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Perpetua: A Potential Heroine for our times.

Hi everyone we are going to rant about the Bridget Jones series once again and talk about a character, who I feel came too early before our current zeitgeist of bad bitch feminism and the #GirlBoss: Perpetua.

Perpetua is not intended to be likable. She is very posh, snooty, a bit arrogant, and demanding of Bridget and people she works with, greeting Bridget with a slight sneer as she comes into work and Bridget’s inner monologue voices a desire to staple stuff to her head for having gained a bit of power over Bridget in the publishing company Pemberley Press. Gee, let’s see what we have: entitled, snooty, fancy, having the attitude they are above it all, who has those traits? I’ll wait *sipping tea*

But we notice something about Perpetua; after Bridget’s relationship with Daniel implodes because he was using her as his side piece and decides to find a better job elsewhere, Bridget goes to Daniel to tell him she is quitting. Perpetua overhears and picks up on what has been going on (she is appalled at what she is hearing) and as soon as Daniel tries to beg Bridget to stay, Perpetua gets up to defend Bridget: “I want to hear this, because if she gives one inch, I’m going to fire her bony arse for being totally spineless!” To her smiling pride, she sees Bridget tell Daniel off and leave the publishing company...and that’s the last we see of Perpetua. Even after that (awesome) scene, my teenage self got the message that it’s better to be a Bridget over a Perpetua, a bubbly but insecure girl who tries to conform to the male gaze over a stoic and IDGAF woman who does what she wants. I also heard messages from people, like my parents, telling me how important it was to act and look a certain way to be “likable”; it was better to be insecure and conventionally feminine rather than to be confident not very popular but self-assured. Also Bridget was the rom-com heroine who had people fall in love with her, Perpetua was seen as stuck-up and she was thrown to the wayside. Who stood to reap the benefits of our society?

Looking back, I found out that after almost 20 years of trying to be a Bridget: the “relatable” insecure girl next door type who is vulnerable and needs the validation of those to find her desirable and “worth it” that I’m wasn’t the likable, conventionally pretty and feminine Bridget...I was Perpetua: not always likable, assertive, willing to put her neck out there, not always sociable, but assured of her intelligence and her ability to turn heads. Plus we have our signature style and know how to work accessories. While Bridget dresses basic and in miniskirts (she wants to blend in but also attract men), Perpetua stands out in her headbands, pearls, cardigans, and pie-crust collars combining the elements that I loved in a younger Hillary Rodham Clinton, Peggy Olson, Nancy Wheeler, and Raquel Rodriguez Orozco from Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish. Just a Power Preppie who figured out how to stick out and take her place in a male-dominated workplace, with no apologies.

After watching Tee Noir’s video on women who were declared to be problematic but upon second viewing and reading were raising valid points about their situation or the situations they observed but lacked the likability or popularity to be taken seriously, I was inspired to finally write this post. As Perpetua was a woman who showcased what it was like to live life on your terms and not ask for the permission of anyone to validate you. A woman who may have envied Bridget’s “bony arse” but didn’t let her size or peoples’ perceptions of her appearance get in the way of getting what she wanted from others.

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Here are some tropes and issues I will be referring to in this order, as they relate to Perpetua’s role in the films and books and how they regard her.

Fatphobia: Being Targeted by Internalized Hatred

“Ah. Introduce people with thoughtful details. Perpetua, this is Mark Darcy. Mark is a prematurely middle-aged prick with a cruel raced ex-wife. Perpetua is a fat-ass old bag who spends her time bossing me around.” Bridget Jones’s inner monologue, Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

We all know that Bridget Jones is notoriously famous for obsessing over her weight (134 lbs. at 5′4″, which is pretty fine) and that there have been reviews of the books and the movies condemning her or passive-aggressively noting that she isn’t Hollywood Thin and how it was remarkable for she (with hourglass curves, wears a small to medium size, blonde and blue eyed, average pretty at her worst) to get Colin Firth and Hugh Grant (in their prime) to fight over her. Whether we go by the timeline of the books (her birth year being 1962, Marilyn Monroe’s death) or the movies (her birth year being 1969 in the first film, post Jayne Mansfield), we see that Bridget grew up in and became an adult in an age where the female standard of beauty had gotten thinner and thinner, with even models having their pores air-brushed away from their faces. To paraphrase a Mad Men fan when she was talking about the culture of the mid-1960s, when she was a kid and women wanted to look curvaceous as Marilyn and Elizabeth Taylor, she looked like Twiggy; when she developed the voluptuous curves, everyone wanted to look like Twiggy. The 1970s and 1980s was an age of self-improvement as female empowerment (feminism co-opted by capitalism) where dieting and getting thinner was seen as “bettering” oneself. Suddenly it wasn’t cool for Bridget to strut her stuff in a pencil skirt a la Joan Holloway, it wasn’t enough to be a junior partner or to create your own safety net, even the irresistible Veronica Lodge worried about her weight.

*WARNING: Most of my sources refer to Fat Black Women but I feel like the arguments hold up here*

Then we go to Bridget and Perpetua, aside from their personality clash, Bridget is secretly envious and outwardly disgusted by how Perpetua can be much heavier than Bridget, yet wear curve-hugging clothes and go shopping and not give a shit about how her body looked. Perpetua knows that her boyfriend appreciates her good pussy under her gut! Bridget comforts herself by telling herself that happiness comes from reaching attainable goals....like changing one’s body rather than making money or procuring items....sigh Capitalism is a son of a gun. Clearly Bridget has animosity towards Perpetua for being plump and not feeling like she needs to hide for not looking like a supermodel. But why?

Fatphobia is one way of expressing internalized hatred against one’s body and their own self. In fact, Perpetua committed the sin of loving herself (or being neutral to oneself) as she is, and stands out from the rest of the cast who are obsessed with living up to certain standards to putting forward a certain image to the world that everything is fine. In a fatphobic capitalist patriarchy, it’s quite maddening that she would develop the arrogance and entitlement that she puts on display, especially because she is a...woman! Katie Wee, in her essay for Huffington Post, talked about how it was hard for her to play a fat-shaming exercise instructor in an episode of Shrill because she wouldn’t fat shame another person, but she had practice internalizing that cruelty. Wee talks about her history of eating disorders and over-exercising, all in a bid to become a ballerina, well into her twenties. Currently she works at a body-inclusive fitness studio and that Lindy West and Aidy Bryant were very encouraging in her performance. She also said:

When Annie writes her off, I made the decision that for Tanya this hits something much deeper. It’s as if Annie is saying Tanya’s life’s work is for nothing, or her religion is bullshit. Annie is feeling content in the body she is in, and for Tanya this feels like a personal attack. The subtext to what Tanya is saying is, “If I don’t get to be happy in my body, neither do you! Especially not you.”

This was also explored in the Room 104 episode “The Hikers” where college graduates and childhood best friends go on a hiking trip before they start working or looking for work. Megan (the fabulous Shannon Purser) is plump, freckled, down to earth and happy to have gotten a job offer right after she accepted her degree while her friend Casey (Kendra Carelli) is thin, has excelled on Instagram artifice, and hasn’t procured her own job yet but is triumphant over her past popularity. Yet a placed pebble in Megan’s boot reveals that Casey has been feeling disgust over how her fat friend would thrive in a larger body and not cover up and how she was burdened with making sure she was included in social gatherings growing up, soon Casey’s angry rant after Megan voiced her disgust over Casey’s sense of superiority over her reveals that Casey is angry that being conventionally beautiful and popular hasn’t made her any happier with herself or her own life, while Megan has excelled in their young adulthood in spite of her appearance and lack of popularity. Bridget is angry that Perpetua is thriving and content with her own life despite not looking a certain way while Bridget has been trying to get down to 110 lbs since she was a teenager and has been backing out of rooms after getting laid so the menfolk wouldn’t notice her behind isn’t scrawny (what would she think of Kim Kardashian’s or Nicki Minaj’s behinds?). Bridget, who poured energy into fitting an ideal of an adult woman, is miserable while Perpetua, who isn’t the “ideal woman”, is successful.

There is also some egocentrism on Bridget’s part: she is a heroine of a rom com so the story centers on her, with her friends being mere satellites. There has been a tradition of the fat best friend who exists to support the leading lady or gent who will fall in love while the fat person gets to sass and serve as cheerleader, with no insight on their inner life. Especially if they are Black. Tee Noir noted that most of the funny fat friends tend to be more engaging and likable or just plain compelling than the conventionally attractive main character, but their characterization is often neglected, to the point of sometimes even lacking a last name. In fact society, and even fat people, are internalized towards thinking that if you don’t fit the standard of desirability (thin, white, young-ish, cis, wealthy), you have to settle for less in your relationships and in entitlements, like how Annie in Shrill goes out with a boy who is too mediocre for her, all because she got the message that a fat girl like her shouldn’t expect a hunk or even a guy who is going to treat her decently and see her as a goddess. The show centered on Annie bringing out her inner fat bitch. Bridget hears constantly from her smug married male pals that women of a certain age shouldn’t be too picky because they aren’t as attractive and fertile as younger women (ring, ring, I am calling Tarana Burke on their asses, can I be the hype man?) and that triggers her insecurities about being single and 130 something pounds. Perpetua, who is a bit older than Bridget, medically overweight, single (but with a boyfriend) and less conventionally attractive than her...and is thriving in her life with no rush to the altar and she is free to voice demands in her relationship. I guess Bridget isn’t as nice as we were supposed to think she is, no shade, but be upfront about it Bridget (or writers).

But I can go easy on our hapless blonde, because Bridget (and probably Perpetua) internalized the notion that fat is disgusting and that women who aren’t thin enough have to shrink themselves and blend in, not causing waves. Perpetua lets us in on some hints that perhaps she is jealous of Bridget’s looks and figure, referring to her as having a “bony arse” for one, but it’s not a driving trait of her character. In her seminal book on female Baby Boom pop culture history, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media, she noted that from a young age women were encouraged to see other women as competition, and if one woman is victorious in one area, we are defeated “And we had grown up with a notion of a female hierarchy in which some women---the Waspy, wealthy, young, and beautiful---were at the top of the pyramid and other women---the poor, the dark-skinned, the ugly, the old, the fat---were at the bottom and this is something that advertising (a source that sells Perpetua her image of wealth and sells Bridget’s insecurities) capitalizes on. Media in the 1970s have even applied the same dichotomy to some feminists where Germaine Greer (before she was all TERFy) and Gloria Steinem were held up as exceptions to the stereotype of ugly, nagging, and/or mannish feminists (something that Betty Freidan, Kate Millet, and the OG Bella Abzug got slapped with). It’s the ugly side affect of individualism.

One can hope that Bridget got the shameless and joyful spirit of that little girl who ran around the paddling pool in her underwear back.

Who’s Afraid of “Fat ass old bags”?: Backlash against non-insecure women

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you'll be criticized anyway.” Eleanor Roosevelt

Let’s be clear: arrogance isn’t confidence. I use the term “non-insecure” as an umbrella term for Perpetua and for confident women who have faced backlash for their lack of willingness to act like they are less than to appease the patriarchy. But...men get to be arrogant and admired for their drive and accomplishments, hell they don’t even have to accomplish much unless you count bankruptcies (look at who is President of the United States at the time of this writing). So why do women who act arrogantly, aggressively, cut throat, authoritative, or just plain assert their needs and personal boundaries are so vilified? So I will try to look for how we could all learn to be confident as Perpetua.

Ever since Peggy Olson was promoted to Junior Copywriter, and even before, women in the workplace have been scrutinized from the secretarial pool to even top positions as CEO or junior partner. Like McCann-Erickson in the final season of Mad Men, Pemberley Press is something of a toxic workplace where underlings fight to get noticed for their achievements in dull lighting, men like Daniel Cleaver and Mr. Fitzherbert (more like Tits Pervert, right Bridget?) feel free to sexually harass women who haven’t developed the skills to defend themselves and demand respect, and where the characters we are closest to, don’t really like her. Women in power tend to confuse a white cis male hierarchy with a pecking order where the men try to undermine her authority either because they find her too attractive or make her feel unattractive, sometimes other women would undermine women because their success threatens their own self-image as women. A toxic workplace can also be why Bridget cannot excel at the work she does (she jumps from one toxic workplace to another in the movie); this can also be why Perpetua comes off as a hardass, she has to put up a shield to protect herself and the years working at Pemberley Press have hardened her to the point where Bridget couldn’t relate to her.

Bridget, according to Daniel Cleaver and the viewers of the films, is likable while Perpetua is not. Bridget is very feminine, sexy, witty, self-deprecating, supportive, warm, and non-intimidating while Perpetua may be feminine (look at them pearls and long hair), she isn’t conventionally attractive as Bridget and her size and age have kept her out of the “sexy box” and while Perpetua is clever, the woman doesn’t ease her way into conversations at parties like Bridget pretty much demanding to be introduced and included in them and she walks with the ease and assumption that she belongs everywhere she goes. Perpetua just also isn’t cuddly, but men get to be aloof like Mark to the point of being insulting or irreverent like Daniel to the point of toxicity, why is Perpetua being judged so harshly for traits that we see in these two high-status men? Forbes magazine once quoted that women are affected by two types of bias at work: prescriptive and descriptive bias.

Descriptive bias is the labels we attach and associate with certain social groups and communities, and prescriptive bias is how they are expected to behave. And, when someone does not conform to these prescribed roles and behaviors they can be penalized or punished. Women, for instance, are traditionally expected to be caring, warm, deferential, emotional, sensitive, and so on, and men are expected to be assertive, rational, competent and objective. So, when it comes to promotion, these traits are sometimes automatically prescribed to people as per their gender without detailed information about their personalities, thereby a man, in general, is assumed to be a better fit as a leader.

The other side of this is prescriptive bias is when a woman does not fit the role that is traditionally assigned to her and attempts to claim a traditionally male position is seen as breaking the norm. So, when a woman is decisive, she might be perceived as "brusque" and "abrupt". Therefore, for the same kind of leadership behavior, women might be penalized while a man is commended.

Women who are traditionally feminine (passive, self-effacing, caring), are considered “likable” but not leadership material while women who display traditionally masculine traits (assertiveness, self-preservation, ambition) are considered ball-busters. Both women are less likely to get promoted because of both bias, while what’s “bossy” or, sometimes, “hysterical” for women, get’s men promoted (*cough* Brett Kavanaugh crying that he likes beer *cough*). Women who help out at work aren’t seen for what those caring and proactive qualities can benefit the workplace, it’s expected that a woman would be so domestic. Even female candidates for Head of State are subjected to the tyranny of likability....for a position where the focus has to be on achieving safety and stability for a nation, even if no one likes them, a position that will be decisive no matter what they do. The work can be done by women supporting one another and both genders checking their biases at the door. Men can call out another man for describing their appropriately authoritative female boss as a “bitch” and women can examine why other women demanding more in their relationships or being promiscuous is so threatening to them. Women can even decide who takes turns at office domestic tasks like making coffee and getting birthday cards signed, making it a universal effort by the work site and network with each other as they celebrate each other’s triumphs and different traits.

Bridget’s passivity doesn’t help her in being taken seriously at work by her male peers either. Whereas Perpetua is disparaged for being older, heavier, and less conventionally attractive as she is criticized for being authoritative, Bridget is reduced to her sex appeal by Daniel to her face and even described as “fannying about with the press releases” (hearing about this treatment incenses Perpetua to Bridget’s side), thereby reducing Bridget’s femininity into something frivolous and not a endearing trait that helps her navigate the world. Bridget has proved in a deleted scene that she can give a brilliant advertising pitch for a horror novel, sadly the assignment was for a children’s book but it was maddening that the men wouldn’t give Bridget that credit (watch it, I can see Peggy Olson smiling somewhere). Bridget is also hampered by what is called “Imposter Syndrome”: according to Wikipedia, it “is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a 'fraud'” despite have external skills and a number of accomplishments. Aside from her own appearance, Bridget puts her own abilities and intellect down, and it’s no surprise as how her society puts an emphasis on the physical appearance of women: “If you've grown up with messages that you're only valued for your looks and your body, not your skills or intelligence, you may end up getting a certain job or position and wondering whether you truly deserve it or if the hiring manager just thought you were a pretty face”, said clinical psychologist Emily Hu for the BBC (not to mention it’s much harder for women of color who deal with their cultural expectations and prejudice from a white supremacist patriarchy). Bridget’s own outrageous mother hasn’t passed down her bolder traits to her daughter and often makes Bridget feel small as she berates her for “not getting your colours done” or being unmarried.

In a world where tomboys and girly girls are pitted against each other, what would have happened if Perpetua and Bridget have let go of their preconceived notions of one another? Perpetua does seem to see Bridget as more than “blonde hair and big boobs”. It’s worth seeing that when the Bustle wrote about how to combat workplace misogyny, that they emphasized how important it was to support other women in the workplace as Perpetua did for Bridget at the last minute, alongside feeling free to disagree with men and demand a raise. Once again I want to note, Bridget and Perpetua are both white cis able-bodied women from upper-middle class backgrounds, so if their professional journey is fraught just imagine what it’s like for women of color.

Tough Women

“You can stand me up at the gates of hell. But I won't back down.” I Won’t Back Down, Tom Petty

Bridget learns, as we all do, and like Perpetua might have done that if she wanted to overcome her issues, she really has to confront her own discomfort and take risks as she demands more from life. Perpetua is a tough woman: she doesn’t appear to soften, even when she is greeting Bridget or Mark Darcy, who she is impressed by and she seems to encourage Natasha’s efforts to snatch him up. Granted a woman like Perpetua probably learned she had to tough, if she wanted to make it in a male-dominated workspace, I would not be surprised if she had parents who instilled a sense of ambition and toughness in her from a young age, or like Megan from Bridesmaids, she had to deal with a childhood of bullying and took that pain to transform herself into a formidable character.

We also see from her confrontation with Daniel, she isn’t afraid to get harsh with a powerful man especially after she finds out that he has been using a female employee sexually and been denigrating her worth at the office.

We don’t know Perpetua’s physical prowess and she clearly prefers pearls to combat boots, but she does possess traits that are associated with men: logical mind, firm, self-reliant, witty, sharp-minded, a professional in a cutthroat environment, and is flawed while being formidable. Perpetua is strong, a Shonda Rhimes character that Rhimes herself hasn’t created. Sadly like most Tough Girls, she isn’t her own protagonist and is there as an accessory to the main character, the Trinity to The Matrix’s Neo and she is often the lone woman that Bridget interacts with at work. Tough Girls are counterparts to more “typical” women: traditionally feminine women who are softer and more emotional...Bridgets. One thing I want to note is that Bridget is the protagonist instead of a love interest but yet she stands alone as her friendships are not that positive and her relationship with her mother is strained. Like Ripley of the Alien series, Perpetua is the lone smart and strong woman who has to deal with a environment where no one else wants to listen to her and everyone is ruled by their emotions (or their libido). She is Joan Holloway, who weathers the misogynistic waters with her razor-sharp observations and commentary regarding the absurdities of the people who are around her, while not being afraid to command attention and others, even at the risk at not being truly liked but “admired”. Not a phony. Perpetua is a privileged woman but like I stated before, she dealt with a combination of body-shaming and misogyny that toughened her...but why should a woman be tough and hurt? We could have had a scene where Bridget encourages Perpetua to reveal her vulnerabilities and open up along with Perpetua pushing her to be more resilient over a spa day with face masks, pedicures, beer, Milk Trays, pizza, Terminator movies, and hair makeovers while discussing how to hide Uncle Geoffrey’s body.

Strong Independent Women

“The watch I'm wearin', I've bought it. The house I live in, I've bought it. The car. I'm driving, I've bought it. I depend on me, I depend on me.” Independent Women, Destiny’s Child

Imagine trying to reconcile feminist principles of not depending on male partners and rugged individualism that insists the opposite of what John Donne’s quote about how one person is a party of a larger community. You have the Strong Independent Woman, who is used by capitalism to sell feminism and face cream/Spanx/sanitary napkins/Wonderbras/lipstick, who needs no man (or interdependence) to thrive in a still misogynistic world. This misogynistic world also abhors the independence, self-assurance, self-reliance, and self-love of women who choose to follow their path. Meanwhile the non-mainstream feminist and environmental movement have pushed for a culture of interdependence and for a culture that doesn’t base one’s value on how much money or genius or beauty (or what have you) an individual possesses; Bella Abzug noted that “Our struggle today is not to have a female Einstein get appointed as an assistant professor. It is for a woman schlemiel to get as quickly promoted as a male schlemiel”.

But the image of the female individualist for one strong reason: women are still expected to perform the bulk of emotional and domestic labor while being paid less than their male peers for the same job, also because of ingrained sexism and perpetuated self-doubt, many women are still dependent on their spouses, parents, bosses, the opinions of others. It’s nice to see images of powerful, strong, often gorgeous women of wealth not have to depend on men for their worth or their livelihood. But we are flesh-and-blood human beings, not super beings or robots; even Perpetua shows some vulnerability when she refers to Bridget being a lot thinner than she and she is clearly looks crestfallen when she hears that Bridget has been belittled and used for her body by Daniel, we don’t hear much about her circle of friends in the movie aside from Natasha (in the book, she is friends with some same-minded women). Everyone needs an interdependent society of people supporting one another and helping each other grow.

