#oh and I don't want to edit my older spec post but I do now think tianxi is the one with the phone double crossing the other two

[muninnhuginn]

Post s2e9 confirmations and speculations as of this ep, starting with confirmations and moving on to thoughts/speculations.

Before I start, just going to link my speculations as of a couple of episodes ago here because they're surprisingly either still relevant or have been confirmed either way. Of these, the main pieces still outstanding are Liu Min's phone and the serial murders.

Fountain boy low-key confirmed to be Liu Min's younger brother (Liu Xiao, apparently?). He knew Tianchen would soon be given the opportunity to "hunt" and lo, there is Liu Min (who even vaguely recognised Tianchen which makes sense if he's an acquaintance of his brother's). His own surname is Liu and obviously that's a pretty common name, but the fact he had someone driving him around means he's pretty rich and, well, son of a games company CEO seems pretty rich indeed. Apply law of conservation of detail and this one is now locked in at 95%. Fountain boy = Liu Xiao = "hunter" = hat guy (the last I'm a bit less certain of, but again, conservation of detail and there aren't many episodes left).

I'd been wondering about the weird focus the neighbour got in terms of his gaming so him being someone Liu Min wanted taken care of made that entire side of things click for me. Liu Min was terminally online and so was the neighbour. Tianchen must've thought it karma that he had this opportunity.

Third story: Tianchen as red eyes, going further and further as Tianxi is forced to watch until he goes too far even for her - at which point she broke free and tried to appeal to Lu Guang (but why him?). (All that said, Tianchen claims he killed both their parents, but we didn't actually see it properly in any of the flashbacks which could just be because they're being careful with the censors but I'm still side-eyeing it until we see exactly what happened. After all, there was no knife in the picture when we left the scene.) Tianxi's story I'm presuming is simply an animated version of what Tianxi is showing Qiao Ling to tell her story.

Speaking of, Tianxi "broke free" in her school uniform and that was also how she was found. Does that place the hoodie scenes in the hospital as before she fled? Because rewatching a bit of ep 4 and it seemed that QJ was talking to Tianchen-as-Tianxi then (could be wrong, 'Tianxi' never spoke that we heard in this scene but it being actual Tianxi rather than Tianchen raises so many more questions) which would imply she was missing after the hospital and that's when they implemented the disguising plan. Thinking about the "sorry" scenes in the third story and wondering if Chen Bin was the final straw for Tianxi.

First/second story: The Romeo and Juliet backstage they're at was indeed as I saw a few people speculating a production featuring Qian Jin's wife and her co-star. Tianchen "I killed them both" @ Qian Jin: wow he just like me fr. (But nah this definitely raises more questions about the murder of his wife). (Also, just to note that I'm putting the different perspective of QJ meeting LTX and LTC down to the unreliable nature of Xiao Li relaying info initially rather than alternate timelines. Can't rule it out, of course (and the blood on Tianxi in only one of the tellings has me even more hesitant), but unreliable narrator seems an easier fit at this stage. We also know QJ doctored the case files and if LTC outright told him "I killed them both" then that sure didn't make it to the files.)

Qian Jin's motives now back up in the air. Initially it seemed as though he wanted the powers so he could bring his wife back, but with the revelation that he had reason to believe she was cheating (and pregnant with the person she was cheating on him with) the idea he would want her back seems... a lot less likely. Also, his break from morals is placed a lot earlier than it seemed from the outside. Those in the police thought he was outstanding etc etc until his wife died, but he was gone long before that. Ultimately, in both cases with alleged cheating it doesn't matter if the person themselves was cheating because they didn't deserve to be killed for it, but it is fascinating that we're presented with these two similar scenarios from two entirely different perspectives. Li Tianchen and Tianxi as victims of domestic abuse by the person who believes they're being cheated on whilst Qian Jin is the role of the husband who believes he's being cheated on. (The way the pregnancy reveal is played - QJ not seeing his wife often because he was always at work, her startling when caught on the phone - it does seem like he takes the pregnancy as confirmation that she was cheating as the pregnancy couldn't have been with him. She's already dead at that point though.)

