Trabia Garden

abyssal_sylph did this fandom meme over the summer, and I thought it looked like fun! The full list of questions was originally compiled by trobadora and can be found here. To keep my entries to a reasonable length, I'll just do a few questions at a time, rather than posting the entire thing at once.

What's changed about your fandom life in the last 365 days?

The biggest change is that I've got a website now! It's great to have a space on the Internet I can just talk about Final Fantasy VIII as much as I want (I say, as if I didn't already do that in this journal).

Your newest fandom.

In Stars and Time, maybe? I've written a couple of fics; does that make it one of my fandoms? It's a time loop game with a lot of charm; I had fun with it, but I don't really think of myself as in the fandom.

The last thing I got into and ended up thinking about a lot is Omori, a game that absolutely haunts me and will probably do so for a long time. I haven't actually written for it and don't have any fic ideas, but I found it fascinating and I often find myself seeking out fanart.

The last thing I got into so heavily that it qualified for a 'my fandom history' writeup was Severance, back in February. Such an interesting concept! One of the most absorbing shows I've ever watched.

Writing-wise, this year has been more about revisiting older fandoms than launching into new ones, now that I think about it.

You've got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them?

The first pairing I thought of was Nate/Elena from Uncharted, and the ideal third - Victor 'Goddamn' Sullivan, the third point of their adventure trio - is so obvious that I've actually written that threesome already.

Some potential thirds for assorted other pairings that came to mind, discounting pairings (e.g. Sora/Riku) where the third is so obvious it goes without saying:

- Jeff/Annie from Community: I think Britta would probably be the best fit, but I strongly prefer Jeff/Annie on its own. Their chemistry is so weird and intense!

- Light/L from Death Note: Misa, obviously. Or some weird thing with Ryuk, where L is unaware that there's a third entity in their relationship. That had not occurred to me before this instant, but I'm sort of fascinated by the idea now. Ryuk joins Light and L in the bed, forcing Light to suppress his reactions in order to hide the fact that he's having a threesome when, from L's perspective, only the two of them are there. Someone please write this; it's not in my skillset!

- Kane/Abby from The 100: Jaha is the only option coming to mind. This could either sort of work or go very badly, depending on the point in canon that Jaha is coming from.

- Jack/Kate from Lost: Sawyer? Probably Sawyer, as if Jack and Kate don't have enough potential to crash and burn on their own. For less guaranteed disaster: Charlie. For even more guaranteed disaster: Locke.

- Hinata/Komaeda from Danganronpa: I know Hinata/Komaeda/Nanami is popular, but I think I might be more interested by the thought of Hinata/Komaeda/Kuzuryuu. WAIT, NO: there's a correct answer here, and it is Makoto Naegi. Hinata/Komaeda/Naegi would be incredible; Hinata/Naegi would be very cute, and then they'd both desperately have to try to cope with the presence of Komaeda.

- Travis/Laura from The Quarry: Max or Ryan, I suppose? I prefer Ryan, but Max has the fun 'Travis kept me imprisoned' aspect. Travis and Laura aren't great candidates for an OT3, though; they're at their best when they're isolated and weirdly fixated on each other.

- Keiji/Sara from Your Turn to Die: hard to envision, because Keiji has zero interest in anyone who isn't Sara. Maybe some sort of fucked-up situation with Sou?

- Yosuke/Yu from Persona 4: Chie's probably the most obvious candidate, but I think adding Kanji to the mix here would be very funny. Yosuke and Kanji are both disaster boys with a lot of anxiety about their sexuality; it'd be fun to throw them together!

- Zell/Squall from Final Fantasy VIII: Rinoa! Rinoa, no question. This would be adorable.

- Beatrice/Battler from Umineko: oh, God, there's no good answer here. Jessica? Shannon, Kanon? Ange??? (Teenage Ange, to be specific, which by no means prevents this from being a fucked-up relationship but does at least make things a little less fucked up.) There's a huge amount wrong with Beatrice/Battler already (I say, with deep fondness), and adding any possible third would only make things worse.

- Utena/Anthy from Revolutionary Girl Utena: again, there is no good answer here. I think the only way out is to accept that and pivot to choosing the worst possible answer: Akio. An Utena/Anthy/Akio scenario, focusing on how the girls eventually manage to escape him. Wait, that's just Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Oh, wow, I have gone severely overboard on this question. It's an interesting one to think about, though! Feel free to share your own answers in the comments, if you'd like.