Perpetua both upholds and subverts the tenets of the Independent Woman: she isn’t the supermodel-esque independent woman but Perpetua makes her own money and at lot of it, she dresses very well to project her authority in the workplace, she is bold, rejects the validation of male authority, and she isn’t afraid to be unlikable. She lives in a big city (because independent and single people don’t live in small towns or the suburbs *sarcasm*), presumably in her own spacious apartment or even a townhouse, she has found herself at some point before the story and has a strong sense of self, she works hard and has a strong sense of purpose because of her work ethic, and heaven help the dumbass that underestimates her or any other woman. She is a non-superpowered Carol Danvers: rather than waiting for someone to rescue her, she is quick to rescue herself from self-doubt or even rescue someone from injustice. She is noted to have a love interest, but she doesn’t revolve her world around him and is suggested to make demands for her needs in the relationship, showing she isn’t prone to fuckwittage as Bridget is (perhaps Perpetua learned to put a stop to that bullshit?). Of course because this is Bridget’s story, a woman who yearns for that fairytale ending of marriage, and this is a regressive, “post-feminist” (what sense does that make?) story, Perpetua isn’t a role model and is seen as a polar opposite to Bridget’s softness, ditziness, girliness, romanticism, and self-effacing persona.

I want to stop and say that I am so happy to be writing this essay in 2020, a year in which a large number of women (especially of color) have been elected to political office in record numbers with the Indian and Jamaican American Kamala Harris being elected as Vice President of the United States (and the first woman to do so). She is also independent enough to make her own money and develop her sense of self, along with a strong sense of agency and inter-dependent enough to credit the support and love she has from her blended family including her late mother. In fact the independent women of Broad City, Sex and the City, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Moana, Mulan, and GLOW (crossing self) all have inter-dependent systems of support and are one another’s family (hell even Bridget’s so-called friends are her “Urban Family”). I also want to say, it’s highly likely that Kamala was more a Perpetua and not a Bridget (or else she wouldn’t have been able to succeed like she has done in her career), thus her win as Vice President vindicates Perpetuas who have worked and lived before her.

Working Women Do’s and Don’ts

“You're just a step on the boss man's ladder. But you got dreams he'll never take away.” 9 to 5, Dolly Parton

As established, Perpetua is happily single (but also partnered), she fulfilled in material comforts, she is unafraid to confront men about their bullshit (she has a hard time trying to get Fitzherbert away, I bet), and she has high standards. To paraphrase Charlotte Pickles, to thrive where she works she has to “eat, breathe, and sweat self-esteem” and she does. This is something that Bridget lacks and something I feel Perpetua can help her with. Sadly we never got that chance: the gentle and feminine Bridget and the stern and neutral Perpetua bonding in a mutually beneficial kinship. I’m sure that Perpetua wishes she could talk back to men like Julia Sugarbaker of Designing Women and that her role models came after some viewings of Working Girl, Baby Boom, and Murphy Brown and perhaps by the privileged and successful men (and a few women) in her family. It must be said that despite being referred to and clearly existing, we never see Perpetua’s boyfriend and that’s because pop culture has long depicted women in managerial and supervisory positions as lonely, ice-cold, unfeminine, and hard. Meanwhile more feminine women like Bridget don’t get the respect that Perpetua has and demands, and Perpetua lacks Bridget’s likability (Bridget of the many men and one woman who fall in love with her). While I wouldn’t consider Perpetua to be politically progressive (she is a woman of privilege and Sloan Rangers are considered Tories) but she isn’t a woman who is willing to exploit others for her own bottom line (or the corner office). We do see that she is quick to defend Bridget from slut-shaming or having her worth denigrated by Daniel, which leads to a rare scene of comcaderie between her and Bridget. I get the sense that Perpetua isn’t merely interested in ruling the workplace, but she wants to change the workplace enough to be less toxic (getting rid of Daniel and Fitzherbert).

I can find some similarities to Perpetua in three fictional characters known for their drive in the workplace: Dr. Christina Yang (Grey’s Anatomy), Peggy Olson (Mad Men), and Princess Carolyn (Bojack Horseman). Christina Yang, like her creator Shonda Rhimes (if you are reading this Ms. Rhimes or someone writing or interning for her, please feel free to take ideas for a film or show about Perpetua, I need cheddar), is proudly childfree, dominant, blunt, up for a good time, and voraciously sexual and ambitious. Like Perpetua, she doesn’t aim to please others and very performative in her actions and words along with being caring and brusque (and snarky, especially about the terrifying Mr. Blobby). Also like Perpetua, Yang finds comcaderie with a bubbly young blonde who is sometimes reduced to her beauty (Izzy as played by Katherine Heigel) and tries to lift her girl friends up. While Perpetua has been working in a post Cold War publishing company, Peggy Olson is a young woman from Brooklyn working at a advertising agency in the 1960s, with different struggles from her more “sexier” counterpart (Joan is a more confident Bridget after all, and Peggy has some BJ traits). Peggy is also a trailblazer for assertive working women of today and paved the way for Perpetua across the pond, setting an example from the ground up (partly observing the men above her) when she wasn’t able to find much female role models that didn’t rely on their sexuality or follow a traditional path. Women during that time didn’t have reproductive freedom, equal pay (still, sigh), and working women were shamed for wanting to follow a different path. Peggy also deals with fatphobia in Season One (she was actually pregnant) and divorced herself from her sexuality temporarily (but she experiments with sex and drugs throughout the series). Like Peggy, Perpetua isn’t crippled by Don Draper’s self-loathing (Bridget) or lack of discipline (Daniel) and Perpetua had to learn to believe in herself rather than merely rely on the validation of others. Princess Carolyn is a pink, perky, girly girl cat but like Perpetua she has a relentless drive, is intelligent, hard-working, can sell something (a celebrity image or books), and knows how to positively influence certain people around her. All these women have lived by their own self-definitions and owned the struggles they endured to get ahead.

Can’t Be Tamed

Walter Stratford: Hello, Katarina. Make anyone cry today?

Katarina Stratford: Sadly, no. But it's only 4:30. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Rom Coms (such as Bridget Jones’s Diary) have a nasty habit of wanting to tame, soften, tone down, settle down an independent woman with her strong mind, sharp tongue, active sex life, and own money to matrimony. Then we have heroines who are allowed to fly their freak flag and find their own tribe (or leading man). That is Kat Stratford, the teenage feminist protagonist of 10 Things I Hate About You, a girl that Perpetua would have been at that age if she were American with blonde, pretty privilege. After all Perpetua has been perceived by Bridget (a Bianca without wit or spine) as a “heinous bitch” as delivered by the fabulous Allison Janney; they are perceived as difficult women who rain down their parades with their truth and don’t suffer the foolishness of arrogant men. Such women are supposed to be tamed, which has several meanings. The negative being to “tone down” or “dominate”; an alternate definition has been offered by The Little Prince’s fox “to earn one’s trust”.

We don’t know if Perpetua has anyone, romantic or platonic, to complement her personality and balance her out as Natasha seems to have Perpetua’s negative traits. This is where she and Bridget could have developed a friendship, combining vulnerability and a disdain for the fickle opinions of others and keep from having to choose between love and career, between relationships and financial independence. We could have seen a closer relationship blossom over the story just as Bianca and Kat grow closer to one another in the film. Maybe Bridget demanding more from Mark at the end, telling him that just because he bought her a new diary it doesn’t mean that he can get away with walking away from her and that it makes up for how tight-assed he can be with Perpetua cheering her on and another scene where Bridget smiles and let’s Perpetua squees over something in excitement.

Like Kat, the Perpetuas can find their own tribes or mates.

Women of Privilege in Media

Rich bitches, girl bosses, sassy queens, matriarchs, as Christopher Rosa noted about these women (which includes Perpetua): "They're rude, they're loaded, and we love them for it.” In a world that hates empowered women, as bell hooks bluntly noted, these Regina Georges, Cheryl Blossoms, Alexis Carringtons, and Perpetuas take back that slur and wrap it up in designer couture and fabulous accessories with nary a hair out of place. They own the negative stereotypes and manicure it into an image of fearlessness. They reject the social pressures placed on women to be nice no matter what, likable, fade into the background, and talk themselves down. Rich bitches indulge themselves with no apology and wear their strengths as boldly as their statement jewelry. But what if you don’t want to be bitchy all the time, what if you want to channel that fierceness into something constructive?

#Girlboss is an atom and a half: traditionalists argue that she isn’t a proper “feminine” woman who loses out on heterosexual love and children (”true womanhood”) while many feminists argue that she simply advanced to a seat in the patriarchy and doesn’t give a damn about the little people below her enough to truly make positive changes. Pop Culture has four flavors of the this character, as noted by The Take: the Bitch Boss, the Pre Code Boss who acts the way we think women started acting like after 1968, the Feminine Boss, and the social media savvy Girlboss who starts companies with cutesy names like WAHAM or WEEMAN or GOOP and they are often white and conventionally attractive. The last flavor exploits feminist phrases while selling out to capitalism and patriarchy for women to buy more shit and willing to step on people’s heads while building her empire. Sometimes she’s Charlotte Pickles, a somewhat ruthless but loving mother and CEO who loves angora sweaters, is glued to her phone, and can effectively hit the roof of a overturned boat with her high heel. Perpetua may seem standoffish to care only about her bottom line or take on traditionally masculine traits like Ruth Chatterton in Female or Diane Keaton in Baby Boom, but she proves to be a Leslie Knope when she stands up for Bridget in a heated moment. Perpetua has no necessity for large pink letters or catchphrases to prove she is a powerful (and empowered) woman, she simply is. One can see Perpetua taking over Pemberley Press, first Daniel’s job and then ousting Fitzherbert and taking his position, thus ousting misogyny from that workplace and using her power to uplift more voices in writing.

Bridget and Perpetua, meet, Betty and Veronica (respectively). While the Bridget the Nice Girl avoids her issues (and Betty can be in danger of being subsumed by them), Veronica and Perpetua make their rules and are willing to break them. Like Perpetua, the teenage Veronica wears her posh prep clothes proudly with a string of pearls and headbands holding her shiny hair. Veronica is also confronting a system (and family legacy) that taints America and makes living so impossible for people who have no boots to pull the straps from and handicaps her to a pedestal. Perpetua seems to want her friend Natasha to snap up Mark Darcy (remember she knows nothing of Mark and Bridget) like Veronica in the CW reboot wanted Betty to do with Archie. Both want to work hard and be recognized for their merit, not wanting to depend solely on Daddy’s money, bucking long-standing patriarchal expectations of upper-class young women who were expected to marry a man from a similar class and have children to inherit the money. Perpetua and Veronica show a willingness to get down and dirty while being allies to their less privileged and/or more passive female comrades. They also wield their power to take down over-puffed authority figures who abuse their privilege and have attitude when a woman gets slut-shamed or otherwise mistreated. Remember Daniel and Mr. Titspervert, Perpetua’s specialty is ice.

Legally Blonde and Bridesmaids, etc.

Vivian Kensington. Elle Woods. Professor Stromwell. These women showcase an alternative where cold but supportive women befriend our plucky blonde protagonist in a Playboy bunny suit and a douchebag ex-boyfriend (before ending up with a lawyer who comes off as uptight). Legally Blonde gifted Elle camaraderie with these women while Perpetua was left at the wayside and Elle was given a circle of supportive friends while Bridget had friends who negged her and were a poor influence on her confidence. Where Delta Nu gave Elle their time to help her practice for the LSATS, Bridget’s friends openly wonder out loud that Mark Darcy said he likes Bridget as she is, ditziness and unfashionable (of the time) curves and non-airbrushed looks (really?). We also see Elle add more people to her friend circle, like the working-class Paulette who proves to be mutually supportive of Elle and has been empowered by her to stand up to her ex and then we focus on two women who stand in for Perpetua: the steely Professor Stromwell ( the Mrs. Sarah Paulson, Holland Taylor) and the preppy Vivian Kensington (Selma Blair, la diva). Vivian and Elle start out as rivals for the handsome but douchey Warner Huntington III, who categorizes these women as the wife material Jackie and the fun and hot-tubbing Marilyn, but slowly upon finding out that their professor is a sexist who demands his young interns get him coffee and that Warner lacks Elle’s integrity find some common ground. Vivian is horrified and takes back her previous behavior upon hearing that their professor has sexually harassed Elle, reducing this intelligent and savvy young woman to her sex appeal. Also Professor Stromwell puts Elle on the spot on her first day of classes at and has a reputation for making her students sob, but it’s implied that Stromwell sees a bit of herself in Elle and wants this young woman to succeed and that means challenging her to do the hard work in Harvard. In the climax of the film, when Elle discusses quitting Harvard because of people undervaluing her intellect and being sexually harassed as a final straw, Stromwell turns around in her salon chair and tells Elle: “If you let one male prick ruin your life, you’re not the girl I thought you were.” Stromwell gets credit in Elle’s valedictorian speech at the end of the film. We see here that while Elle upholds girliness and finds new love in a established lawyer, unlike Bridget she has a support system of women (and a few men) who encourage her to kick ass and challenge the perceptions of others and celebrate her triumph in defending someone from a life-altering sentence.

I feel that in 2001, either Annie Mumulo or Kristen Wiig watched BJD and found the relationship between Bridget and Megan wanting as well as I did, this likely spurred them into writing Bridesmaids, a film that centered on women fighting over a best friend rather than a man, where the male love interest listened to the protagonist vent about her friend issues, and where an overweight and unconventional female secondary character pushes our insecure everywoman protagonist to start fighting for her goals and her sense of self, or rather her “shitty life”. Annie (Kirsten Wiig) is a former owner of a bakery that fell victim to the 2008 recession who is hitting rock bottom as her childhood best friend gets engaged and starts befriending her fiancee’s boss’s preened to perfection wife Helen (Rose Byrne) and then finds comfort and motivation in the form of the fiancee’s wacky sister Megan (Melissa McCarthy). Annie gets loonier as the movie goes on (ahem) until Megan persuades her to channel that spirit more constructively; Megan is proud of her hard-earned achievements and is confident but also kind enough to adopt several puppies and see Annie at her lowest. Megan earns her own money and demands more from her relationships than the other women in the movie (unhappy marriages, lack of communication, lack of trust) and emboldens Annie to grab life by the horns, thus starting a new friendship. It’s notable that this film is about post-college aged adults and the role of friendships in their lives.

Perpetua’s Potential

The 2010s have shown more narratives that focused on women’s relationships with one another and have even re-defined what “happily ever after” looks like and as a result of the #MeToo and #TimesUp Movements, women have examined how toxic their culture is to women and finding that the harassment and assault of women to be terrifyingly normalized and it has been for a long time. Millennial and Gen Z women have even questioned the issue of pitting women against each other, one of which is the “not like other girls” attitude that pits the cool babe or the weird girl against the high-maintenance girly girls that easily conform to society (even rewriting these types as friends or lovers to one another).

So what does that mean for Bridget Jones’s Diary? Well we could see a B Plot on Mark Darcy and his divorce from his Japanese ex-wife and she’d be given her own inner life and complexities, Perpetua might have to reconcile her relationship with Bridget and Natasha (the latter who is hostile to the former), we could see Perpetua strike up a friendship with her polar opposite Bridget and the narrative could focus on Bridget helping Perpetua open up her softer side while Perpetua gives Bridget the encouragement to stand up to her (admittedly) trashy family and friends and demand more from her relationship with Mark (or even dump him). We can even see them include Rebecca Gillies, the beautiful trust fund baby that works for Mark and finds Bridget to be desirable as she is (without being backhanded about it Mark!). We can see Bridget become stronger as she has one friend who challenges her to be better and another friend who finds her supremely wonderful and gets her to see it.

Maybe we can see Uncle G die, a girl can dream.

The Rise of the Perpetuas or what happened after Bridget drank some of Perpetua’s Juice

#MeToo, #TimesUp, #BossBitch, Lizzo, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Hillary Clinton, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, the Notorious (and late) Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jacinda Ardern, Michelle Obama, Jameela Jamil, Mindy Kaling, Tiffany Ferg, Kimberly Nicole Foster, Dahvi Waller, Gretchen Whitmer, #BlackGirlsAreMagic, Mothers of the Movement, CaShawn Thompson, Intersectional Feminism, Black Feminism, Mad Men, Mrs. America, Insecure, The Baby Sitters Club, Amy Schumer, GLOW, Emma Gonzalez, Candice Carty Williams, Malala Yousafzai, Kamala Harris, Meghan Markle...all of them have grappled with issues like Bridget and Perpetua and have even expanded the conversation about women’s day to day lives and the small (and large) ways society is misogynistic and have gone further to question why it’s so commonplace. We even see a talk about body neutrality (as opposed to the sanitized body positivity), which one can easily see Perpetua practicing. We also see women being held up in social media as being “stanned” for being difficult, wonderful, achievement oriented, sassy, fierce, outspoken, demanding, and fashionable...all things that Perpetua was put down for.

“I just took a DNA test, turns out I'm 100% that bitch

Even when I'm crying crazy

Yeah, I got boy problems, that's the human in me

Bling bling, then I solve 'em, that's the goddess in me” Truth Hurts, Lizzo

To paraphrase Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?: All this time, they could have been friends.

The year 2020 has been a dismal year for women’s careers as women are swamped with the demands of domestic life and bosses have shown that they won’t cut their employees slack for having kids in the background. People even explored how the pandemic has revealed cracks in society from economic disparity, how women are ultimately shouldered with the burdens of home that men aren’t expected to, how vulnerable marginalized communities are in systems with poor health care and systemic bigotry, and the lack of a social safety net. These are challenges I see Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z women pushing back against (I will show up, pussy hat and mask on my person). One can even see Bridget, the ex Mrs. Darcy, Perpetua, and Rebecca marching in their Women’s March or even the global Black Lives Matter marches as they cheer on (or help) “tipped” over statues of colonizers and slave traders. We’d even see them attend virtual seminars on how to be better allies to BIPOC and listen as ex Mrs. Darcy talked about her difficulties as a East Asian woman in a predominantly white society and Bridget promising to call out her mother for her racist comments. There’d be no good woman/bad-woman dichotomy being perpetuated as they embrace each other’s differences.

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arrogvnces · 5 years

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snow falls, as the calendar says goodbye to november and hello to december. sinclair tries to keep his life together, balancing schoolwork, friends and family. they all pretend he’s okay, taking his smiles as the truth, knowing better than to prode for what’s really underneath the surface. he’s thankful for it, for the space they give him, for the late nights where it’s just him and his car driving down an empty road. it allows him to breathe, to take in how much his life has changed those past two years, to grieve all that’s been taken from him. sometimes, when breathing isn’t enough, he’ll send henri a text, certain it’ll be answered promptly. no one really knows they still talk. if he happens to pass her by on campus, they’ll both look away and their friends will get extra loud to distract them. there’s nothing shameful about texting, but he knows simon will chastise him for holding on if he finds out. he doesn’t want to have to explain that he’s resigned himself to never getting over her, or that he prefers the rush of a notification at two in the morning than nothing at all. so he doesn’t. and the days pass, following his schedule perfectly until his phone beeps with an invitation he all but wishes he could reject.

friday night, instead of stepping into yet another of simon’s hot new clubs, he finds himself uncomfortably sitted at a luxurious table between his father and mother, both on opposite ends. facing him on the other side, ren and tristan are uncharacteristically quiet, as their parents eat their food with all the poise and serenity in the world. he wonders quietly what would happen if he stabbed his hand with the fork he uses to play with his meal. when his father clears his throat, he knows what words will come out of his mouth before he even opens it.

“your mother and i have decided it is time we go our separate ways,” he announces, eyes flitting between his three children. the two youngest stare at him in confusion, while sinclair discreetly scoffs. you didn’t decide shit. “i know it might be hard for you to adjust, but that’s the way life goes. my own folks divorced when i---”

“hold on, is that why you dragged us out of the overwatch tournament?” tristan asks, increduously. their father frowns, an expression sinclair used to fear as a child, but that instills almost nothing in his little brother. leonard was never around long enough to discipline them the way he had with his oldest. “to tell us you and mom are over? fuck, i thought everyone knew that. are you kidding me?”

“watch your language,” leonard says, quietly but severely enough that tristan hesitates. but not for long.

“you can pretend to be a dad when you and your new trophy wife have kids, but until then,” he scoffs, crossing his arms in blatant rebellion. “you don’t fucking tell me what to do.”

a silence settles over the table as he fumes in his corner, leonard quietly stunned in his seat, taking the very first look at the man his second-born is becoming. he switches his gaze over to emily, who continues eating without a care in the world, then finally to sinclair.

“is that how you’re raising your siblings? to show me no respect?” he questions, fingers clenching, the tan mark of a missing wedding ring on his finger.

“it’s not sinclair’s job to raise them,” his mother answers in his stead, dabbing her napkin at the corners of her lips. “it was yours. don’t fault him for being more of a man than you’ll ever be.”

“right, this again,” leonard sighs, snapping his fingers at a waiter passing to ask for more wine. “neither of you have to worry. i’ll right my mistakes. if you need me to be more involved, i’ll be involved. and then maybe we can teach you some manners.” he looks pointedly at tristan, who all but raises his arm to give him the finger, before receiving a kick under the table from sinclair. the two brothers exchange a heated glance, before the youngest cowers in defeat.

