#procreate has given me too much power

[ardentlyalien]

I made some Reanimator stickers because Herbert West is a whole mood

[jammyjams1910]

The banquet scene be like

[angelbarelywrites]

♡ slashers scenarios | let’s get kinky

♡ fandoms; Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original + 2006), House of Wax, The Boy, Dead by Daylight, slashers (general)

♡ characters; Micheal Myers, Thomas Hewitt, Bubba Sawyer, Vincent Sinclair, Brahms Heelshire

♡ reader; gender neutral

♡cw; graphic sexual content, kink content

♡notes; pretty much just kink lists babey

oh boy i hope this doesn’t reveal anything about me

also happy easter lol

•┈••✦ ❤ ✦••┈•

Micheal Myers

> Knifeplay and breathplay are a given with this one

> He likes to be in complete control

> And a hand around the throat or a blade ghosting the skin definitely help him achieve that

> He also loves both tying you up and being tied up, surprisingly

> Letting you ride him while he’s tied to the bed is just about the only way you’ll get the man to relinquish any of that control

> And even then he makes sure you know he’s still the boss- if you’re too much of a brat he’s slipping the restraints and fucking you so hard you walk funny after

> He loves marking you up, mostly through biting

> And he likes to keep the mask on- even if he’s at a point where he rarely wears it around you

> He’ll quietly degrade you if you’re into that- you have to earn praise though

> But if you praise him you may actually be able to fluster him for once

Thomas Hewitt

> Breeding kink breeding kink breeding kink you can’t convince me otherwise

> He loves pinning you down into a mating press and watching your face as he fills you

> He’s so rough and overwhelming

> He likes to lick away your tears when it’s just too much

>And sometimes he’ll keep you pinned there well after, keeping himself inside.

> He’d let you call him daddy- and god does he get into it, but he’d be too shy to suggest anything like that himself

> He loves praise and he loves letting you know how good you feel

> Not usually verbally, but he’ll growl and moan and purr shamelessly

> He’s the king of oral, he’s like a man starved and you’ll end up overstimulated 9 out of 10 times

> And he loves when you reciprocate, especially if you don’t mind him fucking your mouth

Bubba Sawyer

> He’s a bit vanilla, not having much experience or knowledge beyond sex for procreation.

> Insert Drayton’s “sex or the saw” quote here lol

> But he’ll try anything for you at least once, he’s so eager to please.

> Most notably he makes a wonderful little submissive

> Whether you want him to bottom or just power bottom yourself, he loves being used to make you feel good

> He enjoys any and all praise

> He’s rather insecure, so he loves compliments on his appearance especially

> If you call him a pretty boy he melts

> 100 percent would love if you called yourself mommy/daddy/any other dom titles

> He loves when you sit on his face more than anything else

Vincent Sinclair

> The softest dom. He wants to take care of you around the clock, but especially in bed

> He’s a service top- it’s all for you. So much more concerned with you getting off than even being touched.

> He’s into wax play (Because it’s funny but also bc it’s underrated)

> And he likes to restrain you so he can worship you completely uninterrupted

> He’s not afraid of using toys, especially when you’re all tied up and at his mercy

> He loves taking pictures of you as well

> At first he claims it’s for reference but you know better, baby has a documentation kink

> He loves just watching too

> Trying to keep control while you touch yourself and moan his name is his favorite pastime

Brahms Heelshire

> Huge brat in need of taming

> Only a switch in the technical sense- he’ll top if you beg/bribe/pester him enough. He’s just lazy tbh

> Love love loves being both degraded and praised

> “filthy little boy” “pretty little slut” etc

> Prefers calling you mommy/daddy but can work with master

> And he’ll be your puppy if you want him to be

> He wears a cute collar and leash and lets you yank on it while you make him fuck you

> He loves when you edge him too

> Until he’s nearly in tears and whining and begging you to let him cum

> If you have boobs he’s obsessed with them

> And even if you don’t he’ll give the area lots of attention

[ivory--raven]

Gross Matter as Symbolic Sex in Good Omens

a sort-of meta

“I do not sully the temple of my celestial body with gross matter" - Archangel Gabriel at 13:36 of GO S1:E1. In this instance, gross matter means food. What does that mean with all the meanings food has taken on in Good Omens? Food in literature, and I’m including TV Good Omens under literature, is never just food. It tells us about characters - what they think is normal, what is available to them, their social standing, their backgrounds. Food also serves as metaphor, most famously (and relevant to GO) the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, original sin. In the same tradition but with a very different meaning is the Eucharist, bread and wine standing in for the human flesh of Christ being consumed “for the forgiveness of sin.” Those are the big two in stories based in traditionally Christian traditions. Evil food = fruit, especially apples, and good food = bread, wine, human flesh.

Ironic that fruit has to rot before it’s morally pure. 

Food is often also used to stand in for the things we can’t say with words. It often represents sex. Even in emojis, think about eggplants and peaches. Food is used to communicate sexual desire all the time. This is true in Good Omens too - Aziraphale’s tempting Crowley to oysters prepared by Petronius, famed Ancient Roman smut writer, suggests we should be looking for those meanings. Oysters were considered an aphrodisiac (substance that supposedly increases sexual desire and behaviour) a term which comes from Aphrodite, goddess of love, lust, pleasure, and procreation, who rose from the sea in a shell much like an oyster. 

Take, Eat

Food is gross matter, and Aziraphale is strange for consuming it. “But you're an angel,” says Gabriel to Aziraphale in S1E1. Aziraphale doesn't need to eat. He chooses to. Food is something he enjoys (although he can't admit that to Gabriel in S1E1 - food is a forbidden pleasure). If Gabriel codes food as bad, as original sin, what does that say about Aziraphale? Aziraphale's enjoyment of “gross matter” is representative of his being tempted by a demon, and in the Job minisode we see that this is somewhat true. Crowley, the Serpent of Eden, did introduce Aziraphale to food. Unlike Eve and the forbidden fruit, Crowley did not do this as an agent of Hell. Crowley, when he suggested food to Aziraphale, was being friendly. This was also the scene where Crowley defied both Heaven and Hell and we see how little Gabriel understands of humans… and partnered activities like sex. 

Food is also a partnered activity. When Aziraphale wants food, he also wants companionship. He was perfectly capable of escaping from the French prison himself, but he wanted Crowley to rescue him so they could go on their date and get crepes together. Food and companionship are linked. 

Remember that food is gross matter. Is it the only gross matter serving this purpose? I don't think so.

Uriel describes the matchbox as a “material object” and they, Michael, and Muriel are surprised by its presence in Heaven. Material means having matter and like the “gross matter” of food was seen as unbefitting an angel, material objects do not belong in Heaven. They, especially Michael who is behind the desk, in a clear position of Heavenly power, are intimidated by it. 

Of course, the matchbox is also gross matter in that a demon gave it to the angel they were interested in. Like Crowley offered Aziraphale an ox rib (which he ate in a very salacious manner - blowjob meat, anyone?) Beelzebub gave Gabriel the matchbox.

This is my Body

“This is my body, given for you, do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus at the Last Supper, quoted at the Eucharist

Beelzebub is Lord of the Flies. Their gift to Gabriel is a fly, an aspect of themselves, and they put it in a matchbox. We have the image here of Beelzebub inserting themselves into something which ends up in Heaven, and also of Beelzebub offering Gabriel a mostly empty box. A body and a body cavity. Their body and their body cavity, offered to Gabriel as gross matter, as a gift. This is my body, given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. The fly contains Gabriel's memories (Gabriel entering the representation of Beelzebub's body) and when the fly (Beelzebub) enters Gabriel - when he takes their given body - he remembers.

The other box we see is the box in The Arrival, and in that box… 

Whether or not you think Gabriel actually has an Effort of any kind  in this scene, it's a dick in a box joke. Dicks go in boxes. Boxes are for sex.

("I am in the fly" wrote Gabriel)

Boxes (which are gross matter) are scary to Heaven and Hell! Michael is afraid to touch the matchbox, Dagon tries to physically protect Shax, Furfur, and Beelzebub from the bigger box in the finale. Shax and Furfur are also moving back, but not Beelzebub, which tracks. Beelzebub doesn't need to be afraid of their own relationship with Gabriel. 

Heaven and Hell as institutions very much are opposed to those connections and to the representations of them.

[a-door-to-somewhere]

Ok watched spiderverse 2 again here's some thoughts in no particular order (spoilers and long post ahead):

- peter b is reading a book called "how to talk to kids" at the very end. Presumably because may can't speak yet and Gwen and Miles were zapped away I choose to believe he was reading this so he can go talk to Miguel LMAO

- I fucken love the way spot, after he powers up, move around via just like... sliding around in the air basically with his bad posture like he's hung from strings like a puppet

- when gwen is drumming at the opening and when spot gets zapped both are intercut with frames from later in the movie and also later in the future. I'm guessing spot got a glimpse of canon events but when Gwen was doing her intro it was phrased like a retrospective- but unlike most intros it didn't have a shot of a new spiderman comic being thrown on the pile. So when was she doing this retrospective? I hc she'll pick back up at the end of the third movie

- someone needs to make procreate brush packs for each universe/character PLEASE

- ok the "watercolor" effect being a mood ring is incredible but I havent seen anyone talking about the sort of abstract animation?? It almost reminds me of like experimental film from the impressionist/dada/supremetism eras, you can see it synced to the drum in the intro and also in some of the backgrounds during her big speech

- also during the Guggemheim fight when the Renaissance Vulture was like "you call this art?" And Gwen was like "well we're talking about it aren't we" YOU'RE SO RIGHT GWEN I AM KISSING YOU ON THE LIPS

- the shaky 1st pov cam when Gwen's dad sneaks up on her both times reminded me of when Miles accidentally watched kingpin kill perfect Peter? Idk if it was exactly the same I'd have to go back and rewatch but UGH it really gets that Gwen's dad has two sides too and the cop side isn't really human almost, lurking in the shadows, silhouetted

- also Gwen's dad just being a shit cop, giving her mixed instructions, raising a weapon at an unarmed person who is trying to communicate, firing warning shots, yelling the Miranda rights over her which is not how its supposed to be given

- contrast that with Jeff who literally never pointed a weapon at anyone and went charging after spot with his bare hands, is casual with his spiderman. I mean even when Jeff was talking about Miles not capturing Spot correctly it was lighthearted and joking, he's actively not going by the book, he's keeping the squad off of Spiderman's back, he apparently talks to spiderman about his family troubles???

- have I mentioned I LOVE MUSICAL MOTIFS????? Seriously they’re always good (fuck Wagner everyone knows Toby Fox invented the leitmotif) I mean everyone noticed the horror style Prowler stinger but even more characters got some: Gwen got a Little Rock theme with a guitar lick that echoes the ‘spi-der-man, spi-der-man’ song, Miguel’s distorted synth whine, the interesting mouth and bells percussion that Pav gets (good job Hollywood avoiding the exotic Asian pentatonic lick for once), at the end when the 42 prowler reveal slowly changed the prowler stinger into a human scream???? There’s probably more but I’d have to go back and watch it again again lmao

- I really love how Miguel is kinda goofy. He’s aloof and over serious but he makes mistakes and shows other emotions despite his best efforts. His flaws are shown off in his very first interaction, with his unwillingness to ask for help despite the fact that he knows he needs it. He’s frustrated. He’s got group object leader energy. It makes it so much more lovable that he’s susceptible to quips and he also gets knocked down and messes up and shows up and has his quirks that everyone puts up with. THATS how you make an interesting, relatable, lovable antagonist. Perhaps it worked too well LMAO

- I am an Oscar isaac simp I gotta go rewatch moon knight

- when miles was swinging around with gwen he passed a truck called "redex" bc gwen rejected him lmao

- theres an 8 clearly visible in the background of earth 42? Wacc

- the Spread Your Wings, Man scene focusing on the plastic wrap on top of the Alchemax flowing in the wind like it’s an ocean?/??? I really hope they call back to that imagery later because it clearly means something and I need to know what

- I’ve got an inkling of something that specifically revealing one’s spider-dentity to a loved one is some kind of anti-canon event, like maybe it’s the thing that fixes the destabilization? I mean we’ve seen that it’s ok if loved ones figure it out themselves (or if they then die, like uncle Aaron) like it’s a clear theme that miles keeps trying to tell his parents, and then Gwen tells her dad, which causes him to quit the force, thereby averting the canon event of him dying indirectly??? Also, it’s implied that the MJ of 1610 sold out Perfect Peter Parker to Fisk, leading to his death, ALSO also, gayatri probably figured out Pav’s identity right before HIS world destabilized??? Idk lmao

- I hope spiderbite/Margo and Jess get proper intros I can’t wait

- the background spider hockey girl has my heart, I couldn’t stop looking at her during the chase scene

- God I need to watch moon knight again

- when mj moved into mays room to greet them she lifted a picture frame back up as she moved in the door? What's up with that???

