#erik being responsible birb

[arale2126]

Cherik fics - That ONE line - 33

「 I feel like I should keep an index of the one line in each Cherik fics that impresses me to no end, making want to bookmark it immediately.」

Feeling Hawkish, Darling? (Remix of Are You Sulking Again) by Fullmetalcarer

Summary: Charles awoke to find a huge hawk in the bedroom and no Erik. But the hawk's mind felt strangely familiar. A mind fixated on fish, mating, eggs and Charles.

AKA: What if Erik was the birb?

The quote:

yes, mating season, Charles lay eggs, Charles brood eggs, Erik feed Charles, eggs hatch chicks, chicks fledge and fly, yes, yes

[rose-of-pollux]

So, I ended up down a metaphorical rabbit hole and had a twofold humbling experience last evening.

I was looking up stories of Hollywood ghost sightings (...as you do...) and saw an offhand mention that among the ghosts seen in Hollywood is Lon Chaney Sr.  I just got through reading a biography about him... which included a story of how he saved a whole bunch of baby birbs, so, you know, that got my full attention really quickly--

Kudos to the man for doing exactly what you’re supposed to do when you find fallen nestlings--put them back in the same tree as close as you can to the original position.  The Audubon Society tells you to do that to this day.  But I digress...

I know that one of Lon Chaney’s most famous roles was Erik in Phantom of the Opera.  I had my Phantom phase from 2005-2007, and while I was mostly stuck on the 1986 musical, I did watch and appreciate Lon’s portrayal of Erik in the 1925 movie.  However, I did scoff--and continued to scoff--at all the stories of people getting shocked in the theatres and swooning during the famous unmasking scene.  My thoughts were basically, “Pffft, yeah, that’s not that scary.”

Fast forward to last evening.  I got intrigued by the mention of Lon’s ghost being spotted and looked into it further.  What I didn’t know was that one of the websites I was looking at had a gigantic header of Lon as Erik in full fury that was taking its own sweet time loading.

Cue Humbling Experience #1: the header finally loads, and I effectively get jumpscared at the very same make-up job I’ve been scoffing at since 2005 and nearly yeet my laptop across the room.

...Mr Chaney, Sir, I sincerely apologize for everything I said about your Erik look since 2005.  I 100% deserved that.

Anyway, so, I get over the scare and keep reading about the sightings of his ghost--

Ok, yes, that makes perfect sense that he’d be frequently revisiting a place he had some attachment to during his mortal life.

But the studio is gone now, as noted in that blurb.  I knew that part of it (but not that Lon frequented it in the afterlife) because I was ranting about it to Ksturf the other day about how they callously got rid of an iconic piece of film history.  So I looked into it, wondering “what bunch of idiots” decided to get rid of it and what dumb thing they dared to put in its place--

Cue Humbling Experience #2: the realization that the thing responsible for the destruction of an iconic piece of film history and Lon’s visiting grounds is a thing headed by Nintendo--a presence that has been in my life for as long as I can remember and has fundamentally shaped me into who I am, and that one of the “bunch” who was involved in the discussions for Nintendo World is very, very likely to have been the late and venerated Mr. Satoru Iwata, whom I also hold in very great respect, as he was actively involved in the many parts of Nintendo that shaped who I am today.

...Mr. Iwata, Sir, I meant no disrespect.

There’s no way of knowing, of course, whether Mr. Iwata knew they were tearing down the historic Phantom stage for Nintendo World, and while I’m sure he’s not the one with enough clout in this situation to blame, anyway (that falls on Universal, who could’ve spared the Phantom stage and chosen a different location for Nintendo World), I still have incredibly mixed emotions about this becase, on the one hand, iconic film history gone forever, but on the other hand, one of my most favorite things in the world is going to have a presence there soon (they’re saying Nintendo World will open in Los Angeles next year).

And, of course... what’s Lon’s spirit doing now with all this going on?  The stage is gone, so he has no more catwalks to pace.

Mr. Chaney, Sir, whether you move on or stick around, I hope you find peace.

[hopeslastchxnce]

❝ Defined by their histories… distorted to fit into their narrative… until all that is left of us… are the monsters in the stories they tell their children. ❞ from birb man 🐦

Charles  fingers  curled  into  Warren’s  hair,  the  angel’s  words  tickling  his  skin  as  it  was  softly  spoken  into  his  chest.  They  were  lying  together,  a  tangled  heap  of  bodies  that  were  using  one  another  to  forget  whatever  they  were  running  from.  Charles  wasn’t  entirely  sure  where  Warren  was  concerned.  There  were  so  many  things  inside  his  head  that  Charles  had  simply  concluded  Warren  only  had  time  for  the  ocassional  romp.  Emotional  ties  weren’t  on  his  agenda  and  Charles  hoped  to  keep  it  that  way  for  his  heart’s  sake.  As  for  the  telepath  himself,  well,  he  had  a  lot  of  things  one  could  say  he  was  running  from.  Duty,  love,  responsibility,  pain...  but  he  would  not  allow  himself  to  dwell  on  it.  Instead,  he  pressed  a  kiss  to  the  top  of  Warren’s  head,  mulling  over  his  words  some  more.  

He  had  a  point.  There  was  no  such  thing  as  an  unbiased  history  book,  for  history  has  and  always  will  be  written  by  the  winners  and  right  now,  mutants  had  yet  to  win  a  damn  thing  aside  from  evolutionary  superiority.  Other  than  that,  they  were  scum  in  the  eyes  of  many;  a  scourge  upon  the  earth  in  need  of  eradicating.  Erik  was  right  about  that  much  at  least,  but  Charles  had  mixed  feelings.  Even  in  the  midst  of  his  depression,  he  could  never  bring  himself  to  hate  humanity  as  much  as  Erik.  He  knew  though  ---  now  more  than  ever  ---  that  he  felt  as  such  because  he  never  had  to  suffer  the  way  other  mutants  did.  That  made  him  a  naive  fool,  but  someone  had  to  be...  at  one  time  anyway.

“There’s  still  time  for  mutants  to  change  the  narrative.  I  just...  do  not  know  how  to  accomplish  that  yet,  or  if  that  is  at  all  possible  anymore. I  never  told  you  this  but...  at  one  time,  I  had  this  amazing,  stupid  dream  of...  a  world  minus  the  prejudices  towards  mutants.  I  thought...  that  perhaps  someday  we  could  all  learn  to  work  together and  make  the  world  a  better  place,  but...  silly  me  right?”

He  shifted  away  from  Warren  some,  rolling  over  on  his  side  away  from  him.  Warren’s  words  hit  home  a little  too  much  and  it  had  him  recoiling  into  his  shell  again.  “I  filled  those  children’s  heads  with  hope  for  a  future  that  will  never  come.  I  worked  to  make  them  stronger...  to  control  their  powers,  all  in  the  hopes  of  changing  a  narrative  for  their  well  being  but...  that  is  a  fool’s  dream...  and  I  am  the  true  monster  for  preaching  such  silly  things.”

black  sails  starters  ||  @wingedwarren