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#just Martin looking at Jon very respectfully
whynotlol9 · 1 year
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I am not immune to tag “unintentional use of Archivist powers” :D and also I am an avid pre-unknowing-kiss believer!
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It’s not a coincidence that of all the Britcom Christmas specials in 2022 that have happened so far, the only one I haven’t written a post about is Catsdown. I just didn’t have much to say about it. It was fine. It was funny at times. I solved both math problems within the thirty seconds, without even pausing the video, and that made me pleased, but to be fair, they were both very easy. I was a bit amazed that some of the contestants didn’t get them.
It should have been a good one. Rose Matafeo was on, and she makes everything great. They had one of those online comedians in dictionary corner, and the judgmental asshole in me immediately recoils at that, but Stevie Martin was at least fairly amusing. I’m not a big fan of Jack Dee, but he was fine.
The big thing that me think this show needs to be done is that it was Lee Mack in Sean Lock’s spot. That is the best possible person who could have been in Sean Lock’s spot, so if he couldn’t save the show, no one can. Before, Lee Mack in a guest captain spot was a treat. It didn’t matter which person he replaced. If he stood in for Jon Richardson, his dynamic with Sean Lock was fantastic. If he stood in for Sean Lock, his dynamic with Jon Richardson was fantastic. He struck very different notes with each of the two regular captains, but they were both amazingly entertaining, and I looked forward to them. As an occasional treat, in between episodes of what we actually came to this show for, which was the Sean/Jon dynamic. The treat’s not as good if it completely replaces the everyday good stuff that we came for.
Honestly, the show was flagging a bit even before Sean Lock died. Partly because Sean was clearly struggling health-wise and getting tired, but it’s not just him. The novelty had worn off for Jon, and he seemed to just be going through the motions too. The only thing that could really get something special out of Jon in recent episodes (by “recent”, I mean 2018-2021-ish) was Sean being so entertaining that Jon couldn’t help but be drawn out. The chemistry between those two is what always made that show great, whenever it was great. And I know it was only ever a panel-based game show with a formulaic format, hosted by a robot/autocue combination that personifies the concept of boring and prototypical, but sometimes it felt fucking great to me. I loved what Sean and Jon did with each other, and how they played off the guests who gave them something. Their dynamic was great, but were also both good enough to carry the show without the other, for the occasional episode when one of them was absent and we got guest team captains. But what we’re seeing now is that that only worked when it was an occasional thing, a break in the core dynamic.
It’s not that Jon’s not good enough. It’s just that the show’s run out of steam; it was starting to happen for a while before Sean Lock died and when he disappeared whatever conserved steam was still in the tank dissapated in a second. A few good episodes have aired since Sean’s death, but Channel 4 has clearly already aired all the decent stuff they had in their vault at that time. It’s time to respectfully put it outside and make room for something new. Give Jon Richardson something that will challenge him out of his stasis. Because if I could watch a Christmas special that was Jon Richardson versus Lee Mack and had Rose Matafeo right in there, and I could come away from that still thinking this show had gone stale, then there’s nothing that can save it.
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saccharinemeat · 4 months
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D , K , L , S , T , W , Z . good monin .... looks at you respectfully kissin ... hi ..... hello . hey
Answerin' this so latey but still! myah myah
D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.
Depends on fandom,but from iii, clover/nickel and candle/silver spoon. which i know you do like but i just cant help but be annoyed by em sometimes. particularly the latter cuz yknow. f/o.
non object and unrelated to shared fandoms, definitely Jonmartin. I know they're canon i know wah wah the dinghy I DONT FUCKING CARE. martin is a little bitch to Jon during the eyepocalypse and idk. idk he gets on my nerves. JonMichael forever actually. (And i like martin with peter lukas. toxic gilf win.)
K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?
Depends on the fandom, object wise i wanna say Balloon (especially in iii), and while i also love Flowers arc i feel she got a bit watered down at the end of bfb. Quite curious to know where Robot Flower's is going though. Non object fandom, I wanna say Riko from made in abyss has some amazing development,and in general the arc around Vueroeruko and Irumyuu was fucking insane. Sobbing immediately and violently.
L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves.
Ugh. Candle is not a bitch and im mostly just uncomfortable with how close she is with silver and her chill attitude is Annoying to a certain degree. Cabby is Fine in the very late episodes and her friendship with yinyang is Nice. Non object related, uhh. uhhhh. idk i dont have any MAJOR hatred i think. or if i do it's so bad i Deleted them from my brain lmao.
S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon
Oh there's so many, I'll try to stay away from my super edgy ones You Know,but let's see. object specific, here's a handful,will just do objects here cuz easier:
test tube is a coffee nerd. She loves all the borderline sciencey work to pull a single shot of espresso. and she WILL get annoying about it if not stopped
Baseball and Cheesy both have braces
Knife is a big fan of kawaii shit and loves the color pink. After the dora incident he's less shy about having one or two little keychains or plushies.
Tree likes to smoke and is in his late 30s. I will Not elaborate,i just know I'm Correct.
T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?
some headcanons ill die defending are mostly darker ones,honestly. but i guess heres some misc. ones from multiple fandoms
- Julian (The Arcana) has BPD and i will never back off from that
- Kenny (south park) sometimes is cis and sometimes isn't,depending how his body regenerated after the latest death
- Yin and Yang (inanimate insanity) have an extremely codependent fucked up relationship
- Rick (Rick & Morty) is bilingual and can speak spanish perfectly. Yes i know this is basically canon but goddamn if the show NEVER brings it up. Im salty about this.
W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.
Any fucking barista/florist/whatever the fuck AU. you people are boring,jesus. And poorly done Enemies to Lovers (ENEMIES ARE EQUALS) or Bully/Victim ships portrayed as good (toxic dynamics can stay tho)
Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go!
Bro I'm tired,, but i wanna talk about fandom in general and how fucking annoying it is that people are always going for wholesome and pure and fluffy and like. yes that's fine and all but i miss when fandom was owned by the freaks. I feel like even the concept of fandom has gone far FAR too mainstream and it's annoying as all hell. It's difficult to not want to just live in a little corner. Also people treat writers and artists like fucking. content machines and it sucks so much. people used to establish friendships over this but now even requests are BARELY polite. Bleh. Also bring the kinkmeme livejournals back
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welcometogrouchland · 2 years
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My pitch for the tma Christmas special Jonny and Alex joke about in one of the Q and As is as follows:
Annabelle is the narrator connecting the bits, rhyming “twas the night before Christmas” style
Nikola posing as a mall Santa to scare children. Breekon and Hope are dressed as elves
An eye-alligned statement about a child overcome with paranoia at the thought of Santa watching their every move to determine whether or not they are naughty or nice.
Martin shopping for a gift for Jon but being unable to find anything that can't be associated with the entities in some way. He is accompanied by the rest of the archival gang (aka Tim, Sasha) who suggests the worst possible gifts on purpose.
A buried themed statement about the terror of Christmas shopping. both the pressure of finding the right gift and the literal sensation of being suffocated by crowds of shoppers
a Christmas carol parody- in which Jon falls asleep at his desk after staying late at work, despite it being Christmas eve. he is greeted by the “Ghosts” of Gertrude, Gerry and...idk Leitner?? all of whom detail the miserable Christmases they’ve had, lost in their work on the entities
Gerry cautions Jon to at least try and enjoy the holidays, Jon wakes up, realizes the true meaning of Christmas, throws his phone into the ocean and starts running towards the airport (or rather, martin), etc etc
avatar holiday party hosted at the institute that goes horribly wrong, set from Rosie's POV as she watches the chaos unfold.
Melanie at a bar with Daisy and Basira getting Christmas drinks, with Melanie complaining about Georgie being busy. the bit is quick, ending when the trio realizes that the band about to do a cover of The Ramones “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight)” is in fact Grifter’s Bone. insert joke here about not getting a day off on the holidays
The penultimate segment is an episode of What the Ghost! In which Georgie attempts her usual spooky fair, but laments not being able to spend it with Melanie, busy on the grind (mattress ads).
speaking of ads, they’re egregious this episode, finally causing Georgie to break, ranting about how Christmas shouldn't be the commercial juggernaut it is today, but an honest religious tradition, a simple time to spend with those you love. This last comment has Georgie trailing off, before signing off abruptly, audibly running out of the room
the finale is where all our unrelated bits converge:
Martin, Tim and Sasha go shopping for gifts at the same shopping center where Nikola is terrorizing children 
the two statement givers from before are there as well (one is currently being crushed under a fallen display while the other is in line to meet Nikola Claus)
Tim sees Nikola and it’s on SIGHT. the parents are horrified as he destroys the display and violently attacks what they thought was Santa Claus but the kids think he’s a hero
the girls show up from the bar where they may or may not have made a row about a fake fire to get the bar to evacuate, which then escalated into a real fire
Jon and Georgie burst in at almost the exact same moment, awkwardly acknowledge each other, respectfully giving the other the space to have their Big Romantic Hallmark Movie Moment
martin realizes he still hasn’t found a gift for Jon, when Jon says he doesn’t care about trivial material things, he’d be happy if martin had just written him a poem, honestly
martin, who has spent the last month writing about candle-lit windows and sparkling snowfall in the city and the orange glow of streetlights on his boyfriend’s face: uhhhh funny you mention that-
martin’s poem blends in with annabelle’s narration as she addresses us, announcing how she set everything up to happen from the start, it was her all along, also maybe the non-canoncial aspect is explaine by her looking into other realities via the crack in hilltop road. she wishes us all a very scary christmas and launches the tape into the void, presumably to entrap more people into the web’s seasonal scheming
this post is too long and sincere to even constitute a joke and i’m ashamed of it. genuinely apologizing for putting this on your dash. happy holidays.
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misterghostfrog · 3 years
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[IMAGE ID; a digital drawing of Martin Blackwood carrying Jonathan Sims from The Magnus Archives. Martin is a fat freckled white man with curly ginger hair that is shaved close at the sides. He has a pair of round framed glasses in a bright red, under the glasses he is wearing eyeliner, and a navy eyeshadow. He has black lipstick, two black snakebite piercings under his lip, and a small black nostril piercing. His ear has a large black piercing that cuffs a chain to a small black piercing higher up his ear, and one final black piercing in the middle. He has a black choker, and then a looser chain necklace with an eye ornament on it. He has a studded lather jacket on that is covered in multiple patches and pins, mostly hidden by Jon: of the visible pins there is a trans flag patch on his chest, and on his shoulder is a large dark colored patch that has A-C-A-B on it in white. Under the Jacket is a black shirt that he has partly tucked into his pants, the shirt has a large anarchy symbol drawn on it in red. Under that he is wearing jeans that are significantly ripped as far as we can see. On his right hand he has several black rings, and his nails are painted black. Jon is a skinny Jordanian man with brown eyes and shoulder-length grey-streaked dark brown hair pulled back into a messy ponytail at the base of his neck. He has a beard beginning to grow that appears to be the product of forgetting to shave. He is covered in a series of small round scars that vary in exact size. He is wearing a pair of rectangle-framed glasses, a plain t-shirt, a pair of jeans that are ripped at the knee, and converse. Martin is carrying Jon bridal style in his arms, and is looking away, he is blushing, though his expression is concerned and appears to be speaking. Jon has his arms wrapped around Martins neck, his cheeks are darkened and he is staring at hte ground with an expression somewhere between fear and the face one makes when they’re having to retrace every step they’ve taken to get here. END ID]
Punk Martin but make it Jonmartin.
Also I wrote a lil thing to go along with this under the cut, its only barely edited because it was mostly for fun so be warned its a big ol mess! But its s2 jonmartin nonsense with Martin being very cool and attractive and Jon being seven layers deep in denial (Also I may have written Jon as a touch autistic because its projection hours tonight i’m too sleepy to mask and that goes for writing too babey)
(Mentions of worms, past injuries, and Jon dealing with some internalised ableism and general foolishness)
Jon forgot his cane.
It’s a relatively regular occurrence, for a multitude of reasons. For one thing it’s something of a recent addition to the list of things he needs to keep track of when he leaves the house. Another lovely parting gift from Prentiss, a worm in his left leg that went just quick enough to start burrowing into the bone before it was removed. 
For another, he really has other things to worry about. And if it doesn’t hurt, it shouldn’t matter. Most days he can get by just fine without it- it hurts of course. But not so much he can’t support himself, and really, does he need it otherwise?
Martin and Tim don’t seem to agree, though Sasha has kept respectfully to herself on the whole business. Martin, of course, he trusts. Albeit only recently. But that doesn’t make him right, his priorities are warped. Naturally. He doesn’t see the bigger picture.
(or at least that’s what Jon tells himself)
Which is what leads to this moment, sitting on a bench outside the shop, single grocery bag by his feet. He’d only run out to get a few things, but somewhere between the his flat the the shop his barely visible limp had become more pronounced as his hip began to throb, then he was halfway through the frozens when he realized he wasn’t going to be able to finish the trip. After that he’d barely made it through checkout to the nearest seat before all but collapsing into it.
And now he’s sitting, stuck. An insurmountable walk from home, without his stupid cane. Which, he notes, he wouldn’t need if he’d brought in the first place. Funny how that works.
“Jon?” A familiar voice jolts him out of his thoughts. Jon jolts upright. Martin. 
He knows Martin lives in the area, a side effect of his... investigations. Though he was unaware he used the same shop. He looks up, a greeting or perhaps a question on his lips that dies as soon as he actually lays eyes on Martin.
Martin is wearing a leather jacket. Not just a leather jacket of course, but that’s the first thing Jon can process. He’s wearing a studded leather jacket covered in various patches that advertise various opinions and identities that Jon doesn’t have time to think about. His  jeans are about as much rip as they are Jean, and he’s got piercings- and eyeliner. he’s dressed like he should be riding a motorcycle, not the beat-up red bike he’s got beside him.