- not Spanish originally starting as a too-relatable joke that Miles gets a B in despite his mother speaking Spanish at home as well, not living up to his expectations, and then 42!Miles presumably speaks more/better Spanish due to being closer to his mom because his dad died???

- not miles aceing ap physics and ap studio AT THE SAME TIME in his SOPHOMORE YEAR free my boy from grounding he’s done nothing wrong

- btsv’s main villain is gonna be the sat I’m telling you

- most importantly: what was up with the Comic Code Authority’s seal being shown after the studio logos at the beginning??

Did that happen in the first one??? Why would it be there??? The cca has obviously been defunct since before superhero movies were really a thing. Famously, the cca seriously censored a ton of content, causing Marvel to be unable to portray darker stories involving drugs and other more mature themes, which they wanted to do with many superheroes including Spidey??? Is the Spider Society secretly the cca, censoring storylines that they think shouldn’t be portrayed, including darker timelines like 42? There was also issues with the convoluted Spider-Man comic lines going through unsatisfying ‘resets’ to keep Spider-Man relatable, without evolving the character into anything too far away from the OG Spider-Man, ie young, relationship issues with MJ, nerdy, tragedies etc. this is the detail that had me wondering the most because it was so clearly displayed right at the beginning, and the cca was generally a shameful part of comic book history in which publishers submitted to satanic moral panic. Like, not really something that reads as a cute little callback to an era of comics like he use of Ben day dots or misaligned printing or the onomatopoeias??

[karume-everything-else]

Day 22 "I'll be fine"

Reader x Freiza [DBZ]

You rarely had anything to do, despite being a high-ranking "soldier" in Freiza's main ship. Though the truth was that you were his lover, he was just extremely embarrassed since his species didn't procreate the way humans did. Not that you minded the way things were, or that you had to teach Freiza about intimacy. It was just how this relationship was.

As you walked around the ship, not entirely sure what you could do around here. This whole place was so very beyond you in every way. Entering your room, you settled on the small bed. The weight of how little you fit in here was setting in alongside you.

You were just a human and yet you were on an alien ship going through space. There was nothing for you to do because you were only here because a powerful alien wanted you around. You had nothing to worry about... And that was all you could worry about.

Frieza entered your room, and despite him making noise doing so you were too wrapped up in your mental trappings. He made sure no one else was close enough to see how differently he treated you. Given that he really didn't want to own up to having these feelings in the first place. You not having to salute him, or having anything to do around the ship, or even having an obtainable title within the army itself.

He knew others were extremely jealous of your position as his right hand and was checking for bruises. But the fact that you weren't responding at all to his presence worried him.

"[Name]." A sharp tail flick pulled you out of your trance, "What are you doing? Has anyone said anything to you? Or done anything to you? Tell me."

"No, no." You sat up a little straighter, "I haven't really been around anyone since this morning."

"Then what's wrong?" Frieza left his floating chair and sat next to you on the bed, "Why are you behaving like this?"

"I'll be fine Freiza." You tried to smile, "I was just thinking."

A soft hum escaped the horned man, "That doesn't track at all. You don't hide away in here when you think about things."

You turned away, not wanting to admit to it. Not wanting him to think you were upset over something in the relationship. It was just something you felt was wrong with you, not this situation at large.

"What's wrong." Freiza forcibly pulled you against himself, "You know that I want to help when I can. I can't help you if I don't what's wrong."

"I just..." You tried whispering, hoping he wouldn't hear, "I don't know what to do around here. ...and I'm worried that you'll get bored of me."

"I won't though. Not with how insanely wild your ideas become in quick-thinking situations." Freiza rubbed your shoulder, "You make yourself seem so much worse than you are. Er... uh..."

He turned away, muttering several things trying to word a better response. But stopped when you kissed his cheek, settling into your hug.

[meepitesque]

✨️You can find me lurking around Neopets and Reddit under the Username Meepitesque. I've been obsessed with the ornery little muppets for quite some time now.

✨️This blog will be dedicated to my Neopets adventures, along with re-posting any disturbing/hilarious Neopets content I come across.

✨️I will also be showcasing my Neopets fan art and custom graphics. Ever since I was 14 years old, I wanted to be able to customize my User Lookup with my very own graphics. These days I like to change it up frequently because Procreate has given me far too much power.

✨️Feel free to find me on Neopets and send me a friend request. Also, if you have any painted Meepits you are trying to push off on some unsuspecting victim, it's probably best that you message me and allow me to buy them off of you for my gallery.

✨️Beware of Meepits✨️

[dennydraws]

Good Morning! It's almost weekend :D

Hello everyone! Weekend is almost here, huzzah! I hope the summer heat is starting to lessen for all you autumn lovers out there! As a summer child, my powers were at peak last month and now I begin to unwind as the colder months will start creeping in, but it'ts fine for I adore autumn most! :>

Comic Project, Comic Project!! First, thank you so, sooo much for giving my new comic project a follow and a look!! I have the next couple of chapters done and I aim to post new one every 2 weeks to keep a healthy pace for my won energy's sake. :D;; I'll be busy with a friend's visit next week so chapter 2 will probably get posted on Friday where I normally would have posted it on next Monday! Please look forward to it! (always fun to type that) I'm practicing to get more comfy with drawing in procreate so it is a learning curve for sure! :>

Sun Haven!!! Ahhh, I've been playing this game a lot this week, though I'm barely in summer first year now ! This game is so much fun! I love that I can be dragon, fae, demon, angel, elemental, cat or whatever I want and live my fantasy farm dream XD I'm super indulging myself with forbidden angel/vampire romance scenarios now and gushing over so many art ideas in my head. Expect a downpour of arts by the end of the month probably :'D;;;

Watercolors!!!! I'm just going to add 4 exclamation marks to follow the other two, ahem anyway, yes watercolors! I've been practicing environment while not trying to get too hung up on the task, just having fun and drawing Marwind in random wonderous locations! I picked an old sketchbook which has very .....difficult paper but also that makes it easier for practicing and just letting go of expectations. I'm not in a hurry to finish it or anything but excited to show it eventually. It... is going to take a while given how I draw on both sides of the pages XD;;

Anyway, that's all I had to say for today ... before someone at work scolds me for blogging during work hours hehe

Thank you for reading my rambles, dear reader! I hope you have great rest of the week and a wonderful weekend!

[synergysilhouette]

Some changes I'd make to Bayonetta's story

For so long, I was pretty disappointed by the story aspect of Bayonetta, and fans would essentially tell me that the game was more designed for gameplay rather than story content. As someone who plays for story (primarily), I didn't understand why we were given such a cool concept if it would be phoned in. This made me want to make some changes.

Bayonetta 1. Explain more info on the culture of the witches/sages. I imagine that if they're gender-specific, then they typically procreate with humans (or maybe other supernatural creatures; that'd be cool) and the daughters of sages and sons of witches are left with their human parents. 2. Show more of Bayonetta's past, not just her friendship with Jeanne. 3. Make it so that Jeanne, Bayonetta, and Balder aren't the only witches and sage in the world; make the clans go into hiding following the war and having suffered many casualties, secretly plotting against each other. This will be important in B3. For most of this game though, Bayonetta is battling other sages, along with a few witches who want to control/recover the Eyes of the World. 4. Give us other creatures to contend with outside of angels and demons, ones that stay within the human realm. 5. Make Luka actually matter. I like him, but his whole "revenge for my father" thing doesn't really work because nothing he does will ever harm Bayonetta or Balder. Maybe make him a human immune to demon/angel attacks, or one of the other species I mentioned? Maybe the king of fairies like Lukaon?

Bayonetta 2 1. Let Loki actually be a force to be reckoned with. While he can stand his own against some angels, he can't do anything against bosses, which is pretty underwhelming, given his power. Plus I'd probably nix the amnesia arc; it's Bayonetta 2.0. And maybe make him a bit less brash; Bayonetta is just as cheeky as him, but much more sophisticated. Make him a bit more charming to match his mischievous side. 2. Remove young Balder, but involve more witches/sages to discover/recruit/battle against. It'd be mostly witches if we go to Inferno, though Loptr has recruited/brainwashed sages. We can still get more flashbacks of Bayonetta's life, though! 3. Have most of the game take place in Inferno, resulting in the 80% witch/demon and 20% sage/angel battle and recruit ratio. 4. Have Bayonetta battle against Sheba following her journey into Inferno, either because the demon/witch alliance is fluctuating, or because some sages are on Bayonetta's side at this point. 5. Have something between Luka and Bayonetta form here, assuming they're still going to go the romantic route in B3. 6. Show Bayonetta and Jeanne in their daily lives. Having Jeanne as a high school teacher would be so cool, along with seeing if they have friends outside of their battle group.

Bayonetta 3 1. Untether the multiverse story. It comes out of nowhere, with no buildup from the other games. Instead have Singularity incite another war between sages and witches, hoping to wipe them all out, noting that his ability to traverse other universes after destroying ours. He'd also be scoping out sons of witches and daughters of sages to reveal their true identity and manipulate their pain and hatred. I'm essentially nixing the sci-fi stuff; he's a supernatural being, not an artifical human. Maybe mention that he uses Purgatorio in order to traverse through different multiverses. The battle would be Bayonetta and allies against witches and sages in equal measure--though perhaps certain bosses include the sons of witches and daughters of sages who are hurt for being cast aside. 2. Give Viola a better design. Granted, everyone except Jeanne has a rather drab color scheme, but Viola's whole look is too busy! Personal preference. I also like the idea that Loki/Aesir is the one who brought her to present day. 3. Allow Bayonetta/Luka/Jeanne to take on different forms; even if they're not traversing the multiverse, I like the idea of them calling upon their alternate selves' powers to save their universe. 4. Make Viola Jeanne's daughter. I'm mainly saying this because of their hair similarity, but I like the idea that the next generation has to do with Jeanne rather than her Umbra sister. Her father is undisclosed. Kinda like the idea of Luka asking Bayonetta if Viola is hers and we get a callback to "raising children vs making a baby" from B1. 5. The story ends with the decimation of both clans--seemingly. In reality, the witches and sages now integrate themselves into society largely made up of the Umbran Warlocks and Lumen Sages (daughters), continuing to influence them, though the sage vs witch war has made them want to focus on rebuilding themselves rather than picking fights, sparking hope for unity (albeit separate unity, similar to before).

[rydonthorn]

"What is Love", I ask myself

"Love is chemicals in your brain, created so you will procreate and keep your species alive"

"That does not answer the question I have asked," I respond

"Love is magic, it is a power that guides and protects and brings you into the light"

"No," I say, "Light is not just good. Death is light and I cannot call my greatest fear good"

"You have been asked a question only you can answer then," I respond

And I ask, "What?"

And my heart responds, "Ask yourself what love is" and my heart says, "I cannot answer, I cannot think, only feel"

And I say, "Love is the name we have given to the idea. The idea of something too vast and grand for us to ever really understand"

And I ask, "Are you satisfied now?"

And I respond, "No"

And I ask, "Why not?"

And I say, "Because I still desire more"

And I say, "Because knowing has not made me feel less"

And I ask, "Is that bad, not feeling less?"

And I respond, "No"

And I say, "It is wonderful"

And I say, "It is terrible"

And I ask, "Will it ever stop?"

And my heart says, "You cannot know"

And my heart says, "Until it is over"

And I ask, "When will it be over?"

And my heart says, "Do not worry, you will never truly know"

And I say, "Is that love then?"

And I respond, "Maybe"

And I say, "You will not know until it is over"

And I say, "You know too much anyway"

And I say, "I will never know enough"

And I ask, "What about when it is over?"

And I say, "Then will you know enough?"

And my heart says, "I will have felt enough"

And I ask, "Does that mean I will have loved enough"

And my heart asks, "What is enough?"

And I say, "Nothing"

And I say, "Maybe them"

And I ask, "What is them?"