“is there anything else you wanted to tell us, or can we go home and move on with our lives?” sinclair says, addressing leonard for the first time tonight. the two stare at each other, a silent battle that’s been going on for as long as he can remember. he no longer sees his father when he stares at that man. instead, he sees a stranger dedicated to pissing on his life again and again. but no more. when the papers are signed, they’ll be done for good.

leonard looks over the table, a mixture of hatred and defiance in each of their faces. only ren looks appropriately sad, eyes gleaming with the lost hope that her parents might’ve been able to work it out. he nods sharply, once. “if you have nothing left to say, then you can go.”

chairs scrape at the speed of lightning, as sinclair watches his siblings rush to the front of the restaurant. his mother and him take their time, emily eyeing her soon-to-be ex-husband with an emotion her son can’t quite place. his parents don’t say anything, as they gaze at one another, decades of a life together likely replaying in their minds. even if love was never there, it must do something to them. the moment is over in a flash, however, as his mother turns on her heels without another word and follows her children out. sinclair attempts to follow her, but he’s stopped mid-step.

“not you,” his father stands up, one hand in his pocket even as his shoulders slump a little. “come on, i’ll take you home.”

“i’m good, thank you,” sinclair tries to walk away again, but leonard is faster, grabbing him by the shoulder and steering him towards his car.

“i insist,” he says, which really means it’s an order. sinclair closes his eyes for a second, tired and wanting nothing more than to call henri to tell her all about this nonsense. but he steels himself in his father’s arm, following him out without saying a word. soon.

outside, his mother throws him a confused look as the valet opens the car door for his family. he waves reassuringly, watching as they leave first, wishing he went with them. both park men stand in silence waiting for his limousine, snow falling quietly on their heads, one blond and one brunette. when the car arrives, sinclair steps in front of his father, finding refuge inside first. they take off into the night, new york passing by outside the tinted windows.

“i’m not going to beat around the bush,” leonard starts, running a hand through his head full of hair. “i want you to come work to park corp again. a real job, this time.” sinclair stares at him for one, two, three seconds before bursting into laughter. he can’t help it, even as leonard scowls at him. “i don’t see what’s so funny about anything i said.”

“are you kidding me?” he asks, the smile taking its time to disappear from his face. “why in the world would i come work for you again? so you and theodore can humiliate me some more? are you sick?”

“i didn’t humiliate you, i taught you how to survive,” his father argues, the wrinkles in his face suddenly too visible for his son. “and you did. you even went as far as to expose a mole i had no idea about. imagine what you could do with more training.”

“and who’s going to train me? your perfect little cfo?”

“me. i’ll train you. with my experience and your brain, we could do the unimaginable.”

the words sink into his brain, taking root and expanding into a vision he used to harbor as a younger man. him and his father, working side by side. sinclair, making leonard proud. his dream could become reality. except --- except it’s not his dream, anymore. he grew up from that, found other things that he wanted. things leonard park took from him. first medicine, then henrietta.

“you know, if you had asked me a year ago,” he says, shaking his head slightly. “if you hadn’t stripped me of my pride, i might’ve said yes. even if it wasn’t what i wanted, i would’ve still said yes. that’s how much i wanted you to like me. respect me. be proud of me. but now?” he looks at him right in the eye, a mirror reflecting his appearance twenty years from now. “now all i want is for you to rot somewhere, far away from me.”

a heavy silence sinks into the limousine, only the quiet sound of the motor resonating across the empty space. he fools himself into thinking the rest of the ride home will be peacefully quiet, until a boisterous laugh rings in his ears. he turns a frustrated expression towards leonard, who’s thrown his head back in apparent delight. when he stops, however, sinclair gulps at the darkness in his gaze.

“did you know your mother said the exact same thing to me?” he reveals, smirking. “i spent so long trying to raise a son like me, but you ended up being exactly like her. and tristan--- god, he’s going to cause me so much trouble. i know you think you’re free from me, sinclair, but things won’t happen the way you want them to.”

“what do you mean?”

“i mean, if you think i’ve been cruel this far, then you have no idea what i’m really capable of---”

he opens his mouth to reply, but a bright light coming from out his father’s window blinds him. he moves to grab leonard’s arm, but it’s too late. the crash punches all air out of him. his world goes spinning, his feet now above his head then back as the car keeps rolling and rolling. he teeters in and out of conciousness, a ringing in his ears that deafens all other noises. when they finally stop, it takes him a few minutes --- or maybe it’s seconds --- to realize he’s been flipped over, held to his seat by the seat belt. warm liquid runs over his forehead and down his eyes, and he realizes belatedly that it’s blood. he tries to move his arm to wipe it away, but the pain nearly has him fainting again. he tries to call out for leonard, but his voice doesn’t come out the first three tries.

“da--d?” he asks, weakly, into the silence of the car. there’s no answer. “dad.” still nothing. he closes his eyes, the pain taking over his entire body, blood now coating his lips. it’s harder to stay awake, with each passing second. he keeps waiting for his father to speak up, but there’s only him.

he’s never been religious, though he’s always believed in god. it was hard for him to devote himself to a higher power, when he’s always had exactly what he wanted. but now, as death knocks on his door a little while after his twenty-first birthday, he thinks it’s the perfect time for his very first prayer. but the words are jumbled in his head, and he’s falling asleep faster than he’d like to. before he goes, he manages to send up a single thought.

please, don’t let henri suffer too much.

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voxcomentumultis · 5 years

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Half-Celestial Cody Timeline

2004-2005 (Cody’s age: not yet born)

Ego, irritated by Yondu’s refusal to hand over Peter, decides to break his own promise to himself. The Expansion is more important than his feelings for Meredith.

He meets a woman named Andrea Morgan. She is a sweet and quiet woman with a fondness for butterflies. She is the only child of an older couple that have both passed at this point.

Andrea falls pregnant and tells Ego, and over the course of the next month, he shows and tells her all about what their child will be able to do.

Ego eventually tells her that he must return to his planet for the time being so he does not lose his powers, but he will return. He tells her he is unsure exactly when, but sometime in the next few years. This is a lie that she believes. Just before leaving, he plants a tumor in her pancreas.

2006-2007 Cody’s age: 0-1

Andrea gives birth to Cody.

Excited by what Ego had previously told her, she encourages the powers Ego told her Cody would have, and within months of his birth he begins exhibiting these powers.

His celestial powers begin as amorphous balls of colored light but over time they begin to take shape, specifically of the butterflies his mother adores.

For his first birthday, she gives Cody a big blue butterfly toy made out of soft teething-friendly material.

2008-2009 Cody’s age: 2-3

Events of Iron Man.

Andrea falls ill and is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Despite best efforts, it takes her fairly quickly. She writes about being sick in the last few pages of her journal, and quits writing when she admits herself to the hospital for around the clock care.

During Cody’s final visit, Andrea tells her son “I am always with you.” He is disturbed by how different she looks, but is able to recognize her. He falls asleep with his head against her shoulder, and she passes while running her fingers through his hair.

At 3 years old, with an unknown father and no other family, Cody is placed in foster care.

2010-2011 Cody’s age: 4-5

Events of Iron Man 2, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk. Steve Rogers is unfrozen.

Cody begins having nightmares about his mother’s death. His powers made stronger by the intense emotion of a four-year-old, he frequently creates impressions of how she looked the last time he saw her that change gradually over time.

Cody begins telling people that “canker” at his mother when asked about her. Eventually he forgets exactly how she died.

Cody is given new foster parents, Katie and Whelan Young. They foster him for 15 months.

2012 Cody’s age: 6

Events of The Avengers.

Cody has gone from telling people that “canker” ate his mother to saying, “The Canker Man ate my mommy,” thus creating the Canker Man. His skeletal appearance is a warped version of how he remembers his mother. His screeches were originally her raspy breath. His eyes glow yellow like the color of her sclera the last time he saw her. He functions similarly to an immune system, indiscriminately destroying anything that causes Cody extreme emotional distress.

Katie falls ill with a bad flu, and it scares Cody, though he’s not entirely sure why.

The Canker Man “eats” Katie by absorbing her entire body. Whelan, previously asleep next to her, screams and searches beneath the blankets for his missing wife in complete denial.

Cody develops his fear of accidentally harming others.

Whelan begins desperately showing Cody pictures of her in an attempt to get him to bring her back. 6 years old at this point, Cody does not remember her right. He brings her back very off to the point she’s barely Katie at all. He cannot sustain her for long either. Whelan can’t help but hate him for this.

Whelan watches news reports of Loki’s attack on New York. He sees the destruction the Avengers cause in their attempts to stop the attack and it only adds fuel to his hatred of Cody, who he sees as being like them.

Whelan comes into Cody’s room one night and aims a gun at the sleeping boy, but instead turns to pull the trigger on a Canker Man in the hallway, waking up Cody and causing it to disappear. With Cody now awake, Whelan can’t go through with his plan to murder Cody to spare others of his pain. He calls the police on himself and Cody is taken away.

As a result of Whelan’s failed murder attempt, Cody develops his fear of retaliation as well as his trust issues and severe insomnia.

2013 Cody’s age: 7

Events of Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World.

Cody is fostered by Peter and Doris Clemens.

Through unknown circumstances, the Canker Man kills both of Cody’s foster parents.

Cody spends almost a month alone in the Clemens’ apartment. He goes door to door once he completely runs out of food. A neighbor calls CPS.

2014 Cody’s age: 8

Events of Before I Wake, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1, and Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2.

Cody is fostered by Mark and Jessie Hobson, who previously lost their young son Sean when he accidentally drowned in the upstairs bathtub. Mark is ready to move on, while Jessie only thinks she is.

When Jessie learns of Cody’s powers she, like Whelan, attempts to get him to bring back a lost loved one. The difference here is that Cody did not know Sean at all, and Jessie does not even admit to herself that that is what she is doing.

Eventually Jessie realizes her mistake and attempts to make up for it, but by then it is too late. Mark is killed by the Canker Man. Not long after, Jessie is as well.

Bounty hunters who are very clearly not from Earth break into the house one night to find him alone. Cody is allowed to pack a small bag before he’s dragged onto a spaceship. He fills his backpack with his old butterfly toy, his mother’s journal, a viceroy in a mason jar, and a spare change of clothes.

Unlike with Yondu’s faction of ravagers, their desire to eat a terran is not a joke. Cody is kept alive and relatively healthy because they’ve been paid half a million units to bring him to his father. Cody kills 3 of them on different occasions that have him completely freaked out.

Cody arrives on Ego’s planet. The bounty hunters tell Ego about what Cody can do.

Ego explains to both of them what their powers are and the fact that they’re immortal. He walks them both through his explanation of the expansion. He taps both of their foreheads to let them see eternity.

Ego admits to killing both of their mothers in nearly the same way. Peter is quick to react violently, while Cody is frozen with shock. Cody finally attacks when Ego crushes the Walkman. In retaliation, Ego impales Cody on the tendrils of lights as well and smashes his mason jar containing the viceroy.

The Guardians crash through the ceiling and obliterate Ego’s form, freeing both half-brothers. Cody climbs onto the pod and has a meltdown over how strange and terrifying everything suddenly is.

Terrified of Ego, Cody does not help Peter fight their father. Instead, he aids the other Guardians in their plan to blow him up and their battle against the Sovereign.

When Mantis’s hold on Ego breaks, he traps everyone with mounds of rock or tendrils of light. What he does to Peter, he also does to Cody, though his main focus is Peter.

Peter attacks Ego, freeing everyone. Cody escapes on the ship with the others as the core of the planet explodes.

Cody did not know Yondu, but seeing everyone else around him cry makes him cry.

Now aware that he actually has family, Cody asks his newfound half-brother if he can stay with them. He is relieved when he’s told that he can.

2015-2017 Cody’s age: 9-11

Events of Avengers: Age of Ultron to Thor: Ragnarok.

Cody travels with the Guardians, helping out on less dangerous missions and slowly working to control his powers.

Initially intimidated and frightened by those around him, he slowly grows comfortable around them. Perhaps it is the fact that Peter is his half-brother, but for once in his life he does not feel like he doesn’t belong.

2018 Cody’s age: 12

Events of Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as the beginning of Avengers: Endgame.

The Guardians come across the Asgardian wreckage and bring a stranger with one eye onto their ship. Cody does not recognize him as Thor, despite being a fan of the Avengers prior to being taken by the bounty hunters. Once Thor tells them who he is, Cody is immediately excited and the room is filled with a short-lived swarm of butterflies in Thor’s colors.

Cody goes with Peter to Knowhere. Thanos turns him into something resembling a bunny. He turns back when Thanos leaves with Gamora.

Cody uses his black butterflies to help in the attack against Tony, Strange, and Parker on Titan before they all realize they’re on the same side.

When discussing their plan to take down Thanos, Cody asks if he can help, but Tony shuts him down, explaining he’s already furious that Parker is with them at all and he’s not about to let a twelve-year-old fight as well. Cody tells them that he can see through the eyes of his creations if he tries hard enough and is told he can fight only on the condition that he stays hidden and well away from the actual battle.

Cody hides among the ruins and fights while seeing through the eyes of a butterfly, leading a swarm of his creation against the titan. He creates a duplicate of himself to help pull off the gauntlet.

Peter attacks Thanos upon hearing he killed Gamora. Thanos wakes up and throws everyone off of him, destroying Cody’s duplicate in the process. Duplicates, especially ones he uses to see through, are draining to him, and Cody is unable to continue fighting. He remains hidden among the ruins.

Cody comes out of hiding once Thanos is gone, exhausted. He makes his way towards his brother, wanting to comfort him for what happened to Gamora, but before he can get to him, Mantis fades in Peter’s arms. Then Drax turns to dust.

Cody doesn’t register at first that Peter is dead, and doesn’t really know at one point he starts screaming. The next thing he knows he’s trying to piece together a pile of dust on the ground. Someone pulls him away and he’s not sure who, but a tornado of black butterflies erupts from the ground and from them come a Canker Man who begins searching for a long-gone Thanos.

Already exhausted prior to his outburst, his creations disappear and Cody passes out in the arms of the person holding him. He wakes up on his brother’s ship and finds that Tony and Nebula are the only other survivors. He’s inconsolable the entire time they’re stuck in space.

Cody is in as bad a shape as Tony is when Carol returns them to earth. Cody tells Rocket that Peter, Mantis, Gamora, and Drax are dead. Rocket and Nebula comfort each other while Cody is given much needed medical attention.

2019-2022 Cody’s age: 13-16

Events of the time skip.

Cody spends a year at the compound. He grows fond of Nat and asks Tony if he can use his lab for his own small project. Using his powers to aid him, he creates his own version of Peter’s helmet, one with a blue face and green eyes. During this time, he has also been perfecting his control of his powers, and can now fully control the Canker Man.

He asks Rocket and Nebula to return to earth because he wishes to join them. He sews a big black butterfly to the back of a spare ravager trench coat and tells them he’s going by Star-Fly now. He says he’s not quite Star-Lord and never will be him, but that the world needs someone to fill in his shoes, and who better than his half-brother? Cody uses his powers to intimidate wrongdoers into surrender to avoid needless bloodshed.

Frequently, Cody uses his powers in his sleep and temporarily creates copies of those they lost or scenes from his own memory. On at least one occasion, Rocket finds “Peter” flying the ship even though it’s currently on autopilot, then turns his head to see Cody asleep in the other chair.

2023 Cody’s age: 17

Events of the rest of Avengers: Endgame.

Cody is not a part of the time travel. There aren’t enough particles for him and he is the only minor in the room. He does however question Rhodey about Peter upon his return.

Cody is caught beneath rubble when the compound is destroyed. He creates the Canker Man to help free him.

He goes all out in the battle against Thanos. His enormous swarm of butterflies towers over the battlefield and tears apart members of the titan’s army like frenzied piranhas. Multiple Canker Mans appear and devour enemies as well.

When the battle is over, Cody is finally able to see Peter again. Both of them are wearing their helmets. They tap the buttons to reveal their faces, and Cody collapses against his half-brother with exhaustion and weeps into his chest. He’s missed him so much, and he can hardly believe that Peter is real.

Cody becomes an official member of the Guardians. No longer will he be left behind on missions. He happily welcomes Thor as part of the team.

#it keeps them safe until they're grown up | cody headcanons #his father's ego | cody verse #cancer cw #death cw #dont read if you havent watched the movie cody is from or a:eg #this actually took me like 4 hours to write my hands are CRAMPING

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hope-for-olicity · 6 years

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Fabulous Olicity Fanfic Friday - December 7th, 2018

Happy Friday! So this is my attempt to both thank awesome fanfic writers for their amazing work and offer my recommendations to anyone who is interested. Here are the fantastic fanfic stories I read this week! They are posted in the order I read them.

Earth 2 Felicity Q-Smoak by @cruzrogue - A look into Earth 2 Felicity's life and how she may meet Oliver http://cruzrogue.tumblr.com/post/180523358099/earth-2-felicity-q-smoak-having-fun-with-this-i

Homecoming by @alexiablackbriar13 - The journey home from Slabside is exhausting for Oliver, who is already bloody, battered and bruised from the riot. Felicity takes care of him and stops him from fracturing. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16764172

Love and Little Cupcakes multi-chapter WIP by @christinabeggs - Felicity loved sweets so much that she paid no attention to her lovelife. Until Thea Queen came into her store wanting fabulous cupcakes for her sixteenth birthday. SO ADORABLE! http://archiveofourown.org/works/12400539/chapters/28216053

Just Beneath the Surface multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow arrow - When an S.O.S signal is sent to the FBI from a woman named Felicity Smoak, Director Oliver Queen knows that she is in grave danger. He can’t help but notice the haunting similarities between what’s happening to her and what happened nine years ago; in thirteen unsolved cold cases that drove ex-agent John Diggle out of the bureau. With a race against the clock, Oliver enlists the help of his old mentor to reopen the investigation, and hopefully save Felicity’s life. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16239002/chapters/37963052

The Gate by @foreverfelicityqueen - What might have gone through Oliver's head as he was being released and seeing his wife for the first time in a while. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16768138

To Have and To Hold by anythingbutplatonic - It's been six months and twelve days since she's seen him. It’s been five thousand, four hundred and sixty-eight hours since she’s really, really seen him. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16761286

Carry You Like You Carry Me multi-chapter Complete by inlovewithimpossibility - three-shot on post-7x07, dealing with the immediate after-effects of Oliver's release https://archiveofourown.org/works/16760950/chapters/39324724

The Numbness of Disuse by @juvinadelgreko - A short one-shot about Oliver and Felicity’s return from Slabside. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16758562

(Tear Me To Pieces, Skin and Bones) Hello, Welcome Home. by @inenochian - Oliver and Felicity spend their one year anniversary in their bed. Recovering. Healing. Loving. (pure and unadulterated fluff because that's what we deserve) https://archiveofourown.org/works/16773454

With the Speed of an Arrow multi-chapter WIP by @academyofshipping - Oliver Queen’s elite and silver-spoon life has taken some blows in the past few years, but he is still the carefree billionaire everyone knows of and loves. When his role in the family business is in jeopardy and he is introduced to a motley of new people, his status quo is threatened. With a changed perspective, Oliver realizes his feeling for his best friend and anchor-in-life, Felicity Smoak, may be more than just platonic. OR A modern adaption of Jane Austen’s Emma with a gender swap* and no island. *Knowing that gender is not binary https://archiveofourown.org/works/16559846/chapters/38799857

Doppelgangers P2 by @lostolicityscenes - Oliver is taken by Faux Felicity who believes she can spice up his sex life https://lostolicityscenes.tumblr.com/post/180592892411/doppelgangers-part-2-part-1-nsfw-more

Home To You multi-chapter WIP by @the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl - Oliver Queen has never done what his family expected of him. He took a gap year after high school instead of going to college right away. He quit his fraternity sophomore year to join the student newspaper, switching his major from business to journalism. He became a photojournalist for a wire service instead of taking a place at Queen Consolidated. He went missing after six months instead of coming home for his sister’s twenty-first birthday. He survived five years of captivity in a war zone when everyone thought he was dead. He came home. But home didn’t have a place for him in it anymore. His parents were both dead, casualties of their own mistakes and a city they had turned against them. His sister was all grown up, the CEO of Queen Consolidated with a fiancé and a dog and a life of her own. Oliver didn’t belong in his old life, but there was nowhere else for him to go. He was a man without a home, without any way of finding one, until he stopped by the IT department of his sister’s company to get files off an old, battered memory card, and found a woman with curly blonde hair and bright, intelligent eyes chewing on a bright red pen and swearing at a computer screen. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12613188/chapters/28734552

Time for a Story multi-chapter WIP by @smkkbert - This fic shows Olicity and their life as a (married) couple with family. Although Olicity (and their kids) are the protagonists, other characters of Arrow and Flash make appearances. YOU NEED THIS STORY IN YOUR LIFE. https://archiveofourown.org/works/3912157/chapters/8757172

The Queen's Mage multi-chapter WIP by @the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl - Words have power, and mages, those with the aptitude to draw on that power, are few in number. Thus, their services are highly sought after by anyone who has exhausted all mundane means of solving whatever problem is plaguing them. Felicity is reminded of this fact the hard way when she is hired by Moira Queen, the Lady Starling, to find and return to her son Oliver, who fled his family home five years ago following the death of his father. With a threat hanging over her should she return without Robert Queen's heir, Felicity begins her search. When she finds Oliver, and ends up joining his vigilante crusade while she waits for him to decide whether to return home, the last thing she expects to do is fall in love with him. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14617068/chapters/33781269

