#he doesn’t even prioritize his wives
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so much of watching house is just seeing Wilson be a terrible husband and serial man whore as a way to overcompensate for definitely being gay
#i mean I guess he could be bi but PLEASE#he’s overcompensating#that’s why he gets married so quick and divorced so quick#he doesn’t fight for his marriages#he doesn’t even prioritize his wives#of course there are women he loves but that doesn’t mean it’s romantic#no less significant#hate crimes md#james wilson#hilson
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demon slayer hcs: the hashira men as boyfriends
characters: tengen, sanemi, giyuu, rengoku, muichiro, obanai
AN: i don’t write for gyomei srry
TENGEN
- this isn’t just a little fling
-mans doesn’t wanna be ur bf
-he wants to be your HUSBAND
- and he’s gonna make that happen ASAP
- and when y’all get married you’re not just getting a husband
- ur getting 3 wives too
- it’s a package deal
- overprotective!!
- the way he made his wives promise to prioritize their lives over the mission
- my heart was bursting
- carries u around
- when tengen is around ur feet hardly ever touch the floor
- doesn’t matter how big or tall u are
- he’s bigger and taller
-he's big all over if ykyk
-nicknames include: sweetheart, princess, baby
- and don’t think he’s saying those to be cute
- he’s absolutely mocking you
-which brings me to…
- this man teases the HELL out of you
- but with love
- he loves you just as much as he loves his wives
- in his mind ur alrdy married
- and he is NOT letting you go
- or letting any harm come to you as long as he can help it
- 4 lifer fr
- id marry him
SANEMI
-i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again
-he’d tear it UP
-and i’d let him
- loves you so much
- doesn’t show it in public
- but in private?
- clingy as fUck
- he’s like ur shadow fr
- will follow u around all day
- hands on ur waist
- arm around ur shoulder
- holding ur hand
- he will not let go of u when ur alone
- in public he’s a lot less touchy
- but he will still stand near you
- jealous af
- every slayer knows by now to stay tf away from you or face the wrath of the wind pillar
- you belong to him
- makes sure they know it
- makes sure you know it
-hickey MASTER
-no i will not elaborate
- everybody knows sanemi is a little rough around the edges
- so there are days when it’s hard for him to open up to you
- but he does try
- he’s got a reputation to keep up!
-gotta act tough
-no weaknesses!!
- except for u
-he’s so soft for u he can’t help it
- nicknames: dumbass, idiot, & feather (my personal favorite)
-like i said he is almost always physically connected to u in some way when ur alone
-ignore him? he's throwing u over his shoulder
-he's strong he can manhandle u all over the place
-sheeeeeshhhhh manhandle me however u want sir
-claims ur super light no matter ur size
-hence the nickname "feather"
-i love him
GIYUU
-ik damn well this man had EVERONE in a chokehold from the first second he showed up
-speaking of chokeholds... ;)
-put me in one pls sir
-anyways
-awkward as fuck
-but he tries for u
-terrible with physical affection
-but we all know he's SOOO touch starved
-you'll have to initiate any type of physical touch
-and make sure he's not uncomfortable
-but really there's nothing he wants more than to touch you
-takes a very long time to say "i love you"
-but can u blame him??
-every good thing the poor man has ever had has been ripped away from him :(
-because of this he's veryyyy protective
-cause he'll be damned if the last person he has that accepts him and loves him for all he is
-is hurt or killed
-100% will die for u without a second thought
-not really a nickname type of guy
-remember he's awkward as hell
-most you'll get is a "-chan" attached to ur name
-and even that is only when y'all are alone
-but still
-even if he doesn't always show it
-you are always on his mind
-he's on a mission and walking through a market?
-he's buying you a hairpin or som
-walking through a forest and sees some flowers?
-"i wonder if she'll like these"
-AND HE'S PICKING U A BOUQUET
-ugh soft for bf giyuu
RENGOKU
-sunshine boy!!!
- epitome of golden retriever boyfriend
-all smiles all the time
-follows u around like lost puppy
-shows off for u
-yk when ur around kids and they're like "watch this" and then they jump and spin a circle lmao
-thats him
-"did you see what i just did?!"
-if u didnt...
-he's doing it again
-wants to impress you so bad
-also you will never have to lift a finger in his presence
-service bf!!
-you need the dishes washed and the floor swept?
-he's on it
-you need help styling ur hair?
-welcome to rengoku's hair salon
-will attempt to dress you in the morning
-and by dress you, i mean he's tugging ur shirt over ur head
-zipping up ur pants
-and tying ur shoes
-brags about you to anyone and everyone
-the other hashira can't have a single conversation with him without him bringing you up somehow
-compliments compliments compliments!!!
-he loves you and isn't afraid to show it
-nicknames from him: my love, my beautiful girl, sweetheart
-constantly confessing his love
-also lowkey speaks poetry for u
-some shit like
-"my light in the darkness, the one who gives me strength, you set my heart ablaze just by allowing me the privilege of seeing your smile"
-ugh he's the sweetest baby
MUICHIRO
-my airheaded angel baby
-i love him sm stop
-baby boy has a terrible memory
-that we alrdy knew
-but!
-he tries so hard for you
-keeps a little journal with notes and information about you
-so if he forgets he can remind himself over and over
-when he's on missions away from you he reads it so he can think about you to pass the time
-can not and will not remember anniversaries
-unless they're written in that journal
-will pick u flowers
-hope ur not allergic cause he's not gonna remember that
-but it's the thought that counts
-the fact that he's thinking about you at all counts
-you wanna go on a date?
-your dates consist of watching the clouds and taking naps together
-maybe a picnic if ur lucky
-no nicknames from him
-he calls you by your name
-its all he can remember
-he's the cutest
OBANAI
-like sanemi, he's a lot less affectionate in public
-however, he's not afraid to express his thoughts about you
-at least not to the other hashira
-might not be glued to your side
-but he's got eyes on u at all times
-and someone is talking about you?
-the second he hears ur name leave somebodies mouth
-he's tuned in
-and they better not say anything negative either
-mans turns murderous
-they will wake up to a snake in their bed
-will prob threaten them within an inch of their life
-don't have to worry abt other people while he's around
-cause he's got everything
-and i mean EVERYTHING taken care of
-protective but not pushy
-i feel like obanai trusts you and your ability to handle yourself
-but thats not gonna stop him from watching over you
-you're not drinking enough water?
-here comes obanai with a cup and u better drink it all
-haven't had lunch yet?
-he's sharing his with you. and will force feed u if need be.
-on a mission with him?
-he's not gonna push u behind him or anything
-but nothing is gonna get the chance to bring any harm to you either
-he's got ur back
-he's pretty vanilla with the nicknames
-nothing too crazy
-especially in public
-mostly uses ur first name
-might add a "-chan" in there every once in a while
-when ur alone he'll call you "sweetie"
-acts like a hard ass
-but he's soft for u
#demon slayer#anime#demon slayer x reader#kny x reader#kimetsu no yaiba x reader#giyuu x reader#obanai x reader#sanemi x reader#muichiro x reader#rengoku x reader#tengen x reader#tengen uzui#giyuu tomioka#obanai iguro#muichiro tokito#rengoku kyojuro
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the levels of repression in both house and wilson…yet they are opposite of one another. house routinely makes gay innuendos (whether sexual and/or romantic) towards wilson, yet wilson doesn’t take him serious at all.
and this constant rejection from wilson is both a buoy as well as a giant wall. house pushes their relationship time and time again. wilson refuses to let the nature of it change. house brings up a romantic getaway, wilson shoots him down. house sabotages wilson moving out, wilson doesn’t stay. house allows himself to be The Other Woman regardless of how bonnie or wilson’s other ex-wives feel. in a way, it boosts his ego and makes him feel special. he is allowed to have wilson in this way.
amber is an extension of house; she is house in a woman’s body. house can accept it because he has expressed before that if wilson were a woman, they would’ve been married already. so why can’t the same be true for wilson? let him find a woman version of house. house loves wilson so much that he goes into a risky surgery to try and save amber. this is his Place simply because wilson and him cannot escape the confines of compulsive heterosexuality.
and it is compulsive. wilson never feels good enough or secure enough in a relationship outside of his and house’s. he cheats, he lies, he manipulates. all because at his core, wilson’s insecurities render him into a selfish person. he has affairs and he prioritizes house over his wives, because he doesn’t feel like his own wants/needs are met by his wives. or that they should/deserve to be met. he doesn’t know how to communicate them!! he maybe even feels guilty for having them. because even to house, he communicates these desires in metaphors or pranks or whatever other indirect way he sees fit. but the difference between house and his wives is that wilson has no tangible, legal sense of obligation to house. if house doesn’t meet his expressed needs, fuck him!! they don’t owe anything to each other!! the rejection will sting less.
wilson chases women on such a compulsive level that it’s nearly a reaction to whatever house has done. it’s affair after affair. wilson moves in with his patient during the time house is on a ketamine treatment. house, his patient who seemingly no longer needs vicodin. no longer needs him. if wilson is no longer needed, he parasites to the next host. why? because he doesn’t know who he is on his own. why? because he has trouble expressing his own core needs as a person. and as a result, these core (repressed) needs seep out sideways.
so why threaten this sense of safety he gets with keeping house at a platonic level? if they were to entangle into a relationship, wilson would be wrapped under an Obligation Gauze. there is a fear he’d lose house because, historically, all of his relationships end in loss. because, historically, he cannot express his needs to his partners due to his fear of rejection.
and then wilson becomes terminal. and then death becomes bigger than an anxious fear of loss/rejection.
“i need you to tell me that you love me.”
wilson, my brother in christ. house cannot say those words to you because for all the years you’ve known him, you’ve denied him it. the only way house can tell you that he loves you is by burning his home down and faking his death. he is nothing without you. you know it as well as he does. these things remain unspoken because that is the way you’ve molded the relationship to be.
wilson has house on a leash. house runs as far out as possible until the leash yanks him back. when wilson finally trusts house enough to let him go off-leash, house is too conditioned to act as expected.
and this conditioning in house is not just wilson’s doing. it’s primarily house’s own doing. his own self-loathing chains him to wilson’s side. as an addict, yes, but also as a support system. house hates himself so viscerally that it affects every interpersonal relationship he has, including with wilson. but wilson never, ever leaves no matter how bad it gets.
also. who else other than wilson gives him a sense of bodily autonomy? not stacy, not cuddy, not his fellows. wilson doesn’t pity him. wilson enables him. wilson lies for him. house will selfishly keep wilson forever because wilson is all he reliably has.
so house can push and prod wilson into gay romantic/sexual innuendos, but when wilson yanks that leash, he’ll drop it. it’s a buoy for reality checking where he is with wilson. it’s a giant wall for enabling his self-hatred thought process that even his boy best friend has limitations to his love for him (or at least what is acceptable). addict line of thinking.
they both eat each other up like an ouroboros. where does wilson’s repression end and house’s begin?
