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persephonememes · 8 months

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* ( THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR / SENTENCE PROMPTS.

These may have been edited for clarity or length or to better apply for roleplaying.

❛ i was just really, really sad. ❜

❛ dead doesn’t mean gone. ❜

❛ i thought i was going to die too. ❜

❛ it only felt like dying because, actually, i was still alive. ❜

❛ to truly love another person is to accept that the work of loving them is worth the pain of losing them. ❜

❛ we can’t count on the past. ❜

❛ we think we have it trapped in our memories, but memories fade. ❜

❛ you’ll find it much quieter out here. ❜

❛ any of us could die at any moment. ❜

❛ she/he was my anchor. ❜

❛ i’m a lot braver than people think. ❜

❛ nothing holds, and all things change, given time. ❜

❛ change does not often announce itself. ❜

❛ all things fade. ❜

❛ time takes all things. ❜

❛ it is the way of the world. ❜

❛ the past recedes, memories fade, and so, true, does the spirit. ❜

❛ everything yields to time, even the soul. ❜

❛ there’s a difference between feeling good and feeling alive. ❜

❛ funerals are for the living. it’s up to the living to decide what they can and cannot bear. ❜

❛ i don’t know why brilliant young women are always punished. ❜

❛ you don’t have to lose yourself to find happiness, you know. ❜

❛ i was having the strangest dream. ❜

❛ what have you got when your back’s against the wall when there’s nothing left for you but faith? ❜

❛ sometimes, right can seem wrong, and wrong can seem right. ❜

❛ do you know what life is really all about? ❜

❛ save them all if you can, but put your own oxygen mask on first. ❜

❛ death is something to mourn, not fear. ❜

❛ i wasn't going to ask you if you're alright because i don't like being lied to. so, what's wrong? ❜

❛ everyone is exhaustive. even the best ones. ❜

❛ we are meant to die. it's natural. ❜

❛ every living thing grows out of every dying thing. ❜

❛ that's where all it's beauty lies, you know, in the mortality of the thing. ❜

❛ one day at a time is what we've got. ❜

❛ one day at a time is what we've got. it's what everybody's got, if you get down to it. ❜

❛ if you can't feel anything, then i'll feel everything for the both of us. ❜

❛ but no one is going anywhere, okay? ❜

❛ you shouldn't be thinking of losing each-other at all. ❜

❛ don't let that loom over your happiness right now. ❜

❛ it is rare what you've got. ❜

❛ what is the catch? ❜

❛ i’m not running, from anything and it hurts me when you say that. ❜

❛ perfectly splendid. ❜

❛ you have to promise me that you’ll stay in your room. ❜

❛ none of us are blameless. ❜

❛ on a scale of zero to american, how would you rate her? ❜

❛ it’s such a draining thing, dealing with children. ❜

❛ i have an inquiring mind. ❜

❛ we both know you don’t make mistakes. ❜

❛ let me guess, you are to be our very own mary poppins? ❜

❛ i hope she haunts that fucker forever. ❜

❛ why should anyone hate a lake? ❜

❛ let me show you just how beautiful you are. ❜

❛ it’s just you and me then. ❜

❛ look at you all flush. you’re pretty when you blush. ❜

❛ being with him might be scary at times but, it’s also exciting and fun. ❜

❛ and for the first time in my life, that little voice in my head saying i’m not good enough has disappeared. ❜

❛ i’ve never felt so alive. ❜

❛ i swear, you’re such a bore, and you don’t know when the leave well enough alone. ❜

❛ sometimes people just need to be alone. ❜

❛ i couldn’t sleep. i feel like i can never sleep again, frankly. ❜

❛ haven’t we done this already? ❜

❛ i have a surprise for you. ❜

❛ don’t leave your room at night. ❜

❛ the past is always present. ❜

❛ the stories we tell each other have a way of changing. ❜

❛ love is a haunting melody that i have never mastered and i fear i never will. ❜

❛ no good ever comes from dwelling on the worst. ❜

❛ you can’t choose who you love. ❜

❛ ghosts do not have to be scary. they can be comforting. ❜

❛ the heart is a fragile thing, and it can break in many different ways. ❜

❛ people often fear what they cannot understand. ❜

❛ we are all haunted in some way, by the things we have lost or the things we have done. ❜

❛ death is not the end, it’s just a door we all have to go through. ❜

❛ the past cannot be changed, but it can still hurt us. ❜

❛ the things we bury have a way of finding their way back to the surface. ❜

❛ some people are born to be alone, and others are born to be together. ❜

❛ ghosts are memories, and memories are what make us who we are. ❜

❛ the dead don’t really leave us. they live on in the memories we have of them. ❜

❛ the more we try to run from something, the more it chases us. ❜

❛ we all have a shadow self, the part of us that we don’t like to admit exists. ❜

❛ the world is full of secrets, and some are best left buried. ❜

❛ the heart wants what it wants, and sometimes that can be a terrifying thing. ❜

❛ every relationship is a dance, and both people need to be willing to take a step forward. ❜

❛ life can be cruel, but it can also be beautiful. ❜

❛ we are all just playing a part, but some roles are harder to shake off than others. ❜

❛ the past is written, but the future is still unwritten. ❜

❛ the greatest tragedy in life is not death, but the things we leave unsaid. ❜

❛ i do not like this game. ❜

❛ i'm actually pretty in love with you. ❜

❛ no one should ever need that much help. ❜

❛ you let me handle this part. ❜

❛ the wrong kind of love can fuck you up, follow you and make you do some really stupid shit. ❜

#rp meme #rp memes #rp prompts #ask meme #meme #memes #roleplay meme #ask memes

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aardvaark · 1 year

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oh i found what it’s called! the domestic horror subgenre. it’s a subgenre of horror, maybe a bit psychological thriller too, and it focuses on mundane things being horrifying and familial relationships and haunted houses that are also haunted by trauma or the past. the writers tend to be women

some key themes i’m seeing:

parent-child relationships: especially mother-daughter relationships that are either complicated or outright abusive or some mix of those.

family: how difficult it can be, how trauma gets passed through generations, how family can be suffocating or they can be your support but they’re usually unfortunately both.

haunted houses: or paranormal forces inside the home. sometimes it might be the kind of seemingly supernatural stuff that actually has an explanation or it’s from an unreliable narrator, but often there’s also just actual ghosts.

insular communities: often rural/regional, small towns, a lot of southern gothic or american gothic or australian gothic or [insert place here] gothic.

domestic abuse: whether in relationships or witnessed/experienced by a child.

conservatism as horror: many stories about religious trauma, purity culture, misogyny, mental illness stigma, persecuting or hateful communities, etc.

suburban life/suburbophobia: in these stories, the nuclear families hide abuse, the suburban communities are suffocating, the mundane home-to-work-to-home routine drives you mad with boredom, behind the rich white picket fences are traitors and murderers with fake smiles, and money and status often comes from crime and abuse.

i like horror and i have childhood trauma so it. it makes sense i would like this lol.

