#I think he knows that isn’t fully Elizabeth

[chloesimaginationthings]

FNAF Circus baby or not, she’s still Michael’s little sister,,

[angeldreamsoffanfic]

Elizabeth Marie Munson née Hart was buried on the 2nd Sunday of May back in 1977, back when Eddie had only been eleven. It had been hard, not that death was ever an… easy thing mind you.

She’d been buried in Hawkins, as stated in the will that’d she’d put together (no matter if it had been written on hospital napkins or not it was followed just the same). Eddie’s custody had been a bit more complicated, as Al Munson had put up a bit of a fight in regards to Elizabeth’s wishes. She was adamant that Eddie go to Wayne, while Al didn’t care about what happened to him… as long as it went against what Elizabeth had wanted.

But no matter, because Eddie knew that Elizabeth loved him as much (if not more somehow) than Wayne did. And Eddie loved Wayne, honestly and wholeheartedly he did. But there was something missing from his life, and that was his mama.

Which, Eddie knows distantly, is what makes the day today as difficult to swallow as it does.

Because not only is it the day of his mama’s death but it’s also Mother’s Day.

And he can’t exactly fault anyone in his life for not being able to understand how he feels today. He really can’t bring himself to, even as he sits right in front of his mama’s gravestone- knees to his chest like he’s a little kid again. The rest of his odd found family has their parents, and so they just… they don’t fully understand what Eddie’s going through.

Not really anyway.

He knows they mean well, really he does. But no matter, because it’s hard and he already has a lot on his mind as it stands.

Eddie pauses and draws in a shaking breath, eyes wet and glossy with yet to shed tears, as he keeps his chin on his knees even as he hears a car door slam shut. It’s followed by several other ones, and Eddie doesn’t look behind him as he hears slowly measured footsteps behind him. He doesn’t turn, but he does speak.

“You don’t have to be here, Harrington.”

“Not Harrington, son.” It’s Hopper’s voice that makes Eddie finally turn, and he’s greeted to the sight of the older man- holding a bouquet of pink tulips wrapped in cellophane. Hopper’s in one of his nice shirts, one of the ones that Eddie knows that Joyce forced him in.

“What are you doing here?” Eddie manages to croak out, and the corner of Hopper’s lip twitches slightly- before he gestures with his head back to the parking lot.

“If you think you’re alone today, kiddo, you really got another thing coming.”

Eddie turns his head slightly to look past Hopper, and he can’t help the choked gasp that manages to make its way out of his throat. The entire group is there, all the way from The Party down to even the Corroded Coffin boys. Everyone in their crisp Sunday best (or as close to it anyway) with bright bouquets of pink tulips held between their hands.

Eddie turns again to look at Hopper, and can’t get out any words as he watches as Hopper is joined by Steve Harrington. Eddie has never quite been able to figure out Steve (no matter how much he tries), but he never…

“Hey ma’am,” Steve isn’t even looking at Eddie though, instead focused quite intently on the area behind Eddie… and oh.

Oh.

“I’ve had the pleasure of being one of your son’s friends this past year,” Steve carefully speaks as he moves closer until he’s next to Eddie, before he sits down- not minding getting dirt and grass on his pants. “And we all missed this last year but we figured… well we couldn’t let him come down here and mourn you alone.”

“Stevie-” Eddie tries, and Steve says nothing as he reaches a blind hand out- before he entwines his fingers with Eddie’s. Eddie sniffles again, even as Steve presses the tulips as close to the grave as he can.

“Your son matters to so many people, Ms. Hart, I mean that genuinely and honestly.” Steve keeps going, as if Eddie had said nothing. Eddie tries to keep the tears at bay, holding onto Steve’s hand as if it’s a lifeline. “And I didn’t know how to really show that… but I figured this might help a bit.”

Eddie is confused for just a split second, before he hears Jim Hopper clear his throat- before he then speaks.

“Ma’am, I know that your son has made a safety net for my daughter in the times where I couldn’t. I know that she loves him, truly, and for that I’m a bit more than grateful towards you.” Hopper then clears his throat, before he carefully steps around them- and sets his bouquet of tulips right next to the ones that Steve had put down.

Hopper curls a hand around Steve’s shoulder and bends to whisper something into his ear, and Eddie focuses on blinking back his tears as the man turns and walks away.

It’s silent for a minute, before it continues again.

“Hi Ms. Hart, Eddie’s told me a load about you and he was my first friend here in Hawkins and I just want to let you know we… we haven’t forgot about you.” Gareth’s voice is next, and Eddie lets out another sniffle as he sets a bouquet down. He doesn’t leave though, and instead sits right next to Eddie- taking the hand that Steve isn’t holding.

“Hi ma’am, Eddie hasn’t told me much about you… but I think you’d like the man he turned out to be, and from one mom to another? I’m keeping an eye on him for you.” Joyce. Another bouquet.

“He’s like really cool and taught us so much about this game we play, Dungeons and Dragons and I’m not sure if you knew what that was but it’s like this role playing-” Dustin. Another bouquet.

“He’s like my brother-” Jeff. Another bouquet.

“He’s like my son-” Wayne. Another bouquet. And a firm hand on a shoulder that never leaves.

“You’re someone he talks about whenever I need him to and that means a lot-” Max. Another set of flowers. A kiss against the top of Eddie’s head.

“He’s a good kid and you had to have been like an amazing mom for him to turn out the way he did because let me tell you-” Robin. Another bouquet.

“My dad says I’m allowed to choose my family and I chose Eddie, and from what he’s told me… you were a good mama.” Eleven sniffles softly as she presses her flowers into the ever-growing pile at the base of the gravestone. Eddie reaches out a touches the back of her leg- and it’s enough for the girl to launch herself into Eddie’s arms.

They stay like that. No one questions it.

“From his stories you sound really interesting and I think my mom and-” Mike. Another bouquet.

“Hello ma’am-” Lucas. Another bouquet.

“He’s kind of a nerd but-” Erica. Another bouquet.

“He’s a really good friend, Ms. Hart. Like there’s not a lot of them out in the world, and Eddie’s a good one.” Freak. Another bouquet.

“You and Wayne raised him right and I hope that wherever you are-” Nancy. Another bouquet.

“From what he’s-” Jonathan. Another bouquet.

“Ms. Dudette he’s so-” Argyle. Another bouquet.

“He’s one of my brothers. And that’s all there is to it, and I’m so sad we couldn’t meet and I couldn’t tell you this in person-” Will. Another bouquet.

In the end, Elizabeth Marie Munson née Hart has nineteen bouquets of pink tulips surrounding her grave. In the end, she and her son are completely and wholly surrounded by people that may not have known her— but they love her just the same.

Eddie Munson smiles, and clears his throat as he begins to speak, pulling the attention of his family to him.

“So the reasons why mama liked pink tulips is-”

The sun slowly begins to set as the ragtag group settles in to listen to Eddie’s story, all scrunched in as close as they can.

And for once in his life?

Eddie Munson hates the 2nd Sunday of May just a little bit less.

-

sacrifice to the readmore gods. mother’s day is really hard for me sometimes, so enjoy this word vomit of a ficlet i produced in about an hour. <3

[mkaroy]

THE AFTON FAMILY

sorry for being dead. i will continue to be dead becuz this took 48 HOURS.

as a treat i’m gonna infodump about my headcanons for a bit (read if you DARE)

so mrs afton isn’t pictured here because she was smart and left william, but william got full custody cause as we know, the fnaf government is VERY stupid and they apparently just love william. cc and michael both like their mother better because she was more patient and emotionally intelligent with the young boys, but elizabeth always favoured her father so she wasn’t complaining.

If it isn’t obvious, i don’t think william is a good parent. no matter how good of intentions you have, he had to be some kind of deranged for his sons death to lead to him being a serial killer, that doesn’t just HAPPEN. he particularly takes out his anger on michael because a) he feels more sympathy with the other two kids and b) michael has always challenged his father, he’s not scared of talking back or standing his ground (even if he gets hurt in the process). however despite this, michael still has a lot of love and respect for his father. as he gets older and as the accidents become worse and worse, through williams manipulation, michael basically works for him, trying to make things right again because he’s fully convinced everything was his fault (ALSO THANKS TO WILLIAM LOL)after he gets scooped he kinda puts it together that maybe his father never had the best intentions for him, and full of rage he does his thing and burns his father to the ground.

outside of william just being the worst to michael, making him a full time babysitter and whatnot, he’s not the kindest to the younger children either. elizabeth is easily the favourite because she tries to serve him as much as possible, but william is simply FAR too busy to care about that, so she gets pushed aside and neglected a lot. she doesn’t know why he’s doing these things so she just tries to be even more perfect, she urns for that attention in other places, i think that’s why she dolls herself up so much, because she loves the compliments she gets from mothers saying that she’s “just the cutest thing”. when her father finally shows her some love by making his specialty, an animatronic based off of her, she can’t help but be filled with excitement. I think as baby, she’s a lot more angry than she was before. she doesn’t understand why her father would do this to her and her anger is bigger than he child brain can comprehend, which is why she’s just so insanely mean in pizza sim and sister location, lashing out to michael and henry because she shouldn’t be an animatronic right now, she should be living her life free of this family. god i love elizabeth.

