I had the dream again

Me the second half of the backrooms:

Someone in the last post said he’d make it an attraction

- She is carrying her two giant coffees here and BALANCES THEM BOTH IN ONE HAND to touch his chair

first half of a self-indulgent grace & rocky comic thing, after reading too many fics

"You think this is fair? I didn't blow up Filament Station, but the ones who did aren't getting punished. Just me! I didn't get a choice! I just drew the short straw, and traded one fancy metal box to die in for another while people that I thought were my brothers abandoned me!"

warning: blood, and Grace frying the ever-loving heck out of his arm

bear's friend group is four colleagues who work at a music store, a venue celebratory of the arts. both of the women seriously aspire to be artists. nikki is in the middle of writing a novel--a love story, ironically--and sarah is applying to art schools. by contrast, when bear confesses an aspiration to be a food critic, nikki remarks that he eats steak with ketchup. not only does this interaction reveal bear's goal to be relatively vague and poorly researched, it particularly calls out that he lacks the cultural tastes to contribute much criticism of value. whereas the women's interests are curated and honed over years, his just feels random and never even comes up again outside of that scene.

rather than take the opportunity to confess his feelings for nikki or put in any effort to get to know the real her, bear uses the wish to "generate" a version of nikki that reciprocates his feelings. nikki immediately begins making uncanny mistakes such as thinking bear's cat is her own, laughing uncomfortably loud at jokes, and making cartoonish expressions. her movements glitch. she speaks in long poetic monologues through which extremely macabre "relics" of nikki's tortured consciousness and writing style slip out.

at no point does bear offer any vulnerability to nikki nor does he even really seem to know much about her compared to ian and sarah, who both observe her behavior is not in keeping with her previous hobbies and her relationship with her family. bear instead vehemently maintains that their relationship is valid while fully aware of the despair he's causing nikki as he uses her body for his own happiness. her face is often cut out of the frame or cast in shadow, implying that he doesn't see her as a person or cannot confront the harm he has caused in using the wish.

Moments where the real Nikki breaks through the wish OBSESSION (2026) Dir. Curry Barker