The plot thickened. Thickd. Became even more entangled, convoluted and brimmed with subtext. Indeed, it started to defy the boundaries of what a ‘plot’ was and is, and now encroaches upon nearby (physically or contextually) story lines in an attempt to gain some living space. What once seemed like an impenetrable mess of plots upon plots, became even more messy and impenetrable.
To illustrate: the protagonist just raised an eyebrow. This, while a common literary trope used to convey a subtle emotional shift, caused the storyline to go completely off the rails. It, at the same time, implied that an upcoming marriage proposal was absolutely out of the question, that new mercantilist policies were indeed going through the legislative motions, that it would be pointless to challenge anyone present to a duel on that particular day, that certain very specific duels could very well take place tomorrow (unless anything unexpected were to happen, that pizza for dinner would be just fine, that the ancient artifacts inhabiting the attic really needed to be rooted out before they turned truly sentient, that the princess ingenue of the neighboring kingdom might very well be instrumental in a potential plot that hopefully won’t be necessary, that the upcoming colonization of Mars needs to be carefully reconsidered before anything at all is communicated about it, and that the cat that just entered the room is actually quite cute.
All this from one eyebrow. Just the one eyebrow. In just one motion.
Now imagine everything doing anything conveying just as much subtext, at all times, in all situations. To all characters. At the same time.
And then imagine this plot THICKENING. Adding even more subtext, contextual cues and implicit imperatives to potential actions – more of everything!
The plot thicks.
More longer friend see that sky? 