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delimeful · 4 years

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WIBAR Intermission: New Friends

winner of the first july patreon poll! thanks to @legendsgates for allowing me to sneak in a brief cameo of their alien species, cetarfreka!

previous intermission episode | start of WIBAR

warnings: violence, fear, tension, ptsd episodes, injury mention, being held hostage, misunderstandings, deception

It was about halfway through their trading circuit that the vidcomm from the Mindscape popped up.

Remyy perked up instantly, Patton’s distinctive singsong voice clear even from half across the main bay. They dropped to their feet and tucked all their wings tight against them to signal that anyone in the way should swiftly get out of the way. Those in the bay who knew them cast strange glances in their direction as they hop-skittered across the floor.

Remyy couldn’t blame them; this was probably the fastest they’d moved all week. They usually maintained a much more casual demeanor for the sake of their reputation, but in this case...

“Patton! Babes, you’re really okay!”

“Remyy!” The Ampen fluffed up, a pleasant glow filling the room around him, face pinching up happily.

In this case, exceptions would be made.

The Obrxyx currently managing the comms sighed at them, unimpressed. “You have this one, then?”

“Sure do,” Remyy drawled, still leaning between xem and the monitor so that half their face took up the comm screen. “We go way back, I’ll get them docked.”

They waited impatiently for xem to move to a different comm terminal, adjusted the seatpad so they could be seen properly through the comm, and promptly started complaining. “I can’t believe you guys, holing up in that rinky dink ship for so long with only voice calls to tell everyone that you were okay! Where’s the gossip? Why in the universe would you keep it from me?”

Patton’s hands jerked, and the comm screen wobbled, blurring his expression strangely for a moment. Remyy tilted their goggles slightly for a better angle, but by the time the mobile communicator stabilized, any change in demeanor had vanished.

“Be careful, Rem,” Patton said teasingly, “it almost sounds like you care about us or something.”

“Funny,” Remyy replied dryly, “I’ll have you know that I’ve just been missing Logan’s high quality deathbrew, none of that sentimental garbage.”

Patton laughed at them silently with his gaze alone. Innocent, naive Ampen, their ass.

“Are we cleared to dock y-- Is that Remyy?” Another voice from offscreen dropped abruptly into horror, and Remy’s eyes narrowed in gleeful amusement.

“It sure is, gurl,” they called, “and the Remyy in question seems to recall a certain bet that was never paid up on. 30 cenals, cough ‘em up.”

There was a loud groan, and then a thump that shook the comm slightly. Patton spent a moment staring at something with a confused frown, and then seemed to get it, nodding. He turned back to them very seriously.

“Sorry, Roman can’t come to the comm right now,” he informed them. “He, uh, died. Very recently. And tragically."

Belatedly, he put on a sad expression, antennae drooping. Remyy raised their eyebrows, unimpressed.

“Uh huh. Well, I suppose I’ll just have to join in on the funeral rites once I get down to help carry the goods over, huh--?”

“No!” The voices of both his friends overlapped, making the comm audio fuzz harshly for a moment. Remyy’s secondaries flared slightly, taken aback at the vehemence.

“Uh, I mean, we don’t have that much,” Patton hurried to patch up the awkward pause. “How about we meet you in the docking lobby instead? You can get Roman’s credits there.”

“Hey!”

Remyy’s ears angled back with displeased confusion, but they acquiesced anyhow. “Hurry up, then. And make sure Logan brings my brew!”

Whatever it was they were hiding, Remyy was sure they’d be able to weasel it out of them in no time.

---

After grabbing a short meal and a boring haggling session between the Mindscape’s crew and the cargo manager of the Starwinder, Remyy finally got to learn about what had happened to Patton during his disappearance.

It wasn’t pretty.

Their senspatches felt dry at the mere thought of Patton stripped of his coat and forced to starve because of it. It was beyond lucky that the remaining two of the trio managed to find and free the Ampen from the harvesters before it was too late. If anyone could do it, though, they believed this crew could.

Patton had grown quieter and less fluffy throughout the course of the tale, with Roman and Logan taking turns delivering a well-practiced explanation of the events. Seeing as these were extenuating circumstances, Remyy submitted to cuddles just this once, allowing the small alien to bury his face in the folds of their leathery armwings.

They took a moment once the story was over, casually and completely unintentionally folding more of their wing over Patton. “That bites, babes.”

“Yeah.” The Ampen hummed in response, mouth pinched strangely. “I… I’m really grateful that I got help when I did.”

Logan set a careful hand on Patton’s back, though the motion almost came across as less comforting and more… cautioning? Remyy’s senspatches flared up slightly as they tried to read more into the situation.

Before they could really investigate, though, Roman was leaning forwards and grabbing the edge of their arm to get their attention.

“Remyy. We’ve been having something of an adjustment period. Drop it, please?”

They flickered their ears at him dismissively, but really… looking at the small crew, they could see a sort of wariness reflected in their stiff posture, the way the three of them constantly cast glances back to the dock hall that would lead to their ship. Trying to make sure they had a quick exit. Whatever the details of their experience, it was stressing them out to lay it all out in the open like this. Remyy could understand that.

“Fine, whatever,” they sighed, sipping at the bitter brew Logan had thoughtfully provided. “I suppose I’ll keep my awe-inspiring ability to root out interesting tidbits to myself for now. I can just grill Lo later.”

The three friends slumped in relief, and Remyy turned their face away slightly to allow them some privacy to recover. They probably wouldn’t appreciate it, that was mostly an Elimtran thing, but it was the effort that counted. They cast about for some other topic to distract. What else had they heard about lately… oh!

“Have you all heard the stories about the rogue Human going around lately?”

There was spluttering, and they turned back to see Roman seemed to have inhaled mid-drink, and was now muffling coughs into his shoulder. Patton studiously avoided eye contact as he patted the Cravon sympathetically. Logan shifted one arm out from where they were politely tucked away, looking intensely intrigued. Strange, he wasn’t usually one for gossip.

“We have not,” he stated, hands twitching in preparation for his thought weaving thing. “Would you care to elaborate?”

“Uh, duh,” they replied, trying not to think too much on the rather extreme reaction. If the crew was really so stressed, it made sense that news of a Human would freak them out. Shit, they sucked at this. Gathering information would make them feel more secure, yeah? “It’s been circulating at some of the more shady ports we’ve been to, rumors that a small-tier smuggling ring recently managed to rise through the ranks just because they got their hands on a Human and knew how to use it to their advantage. That much is like, okay, horrifying to know that there’s still Humans out there in the outer ranges, but whatever, it’s under lock and key.”

Patton clung to their wing tighter. They paused, deliberating on whether or not to continue.

“I assume, going by the fact that you called h-- it a ‘rogue’ Human, that's not the case anymore?” Logan supplied, waving for them to proceed.

“Well, yeah. Apparently, it tore through practically half the group members before escaping, and now people are reporting cases of a bloodthirsty Human all over this quadrant. Not that the calls are accurate. It’s just hearsay,” they made sure to add. “It might just be someone trying to work the local governs into a panic, put pressure on the Council for this or that political maneuver.”

Logan didn’t respond for a concerning amount of time. “Right. Of course, that is plausible. Still, thank you for the information, Remyy. We will… keep it in mind.”

Remyy sunk lower in their seat, regretting bringing the topic up at all. “Mm. You do that, babes. Remember the stats, too. There’s a warrant out. Sooner or later, the Council will probably find whoever’s at the source of the rumors and put them to rights, Human or not.”

“That’s… great,” Roman got to his feet abruptly. “I think maybe we should head out soon. We’ve got that next landing to prep for, after all. Holmao isn’t known for its gentle terrain.”

“What?” Remyy’s secondaries flared slightly as they stood up too, abandoning their drink and dislodging Patton. “You just got here! Aren’t you at least going to catch a night’s rest? No offense to your ship, but the arti-grav ain’t exactly stellar.”

“That’s why we need to do more jobs! Save up for better arti-grav installation, right guys?” Roman’s voice seemed slightly frantic. Remyy suddenly remembered what little history the Cravon had shared with them, and swore mentally. They really, really shouldn’t have brought up the Human.

“Ro, look, I’m so--”

Their voice abruptly cut off as a cool line of metal pressed between their wings, right against their life vein. They saw as Roman’s eyes locked on something behind them, scales rising to a prickling stand quicker than they’d ever witnessed before.

“Nobody move,” a voice behind them called in clear, precise Common. “Or you get to bleed out right after this one.” The flat of the blade pressed harder against their back, and they couldn’t stop their ears from flattening completely in terror.

“Let them go,” Roman demanded, halfway to a snarl. Before he could even take a step, though, more armed strangers were swarming into the lobby, barking orders for the few other people currently in the room to get down. Expression dark, Roman held his arms out in a gesture of compliance, though his scales continued to stick out in a defensive bristle.

Raiders, it had to be. Remyy knew they knew the reptilian symbol that was engraved in each of the strangers black masks, but they couldn’t remember the group’s name for the fear flooding their mind, keeping them frozen in place.

One of them kicked Patton clear away from Remyy’s legs, and the Ampen let out a short shriek of pain before clapping his hands over his mouth. The raider behind Remyy laughed, apparently unconcerned about any alarms being raised, but Remyy was more focused on the way the Mindscape crew exchanged panicked glances, Logan kneeling next to Patton and subtly signing something in Crav’n.

“Now, here’s how this is going to work.” The one behind Remyy gestured with their other hand, which Remyy could now see was holding a paralyzer. Raiders were known for using them to get information, since most aliens could take a few shots from one before succumbing to the pain. “You’re all going to line up against the wall while we search your vessels, and in exchange, nobody has to die, got it?”

Remyy could only look straight ahead, so they got a clear view of Patton’s furious glow dimming down to horrified in an instant at the leader’s words. Whatever the three of them were hiding, it was hidden on their ship, and apparently not well enough.

They ran their tongue along their teeth for a moment, debating, and then wiggled their ears slightly, loosening the grip their goggles had until they were slipping down their face slightly. Only their upper eyes were exposed, but with any luck, it would be enough.

It wasn’t long till they managed to make eye contact with a nearby raider; the leader was the one giving orders, after all, and they were being held hostage by said leader, so it made sense that eyes would stray in their direction.

The moment they locked gazes, Remyy flickered their pupils and let their senspatches slowly pulse. The raider took a moment to bob their head in confusion before becoming visibly more relaxed, and Remyy didn’t waste any time. 'Circle around and attack the one holding me.'

The raider swayed slightly for a moment before moving to obey, a side effect of not being exposed to the full hypnotic effect of their eyes, and Remyy had a moment to feel hopeful that maybe they could actually pull this off.

“Grahh’m, what are you-- Oh, you little shit,” the leader spat, moments before a strike to the side of Remyy’s head had them seeing stars. They heard Roman growling furiously, still forced to the ground under threat of gunfire, and hoped that he wouldn’t do anything stupid. He wouldn’t be any use if he was convulsing from pain.

“I should have known better than to leave an Elimtra awake and armed, hmm?” The leader flipped them to their back, pressing a knee to their chest and crushing their secondaries uncomfortably against the floor. A moment later, their other hand was shoving their goggles harshly back over their face.

Remyy gagged slightly as all the air was forced from their lungs. “Probably should’ve, ye-- eah,” they replied, struggling to inhale again.

“Funny.” There was a glint of silver uncomfortably close to their eyes. The knife. Remyy regretted the snark. They regretted the snark so much.

The leader paused. “Oren, is it the eyes or the little spots under them that do the hypnotizing, do you recall?”

There was a pause, in which ‘Oren’ seemed to have no answer, and Remyy realized with a chill just what was being threatened. The leader considered them for a moment, and then pulled their dark mask further up to cover more of their face.

“I suppose I’ll just get rid of both, hmm?” The knife wavered closer.

Across the room, there was a loud crash, and a strangled yell that cut off as quick as it started. Remyy watched as the leader’s head jerked up, and saw the moment that the severe frown on their face abruptly transformed into utter terror. Hurriedly, the raider stood back up, and they were pulled up along, shoved in front of them like a shield.

It didn’t take long to see why. Across the lobby, near the entrance to the dock halls, a tall, slender figure was holding the remains of what must have been a seatpad. The rest of it appeared to be lying crumpled along with the limp raider that had been closest to that entryway.

The whisper spread through the room as quick as any small-town rumor: Human.

The being was scanning the eerily-silent space, and when it reached the spot where the leader stood, accompanied by Remyy and friends, it’s lips curled up into a vicious snarl, teeth on full display. It moved forwards in a way Remyy could only describe as predatory, and the leader went tense behind them. “Stop that thing, now!”

One raider, either damn brave or damn stupid, charged right in, and received the rest of the seatpad to the skull for their efforts. Remy winced at the sound. This seemed to be the signal for the rest of the raiders to converge, and the room descended into pandemonium.

In the thick of it all, the Human-- for what else could it really be?-- continued to advance, unrelenting. It wasn’t as fast as some aliens Remyy had met, but it didn’t need to be. The way that it stalked through the room radiated threat like an oath, and when opponents did dare to stand in it’s way, the blows were vicious and crunching, often leaving splatters of residue on its skin.

Most frightening of all was the way it handled the paralyzers, which should have driven any creature with pain receptors to the floor. Each time a shot landed on the human, it would tear the spiked prongs out with a twitch and a grimace and just keep moving.

By the time the leader realized that a strategic retreat was long overdue, it was already far too close for comfort. Remyy heard a swear behind them, and then they were being shoved, hard.

They caught a glimpse of Roman moving, and then they found themself busy tripping directly into a Human’s warpath. So much for surviving this.

They folded their wingarms over their head in some paltry attempt at defense as they fell. There was a grunt, and then a hot grip on their shoulders, all-too-close to the base of their secondaries and stars above were they going to have their glider wings torn clear off--?

“‘Scuse me,” the Human muttered in Common, and then lifted Remyy clear off the ground, easy-as-you-please, and set them down to the side. It brushed past them, heading straight towards Roman and the others, and Remyy stared after it.

Rather than continue after the leader, who had been thoroughly pinned by Roman and was currently swearing viciously, the Human stopped in front of Logan and Patton and dropped to a crouch. Remyy jerked forward, but neither of their friends seemed keen to jump away or defend themselves. In fact, Patton looked to be carefully headbutting the Human’s chest, and Logan was speaking in low, comforting tones. Even stranger, the Human seemed to be listening.

The circuits connected in their mind, illuminating a truly outlandish conclusion.

