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henrylevesconte · 6 years

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Title: One Fancy Rat

Prompt 1: A Special Disguise

Character: Cornelius Hickey, Magnus Manson, Thomas Hartnell

Pairing: n/a (hickey/tozer if you squint)

Rating: T

“Why’d ya pick that one, Cornelius?” Magnus Manson hummed, digging through a pillaged trunk for the scraps of clothing left over. Cornelius Hickey brushed his worn velvet top hat of the dust it had collected in Sir John’s storage after three years. It was his treasure as every other half wit scrambled to pick out their costume for the dandy Fitzjames little party.

“I’m going as a gentlemen, Magnus. A real fancy one.” Magnus wouldn’t understand it, he didn’t expect anyone to. Sometimes a man of his caliber wanted to feel like what he was, what he deserved. Tom Hartnell glared at him from the other half of the room. Despite his best efforts to avoid Hickey and Manson, he always seemed to be near his old mutinous crew.

“What are you going as, Tom?” Cornelius poked at the blond while picking up a dated dress shirt.

“‘Is none of your business, Mister Hickey.” Hartnell snapped, sounding more like a kitten than a lion. It didn’t bother the Caulker Mate, even if Tom had been one of his early friends. Years and a few graves ago they used to be quite the group. But now the trio was left to chart their future. Tom rejected what he had to offer and Hickey let him go with ease, after all the lone surviving Hartnell would change his mind when the time came and things got harder.

Most of the crew bumbled around, filled with hope for drink and dance. He knew better than to play into the hands of the Captains. He only made mistakes once and his backside still ached from the time not long ago Crozier showed him who’s side he was really on. Now the man was missing, sick with a flux or flu and unseen from the likes of the crew besides Doctor MacDonald and his faithful manservant Jopson. It didn’t take much to guess what was really ailing him but he wouldn’t mention it to Manson who often wondered to his companion on the state of Crozier. Magnus didn’t need anything else upsetting him.

A storm was coming and people on chirped with praises for the lone functional Captain Fitzjames. Hickey could see it and to some extent Sargent Tozer could too, though the man was too busy herding his Royal Marines to have a talk. They would find time, they always did.

“D’you think I look like one of the officers when they’re out of their stuffy uniforms?” Cornelius cracked a rat like smile at the younger man who seemed to light up at the joke. Even for a simple man like Magnus, it was getting harder and harder for him every day to find joy in the cold darkness of the arctic. Where most men fell, Hickey flourished in the dark.

“You’d look just like ‘em, Cornelius. Look fit for a day at the opera!” Magnus jested while pulling out a tattered cape. “Don’t think I’ll be as fancy as you.” Hickey went to the small mirror inside the old trunk, placing the top hat on his head. It sunk perfectly around his slicked back fiery hair. Even in his stained clothes he looked better than he had in what felt like ages.

“No I don’t think anyone will be as fancy as me.”

#12daysofcarnivale #the terror #the terror amc #cornelius hickey #magnus manson #thomas hartnell #tom hartnell #i like to call them the og rat pack #solomon tozer #francis crozier #james fitzjames #alexander macdonald #thomas jopson

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hip-hoppin-hobbits · 6 years

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James Fitzjames dressed up as a swindler to prank one of his friends TWICE,the first time he asked for £3 and was then given a bill for £4 for the swindlers gambling and the second time he showed up at a dinner and made it miserable for the friend,to the point the friend got into a fight with the swindler and then fitzjames revealed himself this is such chaotic antics

#very og sherlock holmes #james fitzjames

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annecoulmanross · 4 years

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Top Ten Historical Figures Done Dirty by The Terror (2018)

So, we all know and love Dave Kajganich and Soo Hugh’s beautiful show, right? Of course. But it’s important to set the historical record straight, especially when there are real people’s life-stories and legacies on the line.

(NOTE: this list is biased heavily toward upper-class individuals because the historical record does a better job preserving those voices for us. Was the real Cornelius Hickey as nasty a person in real life as he was in the show? Almost certainly not – which is why we’re given “E.C.” as a nod to the fact that we shouldn’t assume these characters represent real historical villains, even when the narrative makes them antagonists; HOWEVER, not everyone in the show was given the same courtesy as the OG “Cornelius Hickey.” Which is why this post exists – to show you the best sides of some people you might not otherwise appreciate for their full humanity. That being said, keep in mind the sources used – and, for instance, who has surviving portraits and who doesn’t.)