Charmed I'm Sure! multi-chapter WIP by @christinabeggs - What happens when three witchy sisters take on the evil in the world? https://archiveofourown.org/works/15852249/chapters/36922482

Hard To Find Love multi-chapter WIP by Mellowyellowdiamonds - Through a tragic twist of fate Felicity finds herself left with an orphaned young William Clayton. Keeping her promise to her friend, Felicity raises William diligently, loving him as if he were her own child, only to have Moira Queen storm into their lives several years later demanding custody of her grandson. Locked in a war with Moira Queen, things get complicated when Felicity finds herself developing unwanted feelings for William's biological father, Oliver Queen. At the same time she must try to manage her meddling 13 year old son, who has it in his head that if Felicity would just cooperate and fall for his father, everything would be right in the world. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15941786/chapters/37173917

Different People by @geneshaven - Olicity after their talk in 7x08 https://geneshaven.tumblr.com/post/180822452124/different-people

Arrow Ficlet: Oh the Past, It Wanted Me Dead by @theshipsfirstmate - post-7x07. It’s hard to believe she’s seen him look worse. https://archiveofourown.org/works/8435797/chapters/39324094#workskin

Rebels Connected multi-chapter Complete by @mindramblingsfics - Felicity Smoak is an escaped mutant on the run. Oliver Queen, leader of an underground safe house for mutants to call home comes to her rescue. Everything changes once he brings her into the organization and his life. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16014089/chapters/37369784

From Somewhere Within multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow - Their connection has always felt natural to them, safe and secure. But others tend to fear what they don’t understand, and as far as their enemies are concerned, the world isn’t ready to accept two people who can know each other the way that Oliver and Felicity do. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16009244/chapters/37356257

Pieces of Always multi-chapter WIP by @so-caffeinated and @dust2dust34 - Life continues after Forever is Composed of Nows. Ongoing non-linear collection of family moments for the Queens. http://archiveofourown.org/works/8220479/chapters/18840356

My Thoughts on You multi-chapter WIP by @rachelrenalove -Felicity Smoak is sure of 3 things: 1. She's a badass and she is damn good at what she does. 2. She hates the man in the green hood. 3. Oliver Queen is a pain in her ass and she cannot wait until the day she can quit her job at Queen Consolidated. Or Felicity Smoak goes undercover at Queen Consolidated and meets Oliver Queen. She quickly realizes that she doesn't like him and wishes she was never chosen for this mission. Outside of QC, she is dealing with her hatred towards the man in the green hood that has found out exactly which buttons of hers to press in order to piss her off. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15089954/chapters/34989344

Life's All About Changes multi-chapter Complete by Crazyreader2468 - After agreeing to plead guilty to being the Green Arrow in order to get FBI assistance in capturing Diaz, Oliver finds himself in a supermax, a maximum security federal prison, serving a life sentence. As he struggles to become accustomed to life in prison, his family, friends, and teammates struggle to live without him, as well as continually attempting to find a way to get him pardoned. Will they succeed in obtaining a pardon and will Oliver survive until they do? Mostly AU from right before the ending of episode 6 x 22 and after most of 6 x 23. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14936172

Re-Airrow 2x10 by @lostolicityscenes - Just one scene for the episode: A riff on the line that Oliver says to Felicity about Barry. https://lostolicityscenes.tumblr.com/post/180799804486/re-airrow-2x10

If I Tremble multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow - A collection of prompts and ficlets, with all the smut! Olicity sexy times are the best times. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15409122/chapters/35762643

seemingly impossible (but not untrue) multi-chapter WIP by @alexiablackbriar13 - Young genius historian Dr Felicity Smoak unknowingly and accidentally calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript within the Oxford Bodleian Libraries - a book that has been lost for centuries. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Felicity wants nothing to do with magic, despite her unruly and powerful abilities. But her discovery of Ashmole 782 sets the world of creatures stirring; with a mystery afoot and new, dangerous magical abilities manifesting for her to navigate, she is approached by the enigmatic vampire biochemist Professor Oliver Queen, who seems to have a deep interest in both the manuscript… and her. Based on A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16224353/chapters/37923743

// @emmaamelia95 // @mel-loves-all // @oliverfel4 // @green-arrows-of-karamel // @coal000 // @miriam1779 // @memcjo// @captainolicitysbedroom // @tdgal1 // @spaztronautwriter // @lalawo1// @quiveringbunny // @wrongshipper // @thebookjumper // @vaelisamaza // @myhauntedblacksoul // @lovelycssefan // @laurabelle2930 //

#FabulousOlicityFanficFriday #olicity fanfiction #fic recs

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lyannas · 7 years

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"Remember, she is Dornish.”

Or, Dorne is Westeros’ erotic, exotic, made complete with a helping handful of racism on top.

As someone from a West Asian culture living in a Western country, I had noticed something early on in the depiction of the Dornish that hit close to home and sat ill with me. To begin with, we were informed of the existence of the Dornish yet did not meet a prominent Dornish character until book 3, Oberyn Martell, who was observed through Tyrion’s POV chapters . Before we meet him, a few things are made clear: Dorne makes wine, they’re still upset over Princess Elia’s death, and they are very much the other. When anyone from north of Dorne speaks about the Dornish, they specify it as such, referring to them as Dornish, Dornishmen, and Dornish women. They are set apart from other Westerosis in the similar way to the Iron Islanders. Their culture is different, therefore specifications are required. While this in no way is a bad thing, as all cultures should be different in some way, discussion of Dornish culture by non-Dornish sources reveals a type of racism reserved specifically for the Dornish. Tyrion when he first meets Oberyn considers cracking asking “if he knew how a Dornishman differed from a cowflop”, an example of the casual racism that all non-Dornish seem to hold of the Dornish.

The problem goes beyond the racism of the Westerosi characters, however. George R. R. Martin failed the Dornish (and the Essosi) in several aspects of writing, by using racist tropes in his depiction of them and by introducing the Dornish so late and with so little. He did not introduce a prominent Dornish character until book 3, did not provide a Dornish POV until book 4, and even then gave us very little. Of the 9 Dornish POV chapters in books 1-5, one of them belongs to the pretty racist Reachman Arys Oakheart, 2 belong to the Norvoshi Areo Hotah, and the last 6 are split between Quentyn (4 chapters) and Arianne (2 chapters). While there appears to be more Arianne chapters to come in TWOW (2 so far), this is a shockingly small amount of Dornish perspective, with Quentyn’s story not even taking place in Dorne (and ending with his death).

In this essay, I’ll tackle the history of this anti-Dornish racism, how it is practiced by those in Westeros and abroad, and the (often racist) tropes Martin uses to prop up it.

Culture and Ethnicity

Before delving into the issue of anti-Dornish racism itself, it might help to provide context as to who the Dornish are, and what makes them so culturally and ethnically unique in the first place.

Dorne was first populated by the First Men and later by a smaller group of Andals. They had also historically been an ununited country with many kings and lords. That was until about 1,000 years prior to the events of ASOIAF, when Princess Nymeria of Ny Sar led her people on ten thousand ships from the Rhoyne to Dorne. The Rhoynar who boarded her ships were the last survivors of the Rhoynish Wars fought between the Rhoynar and the Valyrians.

Perhaps recognizing her power and her great numbers, Mors Martell pursued an alliance with the Rhoynish princess, and together the two of them managed to conquer Dorne and unite it for the first time since Dorne was settled. The two would marry, and their children presumably continued the Martell line. Princess Nymeria would also later marry two other Dornish lords-- a Lord Uller and a Ser Davos Dayne.

The Rhoynar brought with them some significant customs. One such custom was House Martell’s new titles of “princes” and “princesses”, instead of “kings” and “queens”. Yet despite this being a specific Rhoynish custom, there is a misunderstanding among canon sources re: Nymeria’s title. She is often referred to as a “warrior queen” in the context of the books, and there is even a book titled “The Loves of Queen Nymeria”-- despite the fact that Nymeria was never a queen, she was a princess, as per the Rhoynish fashion. It’s a small and subtle proof of how Rhoynish culture (and by extension, Dornish and Essosi cultures) are misunderstood by outside sources. Another thing was their religion, which died out in favor of the Faith of the Seven. The third and perhaps most culturally significant thing was their laws of inheritance. The Rhoynar practiced absolute primogeniture, which allows the firstborn child, regardless of gender, to inherit their parents’ titles and lands. This is a practice that is carried out among most Dornishmen, though GRRM had noted in an interview that some houses in the mountains still practice the First Men laws of male-preference primogeniture.

The alliance with the Rhoynar also came with extensive intermarriage:

When Mors Martell took Nymeria to wife, hundreds of his knights, squires, and lords bannermen also wed Rhoynish women, and many of those who were already wed took them for their paramours. Thus were the two peoples united by blood.

It also came with “wealth”, described mostly as their skill in metalworking:

The Rhoynar brought considerable wealth with them; their artisans, metalworkers, and stonemasons brought skills far in advance of those achieved by their Westerosi counterparts, and their armorers were soon producing swords and spears and suits of scale and plate no Westerosi smith could hope to match.

This in particular is of interest, as a brief exchange between Tyrion and Illyrio shows how Westeros underplays the Rhoynish influence on metalworking in favor of emphasizing Westerosi accomplishments:

"What sort of gods make rats and plagues and dwarfs?" Another passage from The Seven-Pointed Star came back to him. "The Maid brought him forth a girl as supple as a willow with eyes like deep blue pools, and Hugor declared that he would have her for his bride. So the Mother made her fertile, and the Crone foretold that she would bear the king four-and-forty mighty sons. The Warrior gave strength to their arms, whilst the Smith wrought for each a suit of iron plates."

"Your Smith must have been Rhoynish," Illyrio quipped. "The Andals learned the art of working iron from the Rhoynar who dwelt along the river. This is known."

"Not by our septons." --Tyrion II, ADWD

There is also the Rhoynish “water magic”, which is credited for the natural growth of Dorne:

Even more crucially, it is said the Rhoynish water witches knew secret spells that made dry streams flow again and deserts bloom.

Thus after a thousand years of intermarriage, assimilation and unity, it’s acknowledged that the Rhoynar invasion had a great impact on Dornish culture and their ethnic makeup. The Rhoynar were theorized to have olive skin, dark hair, and dark eyes, features we see continue to exist in the Dornish, namely in those who live along the coast and in central Dorne. The permissive attitude towards same-sex relationships is also credited to the Rhoynar.

During his unsuccessful Conquest of Dorne, Daeron I would proceed to categorize the Dornish based on his own observations, categories that may not necessarily be reflective of the true ethnic makeup of the Dornish. He categorized them as Salty, Stony, and Sandy Dornishmen, noting that the Stony Dornishmen as descended from the First Men and least touched by Rhoynish blood. He also attributed general physical characteristics to each group. Yet despite the variability in physical appearances amongst the Dornish, one thing is made abundantly clear: they are all ethnically Dornish. They practice many of the same customs and share a common culture; there is no evidence of stony/sandy/salty distinction amongst the Dornish that the Westerosi employ and seems to be only a form of Westerosi colorism. The Westerosi themselves do not consider one group of Dornishmen to be better than the other. They are Dornish, and that is that.

Dorne is also home to a huge commerce hub, as they have many types of spices, fruits, their own brand of wine, and their famous sand steeds, reputed for being the fastest horses with incredible endurance. They are also noted as trading across the sands using caravans, and conducting trade in Essos. These are among the many things that mark the Dornish as unique from the Westeros. Unfortunately, it is also their uniqueness that’s used against them by prejudiced Westerosis.

History

The reasons for Dorne’s distinction are made clear when analyzing the history of Westeros and its relationship with Dorne. Dorne had been the only kingdom not conquered by Aegon and his sisters, and was left unconquered for nearly 200 years, until Daeron I Targaryen tried to do what his predecessors could not. This cost him his life, as well as the lives of Lyonel Tyrell and Rickon Stark, both the respective lords of their houses. It was estimated that at least 50,000 Westerosi died in the conquest, which had come undone through a Dornish rebellion, and did not end until Baelor Targaryen sought peace with the Dornish. This peace was sealed through the marriage of Daeron II Targaryen and Mariah Martell, and Daeron II brought Dorne into the Seven Kingdoms through another marriage between his sister Daenerys Targaryen and Maron Martell.

But before Daenerys and Maron’s marriage, King Aegon IV launched an unprovoked attack on Dorne in hopes of conquering them again. Aegon IV was noted as having an intense hatred of the Dornish, one that likely began during his time as a commander during Daeron I’s Conquest of Dorne. Such a hatred did not prevent him from taking Cassella Vaith, a Dornish hostage, as a “mistress”, where he kept her confined to his rooms and presumably raped her, as Cassella would be described as suffering a sharp decline in mental health after the ordeal.

Aegon IV used that same hatred he had that thrived in the marches, stormlands, and the Reach to launch an attack on Dorne that proved to be a complete and utter failure. His son, Daeron II, was married to Mariah Martell at this point, and had the support of the Prince of Dorne. It was no secret that Aegon IV hated Daeron II, hated the Dornish, and tried to undo their power before he died-- which ultimately, he would fail at.

The bloody events of the conquest and the prolonged period of time in which Dorne was an independent kingdom had served to further other the Dornish, who despite joining the Seven Kingdoms, had retained much of its unique culture. Even so, they negotiated multiple marriages into the royal family, one of which would peacefully bring Dorne into the Seven Kingdoms. Martells would marry Targaryens three times, and there is one recorded marriage between a Dayne (Dyanna) and a Targaryen (Maekar I). All of these marriages resulted in the current generations of Martells and Targaryens, save for the marriage of Elia Martell and Rhaegar Targaryen (provided that Young Griff is not truly Aegon VI).

These marriages unfortunately did not increase their popularity amongst the Westerosi. The World of Ice and Fire notes that the concessions that Dorne had won through the marriage between Daeron II and Mariah Martell had upset some the powers at court (concessions that took two years to settle, not exactly easily given). Such concessions included keeping House Martell’s titles of “Prince” and “Princess”, lax tax collection, and the autonomy to maintain their own laws. Daeron II’s court whispered that his firstborn son, Baelor, looked “more Martell than Targaryen” with his black hair and eyes, and he was derided for his name, as the Baelor who came before him was perceived as feeble (and coincidentally, was remarkably merciful and forgiving towards the Dornish; he had pardoned the Dornish prisoners taken during the conquest when they were set to die). Those who opposed Daeron II would cite the Dornish court and Daeron’s peace with the Dornish as part of their reasoning for support Daemon Blackfyre in the Blackfyre Rebellion. In fact, it was precisely because of hate for the Dornish that Daemon gained greater support:

In truth, the seeds found fertile ground because of Aegon the Unworthy. Aegon had hated the Dornish and warred against them, and those lords who desired the return of those days—despite all the associated misrule—would never be happy with this peaceable king. Many famed warriors who looked with dismay on the peace in the realm and the Dornish in the king's court began to seek Daemon out. -- The World of Ice and Fire

Thus, anti-Dornish racism played an essential part in sparking the very first Blackfyre Rebellion, which Daemon Blackfyre would lose and which left terrible scars on the realm, stretching to present canon.

Another more subtle form of anti-Dornish sentiment came in the response to the marriage between Daenerys Targaryen and Maron Martell. Rumors began to fly that Daenerys was actually in love with Daemon Blackfyre, despite the fact that there was no evidence to support these claims. Their marriage appeared to be a peaceful and fruitful one and Maron Martell would actually come to build the Water Gardens for his Targaryen wife. We learn through the Dornish chapters that Doran has a great fondness for the Water Gardens, and enjoyed spending his days watching the children play there. It is duly significant in the fact that Daenerys Targaryen was credited for allowing children of all social classes to come play at the Gardens, and had pointed out to her son and heir re: the different children, “There is your realm, remember them, in everything you do.”-- a sentiment that Doran said was repeated to him by his mother, proof that the Dornish cherished this alliance and the peace it brought far more than the disgruntled Westerosi. Peace with the Dornish and acceptance of their presence was something many Westerosi did not want; they preferred to hate them and go to war with them instead.

A similar sentiment can be seen in the marked divide between the Reach and Dorne. This divide is an old one, as the two nations had long fought over possession of the Dornish Marches along their borders. It was deepened by the assassination of Lyonel Tyrell during the conquest where Lord Tyrell, who took on the practice of sleeping in the lord’s chambers of the Dornish castles he conquered, was murdered in a bed of scorpions. Then the divide was renewed again when Oberyn Martell unhorsed a young Willas Tyrell during a tourney joust, and Willas’s leg got caught in the stirrup, rendering that leg crippled. Despite the fact that it was an accident, and that Oberyn and Willas remained friends who kept a correspondence, this had set the Dornish and the Reach against each other once again. Olenna calls Ellaria “the serpent’s whore”, and in King’s Landing fights break out between Dornishmen and Reachmen.

Yet the most disturbing anti-Dornish sentiment we see does not stem from sour memories of war and conquest, but from plain and simple racism.

Stereotypes and the Exotic-Erotic

Pop culture, particularly pop culture in the West, and the pop culture that GRRM grew up with, has done much to regress various Asian cultures to a few simple things: sex, violence, and trickery. From Dragon Lady to harem girl to terrorist to bloodthirsty Arab tribal leaders preying on innocent white women, there’s no shortage of demeaning, othering, and fetishizing stereotypes that are still alive and well in the minds of many.

A subset of these tropes fall into a broader “exotic-erotic” trope, which involves the hypersexualization of a foreign culture. This sort of writing, where the foreign people are the most sexual people, are exemplified in pop culture tropes such as the dragon lady trope, harem girl, hot g*psy woman, spicy latinas, fetishization of black women,-- all tropes and real life stereotypes associated with non-white or foreign people being more sexually aggressive, attractive, or having lax attitudes about sex in contrast with their more reserved white counterparts. It is not a positive trope; it is a reductive and fetishizing trope meant to conflate foreignness with sexiness that far overshadows any other cultural markers that might exist. And of course, it is often exemplified by women.

Now, I should preface this by saying there is nothing wrong in theory with a society being sexually liberated, or a society that is accepting of a spectrum of sexualities. There is a problem, however, when these sexually liberated societies are almost exclusively associated with characters coded as characters of color, as I noted with the tropes listed above. This is because the sexual liberation of these characters are not actually liberating; it is part of the dehumanization of these characters and their culture, as it reduces them down to sex. This is an issue that goes far beyond Dorne, and far beyond even the scope of the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire. This is a fundamental issue with Martin’s writing.

To start with, I’ll address how this is a pervasive issue with the writing of non-Westerosi cultures. Practically every society outside of pre-Dornish conquest Westeros is associated with some form of eroticism.

The Summer Isles: Sex is considered a holy skill and is not taboo in any context. It also happens to be populated by dark-skinned, specifically “ebony-skinned” people.

Meereen: In Daenerys III of ADWD, Dany is a witness to a bizarre sex show, where dancers have artsy sex while music plays in the background. This is apparently not that unusual for the culture at all.

Dothraki: Orgies at a wedding are a normal thing. Public sex is regarded as normal, to the point where Drogo can have sex with Dany in front of his whole khalasar and no one blinks an eye. They are also amongst one of the worst written racist caricatures in the books.

Lys: Worship a “love goddess” and are known for their pillow houses and bedslaves. They are a light-skinned people, but are Essosi nonetheless.

Dorne: The people are “hot-tempered, wild, and wanton”. People sing a song about a Dornishman’s unfaithful wife and the hot-headed revenge he enacts on her partner, and everyone thinks it’s hilarious.

So essentially, as soon as you step outside of mainstream Westerosi culture, you are immediately bombarded with sex. With the majority of the characters being in Westeros, and Essos being considered the foreign side show, it becomes particularly apparent that their sexual liberation is not a mark of an advanced or more socially accepting society, but a mark of foreignness. After all, there are other practices in Essos that are amoral, such as slavery and forced castration, that are more unusual and far more abhorrent, and do not take place in Westeros.

Moving apart from the issues in writing, the exotic-erotic stereotype is also manifested in the attitudes of the Westerosi toward the Dornish. For instance, there is a song titled “The Dornishman’s Wife” that narrates the story of a man who sleeps with a Dornishman’s wife, and the hot-headed Dornishman’s revenge on said man. While it’s largely seen as a funny and bawdy song, it is actually in line with what many people truly believe of the Dornish. Westerosis push the narrative that the Dornish are incapable of monogamy and would have sex with anyone. It is oft repeated that the Dornish are hot-headed, wanton, and highly sexual. This mindset is displayed in plain terms by Arys Oakheart, who himself is from the Reach:

She sighed. "With your other princess. You will make me jealous. I think you love her more than me. The maid is much too young for you. You need a woman, not a little girl, but I can play the innocent if that excites you."

"You should not say such things." Remember, she is Dornish. In the Reach men said it was the food that made Dornishmen so hot-tempered and their women so wild and wanton. Fiery peppers and strange spices heat the blood, she cannot help herself. -The Soiled Knight, AFFC

Yep. It is a commonly repeated sentiment in the Reach (and elsewhere) that the Dornish’s spicy food is what makes them “hot-tempered” and “so wild and wanton”.

