Everybody Lies

It's quite odd, but when I left work yesterday, it was snowing. I don't believe there's been so much as a flake of snow in North Georgia for the last couple of years, so to step outside and see a "Winter Wonderland" was amazing, and a bit frightening -- I know Southern towns can become paralyzed by snow. Fortunately, the snow did not turn the roads icy and bring traffic to a standstill; unfortunately work was not cancelled and so here I am.

(* * *)

Now on to Chapter 3 (I believe) of "Quinngali".

When the scene begins, Quinn finds herself in a strange place, apparently a restaurant filled with people. She appears to be in a hospital bed behind a sushi bar. Daria is there as well. This is clearly some sort of hallucination or dream.

A certain scruffy-looking, obnoxious doctor who walks with a cane tells Quinn what might be a few truths about herself, if anything that's happening in this twisted reality can be trusted.

Beavis and Butt-head are there, and the Doctor points out that Quinn did not cause the deaths of Beavis and Butt-head. Tiffany, Stacy, and Bret Strand are there and the doctor states that Quinn has affected none of their romantic lives with her hypnosis.

How is this so? The doctor tells Quinn that her powers of hypnosis are better categorized as delusional beliefs. Stacy and Tiffany and Bret could be hypnotised into romantic entanglements because -- well, they're hot, horny teens. Sandi could be "hypnotised" into gaining weight after her leg injury due to her increased caloric intake and immobility. All of Quinn's "successes" at hypnotism are either happenstance or because she "hypnotised" her "victims" into what they wanted anyway.

So how does this explain Quinn's absolute control over Daria, to the point of Daria's humiliation? Dr. H explains that Quinn and Daria suffer from folie a deux -- a mutual delusion shared by and reinforced by two people. The delusion was caused by a childhood incident where Daria put a rubber snake in Quinn's bed.

Quinn is stunned when Dr. H claims that this has crippled Quinn's libido. Quinn cannot focus any of her energy on erotic objects. She is not bisexual, she is asexual. Her lack of interest in food -- as compared to the other members of the Fashion Club -- indicates that she furthermore cannot make a substitution that a repressed libido might make.

Quinn had a breakdown when she found the rubber snake in her bed. Daria, who never liked Quinn and always called for Quinn's "punishment" suffered from the trauma of seeing Quinn suffer for it and Daria was overwhelmed with guilt. After Quinn recovered, she read a cheap book on hypnosis and told Daria that she was punishing Daria for the snake incident. A traumatized Daria went along with it and from that moment, their delusions began reinforcing each other.

Dr. H continues that Quinn's "hypnosis" has actually helped Daria. By keeping Daria away from mindless pop-cultural obsessions, and fashion and weight obsessions, and boy craziness, Daria has actually turned out more healthy than most young women of her age.

So how is this folie a deux cured? By long-term separation of the people suffering the delusion. However, Daria has a chance of a good life now that Quinn has loosened her controls. Unfortunately, Quinn's crippled libido means that she can never truly find pleasure and will remain unhappy for the rest of her life. Therefore, the separation needs to be permanent.

And that's when the Japanese swordsman shows up...but he never makes the cut, as shouting from downstairs finally wakes Quinn up....

(* * *)

The reason I find this chapter of Quinngali my most enjoyable is that it subverts the entire paradigm of the "Dream Sequence".

In most dream sequences of fanfiction, the dream is presented with imaginary threats. Generally, the shift from reality to "dreamtime" is so sudden and abrupt that there is no suspension of disbelief. This happened with the dream sequence in "Apocalyptic Daria" -- it had even been italicized -- and most readers were simply marking time till the end.

However, not only does Scissors MacGillicutty keep the dream sequence interesting -- by never revealing the names of some characters and by keeping other characters "pseudocanonical" -- he uses the moment to construct a wholly different reality than the one presented by Nemo Blank. Quinn's fine doctor in the dream presents an entirely different -- and mostly plausible -- alternate explanation of how Quinn could have gained the powers of hypnosis.

So which is the true explanation? Are Daria and Jane barking up the wrong tree in their study? Is Daria just delusional? Is the dream the key to the truth? How much of the dream is truth and how much is lies? Suddenly, everything we've learned previously has been thrown into a cocked hat and were are forced to consider alternatives to the established reality of the story.

Furthermore, the examination of Quinn's sexuality is priceless. The argument by the Good Doctor had a strong ring of truth, namely that Quinn shows very little interest in romance, merely an interest in what other people can do for her. The argument for Quinn's asexuality has strong foundation in canon, with only Quinn's relationship with David Sorenson in "Is It Fall Yet?" serving as a counter-argument. No wonder so many "Quinn in love" stories seem to ring false; the reality at the end of "Is It College Yet?" with Business Quinn haranguing her subordinates seems more likely than the one of "Write Where it Hurts" where Quinn is married with three kids.

All in all, the second of two strong chapters from Scissors MacGillicutty. There is one more chapter to be read, then we'll take a brief foray back into the world of "Apocalyptic Daria", and then we'll tackle one more fanfic.