Thus, below the cut, I give you this list, (mostly) in order from #10 (honorable mention, only somewhat slandered) to #1 (most hideously maligned) – my list of characters from The Terror who deserved better.

(Please don’t take this too seriously – I know there are reasons why choices had to be made in order to make this show work on television, and I do very much love the end product. But I also genuinely think it’s a good idea to remember the real people behind these characters, and think critically about how we depict them ourselves.)

Bottom Tier – The Overlooked Men of the Franklin Expedition

#10. Richard Wall – & – John Diggle

We’re combining these two because they had a lot in common, historically speaking! Both were polar veterans, having served as a Cook (Wall) and an AB-then-Quartermaster (Diggle) on HMS Erebus under the command of Sir James Clark Ross in the Antarctic expedition of 1839-1843. Certainly we do get some good scenes with them in the show, but there was plenty more to explore there – for instance, Captain Ross was apparently so taken with Richard Wall that he hired him on as a private cook after the Antarctic expedition. (One imagines that Sir James may have regretted letting his friends of the Franklin expedition steal Wall out from under him.)

(If you want some more information on Diggle, the brilliant @handfuloftime found this excellent article on him – fun facts include the detail that Diggle’s only daughter bore the name Mary Ann Erebus Diggle.)

#9. John Smart Peddie

Now, I don’t think we should go as far as the Doctor Who Audio Drama adaptation of the Franklin Expedition, which makes Peddie into Francis Crozier’s oldest friend, someone “almost like a brother” to Crozier (no evidence of ANY prior relationship between the two existed, contrary to whatever the Doctor Who Audio Dramas would have you believe!) but Peddie probably earned his place as chief surgeon, however fond we may all be of the beautiful Alex “Macca” MacDonald, who was, in fact, the Assistant Surgeon, historically speaking. It’s hard to find information about Peddie, but someone should go looking! I want to know about this man!

(If you want to know more about the historical Alexander MacDonald, there’s a short biographical article on him from Arctic that you can read here.)

#8 James Walter Fairholme

The only one of the expedition’s lieutenants who doesn’t really get any characterization in the show, which is a travesty! The historical Fairholme (pronounced “Fairem”) was, as they say, a himbo, and the letters that he wrote home to his father are positively precious. He loved the expedition pets (lots of kisses for Neptune!), and he needed two kayaks because he couldn’t fit into just one with his beefy thighs. Fitzjames loaned him a coat when all the Erebus officers had their portraits taken, and then called him a “smart, agreeable companion, and a well informed man,” and Goodsir singled Fairholme out as “very much interested” in the work of naturalist observations. Just a lovely young man who could have gotten some screen time, you know?

(Also, as @transblanky discovered, four separate members of the Fairholme family gave money to Thomas Blanky’s widow when she was struggling financially in the 1850s, making them, combined, the most generous contributor to her subscription.)

Middle Tier – Franklin’s Men Who Didn’t Deserve That

#7. William Gibson

Alright, I want to talk about how uniquely horrible the show’s William Gibson is: this is a character willing to lie and accuse his partner of sexual assault that didn’t happen. I get there were extenuating circumstances, but if I were a historical figure who died in some famous disaster and someone depicted me doing something like that? Let’s just say I’m deeply offended on the real Gibson’s behalf.

What do we know about the historical William Gibson? Not much – but we know a little. Gibson’s younger brother served on an overland exploratory venture across Australia in the 1870s… from which he never returned. (God, the Gibson family had the worst luck?) This description of a conversation that young Alf Gibson had with expedition leader Ernest Giles only days before his death is VERY eerie:

[Gibson] said, “Oh! I had a brother who died with Franklin at the North Pole, and my father had a deal of trouble to get his pay from government.” He seemed in a very jocular vein this morning, which was not often the case, for he was usually rather sulky, sometimes for days together, and he said, “How is it, that in all these exploring expeditions a lot of people go and die?”