under the cut is examples in popular media. warning: since they have an explanation about what the elements of domestic horror are, it’s pretty long. whoops. also trigger warnings for mentions of: abuse, SA, death/murder, pregnancy, horror in general.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. i love Jackson’s other stories, and i’d say a lot of them fit this subgenre. it has the POV of a very strange, probably unreliable narrator, whose entire family - besides herself, her sister and her uncle - died of poisoning. the uneasiness and fears of the community, her agoraphobic sister, her mentally ill uncle, her duty to her remaining family members as the only one who can really go out for supplies, and her own peculiar personality, keep her mostly trapped in this house of death and horror. probably the best example there is of domestic horror… just everything from the gossiping town to the suffocating house to the major family problems, it’s very clearly part of the subgenre.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (and the tv show loosely adapted from this novel). the tv show is not exactly like the actual novel, but it’s still really good. the novel focuses on one woman going back to her very haunted childhood home as part of a paranormal investigation. the tv show focuses on four siblings reuniting for the funeral of their youngest sister, who has died mysteriously at their very haunted childhood home, despite them not living there for a decade or two. both focus on the haunting of a house being the haunting of a family, too, and ghosts not always being quite what they seem.

in fact The Haunting of Bly Manor (tv show), the other part of that anthology, also seems to fit. it’s about a woman who goes to work at a really fucked up and very haunted manor as a nanny for two kids whose parents have died. the horror, however, is not so much the ghosts as a concept, but what people - ghost or no - can do. and trauma and history as a ghostly influence.

also Midnight Mass. another tv show with some of the same people involved as the Haunting anthology. a strange new pastor arrives on an island with a small, insular population. they each have their own problems and more metaphorical hauntings, but this weird dude is about to introduce some much less metaphorical monsters.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. okay, maybe this isn’t totally horror, but i’m counting it because so much of it is horrifying. it’s a bit thriller, a bit crime fiction, a bit drama, a bit american gothic. a journalist returns to her hometown to pursue a story: teenage girls have been murdered in this otherwise pretty standard, apparently happy community. our protagonist is not exactly happy about coming home because her mother is abusive and her childhood home is full of memories of her sister, who died when they were both kids. plus, the town’s been gossiping about her for ages - some think she’s troubled, some just feel she’s a bad influence. now she has to deal with a community that never welcomed her, a mother who never liked her, a step father and teenage half-sister she hasn’t seen in years, her own past and mental illness, and of course the grisly murders that brought her here. the southern gothic/american gothic and purity culture really add to the suffocating atmosphere of the novel.

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin (and the film version) a woman has a baby. the devil is involved. the idea of a woman trapped in an abusive relationship, sexually assaulted, experiencing body horror related to pregnancy, and basically being told by everyone that she’s overreacting and being hysterical… domestic horror. it’s the mundane but usually ultimately beautiful experience of having a child, put in a new light as a horror, not just due to the paranormal forces but also the horror that can come out of everyday things.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. this short story was written in 1892. the narrator is an unnamed woman suffering postpartum depression whose husband and doctor decide she just needs rest, so they trap her in a small nursery in an old mansion. soon, the patterns in the room’s yellow wallpaper start to move, she has strange dreams, and becomes convinced that there’s a woman in there who wants to get out. the story focuses on abuse in the psychiatric and medical systems, mental health stigma, sexism in general and in the medical system particularly, and domestic abuse. unfortunately, 230 years later, too much of this is still relevant.

#this is about the post from deep water writing prompts btw #domestic horror #horror genre #wren speaks #tw sa mention #tw ableism #tw pregnancy #tw murder #tw death #horror

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ghostbustermelanieking · 4 years

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tma as “the haunting of bly manor”: self-indulgent au ramblings

this started as me really loving thobm’s ending (both in general and as a representation of what i want out of tragic gay love stories in horror) and thinking “wow it’d be cool if tma ended like that,” and ended up here because i started analyzing the parallels and where other characters fit in and couldn’t stop thinking about it. indulge me on this one please

(putting this under a cut in case anyone is watching the haunting of bly manor and doesn’t want to be spoiled. i don’t think you necessarily need to have seen thobm to understand this but it probably helps.)

· okay as pieces of horror that deal a lot in tragedy and death and love and themes of being trapped and fighting against things and reliving moments in time and losing yourself to outside forces, i think thobm works really well as a template for a tma au

· to start off: martin is the storyteller. of course martin is the storyteller

·“statement of martin k. blackwood regarding… a ghost story” more on this later

· the magnus institute stands in for bly, and it’s pretty much the same except it’s in the middle of fuck-all nowhere, and is much less staffed, and half the staff just like. lives there out of necessity

· it isn’t just a temple to the eye though; it’s mostly that, but it’s also kind of like a sinkhole for all the powers. the land it’s on is a mess and divided up between the powers like a mini fearpocalypse

· consider: tim and sasha as owen and hannah come and suffer with me

· ok aside from the inherent tragedy of their stories being in parallel, consider: tim would make those awful puns and sasha would absolutely pretend to hate it

· ok but also consider: sasha dies and no one notices, not even her. she’s taken by not-sasha the lady in the lake and she dies and no one notices it, but everyone wonders where sasha’s always going, why she always seems to be so out of it.

· imagine sasha fading into the background not realizing that shes dead... tim not understanding why she's pulling away or constantly disappearing, why she acts so strangely when he suggests they run away... sasha reliving moments with tim, unable to understand why she keeps coming back to the moment where she pushed him out of the way when something was in the institute, not realizing it’s the last time she saw him alive

· “tell him i love him…” oh my god

· not sasha is the lady in the lake. just because.

· jonah elias magnus is a little bit the lady in the lake a little bit peter quint he’s got the backstory of this being his house and being there for fuck-all-ever, and he’s using all these people as cogs in the machine, trying to get them to lose themselves to the eye or anything else there, using their lives and wellbeing to benefit himself (especially jon more on that later)

· (it should be noted there’s a very good fic with a huge manor and ghosts and romantic stuff and jonah possessing people called antigonish that makes way more sense than this but anyways)

· basira and daisy are a little bit quint and rebecca jessel. not entirely; their backstory is different and so is their dynamic, and daisy doesn’t possess basira to kill her and trap her there forever or anything like that. but she does go over to the hunt and ask basira to come with her. the difference is, basira wants to

· georgie is henry wingrave. minus the spousal infidelity and secret daughter, but in that she refuses to come to the institute. she’s brushed enough with it (with the end) that she doesn’t want to come anywhere near it, or anyone involved. she’s henry wingrave who separates herself from everyone for her own preservation but also loses jon and melanie in the process… who calls all the time because she misses them and wants to either apologize or beg them to leave but can never get up the courage to say anything… who comes back to get them out and dies briefly and has her encounter with the end… who talks to sasha when she reveals she’s dead and says, “tell him i love him…” who helps melanie leave in the end…. jesus christ

