Thaïs

Below is a quick one-shot I wrote, inspired by your (museum-quality) work. This is the scene that your illustration evoked in my mind.

—

refuge n. —shelter or protection from danger or distress; a place that provides shelter or protection

Kristine Prescott had never been committal. Nathan knew this.

She drifted like a buoy, surrendering herself to whatever current happened to catch her. New friends, new parties, new plans. Never the same people twice.

He knew it from personal experience, too — from years of late school pick-ups, from text messages without any responses back, from hours of waiting by the back gate of the estate at 3AM, long past her promised return time, to sneak her back in without alerting Sean.

"Sorry, Nate! Things got crazy and I had to drop some friends off, and it got kinda late again…"

It was always the same excuse.

And yet, Nathan still found himself clinging to her with a death grip after Sean dragged him beyond his office door.

"Shh", she'd murmur. She smelled faintly of saltwater and expensive perfume. Her warm hands would cocoon the back of his neck, rubbing him as if he were a child again, as she guided him to the freezer to grab him an ice pack.

Kristine wasn't a lighthouse. Nathan knew that. But on the nights Sean's voice echoed through the halls, the light in her eyes was enough to fool him into believing there was still a shore worth swimming toward.

this was inspired by a dream told to me by @thaismarendaz and I really felt like it was something Nathan would also experience, so this short one-shot is what my brain came up with! no ships in this one. enjoy <3

It was nighttime.

Nathan wasn't sure in the sense of the time or where he was; it was more an omnipresent knowing that permeated through him.

The sky was inky black, the kind that pressed down like a book-weight on a loose stack of papers. His usual loud mind was empty of its usual buzzing pests, though. Instead, what he felt inside was a striking hollowness — like looking into the eyes of a taxidermied animal.

Where the hell was he?

And then, from the dark, foggy landscape: light. A crimson glow. It pulsed in time with his heart beat, as did his breath. He was breathing heavily.

Thump. Thump.

It was a fire. He was walking along a beach. Arcadia's beach? He wasn't sure. It looked familiar yet distant at the same time. The pale orange spotlight of sand became closer before it became farther — a tricky oasis in the dark desert of night.

His feet brought him forwards — he was a ghost tethered to the will of an unseen force.

There were people there. Friends, sitting in a circle around the fire. Victoria, Hayden, and some others from the Vortex Club. Logan, holding a beer. Even Rachel with a cigarette dangling from her upturned, soft-looking lips.

They were laughing. Saying things. What things? He couldn't hear them.

Thump thump. Thump thump.

thanks for the ask! <3

if I had to name one person, it has to be... @thaismarendaz!

I didn't even make that up btw, it's canon:

Actually tho— I think her consistently amazing art of our resident favorite troublesome lad, combined with her analysis posts informed by her irl professional expertise in dealing with cases just like Nathan's, qualifies her as a great representative of the Nathan fandom!

I was tagged by the lovely @betty-fran to share MY TOP 9 VIDEO GAMES! Thank you for the tag 🤍

I included 10 so that the pics would fit better. There are obviously much more than these. I played an ungodly amount of hidden object games and dating sims that I didn't include but I do also have my favorites among them. With these out of the way, it was still hard to choose. There are platformers and rogue-like that didn't make the cut but have more than hundreds of hours of gameplay sunk into them. That and also... I was into mmorpgs for about a decade and a half and didn't feel like including those since I don't play mmo's very much nowadays. And I also didn't include games I haven't personally played but watched a stream of (the Resident Evil games come to mind - I haven't played any of those myself but do like the franchise quite a lot).

Life is Strange

What Remains of Edith Finch

Baldur's Gate 3

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Oxenfree

Stardew Valley

Disco Elysium

Scarlet Hollow

Anna's Quest

Feel free to ask me what I like about these. I love to ramble about video games. Thanks again for the tag.

Life is Strange

Clair Obscur : Expedition 33

Stray

The Dark Pictures Anthology : Little hope

Zelda Twilight Princess

What Remains of Edith Finch

Assassin's Creed : Odyssey

Cyberpunk 2077

Before Your Eyes

Detroit : Become Human

The order of the 10 games is kind of random ^^ To be honest, gameplay isn’t my main focus when it comes to video games - I’m much more interested in the story they tell. While not all of these are strictly narrative-driven, I would definitely recommend them if you appreciate a strong story.

Thank you for your ask !! 💕 (I'm so sorry it took me so much time ! I'm terribly behind on my asks 🫠)

There are three main types of abuse : physical, psychological and sexual. I think your question mainly concerns the third category, since you also mention “inappropriate things”. But I’ll still go over all three because I love to ramble ^^ I put the analysis under the cut, since it's quite long and because of the sensitive subjects. (It's actually the first time Tumblr has flagged one of my posts as mature content haha.) If you played LIS1, I don't think you'll find anything chocking here - still : TW for abuse !