They whistled lowly, drawing all the attention in the room to them. “Listen up, babes. As a subsect representative of the Council, I’m authorized to do my thing here, so I’m gonna need everyone to follow my directions.”

“Remyy, what?” Roman asked, and was thoroughly ignored. A nearby Cetarfris protested from where they were practically pressed halfway up the wall, red eyes wide and patterned tail thrashing in terror.

“Are you genuine? Do you not see the Human right there?”

Remyy clicked their tongue in reproach. “Gurl, do I not have enough eyes for you or somethin’? I will handle the Human. What else is the Council good for?”

“Uh, governing?” someone else muttered. Remyy ignored them, too.

“I need all the raiders that haven’t already jetted in holding cells immediately. I’m sure there’ll be a hefty reward for members of this particular gang, even if they’re small fries, so anyone who pitches in can get some of that bounty. And remember, keep your mouths shut about this unless you want to be up to your orifices in paperwork at best. If you have to gossip, keep names out of it or I'll know who snitched.” Remyy shifted their goggles up on their forehead, turning to the Human and ignoring the thick tension in the room. “I’ll escort the Human to proper captivity. Roman, Logan, Patton, with me.”

As expected, the mere fact that the Mindscape crew were accompanying seemed to put the Human at ease, even if just slightly. Now, came the bit that would make or break the lie. They moved forwards slowly and reached out for the Human’s shoulder, tugging slightly at it as though this wasn't the creature that had just plowed through a band of raiders like they were dust in the wind. “C’mon, babes.”

After a pause, the Human followed. The relief in the room was palpable, and Remyy was no exception. They liked a good bet as much as the next guy, but generally preferred when there weren’t so many lives at stake.

See, the thing about being a species that was somewhat infamous for their hypnotic abilities was that everyone assumed you were using them, even if you weren’t. This tended to lean more in the direction of being a bad thing, but in this case, it helped Remyy tremendously, as nobody cast a second glance at them as they guided the docile Human through the lobby.

That might also have been because nobody wanted to be in the same room as a rogue Human for very long, but such was the way of things. Small details.

Soon enough, they reached the dock halls, and Remyy swiftly led the four of them onboard the Mindscape. They closed and locked the connecting port after them, and resisted the urge to collapse in relief.

Instead, they turned around to assess the rest of this mess.

It was quite a scene, and at first, they seemed too busy amongst themselves to even notice Remyy.

The Human was curled in on themself in one corner, looking pallid and ill, but also coiled so tightly it looked like they were one wrong word from fleeing the quadrant. Positioned firmly in front of them, Roman was audibly rattling from head to tail, moving on automatic as he bodily prevented the other two from approaching. Remyy would have thought the gesture was for the Human’s sake if not for the way Roman angled his own body, like he expected to be attacked from behind at any moment.

“It’s not safe,” he uttered over and over, gaze haunted. “It’s not safe. You have to hide.”

Patton warbled in wordless distress, and Logan gave up on trying to pull Roman away, instead simply holding his ground and speaking to the Cravon, calm and firm.

“This isn’t then, Roman. We’re here, and that is Virgil, and he is not going to hurt us. We’re safe. We are on the Mindscape. We are safe. Observe the space around you. Can you tell me five things you see?”

Remyy waited unobtrusively as the two of them slowly coaxed Roman back into the present, bit by bit. When he hunched over to be closer to his shorter friends, Patton carefully grabbed his hand, rubbing small circles into it in a soothing gesture Remyy wasn’t familiar with. “You with us, Ro?”

Roman signed something with his other hand, too quick for Remyy to grasp, and Patton smiled, a bit sad. “We’re okay, but there’s a little bit of a situation going on with Remyy, remember?”

Roman glanced at them, and then to the Human, who was still vibrating violently. Remyy had thought it was barely restrained anger, at first, but the longer they watched, the more it seemed compulsive, more fearful than furious. It only increased as Roman’s attention fell heavy on him.

“I didn’t mean to,” the Human said, voice as shaky as the rest of him. “I swear, I-- I just heard Patton yell, and they had weapons, like-- I… I didn't want to hurt anyone. I’m sorry that I-- that I did. But you guys were in danger. I couldn’t just... leave you to that.”

He sounded almost resigned, like he was trying to plead his case but had already accepted deep down that it was pointless to fight his sentence. When Roman turned away from him, his thoughts only seemed to be confirmed, and his face dropped another shade as his gaze darted over to Remyy. He seemed apprehensive, not that Remyy could really blame him. Poor guy probably thought he was about to be surrendered to law enforcement.

“Remyy.” Roman’s voice sounded wrung out, and from Patton’s concerned expression, the Cravon probably didn’t normally force himself to speak after episodes like this. “Virgil isn’t-- He’s better here with us. He doesn’t... deserve to be subjected to the Council just because he decided to... to save us.”

The Cravon opened his mouth as though to say more, but the words didn’t come. Instead, he signed something short and planted himself in a sitting position in front and slightly to the side of the Human, even as his scales still shivered. ‘Virgil’ was staring at him like he’d grown a second head.

“Roman’s right!” Patton took the opportunity to jump in front of them like the universe’s smallest, cutest guardian angel, cloak and ruff fluffed up stalwartly. Most effective of all was the Ampen’s ‘I’m-not-mad-I’m-just-disappointed-at-your-life-choices’ look. “Virgil is part of our family, and I’ll fight you about it!”

The Ampen’s tiny glare wasn't nearly as alarming as the assessing look Virgil cast over them, like he thought Remyy was really going to try and fight Patton and was prepared to intervene. They resisted the urge to cast their lower eyes up in exasperation. Who would fight Patton? There was no reward, you’d just end up feeling bad. And also end up getting totally trashed by a Human, apparently.

As always, Logan was the one to get it first. He stepped forwards, extending a hand. “Before you take any legal action against our crew member, I’d like to see your Council identification.”

Remyy’s cheeks bunched up smugly as they stretched their armwings out in front of them casually. “That’s too bad, Brainiac, ‘cause I totally don’t have any.”

There was a brief pause. “What, you guys really thought I was some kind of narc?”

“You lied right to all those people’s faces?” Patton asked, somewhat aghast. Roman shot them a dirty look at the deception, but he also let all the tension leak out of him, so Remyy counted it as a win. Logan simply looked exasperated.

“Not completely. I’ve got connections to get their bounties called in quick, and I ‘handled’ the Human, didn’t I? It’s not my fault if they misinterpreted things.”

“This is all you’re going to do to… ‘handle’ me?” the Human asked, looking uncertain, a little suspicious, and even kind of bewildered. “Just… let me go? What’s the catch?”

They really did roll their eyes up this time. “Babes, I’m covering for you. Seeing as you literally just saved my beautiful face, and these losers vouch for you, I figure you can get some benefit of the doubt. Besides, I’m not done with you all just yet.”

The four of them studied Remyy with varying levels of wariness, and then confusion as the Elimtra strolled past them all to head further into the ship.

“If you think you’re going anywhere before you tell me all about how this whole situation came about, honey, you’ve got a big storm coming.”

#sanders sides #space au #wibar #ts remy #ts roman #ts patton #ts logan #ts virgil #watch it burn and rust #wibar intermission #wibar int: nf #writing #my writing #im so tired... zzz #this is the first time ive ever written remy so please be nice #i had fun though ;w;#i cant think of any more tags i hope you guys enjoy!#zzz

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ks-caster · 4 years

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It’s Like Watching Fanfiction – An (Un)Necessarily Long Critique of The 100 Seasons 6 and 7

Ah, the familiar cry of the content-starved fan, particularly as our favorite shows descend into the depths of mischaracterization, unexpected ships, hiatus, abrupt cancellation and shock-value death endings. I’ve said it myself about so many of my shows, while wanting to spend some time watching the characters but not wanting to re-hash episodes I’ve nearly memorized: “I wish I could just watch fanfiction!”

But the further into seasons 6 and 7 I’ve gotten, the more I’ve come to realize that my dream of having new and exciting possibilities for the characters come miraculously to a screen near me wouldn’t be the pleasant experience I’d imagined.

Now, depending on the type of ending you like – hopeful but with a lot of lose ends left to your imagination, or bittersweet but more definite, you could consider either seasons 1-4 or 1-5 their own complete stories.

Both seasons 4 and 5 ended in a way that suggested an unknown but likely positive future. They could have been considered conclusions for the main characters’ developmental arcs, and while season 5 went a little off the rails in terms of offscreen character development and sudden new characters, they both stayed fairly close to the original concept: survivors living in the ruins of the apocalypse. All four (or five) seasons emphasized the importance of the found family dynamic (although those dynamics shifted radically in season 5 due to the time-skip, they remained an important source of character motivation).

But seasons 6 and 7? Those feel like I’m watching fanfiction. And I don’t love it.

A story told on a whole new planet with a new environment, culture and cast of original characters was always going to feel like an AU – it sort of is, no matter how you swing it. If that was all that had changed, then I think the story would still feel cohesive.

If it weren’t for the timey whimey bullshit.

Now, fun fact: when reading fanfiction, I love time travel stories. I haven’t posted any myself but I’ve sought out and read them voraciously, for every fandom I’m in. I love the idea of characters meeting themselves or their friends at radically different ages, plot points and levels of experience and the way that changes things for both groups. (Yes, I’m also a Whovian if that wasn’t blatantly obvious). I also love a good amnesia arc. And I DID think that the Josephine/Clarke body possession thing was pretty cool.

So why did season 6 and most* of season 7 fall as flat for me as they did?

The simple fact is that some things – and characters’ emotional dynamics are one of those things – are so much easier to get across in writing than on screen. A good actor can make us feel the character’s emotions, but unless the film goes full-on Clarke’s mind space, we can’t really know what they’re thinking in individual moments. For the most part film as a genre has ways around this, but if it’s mishandled, then the emotional beats come off all wrong. (See for reference Tony Stark’s funeral where half the actors didn’t know what was going on due to Disney’s spoiler fears.)

If you’re going to include time skips in which things have happened and character dynamics have changed, you cannot handle it wrong.

Which brings us back to seasons 6 and (so far) 7 of The 100. So far to date we’ve had all of this occur either offscreen or asynchronously enough to be confusing to an audience watching the episodes in real time:

Jordan’s entire life prior to meeting Napkru in the waking world

Octavia’s character development while living on Skyring with the Diyozas

Hope’s first 22 years of life, on Skyring and (I presume) Bardo

Echo, Hope and Gabriel living on Skyring for 5 years with Orlando

Going back a little further, we also have the season 5 timeskip, which brought us Spacekru as found family, Clarke adopting tiny!heda, and Octavia building Wonkru. Now season 5 took care to show us Wonkru flashbacks and dedicate time to show Spacekru and the Griffin family loving on each other, making inside jokes etc. But it was still incredibly jarring for the audience in a lot of ways, because at the end of the day, we’ve spent four years with the character dynamics and development doing one thing, and no amount of telling us that they’ve had 6 years to do another thing while our time with them only lasted about one year in comparison is ever going to undo the importance of “show don’t tell.”

Let’s take Bellarkers’ beef with Becho for example. (Disclaimer: Since I don’t really have a strong opinion either way on the popular Bellamy ships, I hope that I’m representing what I’ve read from other people accurately.)

I understand cognitively that Bellamy and Clarke knew each other for one year (during which they were in a lot of intense situations that really didn’t leave them the emotional space to figure out how they felt about each other outside of “I don’t want to lose this person”) and Bellamy and Echo knew each other for seven years (six of which they had plenty of low-stress time to get to know each other, grow and mature side-by-side, etc.).

But that doesn’t compute on an emotional level when I as a watcher went straight from watching Bellamy and Raven tearfully eulogizing Clarke on the ring, to him turning up with a coffee mug and a plucky attitude to rescue her the second he finds out she’s alive and in trouble. I don’t think that could compute emotionally for me without having spent the last few years watching the dynamics shift and Becho happen. And that was with the writers giving me as a watcher an episode at the end of season 4 where Bellamy stops Echo from killing herself and connects with her on an emotional level, and then one at the beginning of season 5 where we got to see the spacekru dynamics, including them being together.

So we’re watching this show, many of us for the found family character relationships (god knows it’s not for all the positive happy feeling I get from watching *checks notes* ah, yes, characters having to constantly choose who to kill off in a string of increasingly huge and horrible genocides. *Side-eyes my life choices for getting into this fandom in the first place.*) Okay, we’re watching this show for the characters, and between seasons 4 and 5, many of those dynamics radically shift offscreen. Becho is the easiest and probably most talked-about example (well, and the Blake siblings, but the radical change shown in Octavia’s character between 4 and 5 makes that at least a little easier to choke down) but there are plenty of others, take your pick.

Although it makes perfect sense for a lot to change between separated groups of people in a half dozen years, it makes a lot less sense to an audience watching week to week, particularly when the show’s limited amount of screen time was too focused on plot to really delve into those changes and let us see and understand them. That was what made me think that the show was headed into jump the shark territory in season 5, but I really wanted to know what happened to my faves (Octavia, Raven and Memori, to be specific) so I kept watching.

Our fandom’s excellent writers spent the hiatus crafting mid-time-skip vignettes and missing character moments, and I spent the hiatus reading them. And I remember thinking that it would have been great if even a quarter of this content could have been put into the show to ease the audience into the dynamic shifts – but of course they’d never have the screen time to do all of that.

Especially, coming back to the main point, since written fiction allows the audience to see inside the characters’ heads, while television (usually) does not. It’s much easier to write a scene in which, say, two characters who have known each other for 7 years show that they’ve gotten into a relationship some time before the scene, and convince the audience that their relationship is good and healthy and genuine, than it would be to produce one for TV.

And then we come to seasons 6 and 7 – the 2-part AU longfic, stuffed full of OCs, loosely connected to the “science” of the original show, and heavily reliant on memory-bending time travel as a plot device.

As season 6 airs, the audience hasn’t really had a chance to process all the radical changes from season 5, and already we have a Marper child running around furthering the plot, and Octavia walks into the Green Flash from Pirates of the Caribbean and walks back out with a personality transplant.

Meanwhile, Clarke gets an actual personality transplant, and it takes even the people closest to her a concerningly long time to notice. Now, if I’d read that in a fic, the writer might’ve taken care to remind me as a reader – particularly after a long hiatus between seasons – that with the exception of Madi none of Clarke’s friends have seen her for more than a couple of weeks in 6 years, so them not noticing for a while that she’s behaving strangely isn’t really all that strange. But on TV, I don’t get to see Gaia’s thoughts when Clarke lets Madi go to school despite the danger – Tati Gabrielle’s facial expressions can only do so much to make up the difference. Because the time spent apart was not (and really could not be, based on the structure of the show) properly acknowledged on screen, scenes like that one leave audiences floundering and pointing out bad writing.