· melanie and jon are both dani yes i will elaborate

· melanie is dani in that she’s the last to come, and she thinks it’s going to be a new start even though it’s anything but. (she’s running, although not from a ghostly fiancé, but from the slaughter and the war ghosts and the humiliation she faced on the internet.) she comes to give a statement and ends up never leaving, and the slaughter only tightens its hold on her. georgie disapproves. melanie wants to leave when she figures out she’s trapped but she doesn’t know how

· jon is dani in that he is the second to last to come, and also the linchpin to ending all of it. but he’s also a little bit the kids, in that he’s being manipulated and taken over by the eye and in a lot of danger but he has no idea. he’s still the archivist he still takes statements and elias (who’s a lot less present here but still has some sway over everything) is manipulating the hell out of him ala quint to miles and flora

· the covering mirrors motif pops up here somehow mirrors looking glass eye all of that

· jon still takes statements, and statements are a version of dream-hopping. where they can relive their statements and their fondest memories and all of that, but jon is unwilling voyeur to all of it

· tim and martin are the ones who don’t stay at the institute overnight. jon and melanie and sasha and basira do. gradually tim and martin start to leave less and less

· it ends in a big confrontation i’m not sure how. lake + eye imagery, the power well trying to pull everyone in. sasha accepts she’s dead. georgie comes for her loved ones. jon gives himself over to the eye to save everyone, so they can all leave

· here is where storyteller martin comes in because imagine that ending of dani and jamie in a jm context. holy fucking shit

· jon and martin who leave the institute and go to scotland on borrowed time, knowing jon will inevitably lose the rest of him to the eye someday, but wanting to spend whatever time they have left together. the safehouse period but it lasts for years pls imagine. all of that. oh my god

· jon eventually going back to the institute to protect martin and martin following him and getting there too late… that entire scene by the lake… holy shit holy shit

· storyteller martin who won’t talk about it for years before finally giving the statement (possibly at georgie and melanie’s wedding just because, possibly not like that at all). who gives the statement futilely hoping it’s the key to seeing jon again because that’s always worked before. storyteller martin who is still looking for jon years later, who fills the sinks and tubs and sleeps with the door cracked open. storyteller martin who sleeps unknowingly with jon’s hand on his shoulder

· this is messy and unformed but i’ve been screaming about it for weeks oh my god someone draw this for me

· i don’t expect actual tma to end anything like this but i’d die if it did

#tma au #tma #the magnus archives #thobm tma

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ayo-cowbelly · 4 years

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The Things We Do For Love ~ Part Two

previous part ~ next part ~ masterlist

FIRST OF ALL: I’d recommend listening to music during this one. Here are my choices, but it’s not required (don’t have to listen to all of them):

my tears ricochet by Taylor Swift. Found here.

Ghost of You by 5SOS. here is the link.

Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) by Nancy Sinatra. Can be found here.

Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi, found here.

All songs available on iTunes and I think Spotify as well.

Oh, by the way: completely made up the story of Aayla getting her kyber crystal. There wasn’t a canonical one i could find in a quick google search (yes, i know, didn’t put in much effort searching for it, sue me) so i decided to make up my own for the plot™.

I cried writing this, people. There are tears falling. Not joking. This cuts DEEP. I promised angst™ and I am following through *cackles in palpatine*. this is meant to hurt, and oh boy, it definitely hurts.

So… have fun lovelies.

***

Cody was very, very grateful his Jedi survived.

Most, like Bly, were not so lucky.

***

Bly had mixed feelings about Felucia.

First of all, it was hot. And humid. And smelly (even with his helmet on). That combination, plus having to fight all day on top of that, did not put Felucia on the list of Bly’s preferred planets.

Though… there was a slight upside.

He liked to look at the plants. They were bizarre, sure, but the colors. Bly always had an appreciation for color. Growing up on Kamino, where everything was sterile and white and cold... the first time Bly left that planet and saw Coruscant, he was astounded at how bright and warm different shades could be.

And then he saw Aayla, and she gave a whole new meaning to the color blue.

Aayla was warm, but professional; spirited, but calm. And positively beautiful.

He had practically fallen head over heels the first time they talked (even though he had no idea what to call this sudden, powerful feeling in him). His brothers, of course, took it upon themselves to tease him mercilessly; but what they didn’t know was a tidbit of information that always took Bly by surprise, no matter how many times he heard it.

She felt the same way.

***

It started about 3 months after the crash on Maridun, when even though nothing had happened yet, it was apparently painfully obvious there was something there. Rex had noticed, at least, and decided to tell Bly’s batchmates when they saw each other at 79’s.

Bly just couldn’t catch a break.

But then, when their battalion had been stationed on Ilum (due to rumors of the droids targeting the caves where Jedi got their kyber crystals) and him and Aayla had stayed up late, sitting on either side of a small fire, and Aayla told the tale of how she got her crystal.

“It’s called The Gathering. We are told it is when we truly begin our paths as Jedi. I was freezing, and nervous that somehow I’d mess it up. Ironic, considering what the lesson is about; getting over our personal fears. I was worried that I wouldn’t make it in time- we are given only a few hours, and when daylight ends, the door to the crystal cave freezes over again. If someone was trapped inside, they’d be stuck in there for 19 days, until the sun rises again.

“Along with Master Yoda, six of us were sent off to this very planet, and there is no place more sacred to our Order. This is where we locate the heart of our lightsabers.”

“How do you get the crystal, exactly?” Bly had asked, genuinely interested.

Aayla smiled fondly, reminiscing. “Some might say our crystals are sentient, in a way. They call out to us in the caves. Only we know which one is ours. There is a powerful convergence in the Force there, causing it to be intensified. It exploits the insecurities of a person, exposing our weaknesses. If we successfully overcome these shortcomings, then we obtain our crystal.”

“What happens if you don’t pass the test?”

“It is said that fear, self-doubt, they consume you. This can prevent someone from finding their crystal.”

“That sounds like a very… taxing experience, to say the least, General.” Bly looked at her then, and saw her laugh slightly, and his heart stuttered. That unknown feeling rose up in him again, until he tamped it down.

“It is, but a good one all the same.”

He smiled at her. “So, how did your test go?”

“Like I said, I was nervous-”

“Since when are you nervous about anything, General?”

“Call me Aayla, please, Bly, it’s just the two of us,” the way she smiled at him then… it made his heart swim. “And I tell you, I was terrified. I hoped it’d be easy, and figured if I just ran ahead I’d find it soon enough. And of course, that didn’t happen.”

Aayla jogged through the labyrinth, careful not to slip. The icy atmosphere of the cave overtook her, and she felt like she would freeze. At least running kept her somewhat warm.

She had ended up on her own a while ago, wanting to take control of this experience and just get the crystal on her own. Aayla wanted it to be over. It was too cold, and she didn’t want to fail and be trapped. Get in, get the crystal, get out, she told herself.

Her instincts told her to make a right turn, and she came upon a small gap in the ice at the end, just big enough for her to get through. She debated whether or not she should enter, but the Force seemed to sing around her when she neared it.