Some more notes on Person of Interest! I've now watched the first eleven episodes.

As this is a decade-old show, I'm not being that strict on spoiler cuts (although I'll still cut major plot developments, e.g. character deaths or big twists). If you're planning to watch it, though, let me know if you'd like me to be more cautious.

Reese and Zoe Morgan, the person of interest in 'The Fix', have shockingly good chemistry; it almost feels wasted on a one-off character! Given how hard I shipped Kane/Abby in The 100, maybe Paige Turco just has chemistry with everyone.

(Actually, when I was looking up the actress's name, I think I might have spotted that she's in more than one Person of Interest episode, so maybe Zoe will be back? I'd be up for that.)

Reese manning a sniper rifle, or whatever that ridiculous weapon he used to shoot the car off the road in 'Foe' was: unreasonably attractive? I'm also a fan of the shots of him tensing up in the background whenever he thinks someone he's shadowing might be in danger.

Reese is able to speak quietly at all times because everything he says is critically important. He doesn't need to raise his voice; when he speaks, people are going to listen.

Reese and Detective Carter's dynamic is interesting in concept: Carter both fascinated by him and determined to arrest him, Reese simultaneously trying to avoid her and trying to keep her alive. When Carter is shot in 'Get Carter' and Reese saves her, though, I think the show missed a real opportunity by just having Reese go 'good thing you wore that bulletproof vest, I know you still want to arrest me but you're not alone' and leaving her lying in that alleyway, though. No! If Reese telling her she's not alone is meant to be emotionally significant, he can't immediately leave!

If Reese doesn't want Carter to know exactly what he looks like, he obviously can't cradle her in his arms, but that just opens up more interesting potential. Have him phone an ambulance, sit just out of her eyeline so she can't get a good look at his face, and talk to her until the authorities show up and he needs to escape; that could have been a really good moment.

Unless Reese seemingly abandoning her was an intentional contrast to him saying 'whether you like me or not, you're not alone'? Being left injured in an alleyway is a very isolating image, but actually Carter's never alone; Reese is always there because of UBIQUITOUS SURVEILLANCE. Which... makes 'you're not alone' slightly less heartwarming, but maybe that's intentional.

Interesting to see Reese and Finch trade their usual 'action guy and computer guy' roles when Reese is injured in 'Super'. It helps to illustrate the importance of Finch's role, even if Reese's usual role is flashier; Reese tries his best as the computer guy but manages to miss crucial information. I also like that Reese still gets to beat someone up with his crutches.

drawsaurus tagged me on Tumblr for a meme:

List your Top 5 Canon and Top 5 Non-Canon OTPs.

As the below was originally written for an audience that doesn’t read my Dreamwidth, it might occasionally restate things I’ve said in previous entries.


This is tough, actually! I ship pretty much everything on a low level; it’s hard to pin down the ships I have more intense feelings about.


CANON:

Nathan Drake/Elena Fisher (Uncharted)

These guys are so cute! They balance each other so well; they have such good chemistry! What a great adventure duo. When I saw I’d been tagged to do this meme, Nate/Elena was the first pairing that came to mind.

I love that Nate and Elena have fun together and they make fun of each other, but they also have moments when they’re vulnerable with each other. In particular, I love that Nate, the big action hero protagonist, is allowed to be vulnerable with Elena, and not just the other way around; Uncharted 3 is great for this.

The sequence in Uncharted 4 where Elena just mocks Nate’s videogame skills is my favourite part of the entire series. I would buy a full Elena Fisher Mocks You While You Play Videogames simulator in a heartbeat.


Jeff Winger/Annie Edison (Community)

The episode ‘Debate 109’ is the fastest I’ve ever gone from ‘I’ve never thought about this pairing’ to ‘I ship this with every fibre of my being’. Jeff Winger and Annie Edison have, by far, the most ridiculous chemistry I’ve ever seen in fiction. It’s absolutely absurd. He’s almost twice her age and I just can’t care!

I was not expecting them to kiss for real in the first-season finale, and I flipped out when it happened.


Mukuro Ikusaba/Makoto Naegi (Danganronpa)

THERE ARE CANONICAL IMPLICATIONS THAT SHE HAS A CRUSH ON HIM; I’M COUNTING THIS FOR THE CANON SECTION.