and then obviously cc, i think it’s a silly headcanon to imagine that william just forgot his name but remembered his initials but that’s mostly cuz i refuse to give him a name (btw all of you guys who put charlie or charlotte into his name are GENIUSES but i’m not you). he was really young when his parents actually separated, so he didn’t have much memory of his mother unfortunately. and ALSO unfortunately he was born with a fear of the animatronics, like how some kids are born with like an irrational fear of mascots of smth, that’s him. I think he was also the first one to die so his nightmares weren’t based off of elizabeth’s death. i also think that the fnaf 4 gameplay wasn’t cc because of MANY reasons (seriously guys look at the room layout…). but his irrational fear of the animatronics makes him almost constantly in tears, which michael obviously mocked. all the afton men were raised with the idea that boys shouldn’t show “feminine” emotions, which is why michael hated cc so much, because it wasn’t fair that he got to cry all the time with little to no repercussions and cc just couldn’t help himself whenever he cried. oh also in my headcanon he’s autistic, same with like most of the aftons, but he’s selectively mute and easily gets sensory overload, which is why meltdowns in the pizzeria were so common.

guys i love the aftons so much fill my asks with them if you wish i will answer ALL OF THEM (until the hyperfixation dies LMAO)

[drinkinboilingcoffee]

Hello friend I don't think I've asked you yet but could you please give me your scooped Michael head cannons

(Has been waiting for a chance to infodump)

I like the versions of him where he’s not healed or anything- getting scooped absolutely messed this man up. The way remnant works in my AU isn’t some sort of weird monster maker so much as a tether or adhesive between a soul and an object, so Mike is quite literally a ghost pulling his body around like a puppet. He actually can leave his body and roam a short distance as a ghost the same way the animatronics can, but he hates the feeling of it and rarely does it voluntarily (sometimes he’ll wake up in the morning, get up and go about his morning routine and not realize he left his body behind until he ends up accidentally phasing through a wall)

I think Mike spent the first few years as a bit of a recluse before finally coming back into the public eye (definitely uses the ‘it’s a skin condition’ excuse and then every once in a while meets an actual doctor who’s super interested in it and doesn’t know what to do). He has a lot of shame surrounding his appearance, but he’s at least relieved he doesn’t look like William anymore. He eventually maintains a sort of tenuous relationship with Elizabeth and the other Funtimes that ends up falling apart again once Ennard split from Elizabeth. He’s super paranoid about bugs and scavengers eating him. He’s not that well preserved (like a homemade taxidermy on something that had already been lying in the sun for a month) so he gets outs of things eating away at him, and occasionally he’ll even end up with a mouse nesting in his rib cage or something. Mike can only heal a little bit, I think? Just cells that regenerate rapidly (skin, hair and blood mainly) and they tend to either heal extremely slow or regenerate more than necessary, so most minor wounds just end up as fucked up scar tissue. Bigger cuts have to be stitched closed by hand and never fully heal beyond the skin closing up and he can’t heal broken bones (sometimes Henry will use weld or solder them together if it’s broken too badly to be functional).

Like the animatronics, Mike suffers from something called remnant hunger, which is essentially when a ghost like Mike or one of the animatronics is starved of remnant and their soul starts to unbind from their body (I really need to make a post explaining how remnant works in my AU) and causes them to become aggressive and crave material concentrated in remnant (aka human flesh mostly). He usually keeps it together pretty well and scavenges graveyards and morgues for bodies instead of hunting people (maybe at a certain point one of the employees at the local funeral home is fired for leaving random human limbs out on the back porch for him), but there have been a few times where he’s snapped and attacked people. I kind of like to imagine at a certain point he starts locking himself away when it gets bad enough to make sure he can’t do anything (Jeremy or someone probably eventually finds something to sate the hunger for a while. Yeah just give my blorbo some psychological trauma and additional body horror, that’s a normal thing to do, right?

[codename-adler]

You mean like a sudden rainstorm forces them together beneath the canopy? They look into each other’s eyes… and realize they were made for each other?

He saw it in a Richard Curtis film.

Ineffable husbands have been there, done that. Twice, actually.

And we all know by now, or at least assume, that these are the two moments sealing Crowley’s and Aziraphale’s fates, and their love for each other. That was the parallel, the metaphorical wings as canopies and Heavenly rains as God’s Ineffable Plan nudging them towards each other. So. Been there, done that. First part, Crowley’s vision of what love looks like, is completed.

Aziraphale’s, though… Not yet!

Well, not fully. Aziraphale did the ball, Ineffable Husbands did a dance, but what did Aziraphale say next, about his version of human love, according to his understanding of Jane Austen?

People would gather and do some formal dancing, and then realize they had misunderstood each other and were actually deeply in love.

We also all know by now that s2 is nothing but a big Pride & Prejudice scheme buried under many, many layers of religious trauma allegories, Queen lyrics and biblical icons. It’s still up in the air who the demon and the angel are actually modelling after; who’s Elizabeth Bennet, and who’s Mr. Darcy? Each could be both, I believe. As for myself, I’m leaning more towards Crowley as Darcy (and Pride) and Aziraphale as Lizzy (and Prejudice). Crowley has actually confessed his love and his desire to spend his eternal life with Aziraphale, in a very angsty and last-ditch-effort to keep his Angel by his side and to convince him of his true, honest feelings and intentions; just like Darcy did. Aziraphale, just like Lizzy, has rejected him in the most painful way, without confessing nor admitting any of his thoughts to Crowley, and I believe not even to himself. And he left Crowley alone and empty-handed, à la Miss Bennet.

But it’s not over yet! That’s the beauty of it! The final climax has yet to come! P&P doesn’t end at the rejection and separation scene!

Aziraphale’s vision of love, his love language if you will, has not been fulfilled, and nor has he grown enough to access it. Crowley has. He’s shed his pride and bared himself and his heart to Aziraphale, the final step for him to be the person the angel wishes to love and be loved by. Has Aziraphale gotten rid of his many and unbecoming prejudices? Have the Ineffable Husbands resolved every bit and word of miscommunication that transpired between them? No. No, they have not. A true, long-lasting, loving, stable and equal pairing cannot survive with only one of its half having matured and sacrificed. It cannot survive without proper understanding of one another.

The Austen love scheme is not complete. As it was intended.

Yes, there is Metatron the diabolical (is he really though? Just thinking thoughts here…), there are Extreme Sanctions and Book-of-Life-erasure-level threats, there is the case of Maggie and Nina’s humanity vs character-ness, there’s the Second Coming, and yaddi yaddi yaddi. But that’s all background stuff, isn’t? Those are just totally normal and common tropes you put your pairing through, right?

So what to expect for s3, what to hold onto so as not to drown our sorrows and despair into Coffee Theories? A formal dance. A "proper apology," as one could say, from one particularly wrong, prejudiced but cherished angel. A whole lot of honest communication and the truest of feelings. A deep bond of love, fully formed, safe, and strong as Hellfire and Holy Water. Forged through adversity, Heaven & Hell, Armageddidn’t, misplaced pride and unfounded prejudices.

It ain’t over til Neil Gaiman says it’s over.

It ain’t over til Michael Sheen says it’s over.

It ain’t over til David Tennant says it’s over.

It ain’t over til Jane Austen says it’s over.

Oh, Aziraphale dear, won’t you do the little dance?

[bethanydelleman]

Colonel Fitzwilliam: Is it Canon?

Colonel Fitzwilliam’s name is Richard

Fanon (I’m using this term to cover adaptations and JAFF), not canon. His name is never given. I like to think it’s Darcy because that would be hilarious.

Colonel Fitzwilliam is physically attractive

Fanon not canon.

Colonel Fitzwilliam, who led the way, was about thirty, not handsome, but in person and address most truly the gentleman.

Apparently many people found the 1995 Col. F. handsome, leading to him being dubbed “Colonel HotPants” on Dwiggie, but 2005 shows a more realistic not hot:

I also suppose that Colonel Fitzwilliam is often changed to hot because he’s the only single man left in Pride & Prejudice and people want to marry him off. Come on guys, the not handsome men deserve happiness too!

Colonel Fitzwilliam and Darcy are best buddies

Fanon, not canon. As much as Colonel Fitzwilliam is co-guardian with Darcy, he is not fully in his confidence. Col. F doesn't even know who Darcy saved from an imprudent marriage, he’s guessing:

I only suspected it to be Bingley from believing him the kind of young man to get into a scrape of that sort

Now if Darcy is just reserved or he knows Colonel F. is a gossip is unknown, but he would likely have told a true friend the name of his friend.

I suspect Darcy told Colonel Fitzwilliam something when he asked him to be a character reference about Wickham to Elizabeth, but it might have been as simple as, “Wickham is living in Miss Bennet’s neighbourhood, can you answer any questions she might have?”. I really doubt he confided the failed proposal.