She squeezed through the opening, and on the other side, there was a small clearing. In the middle, a mound of ice rose from the floor, about up to her hips. Something glowed at the top, and the Force got louder, more insistent. It must be her crystal.

When she went to grab it, the crystal remained stuck within the ice. As she pulled, it stayed firmly in place.

When she tried to pull on the crystal with the Force, it only seemed to sink deeper into the ice, somehow. How was she to get the crystal if it wouldn’t move when she wanted it to?

What if it doesn’t come out? Aayla asked herself. She had been in the crystal cave for a good amount of time, and she didn’t have forever. Her time would be up soon.

Rolling on her heels, she looked back at the gap that would lead her back to the main part of the maze. She grew more and more upset, her stomach churning. The stupid ice wouldn’t budge! The door would be closed soon, and she’d be trapped, and she’d fail-

No. Aayla had to trust in the Force. There must be a way to obtain the crystal, of this she was positive. She just had to figure out how. She’d have to calm herself to think clearly.

Easier said than done.

Taking deep breaths, Aayla reached out into the Force. If a part of her doubted this being her kyber crystal before, it didn’t now. The Force felt like it was smiling around her, somehow. Despite the cold of the cave, she felt warm. A thin thread existed between her and the crystal, and the Force trilled in her ear when she felt it.

She closed her eyes. The Force would guide her.

The warm feeling seemed to grow, washing through her and swirling around her in the air. Aayla’s lips turned up slightly, and she felt the brightness of the Force around her.

There was a vague cracking sound, and she heard whistling fill the room. Slowly opening her eyes, Aayla was blown away at the sight in front of her.

She watched, transfixed, as the crystal glowed brighter and brighter. The ice had broken, the pieces floating in the air. The kyber crystal levitated, an alluring blue shade.

Aayla approached and grabbed the crystal, smiling giddily. She had done it.

She squeezed back through the gap and walked calmly (well, more like speed walked, but she did it calmly) and exited the cave.

“That was the first time I realized that sometimes you have to give up control to think clearly. Stressing will not achieve anything. Trusting in others, in the Force, having faith that they will guide you; that is how we can move forward.”

“So, the Force guides you? It tells you things you need to know?”

“In a way. It’s like… a feeling. Not something tangible, really, but a sort of presence that leads you where you need to go. It’s hard to get a clear answer, most of the time.”

Bly wondered... “Can it do the same for people?”

“Yes, sometimes,” She looked up at him, with something in her eyes that he couldn’t place, but took his breath away all the same.

“And… what does it say about me?” He asked, quietly, not wanting to ruin this moment.

“Like I said, it’s hard to get a clear answer from the Force,” Aayla moved to sit by him, a soft expression on her face. She looked into his eyes, closer to him than she had ever been… if she moved a fraction, then…

“But with you, it’s never felt more right.” She placed her lips on his, and the feeling in his chest finally had a name.

Love.

***

They trekked through Felucia, Aayla in front, as always. She was used to it, now, after three years in this war.

At first, it had been stressful, which was to be expected. She didn’t know how to lead a whole battalion, how to fight a war, how to deal with the trauma said war brought. However, she always had Bly.

Aayla loved him fiercely, and made sure to tell him whenever she could. He was brave, and dedicated, and strong, and she was eternally thankful for him. For the joy he brought her.

And soon, in a few months, there’d be one more person they’d care for just as much. She had known for about a month. And Bly, knowing her so well after all this time, had suspected something was up. When she told him, she had never seen someone smile so wide. The pure happiness he projected into the Force was something she had only ever felt with him.

Thankfully, she wasn’t showing yet, meaning she still had time to figure out a long term plan. Of course, there had been some rumors that the war would be over soon, which hopefully were true. Aayla and Bly had decided that they’d leave together, go somewhere peaceful, where they could simply live. Just her, him, and their child.

Aayla paused, sensing something… off filling the Force. Suddenly, she couldn’t sense her Commander, his presence different, like everything that made him Bly was gone.

“Do you think it’s droids, Bly?” She asked tentatively, knowing that wasn’t the answer, but it was the only thing she could think of.

“No.”

The voice that answered her was not Bly. It was not the voice of the man she loved, of her riduur. It was a stranger, both in person and in the Force.

Aayla glanced around, seeing her troopers circling her. Confusion, uncertainty, fear... (something she had never felt around her men- something she never should have known around them, around him) they raced through her. She looked to Bly, as she always did, and back to the men…

And then pain, hurt, betrayal, both hers and the Force’s, they consumed her. Her last thoughts were of Bly, of their child.

Aayla knew she would die, as her troopers shot her continuously. She apologized to her unborn baby, who, in another life, she would have given all her love to.

As she already did for him.

***

When Bly came to (not came to, as that would imply he was unconscious, and he most definitely was not) he was met with his worst nightmare.

Aayla’s body, limp on the ground, her back covered in blaster wounds. The vibrant blue skin was barely visible, covered in smoking, gray holes-

He had put them there.

No.

He- he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. Never.

But he already had. He had seen it. Watched it.

It was like Bly was trapped in a cell, unable to escape. CC-5052 had taken over his body, casting him aside. He heard her voice, but he couldn’t make out what she said. Though it was laced with… fear. That much he could understand.

Run, Aayla, Please, he shouted, though nothing came out. Run, and don’t look back. But she didn’t run.

The only sound that escaped him was a voice that wasn’t his own, saying just one word, the last word she’d ever hear from him-

He watched from inside his mind as he (but not him, he would never, please, please no, AAYLA-) raised his weapon and fired.

In his head, he pounded on the cell and screamed.

***

Bly watched from the side as two troopers covered Aayla’s body with a blanket. None of them could stand to look at her, at what they’d done, but they couldn’t leave her. She’d never leave them if their roles were flipped.

Except they weren’t flipped. She would never kill them, let alone hurt them, and she had trusted them not to-

Dark thoughts filled his head. But he didn’t have the strength to push them away. They were true, after all.

He killed her. And their child. The two things he loved most in this galaxy were destroyed by his own hands.

And any future he had dreamt of went with them.

***

The 327th stayed on Felucia for that night and the next, trying to figure out what they were to do. The holonet said the war was over, that the Separatists were no more, that the Republic was an Empire now… and the Jedi were traitors.

But they weren’t. They were protectors. They protected the Republic, protected their troops- who had been the ones to shoot them down-

The men were also trying to give Bly some space before bringing up any future plans. They had all known that something was going on between him and the General. It was they way they looked at each other; even the newest shiny could see the thinly veiled love in their eyes. Nobody ever mentioned it, out of respect, but they knew-

And if anyone didn’t, they figured it out at seeing his reaction to her body.

Bly collapsed on his knees next to her, ripping his helmet off, mumbling incoherently. All the other men could hear clearly was her name, over and over.

He pulled her close, turning her over, running his hands over her face and body, tears spilling down his face as he held his riduur.

“Aayla- no- please-” His voice cracked, his body shuddering.

