Okay maybe this is a known thing and I’m just spouting nonsense or both Idek it’s half one in the morning and I was meant to be getting an early night but YOU GUYS I was just listening to my Soc audiobook and in chapter 18 when Kaz is remembering the coffee shop and the Hertzoon scam we learn that the first trade major trade Jordie and Kaz were privy to and I’m pretty sure Jordie put a little money into was A CHANGE IN THE SUGAR MARKET.
And of all the things Kaz might have been able to manipulate the market for to try and profit off Van Eck’s destruction at the start of crooked kingdom HE CHOSE SUGAR.
The failure of the Sweet Reef job doesn’t only represent, to Kaz, the foolishness at being hoodwinked by Rollins again that he describes as causing such anger within himself whilst at the Van Eck house but also LITERALLY REFLECTS AND PROBABLY SERVES AS A CLEAR CUT REMINDER OF THE HERTZOON SCAM. We know Kaz is a pretty big on poetic justice (see Fillip and the wind up dogs torture/murder, stealing from the bank that was involved in the scam, the use of Alby against Rollins, etc) and I can’t help but wonder if that’s what this was intended to be in his mind, but there’s also the possibility that this wasn’t an active decision he made and only occurred to him afterwards when he saw Rollins and had that strange “sense of doubling” and saw both situations and both failures so clearly reflected and
okay I may have lost my point here I’m very tired idk how to end this um ta-dah and goodnight
233 notes
·
View notes
im gonna be annoying about them actually
i think four, wars n ledge have moments where they just stare at each other. if someone does something stupid the three just deadpan stare at each other and u KNOW they're going to talk abt it later
four n ledge are blacksmiths (ledge only having been an apprentice. he never rly finished tho) and they try n get wars into it
ledge still has this fear of knights (since they hunted him for sport as a child. multiple times) but he trusts warriors and lets him know that. he let's wars teach him basic things about the knights in his era and how it functions a little different than it works in ledges era
wars helps ledge straighten his hair and helps four do their eyeliner. ledge does warriors eyeliner in return and four paints both ledge and wars' nails.
i fucking love these three okay. im gonna carry these three on my goddamn back if i have to
67 notes
·
View notes
Inspired by @sister-calliope !
Forgive me, a collection of random thoughts where I’m rambling again on traitor!Valdor…
Can't even focus(oof), I must be getting old…
~~~~~~~
Ramblings about Traitor!Valdor
The most loyal of his servants, turned to treachery.
As a final insult, he kept the Apollonian Spear.
So he could know forever what he could have had, what he could have dreamt, but never attaining it. Feeling human only when he kills, feeling joy siphoned from a dying Loyalist’s mind, feeling happiness only in the scant few seconds between one kill and the next.
Maybe he’ll fight against the Emperor. Maybe he’ll die just like how the Thunder Warrior Primarch died, marching to battle with a doomed coup, knowing they’re here to slay him, knowing he’s here to die.
Maybe he’ll flee into the Webway. Maybe he’ll become the dreaded King in Yellow, but instead of reining in his efforts, instead of obeying his master’s will, the former Custodian will become blasphemy incarnate, here to break His throne.
Or maybe Valdor will win the Blood Games, for one last time. He was His bodyguard for millenia, he knows when He’s vulnerable, he knows when He dies. The Emperor dies not with a scream or a warcry or a glorious, fateful death, but in silence, smothered by the hand of His formerly beloved servant turned assassin. The Shadowkeepers will tear him apart, of course, limb from limb and shred his auramite plate from plate, but He’ll be dead.
Or maybe, just maybe, Valdor would do nothing at all. He’ll simply leave, his duty complete, the Custodes forever wondering what became of him, what became of the greatest of the Ten Thousand? Maybe he won’t try to avenge the dead. They’re dead, after all, and his sins would never be expedited. What use is vengeance to a dead man? Valdor is merely a sentinel, charged with observing while others acted. He had watched while the Cataegis were born, while they died, while he betrayed them. To watch, to wait to act, but this act will never come, this lost servant will never come home. Maybe he’ll settle down, in a distant cold star, reminding him of what he lost to gain the powers he had. Was the bargain worth the price? Was it truly worth the price?
The First Custodian once lead the golden, he once served a god-king, before whom His words could fell an army. Now he walks alone, watching and waiting for a time that will never pass, clad not in armor but in furs and iron. The cycle ends where it began, beneath frost and winds so like Maulland Sen he could sometimes almost-dream of the thunder and the iron, that his perfect memory could fail him and he could almost remember what it felt like to dream, to be a young creature again, so full of ambition and possibility and words before the Emperor had laid down His claws.
And finally, maybe he just might come crawling home. The old dog, having his fill of adventure and obedience, the prodigal general limping home with his head bowed and neck bared. Because what else did Valdor know? In truth, he do not really know where else he could go. He wanted nothing, he lived for nothing, he desired nothing save that of his lord, and that too was gone, by his own betrayal.
He lived for the Emperor. He’ll die by Him too.
Staggering home, his armor charred and cracked and missing in pieces, the Apollonian Spear dragged behind him like the limp tail of a dog who no longer wished to fight. They’ll bind him in chains and drag him before his former master like the traitor he is, and Valdor, obedient once more, no longer resists. The Emperor drags him home, and Valdor, quietly, without protest, without even a trace of hatred one would have expected from a traitor, accepts his endless penitence with grace.
He will never be forgiven. Not when he had betrayed Him so thoroughly, not when his sin could only be expedited in blood. The Emperor no longer utters the name “Constantin Valdor” with such adoration, in fact, He no longer utters his name at all. For a hero to be born, they must be preserved, their stories written in blood for a lifetime. Yet, till eternity ends, not a single soul would hear the name “Valdor” within the Imperium, even though he had fought and bled so vehemently for the Imperium. He will cease to matter, when his very deeds fade from the Imperium’s memory. Because while his penitence will never end, and the formerly glorious Captain-General will never be forgiven.
Some say that, for the great sin of his treachery, the Emperor removed all traces of insubordination from His favored servant. Some say He removed even what remained of Valdor’s soul, to ensure he would never be free again. For all He had taken from him, he still had plenty to lose, plenty the Emperor could seize within His golden claws and rip away.
Some say the mute Captain-General no longer speaks, in fact, he no longer communicates for fear of whatever heretical taint had led him down such a cruel path. Not a single word save a nod or bow for his lord. Nothing left of the man once known as Constantin Valdor, nothing behind those dead eyes except for resignation, resigned in the same way a badly beaten dog shows its belly, nothing left except for obedience in a mind too broken to even hate. Nothing more than an automaton marching on an endless crusade. A crippled bird, that having tasted freedom, still chose the bars of its cage.
26 notes
·
View notes