Colonel Fitzwilliam swashes or buckles/is a military hero

Fanon, not canon. We know absolutely nothing about Colonel Fitzwilliam’s military career. Pride & Prejudice is set during the Napoleonic Wars and Colonel Fitzwilliam may have fought in France or in the colonies, but it’s just as likely he’s been stationed at home. Especially since he’s from the nobility!

Arthur Wellesley, who would become the Duke of Wellington, did not see active combat until he was one rank short of Colonel, and he went abroad on purpose because he was rejected by a woman he loved. 

Colonel Fitzwilliam is a great guy

It’s hinted in Northanger Abbey that Captain Tilney is stationed in London and would be subduing riots. It makes sense not to have an eldest son in the actual line of fire. Similarly, we are told Col. F is “the younger son” of the Earl. If there is only an heir and a spare, they probably want to keep him alive.

Colonel Fitzwilliam wanted to duel Wickham

Fanon not canon.

We don't know what Colonel Fitzwilliam did when he learned about the Georgiana/Wickham affair other than keep it under wraps. It's clear Lady Catherine is unaware. But while dueling was common, we don't know if he's that sort of guy.

I was writing a JAFF once with an immoral Bingley and this idea is so strong in fanon that I was told Darcy was stupid not to "unleash" Colonel Fitzwilliam on Bingley. Unleash what??? We don't know what he can do!

Unknown.

Darcy Sr. did appoint Col. F as co-guardian to Georgiana, but we know how flawed his judgement is *cough Wickham cough* so that isn’t quite a recommendation of character. All we really know about Colonel Fitzwilliam is that Elizabeth likes him, and sorry Elizabeth, your judgement isn’t much of a recommendation either, especially since she compares him with Wickham!

It was plain to them all that Colonel Fitzwilliam came because he had pleasure in their society, a persuasion which of course recommended him still more; and Elizabeth was reminded by her own satisfaction in being with him, as well as by his evident admiration, of her former favourite, George Wickham; and though, in comparing them, she saw there was less captivating softness in Colonel Fitzwilliam’s manners, she believed he might have the best informed mind.

Colonel Fitzwilliam cannot afford to marry Elizabeth

Yeah, Elizabeth likes him because it’s clear he likes her. Another example of her being biased.

Colonel Fitzwilliam has a great relationship with Georgiana

Unknown.

The guardianship is probably more to protect Georgiana's fortune and make sure she marries well than to give her an extra parent. Col. F. doesn't say much about Georgiana and clearly hasn't been spending too much time with her since he hardly knows the Bingleys and they've been in company with the Darcys fairly frequently.

The fact is it just doesn't come up in the small section we have with him.

Unclear, but likely he can. Charlotte certainly thinks he can afford it:

In her kind schemes for Elizabeth, she sometimes planned her marrying Colonel Fitzwilliam. He was, beyond comparison, the pleasantest man: he certainly admired her, and his situation in life was most eligible

When Colonel Fitzwilliam calls himself poor, Elizabeth calls him out on it and he doesn’t refute her:

“He likes to have his own way very well,” replied Colonel Fitzwilliam. “But so we all do. It is only that he has better means of having it than many others, because he is rich, and many others are poor. I speak feelingly. A younger son, you know, must be inured to self-denial and dependence.”

“In my opinion, the younger son of an earl can know very little of either. Now, seriously, what have you ever known of self-denial and dependence? When have you been prevented by want of money from going wherever you chose or procuring anything you had a fancy for?”

“These are home questions—and perhaps I cannot say that I have experienced many hardships of that nature. But in matters of greater weight, I may suffer from the want of money. Younger sons cannot marry where they like.”

“Unless where they like women of fortune, which I think they very often do.”

“Our habits of expense make us too dependent, and there are not many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some attention to money.”

All of these seems to suggest that Colonel F. could marry Elizabeth, but he wants to maintain his standard of life and that requires a larger fortune. Also, most military men received some sort of allowance from their parents/family and he might have that cut off if he married against his parent’s wishes. (The military didn’t actually pay very well.) All of this considered, he could marry but he doesn’t want to drop his expensive habits.

Now we do know he liked Elizabeth, “Colonel Fitzwilliam seemed really glad to see them: anything was a welcome relief to him at Rosings; and Mrs. Collins’s pretty friend had, moreover, caught his fancy very much.” and I do think he did the gentlemanly thing by letting her know that he didn’t want to marry her, but I still think Colonel Fitzwilliam is mercenary.

If his mercenary ambitions are justified or not is for you to decide as the reader. I think Colonel Fitzwilliam is part of the question of where we draw the line between avarice and prudence.

But really, the Colonel is a plot device to make Elizabeth aware that Darcy was the main player in seperating Jane and Bingley. He doesn't have a whole lot of depth and much of what people imagine about him is not supported by the actual book.

[lizzyafton61787]

Im in love with your mind. Im scrolling through your acc rn and i need to know more about your opinions on fnaf

Youre totally right about elizabeth

I think henrys more at fault for lefty and sammy but thats bc i like the characters in this franchise to be a little shitty. Its boring if hes just a good dad, everyone in fnaf is a little bad thats what makes it good. But thats me and to each their own.

I love your art if you ever did like a timeline of what you think happened id love to see it

I’ve actually been thinking about a timeline or at least an after fire one for my AU

I think Elizabeth is a sad little neglected and abused girl who was very sweet and kind before death

After death I don’t think she is fully aware of what is going on so to call her cruel is wrong

I think that Henry isn’t a saint but people like to over vilify him and act like William and him are on the same level so I have grown defensive of the sad man

Because he is one of the most human characters out there and I don’t believe any of his actions were really wrong but rather the best of the cards he was handed if you know what I mean

Sure he could have done this that or whatever but sometimes life isn’t perfect and you have to improvise

I like Elizabeth and Henry and I defend them because they are both vilified far too much for simply existing and reacting to the situations they were thrown into BY WILLIAM

[johnbly]

for the ask game: 6, 11, 22?

6. i struggled with, but triumphed over: i can't claim to say i remember how writing this went bc it was years ago but trying to forget the flames was for a holiday exchange. it's the only fe4 fic i've written (save a cobweb-covered wip for my boy eldigan) and it was for characters i wouldn't have written otherwise AND there was some description stuff going on so

Erinys finds herself beginning to anticipate Silvia’s moves. Perhaps dancing isn’t so difficult after all. The motions on the ground control Erinys in the same way that simple nudges of her pegasus’ flanks control the flight. Without thinking, she adds in some of her own flair. A bend of the knees here, a twist of the chest there… It takes her several seconds to realize that Silvia is no longer guiding her. As soon as Silvia had noticed Erinys finding the rhythm, she’d stepped back to fully feel her own. Rather than falter, Erinys continues to sway. Her movements are uncertain and a little clipped, but she’s beginning to understand what Silvia finds in the activity. After all, how many times has Erinys taken her pegasus for a ride to clear her thoughts?

11. characters i want to write more in the future: well it goes without saying that more potc things are desired. i need to write an elizabeth and james fic at some point. but i'm gonna go with The Lads because i do love them. will there be more dragons with them in the future? possibly. who knows. But Lads.

“Do you know anything about dragons?” Hornblower asks. Bush blinks. “Dragons, sir?” “Yes, Mr. Bush. Dragons.” “Almost nothing. My youngest sister finds them interesting, but I don’t remember much of what she’d say about them.”

22. something blissfully self-indulgent: ok so in a sense this whole fic is self-indulgent bc like five people in the world like him. but. from the fallen knight aka my 19k fernand study aka a good deal of the reason why i need you to play echoes and the deliverance dlc

“There will be no dragging anyone out of the castle tonight,” he promises. “That is, unless Clair embarrasses herself or Clive while mingling with the other attendees.” Clair’s cheeks pinken. “I’ll have you know that I can socialize perfectly well, thank you. And you’re in no position to lecture me on it, since all you ever do is stand around with Clive.” “Touché.” There’s no heat in his voice, not like when she’d thrown Clive’s words about his preference in women back at him. Fernand’s lack of interest in pointless small talk is something he owns, not keeps quiet. “And yet, here you are, standing with us.”

excerpt ask game!

[batrachised]

AU where Teddy moves away, goes to therapy, and realizes his mother wasn’t just clingy, she’s abusive. Sabotaging someone to keep them isnt love. You can be hurting and still held accountable for your actions. Their reactions to your boundaries are not your responsibility.

Teddy gets a job as a police sketch artist.

He comes back to the island to visit and starts getting Very Alarmed about Dean. He replays their childhood in his head with a new, adult perspective and sees it all click into place.

He talks to his therapist and his law enforcement contacts and realizes he can’t have actually have Dean arrested and that Emily might be too groomed to see what’s going on. After all it took him years himself and he’s removed from the situation and isn’t the target.

He talks to Aunt Elizabeth and Ilse and Perry and they make a plan. (Idk what specifically tbh)

Ultimately it will be up to Emily to leave but they’re gonna do what they can to give her the space and safety to start thinking more clearly about it.