#is this making sense????? it’s after midnight and i’m. a little tipsy while writing this lmao#wilson is Deny Deny Deny (internal) while house is Deny Deny Deny (external)#house md#hilson
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“you have 3 WIVES and a HUSBAND?!”
what it’s like being uzui’s husband!reader with his wives!
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╔══ஓ๑♡๑ஓ══╗
◆ greetings, my lovely lotuses! thank you so much for all 97 votes! with the winning option on my poll, uzui and his 3 wives & husband, please enjoy♡〜
there are no warnings, my dear lotus.
reader is male.❀ 〜
a/n : i had a feeling these headcanons would win the poll, especially since it seems unique〜 apologies if these may come out as short !
╚══ஓ๑♡๑ஓ══╝
ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚ ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚
ooo… such a beautiful relationship〜!
being tengen’s husband… such a delightful thing..
mainly because you have a loving husband AND loving wives♡
with a side of chaos due to makio and suma, never a boring day
as the second man, it’ll be a semi-unspoken rule to help tengen out with the ladies, to help balance things out.
he’s outnumbered by women, after all〜
and they would certainly help you out too! with anything as well, they wouldn’t mind.
you most likely met tengen by being a shinobi or demon slayer. especially since the wives are kunoichi.
they all wouldn’t treat you no different from how they treat each other, and they all say “i love you” in their own way♡
“my flamboyant m/n.. you returned back to me after your mission, and saved countless of lives. you’re a very strong man, im very proud of you.” (pats head)
“i appreciate the things you do for me, so i helped you out with things you needed done today. i wanted to return the favor for you, m/n.♡”
“m/n, m/n!!!! i’m so glad you’re back, why didn’t you return sooner?! do you know how worried you had me?! i was trying not to think of your grave so soon!!!”
“i said i didn’t need any help with the laundry, you know!!!! i could’ve done it myself, it was my job, not yours, m/n!!! ..but thanks.”
the wives love to do your hair, cook with you, talk about their day, and absolutely love to cuddle!♡
tengen would love gift you things with meaning, do small things for you that you forgot, making jokes and teasing you, talking about anything while you two cook for the wives, and love to cuddle too!♡
sometimes the wives forget theres only one of you, so coming home from a mission with all of them ecstatic to see you.. can be a bit overwhelming.
tengen to the rescue!
tengen would usually step in and calm them down, and the five of you would reunite once again in peace〜
he would also be very excited about being put on missions with you!
he’d protect you with his life, and would internally melt if you protected him. even while he tells you to prioritize your life over his♡
on times where you, tengen and the wives all go on missions together, it’s quite fun, and you all feel safer together than apart.
the hashiras may never hear the end of his flamboyant husband, and he’d constantly boast about you! even if you’re right next to him.. he doesn’t care.
i know for a fact rengoku will tell tengen, “you have too many spouses!” my, my rengoku
he wouldn’t mind rengokus jokes, because he knows you’re happy with him and he’s happy with you!
he absolutely adores the fact that you and the wives bond so well, the wives loves you way more than he thought they would!
of course not in a bad way. it makes him feel so happy inside, a very soft feeling of comfort.
if someone ever wronged you, you best believe you’d have four people behind you ready to fight! and since you love them, you’ll fight for them too.
you all have each others backs, no matter the circumstance of any kind, and would go unmeasurable lengths for one another.
such a true strong bond of mutual love and trust. nothing and no one will be able to separate you all♡
ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚ ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚
wow, wow…. this took way longer than i expected!! lotuses, my heavy apologies, i’ve been busy with other things. surprisingly this was a little hard to write, and brung out a side in me that i didn’t know existed of being a uzui fan… thank you for your patience, my precious flowers❀
psps… send requests〜!
#demon slayer#kimetsu no yaiba#kny#uzui tengen#tengen uzui#tengen x reader#kny tengen#tengen x male reader#uzui x reader#uzui x you#uzui kny#makio uzui#suma uzui#hinatsuru uzui#kny makio#kny hinatsuru#kny suma#uzui wives#hinatsuru x reader#makio x reader#suma x reader#male reader#doudouma
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Obanai x chubby gn reader!!
This won third place in the poll so here you go<3 enjoy kny/obanai stans!! I actually like obanai very much he’s one of my favs from kny i just don’t talk abt him often
also just for the record let’s say this is a au where obanai and mitsuri are close friends :)
In this you’ll be a hashira as well
I don’t think Obanai is one to judge
especially when he wears bandages since people do
if anything he’s worrying about his looks
so in this case it’s not that he dislikes it, it’s just that he saw through your physical appearance and went for personality
and if you have a crappy one?
well then he doesn’t know what draws him to you but somethin’ does!
he tolerates no disrespect from anyone.
like we all know how sharp tongued he is- 😜
and just because he’s one of the “weaker” hashira’s doesn’t mean he’s not one!
he is DEFINITELY above average and CAN do damage
so somebody would be a FOOL to see you with him and decide to screw around and find out
as well as you!!
your strong too!
and they’d better have respect for you!
getting one tapped by two hashiras don’t sound very fun to me..
🤷♀️
but yeah if someone is like drunk off they’re end and tries to insult or harass you?!
obanai steps in before you can even do something yourself
depending on the level of what they said or did,
he either flames them so bad they can’t recover
or straight up punches them
maybe even beating them up
who’s going to stop him? The police? 😂
he calls it self defense
tbh it was like, that person was harassing you????
🤨
bro thought he was gon let that slide
this why you can’t pull up on everybody 🤦♀️
anyway if your feeling sad bc of what someone says
obanai gets you a gift to make you feel better
He’s really thoughtful and pays attention/remembers everything you tell him you like
which makes perfect gifts for situations like these
ngl this is like idk the year 1500?? IDK BUT ITS THE TAISHO ERA SO THIS WAS A WHILE AGO
which means beauty standards were 📈📈
but for obanai? You ARE his beauty standard 😍😍
everyone should strive to look like our majestic (name)!!
as far as the hashira’s opinions☝️
they don’t mind at all and are completely nonjudgmental
gyomei can’t see so when y’all described how you look it doesn’t necessarily make a difference 😅 although, again he doesn’t mind :)
mitsuri is literally the love hashira she adores you just as much as obanai does <3
shinobu is more mature than to make fun of someone over they’re appearance
now tokito will either
1) be rude at first (the hashira’s have to set him straight)
2) won’t care
3) likes you from jump so he doesn’t mind
sanemi would never judge a women like that (if you know what he did for mitsuri and shinobu and they’re uniforms yk what I mean)
Giyuu is completely unfazed
Rengoku loves you all the same
now uzui…….bc of his standards and 3 wives….it can either go one of two ways
1) him and obanai are now mortal enemies and he keeps you away from him
2) he thinks your THICC and FINE 💖 (dis one better fr)
Ngl it’s even worse if a demon insults you
bc now he gets to KILL them
He goin all out too
who are they to talk anyway demons be the most horrendous looking BEASTS-
fluff time~ 💕💗💖♥︎♡
obanai loves to cuddle!
he’s shy but once you get sometime into the relationship he likes gentle and intimate affections such as cuddling, hugging & hand holding
he holds you in his arms before falling asleep
and he makes sure you sleep first
If you have a nightmare he’s on it!
he’s got water, blankets, comfort food…what else you need??
on it! 🏃💨
That’s literally him
he’s always prioritizing your comfort and happiness in your relationship ★
Get this to the obanai stans, tumblr!! Go go go!!
;3 - Brook
#anime#anime and manga#luffyvace#anime headcanons#fluff headcanons#fluff#kny headcanons#kny x reader#kny#kimetsu no yaiba#demon slayer#kny x gender neutral reader#kny x you#kny x g/n reader#x gn reader#gn reader#chubby reader#x chubby reader#x plus size reader#plus size reader#kny x chubby reader#obanai x reader#kny obanai#obanai iguro#demon slayer obanai#obanai x you#iguro obanai#demon slayer iguro#iguro x reader#kny iguro
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When I saw your fic about shinobu having to hide her wisteria plan, I halfway expected it to be like that one giyuushino post about giyuu misunderstanding it to shinobu being pregnant and offering to take responsibility for her ‘baby daddy’ and her going along it. I guess my question would be how possible would that plan work out till someone asks why she doesn’t have a baby bump, excluding kaguya figuring it out long before anyone else
This Ask is in reference to my pre-canon fic which was written as canon compliant as possible while still giving myself space for indulgent Pillar interactions, as well as an AU that started as a silly joke but then became my indulgent ship outlet.
And you’re asking me to combine these two into one indulgent crossover? Well then, with your permission, I shall indulge!
To set the stage, in the aforementioned fic, Shinobu has just started her wisteria poison intake, but she was over-ambitious and gave herself severe side effects, like fainting at the end of a Pillar Meeting, so all the Pillars take a turn trying to be supportive (in some cases succeeding, in other cases… hm.) In this fic, Giyuu noticed something was off before she fainted, and his way of offering support is visiting. As usual, he doesn’t talk much.
In the AU, Giyuu and Shinobu got married sometime after Giyuu’s encounter with the Kamado siblings. They are Pillars first and spouses second, and their marriage is so low-key even if many of the Pillars have some awareness that they are married people, they haven’t all figured out that they are married to each other, as their professional interactions remain much the same. Later in that AU, Giyuu is certain something is off. Even though they didn’t plan on having children while acting as Pillars, just an empty “maybe someday” thing, Giyuu assumes her condition is due to pregnancy, and he doesn’t talk about it but feels driven to be protective of her and the baby, only to have his growing hopes dashed by Kanao telling him the truth later. (What happened to my happy fun silly AU??)