And I respond, "You know"

And I say, "You cant not know"

And my heart says, "Of course I know them"

And I say, "Why do you ask then?"

And I respond, "Why do you?"

And my heart says, "You will never know enough"

And I say, "Maybe that is good"

And I say, "Maybe that is love"

And I say, "Maybe it isnt"

And I say, "maybe it fine that I do not know"

And I say, "Maybe it is good to be hungry"

And I say, "Maybe it is not."

[ardentlyalien]

For a moment, the stars took them, molded them together. One thought. One mind.

[anon-e-miss]

A Matter of Convenience - 11 (because there are 2 part 3s and 2 part 8s)

Yes, I haven’t touched this is four years. Carry on.

“The judge is going to ask why Jazz hasn’t been involved before,” Speedstream said.

“It would have been unfair to both my brother and his creations to cohabitate before we were confident we would be going through with the bond,” Prowl answered, it there was enough truth in the lie that the Praxian thought it would be believable. It must have been because the lawyers nodded with approval.

“You are bonding then?” The family law expert asked.

“We’ve begun the Rites,” Jazz said. “We can’t pick a final date until we got his brothers with us. It wouldn’t be right to celebrate without’em.”

“Of course,” Power Run agreed.

“Good, very good,” Speedstream said. “I looked over the transcript from the last battle, it looks like the judge made up his processor pretty quickly. He’s known for siding against whichever procreator has the lower income, so it’s not actually surprising. I’ll be pushing for a different judge, it wouldn’t be difficult to argue prejudice. Testimony from those Enforcers should never have been allowed. By their own omission, they hadn’t ever worked with you. But you are going to have to address charges from Barricade that you aren’t stable.”

“I have a processor glitch,” the Praxian replied. “I emerged with it. Rather than a single flawed component that could be replaced, it is the connections, and wiring relating to my emotional cortex and logic computer. If triggered, my glitch causes overheating, and in order to prevent damage, my processor initiates a hard shutdown, and reboot. Crashing is unpleasant but does not require medical intervention. By consuming med grade once an orn, I have reduced my crashed by 80% since I was a youngling. I do not believe crashing on occasion makes me unstable.”

“How do your brothers react when you crash?” The Towers mech asked.

“If I feel one coming, I shut myself away, so as not to perturb them,” Prowl explained. “There have been occasions where I have been unable to prevent a crash from happening before I could get away. Both Smokescreen and Bluestreak are upset by my crashes. Both fuss over me, ensuring I am comfortable as my systems reboot.”

“Regarding your suspension and finally dismissal from Iacon’s Enforcers?” Speedstream asked.

“Command and I disagreed on a serious matter regarding an investigation,” the former Enforcer explained. “I could not in good conscience ignore my findings and be silent, regardless of the consequences to my career.”

“There was an accusation of time theft,” the lawyer said.

“I keep meticulous records,” Prowl replied. “Which prove the accusation to be without merit.”

“But you didn’t file another appeal?” Speedstream asked.

“With the destruction of my habsuite, and the custody battle, I could not afford to be distracted from my principle responsibility,” the Praxian explained. “Caring for my brothers.”

“Given the turmoil in your life, and the financial strain, it would be easier for you to surrender custody,” the Towers mech said.

“I have raised those mechlings for seven vorns, when it was too much responsibility for their originator to manager,” Prowl said. “When I accepted that responsibility, I accepted any strain and any turmoil that might come. Both of my brothers have struggled with issues of abandonment, and the death of their, of our progenitor. It is not in me to abandon them, regardless of the struggle.”

“How was it you came to have custody of Smokescreen and Bluestreak,” Speedstream asked.

“I returned home from work and found two mechlings sitting at my door,” the injured mech explained. “I recognized them as kin, due to the wavelengths of our sparks, but I only knew Smokescreen by designation. I last spoke with our progenitor prior to Bluestreak’s emergence, and never saw him before that mega-cycle.”

“Why were you estranged?” The lawyer asked.

“My progenitor took a new Conjunx Endura shortly after my originator, his first Conjunx Endura, died of Corrodia Gravis,” Prowl revealed.  “Flash and I clashed, in no small part due to my glitch, and I clashed with my progenitor due to his indifference to this, and my belief that he was indifferent to my originator’s illness, and death. When Smokescreen emerged, a perfectly normal sparkling, I was sent to a boarding school in Simfur. I did not leave the school until I finished my upgrades. I was summoned to Praxus upon my graduation, to discuss my future. My progenitor expected me to follow in his pedsteps, and train to be a lawyer. I had already applied and had been accepted to the Enforcer Academy. He pushed me to change my plans, and offered to pay for my housing and education, only if I attended the School of Law. If I chose to become an Enforcer, I would be disowned, completely. He promised I would inherit nothing. I advised him to ensure Smokescreen and the newspark Flash was expecting would be protected should he die before they were mature. I suggested he ensure that their trusts would be ironclad, else they might be drained before they reached majority. To my surprise, he listened.”

“Those trusts, you didn’t access some, just to pay or their therapies?” Speedstream asked.

“I did not,” Prowl said, “I made not attempts. I have the conditions of the trusts memorized. No one case touch either trust, except Bluestreak or Smokescreen, and not until they are adults. There are no loopholes. Our progenitor specialized in business law, and he was very good at his function.”

“You believe Barricade wants custody in order to gain access to those trusts,” the Towers mech said.

“I investigated him,” the Praxian explained. “As a private citizen. He has no job, has held no job, but has lived an extravagant life. Based on the amount of credit my progenitor bequeathed to Flash, and based on their rate of spending, Barricade will have very little left at this point. He has never shown interest in the mechlings, no positive interest in any case. He has already displayed a violent temper, if he has custody of my brothers when he discovers he cannot tap their trusts, I fear what he will do to them.”

“A reasonable fear,” Speedstream said. “I’ll have my own investigators take a look. I don’t imagine I’ll have a hard time bringing the trusts, and the nature of them raised in testimony. If all he’s after is credits, he might just back off when he realizes he won’t get a credit.”

“That would be a relief,” Prowl replied. For the first time in quartexes, maybe even stellar-cycles, he felt a little burst of optimism. He turned his helm when Jazz reached over and squeezed his servo. The Polihexian smiled at him, Prowl smiled back.

“I’ll file the appropriate motions and take affidavits,” the lawyer said. “Get the ball really rolling. Emergency custody hearings are usually called quickly, two orns at most. With the support of the temple, we might get a closer date.”

“Thank you for your assistance, Speedstream,” the former Enforcer replied. “And you as well, Power Run.”

“When your brothers are back with you where they belong, we should discuss going after the your former commanders for defamation, and wrongful dismissal,” Power Run said.

“I think that’d be good,” Jazz said. “I’d like to rake’em cross the coals if we can. It’s awful suspicious, the damage done to their habsuite, ya know. I’d like to put a PI on it. From what Prowl says, looks like someone stole his datafiles.”

“I’ll put my best investigator on it,” Power Run promised. Prowl stared at Jazz, it sounded so expensive.

“Perfect,” Jazz nodded and he squeezed Prowl’s servo again. “I think it’s time for Prowl to take a blocker and rest.”

“We’ll keep you appraised,” Power Run declared. The pair departed and Prowl felt himself sag but only for a moment because just that simple slip was so bitterly painful that he jerk upright with a hiss.

“Blocker, now,” Jazz insisted. He did not wait for Prowl’s consent to inject it into Prowl’s neck. Immediately, Prowl’s thought processes began to slow. His limbs went loose and limp and he started to fall back but Jazz caught him, carefully, just under his doorwings. “They really do hit ya hard.”

“Mhm,” Prowl murmured. His vision was laced with static and thought his flicked them on and off, it did not clear.

“That’s a’ight,” Jazz declared. Prowl could hardly keep his optics online as Jazz lifted him up, not to his peds but lifted him straight up and cradled him. “Ya need to ‘charge anyways. Believe me when I say, ya don’t want Ratchet makin’ a house call ‘cause ya undid his good work.”

Though Prowl heard him clearly, he did not respond to Jazz’s banter. His processor could not maintain the train of thought long enough to form a glyph, never mind a sentence. He hardly felt anything as he was lowered onto a berth. Prowl felt nothing, heard nothing and thought nothing, sinking deep below the blocker. Eventually, it faded and Prowl came back to awareness to the dull throb that was his existence for the time being. The blocker still pulled at the edge of Prowl’s consciousnesses, threatening to tug him back down into the murk. It did not, as Prowl’s tactical systems burned through the fugue and worked. Moving his helm slowly, Prowl took in his surroundings.

Jazz was not an overly meticulous housekeeper. This was his berthroom, not a guest room, of that Prowl was certain. There were knickknacks displayed that Prowl thought were too personal to be hidden away in a guest room. It was not messy, but lived in, perhaps cluttered, the space of a mech who was too busy living to worry about meticulous order. Prowl dimmed his optics. His habsuite had been perfectly orderly until his brothers had arrived. He had possessed nothing in which to make disorder, no mementos, no knickknacks of any sort. His progenitor had cleansed the family home of every meaningful thing after his originator had died. If Crosscut had seen fit to explain himself, he probably would have said it had been done out of caution, out of fear of the disease Camshaft had died of but Corrodia Gravis only spread from spark to spark contact. In any case, Prowl had known better than to ask Crosscut to explain himself. It had been beneath Crosscut to do such things.

“Are ya awake?” Jazz asked, after opening the door.

“Yes,” Prowl replied, a tinge of static in his voice, he cleared his vocalizer. “You put me in your berth.”

“It’s got a better pad than the guest berth,” Jazz replied. “I realize we ain’t talked about livin’ arrangements. We’ll sort it out. It’s dinner time, anyways ‘n pretty sure Ratch wouldn’t be keen on missin’ any meals.”

“It would not be the first,” Prowl said. He let Jazz help him sit up and then stand. Though Prowl trusted his own peds, Jazz did not and he kept an arm around Prowl’s waist and took most of Prowl’s wait upon his own struts. It was different when one touch for comfort or reassurance and quite another when they physically held you up; it felt different.

“Smokey mentioned that,” Jazz chuckled. “Said ya don’t hardly ventilate if ya get too caught up in yer processor.”

“He exaggerates,” Prowl argued, feeling defensive. “I ventilate normally... I just don’t notice the passage of time if I concentrate on any particular matter too deeply.”

“Don’t seem to have stopped ya from raising two great mechlings,” Jazz replied and Prowl felt the defensiveness bleed away. “They got nothin’ but love ‘n pride for ya.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t think ya deserve it?” Jazz asked and Prowl found it eerie how perceptive the mech was. Prowl was not generally so easily read.

“I have done my best,” Prowl replied. “But...”

“No buts,” Jazz declared. “Normally we eat at the table... my ori had a big thing for fuellin’ as a family but the chairs again gonna do anythin’ good for yer doors so the Twins can have a rare treat.”

“I could just sit alone,” Prowl offered.

“Not gonna exclude ya,” Jazz said. “Wouldn’t be a good start.”

The Twins were intrigued by Prowl, he recognized, more than they were wary. They asked questions, an endless stream, though really it was Sideswipe that did most of the speaking. Prowl did not mind answering. He had expected more unease, even hostility. When he thought back to how he had received Flash... well, Prowl would not lie and claim to say he had been warm or welcoming, quite the opposite. Though he had not been hostile, he had locked himself away. Flash had not be warm either, not at all. If he had been a warmer, better mech, Prowl might have warmed to him. After losing his originator, all Prowl had wanted was love and comfort and he had been denied both. His progenitor had not tolerated the sight of tears.

“When are Blue and Smokey gonna come home?” Sunstreaker asked.

“As soon as possible,” Jazz promised. “Right now, they’re safe in the temple. Power Run’s gonna try ‘n get a court date quick. Hopin’ the temple will push for it too.”

“What about Optimus?” Sunstreaker asked. “Can’t Optimus help?”

“He don’t mess wit the courts, Sweetspark,” Jazz said. “It don’t look good... it’s what the last Prime did ‘n mechanisms stopped trusting the courts. Prime ain’t above the law ‘n he don’t rule the courts. It’s gotta be just. It’s gotta be fair or it don’t work.”