Teddy carefully starts telling Emily what he learned about abuse and boundaries and keeps it all about him and his mother but hopes she’ll think about Dean.

He carefully asks questions and listens without giving her any specific advice unless she asks.

“Why do you feel you owe him? Do you feel that way about other people in your life?”

“It sounds like you feel responsible for his disappointment?”

I keep trying to find a way Teddy (or better yet - Emily) can have Dean arrested but I can’t come up with it.

Man Teddy could have been such a good character and he was just fully wasted. Emileddy even has interesting opposite-but-similar trauma in so many ways.

Lucy Maud didn’t even try with them. 😩

YOU UNDERSTAND MY PAIN ABOUT TEDDY KENT! Normally I try to avoid dunking on teddy because if you like him, great! don't let me spoil your fun! However, emily and teddy are my least favorite lmm pairing

Re: teddy's mom, I think that's something we see appear more than once in LM Montgomery's work--someone who is emotionally abusive or worse but legitimized through being presented as a tragic figure. Unfortunately no examples come to mind, but iirc her short stories can have that theme. An extreme example is the short story of the man who falls in love with a woman, she chooses to marry someone else and has a daughter, he helps raise the daughter, and then MARRIES THE DAUGHTER IN WHAT'S PRESENTED AS A FIX IT SCENARIO.

With Teddy, I honestly think the problem is that he doesn't balance out Emily well. Other LMM pairings go very well together in a satisfying contrast--Teddy doesn't. I still (yes, still) need to embark on my reread of the trilogy (Emily of New Moon is sitting on my dresser as I type), but although my memory could be deeply flawed and downright horrifically wrong (yes i'm still scarred about dean priest), I remember him being too similar to Emily, and more than that--being dull as dishwasher compared to all the other male characters, especially Perry!

Your ideas are very appealing because they make him protective of Emily haha, he needed something...more to his character. If I were writing Emily, although I do not pretend to have anywhere close to LMM's talent, I would probably just give her a love interest with an entirely different personality. What would that look like? I don't know! I do think that Teddy Kent was not a good foil to Emily Byrd Starr, and the book suffered for it (at least for me!)

[imsorryimlate]

On and off, I’ve been lurking in the main tag rather than the weekly one, because this book has truly inserted itself into my brain. And a while ago I saw something which made me Think™, and now I’ve finally gathered my thoughts enough to share them (and I was also stuck on a train for three hours today so I had time to write them down hehe).

The question was regarding how Adam, the creature, was to be understood in relation to Victor, his creator. Or well, what he was supposed to be.

Now, the most common way of talking about Adam that I’ve seen is to call him Victor’s son. The jokes about Victor being an absent father are plentiful (and I think they’re hilarious, but I know many others are tired of them). It’s quite natural that this is the interpretation that would be popular, especially since Adam straight up calls Victor his father. Victor, when he’s starting to build Adam, has a similar idea:

A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve their's.

(Vol. I, chapter 3)

He has a streak of a god complex here, he wants not just one creature but many, and want to be exalted as their creator, and their father. Much to be said, but let’s move on.

So, that’s interpretation number one: the son route. I respect that.

Now, I encountered another popular interpretation, which is that the creation of Adam is an expression of Victor’s (repressed) homosexuality. That’s interpretation number two, and I also respect that.

The second interpretation aligns a bit more with my own reading. I’ve made jokes about it, of course, about Victor being a size-queen and (a bit crass) that he’s building a “corpse sex doll”, as I told my friend.

But beyond that, there is something in the way that Victor decides to build a creature of ideal, exaggerated masculinity. 8ft tall, broad and strong, with a carefully constructed, beautiful face (and apparently with a fully functional penis, since he worries about Adam’s potential offspring). I’ve pondered it as a gender thing – Victor constructing the masculinity that he perceives himself to lack – and as “motherly concerns” for beauty (here), and as an expression of his attraction towards men.

I think both of these interpretations (Adam as son and Adam as an expression of underlying desire) are valid – separately and combined.

It’s the combination of the two that I wanted to examine.

And just for reference, I’ve written about incestuous anxieties in the novel before (here & here + whatever this was) and I’ll try to keep this brief, so I might skip over some stuff I’ve mentioned before.

Obviously, I’m painting with broad strokes here, and recognise that many things which a modern reader might balk at (such as cousin marriage) were quite common – they still are, in certain places, but there are some nuances I will deliberately “pass over” in order to have this post be somewhat coherent.

The Frankenstein family is a very closed unit. Alphonse was a good friend of Caroline’s dad, which isn’t an incestuous relation in itself, but still, there’s an imbalance there (both with regards to age and economic status), and because of the age difference one might assume that Alphonse was an “unofficial uncle” (one doesn’t have to interpret it this way, but to fit with the ~theme~ I’m going there). Therefore, the household is started with/headed by a semi-pseudoincestuous relationship.

Elizabeth and her relationship with the rest of the Frankenstein family is the most transgressive one; she’s a cousin, but raised as a sister, and later on takes the role as stepmother/wife, becoming Alphonse’s companion, while still being expected to marry Victor. She is Victor’s intended romantic partner, despite their relation and her increasingly conflicting role within the family.

Then there are the two “members of the family” who aren’t actually related to them – Justine and Clerval, who could be potential romantic partners for Victor. However, though Justine is mentioned as Victor’s favourite, she’s described as resembling Caroline a lot, which also positions her as a mother substitute. The one least attached is Clerval, but even he is folded into the Frankenstein family, with him, Victor and Elizabeth being like three siblings in Victor’s recollection of his childhood. Besides, Clerval’s father is a close friend of Alphonse’s, and one might understand him to be a similar “unofficial uncle” to Clerval as he was to Caroline. Therefore, even he could be “tainted” by family ties.

So, it’s not strange that Victor would seek a partner outside of the household… except he came from the Incest Family™, which means he decided to create his partner. His ideal partner, perhaps. Isn’t it ironic then, that his created, ideal (sexual) partner would turn around and call him ‘father’?

And that’s the thing: his family is rotting from the inside, and he can’t escape because the rot has spread to him too. And he has spread it on to his “son” – Adam expresses an attraction towards Caroline, his “grandmother”, and asks Victor to create a partner for him, which would make his partner his “sister”.

And when all these thoughts were rolling around in my head, I came across this post about how, in the show Succession, a tragedy always occurs when there’s a wedding, as if the universe is pushing back against another person entering the family. And it made me think that, in this reading, Victor’s doom isn’t just his attempt to play God or his inability to claim his creation as his own – it’s that he’s trying to escape his incestuous family, and he is completely and utterly punished for it. His actual, physical attempt at a partner separate from his family is what’s killing them. Victor’s gravest sin is that he was born into a family that’s devouring itself, and in an almost Oedipus-like tragedy, it was by trying to escape this devouring that Victor doomed them all.

[dirty-pretty-jackal-s]

The Libertines talk being clean and connected: “We just want to write beautiful songs in the moment”

Watch Carl Barat and Pete Doherty talk to NME about 'All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade' – an album inspired by Margate, war, the refugee crisis, dead birds, and Queen Elizabeth – who'd play who in a biopic, and becoming the band they were always meant to be

ByAndrew Trendell

19th October 2023

The Libertines have spoken to NME about how a sense of sobriety, togetherness and the desire “to write beautiful songs” helped shape their long-awaited new album. Watch our video interview with the band above.

Announced last week with the launch of the single ‘Run Run Run’, ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ arrives in March as the long-mooted follow-up to 2015’s ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’.

With the opening lyrics of ‘Run Run Run’ describing “a lifelong project of a life on the lash“, singer Carl Barat described the track as a somewhat “self-referential” statement about where The Libertines are today, ahead of their fourth LP.

“I was trying to work out if it’s a song of hope or a song of fear,” Barat told NME. “I think it’s a song of hope. It’s saying that even though time has moved on and this person has stayed in the same place, he’s still able to do what he does and he’s going to be who he is regardless of times changing. I don’t know if that’s a sad thing or a good thing.”

Asked if he feels more hope or fear now, Barat replied: “I’m eternally hopeful, and eternally afraid.”

NME sat down with Barat and co-frontman Pete Doherty to talk about being drug-free, becoming the band they are meant to be, who’d play who in a biopic, and penning an album inspired by Margate, war, the refugee crisis, dead birds, and Queen Elizabeth.

Hello, Libertines. You’ve felt very present since the last album. Does it feel surreal to finally be back with some new music?

Barat: “Yes, we’ve got a reason to be here now! It’s a monumental day for us.”

Doherty: “We’re fully behind the record. That’s not just the official line.”

What, if anything, does ‘Run Run Run’ tell us about the new album?

B: “It’s a bit of a red herring really. The whole record isn’t like that. Maybe it’s just getting a nod to the past out of the way.”