So then in a combination of these two AUs (and this combo is meant to be funny, it’ll only sting a little) the moment Shinobu faints, every Pillar who knows she’s a married woman automatically assumes it’s pregnancy, except Giyuu. He just wants to know why his wife has fainted but is so stuck on the “we aren’t having kids for a long time, if ever” mindset that he’s the only one not to jump to this conclusion—for now?
Uzui disapproves of Shinobu continuing to work in that condition, and puts pressure on Giyuu to make her stay put at home. Giyuu, not knowing what Uzui is insinuating, snaps back that Shinobu is a Pillar. Uzui is impressed with Giyuu’s faith in her, and he feels vague inadequacy for how he prioritizes his wives’ lives over his own Pillar work. In the end, though, Uzui would rather be an inadequate Pillar than an inadequate husband.
Okay, so, Pillar reactions:
Himejima is happy for them and secretly a little excited to see the baby, babies are cuddly and warm like cats after all, and he hopes this will be what makes Shinobu retire. When she does not, he fears what her stubbornness will do to her both in the long and short run. Namu Amida Butsu.
Rengoku, having jumped to a conclusion at some point that Shinobu is one of Uzui’s wives, makes a mental note to congratulate Uzui, which he never gets around to. He finds himself amused, wondering if a child between the two of them may wind up of perfectly average size and strength.
Iguro, despite vaguely knowing that both Shinobu and Giyuu have spouses, does not yet know that they are together. He’s concerned for Shinobu’s wellbeing, but ultimately finds the whole topic much too awkward to eloquently voice any concerns. It flusters him so much, in fact, that in this AU of an AU, Mitsuri might even get a misunderstanding about Iguro liking Shinobu (how tragic, though, seeing as she’s already married).
Although in the original version of this Low-Key Married AU, Iguro is the one to inform Mitsuri that their colleagues are married so that she can avoid further embarrassing herself, let’s say that in this version she knows Shinobu is married to Giyuu but is under the impression that it’s supposed to be a secret, having totally misread Shinobu’s request to keep it ‘low-key.’ This adds to the tragic drama surrounding Iguro’s affection for Shinobu, he’s going to be even more heartbroken when he knows she’s carrying the child of another man! While Mitsuri is full of pity for Iguro and a drive to take care of him in his heartbreak, as she knows what let-down is like (but also, why does this sense of pity sting so much and feel sort of ugly??), she is also constantly concerned about Shinobu. Even if she’s doing her best to keep Shinobu’s secret, she’d be the only constantly asking her how she feels and if she needs anything and whispering excitedly to ask if she feels any kicking. Shinobu diplomatically and truthfully responds that she has indigestion.
Muichiro does not know where he got this impression, but he’s accepted as fact that Shinobu is unwell because she’s tired from taking care of a nest of hungry baby birds.
Kagaya knows everything. Shinobu told him about the poison, but she hasn’t told Giyuu and she wants Kagaya’s help keeping Giyuu in the dark about it, there’s no need to get Giyuu involved or make him unnecessarily upset about her death in advance. After all, they entered this arrangement as two Pillars, supporting each other in whatever Pillar duty requires of them. While Kagaya feels bad for Giyuu and has told her he thinks she’s overestimated how okay with this Giyuu will be in the end, he finds the fact that everyone assumes she’s pregnant kind of hilarious and wholeheartedly offers his help.
“I’ll have my most trusted Kakushi supply you with a growing array of fake bellies. And I’ve got the perfect excuse for when you need to stop going on active missions! You see, there’s this demon named Ta—”
“I’m not stopping any active missions; I have demons out there to kill.”
“...but… but pregnancy was going to be the excuse…”
“While it’s a convenient excuse for now while I’m still getting used to the side effects, I don’t need any of the drama from when a fake pregnancy ends. That’s why any time someone brings it up I smile and remind that it’s a private matter between me and my husband.”
“Thereby leading them deeper into believing…”
“No! Because it is a private matter. Tomioka-san and I have already discussed this. We’ve both accepted it’s not likely to ever happen for us. The last thing I need is for any word of this to get to him”
“Because he would be sappy and excited, wouldn’t he?”
“Please, Oyakata-sama, we both know my husband isn’t—” she tries to deny him but the sheer sense of guilt for lying even a little bit to Oyakata-sama makes her blood pressure dip again and she faints.
When she wakes up, Amane is with her and assures her she’s heard everything and is there is help. “My husband tells me you’re looking for help in making convincing pregnancy symptoms to distract from what you’re really up to.”
“I… never wanted to go that far, but I suppose if it’s an order from Oyakata-sama… “
“The first thing is to make an assumption how far along you are. Hmm,” she says, peering narrowly at Shinobu. “And how many you’re carrying.”
“Zero.”
“It doesn’t hurt to have some imagination. Shall we be conservative and say two?”
“One is fine.”
“Boy or girl?”
“Why would that… fine. It’s a boy.”
“Have you picked out a name?”
“Not ‘Tanjiro.’”
“Still thinking then. Given your size, how long the two of you have been together, and the particular symptoms you’re wishing to conceal, let’s assume you’re still very early. Maybe you don’t even know yet. Maybe you’re so used to your period being late due to the stress of training that you haven’t even considered the possibility.”
“Nevermind all that. Rather than faking a whole pregnancy, is there some way to accentuate extra weight and curves to lead people to make their own false impression? As opposed to all the trouble of a convincing lie. Nothing that would make Tomioka-san notice anything amiss.”
At this, Amane’s eyes looked distant. Shinobu braces herself for a lecture about the meaning of marriages and necessity for total openness between spouses, and Amane would be the sort of person with a right to chide her for a naïve commitment, but then Amane says, “Trying to keep your figure for your husband? You have so much to learn. You’ll be bigger than you ever imagined.”
“To be fair, Amane-sama, in your case—”
“My ankles? They were swollen out to here.”
“This is seeming less and less conducive to my demon slaying missions. If you’ll excuse me, I—”
She stands up, too quickly, and as she comes tumbling down her gut is whirling. Amane catches her by the shoulders and guides her to the garden to expel the contents of her stomach. It’s as Shinobu is inwardly groaning to herself about this new side effect and listing off what medicines she should concoct to keep it under control that Amane assures her sympathetically that she understands, “morning sickness” is a misnomer because it is all-day sickness.
Shinobu decides to get out of future advice sessions with Amane and continue to let everyone assume what they will, she won’t play in or out of it, though this whole time Kagaya is “accidentally” leaving clues. However, when asked outright, “omigosh, I knew it, how is Shinobu-chan, is she doing okay!?!? When is she due!?!?” he always smiles and sayings, “I really can’t say.” However, when talking to Giyuu, Kagaya is more gentle and reminds him to spend quality time with his wife.
So anyway, that could potentially go on for months, maybe with Giyuu vehemently shutting down any congratulations with a deadpan, “I’m not a father.” (And wow, Mitsuri would toooootally take this the wrong way. Surely it’s not Iguro-san, who in his broken heart keeps such distance from Shinobu?), but eventually with Shinobu reaching more of a state of normalcy and not showing any additional signs, the others forget about it, assume they had been mistaken all along, or that their worst fears came true and it’s not their place to talk about it. Shinobu prefers not knowing who thought what, although at one point Rengoku sees that Uzui and Shinobu happen to be standing next to each other and he says, “my condolences,” and they have no idea why.
What brings Shinobu the most relief is that this hasn’t really changed anything between herself and Giyuu, as he does put such trust in her as a Pillar that he never questions her own judgement about her limitations. Even when, much, much later, he does find himself unable to quell the nagging sense that something isn’t right with her health (really, it’s that she’s showing signs of distress about her end being near and about the research with Tamayo), he never tells her to stop any of her Pillar duties but volunteers for a lot of missions and unconscious comes off a bit cold. It’s all his way of expressing protectiveness and going out to face danger so she won’t have to, though Shinobu misreads it as him knowing about Tamayo and volunteering for missions she’d usually take so as to help keep her cover, but it’s also possible he’s angry that she’s cooperating with a demon. But who is he to get worked up about that, when he’s the one who let Nezuko live and hid her existence for so long? But that is another issue in their relationship they haven’t quite worked out yet.
Neither of them talk enough, really.
#GiyuuShino#GiyuShino#Giyuu x Shinobu#my fics#kind of#KnY fix it Au#kiiiiiind of#Kochou Shinobu#Kocho Shinobu#Tomioka Giyu#Tomioka Giyuu#Ubuyashiki Kagaya#Ubuyashiki Amane#GiyuShino Low Key Married AU
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ok ok imo there was defo some planning to the bees becoming canon and to deny that is kinda silly to me. that doesn’t mean that planning and eventual execution was good.
•Yang losing her arm is apparently a “sign of her love for Blake” because of that line Adam had in V3? …I thought y’all despised his ass, when did we start believing a word that came out of his mouth??
•On that note, paralleling the two, when the latter was literally the abuser of the former’s current gf, is…..😬
•Also on that note, the objective infantilizing of Blake. All she really does now is whimper and be meek around Yang until another “bee moment” or until the plot remembers to use her for something. Yes, because turning this once feisty character into this shy nervous little meow meow who can’t even fight on her own anymore after she’s revealed to have been an abuse victim is totally not gross.
•Yang prioritizes her new GF over her little sister who is clearly in a horrible headspace, and when she finally breaks down, instead of attempting to calm her down or console her she steps in front of a COWERING BLAKE and just says “Hey!”. YOU TWO ARE BOTH OLDER THAN HER WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE THIS
•The scene in which they finally confess was literally forced out of them by a storm. I…I thought we learned to not do this? Guys? Um…
•The 10 year queerbaiting smugly disguised as “planned from the start uwu” that Voltron Legendary Fucking Defender wishes it could have achieved. Does that mean it was always planned that you’d write your hatesink character to have been a branded child slave? Does that mean it was always planned that you’d write the confession of these two’s love for each other to have been forced out of them? Does that mean it was always planned that you’d confirm your main queer couple two episodes before said couple did nothing to save their 17 year old leader from taking her own life on screen?
•Saying the quiet part out loud when an employee tweeted that “The bee kiss alone hopefully green lights V10.”
•Also, the immediate merchandising of it. Ugh.
