#paul & storm

[strawberryjohnlennon]

John Lennon through the lens of Paul McCartney, 1964

[escapismsworld]

Refuge before a Storm

1880

Paul Merwart (Polish 🇵🇱, 1855-1902)

[originalaccountname]

I have more Corruption/Brutalization lore thoughts I'm not done

Here is Verlaine's black hole ability state, Brutalization:

Verlaine activated Brutalization out of hatred for humanity. Rimbaud, Verlaine's partner, was the one who named that state Brutalization, after the activation phrase. Rimbaud was also the one thinking about ways to bring Verlaine back from that state.

And here is Chuuya's version, Corruption:

Chuuya activated Corruption in order to save people. It was a decision made out of love for his friends and peers. Dazai, Chuuya's partner, was the one to name it Corruption (Disgrace in the translation, but from what I can find it's the same word in Japanese, "汚濁"), after the activation phrase. Dazai is the one who will be able to bring Chuuya back from this state.

Parallels down to the details. I'm feral.

[witchstormm]

I am foaming at the mouth over the way the main antagonistic force in The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals so accurately represents both of the main characters fears.

The Hive is a combination of Paul and Emma’s worst nightmares at such a surface level (Paul’s being forced to be in a musical and Emma’s being the fact you lose all sense of individuality), yet, by the end of the show, it is also able to showcase their TRUE worst fears (Paul’s being to hurt the people he cares about most and Emma’s being to lose everyone she cares about).

It’s so delightfully evil and I thoroughly enjoy it.

[originalartblog]

pamper tiny chuuya tooo pleaseeeee (also can i see tiny verlaine and rimbaud) 🙏

I tinified them :)

[zxcantdrawmen]

stormbringer fans i got you

[foryouwereinmysong]

John by Paul

[browsethestacks]

The X-Men

Art by Paul Martin Smith

[stopandimagineloveforever]

Amongst the huge crowds that greeted The Beatles on their first visit to America, there were a few surprises... 🐒

‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ is on display at Brooklyn Museum until August 18th 📷

(via Paul McCartney on Instagram)

May 28, 2024

[reflectismo]

GEORGE HARRISON, 1964. Photo taken by Paul McCartney.

[exhausted-think-bucket]

Paul at the Brooklyn Museum in NY

[strawberryjohnlennon]

"I love and miss them both dearly." - Paul McCartney

📸 MPL/Paul McCartney

[absencesrepetees]

x-men by @gotgvol6

[originalaccountname]

Uhh i just finish stormbringer and i didnt quite understood Rimlaine relationship im sorry if this comes off as annoying its just that i read some of your analysis and you explain thing very good, thanks in advance 💗

Their relationship is complicated and contradictory. Ultimately, their lack of communication (both in talking and listening) dug a hole so deep between them that they both had to die before it was fixed.

I'm gonna attempt a timeline to break it down, so you can see what happened. This got way too long despite my best efforts so I'm putting it under a cut:

At an undisclosed time, Rimbaud, a spy/special agent working for France, goes to defeat a mad scientist and ability user, Pan. Pan had created a sort of puppet, named Black No12, who could manipulate gravity and obeyed him blindly. Rimbaud managed to cut the link between them, and Black No12 turned against and killed his creator and master.

Rimbaud took Black No12 under his wing as a fellow spy for France. He trained him and made him his partner. He gave him a name, his name from before he changed his identity to become a spy: Paul Verlaine.

Rimbaud wanted the formerly brainwashed person he found to be independent. Despite his origins, Rimbaud wanted Verlaine to feel human. He was his friend and wanted him to be happy.

Verlaine, on the other hand, was haunted by not being or feeling human. He felt lonely and isolated, and Rimbaud pushing so hard to make him feel human only rubbed salt in the wound. But he didn't tell Rimbaud any of that.

Rimbaud gave Verlaine the hat right before their operation in Japan to retrieve project Arahabaki. The hat had a special ability alloy woven into it meant to make sure no outside instructions could be used to brainwash him again. That was Rimbaud trying to guaranty Verlaine complete agency, one step closer to making him human. This was only a grim reminder of what he was to Verlaine. After the lukewarm reception of his gift, Rimbaud starts to feel permanently cold.

When they got (what they thought was) the artificial human from Project Arahabaki out of the lab, Verlaine was taken by the Bungou Stray Dogs curse of seeing yourself in other people and wanting to save them to save yourself. Verlaine told Rimbaud he was taking the child and going into hiding to raise him as a normal human being, to protect the child from the same pain he felt. Rimbaud, who hadn't realized how his dear friend suffered, still didn't understand and tried to reason with Verlaine that they couldn't possibly turn their backs to their home, and that the child would still be with them in France.

This poor communication resulted in Verlaine feeling trapped and choosing to shoot his only friend in the back. They fought and Rimbaud got the upper hand before he got surrounded by the lab's guards and desperately tried to use Arahabaki to defeat them too. This ended in the Suribachi incident and his loss of memory. Verlaine still had enough strength to stop Arahabaki/Chuuya's rampage before vanishing who knows where.

Fast forward 8 years, Fifteen happens, with Rimbaud, now permanently cold, who got some of his memories back. Rimbaud wants to know more than anything what happened to his partner and friend all those years ago, and is even willing to kill Chuuya (and Dazai) for it. As he dies, he remembers what happened that night while they were escaping, and how Verlaine chose to shoot him in the back over Chuuya. He tells Chuuya that he was probably human all along, and to live no matter what, before vanishing into thin air.

One year later, and Verlaine has found Chuuya and decided to try again to take him so they can be lonely together. He's trying to both isolate and protect Chuuya in a twisted sense of responsibility and kinship (and the power of projection). When Verlaine finally loses himself to Guivre, he manages to tell Chuuya about how he stopped Arahabaki 9 years ago in Suribachi so Chuuya could do it to him now. Chuuya understands from this that Verlaine might have felt lonely and oh so bitter about the world, that he might have hated his existence, but he had found friendship in Rimbaud and wished to save the world in his name. One person had been worth it, so he couldn't just destroy it all.

After the fight is over, Verlaine is dying from Guivre's energy having been depleted by Chuuya's efforts. As he dies, Rimbaud appears: Rimbaud has created a singularity with his own ability at the time of his death, maintaining his mind alive in his subspace by absorbing himself as his ability on loop. He's like the Old Boss was in Fifteen, just a puppet, not a human... but he's still Rimbaud. And Rimbaud wanted his friend to live and be happy.

Rimbaud apologizes for not understanding Verlaine's struggle with humanity and incidentally handling it badly. Then, he passed on his ability, now a singularity, onto Verlaine to replace Guivre as his source of life: a lot less powerful, but enough to keep him going. Rimbaud tells him he's glad Verlaine was born because he got to meet him, and disappears for good.

Verlaine realized then, way too late, that he really cared about Rimbaud. Rimbaud spent a whole year as something that wasn't human just for the chance of seeing Verlaine again and apologize to him. That got to Verlaine too. Since then, he's been hiding in the Port Mafia's basement, uncaring of the world, and mourning his friend and the friendship he passed by without knowing.

In the shortest, in-novel words possible:

[freyadragonlord]

"Behind every gay person there is an evil, gayer person" is literally

[undying-love]

"When I look back and think, I have to say, “Wow” – we did all that, and we were just kids from Liverpool. And here it is in the photographs. Boy, how great does John look?" -Paul (2023)