On the topic of Arianne Martell, she is presented to us first through Arys Oakheart as a lusty Dornish lover. Our first impressions of her come from Arys, whose racism towards her and the Dornish is sexualized, who describes the details of her body in cringeworthy detail, and informs us of the gross stereotypes about the Dornish outlined above. Martin sets up her character as the hypersexualized, exotic-erotic foreign girl: lusty and sexy and with huge nipples, apparently. She exudes sexuality and greatly enjoys sex, and we later learn that this is not entirely an act-- Arianne is sexual in a way that no other POV character is, which is significant when there are only two Dornish POV characters. Aside from her first highly sexualized introduction, in her POV chapters we learn that she has a huge sexual imagination (she’s even imagined having sex with her uncle Oberyn) and sexual experiences from a young age. She notes that she had her first sexual experience with Drey, accompanied by Tyene, at only ten years old where it might have escalated further if it were not for Drey’s overexcitement. She would lose her virginity to Daemon Sand at fourteen years old. By 23, she has had many lovers, including the knight of the Kingsguard, the pretty racist Arys Oakheart.

But it must be said that sex does play an important role in Arianne’s narrative. As she said herself, “Prince Oberyn had armed each of his daughters so they need never be defenseless, but Arianne Martell had no weapon but her guile.” She uses sex, seduction, and manipulation as her weapons of choice to get what she wants. There is nothing wrong with this in itself; not every woman can or should have to carry a weapon to assert herself, and Arianne holds autonomy over her own body. Cersei too uses the same weapons to get what she wants, though her relationship with sex is different, sometimes even negative, and she was not allowed full autonomy with her body the way Arianne had. Arianne is still a markedly more sexual character than most of the other POV characters-- and it’s something Arys notes and uses to reinforce the stereotype he knows about “wanton” Dornish women. The exotic-erotic trope fits Arianne almost perfectly, and at the same time is used as justification for casual racism against her. In that respect, her sexuality becomes a double-edged sword.

Before I’m misunderstood, let me say that Arianne enjoying sex is not the problem here; Asha Greyjoy also enjoys sex, but she is in a very different position than Arianne. Asha is a warrior who does not rely on sex as a weapon, therefore sex is not prominent or even important in her narrative. Asha is also in a position where she has to challenge the gender roles of her traditionally patriarchal culture without being totally dismissive of her own womanhood (“Cunt again?...”). Asha is not hypersexualized by any stretch of the imagination, and no one around her attempts to paint her as such. She is depicted to us as a warrior woman with a normal, healthy sex life, and sex does not infiltrate her thoughts nearly as often as it does with Arianne. It also helps that the Iron Islanders have been in the books since book one, that they have four POV characters, and that we know that despite other stereotypes about the Iron Islanders, none of them imply that the food they eat make their women sex-crazed and “wanton”.

While we know that Tyene and Arianne had early sexual experiences, it seems the trend only continues. In a released Arianne chapter of TWOW, we see fourteen year old Elia Sand on the lap of a man twice her age and kissing him. While Arianne is quick to end the tryst, it begs the question why GRRM would write such a scene to begin with, if not to reinforce the hypersexualization of the Dornish, even amongst young girls.

However, despite the introduction of a few “sex positive” (in this case, I’d argue that they’re needlessly hypersexualized) characters, we know that this is not reflective of all of the Dornish. One has only to look to Doran Martell to see that the stereotype of overtly sexual and non-monogamous Dornishmen is untrue. Doran, despite being separated from his wife for many years, was not noted to have taken on paramours or ever even sought out an annulment or divorce. It could also be surmised that Elia Martell was similarly loyal to her husband, despite his public humiliation of her. The same could be said of Dyanna Dayne and Mariah Martell, and could be implied with many other Dornish women. Quentyn is described as almost painfully shy, what with his hiding his infatuation with Lord Yronwood’s eldest daughter for years. He was awkward with girls, and at 19 was still a virgin.

Thus, the exotic-erotic trope at play becomes a mixture of racist writing at its surface, and racist outlooks within the narrative itself. To write hypersexualization into key Dornish characters and then allow the characters around them to develop harmful stereotypes around it ruins whatever sex positive message the Dornish might have been able to send across. Worse, it is used against them in the fandom itself. The fact that “Elia would have been okay with Rhaegar running away with Lyanna because she’s Dornish” is still an oft repeated argument is proof enough. What Oberyn, a second son, has with Ellaria, which is a monogamous relationship where they share partners, is not reflective of what Elia, a princess of the Seven Kingdoms, would have wanted in her own marriage, and in fact would have posed a risk to her living children re: succession, given House Targaryen’s bloody history of what happens when the realm may choose the one sibling over another (see: The Dance of the Dragons and the Blackfyre Rebellion).

Among the Essosi, we also see this exotic-erotic trope done with Taena of Myr, for example, who despite being married admits to having had a Myrish lover and sleeps with Cersei (there is of course a power imbalance here that should be noted), and even has her genitalia referred to as a “Myrish swamp”. While that last point may be Cersei’s perspective on Taena and not Martin’s, it does again conflate Taena’s foreign national identity with her sexuality, and reflects how the exotic-erotic stereotype works in Cersei’s head. Taena’s bisexuality and her open sexuality is not a coincidence either; this trope of hypersexuality is also often accompanied by non-heterosexuality.

To better explain this, one needs only to look to the few confirmed LGBT characters we have in the books. There are some notable ones: Renly Baratheon, Loras Tyrell, Jon Connington, Oberyn Martell, Ellaria Sand, and Nymeria Sand.

Renly and Loras are a picture of devotion and true love. When Renly dies, Loras does not seek out the company of other men, instead insisting that “once the sun has set, no candle can replace it”. He is devoted to his lover in death, as he was in life. Jon Connington has a similar attitude. He was confirmed as being gay by GRRM, and indeed in the books we see him harbor romantic and entirely non-sexual thoughts and feelings for Rhaegar. Both of these loves are depicted as something pure, singular, and everlasting. They do not seek other partners, and have no desire to either.

This is in stark contrast to the writing of the Dornish characters. While Oberyn and Ellaria are indeed devoted to each other, it is confirmed that they also enjoy sharing sexual partners, and they are both bisexual. Nymeria Sand is confirmed to have two lovers, the Fowler twins, both of whom she is found abed with, implying that she is either bisexual or a lesbian. Whether or not she has other lovers is unclear, but being a lover to a pair of female twins certainly sets her apart from the sexual norms of Westeros. Their sexualities are not depicted as virtuous within the context of the books, but instead are conflated with hypersexuality-- something that is not done with Renly, Loras, or Jon Connington.

More deviations from Westerosi standards of society in Dorne includes their fair treatment of bastards, and the rather overblown concept of having “paramours”. A paramour is a lover, which Westerosi noblemen have all the time, only the Dornish are more public about it, thus it is perceived as a Dornish perversion. At least, that is what we learn from the maester who narrates TWOIAF:

There are other customs besides that mark the Dornish as different. They are not greatly concerned if a child is born in wedlock or out of it, especially if the child is born to a paramour. Many lords—and even some ladies—have paramours, chosen for love and lust rather than for breeding or alliance. And when it comes to matters of love, that a man might lie with another man, or a woman with another woman, is likewise not cause for concern; while the septons have often wished to shepherd the Dornishmen to the righteous path, they have had little effect. Even the fashions are different in Dorne, where the climate favors loose, layered robes and the food is richly spiced, ready to burn the mouth with dragon peppers mixed with drops of snake venom.

Here he mentions all of these customs as “mark the Dornish as different” that I had mentioned before. Bastardy, paramours, non-heterosexuality, all of it has been perceived as not “righteous”, particularly by septons who try to change these customs. Even the spiciness of the food is mentioned!

That is not to say that any of these customs or practices are necessarily bad. On the contrary, their kinder treatment of bastards and women is perhaps one of Dornish society’s greatest points. There is less blame and shame placed on a child born out of wedlock, and they can comfortably rise to great heights, as is demonstrated by Oberyn’s daughters and Daemon Sand. Their paramours are no different than a Westerosi’s mistress or secret lover; there is only less shame attached and more visibility, as paramours and their bastards are treated far better within society. Then of course, there is nothing wrong with same-sex love, though it is perceived as abnormal in Westeros and is the source of far too many “jokes”. However, this all ties in with how Westeros perceives Dorne: as non-righteous, hypersexual people who needed to be shepherded onto a more righteous path. All while ignoring their own faults, of course, because there is certainly very little that is righteous about Westerosi society.

In fact, in regards to sex, Westeros has made female sexuality into a public source of shame or fear. For example, Cersei’s walk of shame, which involved her walking through King’s Landing, shaved and stripped, was her punishment for having sex as a widowed woman. There is also the bedding ceremony to consider, which involves stripping the bride naked and making lewd comments about her while escorting her to her marriages chambers, an experience that was noted as frightening by Catelyn and infamously resulted in “liberties” (AKA some form of sexual assault) taken by Aerys II during Joanna Lannister’s bedding.

While I had noted before the the Dornish and Essos are both othered and sexualized in a similar fashion, we learn something extremely interesting from the Norvoshi Areo Hotah:

Dorne had seemed a queer place to him as well when first he came here with his own princess, many years ago. The bearded priests had drilled him on the Common Speech of Westeros before they sent him forth, but the Dornishmen all spoke too quickly for him to understand. Dornish women were lewd, Dornish wine was sour, and Dornish food was full of queer hot spices. And the Dornish sun was hotter than the pale, wan sun of Norvos, glaring down from a blue sky day after day. -The Watcher, ADWD

Areo’s initial perception of Dorne is not unlike the Reach’s perception. “Dornish women were lewd, Dornish wine was sour, and Dornish food was full of queer hot spices” is Areo’s version of “In the Reach men said it was the food that made Dornishmen so hot-tempered and their women so wild and wanton. Fiery peppers and strange spices heat the blood, she cannot help herself”. Areo’s perception of Dorne may have changed since, but the fact that this is something he perceived of the Dornish as someone who hailed from Essos is telling.

Conclusion

There is no denying that anti-Dornish racism exists in Westeros, and even may extend into some circles in Essos. They are the only Westerosis who are coded as characters of color, they alone intermarried with a large Essosi population, and theirs was the kingdom that had been independent the longest. A mixture of history, bad blood, and plain and simple racism + xenophobia served to create reductive and offensive stereotypes for the Dornish.

I will say this much: Westeros’s racism and xenophobia is not unrealistic. The fact that I may cite exotic-erotic tropes and even feel personally connected to the treatment of the Dornish indicates that Martin has, at the very least, accurately portrayed how a few stereotypes could affect a giant society’s outlook on a single nation, even if it was not done on purpose. The racism and self-righteousness the Westerosi possess towards the Dornishmen is realistic, but it is obviously harmful and not acceptable.

What is also not acceptable is the fandom buying into Westeros’s racist view on the Dornish. We as readers were not raised as Westerosi, thus adopting their views is unacceptable. Too many times I have seen fans use the stereotypes and lies perpetuated about the Dornish and had them passed off as fact. Someone being Dornish doesn’t automatically make them sex crazed, or hot tempered, or permissive of extramarital affairs. We should know better, and do better.

There is also Martin’s lackluster and sometimes even tone deaf writing to consider. There is no denying that the tropes he employed in writing the Dornish and Essosi are racist and poorly done. There is really no good excuse for writing in the Dornish so late, then hypersexualizing them the way he did, then employing racist tropes around that hypersexualization, then using similar racist tropes to describe the Essosi. As the only characters of color in Westeros, it stands out as more than a little heinous that they are the exotic-erotic fantasies. The Martells are also worst served when it comes to writing; there are only 5 Martell POV chapters while the Starks, Greyjoys, and Lannisters are much better served and better characterized.

This study on Dorne and the racism surrounding their writing and their narrative only serves to scratch the surface on the issue of racism in the books (and by extension, in the fandom), but I hope I’ve covered all my bases on this topic and am excited to hear the dialogue this may spark.

Special shout-out to @bitchfromtheseventhhell who edited this post for me, correcting my 100,000 spelling and grammatical errors while providing more insight in what I should and should not cover. Thank you Celia <3

And shout-out to @joannalannister, who asked me to write this up 84 years ago. <3

Thank you for reading!

#dorne #house martell #asoiaf #racism in asoiaf #meta #my meta

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batbobsession · 7 years

Photo

I know that @lumiereswig did something like this a day ago, but I swear, I don't mean to plagiarize. I just had this picture and I had this draft waiting. I already had it planned out, so here it is. Sorry if it looked like I copied; I had no intention of doing so. Anyway...

Okay, so if this really is the case, then that would mean that Adam's dad probably left on some business trip with some other royals. This would kind of explain the whole party that Adam throws; he should be a young adult in the prologue, and young adults are stereotyped to throw huge parties when their parents go on trips for work/other stuff.

And that's not all; I honestly think that if the king was still alive and cursed to forget the castle…well, I think it would be a healing experience for him. So, without further ado, here are the headcanons I have surrounding this idea/AU.

The king was just as affected by the queen's cheerfulness as everyone else; she was a shining light in his otherwise dark life. When she died from a sickness, the king irrationally blamed Adam. My reasoning behind this is this video. Instead of it just being a deleted scene, I like to think that it actually happened. Adam was sick with the same illness, and the queen would spend time in his room with him, singing to him and saying soothing things. Adam healed, but a few months later, the same illness struck the queen.

And this is the reason why the king twisted Adam's kind nature around after the queen died, because while being the cause of her death, he also reminded the king of her. And that only hurt even more.

While the king was away, he, like everyone else, forgot about the castle, but he remembered his wife. (I like to think that the king was important enough to have another castle somewhere that he believed was his home; to be king and to be homeless would be really confusing to people.)

And over time, he realized he was a rather bitter man, and he never knew why. He thought that it was because his wife died of an illness and that they could never track down the source of the illness.

But soon, it started to dawn on him that because he was so bitter over his wife's death, his memories of her were starting to dim and cloud over; he wasn't remembering her the way she should be remembered. So he decides to start treating his people the way she would have, so she could still live on in his heart and his people's hearts. And slowly, but surely, it starts to rub off on him. He becomes more forgiving of his servants, casts a softer eye on his peers, and allows himself a smile every so often (that was the hardest part; remembering how to smile).

And one morning, he's sitting in his room, reminiscing about the way the queen used to smile at sunrises like these, when he remembers another smiling face, a child, with the golden light playing across his face. And suddenly the curse is lifted, and the last few years of his life crash down on him as he remembers the real reason why he was such a bitter man—it was Adam, he blamed his own son for something that obviously wasn't his fault; he could see that now.

And he hates himself. He feels remorse, regret, horror at what he did to his own son, how he twisted Adam over and over again, erased his own mother's wonderful influences from him. He hates himself for forgetting—because the poor boy's been alone all this time—but he hates himself even more for his treatment of Adam.

Suddenly, he has to see him. The king calls for a carriage to the castle; he wants to see his son, apologize, tell him he loves him—oh Lord, it's been more than a decade since he's done that…

And by midday he reaches the castle and sees the villagers all crowded around it. It would have angered him originally, but instead he runs through them, asking frantically for Adam, the prince, my son, where is he

And he sees him from afar, coming out of the castle. He tries to get through to him, but the villagers have crowded around him. He contemplates pushing through them, but waits, because he sees Lumiere embracing him. Embracing him! From what the king remembered, Adam never allowed the servants to touch him unless it was absolutely necessary. And then Mrs. Potts' son, Christopher, is hugging a girl next to Adam who shares the same smile, and the way that the gaze into each other's eyes…there's no mistaking it, they're in love. She's dressed rather simply—in white, but simply—she must be a villager. But that hardly matters to him anymore.

And then Adam's eyes sweep across the crowd, shining with tears, and oh, she's there, the queen's there, his eyes are hers, filled with all of her wonder and joy. His heart immediately lifts; he has still managed to hold on to his mother. But there is still how he has treated him, and that is still unforgivable. So after a few hours, the king approaches him, and the interaction goes a little something like this:

“Adam?”

Fear.

It isn't the word that's spoken; he hadn't been called by his name in years, not even by the staff, and the mention of his name should bring him joy, relief that he's not cursed anymore. No, it's the voice that spoke, the voice that made every word, and every name, a curse.

He didn't want to turn around. He didn't want to face him. He was the one part of his past that he would be happy to forget, happy to shove underneath the memories of his empty life of luxury. The bruises, the tears, the darkened rooms full of anger and hatred, all are forced to the forefront of his mind.

He can even feel the staff's reactions around him; they way they all stop talking reminds him too much of how they walked through the halls when he was little, how they had gone from friendly to faceless upon this man's orders.

This man. Adam refuses to call him his kin.

But then something else happens, something that—even after all of his time with these people—he does not expect. They draw close to him. Lumiere lays his hand on his shoulder, offering support. Chapeau hovers nearby, his hands clenched, his expression protective. Cogsworth is still weighed down by Clothilde, but he shoots the king a look of warning. The king does not meet their eyes. Mrs. Potts breaks off from her husband and starts toward Adam, laying her hand in the one that is not grasping Belle's. And Chip soon follows, though he is half-hiding behind his mother's skirts.

Then there is a squeeze on his other hand, and Belle's eyes meet his, concerned, worried.

She is fearless. She does not know what he's been through—what a kind, loving father she has—but he can see her strength there. She risked life and limb to see him, to heal him. What is he if he cannot face his own fears?

He tries to keep his face neutral as he turns around to see a man shouldering his way through the throngs of moving villagers. His jacket is much simpler than the extravagant ones Adam remembers, and he doesn't wear a wig. His hair has gone gray, and his eyes have lost their dull, flat look. He stops a few feet from Adam, and Adam cannot place his expression.

“Adam…”

His voice, again, makes every nerve in Adam's body want to flinch away, but he held tight to Belle's hand and closed his eyes as the man came closer. His hand came up slowly, and though it was not sudden, the memory of that gloved hand against his cheek…no. If Belle could face the worst in Adam, then Adam could face it too.

“My boy…my son…”

And suddenly his hand is on Adam's cheek, but how is it his? His touch is so gentle, so kind, and his eyes, as soft and forgiving as newly laid earth, are filled with tears.

“Look at you. You've grown so much…I can't believe I didn't realize…” His hand is shaking on Adam's cheek, so he moves it to Adam's shoulder. He can't meet Adam's eyes anymore; he bows his head, trembling. Scared.

“Your mother, she…she would have been so proud of you,” he continues. “As am I. And…I don't know how I can begin to ask forgiveness…for the horrible, horrible things I've done to you…”

Adam has one memory of the king's smile. It was years ago, when his mother was still alive. She and Adam had been in the garden, picking flowers for a bouquet for the king's birthday. Adam had put together a bundle of different colored roses, carnations, and baby's breath and ran back to the castle to give them to the king. And he had laughed, and smiled, and patted him on the head. He had cared for it until the flowers began to wilt, and even after that.

This is the man that Adam sees now. He used to think this man was dead. But here he is, with more wrinkles on his hands and a lined face that has suffered a lot more than it used to let on. Here he is.

“Father?”

The man wrapped his arms around his son, his tears now prominent in his hitching breath, his clutching fingers. “Adam…I love you, I h-haven't said that e-enough, but I do, and I will…”

Adam lets go of Belle's hand and returns the embrace, albeit with a little hesitancy. It will take time, to adjust to this, but even so, his heart is above the clouds, in both shock and joy. A little of his old life has been given back to him because of this.

And as of right now, he is not going to let go.

#beauty and the beast #batb2017 #adam's dad #adam #adam's mom

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onherefortheentertainment · 7 years

Text

Lilly Cobb part two

“Where have you been?” Emmett shouted. It was hard for Lilly to tell if he was angry or worried.

Lilly brushed past him. “With Jessica. Emmett, I need space to go think. I’m going to the library.”

“You can’t.” Lilly stared at him, baffled. “My father...”

Lilly stood in the hall with her eyes closed. Her breathing was deep, like she was trying to keep from crying.

“Lady Lilly! How are you? I know we... I popped over unexpected. I didn’t think you’d be out having a good time so soon.” Mr. Randall poked his head out from around a corner.

“I needed to go see my friend.” Lilly tensed. “I’m sorry, Sir, but I need to go clear my head.”

“Oh, that’s a shame. I’m staying for dinner. I have already asked for an extra place to be set.” The timely gentleman sounded falsely disappointed.

“I’m sorry.” Lilly whispered and ran off toward her favorite room in the castle.

“Oh, no worries!” Mr. Randall called. “My son and I will have a fantastic time like we always have!”

Emmett’s reply was inaudible, but Lilly was sure it was in a tone of sarcastic indifference.

Lilly spent the next three weeks hidden in the solar, away from everyone, especially Emmett, the smother boy. While in hiding, she read. There were several history books as well as science books. She made lists of what could possibly damage a body as severely as those of her family members.

Lilly was driven not by vengeance but by truth to find out why she was the last of such a great family. She was determined to know and to seek justice and respect for the dead.

One afternoon, she received a message from Jessica. It read: “I have news. Come quick.”

Lilly raced downstairs only to be held up by Emmett. “I haven’t seen you in weeks and now you are racing to leave the house. It will have to wait. Come.”