I said, “I don't know, Gibson, how it is, but there are many dangers in exploring, besides accidents and attacks from the natives, that may at any time cause the death of some of the people engaged in it; but I believe want of judgment, or knowledge, or courage in individuals, often brought about their deaths. Death, however, is a thing that must occur to every one sooner or later.”

To this he replied, “Well, I shouldn't like to die in this part of the country, anyhow.” In this sentiment I quite agreed with him, and the subject dropped.

(From Giles’s Australia Twice Traversed which you can read here)

Beyond that, one thing we do know is that William Gibson was probably friends with Henry Peglar – they had served on ships together before, and Gibson may possibly have been the poor fellow found cradling the Peglar Papers, according to researcher Glenn Stein. So we might imagine the historical Gibson as a much kinder man than the show’s depiction of him – this was someone who befriended the clever, playful Peglar we all know and love from the transcriptions of his papers, so full of poetry and linguistic jokes. It’s a shame we didn’t get a chance to meet this real Gibson, who actually knew the Henry Peglar whom we love so well.

#6. Stephen Stanley

Look. There’s that one famous line in James Fitzjames’s letters to the Coninghams about how Stanley went about with his “shirt sleeves tucked up, giving one unpleasant ideas that he would not mind cutting one’s leg off immediately – ‘if not sooner.’” And certainly Harry Goodsir had some mixed opinions of the man, saying was “a would be great man who as I first supposed would not make any effort at work after a time,” and that he “knows nothing whatever about subject & is ignorant enough of all other subjects,” whatever…. that means….

But Fitzjames also had some rather nicer things to say about him, that he was “thoroughly good natured and obliging and very attentive to our mess.” Also, the amputation comment? Very likely had a quite positive underlying joke to it – Stanley may not have been much of a naturalist, but he was actually an accomplished anatomist, who won a prize for dissection in 1836, on account of his “bend of the elbow,” which was “a picture of dissection,” according to Henry Lonsdale, who also called Stanley his “facetious friend” and “a fine fellow” (Lonsdale 1870, pg. 159). So, the real Stanley probably was rather droll, but the perpetually cruel Stanley of the show misses some of the real man’s major historical virtues and replaces them with historically unlikely mass-mercy-murder.

#5. John Irving

Now we’re getting into the territory of characters who did get some good development, but are missing a bit of historical nuance. As I’m sure many of you know, the historical Irving was indeed very religious, but the flashes of anger (i.e. against Manson) we see from Irving in the show don’t seem terribly consistent with the Irving depicted in this memorial volume, where John seems more like a quiet, bookish, mathematically inclined young man, with a self-deprecating sense of humor and a gentle sweetness. It’s really not at all far off from the version of Irving we see with Kooveyook in the show – I just wish we could have seen more of that side of Irving.

Top Tier – The Triumvirate of Polar Friends

So, these three DO have many good things to recommend them in the show, but because I’ve done such deep research on them, it can be quite jarring to watch certain scenes in which they behave contrary to their historical personalities, and I find myself pausing when watching the show with friends or family to explain that NO, they wouldn’t do that!

#4. Sir James Clark Ross

First thing – we LOVE Richard Sutton. He did a beautiful job with the material given to him. (This is true of all the actors on the list, frankly, but it’s doubly true here.) But that scene at the Admiralty where Sir James tells Lady Franklin “I have many friends on those ships, as you know,” to shut down her argument for search missions? At that time (aka 1847), historically, Sir James Clark Ross was actively campaigning for search missions, planning routes and volunteering his services in command of any vessel the Admiralty even vaguely contemplated sending out. You could see this real-life desperation in Sir James’s morose attention to his whiskey glass in that scene if you’re really trying, but I think the more historically responsible thing would have been to make vividly clear that James Ross risked life and limb, as soon as he possibly could, to try to rescue Franklin and Crozier and Blanky, men he’d known and cared about and bitterly missed – and, in the case of Crozier, “truly loved.”