“Are you alright?” Martin says, and Jon realizes he’s been staring.
“Are you going to a costume party?” Jon blurts instead of answering. A costume party would make sense, of course. Martin doesn’t dress like this, he dresses like- like-
It occurs to him dimly that he’s never encountered Martin outside of work, at least never in a scenario that would allow him to change out of his work clothes. And some part of him has always assumed that sweaters and khakis were simply how he dressed. It suited him, really. Or Jon had assumed, but then again he assumed anything familiar is suiting.
“Wh- A- no?” Martin answers, looking vaguely offended. Jon flushes.
“I- sorry, I just- I’ve... I didn’t think you seemed the type to dress... like that...?” Jon fumbles, pathetically trying to salvage the conversation. Judging by Martins expression, he’s failing.
Martin opens his mouth to say something, and Jon realizes there’s likely no coming back from this particular mortification. He snatches the bag by his feet and moves to stand. Some excuse already tumbling out when the reason for his sit-down, which had dulled to a shockingly forgettable throb, decides to remind him of his place in the world.
He lets out a cry of pain, and crumples. Only stopped from hitting the ground by a pair of arms that wrap around his chest and under his shoulder. 
“Oh my god, Jon. Are you alright- what- is it your leg? Where’s your cane-” Martin babbles, Gently replacing Jon on his bench as Jon breathes through gritted teeth.
“It’s fine- i’m fine Martin I-” he sighs, studiously avoiding Martins gaze. “My cane is at home.” He tries not to sound chastised as he says the last part- he shouldn’t have to after all. He’s still Martins boss. He shouldn’t be looking away like he’s been caught at something.
“Jon” Martin sounds exasperated, and Jon crosses his arms. Once again, nothing like someone being scolded. He’s not being scolded. He’s an adult. “How long have you been sitting here like this?”
“I...” Jon begins before trailing off, he’s not actually sure. The period between sitting on the bench and the pain dulling enough for him to think through the fog is something is a blur. He is pretty sure someone asked if he was alright at some point. His lack of answer seems to be enough for Martin though.
“Just give me a moment.” He says, stepping away from Jon over to his bike- which has fallen over onto the ground -pulling it upright and over to Jon on the bench. He pushes down the rusted kickstand with a hearty kick- and Jon briefly notes he’s wearing steel-toed boots -and sets the bike gently upright.
“Okay, so! If you sit on the bike I can push it, and you can get home and rest that leg without jostling it too much by trying to walk without your cane.” He says pointedly. Jon makes a face,
“This... this really isn’t necessary Martin- I’m perfectly capable-” He grumbles, waving a hand dismissively. But a glance at Martins expression shuts him up quick. 
“Do you think you can stand?” He asks. Jon pauses, the memory of the white-hot flash of pain still fresh in his mind. He grimaces, shaking his head. Martin hums thoughtfully. “Alright, would you be alright if I picked you up? Just for a moment to get you on the bike” He asks carefully.
Jon hesitates, looking between Martin and the bike. And weighs his options. After several seconds he nods. Martin smiles, and Jon feels something in his chest flutter. Anxiety at his decision most likely. Or perhaps nerves in relation to sitting on a bike, he’s never ridden one- of course Martin will be doing all the work but surely there’s some sort of balance required isn’t there? Really he shouldn’t be riding a bike like this-
Those thoughts are all swept away at the feeling of large warm hands gently scooping him off the bench. He instinctively throws his arms around Martins neck for support as he’s lifted into the air. 
He can feel Martins chest warm against his side as Martin holds him close, one hand on his shoulder and the other supporting his legs. He’s being cradled by his subordinate, carefully as so not to jostle his leg. And all he can think about is how warm Martin is. He’s large and soft despite all the sharper accessories and he smells a bit like leather and tea on top of whatever soap he uses. Probably something that Jon wouldn’t be able to name with a gun to his head. And Jon can see the freckles on Martins cheeks and neck close enough to count if he wanted to even as he looks away, saying something Jon can’t quite parse because he’s too busy reeling from the realization he’d be happy to sit in Martins arms like this for the rest of his life.
His face goes hot and he forces himself to look down at the ground. The pain is clearly messing with his head, or perhaps the sleep deprivation. Or perhaps he’s still riding the high from that moment of realization that Martin isn’t trying to kill him, that he can trust him. 
Either way he’s not thinking straight, which is why he’s dissapointed instead of relieved when Martin gently places him on the bike with the exact amount of care he took in picking him up. Which shouldn’t make him feel so oddly jittery but it does.
The ride is quiet, aside from awkward instructions from Jon on where to turn as Martin guides them carefully along the sidewalk. They miss a turn once because Jons too preoccupied with the feeling of Martins arm bumping against his shoulder as he guides the bike.
And then they’re at Jons flat, and Jon once again feels that misplaced disappointment. He wonders if perhaps Martin will carry him up to his flat, and his face burns again as the silliness of the thought hits him.
Martin does very, very briefly lift him to help him off the bike when he stumbles. But his leg has recovered enough that he can make it up to his flat without assistance, or so he tells Martin. Who looks unconvinced.
“Let me at least walk with you, yea? That way I know for sure you got home safe.” He insists, and Jon forced himself to be displeased with the situation.
It ends up being a good thing Martin came along though, a partway up the steps the railing is no longer enough to support Jon, and he ends up half-carried the rest of the way. Martins arm under his shoulder, his own loops around Martins back, gripping the jacket for support. He can feel his head drifting at the contact- Martin is just so damned warm and safe and Martin it’s impossible not to get distacted.
He forces himself to think about something else, anything else. The jacket- he can feel the leather under his fingertips and it’s as good distraction as any.
It’s a nice jacket, really. Clearly well-worn. And it does suit Martin, in an odd sort-of way.
Jon winces internally, remembering the conversation from earlier. He hadn’t meant to come off so... well. It doesn’t matter. Except that it does, even though it doesn’t, but it does.
Once they reach Jons door, he pushes off of Martin to lean on the wall while he fumbles for his keys. Martin lingers as he does so, twiddling his thumbs awkwardly in the silence.
Jon finds his keys and sighs in relief as the door swings open.
He nearly wanders inside and shuts the door before remembering basic human etiquette. He pauses in the doorway, turning to Martin. Who smiles awkwardly.
“Thank you.” He says stiffly, still leaning heavily on the doorframe. “That was... very kind. Of you.” Martin shakes his head.
“It’s nothing, really. Couldn’t exactly just leave you there, could I?” 
Jon shifts awkwardly, wincing at the brief weight on his leg. He’s right of course, morally at least. If not logically.
“I... I suppose not.” He says, hesitating before adding “I’m sorry.”
“Look, Jon. I already said it’s fine-”
“No-” Jon grimaces “not for that. I- I meant... for what I said. About your clothes. They don’t... I just- I didn’t expect it, and I may have come off as... rude.” He mutters
“Oh.” Martin says flatly, Jons sure he’d forgotten about that until just now, and he wishes he could have kept it that way.
“they do suit you, though.” He says, after an awkward pause. “Your clothes, I mean. It looks- you look nice.” he finishes as genuinely as he can- he does mean it. Of course, he just doesn’t know how to make it sound like he does.
“Oh” Martin says again, brightening slightly, his cheeks going blotchy red in a blush. “I- er- thank you...? I suppose?”
“Yes. Well. Your welcome, I suppose.” There’s another awkward pause, Martin isn’t quite smiling at Jon, but there’s something soft in his expression Jon can’t quite parse. “ Have a good day, Martin.” He says finally, after a long pause. Martins cheeks redden again.
“Oh- yeah, er. You too Jon- and take care of yourself. Alright?”
Jon nods, and Martin smiles. And Jon thinks he’d like to see Martin smile a bit more.
He waves as Martin heads down the stairs, he can hear Martin humming as he goes.
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Hi, so I just found your Tumblr and I’m curious because it’s the first time I hear that considering Aegon as fake is racist. I tried to find in your tags an explanation but I havent found one yet. Do you mind explaining why it’s racist ? Thank you
I have a whole lecture series for this. 😂
The second ever post I made on this blog - if Aegon is in fact an imposter, it would be baiting the audience by presenting a cool story about a biracial character living when everyone thought he was dead and returning to get justice for his murdered other and sister, only for it to turn out that he’s just some white guy unintentionally masquerading as a murdered brown boy. The story of a rightful king is one that we see very often in fantasy. I certainly understand the desire to examine and deconstruct it. But it’s a gross choice to do that with characters of colour, who are rarely the subject of such stories. It probably would have been okay even despite that fact, had it not been for the following point.
Aegon does not exist in a vacuum. There is a clear pattern of poor treatment of characters of colour. Both the Martells - Arianne is introduced breasts first with much less focus on her very real skills; Martin uses Quentyn to make an example of a character of colour that fails when everyone that ultimately succeeds will be white for the sake of regaining the stakes of the story; Rhaenys Targaryen was brutally murdered as a toddler - and the characters in Essos. The Dothraki are not given distinctive personality traits; Irri and Jhiqui might as well be the same person for all that it matters and are treated as silly little girls even though they went through literally the exact same things that Dany did; Myriah Martell was met with suspicion and hostility when she married into the Targaryens, with complaints about how Daeron listened to the whispers of women persisting to the canon era, while her Targaryen goodsister is spoken of fondly and respectfully by canon era Martells on top of having enjoyed immense influence over her husband’s homeland, as evidenced by the fact she was the one that began the tradition of the Water Gardens being a place for everyone. Which brings us to Aegon, the biracial son of a brutalized woman of colour and the brother of a violently murdered toddler. There are white characters that were presumed dead that turned out to be alive. There were baby swaps with white characters. There are white characters that pretended to be other people. So why is it Aegon, the sole character of colour that is involved with any of these conspiracies and swaps, the one that has to be false? JonCon can turn out to be alive, Mance and Gilly’s sons can be swapped, Sansa can pretend to be Alayne, Ned can protect Jon by raising him as his own son, but god forbid Aegon is exactly who he says and believes himself to be. Too improbable!
On top of this, these characters of colour are specifically harmed for the sake of white characters’ stories. Jon Snow as a character makes no sense without murdered Rhaenys. It does not make sense for him to grow up as Ned Stark’s bastard to protect him from Ned Stark’s best friend unless the aforementioned best friend has already condoned the murders of children. Baelor Breakspear, who explicitly took after his mother, had to die so his white passing brother and nephew could take the throne. His other brothers may have looked like him, but either way, there’s no evidence and the throne still passed to Maekar, who explicitly had the expected Targaryen look. These issues would be fine on their own! I’d probably still grumble about murdered three year old Rhaenys, but not about Baelor! It would have been a completely valid - and beautiful - writing choice for his death to mark the beginning of the end of the Targaryen dynasty with Baelor, the hope of Westeros, cut down by his own brother, perpetuating the same old cycle of family fighting family. The problem is all these issues put together.
These are all in-text issues, but fandom worsens them. While in canon, Arianne is extremely smart with sympathetic motives, impressive skills, and a great deal of compassion for other people, fandom would often have us believe that she’s just a stupid, smug, and scheming snake that only cares about her ambition and would immediately throw in with Aegon not because she believes he’s really her cousin or that it’s the right thing to do, but because she wants a crown. While in canon, Oberyn spent the last fifteen years of his life in a committed relationship with Ellaria, fandom would have us believe that it’s just a casual fling and they’re both always sleeping with other people. People are so determined to justify Rhaegar’s actions and absolve him of any responsibility, they’ll come up with elaborate theories as to how Elia was having an affair and Rhaenys wasn’t Rhaegar’s daughter. The second anyone criticizes even the structure of Dany’s story, built as it is around racist writing choices, much less any of her in-universe decisions, people make up strawmen arguments about how anyone making the mildest criticism is defending slavery. This context matters immensely for understanding precisely why people react to Aegon the way they do. 
When arguing that Aegon must be a female line Blackfyre descendant, one point that always comes up is that it’s “too late in the story” for him to be the real Aegon. Setting aside the bizarre logic behind that idea - it’s too late for Aegon to be Aegon, but it’s not too late to bring up this ludicrously complicated idea of him being Illyrio’s son by a woman that happened to be a Blackfyre descendant, that just so happened to be the same age as Rhaegar and Elia’s son and grew up to look just like Rhaegar? Is this another thing having to do with the obsession with main houses with people thinking that any Targaryen has to be in it from the beginning, but not so a random person? - this is more about not wanting Aegon to be Aegon than the theory actually making sense. It’s about the fear that him existing somehow takes away from Jon or Dany. You’ll note that these theories are never about a real thematic purpose or how finding out he’s not who he’s been raised to believe he is will impact him. They’re entirely about getting him out of the way, so that this ~special Targaryen status~ is preserved as being only for Jon and Dany. Half Dornish Aegon, with the best claim of any Targaryen, whose story arc involves appealing to his maternal family, can’t be alive!It’s the same reason that people ignore his good traits - his sense of humour, his intelligence, his wise perspective on the Kingsguard, his refusal to let Yandry throw Tyrion overboard, his ability to persuade others to see his perspective - for the sake of treating him like an incompetent monster for...getting mad at Tyrion for lying to and taunting him and freezing up at the sight of the stone men. That’s absurd. It’s both of these things that help clarify the thought process behind the theory.
If Aegon is an imposter, it is using a story point that would be perfectly innocuous with white characters in a way that’s gross and racist with a character of colour in a story that treats characters of colour poorly. If he were not the only nonwhite claimant to the throne, it would be fine. If visibly brown Baelor Breakspear had ascended to the throne, it would have been fine. If the “he’s fake” theory was not always paired with “and Arianne will die for throwing in with him”, it would be fine. As it is, though? Not fine.