Speaking of Jefferson's manipulation tactics, we actually get to see exactly how he employs them on a student in distress in the scene where Kate appears to seek Jefferson's help after learning about the Vortex Party video in Ep2:

This moment always chilled me to my core. One conversation with him was enough to serve as Kate's tipping point to commit suicide. He effectively:

belittled her reaction to the video and put her down ("Knock off this martyr crap"),

insulted her ("Stop acting so brittle!"), and

attacked her character ("Maybe this is your way of getting attention...")

Which fulfill nearly all the criteria for psychological abuse:

(minus silent treatment and controlling who she sees)

If I had to guess, it was likely due to Kate also seeing Mr. Jefferson as a person with elevated 'status', that she had such an intense reaction to his words. Having someone with that level of authority and respect belittle you in that way, especially when you know they are otherwise well-respected professionally, can be extremely detrimental to one's emotional state when they are vulnerable.

It really makes you wonder what kind of tactics Jefferson employed on Nathan that we didn't get to see.

Abuse within a relationship often develops gradually, which is precisely why it is so difficult to break free from. At first, everything appears normal. Then come small, isolated behaviors that wouldn’t necessarily be identified as abusive on their own. Over time, however, these behaviors accumulate, intensify and reshape the dynamic entirely. And I think that is exactly what happened between Nathan and Jefferson.

In the beginning, Jefferson likely relied on validation and flattery. He told Nathan exactly what he needed to hear, presenting himself as an authority figure who both recognized and encouraged him. For someone like Nathan - who is deeply seeking approval - this would have been incredibly impactful.

From there, I think the dynamic evolved into something much closer to what we see with Kate. Nathan is a psychologically fragile character - just as Kate was at that point in the story - which makes it easy for Jefferson to pull the right strings and provoke the emotions he wants (shame, guilt, doubt, regret, etc). Since Nathan’s respect for Jefferson is already firmly established, his words carry immense weight. Disappointing a role model is painful, and that pressure alone can drive someone to adapt their behavior to meet expectations - especially someone as approval-seeking as Nathan.

This creates the perfect conditions for gaslighting. Like with Kate, Jefferson can distort reality, undermine Nathan’s perceptions, and reshape his understanding of events - all while maintaining his charismatic and composed façade.

Over time, I think Nathan became emotionally dependent on his relationship with Jefferson.

It’s only after reaching a point of no return - once Jefferson could be certain Nathan wouldn’t back out - that he probably involved him in the Dark Room project. From that moment on, Jefferson no longer needs to maintain the same level of performative charm. Instead, he can gradually let the mask slip, revealing more of the person Max ultimately encounters in Episode 5.

This shift likely begins with increasingly harsh remarks - far more brutal than anything he allowed himself before - as we can already glimpse in their exchanges : “I'd like nothing more than to be proud of you”, “I haven't set all this up and shored my vast wisdom, just so you can fuck it up with your teen-rage”. We can actually see in Episode 5 that Jefferson become aggressive and angry when things don’t go the way he wants. If Max, tied to a chair for just a few hours, can get him to that point, it’s clear that Nathan must have as well during the months they worked together (- it probably went further).

Another key aspect of Jefferson’s manipulation is the isolation he cultivates and exploits. Nathan is already socially marginalized - feared, misunderstood and largely rejected by his peers. That kind of pre-existing isolation makes him especially vulnerable to anyone who offers him a sense of validation or belonging. Jefferson doesn’t just take advantage of that isolation - he deepens it. By positioning himself as the only person who truly “understands” Nathan, he reinforces a dynamic where Nathan gradually withdraws from everyone else. In my opinion, the statement “you’re the only voice I trust” is particularly telling : it reflects not only trust, but dependency.

This kind of emotional monopoly is a classic mechanism in abusive dynamics. The abuser becomes the sole reference point for validation and guidance. As a result, the victim becomes increasingly cut off from alternative perspectives that could challenge or contradict the abuser’s influence. In Nathan’s case, this means that Jefferson isn’t just important to him - he becomes essential.

At the same time, Jefferson appears to use the silent treatment, with Nathan explicitly pleading : “you’ve been ignoring me the past few months […] please don’t make me feel like shit.” This withdrawal of attention is not incidental - it reinforces dependency while punishing Nathan as the same time.

It also wouldn’t surprise me if Jefferson actively weaponized Nathan’s psychiatric condition against him - particularly his disconnection from reality. This is a really strong notion : in a clinical context, being “disconnected from reality” refers to a profound impairment in one’s ability to distinguish what is real from what is not - it implies distortions in perception (hallucinations), belief and/or interpretation of reality itself.

Nathan is medicated and under psychiatric care, which means he is aware of this vulnerability. He knows that his perception cannot always be fully trusted. And that awareness, paradoxically, makes him even more susceptible to manipulation. Someone like Jefferson could easily exploit this by subtly reframing events, denying what happened, or imposing his own version of reality - knowing Nathan would be more likely to doubt himself than to challenge him. In that context, gaslighting becomes especially effective, because it doesn’t just create confusion - it reinforces an existing fracture in Nathan’s grasp on reality.