Madeira Craven wrote:I'm nominating Posion by Maore for April's (belated) feature thread!
This thread series is, in a word, Dark. Capital D, prickly spine, read it with a scotch and teddy bear Dark. And it is amazing. Any of the threads in the Poison series, of which there are five, could be featured here. But I feel like part one is required reading.
It follows Ciraaci, who has been thrown into KRI slavery following her writer's hiatus. The first thread dips briefly into the horrors of her imprisonment over the months, but that's not really the focus. Instead it seems to really zero in on Ciraaci and her fraying mental state that feels ugly and lost and very real. Actually, all of it comes off as a little too real. Ciraaci is hard and defiant but almost weeps when someone kindly asks her her name. Her reaction to being gently touched by a stranger is to cringe away, though she's starved for contact. And this stranger, Ennoia, is the most textbook, class-A manipulator you have ever seen. The kind anybody who has had an abusive partner will immediately recognize. He's a brilliant NPC with unclear goals, and the writer refuses to cave to the mystery so early. We are given no choice but to wonder along with Ciraaci about what this man wants from her.
There's a kind of expectation in the writing community that Dark writing is cheap or edgy, or has has to be bold and loud and full of extremes. And while this is a huge, dramatic situation Ciraaci is in, it's written with such focus and grounding that it affects me in a way no other stereotypical dark story has. It feels like the middle act of a Stephan King book with the supernatural bullshit ripped out and replaced with every racing thought you've ever had. It's low, festering hate and smothered desperation, and it's given me a really valuable look into how to pull at these emotions in a reader. The whole series is what I feel is the best example of Dark storytelling on Miz I have ever seen, and it's well worth the nightmares.
If you're interested in going down the rabbit hole, here's the thread list in order:
Posion i
Posion ii
Posion iii
Posion iv
Posion v
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