Before I go on, no I do not believe the bees were “forced diversity”. No I do not believe Adam was killed to push it (he was killed because the writers wanted a quick way for people to forget how abhorrently racist this show fucking got anyways). No I do not believe this is a bad pairing, and if you accuse me of being an [insert hetero Blake/Yang ship here], I ship fucking Monochrome and Thundercats, dude.
But what about the rest of this show’s LGBT representation? Is it any b
No.
•Our first on screen rep is in the form of Ilia. I really like Ilia, genuinely, she’s honestly one of my favorite characters. But why did they write their first lesbian character in the “psycho lesbian” trope? Also, why did their first indigenous character start out as a villain who had to be redeemed by learning violent protest bad all lives matter and ANYWAYS—
•Coco leers at women and her allusion is a fucking Nazi. She sucks.
•The wives from V6 (Terracotta-Arcs??) are fine. Probably the most decent rep we’ve got, even if they were just a one off thing. They’re cute and I’m happy for em. Slay.
•We’ve got a single gay man in the entire cast (Scarlet) and he’s confirmed in a book. A single gay dude in a show infamous for its character bloat. Obviously we know why but man.
•3 non-binary characters. 1 is in a spin-off, 2 are animals. In this latest volume in which the last two are present, one is revealed to be a villain, and the other goes out Green Mile style. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay….
•And lastly, May. I also do like May! However, her character is not the problem.
What is the problem with all of this, no mater what, is the people, company, making this show.
Rooster Teeth is not your friend. Rooster Teeth does not care about you, or putting that loving care into representation.
Why are half of the villains disabled? Why are half of the villains in universe minorities? Why are half of the villains POC? Why are half of the villains a combination of two or all three of those traits?
Why is the only freedom fighting, minority rights organization terrorists? Why does their WOC leader die the scene we meet her? And why is her killer revealed to have been in fucking slavery the same episode he dies on screen in? And why is this organization taken as a serious threat, while two openly racist antagonists are portrayed as goofy and comical?
Why are any and all plus-sized characters portrayed as jokes? Why does the disabled-coded girl get her disability ripped away from her so she can “truly be human”? Why does another disabled character have him losing an arm to mean he’s lost his humanity? Why does this show portray so many misandristic tropes? Why does this show portray so many misogynistic tropes?
Why was this show’s first LGBT character a villain? Why was the next based off a Nazi? Why are two out of their three non-binary characters animals, and why have those two either been “killed” or turned into villains? Why is there only one gay man in this huge cast?
And why is it so many just let it slide that, while before and during the production of the volumes featuring the show’s first transgender character, Rooster Teeth treated and abused that character’s VA like absolute garbage?
Are the lives of those real people less important than those sweet, sweet “bee moments”?
In conclusion, the bees were not forced. I am glad they are canon. But I am not glad that it has nearly managed to conceal all the deplorable shit the racist, homophobic and awful company behind it has done.
#rwde#this one is seriously unarticulated but that’s like. ok#just thoughts that have been on my mind for a whiiile
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One day I will cry long enough to make you feel so sorry for me you will write that meta about heteronormativity of marines
aw, you don’t have to cry! asking nicely is all it takes.
so, when i say the marines are a rigid, heteronormative institution, what do i mean by that?
they work in the service of a heteronormative government and society—the world government, and the world nobles, who consider themselves superior to the rest of the world because of their bloodlines
they have heteronormative values—among them strictly defined gender roles and prioritizing relationships based in blood/deprioritizing all others
they use those values to dictate how the ‘civilized’ world should behave and assume that everyone shares those values, marking those who do not as uncivilized, criminal, and rebellious
more details below the cut.
any kind of royalty or nobility that defines itself as superior to the masses because of their bloodline, ancestors, etc. is going to be particular about having proof of that blood connection. if you think your blood makes you better, you better have documentation of it, family trees going back eight hundred years so no latecomers can doubt your importance.
they’re also going to care deeply about the “sanctity of marriage”—not because it’s actually sacred, but because if wives are cheating on their husbands then you can’t trust your family tree. and if your family tree is a lie, then maybe you aren’t actually superior to all of those dirty, common masses. the horror!
lastly, they have to care deeply about children. because, until someone develops some kind of immortality elixir, the only way to keep your very important family going (and it has to keep going, or what’s the point of any of this?) is to have children. and you’re going to prioritize biological children over any other, because if the child doesn’t have your blood, they aren’t really superior to the masses.
(the exception: note that the child sabo’s parents adopt when he runs away is chosen for his aptitude in school and his higher status biological family. bringing fresh blood into your family that improves your status is always beneficial, whether it’s through marriage or adoption.)
so. special bloodlines, preserved by marriages that produce biological children. until someone develops alternate methods of reproduction—which is not out of the question in one piece—all of that requires heterosexual relationships. they have to be the priority, in order for the superior bloodlines to persist.
thus, the prioritization and normalization of heterosexuality by the world nobles—and therefore the world government that serves them—and therefore the marines that serve them.
.
what about those heteronormative values?
well, look at female marines. there aren’t many of them; even if you’re only thinking about named marines, women are outnumbered nearly ten to one. and the unnamed background guys are always guys, so actually it’s an even greater disparity. why? because a woman’s place is in the home. she should be a homemaker and mother, because continuing the family line is the point of a woman, according to the nobility’s heteronormative view of the world. going against that is to set yourself up for a struggle. and a number of these ladies do struggle.
bell-mère had to leave the marines to keep her kids, taking on a job with a highly variable income that left her nearly starving at times; men in the marines have no such trouble, though whether that’s because of narratively invisible wives or these men not caring if they raise their children well is unclear.
tashigi has an enormous complex over being treated differently because she’s a woman, and it’s not a complex that comes out of nowhere—she is treated differently. most of her opponents beat her easily and then let her live for no good reason; as a captain she’s idolized, not respected, by her crew.
then there’s characters like hina and tsuru, whose presence high up in the military structure is acceptable because they have powers that put their opponents into submissive, humiliating positions. you don’t see a female marine with one of those elemental devil fruits; no, they have to have a fruit with a power play component to it. because god forbid women hold positions of power if they don’t have a bit of a dominatrix energy to them. (actually it’s because they’re being subversive in service to the state and the status quo, which makes them acceptably quirky rather than rebellious, not unlike members of SWORD, or our single female warlord.)
.
and then there’s the prioritization of bloodlines.
we see that value most clearly in the paramount war, where ace is executed not because he’s the second division commander of the whitebeard pirates, not because of any crimes he’s committed, but because of who his father is. a man who died long before ace was born, a man ace hates because of the awful opinion the civilized world has of him (and therefore his kin), a man who had no influence on ace in any way but blood. that’s enough reason to kill a man, by the marines’ logic.
and the man ace does call father, who embraced ace and gave him a loving family? well, that man, as far as the marines are concerned, only took ace in to put him on the throne of the pirate king, making himself the power behind the throne. (because naturally a king’s son should inherit his throne! never mind that whitebeard’s power far outstrips ace’s—surely pirates would only bow down before their king’s rightful, blood heir—and the marines can’t allow for the pirates to unify under one man’s leadership like that.) to the marines, ace only has value as roger’s heir, and so they expect that to be all the value he has to anyone.
and this backfires on them. the betrayal from within the whitebeard fleet (which the marines orchestrated) operates on the assumption that whitebeard will prioritize ace over the rest of his fleet. but all of the whitebeard pirates are his children, and he makes that clear when he gives them an out, allowing them to abandon him to his death if they so choose. the marines wanted to show the world that even this benevolent father figure of a pirate captain was a monster deep down, but they couldn’t pull it off. they don’t believe whitebeard is sincere in his affections for his ‘sons,’ and that costs them the narrative they wanted for the paramount war.
.
there’s also this one-off line that i rediscovered while rereading impel down/marineford to prep for this post, which in retrospect explains garp’s manic insistence on his grandson becoming a marine.
in chapter 530, hearing that luffy’s broken into impel down, sengoku shouts, “if you weren’t called ‘the navy’s hero,’ i’d make you pay for the sins of your entire family, garp!” as a counterpart to it being just and lawful to kill people for the crime of being related to a sufficiently dangerous criminal, garp and others like him believe that if you serve the state well enough, you can be forgiven for the crime of being related to a criminal.
if luffy (and ace) had just become a marine, garp thinks, then the identity of luffy’s father wouldn’t matter.
which strikes me as very naive. of course it would still matter; blood is the only thing that matters to these people.
#one piece#my meta#*marines & heteronormativity#shoulda made that a tag ages ago; now i can’t find the posts where i vagued about this stuff before. oh well.#anyway. didn’t quite get into everything i wanted to here#like the way certain homosocial behaviors have to be explained away as familial under a heteronormative system#or how many of these shitty values are intentionally written as such vs being shitty values oda himself holds & upholds through his writing#(like the gender stuff… that’s almost certainly oda being sexist himself rather than trying to write a sexist society & military…)#but i am v tired and i want to post this before i go to bed. maybe i’ll revisit those ideas another day.
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[image ID: thread by butchanarchy
Maybe folks prioritize an abuser’s need to be “healed” from the abuse they inflicted because it is far more comfortable to think of an abuser as “broken” than it is to see them as someone who takes many of our society’s values about relationships and control to their logical conclusion.
I think many people’s real concern isn’t even how survivors handle abuse so much as the fact that we call actions they see as ultimately acceptable/justifiable abuse in the first place. Because even if they’re not outright abusers. many folks see control as integral to relationships.
Easier to see an abuser as the ultimate victim of circumstance that can be “fixed” from their “deviancy” rather than reckon with the fact that they don’t actually deviate that much from our dominant cultural norms and what that says about those who buy into those norms, too.
Many people believe that there is a level of control over a partner’s/child’s/friend’s/etc. autonomy that you have a right to once you have a close connection to them. People don’t want to have that belief challenged, as it is a significant player in many of their relationships.
So it’s easier to think of an abuser as a poor, broken deviant in need of fixing because they take those values “too far” rather than have to question why any of us have a right to claim ownership and control over the people in our lives.
My abuser very much knew exactly what she was doing, and told me so explicitly at more than one point. She saw her attempts to gain and maintain control as utterly justifiable. She had no illusions about her actions, she just didn’t want them labeled as abuse.