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equalseleventhirds · 3 years
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hi! feel free to ignore this, but i love your posts about annabelle and the major problems/missed opportunities about her in canon, which i COMPLETELY agree with and i’ll often change things in my au fics, but i was wondering if u had any advice for writing her character respectfully in canon compliant works?
ok so i'm only recently home from work and currently eating dinner, so my thoughts are (vague noises), but
i think there's like, two main elements to treating annabelle with respect when writing her: her canon characterization and her identity as a black woman. and while i can talk abt her canon characterization & my reading of her forever, i'm not rly qualified to give in-depth advice on writing a black woman beyond 'do research' and also like, 'don't do these clearly fucked up things'? (i can like, tell u some stuff abt researching to write poc tho, that's... in there. this thing got rly long.) anyway.
first & easiest is writing her with proper consideration given to her canon characterization (prior to the uhhhh end bit that rly reduced her down to someone much simpler than previously established). so often people make annabelle purely villainous, or basically just a mouthpiece for the web with no wishes of her own, or focus on what she can do for/to jon and/or martin (wrt either helping or hurting them this is kinda shitty tbh. like, making her interact with them? yeah! making her entirely story revolve around them and their wants/needs/feelings/story? come on). she's so much more than that!! she is complex!!! she is her own person!!!!!
pay attention to her story arc! her parallels to jon! the bits of personality that we hear! look at the fact that she was terrified of spiders for most of her life (and perhaps still is, even though she now must serve the web). consider her musings on free will, and her wondering if she herself even has any. think about how awful the experiment that made her an avatar must have been, how her unwilling transformation was brought upon her by unethical authority figures using her greatest fear. look at how her childhood may have influenced her, how she may crave attention or feel like she needs to be self-sufficient or resent people who shirk their responsibilities. also she canonically enjoys reading and wants to make television, she is an Artist and also rly smart, write her like that.
also like... ok listen....... supposedly she's amazing at manipulation; use that! i know s5 did a lot of.... not that, but as a child she bit herself to get her sister in trouble! let her play fucking five dimensional chess!! fuck mind control, fuck 'everyone knows she always lies', give her manipulation some gotdamn complexity. or, if you're choosing not to do that, make a reason? like, is she actively trying to change and be more honest? does she feel like it's not worth putting in the effort for what the web wants, when the web does have mind control at its disposal?
the second part of writing annabelle respectfully has to do with her identity as a black woman. i'm not black. i am not qualified to tell you exactly what you should and shouldn't do when writing a black woman (and also no group is a monolith you're gonna have conflicting opinions etc etc).
i am a poc and i spend a lot of time thinking about race in media, and my go-to advice is always to do research. for annabelle, look for experiences and things written by black people, especially black women, especially living in britain (bcos society & politics & things vary in different places). learn history; there's specific history that you should look at, especially when writing horror or about specific topics. for example, there's really awful history wrt black people being unethically experimented on by the medical industry (which canon does not address even tho that's literally annabelle's backstory). there's also, let's face it, a lot about police and police brutality in this show, both with police as major characters and with police/police investigations used to advance plot, and annabelle is a black woman. i've seen fics use police (daisy and basira, or cops in general) as threats against her, and somehow present that as a good thing bcos 'well she's evil'??? i.... listen i'm not black but i know that's fucked up to write.
additionally, and tbh broadly applicable to writing any poc, learn about offensive racial stereotypes and tropes. you have to know about them in order to avoid them. you have to learn why those stereotypes and tropes are racist and offensive, so you can understand what about them is bad and how to avoid them. and tbh, there are awful racist stereotypes in every direction, so you can't just do the opposite of one stereotype you found, or you may wind up falling into another one. imo one of the best ways to do this is to like....... make a fully fleshed-out character who doesn't become a one-dimensional stereotype?
and this was rly just a very longwinded way of saying 'pay attention to canon and do careful research' but yeah, pay attention to canon and do careful research (and be ready to abandon canon when some of those uhhhh racism issues in tma come up? or when earlier characterization is flattened in order to serve someone else's storyline, etc.)
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bibliocratic · 3 years
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jon/martin
part of a series of archive polycule oneshots pre-established tim/sasha, sasha/jon, martin/tim
Jon has changed his shirt four times now. Sasha’s bedroom is a lesson in disaster zones, a dumping ground of clothes and accessories and sprays and creams. Early on, she tried to avoid the proceedings as long as possible to give the man a bit of space, and so lurked in the living room, reading a magazine and ignoring the stomping, and cursing, and muttering and clattering from the bathroom and bedroom.
Now, an hour in, she’s been fully drafted into emotional and sartorial support, a rational battalion of one as Jon cycles intermittently and indecisively between outfits. Ten minutes to go before the taxi arrives, and he’s standing there shirtless, his arms folded and glaring in recrimination at the shirts rumpling on the bed.
“I liked the white one,” Sasha broaches cautiously.
Jon twists at his rings.
“It doesn’t go with the trousers,” he says.
Jon’s trousers are the one thing he has, finally, been able to narrow down, a punk-red choice that was half an hour in the making. Jon’s tried on the white shirt, red trousers combo twice now, and it definitely matches, and Sasha has definitely told him this already.
“Everything goes with white, Jon. Look, it’s good look! With the blue bowtie, it’s nice.”
“I look like I’m dressed up as the Union Jack,” Jon’s discontent has cycled back to snarking under his breath. “Or the Dutch flag. Or the French.”
Jon picks up another shirt, a fetching pale-yellow check pattern, before he puts it down in a huff.
Sasha’s phone dings.
05.35 Tim <3: How’s it going?
05.35 Sasha: We’ve narrowed it down to four shirts, so improvement!
How’s Martin?
05.36 Tim <3: Pacing.
He keeps brushing his teeth.
He looks nauseous.
05.36 Sasha: Should I change the booking?
05.36 Tim <3: Nah. They’ll pull themselves together.
“Jon,” Sasha says in the kindest possible way. “The taxi’s in ten. Choose one. Choose the white one. Martin would think you’d look good in a bin bag, come on.”
The reminder of the time clearly works its magic, and Jon hurriedly puts on the white shirt. Sasha helps him with the bowtie when it’s clear he’s going to be all butterfingers until he gets to the venue. He spritzes on some aftershave while she hunts him down some socks.
“There you are.” She smooths down some of the wrinkles. “Very handsome.”
“Should I wear cufflinks?”
“Best not, you’ll fiddle with them all night.”
“Hm. When’s the taxi?”
“Five minutes. You should get your shoes on.”
Jon has one shoe on and is hunting around for the second when he suddenly looks to Sasha.
“Should I have gotten him flowers?” A panicked look has gripped him. “People like flowers, don’t they, on a first date. Martin is definitely the sort of person who likes flowers, maybe I should – ”
“Jon,” Sasha interrupts his spiral. She comes in close and puts her hands on his hips. “Sweetheart, you’ve got this.” Her phone digs to signal the taxi’s arrived, and she smiles at Jon reassuringly. Jon’s smile is slightly more on-edge but he’s clearly trying. “Now, off with you and get yourself a nice fella.”
She kisses him for luck before shepherding him out of the house on the dot of quarter to.
Not ten minutes later, Tim’s invited himself over, spirits and mixers in a plastic bag, and they toast to their loved ones while crossing their fingers.
--
Jon insists on walking Martin back to his flat after their meal. Martin’s brolly is wide-limbed, a wind-battered shelter, and with Jon’s slightness and Martin’s height, both of them manage to crouch under its hold and remain mostly dry. Martin’s shoes are new, still sheened with their factory polish, and he hasn’t worn them in yet, so he’s clearly feeling the rub of them at his heel with the way he’s walking. Jon is regretting his choice of shirt, because while Martin complimented him and it made a pleased smile stutter onto his face, the fabric is thin, and the chill has started to freckle his body.
He stands a little closer to Martin as they walk. He thinks Martin notices. Hopes he does.
Jon won’t remember what they spoke of when Sasha asks him tomorrow. He’ll remember the flow and bubble of conversation, the easiness of it. He’ll remember that Martin talks with his hands, and more than once he forgets he’s gripping the umbrella and they get sprinkled with a liberal wash of rainwater. He’ll remember that he could make Martin smile just by doing poor impressions of people they both knew, and so he’d done it more than once just because he could.
On the step, neither of them know how to tie up their conversation, and Jon is realising that he doesn’t want the night to stop. That he wants tonight and tomorrow and the day after, that whatever way his life tends he wants Martin in it.
“I – er, guess this is good night then?” Martin says. His expression has taken up its old post of anxiety, and he’s looking everywhere but Jon’s eyes, his hands and body held respectfully back even under the umbrella.
Jon bridges the gap. Raising himself onto his tiptoes to angle himself better, pressing a kiss to Martin’s cheek.
“Good night, Martin,” Jon says, and his voice is smooth while the rest of him is not. Martin has gone the colour of sunrise and is looking wowed. “Or, um, I could come up? If you, er, if you wanted to keep talking, over tea or something?”
“I – um, is that – that’s a metaphor, right?” Martin asks. “I’d, don’t get me wrong, I’d like to keep – I’m having a great time, and um. The thing is Jon, if you came up, and I’d – I’d like that, but  it would really be just, just tea. I, um, I don’t? Not really. I was going to tell you if tonight went well, which it did – I-I mean at least I think it has – ”
“It’s not a metaphor,” Jon interrupts. He wants to take Martin’s hand, but one is still holding the umbrella and the other is wrapped around his flat keys. “It’s seems a good a time as any to tell you I don’t either.”
“Oh.”
“Indeed.”
Martin’s shy smile has crept back onto his face.
“Right. Right. So, would you like to come up?”
“Lead the way,” Jon says, and he follows Martin inside.
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ofdreamsanddoodles · 3 years
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since i was talking about the ways people give themselves “permission” to write certain headcanons, i kind of want to add that it doesn’t have to be a specific identity that makes people assume that they have to be one certain way. like, yes, martin caring for his mom and working a few jobs means that he might not have a lot of time for romance, but that definitely doesn’t mean he couldn’t have flings, or have found a way to fit a boyfriend into his schedule. there are a lot of people who would def understand someone going “hey, i don’t have a lot of time rn, but i’d still like for us to be a thing, even if it’s not serious.” obviously, it’s not a bad thing if jon was martin’s first relationship, but when you start saying that there’s no way martin could have had any other partner, that’s fatphobia!
and like, this isn’t a headcanon I see often, but aroace gerry is something i’m not fond of because I feel like it’s very hard to write without ignoring some of the trauma inherent in his backstory. i would never police headcanons, esp when it’s still relatively harmless, but to me it’s just like. do i think gerry had a lot of time for romance? no, and i don’t think he prioritized it either. but i think that’s because he didn’t really feel like he could have because anyone he brought home would have had to meet mary and he wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if something terrible happened because of it. the fact that gerry didn’t have any time for romance is something that’s completely circumstantial, and it doesn’t feel right to me to turn that into a celebration of identity. obviously, there’s still ways to write this respectfully, but i think it’s important to acknowledge that regardless of his level of attraction, dating is always going to be something that was robbed from him, & i think it’s hard not to be bitter about that, which i think sometimes even people who don’t see him as ace have a hard time really grasping
but, also, while i’m talking about both martin and gerry, i think it’s important to recognize that it’s just as likely gerry had flings that it is martin has! gerry was constantly moving to look for leitners, and had to keep an eye on his mother, while martin was working different jobs, and had to keep an eye on his mother! if you can accept that gerry might’ve hooked up with people despite having a weird schedule, you can accept that martin could’ve done the same
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spicy-bunz · 4 years
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I just read a delightful fic with beautifully written ace Jon and I really wish more people would put more effort into writing him more respectfully. Like, I’m allosexual so I get it, he’s very pretty and so is Martin and reading them having a sexual relationship is fun.
But you really, and I can’t say this enough, don’t have to have sex to be in a loving and fulfilling relationship and when authors put the effort into portraying Jon’s canon sexuality respectfully and accurately, it makes for a fulfilling and beautiful fic.
Also this is fan fiction and I’m not saying people should stop writing jonmartin sex if jonmartin sex is what they want to write, but also I would love it if there were more fics written with more thought put towards Jon being (implied by canon) a sex-repulsed asexual man and how that would actually look like in a romantic relationship.
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tklpilled · 3 years
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polyarchives usually starts with timsasha, then Martin, then Jon, but may i introduce to the concept of aro sasha deciding that it might not work, Tim respectfully backing off and turning his attention to Jon (and Sasha becomes both of their wingmen. why be in a relationship when you can watch two bi dumbasses try and fail to flirt with each other.)
Or Tim tries to go for that lovely library boy downstairs and Jon and Sasha ridicule him for it, but Sasha also bullies Jon because he likes Tim but wants to be respectful about it but also have you seen that Blackwood guy and the way he lifts those books no Sasha I am not a simp what does that word even mean-
Or one time Martin helped Sasha wrangle [REDACTED] from Artifact Storage so now they're besties and she bullies him into showing her his very gay poetry about the two academics upstairs who keep talking about books.
Or hell, Sasha breaks off with Tim because she doesn't want a 'romance' per se but she watches him scoop up Jon and Martin with like zero effort (she's just as gay as they are watching him do that) and she realises that she likes watching David Attenborough with Jon and she likes debating about what makes good poetry with Martin. She doesn't want boyfriends, but she wants them. And when Jon quietly asks if she likes his cooking and Martin asks her if the lo-fi vibe actually matters or not and Tim asks her to hold him with the ice-cream jingle of the van outside sounds too much like circus tunes, how can she refuse?
Just. There are so many routes you can take with polyarchives and I'm gay and yearning.
i am looking directly at it
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beewitch4 · 4 years
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How TMA (and its fandom) helped me realize I’m ace
So, I’ve never done a long post on here, or a post talking about my life, but since it’s asexual awareness week, I thought I’d talk about how Jon being canonically asexual in The Magnus Archives helped me figure out my own sexual orientation.