Having watched 7x02 The Garden, I think if I went back and watched season 6 after Octavia returns from the Anomaly, her conduct – especially around Bellamy – would make a lot more sense. (That was the plan for this weekend actually – but my damn Wi-Fi conked out…) However at the time it just seemed weird and unnatural. Had it been the only example of off-screen or asynchronous character development, it would have been a lot easier to swallow. However, season 5 happened, meaning both that I was still getting used to all of the new dynamics and that I had a higher standard for Octavia’s off-screen development, because we got enough bunker flashbacks that I felt like I at least understood Blodreina.

What would have made the whole thing make a lot more sense a year ago would have been if the hair and makeup department had made an effort to make her look older, so that we could see time had passed for her. Now, Marie is 33 in real life, and so was the Octavia who figured out that up is down and got Davy Jones Locker to send her back ran out of the Anomaly, so yes, that is what an actual 33-year-old looks like, and the media has distorted my perception of age. But from an audience perspective, I saw an actress playing a 23-year-old go in, and the same actress playing the same 23-year-old come out.

Gabriel pointed out that her hair was longer, but that only accounted for a few months of time. Since she went in looking dirty, wounded and exhausted, and came out clean, healthy and energetic, she could have passed for younger before I would have thought she was older. (In fact, I want to say there was a theory circulating at that time that the Octavia who came out of the Anomaly was actually a younger version of herself, and she was missing memories because she’d never formed them. I don’t remember whose theory this was though. If you know or if it’s your content I’m referencing please feel free to let me know and I’ll edit!)

In addition, the shifting loyalties in Wonkru near the end of season 5 complicated the character situation – in season 6, the majority of Wonkru peeps (lookin’ at you, Miller and Indra) switched over to the commander’s side. While Indra didn’t really have enough screen time to express an opinion about Octavia, Miller was very clear in season 6 that she was anathema now – which although that was probably a semi-reasonable step for his character, it just felt like someone took his Bellamy-and-or-Clarke-following season 1-4 character and popped it into his season 6 costume without taking the time to address the road he took to get there.

Post-lockerAnomaly Octavia had to face and slay her demons. (Grumbles and links the interested reader to this POST from @osleyakomwonkru regarding that horseshit.) Afterwards, she shows a major shift in personality, particularly towards her brother. Because we as the audience wouldn’t see her time on skyring for about year in real time (or learn that she was ten years older and therefore a lot more mature, the chemical changes of which would account for at least some of the difference even if she couldn’t remember anything else) we had no choice but to associate her change with the slaying of Blodreina, which seemed like a ham-fisted way of forcing her a quick and slick redemption arc and prepping The Blake Siblings to go back to being ride-or-die for each other in season 7.

Raven’s season 6 personality was also radically different from her 1-5 development – while I understand her having a remaining beef with Clarke and being emotional due to Shaw’s death (RIP!) the fact that the writing in season 6 reduced her to the nagging shrew trope until they needed her to do a coding deus ex machina just added to the feeling that I was watching someone take the characters around, change them to their own preferences (even if that preference was to push some into the background and make them tools for the B-plot) and toss them into an AU story. Which I could have enjoyed more if I had been reading it and therefore seeing inside the characters’ heads – and if I hadn’t paid for the privilege with ad revenue instead of voluntary clicks of the kudos/like/reblog/comment buttons.

Another issue with time skip relationship is exposition for the lesser known characters’ backstories. Both seasons 6 and 7 have so far had dramatic character mother death reveals that were conveniently not told to their most important people specifically because the appropriate time to tell those stories would have been during the offscreen time skips. I will (grudgingly) accept Echo, an adult making a conscious (and familiar) decision to change up her personality to fit into and survive within her environment, choosing not to tell a traumatic story that reminds her of her past. (She’s my next meta – stay tuned!)

I will not in a million years, however, believe that the Clarke Griffin who I watched for four seasons be set up as the blatantly obvious “compassionate mom-friend protagonist” adopted a traumatized 6-year-old, moved into said child’s village, burned or buried the bodies of everyone who lived there, and never ever brought up the child’s dead birth parents.

No way. The ONLY reason that could have possibly been scripted in that way was because that conversation needed to be there for plot reasons and the appropriate time for it to have been had was during the 6 years they spent off screen. Similarly, while (again) I’ll buy that Echo chose not to talk about her mom’s death with Bellamy before he decided to be a dick about it, I fully believe that the timing of that conversation was only there because if it had occurred on the ring where it would have been more appropriate, the audience would have missed it.

Now, picture this: if the scene with Madi had been in a written fanfic, Clarke could have said “you didn’t lose me,” Madi could have said “I didn’t mean you,” and Clarke could have remembered Madi telling her the story of her birth mom dying in her arms. Then Clarke could have mentally made the decision that she didn’t want Madi to relive that in an attempt to empathize with her, and she makes an effort to convince her that she’s fine. In just 2 or 3 paragraphs a written story could have effectively conveyed both the exposition and the emotional beats of the scene, concluding with Clarke making a (maybe misguided but still sweet) attempt to be a good mom by not dredging that up for Madi (or something – I’m not defending the crappy and inconsistent writing of Clarke’s parenting we’ve on screen so far).

Moving right along, we had a lovely flashback montage of Hope and Dev, which was sufficient to make me (and several of the tumblrs I follow) care about Dev at least enough to be saddened by his death. However, what we didn’t get was a damn crumb of flashback showing Orlando and Anomalykru developing any kind of familial relationship between him agreeing to train them, and whatever dynamic we were supposed to pick up on at the end of that episode. I got a little protective big sister vibe from Echo and Hope but that’s it. They apparently expended their allotment of emotion-inducing flashbacks on the dead guy, and failed entirely to make me give a shit about (as it turned out) the next dead guy.

Now we’re going into an episode with Octavia on (presumably) Bardo in the promo, so I’m guessing we get to see her skyring-self link up with her return-to-Gabriel-with-clean-hair self. As least with Octavia’s jumping storyline it seems like the writers have consistently made some kind of effort to fill in the blanks.

But we’re also looking at the rest of the season where Echo, Gabriel, Hope, oh hi Jordan I forgot about you again, Diyoza, Octavia, and probably Bellamy and Hoth!Kru (AKA team let’s follow Raven onto a strange planet without putting on suits or having an exit strategy, yay!) have all experienced asynchronous development over periods of multiple years. Given the show’s track record from seasons 5 and 6, I strongly suspect that this won’t be handled any better, meaning that the final season of this show is going to try not only to resolve all the plot points, but to toss in a bunch MORE offscreen character development and hope we catch on.

Beyond character development jumps, we also have Raven and Murphy losing their seasons 1-5 development in season 6 only to have to re-learn and re-change back to who they already were in seasons 4 and 5. Murphy learned to value his spacekru family and stop putting himself first 100% of the time, and yet his arc in season 6 happened. Raven has always been involved in the big life-or-death decisions, and had her being-the-bad-guy moment in season 4 with the rationing, but as we saw in 7x03 the writers really wanted to… redo all of that for her? The girl blew up a bridge full of guys and flash-fried a 300-person army when she was 18; blood on her hands may not be fun but what’s with seasons 6 and 7 acting like it’s something new?

While I’m aware that Jason said his seasons are individual movies (don’t admit that you’re bad at continuity buddy ‘cause that’s what it sounds like) seasons 1-5 and 6&7 are clearly telling separate stories (or 1-4, 5, 6-7 if you prefer). The trouble with 6&7 is that unlike seasons 1-4 (and sort-of 5) we no longer know the characters. Every time someone sits still too long, character-development wise, plot comes along and hits the reset button, tosses them into a wormhole for a couple of years and they come back with the same face but no continuity. It was difficult enough to deal with in season 5 – between 6 and 7 I just can’t keep up. (Even writing this meta, I have to keep going back because I remembered another character who fell into this trap.)

Now if a fanfic writer had done the exact same thing – same plot, same time skips, same organization – it would have played out completely different to the readers. We could have gotten to see inside the character’s minds when they arrived back on screen, seeing things with new, older eyes. We could have had minimally invasive flashbacks to show important exposition (like the disaster that was the conversation about Madi’s mom) and verbal descriptions to point out differences like Octavia’s ten-years-older body. Additionally, the plots of seasons 6 and 7 are so different yet full of overdone callbacks to the earlier seasons – if a fan was writing their own AU story but still wanted some of the trappings of the original plot I’d get it, but on a TV show written by the same people it just feels like they ran out of ideas.

Watching seasons 6 and 7 is exactly like watching fanfiction would be – but without the written and fan-made advantages of fanfiction, they fall flat.

*I do like season 7 better than season 6 because the content of the individual episodes containing Murphy/Emori/Raven and Octavia/Diyoza/bbyHope was still enjoyable content, so 2 out of 4 I have liked so far, despite this very very long rant I’ve just written explaining why as a whole I rather hate the season overall.

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reallifesultanas · 4 years

Text

Death and funerals/Halál és temetés

Death was also a very important part of the life of Ottoman Empire, especially because violent death was extremely common among male members of the dynasty. We are all familiar with the law of fratricide, which has led to the death of hundreds of princes (in many cases infants, children) by being strangled with a silk string. In my post today, however, I would rather talk about those for whom the cause and time of death are not so clear. I brought you some interesting, possibly suspicious deaths, and tried to gather everything about the causes of death of each sultan, prince, and sultana; and I also brought a brief history of the funerals: who was buried where, when there were unusual changes in funeral habits…

In general, very little is known about the deaths of the sultans of the early period. In many cases, we are left with guesses about the cause of death. However, the death of Murad I. (r. 1362-1389) is, for example, a refreshing exception, as several descriptions of his death have been made. He was killed by a Serbian nobleman during or before the Battle of Rigómező (1389). “… Absolutely unexpectedly, Milos Obilic who, out of cunning and intrigue, said he had adopted Islam, asked us to (…) kiss the shining lord’s foot, but instead of doing so, he inevitably stabbed a poisoned knife hidden in his dress into the glorious body of the lord, and seriously wounded him, and drank him with the serbet of the martyrs.” Of course, it is not certain that everything happened as described, but it is certain that he was victim of murder by the hands of Milos Obilic.

The death of Bayezid I (r. 1389-1402) himself is also interesting. Some believe that he committed suicide in the captivity of Timur Lenk (r. 1370-1405) after Timur humiliated his wife, Maria before his eyes. Others say he was poisoned during captivity.

Either way, the deaths of the sultans always marked the beginning of something new. If the sultan died, there was no time to mourn. For their wives, concorts, and chief pashas had a different matter after death: to immediately notify the crown prince, or the prince whom they themselves wanted to see on the throne. The sultan became the one who reach the capital first and ascended the throne. In the early days, sultans often died during a campaign away from their home - the imperial capital - so it was their pashas who informed the princes about the situation. The princes did everything they could to get to the capital first. In many cases, they also received help from the pashas who supported them. For example, Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512), who had previously married his daughters to influential pashas. His sons-in-laws did everything they could to slow down Bayezid’s biggest rival, one of his brothers, on the road to Istanbul. They succeeded and Bayezid ascended the throne, so the pashas received their reward for it.

Unlike Bayezid II, at the death of Sultan Süleyman I (r. 1520-1566), there was no longer a competitor to his son, Selim II (r. 1566-1574). Yet Süleyman still died at a very bad moment - right in the middle of a battle - caused by the health problems by his gout. To avoid rebellion and loss of soldier's motivation, the grand vezir, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha concealed the sultan's death. He clothed servants in the sultan's robes, he dictated commands written by similarly handwritten scribes on behalf of the sultan until Selim II finally arrived to the camp and became a sultan.

In later periods, after his death the sultan's consorts played the main role, not his pashas, as the sultans died more and more often in the capital. One particularly interesting example of this is Selim II's death, which he suffered after slipping in the bath and which his wife, Nurbanu Sutan (⁓1525-1583), shared only with the Grand Vizier, and secretly sent a message to Nurbanu's son Murad (r. 1574-1595) to come to the capital. This was necessary because Murad's younger brothers were in the capital at the time of Selim's death.

The sultans were always buried in the current imperial capital. Bursa, as a former capital, played an important role even after the conquest of Constantinapole, as the princes who had been executed or died by natural causes were buried there. Of course, there were exceptions, during the reign of Süleyman I (r. 1520-1566) there was two. His favorite son, Mehmed (1521-1543), died of illness in Manisa, but breaking with customs, Süleyman not only buried him in the capital instead of Bursa, but had made a mosque to him, which vied with the mosques of the sultans. His other son, the rebellious Bayezid (1525-1562) was less fortunate. Because he was executed near the Iranian border, Süleyman even refused him the Bursa funeral so he was buried with his sons near to the Iranian border. His youngest son, who was an infant and could not flee to Iran with his him, was buried in Bursa among other princes of similar destiny.