The others walked over, some putting their hands on his shoulders, some kneeling close by, others bowing their heads as their Commander- no, their brother- shattered.

Nu kyr'adyc, shi taab'echaaj'la.

Not gone, merely marching far away.

***

I’m sorry.

Also, this story will actually have five parts. So… stay tuned! If you want to be added to the taglist, let me know.

Taglist:

@likeshootingstarsinthenightsky (you are amazing!! your comments give me life)

@cacodaemonia (again, tumblr won’t let me tag you, I don’t know why but your blog won’t show up when i try to tag, very sorry)

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thatordinaryoddity · 3 years

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NEW CHAPTER: Once In A Blue Goddamn Moon

a 💗 Jamie & Dani Fanfiction 💗 [The Haunting Of Bly Manor, Netflix 2020]

written by thatordinaryoddity

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27475423/chapters/67177879

Rating: K+

Words: ~9,5k

Genre: Angst/Hurt/Comfort

Status: Complete (will be uploaded in three chapters + Prologue)

Summary: Jamie leaves Flora’s weeding more wrapped up in her thoughts than usual. In all those years, there hadn’t been a day without thinking of her deceased lover Dani. But sometimes, once in a blue goddamn moon, events coincide in an exceptional, odd way.

A/N: Without further ado here’s the new - the most important (for me) - chapter so I’m pretty nervous about it! I hope you guys like it and as always have fun and CU tomorrow for the final! XOXO

The Gravity Of Love

____________________

“..Jamie…”

In slow motion, the grey-haired woman tilted her head, then turned around completely, her jaw dropped in disbelief, tears suddenly blurring her vision. Her knees started to tremble like aspen leaves and she felt like she needed something to hold on to before they would give out. Her whole body began shaking tremendously and the blonde, ghostly figure opposite her provoked goose bumps all over her body. Jamie’s eyes wandered to the hand on her shoulder, fixing on the golden ring in shock. That’s not real. It’s another dream. Wake up. Goddamn, Wake up!!! Desperately, Jamie hoped to escape from this situation. When the dreams had started out decades ago, she thought she could enjoy these few moments of bliss with her lover while they lasted, but instead she had discovered that the longer she indulged in the illusions, the more dreadful the following solitude would be. Since then, she couldn’t stand these kinds of dreams because afterwards, they always left her feeling so unbearably empty. Therefore, she always tried to force herself to wake up, as she knew they were nothing but hollow, hopeless illusions that only made her waking hours more lonesome and painful. This time, however, was different - this time she couldn’t make herself wake up because this time, it wasn’t a dream.

“Jamie, stop fighting it, I’m here! Do you hear me, I’m here,” the blonde person in front of her took one step closer, placing her hands on Jamie’s cheeks. And with the touch, all the doubt in Jamie’s mind was shattered like a pane of glass, broken into a million pieces. There was no mistaking those clearest of blue eyes. “It’s her, it’s really her… Danielle Clayton.” Tears flooded down Jamie’s cheeks, wetting the delicate hands touching her. She searched for words, she wanted to say something, but she wasn’t able to move her lips. All she could do was stand there, look into that beautiful face and stare into those flashing blue eyes, all the while gasping for air in hope to find words.

“H-... How...?” Her voice sounded so broken, like she had been mute for years and only now began to rediscover her ability to speak. Her green eyes wandered up and down the beautiful blonde woman’s body, trying to find a hint that might explain how all this was possible. “After all these years…,” sobbing, she struggled for air.

Dani, too, couldn’t hold back her tears any longer. That very moment was filled with so many raw and honest emotions, with decades full of hope and yearning, doomed to be nothing more than disappointing, impossible wishes that could never come true.

“I have always been there, Jamie. I’ve always been with you, all these years!” Dani said with softness and care in her voice, caressing Jamie’s cheeks with her thumbs. “I was right there all this time, but you couldn’t see me! I tried to make you notice me, but I couldn’t… I tried so hard to get through to you, but it was hopeless…” The blonde woman��s voice had become shaky, and she was visibly agitated. The thought that Dani had been trying to communicate with her lost love for all these years, that she had always been so close to her yet unable to reach her, seemed unbearable to Jamie.

“I... I... don’t understand,” with a barely noticeable shake of her head, Jamie placed one of her hands over Dani’s, still resting on her cheeks, feeling the warmth of their bodies connect after decades. It felt so warm, so familiar and yet so unreal. The green-eyed woman was still unsure if this pretty bubble would burst, leaving nothing but another sad, beautiful scar on her soul. She was still anxious that she might suddenly be ripped from her slumber or this vision would abruptly turn into a nightmare through some sick twist.

Dani looked into her lover’s green eyes, which shone like emeralds in the silvery moonlight, and she knew how many thoughts were rushing behind them. She understood that the grey-haired woman had to be bursting with questions.

Dani let go of Jamie’s cheeks and took her hand instead, the one with the Claddagh ring: “You know, when I left you, I had to go to keep you safe. I could never have stayed with you if there was chance that I might hurt you. I could have never forgiven myself, if I let any harm come to you. And I knew that you wouldn’t have let me go, that you would have tried to talk me out of it, or worse, wanted me to take you with us into the lake. But I could never bring myself to that. That’s why I left… secretly. All I wanted was to protect you, to keep you safe, Jamie!” Dani’s face was covered in tears, she was trembling now as well. The only thing soothing her was her lover’s soft hand that she could finally hold again after such an endless time of longing for it.

She inhaled sharply and one could see she was struggling to continue: “You know, Viola’s rage inside me started to grow from day to day. It grew tremendously and it turned me into something I never wanted to become. I wasn’t able to stand up to her and her blind hate. I... I... really had no chance at all.” Dani was so angry about this abuse of her body and mind, that she had a hard time talking about the evil spirit inside her, who had taken away her life with Jamie. The blue-eyed woman clenched her teeth and stared right through Jamie, wound up in her thoughts, as if she was focussing on something behind her.

“The first time I returned to the mortal plane just felt like a dream – like a strange, fitful slumber. It just felt like a long, weird, restless night. Neither was I aware that I was dead, nor did I know I had the ability to roam the world of the living.” Jamie listened carefully, trying to absorb and comprehend everything her lover was telling her.

“After the first few months, I would eventually manage to wake up and after some more time, I learned what I was… that I was dead, that she had finally dragged me with her.” One could feel the pain in Dani’s voice, her inner conflict. It hurt her as well that she was doomed to live through this fate.

“Then I began searching for you... Jamie. It took me so long to figure out how to get to you. And once I found you, I wanted to run to you, to touch you, to hold you! But I couldn’t reach you!” Her piercing blue eyes got even clearer from the watery sheen the tears left on them. “You were there, right in front of me… but…,” now Dani was the one, searching for words, gasping for air, as the tears were falling and her voice was shaking. “You couldn’t see me, not even sense me! I couldn’t get to you! It was like you were looking through a window – right through me – but not recognising my screams or my presence. I was trapped. But I was there! Every full moon... I was there!” She squeezed Jamie’s hand with one of hers, while the other wandered up to her face to wipe away her tears.