Prowl nodded his agreement but in his spark he wished that Jazz could use his connections within the Autobots to resolve this mess quickly but he scolded himself, internally. It was miracle enough that the his brothers were still even in Iacon, that they were safe from the greed of their originator’s widower. There was hope, real, tangible hope, that they would be settled in his custody for good. The fact that this required bonding to a stranger was have no real consequence to Prowl. Them mechs he had chosen, that he had brought into his life, had all been disasters. Once he had thought he would have done better in the old cycles of Matchmakers, when matches were chosen by professionals that sometimes spent joors to create the perfect pair. Of course, these matches of practicality rather than love had often been as flawed as any one might have made alone. Well, it could hardly have been any worse.

“We’ll get started makin’ a room for ‘em in the light-cycle,” Jazz told his creations. “Ya can help me pick out furniture. SPS is gonna drop in for a home check sooner or later. May as well have everythin’ ready.”

“Okay!” Sideswipe clapped his servos. “We can do that.”

[ygreczed-3]

The Red Guard and the Snow Angel

Summer Falls desert concept art

Hank and Connor

Gavin and Nines meditating + thunder, snow, fire and wind seal

Gavin and the thunder spirit

More concept arts - traditional art & inking

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

When they go through the Summer Falls desert, Connor and Nines pass out fairly soon due to their intolerance to fire magic. They only get better at night, when the temperature drops, so they stay awake to watch out while the humans sleep. During the day Hank and Gavin have to take them on their horse/Sumo and walk beside them, even though the intense heat isn't making things easy for them either. They reach a village in an oasis where Connor and Nines get better, and when they realize there's a spring in it, they decide to go and rest a bit as the night arrives.

Nines and Gavin are gone meditating on a less crowded part of the spring.

Gavin : That's stupid… How can this make me stronger than my training ? Nines : Stop talking and focus on your breathing.  Gavin : Grmphh.. Nines : Can you feel the source of magic inside your body ? Gavin : … Yeah. Nines : You have to… establish a connection with it. Show him you don't fear it Gavin : But I fear it. Nines : The war spirit you host is an incredible source of power, and you can believe me, it is as bellicose as you are. It only needs a goal to aim for and you'll be able to channel its energy.  Gavin : … You know I'm your enemy… Why do you help me ? Nines, closed eyes : I know I can compete with you. I'm ready to be challenged. And it's funnier to fight a skilled warrior than a scared little boy. Gavin : … Fucker.

X

Connor and Hank in the hot spring

Connor : I think that's what your hug feels like. Hank : hm ? Connor : The hot water. I think it's what hugs feel like. Hank : You said my hugs... Connor : Did I ? I was just thinking… about how you hug Sumo sometimes. He loves it. Hank : Yeah, this big boy loves cuddles  I admit that. Connor : It must feel good. Hank : What… You've never been hugged before ? Connor : Golems do have… intimate behaviors, of course but it's not… I mean we're… not physically warm, so... (NB : I was thinking golems in this universe would be like vampires, not as freezing as actual snow but still colder than humans) Hank : ...Thought you didn't like heat that much. Connor : Warmth from human's touch is different from fire magic : it feels more… safe, less aggressive. I think I'd like that. Hank : … How do you know that ? Connor : I touched your back to heal it, remember ? Your warmth feels nice. Hank : Yeah okay, you touched me, but you don't know what my hugs feel like ? Maybe you'd hate that. Connor : I wish I could know.

They look at each other, but then Hank looks away and stands up.

Hank : It's late, I'm tired. I'm going back to the inn. Connor seems disappointed, but then Hank keeps going. Hank : You coming ?

When they enter the room they share all together, Nines is already in stasis and Gavin is snoring loudly.

Hank takes Connor's wrist silently, looking at him in the eyes as if tacitly asking for permission. Connor just lets himself be enveloped by wide arms, and rests his cheek on his collar bone.

Connor sighs, closing his eyes as he enjoys that nice bear hug. He feels that warm something in his chest growing in his body, invading his stomach with pleasing flutters. 

Connor : Hank… Hank : Shhh… it would be embarrassing to wake those two idiots up now.

Connor bites his lower lip as he silently reaches for Hank's hand, his skin turning white as he presses gently each of his fingers against Hank's. It's known to be a quite intimate gesture among golems, and the closest human equivalence to it would be a kiss. Connor is aware that it could even be interpreted as indecent given how close their bodies are, and that if Nines was to wake up at that moment he would probably choke on thin air. Of course Hank has no clue about that and just thinks it's funny.

Hank : What, you wanna dance ?

Connor realizes they're holding each other on the left side and touching hands on the right side, and it seems like they're going to waltz. He chuckles from the absurdity of the situation from a human's perspective. 

Connor : I wouldn't know how to. Hank : Good thing, I'm a terrible dancer. Connor : Ahah...hmm, Hank, I like it. Can we stay like this for a moment ? Hank : Sure.

X

One night in the middle of the desert, Gavin is on the watch as Hank sleeps in the tent. Connor is with him, but Nines inexplicably stays around the fire, silent. Gavin is bored out so he just starts the conversation. 

Gavin : I feel like the old man and your stupid brother are getting along. Nines : I have this feeling too. Gavin : Doesn't bother you? Nines : What can I do ? I asked Connor to be careful, but I'm not blind… He's shining with glee whenever Hank is around him. I can't… force him not to feel. Also, I think Hank isn't that bad of a person… for a human. Gavin : Still certain we're the bad guys ? Think about it : you were made to serve us.  You betrayed your creators and let us starve like dogs. Nines : Humans didn't create us. Kamski did, and if he had wanted to, he could have made unthinking, obedient golems. Maybe we were meant to break free. Gavin : Oh yeah, so why can't you even procreate ? Simple answer: you were not designed to be an individual species from the start. You were built with no other purpose in life than to help us survive.  Nines : Didn't that even occur to you that humans did bad things too ? Gavin : We're just trying to survive ! Nines : So we are. Gavin : … So what ? You're saying we're two evils ? Of course we are. But I have to protect my people, you understand that ?

Nines stays silent, exploring the surprisingly genuine glare Gavin throws at him. Of course he understands that. His own despise for humanity is only driven by his deep desire to protect Connor, Marcus, and his people. He looks back at the fire heating them, unconsciously processing how ridiculously similar they are.

And yet, something starts growing in his mind, the irritating sensation his relationship with Gavin has changed from the moment they met, and that he unexpectedly wanted to protect him as well.

Nines : Would you kill me ?

He can't even explain how this sentence even made it out of his throat. He already knows the answer. Gavin stares at him longingly, noticeably surprised by the question. He stays silent as he puts more wood in the fire.

Gavin : If I had to, I probably would. But I… hum… don't want to. Nines : … hm. Gavin : What about you ? Would you kill me ? Nines : I don't know. If lives were at stake, certainly, even if I'd find this decision… regrettable. Gavin : ... Oh wow, is that your way to tell me you like me ? Nines : … Don't set your hopes too high.

Gavin breathes in a laugh and goes back to silence, smiling smugly. 

X

They arrive in Nestlepeek and split in two teams, Hank and Connor go to the center of the town, where Connor hopes to find more precise information about Kamski and where he hides.

Gavin and Nines were supposed to go buy supplies, but as they head to the covered market, they are challenged by a man in the street to defeat his champion in a fight. As Nines realizes it's all for illegal gambling, Gavin accepts and finds himself in a cage, combating a birdman.

He thinks he's got the hang of it but as soon as the birdman starts flying Gavin can't touch him with his sword anymore and becomes vulnerable to his aerial attacks.

Nines : Gavin ! Summon the spirit ! Gavin : No way ! Nines : You'll lose if you don't ! Gavin : I know what I'm doing, alright !? Nines : You obviously don't ! Thunder magic gives you advantageous long throw attacks, you can't win against a flying foe with close combat techniques ! Gavin : I think I killed enough Golems to know how to fight flying foes ! Nines : You bastard…

Nines uses his snow magic to catch the champion in ice and immobilize him.

Owner : What the hell !!! Who did that ?! Nines : I did. I'll replace your champion, open the cage.

The owner is confused first but then he sees the opportunity and accepts. Nines enters the cage and gets ready to fight.

Gavin : … You wanna die ? Told you I could do it. Nines : We've been talking about this fight for ages. It's time to see what you're capable of.

They start fighting and they're pretty even for the first ten minutes. Their fight gathered a lot of gamblers and spectators.

When Nines starts to take advantage, Gavin's eyes suddenly turn bright yellow, and he charges at him : Nines can see the thunder magic halo surrounding him. He parries many strikes but Gavin has gained in speed and ferocity. Soon enough, Gavin throws him to one extremity of the cage, and as the crowd around them is screaming in excitement, Gavin holds up his dagger. He's trembling, electricity forming around his hand. 

Nines can make eye contact but somehow, Gavin isn't answering his glare.

Nines : Gavin- You hear me ?

Gavin doesn't say anything, and Nines is sure he's gonna die when the human warrior shoots down his dagger… only to hit one of the cage's bars just behind him. Gavin closes his eyes, and opens them, showing blue-green orbs again, and he straightens up, breathless.

The crowd boos them as Gavin takes a step back and drops the other dagger. He asks the owner to open the cage and leaves the place, Nines following him, still out of breath as well.

Nines : Gavin !

Gavin stops, letting Nines get closer, until they face each other again.

Nines : You did it. You mastered the spirit… Do you realize that ? Gavin : I could have killed you, then everyone around me. That's what the spirit wanted to do… Do you realize that ? Nines : But you didn't. With a bit more training-... Gavin : I almost killed you, Nines, for fuck's  sake ! Nines : … So what ? Thought you were ready to. Gavin : Listen, this beast wanted you dead, everyone dead so bad… How can I… How can I use this power when I know how dangerous and unstable it is? Nines : … But you stopped it, right ? You can control it. Gavin : You fucker, if it wasn't for you, I know I couldn't have stopped it. I would have killed all those strangers, I know that, and I'm not… I'm not a murderer. Nines : … What do you mean, for me ? Gavin : Drop it. I need some air, don't follow me.

X

Hank and Connor enter the library, Connor is looking for the archived events-records to see if Kamski came into this village (which is most likely given it's the first one you can find after the desert)

It appears that the local people can fly so the library is very high, and most scales don't even reach the top of the bookshelves.

Hank : How the hell can we reach the archives ? Connor : Wait a minute, I'll go there and take some volumes with me.

Connor spreads his wings, that widen to support his weight as he takes off to the highest point of the library. Hank is impressed by how graceful Connor looks in the air. When the golem comes back with a consequential pile of old, handwritten books, he's just there, mouth open in amazement.

Connor : Here we go… the last 10 years of history in this village… Ready to pull an all-nighter ?

Hank doesn't reply.

Connor : Hank ? Hank : You're beautiful.

Connor blinks once, his lips slightly parted from the surprise, his eyes conveying nothing else than confusion and yet, low-key content.

Connor: ..I'm sorry ? Hank : When you fly I mean… that's impressive… and beautiful. Connor : Huh… Thank you, I guess ? Anyway hum… let's… let's find a table… Hank : “Thank you” ? But do you even realize how beautiful you are ? Connor : I was created to meet some human ideal. Why would I be proud of something that isn't my doing ? Hank : Ah, don't be so modest.  Connor : … you know, I think I find humans more attractive than Golems. Each one of you is unique, and I love everything you call “flaws”.

Hank laughs halfheartedly at his last line.

Hank : You don't make sense, kid.

X

They read the archives until it's dark outside. Hank can't help but yawn as Connor lights the candles to keep reading.

Connor : You can go back to the inn, Gavin must be there already, and Nines can take over. Hank : Nah, I'm good. Connor : Hm… Hank : You okay ? You look… worried. Connor sighs : … What if we can't find Kamski ? What if… I was wrong, what if we had to go back to Detroit and Jericho with just nothing ? I don't want to return to a situation where I'll have to fight you… I just can't.  Hank : … Yeah, I understand that. I don't think I can remain a Red Guard after what we've been through… After I got to know you. Connor : If we were to fail… nothing will never be the same again. Without you.

Hank just looks at Connor with sharp eyes, as if he's got the urge to say something. At this point Hank knows he's falling for the Golem, but of course, he won't say anything, because he's sure it's only one sided, Connor is so young and handsome he can't possibly feel the same.

Actually the dark haired golem is totally in love with the man, but again, he thinks Hank can't reciprocate his feelings since he's probably into women (after all he used to have a wife), and definitely not into Golems anyways. It just feels so unfair to both of them to consider going back to their normal life when they just want to stay with the other so bad. They just wish they could stay together and run away in some romantic and lovesick lunacy. Again, they won't tell each other about it.