Danganronpa IF gave me a lot of feelings about Ikusaba/Naegi. I’ve got a huge weakness for redemption storylines, and Ikusaba sort of breaks my heart as a character who has the potential to be redeemed but never had the chance. I also tend to like pairing up cynics with the idealists who make them a little less cynical (other ships I have that fall into this pattern: Jeff/Annie, Sora/Riku, Satoshi/Daisuke, the Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler), and Ikusaba/Naegi is a rare example of that dynamic with a female cynic.


Abby Griffin/Marcus Kane (The 100)

In the early episodes of The 100, I got into the habit of referring to Kane as ‘Councillor Dickface’. I was very confused, during the second series, to realise that Councillor Dickface had at some point become my favourite character.

A lot of the canonical pairings on The 100 follow the formula ‘they have a couple of scenes together with some contrived furtive glances and then they make out’, so Kane/Abby, where they had loads of scenes together and loads of chemistry and persistently didn’t make out, really stood out to me. Taking the time to build the dynamic up made a huge difference. I had such intense feelings when they finally kissed.

One of my favourite parts of the buildup: Abby kissed Kane just by the mouth! And I love kisses by the mouth; they create such a strange tension. They’re halfway between a kiss on the cheek and a kiss on the lips: too intimate to be considered normal, not quite intimate enough to be unambiguously romantic. I rewound to watch it seven times.


Chloe Price/Rachel Amber (Life Is Strange: Before the Storm)

One aspect of Life Is Strange I really love is its portrayal of very intense, slightly unhealthy relationships between psychologically damaged teenage girls. There’s genuine love between Chloe and Rachel, but there’s also manipulation, and things can get a little dark sometimes, a little frightening. Sometimes there are beautiful moments: sharing earbuds on a train and watching the scenery pass by, a kiss on an empty street at night. Sometimes Rachel drags you out of school while concealing her real intentions and ends up starting a forest fire while you watch in helpless alarm.

I love that the Chloe/Rachel pairing isn’t overly idealised or included in the game to titillate; they’re humans, sharing intense experiences, and it’s complicated and beautiful and painful and interesting. Chloe/Max is also great, but Chloe and Rachel make this list because their chemistry is slightly stronger in my eyes.


NON-CANON:

Mike Munroe/Sam Giddings (Until Dawn)

Do I ship these two just because they look like Nate and Elena? I’ll be honest: it’s probably a factor. I was so thrilled when the two of them met back up after their horrible experiences, and suddenly they weren’t alone in this terrifying situation any more. I love that they’re clearly not close friends when the game starts – they just happen to move in the same circles – but they bond so intensely and become such a strong team over the course of this terrible night.

If both Sam and Mike survive, the game ends on a shot of Mike clutching Sam’s arm like it’s the only thing keeping him anchored to the world, and I can’t get over it. It’s also possible for Mike to sacrifice himself to save Sam in the last few minutes of the game; he knows full well he’s going to die, but she’ll die if he doesn’t do anything, and he can’t let that happen.

I have a lot of feelings about these two, and I’ve always been sort of amazed they’re not a more popular pairing.


Mark Corrigan/Jeremy Usbourne (Peep Show)

I shouldn’t have actual feelings about these awful people, but somehow I do. These terrible, terrible men who incessantly ruin each other’s lives. They’ll never escape each other. They sort of hate each other, but they wouldn’t be able to survive apart. It’s the bond of knowing that someone else knows what an absolute mess of a person you are, knows all the worst aspects of you, and yet is somehow still willing to associate with you.


Patrick Jane/the entire CBI team (The Mentalist)

This may not technically be a pairing, but I’m listing it anyway. Jane is so casually flirty and tactile and intimate that I’m convinced he’s in love with everyone he works closely with: Lisbon, Van Pelt, Cho, Rigsby. (I love the episode where he buys all of them ludicrously expensive presents out of his blackjack winnings.) I also feel he’s in love with Hightower; it’s a shame she couldn’t be the boss for longer!

I really wanted to put this in the ‘canon’ section.


Noctis Lucis Caelum/Prompto Argentum (Final Fantasy XV)

I’ll happily ship all the FFXV boys with each other, but I’ve got a particular weakness for Noct/Prompto. Prompto falls intensely in love with anyone who’s even vaguely nice to him! There’s all the ‘I’m a commoner; he’s the prince’ insecurity! They’re both kind of useless with their emotions! Plus their interactions are just really, really cute.