(I don’t want to put in too many details about my personal life, so I’m going to keep it a vague as possible on specifics, you guys get it.)
I’d heard of the term “asexual” as an orientation someone could have before TMA, but it didn’t connect with me personally in any way. As far as I understood it, asexual meant that you hate all sex all the time and that you don’t enjoy any kind of sexual acts, like kissing, for example, and that if you even considered enjoying sex - even once - then you can’t be asexual. That’s obviously a very constricting (and incorrect) definition to put on a very broad orientation, but I had no reason to believe anything different. Not many people know or understand asexuality, and I had no reason to go looking for information on a label that neither I nor anyone I knew used.
I can’t remember exactly when I started questioning, or why, but it was probably because I found I just... wasn’t interested in sex. My friends and people around me and stories I watched or read all had people who actively enjoyed the thought of sex, and having sex, and I just, didn’t. Hypothetically, I GUESS it sounded nice, but thinking about actually doing that with someone grossed me out a little, and that was when I thought about it at all. I never felt “broken” in the way I’ve heard other ace people describe, but I wondered when I would start liking the idea of sex too. I had sort of assumed that it was something that happened “later”, but based on the people around me, “later” was NOW, and it just wasn’t interesting to me. I thought “maybe I’m asexual”, but at that point I’d made out with someone before, and I’d enjoyed it, so I thought “there’s no way”, and moved on, dismissing the notion.
When I listened to The Magnus Archives and got to MAG 106 and it was revealed that Jon is ace, my first thought was “oh, cool”, because I thought it was nice that people who DID identify as ace could have some representation, especially since I’d never seen ace representation at all before. By that point, I’d also (unfortunately) seen some spoilers that Jon and Martin got together later in the show, so I was happy for some bi (or pan) rep as well, and then I moved on, not really thinking about it again. Once I caught up with the show, I looked through tumblr to see what people were saying about it, and I saw some people talking about how glad they were that Jon is ace, and I once again thought “good for them”. There were a handful of posts talking about how to respectfully write an ace character, and though I don’t remember exactly what they said, I remember understanding the main point as “don’t write an ace character in a sexual situation because that’s disrespectful to ace people”. Which this isn’t UNtrue, but it’s not the whole story, and it didn’t make me think anything other than what I already believed: All ace people hate sex. However, when I started reading fanfiction for TMA, things changed. I read a fanfictions where, in the author’s notes, writers would say that they wrote asexuality based off of their experience or friends of theirs who were ace. I don’t really read smut fics (just a personal preference - they usually gross me out), but I don’t mind reading fics with other things, like making out, and the idea that fanfictions like that were written BY ace people ABOUT an ace person changed my perspective a little bit. I thought, “If asexual people CAN enjoy making out, what else don’t I know?” And I did some research.
A few months and some self doubt, self discovery, and self acceptance later, and I know that I’ve never felt sexual attraction for anyone in my life. I’m asexual. (A sex-indifferent asexual, if you want to get specific.)
I never knew before that the simple act of making a character canonically a sexuality other than straight could help someone that much. Remember: Jon’s asexuality is never brought up again in series. And yet. It has helped me realize who I am.
However, this is just my experience. There are SO MANY different ways that people can identify with asexuality. There are ace people who don’t like sex in any way, like I thought, and there are also ace people who enjoy sex in some ways but not others, like me, and there are ace people who fully enjoy sex, and all of these people are valid. I don’t want anyone walking away from this post thinking “That’s the universal ace experience! If you don’t hit all those points, you can’t be ace.” because it is such a wide and underdiscussed spectrum.
Okay, this is probably the longest post I’ve ever done, so now I’m tired. I probably won’t do anything else for ace week (maybe a drawing), but I hope you all have a wonderful day.
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Text
But Now I’ve Come Back To Wash Out The Stains
Summary: Jon and Martin have been wandering through the Fearpocalypse for Fear Gods only know how long (cause we all know that gods are vicious two-faced pricks). One day (or what passes for a day), they happen upon an Avatar of Death who thinks that they deserve something nice and offers to bring back Sasha and Tim for twenty minutes. Or The One Where Jon and Martin Can't Stop Being Tooth-Rottingly Sweet and, Oh Yeah, Tim and Sasha Are Here Too
CONTENT WARNINGS- Existentialism Long Musings about Death Description of Death Mention of Religion-Related topics (Heaven, afterlife)
Words: 6,827
AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26982298
Jon took a deep, shaky breath. The door ahead of him was plain and gray with a simple black knocker. It was set in the frame of a drab little house painted completely white. There was no color around it- no grass, no trees, no bugs to decorate the dull black earth. Even the sky was clouded over here. He knew exactly what lay before him.
"Jon?" Martin's voice brought him out of his thoughts. Jon glanced up at him, trying his best to look brave. He certainly didn't feel brave, but he hoped his acting had improved since last he checked. Apparently it hadn't, as Martin reached out and gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
"What do you see?" Martin asked. Jon smiled, even chuckled a bit at the repetition, the familiarity.
"You. Of course, you." Martin nodded, satisfied with that answer.
"And I'm not going anywhere. Unless, of course, you have to do a statement, but even then I won't be very far away." Jon hummed happily.
"You're better than I deserve," he said. Martin chuckled.
"I must respectfully disagree, but thank you." Jon turned his eyes to the door again.
"Well, into the valley of death, I suppose." He raised his free hand to the knocker and let it fall once, the door swinging open before he could knock a second time. Jon jumped back in surprise, bumping into Martin who rested his steady hands on Jon's shoulders.
The man who had answered the door was very tall and built like a twig. He had dark brown skin, frizzy black hair pulled back into a ponytail, and wore a torn and dirty blue shirt with a red and yellow bird sporting the letters 'KU' on its side. Even with the filthiness of the apocalypse that hung around him, like everything else, he was the brightest-colored thing for miles around. His brown eyes surveyed the both of them.
"Oh. Okay," was all he said. He had an American accent. Jon glanced up at Martin.
"We're- um, we're-"
"-The Archivist and a former Avatar of the Lonely. I know. You've been well acquainted with my patron, the way I understand it," he said with a smile. Jon couldn't tell how genuine it was.
"Unfortunately, yes," he replied, hoping he betrayed no emotion. The man nodded.
"I'm Elliot," he said. "Please, come inside." Elliot disappeared inside the house. The two exchanged a look.
"He seems... okay," Jon reasoned. Martin's brow wrinkled in thought.
"Yeah. I guess he does." His eyes trailed to where Elliot had just been standing. "Well, Death isn't in a huge hurry, right? 'Cause it happens eventually? We probably won't, y'know, die in there or something... right?" Jon shrugged.
"Sound reasoning. In we go, then."
The inside of the house looked as normal as it possibly could, other than the lack of color. A small mudroom led into a sparsely decorated living room with high ceilings. Elliot gestured to a gray couch.
"Sit." It wasn't a request. They quietly complied as he took a black armchair.
"This, um, this is a bit different than most of the other domains," Martin pointed out. Elliot nodded. When he said nothing, Martin tried again. "It's not exactly what I'd expect for the domain of Death itself." At this, Elliot raised an eyebrow.
"No? How so?" Martin gestured around them.
"It's, you know, cozy. It's a home. I'd think death would be more... I don't know, dark? Gloomy?" Elliot smiled as though he'd been expecting that answer.
"The way I see it, this is just as likely a place as any to house Death. A living room for a wake. A home where somebody quietly passes in their sleep. The site of a cooking incident, fall down the stairs, a slip in the tub. There's a reason people don't want their parents living alone in their old age. It may not be a traditionally violent place, but Death knows the home just as well as anywhere else." Martin squirmed a bit. Jon grabbed his hand in a way that he hoped read as reassuringly, rather than 'wOW I'm freaked out too, babe hold my hand' (which it was).
"That's... fair enough, I suppose," Jon said.
"But enough about this place," Elliot said. "We have business." Jon's grip on Martin's hand tightened.
"W-we do?" Martin asked. Elliot nodded.
"Of course. Did you think I would just invite you in to chat? I assure you, Freeman, my patron has no shortage of Avatars. If I just wanted some company I have plenty of compatriots to choose from." Martin frowned.
"Um, no, no, my name isn't 'Freeman'. It's Martin Blackwood."
"Didn't ask for your name, Freeman, and I didn't misspeak. You're one of the few who got away from a fear. Do you know how rare you are? Sure, people touched by entities escape them every day, but to be claimed, fully claimed, and find a way to walk out..." Elliot's eyes were almost glazed in fascination. "You're a freed man. Hence, Freeman. It's a high compliment with those who see past the obsession with their patron." Martin looked lost in thought.
"Huh," he said quietly. Elliot's gaze turned to Jon.
"As I was saying, I have an offer for the two of you." Jon's eyes narrowed.
"We aren't making any deals," he said firmly. Elliot looked exhausted and annoyed, like he'd been trying to explain astrophysics to a very dull child.
"Archivist, did I say that it was a deal?" he asked slowly. Jon crossed his arms, taking his hand out of Martin's.
"You expect me to believe you're just offering us something that we'd want with no catch?" Elliot sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose.
"Something that I think you fail to grasp, although I'm not sure how, is that I'm getting anything I could want because of this apocalypse. I thrive off of the fear of death, I hope you at least understand that at this point?" He waited for Jon to reply, which he did reluctantly with a nod. "Then you understand that the fear of absolutely everyone in existence is feeling me more than well enough. This 'ruined' world that your..." He thought about it for a second."...boss is so proud of ruling is more than enough for me, my peers, and my patron to thrive off of. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who isn't afraid to die in the apocalypse. As such, we hardly have to do anything at all to keep satisfied. So no, I don't want or need anything from you."
"Then why would you want to help us? We only just met you," Jon pointed out. Martin softly elbowed him.
"N-not that we aren't grateful for your help, of-of course," he added. Jon nodded. Elliot leaned forward, propping his elbows up on his knees.
"Simple," he said. "Pity." They frowned.
"I'm sorry?" Martin asked, incredulous.
"You heard me," Elliot said. "I've heard about the two of you, what you've been through to get here, and I gotta say- I don't envy either of you. When it comes down to it, I just feel bad for you. Like I said, you've become well acquainted with death, whether it's brushes with it yourselves or losing loved ones. While I can't permanently fix either of these, the latter I may be able to temporarily undo." Jon's eyes narrowed.
"You don't mean... you can't-" Elliot sat back in his chair.
"If you would let me finish, Archivist?" he requested. Jon's mouth closed. "Thank you. As I was going to say, all Avatars have specific skill sets that they are gifted to serve the one who claimed them, as I'm sure you know. More often than not, these skills are unique to the individual. I, personally, was given the power, for lack of a better word, to temporarily control the souls of the dead. I usually force my victims to see their loved ones at their last moments of life, especially if it was grizzly, amongst other things. Anyway, to my point- I think you two deserve something nice. As such, I will allow you each a chance to speak to anyone you please for twenty minutes, one person each. How does that sound?"
They were speechless and pale.
"I-" Jon exhaled, trying to determine his next words.
"We... we need time," Martin said. "We need to talk for a few minutes? In private?" Elliot nodded.
"Understandable, take your time." He stood up and went into another room. "Let me know when you've decided," he called, then shut the door.
They let out a collective breath.
"So," Jon said, but it was clear he didn't have anything to follow it up with.
"So," Martin agreed. They looked at each other as if the other's face might hide the answer.
"We... we have to make a decision," Jon whispered. Martin nodded, sighing.
"I mean, the obvious choice for me would be my mum, but I don't... I don't really want to see her?" he admitted, his cheeks flushing. Jon took his hands.
"Martin, that's perfectly okay. And very understandable with the way she treated you," Jon added. "You would be much better off choosing somebody who was good to you." Martin scoffed.
"Well, that narrows down the list significantly."
"Good, now it's easier to choose. I mean, obviously it's not good that your 'list' is populated by so many people who were unkind to you, I just meant-"
Martin kissed him on the cheek.
"I know what you meant, Jon, it's alright." Jon smiled.
"Let's see... oh! You could pick Tim or Sasha," he suggested. Martin's eyes lit up, but immediately dimmed.
"Oh, Jon, I couldn't pick just one of them! No, no, I'm better off picking my mum."
"You don't have to choose one, then," Jon said. Martin frowned.
"Um, yes, yes I do, remember? One each," he reminded Jon. Jon shrugged.
"Sure, but if you pick Tim and I pick Sasha, we can have both. So no, you don't have to choose just one." Martin eyed his warily.
"Jon, are you sure? Don't you have anyone you want to see?" Martin asked.
"Of course," Jon said with a shrug. "Tim and Sasha. I miss them too, you know." Martin thought about it.
"O-okay. Okay then. So... Tim and Sasha? Final decision?" Jon nodded, unable to stop a smile from creeping onto his face. Martin grinned back, feeling a little childish. "Alright. I'll go. Tell him, I mean." Jon gestured towards the door Elliot had disappeared into. As Martin went over and knocked on the door, Jon set to thinking about seeing his friends again, if he could even call them that. With a sudden chill falling over him, he remembered the state of his relationship with Tim right before he... before the Unknowing. Would Tim even be willing to talk to him? Would Sasha, after learning about what he'd done? Maybe this wasn't the best idea... well, it was too late now. Martin was excitedly telling Elliot of their decision. If nothing else, it would be worth seeing Martin happy, if only for twenty short minutes.
"So, Timothy Stoker and Sasha James, huh?" Elliot said. Jon nodded as Martin sat back down next to him, taking his hand again. "Friends of yours?"
Jon hesitated.
"Yes," Martin said firmly, seeming not to notice Jon's lack of confidence. Elliot nodded.
"Alrighty then. Now, it'll take a few minutes for them to show up, and I can only call up one at a time."
"Wait, we can't see them together?" Jon asked.