[suburbanbeatnik]

Françoise de Bernardy’s Alexandre Walewski: The Polish son of Napoleon- the first chapter

If I went to the (long and tedious) effort of translating the first chapter of  Françoise Bernardy’s 1976 biography of Alexandre Walewski, I figure you guys should see it too. Enjoy!

* * *

MARCH 1810. Paris is moved by the preliminaries of Napoleon's marriage with Marie-Louise. In a few days, the archduke Charles has to marry in Vienna, in the name of the French Caesar, his yesterday's victor, the daughter of the German Caesars.


At 2 rue du Houssaye, in the then aristocratic district of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, a small hotel of elegant appearance. On March 10, at the end of the afternoon, the Emperor brought a cradle decorated with silver laurel. The room where the imperial gift is deposited is hung with light blue. On the wall is a beautiful portrait of a woman by Gerard: blonde, with beautiful eyes and a fine, gentle face. The mirror of the fireplace reflects the charming features. Near the Boucaut armchairs, a Martin varnished chiffonier, behind, half-folded, a large screen of Coromandel lacquer.

A heroic fighter in the last wars of Polish independence, Mathieu Laczynski, staroste of Gostyn, died young and desperate, leaving a widow and six children who can barely live off the mortgaged land of Kiernozia.

The years pass, aggravating the ruin. The four sons are valiant but weak, spendthrift, covered with debts, whether they work on the land or fight in the Polish legions in the service of France. Only one hope, a rich marriage for the oldest daughter, Marie, born in 1786, who is beautiful and good.

An almost septuagenarian but very noble neighbor, Count Anastasius Walewski, offers this rich marriage when Marie has just turned seventeen. At first, the young girl rejects the idea of a union with an old man, twice widowed, whose son Stanislaus is already a made man. But Mme. Laczynska urges her daughter. She knows that he has a warm heart and a devoted soul. Count Walewski is generous. If Mary sacrifices herself, he will secure the future of her brothers and sister. How to resist seventeen years? At the beginning of 1804 Marie became countess Walewska. In June 1805 she had a son, Antoine, a fragile, weak, viable child, who was taken over by the count's sister, Hedwige, an abusive spinster. She leaves behind a distraught young woman with a sad heart and empty arms. Only the sense of duty and a deep passion, which lifts her out of herself, the love of the country, sustain her. Marie lives on the hopes that the victories of the imperial France over Austria, Prussia, and Russia, the powers that once shared Poland.

This patriotism and these hopes brought Marie Walewska to meet Napoleon in Blonie on the road to Warsaw on December 31, 1806. In the weeks that followed, this patriotism and these hopes persuaded the young woman to become the mistress of the French emperor, first forced, then willing, then in love. In the spring of 1807, she lived with him in Finckenstein, where the warrior spent some quiet hours preparing for the Friedland campaign.

Unofficially separated from her old husband, Marie Walewska came to Paris at the beginning of 1808. She remained there until the Emperor's departure for Bayonne. If the fever of the senses has subsided between them, if the lovers are often and for a long time separated, nevertheless Napoleon remains attentive and Marie attached. And then there is always Poland, whose destiny once more seems to be played out during the campaign of 1809. In May, Marie writes to Napoleon, reminds him of his promises, offers to join him in Austria, and on May 18, from Schoenbrunn, which he is about to leave for his headquarters in Ebersdorf, the Emperor replies to the young woman.

"Marie, I have received your letter. I read it with the pleasure that your memory always inspires me. The feelings that you keep for me, I carry them with me.

"Come to Vienna, I wish to see you and give you new proofs of the tender friendship I have for you. You cannot doubt the value I place on everything that concerns you. A thousand tender kisses on your beautiful hands and one on your beautiful mouth. "

A month later, back at Schoenbrunn, on June 20, fifteen days before the battle of Wagram, the Emperor sent Marie an affectionate letter.

"Dear Marie, your letters have pleased me as always. I do not approve of your having followed the [Polish] army in Cracow, but I cannot blame you.

"The affairs of Poland are restored, and I understand the anxieties you have had ... I acted, it was better than to lavish consolation on you. You don't have to thank me, I love your country and I appreciate the merits of many of your people.

"It takes more than the capture of Vienna to bring the end of the campaign. When I have finished, I will move to be closer to you, my sweet friend, because I am anxious to see you again. If it is at Schoenbrunn, we will enjoy together the charm of its beautiful gardens and we will forget all these bad days.

"Have patience and keep faith. "N"

After Wagram, Countess Walewska moved to Moedling, a few miles from Vienna, and throughout the summer of 1809, while peace was being discussed, the Emperor came almost every day to spend the evening, the night - with Marie.

Slow, sweet weeks which, if they seem to consecrate the liaison by the expectation of a child, however, by precipitating the divorce, also prepare the rupture. Indeed, Marie wishes to return to France with the Emperor, but Napoleon, now assured that he can procreate, determined to separate from Josephine, does not want to. The presence of the young woman in Paris would disturb him as he prepares his second marriage. He asked the Countess to return to Poland and on October 13 - the Emperor left Vienna the next day - Marie took the road to Warsaw.

On December 18 - the divorce was pronounced on the 15th - from Trianon where he went to his departure from the Tuileries, Napoleon writes to the countess Walewska. How the tone has changed since the letters of May and June, and how the young woman must have suffered. It is no longer a lover, but the sovereign who speaks, only the concern for the child still shines through. "Madam, I received your letter. All that it contains touched me much. I was pleased to see that you arrived in Warsaw without any unpleasant accident. Take care of your health, which is very precious to me, and put away dark thoughts, the future should not worry you. Teach me that you are happy and content, that is my greatest desire."

Unconsciousness of men. It is almost in the same terms that the Emperor tries to console Josephine...

Happy? Happy? Marie is not happy while she is waiting for Napoleon's child so far away from him, while Caulaincourt seems to be about to sacrifice the Polish hopes in Saint-Petersburg... In 1807, prince Poniatowski asked countess Walewska not to reject the sovereign on whom the fate of Poland depends. In 1810, he probably asked Marie to come to Paris to defend the cause of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and she agreed. Thus, she was in Paris at the beginning of 1810.

Marie Walewska looked sadly at the cradle. It is true that Napoleon welcomed her and spoke tenderly of the child she was carrying - a son, he had no doubt. But the young woman's heart is heavy. The Emperor had come the day before to bid her farewell. He would not see her again until she had given birth. What will Marie do? Stay in Paris? Retire to the country? To Warsaw? But can she return without the count's permission?

All of a sudden hurried footsteps, a panting courier. "A letter from Poland!"

The count's handwriting...

"Walewice, 21 February 1810

"Dear and honored wife,

"Walewice is more and more a burden to me, my age and state of health forbidding me any activity. I have come there for the last time, in order to sign the deed by which my eldest son acquires it.

"I advise you to come to an agreement with him about the formalities to be completed at the birth of the child you are expecting. They will be simplified if it is in Walewice that this Walewski is born.

"This is also his opinion, and that I write to you. I do so, conscious of fulfilling my duty, praying to God that he may have you in his care.

"Anastase Colonna Walewski".

Marie weeps with relief, with gratitude. Without wasting a minute, she claims her chaise de poste.

Poland is still under a blanket of snow when the Walewska princess arrives in Walewice. The young woman was pleased to see the long white house again, with its two wings covered by terraces and the triangular pedimented porch. This "colonial style" is surprising in the Polish plain: it is a memory of the veterans of the American War of Independence.

April soon brings its first greens, the buds burst in the woods. Marie Walewska takes long solitary walks. Her term is near. What will be the future of this child in whom Slavic and Latin blood are mixed? If it is a son, will he be a soldier, a diplomat? If it is a daughter, will she have fewer difficulties than her mother? What Marie wishes for her child is happiness...

On May 4, Countess Walewska gave birth to a son. At the end of his life Alexandre Walewski will write:

"My birth was accompanied by lightning and thunder, and it was predicted that my life would be stormy and even life-changing.

"To satisfy an old family prejudice, I was held at the font by two beggars, which was supposed to bring me luck... "

Three days pass, then on May 7 the priest of Walewice, acting as civil registrar, registers in the commune of Bielow that "Mgr Anastase de Walewski, staroste of Wareck, residing in Walewice, age of 73 years ", presented him "a child of the male sex, born in his palace on May 4 of the present year at four o'clock, by clarifying to us that he was born from his marriage with the lady Marie, nee de Laczynska, his wife . ... and that he intended to give her the following three names: Alexandre-Florian-Joseph. In view of this declaration, we have proceeded to the redaction of the birth certificate of the said child, in the presence of Mgr Stanislas de Walewski aged 30 years ... and of Mr. Joseph Ciekerski,doctor of medicine and surgeon deliverer ... which birth certificate was signed by us as well as by the above-mentioned and the required witnesses after reading made. "

Anastase Walewski thus fulfills all his duty towards a woman whose honesty and uprightness he appreciates. To this child who is nothing to him, he assures a name, a legitimate filiation, a heritage. This is a striking proof of the affection and esteem he has for Marie. Stanislaus Walewski is fully associated with this testimony by his presence in front of the priest of Walewice.

On his side the Emperor did not forget Marie.

On April 16 (1) he wrote to her: 

"Madam, I receive with great pleasure your news, but the dark ideas that I see that you nourish do not suit you well. I do not want you to have any. Teach me soon that you have a beautiful boy, that your health is good and that you are cheerful. Never doubt the pleasure I will have in seeing you and the tender interest I take in what concerns you. Farewell Marie, I await with confidence your news."

(1) When it was published, this letter was dated February 16. This date hardly seems acceptable. First of all, it is clearly a reply to a distant person whom the Emperor will have "pleasure in seeing". Above all, Napoleon knew that the child was due at the beginning of May and he could not hope that he would be born "soon" - prematurely. Date of April, when the young woman withdrew to Walewice, this text takes on its full meaning.

Leaving a few days later for Belgium and Holland with Marie-Louise, he is informed by quick couriers and, as soon as he knows the birth of Alexandre, he sends for the child Brussels lace and twenty thousand gold francs, for the mother, a very special tribute if we think of Napoleon's admiration for the poet, the works of Corneille, printed in Rouen in 1648, in a beautiful binding by Trantz. Does the Emperor want to signify to Marie that she has the high and tender soul of a Chimene, that he remembers her faithful and generous love?

Napoleon called the young woman back to France on September 3. After thanking her for the news brought by her brother, Theodore Laczynski, he adds in effect: "If your health is well recovered, I desire that you come on the end of autumn to Paris where I desire very much to see you... "

An amicable agreement is then definitively reached between Marie and the count Walewski. The latter gives her a large part of his fortune and entrusts her with the custody of their son Antoine. In Paris Marie Walewska moves back to rue du Houssaye. The months pass. Marie lives far from the court, does not meet Napoleon who, all occupied with Marie-Louise, seems to be interested in the young woman and her son. Finally, in February 1811, the Emperor came to see little Alexandre. It is a beautiful blond child, but whose dark complexion recalls that of the Bonapartes. He has the round head of the Latins, the high and wide forehead of his father, his eyebrow, his mouth and his chin, but the eye does not have the deep blue of the Corsican, reflection of the Mediterranean, it does not have either the sparkle which had always to brighten in the imperial pupil, the brown eye of Alexandre is pleasant and merry. A second visit follows the first one, then it is the rupture, without clashes, without discussion, like a fruit that has reached maturity.

Napoleon, however, is very concerned about the material well-being of Countess Walewska, to whom Duroc brings ten thousand francs every month. Especially the future of his son. On the eve of leaving Paris for Russia, on May 5, 1812, he made the young woman come to the Tuileries and gave her a patent which instituted in favor of Alexandre a majorat of one hundred and seventy thousand pounds of income, with the title of count. The majorat is established on goods situated in the kingdom of Naples.

One evening in January 1813, Alexandre was awakened with a start. Dressed in a hurry, he was taken to his mother.

"Two elderly men were with him, one of whom took me on his lap and kissed me. His physiognomy made a deep impression on me; it was certainly the first memory of his life."