D: “There are three or four songs on the album that are that sort of tempo and guitar-driven. There are probably only one or two songs that are any punkier. It’s like an old melodic pop song like [Elvis Costello’s] ‘Oliver’s Army’. As a songwriter, it’s difficult to present good, classic-sounding songs. Call me old-fashioned, but that’s what I love. I love little diversions and mad jazz odysseys, but I love it when bands like The Coral and their new album… James Skelly just keeps writing incredibly beautiful songs with little twists, but still with that ‘60s melody, strength and solidity.

“I’d say ‘Run Run Run’ has got that, but I’d say there isn’t too much of that on the album. It’s probably more eclectic than we would have hoped for or would have done if we’d just done it by ourselves. The geezer who produced it – Dimitri Tikovoï – we gave him quite free reign.”

Speaking of eclecticism, Pete told us back in 2019 that you were looking like you’d be going in a similar direction to The Clash’s ‘Sandinista!’ – a little bit of rap and a little bit of everything. At what point did you shake that off and come up with this more cohesive batch of songs and new vision?

D: “When we heard my rapping!”

B: “The ‘Sandinista!’ thing was just the idea of having everyone involved. When we hadn’t written anything and we were a bit scared. The idea of ‘Sandinista!’ is that you can just do whatever with no particular expectations. It might have started in that way, but we ended up refining it because we realised what was there.”

So what happened when you went to Jamaica that made everything gel? 

D: “It wasn’t a waste of time, because it really was an opportunity for us to spend a bit of time together. We just sat back and watched the Coronation. Or was it the funeral? Yeah, it was Lizzy’s funeral. At the time, we were well impressed with what we’d done. Then we got back and sat and played it to everyone…”

B: “It was essentially to get it out of the way. It’s better to do it there than to get everyone in the room, feel the pressure and not get anywhere. It was an essential part of the journey.”

Does Queen Elizabeth haunt the songs?

B: “A little bit, yeah”

D: “It was really strange. We were in this glass cubicle on a hilltop during a full-on hurricane, just watching the funeral and not really knowing what we were feeling. She does pop up in the song ‘Shiver’, which might be coming out as a second single. ‘The day they boxed all Lizzy away… The last king of every dying empire, just let it die/ Sit back enjoy the ride/ The last dream of every dying soldier/ I’ll see you there, flowers in your hair.’

“So this glass cubicle, they polish it like maniacs every day so the birds can’t tell that they’re flying into glass. Every so often, especially when it was very windy, you get these incredible little golden parrots and yellow hawks just going, ‘THWACK’ suddenly. It scares the fuck out of you.”

So the queen is dead, all the wildlife is dying…

D: “Yeah. It feels like the end of the world, doesn’t it? We [did] have a few apocalyptic songs that were a bit more boisterous than I could handle. I kept going to bed every time Carl started doing his big apocalyptic numbers. They were terrifying.”

Carl, you said that the first album was born of the “panic and disbelief” that you could do this, the second of “total strife and misery”, and the third of “complexity” – and this one is more of unity and connection?

B: “Yes, on this one we were all facing in the same direction.”

D: “All we want to do is write beautiful songs. That’s what we’ve always wanted to do, but we got distracted – mostly by ourselves. On this occasion, we followed the pattern of writing songs that we believe in but there was nothing else to say; no fanfare, no cacophony. This is the album we’re proud of.”

Do you feel like The Libertines are now the band you were always meant to be without the distractions? 

B: “There’s plenty of ramshackle baked in still. I don’t think we really know what kind of band we want to be; we just want to write beautiful songs in the moment. It just so happens that at this moment, we’re all facing the same direction.

“There’s been a lot of focus and everyone’s been working on finding their own personal place in the world as well. Everyone has very different lives and we managed to find something to unite over. That’s what The Albion Rooms has been really good for – having that in bricks and mortar, and co-owned by everyone. It feels like it’s part of this journey that’s been going on for a while now.”

D: “The other albums were basically written before we went in the studio. This time it was a case of people presenting really strong ideas, and then everyone else just tucking in, putting their bibs on, rolling up their sleeves and chewing the fat. There were so many times on this album where I thought I knew what the song was, and then it became completely different for the best.

All four of you are credited as writers across the album. How did the spirit of the record change when John and Gary got involved?

B: “It was moments like Pete just described with everyone being there and having confidence. There was a flow state that gave us the confidence to go to places that we wouldn’t normally have gone in if we weren’t on the same page.”

D: “I remember being sat in John’s bedroom 24 years ago, and he had a song called ‘Annabelle Lee’. We never used to do it in the band – not because we didn’t want John to sing, but we both secretly loved the melody and thought that maybe one day we could worm our way into it. That’s what’s happened now. We turned it into ‘The Man With The Melody’ and we’ve all got a verse on it, and Gary sings on the chorus. It’s a completion and a full stop.”

Lyrically, what would you say you’re mining on this record?

B: “It’s one of those things you realise what things are about after the fact.”

D: “The most stressful times of the writing were the morning where we were sat with the pads getting told by the producer that songs needed vocals. We’d just been ad-libbing for most of the songs, so there were these frantic sessions which became a little bit stretched out where we couldn’t get it together with the lyrics. Then, they just sort of appeared out of nowhere.

“It’s fair to say it was pretty stressful finishing some of these songs, lyrically – which is what makes it even more precious as it was touch and go for a couple of them. We couldn’t let it go half-arsed.”

Let’s look at some other bangers on the record. ‘Have A Friend’ seems like a song that speaks for itself about unity?

B: “Yeah, in the face of war perhaps.”

D: “It was [originally] called ‘The Ballad Of Bakhmut’. There’s still a lot of that going on. The world is basically at war.”

‘Merry Old England’ is quite beautiful in the way it discusses the refugee crisis. What are you trying to invoke with that song?

D: “I love that song so much. I think it’s unfathomably beautiful. You can’t hold me back, I’m going to climb your cliff, scale your fence, and take over your country. I don’t think there’s any question marks at all. One man’s end-time capitalism London is another man’s playground of dreams where anything is possible – the mythical city that you finally reach after trying to break out of your miserable town and fulfil your dreams.

“For all the cynicism and talk of being pushed out of town, there’s another generation that will come and find a way to bring it alive again or find a way to make it their own; despite the weight of the fucking world.”

B: “The song is more of a montage than banging a drum, particularly.”

D: “It’s weird. I’ve tried playing it acoustically to people and some of the lyrics are strangely provocative. Even to say, ‘Syrians, Iraqis, Ukrainians, welcome to Merry Old England – how are you finding it?’ To start singing about visas, dinghies, the cliffs once white now grey; you can see people from both sides get excited. It’s just asking this kid on the corner of Margate who has landed there, kicking his heels and not really knowing what to do, how he’s finding it.”

After being scattered all over the world, how does it feel to be back in your old playground of London?

B: “We were driving down Old Compton Street where we used to work in the theatres and…”

D: “We felt like a couple of old gits!”

B: “We did. You can dial back the time in your mind and see all these different incarnations of the city. It’s the most magnificent organism of a place. ‘The city’s hard, the city’s fair’. It’s so alive. It’s quite beneficial to have perspective on that through time. I feel like it never leaves me. I feel a part of it even though I’m not living here.”

D: “It’s a bit too much for me. I’m a bit overstimulated because I lead quite a quiet, rural life now. I’m just doing the promotion work and then getting back to the wife and the dogs. You could quite easily fall for it all over again.”

Pete, when you released ‘The Fantasy Life Of Poetry & Crime’ with Frédéric Lo, you talked about how being drug-free and living a serene life in France had helped shape that record. How did you find approaching a Libertines record from that different perspective?

D: “I don’t know. It’s just an everyday scrap, really. It’s proper toe-to-toe with the demons, but because I believe so much in Carl, Gary, John and this record, it’s a pleasure. I just want to do my bit, be as professional as I can, let people hear the songs, and then go and play them. If not, we try again maybe or just crack on with the hotel and see if we can do anything with that.”

The first time NME came down to The Albion Rooms, Carl spoke about it being like Warhol’s Factory – a band HQ where creatives could come, go and feed off each other. Now you’re talking as if, for this record, the hotel almost became the fifth member of the band?

B: “It is our tangible embodiment of what we do. When we live in three different countries and only see each other through touring schedules, we need something. It’s essential that we have something to find us.”

Pete, there’s a new film about your life made by your wife and collaborator Katia de Vidas coming out soon. How does it feel to have your life under the microscope at a time like this?

D: “I’m really happy for Katia, really. It’s been finished for quite a while. I just hope the world gives her the credit she’s due. Now we’re thinking about the next project for her. She wants to do a fiction film. Hopefully if this does well and she can get the money together for the next project, it’ll be amazing. I’ll just be made up for her.

“It’s quite heavy watching a lot of that stuff, but it is a different time. The fuzz, forcefield and camouflage of the drugs I was taking at the time meant that I wasn’t arsed about what people thought or how I looked.”

Is this film drawing the curtain over that part of your life?

D: “Yeah, I still feel really connected to that fella up there on the screen. I can see it’s me, but I don’t think I’ll be able to watch it again, to be honest.”

Have you seen it, Carl?

