I haven't seen anyone else point this out yet, but while playing Mouthwashing I noticed that Anya looked very very familiar to me. As if I had known this character before. It took me until very recently to realize why.
This is Anya Mouthwashing
This is Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance in The Shining.
Wendy is a woman who seems to have once been spirited but has become meek, quiet, and withdrawn due to being in isolation with her abuser. She often either avoids him or fawns in order to minimize his aggression. Her abuser- the "main character" of the story, regards her as whiny, annoying, and subservient and often treats her this way.
Her victimization is a footnote in the story of the male abuser character who spirals out of control when isolated from society without anyone interfering.
I have widely seen Wendy regarded as a poster child for women characters whose stories are limited and damaged because the media takes place through the lens of the male abuser. The Shining is Jack's story, Wendy is second fiddle. There to be victimized and frightened and to try and make a difference how she can. Arguably, the only reason Wendy is able to overcome Jack is because of the presence of their son.
If we are completely honest, Mouthwashing is Jimmy's story. Our understanding of Anya is twisted by his perception even if we acknowledge his unreliability simply because Anya avoids him, and therefore we don't get to see Anya act as herself.
The overlap is just, so blatant in character archetypes, both between Wendy and Anya and Jack and Jimmy. I don't think that the visual similarities are accidental. Just something to think about.
first known depiction of anakin and padme for a cancelled cards game (1993) / the shining (1980) / revenge of the sith (2005) / the shining post-production script / revenge of the sith first draft
Stephen King: The character of Wendy in The Shining struggles with her abusive relationship with her mother, with guilt after being blamed for her father’s death and with the shame of her mothers implication that there was something incestuous between them. Even the thought of living with her mother is traumatic for her. In addition, it’s stated that she’s had to live through three years of her husband being a chronic alcoholic.
Stephen King: But I’ve also written her as hot and blonde, so clearly she’s never actually experienced any real problems in her life.
So I was watching Doctor Sleep again yesterday with my mom, since she didn’t get to see it when it came out, and of course I got feels about Danny and Abra’s niece/uncle relationship so kjsdfhkd ofc I wrote a lil smth for it
Also this movies been out since like...November 2019?? So I probably don’t need to say it, but spoilers for all of Doctor Sleep and The Shining!!
Summary: Abra’s been doing okay after the night at The Overlook hotel with Rose and her Uncle Dan, but she still has some questions after she keeps hearing a certain song.
Sometimes Abra could still hear the music.
See the flames from The Overlook, the burning wood collapsing over the piles of snow surrounding the hotel.
The smell of ash still stung in her nose, as if she was stuck standing there and watching it burn forever on a loop. The ash in her hair, the sirens from police cars starting to ring louder and louder as she just watched.
What else was she supposed to do?
She knew it was for the better of everyone. What happened to Rose, the hotel...to her Uncle Dan. But that doesn’t mean it still didn’t keep her up at night, plague her dreams day and night, sometimes worse than others.
Sometimes she had days where it was all she could think about. It wasn’t scary anymore, not after knowing what good it did to let that hotel fall, to let the spirits in the hotel eat Rose alive, to get Uncle Dan back to his mother after all those years of waiting and waiting.
But she never remembered hearing the song when it all went down.
Sometimes it played when she wasn’t thinking, doing her homework or washing the dishes after dinner, and she would catch herself eventually.
Midnight, with the stars and you… Midnight and a Rendez-vous
She never heard it that night. Not when Rose was in her mind, not when they were both in Uncle Dan’s mind, not even in room 237. She assumed it had something to do with all that though, something she didn’t know everything about.
She first heard it trapping the old lady in the bathtub of her own home, like an echo of her spirit.
She locked the old woman up in a chest, eventually creating a trail of chests, like in the maze from Uncle Dan’s mind. It was the only way she knew how to keep control of all the Overlook spirits that followed her, but the song came with all of them, not only from the woman in 237. The bartender, the old caretaker from the 1920s, the twins.
There was a missing puzzle piece to all of this somewhere that made everything make sense in the end.
So Abra did the only thing she knew she could do after months of listening and questioning.
“Uncle Dan? ...Are you awake?” The younger girl sat at the foot of her bed, eyes closed, legs crossed, shining as loud as she could.
From what she understood, it took no effort for her to be heard, the way she Shined.
“I’m always awake for you, Abs.” She opened her eyes, hearing his voice, not his Shine.
There he was, standing by her window. It’s where he always showed. He did like to move around though, sit on the floor, sit on the bed next to her when she couldn’t sleep, brain too busy thinking about Overlook, the Knots.
It helped to have someone who understood what happened by her side, and he knew how helpful it would’ve been if he had someone like himself at Abra’s age.
“Hey, Uncle Dan. How have you been doing?”
“I’m doing pretty good, actually. How about you? Usually, I come to you first, not that I don’t mind seeing my favorite niece a little extra.”
“I’m doing...good, all things considered.” Abra smiled warmly, switching the position of her legs and getting comfortable.
She wasn’t sure how to ask all this, if it was a sensitive topic for Uncle Dan, or if he even had the answers she was looking for, but there couldn’t be any harm in asking. It wasn’t like her mom had any answers for her, or she had any other Shiners to go to.
“I do have a question, though. I’ve been noticing something about the spirits, just the Overlook spirits, as I’ve been retrapping them.”
Your eyes held a message tender, saying "I surrender all my love to you"
Her Uncle Dan joined her now, sitting on the corner of her bed. He knew there were still some things she didn’t know, didn’t have time to learn or understand before he dragged her and Rose in with him.