Jamie stood there, her expression hardened and her lips were firmly pressed together to make her mouth appear like a thin line. Seeing the love of her life in this gruelling pain was unbearable to her as well. She squeezed Dani’s hand back even tighter. How hard it must have been... realising you’re dead... realising you’ve lost everything. Jamie had never really appreciated all the agony her lover had lived through. Frankly, she had always assumed that Dani would have forgotten everything about their beautiful life together and that Viola’s anger would have gnawed off every emotion and every memory left in the blonde woman, just the way it did to Viola herself centuries ago. But Dani’s love must have somehow overpowered the evil spirit’s rage and thus, the young woman had managed to create her own gravity – the gravity of love.

Viola’s rage against humanity was extinguished by Dani’s true love for Jamie and her desire to be with her again. Therefore, it had been possible for the blue-eyed woman to find a way to visit Jamie, even if only on full moon nights, where the border between this world and the afterlife narrowed. Unfortunately, the band was never thin enough to make Jamie become aware of her presence at all. No matter how hard the blonde woman tried, there was no incident where Jamie was able to sense her. She cried, she screamed, she shrieked Jamie’s name, but there had never been the slightest reaction at all. At some point, Dani had just given up, decided to face her fate of being doomed to live in this misery, until finally it would be time for Jamie as well to leave this world behind. Even then, she would just have to stand there, watching Jamie die, unable to hold and comfort her. All she could hope for was to finally meet her lover again after she had passed on.

Then, not too long ago, an idea was born while she suddenly remembered something she had been told as a kid: the Celts believed that, at a certain time of the year, on a festival they called Samhain – Halloween in modern terms – the boundary between the world of the living and the dead became blurred and that ghosts returned to earth again. When she found out that this year’s Halloween coincided with a rare blue moon - something that only happens once in a lifetime, if ever – she knew she had to use this unique chance to get through to her lover.

If there was ever a chance of her speaking to Jamie, it was this very night, so Dani had to try with all her might to make it work – and she succeeded.

Even if their time together was limited to that one night, it was more than she could ever have hoped for and more than any other person would get in their life, so Dani was thankful. She was so very thankful to be with her beautiful lover again after all those lost years of longing and suffering, even if it lasted only for this single night and she knew she had to go when the sun would wake up. Already, she knew it was going to hurt like hell, too.

Still sobbing, she raised her hand towards Jamie’s head, softly touching one of her grey strands of hair, the one which was lighter than the rest. A tender smile formed on her lips: “I love them... they’re so different now but I can’t help to admire them.” It was odd somehow, that Jamie had changed over the years – not only had she gotten visibly older but also so much wiser, calmer and more ladylike – while Dani had stayed the way she had been when she died. And even if it seemed like this might create a big gap between them, it was quite the opposite. Their two hearts were still the same they had been when they were separated by the bitter loss. All their feelings and emotions, all their memories together and the happy times – nothing had really changed, they were still connected by this band of true, unconditional love. They both had that mutual feeling inside their hearts, as if they could read each other’s thoughts.

Jamie stood there, softly crying as well, still wondering how so much luck had found her way to her after all these desperate times, until she thought she was finally able to react to Dani’s story. She took a deep breath and opened her lips, but all she could do was stutter. “Y... you..,” she shook her head as if she was trying to rearrange the thoughts inside it. “I... I...,” but Jamie wasn’t able to form a meaningful sentence. Those beautiful blue eyes in front of her were fixating her, waiting for what was coming. Then, Jamie suddenly remained silent again, took a little step forward and just flung her arms around Dani’s neck.

The young blonde woman just needed a moment to understand, that she was finally able to hug and touch and kiss her lover again. This insight made her hackles raise and her heart feel as if it was about to burst of excitement. Finally, she hugged her lover back, pulled her even tighter to her. Both of them were crying, both of them tightened their embrace as if they were afraid that the other would suddenly fade away. Both of them couldn’t be happier about being with one another again and tears kept streaming from their eyes as their hug lasted.

“I’ve missed you! Goddamn, I’ve missed you so much, Dani! Do you know how much I’ve missed you?” the elderly woman whispered through clenched teeth and with narrowed eyes. The barrage of thoughts and emotions was nearly unbearable to handle all at once. She felt happiness, she felt pain, she felt love and she felt fear. “It was so painful, I just wanted to die!”

When Jamie said these words, Dani softly loosened their hug and slowly placed both of her hands on her lover’s shoulders: “I know... Jamie. I’ve seen you… all those nights you cried… you were at the edge. But you had a life, a choice... and death would have been the wrong one! And I’m so glad you kept going.” She nodded as if she wanted to reinforce what she just said. Her expression was somehow filled with concern. She knew how much Jamie had suffered, and every time she had witnessed one of Jamie’s breakdowns, she had been worried if she was going to see her again on the next full moon. Dani squeezed her shoulders: “As I’ve said... I couldn’t let any harm come to you!” Those emerald green eyes were staring back at her, slightly filled with tears. She had noticed by holding Jamie that her whole body was trembling. “I’m here now…” those words were spoken so carefully, so softly.

Their glances wandered to one another’s lips, watching them for a few seconds, until they were finally touching again. There were no suitable words for describing how magnificent their second first kiss felt. It was filled with emotions of loss and grief, of raw love and extraordinary dedication to each other. Their bodies were electrified, every inch was thunderstruck. As the kiss intensified, they now embraced each other again. Dani’s lips slightly opened to welcome her lover’s tongue. A warm feeling spread inside her chest and her sweaty hands pulled Jamie closer to her. A soft gasp escaped from her lungs during this intimate moment only the two of them shared.

None of them wanted to end this moment of mutual affection, but sometimes the human body just needs air to breathe. Sharply inhaling, Dani ended the long kiss, followed by a satisfied smile on her lips. With an indescribable amount of love in her voice she whispered to her lover as their noses were still touching: “I’ve waited so long for this to happen... I have missed you with every fiber of my body, Jamie.”

The green-eyed woman blushed and placed her hand on Dani’s cheekbone. “I’ve waited too… for you to finally return to me! I’ve waited all these years...” she closed her eyes, enjoying their moment together, and she tried to absorb every second, every movement, every touch and every sensation of it. It felt as if all the cold in her long-frozen heart finally melted after all these depressing years of yearning. Jamie wished that this moment could last forever and that she could be with Dani for all eternity, just as they had dreamed of when both of them were younger. But she knew that wish wasn’t meant to come true – just like the full moon and this special night of the living dead couldn’t last forever, Dani too, would fade away soon. Both of them were painfully aware of that fact, but none wanted to waste even a single thought on it yet.

The night was getting darker, but the air remained extraordinarily mild for autumn. The two of them were cuddled up on the bench inside the winter garden, holding each other tight. Dani had asked Jamie to tell her what had happened in the years she was gone, and now listened attentively to all the events the older woman recounted, occasionally placing tender kisses on her lover’s hands. The moon light tinted the plants around them in a romantic, mysterious light. Both women felt as if this long separation, this violent break between them, had never existed. It felt so normal to be together again despite the long time apart.