The Emperor's solicitude for his Polish son did not waver. In the middle of the dark hours of the French campaign, fearing that Murat would confiscate the first endowment, he charged his treasurer general, M. de La Bouillerie, to establish a new majorat of fifty thousand pounds of rent on the canals for the young Walewski; he also had a hotel at 48, rue de la Vicioire, bought in the name of Alexandre for 137,500 francs, of which Marie was the usufructuary (1).

Come the great reverses. In the defeated Emperor, abandoned by his former companions, Marie Walewska sees only the man who has loved her, whom she has loved. She runs to Fontainebleau and is announced. Napoleon, absorbed, does not see her again immediately, and then does not think about her anymore. Weary of body and soul, he looks for oblivion and rest in poison, but does not find it.

All night long, in an anteroom, Marie waits for him to call her. In the morning, she finally goes away, discreet, fearing to be unwelcome. The Emperor learns a few hours later of her apparent negligence. "The poor woman," he murmured, "will think she has been forgotten," and on April 16 he was anxious to reassure her. "Marie, I have received your letter of the 15th, the feelings that you have expressed touch me deeply. They are worthy of your beautiful soul and the goodness of your heart. When you have arranged your affairs, if you want to go to the waters of Lucca or Pisa, I will see you with great and lively interest, as well as your son for whom my feelings are invariable. Be well, think of me with pleasure and never doubt me.”

(1) On February 4, from Nogent, he writes in his own hand to La Bouillerie: "I have received your letter relative to young Walewski. I leave you carte blanche. Do what is convenient but do it immediately. What interests me is above all the child, the mother afterwards."     A judgment of the court of the Seine, of April 4, 1818, will authorize the tutor of the "minor" Walewski it to sell the hotel of the rue de la Victoire and it to replace the funds produced by this sale in the purchase of Walewice of which Stanislas Walewski wants to get rid.

In August 1814 Marie Walewska travels to Italy with her son, her sister Emilie and her brother Theodore. The Emperor encouraged her again on August 9: 

"Marie, I have received your letter, I have spoken to your brother. Go to Naples to arrange your affairs. On my way there or on my way back, I will see you with the interest you have always inspired in me, and the little one of whom I hear so much good news that I am truly happy and will be happy to embrace him. Farewell, Madame, a hundred tender things.”

On September 1 Marie arrived on the island of Elba with her son, Emilie and Theodore. Immediately a rumor spread among the population and the small garrison: Marie-Louise and the King of Rome had just arrived. The good people are mistaken. The Viennese woman of light soul and weak flesh is in Aix, already all in Neipperg.

Is Napoleon going to retain Marie who has come to offer him her life? Certainly he is moved to find her always so faithful and so generous. But the Emperor thinks first of the Empress, first of the King of Rome, and he fears that Marie-Louise, warned of the coming of the Polish girl, will take the pretext not to join him. Surprisingly, does he not guess that the choice is already made?

In any case, he receives Marie Walewska in a half-mystery, at the hermitage of the Madonna.

Leaving the countess the three rooms of the little house, Napoleon settles for the night in a tent under the chestnut trees. When he came out in the morning, he found Alexandre playing. He called him, sat down on a chair, took the child in his lap, then sent for Foureau de Beauregard, the doctor who had followed him to Elba, and the latter wrote to Alexandre Walewski on June 22, 1843: "You are that pretty little Alexandre that I saw, almost twenty-nine years ago, on the Emperor's lap near the Madonna delle Grazie on the island of Elba.”

“The Emperor wanted the child, who had no youngster with him, to be there," says Marchand. The Emperor placed Mme. Walewska's son next to him, he was very good at first, but it didn't last long and, as his mother reproached him, the Emperor said to him: "So you are not afraid of the whip? Well! I urge you to fear it; I have only received it once and I have always remembered it." Napoleon then tells how one day when he had mocked his grandmother's clumsy walk, Madame Mere had firmly corrected him. "The child had listened with the greatest attention, the Emperor said to him: 'Well, what do you say to that?’— ‘But I don't make fun of Mama,' he said with a little air of contrition which pleased the Emperor, who kissed him and said: 'That's well answered.’"

Rare picture of Napoleon with his Polish son.

That same evening, September 2, Marie Walewska took the road to Naples again in small steps. The endowment of Alexandre, confiscated on September 15 with all the other French endowments of the kingdom of Naples, is restored on November 30. Perhaps on the intervention of Caroline, who always liked Marie Walewska? Perhaps Murat had some shame to add a meanness to his betrayals? In any case the Emperor was satisfied and he told the King of Naples on February 17, 1815, adding: "I recommend her to you and especially her son who is very dear to me. "She came to Paris in the spring of 1838 and was ‘touched by the assiduous care’ that Walewski gave her during her stay. Caroline Murat wrote to him on November 23: "I am sending you the letter from the Emperor that I had promised you; you will see in it the proofs of the affection that he had for you... "

The countess Walewska lingers in Naples. Alexandre will keep a vague but pleasant memory of this stay, of the toys that he received there. At the beginning of 1815 the mother and the child embarked for France. Caught by a corsair, they escaped him in great difficulty.

Marie learned of the death of the count in Walewice on January 18, 1815. Now that she is free, what will she do with her life? To marry General d'Ornano, who has been courting her for a long time and for whom she has a deep inclination? Perhaps... She has hardly had time to decide when on March 1, 1815 Napoleon lands in Golfe-Juan.

It is the prestigious return, the intoxicating reception of Paris, the feverish days of work. Before the departure for the plains of Flanders where the imperial eagle will fall, Marie, always faithful heart, goes to the Elysee with her son. Alexandre found the visitor from the rue du Houssaye at the palace. He wears, as on the island of Elba, a blue uniform with a white lapel. "He told my mother that he was going to leave for a campaign. He asks me if I want to go with him. My mother refused. ‘Well madam, I will take him by force.’” These words still ring in my ears. "

Waterloo, the second abdication, the halt at Malmaison. Marie once again comes to the Emperor. So many bonds united them, gratitude for the resurrected Poland, and then love, and then the child. Without a doubt, she is ready to accompany him in this exile from which Napoleon's immense weariness, after a life so full and so ardent, awaits rest. But he does not accept, happiness is no longer for him, he enters the legend.

Despite the clear light of this beautiful summer day, everything is sad and gloomy on this June 26 and Malmaison is a kingdom of shadows: shadow of Josephine, unfaithful and charming, shadow of Duroc and Bessieres, shadow of the madman Junot, shadow of the absent ones too, Eugene, Murat, the companions of glory and youth, shadow of Talleyrand and Fouche who betrayed him, shadow above all of this young consul who took France in his arms and with a sincere effort straightened it.

Marie and the Emperor speak at length. Alexandre, serious and silent, listens to them without understanding. The countess is crying softly, she would like to retain Napoleon, to persuade him not to abandon himself to destiny. It is a vain effort, the Emperor does not hear her, nor does he hear Hortense. Marie finally decides to leave and Napoleon leans over to the child and gives him a long kiss. Later the man made, the wall man who became ambassador, then minister of the resurrected empire, will remember that he thought he saw a tear running down the cheek of the defeated of Waterloo.

Three more days the slow agony continues, three more days Marie returns to Malmaison and on June 29 she will be among the last faithful who, on the threshold of the house, will see the Emperor sinking with a firm step into the park, crossing the small gate, will hear the door of the heavy car slamming while the bells of the church of Rueil ring...

* * *

A long year... Europe catches its breath, gets used to the absence of the man who for fifteen years has dominated it and who disappeared at the bottom of the Atlantic.

On September 7, 1816 Marie Walewska married Ornano, who had been exiled by the Restoration, in St. Gudula in Brussels. Antoine and Alexandre Walewski stayed in Paris. Under the guidance of M. Carite, a friend on whom the countess entrusted the education of her children, and of an old valet, Andre, the two little ones join the Ornanos at the waters of Chaudfontaine near Liege. The new household moved soon after to Liege itself, in a charming house on rue Mandeville, today rue de la Fragnee. On June 9, 1817, a son, Rodolphe, was born. After his release from exile, Ornano returned to Paris with his wife in October 1817, but Marie died soon after, on December 11.

In her will Madame d'Ornano entrusted the guardianship of her Polish sons to her brother Theodore Laczynski, who was in Paris at the time. "He will have to report frequently to my dear husband on the state of Alexandre's health, to take his advice when this child will be of school age. Place him in a school where his father-in-law will be able to go and visit him sometimes and supervise his education... "

Laczynski takes the two orphans to Kiernozia in Poland. Alexandre likes this quiet and patriarchal life. Memories of the imperial era haunt the house. In the evening, Antoine and Alexandre linger in the living room. Theodore Laczvnski takes the lead in the conversation, he talks about the French Revolution, Paris, the imperial campaigns, especially about the Emperor. As Duroc's aide-de-camp, the Pole often approached Napoleon. The children, with bright eyes, listen "with indefinable interest". Laczynski's dream is to go to Saint Helena, to take his wards there...

After a few happy months in the country, Theodore Laczynski decides to settle in Warsaw and gives the children whose education cannot be neglected any longer a tutor. A strange choice. The times decidedly wanted it. While Queen Hortense entrusted Louis-Napoleon to the son of the conventionnel Le Bas, the young Walewskis, in their snows, were given to a certain Muller, a "philosopher teacher" as he called himself, of a very advanced republicanism. Laczynski quickly separates from the astonishing character and, in order to restore the balance, his pupils spend half a year in a Jesuit college in Warsaw, where Alexandre makes his first communion. Then they left for Geneva in 1820.

Napoleon's son stayed there for four years. After a happy, pampered life with the gentle and tender woman who was his mother, the child had two more easy years. Now here he is, thrown alone - his brother Antoine is leaving him soon (1) - in a new, even hostile environment, in a foreign city whose Protestant austerity must have clashed with the Catholic heredity of this Pole with Latin roots. And yet, as he himself wrote, it was from this period that his spiritual life began. The city of Calvin suits this calm, somewhat soft temperament. No flashes of anger or outbursts. Order, measure, a certain fundamental rigidity. In Geneva, one day in the summer of 1821, the child of Wagram, the one who prayed for the Emperor because he was his father, learns of the death of the captive of Saint Helena.

(1)Recalled probably by the tsar. Antoine Walewski died young, without children from his marriage to Constance Grotowska.

No trace in the memories of the imprisoned man of what he thought, felt... Did he ever know, except by the cold instructions to the executors of his will, that Napoleon, although absorbed by the concern for his imperial son, nevertheless thought of his Polish son, recommended him to Bertrand, expressed the wish that he enter a regiment of lancers, and above all that he become a Frenchman. "He is really of my blood, and that is also something."

Alexandre Walewski is a boarder at the Academy's rector's house, which receives about twenty young people. His lavish lifestyle, the apartment, the governor, the servant, attracted jealousy and bullying. In spite of his young age, Alexandre decides to avoid a situation which, if it goes on too long, will become painful. He gets the governor recalled, keeps the servant but puts him at the service of the community. He has easy money - his hands will always be wide open -, he lends to his comrades and shows himself to be generous. He is a serious, authoritarian boy, aware of his importance. The traits of his character, which we will find again during his life, are already marked: he is honest, upright, but he is neither cheerful nor fanciful. He evokes his life in Geneva as follows: "I was at twelve very tall for my age, and I considered myself a young man; so much so that I was already going a little into the world, to balls, to little parties... I stayed in Geneva for four years. I left Geneva on an order from the emperor of Russia."

* * * 

On his return to Poland in 1824, Alexandre Walewski was emancipated by his tutor. He settled in Walewice, where he led a stately life. Princess Jablonowska, a sexagenarian cousin who had once been the friend and confidante of Maria Walewska, helped him to entertain. The house of the young man, of this so young man, is soon to be very sought after.

Precocious from a worldly point of view, Alexandre Walewski is also precocious with women. The Latin blood is hot, the Slavic blood as well. Judging by what he wrote in the first draft of his memoirs, shortly after his arrival in Walewice, Alexandre had an affair. He had an affair with a "vulgar girl" that left him feeling disgusted and that would keep him away from such promiscuity in the future. The numerous women who will mark out his life will be from now on women of talent or: women of quality.

On December 22, 1825, Alexandre sends to the General d'Ornano his wishes for the new year. This letter, green, charming, which confirms the impression of maturity of a boy who is not sixteen years old, also reveals the affectionate feelings that he feels for his stepfather.