“What’s going on, Abs?”
She was quiet for a moment, looking at the wall in front of her, remembering the way they used to talk back and forth before they actually met, before the Knots, before the Overlook.
“Do you, or... did you ever hear this song? It’s like...like this old jass song, and every time one of the spirits follows me or gets close, I hear it. I don’t know why its there or what it means, but sometimes I feel like it’s on a constant loop. I always hear it from the spirits, but sometimes I think of it on my own too, and it’s this continuous background noise I have playing in my head.”
Uncle Dan immediately knew what his niece was talking about when she brought it up. The song that he linked to all the things he used to see when he was just a kid, when his dad was spiraling at the Overlook, when he started seeing and hearing more than usual.
“...Yeah, I know the song.”
Midnight brought us sweet romance… I know all my whole life through
He started humming quietly, not remembering the words well enough, but the music a steady lullaby in his head.
Abra nodded upon hearing her uncle repeat the music back to her.
“Where does it come from? It’s the hotel, isn’t it?”
Now her Uncle Dan nodded, following with an explanation. He’d need to go slow, get this all out properly in a way she’d understand. She was a big girl though, it wasn’t going to be a hard task.
“Yeah, it is,” He sighed quietly before starting from the beginning. “Back when I was a little kid, when my dad took the job as caretaker of the Overlook, is when I found out more about my Shine. I had no idea what it was or why I had it. I actually thought it was some sort of imaginary friend because that’s what my mom, Wendy, called it. I called it Tony and everything.
“But on our first day at the hotel, I met an older man who worked as head of the kitchen, Dick Hollarann. He knew as soon as I got there that I had a Shine, and he sat me down and helped it make sense to me. I still didn’t really get it because I was young and didn’t understand how something like that could be real, but looking back now it makes a lot of sense. He explained how we see things more than the average person, the way we get visions and can predict things, or can see things that happened a long time ago, and how everyone’s Shine is different. But...he also warned me.
“He told me about the Overlook, about how it had a ‘certain Shine’. I didn’t understand what he meant until about a month and a half down the road. My father, Jack, was a writer, he started to...lose himself a little more every day. Would lash out at my mother, grow violent, wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t make a lot of sense when he spoke about certain things. Do you remember that night when the hotel possessed me? When I wasn’t me?”
Abra just nodded, listening to her uncle tell of his past.
“I think it was the hotel slowly consuming him. It never felt like him after so long, after I had to escape through the hotel window and run away from him. My mother and I eventually escaped, and my father died out there in the cold. I didn’t know for sure until I came back that night, but I always felt that he become a spirit of the hotel. Like everyone else who died from madness there. Dick actually died in the hotel too. I learned that a few weeks later when he came to visit me like I do with you, but he was never at the hotel’s mercy anyway.
“I never actually heard the song until sometime after too, when I started locking the spirits up myself, but I think it’s the hotel. There was a big ballroom with a bar that I used to play in, had plenty of room for me to ride around on my little tricycle, so maybe something happened there. Maybe that’s where it all started, maybe that’s where it comes from, or that’s where the madness started from, but I don’t know for certain. I’m okay with not knowing for sure now, but I know that’s where it stems from. It’s all connected to the hotel.”
That...that made sense to Abra. The Overlook had always been bad news, years and years before her Uncle Dan took her there and burned it down, but now that the spirits where left for her, it was going to always be apart of her.
“How long did you have to deal with the spirits? Have to listen to the song?”
I'll be remembering you, whatever else I do
Her Uncle Dan placed a hand on her back, smiling. “I was much younger than you, so it took me a few years to get everything locked up, but we both know how strong you are, Abs. It’ll take you no time at all to trap the Overlook guests and any other harmful spirits that come your way. The music, however...it stuck with me for a very long time. The hotel’s gone now, so maybe it won’t stay as long for you, but it took me a long time before I could ever stop listening to it. It’s a piece of you Abra, but I promise it can do no harm to you.”
Abra smiled at her uncle, nodding along slowly again. She had no idea how much had happened before she got there with Uncle Dan and Rose, but it made all the more sense. Walking down the halls and around the lobby of the hotel was enough of a scare. The old caretaker, the blood pouring out of the elevators. She couldn’t say that she’s ever seen Jack Torrence though, but if he’s apart of the Overlook, his time will come one day.
Besides, the song never did sound so bad anyway.
“Thanks, Uncle Dan. Everything makes a little more sense now.”
“No problem, kiddo. You deserve to know about it, the way you’re picking up after everything now. I can only do so much here, but I never mind a little talking.”
“I don’t mind a little cleaning up, either.” Abra smiled, standing up after her uncle did. It was late, her open windows letting starlight fall in through the room. Danny did notice the alarm clock on her nightstand, glowing a bright red 10:47 pm.
“If you’ve got any other questions or just wanna talk, you can always call, but I think we should call it for tonight. Six o’clock rolls around early.”
Abra just laughed at her Uncle Dan before taking a few steps forward, leaning up and wrapping him in a hug.
“...I love you, Uncle Dan.” Her voice was a bit muffled, her face pressed against his chest in the embrace, but the words were unmistakable.
Danny smiled to himself, placing a hand on her back and hugging her in return.
“I love you too, Abra.”
Eventually Abra pulled away from her uncle, climbing into bed and turning off the lamp on her nightstand. The man waited for his niece to bury herself under the covers and get comfortable, knowing she’d need the sleep for school tomorrow. He walked back to the window and leaned against the wall, smiling back at his niece.