B: “I have. Anything like that is hard to watch. She’s been making it for 10 years, and I think it’s a beautiful portrayal. It’s through her eyes, and I think she’s done a great job.”

Would we ever see a Libertines biopic?

B: “We’ve talked about it, but then we always have a row about who’s playing who!”

D: “We even tried to sit down and write some screenplays for it, but it always turns into some farcical comedy. There was a musical made in Korea called The Likely Lads. They said it was going to run and run, but it closed after two nights.”

So who would play who?

D: “Now with all this AI, you can just play yourself. We’d be playing with ourselves, as usual.”

How does the future feel right now? Does another album seem more likely than before?

D: “It would have nothing to do with whether we were relevant or getting fat, it would just be whether or not we had any decent songs. That’s the only way I can look at it. I just still get off on writing wicked tunes. Carl recently said to me, ‘I don’t care about being cool any more – I just want to write beautiful songs’. I was like, ‘That’s what we’ve always done’. Apparently not!”

B: “You just reminded me that I wasn’t cool.”

Are there any Libertines bucket list moments left to tick off, or is it just for the thrill of existence?

D: “I’ve got a new batch of songs on the brew that I’d really like Carl to hear and see what he can do with them.

B: “I’m always striving for the perfect song myself. I don’t know if you ever find it. It’s a bit Sisyphean, isn’t it? We’ll get there, or not.

So it won’t be another eight years until we get a new Libertines album?

B: “Maybe it will, you never know. We’re trying not to put that pressure on ourselves at this stage. I’d like to get in a flow state where songs just come out, but I find it quite hard work.”

The Libertines release ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ on March 8.

Fans who pre-order the album will be offered the chance to purchase tickets for ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade – described as “two days of special acoustic and electric live shows by The Libertines” at the 500-capacity Lido in Margate on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 December.

A new documentary about Doherty’s life, Stranger In My Own Skin, will hit cinemas on November 9.

[bedofthistles]

The Little White Horse: Robin Minette

In continuation with my analysis of the novel, the Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge, I want to cover the characters and the main themes of both the book and the movie.

Here's my thoughts and opinions one Robin De Noir, and Robin Minette, two wildly different characters

TL;DR

My enemy. 

My beloathed. 

The one I despise! 

This boy is insane, he is the definition of toxic masculinity, he’s only a child and already he sucks, and I know for a fact he will never get better because he is never punished for his actions. 

And what did he do wrong? 

Well first I would like to remind you all of my beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, baby-eyed Robin De Noir. I have no idea how we got Robin De Noir out of Robin Minette, but I am forever grateful. 

For starters, Robin De Noir takes the place of Mr. Cock in LWH. Where Mr. Cock has trapped the hare, Robin De Noir has, where Maria gets chased by Mr. Cock in the book, she gets chased by Robin De Noir in the movies (and yes, technically the Coeur De Noir and all of the De Noirs are chasing after her as well), where Maria and Mr. Cock run through the forest so she can show him the White Horse, she and Robin De Noir run through the forest in search of the pearls. Additionally, he is no longer Robin Minette, Loveday Minette’s son, but the son of the Coeur De Noir, and Loveday’s brother. 

One, this change is already ten times more dynamic. Throughout the book, we are only told that the De Noirs are wicked, and it isn’t until Maria’s last minute change of heart about them that suddenly they aren’t. Those poor people are demonized in the book, and are not given any sympathy. Now I hear you saying, the movie was the same! They were evil until Maria decided she needed Robin’s help! 

I need you to go back and give Augustus Prew his due, because that boy acted his ass off. I don’t think I’ll be able to go over all of his exemplary acting choices, and I may make a separate post for that, but that will require gifs and screengrabs. Anyway! There are several scenes that show us, the audience, that Robin De Noir is just a boy who is trying his damnedest to make his father proud of him. We see this when the Coeur De Noir calls him a ‘dolt’ after the rabbit trap, and you can see his face just fall, he is devastated, not that he lost the princess, but that he disappointed his father. 

We also see this when Robin quickly decides to help Maria. The very first time I watched this, I didn’t really understand his reasoning, but once I started thinking about it (probably about the time I started writing fic and needed to get inside of his head) I realized that he is fundamentally good, just born on the wrong side of the valley. Robin chooses the Valley over his father, he chooses to help Maria despite not even fully trusting her, he is beside her until the very end because he knows she is doing the right thing, because he loves the Valley and wants to save it. So, despite what we are told about the De Noirs (as by sir Benjamin, who calls them bandits, poachers, and plunderers) we know from visual cues, Robin De Noir’s desperation to be a good son, and his choices at the end, that the De Noirs are not purely wicked. 

Robin Minette on the other hand can die on a stick. Robin and Loveday Minette are actually a part of the Merryweather family (more on that later) and are not associated with the De Noirs at all. 

So what are all of Robin M’s sins? 

Well, if you’ve heard about the bird theory, it is the simple idea that when you call out “oh look, a bird!” the response of your partner/friend/companion should be “where!” Not because they are necessarily interested in the bird (though they should be) but because you are interested in the bird. The logic being that the person will listen to whatever random, boring, stupid thing you’re saying because they are interested in you, and are not looking at you as a source of entertainment. It’s a very simple, and beautiful concept, that shows a person who is interested in you, is interested in you! 

Robin Minette is not interested in Maria. 

I say this because in the book we are told multiple times that whenever Maria asks too many questions, Robin just walks away. He does not answer, or even asks her to stop, when he is astral projecting into Maria’s dreams, he just leaves the dream and wakes up. Again, this is in conjecture with one of Goudge’s morals: female curiosity is of the Devil. 

“All my life, Robin, I'll always tell you all about everything." “And I'll tell you," said Robin. “If I didn't you'd ask me so many questions that life would not be worth living."

This is not an okay lesson to teach to children, any boy or girl should not be learning that her voice does not matter, that her questions should be squashed, and that curiosity is a bad thing. I genuinely have no idea where Goudge got this idea from, other than it is just a very old and misogynist viewpoint. It’s not even Christian, as scripture encourages followers to study, and yes that includes women. 

I don’t think it is a harsh stance to take that a character who walks away from another while they are talking, is not interested, or in love with that character. Maybe possessive, but not in love, and it's certainly not the kind of love anyone should be idolizing. 

Furthermore, like most entitled men, Robin Minette has anger issues. I don’t want to quote the entire section, but I can post it somewhere because it is absolutely insane. 

After Robin and Maria defended Paradise Hill from the De Noirs, they go back to his house. Since it was raining, they had to change out of their wet clothes. For whatever reason, Loveday Minette decides to put her old wedding dress (that she never wore because she ran away) on Maria. 

Maria loves it, and asks if it can be her wedding dress, and Loveday M says yes. 

When Maria joins Robin in the kitchen so they can have tea, Robin asks what that is. 

“It's my wedding dress. I'm trying it on to see if it fits." "Are you going to be married?" asked Robin sharply, his munching jaws suddenly still. “Of course," said Maria, reaching for the cream. “You didn't expect me to be an old maid, did you?" “Are you being married today?" demanded Robin. “Of course she isn't being married today, Robin. She isn't old enough to be married yet. But when she is married she will wear that dress." [Loveday] “When you do marry, whom will you marry?" Robin asked Maria. Maria swallowed the last of her bread and cream and honey, put her head on one side and stirred her tea thoughtfully. “I have not quite decided yet," she said demurely, “but I think I shall marry a boy I knew in London." “What?" yelled Robin. “Marry some mincing nincompoop of a Londoner with silk stockings and pomade in his hair and a face like a Cheshire cheese?" The parkin stuck in his gullet and he choked so violently that Loveday had to pat him on the back and pour him out a fresh cup of tea. When he spoke again his face was absolutely scarlet, not only with the choke but with rage and jealousy and exasperation. “You dare do such a thing!" he exploded. "You--Maria --you-- if you marry a London man I'll wring his neck!"

Now, you’ll notice three things here: 

One, the fate of all Moon Princess’ is to get in a fight with her love, and if she doesn’t humble herself, she’ll be forced to leave Moonacre. This is something Maria knows at this point. 

Two, Robin is a thirteen, fourteen year old boy displaying this much anger, possessiveness, and audacity. This is not something he is punished for, and he gets away with this behavior. 

Three, his mother is right there???? And her chief concern is: 

“Robin," said his mother, “that's not at all the way to propose. You should go down on one knee and do it in a very gentle voice."  

Ma’am your son is a maniac and you’re giving him tips on how to propose properly? 

Now, I want to swing back to my first point. To state it very plainly, this is one of the reasons as to why people stay in abusive relationships for so long. Maria knows that if she and Robin hadn’t made up right then and there, she would have to leave Moonacre. This language and ideology puts the blame on the victim’s shoulders, making the victim feel as if they have to be the one to make amends, to fix what is broken, and appease the abuser. This is the cycle of abuse that is seen time and time again, and while Goudge does not frame this as an ideal relationship we can gather that based on all that Maria has learned, it is her job to keep the peace. 

Am I calling Robin Minette an abuser? Yes, yes I am. 