And neither did the community we both shared, and not even in denial of the specific actions I outlined when I outed her. Rather, they all saw actions of control, manipulation, sexual exploitation, as just natural and acceptable parts of relationships in general.
Deeply appreciative of this point @/ClarissaAdjoint made here a couple weeks ago. Abuse IS a learned behavior, but not learned from being abused as much as learned from being taught who is an acceptable target of control and the tactics of domination. https://twitter.com/ClarissaAdjoint/status/1559677090516967424
reply by greatplainspunk:
This is so true and why Batterer Intervention Programs are court ordered and you don’t see people voluntarily lining up at the door. Most abusers know what they’re doing and don’t want to voluntarily give up control because they know it serves them to meet their needs.
reply by salome_af:
It really fucked me up when I recently discovered my father was never a direct victim of violence, rather he witnessed his step sibs beaten. And decided that was the type of parent he wanted to be. The violence was about keeping him feeling powerful.
/end image ID]
[image ID: the nested thread by ClarissaAdjoint from the above thread
screenshot of a tweet by AbolitionBuns: “1. The core idea of TJ is to break the cycle of harm. It is understood that people only engage in abuse towards others because of prior experience of being abused. Abuse is a learned behavior. No one is born to abuse others.”
Okay look I’m screenshotting because I don’t feel like directly arguing since I don’t think it’s going to do any good
but here’s the deal:
yes, no one is born to abuse
yes, abuse is learned behavior
but that doesn’t imply “hurt-people hurt people” like op thinks
what I mean is that they’re operating under a false dilemma: there's more ways to learn to abuse than having it done to you
I argue that the primary way is by learning how/when you can hurt others to get what you want without consequence
learning to commit violence against your intimate partners, your children, your coworkers, your employees, to women you don’t even know, &c.
is about learning what kind of violence your society tolerates and more importantly who it tolerates that violence against
cops don’t learn to beat their wives because they were abused anymore than a karen learns to threaten black strangers because she was abused
it’s about navigating social rules of acceptable targets to get what you want
it is not just a choice it is ten thousand choices
the only real cycle of abuse is not the abused growing up to be abusers—a mere determinism by another name—but the abused growing up to think they deserve abuse, to habituate to it
again and again and again
til they’re more scar tissue than soft flesh
so, no, no one is born to abuse
and that is why they can be held accountable for their choices
/end image ID]
#repost of someone else’s content#twitter repost#butchanarchy#abuse#pathologization#ableism#saneism#antipsych#abolition#‘cycle of abuse’
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The beginning of this chapter is honestly really funny because somehow, the sentence “He had theories” inspires the same specific form of dread that Hugo seems to be calling on with that line: knowing that you’re about to hear horrible takes from someone in a position of authority in a household. In this case, his terrible ideas are about women. Reading this about 200 years after the events of the story, it’s kind of interesting to see what a bourgeois woman could and couldn’t do from the list given:
“Then his wife busies herself, grows passionately fond of handling coin, gets her fingers covered with verdigris in the process, undertakes the education of half-share tenants and the training of farmers, convokes lawyers, presides over notaries, harangues scriveners, visits limbs of the law, follows lawsuits, draws up leases, dictates contracts, feels herself the sovereign, sells, buys, regulates, promises and compromises, binds fast and annuls, yields, concedes and retrocedes, arranges, disarranges, hoards, lavishes; she commits follies, a supreme and personal delight, and that consoles her. While her husband disdains her, she has the satisfaction of ruining her husband.”
It’s quite a long list! With money, Gillenormand’s wife was able to be pretty active in her community. It was definitely a precarious position, though; the money was never hers, as she only “[felt] herself the sovereign.” All of that wealth was really M Gillenormand’s, and she only had access to it as long as he felt like allowing that. A bourgeois woman could, then, be economically active, but only as long as her husband permitted it.
I also like that we see the logic in Gillenormand’s lifestyle, even if it’s a despicable one. The sexist underpinning - with wives just needing to be “legitimate” and ruining husbands financially out of “jealousy” rather than real frustration at being stuck with a man who doesn’t care about her - is a big part of it, as that’s how he ends up with so little money (comparatively). There’s a more sympathetic political aspect as well. Gillenormand has lived through so much political change in his lifetime: first the French Revolution, then Napoleon, then the Bourbons, and now the July Monarchy. He specifically fears his property being taken away by a sudden political change because he’s seen that happen, and it makes sense that that kind of instability would lead him to prioritize his day-to-day lifestyle over saving for the future. At the same time, it’s a selfish decision. We know that he has an unmarried daughter that won’t be left with much because of his financial choices, and we’ve seen how hard it is for women to get by without husbands or other men supporting them (Fantine being the most extreme example). Given that his introduction began right after we were promised an introduction to Marius at the end of Gavroche’s chapter, we can assume they’re connected somehow, too, so his decisions may harm Marius as well.
Then again, Gillenormand’s selfishness there isn’t surprising at this point. He’s already been rude and condescending to his daughter, and the way he “re-baptizes” his servants again emphasizes how disrespectful he can be to those around him.
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Unfortunately my underlying obsession with Tengen continues to plague me. I just love how Mr #1 cycle breaker told his wives to prioritize their and everyone else’s lives above his own. He doesn’t want to be like his father or brother who put down everyone else for the sake of their own power. He didn’t even join the corps to get revenge on demons, he simply saw a place where his skills could be used to help people so he decided to join
Tengennnnnnnn
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Echo Wife, Sarah Gailey (thoughts)
I really loved The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey. It was utterly gripping.
Summary:
I’m embarrassed, still, by how long it took me to notice. Everything was right there in the open, right there in front of me, but it still took me so long to see the person I had married.
It took me so long to hate him.
Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be.
And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband.
Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up.
Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.
more thoughts and very many spoilers below the jump
content note: The Echo Wife is a little bit about cloning, much more about identity and murder, and very much about abuse. Also in this ramble, I advocate for murder and refer casually to suicide. That’s not a book-content-warning, that’s a me-content-warning.
I picked up the Echo Wife as a gift for someone else, and I immediately sat down and read the whole thing the same afternoon.
Here’s the summary I stole off GoodReads
I’m embarrassed, still, by how long it took me to notice. Everything was right there in the open, right there in front of me, but it still took me so long to see the person I had married.
It took me so long to hate him.
Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be.
And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband.
Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up.
Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.
The other way I described it to partner was that it “started disturbing, continued disturbing, and ended disturbing.”
Evelyn’s father was abusive, and she and her mother survived him.
She thinks of her ex-husband Nathan as sloppy, lazy, and weak. She prioritizes strength, clarity of purpose, and control.
Martine is the version of Evelyn that Nathan made as... a vessel of his fantasies of what she could have been? This fantasy doesn’t include “not abused,” or “independent.”
Evelyn is not kind to her mother, nor Nathan, nor ultimately Martine. In fact, by the end of the book she’s basically just recreated her childhood home with herself in her father’s place. It’s a satisfying ending because it feels... well that full-circle feeling, it’s just right. But it’s obviously not a happy ending.
It’s also a little odd at times because after Martine kills Nathan...
(obligatory gif)
... after Martine kills Nathan, she and Evelyn are understandably freaking out. They take care of the body, it’s all G.
But then later, they decide they need to clone him to “bring him back.” Okay, in principle I support this because, as an author, why even have cloning technology if you’re not going to use it to cover up murders? But they go whole-hog and try to clone him to bring him back... so he can resume his “normal life???” GIRL NO. Bring him back, but then have him kill himself! C’mon now.
But of course they bring him back properly, which I suppose is in service to the theme (domestic abuse, the cyclical nature of abuse). And then he goes back to his regular life. And then Martine calls Evelyn again. (NICE)
My previous gripe aside, I actually loved the ending of this book. It just felt very tight and satisfying (even though it was, yanno, distressing). It was perfect for what the book was, and it gave me a nice tight feeling somewhere between a jumpscare and a satisfied shiver.
In conclusion, I strongly, strongly recommend this book--with the usual caveats about the book’s themes, content notes, etc. But if that sort of thing isn’t a dealbreaker, I think it’s a really great book.
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A different ask! What do you think Roose actually feels about Ramsay? Just before the Red Wedding he talks very dismissively about how Ramsay could be executed for his crimes, but obviously he knows Robb's never gonna get the chance so maybe he cares more than that. But Ramsay (probably) killed precious Domeric? What does he actually feel about him and potential Walda baby(-ies)?
Thank you for your question :) I have divided my answer into points regarding the different aspects of your ask.
What do you think Roose actually feels about Ramsay?
In regards to the Roose-Ramsay relationship, some facts are important:
Roose did not raise Ramsay, and as far as we know did not interact with him in his childhood beyond the two times the miller's wife came to him after his birth. ("She was never to tell the boy who had fathered him." - Reek III, aDwD) All he knew about Ramsay was that he was his son, had his grey eyes, and was "wild and unruly" (the reason Ramsay's mom demanded a servant).
"Lord Bolton has never acknowledged the boy, so far as I know," Ser Rodrik said. "I confess, I do not know him." - Bran II, aCoK
Ramsay only came to the Dreadfort in 297AC (after Domeric died). This is extremely recent - for context, we have Dany chapters in aGoT taking place as early as 297AC, and the War of the five Kings starts at the end of 298 AC according to this timeline.
As a consequence, since Roose leaves the Dreadfort for the War of the five Kings, he assumed a paternal role for Ramsay in between 297AC and at most very early 299AC (The timeline has the battle of the green fork in January 6 and he'd need to travel to the south before that in the first place). This is only between 1-2 years depending on how early or late that year Domeric died (Shoutout to @blueagia who made me realize this timeline years ago).
Ramsay is violent and cruel, but not stupid (Roose even says he is “cunning” in Catelyn VI, aSoS). He was able to present himself as an ally to Theon in aCoK, and it stands to reason he might have given a salvagable impression to Roose at the beginning while he was testing the waters. Ned Stark is a just man who tried to execute the remote-living Jorah Mormont for slave trade; Since he never went after Ramsay, we can assume whatever Ramsay did during his time with Roose was discreet enough that word did not get to Lord Eddard, and so at the beginning Roose must have had no reason to complain too much about Ramsay's conduct either.