Hajime Hinata/Nagito Komaeda (Danganronpa 2)

If I say I ship two characters, it could mean either ‘I genuinely think these characters would work together’ or ‘I think these characters would be a fascinating disaster, and I want to watch it all burn’. Hinata/Komaeda definitely falls into the ‘fascinating disaster’ category. I love that Komaeda adores Hinata (and all their classmates) and expresses that adoration by manipulating people into murder; he just wants to help everyone achieve their full potential! I love that Hinata is simultaneously repelled by Komaeda and sort of fascinated by him. Trying to keep Komaeda at arm’s length, trying not to think too much about him, never entirely succeeding.

(I’ve also got a soft spot for Hinata/Koizumi and Hinata/Kuzuryuu, which are slightly more functional.)


Honourable mention to Shay Cormac/Aveline de Grandpré (Assassin’s Creed Rogue/Assassin’s Creed Unity), which I considered, because I do ship it a lot, but decided against because the characters, er, aren’t from the same game and never meet in canon. I wrote a huge Sense8 AU for Assassin’s Creed once and accidentally landed myself with this stupid nonexistent pairing.

And I just remembered Arthur/Merlin! I need to stop thinking about ships, because I’m just going to come up with an endless number I regret not including.


If you're reading this and think it might be fun, I encourage you to steal this meme for your own journal! I'd love to see you talk about your ships.

My last Kane/Abby fic was entirely too cute, so here's a fic about them being guilt-ridden as proof that I'm still me.


Title: Centre of Gravity
Fandom: The 100
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Marcus Kane/Abby Griffin
Wordcount: 1,400
Summary: It's hard to build anything when there's this much guilt in the foundations. But they can try.


( Centre of Gravity )

The 100 continues to be unbearably stressful, but Kane and Clarke had a really lovely conversation in episode 4.06, and I'm so, so glad about it. They haven't explicitly discussed the nature of his relationship with Abby, but Clarke says, 'I know you're worried about my mother. I'll send her your love,' telling him that she knows and she's okay with it, and Kane responds by talking about 'when you get home,' telling her that he's her family. And then they hugged! ♥


A good moment in episode 4.07:

Clarke: You can cook?
Murphy: Mm-hmm.
Clarke: You can read.
Murphy: Yeah, I know what you're thinking, Clarke: why are all the good ones taken, right?

And then he gives her a taste of what he's cooking, and please tell me I'm not actually starting to ship this.


Notes made during episode 4.08, 'God Complex':

The 100 has been unbearable to watch ever since I got emotionally invested in it. It was fine when I was just a detached observer! But now I'm watching characters I care about relentlessly ruining their own lives and fighting against their consciences in order to survive, and it's the wooooorst.

When Jasper took Bellamy out in the woods and said 'look, we can mope around for our last days or we can do whatever the hell we want', I was half expecting end-of-the-world sex.

Murphy begging Clarke not to experiment on Emori, leaping between pleading and anger and threats in a desperate effort to find something that will work, is such a good scene.

I was, I'll be honest, a little disappointed that the show didn't follow through on that horrific decision (even though I was very distressed watching everyone struggling with the horrific decision they were making!), but on the plus side I suppose that means the relationship between Murphy and Clarke might not be irreparably damaged, because apparently this is something I sort of ship now, how did I get here?


Below the cut I ramble about my continuing struggle with Bellamy's character since the grounder massacre.


( The Bellamy problem. )


It's frustrating! I want to like Bellamy. I used to like Bellamy! But I really can't get past that one writing decision.

I'm a few episodes into season four of The 100, the last season available on Amazon Prime.

I really liked the little scene in 4.01 where Abby checked on Kane's wrist and Kane touched her face and the camera lingered for a moment on Clarke's 'wait a second, I see what's going on here' expression. I hope she and her mother have a conversation about Kane at some point. I think Clarke's okay with it (it looked like she sort of wanted to smile), but I can imagine her feelings about her mother finding someone else might be complicated, particularly as the timeline of The 100 is ridiculously compressed; it can't have been much more than half a year since Clarke's father was executed.