“It is nearly three months since I wrote to you and many things have happened since I took possession of my land in Walewice. First of all, the castle was repaired, which was in great need of it, and then my good cousin wanted the whole region to hear, with loud trumpeting, that I had become its lord. More than a hundred people did us the honor of attending the magnificent ball that she gave. It was very cold outside, but fortunately there was no snow that night. I was celebrated and saw people from the past whom I pretended to recognize and who were charmed by it. The dowagers even kissed me, but not the young girls, which would have pleased me more. I made up for it by dancing with several of them.

"I must confess also that I fell several times into the sin of pride. I don't know who said anything about my academic successes, but I have been in the hot seat and have been made to take part in political, diplomatic, literary, and I don't know what else conversations. How many compliments have I heard about my intelligence, my reason, the power of my arguments, etc., etc., etc.? And then I noticed that the girls preferred me to many other dancers. As the lessons given to me were profitable, I remembered that it was especially necessary to court ladies of canonical age and they brought back to me very flattering appreciations on my modest person, expressed by exquisite mouths...

"General Zayonczek is one of my most frequent visitors... He rambles a little, but this does not affect his memory. He remembers very well all that happened in Warsaw when the Emperor came there before the battle of Eylau... He is very popular with the great Duke and even with the Czar's court. Some people criticize him, but I think it is good that we have our great men in favor. It can only be useful for us...

"We will reopen the Warsaw hotel in a few days. Ah! if we could see you there!

"Your tender and respectful Alexandre. "

Son of the patriot Marie Walewska, son of the Emperor, Alexandre attracts Polish hopes. He would gladly be taken as a standard bearer. Grand Duke Constantine, the skillful and often benevolent governor of the kingdom, wanted to neutralize him. He offers him to join the Russian army, to become his aide-de-camp. The young man "stubbornly" refused. He was put under police surveillance and told to leave the country. Tsar Alexandre had once recommended that Napoleon's Polish son should never be allowed to go to France: his brother remembered this.

Alexandre decides to escape. With a passport obtained at a high price, he goes to St. Petersburg and hides there, waiting for a favorable opportunity to gain more free land. He learns that the police are looking for him to bring him back to Warsaw where his fate will be decided. Four hundred leagues on foot, a probable prison do not tempt the Pole. He had to escape at all costs. He reached Kronstadt and boarded a steamer bound for England. The police have found his trail, and they launch an armed barge in pursuit of him, ordering him to stop: inadvertently or unwillingly, the captain does not obey the summons and, thanks to his superior speed, makes it to the open sea.

* * * 

In London, Walewski received an enthusiastic welcome from the elegant society, the opposition. The Whigs, that is, the Liberals, have always regretted the treatment of the Emperor, and Lord Holland has protested in the House of Lords against the conditions of captivity. With Napoleon gone, the regrets became remorse...

In spite of the attentions of which he is the object, the young man does not linger in England. He will return there with pleasure and in 1828 he will spend several months: summer, autumn, making a long stay in Chatworth at the Duke of Devonshire, the most prominent of the great Whig lords. But it is in Paris that Walewski intends to settle down. He arrived there in the autumn of 1827. He found his father-in-law, with him Flahaut, Sebastiani, Gerard, veterans of the time. The salons of the Faubourg Saint Honore, of liberal tendency, receive him with great pleasure. He is charming at his entrance in the Parisian world, this young Walewski. Slim, slender, elegant, he has beautiful dark eyes and a dreamy smile. His slight accent adds to his charm when he courts a woman, and he waltzes divinely - like a Slav.

And then, isn't he called the natural son of Man? The Marechal de Castellane notes on November 1, 1827: "At Mme de Flahaut's, I saw for the first time a young M. Walewski, son of Mme Walewska and of the Emperor Napoleon. He has the eyes, the sound of his father's voice, he is taller than him and very well turned out (1)."

(1) Many years later Walewski pronounced the eulogy of the count of Rayneval. An old general of the Empire suddenly begins to cry. "I attended the farewell that the Emperor made to his guard at Fontainebleau and I just heard the sound of his voice.”

What is more surprising, the faubourg Saint-Germain, stronghold of the ultras, is infatuated with Walewski who becomes the darling of the "ultra-duchesses" according to Lady Morgan. Haussonville on his side confirms it to us. "The debuts of Count Walewski took place, singularly enough, under the auspices of what is most exclusive and purest in the aristocratic society of Paris. It was as if it were a watchword among the most sought-after ladies of the Faubourg Saint-Germain to give the most benevolent welcome to the young man whose features were strikingly reminiscent, but with a pleasant and gentle physiognomy, of those of a famous mask. The first of these was the one who was to be the first to be the first to be the first to be the first to be the first to be the first to be the first to be the first to be the first to be of a man who was not a man of the world. He let the most haughtiest women, those who were about to consider themselves the prettiest or the wittiest, put themselves to the expense for him, either of brilliant toilet or of beautiful spirit, each one according to the means of seduction which suited her best. Thus, every evening in the fashionable salons, there was a real race to the bell tower between a learned marquise... who affected to speak to each ambassador the language of her country and a beautiful duchess [it seems to be the duchess de Guiche] who was then in Paris the type of the sovereign elegance. Between these ladies the bets were open and the chances seemed doubtful, Walewski taking care to share equally between them his discreet attentions...”

A cloud rises however on the horizon. Pozzo di Borgo, the Russian ambassador, a Corsican who had been in the service of the tsar, pursued with a Corsican hatred all that was Bonaparte. He asks for the extradition of Walewski, this "rebel, fugitive from the Russian Empire". By order of Charles X, who doesn't like Pozzo, Villele, on the eve of leaving the ministry, refuses it. Walewski could stay in France on condition that he avoided official circles and made himself forgotten.

Life is very pleasant in these last years of the Restoration. Lady Blessington has left us a pleasant picture of the society of the time. The manners are ceremonious and the young people surround the old women with delicate attentions, whether it is a flattering silence when the beautiful ones of the past are remembered or a lively eagerness to render them small services: handkerchief, bouquet or fan picked up, shawl placed on cold shoulders. France is the paradise of old women, especially if they are witty, England is the purgatory, says the Englishwoman without ambiguity. The amorous intrigues are discreet, hidden from the public, and those whose affair is best known affect the most reserved manners. Hypocrisy perhaps, but the Parisian world takes on an air of dignity and decency.

Once a week, the women of quality open their salons to a circle of intimates who meet like-minded people every evening in a friendly house. Small closed coteries, where strangers are not admitted. For them, balls, dinners and parties in full dress. For the regulars, the amiable negligence of the half-clothes and the free, unceremonial chat. “Yesterday I went to a small party at Madame de Jumilhac's [a sister of the Duke of Richelieu] where Walewski served as my introducer," said the Pole Andre Kosmian on November 7, 1829. “Without being rich, she received three times a week the flower of the Parisian world. Her small salon is only open to ten or twelve people at a time. It is very difficult to be admitted. I owed this favor to Walewski who is the gate child of these ladies."

Walewski likes this refined society as much as he likes it. He is linked with the due de Chartres. They are tall, one dark, the other blond, they look alike and for three winters they never leave each other. Walewski also met Thiers at Madame de Flahaut's house: their friendship will never be denied. He finally met Morny, the son of Flahaut and Queen Hortense. "They are both of distinguished and graceful manners, without support, gifted with an air as it should be which is in them as a native gift... "

Lady Blessington, a very good judge, noted in 1829: "The more I see Count Walewski, the more I like him. He has the spirit, intuition and perfect manners. I have always considered it a good sign for a young man to like the society of old people and Count Walewski marks the preference for men of age to be his father."

When the count d'Orsay and the due de Guiche create in 1828 the circle of the Union, Walewski joins one of the first. He found there many Englishmen, Lord Granville, the English ambassador who had married a sister of the Duke of Devonshire and whose son was to be a minister in 1852. Caradoc, the future opponent of Walewski in La Plata, Normanby. He also met Talleyrand... There is a lot of talk about horses, it is a passion of the time and also a fashion. The races begin to be very popular at the Champ-de-Mars and at the Bois de Boulogne. Walewski goes there with assiduity. He runs and plays...

“In the meantime, I attended horse races for the first time in my life," Kosmian said in November 1829. Unfortunately, they ended in a way that was unpleasant for Walewski, because Walewski was always doing crazy things, throwing money out of the window. In England and here in Paris, he lost at cards up to a hundred thousand francs. Having stopped on the slope, he no longer plays cards, but, which amounts to the same thing, he plays at the races. There is a very rich Englishman here, Lord Seymour [Milord l'Arsouille], who lives only for horses and for whom betting on races is a passion. He is the one who is constantly pestering poor Walewski. Last Saturday, they had only two, each on his own horse. Walewski rode an English racehorse; Seymour a hunting horse; but Walewski had to carry sixty pounds more! Everyone who knew anything about racing said in advance that Walewski was making a fool of himself and that he would lose. He wouldn't listen to anyone - and lost. The stake was five thousand francs. He has seventy-five thousand pounds of income; what a comfortable and pleasant life he could lead. Perfectly well seen in the world, universally loved... But one has to tell him the truth... he doesn't want to hear anything until now. It is a great pity because what a good and noble nature it is and of how much pleasure in society ... "

The year 1829 had been cheerful, the beginning of the year 1830 is not less. On February 9 a great masked ball was organized by Mrs. Alexandre de Girardin in the concert hall of the rue Taitbout. Mme. Alfred de Noailles intrigues during one hour Rodolphe Apponyi, the king of the cotillion leaders; on the other hand, he recognizes at first sight the princess of Lieven and both of them go in the box of Walewski so that they intrigue their turn.

Alexandre is twenty years old on May 4, 1830. He is a man. Will he continue to waste his life in frivolity, thinking only of the world, of women, of races, of gambling? Does he forget the hopes cherished by his mother, does he remember that his father wanted him to be a soldier? Will he, who is free, get bogged down in the pleasures of Paris like the Duke of Reichstadt, he who is a prisoner, in the soft life of Austria? Will the sons of Napoleon be only dandies?

Walewski was a calm observer of the Three Glorious Years, and the return of the tricolor flag, which his father had flown in Vienna, Berlin and Moscow, did not arouse any echo in him. Polish by mother, Polish by heart, Polish by nationality if not by language (1), only the tocsin of Warsaw is going to move him, to awaken him suddenly.

(1) Walewski was not fluent in Polish. Joseph Tanski tells that when he came to London in 1854 to talk to the ambassador about projects he did not wish to see revealed, he offered to speak Polish to Walewski, the valet being present in the room. The latter refused, admitting that he could not sustain the conversation.

[booksatm]

here’s my personal opinion on #elriel vs #gwynriel. (not that it matters to everyone, but imma state it anyway)

was the gwynriel scene touching? for sure. could she be azriel’s mate? quite possibly, i don’t see why not.

does that mean they have to end up together? NO. keep in mind, gwyn is JUST overcoming being around the opposite gender...like even at the end of ACOSF she kinda went back into her shell & had to think about attending #nessian ‘s mating ceremony cause the Rite messed her up again. she has personal growing to do, so do i think SJM is gonna toss her a man to help her get through her trauma WITH MEN...no...no, i do not. could azriel be gwyn’s mate — of course, but why can’t he just be the kind of mate who’s there for her? SJM has been laying too many clues for us regarding this mate thing; “it can be rejected”, “there can be more than one”; “it doesn’t have to result in a romantic relationship”, for y’all to believe every mating couple is going to end up together within the inner circle.

now, onto my girl elain. SHE HAD FAR TOO MUCH BUILDUP FOR THE NEXT BOOK NOT TO BE ABOUT HER. elain had so much, legitimately, so much buildup from ACOSF & all the previous books. AND IF YALL WANNA RECOGNIZE ONE POV, LETS RECOGNIZE THEM BOTH. why in the hickity heck would SJM have Rhys and Feyre talk about Elain “showing a different side to herself” for half of their POV chapter, if the next book wasn’t gonna be about her? SJM said that who the next book is about will be obvious....are we gonna ignore the elain sized elephant in the room where BOTH POVs spoke about her, and that throughout the book Elain was a quite frequent ‘mysterious’ figure that everyone was shook was finally standing up for herself? gwyn was only mentioned in azriel’s...soooo... & since we know each new books surrounds a pair that’ll become a couple; 1+1=elriel. & tbh y’all not liking the 3 brothers w/ the 3 sisters is kinda ehh cause who wouldn’t want to give the Bat Bois a chance to actually be brothers if they could??? like, i cannot think of anything more heartwarming. & let’s also not forget we had this same arguement at the end of ACOFAS with Cassian and Emerie...like y’all were so against Nesta that you really thought Cassian was going to end up with someone else, even though we’d had book after book of buildup. do we not see a pattern here? i’m just glad we’ve given up on #elucian, which was also held onto for quite a while even though we’d had book after book of evidence against that too...hmmm...another pattern. let’s not ignore evidence & SJM’s writing style.