"That's not what I said," Elliot reminded him. "When both are here, you can see both together, but I have to call them separately. Does that make sense?"
"The twenty doesn't start until they're all the way here, correct?" Martin asked.
"Correct. And, just because I'm feeling strong today, I'll give you twenty minutes starting when the last one has arrived."
"Thank you," Jon said.
"Yeah, thank you so much," Martin echoed, his huge, sunshine-reminiscent smile lighting up his face and Jon's entire heart.
"Now, I'll need complete silence to do this, if you don't mind," Elliot said.
"Of course, of course," Martin said, looking around. "We'll..."
"-be in another room if that's alright?" Jon finished. Elliot nodded.
"Please. You can wait in the kitchen," he said, pointing to a wide doorway that they hadn't noticed.
"Okay, thank you," Martin repeated.
From the kitchen, they could see the back of the couch they'd been sitting on and it front of it where Elliot was kneeling, whispering things.
"How do you think it'll go?" Martin whispered. His eyes were full of so much emotion that it seemed a wonder he didn't burst on the spot.
"Truthfully, Martin? I don't know," Jon admitted. "I want it to go well so badly." Martin's kneejerk reaction was to say 'of course it will go well!', but knowing their situation, knowing who was involved in said situation, he couldn't rightly promise anything.
"Whatever happens, I'll still be here afterwards," he promised instead. That was the one thing he was positive of. "I said I'm not going anywhere and I meant it." Jon smiled as he was enveloped in a hug which he happily returned.
"I'm glad." There was a very brief silence. "Martin?"
"Yeah, Jon?"
"I love you so much. So, so, so very much," he said into Martin's jumper-clothed shoulder. Martin's arms tightened around him ever so slightly.
"I love you too, Jon. More than you know." Slowly, they pulled away. Jon glanced over at the living room and the Avatar.
"Wh- Martin! Martin, look!" he stage whispered, remembering their promised silence but still very excited. There wasn't a lot to be seen if you didn't know what you were looking for, but when you did you could tell that there was very visibly some pigment where there wasn't before. Some lilac purple in the vague shape of a skirt maybe? A hint of brown where hair could be? It might have been Jon's wishful thinking, but he swore he could make out the shape of a woman. A woman he knew he wouldn't recognize, but one that he knew he should.
"Sasha..." Martin breathed. As they watched, she slowly became clearer and clearer, although she stayed statue-still.
"I... I forgot that we didn't- we don't know what she actually looked like," Martin said softly.
"We will soon," Jon replied with a smile.
She was mostly there now. It was like looking at her without glasses on; unfocused, fuzzy, some color from one place bleeding into another. It was, Jon noticed, oddly similar to how he'd imagined her all these years. He knew what she wore, knew that her skin was light brown (courtesy of Melanie), knew her big, round glasses that took up a large percentage of her face, ones that were almost the same as Martin's (leading to plenty of 'twin' jokes from Tim). But as much as he knew about her, what she was supposed to look like, he could never even begin to picture her. This blurry, out of focus freeze-frame was the closest he really ever got. The current situation was oddly reminiscent of a dream where you're anticipating something you want more than anything, but you wake up the second before it happens. He didn't know who he was praying to, but he prayed that wasn't the case.
It was two whole, agonizing minutes before she was clear. And there she was.
"Almost done with the first one," Elliot called. He whispered one last thing, and then stepped back. She was still frozen, Jon noticed, his heart sinking.
"Why isn't she-"
"Patience, Archivist," Elliot hissed.
Sasha gasped, her eyes suddenly coming into focus.
"Wh... where am..."
"Hey, Sasha, it's okay," Martin said calmly, jumping at the chance to help. He slowly made his was towards her. She squinted at him.
"Mar...tin?"
"Yeah! Yeah, it's me!" he said, laughing a little. Tears that had been waiting for her to show pooled in his eyes immediately. Her face softened.
"Martin, what's- oof!" He bowled into her, enveloping her in one of his huge, warm hugs that almost knocked her over. His chest shook with sobs.
"Sasha, I'm so sorry we couldn't save you! We would have in a heartbeat, I swear! It's been hell since you..." He faded into sobs again. The look on her face was nothing short of confused, but she rubbed his back gently.
"Martin, it's alright, it's okay. Easy there..."
Martin pulled away when his breathing had evened out, almost a full minute later. He wiped his face with the sleeve of his jumper.
"Sorry that I'm... a mess," he chuckled. She smiled.
"It's alright, love, it's perfectly fine." Her eyes drifted around the room until they locked with Jon's.
"I'm sorry, is that- Jon? Jon Sims?" He smiled, giving a small wave.
"Hello, Sasha. It's really, really good to see you again." The double meaning of his words were lost on her.
"Good grief, your hair! Jon, your hair is so long! And almost completely gray! What on earth is going on?" Jon frowned, his brow creasing slightly.
"Do you... do you remember what happened?" he asked, keeping his voice as calm as he could. She pushed a stray strand of oak-brown hair behind her ear, as she always used to do when she was thinking. Her simple habits were so familiar that it hurt, even if the body doing her habits was alien to him.
"It's really fuzzy," she admitted. "But... the institute was attacked by Prentiss. Right?" Jon and Martin nodded. "And then we realized Tim was gone, I tried to save him, I talked to Elias, then..." Her face paled. "Oh. Oh, I remember," she said quietly. She looked at her hands. "How am I here?"
Jon gestured to Elliot, standing quietly off to the side.
"Avatar of Death. Wait, I forgot- you weren't there when we learned about-"
"I know about the Fears," she said, her expression cold. She glanced at Elliot. "Are you sure you can trust him?"
"For the most part, we think," Jon spoke up.
"Gee, thanks," Elliot said drily. "Now, do you want me to bring up your other friend or not?"
"Ah, yes. Sorry. We'll go back to the kitchen," Jon said apologetically. They led Sasha out of the living room.
"Other friend?" she asked. Martin smiled.
"He's bringing Tim back too, we get twenty minutes with you two," he explained, unable to mask his smile.
"Just... just because?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.
"He said he feels sorry for us," Martin said. "And quite honestly, I'm too tired to be suspicious of him anymore. I just want to spend twenty minutes with my old friends, alright?" Sasha surveyed his face, slightly red and bordering on annoyed. Jon took his hand, rubbing his thumb over Martin's knuckles to soothe him.
"Alright, Martin, if you're sure," she said finally, offering her own smile. "Now, I haven't really gotten a good look at my boys yet." She stepped back, looking them up and down. "Wow, you two look old," she said. Jon laughed abruptly.
"Thanks, Sasha," he said with an eye roll. She watched him, clearly amused.
"And Jon, you're so much more... expressive." He smiled.
"Well, I don't have the stick up my ass anymore, so that certainly helps," he quipped. Sasha roared with laughter.
"I imagine so," she said. Martin chuckled, putting an affectionate arm around Jon's shoulders.
"He is a lot better and I'm very proud of him," he said, the love in his eyes spreading to his smile. Sasha shifted her weight to one leg and crossed her arms, but said nothing.
"Suppose he's almost done with Tim yet?" Martin asked, straining his neck to see over the couch. Sure enough, Tim was almost completely visible, but there was something different from the way Sasha had appeared. While Sasha had slowly faded into focus, it was almost like Tim was burning in reverse. Small, almost imperceptible fragments at a time, but they could still see the bizarre process. The parts of him there were frozen in a stance with his knees bent, one arm clutching his torso and the other up at an odd angle with his hand in a fist. Like he was holding something.
"Oh my," Martin breathed.
The boys knew exactly what he was supposed to be holding.
"What is he doing?" Sasha asked, squinting. Jon turned his head away, his eyes clamped shut. He subconsciously rubbed the burn on his side from the blast.
"It's... how he died," Jon said quietly. "Explosion." Sasha looked like the wind was knocked out of her.
“He- oh, Tim,” she whispered.
“So you didn’t, you know, see anything?” Martin asked. “From, like, heaven or something?” he elaborated. Sasha thought about it for a second.
“I remember… some things, but I don’t think I can tell you any of it. I mean literally, if I tried I think something bad would happen.” Martin looked a little disappointed.
“That makes sense, I suppose,” he said. She put her hand on his arm, unable to rest her hand on his shoulder due to his enormous height.
“I wouldn’t worry about it, Martin. You have a while yet before you have to deal with the afterlife, I’m sure.” He laughed humorlessly, opening his mouth in what was probably a protest, but she interrupted him. “That wasn't a suggestion. I’d better not see you there anytime soon, Martin Blackwood,” she said, leaving the threat open. He shut his mouth, blushing. “And that stands for you too, Sims,” she said pointedly. Jon gave a small smile.
“We’ll certainly try,” he promised.
“Hey, you three,” Elliot said. “You’ll want to be over here when he comes to.” Sasha’s eyes lit up.
“Tim’s almost done!” she gushed. She grabbed their wrists and dragged them back into the living room. Elliot was just stepping back when they reached him.
Now that they could see him clearly, the desperate, crazy, pained, and triumphant look on his face was that much clearer. It was terrifying, in all honesty. Sasha tried not to dwell on it, instead waiting in earnest for him to come to life.
“You might back up, Sash, so you don’t overwhelm him,” Martin suggested. “Last he knew, you were dead; seeing you might be a bit of a shock.” Sasha reluctantly took a few steps back, but no more. At last, Tim gasped, looking around wildly.
“What the hell?” he muttered. His eyes caught on Sasha, softening.
“S...Sasha,” he whispered. She smiled.
“Hi, Tim,” she said softly. He searched her face almost hungrily, drinking in every detail.
“Holy shit, I’m dead,” he said finally, more to himself than anyone else. Elliot seemed to have enjoyed the last sentiment, so he piped up.
“Usually, yes, but not right now you aren’t,” he corrected. Tim squinted at him.
“And who the hell are you?” he demanded, crossing his arms.
“My name is Elliot, but what’s important to you is that I’m an Avatar of Death,” he explained. Martin stepped forward.
“He’s agreed to help us, Tim,” Martin explained. “He brought back you and Sasha for twenty minutes for us.” Tim’s eyebrows raised gently, a smile slowly growing on his face.
“Martin,” he said. Martin grinned.
"Hi, Tim." Tim's smile suddenly dimmed.
"Wait… us?" he asked, looking around until he spotted Jon. Jon seemed to shrink into himself under Tim's gaze.
"H…hi, Tim," he said quietly. Tim's expression betrayed nothing, positive or negative. It was almost worse to Jon than if he'd been outwardly angry.
Sasha frowned, looking back and forth between Jon and Tim, visibly confused. She opened her mouth to say something, but Martin caught her eye with a fierce glare and swiped his hand in front of his neck, miming to stop. Sasha closed her mouth.
"Hi, Jon," he said stiffly. Jon winced, his eyes misty.
"Look, Tim, I-I know this means nothing, but I really am-"
"Oh, save it," Tim interrupted. Jon's mouth hung open, mid sentence.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"You heard me, Sims. You've apologized before. It didn't work then, definitely isn't working now, but if we only have twenty minutes for this, there's no sense in spending it at each other's throats, right?" Jon's eyes were filled to the brim with gratefulness. And tears.
"Thank you, Tim," he said softly in disbelief. Tim shrugged slightly.
"Yeah, yeah. Just remember that you aren't off the hook. The second you get up there, it's pure spite 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, got that?" he asked. Jon chuckled, wiping his eyes.
"Yeah, yes. Yes I do." Tim lightly punched his arm. Jon fidgeted with the ends of his sleeves, smiling a small smile.
"Awww, my boys!" Sasha gushed, pulling them all into a surprise hug. "You three are such a mess without me," she cooed.
"Can't argue with that," Martin chuckled, leaning over a bit so he didn't completely tower over the five-foot-four Sasha. Jon let himself be smothered by the hug, melting into the arms of everyone around him. It had been so long, so long since he'd felt anything resembling safety, even longer still since he'd been around so many people he trusted. Martin was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him, no doubt about that, but there's only so much void one man can fill when there used to be three.
"Oh dear, Jon," Martin cooed, taking his arm from around Sasha's shoulders and using his sleeve to wipe at Jon's damp cheeks. He hadn't even realized that he had been crying.
"Oh good grief," Jon sniffled, swiping at his own eyes. "I'm s-sorry, I didn't mean-"
"It's alright, love," Martin said softly, lightly touching his forehead to Jon's from across the hug circle. Jon smiled, letting out what was somewhere between a sob and a laugh. Tim made a sound of surprise.
"I- I'm sorry," he said, pulling out of the hug so he could gesture at his living friends dramatically. "Is that what I think it is?" Sasha chuckled, pulling away as well to look them up and down. Martin wasted no time putting one of his free arms around Jon whose eyes were slowly drying.
"I knew it!" she said, grinning. Tim turned to her, a betrayed expression on his face.
"You knew about this? And you didn't tell me?"
"To be fair, Tim, we've been reanimated for all of about three minutes. 'Hey, Tim, by the way, I think Jon and Martin are a couple' wasn't exactly at the top of my priorities." Martin let out a small chuckle. Tim turned back to them.
"So it's true then?" he demanded. Jon looked up at his much taller partner with an expression nothing short of completely in love.
"Yes, Tim," he said finally. "Martin and I are… a couple." Martin's face lit up and he planted a kiss in Jon's long, tangled hair. Tim whipped around to Sasha.
"I am so mad," he declared. Sasha raised her eyebrows.
"Tim, they look really happy together…" she pointed out, the look in her eyes a vibrant blue Tread Lightly, Stoker sign.
"Oh, I know," he said, "I've known for five years, Sash. I made a bet about it with you," he hissed, punctuating 'you' with a pointed jab into her sternum.
It was clear that he wasn't actually angry in any way, but when Tim went off about something, he went off.
"You what?" Martin demanded, his voice going up several octaves. Tim ignored him and kept going.
