Posts Tagged ‘Gaslighting’

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PseudoPod 948: A Relationship in Four Haircuts

‘A Relationship in Four Haircuts’ was originally published in the 2024 anthology Welcome to Your Body: Lessons in Evisceration

C/W for emotional abuse

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:03 — 28.0MB)

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Show Notes

Iris, by the Goo Goo Dolls

A Relationship in Four Haircuts

By Ai Jiang

You met him on Etsy.

That’s right.

Not a dating app, but an online marketplace for small business owners.

You’d asked about a custom jade ring you’d been sniffing around for but never found one within your budget—until him. But what you didn’t expect was for him to break from his professional persona and ask for your hand in marriage with the same ring you were trying to purchase for $20.99 with 15% discount on top to boot. The ring was probably a knock-off, but still.

It had to be a joke, the proposal, surely, because your username had been CATSONLY_ and your profile picture was that of your British Short Hair’s belly. And he? Well, his seller’s name was BOUJEEMAN96, in a subtle but not so subtle attempt to hide the implied “69”, or maybe he was actually born in 1996.

And so begins your relationship, your Shakespearean tragedy, disguised as a romantic comedy. (Continue Reading…)

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PseudoPod 798: Flash on the Borderlands LX: Words Like Violence

“Sometimes Boys Don’t Know” was originally published in the July 2021 issue of Nightmare Magazine.

“Human Body as Compendium” is a PseudoPod original.

“Never Enough Pockets” is a PseudoPod original

 

Never Enough Pockets: body horror, self-harm

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:43 — 41.9MB)

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Show Notes

“Human Body as Compendium”: “In moments of high anxiety I like to imagine that I can crack my skull open and take my brain out and put it somewhere else for a while. “Human Body as Compendium” carries this impulse to its natural conclusion.”

“Never Enough Pockets”: inspired by both what happened to Sarah Everard and the shocking conduct of the police during the subsequent vigil on 13th March 2021, see here for some info

“Words are very unnecessary; They can only do harm”

Sometimes Boys Don’t Know

by Donyae Coles

“Bonnie,” I say. He asked my name! I should have thought of something, but I wasn’t expecting him to notice me. Talk to me. “Bonnie,” I repeat, fighting down nerves, ignoring the fluttering in my middle, hoping I sounded closer to those other girls, the ones he likes. I’ve been practicing.

“Bonnie,” he repeats, smooth as his smile, and my insides tickle and shudder. Bonnie was good. Simple. He liked simple. I could be simple. For him, I could be anything.

My eyes feel too wide, and I blink to try to make them normal. I pull my lips into a smile, tell my body to be still, relax.

“Where are your friends? Did you come alone?” He’s looking around now and those flutters in me drop, turn into a pit. I want him to look at me. Just at me.

“I came by myself,” I offer. Is this the right answer? I don’t know. (Continue Reading…)