(EDIT: Wait, apparently I got confused about the timeline; Finn says in the first episode that Clarke's been in solitary for a year. So it's been maybe a year and a half. Still.)

And then the two-minute Kane-and-Abby scene at the start of episode 4.02 took me ten minutes to watch because I kept rewinding to see parts of it again. These two!

I'm sort of clinging to moments like these, because the stakes are so high right now that The 100 is kind of upsetting to watch, and it's not a show that's known for low stakes. Even though I've been enjoying this show a lot, I'm not sure if I'll be able to make myself watch season five when I run out of free seasons. Do I want to pay money to stress myself out?

(why did I get invested, whyyyyyy)

The most agonising parts of The 100 are the parts between someone coming up with a terrible idea and the inevitable implementation of said terrible idea, when all you can do is watch helplessly as everyone makes the decision to screw themselves over. 'Should we blow up the water generator we need to live? Pros: cool explosion. Cons: we need it to live.' And I'm just sitting there going 'I know you're going to blow up the stupid generator because the show wouldn't have bothered raising the possibility otherwise.'


I've just realised November starts tomorrow, the month when I traditionally try to write at least a little every day, and I don't have any ideas to work on! I'd better come up with some concepts quickly, or I'll actually end up writing the horrible Clarke/Murphy fic where they have emotionally compromised, catharsis-seeking sex on a blood-soaked bed. I'm only just taking my first tentative steps into this fandom; it's too early to write something that'll get me permanently shunned. (I suppose I could try writing something about the time they spent locked up together in that room in which they don't bang.)

If there's anything in particular you want to see me write, I can't make any guarantees, but it's not a bad time to ask.

Notes on episode 3.13 of The 100, 'Join or Die':

I laughed very loudly when Pike started hitting Murphy in the flashback to lessons on the Ark. Everyone just beats Murphy up! Everyone, all the time!

I also feel Murphy ends up hovering awkwardly in the background of a lot of fucked-up shit (e.g. the torture in this episode, the drawn-out death in 'Thirteen'), with an expression that says 'why do I have to sit through all this fucked-up shit?', which is also hilarious.

And I didn't mention him being locked alone in a bunker for three months! That was incredible. This guy is just the world's punching bag and it is a joy.

(In 3.14, I'm delighted that Murphy's response to the suggestion that they kill Jaha is essentially 'that is a fucking great idea. I mean, don't get me wrong, it won't actually achieve our goal, but I love the idea.' I love how much he hates Jaha.

While I'm taking a brief excursion into 3.14, apparently I've been headcanoning Monty as gay this entire time and didn't realise until the show tried to pair him up with a female character and I went 'wait, what, no.' I mean, I've been going 'Monty and Jasper are obviously boyfriends' this entire time, but I've kind of been able to buy Jasper having girlfriends. I can't buy it with Monty at all.

ALSO HARPER STOLE THE 'WE CAN'T JUST WAIT AROUND FOR THE NEXT DISASTER' CONVERSATION FROM MY KANE/ABBY FIC

I mean, I realise that this episode technically existed before I wrote the fic and Harper's 'Are we just supposed to spend the time between attacks dreading the next one?' line probably didn't spring into existence the moment I wrote Abby saying 'We can’t feel like we’re just waiting around for the next tragedy,' but I'm still going to slightly resent Harper/Monty for yanking concepts right out of my Kane/Abby fic, meaning that people who read it will probably think I was ripping off that Harper/Monty scene. Ah, the risks of writing fanfiction before finishing a canon.)


I went 'OH NO, THIS IS GOING TO REALLY UPSET ME' when brainwashed Abby tried to recruit Kane. I'm glad he caught on quickly that something wasn't right. Although I'm amused that he essentially went 'hey, wait, you're making out with me too enthusiastically, we're supposed to be a slow-burn, clearly you're being controlled by an AI.'


I'm struggling a bit with Bellamy at the moment.

Clarke: Octavia will forgive you eventually. The question is, will you forgive yourself?
Riona: Clarke, he's committed two separate genocides, only one of them for anything approaching an understandable reason. Should his largest concern be forgiving himself? Should it really?