"And you know what, Sasha? We're dead! We don't use earth currency anymore! Meaning you can't give me the 15 pounds you owe me!"
Sasha threw her head back in laughter, her fringe bouncing. Jon made a point to remember this action. It seemed like it should look so familiar to him. It was something he knew she had done frequently when she laughed, he knew that. He decided to ask Elliot if he had any Polaroid cameras around before their twenty minutes was up.
"Seriously, you two bet on whether or not we'd get together?" Martin squeaked. Sasha smiled sheepishly.
"To be fair, Martin, you two have been at least a little bit in love for pretty much the entire time you've worked together," she pointed out. Jon thought about this.
"I… I suppose that's true," he said quietly, blushing. "On my side, at least." Martin looked down at him, brow wrinkled and mouth upturned in a disbelieving smile.
"Uh, Jon, did you even see me the first year we worked together?"
"Yeah, mate, he wasn't exactly subtle," Tim pointed out, chuckling. Jon frowned.
"Really?" he asked, looking up at Martin. Martin nodded with a small giggle. Jon hummed.
"News to me," he said. Sasha snorted.
"Martin Blackwood is morosexual, part two-hundred-and-four," Tim muttered. Jon laughed in surprise.
"Shut up, Tim!" Martin cried, trying not to laugh (and failing). Tim grinned that shit-eating grin of his.
"I'm right and I should say it." He glanced  at the arm chair behind him. "Okay, was anybody going to tell me I could've been sitting down this whole time or was I just supposed to figure it for myself?" Sasha rolled her eyes, taking a seat next to him. He shifted to sitting on the arm rest so she could have the whole chair.
"Tim, it's a perfectly big chair and you have the width of a telephone pole. We could've shared," she pointed out. He shrugged.
"Curse of the bisexual, Sash; you know I can't sit correctly." Martin and Jon sat on the sofa together.
"Oh my gosh, Jon is the same," Martin interjected. Jon froze, legs already contorted into some weird version of the pretzel. Martin laughed. "Case in point." Jon pulled his ponytail over his shoulder so he could mess with it, a little embarrassed.
"Guilty as charged," he admitted with a small smile. "Sitting normally is awful." Tim waved his hands at Jon, keeping perfect eye contact with Sasha as if to say 'See? He gets it!'
"You're both weird," she said with a shrug.
"Seriously," Martin agreed. Jon gave him a playful shove. "What?" he said with a laugh. "You are!"
"To quote one of the greatest minds of our time," Tim said, promptly clearing his throat, "'We know, but hey!'" Sasha exhaled sharply in place of a laugh.
"Did you just quote John Mulaney?" she asked.
"Of course I did. I'm ashamed you had to ask."
With his own laugh, Jon recalled the week that Tim discovered John Mulaney. You were lucky to hear him say anything that wasn't a quote for at least a month afterwards. His favorites were "I said, y'know, like a liar" and "y'know those days when you're like 'this might as well happen'?", or so it seemed, as Tim used the two religiously.
"You are the only reason I know that," Sasha said, shaking her head.
"And I'm very proud of that," he returned. Suddenly, his face fell.
“Tim?” Martin asked, ready to get up if necessary.
“I just realized that Mr. Mulaney is either dead or in a fear prison,” he said quietly. “Holy shit, so is literally everybody else. Holy shit.” Jon looked at the ground. He felt Martin’s huge hand envelop his and give a gentle squeeze. It’s not your fault and you know that, the squeeze said. You were manipulated. We don’t blame you, love. Jon smiled ever so slightly, putting his head on Martin’s shoulder.
“That’s why we’re going to the panopticon. We’re gonna kill Elias," Martin said firmly. Tim looked pleasantly surprised by this.
"A- you? You, Martin Blackwood, are going to kill Elias Bouchard?"
"Jonah Magnus, actually," Jon corrected. "But yes, that's the plan." Tim whistled.
"That's some intense character development, right there," he said. Jon smirked up at Martin.
"He's been… more murder-y, of late," Jon said teasingly. Martin's jaw dropped.
"Out of context!" he cried.
"So you have been more murder-y, then?" Sasha asked, the awe visible on her face. Martin flushed red.
"In broad terms, yeah, I guess so. I have been a bit…" He sighed. "Murder-y." Tim howled with laughter. "To be fair, most of them deserve it!" Martin added.
"Most of them!" Sasha wheezed.
"He hasn't actually killed anyone yet," Jon assured them.
"Keyword- yet,"Martin muttered. Jon snorted. "When we find Simon, though-"
"Martin, we are not killing Simon Fairchild," Jon said sternly. Martin pouted.
"Oh, come on, not even a little murder?" Jon laughed abruptly.
"A little murder? Sure, I suppose, as long as you only murder him a tiny bit," Jon chuckled. Martin smirked.
"Score."
"How does one murder a little bit?" Sasha whispered to Tim.
"Frankly, Sash, I'm too afraid to ask at this point." They all erupted into laughter.
Jon had missed this more than he could say. Meaningless chatter, conversations that had no purpose other than enjoying the company of those around you. Sasha's motherly tone, Tim's easy smile… he absorbed everything around him and held them close to his heart. They were so familiar to somebody he used to be, somebody he was glad that he was not anymore. He tried to relax back into their patterns, even with his part having changed. The Jon whom Sasha never met, the changed man Tim was too hurt to see, he fit well into their little group. The old archival staff, bruised and battered and torn and traumatized, but together again.
But as hard as Jon tried to relax, he Knew their time was drawing to a close. At first he ignored it, too overwhelmed with joy to pay any mind to that itching knowledge. As the time went on, though, the voice grew louder in his head.
You have three minutes, Archivist, it hissed now, sounding like old, crinkly paper and whirring tape recorder and knowledge itself.
"Jon?" Martin asked softly, bringing him back to the present. Jon looked up tiredly.
"Three minutes," he said quietly. Martin's face fell.
"Oh." They looked at Tim and Sasha in the armchair.
"Well," Tim said grimly. "I guess we should… finish up, then." Suddenly, Jon remembered his idea about the Polaroid. He stood up abruptly.
"Hold on," he said. "Elliot! Ellioooot!" The avatar poked his head out of his office.
"I'm death, Archivist, not deaf," he deadpanned. "What do you want?"
"Do you have a Polaroid?" Jon asked timidly.
"Like, a camera?" Elliot asked. Jon nodded. Elliot thought about it for a second.
"I mean… I think so? Yeah… yeah, in my laundry room, I think."
"May I borrow it?"
"Oh, I suppose. I'll look for it, you go spend spend the rest of your time with your friends." Jon nodded.
"Thank you." He rushed back over to the three of them, locked in a hushed circle, not sure what they could possibly say that would mean enough.
"Tim, Sasha," Jon said, breaking the silence. "I- that is- I'm- I'm glad we had this," he said at last. "It meant the world to me that I was able to apologize, to… say goodbye…" He sighed deeply. "I miss you two."
"We both do," Martin added. Jon nodded.
"Yeah. I…" He took a deep breath. "I love you guys so much," he croaked, his throat tightening as he felt the tears return.
"Oh, Jon," Sasha cooed, closing her arms around him. "We love you too." Tim followed suit, then Martin. They cried, oh they cried. Everyone cried into the fabric of everyone's clothes, all too much of a collective mess to care one way or another. A great, messy group hug featuring two almost-ghosts, a puppet for a malevolent eye god, and an ex-errand-boy for the spirit of loneliness itself in the living room of a junior angel of death. What a sight.
"I got it!" Elliot called. They all looked up, disoriented, having forgotten about him entirely. He waved a Polaroid camera at them. Jon's face lit up.
"Oh! Yes, thank you!" Jon said, wiping his eyes. "Guys, could we take a picture? Just so I'll believe it actually happened tomorrow," he said, only half joking.
"Oh! Sure!" Sasha said, readjusting her glasses. Tim groaned.
"Right after we've been bawling our eyes out? This is when you decide to take a picture? I look awful, and I'm the hot one. You guys don't stand a chance!" Sasha elbowed him.
“Be nice, Tim.” He put his hands up in defense.
“Basira said it, not me.” Jon wracked his brain for when that could have occurred. He frowned, the realization dawning on him.
“Timothy Stoker, were you listening in on me and Basira’s conversation that day?” Tim grinned.
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Jon rolled his eyes. “Wonderful. Alright, guys, everybody group in.” He held the camera out to take the picture but Martin sighed and took it from him.
“Wh- Martin!” he whined.
“You have the shortest arms of anyone I have ever met, my love,” Martin said in his defense. Jon pouted but didn’t protest. “Smile, Jon.” Jon forced on a smile that looked just as fake as it was. Martin kissed him on the cheek, making him erupt into a fit of giggles just as the camera clicked.
“Martin!” Jon complained between laughs as Martin took the picture out of the camera. Sasha cooed.
“You two are legitimately made for each other,” she said. Martin pressed a kiss to Jon’s mess of hair.
“I certainly like to think so.” Tim scoffed.
“Sasha, you always complained when I was that cheesy! What is this ridiculous double standard?” Sasha stood on her tiptoes to kiss Tim’s nose.
“Because you were bad at it, Stoker.” He sighed.
“There’s just no pleasing you, is there?”
Martin made a small squeaky sound, the Polaroid picture fluttering to the ground.
“Martin?” Sasha asked, concern written all over her face.
“You’re… you’re fading,” he said softly. They looked down. Just as they had appeared, Sasha was starting to become less visible and Tim looked like he was fading into dust.
“Good lord,” Jon breathed. Sasha had a mildly panicked look on her face. She gathered all of them together for one last hug.
“Hey, give Elias a hard time for me, a’right?” Tim said.
“Be careful, take care of each other, we love…” Sasha’s “you” was barely audible. It might not have even been there; maybe the sound Jon thought he heard was wishful thinking, but he clung to her voice as the last bits of their friends disappeared. Then it was just the two of them, hugging each other and crying in the empty, monochrome living room. Jon couldn’t say how long they just stood there, holding each other as tight as possible. Jon marveled at how Martin was so solid, so here, one hand on Jon’s back as the other held the back of his head, buried in his ponytail. Jon rubbed his back gently, admittedly just as much for his own comfort as it was for Martin’s. After a few minutes, the sobs having died down to hiccuping, Jon cleared his throat.
“Martin?” Martin hummed in response. “I’m so glad you’re here.” Martin pulled out of the hug just enough to look at Jon’s face. He cupped Jon’s jaw with a big, soft hand.
“There is nowhere else I’d rather be. Even if we weren’t in the fearpocalypse.” Jon smiled, turning his head to kiss Martin’s palm.
After a while, Martin remembered the picture he’d dropped on the ground. He picked it up and turned it over.
“Jon, have a look at this.” Jon took it from him. If not for the slightly shimmery state of Tim and Sasha (apparently having started to fade even before Martin pointed it out), it could have passed for a normal picture of a group of friends. Tim was winking, Sasha’s head was tilted back in a laugh, Jon was blushing profusely and caught in a giggle, and Martin’s lips were pressed to Jon’s rouged cheek.
“We look happy,” Jon said with a smile. Martin put an arm around Jon’s shoulders.
“Yeah.”
“Great, you’re happy, fantastic. Will you please get out of my house?” came Elliot’s voice from behind them. They both jumped.
“Oh, uh, right. Right,” Jon said. Martin caught his eyes, mouthing 'Forgot this was his place'.
Jon tried to stifle a chuckle, mouthing 'Same here'.
"Thank you for this," Martin said. "Really, it meant the absolute world to us." Elliot nodded.
"You're welcome. Good luck, you two," he said as he showed them out the door. It was closed in their faces before they knew it.
"Well," Jon said, breaking the already minute-long silence.
"That was… a lot," Martin said. Jon nodded.
"I hate to ask this, but shall we press on?" he suggested. Martin shrugged.
"I suppose we should."
And so they pressed on.
THANK YOU FOR READINGGGGGG
The song used for the title is Aged Pine by Della Mae, PLEASE check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvDO2-b2JF4
Hey! You! Yeah, you! I think you're pretty neat, and that's saying something because yesterday I saw a cat perched on somebody's shoulder like a parrot. And you know what? You're neater than a cat perched on somebody's shoulder like a parrot. Drink some water, eat if you haven't eaten in a while (or if you have!), take your meds if you need them, and remember that I think you're pretty damn cool.
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origami-trust · 4 years
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Theory?👀👀👀
TMA Spoilers: nothing concrete- just that it seems like every now and then Jon doesn't remember something. The big one being, he doesn't remember the name of the bully who got taken by Mr. Spider, and not remembering a name while giving a statement is unusual. It could easily just be forgetfulness, and I'd say it's smoke and mirrors, but, well, the smoke did turn out to be kind of important.  If there is something (The Web, I am looking respectfully) that can, uh, take out info, remove memories, then, that could be a possible out for Jon to stop being an Archive.  But, you know, Martin's already had to slap him various times to get him out of a statement, and it’s come up more than once that Jon is in some ways very appreciative of the post eyepocalyptic world. I don’t know that he could go back to being Jonathan Sims.
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solis3clipse · 6 years
Text
Gendrya and its chances of becoming canon - part 1
this post contains spoilers from most of the seasons of Game Of Thrones
Gendrya, also known as the shipname of Arya stark and Gendry Baratheon, has become a quite popular pair in our fandom. In this masterpost i will try my best to list and discuss most of the reasons why it has a huge potential of becoming canon.
DISCLAIMER:
in no way shape or form am i going to force someone into believing that they're going to be a romantic pair in the following season. There's obviously a possibility of their relationship staying exactly the same; this is purely based on theories and real facts from the show.