“I... I can’t. I have to go...” Emmett grabbed her arm and pulled. His fingernails dug into her skin.

He pulled he into the parlor where his parents and most of his family was standing there expectantly. Emmett pushed Lilly into a high-backed chair.

“Lady Lilly Cob of Scotland, I have a question that I have been wanting to ask you for months. So, here goes. Lilly, you are a beautiful girl. You are amazing and getting to know you these last two years has been fantastic. I want to do that with you forever. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

Lilly sat, frozen in her seat, her eyes wide. “I... I...” She glanced around the room at his family. No one she cared about was there, especially Jessica. Lilly watched Mr. Randall mouth “say yes... say yes” His eyes seemed to twinkle green. His wife, not Emmet’s mom, clutched his arm, desperately hoping. Many of his aunts wore a similar expression of hope, while Emmett’s uncles held smug and expectant faces.

Emmett’s mother stood apart from the rest of the family. Lilly could see the fear and sadness in her grey-green eyes. Emmett had his mother’s eyes. It was startling. But Emmett’s mother wanted Lilly to say no. But why? She must know something.

“I... I...” Lilly stuttered.

“Say Yes. Love ya.”

Slowly, Lilly nodded. “Yes.”

“Thomas? Drive! And hurry please.” The little black Cadillac sped off into the country fog.

Lilly couldn't help but to shiver. After she said yes, many people came to hug her and kiss her cheeks. Too many. The proposal felt rushed and insincere. There was something about the difference between Emmett’s parents’ expressions that disturbed her.

Lilly and Jessica paid for their cab as Lilly told her friend everything. “He proposed and I said yes.”

“Congratulations! I wish I was invited.”

“No, no. First, you having not been invited bothered me, second he practically pressured me to say yes, and third, his parent’s expressions were disturbing- they were so different. I’m not going to marry him. I lost my head saying yes.”

“Whatever. I want to discuss this later, but the coroner has something important.”

In the cellar of the building, Coroner O’Conory sat on a stool, his glasses buried in his ruffled red mane, staring into a microscope.

“Hello ladies! Ok let’s not waste time with pleasantries. Look. I figured out what that mark was. It was a branding of a coat of arms. I cannot figure out which one, but I know that will be a clue. Also, there were traces of cyanide and sulfuric acid along with a few other compounds. Do you know what that means?”

Jessica pondered a moment then shrugged. Lilly was alight with an idea. “Mining. My maternal grandfather told stories of his family running coal mines.”

Arthur O’Conory jumped and clapped like a child. “Exactly. So that explains the burns and the rapid decomposition. As for the mark, I’m baffled. But, we are so much closer to finding your family’s murders.”

Jessica began to thumb a book she pulled from her bag. “I have seen that coat of arms before.” Lilly gave her a strange look. “What? I actually did look at the body.” The room was silent for a moment. “Aha! It is the Harrington Family coat of arms.”

“How do you know?” the coroner asked.

“It is the only one with a griffin and a dragon holding a sword with jagged edges and a red hilt. I have seen that branding iron and a sword that resembles in the Randall house. I saw it when we went to dinner six weeks ago.” Jessica spoke confidently.

“Miss Mayfield has a point, also, the last Harrington was Arabella Kinley Harrington. She died almost a century ago. You know about that feud. They were a mining family, closely tied with your mother’s family. She married Axel Clarence Luther Oscar Randall, or ACLOR for short. They were a powerful couple who almost destroyed the Cobb family. I think they fought over land?”

“Something like that. It only added to her hatred. Especially after the sheep. ”

“Right. Ever since the Harrington-Randall union, the men in the Cobb family didn’t live long. Some were killed as children. I think they were waiting on a girl to end their bad luck spell.” the coroner continued.

“Why?” Jessica asked.

“How else would Arabella get revenge? She may be dead, but her descendants can finish what her ancestors began. Once the last Cobb girl is married off to a Randall, then the power of the Cobbs is gone. Uh-oh. You’re the last and only girl... Oh boy. We need a plan to prove their guilt.

Jessica popped up so fast, she almost fell off her stool. “I have an idea. And I think it will work.”

#my writing #writer #writers on tumblr #excerpt from a book i'll never write #excerpt from a story i'll never write #love writing #writers #mystery #murder she wrote #murder mystery #murder story #imagine #imagination

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ryik-the-writer · 7 years

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For the @rumbellesummervacation

The Marble Girl: The Gold's travel to the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah where Gideon meets a new friend.

P.S. Please send your prayers and good vibes to those who are bracing Hurricane Irma. I myself may have to evacuate and I’m really scared.

-Enjoy!

A03

-.-.-.-.-.-

Savannah, Georgia was one of the more unique places the Gold Family had visited on their world travels. Other than Manhattan and Boston, they hadn’t traveled much in the states, preferring more exotic places such as Italy and France.

However, when Gideon was old enough to start school, the Gold’s decided to shrink their horizon in the states. They returned to Storybrooke so that Gideon could start school with his friends and visit his grandpa Moe.

Finally, summer vacation rolled around and soon enough the Gold’s were packed and making their way to Belle’s chosen destination: Savannah, Georgia.

Belle spread the pamphlets her husband had gotten from the tourist station onto the bed in the hotel room she and her family were going to be staying in for the next two weeks.

“Can we go to the beach?” Gideon asked excitedly as he bounced on his parent’s bed.

Belle gently sat him on the side on the bed and picked up the pamphlet her son was holding.

“Forecast’s calling for clouds tomorrow and Sunday.” Rumplestiltskin called from the bathroom where he was unpacking the toiletries and disinfecting everything with wipes.

Belle shook her head, knowing the real reason her husband didn’t want to go to the beach was due to 1) his hatred of shorts, and 2) his fear of Gideon getting burnt. Her husband could be a bit overprotective sometimes, especially now that Gideon was at the age where he liked to run off on his own.

“We’ll save that for when it’s nice and sunny.” Belle told Gideon, searching through the pamphlet’s for something else her son would enjoy. Savannah was overflowing with history and culture and she wanted her family to absorb as much as possible.

“Oh, there’s a children’s theater not too far from here.” Belle read. “They start their season on Wednesday. Their showing The Wizard of Oz.”

Rumplestiltskin frowned as he sat beside his wife and son, glaring at the picture of the actress dressed as his green foe.

Belle noticed her husband’s discomfort and put it to the side, snatching up the next one.

“Dolphins!” Gideon cheered.

“Savannah’s famous for their dolphin tours, and it’s right near the beach.”

“The rain.” Rumplestiltskin reminded her.

Gideon sigh and jumped off the bed to explore.

“Well then Mr. Gold, what do you think we should do?” Belle asked her husband.

“Stay in our apartment and try takeout from every restaurant with a five-star review?”

Belle gave him an amused look and shook her head.

Rumplestiltskin sighed and picked up a pamphlet at random.

“How about a ghost tour? Lot’s of history to be seen.”

Belle glanced at Gideon who was unpacking some of his toys. “I don’t know if Gideon would like that, he might get board or scared.”

“He’s a brave child Belle. I’m sure he saw worse horrors when he was with the Black—”

“Shh!” Belle shushed him, a clear desperate warning in her eyes. Gideon had been given a second chance at a good life after the Black Fairy’s defeat and Belle and Rumplestiltskin had done their best to leave the past behind them. Other than an occasional nightmare that sent the young boy bounding to his parent’s room in the dead of night, Gideon had yet to show signs that he remembered his former life. However both parents knew that someday their slice of happily ever after would run thin and Gideon would start to remember. Until then however, they wanted to keep him innocent which mostly meant not mentioning The Black Fairy out of fear her name may trigger something.

A pamphlet at the bottom of the pile caught Rumplestiltskin’s eye. He picked it up and browsed through the contents, smiling as an idea came to him.

“What are you planning?” Belle inquired mischievously.

Rumple showed her the pamphlet and Belle’s smiled dimmed lightly.

“Bonaventure Cemetery? That’s a bit grim Rumple, and only slightly less worrisome than a ghost tour.”

“Ah, but we can go on our own time. No tours, no guide shoving us along, and there’s an area near the river where we could have a picnic.”

Belle smiled. Other than bookstores, family picnics were her guilty pleasures.

“I suppose that would be a fun way to spend the day, but you’ll have to dress down.”

Rumplestiltskin sighed in annoyance, but if he’d have to lay down his suited armor for a day with his family then so be it.

“Gideon!” Belle called to her son. “How would you like to go on a picnic tomorrow?”

“Yeah!” Gideon cheered.

-,-,-,-,-

The next morning Belle snuck to the grocery store to pick up a few things for the picnic. By the time she got back Gideon was jumping on the bed trying to wake his father.

“Come on Papa get up!” Gideon exclaimed.

Rumplestiltskin grumbled and hid his head under the pillow. Gideon crawled over to sit on his chest, trying to pull the pillow off his papa’s head. Suddenly Rumplestiltskin jumped up, wrapping the blanket around Gideon and smothering him in a cocoon of warmth.

Belle smiled as father and son played and regretted having to break them up.

A few hours later Belle and Gideon were unpacking the car while Rumple went into the main office for a map and pamphlet.

“Can we have the picnic now?” Gideon asked when his father returned.

Rumplestiltskin chuckled and soothed the boy’s hair. “Let’s walk around a bit son, work off that cereal you ate for breakfast.”

Gideon shrugged and began to trot ahead, a task his father had cleverly hindered by filling his little backpack with a heavy bottle of water and other essentials.

Belle read through the map and squealed when she saw the location of Conrad Aiken’s grave.

“I love his poems! We have to go see it!”

“My dear wife is excited to see the rock of a dead man?”

“A notable man, thank you Mr. Gold.” Belle corrected with a kiss on his lips.

Gideon watched the exchange with an eye roll. Sometimes his parents kissed too much.

Within the next few hours the Golds saw a great deal of Bonaventure Cemetery, though they had yet to find the poet’s Conrad Aiken’s grave. Still they found several other interesting figures such as Edythe Chapman, an actress that Rumplestiltskin recalled seeing in a few films of during his curse years. And though neither of the Golds knew much about the history of this world or the events that led to its wars and slaughters, they took their time to pay their respects in the Jewish and Veteran sections.

Gideon was becoming restless so Belle and Rumplestiltskin found the rest area and unpacked the lunch.

“I think we passed it.” Belle sighed as she searched through the map.

“We’ll find it Belle.” Rumplestiltskin assured as he picked the crust off a sandwich.

Belle shook her head in frustration. “We must have walked right by it. I’ve read elvish text that made more sense than this!”

Rumplestiltskin leaned over to assist his wife, leaving Gideon out of his parent’s eyesight for the first time that day. Gideon promised himself he wouldn’t wonder off far as his parents always got upset when he did. He was just so bored! He liked being with his mama and papa and a lot of the statues around the cemetery were cool, but there was nothing much to do butwalk. He wished his parents had taken him on one of those tours; there was always another kid to play with on those.

Gideon continued on, kicking rocks and dragging his backpack, wishing there was at least a swing set nearby.

A sound caught the young boy’s attention. It sounded like sniffling. Who would be crying in the middle of a cemetery? He looked around when something white caught his eye. Straight ahead, hidden by a cluster of headstones, was a little girl hidden behind a gate.

Curious, Gideon sent one last glance towards his parents before he walked forward.

As he got closer, Gideon discovered that it wasn’t a little girl at all—well, it technically was, but it was a statue of one. But statues don’t cry, right?

Gideon looked at the statue girl more closely, wondering why they would need to keep her in a gate like this. In front of the gate was a large stone and around the stone were all kinds of treasures: pretty little rocks, pennies, hair clips and lots of little toys.

“L-little G-Gr-a-cie. Little Gracie?” Gideon read (his mama had taught him to read).

“Y-yes?”

Gideon looked up and through the gate a little girl peaked out from behind the statue.

Gideon gasped; she looked just like the statue.

“Are…are you Little Gracie?” Gideon inquired.

The little girl nodded, stepping closer to the gate that separated the two children.

“Why are you inside the gate?” Gideon asked.

“I can’t leave.” She pointed up and Gideon turned to see that the gate was locked.

“Then how did you get in there? Where are your mom and dad?”

Little Gracie shook her head, tears building in her eyes again.

Gideon grimaced, not sure how to deal with a crying child. There was always an adult around to deal with them.

“I…can go get my mom and dad.” Gideon suggested.

“No don’t go!” Little Gracie cried, reaching out for him through the gate.

Gideon gasped when her hand went right through his.

“You’re the first person that’s talked to me in so long. You can see and hear me…that’s never happened before!”

“I…you’re a ghost!” Gideon jumped back.

“I…I’m…” tears ran down the little girl’s cheeks and Gideon’s remorse outweighed his fear and confusion.

“I’m sorry. Don’t cry. My names Gideon.”

Little Gracie nodded, wiping her eyes. “Are you a ghost too?”

“No…at least I don’t think so. My mom and dad are vacationing here.”

Little Gracie sat on the grass and Gideon copied her. “Where are you from?”

“Storybrooke. It’s in Maine.”

For the first time, Little Gracie smiled. “I remember seeing Maine on a map once in my papa’s study. It was close to where we lived in Boston.”

“I’ve been to Boston!” Gideon said excitedly. “My papa goes to a lot of yard sales. He brings home tons of weird stuff, but staying in a hotel is fun.”

“My papa ran a hotel.” Little Gracie said sadly. “I used to sing and dance for the guests. It was a lot of fun.”

“How did you…” Gideon paused, wondering exactly what the right etiquette one was supposed to display to a ghost. Asking “how did you die?” seemed rude in Gideon’s opinion.

“How did you get here?” he asked instead.

Little Gracie picked at the grass. “I don’t remember. Mama and me were cutting out paper eggs for easter…but I got sick. Mama was sad and Papa wouldn’t stop crying.”

Gideon swallowed, suddenly wishing his parents were by his side.

“Then I woke up in front of this statue of me, and I’ve been here waiting for mama and papa. I’ve been waiting a long time.”

Gideon looked around, wondering just how far away her parents were buried.

“Maybe I could find them for you.” Gideon perked up, leaning closer to the gate. “I can find them and take you to them.”

“But I can’t leave the gate.”

“My papa can help.” Gideon assured. “He can figure out anything.”

Little Gracie hesitated before sticking her hand out of the gate, arching her pinkie.

“Okay Gideon.”

Gideon arched his pinkie as well, unsure just what would happen when he made a deal via pinkie-promise with a ghost.

Their fingers met and Gideon gasped. His finger didn’t faze through hers like before. He could feel her cold finger intertwined with his.

“Gideon!”

Gideon shot around at the sound of his mama’s frantic voice. He dropped Little Gracie’s finger and jumped up, forgetting his new friend for a moment while he located his worried parents.

“Over here mama!” Gideon called out.

Belle and Rumplestiltskin suddenly appeared over the hill and sprinted towards him.

“Gideon are you alright?” Rumplestiltskin asked.

Belle scooped the boy into her arms, smothering his response.

“Oh my baby.” Belle cried.

Gideon managed to wiggle out of his mama’s grip to answer (and breathe).

“I’m fine mama.”

“You know better to run off like that son.” Rumplestiltskin chastised. “You scared your mama and papa to death.”

Gideon lowered his eyes in shame. “I’m sorry.”

Belle sighed, her soft hands searching his face. “I think that’s enough adventuring for today. Let’s go home.”

“Wait!” Gideon exclaimed, wiggling from his mother’s firm grip. “I have to help…”

Gideon stared at the gate housing Little Gracie’s statue. Just the statue.

Little Gracie was gone.

-,-,-,-,-,-

Gideon’s parents had calmed by dinner time. They ordered in a pizza and settled for bed rather early. Instead of one of the storybooks Gideon had brought with him, Gideon asked that his mama read through one of the pamphlets they’d gotten from the office at the cemetery.

“That’s her!” Gideon exclaimed, pointing to a picture of Little Gracie’s statue. “That’s the girl I talked to in the graveyard!”

Belle yawned. “It was just a statue honey, you imagined her.”

“No mama!” Gideon insisted. “I talked to her. She can’t find her parents and she can’t leave the gate.”

Belle was tired from the long day, and doing her best to stay patient with her son. “Gideon, sometimes…when circumstances are a certain way, people can imagine things. Really vivid things that seem so real at the time but just aren’t. You were hot and tired so when you saw the Little Gracie statue you imagined her.”

“Your mother’s right son.” Rumplestiltskin agreed as he exited the bathroom. “You come from a family of great minds. It’s only natural you have an extensive imagination.”

Gideon frowned, losing his patience with his family. “She was real. And…I promised her I’d help her.”

Belle sighed and turned her tired eyes to her husband for help.

“How about this:” Rumplestiltskin negotiated, “How about you get some sleep, and if you still think Little Gracie is real, we’ll go back by the cemetery and…see what we can do.”

“That’s right.” Belle smiled, climbing off Gideon’s bed. “But you need to sleep. Now, please.”

Gideon sighed. Adults were so difficult. Still, he bid his parents goodnight and promised himself that he’d go back tomorrow for Little Gracie.

But, as most children tend to do, Gideon’s young mind became cluttered with other delights. The following morning his parents surprised him with a dolphin tour and the ghost of little Gracie slipped his mind.

His parents as well brushed it off. Though they came from a world of magic and mayhem, the paranormal was just too much of a stretch for their practical but opened minds to wrap around. And honestly, both wanted to wait until Gideon was older before they exposed him to too much of his heritage.

-,-,-,-

The Gold’s family trip in Savannah came and went and Little Gracie was apparently forgotten.

Until just after Gideon’s eighteenth birthday when memories of his old life began to resurface.

It started off with night terror so intense that he was too sick to go to school, followed by flashbacks that would leave him in a state of panic.

Rumplestiltskin and Belle finally told him everything: the tension between his parents that led Belle to send him away, the Black Fairy taking him and raising him under her maniacal reign, him being reverted back into an infant upon her defeat, and finally his parent’s trying to give him the best life possible after their mistakes.

Gideon wasn’t angry at his parents, and was relieved that the things he had seen had an explanation. With their help he began putting the pieces of his past life back together and all began to return to normal.

Until the day the Gold family began to make their summer plans and Gideon was hit with a horrifying vision that shattered the recovering boy’s state of being.

Belle had brought down their extensive pile of pamphlets so that they could remanence as they made a decision. The Golds had been around the entire world and had yet to visit the same place twice, but now that Gideon had graduated and was leaving for college soon, they wanted one last trip to one of their favorite destinations. The problem was that they had had so many.

“How about Italy?” Rumplestiltskin suggested. “We all speak fluent Italian, why not put it to the test?”

“I like the sound of that.” Belle agreed. “You were only three when we took you there, Gideon.”

Gideon nodded, rifling slowly through the pamphlets. To be quite honest, Gideon wanted nothing more than to stay in Storybrooke for the summer and do absolutely nothing. He was exhausted from dealing with the visions of his past life and didn’t want to go somewhere where more visions could be triggered. However, this was his last summer at home and he wanted to do something special and memorable with his parents.

His fingers grazed the smooth pamphlets, some now wrinkled with age while some remained as crisp as the day his mother plucked them from the tourist stations. His parents had done their best to give him a life full of adventure and magic. He saw places that most people his age would never see, and made beautiful memories from all of them. He wished that they were the only memories swimming around his mind.

He picked up one of the pamphlets at random, flipping through it without seeing where it was from.

His eyes fell on a mass of gravestones and he froze, the familiar buzzing of a flashback rattling his brain.

“Wait.”

Belle and Rumplestiltskin looked up, both tensing when they saw the distant, horrified look on their boy’s face.

“No!” Gideon screamed. “Mother please don’t!”

Rumplestiltskin moved to his side, ready to catch and restrain him.

Suddenly Gideon shot back, the pamphlet sailing from his hand and skidding across the room.

“No!” Gideon sobbed, his eyes darting around the room. “No no no…”

Belle ran to his side, pulling him to her arms. “It’s okay baby, it’s over.”

“He’s gone!” Gideon sobbed.

Rumplestiltskin pulled his family into the protective circle of his arms. “Who is, Gideon?”

“…Roderick…” Gideon cried, shaking his head. “She killed him just because she was angry at me. He wasn’t supposed to die…he’s gone.”

Belle swallowed hard, remembering hazily when her husband mentioning this Roderick. They still didn’t know the entire story about him and their son, but now it would seem that he had a greater impact on Gideon than they had formerly proclaimed.

“I’m sorry son.” Rumplestiltskin said, kissing the top of the boy’s head. “I’m so sorry you had to remember that.”

Gideon took several deep therapeutic breaths, feeling strained but safe in his parent’s arms even as the memory of Roderick’s last moments flickered through his mind. He looked to the side, trying to focus on something else when the pamphlet he threw came into view.

Gideon began to panic when the buzzing returned. He couldn’t handle another flashback right now. But it came anyway and Gideon grabbed hold of his parents.

The vision that came wasn’t even close to as terrifying as the one before. It was pleasant. He remembered walking through a cemetery and gawking at the impressive statues, his parents holding each of his hands. He remembered the picnic, and the boredom that caused him to stray from his parents, and finally, the little girl behind the gate.

“Gracie.” Gideon gasped, the memory of his promise hitting him like a ton of bricks. He tore from his parents protective arms and crawled to the Bonaventure pamphlet, searching through it until he came across the picture of Little Gracie Watson’s memorial.