I'm not sure if it's really possible for Bellamy's character to come back from the grounder massacre. Mount Weather was a horrible decision he made in the moment to save the lives of his friends and sister, and to take some of the burden of guilt off Clarke. It made sense that he did it; a lot of people in that situation would probably make the same call, even if they're not particularly murderous under normal circumstances. But premeditatedly murdering people under the argument 'oh, they're grounders, they're obviously going to attack us if we don't attack them first' is pretty irredeemable, and also makes me less sympathetic over the Mount Weather decision; I feel he probably can't have felt that bad about the corner he was forced into there if he trotted out three months later to commit another genocide.

Is there a way the show could redeem Bellamy? I don't know. You certainly can't take an 'oh, no, this poor boy made a few mistakes' approach by this point, particularly as I don't think he's really displayed understanding of how wrong his actions with the grounder army were.

Is there a way he could become a character I like again? That's a different question; Murphy hasn't redeemed himself for the murders he's committed (two! two paltry murders! are you really a The 100 character?), he's shown no remorse, but he's so enjoyable to watch that I've come to like him a lot.

I suppose we'll see.

I have some things to say about The 100 episode 3.09, 'Stealing Fire'.


( The 100: spoilers for 'Stealing Fire'. )


I wasn't supposed to get emotionally invested in this show. This is a very bad show to be emotionally invested in.

In episode 3.01 of The 100, when Abby is asleep on the sofa in Kane's office, Kane says it's the first time she's slept in two days. How does he know? Have they stayed up for two days working together? Do they live together? It seems possible. (How do living arrangements work in Camp Jaha/Arkadia?) Do they share a bed? Considerably less likely, and tragically it's not likely at all that they share a bed while not being romantically involved and Kane quietly suffers, which is the scenario that would most delight me. (I shouldn't write that fic. It would be so self-indulgent.)

Spoilers up to episode 3.06 under the cut.


( Spoilers for The 100 up to episode 3.06, 'Bitter Harvest'. )


Entirely unrelated:

Riona: I'm going to start a replay of Final Fantasy Eurovision.
Ginger: You're going to what?
(Final Fantasy X-2 opening cutscene!)
Ginger: ...You know, when you said 'Eurovision' I assumed you were joking.

I haven't made much progress in my attempt at a replay, but I'm pleased to have introduced that ridiculous opening sequence to my housemate.


A final note: yesterday I attended a friend's work Hallowe'en party.

'Vore is one of my favourite fetishes,' one of their co-workers said to me.

The 100 isn't the show I was expecting it to be. I thought it would just be Lord of the Flies with silly teen romance drama. I hadn't realised it was about war, and morality, and making horrible decisions in impossible situations. If you commit an atrocity in order to survive, or in the hope of saving someone else, what does that do to you, and is it a price worth paying? 'After everything we've done, do we even deserve to survive?' It's a question the show asks over and over again. Is it right to sacrifice other people in order to protect your people, whoever your people may be? Every sympathetic character is driven to commit terrible acts; (almost) every antagonistic character comes to show a human side. And also there's silly teen romance drama.

There are some decisions that strike me as flat-out silly. You can't allow the deaths of many people who could easily be saved in order to maybe increase the chance you'll be able to save many people who are difficult to save; save the people you know can be saved or you risk losing everyone! But I am enjoying the show's interest in moral complexity, and, let's be honest, I've never said that I have a taste for fiction about teenagers making good decisions.

Around episode 2.12, I believe, this show became The 50. Teenagers on this show, we can conclude, have a half-life of 25 episodes, and we'll hit The 25 in episode 4.05. Alternatively, we can conclude that teenagers on this show die at a rate of two per episode, in which case episode 4.05 will be where they become The 0. There are different ways of interpreting the data, but none of them look like great news for these kids.

(I'm not sure how many of the 100 remain now that I've finished the sixteen-episode second season, but there can't be more than 46. Which fits perfectly with the half-life theory, come to think of it.)

Under the cut, there are spoilers up to and including 'Blood Must Have Blood', the second-season finale.


( The 100: spoilers for the entire second season. )


Jaha's character has taken a bit of a weird turn with the whole Promised Land business, and I'm sad that he's no longer in Kane's vicinity for Kane to be quietly in love with, but I do enjoy Murphy just going 'well, fine, I guess this is the stupid plotline I'm part of' in the background. (Murphy's fun. I enjoy his constant 'ugh, everyone hates me just because I'm a massive dick and I murdered two people' attitude. To be honest, by this point he's probably got one of the smallest bodycounts in the cast.)