The masterpost will provide you with information from the show, not the books. In all honesty, George Martin treated the ship more fairly than the show and respectfully gave them way more scenes, so to avoid messing up the whole post, i'm going to be speaking about the show!gendrya.
i'm going to be using some very interesting information from the blog of my good pal @jj-justwriteit. They make some very thoughtful points so definitely check out their blog if you're up for some great Gendrya discussions. Please keep in mind that there are some things you might have already heard of; and definitely correct me if i get something wrong.
Before meeting each other.
I think it is best to start from the very beginning, and by that i mean even before Arya and Gendry first met.
A very interesting theory i've been thinking about is Robert Baratheon who is obviously the father of Gendry, telling Ned that they would join their houses with marrying their children.
''I have a son, you have a daughter, we'll join our houses''
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. The first thing you probably think of when reading this is Sansa and Joffrey who were supposed to marry each other and as Robert hoped, join the houses to bring peace. Though we all know how that ended,-Joffrey (who wasn't even Robert's son in the first place) ended up dying and Sansa's future took a whole different path to the point where you'd think her desire for marriage had completely disappeared. This might be them foreshadowing the potential future of Arya and Gendry. I'm not saying they'll get married, but i am saying that this could simply represent the development of their relationship in a romantic way. It would be sort of ironic to see them getting married since Arya had been strongly against it since the very beginning of the show. that leads us to the noticeable twists game of thrones has,- Ned died in the first season when no one expected him to, Robb didn't even get the chance to rule Winterfell when half of the fandom was convinced he was going to be the next king, Jon fell in love with daenerys which was not only never mentioned in the books, but was also rushed and happened very quickly (unlike Gendrya who had plenty of time to develop feelings for each other, they practically closed an important chapter of their lives while they were together); that being said, you can never really predict where Arya's path takes us next. The show always hits us with changes and whether they're good or bad, they're often very unexpected. If you ask me, Arya's story is one of those that has not yet ended and there is exactly that one twist missing that is going to wrap it all up. I believe that ''twist'' has something to do with Gendry. All the other questions in her storyline are answered,- she chose to remain her identity and not become no one, she got back to her family and proved she would never betray any of them, she chose to follow her childhood dream and became her own hero. The last part is love, i believe. And Arya will need to figure it out and battle with making important decisions one more time. Their ''slow burn'' romance as i like to call it has been leading up to that all this time and i'm hoping they will be able to fit it in and drop the bomb in the last season.
Bringing the attention to Gendry, his purpose and identity is really interesting if you think about it. Let's go way back and start from the main point of his role in the show. Gendry Waters is the Bastard son of Robert Baratheon, right? That's very clear when you observe how he acts, how he looks and even talks,-if he had been around earlier the king would instantly recognize him as his bastard kid because Gendry is a perfect definition of the name Baratheon. His appearance - dark, rough looking hair and beautiful blue eyes flawlessly portrays the house. Anyone from Cersei's children could not even compare to how much Gendry looked like his father. There are countless similarities which you can read more about on @jj-justwriteit 's blogif you're interested, but i'm going to swiftly turn back to out main topic to avoid confusion. If you take a minute to observe the plot, the show could've been perfectly fine without him. That came out harsh but don't get me wrong, - i love him to death and he's one of my favorites, he has in fact done very heroic, important stuff but realistically speaking since he isn't technically one of the protagonists, Gendry could've been easily replaced with any random  character be it male or female, with someone like Podrick, without messing up the whole story. Instead the author strictly made him to be a bastard son of king Robert who would later meet the princess of Winterfell. See? the puzzle instantly fits. Not to mention that there were quite a few characters similar to Gendry in the show who died or were very close to dying while despite disappearing for a entire season, the boy still remained alive and received a big development from just a bastard boy who wasn't even aware of his identity and spent his life serving others, to Gendry, the son of King Robert Baratheon who befriended Arya's brother a.k.a our future king and placed a huge role in helping the queen make progress in the battle. There are characters that you'd never expect to lose, there are characters that you know will die. but there are also a few people in GOT that have big chances of making it till the end for various different reasons, i think Gendry is one of them. May i mention how they brought him back in the last season and made him play a huge role? The writers would not make Gendry stand out if he didn't have a future in game of thrones, period. He is important and his story isn't over so killing him would be BLOODY DUMB. You started his journey and made it more significant than it could've been, now it's your job to respect your own decisions and not act like Gendry was nothing to the show. Like mentioned above, he could've been replaced with literally anyone who would be less relevant but noo. It’s Gendry Baratheon. As you keep watching the show and analyse his role in Arya's life, there are so many things about his persona that just make sense. His name makes is easier for me to connect the dots and get to the point which just screams gendrya. and That's one of the things that convinces me that Gendry is going to pull through this and stay in the show till the end.
A very significant scene to me is also his first meeting with Jon. Many people were upset because he didn't mention Arya and i'm not gonna lie at first that left me feeling kind of bitter as well, but after investing into it more i managed to find possible explanations. I like to look at it from the bright side considering that the scene is so much more than just some boys interacting. Gendry's meeting with Jon was done in a way that strangely seemed too much like Ned and Robert's and i can bet my whole life that it was done this way on purpose. It didn't feel too ''formal'', serious or tense, which is what you would normally expect since Jon is literally the legal king of the seven kingdoms. remember Ned and Robert meeting in the very first season? It went exactly like Jon and Gendry’s; They started off with a slightly tense atmosphere until shortly after it transformed into them laughing and hugging. the chemistry between the characters was undoubtedly there,- they jokingly made fun of each other and instantly got along which speaks a lot about his future relationship with the Starks; name any other character Jon talked to in such a friendly, ''domestic'' way as if they had known each other since forever. If Gendry left such a great first impression on Jon, that means there's a clear possibility of him being in contact with not only him but the others as well. and by others yes, i mainly mean Arya. Why would he want to become good pals with Jon? Because he's Arya's brother. He wants to make up for the fact that he was part of the reason they got separated in the first place and get as close to her as possible. As for him mentioning the girl, none of us know what was going on in Gendry's head and that's why there are so many thoughts and theories about this. Probably an opinion closest to reality is that as the fandom agrees,- Gendry might've thought Arya was dead. Obviously after being seperated for quite a long time plus Arya completely disappearing from Gendry's life, he would think she wasn't alive anymore. It seems logical. Even if you don't agree with that particular version, Gendry never really got a chance to ask about her either. Once he joined the others to help out on their mission, clearly all they were focused on was the duty, therefore i hightly doubt D&D would give us the fanservise and focus on anything else than the white walkers. If you think about it, all they discuss throughout the seventh season is the plan and how to accomplish it. Rescued from serving people he didn't want to serve at all, Gendry gave it his all to concentrate on correcting his mistakes, which is the best excuse for this situation. He put off any of his personal issues and wishes to devote himself to saving the world legitimately, meaning he never let himself catch a break and did whatever he could to stay right beside Jon. The boy prevented himself from expressing his emotions which is comprehensible,- even if he didn't think Arya was dead, i reckon Gendry wouldn't dare to ask about her when it was his first proper interaction with Jon, she was said to be his sister after all and the last thing he would want is to make things uncomfortable and awkward between them. Both reasons are quite coherent, believe whichever you want. His commitment towards Snow perfectly showed how much he cares. Not only about the people, Jon or the world. But how much he cares about helping out someone whose sister meant so much to him.
Gendry (still) is in the process of realizing that hey, he could be suitable for his highborn lady after all and if they get the confirmation from Jon(or Daenerys) who will probably become the king, there's no problem in them being together. It's apparent that Daenerys strongly dislikes Robert, but she was the one trying to prove that the child should not be punished for their parents' mistakes, which speaks a lot about how she might've reacted. By now it's obvious that she isn't cruel nor is she stupid. If Gendry and Arya did get together, i personally see no possibilities of Daenerys denying their relationship. Even if by some chance she did, Jon would proceed to convince her to make it happen because he would be perfectly aware of the fact that it could make Arya happy. Besides may i bring this back,- Gendry left a very good impression on him which assures Jon that his sister would not be in any sorts of danger. I firmly believe he trusts him by now. What i'm trying to get across is that in my opinion this just proves that Gendry shares his part of the story with Arya, that's why they are destinied to end up together. it just makes sense.
Lets move on to Arya before and after meeting Gendry. Unlike the boy, Arya did get screentime before meeting him since she's one of the main characters so it's easier to discuss what changes i spotted in her persona. In the first season, up to until the third one we see a tough little girl dreaming about becoming a warrior and being just like her father. It's obvious that she did not even want to imagine her and marriage and continouesly denied the idea, even making fun of Sansa for liking Joffrey. I think that's quite normal and does not mean that she is incapable of falling in love with someone. Arya was very young in the first season, still practically a tiny child so i think it's not surprising that she thought marriage was stupid. In no way am i saying that she suddenly changed her point of view when she grew up, but Arya had a very strict opinion about even considering liking someone romantically let alone spending her entire life with them and that's usually how most children think. Arya, around like 11 years old, would never admit anything like that. That's why i'm now emphasizing on the fact that her behavior and actions drastically changed later on, a very  good example is her checking out Gendry's naked torso in the third season which i'm going to discuss more later. This sums up her growth quite well, she went from the kid who was convinced she was never going to dedicate any time to love, to a girl with her first crush. As i mentioned above, her and Sansa could be on the path of switching their roles. Sansa is either going to lose interest in getting married or finally find a good partner for her(which i doubt will happen to be completely honest) and Arya falls in love with Gendry despite starting off with different expectations. 
during the time period when her and Gendry got separated, there isn't many scenes with Arya mentioning him either. Believe me i was hoping for gendrya the whole time as well but just like with his situation, i was able to quickly understand the case. Arya's storyline throughout season 6 was very important for her to get where she is now. I believe it was essential to make her go through all that stuff to prove a point: It was not for Arya. Besides the way i personally see it is that In the gap between their reunion, there really was no time for them to be mourning over each other's loss. Arya tried to become someone else and forget everything from her past. It didn't work out. She failed to become no one for a reason, she decided to keep calling herself Arya Stark for a reason. If her story contained no love,- be it platonic or romantic whatsoever, i don't think she'd bother to give up so easily OR come back to Winterfell. This may seem like a reach to some people, but for me it makes complete sense,- Arya came back because Joaquin's path didn't cross hers. The life she thought was perfect for her didn't turn out to be suitable at all and i'm glad she was able to realize that early enough. No matter how much she changed, she belonged (still does) to Winterfell from the very beginning, there were certain people in her life that she could not let go. The writers made her change her mind and come back because there was so much more waiting for her there, because that leads us to what comes next.
other ships
some people seem to ship Gendry and Arya with other characters and I'm certainly not here to fight them because of that, but for my fellow gendrya stans, i'm going to try and explain why there's no chances of either of them ending up with someone else. I guess what you could call ''the most popular ships besides gendrya'' are sansa and Gendry and Arya and Joaquin. Let's start with strongly denying the first one.
I don't know where to even begin because i find it challenging to comprehend what gave people reasons to ship Sansa with Gendry. On a very simple note,-they haven't even met. They have NOT interacted while Gendrya has had a major build up since the third season. When it is seemingly clear that both of them started gradually developing feelings for each other, i can't imagine Sansa proceeding to literally betray her sister and try to steal her man, lol. She grew up, became more mature and as i mentioned earlier, probably lost a big part of her interest in romance. I personally can only imagine Sansa hyping up their relationship and teasing Arya about how in love she is. Hear me out,- the writers have made tons of questionable decisions throughout the years of shooting the series, but i believe this is where they cross the border. They are perfectly aware of the fact that making Sansa and Gendry canon would stir up drama, not only because people ship gendrya, but also because it does not make sense. It would be wrong, rushed and very, very weird turn. Gendry has never expressed any interest in Sansa nor has he even metioned her.
As for Joaquin and Arya, i think i am able to get why people like the pair, though in no way do i encourage anyone to do so because it will never happen, obviously. Do i believe that Arya loved Joaquin? No. I personally see them as two individuals who had a very weird friendship connecting them. Arya never really had friends and Joaquin was one of the first people she dared to refer to as such, so of course she would be shown expressing some type of platonic feelings towards him, for instance her choosing him as her teacher or that one time she genuinely got scared, thinking he had died. Joaquin and Arya's friendship was one big rollercoaster which i'm struggling to fully figure out to this day. Probably the only aspect i'm completely sure about is that they weren't in love. Both of them knew they had found someone with similar goals and personality so obviously they were left on good terms and managed to even work together for some time. Joaquin taught Arya stuff that gave her a different view on certain stuff and more experience which came out quite useful in the following episodes. The two of them were never destined to be together and Joaquin's death was one of the things that proved that. Almost every pair in Game of thrones has a mutual connection, great chemistry and are visibly suitable for each other, however Arya and Joaquin never had that. There was not a bit romance in their scenes and they had no development in that terms whatsoever.
We already know Gendry has eyes on Arya and only.
That being said, anyone can ship what they want, but once again,-this is for gendrya shippers who think that either of the ships mentioned above have any potential of becoming canon. No they don't. I'm pretty positive that the author and the creators of the show would never do that to us.
Their scenes
As mentioned in the top of this post, George Martin spoiled us and included quite a few moments of Gendrya in the books. If you've read the series there's NO way you didn't interpret their relationship as a romantic one just because it's clearly coded that way. Like i promised i'm not going to be going in details about why George is amazing, but it will surely take more effort to analyse the moments from the show untill i manage to get every detail of like the three scenes we got written down and examined.
Starting from the very first scene we saw them together in. I have so many thoughts about it. We all know Arya and Gendry are incredibly badass together or separated and that scene was a very good example of how well they work together. The bull and the wolf,-they're a perfect team and it seems as if the writers wanted to get that across immediately once they had met.