Before we scrutinize the sultanas, here is a brief summary of the period of the “Sultanate of women” and the period immediately preceding it, about the causes of death of the sultans and princes, without claiming completeness*:

Bayezid II (b. 1447): 24 April 1512, most probably poisoning or natural causes

Selim I (d. 1470): 22 September 1520, most probably tumor or anthrax but plague is also an option

Süleyman I (b. 1494): 7 September 1566, gout but some sources suggest stroke also beside the gout

Şehzade Mahmud (b. 1512): 29 October 1521, smallpox or plague

Şehzade Musztafa (b. 1515): 6 october 1553, strangled

Şehzade Mehmed (b. 1546): 10 october1553, strangled

Şehzade Ahmed (b. ?): 1552, illness

Şehzade Murad (b. 1519): 12 October 1521, smallpox or plague

Şehzade Mehmed (b. 1521): 6 November 1543, smallpox or plague

Şehzade Abdullah (b. ⁓1525): c. 1527, maybe smallpox or plague

Şehzade Bayezid (b. ⁓1525 ): 23 July 1562, strangled

Şehzade Orhan (b. ⁓1543): 23 July 1562, strangled

Şehzade Osman (b. ⁓1545): 23 July 1562, strangled

Şehzade Abdullah (b. ⁓1548): 23 July 1562, strangled

Şehzade Mehmed (b. ⁓1544): 23 July 1562, strangled

Şehzade Murad (b. ⁓1556): 23 July 1562, strangled

Şehzade ? (b. ⁓1560/1): July 1562, strangled

Şehzade Cihangir (b. 1531): 27 November 1553, chronical illness and some kind of acut desease

Selim II: 12/15 December 1574, head injury after slipping

Şehzade Mehmed (b. ⁓1570): 1573/74, illness

Şehzade Szulejmán (b. ⁓1570): 22 December 1574, strangled

Şehzade Abdullah (b. ⁓1570): 22 December 1574, strangled

Şehzade Ali (b. ⁓1572): 1572, soon after his death

Şehzade Oszmán (b. ⁓1573/4): 22 December 1574, strangled

Şehzade Cihangir (b. ⁓1573/4): 22 December 1574, strangled

Murad III (b. 1546): 16 January 1595, natural causes

Şehzade Selim (b. 1567): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Mahmud (b. 1568): c. 1581, illness

Şehzade Süleyman, Cihangir, Ahmed died after their birth

Şehzade Abdullah (b. 1585): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Mustafa (b. 1585): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Bayezid (b. 1586): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Cihangir (b. 1587): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Abdurrahman (b. ?): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Alemşah (b. ?): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Aleaddin Davud (b. ?): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Ali (b. ?): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Hasan (b. ?): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Hüseyin (b. ?): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Ishak (b. ?): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Murad (b. ?): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Oszmán (b. ?): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Ömer (b. ?): 28 January 1595, strangled

Şehzade Yusuf (b. ?): 28 January 1595, strangled

Mehmed III (b. 1566): 21 December 1603, natural causes but some suggest he died because of health problems caused by his overweight

Şehzade Selim (b. 1585): 1597, illness

Şehzade Mahmud (b. 1587): summer of 1603, strangled

Şehzade Süleyman (b. ?): 1597, illness

Şehzade Cihangir (b. ?): 1602, illness

Ahmed I (b. 1590): 22 November 1617, typhus or gastric bleeding

Şehzade Mehmed (b. 1605): 12 January 1621, strangled

Şehzade Bayezid (b. 1612): 27 July 1635, strangled

Şehzade Kasim (b. 1614): 17 February 1638, strangled

Şehzade Süleyman (b. 1615): 27 July 1635, strangled

Şehzade Hasan, Orhan, Selim, Hüseyin, Cihangir and possibly others also died an infants or young children

Mustafa I (b. ⁓1600): 1639, natural causes most probably, but epilepsy os also an option

Osman II (b. 1604): murder

Şehzade Ömer (b. 1621): 1622, there are more than one options: accident, shock, murder, illness

Murad IV (b. 1612): 8 February 1640, cirrhosis and other chronical illnesses

He had lot of sons, but all of them died as infants. Evliya Celebi suggest that all of them were born with a bad health and they died soon. This suggests an extreme situation, poisoning or genetical desease are also options.

Ibrahim I (b. 1615): 18 August 1648, strangled

Şehzade Murad, Osman, Bayezid, Cihangir died as infants caused by illness

Şehzade Selim (b. 1644): 1669, most probably by illness

Mehmed IV (b. 1642): / November 1693, natural causes

Süleyman II (b. 1642): 22 June, 1691, his body got swollen then he fall into coma and later died.

Ahmed II (b. 1643): 6 February 1695, natural causes or stress-caused stroke/heart-attack

It is especially rare when the exact cause and date are both available for the sultanas. We know their lives primarily from registers that list their possessions and salaries. Thus, in many cases, we can only conclude that when they disappeared from the registers, they may have died. However, these registers are often incomplete, sometimes missing for several years, decades, and they can even be fragmentary. In addition, the cause of death was recorded even less frequently. To this we can usually deduce from if there was a child born, or there was a fresh marriage immediately before the time of death, or possibly was there a huge epidemic at the time of death? About the influential sultanas, the historians and ambassadors have occasionally recorded the supposed cause of death. However, this is quite rare, as will become clear from reading the list at the bottom of the chapter.

The burial of sultans has always evoked double feelings in the people, because on the day of the funeral, the ascension of the new sultan was celebrated and meanwhile the new sultan's brothers were executed by the new sultan so the people moruned them. In contrast, the mourning and funeral customs of the sultanas were much calmer, receiving more attention in this sense. At the time of their death, the needy were often given alms and food for the sake of the sultana's soul. For example, the burial of Handan Valide Sultan (⁓1570-1605) after her death on November 9, 1605, the Venetian ambassador recorded the vast amount of alms distributed among the people. In addition, the death and burial of a valide sultan was always associated with a public mourning, as the people could express their sympathy for the sultan, who had lost his mother at that time. After the death of Ayşe Hafsa (⁓1475-1534), the mother of Süleyman I, for example, the city mourned for several days. Süleyman’s mother Hafsa Sultan had been an honored member of the royal family. In describing her funeral, the royal chancellor and historian Celalzade Mustafa honored her with a long series of formulas of praise, among which are the most exalted that can be applied to a Muslim woman, likening her to the Prophet Muhammad’s first wife Khadija, his daughter Fatima, and his third and favorite wife ‘A’isha: “[S]he was a woman of great ascetism and a lady of righteous thought, queen of the realm of chastity and the Khadija of the capital of purity, builder of charitable foundations and doer of pious deeds, the Fatima of the era and the ‘A’isha of the age.”

In the case of sultanas, instead of violent death, childbirth was the leading death-cause. Many died in labour and childbirth... Although the palace’s doctors and midwives were the bests in the world, childbirth was a dangerous activity in those days. The fact is, however, that far fewer women from the dynasty of the Ottoman Empire died of childbirth compared to the western empires. The most famous birth-related death belongs to Esmehan Kaya. Kaya Sultan (1633-1658) was the daughter of Murad IV (r. 1623-1640), and she inherited the nature of her father, this is why she was considered by many to be Murad’s most worthy child. Legend has it that Esmehan Kaya was predicted that she would die in childbirth, which is why she did not allowed her husband close to her for years. However, over time true love developed between her and her husband, which of course was fulfilled physically. Esmehan Kaya gave birth to two children, so perhaps he had already forgotten the prophecy and breathed a sigh of relief. However, there were complications at the birth of her third child. The placenta did not detached, even though the midwives tried various tortures, so a few days after giving birth, she died by sepsis after horrible sufferings. Her little daughter didn't live too long either. One of Kaya’s sisters, Safiye (⁓1540-1580), also died during childbirth.

However, not Kaya and her sister were the only ones who died during childbirth, Two daughters of Selim II (r. 1566-1574) died in a similar way: Fatma Sultan (1558-1580), who died along her daughter after giving birth, at a fairly young age; and Esmehan Sultan (⁓1545-1585) who died of complications after the birth of his fourth child. Her son survived her just with a month. In her case, the complications may also have been related to the fact that she gave birth in a relatively old age compared to the customs of the period, at about forty years of age. It is interesting, by the way, that Selim's other daughter, Şah (1544-1580), also died at a relatively young age due to illness, so of Selim's daughters, only Gevherhan (⁓1545-1622?) was the one who died in old age and presumably by natural causes.

According to legends, Murad III's (r. 1574-1595) favourite consort, Safiye Sultan(⁓1550-1620?), also almost died in one of her miscarriages, but as we know she eventually survived and was able to rule for many, many more years. The less fortunate Mahfiruze Hatun (⁓1590-1608 / 12?), concubine of Ahmed I, and the mother of his eldest son, presumably also died in childbirth, although in her case several alternatives arose as to the cause of death, including epidemic also.

Interestingly, among the sultan’s favorites, we know even fewer cases where a concubine died during childbirth. However, the reason for this is presumably not that this has not happened ever… The reason is that when the concubine died in childbirth she was simply forgotten. After all, the average concubine did not give birth to a large number of children, especially as long as the one-concubine-one-son rule was followed. Thus, in all likelihood, when they died during childbirth, they either had no other children or only daughters, so they were less important persons, their names were recorded less, and then they disappeared from the public consciousness.

From the period of the “Sultanate of women” I also collected the causes and dates of the death of the most famous sultanas, without claiming completeness, as many sultanas were left out of the list because neither the year nor the reason of their death is known and in many cases not even their names *:

Ayşe Hafsa Sultan (b. ⁓1475): 19 March 1534, illness, most probably stroke or cancer since she suffered for months

Beyhan Sultan (b. ⁓1492): c. 1559, most probably natural causes

Hatice Sultan (b. ⁓1491): ?

Fatma Sultan (b. ⁓1493): 1557, most probably natural causes or illness

daughters of Selim I

Hafsa Sultan (b. ⁓1495/1500): 10 July 1538, most probably illness

Şah-i Huban Sultan (sz. ⁓1500): 1572, natural causes

Hürrem Sultan (b. ⁓1503): 15 April 1558, most probably cancer and maybe malaria also

Mihrimah Sultan (b. 1522): 25 January 1578, most probably natural causes or illness

Ayşe Hümaşah Sultan (b. 1541): 1594, natural causes or illness

Şehzade Mehmed’s daughter

Hümaşah Sultan (b. 1543): 1582, natural causes or illness

Fatma Hanimsultan (b. 1567): 29 July 1588, illness or complications during childbirth

Raziye Sultan (b. ⁓1515): October 1521, smallpox or plague

Mahidevran Hatun (b. ⁓1500): 3 February 1581, natural causes

Mahidevran Hatun’s granddaughters:

Fatma Sultan (b. ⁓1545): 1577, illness or childbirth

Nergiz-Şah Sultan (b. ⁓1536): c. 1592, natural causes or illness

Gülfem Hatun (b. ⁓1495): 1562, natiral causes or execution

Nurbanu Sultan (b. ⁓1525): 7 December 1583, most probably a sudden illness, or stroke/heart-attack, but poisoning is also an options

Esmehan Sultan (b. ⁓1545): 8 August 1585, complications after childbirth

Şah Sultan (b. 1544): September 1580, illness

Gevherhan Sultan (b. ⁓1545): after 1604, maybe in 1622, natural causes

Selim II’s daughter, Fatma Sultan (b. 1558): September 1580, after childbirth (maybe complications after a still-birth)

Safiye Sultan (b. ⁓1550): c. 1520, natural causes

Ayşe Sultan (b. ⁓1565): 15 May 1605, most probably illness

Hümaşah Sultan (b. ⁓1565): after 1580, illness or childbirth

Fatma Sultan (b. ⁓1565): c. 1620, natural causes

Murad III’s daughters:

Fahriye Sultan (b. ⁓1588): after 1641, natural causes

Rukiye Sultan (b. ⁓1593): c. 1623, most probably illness or childbirth

Handan Sultan (b. ⁓1570): 9 November 1605, gastric problems

Halime Sultan (b. ⁓1570): after 1623, ?

Kösem Sultan (b. ⁓1590): 2 September 1651, strangled

Hanzade Sultan (b. ⁓1609): 23 September 1650, illness or natural causes

Ayşe Sultan (b. ⁓1605/7): c. 1657, most probably natural causes

Fatma Sultan (b. ⁓1606): c. 1670, most probably natural causes

I. Ahmed’s daughters

Gevherhan Sultan (b. ⁓1605): 1660, natural causes

Abide Sultan (b. 1618): c. 1648, most probably illness (or she lived longer just retired and became forgotten)

Atike Sultan (b. ⁓1614): c. 1670, most probably natural causes

Ayşe Sultan (b. ⁓1610): c. 1680, natural causes

Esmehan Kaya Sultan (b. 1633): 1658, complications after giving birth

IV. Murad’s daughters:

Safiye Sultan (b. 1635):1680, complications after giving birth

Rukiye Sultan (b. ⁓1640): 1696, most probably natural causes

Hanzade Sultan (b. 1631): 1675, most probably natural causes

Turhan Hatice Sultan (b. ⁓1627): 1683, natural causes by some chronical illness.

Fatma Sultan (b. 1642): 1657, illness

Ibrahim I’s daughters:

Gevherhan Sultan (b. 1642): 21 September 1694, long illness

Beyhan Sultan (b. 1645): 5 March 1701, natural causes

Hatice Muazzez Sultan (b. ⁓1627): 12 September 1687, heart attack or stroke

Saliha Dilaşub Sultan (b. ⁓1627): 4 December 1689, long illness maybe cancer

Telli Hümaşah Sultan (b. ⁓1630): c. 1672, most probably illness

Emetullah Rabia Gülnüs Sultan (b. ⁓1642): 6 November 1715, illness

A short discussion about the history and customs of funerals

For a long time, the sultans were the only "inhabitants" of their tomb. In this Murad III made a change, burying his executed siblings next to his father, Selim II. But over time, Murad broke another tradition when he buried his mother, Nurbanu, next to his father in his tomb. For in the past centuries the wifes and consorts of the sultans had not been placed in a tomb with their master, and for a long time not even in their mosque. An early exception to this was Süleyman I's mother Ayşe Hafsa, who was buried in Süleyman I's father's mosque. Over time, Süleyman buried his only wife, Hürrem, in his own mosque in a separate tomb. And later Nurbanu was the first woman to rest right next to her husband in the same tomb. Importantly, however, Murad had already done a similar thing before Nurbanu. When Mihrimah Sultan passed away, knowing how close she was to his father, Murad buried her in Süleyman’s tomb, right next to her father. This is particularly interesting because Mihrimah’s husband Rüstem also had a mosque where Mihrimah could have been buried, but the mosque of Mihrimah’s brothers, the Şehzade Mosque, would also have been suitable for her. All indicate that Murad buried Mihrimah next to his father with a reason, as he later did with his mother and father.

Back to Nurbanu, in her case, another tradition was broken. It was not only in life but in death as well that Nurbanu Sultan enjoyed extraordinary honors. Contrary to the custom whereby the sultan remained in the palace during a funeral, Murad accompanied his mother’s coffin on foot, weeping as he walked, to the mosque of Mehmed the Conqueror, where funeral prayers were said. The choice of the Conqueror’s mosque, the most distant of the sultanic mosques from the imperial palace, ensured both a maximum number of bystanders’ prayers for Nurbanu’s soul and maximum appreciation by the capital’s residents of this display of royal piety and respect for the valide sultan. According to the historian Selaniki, the “whole world” crowded into the mosque for the funeral prayers. For forty days high-ranking statesmen and religious officials were required to pay their respects at the valide sultan’s tomb, while the Qur’an was read continuously. The extraordinary nature of this funeral is suggested by the fact that in the extensive collection of the Topkapı Palace Library, the only miniature that depicts an event in the life of a female member of the dynasty is one illustrating the emergence of Nurbanu Sultan’s funeral cortège from the imperial palace.

