December 2022

One thing that’s fascinating about Daisy as a character is that she’s so powerfully slow. Not in wit or intellect, but physically, as a hunter. She knows her power and she has no need to rush or flail, it’s easy to be calm when you have no difficulty asserting yourself.

This makes it all the more clear when the power slips from her grasp. She rushes, fumbles, makes mistakes. There’s very few times that she slips up, early on at least. Aside from a few select moments she maintains the gravitas and power of a wolf or a bear all the way from her introduction to the coffin, but after the coffin things change.

Basira has every reason to be upset at her change, because after that trauma Daisy becomes a different thing entirely. Her demeanour changes, she speeds up, she’s skittish, she loses her strength. She’s no longer slow and certain but weak and clingy.

It might feel wrong to want that slow and steady person back but relationships are like music and if the tempo changes the balance shifts and that can lead to terrible things, things that cause you to lose eachother.

Am I saying that perhaps if Daisy had somehow managed to avoid traumatisation, keep her tempo stable, that she wouldn’t have had to sacrifice herself?

Maybe.

Even in her early moments of irrationality there is a swift calculation to it, an understanding. If Daisy had been able to keep a grasp on her fierce intellect perhaps the violence of the hunt could have been suppressed!

But no, what use is there in thinking like that? After all, animals can never live as long as humans.

Oddly specific, mundane things that are aligned with the 15 fears:

The Eye- Making deep eye contact with a stranger on the platform as the train pulls away.

The Hunt- Wanting something so badly that you can’t stay still anymore.

The Buried- Trying to get your phone back when it falls between your bed and the wall

The Vast- Being a child and hearing about how unknowably large Chuthulu is for the first time.

The Flesh- Looking in the mirror and realising your body’s changed since the last time you really looked.

The Lonely- Realising you’re the only customer at the supermarket.

The Corruption- When you see one ant but once you’ve focused on it you can see the rest of them.

The End- Holding an antique object and knowing that it’s original owner is long dead.

The Desolation- That gut wrenching feeling when you’ve lost something you know you’re not going to be able to get back.

The Stranger- Looking into the eyes of a loved one and not being able to see anything you know in there.

The Spiral- When you say something loud enough to be heard and absolutely nobody processes it or responds.

The Dark- Straining your eyes to try and see something at the end of an unlit corridor that you swear you could almost see.

The Slaughter- Ripping up a letter with your full name and address on and throwing it in the bin.

The Extinction- Being the last player left alive in a survival game and realising that in another life that could happen for real.

The Web- That burning, guilty feeling after you’re manipulated into doing something you didn’t want to do.