Maria immediately forgives his behavior, Loveday is obviously okay with it, because she does nothing to stop him or scold him, and Goudge obviously sees this as okay male behavior. 

It's preposterous and yet this book is only eighty years old, we can obviously see people who behave this way, and we all know people who are like this. However, I think we have finally pivoted to presenting this behavior as abusive in media and art. Too often we think of abuse as just physical, but so often it is emotional, financial, and sexual, and the consequence of that mentality is people suffering abuse thinking that they aren’t because they don’t get black eyes. 

Here, I would also like the mention the BBC miniseries, Moonacre. The Miniseries is boring, it’s praised for being a more direct adaptation of the book, however they do make some major changes, especially to the plot. They add this thing about the ‘Blackheart’s’ having their water supply being cut off, all their wells are saturated with saltwater, and they blame Sir Wrolf for cutting off a pipe that would lead freshwater back into the valley. In this, we do get Loveday and Robin (still mother and son) as De Noirs. Loveday is the direct descendant of Black William, and despite teaching her son to hate the Blackhearts, he is also a De Noir. Robin Minette in this movie is boring, he doesn’t get mad at Maria for asking questions, but all he really does is show up at convenient times to save her from the Blackhearts. He’s fine, he’s not as problematic as Robin in LWH, but his character is not as compelling as Robin De Noir in TSOM.

Prev | Next

Full wedding dress excerpt

[sequinsmile-x]

hiiiiii

can you please do hugs 10: hiding their face in the other’s neck

feels very them!

oooo yes very them!!

-x-

Words: 900

Warnings: None

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

He makes sure to close their bedroom door as quietly as possible, wincing when the closing click sounds loud in the otherwise quiet room. 

“Did they get off ok?” 

Aaron turns towards the bed. The room is dark, or as dark as it can be for the middle of the day. The curtains are pulled closed, tiny bits of light filtering through into the room. His eyes land on the bed, the lump under the covers that he knew was his wife, her muffled voice coming from underneath the comforter. 

“They are excited and on the way to the aquarium,” he says, walking over to the bed and sitting on top of the covers, “Grace was talking poor Will’s ear off about the sharks already,” he adds, smiling at the image of their four-year-old in JJ’s arms as she spoke to will. Emily’s only response is a slight groan, and he pulls back the covers just enough to reveal part of her face, not surprised to find her eyes tightly screwed shut, “How are you feeling?” 

“Apart from feeling like I’m the worst mother on the planet?” She asks quietly, barely opening an eye to look up at him, wincing at the low light in the room. She carries on before he can protest what she’s said, the words already on the tip of his tongue. “Lay down with me.” 

He doesn’t need telling twice, and he shifts in the bed, getting under the covers with her as she snuggles into his side. 

“You aren’t the worst mother on the planet, sweetheart,” he says as he moves, pulling her closer, “Grace and Jack are both very lucky to have you,” he kisses the top of her head and runs his hand up and down her back, “And they understand you’re sick.”

She’d woken up with a migraine, her head pounding as she fought off nausea that always accompanied it. She had tried to pretend she was ok at first, determined to go on the trip they’d been promising the kids for weeks, but Aaron had seen through it immediately. He’d called JJ and Will and asked if they’d mind taking the kids alone, instead of as a group as planned, so he could stay behind and look after his wife. 

Emily groans, the pain in her head throbbing as she moves just enough to press her face into Aaron’s neck, seeking out the comfort she always found when he was close. 

“They were so excited,” she says, curling herself around him, sighing contentedly as he cups the back of her head. Holding her in place against his neck as he scratches at her scalp. Something he knew she found relaxing when she felt like this, “My mother used to cancel on me all the time. Now I’m doing it to them.” 

Aaron knows she doesn’t truly believe that. That she knows she's a good mother, and even on the days when she doubts herself she knows she is better than Elizabeth ever was. But she always felt out of control when she was sick. The slightest ache or pain took her back to those lonely days in Paris that she would never fully be free of. He understood it because he felt it too. The memory of laying on the floor of his old apartment never too far out of reach. 

“It’s not the same, baby,” he says gently, continuing the movement of his fingers through her hair, “You wanted to go. You would have gone if I hadn’t stopped you.” 

“Gracie loves the sharks,” Emily says, “She wanted me to sit with her and watch them.” 

“And you can do that next time,” he assures her, smiling as her words start to slur slightly, a sure sign she was about to get some much-needed sleep, “But, Em, you can barely stand the amount of light in here. How did you think you were going to cope in an aquarium surrounded by kids?”

“Sunglasses,” she mutters as if the answer was obvious, and he huffs out a laugh. Her response is to lightly slap at his chest before her hand snakes upwards, cupping the side of his neck that her face isn’t pressing into, holding him into place as if there was anywhere else he’d rather be. “Don’t laugh at me, I’m sick.” 

“Sorry, sweetheart,” he replies, holding back another laugh, not daring to mention how much she sounded like their four-year-old daughter. He shifts just enough to kiss the part of her head he could reach, “Do you want some painkillers? I’ll go get some for you.”

He hasn’t even moved and she shakes her head, curling herself into his side even tighter, “Don’t go.” 

“Ok, I won’t go anywhere,” he promises, feeling how she practically melts against him, “You should get some sleep. You’ll feel better for it.” 

“You’ll stay?” She asks as she starts to drift off, her body getting heavier by the second, his touch lulling her to sleep. 

He hates that she needs the reassurance. That her past has left her unable to trust that someone would be there when she needed them, even after all of these years together. But he loves that he gets to be that person, that he gets to assure her time and time again that he would be there. Even when she didn’t always want him to be. 

“I’ll stay.”

-x-

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[queerquaintrelle]

If I could change one thing in TURN…

“Even though it was you who lied about who you were, you still don’t know who I am.” / “Thieves, soldiers, continental militia, they’re all the same…” - Sarah Livingston, TURN

“You’re a Tory…”

“And you’re a traitor.”

- TURN

If I could change one thing in TURN: Sarah Livingston wouldn’t die tragically and wouldn’t be utilized for Benjamin Tallmadge’s ‘man pain.’

Disclaimer: I love Benjamin Tallmadge, I’m just sincerely tired of not male characters being defined by their relationship(s) of any sort but especially to men and being played down as ‘docile’ or ‘helpless’. #Mencanstillgetawaywithalot

I really don’t need to explain this and I’m fully aware Sarah is a minor character in the show TURN. However! Given Elizabeth Blackmore and Seth Numrich’s both extensive acting careers, credits and works, I simply wish that Sarah didn’t didn’t die. I believe as Benjamin is our primary (anti) hero, he is naturally in need of a foil and I do love the culper ring, Abraham and Anna, but I don’t see them as narrative foils. They have too much in common.

Plus, at minimum through implication Sarah Livingston isn’t well-to-do and she’s a widow. Something often erased (just like Abigail aka Abby) in period dramas and I think it’d have been a great opportunity to expand upon how even with good intentions (Benjamin) there are no real “heroes” in history, or revolution(s) merely winners and losers.

This will definitely result in more essaying and more editing, RPing and fan fiction writing, but, for now, I’ll leave it at Sarah Livingston deserved better and more.

For though I love Benjamin Tallmadge, dearest cavalry lad, the world and revolutions don’t revolve solely around him.

[bethanydelleman]

I’d never really considered the fact that Darcy wanted Georgiana and Bingley to marry before. Now, though, it makes me wonder if the only reason Darcy was traveling with the Bingleys at the start of the book was to try and get Georgiana married off as soon as possible (before Wickham or anyone else could spread rumors that may ruin her reputation). Given Darcy’s wealth and Georgiana’s relationship to an Earl, you would think he would aim higher for his sister than a member of the nouveau rich, but if they were concerned about her time with Wickhan, having her marry at 16 and matching her to Bingley makes much more sense.

With all due respect, I hear this theory a lot but I don't think it's correct.

Firstly, Darcy has carefully concealed Georgiana's misadventure from the Bingleys, "Not a syllable had ever reached her of Miss Darcy’s meditated elopement. To no creature had it been revealed, where secrecy was possible, except to Elizabeth; and from all Bingley’s connections her brother was particularly anxious to conceal it, from that very wish which Elizabeth had long ago attributed to him, of their becoming hereafter her own. He had certainly formed such a plan; and without meaning that it should affect his endeavour to separate him from Miss Bennet, it is probable that it might add something to his lively concern for the welfare of his friend."

Secondly, it's unclear if Darcy is worried about Wickham spreading rumours about Georgiana. Wickham slandars Darcy in Meryton, but carefully avoids dragging Georgiana into it. He also does not publically spread his lies until Darcy has left for London, probably because if Darcy tried he could easily expose Wickham. Darcy is pretty powerful and Wickham might be too afraid to approach that subject.

Thirdly, Darcy doesn't seem to be in any rush to marry Georgiana off, it's unclear if she's even "out" yet. And if she was pregnant they’d already know at this point.