I adore the first scene. Arya gains the courage to stand up for herself despite two strangers probably scaring the shit out of her trapped at a place she knows nothing about. As she finds the energy within herself to stand up and point Needle towards hotpie's chin, forcing him to steadily step back, Gendry joins from behind and threatens the boy to leave Arya alone. What i love the most about the scene is Gendry's bitter words mixed with humor (*insert his sentence here*) and the way he defended the innocent kid. It already gives you a general idea of how lovely and courageous his personality is, leaving the best first impression for a character if you ask me. The scene is done so well in the show, he doesn't even think twice before scolding hotpie and shrugging it off shortly, treating Arya quite decently.  As if he already knew he was dealing with a princess.
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look at them.
Now this is a tricky thing to discuss, though one of my personal headcannons that can potentially be very true, is that show!Gendry knew Arya was a girl from that exact scene. What i mean is that he didn't even need to try and figure it out since he knew in the first place, while others were confused even after finding out she wasn't a boy.  ''do you think i'm as stupid as the rest of them?'' he says once he sees her surprised face after admitting that Arya had done a poor job lying to him; and it's true, he isn't. Gendry is incredibly smart despite not being perfect at reading and writing which by the way, was not his fault at all. Every scene with Gendry in it in the show truly does make him seem more intelligent and clever than the people he mentioned. It speaks a lot about his difference from the other boys and really makes him stand out; also adds another reason to the list of why they'd be a perfect pair. Despite being raised as a bastard and having to go through so much rough stuff at such a young age, Gendry inherited some of the best traits of a Baratheon and grew up to be a bright man. He is quite strong and fit physically, but he is also competent and wise which if you ask me, makes him perfect for Arya. It's her. There's no way she would fall in love with someone less cool than her, so i think it's safe to say that Gendry is the only one right for her.
Moving onto the scene where he finds out about Arya's true identity, that one is definitely one of my favorites. There's so much that needs to be said about it because it describes so many parts of their relationship. It's a good portrayal of their bond, trust, chemistry.
I love how Arya didn't expect him to find out about her at all and tried her best to hide her shocked reaction the first time he confronted her about it. Gendry was very casual and subtle about it, just sliding the topic into their small banter as if it hadn't even been a huge deal and i find that endearing in a way. It expresses how mature he was at the age of 15, any other boy would most likely freak out and act as if they'd seen a miracle. 
Arya could've easily rejected him and found more ways to lie in order to convince him otherwise, yet not only did she come clean, but also trusted him enough to admit who she really was. That was an another clear sign of ''they met and instantly found the courage within themselves to trust each other even with their deepest secrets''. Of course the boy was very honest with her as well;  Tell me Gendry apologizing for peeing in front of her and claiming he should've been calling her ''M'lady'' wasn't the cutest thing you saw throughout that season. What left me thinking is how he believed her immediately. Sure, Arya's explanation seemed pretty legit, but i doubt anyone else would let themselves to trust her that easily. He gained much more respect for Arya after finding out that the person he had been talking to wasn't just any other girl but the highorn lady of Winterfell. I love how Arya is already comfortable with playfully punching the guy because he had called her a lady; and the dialogue in that scene is hilarious and well done. They're already acting like best friends despite not even knowing each other that much and the apparent flirty tension often gets mixed within their conversations which i find very lovely. It's so sweet how the angry bean Arya makes Gendry full on giggle and look up at her with the most ''in love'' look in his eyes. That right there, is good acting.
I bet Gendry had a hard time hiding  his shock when finding out that the highborn lady of Winterfell was that badass and fearless instead of a bit more girly and petite as he would've expected. And i'm strongly convinced that was the thing about Arya catching his attention and making him realize how different, stronger and better she was than any of the women he had met before.  
One of my absolute favorite scenes is Arya sneakily checking out her man. The scene is so incredibly iconic and remarkable that it most likely popped up in your head instantly. That's when any viewer immediately realizes that the writers' intention was to show Arya's developing first crush.
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As Gendry trains, fully focused on his weapon, Arya literally glances up and down his body with that hungry ass look in her eyes. sorry. had to be said. It's the truth. 
We had definitely never seen the girl impressed on that level by a man in any previous (or following) seasons. Arya was just a tiny girl and as she grew up she started feeling different emotions, therefore i think it's quite obvious that we got to experience that with her in the said scene. Maisie's acting was so damn good. She managed to portray the exact same feelings Arya had perfectly which just added more reasons for people to ship the pair.
The most important scene in my opinion is of course, ''i can be your family''. I'm going to begin with firmly emphasizing on Maisie's comment about the scene.
Rolling stone: she obiously has family on her mind in this episode. But when she tells Gendry ''i can be your family'', it sounds like she might mean something very different - even if she herself barely realizes it yet.
I really love the way this was put because they tried to avoid any major spoilers, but gave us higher chances of finding out more about how Arya feels towards Gendry. Bless them for bringing this up. It's clear that everyone, be it people from the fandom or outside interprets their relatioship as a romantic one.
Here's what Maisie answers:
''At first i read it as ''You can come to winterfell, i'll show you how everything goes, and you can come and sit at the table with us'', i thought it would be a bit like Theon. But when i was doing the scene, director Alex Graves said ''when you say that last line, 'i can be your family', say it like 'i love you'''. And that's the take that they used.
To this day i'm still struggling to believe that's real, but it is. Maisie practically said that Arya never saw Gendry as a brother (like Theon) but as something else. Something more. With that exact words she realized she had certain feelings towards Gendry that made it so difficult to let him go and leave. I can't help but mention their acting one more time because it was absolutely phenomenal. Game Of Thrones has something for every type of viewers, Fantasy, adventure and romance,-that's one of the reasons it's so popular. That being said, we've had tons of different pairs with their love stories; The ones who ended up dead, the ones who survived. One aspect connecting all of them is the story of how they met and fell in love. Now this is a very bold thing to say so not many people might agree with me, but i personally think that Gendrya, the ship that hasn't even become canon yet, is the most romantic and epic yet, it leaves us with so much feels and want. I never felt so much love and passion towards any other ship from the show and it's very apparent to me why. I don't remember any couple from GOT that had such a slow burn, amorous and well developed plot. Gendrya does. They have so much potential. Both Maisie and Joe understand that and they give it their all to make Gendrya so obvious. In the said scene, Gendry looks like he is legitimately holding back tears as he rejects Arya's offer and decides to stay. He seems like as if he's having second thoughts and doubting his choices, there's so much pain depicted on his face and yet he doesn't have enough time to reconsider. Maisie does say the last like just like ''i love you''. There's indeed much more said than just ''come to Winterfell and stay with us'', it's her trying to express unconditional love and fondness. Arya is aware of her feelings towards Gendry and by the time she fully realized that, she had to leave. Just like Gendry, Arya looks just as upset and hurt. Looks like in that moment,  it took all her willpower to turn around and go. 
A classic Gendrya moment is her being immensely worried when the red woman took Gendry, disappearing without any explanations. I can't get over how mad she got and never stopped worrying about him. ''I don't talk to traitors'' CAN YOU BELIEVE HER. Arya was beyond aggrieved to the point where she even refused to talk. Her expression when Gendry gave in and they basically tied him up so he wouldn't be able to escape was priceless. I've seen the scene about a hundred times and it gets me every. damn. time. A simple question could sum up how much she cares for him,-have you ever seen Arya so worried and hurt about something (besides Ned's death because DUH) throughout the season? no. She learned how to control her emotions and literally never show them, but the agony was so visible on her face in that moment. That's not surprising since her friend got taken away to a place she knew nothing about, but again, i've never seen Arya so furious. She was worried sick and probably was ready to do anything to bring him back.  
Gendry's Jealousy
Hoo boy. Don’t even get me started. It’s a popular headcanon in the fandom that Gendry is a jealous man when it comes to Arya, but i’d say we could freely call it canon since it’s painfully obvious that he’d kill any other man if he saw them kissing his girl. lol Emphasizing on the scene where Arya was talking about Joaquin; Gendry, visibly startled, literally asks: ‘you need him?’
Now obviously he didn’t know why Arya might’ve needed the stranger and that’s one of the reasons he got so uncomfortably surprised. The way Joe acts out the scene, it does seem like Gendry looks very uneasy and actually kind of pissed? rewatch the scene and tell me i’m wrong. Even before getting together the boy wants to make sure he has no competitors and that’s purely because he loves her so much.  He would obviously never be controlling around Arya, but he would make sure to subtly but not really remind everyone that she was very much taken. It’s just how he is. I imagine Arya finding his behavior very cute and just laughing about it every time she’d notice him getting mad because of something so irrelevant. You know Gendry doesn’t actually have any reasons to be jealous, right?
I don’t know if we get more scenes of Gendry being jealous, but there sure are slight chances of that happening since he’s most likely going to reunite Arya and have tons of screentime with her. At this point i’ve stumbled across more than approximately 5 posts of people mentioning how Maisie and Joe were spotted filming together so i’m pretty sure we’re getting something.  There are lots of expectations but who knows what might happen?
forgesex2019.
there has been a theory going around about Gendry and Arya's reunion which i personally really like. It's what they deserve and it's what we've been craving ever since we got to know them. I think it's a very logical explanation of the end for their relationship. @jj-justwriteit is literally the best at discussing how it could go so it would be great if you'd read here headcanons, but i'll talk about it here as well. Lots of other pairs got their moments. They even managed to fit Jonerys and their sex scenes in the last scene, so i have high hopes for this. As my friend exclaimed in one of her posts, forgesex is most likely going to happen which i believe on a high level. So far it's a headcanon, but it will hopefully become canon in the final season. If anyone is still worried about the age difference (which is literally just five years), both of them are grown up, nearly adults. There's literally nothing to worry or argue about since Gendrya isn't the only pair with age difference. Drogo and Daenerys? She was about 14 years old when she lost her virginity but people shipped her with Khal regardless. Gendrya is just pure and completely normal, non toxic. They're very allowed to do whatever they want without it seeming weird. period. Arya isn't a child anymore.The way i personally imagine forgesex is WILD. I mean imagine a Baratheon and a Stark in love, who by the way, haven't seen each other for ages so the passion, love, want all of that building up in them is going to burst into flames and boom. Clothes literally ripped, on the floor, hands on each other and kisses everywhere. It would be the most epic scene any other pair has had. I imagine their reunion would be calm and just full of love at first. It's a clichee thing to describe but Gendry would see her first and softly mutter her name, thought loudly enough for her to hear, Arya would flinch at the familiar voice and swiftly turn around, seeing him. I already know Maisie is going to kill this. She has been great at characterizing Arya's intentions and actions, so when they reunite, it's going to be good. No matter what, it's going to be outstanding. I feel it.I can't WAIT to see Arya, Sansa and Jon meeting Gendry altogether. Imagine the flustered girl trying to hide her blush while Jon, confused attempts to find out how her sister knows Gendry. Sansa would know instantly and jokingly tease Arya later.Back to forgesex, can you imagine them getting some time fo themselves and just going at it. It would be a one big sloppy mess but at the same time for them it'd be very special and beautiful. By now Gendry already knows that he's a Baratheon so he allows himself to not hold back, which will be the result of him pining her against a wall and. well, you know the rest. One thing i'm absolutely sure about is that Arya would still have to initiate the process and strike first. Gendry notices that yes, she is in fact sure about this and wants the exact same thing, so he would start playing along. Gendry knows he has a gorgeous body, okay. Besides Joe dempsie hasn't been working out for NOTHING. We will get more naked Gendry and it will be for Forgesex.
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i probably missed a lot of details and forgot stuff, so if anyone reads any of this at all, a part two will be added to the whole masterpost! this was just a very quick recap slash analyzing the ship so if anyone wants me to get even more in depth and write all my feelings and predictions, simply let me know.
a huge thank you to @jj-justwriteit  ! you inspired me to even start this masterpost. I could never discuss this stuff as well as you do, please check them out and send love and gendrya in the ask box <3
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redgoldsparks · 7 years
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I've been an active podcast listener for few years, but before the last election I had never listened to news or politics shows. Oh has that changed! I now regularly listen to four different politics podcasts and wanted to give you my reviews of each.
The Daily - hosted by Michael Barbaro of the New York Times. This one might be my favorite. The episodes are between 15 and 20 minutes long every weekday. Generally this show is focused on US news items, politics, or international news as it may directly effect the US. Barbaro often calls on other Times reporters to explain difficult subjects, or calls officials or experts in the various field he's reporting on. After the President's executive order to roll back coal regulation, Barbaro called a man who had worked his whole life in coal mines and now suffers from black lung. Barbaro was quietly and respectfully inquisitive, careful not to offend the man. I find his gentle questioning very informative. I wish they released episodes every day!
The NPR Politics Podcast - hosted by a somewhat rotating cast often including Scott Detrow, Tamara Keith, Danielle Kurtzleben, Ron Elving, Mara Liasson, Scott Horsley  and others. They post three to four episodes a week, ranging from 25-50 minutes. This WOULD be my favorite show if it was every day. This show is solidly focused on US politics- they've been regularly reporting on the Russian influence investigations, Senate and House bills, the President's visits with foreign leaders and the like. Somehow, they manage to infuse each episode with a sense of joy and goodwill. Each host sounds as if they love their job, even if they can't quite believe what's going on.
Up First -  this is another NPR show, hosted by Rachel Martin, David Greene and Steve Inskeep, with frequent guest visits from the Politics podcast people. They post a 10-12 minute episode every weekday. This show just started a few weeks ago and I think it might still be finding it's feet- I find it slightly less hard-hitting than The Daily and less informative than the longer Politics podcast. But I listen anyway, because it’s very well done and sometimes they cover subjects that neither of those shows gets to.
The California Report - for my CA locals, this show also runs on KQED. Usually hosted by Jon Sepulvado, this show is between 7-12 minutes everyday except Sunday. I don't always listen to this one, but I duck in sometimes when I want some slightly more local news.
Do any of you listen to politics or news podcasts? Got any recommendations? I'm always looking for new ones.
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