in the end, gwyn is an amazing character, but if you came away from ACOSF thinking “oh yeah, and next she should get a romantic interest”, you got the wrong message from her story. she deserves love, of course, but not after the trauma she still needs to find her own way to overcome. & the love between her, Emerie, & Nesta was, very evidently, enough for her. and for y’all about to say “what about Nesta & Cassian, she just overcame trauma too and they got together”, THEYRE NOT THE SAME. nesta held no trauma that made her fearful of the opposite sex. trauma is different, and people have different ways of coping with it. what works for nesta is not guaranteed to work for Gwyn. most importantly, SJM is really setting us up for a powerful “choice” romance. i say that to mean, a major theme between Az & Elain is that their choices were being taken away from them. Elain hasn’t been able to make her own choices because of her sisters or Lucien, and now she can’t even decide to kiss a man she likes. Az has always been the ‘good soldier’ and wasn’t able to have Mor, a happy upbringing, and now Elain. he’s always been the “yes man”. like, i’m expecting Az to pop off and tell everyone “No, i’m doing what is going to make me happy”. he did that once when he went to save Elain in ACOWAR & i can’t wait to see him fight for who/what he wants once more (&i think being around elain makes him feel as though he can). think about it...now, why would SJM give us so much information about the “Blood Duel” & rejecting the bond if we weren’t going to see it at all...??? she wouldn’t do that. uh-uh. & for y’all who are referencing the shadows or the fact that Elain can’t give Az a baby...imma only say this once & hopefully we don’t have to address the latter ever again; the shadows leave when Az is safe & happy. so many quotes from the previous books showcase this. not saying that them dancing with gwyn means that he’s in danger, but the shadows have been shown to gravitate toward those with trauma, so they recognize gwyn’s pain & surround her. Elain allows Az to finally be at rest...his shadows can finally leave him. just think, would you really want the darkness surrounding you 24/7? no. the shadows are practically his job, so ofc he would want to be around someone who has them go away. he wants, craves some light. and with the freaking baby thing. women are not only used for procreation, but since y’all wanna keep bringing it up, technically Gwyn doesn’t have wings either, last i checked, so she wouldn’t be able to deliver the same way Elain isn’t able to. but that’s so legitimately disgusting to even argue about so, there. you can ship who you wanna ship or not, because personally, i find this all very entertaining. but if we wanna get into “whose right” or “the facts lead to gwyn”, i just wanted to present my own case for #elriel. if you simply don’t like elain with azriel because “elain is boring” “he deserves better” then please keep your misogynistic tendencies to yourself cause we stan all women in ACOTAR over here (with the exception of Amarantha). elain deserves happiness just like azriel does, so if her happiness lies with him or with a literal tree, she deserves whatever she wants just as much as any other character in this world.

[recurring-polynya]

Hi Polynya! I’m curious and in the spirit of Ginrei’s birthday, what do you think are his opinions of Rukia and Renji separately and together?

Ha ha, this is such a simple and straightforward question and my answer is going to be so long and so complicated and have almost nothing to do with Rukia and Renji because Ginrei's feelings toward Rukia and Renji have almost nothing to do with Rukia and Renji.

So, I want to start out by saying that Ginrei is a lot like Hisana in the sense that he's a canon character, we get the idea of him and what he's there for, but there's no actual characterization of him, which gives fanfic writers a tremendous amount of leeway to do whatever they want with him. I'm not going to try to justify anything I say here, it's just my ideas and how it goes in my fanfiction. I love it whenever a writer tries to take on the Kuchiki clan and I'm always interested to see what other people's takes are, even when they vary wildly from my own.

I love the fact that "Kuchiki" means "dead tree." We meet Rukia first, and it's sort of a delightfully spoopy name, very appropriate for this salty, overdramatic, grim reaper girl, but it takes on additional meaning when we meet Byakuya, the noble and powerful scion of a dying house.

The thing that makes Ginrei interesting as a character to me is that he is the one who ruled over his house as it fell. I tend to regard filler episodes as semi-canon, so I like the idea of Kouga, even if I don't want to acknowledge the rest of the Zanpakutou Rebellion shenanigans. I think that the main line of the Kuchiki was already running a little thin, Soujun's health was a big concern, and so they marry in this guy who is a scholar and a powerful shinigami. They never say what Kouga's previous social status was, but given that they emphasize what an accomplished dude he is, I think he was chosen for his skills, not his lineage, to strengthen the Kuchiki bloodline, except it backfires. Then Soujun dies, too, a few years later.

Ginrei strikes me as the type of leader who thinks he can control everything. He manages his clan with an iron fist. He is pragmatic, not sentimental. He’s not bad or mean, but he can see that he does not have a lot of room for missteps, and he takes his role very, very seriously. Despite this, he’s lost the generation under him, and all that he has left is Byakuya. There are cousins and branch families, but to the pride of the Kuchiki is its main line, descended from great generals and heroes and the very founders of Soul Society. Byakuya, in a lot of ways, hearkens back to the great Kuchiki of old, and Ginrei sees that he has the potential to reclaim the power and glory of his house. He’s hard on Byakuya and has high expectations for him. Ginrei loved his son and he loves his grandson, but after Soujun’s death, he often wonders if he was too soft on him because of his health, if Soujun would have lived if Ginrei had just expected more of him. Byakuya is the last hope of the Kuchiki and Ginrei knows he can achieve great things, and Ginrei is determined to do everything in his power to make sure Byakuya achieves his full potential.

And some ways, Byakuya is the perfect Kuchiki. He’s strong and he’s hard-working. He’s principled. He’s working on his self-control, and he’s very good at when it comes, to say, sword practice, he’s just not so good at in when it comes to interpersonal relations, but he’s coming along. Then he meets Hisana.

Hisana is absolutely unacceptable to Ginrei. Byakuya needs a marriage with a woman with strong spiritual pressure and a noble lineage so that he can gain some alliances from the marriage and then she can pop out some strapping young heirs while also managing his social life for him, just like Ginrei’s wife did for him. Hisana obviously isn’t going to check any of these boxes.

I headcanon Byakuya as demisexual, in the sense that he doesn’t experience sexual attraction very often, and if he does, it’s only to someone he’s already got strong feelings for. He was sort of okay with the vague idea of marrying someone for the purposes of procreating until he met Hisana and realized how much that would pale in comparison to actually being married to the love of his life.

Up until this point, Byakuya has had some minor rebellions against Ginrei, but they’ve never really gone at it, but this is one time that Byakuya stands firm. Ginrei is super-pissed. He lets Byakuya marry her because he figures she’s going to die soon anyway, but he’s mad about it. He never comes around to Hisana and he’s mean to her and this is really the nadir of Byakuya and Ginrei’s relationship.

Finally, we are getting around to what you asked. Hisana dies and Ginrei softens a little toward Byakuya in his grief. He retires and turns the clan and Squad 6 over to B, hoping it will be a distraction and that Byakuya will finally turn his focus over to what matters. This seems to be going well for about one year and then BAM! Byakuya acquires an orphan.

I am guessing that Ginrei didn’t know about Byakuya’s promise to Hisana to take care of Rukia, but even so, I think if you asked him, he would have regarded Byakuya’s duty to his clan and promise to his parents as more important. It’s not that Ginrei isn’t an honorable man, it’s that his concept of honor doesn’t necessarily extend to a dead peasant in comparison the Noble and Ancient House of Kuchiki. So Byakuya adopts Rukia and Ginrei’s immediate reaction is panic. What is Byakuya doing? Is he going to marry this girl? Is he going to name her his Heir? Has he cracked? And it turns out to be none of those things, he’s just going to keep her around as this sad ghost that haunts his house, but Ginrei’s initial reaction toward Rukia is that of interloper. He thought this Hisana nonsense was overwith, but no, we’re still doing this.

When Ginrei first meets Rukia, she is in her overwhelmed, lonely stage of first becoming a Kuchiki. Ginrei also criticizes her for being small and meek and basically useless. She’s a mediocre shinigami. She’s not beautiful or talented, so Byakuya can’t even marry her off for political gain. The real issue, though is that Rukia is just emblematic of the fact that Byakuya doesn’t intend to move past his grief and remarry. He works his ass off as Captain and Clan Head, but other than that, he’s just gonna be a sad widower and sit in his big house and write letters to his dead wife and the Kuchiki are going to die off. There is really nothing Rukia could do, no way she could be different that Ginrei would approve of, because it was never really about her in the first place.

Fast forward a few years, and now we come to Renji. I also headcanon that in his retirement, Ginrei has moved out to a scenic portion of Rukongai, so he doesn’t interact with Byakuya much on a day-to-day basis, but he hears stuff through other family members that come out to visit him. He’s never actually met Renji, all he knows is that Shirogane retired, and Byakuya hired some tattooed goon from Squad 11 instead of one of the dozens of Kuchiki cousins that are lying around. In my fanfic Call Me Back When the War is Over, Byakuya explains to one of his aunts that the reason he did this was because he didn’t have a relative who was capable of passing the Lieutenant’s Exam. She replies that he just should have pulled some strings so that someone (preferably her own son) could pass, assuming it’s a mere formality. Now this is exactly what Ginrei would have done. This is a problem, though: it involves choosing sides. I’ve got the top seats of Squad 6 set up as follows:

- 3rd Seat Ohno is the Heir to the most powerful Kuchiki branch family. His father is arguably the next in line for Clan Head, based on power terms - 4th Seat Kuchiki Choei is an actual Kuchiki, but he’s a younger son and he’s a clown, meaning that he got bored standing in line for Clan Head and wandered around the corner to vape - 5th Seat Kuchiki Takehiko is the actual closest of Byakuya’s relatives to him, and is arguably the next in line for Clan Head, strictly on family line terms

Pulling strings to help any of these three become the next lieutenant would be a very political move on B’s part, tantamount to anointing his successor. Ginrei assumes that B picked an outsider for the purposes of recusing, of saying “I shall simply refuse to die and remain Clan Head myself, forever’, with the addition fuck you of picking the Actual Worst Person Byakuya Could Find for the job, instead.

This really isn’t the case at all, it is literally that Byakuya feels that you shouldn’t be a lieutenant if you can’t pass the exam. He’s basically a rule-follower, and also it’s a good rule, and also his dad died as a lieutenant and I think he thinks a lot about how that could have been avoided through actions, whereas Ginrei tends to think of it more of a thing that could have been avoided if Soujun was better.

So, that gets us up to the beginning of canon. I am (in theory) working on a fanfic that takes place in the 17-mo timeskip where Ginrei comes to visit and actually gets to know Rukia and Renji and (spoiler alert, but is anyone really surprised) he ends up liking both of them a lot. Part of it is just Ginrei has chilled out somewhat in his retirement and realized that it’s okay to have parts of your life that are not completely devoted to the Good of the Clan. Part of it is that Ginrei loves Competence and Rukia and Renji are so, so competent. Part of it is that Byakuya is obviously doing a lot better than he was, and it’s just really obvious why. Like I said, Ginrei does and always has loved Byakuya, he just wants what’s best for him. It’s just that if there is one thing Kuchiki are terrible at, it’s expressing their love for one another in a positive and healthy way.

As to Ginrei’s feelings about Renruki as a ship, he’s for it, actually. Conniving family members have been trying to marry Rukia for years in hopes of getting an in with Byakuya, and I’m sure they’re setting their sights on Renji, now, too. Ginrei likes them well enough, but he can imagine what a shitshow this could turn out to be, and he finds it very convenient if they were to just marry each other.

I’m rather fond of the idea of Byakuya appointing them as a branch family to the Kuchiki, because I’m not super keen on them going full-Kuchiki if Renji married in, but I think Byakuya would be upset if Rukia married out and he wasn’t able to provide her with the lavish lifestyle he thinks she needs (she does not). It’s a nice compromise that lets them be a part of the family, but out of the limelight. In any case, I think that was Ginrei’s idea, thanks Granddad!