Fourthly, Elizabeth and Caroline both think Darcy’s plan is for Bingley to marry Georgiana before either know about the planned elopement (Caroline never knows of course). I don’t think they would make that assumption if it was such a huge leap. When Caroline brags to Jane that Charles and Miss Darcy might be an item, no one laughs or treats that possibility like an joke. Elizabeth doesn’t comfort Jane by telling her the match is ridiculous, which again indicates to me that it’s not that big of a class difference.

Here is what I think is going on. I don’t think we modern people totally understand Bingley’s class (I’ve posted about this before), but when Darcy is proposing his order of classing people seems to be Him > Bingley > The Bennets. So yes, Georgiana could probably do better, but she isn’t going very low.

But more importantly, Georgiana is painfully shy. She can hardly speak when introduced to someone socially inferior to her (Elizabeth and the Gardiners). Darcy is probably trying to spare her from fully participating in the dating scene/London season. Not only that, if Georgiana marries someone like Darcy, or better, more is expected of her. “Great ladies” were expected, to be social and support their husband’s careers in politics etc. I doubt that is the sort of life Georgiana Darcy would want!

Charles Bingley is a nice, intelligent guy. He doesn’t seem to have any vices, his sisters are nice to Georgiana; it would be a very comfortable option for her. We are told again and again that Darcy is a good brother, so I can see him thinking that just settling on Charles, instead of submitting Georgiana to a season that would be torment to her, is the best option.

And it would have worked, if it wasn’t for those meddling Bennets...

(I couldn’t help myself! It all worked out just fine)

[heartofstanding]

After finally reading Gemma Hollman’s “Royal Witches”, I’m having sad Eleanor Cobham hours again :(

The thing that stuck with me the most in relation to Eleanor was Jacquetta of Luxemburg’s section. I know their situations were very different and the accusations were also different, so its not really comparable, but I hadn’t realized before that not only was Jacquetta fully cleared by the king’s council, but her innocence was literally recorded in the Patent Rolls and in Parliament records at her demand for the whole realm to see (which I highly doubt would have happened without her son-in-law Edward’s approval and support). Its records also explicitly recognize how hollow and unjust the accusation of witchcraft was: “The Parliament record recognizes that Wake accused her, not only to hurt and impair her ‘good name and fame’ but to cause the ‘final destruction of her person’.”

I’m so relieved that Jacquetta was cleared and didn’t have to endure punishment for a “sin” that literally isn’t real (especially considering the immense hardships her family had already gone through at this point, to say nothing about their horrific losses in the future) but reading this right after Eleanor’s section enhances just the sadness of Eleanor’s fate, where her life was overturned and destroyed by this accusation. Obviously, the key difference, as Hollman notes, is that the government was ultimately on Jacquetta’s side and against Eleanor, which just goes to show how politically-motivated these accusations were, but how deeply personal and destructive their results could be

(Also, I did NOT know that Henry VI specifically wrote that "they should carry her (Eleanor) forward, not letting any sickness suffered by her to prevent the journey"? What the hell???)

… does this make sense? I think I’m rambling too much because I still can't believe how horrifyingly SAD Eleanor's final years were

Oh, it's always Eleanor Cobham hours here...

No doubt all four women found the accusations against them frightening and distressing, no doubt waiting for a trial and the trial (for those who received a trial) was an anxious, fraught time. But Eleanor was the one who suffered the most because of those accusations. Her marriage was ruined, she never faced any kind of exoneration, she lost her status, she lost her freedom. Her life was severely and permanently wrecked by them.

I sometimes wonder if it's this that makes people argue that she was guilty, to make her deserving of this punishment. That she was treated so harshly and never faced exoneration because she was guilty. Hell, I've seen people acting like she was oh-so-privileged not to be burnt at the stake (which was the punishment for women's treason as well as heretics) and she totally should have been. But the cases of Jacquetta of Luxembourg and Elizabeth Woodville tend to point away from this - had Warwick remained in charge, would Jacquetta have been exonerated? Had Richard III maintained his attack on Elizabeth, would she have faced trial and been found guilty? Would we speak of "blatant politicisation" of the charges against them or instead maintain that they were probably guilty because "no (surviving) contemporary (evidence)" explicitly suggested their innocence?* When no surviving English evidence explicitly clears Joan of Navarre of treasonable necromancy (her Breton sons did protest at her treatment at the time) and there no contemporary claims that the charges were politicised or fraudulent and her confessor, Friar Randolph, remained in prison for his part in her alleged plot?**

Another dimension is the fact that it's the soft-hearted Henry VI who was nominally in charge of Eleanor's treatment. After all, if there was the slightest doubt of her guilt, wouldn't he have pardoned her? But there's some evidence that suggests he could be vindictive, John Blacman's hagiography of Henry depicts him with what to appears to be a deep-seated fear and suspicion of women (though one could argue that this is perfectly fitting within the church's view of women in relation to male saints), and he seems to have been particularly sensitive to Humphrey as a threat... so he appears to have been a lot more complex than the soft-hearted, wholly good but naive man handing out pardons left, right and centre...

Historians generally take Henry's instruction that "they should carry [Eleanor] forward, not letting any sickness suffered by her to prevent the journey" to mean she was faking illness or malingering to avoid being moved, perhaps with an escape attempt in mind. It's entirely possible that she was faking illness for this purpose (Ralph Griffiths notes she had done so before). But... she might have genuinely been sick. Eleanor had walked barefoot through the streets of London in November across three days, she could have cut her feet or gotten blisters that burst and ended up with an infection. It was also winter by the time Henry made that order; she could have caught something like influenza or bronchitis either from the penance walks or afterwards. It might have even been a (very understandable) stress or trauma response to everything she had undergone. I don't think historians should automatically jump to "she was being a Deceptive Female and Malingering For Sneaky Reasons". Again, I think it speaks more to the impression of Henry as a bleeding heart and Eleanor as a Bad, Deceptive, Sneaky Woman.

Anyway, enough of that rant.

The period of Eleanor's imprisonment is so... sad to me. It was eleven years of being moved from one prison to another, of not being able to appoint her own servants but having to be tended by those appointed for her - the possibility that they were spying on her. There's not much surviving evidence for the conditions of her imprisonment, no accounts survive like they do for Joan of Navarre or Eleanor of Brittany. I wonder if she wrote letters seeking a pardon or better conditions or a release or some comforts. I wonder if she hoped the arrival of a queen would change something for her. I wonder if she became inured to it, whether she still hoped for pardon when she died or had accepted her prisons. I wonder how she coped with the events of 1447 when, about four months after her father's death, Humphrey died and she was declared legally dead. I wonder if the rumours of his murder reached her, whether she knew the truth or believed he had been murdered. I wonder how she died and where she was buried - we know it cost 100 marks, a "great expense", but no known tomb or monument exists for her, her grave lost.

There was a fairly strong folklore tradition relating to her time at Peel Castle on the Isle of Man - this was her most famous prisons and until the mid-1970s, believed to be her last prison where she died around 1457. However, she was moved to Beaumaris Castle in 1449 and died there on 7 July 1452. The folklore around her at the Isle of Man needs to be taken with a big pinch of salt - they tend to follow the 1457 date, which we know to be incorrect, and frequently invoke the supernatural (e.g. one, two). The earliest account I've found is in George Waldron's A Description of the Isle of Man (1731) which was written around 280 years after her death so it's hardly a reliable source. Still, it's interesting to me in what it suggests (tw for suicide attempt mentions in this and the next paragraph):

she lived in a manner befitting her dignity, nothing but liberty being refused: she appeared however so turbulent and impatient under this confinement, that he was obliged to keep a strict guard over her, not only because there were daily attempts made to get her away, but also to prevent her from laying violent hands on her own life.

Given she was at Peel Castle when her father died, when Humphrey died, when she was declared legally dead... I do wonder if Waldron's account of her "turbulent" and requiring a strict guard "to prevent her from laying violent hands on her own life". The line about the "daily attempts" to free her might reflect a garbled retelling of Humphrey's household being accused of plotting to free her.

It's just so sad. Her life is destroyed and she has to keep going, with no freedom, no mercy, no exoneration.

* The argument nearly always put forward for Eleanor's guilt is that there's no evidence that the charges were politicised or that no contemporary seems to have thought she was innocent. Which is an odd thing to say when you have Juliana Ridligo being horribly executed for telling Henry VI to his face to return Eleanor to Humphrey, or when you have orders for people not to interfere in the government moving her from prison to prison under a heavy guard, or when a sympathetic chronicler said Humphrey went to the Bury St Edmunds parliament where he was arrested and died to plead for Eleanor's release... sure, none of these things include an explicit statement of her innocence but they tend to imply that some people though she was innocent, don't they?

** Humphrey attempted to free Friar Randolph (apparently unsuccessfully?) and this is credited as the reason Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and soon-to-be-cardinal, ordered that Humphrey not be allowed in the Tower of London and the feud that evolved from there. Funny how Joan of Navarre's innocence is usually asserted and yet Humphrey's interference in Friar Randolph's imprisonment is deemed suspicious enough that Beaufort's actions were justified, isn't it?