“What is it son?”

Gideon turned back to his parents, his gaze lost and confused.

“I broke a promise.”

“Honey, it wasn’t your fault.” Belle tried to reassure. “The Black Fairy—”

“No,” Gideon shook his head. “Not to Roderick, to Gracie. I promised her I’d help her find her parents but…”

Belle and Rumplestiltskin looked at each other, their eyes widening when they realized what their son was referring to.

“Gideon, that was just…an imaginary friend.”

“I thought so to, but it wasn’t. She was real. She came to me and asked for my help. And I just forgot about her.”

“Sweetie…”

“Mom, Dad, I know there’s a lot in this world we don’t understand, but isn’t it possible that there are things here that are more real here than from where we’re from?”

Belle smiled at her son. “I suppose so.”

Gideon looked back at the picture of Little Gracie, the poor little girl who couldn’t move on. “Maybe it was because of magic that she was able to talk to me. Maybe I can help her now that I’m stronger.”

Belle turned to her husband who shrugged. He was still far from a believer of the paranormal, but his son needed his support. He wouldn’t fail him again.

“What do you need us to do?”

Gideon smiled at his parents, grateful to tears for their love. But he frowned worriedly. “I don’t know where to start.”

Belle walked up to him and gently took the pamphlet from his hands. “How about you go lie down while I make some calls?”

Gideon wanted to decline, but he was tired, and his plan would be sloppy if he wasn’t in the right state of mind.

For the first time in months, Gideon slept peacefully without guilt or horrors clawing at his dreams.

-,-,-,-

One week later, the Gold family ventured into the Bonaventure Cemetery, information on Gracie’s parents in Belle’s purse and the device that would take Gracie to them in Rumplestiltskin’s suit pocket.

Gideon hadn’t stopped fidgeting since his mother had dug up the information on Little Gracie’s parents.

“They worked at a hotel in Savannah where Gracie’s charm was the main attraction.” Belle read. “After her death, her parents returned to Boston. The Mother died in 1913 and the father followed six years later. They were buried in Albany, New York.” Belle frowned sadly. “No wonder the poor child isn’t at rest. She’s so far away from her parents.”

“What kind of a man has a statue made of his child but then moves 1000 miles from them?” Rumplestiltskin grumbled.

“Don’t judge them Rumple.” Belle chastised. “They were grieving. It mustn’t have been easy tending to their only child’s grave. They must have meant to come back.”

Gideon took his mother’s hand. “I’m sure they did mom.”

Rumplestiltskin sighed, deciding not to press the issue any further. “Well, we know where they are now, now I just have to find a spell that can move Gracie to them.”

Gideon raised an curious eyebrow. “I don’t think we can…dig her up dad. That’s gruesome and just wrong.”

“Her body, I’m afraid, would no longer be salvageable. It’s her spirit we’ll have to transport. Come with me to the library.”

Belle and Gideon followed, both uneasy at the idea of Rumplestiltskin using magic for something this painstaking.

Rumplestiltskin led them to the library and climbed the ladder to one of the top shelves were some of Belle’s least-read books were.

“After the Black Fairy’s defeat,” Rumplestiltskin stated, “I began hiding some of my more dangerous artifacts in places any future enemies would be less inclined to look.” He found what he was looking for and retreated down the ladder, turning to show his family the object in question.

Belle cocked one of her hips in disapproval. “You’ve been using Pandora’s box as a paperweight for my books?”

Rumplestiltskin smiled sheepishly. “It did its job.”

“But will it work?” Gideon inquired. “And…is it safe? Is there something in there that could hurt her?”

Rumplestiltskin shook his head. “I was in this thing once, but I saw nothing in there that could be harmful. It’s more of prison than anything. And as a spirit…”

Gideon nodded, but looked forward to the moment Little Gracie would be out of that thing for good.

“I guess now we order the plane tickets?”

“On it.” Belle stated. “Coach fine with everyone?”

After a lengthy wait and a near-severe disturbance from airport security, the Golds were on their way back to Savannah, Georgia, a trip that was now more unnerving than mystical for the family.

The next day they were making their way through the lines of gravestones looking for the famed grave of Gracie Watson. Belle and Rumplestiltskin noted that their son was looking increasingly pale and were both ready to call this thing off and take their boy somewhere to rest.

Suddenly, Gideon stopped, a small smile spreading over his face. “There she is.”

Belle and Rumplestiltskin followed their son to the black gate entrapping Little Gracie’s statue. The toys and other treasures that had once decorated her grave were gone, and Gideon wondered who would take such offerings from a child’s grave.

“Gracie?” Gideon whispered through the gate. “Gracie are you there?”

Belle and Rumple watched their son warily, wondering now if this truly was just Gideon’s mind playing tricks on him.

“Gracie.” Gideon said. “I know I…I didn’t come back. I’m so sorry. I thought you weren’t real and I just let you go. But I’m back now! I’m going to keep our promise. I’m going to take you home.”

Gideon received no response and just stared at the statue until his mother placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Honey, let’s go back to the hotel.” She soothed. “Maybe…maybe we can try again tomorrow.”

Gideon’s grip tightened on the gate bars. He knew that tone. It was her “forget about this Gideon” tone.

“No.” Gideon fought, pulling from her grip. “I can’t leave her waiting again.”

With that, he began pulling at the gate, and then the lock until his father grabbed him and pulled him back.

“Son stop this before someone sees!”

Gideon forced himself from his father’s grip and made another go at the gate, this time grabbing a hold of it and jumping to the other side.

Belle covered her mouth and searched around to make sure they hadn’t been seen. It was getting late and security would be coming around any moment now.

Gideon came face to face with the statue, seeing the cracks and blemishes 200 years of weather had put on Gracie’s form.

“Gracie…” Gideon begged. He was so tired. “Please. Let me help you.”

A sound in the bushes caused Gideon to jump. Something had moved behind the statue. He eased carefully behind the stone and froze at what he saw.

“Gracie?”

The little girl moved further away until she was pressed into the corner of the gate.

“It’s okay.” Gideon soothed, having to swallow tears of relief. “It’s me, Gideon.”

“G-Gideon? You’re so big now…”

“Yeah.” Gideon knelt to her level, reaching for her small hand. “I’m sorry I was away for so long.”

Little Gracie hesitated but soon carefully reached for Gideon’s hands. Gideon gasped when her cold fingers touched his own.

“Gideon!” Rumplestiltskin hissed.

“Who’s that?” Gracie whispered uneasily.

“My dad.” Gideon answered. “He and my mom are going to help you find your parents.”

“You mean it?” Gracie gasped.

Gideon nodded. “I pinkie-promised didn’t I?”

Belle and Rumplestiltskin watched as their son crouched behind Little Gracie’s statue. He needed to get out of there now.

With a growl Rumplestiltskin dug his lock-picking kit from his pocket and began to pick at the gate lock.

“We are all going to jail.” Belle muttered.

Just as the lock was cooperating, Gideon stepped out from behind the statue and, to his parents shock, pulled a little girl out with him.

Rumplestiltskin dropped his lock pick and ran to his wife’s side. “What on earth…”

Gideon smiled. “Mother, Father, this is Gracie. Gracie, these are my parents.”

“Hi.” Gracie greeted quietly.

Rumplestiltskin and Belle waved uncertainly, both not quite believing what they were seeing.

Gideon led Gracie closer. The moment Belle saw her large, sad eyes her motherly instincts kicked in and she knelt to the child’s level.

“Hello sweetheart.” Belle greeted. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Little Gracie managed a smile. Very few could not be flattered by the charm of Belle French-Gold. Her eyes turned to Rumplestiltskin next. He looked scary but he had kind eyes like Gideon.

Rumplestiltskin managed a small smile for the sake of the child’s comfort. “Yes. Now let’s see about getting this gate unlocked.”

Little Gracie took a step back as Rumplestiltskin finished with the lock and pulled the heavy chain off the gate, opening in and extinguishing the barrier between the mortals and the spirit.

Gideon stepped out first, patiently waiting as Gracie took her tentative steps into the open. Soon she was by Gideon’s side again and somehow seemed to have just a bit more color to her cheeks.

“You’re doing great.” Gideon encouraged.

Gracie nodded. “Can I see my parents now?”

Gideon crouched to her level. “You see Gracie, your parents are in a faraway place.” He explained. “We’re going to get you to them, but we need you to be as brave as you can, because this next part may be a little scary.”

Gracie nodded. She wasn’t afraid. Well, she had been a little scared when she got sick but…

Gideon nodded to his father who pulled Pandora’s Box out.

“This is a magical box.” Rumplestiltskin explained. “We can put you in here and take you to your parents without you getting hurt.”

Little Gracie tilted her head. “How am I going to get in there?”

“That’s the magical part.” Rumplestiltskin winked. “Are you ready?”

Gracie looked to Gideon. “You’re really taking me to them?”

Gideon nodded. “Yeah. We’re on our way.”

Gracie reached out and wrapped her small arms around Gideon’s neck. Gideon tensed. She felt almost warmer.

“Everything’s going to be okay.”

The two separated and Gideon stepped away, allowing his father to secure Gracie in Pandora’s Box.

“Okay.” Rumplestiltskin said when it was complete.

Belle wiped her eyes. “To New York then?”

“Yes, we’ll get tickets in the morning then-”

“Hey!”

The Golds shot around to see a security guard bounding towards them.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

They glanced back to the open gate and tensed.

“Oh no…”

-.-.-

After bribing the security handsomely (in which Belle’s charm once again came in handy), Rumplestiltskin ushered his family back to the hotel.

They were up at dawn and on the flight to Albany, New York by noon. Gideon had managed to get Pandora’s Box onto the flight with less fuss from security than last time.

His parents were happy that he was calmer now that the first part of their journey was over, but there was still this look of guilt in his eyes. Because he was anxious enough, they decided not to push him into a conversation about his feelings.

The following day they were checking into their hotel room and looking up instructions for the famed Albany Rural Cemetery.

“Are we there yet?” Gideon sighed.

Belle snorted. “Almost dear. Section 105 is just up ahead.”

Rumplestiltskin looked around. There weren’t many tourists out in the heat thankfully, but they still had to be careful not to attract too much attention.

“Here they are.” Belle said at last. “Wales J Watson (1856 -1919) and Margaret Frances Watson (1856 -1913).”

“We found them Gracie.” Gideon whispered to the box. “You’re almost home.”

Rumplestiltskin looked around as if he were expecting the Watsons to suddenly appear.

“Do you…see them?” Belle asked Gideon.

Gideon looked around, trying to sense them or something that could bring them to him. But he could. Gracie had revealed herself to him because she felt safe near a fellow child. Her parents didn’t know him as an adult.

“No, but maybe they’ll appear if Gracie’s here.”

Rumplestiltskin nodded and took the box from his son. Belle moved to Gideon’s side.

Little Gracie appeared in a flurry of light and gasped, blinking several times to adjust to her new surroundings.

“Gideon!” she cheered.

“Hey Gracie.” Gideon greeted, kneeling to her level.

Gideon jogged up to him, turning one of her bright smiles to Belle and Rumplestiltskin. “Did you find them? Did you find my parents?”

Gideon glanced at the two graves behind her. They were barren and unkept and Gideon suddenly wondered if they had moved on long ago, hoping their daughter would be on the other side.

“I…”

“Gracie?”

The Gold’s and Little Gracie shot around to see two people standing at the Watson’s graves. They were as pale as Gracie and in the same style of clothing as her.

The man stepped forward, his eyes wide and glassy with tears. “Is it truly you? My Little Gracie?”

“Papa!”

Belle covered her mouth as she watched Little Gracie bound into her sobbing father’s arms.

“Oh my sweet angel.” He sobbed. “You’re finally here…”

Gideon stood and stepped back to stand beside his parents. His mother couldn’t contain her tears of joy and his father was comforting her; and though he would deny it later, there were tears of joy in his own eyes. Years ago he would have been tearing apart families like this, but now he was putting one back together.

Mrs. Watson looked up at the Golds, staring at them in such awe like they were angels. Her eyes seemed to focus on Belle the most, a fellow mother who traveled across the states just to reunite a stranger with their child.

“Thank you.” She said. Two little words that lifted centuries of a mother’s grief and pain and vanished them into thin air.

Belle nodded.

“Let’s go home.” Mr. Watson said when he composed himself. “We can go now…”

“Where are we going Papa?” Little Gracie asked when she took her parents hands.

“To the greatest hotel in heaven.” Mr. Watson stated.

The Gold’s watched as the Watson’s began to travel to what could only be the afterlife. Eternal happiness for the family.

“Wait!” Gideon called out suddenly.

The Watson’s paused, turning to Gideon.

“There’s um...” Gideon swallowed hard. “There’s this boy over there. He has blue eyes and brown hair.” Gideon quickly wiped away a stray tear. “His name is Roderick. If you see him over there…could you...” He paused to steady his breathing. “Could you tell him Gideon said sorry…and that I miss him?”

Little Gracie tilted her head curiously and glanced up to her father as if he had the answer.

“We’ll tell him.” Mr. Watson smiled.

“Thank you.” Gideon sighed, feeling like he could breathe for the first time in so long. “Thank you so much.”

“Bye Gideon!” Little Gracie called out, unwilling to let go of her parent’s hands now that she finally had them in her own again.

The Golds watched them until they vanished. The air was different now, less dense and more breathable. For a moment there was no heat or irritation but just a consuming feeling of peace among the wee family.

Rumplestiltskin placed a hand on his son’s shoulder and pulled him into his and Belle’s arm.

“I’m so proud of you Gideon.” Belle said. “My brave hero.”

Gideon smiled. “I couldn’t have done it without you. Either of you.”

Rumplestiltskin separated from the family hug but kept his arms around them as he led them from the cemetery.

“Well, now that we’re temporarily banned from Savannah, Georgia and possibly the Hilton airport, where do you want to go next?”

Belle and Gideon laughed.

“I honestly wouldn’t mind going home and sleeping for the next week.” Belle said.

“Sounds like a winner to me.” Gideon agreed.

Rumplestiltskin pulled his keys from his pocket. “Home it is then.”

-,-,-,-,-,-,-

For the full story of Little Gracie Watson go to:

http://discoverhistoricamericatours.com/savannah/historic-people/little-gracie/

#rumbelle #rumbelleedit #rumbelle summer vacation #rumbelle fic #Rumplestiltskin #Belle Gold #Gideon Gold #mentions of Roderick #angst #happy ending I promise #ryik's fics

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far-east-orient · 8 years

Text

Wind of the Desert (Part 2)

The scenery has remained the same, though nature has mercilessly left its mark on mortal belongings. The flames of war left little behind. In funeral attire, he pays respect to those who have left.

A light breeze blows, he is seen under the clear moon. Who still remembers the carefree years of the past? Years passes in an instant, yet he constantly wanders back into the past. How many wrongful deaths did it takes to turn a man into a stone?

- Excerpt from “Chieftain and Lineage of Xaela Tribes” as collected from an old journal believed to be owned by Algun Bairon, Turuk Bairon’s Chief during Seventh Astral Era -

====================================

The ruin of Be'lahdian beckons from amidst the burning desert of Thanalan. Algun covers his eyes as he enters a ruined courtyard. Flocks of condors were feeding on the dried carcass of a long dead animal. Algun withdraws his bow and arrow, he carefully skirts around the ruin. When they were young in Othard, their father once bought a colored book from an Aldenard merchant. That book is a shared treasure between him, Temujin, and Tuyaa. Algun is the one that dreams of becoming a greater explorer than his father. Even when he was young, his gaze is ever forward, to bring his people to a better land. Nhaama's name can be glorified anywhere and spread amongst the four winds. Perhaps by doing that, maybe Nhaama will also consent to turn her view over them?

The book told them about untold riches and wonders of ancient civilization, one of them is the Belah'dian city of the dead, a ruin far to the south of Thanalan, rarely visited due to the treacherous road and the long travel. It is here that his brother calls for their final confrontation.

"Welcome, Akhduu (brother) "

Temujin voice echoes from within the ruin. Algun carefully tries to follow the source, however, the echoes surprised the flock of condors and they made surprised sounds as they fly away. "You have escaped me once, but this ends now, today" Temujin's voice echoes his own. Algun would remember how he loved and doted on his brother. Even though they are only separated by few seconds in birth, he always takes the role of the protector.

Once, Temujin accidentally breaks shademother Alani's holy water jar. Such capital punishment would earn at least twenty lashes, the Bairon views water as the source of life and the jar that contains it are believed to hold blessing from the dusk mother, moreover the jar belonging to one of the shademother.

Algun remembers that back then Temujin was recently healed from an illness and they were playing when Temujin accidentally breaks the jar. His brother will not be able to stand twenty lashes with his still weak body. Knowing this, Algun took the blame and receive forty lashes instead, due to his position as heir to the chief. The lashes made him faint due to the pain and the burning sun of Azim desert. The first thing he remembered was waking up and looking at Temujin's worried face, his mother angry, worried face, and his father's stony stare, yet his eyes say it all: relieve and proud, that his son is able to withstand the punishment that many adults do not survive.

Remembering this brings anger, and pain to Algun...for what is the greatest betrayal if not for own flesh and blood betrayal?

"Temujin, you coward. Go out and show yourself. Fight me!"

Algun scans his surrounding, gritting his teeth in rage yet in him burns a sort of quiet rage. He strains his hearing as he lighten his steps

"Oh, the hero of Turuk Bairon calls me a coward? that is like the kettle calling the pot black!" Temujin voice seethe with hatred as it echoes

"Before you ask why do I call you a coward, remember this: it is because you are a coward that you told the father to hasten your marriage to Tuyaa! you are afraid that Tuyaa will realize I am the better man!"

Algun shakes his head, his marriage was indeed a few years earlier than promised...but that is because Algun's mother was sick and on practically breathing her last. The creeping malaise has consumed her within for sometimes but she bid him not to tell Temujin. Temujin is the closest and held dearest by his mother and his mother worried that this might upset Temujin, to Temujin his mother was just tired from their harsh desert life and therefore was just having a normal illness.

Her last wish was to see Algun wed before she passes away. That summer Algun asked his father to hold the ceremony, to their surprise Tuyaa's parents and clan agrees to their request.

"Temujin, am I always so low in your eyes brother? did you ever think of anything else but me trying to take Tuyaa away from you ?"

Algun heaves a breath

"First of all, our mother was dying and her last wish was to see me wed. I have asked father to pick another bride from the Narima, however, you know that he will lose face if he does that."

"How can I, a whelp whose only through kindness and love of our parents dare to give them even the slightest burden ? to not fulfill my mother, no -our- mother last wishes ?"

"How can I smear father's face with dung by making him break his promise?"

He grits his teeth as Algun continues to look for Temujin.

"In the hereafter, Nhaama will avert her eyes away from me if I ever held any jealousy towards you, Temujin. However, it is you who cannot listen to reason"

A moment of silence before Temujin replies

"Why does it have to be you Algun? you are always our parent's favorite, always the better one, and to add to the insult you even take the only thing I treasure in this life"

A thunder flashes somewhere and from within the ruin whinnying sound of a horse can be heard. Suddenly as if springing to alive, the old rotten wood door to the inner keep blast open as Temujin rides astride a black midnight stallion. Spear in his hand and hatred in his eyes as he tries to run over Algun.

Algun however, was ready. He rolls around and evades the attack although the horse swipe makes him tumble to a nearby wall and knocks the air out of his lung. He turns back and his eyes turns wide as he recognize that horse

"Rukh!" Algun shouted in surprise, calling the Darkhad horse. Rukh’s sire is Ajim, a stallion that was gifted to Batugun from Bogatai Khan himself. Algun's eyes will not mistake the horse from anything else because he was the one who helped deliver Rukh into the world as a foal. The horse has a distinct color and birthmark on top of his right eye in form of a faded wing, it is said that horse such as this is blessed with speed and strength.

Algun had left Rukh that day when he goes hunting for the fire lizards, he did not know that Temujin ran away with Rukh after he and the conspirator party he worked with exterminated the clan.

Temujin twirls his spear, sneering

"Oh yes, brother, the last of your possession is already mine years ago. After I poisoned your whelps I tried to take Tuyaa with me, but she refuse to hear reason" Temujin limbal ring retracts as if a feverish man is talking

"I promised myself, I shall destroy you and all that you love. I had to do what need to be done, and still, Tuyaa did not blame you!" "This fire in me will not be quenched until I kill you Algun Bairon!"

Algun draws his bows, string taut and arrow aimed. As Temujin approach with a blinding speed, Algun shot his arrow. Temujin eyes widen as he tries to dodge the arrow meant to pierce his throat. His movement was a bit late though as the arrow pierce his right shoulder instead.

Algun lowers his bow and stares into the horse's eye. Rukh mouth is foaming as he travels at breakneck speed, Algun will be trampled if he does not dodge. Even animal, however, recognize their true master. Just as he was about to be trampled, Rukh rears up his front leg and whinnied loudly, throwing Temujin out of balance and out of his saddle.

"Cursed animal!" Temujin shouts as he falls down the horse, it does not take him long before he stands up and continues his assault towards Algun.