With the current timeline we have, I don't know whether QJ engineered the initial killing of his wife (and the fact the culprit escaped legal justice actually kinda makes me think that he didn't), but I do think he used Tianchen after the fact to set up the suicide and suicide note of the killer

The serial killings. We originally believed there were eight in total, starting with Emma. However, this episode shifts the timeline somewhat. Liu Min says thank you for dealing with "that woman", but he still seems to have use of his legs so presumably "that woman" isn't Emma and this is taking place beforehand. Which would imply there are a number of extra victims the police haven't uncovered. (The alternative is that this flashback was in a timeline before the Emma stuff went so wrong and Liu Min still had use of his legs? I'm really hoping it's not this because it'd break my brain a bit) This also somewhat explains how the police were unable to tie motives together for the serial killings if it was a killing-for-hire type scenario, though I do still somewhat believe there's some underlying logic that QJ either bought into himself or was able to make Tianchen buy into in order to believe the victims weren't "innocent"

#link click #link click spoilers #shiguang daili ren spoilers #this is less down the speculation end but I loved the intertwining metaphors in the entire 'hunter' thing throughout #as well as the parallels about the cheating and the lack of total confirmation around that #because it makes you compare the two scenarios and wonder #as well as qian jin and what he saw in li tianchen because I think he saw himself honestly #he didn't know at this stage about his powers so that's not why he took to him #(also. unrelatedly. I really don't think we're done with chen bin. he's a loose end (not) walking) #oh and I don't want to edit my older spec post but I do now think tianxi is the one with the phone double crossing the other two #which should be clear enough from what we now know but the whole hospital timeline is funky so thought I'd say

[zombified-queer]

🧿🍭🌻

🧿what steps do you take to not take things personally if a fic doesn't do well, or if your writing/posting/sharing experience isn't going how you'd like it to?

Okay so I've never had a posting/sharing experience go how I don't want it to because when I post something my emotional investment in the thing ends and I get into Cold Editor Bitch mode. If a pal says "hey X is kind of lacking" i make a note followed by "would y be a better take on x?" and edit accordingly. I just get heartless about my work lol. As for the writing side, if something doesn't go my way I can and will abandon a draft WIP to start from the ground up. I actually did fuck myself over with my most recent chaptered hotelpod fic and now I'm having to scrutinize where I did the fuckup to then untangle those knots of narrative. If it's funny, then it goes in the Scrap Folder (that's where my fic Form's ugly older sibling lives with the moniker "THE CUCK DRAFT"). Scraps are for giggling about later.

🍭why did you start writing?

The short answer: Because I had to. Like breathing. The long, sad answer no one wants to hear is: Because I was a Very Wise Child reading at a college level in fourth grade but adults liked to pat me on the head and call me clever and send me on my way without actually giving a single solitary fuck about what I had to say. I had no close friends and I liked to play fantasy a lot. Now, when I make up tall tales and cool shit, people listen and they think "Oh that's such a lovely story" but they CARE god fuckin' dammit. The funny answer: Because I'm da king of the google docs!

🌻what makes you want to give up on writing? what makes you keep going?

I'm gonna be straight with you I have never considered giving up on writing. I've gone through spells of burnout (once I didn't write a single word beyond what I needed for work and messages for two entire because I burnt myself out so bad) but never like "WRITING IS TRASH I AM GOING TO QUIT." I might give up on a project or say "this messy bitch is going all sideways" but I never quit writing. It's fun for me, provides a brain challenge, and now I have cool notebooks I'm decorating. I also keep going because I dual-spec'd all my skill points into Pretentious Fuckery and Wordsmithing and now I have no idea what other skill trees I can/should spec into lol.

#yeah yeah i was a fucked up gifted child which made me a compulsive freak as an adult #we all have something pobody's nerfect #i write mostly because i can do whatever the fuck i want! i can kill a man! (i'm gonna kill a man in the next chapter of my hotelpod fic)