we are all sinners here

by Mary Oliver

~ Florence Harrison, "White and golden Lizzie stood", illustration for "Goblin Market". From Christina Rossetti: Poems (1910)

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) “Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie, Down the glen tramp little men” for Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market (1933) Source

“Oh,” cried Lizzie, “Laura, Laura,

You should not peep at goblin men.”

Lizzie cover’d up her eyes,

Cover’d close lest they should look;

Laura rear’d her glossy head,

And whisper’d like the restless brook:

“Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie,

Source details and larger version.

A fabulous bronze sculpture, Der Seltene Fang (The Rare Catch), 1896, by Ernst Herter, is found in Berlin's Viktoriapark. It depicts a fisherman struggling to keep hold of a twin-tailed mermaid caught in his net.

the corinthian & johanna constantine 🤍

Jim Henson’s Labyrinth #1 by Kyla Vanderklugt, Giorgio Spalletta and Sara Cuomo. Cover by Miguel Mercado. Variant covers by (2) Elizabeth Torque, (3) Veronica Fish and (4) David Mack. Out in September.

Any recs for books, online works, etc. that are similar to or maybe even inspired CCF that those of us who can't get enough of this stuff can devour in between chapter releases?

by Stephen Crane

Behold, the grave of a wicked man, And near it, a stern spirit. There came a drooping maid with violets, But the spirit grasped her arm. “No flowers for him,” he said. The maid wept: “Ah, I loved him.” But the spirit, grim and frowning: “No flowers for him.”

BUT

His redemption arc is so late and so abrupt it's actually funny to me. Matthias does some absolutely depraved shit to Layla after legitimately going mad, like to the point he joined a war just to find her, and then all of a sudden he's like "Wait a minute... I'm a selfish asshole and my actions are actually hurting her." And then suddenly he's the most doting, empathetic lover a woman could ask for.

I kid you not, if Solche had revealed that someone else permanently possessed Matthias's body or whatever deity he doesn't even believe in came down from on high to literally slap the toxicity out of his diseased brain, it would be less of a suspension of disbelief to me then him just suddenly deciding not to be an abusive ass.

SPOILERS along with a RANT

There were some parts throughout the novel where it seemed like he was actually getting it, like the shockingly normal Karlsbar trip where he began to think "Wait, I like it when we're not fighting and just acting like normal lovers" or how happy he felt when Layla started being affectionate with him, or how he realized that he had always been a nightmare to her after reading her diaries. He was in a months long depressive fugue state after she and Bill left where he realized that everything in his glittery life was meaningless if she wasn't in it, and he fully acknowledged that the reason she ran away was because of his cruelty towards her. It really, REALLY looked like he was finally getting some development.

And then he comes to the conclusion that if he had the chance to go back in time and change how he treated her, he would NOT have done so. ಠ⁠︵⁠ಠ

And THEN, he gets the news that Layla and Bill have been located in her home country on the same day her home country declares war on his. His response is to go out onto the battlefield himself, something his position could have allowed him to avoid, so that he could lead the takeover and occupation of the city they were living in just so he could find her. And why did he want to find her? Because, I shit you not, he thought KILLING her would fix him. ಠ⁠益⁠ಠ

So then he takes over her city and tracks her down, literally following her through the streets like he's Michael fucking Meyers until she gets trapped between him and the ocean and he realizes with glee that he doesn't need to kill her because she's pregnant, and he can use their child as a means of shackling her to him since he knows she's the kind of person who wouldn't leave her baby for anything. And then he kidnaps her, keeps her locked in his hotel room and LITERALLY shackles her to his bed. She almost dies of an illness where he tells her that if she dies he will kill the baby himself, and after she gets out of the danger zone and is recovering he STILL tells her how much he resents his child. (⁠┛⁠✧⁠Д⁠✧⁠)⁠)⁠┛⁠彡⁠┻⁠━⁠┻

And after ALL of this and some shit I didn't even get into (like the violent sexual assault that he does to her early in the book, because yeah, he's THAT BAD) he just STOPS and becomes this new man who would do anything for her happiness and we're supposed to melt over how he protects her and gets her to Berg safely and sets her and the baby up when BITCH it's the LEAST he could do for her, and then were supposed to be sad that he's supposedly KiA (which he's not) and then we're treated to four epilogues and EIGHTEEN sides stories about their sickeningly fluffy married life with only a few hiccups in it. It's like reading a completely different story, and the only acknowledgement of the absolutely deranged events of the main story are Matthias having the attitude that he can't refuse anything Layla asks for since he wants to repent for his previous abuse towards her, but that's like two paragraphs out of a crap ton of end story content.

Would love if he and Layla never end up together and will definitely stop reading the webtoon before they do and imagine my own ending.

It gives me Leoncio/Isaura and Tess/Alec vibes. In which they grow up together in the same manor but she was a servant and he was the master. Yet he never truly possesses her. And despite his money and power can’t fill the void she leaves. Envies her freedom even.