Though one would assume the two women had so much to tell each other after all this time, the night was also partly spent in silence. After a while, none of them said anything at all anymore, instead enjoying their mutual moments of love. The bond between them was so strong, so unique, that they didn’t need to put into words how they felt at that moment. Instead, they knew how the other felt. And both of them knew as well, that they didn’t have all that much time left together, so they savoured each other’s presence even more. Being aware of their limited time was like an inner ticking that grew louder, minute by minute, and it felt threatening, uneasy.

“It will hurt, won’t it?” Jamie’s emerald green eyes slightly filled with tears again, which made them look like submerged gemstones in a shiny, crystal lake. Lost in thoughts, she started chewing on her lips. The mere thought of losing Dani again just tore her heart apart. The blonde woman took her lover’s hand, softly caressing it with her thumb, in an attempt to soothe her. She knew too that their farewell wasn’t going to be easy at all. But she also knew that they could at least gather strength from this night together – after all, Dani would always be there, even if it wasn’t physical.

“But how will I go on without you?” The tears began to stream down her face. “How am I supposed to just live on?” With a worried expression, Dani squeezed her lover’s hand even tighter. “I know, Jamie… but… remember… every full moon I’ll be with you! Even if you can’t see or touch me… I’ll never leave you! I’ll be there and I will listen!” Although Jamie could see that Dani truly meant everything she had said, her heart filled with pain again, her silent tears turning into a desperate sob.

“Dani... I can’t lose you again! I... I... just can’t”

“You WON’T lose me, Jamie… do you hear me! I’m here! And I always will be…” Dani pulled Jamie even closer to her, wiped her tears away and leaned in for a deep kiss. She couldn’t stand leaving the love of her life a sobbing mess. She understood the frustration of her lover, felt the same way, and yet appreciated that they were able to spend at least that one night together and get a chance to properly say goodbye. Please remember me this way. Please remember the good times, not the bad ones, Jamie.

Even though Jamie calmed down a bit, it was obvious from the expression on her face that she was devastated. They both knew that the time had come. The moon was standing low by now, the dark of the night slowly made room for the new day. Dani stood up, taking the older woman’s hand again, inviting her to join her walking out of the winter garden. The two women were standing in front of each other, holding their soft hands and feeling the other’s racing heartbeat.

“I love you, Jamie! You were the one… the only one… always!” With a soft, but broken smile, Dani forced herself not to start crying as well. She had to be strong, she had to focus on the good, not the bad. “And I’ll be there… one month from now, there’ll be another full moon.”

“I love you too… I can’t express how much!” Jamie flung her arms around Dani’s neck again, holding her as if she wanted to prevent her from leaving: “I’ll wait! I’ll look out for every single sign and every oddity… knowing it’s you!” As she embraced Dani’s warm body, she felt her warmth slowly decreasing. Abruptly, she took a step back, looking in shock at the fading shades of her lover. She had started to become translucent already, and all the colours had left her form. Jamie could see the remaining moon light shining right through her, leaving a silvery gleam on her whole body.

“It’s time now.” A sad smile formed on the blonde woman’s lips. “Please, don’t be sad my love, be thankful for this night… just as I am…” and with those words Dani was gone completely.

Jamie’s eyes were wide open in disbelief and agony, and after a moment, she collapsed on the hard ground. She remained there, on her knees, covering her face with her hands as she started to weep bitterly. She knelt there for what felt like minutes to her, but had actually been hours, all the while crying her eyes out and praying for Dani to come back. Even if it had been the most luminous, astonishing night in decades, she couldn’t deal with the fact that it was over.

#Jamie and Danielle #jamie and dani #damie #jamie x dani #jamie x danielle #damie fanfiction #The Haunting #the haunting of bly manor #the haunting of hill house #bly manor #hill house #thobm #thobm fanfic #lesbian kiss #lesbian fanfiction #lgbtq netflix #victoria pedretti #Amelia Eve #carla gugino

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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The Haunting of Bly Manor: The Poignant Tale of Hannah Grose

https://ift.tt/3loTz7C

The following contains spoilers for every episode of THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR.

“I liked your story”, a grown-up Flora tells an older Jamie in The Haunting of Bly Manor’s finale. “But I think you set it up wrong just in the beginning. You said it was a ghost story. It isn’t. It’s a love story.” Almost right. The Haunting of Bly Manor is two love stories: the centre-stage romance between Bly’s au pair and gardener Dani and Jamie, and the unrealised romance between housekeeper and chef, Hannah and Owen.

Both are tragic tales. Dani and Jamie’s marriage was unfairly – like too many lesbian love stories on screen – cut off in its prime, while Hannah and Owen’s relationship was stopped before it could even begin. Before the pair had confessed their true feelings to each other, Hannah was killed. Not that she realised.

“You went off a cliff and you just kept going”

That’s the thing about living in a haunted house: when you become a ghost, very little changes. The rules of Bly Manor show that until a ghost’s facial features fade away, they look just like the living, can make themselves seen by the living, and are able to physically touch objects and people – hence, for instance, Viola being able to choke Peter to death.

Viola’s story, in which her intractable resolve to remain at Bly keeps the spirit of anybody else who died there prisoner on the grounds, also shows how the personality of the living can bring to bear on the rules of their afterlife. Hannah’s denial of her own death not only made her continuously visible to the living, but also ‘dream’ different outfits and accessories, creating the illusion that she was still one of them.

In truth, Hannah Grose died on the day that Dani arrived at Bly. Minutes before Flora brought the new au pair to meet Mrs Grose, Hannah was pushed into a well by a possessed Miles, broke her neck, and died. The person who greets Dani and takes her inside the house is Hannah’s ghost, who then lives alongside Dani, Jamie, Owen and the children for a week or more after her death, not accepting that she too is caught in Bly’s peculiar “glue trap”. Incidentally, Mrs Grose may have the same name as the illiterate, exposition-tool housekeeper from Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, but she’s an entirely new take on the character.

The Altar of the Dead

Hannah’s denial lays the ground for The Haunting of Bly Manor’s strongest instalment by far, episode five ‘The Altar of the Dead.’ In it, ghost-Hannah slips from year to year and memory to memory, not cognisant of her murder. Her subconscious gives her a series of clues to prod her to the realisation that she’s no longer alive, but Hannah, played with beautiful sensitivity by T’Nia Miller (recently seen in Russell T. Davies’ Years and Years), refuses to accept it and fails to grasp the significance of the repeated motifs and phrases connected to her final moments of life.

Phrases such as “Honestly, Hannah,” which were the last words she heard spoken before being pushed into the well and dying. They were spoken by her killer, 10-year-old Miles possessed by the ghost of Peter Quint. In episode five, we hear the words spoken by Peter on four occasions: after seeing Hannah spying on him and Rebecca in the children’s schoolroom (“Honestly, Hannah. You should give the vacuum a rest.”), a possessed-by-Peter Miles says them while walking away after Hannah berates him for smoking, ghost-Peter says them once again when she sees him standing with Miles by the well, (“Honestly, Hannah, do you ever get tired of being such a bore?”), before Miles finally repeats them as he pushes Hannah to her death.