#3. Sir John Franklin

The historical Franklin had plenty of flaws – his contributions to British colonial rule certainly harmed no small number of people, and we should question the way that heroic statues of Franklin are some of the only memorials that serve to honor the lives lost on Franklin’s expeditions – especially considering the steep body count of not only Franklin’s final voyage, but his previous missions in Arctic regions as well. (DM me and I’ll scream at you about counter-monuments! Is this a promise or a threat? Who knows!) With that said, most contemporary accounts agree that Sir John Franklin treated his friends, his family, and those within his social orbit with kindness, and his cruelties were systemic, not personal. In this light, the image of Sir John viciously tearing into Francis Crozier’s vulnerabilities in the show feels very off. Though there was certainly some friction over Crozier’s two proposals to Sophia Cracroft, historically speaking, there’s no evidence at all that Sir John discouraged her from marrying Francis – Sophia may have had many reasons of her own (*clears throat meaningfully in a lesbian sort of way*) for not accepting any of the several marriage proposals offered to her (from Crozier as well as from others), and we ought to keep in mind that she remained unmarried all her life. The notion that the real Sir John would have considered Crozier too low-born or too Irish to be part of the Franklin family isn’t grounded in historical fact.

#2. Lady Jane Franklin

Again disclaimer: the real Lady Franklin left behind a legacy with much to critique. Those who rightfully point out the racism of her treatment of the young indigenous Tasmanian girl Mathinna should be fully heard out. Observations of her own contributions to imperialism are important and valid. Though I tend to see her feud with Dr. John Rae as somewhat understandable – given that Lady Franklin didn’t have the benefit of our hindsight knowing Rae was correct – the levels of prejudice that she enabled and even encouraged in the writing of Charles Dickens when he attempted to discredit Inuit accounts of Franklin’s fate are inarguably deplorable. These things being said, everything noted for Sir John re: Sophia Cracroft goes for Lady Franklin as well – there’s no reason to imagine a scene where Jane would bully Francis Crozier within an inch of his life, seconds after a failed second proposal, when, historically, Lady Franklin felt the situation was so delicate that it required the quiet and compassionate intervention of Sir James Clark Ross, a dearly loved mutual friend to all parties. Tension does not imply aggression; conflict is not abuse. We know this can’t have been an easy experience for the historical Francis Crozier, but the picture is a lot more complicated than what can be shown in one small subplot of a ten-episode television show. Because of this complexity, however, Lady Franklin’s social deftness suffers in the show. (I could also write an entire essay about Jane Franklin’s last shot in the show, at the beginning of Episode 9: The C the C the Open C – TL;DR is that framing is very important, and, at the very last moment, the show reframes Lady Franklin as a mutilated corpse, a speaking mouth without a brain, which is….. a choice.)

And, at number 1, the person done most dirty by The Terror (2018) is….

#1. Charles Frederick “Freddy” Des Voeux

Look. I’m biased here because I am fed daily information about the historical Freddy Des Voeux from @frederickdesvoeux so I’ve become, I think understandably, a bit attached.

But this is very plainly the clearest cruelty the show does to a historical figure – the historical Des Voeux was a very young man (only around 20 when the ships set sail) known always as “Frederick or Freddy” to his family, and described by all parties as bright and sweet – Fitzjames said that he was “a most unexceptionable, clever, agreeable, light-hearted, obliging young fellow, and a great favourite of Hodgson’s, which is much in his favour besides,” and described him cheerfully helping to catch specimens for Goodsir. Des Voeux is named “dear” by Captain Osborn in Erasmus Henry Brodie’s 1866 poem on the Franklin Expedition (43) and Leo McClintock reported the young man’s well-known “intelligence, gallantry, and zeal” in his 1869 update to his account of the Franklin Expedition’s fate (xlii). None of this is consistent with Des Voeux’s behaviour in the show, especially in the later episodes.

To reduce Des Voeux to an easily-detested figure, over whose death one might cheer, is not a kindness – the creation of a narrative where his death is satisfying does damage to the memory of a real person, a barely-more-than-teenager who died in the cold of the Arctic and left behind only scraps of a shirt and a spidery signature in the bottom margin of a fragmentary document.