*PS: The dates in the lists are not always widely accepted. There are dates of birth and death that historians are still debating to this day. In these cases, I have mentioned the dates I consider most plausible.

Used sources: Leslie Peirce – The imperial harem, Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire; Leslie Peirce – Empress of the east; Colin Imber – The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650; Günhan Börekçi – Factions and Favorites at the courts of Sultan Ahmed (r. 1603-17) and his immediate predecessors; Douglas A. Howard – A History of the Ottoman Empire.

* * *

A halál is nagyon komoly részét képezte az Oszmán Birodalomnak, különösen mert rendkívül gyakori volt az erőszakos halál a dinasztia férfitagjai között. Mindannyian ismerjük a testvérgyilkosság törvényét, mely okán több száz herceget (sok esetben csecsemőket, gyermekeket) fojtottak meg a selyemzsineggel. Mai posztomban azonban inkább azokról szeretnék szólni, akik esetében nem ennyire egyértelmű a halál oka, ideje. Néhány érdekes, esetleg gyanús halálesetet hoztam el számotokra, illetve megpróbáltam összeszedni mindent az egyes szultánok, hercegek és szultánák halálának okairól; valamint a temetkezés rövid történetét is elhoztam: kiket hová temettek, mikor álltak be rendhagyó változások a temetkezési szokásokban…

Az általánosságban elmondható, hogy a korai periódus szultánjainak haláláról igen keveset tudunk. Nagyon sok esetben csak találgatások maradtak ránk a halál okáról. I. Murad (u. 1362-1389) halála azonban például egy üdítő kivétel, esetében ugyanis több leírás is készült haláláról. Egy szerb nemes gyilkolta meg tőrrel a Rigómezei csata (1389) alatt vagy előtt. „… teljesen váratlanul egy bizonyos Milos Obilic, aki ravaszságból és cselszövésből azt mondta, hogy felvette az iszlámot, arra kért bennünket, hogy (…)megcsókolja a fénylő nagyúr lábát, ahelyett, hogy ezt tette volna, elháríthatatlanul ruhájába elrejtett mérgezett kést szúrt a fénylő nagyúr dicső testébe, s súlyosan megsebezvén megitatta őt a mártírok serbetjével.” Természetesen nem bizonyos, hogy minden a leírtak szerint történt, az azonban biztos, hogy gyilkosság áldozata lett Milos Obilic keze által.

I. Bayezid (u. 1389-1402) halála maga szintén érdekes, egyesek úgy vélik, hogy öngyilkos lett Timur Lenk (u. 1370-1405) fogságában, miután az, szeme láttára alázta meg feleségét Mariát. Mások szerint megmérgezték a fogság idején. Akárhogyan is, a szultánok halála mindig valami új kezdetét jelentette. Ha a szultán meghalt, nem volt idő gyászolni. Asszonyaiknak, feleségeiknek és a főbb vezíreinek ugyanis más dolga volt a halál beállta után: azonnal értesíteni a koronaherceget, vagy azt a herceget, akit ők maguk a trónon akartak látni. A szultán ugyanis az lett, aki először ért a fővárosba és foglalta el a trónt. A korai időszakban a szultánok gyakran az otthonuktól – a birodalmi fővárostól – távol, hadjárat során hunytak el, így vezíreik voltak azok, akik értesítették a hercegeket a helyzetről. A hercegek pedig mindent megtettek, hogy egymás előbb érhessenek a fővárosba. Ebben pedig sok esetben segítséget is kaptak az őket támogató pasáktól. Így kerülhetett például trónra II. Bayezid (u. 1481-1512) is. Lányait korábban befolyásos pasákhoz adta nőül, vejei pedig mindent megtettek, hogy Bayezid legnagyobb vetélytársát, egyik testvérét lelassíthassák az Isztambulba vezető úton. Sikerrel jártak és Bayezid elfoglalta a trónt, ők pedig megkapták érte jutalmukat.

II. Bayeziddel ellentétben, I. Szulejmán szultán (u. 1520-1566) halálakor nem volt már vetélytársa fiának, II. Szelimnek (u. 1566-1574). Azonban Szulejmán mégis nagyon rossz pillanatban – épp egy csata kellős közepén – hunyt el a köszvénye okozta egészségügyi problémákban. Hogy elkerülje a lázadást és a katonák motivációjának elvesztését, a fővezír a szultán halálát eltitkolta. Szolgálókat öltöztetett be a szultán ruháiba, hasonló kézírású írnokokkal íratott parancsokat a szultán nevében, amíg II. Szelim megérkezett végre a táborba és szultánná lett.

A későbbi periódusokban már a szultán asszonyaié volt a főszerep, hiszen a szultánok egyre gyakrabban hunytak el a fővárosban. Erre egyik különösen érdekes példa II. Szelim halála, mely egy fürdőben történő elcsúszás után érte, és amit felesége Nurbanu szultána (⁓1525-1583) csak a nagyvezírrel osztott meg, és titokban üzentek Nurbanu fiának Muradnak (u. 1574-1595), hogy igyekezzen a fővárosba. Erre azért volt szükség, mert Murad gyermeköccsei a fővárosban tartózkodtak II. Szelim halálakor.

A szultánokat mindig az éppen aktuális birodalmi fővárosban helyezték örök nyugalomra. Bursa, mint korábbi főváros egyébként Isztambul elfoglalása után is fontos szerepet őrzött, ugyanis a kivégzett vagy természetes módon elhunyt hercegeket itt helyezték örök nyugalomra. Természetesen ebben is akadt kivétel, I. Szulejmán (u. 1520-1566) uralkodása alatt rögtön kettő is. Kedvenc fia, Mehmed (1521-1543) betegségben halt meg Manisában, ám a szokásokkal szakítva Szulejmán nem csak, hogy a fővárosban temette el Bursa helyett, de egyenesen szultánokéval vetekedő mecsetet építtetett fia számára. Másik fia, a lázadó Bayezid (1525-1562) kevéssé volt szerencsés. Mivel az iráni határ mellett végezték ki, Szulejmán még a Bursai temetést is megtagadta tőle, és az iráni határ mellett lelt örök nyugalomra fiai mellett. Legkisebb fia, aki csecsemő volt és nem tudott apjával együtt Iránba menekülni, kivégzése után Bursába lett eltemetve a többi hasonló sorsú herceg között.

Mielőtt tovasuhannánk és a szultánákat vennénk górcső alá, itt egy kis összefoglaló a „Nők szultánátusának” időszakából és az azt közvetlenül megelőző időszakból, a szultánok és hercegek halálának okairól, a teljesség igénye nélkül*:

II. Bayezid (sz. 1447): 1512. április 24, feltehetőleg mérgezés, de a természetes halál is felmerül

I. Szelim (sz. 1470): 1520. szeptember 22, feltehetőleg daganatos betegség vagy lépfene, de a mérgezés és pestis is opció

I. Szulejmán (sz. 1494): 1566. szeptember 7, köszvény, de ráadásnak az agyvérzés is felmerült

Şehzade Mahmud (sz. 1512): 1521. október 29, himlő vagy pestis

Şehzade Musztafa (sz. 1515): 1553. október 6, megfojtás

Şehzade Mehmed (sz. 1546): 1553. október 10, megfojtás

Şehzade Ahmed (sz. ?): 1552, betegség

Şehzade Murad (sz. 1519): 1521. október 12, himlő vagy pestis

Şehzade Mehmed (sz. 1521): 1543. november 6, feltehetőleg himlő

Şehzade Abdullah (sz. ⁓1525): c. 1527, talán himlő vagy pestis

Şehzade Bayezid (sz. ⁓1525 ): 1562. július 23, megfojtás

Şehzade Orhan (sz. ⁓1543): 1562. július 23, megfojtás

Şehzade Osman (sz. ⁓1545): 1562. július 23, megfojtás

Şehzade Abdullah (sz. ⁓1548): 1562. július 23, megfojtás

Şehzade Mehmed (sz. ⁓1544): 1562. július 23, megfojtás

Şehzade Murad (sz. ⁓1556): 1562. július 23, megfojtás

Şehzade ? (sz. ⁓1560/1), 1562. július ?, megfojtás

Şehzade Cihangir (sz. 1531): 1553. november 27, krónikus betegségek és valamilyen fertőzés

II. Szelim: 1574. december 12/15, elesést követő fejsérülés

Şehzade Mehmed (sz. ⁓1570): 1573/74, betegség

Şehzade Szulejmán (sz. ⁓1570): 1574. december 22, megfojtás

Şehzade Abdullah (sz. ⁓1570): 1574. december 22, megfojtás

Şehzade Ali (sz. ⁓1572): 1572, születése után

Şehzade Oszmán (sz. ⁓1573/4): 1574. december 22, megfojtás

Şehzade Cihangir (sz. ⁓1573/4): 1574. december 22, megfojtás

III. Murad (sz. 1546): 1595. január 16, természetes okok

Şehzade Szelim (sz. 1567): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Mahmud (sz. 1568): c. 1581, betegség

Şehzade Szulejmán, Cihangir, Ahmed és feltehetőleg más hercegek is: születésük után egyből

Şehzade Abdullah (sz. 1585): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Musztafa (sz. 1585): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Bayezid (sz. 1586): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Cihangir (sz. 1587): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Abdurrahman (sz. ?): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Alemşah (sz. ?): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Aleaddin Davud (sz. ?): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Ali (sz. ?): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Hasan (sz. ?): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Hüseyin (sz. ?): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Ishak (sz. ?): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Murad (sz. ?): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Oszmán (sz. ?): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Ömer (sz. ?): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

Şehzade Yusuf (sz. ?): 1595. január 28, megfojtás

III. Mehmed (sz. 1566): 1603. december 21, természetes okok (egyesek szerint túlsúlyhoz köthető egészségügyi problémák)

Şehzade Szelim (sz. 1585): 1597, betegség

Şehzade Mahmud (sz. 1587): 1603, megfojtás

Şehzade Szulejmán (sz. ?): 1597, betegség

Şehzade Cihangir (sz. ?): 1602, betegség

I. Ahmed (sz. 1590): 1617. november 22, feltehetőleg tífusz vagy gyomorvérzés

Şehzade Mehmed (sz. 1605): 1621. január 12, megfojtás

Şehzade Bayezid (sz. 1612): 1635. július 27, megfojtás

Şehzade Kasim (sz. 1614): 1638. február 17, megfojtás

Şehzade Szulejmán (sz. 1615): 1635. július 27, megfojtás

Şehzade Hasan, Orhan, Selim, Hüseyin, Cihangir és feltehetőleg más hercegek is csecsemőként agy gyermekként

I. Musztafa (sz. ⁓1600): 1639, természetes okok (de az epilepszia is felmerül)

II. Oszmán (sz. 1604): brutális gyilkosság

Şehzade Ömer (sz. 1621): 1622, több opció is létezik: baleset, gyilkosság, betegség, sokk

IV. Murad (sz. 1612): 1640. február 8, májzsugor és feltehetőleg egyéb krónikus betegségek

Rengeteg fia született, ám Evliya Celebi szerint mindannyian gyenge egészséggel születtek, majd haltak meg nem sokkal később. A háttérben egyesek mérgezést sejtenek, de lehetett genetikai betegség is, amely a fiúkat érintette.

I. Ibrahim (sz. 1615): 1648. augusztus 18, megfojtás

Şehzade Murad, Osman, Bayezid, Cihangir gyermekként elhunytak betegség következtében

Şehzade Selim (sz. 1644): 1669, feltehetőleg betegség

IV. Mehmed (sz. 1642): 1693. november 6, természetes okok

II. Szulejmán (sz. 1642): 1691. június 22, teste felduzzadt, kómába esett majd meghalt valamilyen betegségtől

II. Ahmed (sz. 1643): 1695. február 6, természetes okok, de a stressz okozta szívroham/agyvérzés is opció

Különösen ritka, mikor a pontos ok és időpont is rendelkezésünkre áll a szultánák esetében. Az ő életüket elsősorban feljegyzésekből ismerjük, melyek a tulajdonaikat és fizetéseiket listázzák. Így sok esetben csak következtetni tudunk rá, hogy amikor eltűntek a feljegyzésekből, akkor hunyhattak el. Azonban ezek a feljegyzések gyakran hiányosak, előfordul, hogy több évre, évtizedre sincsenek meg, esetleg töredékesek. Emellett a halál okát még ritkábban jegyezték fel. Erre általában onnan tudunk következtetni, hogy született e gyermek, volt e friss házasság a halál idejét közvetlenül megelőzően, volt e esetleg hatalmas járvány a halál ideje alatt? Valamint a befolyásosabb szultánák esetében a történetírók, követek előfordult, hogy feljegyezték a halál feltételezett okát. Ez azonban meglehetősen ritka, ahogy a fejezet alján található listát olvasva is egyértelművé válik.

A szultánok temetése mindig kettős érzéseket váltott ki az emberekből. Egyrészt a temetés napján új szultán trónra lépését ünnepelték, és az új szultán kivégzett testvéröccseit gyászolták. Ezzel szemben a szultánák gyászszertartásai és temetési szokásai sokkal nyugodtabbak voltak, nagyobb figyelmet kaptak ilyen értelemben. Halálukkor a nincsteleneknek gyakran osztottak lelki üdvükért alamizsnát, ételt. Erre például Handan valide szutána (⁓1570-1605) 1605. november 9-i halálát követően temetése remek példa. A velencei követ feljegyezte, hogy milyen hatalmas mennyiségű alamizsnát osztottak szét az emberek között. Emellett egy valide szultána halála és temetése mindig nyilvános gyászszertartáshoz volt köthető, hiszen a nép így ki tudta fejezni együttérzését a szultánnal, aki édesanyját veszítette el ekkor. Ayşe Hafsa (⁓1475-1534), I. Szulejmán édesanyjának halála után például a város több napra gyászba borult. Mindemellett a temetését leíró Celalzade Mustafa serint nagyon hosszú imákkal búcsúztatták, amelyben a legtiszteltebb muszlim asszonyokhoz tették őt hasonlatossá, mint például Mohamed próféta első felesége Hatice, leánya Fatma és harmadik, egyben kedvenc felesége Ayşe: „Nagyon vallásos asszony volt, az igazlelkű cselekedetek asszonya, a tisztaság királynője, korának Haticéje; jótékony intézetek alapítója, korának Fatmája és Ayşéje.”