Eddard Stark had never had any reason to complain of the Lord of the Dreadfort, so far as Jon knew. - Jon VII, aDwD
"No tales were ever told of me. Do you think I would be sitting here if it were otherwise? Your amusements are your own, I will not chide you on that count, but you must be more discreet. A peaceful land, a quiet people. That has always been my rule. Make it yours." - Reek III, aDwD
Roose gets a legitimization for Ramsay as part of his benefit from doing the Red Wedding, showing that back then he still had an intention of keeping him as his son and heir. However, returning from the war in the south shows Roose how bad Ramsay's political decisions are when left on his own, including:
Leaving Donella Hornwood for dead, horrifically abusing Theon who is a valuable hostage and a potential ally, being unable to keep good optics and alienating his allies ("Surely you misspeak. You never slew Lord Eddard's sons, those two sweet boys we loved so well. [...] How many of our grudging friends do you imagine we'd retain if the truth were known? Only Lady Barbrey, whom you would turn into a pair of boots … " - Reek III, aDwD), abusing his wife "Arya Stark" who is beloved by their Northern allies, and more...
We see in the aDwD Theon chapters that Roose is still giving Ramsay advice and counsel (see again the Reek III quote), however he also appears to be despairing of him:
"I know." Lord Bolton sighed. "His blood is bad. He needs to be leeched. The leeches suck away the bad blood, all the rage and pain. No man can think so full of anger. Ramsay, though … his tainted blood would poison even leeches, I fear." - Reek III, aDwD
We also see in later Theon chapters that he frequently holds meetings without Ramsay:
[Roose:] "The hall is not the place for such discussions, my lords. Let us adjourn to the solar whilst my son consummates his marriage. The rest of you, remain and enjoy the food and drink." - The Prince of Winterfell, aDwD
Lord Bolton was not alone. Lady Dustin sat with him, pale-faced and severe; an iron horsehead brooch clasped Roger Ryswell's cloak; Aenys Frey stood near the fire, pinched cheeks flushed with cold. - A Ghost in Winterfell, aDwD
[Lady Dustin said] "Roose is not pleased. Tell your bastard that." - The Turncloak, aDwD
Implying he is losing faith in his son, or otherwise does not trust him or value his input when it comes to political situations; a bad omen considering heirs like Robb usually sit with their fathers in councils.
My impression is that Roose initially adopted Ramsay as an heir for the following reasons:
- Sentimentality, since Ramsay is a son of his own blood ("I should've had the mother whipped and thrown her child down a well … but the babe did have my eyes." [...] "Now [Domeric's] bones lie beneath the Dreadfort with the bones of his brothers, who died still in the cradle, and I am left with Ramsay. Tell me, my lord … if the kinslayer is accursed, what is a father to do when one son slays another?" - Reek III aDwD). As a member of a patriarchal society, Roose was raised with the expectation that he will continue his bloodline, and so likely has the wish to be succeeded by his son.
- Practicality, since Ramsay is already an adult, so he doesn't have to raise and invest in another child for years ("That's for the best. I will not live long enough to see new sons to manhood, and boy lords are the bane of any House." - Reek III, aDwD). [Speculation: For a new son, he would also have to remarry, and both his prior wives are implied to not have liked him ("The two before her never made a sound in bed" - Reek III, aDwD) while he also doesnt speak of them with fondness - so he might also prefer to be single and raise his bastard instead of having to deal with yet another unpassionate/unloving marriage (considering he's middle aged and uncharismatic, a young new wife wouldn't be thrilled about him), until he finds a marriage that provides him a good benefit (like the Frey money + alliance).]
- The belief that, despite Ramsay being raised a peasant and having violent tendencies, it is possible to "educate him" so that he becomes a functioning member of society (see again my point about Roose counseling him). Roose possibly initially projects some of his own personality on Ramsay (Compare this meta i wrote).
During aGoT-aSoS he must have still thought Ramsay viable, which is why he has him legitimized by the crown. He has not known Ramsay closely for long; This explains why he kept him around even though he is so unfit as an heir (it takes time to fully realize that), but also explains why he is so dismissive of him, as that short time of knowing him as an adult would not make him fond of Ramsay the same way one might be fond of a child they raised.
Roose then realizes after the war, as seen in a Dance with Dragons, that Ramsay is not a fitting heir. What this means for the later books is open for now... Will he abandon Ramsay? Use him as a scapegoat? Or still try to salvage him? I personally believe he is starting to see Ramsay as a danger, and is starting to think about how to best get rid of him.
Just before the Red Wedding he talks very dismissively about how Ramsay could be executed for his crimes, but obviously he knows Robb's never gonna get the chance so maybe he cares more than that.
My belief is that Roose is fundamentally selfish and worried about his own skin. While he has the goal to establish Ramsay as a capable heir, he prioritizes his own safety and reputation. By distancing himself from Ramsay's crimes in front of the other Northmen, he can't be blamed for them; by using Ramsay as a scapegoat for Bolton crimes, he himself can wash his hands from the involvement and won't be hurt if any crimes come to light. If he keeps pointing attention at how Ramsay is wild/cruel/treacherous, then the northmen are more likely to suspect/blame Ramsay than the "peaceful" Roose. Also, even if he cared for Ramsay, he would never openly admit it because it's something that could be used against him (same reason as to why he generally keeps his emotions under wraps).
If you compare this scene from aCoK (where Ramsay is believed dead) with the scene you mentioned from aSoS, you can see that to prioritize his own safety and reputation he will sacrifice Ramsay; but he will also defend Ramsay ("Yet he is a good fighter, as cunning as he is fearless.") as long as it serves his interests, of course while still keeping an emotional distance.
One important thing about Roose is that he does not always say the things he actually thinks; When looking at his quotes it is not only important to look at what he says, but which intentions he has with his words and what effect he wants them to have on the person listening. Compare this quote by grrm:
Lord Bolton may well have all sorts of things in mind. Whether or not he would act on any of those thoughts is another matter. Roose is the sort of fellow who keeps his thoughts to himself. - SSM
But Ramsay (probably) killed precious Domeric
"Ramsay killed him. A sickness of the bowels, Maester Uthor says, but I say poison." - Roose in Reek III, aDwD
This is speculative, but I personally believe that case is not as clear-cut as it is made to look. Poisoning Domeric does not necessarily seem like Ramsay's style; i often see people in fandom suspect that his mother is actually the culprit. I personally suspect the first Reek of killing Domeric - we know he once stole perfume, meaning he knows his way around the castle, and he also got looked at by a maester implying he might know the maester’s chamber where poisons could be kept. He has ample reason to hate Roose, who let him live with the pigs and had him whipped and later sent him to live with Ramsay, but also seems to have interest in improving Ramsay's status ("She made him, her and Reek, always whispering in his ear about his rights." - Reek III aDwD). He is also known to be inseperable from Ramsay, so if Ramsay went to meet Domeric, Reek would come with him.
Either way it could be that Roose just didnt initially believe Ramsay killed Domeric since it looked like he died from sickness, and only later changed his mind on this issue - note that Barbrey Dustin, whom he is implied to have regularly spent time with shortly before the quote about Ramsay killing Domeric, seems to be a believer that Ramsay was the murderer, so she might be the one who convinced Roose; And maybe Ramsay's bad conduct during the time of the war aided to make Roose believe her. Changing his mind on this could influence his decision on what to do with Ramsay come the Winds of Winter.
Or alternatively, if we’re keeping closer to the text, he just thought the positives of keeping Ramsay outweigh the negatives of him being a kinslayer; however it seems odd that Roose, who is so worried about his safety, would adopt a man if his first act he knows of was this treacherous and dangerous. Then again he frequently verbally states that he does not see Ramsay as a threat, which can be read in different ways depending on if you take it as a literal statement or as a tool to enact dominance over his dangerous son.
"All you have I gave you. You would do well to remember that, bastard.” [...]
“I know what he said. You're to spy on me and keep his secrets." Bolton chuckled. "As if he had secrets. Sour Alyn, Luton, Skinner, and the rest, where does he think they came from? Can he truly believe they are his men?" - Reek III, aDwD
What does he actually feel about him and potential Walda baby(-ies)?
I think he would like to have a son that continues his values and manages to be a capable heir to continue the Bolton line. Domeric was the ideal son, talented and competent, and Roose invested a lot of time and money in giving him a great education. Now that Domeric died and all of this is down the drain, and Roose himself isn't getting any younger, he wants to have a new heir in a way that's the most convenient for him. It appears to me like he is currently weighing the positives of each option (Ramsay or new Baby), and it might even be that he has already come to a decision, considering how he is starting to grow frustrated with Ramsay.
"I have become oddly fond of my fat little wife. [...] Ramsay will kill [all the sons she bears me], of course. That's for the best. I will not live long enough to see new sons to manhood, and boy lords are the bane of any House." - Reek III, aDwD
In line with my earlier point about Roose’ words also being about the effect and not just the message, I believe the line about him being ok with Ramsay killing his sons might be very calculated towards the fact that Roose knows Theon is to report everything he hears back to Ramsay. If Ramsay hears this, he is placated, because it confirms that he is still the main Bolton heir - which means that he does not have to think about harming Lady Walda (because the sons are no threat to his position), and he does not have to think about harming Roose (because he just has to wait until he can succeed him).
Of course all of this post is based off the first five books, so the interpretation may change once the next book comes out or through a different reading of the lines.