Television shows may need their villains, but it’s important to remember that real life isn’t like that. Surely the historical Frederick Des Voeux was most likely not a perfect person, and, as an upper class officer contributing to a British imperial project, he does bear some responsibility for the harm done by the Franklin expedition, but it’s not accurate to assume he was any less worthy of sympathy than the other officers who considered him a friend – those men whom we now venerate, like James Fitzjames. So as far as I’m concerned, Freddy Des Voeux deserves at least as much consideration, care, and compassion from us.

#franklin expedition #franklin expedition fictions #the terror #the terror amc #terrorposting #long post

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rahabs · 4 years

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for the writing meme number 1 PLEASE

i. give short descriptions of all your current WIPs.

I genuinely, genuinely have well over twenty WIP for joplittle alone right now, and a couple of them I have to keep Hush because they’re potential TBB ideas, but here are some of the ones I actually have words for that I can talk about ( + one bonus fitzier and that Irving ghost fic) with their current WIP titles, under a readmore because this is long:

what hands like ours can do

a multi-chapter joplittle soulmate AU featuring complete canon divergence and a fully researched alternate history timeline. whenever I write soulmate AUs the ‘soulmate’ thing tends to be a background trope which is terrible of me.

hic sunt draconis

in which Edward is a dragon, Thomas is fae, and they are in a fantasy medieval setting.

a light already leaving

an anon asked for a continuation of my posted vampire joplittle AU, and so I’ve got 2k of a “they’re back in London, but also Thomas is still hungry” sequel.

earth and heaven conspire my fall

wherein Edward asks Thomas for his help, knowing Thomas has previous experience in the Ross Antarctic expedition. this is also another joplittle soulmate AU, only this one is a one-shot and it features a different sort of soulmate lore.

conference of the birds

Irving (secretly) catches Lieutenant Little and Lieutennt Jopson in a compromising position at an admiralty event. post-canon, Somebody Lives/Not Everybody Dies, outsider point of view. this is joplittle, but one-sided Irving/Little is implied.

the sweet thing

another dragon Edward AU, but this one is modern.

“You must have a hoard, Colonel. A man of your rank, I imagine it is quite impressive,” Franklin prompted kindly, smiling. Edward just stared before turning his head and pulling Thomas closer using the arm still loosely draped around his waist, the meaning frightfully clear to all present--a pointed response to an out-of-line question. [...]

“My husband, Thomas Jopson,” Edward said simply.

to hold and to serve

self-indulgence. “You’re always serving someone else. Let me serve you instead.”

your need grows teeth

a lengthier joplittle vampire AU I started six months ago because “I want them to share a coffin.” I reached 7k and then got distracted.

you could make this place beautiful

modern AU where Thomas works as a historical costumer/tailor on the set of a television series adapting Crozier’s bestselling historical novels, and is married to Edward Little, the lead actor, who is notoriously private about his personal life. Also ft. director!Fitzjames arguing with Crozier over the integrity of the adaptation in question.

the wicked naked beauty

reverse joplittle, where Thomas is a lieutenant and Edward is the captain’s steward.

a lighthouse in clean waters

the sequel to Beggar’s Knowledge, aka wed-and-wife part 2: domestic seaside boogaloo.

where the dead went down

canon divergence. they do not leave the sick behind after Thomas summons the last of his strength to lend his voice to Edward’s in order to rescue Crozier.

and mingle with the ashes

self-indulgence. Edward Little loves his wife, Thomas Jopson.

+ BONUS IRVING & OG HICKEY

some lamb might stand

a longer version of the short fic “Our Souls Return” that I posted on my AO3 and on here. AU where the ghost of the real Cornelius Hickey tags along on the voyage to try and sabotage the man who murdered him. Or, Irving & his accidental ghost friend. It’s more serious than I’ve made it sound here and this fic is all planned out; I just need to write it.

+ BONUS FITZIER

guns don’t cry

no one asked for a long, multi-chaptered omegaverse fic with lots of worldbuilding, but I’m writing one anyway. for fitzier. because I can, and I will. featuring lots of research into the origins of James Fitzjames, and me wondering why I’m writing a fitzier omegaverse fic before a joplittle one.

#anonym #ask #reply #my fics #otp: hope this side of the grave

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