A szultánák esetében az erőszakos halál helyett a gyermekszülés volt vezető halálok. Sokan a szülésbe haltak bele, mert bár a palota orvosai és bábái a világ legjobbjai voltak, a szülés veszélyes tevékenység volt azokban az időkben. Tény azonban, hogy a nyugati birodalmakhoz képest jóval kevesebb asszony halt bele a szülésbe vagy gyermekágyi lázba az Oszmán Birodalom dinasztiájából. A leghíresebb szüléshez kapcsolódó halál Esmehan Kayáé. Kaya szultána (1633-1658) IV. Murad (u. 1623-1640) leánya volt, aki örökölte apja természetét, sokan őt tartották Murad legméltóbb gyermekének. Legendák szerint Esmehan Kayának megjövendölték még fiatal korában, hogy a szülésbe fog belehalni, emiatt évekig nem engedte közel magához a férjét. Férjével azonban idővel igazi szerelem alakult ki, mely természetesen testileg is beteljesült. Esmehan Kaya két gyermeknek is életet adott, így talán már el is felejtette a jövendölést és fellélegzett. Harmadik gyermeke születésekor azonban komplikációk léptek fel. A placenta nem akart leválni, hiába próbálkoztak különféle tortúrákkal a bábák, így a szülést követően néhány nappal vérmérgezésben elhunyt, borzalmas szenvedések után. Kislánya sem élte túl sokkal. Kaya egyik testvére, Safiye (⁓1540-1580) szintén gyermekszülésbe halt bele.

Azonban nem Kaya és húga volt az egyetlen, hasonló módon halt meg II. Szelim (u. 1566-1574) két leánya is: Fatma szultána (1558-1580), aki kislánya születésébe halt bele a gyermekkel együtt, meglehetősen fiatalon; Esmehan szultána (⁓1545-1585) pedig negyedik gyermeke szülése után fellépő komplikációkba halt bele, fia alig egy hónappal élte túl csupán. Esetében a komplikációknak köze lehetett ahhoz is, hogy a kor szokásaihoz képest viszonylag későn, nagyjából negyven évesen szült. Érdekes egyébként, hogy Szelim másik leánya, Şah (1544-1580) is viszonylag fiatalon hunyt el betegség következtében, így Szelim leányai közül egyedül Gevherhan (⁓1545-1622?) volt az, aki megérte az időskort és feltehetőleg természetes okoktól hunyt el.

Legendák szerint egyébként III. Murad (u. 1574-1595) kedvese, Safiye szultána (⁓1550-1620?) is majdnem belehalt egyik vetélésébe, ám mint tudjuk ő végül túlélte és még sok-sok évig uralkodhatott. Kevésbé volt szerencsés Mahfiruze Hatun (⁓1590-1608/12?), I. Ahmed ágyasa, és legidősebb fiának anyja, aki feltehetőleg szintén a szülésbe halt bele, igaz esetében több alternatíva is felmerült halálának okával kapcsolatban, így többek között a járvány is egy opció esetében.

Érdekes, hogy a szultán kedvencei között még ennél is kevesebb esetet ismerünk, amikor egy ágyas halt bele a szülésbe. Ennek oka azonban feltehetőleg nem az, hogy ilyen nem történt… Hanem az, hogy ha az ágyas belehalt a szülésébe egyszerűen feledésbe merült. Hiszen az átlag ágyasok nem adtak életet nagyszámú gyermeknek, különösen, amíg az egy ágyas – egy herceg szabályt betartották. Így nagy eséllyel, ha belehaltak a szülésbe, akkor vagy nem volt más gyermekük vagy csak leányuk, így kevésbé voltak fontos személyek, kevesebb feljegyzésbe került bele a nevük, majd eltűntek a köztudatból.

„Nők szultánátusának” időszakából szintén összegyűjtöttem a legismertebb szultánák halálának okait és idejét, a teljesség igénye nélkül, hiszen sok szultána kimaradt a listából, mert esetükben sem az évszám, sem az ok nem ismert, sőt sok esetben még neveik sem*:

Ayşe Hafsa szultána (sz. ⁓1475): 1534. március 19, betegség, feltehetőleg agyvérzés vagy daganatos betegség

Beyhan szultána (sz. ⁓1492): c. 1559, valószínűleg természetes okok

Hatice szultána (sz. ⁓1491): ?

Fatma szultána (sz. ⁓1493): 1557, természetes okok vagy betegség

I. Szelim leányai

Hafsa szultána (sz. ⁓1495/1500): 1538. július 10, feltehetőleg betegség

Şah-i Huban szultána (sz. ⁓1500): 1572, természetes okok

Hürrem szultána (sz. ⁓1503): 1558. április 15, feltehetőleg daganatos betegség, maláriával nehezítve

Mihrimah szultána (sz. 1522): 1578. január 25, természetes okok vagy hasonló betegség, mint édesanyjánál

Ayşe Hümaşah (sz. 1541): 1594, természetes okok

Şehzade Mehmed leánya

Hümaşah szultána (sz. 1543): 1582, természetes okok vagy betegség

Fatma Hanimsultan (sz. 1567): 1588. július 29, betegség vagy szülés során fellépő komplikációk

I. Szulejmán kislánya, Raziye szultána (sz. ⁓1515): 1521 októbere, himlő vagy pestis

Mahidevran Hatun (sz. ⁓1500): 1581. február 3, természetes okok

Mahidevran Hatun unokái:

Fatma szultána (sz. ⁓1545): 1577, szülés vagy betegség következtében

Nergiz-şah szultána (sz. ⁓1536): c. 1592, természetes okok vagy betegség

Gülfem Hatun (sz. ⁓1495): 1562, természetes okok vagy gyilkosság

Nurbanu szultána (sz. ⁓1525): 1583. december 7, mérgezés vagy valamilyen hirtelen természetes ok (talán agyvérzés, szívroham)

Esmehan szultána (sz. ⁓1545): 1585. augusztus 8, gyermekszülést követő komplikációk

Şah szultána (sz. 1544): 1580. szeptember, betegség

Gevherhan szultána (sz. ⁓1545): 1604 után, lehetséges, hogy 1622, természetes okok

II. Szelim leánya:

Fatma szultána (sz. 1558): 1580. szeptember, gyermekszülés (valószínűleg komplikációs koraszülés)

Safiye szultána (sz. ⁓1550): c. 1520, természetes okok

Ayşe szultána (sz. ⁓1565): 1605. május 15, feltehetőleg betegség

Hümaşah szultána (sz. ⁓1565): 1580 után, feltehetőleg betegség vagy szülés

Fatma szultána (sz. ⁓1565): c. 1620, természetes okok

III. Murad leánya:

Fahriye szultána (sz. ⁓1588): 1641 után, természetes okok

Rukiye szultána (sz. ⁓1593): c. 1623, feltehetőleg betegség vagy gyermekszülés

Handan szultána (sz. ⁓1570): 1605. november 9, emésztőrendszeri problémák

Halime szultána (sz. ⁓1570): 1623 után, ?

Kösem szultána (sz. ⁓1590): 1651. szeptember 2, megfojtás

Hanzade szultána (sz. ⁓1609): 1650. szeptember 23., betegség vagy természetes okok

Ayşe szultána (sz. ⁓1605/7): c. 1657, feltehetőleg természetes okok

Fatma szultána (sz. ⁓1606): c. 1670, feltehetőleg természetes okok

I. Ahmed leányai

Gevherhan szultána (sz. ⁓1605): 1660, természetes okok

Abide szultána (sz. 1618): c. 1648, feltehetőleg betegség

Atike szultána (sz. ⁓1614): c. 1670, feltehetőleg természetes okok

Ayşe szultána (sz. ⁓1610): c. 1680, természetes okok

Esmehan Kaya szultána (sz. 1633): 1658, szülés után fellépő komplikációk

IV. Murad leányai

Safiye szultána (sz. 1635):1680, szülés után fellépő komplikációk

Rukiye szultána (sz. ⁓1640): 1696, valószínűleg természetes okok

Hanzade (sz. 1631): 1675, valószínűleg természetes okok

Turhan Hatice szultána (sz. ⁓1627): 1683, természetes okok, feltehetőleg betegség következtében

Fatma szultána (sz. 1642): 1657, betegség következtében

Ibrahim leányai:

Gevherhan szultána (sz. 1642): 1694. szeptember 21, hosszas betegség

Beyhan szultána (sz. 1645): 1701. március 5, természetes okok

Hatice Muazzez szultána (sz. ⁓1627): 1687. szeptember 12, feltehetőleg szívroham

Saliha Dilaşub szultána (sz. ⁓1627): 1689. december 4, betegség

Telli Hümaşah szultána (sz. ⁓1630): c. 1672, feltehetőleg betegség

Emetullah Rabia Gülnüs szultána (sz. ⁓1642): 1715. november 6, hosszas betegség után

A temetésekről néhány szó végezetül

A szultánok hosszú ideig türbéjük egyedüli lakó voltak. Ebben III. Murad hozott változást, aki kivégeztetett testvéreit is apja mellé temette. De idővel újabb tradíciót szegett meg Murad, amikor édesanyját, Nurbanut apja mellé temette annak türbéjébe. Korábban ugyanis a szultánok asszonyai nem kerültek a szultánjukkal közös türbébe, sőt sokáig még annak mecsetjében sem temethették el őket. Erre egy korai kivétel I. Szulejmán édesanyja Ayşe Hafsa volt, akit Szulejmán apja mecsetjébe temetett el. Idővel Szulejmán egyetlen feleségét, Hürremet is a saját mecsetjében helyezte örök nyugalomra egy különálló türbébe. Ezekután Nurbanu volt az első asszony, aki közvetlenül férje mellett nyugodhatott. Fontos azonban, hogy Murad már Nurbanu előtt is tett hasonlót. Amikor Mihrimah szultána elhunyt, tudva, hogy a szultána mennyire közel állt édesapjához, Szulejmán türbéjébe temette el, közvetlenül édesapja mellé. Ez különösen érdekes, mert Mihrimah férjének Rüsztemnek is volt mecsetje, ahová Mihrimaht temethették volna, de Mihrimah testvéreinek mecsetje a Şehzade mecset is alkalmas lett volna a szultána számára. Minden jel arra mutat, hogy Murad okkal temette apja mellé Mihrimaht.

Nurbanuhoz visszatérve, esetében még egy tradíció megszakadt. Nurbanu ugyanis nem csak életében viselhetett különleges jogokat, de halálakor is különleges tiszteletben részesült. Fiával való szoros kapcsolata jól ismert mindenki számára, ennek pedig tökéletes megnyilvánulása volt, amikor holtteste elhagyta a Topkapi Palotát. A hagyományok szerint a koporsót befolyásos pasák vitték és kísérték az imahelyre, a szultán pedig ez alatt a palotában maradt gyászolni. Murad azonban nem akarta édesanyját egyedül elengedni, ezért maga ment a koporsó előtt és zokogott. Nurbanu gyászszertartásának helye is érdekes volt, ugyanis Hódító Mehmed mecsetjét választották e célra, ami a legtávolabb feküdt a birodalmi palotától. Ennek célja az volt, hogy a legtöbb ember láthassa a temetést és imádkozhasson a valide szultána lelkiüdvéért. A történész Selaniki szerint az „egész világ” odacsoportosult a mecsetbe a temetési imára. Negyven napig olvastak érte fel a Koránból és negyven napig jártak magas rangú pasák a türbéjéhez. Érdekesség – és ez is jelzi Nurbanu befolyását –, hogy a Topkapi Palota könyvtárában megtalálható az egyelten olyan miniatúra, ami a dinasztia egy nőtagját ábrázolja, ez a miniatúra pedig Nurbanu temetéséről szól.

*UI: A listákban szereplő dátumok nem minden esetben egyezményesek. Vannak olyan születési és halálozási dátumok, melyek esetén a történészek is vitatkoznak mind a mai napig. Ezekben az esetekben az általam leghihetőbbnek vélt dátumot tüntettem fel.

Felhasznált források: Leslie Peirce – The imperial harem, Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire; Leslie Peirce – Empress of the east; Colin Imber – The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650; Günhan Börekçi – Factions and Favorites at the courts of Sultan Ahmed (r. 1603-17) and his immediate predecessors; Douglas A. Howard – A History of the Ottoman Empire.

#reallifesultanas #hürrem sultan #hürrem #ayse hafsa sultan #ayse hafsa #süleyman i #fratricide #sultanate of women #death

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dracusfyre · 6 years

Text

Square R3: A Cinderella Story

Rating: M

Warnings: None

Relationship: Tony/Bucky

Tags: Modern Cinderella story; based on the tween movie; not the fairy tale

Summary: Tony Stark comes home from his parents' funeral to find out that both he and Stark Industries were on the brink of bankruptcy. After months of slaving away trying to save his family's company, he decides to let himself have one night of fun at a masked ball to benefit military veterans.

Bucky Barnes doesn't know much about the sexy stranger from the masked ball, except that his name is Tony and he has an ass that makes him want to get on his knees and give thanks. When he ends up with the man's cell phone at the end of the night, he hopes that this will give him a chance to learn more.

Link to AO3

@tonystarkbingo I finally have BINGOOOOOOO! All of the R column, whoo!

Chapter 1: Clock Strikes Midnight

Tony groaned and rubbed his eyes, leaning back against the couch which, like the floor and the coffee table and almost every other available source, was covered with papers from his parents’ estate. This particular stack was Howard’s R&D pipeline, a bunch of designs that were fascinating, brilliant, and entirely impractical.

“This is just like those goddamn flying cars,” Tony said aloud to the room. “Flashy but ultimately a waste of money. Goddammit, Dad, what in the hell were you thinking?” He stared at one of the missile designs that would have been groundbreaking if the necessary propulsion, you know, existed. Flipping through the paperwork, he saw that somehow Stark Industries had spent 25 million dollars developing a missile that couldn’t fly. He put that in the “what the fuck” pile, which was already way higher than it should be, and dug out the next folder. This one, excitingly, turned out to be pages and pages of coordinates that had been crossed through; when Tony looked them up on his laptop, they were all locations in the Arctic Circle. Stuffed in with them were yellowing receipts from a charter boat company in Newfoundland, Canada, spaced out over years. Tony sighed and set that one in the trash pile. “You and your stupid quests,” he muttered, and picked up the next file. Tax receipts from 1976, it looked like.

Joy.

“Hello?” Tony jerked awake, dislodging a stack of papers from his lap, as a voice called out from the front door. “I knocked, but…”

Tony scrubbed a hand over his face and went to the door. “Can I help you?” He asked when he saw the intruder, a tall, willowy woman in a stylish but off the rack suit, red hair up in a chignon.