#asoiaf#roose bolton#ramsay bolton#asoiaf meta#meta#asks#i have a cold i hope this is coherent as a whole... if you have questions feel free to come into my ask box#mzyraj
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signs as husbands
aries: Are often hard-edged, always boiling like acid, either through their need to exert their passion sexually or the need to project their masculinity. Angry and/or quick to anger. Tends to step out on their wives for some extracurricular fun, and when confronted gets very disrespectful and volatile. May even be violent and dangerous. Does things to get their way. But, like Geminis, Aries husbands often use harsh and very cutting humour to diffuse heavy situations. If their wife isn’t very touchy, delicate and sensitive, it can make for an enduring and exciting marriage.
taurus: They are caring and loving men, more often than not.They’re old-fashioned men at heart, and they love their wives to cook, clean, and be traditional wives, as they see this as their wives giving them the respect they deserve. He’s excellent at providing the material needs of his wife and family but often has no time for them. May or may not be emotionally available, but they’ll always make sure their wives are cared for. He is a sweet, caring, committed, patient, and likeable person, agreeing to everything (within reason) that his loved ones desire. But every so often, he explodes even without provocation. Then, everyone has to get out of his way to avoid getting his ire. They’re solid and make time for their family, and are the most loyal and faithful men in the zodiac.
gemini: They are very irresponsible and childish and often use humour as a defense mechanism in order not to face hard truths. Can be quite petty. Moody. Tends not to take too many things seriously. But on the other hand, when Gemini husbands make light of everything, it forges a bond that keeps them together with their wives. He also pokes fun at himself, making him good company. His humour widens both their perspectives and easily smooths over their differences. A Gemini’s marriage is constantly salved by his jokes, and that helps to make it last.
cancer: It seems the spouse of this person has got the best of everything —a loving and caring husband who works hard for the family. He is agreeable to everything that his wife or even other people want. Deep inside though, he is resentful and sensitive to every small offense that comes his way. Very popular with women, but values his guys friends more. Tends to get married young. They’re very clever and know their wife’s weakness and capitalizes on them to get relief from their wife. Doesn’t like to be alone, like Pisces and Libra. Nonetheless, more than anyone else in the zodiac, he puts his wife and his family first, and therefore is able to prioritize his loved ones above others.
leo: These guys feel and want to be treated like kings and can occasionally treat their wives like slaves or take them for granted. But they often have a spiritual side, and they guide their marriage though a higher power. Very romantic. He is a good provider, loves his family and will do anything for them. But he is critical of everyone or anything that doesn’t meet his idealistic and social standards. He expresses himself in a raised angry voice. He is the leader of his family. Providing his wife fulfills his needs and wants, he treats his wife is treated like a princess, she feels loved by him but may be also a bit intimidated by him.
virgo: Sensitive. Tries too hard to put out an image that’s bigger and badder than they actually are. Super critical of their wives and of others. The criticism can be directed at anyone in and outside their orbit. He’s super competitive and insecure and likes to impose his perceptions on others. He need things to be done according to his standards. He experiences constant anxiety, and simply cannot stop himself from wanting to control others. They often don’t have any sense of humour, unless it’s at someone else’s expense.
libra: Are great husbands. Like Cancers, they’re popular with women but unlike Cancer husbands, Libra husbands have more female friends. Libras aren’t always at home but usually at work, and when they come home it’s as if they’re visiting, or like their home is a hotel. Very charming and communicative with their wife and with friends. May talk too much. He’s often successful and loving, and can make everyone laugh. But he is also not shy to talk about his escapades with women, even constantly bragging about them. The best wife for him is a secure woman who knows what she wants. He’s the husband that is great at parties and social get-togethers. The more high-profile and ritzier the better.
scorpio: Can be very sarcastic and snarky. Great at sexually pleasing their wives. Can be very jealous and possessive. Controlling. Very passionate and almost dictatorial. Like Aries, anger is his safe place. Unlike Aries, he uses his anger to dominate instead of to get his way. Often uses anger to show love and care. Very proud and self-possessed. Secretly caring and sensitive. Very devoted and loyal. Private. Loves hard. Likes to live and love their way without any interference from others, but underneath it all he is still kind and has time for family and friends.
sagittarius: Loves to do things on their own without consulting their wives. Won’t be controlled or tamed by any woman, not even their wife. Their marriages often aren’t without some major drama. Loves to hang out a lot with their friends rather than their wife. Not very serious with married life, but when they are, they are very responsible and treat their wife as a partner and a helper. Likes to think of themselves as them against the world. Is very vicious when it comes to detractors or even the slightest criticism of their marriage, no matter if they’re family, friends or otherwise.
capricorn: Can’t make decisions on their own without asking their mothers. Also quite sensitive, but hides it with a cold hard facade. When something is wrong they rush back to their parents instead of discussing it with their wife. Wants their wife to care for them the way their mother did; always compares their wife with their mother. Care what everyone thinks and/or says about him and his wife, since appearances and status are extremely important to this many an his self-worth. As such, his wife is often a trophy wife. Capricorn husbands are very moody, stingy, and petty. Needs their wives (and others) to do any emotional weightlifting that they don’t have it in them to do. They don’t consider the wife’s emotions and they don’t like putting energy in their marriage to make it enjoyable.
aquarius: Often enjoys wives who are into open marriages and/or an open lifestyle. Are friends with their wives first before anything. Needs multiple relationships because he believes that when there is trouble in one, he can find relief in the next one. Unable to recognize the pain and agony he is inflicting on the people around him. He needs love/companionship/mental discourse and it often doesn’t matter who the supplier is. He acts like a single person who is proud of these achievements. Needs a wife who is practical and accepts his libertine lifestyle.
pisces: This guy may look good on paper, but he often maintains a secret life nobody knows about. He constantly makes strange disappearances that goes unexplained. Often doesn’t give his wife give a straight answer, leaves his whereabouts unknown, or gives an inaccurate accounting of his resources. Can be lazy and doesn’t like to work, sticking to his wife because of her money. Uses his wife as a problem solver; he loves his wife when he needs something from her and after that she is useless to him. Very deceptive. He has big plans and loves to talk about them a lot. In truth, he is dependent on others for support. Such is his daily life—the days roll into one another without any achievement or change.
#signs as husbands#aries#taurus#gemini#cancer#leo#virgo#libra#scorpio#sagittarius#capricorn#aquarius#pisces#mine
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Why do you think grrm introduced Gilly in Jon chapter? Do you think it was because to make people realise that Jon is not perfect even though he wanted to save weak people?
Hi there!!
(tl;dr: Yes. Yes, exactly for that reason.)
Oh, it’s a lot more complex than that. I love this ask because it reminded me how much I love what GRRM is doing with Jon and Gilly. She is like a lens that highlights all the ways Jon needs to grow beyond the limitations of “honor”.
Because Jon’s concept of honor, as taught by Ned and their whole world, means well but is ultimately ineffective because it prioritizes patriarchical structures. It prioritizes the relationships between men, over the supposed goals of protecting the helpless and doing the right thing. Furthermore, it becomes ineffective because it utterly fails to take into account the perspective of the “object”, i.e. women and children.
The truly honorable thing Ned does is to defy his king and “brother” Robert and protect Jon. The truly honorable thing Jaime does is to break his oath and end Aerys.
“True honor” is usually found outside the official structures set up by men, for men.
We see Jon failing Gilly in this way more than once.
Their second meeting, after Ghost kills her rabbits the night before (gallant, Jon!), is beautifully framed by the “magic beyond the Wall” image. He wakes up to winter wonderland and recalls Sansa and Arya. Sansa’s “wonder” at the “enchantment” mirrors Jon’s, while he also recalls Arya’s proactive attitude. “Touch it all.” During his confrontation, he delegates Gilly to the role of a lady, pushing her into the Sansa corner. It’s cute and chivalric, but it’s also empty. He has already decided not to help her. After his confrontation with Gilly? He knocks the ice off his cloak and proceeds to literally piss all over the magic ice scenery. Angry and lashing out. Destroying a beautiful illusion of honor.
It’s his Night’s Watch experience writ small. He wants to be part of something noble but the actual reality is very different and ugly and makes him bitter. But where he managed to come around and see the perspective of his fellow recruits, he doesn’t make the leap with Gilly because she is a girl. Instead he lashes out at the “illusion”, caught in the alleged impossibility of his position. A kinder version of Jaime and Rhaella.
But it really only is an illusion because Jon allows it to be. The ice glaze was real, he had to break it. Just like he chooses to prioritize the rules over Gilly’s plight, and prefers dismissing what she brings to the table.
Gilly, introduced through Jon’s perspective, seems like the weakest of damsels, but this is misleading. All the action originates with her:
decides she wants to save her child and waits for an opportunity
observes Jon not partaking in guest right gestures
identifies Samwell as the kindest one to ask for help
uses the language of Jon’s world to try and gain his help (”a king protects people”)
reveals absolutely crucial information about Craster and the Others
literally only wants assistance so far as the Wall
Samwell doesn’t know how to help her, either, but his priorities are much more commendable and he actually allows Gilly’s perspective to matter:
“I know,” said Sam guiltily, “but she was afraid. I know what it is to be afraid. I told her . . .” He swallowed.
“What? That we’d take her with us?”
Sam’s fat face blushed a deep red. “On the way home.” He could not meet Jon’s eyes. “She’s going to have a baby.”
“Sam, have you taken leave of all your sense? We may not even return this way. And if we do, do you think the Old Bear is going to let you pack off one of Craster’s wives?”
“I thought . . . maybe by then I could think of a way . . .”
“I have no time for this, I have horses to groom and saddle.” Jon walked away as confused as he was angry. Sam’s heart was as big as the rest of him, but for all his reading he could be as thick as Grenn at times. It was impossible, and dishonorable besides. So why do I feel so ashamed? (ACOK, Jon III)
Sam prioritizes Gilly’s situation and he doesn’t dismiss it as impossible in order to relieve himself of the burden like Jon does. He defers the issue and allows for a potential change in circumstances, for a future solution to present itself.
And we know it will. In ASOS Samwell II, it’s the ladies doing all the work again. He can barely stomach listening to Gilly give birth, he hopes against hope she will have a daughter to solve the problem the easy way, but in the end, it’s the sister-wives who present the solution to him. Amid all the chaos of the revolt and Mormont’s death, they have prepared Gilly and the newborn for immediate departure, they tell Sam what to do and his one big achievement is to simply listen to them.
Later on ADWD, Jon contemplates the strength of women when Val doesn’t flinch at “Mance’s” execution, but is that truly strength?
He made himself a heartless stone monster because he was afraid of withstanding Gilly’s emotions over losing her own child to save Mance’s. He never asked her input, never truly allowed her to make this choice on her own, or perhaps even suggest an alternative. Like Samwell wanting to run out of the house while Gilly is screaming in labor, Jon is afraid to simply witness the horrible reality. He locks out the actual perspective of Gilly, praises Val for making her pain invisible, essentially. Gallant, Jon!
Of course, we know why Jon is so particularly triggered by Gilly: his mommy issues. She is not just a girl but a young mother in peril. Like his own, essentially, as far as Jon knows. We see Jon grappling with the fact that Ned fathered a bastard, and held all the power over the information.