The repetition appears to be Hannah’s subconscious reminding her of what’s happened, just the same as the distinctive crack she keeps seeing on walls around the estate. Appearing in the kitchen, in the chapel, and in Bly’s closed-down wing, the crack is the final image Hannah sees before death, hence its recurrence in the days immediately afterwards as her mind tries to nudge her towards accepting what’s happened.

“Live a little”

There are other hints too. Listen carefully to episode five’s dialogue and the number of references to life, living and being alive are almost comically frequent in light of what we come to learn about Hannah. Sitting next to Owen (iZombie‘s Rahul Kohli) at the bonfire, Hannah is told that “any of us could die at any moment” and implores her to come with him to Paris. When she mockingly asks what she’d do in Paris, he tells her “eat croissants, drink good wine… live.” Earlier, in one of the many iterations of Owen’s job interview scene, he (therefore: she) says he’s “learning a lot about being alive.” After Peter Quint chastises her for spying on him, he tells Hannah to “live a little.”

In the chapel, Rebecca (therefore: Hannah) says she’s never felt “so alive”, and is told “there’s a difference between feeling good and feeling alive.” After Hannah’s marriage breaks up, Charlotte offers her the housekeeper role as a live-in position, offering her the chance to stay at Bly “forever” if she needs to. Again in the chapel, Charlotte tells Hannah she lit a candle for her (in truth for her cheating husband Sam) and it’s remarked on that remembrance candles aren’t lit for the living.

On a second watch, the dramatic irony is overwhelming. Even the characters can see it. When Hannah tells Peter-Miles off for smoking, she asks him “Do you want to die a horrible, choking death?” and Peter-Miles laughs, because thanks to Viola, that’s exactly how he did die. And, while this may simply be period texture, when Dani leaves a ‘tucked-away’ Flora sleeping in bed and walks into the kitchen, Owen is midway through trying to convince Hannah to go with him to a Patrick Swayze concert. Now, can you really bring up Swayze in the context of an alive person/dead person romance and not expect viewers’ minds to think of 1990’s Ghost? (Yeah, maybe you can. I’ll give you that one.)

It’s not just in episode five; there are clues throughout. When Dani meets Hannah in the chapel on the day of Owen’s mother’s funeral, Hannah explains away her absence by saying that Owen understands that funerals are for the living. Of course, due to Viola’s curse on the manor, no spirits who die there are able to pass beyond its grounds, so there’s no question of Hannah leaving to attend a funeral in the village. When Hannah revisits the memory of her telling the children to slow down and stop running or they’ll “break their bloody skulls,” can it be a coincidence that she’s speaking as somebody with a broken skull? Imagery of her death is everywhere.

The Haunting of Bly Manor Review (Spoiler-Free)

By Nick Harley

The Haunting Of Hill House: How the Extraordinary Episode 6 was Made

By Louisa Mellor

Hannah’s denial is partly caused by the person who broke that skull: young Miles, whom she loves and repeatedly insists to memory-Owen is, “a good boy” though (dramatic irony klaxon) he “hasn’t exactly been himself” of late. Ignorant of Bly Manor’s ghosts (who, until Dani arrives, bringing her own ghost and trauma-related sensitivity to the afterlife with her, had only been seen by Miles and Flora), Hannah doesn’t know the deal. Until she witnesses Peter being dragged away by Viola as part of her episode five psychic travels, Hannah hadn’t seen the ghosts, despite having spent years cleaning up Viola’s muddy footprints. Hannah therefore didn’t realise that Miles was possessed by Peter, and so allowed him to lead her into the woods for the “surprise” of seeing her own dead body.

“You just need to look down, Hannah”

Why, when Peter Quint realised his situation within minutes of being murdered, did Hannah have such trouble accepting her fate? The easy answer is: because it’s a TV-show twist-reveal to provide a The Sixth Sense-style ‘aha’ moment. Character-wise, the explanation comes from what the role of Bly Manor housekeeper means to Hannah, and the show’s thematic concern with the search for peace. When Hannah’s husband left her for another woman, Bly Manor became her permanent home. When Peter cruelly threatened her with dismissal, she insisted that Bly was not just her job but her home. Jamie’s voiceover leading into episode five tells us that “The housekeeper would always find her way back to peace in her daily routine.” Hannah is happy at Bly, and tells Dani as much in the chapel. The sense of purpose and peace that Hannah found in her role at Bly was so fundamental that even death wouldn’t stop her from getting up, putting on her earrings, and going to work. That’s part of it at least.

Episode five, written by Angela LaManna and directed by Liam Gavin, is a beautiful hour of television. It’s puzzling and disorienting but with a strong mystery thread drawing us through the fog towards a solid conclusion. It’s T’Nia Miller’s detailed performance that really makes it great drama. Miller beams out Hannah’s trauma from under a thick layer of emotional restraint. On the surface, Hannah seems as controlled as her primly co-ordinated and accessorised outfits, but Miller reveals the pain and panic underneath.

The pain and panic, and the love. In one of the many replays of Hannah’s first meeting with Owen at his interview for the job of Bly chef, she girlishly recalls finding him a curious and charming man. “I looked at you and I almost forgot myself for a moment.” Hannah’s love for Owen is the reason she keeps returning to that first meeting. “I prefer it here, this one, this day, with you … I loved you Owen. I should have told you. What a life we could have had” If Bly means home for Hannah Grose, so does Owen.

Let life happen to you

Hannah’s last words are a message to Owen. While Henry Wingrave is being resuscitated in the finale, Hannah leaves his ‘figment’ with an instruction. “When he checks the well, please tell Owen I’m sorry. Tell him I love him,” she says, before being cut off mid-sentence as the spell breaks and Bly’s trapped spirits are released. “And as for the rest…” Then Hannah is gone. What would the remainder of her last words have been? We can’t know, though, in light of Owen’s taste for literary quotation (he quotes both Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet in the series), perhaps she was about to cite Rainer Maria Rilke in his Letters to a Young Poet: “And as for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.”

After Hannah leaves Bly for good, we learn the depth of Owen’s feelings for her. While he’s lighting a candle to Hannah in the chapel, Jamie tells us that he helped to retrieve her body and prepared it for burial, never leaving her side. His Parisian bistro is dedicated to her memory, and his speech at Flora’s rehearsal dinner has a bittersweet message that applies to so many of The Haunting of Bly Manor’s relationships, cruelly cut off before their time: Viola and her daughter Isabelle, Henry and Charlotte, Flora and Miles and their parents, Dani and Jamie, Owen and Hannah: “To truly love another person is to accept that the work of loving them is worth the pain of losing them.”

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The Haunting of Bly Manor is streaming now on Netflix.

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