Algun would fire another arrow, Temujin snarls as the arrow hit his left shoulder. Driven by a fit of rage, he thrust his spear towards Algun, the wind made from the spear movement can be felt. A sign that the force behind the movement is very strong.

Temujin was strong, but he is hurt and so his aim was not good. In a split moment, Algun draws a dagger from his belt and parried the spear away before he shoulder tackle Temujin.

The fight afterward was a contest of strength, Temujin has grown surprisingly strong and even though Algun tries to be calm he knows that if he does not give in to his instinct he will not survive. The older Bairon therefore, let his fist and kicks answer Temujin's attack beat by beat. Temujin might be strong, but he forgot his brother is an accomplished wrestler.

So there it was, as a dust storm approach the ruin: Temujin Bairon lies on the floor with both arms twisted and broken. Algun face is bloody from the struggle and some of his old wound reopens again.

Algun wipes the blood and draws his dagger

"Temujin Bairon, a traitor to the blood and kin slayer. If you have any words that can stop Nhaama's justice from being done, say so now" he grabs the dagger with both hands,

"If you have been wronged by someone then tell the truth, fear not, your soul shall rest with your family. under the ever merciful gaze of Nhaama."

As the chief, judge, and arbitrator Algun holds by generations of custom and tradition to pass a fair judgment. His hand trembles as he stares at Temujin. The only thing he fears now is not Temujin but himself.

Algun raises the blade as he stares at Temujin's face. His twin looks at him before saying "I hope you rot in Nhaama's hell, Algun Bairon. You shall live with the knowledge that you were helpless when I kill your whelps and your wife" he snarls and attempts to spit at the chieftain.

Algun's hand is faster, however, as the blade reach Temujin's face and the enormous power behind it drive the dagger into the skull like a hot knife through butter. Temujin Bairon was dead before he knows it.

Algun hand moves again, the blade moves and cut through the throat as he sever the head from the body

"Your body is our parent’s gift, therefore I shall not subject you through seventy-seven corpse defilement, punishment from betraying your kin and your Chief. Your head and your body shall be separated so that you shall never find your way to the Dusk Mother's Gher. Ever lost as a ghost in the afterlife" Algun says this in a firm voice yet when he tries to wipe his face from the blood, flashes of memories run through his mind.

youtube

Of Tuyaa "Rest well dear wife. This debt has been paid and settled."

Of his sons and daughters "Temur, Sokha, Batu, Hulagu, Ilya. Aav (father) ask you accompany your Ekh (mother) to Nhaama's Gher. Show her the way through the lonely path"

Of his clans, warriors old and young, weavers, water-bearers, scouts, shade mothers, sisters, brothers, and much more.

Dropping his blade and the severed head of Temujin, Algun looks to the ground.

Then the Chieftain weeps quietly...

#Xaela RP Algun

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ftkd-arts · 5 years

Text

HC: Coco Pommel

Coco Pommel was not always the wealthy, though kind mare she is now. Earlier in life, she was hardly a force to be reckoned with. She was a timid, weak colt from the poor traditional village of rustic Appleloosa, where she lived with her older brother Braeburn. Her name was not Coco Pommel. Rather, she was Cocoa Bean; the shy country boy.

[[MORE]]

Even as a young foal, Cocoa Bean wasn't like the other boys. He didn't have a taste for rough-housing, mud-wrestling and rodeo-watching like the small handful of colts that mildly tolerated Cocoa's presence. He was frail and fragile. He didn't know why he hated the look of his own face, or his name, or his body. The bullying didn't help; how'd they would call him names like "sissy" or "fag" until he was sobbing. Of course when the tears came, the bullies only had more ammunition.

Cocoa hated himself. He hated his bullies and his supposed friends; he hated dirt and rust and those stupid Celestia-damned rodeos! He grew a resentment for his parents, Apple Brown Betty and Half Baked Apple, blaming them for his existence. The only pony Cocoa Bean didn't have the energy to hate was his big brother, Braeburn, and baby sisters Jonagold and Apple Fritter.

Their relationship wasn't without strain. Braeburn was the model son, Appleloosa's golden boy. Top of his class, he was a very chivalrous young stallion; kind, brave, courageous, friendly, charming, straight forward... Anything you could want in a kid, a friend, or a brother. Cocoa Bean got told so many times that he was lucky to have a sibling like Braeburn. Cocoa wanted to hate his brother-- everybody loved him, and for what? Because he could smile? Cocoa wanted to smile, why couldn't they allow that?

Yet still... Braeburn was very important to him. Cocoa Bean looked up to Braeburn. So much so that he spilled his guts to him, only after Braeburn had found him about to run away.

Cocoa Bean confessed everything to Braeburn. The torment, the self-hatred, the neverending confusion over who he was. Cocoa Bean feared that he was a teenage monster. A defective pony. That he was born wrong, because... Because he, a young colt, not only yearned for another colt to like him in more than a friend way, but... he also wanted to be a mare.

Now, in a small dirt village like Appleloosa, not everypony is educated on things like gender dysphoria. Braeburn was one of these ponies. He didn't hate Cocoa, he was just confused and trying, trying to understand. Even when he didn't really get it, he comforted his... his sister, as best as he could. He encouraged her to be who she, erm, wanted. Or was.

Cocoa couldn't bare coming out to the whole town, but Braeburn convinced her that their parents wouldn't be mad at her. Cocoa quietly admitted her true self to them. Her parents didn't understand, but they could see the pain their child was going through. They wanted Cocoa Bean to be happy, and if that meant Cocoa would be a girl, then the family could manage that.

So Cocoa Bean's name was changed to Cocoa Butter. The town's delicate little punchbag colt became Appleloosa's own freak.

Once word got out that Cocoa Bean was no more, her bullies couldn't stop cackling. Everywhere she went, Cocoa Butter felt like ponies were whispering about her. Gossiping about the weird tranny, the confused colt, the contagious faggot... She couldn't take the staring eyes. With a final note to the family she loved, she left on the next train to Manehattan.

Barely getting by, she became determined to find a way to earn a living. She had always had a fixation for fashion, so she started working towards something in that department. She showed up to a various popular clothing stores, meekly asking for a job only to be rejected again and again.

Just as she was thinking it was time to go back to Appleloosa, a customer came up and offered the mare an internship. The customer promised that she would be housed, fed, and clothed; in exchange, the naive young lady would be her assistant. Of course she quickly agreed! But first, she would need a name change... No one would know she was in the fashion business with a name like Cocoa Butter. So Cocoa Butter became Coco Pommel, and Coco was kindly taken in by this sweet stranger... Suri Polomare.

We know how the story goes from there. Power of generosity. Nonetheless, Rarity got Coco Pommel hired by Hoity Toity, who turned her life around! Hoity Toity is close friends with Sapphire Shores, her wives Songbird Serenade and Countess Coloratura, and even Grand Duke Blueblood, is already famous as hell, and they all wanted Coco to design their newest wardrobe items.

Coco Pommel was no longer just a lowly assistant to a short-cut designer, and ponies reconigzed that. Ponies like Svengallop.

While Quincy Svengallop the III did have a brief buckle in his career thanks to Coloratura, he managed to revive his name, albeit not without hardships. After the disagreement, he had to be on his best behavior. He shifted gears into a more subtle manipulation tactic... Enough that he was able to snag a short job as Sweetie Belle's agent, and even jumpstart the modeling career of Duke Blueblood's daughter.

With that résumé, how could Coco Pommel refuse when the charming stallion suggested his services?

Svengallop became the mare's agent. He was rugged, handsome, and played the role of a gentlemen very convincingly. She fell fast. Coco tried to push the feelings down, but over the course of the next few months, a nice bond manifested.

Since they were good friends, Svengallop convinced her that the deal with Countess Coloratura was a misunderstanding. The deal with Bellevue was a misunderstanding. Coco Pommel believed him. He lied so kindly and so, so easily that he found warmth in how quick Coco Pommel was to think him a good pony. Svengallop thought her understanding nature was cute. The naive, innocent little mare was adorable, honest, and meek. So honest that she told Svengallop that she loved him, and so meek that she accepted his proposal to elope that same night.

Svengallop sired twin children with his wife; Noteworthy and Cherry Chapstick. They weren't his firstborn. Mayor Mare birthed his eldest Pencil Pusher, the product of a one night stand. Years of Coco Pommel, Svengallop grew bored and started an affair with young culinary upstart Silver Spoon; it ended when she announced a pregnancy. He left Silver Spoon to raise the foals, Cordon and Nouvelle, on her own.

Teenager/young adult Pencil Pusher soon found out their father's identity, declaring Sven's infidelities. Outraged, humiliated and broken-hearted, Coco Pommel divorced his ungrateful ass and took the kids.

After finding everything out, Coco Pommel is now surrounded by ponies who actually love and accept her. She remarried to a kind stallion the name of Quibble Pants. Mayor Mare is the aunt of Pinkie Pie and her sisters, so there's a lot of nieces and nephews. Coco Pommel now co-runs a shop with Sassy Saddles, with Ritzy Ring, Cherry Chapstick and Bellevue being the main models.

Other notes~

- Despite her dainty persona, Coco Pommel is not as weak or shy as one would assume. She's a fairly assertive mare, and doesn't hold back when defending either herself, her ideas, her family, friends, or a random stranger. She's still sweet, but bolder. Coco believes in herself more than she ever did. She's not trapped in a web anymore, whether its of her own making or Svengallop's, and the best part? She got herself out of it. She's proud of how far she's come, Celestia damn it. She's a good, strong mare that doesn't need anybody to push her to be tough.

- Coco Pommel did eventually get back in touch with her family. Slowly, they're working to make Appleloosa a more accepting place. The town was silently hateful when Jonagold got a girlfriend; Appleloosa quietly talked when Fritter turned out genderqueer (nb demigirl)... They were shocked when Braeburn himself came out as gay. Their parents supported their children and changed their biases. Brown Betty even started talking about how she was raised by two mothers, one who was appearantly a trans mare. The family are very close now and are happy for each other.

- Brown Betty is Granny Smith's daughter, younger than Bright Mac but older than her youngest Apple Bumpkin. Bumpkin is married to Hayseed Turnip Truck; they're Babs Seed and her big sister Sunflower's parents.

- Slowly with Braeburn's care, Appleloosa adopted a more friendly and open-minded community, and the citizens even apologized for the uncomfortableness they caused to the transgender or gay ponies in the town. Braeburn married Score (from RD's Boy Bullies) and had their stoic son, Snapple.

- Coco Pommel doesn't mind her family calling her Cocoa Butter.

- Cherry Chapstick is mtf transgender. Svengallop rejects her true self. He disagrees with Pencil Pusher being non-binary as well. Once Coco Pommel publicly announced that she herself was born a stallion, Svengallop felt humiliated and was honestly disgusted to his core.

- Noteworthy always favored his dear ol' dad. Coco has tried to fester a good relationship with her boy, but he blames her for Svengallop being a bad father.

- Just to sum up the family tree, Svengallop's first-born is Mayor Mare's nb offspring Pencil "Pen" Pusher from a one-night-stand. Mayor Mare is Pinkie Pie's dad Igneous Rock's big sister; she ran away to pursue a life outside the rock farm and its traditions. Svengallop married Coco Pommel and had their twins Noteworthy and Cherry. After some years, Sven cheated and sired Silver Spoon's twins, Cordon and Nouvelle. The pair divorced once Pen uncovered Svengallop's infidelities. Coco married a childless Quibble.

Pinkie Pie also has about nine kids; five stepchildren, four biological. She and her wife Rainbow Dash had Airhead, Creampuff, Starburst and Jawbreaker, before they became the girlfriends of Dumbbell, who had previously had Featherweight with Bulk Biceps and Thunderweight, Phoenix Ashes, Hailstorm and Whirlwind with Lightning Dust.

- The mentioned Ritzy Ring is Sassy Saddles' daughter. Bellevue is Blueblood's.

I'm very aware this is a lot more scattered than my usual HC: Character but hey, writing when you have writer's block be like that sometimes. It took me a few months to actually get this down

Why do so many of my headcanons involve secret family members and ugly truths? I honestly do not know.

Thanks for the read. If you use this headcanon, please give me credit, otherwise don't plagiarize

HC: Apple Bloom;

https://www.deviantart.com/gayswillrule/art/HC-Apple-Bloom-809352963

HC: Cake Twins;

HC: Mayor Smith;

Peace ✌️

#pastelglitches19 #harmonyverse #pastelglitchesdrawsiguess #mlp #mlp mylittlepony #mlp friendship is magic #mlp fim my little pony friendship #mlp coco pommel #coco pommel #mlp headcanon #headcanons #mlp next gen #gayswillrule is my da account bros #im not linking a random strangers hcs #they be mine #anywho #peace ✌️

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thehollywood360 · 7 years

Text

North Hollywood, CA (TheHollywood360.com) 03/26/2017 – Panic! Productions in conjunction with Theater68 located at 5112 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood presents John Patrick Shanley’s twofer – the world premiere of Shanley’s 15-minute play “Poison” and “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.” Set design for Poison and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by Danny Cistone, with lightening designed by Jenny Nwene.

Artistic Director of the 68 Cent Crew Theaters and Director Ronnie Marmo shared this about his own decision to play Danny 8 years ago in L.A during the 13 by Shanley Festival. “I walked around with the “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” script in my back pocket for 10 years before I felt remotely qualified enough to play Danny; the material is so dense, not something to mess around with” … “I am extremely excited to revisit Danny and the Deep Blue Sea as director…Seeing the material from this point of view had made me fall in love with the play even more. Our production is extremely powerful and affecting- these are authentic characters and Renee and Bailey will be leaving it all on the stage at every performance.”

Tonight, Marmo takes on the task of bringing John Patrick Shanley’s dark, psychologically disturbing play to North Hollywood, and bring it he did. Marmo’s casting of Renee Marino and J. Bailey Burcham as Roberta and Danny respectively is spot on. The two play the whacked out, train wrecked souls to perfection. Marino and Burcham find themselves unwittingly starring in a modern, twisted “Beauty and the Beast” set in a seedy bar instead of an enchanted castle. The tremendous acting chops it takes for these two attractive, charismatic, easy going actors to turn themselves into people so raw and ugly is exceptional. The sheer amount of energy it takes night after night is draining. They give 110% wringing themselves out on the stage for their audience in the way only great actors can. Marino had this to say about playing Roberta in her first professional play; “I’ve done plays before, but in college, never professionally. Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is my first professional play. Playing Roberta is one of the most rewarding experiences I ever had. It’s been so satisfying. I leave feeling emotionally exhausted, but I love every minute of it. “

It is gut wrenchingly emotional within 10 minutes of the play’s opening scene. You’re looking around the audience for a psychiatrist in the hopes that they’ll call a 5150-psychiatric hold on these two. The first scene opens on a sparsely furnished bar set, clearly a dive. Roberta is sitting legs apart, sprawled in one of the chairs, beer in hand, eating pretzels with the scariest resting bitch face imaginable that screams, “Don’t mess with me.” Danny, keeping it classy in his dirty wife beater, greasy hair, blackened eye, bloodied hands and carrying a pitcher of beer and a mug enters a few minutes later and sits at the table across from Roberta. Already my thoughts run to how I’d never want to meet either of these two loose screws in a dark alley.

Couple that thought with the intimacy of Theater68 whose stage is less than 3 feet from the theater’s front row, and the audience has an “in your face” view of quite possibly the most damaged people you will ever come across. The theater’s intimate design invites the audience to step into the character’s deepest despair. Occupying that space between madness and redemption causes one to feel as if they have over stepped boundaries right into Roberta and Danny’s circle of pain, hopelessness, venomous anger and ultimate redemption. It is uncomfortable, almost too personal, and too raw of an experience to digest in such a small space and span of time.

Marmo no stranger to Danny and the Deep Blue Sea directs Marino and Burcham’s broken and battered Roberta and Danny with the skill of someone who has walked the dark side of this play; beginning by setting us up with Shanley’s self-destructive characters that collide with each other with the intensity of a perfect storm. The excellent direction and acting guarantees turning away is not an option, though one may at times desire to do so!

These are truly broken and nasty characters, raw, bitter, and filled with hatred, anger and rage at the circumstances in their lives. Roberta a 31 yr old divorced, single mother with a jacked up 13 yr old son both live with her parents and she loathes it. She heads to the local dive bar in her neighborhood seeking some peace of mind from her own screaming thoughts. Burcham when asked to describe Danny had this to say “He’s a gorilla, he’s a brute, and he’s dangerous, he’s a poet …. And he’s vulnerable.” 29 yr old Danny who looks older than his years is fresh from a street brawl arrives at the bar, bruised, bloodied and weary from the turmoil in his life hoping to find solace from the rage for just one night.

J. Bailey Burcham and Renee Marino as Danny and Roberta.

From there on a ping – pong match of words laced in deep pain and rejection lead these two perfect strangers to unburden themselves on one another in the hopes of receiving forgiveness, acceptance, and redemption from their painful pasts.

Burcham (Damn Yankees, The Producers) and Marino (Jersey Boys the film, Damn Yankees) are fiery, repulsive and endearing as Danny and Roberta. These two play off each other with such intensity that the audience is left gasping, and then holding its breath, unable to jump in to help, unable to look away from the chaos in front of them. In one terrifying scene, so close is the audience to the stage that they can see the sweat on Danny’s brow and hear Roberta whisper “harder,” as she stares death in the face.

A sob is heard from the audience as the reality of being thrust into the very vortex of these two desperate, shredded people is too much to grasp. Roberta begins to crack open, a desire to ease Danny’s pain and not just her own emerges. She begins to veer toward a more temporary release wielding the only weapon she has against a man who towers over her; her beauty, her body. In desperation, she begs Danny to come home with her and to “pretend” for just one night that they see the light in each other, rather than the darkness.

Alone in Roberta’s room they begin to settle into the idea that they can have what others have. Roberta telling Danny that he’s not a beast and “Why can’t we have one night? I need to step away from myself just for one night.” Danny grabs Roberta’s bride doll off the shelf and begins to question her about it. He tells her that he went to a wedding once. “I wanted to be the bride, all dressed in white, flowers, and people talking nice, special. Yeah special. I wanted to be the bride.” Not because he was conflicted, but because for once he wanted others to look on him as special, attractive. Danny’s vulnerability begins to come through and Roberta begins to open up to him. Slowly at first than like a flower, petal by delicate petal opens as she tells Danny,

“Let’s be romantic with each other Danny.” Danny resists at first, but then with these simple ineloquent words, “You got a nice nose…it’s like, it looks at ya, your nose, and says “hello”. And you got a nice chin too. It goes up when you smile. Like a balloon. No better, like a bird! Yeah, like some kind of bird.”

His words flow over her soul like a healing balm, telling her he loves her “friendly ears” and her nose that says “HELLO!” They become vulnerable with each other in a sweet halting way. Roberta becoming endearing as we see her through Danny’s eyes. Danny becomes more like a teddy bear than a beast with his silly words and his adorable grin, “sexy hair,” and “beautiful eyes” as we begin to see him through Roberta’s eye. Danny proposes and she accepts. They fall asleep in each other’s arms and wake up to the sound of birds outside of Roberta’s window.

Having been given a taste of the beauty, peace and normalcy he has always craved, Danny has now found something worth fighting for. In a desperate attempt to help Roberta forgive herself, he offers her the very thing she needs for her stained and tattered soul…forgiveness. Roberta is offered the ultimate gift by Danny. All she has to do is receive it. Will she? Can she? Come see the play and find out! Bring the Kleenex! Lastly, this production is not for the faint of heart, and absolutely not for a younger audience. Keep the kiddies at home unless you want them to end up in therapy! It is that disturbing.

POISON

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Flynn and Katie Zeiner

Kelsey Flynn and Nicola Tombacco

John Patrick Shanley’s 15-minute play Poison makes its world premier under the direction of Kay Cole at Theater68. This one act play stars Italian actor Nicola Tombacco as (Kenny), Kelsey Flynn as his desperate girlfriend (Kelly,) and Katie Zeiner as a con artist, gypsy fortune teller. Zeiner is out to make a buck at Kelly’s expense. Kelly is obsessed with getting Kenny her ex boyfriend back, and she’s willing to spare no expense at insuring that she regains his love. Zeiner’s hilariously played gypsy fortune teller is more than happy to assist Kelly by selling her a poison that should do the trick! Emphasis on trick here! Shanley’s Poison presents before Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.

Extended Two Weeks!

Ticket Information:

www.plays411.com/danny

Or call 323-960-4429

Theater68

5112 Lankershim Blvd. North Hollywood, Ca 91601

panicproductions.org

John Patrick Shanley’s Twofer “Danny And The Deep Blue Sea,” And “Poison” Make For An Intense Night Of Theater At @Theater68 In NoHo! North Hollywood, CA (TheHollywood360.com) 03/26/2017 – Panic! Productions in conjunction with Theater68 located at 5112 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood presents John Patrick Shanley’s twofer - the world premiere of Shanley’s 15-minute play “Poison” and “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.” Set design for Poison and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by Danny Cistone, with lightening designed by Jenny Nwene.

#dannyandthedeepbluesea #jbaileyburcham #jerseyBoys #JohnLloydYoung #johnpatrickshanley #Katiezeiner #kaycole #kelseyflynn #MicheleBlack #nicolatombacco #panicproductions #poison #reneemarino #ronniemarmo #theater68

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