Jon hesitated. He wanted to say that Lord Eddard would never dishonor himself, not even for love, yet inside a small sly voice whispered, He fathered a bastard, where was the honor in that? And your mother, what of his duty to her, he will not even say her name. "He would do whatever was right," he said … ringingly, to make up for his hesitation. "No matter what." (AGOT, Jon VIII)
He will not even say her name. Jon’s mother is as invisible a pain as Val’s. Jon has no access to it, cannot process it. Is that strength, Jon? No. Is that honor? No.
This quote really sums up what Jon’s journey with “honor” will be. Deep down, Jon knows that there is a difference between that outward, structure-oriented honor and the truly honest, cooperative kind of service that encompasses “doing the right thing”. (The use of the word “ringing” suggests that Jon will confront this difference in connection to some bells, perhaps?)
Since Ned is Jon’s only source of identity, Jon doesn’t know how to let go of the top-down, structure-oriented model of honor he was taught by him, though. Duty, hierarchy and silence, instead of choice, communication and cooperation.
The model will, unfortunately, let go of Jon for him.
By early ADWD, Jon is still caught up in that mindset. He has started to dismantle it, slowly, in ASOS, basing his decisions on his own sense of right and wrong more than on outward demands. It was a good path, it gained him the title of Lord Commander and a form of inner peace.
But he’s backsliding, too. “Kill the boy” is the opposite of what he needs to do, yet there he goes. He is unecessarily domineering and cruel with Gilly, he sends Samwell away, he eventually sends most of his friends and supporters away. He barely explains his decisions and puts all his trust in the male-honor structure of the Night’s Watch. Oh, he considers female strengths. He thinks of his toxic mentor Ygritte a lot, and he contemplates what Val can offer, rejects the pragmatic coldness of someone like Selyse. But he initially bases his leadership style entirely on the hierarchy offered by the Watch. Obedience, brotherhood among his men, whose names “are carved into his heart”.
As he hits his stride, he gets better. Jon considers the things that can be offered by the wildlings, takes their perspective into account, loosens up the structure of the Night’s Watch to create an actual pragmatic solution to the real issue at hand. Inside, he struggles more and more with the demands to shut off his emotions, and makes increasing attempts to ditch the rules to save people: Arya, the people at Hardhome. It’s no accident these things are again in opposition to his “sworn brotherhood”.
Of course, it is his own brothers who end up stabbing him the moment it looks like Jon is veering outside their rigid rules. And just as Jon was about ready to break his vows to save the one person whose pain he is incapable of pushing away: baby sister Arya.
We’ll see what that does to Jon’s state of mind, seeing himself booted out of the “ranks of honor” in this way. Suddenly, everything will fall back to him: choice, communication, cooperation. Suddenly, it will be his move to “do the right thing” on his own terms. I have a fleeting suspicion that the female perspectives and strategies of the world will come rushing in the moment he lets them, much to his benefit. (Hello, girl in grey.)
It’s probably no accident that Sam and Gilly will likely have a hand in clearing up the identity and circumstances of Jon’s mother in Oldtown, and open up that gateway for Jon to face that pain that has a woman’s face. Something tells me Jon and Gilly will demonstrate Jon’s growth when they meet again, when he finally acknowledges her brand of strength. They’ll finally have a confrontation among equals, a Gilly seen as strong as she always has been, a Jon who no longer has to rely on outside structures and hierarchy to guide his choices.
#asoiaf#jon snow#gilly the wildling#samwell tarly#honor as a male-oriented structure#'strong women' v. visible pain#hiding behind the rules v. making proper choices#honor#duty#patriarchy#sexism
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for hayley: modern AU in which Flint is simply enamored with Silver (his “roommate”) and an accidental slip of the tongue OR don’t worry i wrote some fluffy slice of life stuff a few weeks ago and you get to have that too.
Was it possible for a boatman’s boots to be waterlogged? Was it possible for a workman’s hands to be too calloused? Was there a tolerance point for all things thought to be in perfect equilibrium? Something was always bound to give. Something about to change...
Flint removed his shoes by the stair’s landing, taking the three steps and backdoor foyer in his bare feet. He shouldered off his slicker and tossed it over the drying rack set up in the corner. Only his clothes had seen water at the marina for months. Since Silver-- since Flint had heard what true pain sounded like-- Silver had been in their shared bungalow, just inland from the cheap shore tourism. It was quiet, Flint had always thought, and hoped it could be a perfect place to heal. Maybe to grow.
Flint stepped out of the foyer and into the kitchen-- only to find Silver bent over the counter on his elbows, eating out of a cereal box with his hands. He was leaning off of his prosthetic boot. It was very clearly exposed; Silver had rolled his pants up to his mid-calf that day. An improvement from the long, dangerously unhemmed flannels he’d worn at the very beginning of his time out of hospital.
It was a lot to take in, a lot of small details that collaborated into a small sigh from Flint, but he couldn’t let that be his only response. Silver had barely registered he’d walked in the door, too busy staring across the room to the TV-- or rather the open sea-facing window behind it.
“And what is it you’re doing, exactly?” Flint patted Silver’s right side as he reached over him for a glass. Silver didn’t move; he had heard Flint come inside. And continued to stand like that anyway.
Noted.
“Saying sane.” Silver answered, evening his weight onto both feet.
“That right?” Flint poured himself a drink and quirked his eyebrow over the glass’s edge before taking a sip.
“Not like I can go to work.” Silver said shortly, although he spoke with enough of a grin to keep their banter alive. “And I refuse to clean anything. I am not your housewife.”
“Oh, thank god.” Flint laughed, lowering his glass. “For a moment I was worried. A clean house sounds terrible.”
“Fuck you.” Silver said with a short, airy laugh.
He pushed Flint’s chest as he walked past, and Flint elected not to notice it was a move to keep his balance rather than inciting any brushing intimacy. Flint kept his hands to himself and finished his drink.
“Actually,” Silver started again from the living room. “I walked on the beach for a while. Got used to the slide of the sand again.” He eased himself down onto the couch, wincing when the weight left his feet. “It was nice.”
“Now, you’re sure you’re being--”
“Careful?” Silver finished, turning to him. His eyes were sharp and blue, like all his mourning staring out over the water had been captured and aimed directly at Flint. “What is there to be careful over? Thin air?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know that’s not what you meant but you don’t have to be so… doting over it.” Silver sighed. With a short yank he pulled his prosthetic off his knee and laid it against the coffee table.
Flint wished there was more in his glass than a pitiful, single golden drop. It said too much about his desire to apologize. “Looks like we’ll both not have to be wives then.”
“Hm, looks like.”
Flint left his glass on the table and followed after Silver to the living room. Uninvited to the couch, Flint took the armchair beside it. He closed his eyes and groaned as he felt the bones in his feet become weightless again. They throbbed to his heartbeat, loud and rumbling-- but also incriminatingly fast.
“Worked you hard today, huh?”
“Don’t they every day?”
“Yeah, well, on some days you just look a bit more shit.”
Flint opened his eyes to Silver’s instigating and charming grin.
“Oh, fuck off.”
“Really wish I could.” Silver winked, reaching for a can on the coffee table and raising it to him.
It hadn’t been opened, the cracking of the top sounding like a small shot. It was one of those non-alcoholic, water-but-not-quite drinks Silver began to buy after his surgery.
“My God, Silver, just have a beer .”
“What? And be a belligerent drunk stumbling around our house-- like some kind of slurring ghost?”
Flint knew he was on the spot for a quip, for some kind of teasing return to keep their game going-- something to keep on their routine of having the other up against a wall before dinner. But his mind was suddenly caught in a wave of fog, a blanket of cotton-cloud sticking to the inside of Flint’s mouth. He was parched and drowning at the same time.
Our house . Stumbling around our house .
Surely it had been a slip up, a misunderstanding of his own words, a momentary lapse of literacy. Or maybe, it had been a quiet union. An extended hand that did more than rest on his thigh under the table, or over his waist at night. A hand that held, but was never going to let go.
It was their home and it was their lives. And Silver was Flint’s man, his health a prioritized concern, the shifts of the marina be damned. Silver was the future, every last second of it stretching out before him with those same beautiful blue eyes. And he chose their house .
“Hm? Well?” Silver prompted.
“They disgust me-- you disgust me.”
“Oh, allow me to hold you to that later, James .” Silver’s voice was as sweet as honey and Flint’s throat suddenly felt thick with it. “Now get over here and let me get the knot out of your shoulders. I can see it from here.”
Flint stood from his chair and shifted over to the empty seat on the couch. Silver braced an arm along the back of it, ready to receive Flint immediately. His hands were broad, and warm, pressing into Flint’s back with steep pressure.
“Ow.”
“Oh, that doesn’t hurt .” Silver’s hands paused, his thumbs bracing the back of Flint’s neck. “Would you like it to?” Silver’s arm slipped around and hooked in front of Flint’s throat with a laugh. His leg, outstretched along the length of the couch, twisted in and hooked over Flint’s knee. “Because that can be arranged.”
“Come off, Silver. Before you hurt yourself.”
“I don’t think you understand who’s in the compromised position here.” Silver adjusted his arm around Flint’s neck, tugging Flint to rest against his chest.
Flint wasn’t trapped, but he let himself stay, pressing back against Silver. His body was still warmed from the sun, from being outside and doing his best to stay active and alive, to heal so soon after his accident. Still warmed after going out if only to come back to their house . He left and returned, smelling of the sea and the faint, dusty smell of sunlight. Flint couldn’t move away from it. He loved being held by Silver, but now he could consider it being settled. There was nowhere else to go.
“Aren't you going to struggle? Oh, come on, I’m still a fair fight.” Silver jostled Flint’s shoulders, pressing their temples together.
Flint sighed, letting his head fall back against Silver’s shoulder. “No.”
“No, what ? I could still kick your ass.”
“I know.” Flint agreed, the sunlight taking his bite away. His hands splayed out over Silver’s legs, gently holding them up and around his body. He took a long breath in, unwilling to let it out, like he’d lose something in the process. His grip tightened on Silver. “I just don’t want to. This… This is enough for me.”
Flint had been searching for it for years-- how could home not be enough for him?
#silverflint#silverflint fics#john silver#james flint#captain flint#my fics#the joke is hes drinking black cherry seltzer ajdjdkd#just something stupid and fun i wrote
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