Salting A Wound To Preserve For Longer

salting a wound to preserve for longer

I remember reading a post about fencing once, and how people who are new to fencing actually tend to win a lot more bouts, particularly against experienced fencers, than most people would guess. The reason? Because people who are new to fencing haven't learned all the rules yet, and they will make absolutely bonkers, unsafe, and chaotic choices that are just not possible for someone more experienced to predict with any reasonable degree of accuracy. So lots of newbies win a surprising number of bouts, not because they are better at fencing but because they are more chaotic and more likely to make objectively more dangerous choices.

It occurs to me now that this makes for a really wonderful analogy to how Oliver ends up "winning" in Saltburn, when Felix and the Cattons were actually much more experienced and subtle manipulators (to the point that a good chunk of the audience didn't even notice how wildly manipulative the Cattons and Felix especially are), while Oliver is out there making wild impulse decisions and then retroactively pretending there was a plan, probably.

Oliver is the chaotic new guy whose understanding of normal social expectations is so far behind his peers that his behavior winds up being not just hard to predict for most people, but especially hard to predict for the wealthy assholes who have made an art form out of manipulating other people to get whatever they want without giving up anything of value from themselves.

And now I'm going to go roll around some more in my endless reams of delight over this movie and these characters and how wonderful and delightful and absurd every bit of it is. Haters can hate, but this movie continues to be perfect and own my whole heart because of it.

what they don't tell you is that a well-written fic can get you to ship anything, and i mean ANYTHING. notp? not anymore. you will stay up late thinking about and crying over them for the rest of your life. characters you don't even know from a piece of media you've never engaged with? fuck it, they belong to you now. problematic ship that you loved to hate and now just love to love, that you must never tell your friends about? don't worry, ao3 knows how to keep a secret. like. a well-written fic will have you acting UP and that's a fact baby !!

6.5k into next chapter of the Groundhog Day AU, and I feel like I am at the same editing stage as the 5k word point of Ch. 2. Y'know, the chapter that doubled in word count from that stage of editing and became a 10k word chapter by the time it was posted...

I have already cut this chapter in half and added a whole new chapter to the chapter count, it had better not become a 12k word chapter anyway.

Just here after rereading the latest chapter of Maneater yet again, to say that I am Very Excited about that Oliver PoV chapter coming next! No pressure re writing time (writing takes as long as it takes, and anyway it would be terribly hypocritical of my slow ass to demand anyone else write faster!), just already commented on the chapter and wanted to come flail a bit more in your direction about how much I love your Felix and Oliver, and how feral I am gonna be over the next chapter <3

xD I am finally getting around to responding to comments today and Can Confirm that Felix will continue to lose gay chicken for...the rest of the fic basically. And be massive losers together. Tis their natural state.

I do have the next 6-7 chaps written from when I was speeding through writing, it's more the stalling out beyond that and *then* needing to edit before posting that slows me down lol, but I still love them. Waaay too much (wearing Oliver's watch while I write this lol).

I'm glad you like how I write them! They've definitely fallen into a specific interpretation that built up a lot as I wrote the fic (going in with a clear vision, who??), and Oliver especially only felt more 'solid' once I went into his POV, and even that's in a funny mood for him since he's very...peaceful yet predatory?

Here's a lil snippet!

Felix. Oh, Felix.

Even now, he can surprise Oliver more than anyone alive.

He wants to laugh. He’s already cried plenty. Felix is- He defies explanation, defies logic, emotional and reckless to the very end, and incapable of slamming the brakes on his own careening car. Felix can’t see himself as being able to crash, confident he could swerve out of the way the very last second - and quietly soothed by the certainty someone else will provide the cushioning if necessary, even if he doesn’t like to consciously think of it.

Oliver isn’t a cushion. He’s a cement blockade covered in fucking spikes, and he imagines pressing his cigarette on the soft, vulnerable skin at the back of Felix’s neck. Just for the smell of him when he burns.

He’d sooner stub it out on his own eye than hurt Felix. Grind it in, to form a better reminder.

Greedy, disgusting thing. A thing wanted by Felix Catton. The contradiction could drive a man to madness, and he already made his camp there years ago. The nature of what he is demands it.

How much more will I get?

It’s a question he’s been asking since he first decided to talk to Felix, rather than kill him like he felt he had to, the second Felix sent him a distracted smile through the window.