“Mr. Stark?” She asked, and when Tony nodded she held out her hand. “I’m Virginia Potts, from Stark Industries. I was sent here to help you sort out your parent’s estate.” When Tony shook her hand, she squeezed it lightly with a soft look in her eyes before letting it go. “I’m sorry for your loss,” and when she said it Tony’s throat got tight from the sincerity and sympathy in her tone.

He just nodded and avoided her eyes as he gestured for her to come inside. “So what, are you the CFO?” he asked, clearing his throat.

“Um, no,” she said, tucking a few stray strands of hair behind her ear. She came to a sudden stop when she saw the chaos in Tony’s living room. “But I do work for him.”

“So, a vice president or something?” Tony started gathering up papers from the arm chair to make a place for her to sit.

“No.”

He stilled and glanced up at her. “Then what in the hell was your job?”

“I’m an auditor. Was an auditor,” she amended. “Now I’m your personal assistant.” She forced a bright smile as she glanced around the room. “Where should we start?”

“Well, aren’t you peppy,” Tony said sourly as he headed to the well-stocked liquor cabinet, which had been the only saving grace of the whole situation. “You know you got sent here as a punishment, right? This isn’t a promotion. You’re going to die here with me, buried under decades of paperwork.”

“I’m sure that’s an exaggeration,” she said. “This doesn’t look so bad. Now that there’s two of us…” she faltered in the face of Tony’s flat stare.

“Follow me,” he said, grabbing his glass of whiskey. Ms. Potts followed him through the echoing halls of the mansion to the garage, and when he turned on the lights she gasped. There were boxes stacked as high as her head all along the wall of the garage and between the flashy, expensive cars. There was no way to get to the far end of the room without literally crawling on top of the cars. “Research notes, correspondence, tax documents and other financial instruments…all from the past three decades of my parents’ life. Stark Industries is drowning in debt,” he said honestly, “and so am I. I need to go through this and find out where all of our money went and if there’s anything left so that I don’t have to declare bankruptcy.”

“Oh my God,” she said faintly.

“Yeah.”

They contemplated the overwhelming pile of boxes in silence for a while before Ms. Potts raised her chin and said, “Then I guess we better get started.”

***

Three months later, Tony made the mistake of telling Obie that they were almost done going through the boxes in the garage. He smiled and congratulated them, and then a week later a box truck was beeping loudly as it backed up into the garage.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Pepper said as she watched the delivery men carrying more boxes of paperwork, stacking them chest high in the garage.

“I hate my life,” Tony said, already heading for the liquor cabinet.

***

Tony rubbed his eyes, which felt like they were going cross-eyed from reading so many bullshit financial projections. “I gotta get out of this goddamn house,” Tony said, tossing the file on the stack for the burn pile, which was already big enough to probably require a permit from the fire marshal.

“Are you sure?” Pepper said doubtfully. She lowered the lid of her laptop so she could see Tony. “It doesn’t really seem like this is the time for partying. The investors need –“

“The investors need to mind their own goddamn business for just one night.” Tony rolled his shoulders and massaged the back of his neck, trying to get his headache to ease off. “I haven’t had a day – or night – off since Mom and Dad died. I think I’ve earned at least a few hours with people who aren’t associated with Stark Industries.”

“Sure, I guess so.” Pepper put down her pen and stretched. “So where are you going to go?”

Tony got up and dug through the junk drawer in the kitchen, where he’d put all the invitations to parties and fundraisers and galas that kept streaming in even though he’d yet to attend any of them. He had no money to spend on new clothes and too much pride to go out and listen to people gossip about why he was wearing something from last year’s designer. He tossed out all of the ones that were expired but lingered over one of three invitations for this evening. “How about this?” he suggested, handing her a glossy stock card.

“Fundraiser costume ball,” Pepper read. “Proceeds to benefit disabled military veterans.”

“I could wear a mask,” Tony pointed out. “The gossip rags and therefore the investors would never know I was there.”

“That’s true. But tickets are $500 a person,” she said, showing him the fine print at the bottom of the invite, “and you need a costume.”

“But they take donations for the charity auction in lieu of cash,” Tony called out over his shoulder, already heading for his parents’ rooms, which he still hadn’t gotten around to boxing up yet. “I can give them one of Dad’s watches or Mom’s antiques or something. As for a costume, let me introduce you to my attic…”

“I may have made a terrible mistake,” Tony said faintly when they walked into the main hall where everyone was gathered, mingling and eating the hors d’oeuvres. Pepper coughed trying to cover her laugh, because she knew exactly what he meant. Half of the people were wearing a variety of cute or sexy or revealing clothing, but the other half were wearing uniforms, a dignified smattering of dress blues and whites.

Tony had always had a weakness for a person in a uniform.

“You can have your fun tonight, Tony – I mean, not too much fun,” she said. “I think the last thing you need right now is to try to juggle a relationship along with everything else.”

“I know, I know.” Tony adjusted his Venetian mask, one of many from his mother’s collection, and took a deep breath. “I’ll behave. Just a few drinks, a little chit chat with a handsome military guy, and I’ll go home and get back to the grindstone in the morning.”

“Good plan.” Pepper was also wearing a mask, along with a beaded and embroidered gown, both stolen from his Mom’s closet. Tony was wearing the deep burgundy and black tuxedo he’d worn to his prom, which Pepper had assured him still looked great, especially with the simple black-and-white mask he’d found. “You have until midnight, remember? That’s what we agreed.”

“Yes, Mom. I mean, ma’am,” Tony said, smiling at the glare he got from Pepper. He gestured with his phone. “I set an alarm to remind me in case I start having too much fun.”

“And if you have a hangover in the morning, I’m not going to have any mercy on you,” she warned.

Tony turned to face her, taking her hands and kissing the back of them. “Don’t worry about me. You’re supposed to be having a good time too, you know.”

Pepper took a deep breath and smoothed the look of worry from her face, replacing it with a smile. “You’re right. I will.”

“Too many handsome men and beautiful ladies here to be so stressed.”

“Exactly.” Pepper’s eyes flickered over his shoulder and when she looked back at Tony, her smile widened. “One of them already noticed you.”

“Yeah?” Tony smothered the urge to look over his shoulder. “Who?”

“Dark hair, blue eyes, lips that look like sin and one of those dimples in his chin but in a cute way. Army uniform with one sleeve pinned, has been staring at your butt since we came in.” She straightened his tie and picked a piece of lint off his lapel. “By the bar. Go get ‘em, tiger.”

“You’re the best.” He grinned and kissed her on her cheek. As he turned towards the bar he saw the man Pepper had been talking about, leaning against the bar and watching him with unabashed interest.

Pepper was right. The man’s mouth really did look like sin, especially as he bit his lip and looked away when he realized he’d been caught staring. So Tony did a little staring of his own, taking in the shoulders that filled out the blue dress jacket and the long, long legs, made longer by the stripe on the side of his pants. As Pepper mentioned, the left sleeve was pinned up close to the shoulder, but the man’s right hand was cradling a glass of champagne, looking strong and capable against the delicate glass stem.

He only had a few hours until midnight, so he was going to be damned if he was going to waste time being coy. He made his way to the bar, not even being shy as he pushed his way close to the guy, who was still trying to pretend that he hadn’t been staring. “Hello, Sergeant Sexy,” Tony said, praying he read the man’s rank correctly. “Is this spot taken?”

The man’s eyes lit up when he saw Tony. This close, Tony could tell that Pepper had been wrong about his eyes, which were a beautiful gray instead of blue. “Hello, Mysterious and Handsome,” the man returned, moving over to give Tony a little more room. “Sergeant James Barnes, at your service. Can I buy you a drink?”

Tony struggled not to smile. “Isn’t it an open bar?” He pointed out.

“Yeah, but I’ll pay the tip,” Sergeant Sexy said generously.

Tony couldn’t help himself. “Just the tip?”

“No, I’ll put in however much you want,” he promised, lips twitching as he set his glass down to reach for his wallet. “I’ll give you everything I’ve got.”

“And how much is that?”

“More than enough,” he said as he gave Tony a broad wink. “At least, I’ve never had any complaints.”

“Good to know.” Tony stuck out his hand. “I’m Tony, and I’ll take a glass of champagne, if it’s any good.”

“Well, it’s no Dom Perignon but it didn’t come out of a box,” the man said, shaking his hand. His palms were warm and slightly rough, grip firm. It felt good enough in Tony’s own hand that he was reluctant to let go. “And my friends call me Bucky.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Bucky.” Tony accepted his drink from the bartender, thanking her with a smile, and watched as Bucky tucked a five into the tip box. “So what do you do?” Tony asked, moving out of the way of the next person in line.

“I’m a professional baseball player,” Bucky said with a straight face. Tony stared at him blankly, trying to imagine how one would swing a bat one handed, before he noticed the glint in Bucky’s eye.

“Interesting,” Tony said, taking a sip of champagne. “So are you a pitcher or catcher?”

That made Bucky choke on his drink and it was a few moments before he could laugh without coughing. “Smooth,” he finally managed.

“I’m surprised you don’t get that all the time.”

“Well last time I said massage therapist-”

“Because you don’t have any problems getting people to get naked and lay down for you?” Tony said without missing a beat.

“-and before that it was HVAC technician.”

Tony nodded wisely. “I can believe that you would like helping people out once you get them all hot and bothered.”

“That’s a good one,” Bucky said in admiration. “I didn’t think anyone could make air conditioning sexy, but you managed.”

“Are you kidding? Air conditioning is sexy all by itself. What’s better than getting all hot and sweaty and the stretching out across the bed naked to cool off?”

“Hot showers,” Bucky returned immediately. “Swimming pools.”

“When you’re right, you’re right,” Tony allowed. “Next time your job could be pool boy.”

Bucky gestured to his mostly missing left arm. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I’d look good enough in a swimsuit to qualify for that.”

Tony raised his eyebrow and his gaze raked Bucky from head to toe. Then, keeping his eyes steady on Bucky’s, he threw his napkin over Bucky’s shoulder. Bucky rolled his eyes but obediently bent over to pick it up, letting Tony get a good look of his ass in his dress pants. “Oh I doubt that,” Tony said in a low voice when Bucky straightened and handed him back his napkin, “but if you’d feel self-conscious about it, I would build a pool in my back yard and keep you all to myself.”

“A kept man, huh,” Bucky said, and was he blushing? “Flattering. I’ll keep it in mind. So what do you do?”

Tony grimaced, playful mood deflating a little, and took a sip of his drink. “I work too much for a bunch of ungrateful assholes. I mean, I own my own company, but the shareholders are real bastards.”

"I know what you mean. Well, not about shareholders, but working for assholes." Bucky held out his hand and said, "Wanna complain all about it while we dance?"

"Oh, boy, would I." Tony set his drink down on a small table tucked between a pillar and a ficus tree so he could put his hand in Bucky's. To his surprise, Bucky paused for a moment, listening to the beat of the music, and then whisked Tony onto the dance floor, seamlessly stepping into the slow waltz that the orchestra was playing. "Oh, is this how it is?" Tony asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yep," Bucky said with a smile. It took Tony a moment to kick his instinct to lead and instead follow Bucky's guidance as he wove them around the other dancers. As they danced, Tony was level with Bucky's mouth and could see the slight darkening of Bucky's five o'clock shadow along his jaw; he wanted to press his lips to it, feel the slight stubble against his skin, but instead he dragged his gaze up to look over Bucky's shoulder when he realized he'd been staring. He swallowed thickly, suddenly aware of how long it'd been since he'd been this close to someone.

"I hope this doesn't come out insulting, but you seem really young to have shareholders," Bucky commented, breaking Tony's thoughts. He raised his hand to guide Tony into a spin before bring him back in close. "Are you one of those young prodigy types?"

"It's my Dad's company," Tony said, lengthening his stride to match Bucky's as he maneuvered them around another couple. "He died recently, and I, uh, found out he wasn't as good a businessman as I'd always thought, so." He shrugged, trying to choke down the bitterness that welled up at the thought. After his parents’ funeral, when the hammer had dropped that Stark Industries was struggling on the brink of bankruptcy, Tony’s own plans - his whole life really - had gone up in smoke. "I spend almost all of my time these days trying to clean up his mess."

“Sorry to hear that,” Bucky said sympathetically. The waltz ended and turned into something slower, so Bucky moved them to the edge of the dance floor and put his hand on Tony's waist, letting their waltz turn into more of a sway. Tony went with it, looping his hands around the back of Bucky's neck, fingers brushing the short hairs there. Bucky's woodsy cologne made him want to lean in closer. “So you’re, what, a princess locked away in a tower, slaving away under your cruel stepmother? And tonight you ran away to the ball?”

“I think you’re mixing your fairy tales up a bit, but pretty much,” Tony said ruefully. Bucky's fingers were moving in small circles on his waist, and it was incredibly distracting in the best way. Tony retaliated by raking his fingernails down the nape of Bucky's neck, relishing Bucky's sharp inhale and the way his eyes grew darker as they met Tony's.

“Well, obviously I’m no expert, but in most fairy tales I think there’s a curse that can only be lifted by a kiss from a handsome prince,” Bucky said, voice rough.

“Oh yeah?” Tony had to bite his lip to keep from smiling. “I have been feeling rather cursed lately.”

Bucky's eyes fell to Tony's mouth and he licked his lips. “I’d be glad to offer my services, if you think it will help.”

“Very generous of you. It can’t hurt to try, right?”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Tony glanced around the room, which had, if possible, gotten even more crowded. “So are you going to invite me somewhere a little more private?”

Bucky pulled away and laced his fingers in Tony’s. “I know just the place.”

“I hope it’s a coat closet,” Tony said as he followed Bucky through the crowd. “I’ve always wanted to make out in a coat closet.”

“Yeah, but people always get walked in on. Where I have in mind is better.” It only took two turns before the muted rumbled of the crowded ballroom faded away, but the hallways weren’t quite deserted. They walked for a few more minutes before Bucky finally stopped.

“A bathroom?” Tony said incredulously, seeing the discrete sign on the door.

“You have to check out this bathroom,” Bucky promised as he opened the door. Sure enough, as he hustled Tony inside Tony had to admit that it was a good spot. This was one of those restrooms that for some reason had a sitting room attached, with a fancy oriental carpet on the marble tile floor and couches that looked more fancy than comfortable. The stalls and sinks could barely be seen through a curtain on the other side of the room.

Tony turned around and laughed when he saw Bucky moving one of the couches in front of the door. “I like the way you think,” he said as he helped pull it into place so they couldn’t be interrupted.

