK YOU FFN. i'm glad dom was there. also the part where dom doesn't know if amadis can hear is FOUL. making dom watch amadis die quietly is fucked up. i hate it i hate everything thanks

i also think tbh we as a society moved on waaaay too quickly from myra's death. THAT WAS AWFUL. it has been living RENT FREE. she just wanted to be alone she just wanted people to stop letting her down and THIS is what she gets? myra has never been able to put her faith in someone who can show up the way she needs and it gets her fucking killed? her blind trust of the people she cares about is what leads to her end? it changed my brain chemistry. everything about her death was fucked up of you. so so so awful. moose kick her ass

i also feel like i need to talk about omar? not having casi kill him was the right move there i think. his arc was horrendous and so well written and wow what a combination of author and submitter here. i've been wondering lately what meg would think of all this. i miss her tbh. i wonder if even after dying the way she did, they would have seen any of this coming. if they could've known what their death would bring. they were too good for this shit man and i'm glad omar got what was coming to him. really really good ending.

can u tell i've been avoiding rambling about things related to my own kid... ummm eris went down in such a narratively satisfying way. what you did NOT have to do was tell us that eris wanted marcy to go and marcy hates herself for not staying. THAT WAS NOT NECESSARY? that miscomm had me ill i'll have you know. and then marcy sitting there and watching riley die. hoooooo riley's death was. really something. the whole blue/eyes thing is a ref to his source material i think but i kept thinking about the great gatsby and tj eckleburg. the eyes of god and all that. i suppose this chapter also indicates that alec has been dead all along, which. alongside amadis realizing that her efforts were all for nothing, is fucking SICK. IT WAS ALL FOR NOTHING. AMADIS WAS NEVER GOING TO ESCAPE AND ALEC WAS NEVER GOING TO WAKE UP. THE PARALLELS! HOW COULD YOU! and the way he had to die believing he was about to kill marcy. and the way she sat there and watched so he wouldn't die alone. and the way bridget couldn't finish it. i watched a movie recently where one of the big themes was about the price of mercy and how mercy can actually be a lot more about reassuring the giver while also making the recipient's life so much worse. by sparing herself the horror of putting him out of his misery, she was both giving him an act of mercy- a few more hours to cling to the hope that he could still do it- and giving herself mercy, but also putting him through a lot of unnecessary pain. it's just interesting to think about how bridget holding back bc of her fear and horror makes the whole thing. worse? and we've seen it before with bridget and shane. bridget in particular just makes really really fascinating, realistic mistakes that i could pick apart all day.

but um yeah i avoided talking about marcy again didn't i. you write her really well. i don't know why the fuck she's still alive but i guess she is. i go into every chapter thinking she'll die and then she doesn't. i'm really glad i gave her to you and i think... i think i'm really really fucked. the way everything has gone down with her and riley, and her and eris, and her and laurie, has been really awful. and since bridget and dom know each other and marcy hasn't really interacted with either of them that will be an interesting final three huh... three kicked puppy girls... i really don't know how this will go. i am terrible at predicting fics. that said my official predict for winner is dom. i think bridget's inability to look death in the face could really come back to bite her here, possibly? although she could take it too. i don't know. i'm just gonna stick by my assumption that marcy will die next time i see her. i'll be right one of these days about that, right?

i think that's. everything. i didn't comment on every kid but it's all been fantastic. i even got upset about noam at one point and if that's not a feat i don't know what is. you can't tell me he deserved what he got you simply can't. laurie's death(?) was really nasty too and so was vasi's and so was bowie's and so was everything. i miss lilliana. oh that was another thing, that lilliana's death juxtaposed with eris's is absolutely insane. crazy way to look at riley's descent into madness.

but okay that's it for real now. i think this is one of my longest reviews of all time. gonna choose to believe that i'm safe for this interlude bc they've usually treated me nicely before, and then there will be finale and my brain will break. hooray! love u excellent work looking forward(?) to what's in store!

season 11, here i come!