#this post is long cjjjxdjxjd

[neurosses]

just wanna say i’m obsessed with the motif of not just hands but the hand injuries. like, i’m not a smart enough man to understand how the hand injuries contribute to the overall theme but i love seeing a hand injury in concorde and being like oh this is just like the other chapter with the hand injury

Thank you! OMG... it's literally so flattering that you want to talk about MOTIFS.

(I'll get into it under the cut if you're interested in my answer!)

I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all answer! I do think part of the reoccurrence is to represent the nonlinearity of the psychics' perception of time, and by extension Adam's perception of time. It shows the timelessness of trauma — how a certain injury keeps cropping up, even when you're supposed to be better now, you thought you'd be better by now.

The hand injuries are as follows:

Ronan touching the hot stove as a kid, a memory he recalls when thinking about the temptation of shaking Niall's dead body awake and also his desire for Adam when he wakes up after Donkeyskin tries to kill him.

Ronan splitting his knuckles punching the wall outside the funeral home.

Ronan's wrist scars, though I don't know that they count under "hand injuries."

The scar on Adam's hand left by Niall's knife, which is implied to be a continuous wound because Niall uses the knife to wake Adam up from scrying.

The burn left by fire when Adam was burning letters he got from people associated with the magical underworld. The letters expressed condolences for Niall's death and tried to tie Adam up into another exploitive contract.

Adam backhanding Ronan when he's possessed and breaking his own hand.

The scald left by the hot water when Adam and Declan discuss Niall's death.

Ronan's hand injuries is interrelated to Adam's, but also separate in meaningful ways. I think his vicious desire to experience FEELING — to feel lived-in inside his body — can teeter into self-destruction very easily.

Adam's hand injuries are irreparably tied to Adam's traumatic, stressful relationship with Niall. The first three represent Adam in a state of dissociation, while the fourth one is Adam getting distracted by a jab from Declan about Robert Parrish. I think it's fair to say the hand injuries represent times that Adam loses control over his body because his self-protective mechanism is to pull out from a moment when he feels attacked, or ashamed, or fearful.

Anyway, THE BELOVED TRB CHAPTER 7 ANSWERED THIS MORE SUCCINCTLY THAN I DID:

Sometimes, after Adam had been hit, there was something remote and absent in his eyes, like his body belonged to someone else. When Ronan was hit, it was the opposite; he became so urgently present that it was as if he’d been sleeping before.

[ Concorde — Chapter 18: BC — PERFECT STORMS ARE HARD TO COME BY. ]

#hystericwisteria #asks #concorde #this post is long cjjjxdjxjd #i could go even deeper into it HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA #thanks for letting me talk abt it!