“I like you,” Bucky said simply, sitting down and patting the space beside him. “Join me?”

Tony smiled. “I’ve got a better seat in mind,” he murmured, and climbed into Bucky’s lap, kneeling over him. “Is this okay?”

“More than,” he murmured, making a noise deep in his chest as Tony settled his weight on Bucky’s thighs. “Am I going to get to see your face?” He asked, cupping Tony’s jaw with his hand and tracing Tony’s cheek at the edge of the mask with his thumb.

Tony hmmmed thoughtfully and started to loosen his tie. “You know, I’m really enjoying this mysterious stranger vibe I’ve got going on,” he said, when what he really meant was I like not being Tony Stark for a while and I don’t want to ruin it. He held up his tie and said, “Do you mind?”

Bucky shrugged. “If it would make you feel more comfortable,” he said, fingers moving to trace the outline of Tony’s lips. “But, um, I gotta ask – this isn’t because you’re married or anything, right?”

“No, nothing like that, I promise,” Tony said, turning his head slightly to kiss Bucky’s fingers. “I’m just not ready to have the fairy tale be over yet.” At Bucky’s slight nod he draped the tie over Bucky’s eyes, tying it behind his head. When he was sure that Bucky couldn’t see, he untied his mask and set it on the couch. Bucky’s hand had drifted down to Tony’s chest, palm flat over his sternum; Tony wanted to lean into the warm weight of it, greedy for more.

He framed Bucky’s face in his hands and leaned down to brush his lips over Bucky’s, feeling Bucky’s soft sigh wash over his skin at the light contact. Bucky let his head fall back against the couch, seemingly content to let Tony set the pace. His hand smoothed over Tony’s ribs to his back, stroking up and down Tony’s spine as he pressed light kisses to Bucky’s mouth.

“It’s been so long since I’ve had something like this,” Bucky said softly, breath feathering against Tony's cheek.

“Me, too.” Tony suddenly wished he could see Bucky’s eyes, tempted to take the risk that Bucky would recognize him just for the chance to feel the sense of connection. “It’s like I’ve been drowning for months and this is my first breath of air.”

“I haven’t been with anyone since I lost my arm,” Bucky confessed. “Guys on the dating scene don’t seem to be thrilled about going out with a disabled veteran. And the ones that are…” Bucky shrugged. “They’re all weird about it.”

Tony snorted and kissed the corner of Bucky’s mouth. “The world is full of idiots and cowards. They must not have ever spoken to you.”

“No, that part was all you.” Bucky turned his head, chasing Tony’s mouth. “You’re easy to talk to, you make me feel charming.”

“Well, you’re my Prince Charming,” Tony said, and slanted his lips over Bucky’s. When Tony’s tongue came out to trace over the softness of Bucky’s lower lip, Bucky groaned and opened his mouth, chasing Tony’s tongue with his own. His hand tightened on Tony’s back, pulling him closer, making Tony moan when he realized Bucky was hard. He rocked against him, chasing the intoxicating pressure as Bucky’s tongue curled against his own, tasting faintly of champagne.

“Jesus,” Bucky said with a gasp, fingers curling to rake down Tony’s back. He huffed out a laugh. “I want to touch you all over but I only have one goddamn hand,” he complained.

Tony put his hand over Bucky’s and moved it down to cup his ass. “You can start here, if you want,” he said with a smile. “Since you were staring at it earlier.”

“I couldn’t help myself.” Bucky squeezed the rounded muscle under his hand. “Rarely have I seen a more perfect ass. These thighs, too.”

Tony’s laugh at that was a little breathless, because Bucky had moved his hand around to Tony’s hip, thumb stroking the inside of his thigh and making his blood sing. “Not fair,” he said, acutely aware of the place where Bucky kept idly stroking, teasingly close to where Tony’s erection was pressing against the front of his pants. He tugged at the thick fabric of Bucky’s dress jacket. “You might as well be wearing body armor.”

“Not everywhere,” Bucky said with a sly grin, pulling Tony down as he thrust his hips up. Tony bit back a gasp as the sensation of Bucky’s hardness against his own made his head spin. He felt his eyelids slide lower, getting drunk on the sensation as he rocked against Bucky. He pressed kisses to Bucky’s cheek, along the edge of the makeshift blindfold, before he found Bucky’s lips again. Bucky made a sound deep in his chest and his hand came up to cradle Tony’s head, fingers burying themselves in his thick hair, and held him still while he ravaged his mouth. For long minutes Tony's world narrowed to the warm glide of their lips and tongues, Bucky's hand on his body and the feel of his short, silky hair against his fingers, the tempting muscles and hardness between Tony's thighs.

Then a shrill beeping split the soft silence, making both of them jump.

“Goddammit,” Tony cursed against Bucky’s mouth, pulling away to find his phone.

“What’s that for?” Bucky said as soon as the alarm was silenced. Tony fumbled for his mask, sliding it on so that he could uncover Bucky’s eyes.

“I gotta go,” Tony said regretfully as he stood, trying to fix his clothes so he didn’t look too disheveled from Bucky's wandering hand. “I promised a friend we would leave at midnight.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Bucky got to his feet as well and tilted Tony’s chin up one more time to press a lingering kiss on his lips. “Am I going to see you again? So to speak?”

Tony paused, torn. Pepper had been absolutely right when she said he didn’t have the time or resources for a relationship right now, but Bucky was hot and sweet and funny and looking at him with so much hope in those beautiful gray eyes.

“I can’t make any promises,” he said finally. “But I do want to, so I’ll try, ok?”

“I understand,” Bucky said with a sad smile. He dug out a from his pocket, jotted down his cell phone number, and tucked it into Tony’s jacket. “My number is on there if you want it.”

Bucky watched Tony hustle out the door, tie still askew, and went to the mirrors to make sure his uniform was still regulation and his medals were straight. As he pushed the couch back to where it belonged, he felt his foot hit something on the floor.

“Uh oh,” he said, picking up Tony’s phone. Guess I’ll be seeing you again after all, he thought, feeling a bit guilty about how happy the prospect made him.

#winteriron #tony stark #bucky barnes #tony x bucky #tony stark bingo 2018 #prompt fill

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Star Trek: In Defense of Enterprise’s Worst Episode

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Don’t worry, this isn’t a defense of “These Are The Voyages.”* We’re here today to talk about the other “worst episode of Enterprise,” season two’s “A Night In Sickbay.”

“The episode that killed Star Trek.” “One of the worst episodes of the whole Star Trek franchise.” “Almost as bad as ‘These Are The Voyages.’” These and similar opinions of “A Night In Sickbay” are all over the Internet. The episode frequently appears on “worst episodes of all time” lists alongside “Spock’s Brain” from The Original Series and Star Trek: Voyager’s “Threshold.”

I have no intention of arguing that this is a great or outstanding episode of Star Trek – it’s not. But nor is it anything like as bad as those other two notorious examples. Does anyone turn into a lizard? No. Do any crew members abduct other crew members to have lizard sex with them? No. Does anyone’s brain get taken out and yet their body still, inexplicably, functions? No. It’s about time we went over a few of the more common complaints about this episode, to see if it really deserves its terrible reputation.

Complaint 1: Archer behaves like an idiot, and no trained diplomat should behave the way he does.

The episode’s events are kicked off when Archer takes his dog Porthos down to an alien planet on a sensitive diplomatic mission, and then gets upset when the aliens are insulted because the dog peed on one of their sacred trees, while poor Porthos nearly dies after coming into contact with an alien pathogen.

Viewers have complained that Archer’s behaviour in this episode is childish, that no “trained diplomat” should ever think it was appropriate to bring a dog on a sensitive visit, and that the episode makes the Captain look like an idiot. He spends most of the time railing at the aliens, the Kreetassans, avoiding taking any responsibility for what happened, and suggesting that he might refuse to apologise.

Bringing Porthos may not have been the brightest idea in the world, but it isn’t the act of total idiocy critics have made it out to be either. Archer himself points out repeatedly that they told the Kreetassans he was planning on bringing Porthos, and the Kreetassans said nothing about their sacred trees, plus they endangered Porthos’ life by not running proper checks on his genome. Should Archer have known better than to try to bring the dog with him at all, considering an alien species may not understand the nature of the dog-human relationship? Yes, and T’Pol tells him as much in the episode. Is he completely irredeemably stupid for thinking that he’d taken appropriate precautions and wanting to give his dog some exercise? No.

Archer’s reactions are also aggravated by the fact that the Kreetassans are, to put it mildly, gigantic pains in the backside. In their previous encounter, in the first season episode Vox Sola, the Kreetassans took offense because the Enterprise crew ate in front of them, which they consider vulgar. Except the crew didn’t just turn up to their planet touting takeaway – they were eating in their mess hall on their own ship. You know, the room set aside specifically for eating, an important social activity in Earth culture. The Kreetassans’ reaction is ridiculous and made worse by their reluctance to explain the problem, a reluctance they show again in this episode. Sure, Archer should grow up and get over it, but his frustration, while unprofessional, is very human.

It’s also worth bearing in mind the title of the episode – this takes place over the course of a sleepless night during which Archer is afraid Porthos is dying. He is stressed, emotional, and on edge, and he’s lashing out. By morning (and with Porthos thankfully having survived) he has cooled down and started behaving more appropriately again. And none of Archer’s complaints are actually communicated to the Kreetassans – he’s sounding off to his crew and his colleagues about a frustrating situation. He may not be the world’s best diplomat, but there are real life diplomats guilty of worse offences.

Complaint 2: Archer shouldn’t be whining so much about his dog.

How you feel about this one is going to depend partly on how you feel about dogs, or about pets in general. As a person who has slept in the lounge to watch over and comfort a sick dog, I have every sympathy with how Archer feels. If my dog is sick, you can bet I’m not at my best at work, especially if I’ve also had very little sleep. Archer’s way of explaining this, calling Porthos “my beagle, my pal”, may be a cringe-worthy way to put it, but those of us with “subservient quadrupeds” at home really are very attached to them.

Incidentally, given that Phlox’s bizarre treatment for Porthos involves drowning and reviving him, this episode initiates the dog into the grand tradition of Star Trek episodes that “kill” main characters only to bring them back to life again.

Complaint 3: Archer’s romantic feelings for T’Pol come out of nowhere and aren’t convincing.

While many viewers consider Archer’s romantic feelings for T’Pol in this episode to be a one-off story thread that was never picked up again, this is actually the end of a slight romantic thread between the two of them that started in season one, but largely fizzled out afterwards. Archer’s defence of T’Pol in “Fusion” could be assumed to be no more than a Captain protecting a member of his crew, but as well as several aside glances over the first season, they snuggle up together under a blanket in “The Andorian Incident”; in “Fallen Hero,” Vulcan ambassador V’Lar tells them she sees a “great bond” of “friendship” between them, and in “Shockwave Part 1,” T’Pol tells Archer she has his back. That may not sound like much, but in 90s Trek terms, that was practically a relationship.

The suggestion of an Archer/T’Pol romance would come up once more, in season three’s “Twilight.” Nothing to do with sparkly vampires, this episode had originally been suggested as a romantic storyline between Captain Janeway and First Officer Chakotay on Star Trek: Voyager, a couple who flirted mercilessly for seven years before Chakotay was inexplicably paired with Seven of Nine at the last minute. Re-written for Captain Archer and his First Officer, this episode is often considered one of Enterprise’s best – so it’s not the sexual tension between Archer and T’Pol itself that is the issue with “A Night In Sickbay,” merely the sloppy execution.

The main reason the idea of a romance between the two has such a poor reputation is that the way it’s brought up here feels rather strange, with Phlox insisting Archer’s concern for his dog is actually stress caused by underlying sexual tension, and some very dubious “Polarian slips” (“the breast I can,” really? With poor Jolene Blalock in that catsuit?). It’s true that the dream sequence in which Porthos’ funeral becomes a romantic moment between Archer and T’Pol, followed by yet more sexy “decontamination”, is rather silly, but it is just a dream. No one mated with each other and had lizard babies, and dreams are often weird – it’s not that bad a scene.

But the idea in itself isn’t inherently terrible – T’Pol and Archer do work well together and she is an obviously attractive woman. However, when she calmly tells Archer any kind of relationship would be inappropriate he does the right thing and moves on, and that’s the end of that. It’s a simple story of an attraction at work that isn’t pursued.

Complaint 4: The humor doesn’t work.

Some of the episode’s bad reputation is the result of its attempts at humour. The opening panning shot across Hoshi “decontaminating” T’Pol, who is “decontaminating” Archer, who is “decontaminating” Porthos, is presumably meant to be funny. The problem is, the exploitative “decontamination” scenes are so problematic in general, it just isn’t very funny, but rather makes it seem like the show is trying to sexualize the dog.

Similarly, the daft sequence at the end of the episode, where Archer has to go through a bizarre ritual in order to apologise to the Kreetassans, is a simple case of humour gone wrong. It’s too silly, his hairdo is bizarre, and it makes no sense. But again, no one turns into a lizard, or randomly picks a fight with some cavemen. It’s not great, but it’s hardly the worst Star Trek has to offer.

The main sources of humour in the episode are, of course, Phlox’s various shenanigans overnight in sickbay. He trims his toenails, he brushes his tongue, he and Archer chase a bat around. If you don’t find any of that funny, then sure, you may find the episode grating. Perhaps I just have a terrible sense of humour, but what can I say – I thought it was funny. Judging by this episode’s Hugo nomination, I’m not the only one.

This episode is sometimes accused of having “killed Star Trek” and blamed for Enterprise’s dwindling viewing figures and eventual cancellation. It’s true that it has flaws and it won’t be bothering any “Best Of” lists. But it doesn’t deserve its place on all the ‘Worst Of’ lists either. It’s a good chance to get to know Phlox a bit better, a fascinating and genuinely alien character who didn’t get the spotlight often enough. The interaction between Phlox and Archer here is genuinely fun to watch. It’s light and fluffy and silly, and maybe that’s not your bag, but that doesn’t make it bad. It shows Archer at his worst, at his most childish and petulant, but how can we really get to know any character without seeing them at their lowest? By the end of the episode, he has regained his sense of duty and is fulfilling his role as normal once again. He had a bad night – so do we all, sometimes. It’s about time we cut him, and this episode, some slack.

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*Though if that was a season finale, rather than a series finale, and if it hadn’t killed off a major character, it really wouldn’t be that bad either.

The post Star Trek: In Defense of Enterprise’s Worst Episode appeared first on Den of Geek.

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