Honestly I love that during the two Mary missions, she exits the scene on a train, then on a trolley. It may not be intentional, but it's a beautiful symbolism of how he's frozen in time while the rest of the world keeps going. And the fact that she's leaving on modern transportation further highlight the fact that he's stuck in the old way of outlaws and gunslingers, unable to keep up with the modern world.

And I also just really like trains and trolleys and I love the fact that beautiful queens take public transport.

So if Mary joins the gang what is stopping her and Arthur to take reverend out on a random night sneaking off the camp and just telling him marry us now while they exchange weird little rings they stole off someone and Mary isn't even wearing a proper dress but it doesn't matter because Arthur puts a flower in her hair and she's just as beautiful as the day he meet her and then me and reverend cry. a lot.

"Black" - Pearl Jam

Some Arthur practice + Revival doodle

Thinking about Mary Linton. A beautiful, lovely, enchanting girl. The girliest girl. The most irresistible town girl who could always get what she wanted.

Because she really could have gotten any decent man who would provide her and her family for the rest of their lives, but her eyes landed on Arthur instead. Arthur who wasn't even a part of the decent life that Mary had grown up in.

I've always wondered under what circumstances they met. How they realized it meant something.

Was it a casual meeting, a glance that ignited a spark? Was it an act of heroism on Arthur's part, who happened to be there to threaten the drunken morons who were bothering Mary?

Perhaps it was. Maybe he had saved her and continued to do so. Always came to the rescue without question, no matter what happened. It was always his firm broad back, strong arms and the cocky look in his blue eyes that softened every time Mary looked up at him. Perhaps that was when Mary realized.

Because other men weren't like that. They were ugly, greedy, and dreamed of the perfect obedient housewife, covering themselves with false politeness.

But Arthur was straightforward with her. A mysterious guy in a cowboy hat, with awkward kind smiles and simple gifts of flowers stolen from the fields.

Maybe as Mary watched those rough hands so gently tracing out a drawing in his diary, she realized. Oh, yeah, that's right. He is my home.

Perhaps later, when the whole truth came out and her mysterious cowboy turned out to be a outlaw, she continued to hold on to him. And there was nothing bad about it. It's just that the girl was in love.

Wanted to reach out to him, to keep him from a life that would ruin him, she knew it would. Wanted to hold him for herself, to make him her own and live with him as she had dreamed in her soft and silly dreams.

Mary had always loved Arthur. He had been her home for a very long time. She had begged him to go away with her. Yes, it's a selfish wish, but that's what love does to us. It makes us want to save the person we love.

Mary Gillis Linton they will never make me hate you.

If Arthur Morgan never got Tuberculosis

Hypothetically speaking. Arthur doesn't get TB. This is how I see the story going.

Short version.

After the countless unhinged murders throughout chapters 4-6, Arthur sees that Dutch has lost his mind and that everything that he believed in was a lie and that Dutch is not the man who he thought he was and Micah is just poisoning his mind. High Honor. Arthur leaves a brutally beaten Micah to the point of death and as he leaves Micah makes one last attempt to kill him, Arthur gets out of the way and Micah falls to his death. Arthur leaves to find Mary. Arthur and Mary build a farm for themselves and a family and get the life Arthur always wanted with Mary.

Low Honor. Arthur brutally murders Micah and just leaves Dutch looking at him with nothing but shame "We gave you all we had and you let him damn us all. Arthur takes the money, splits it with John and goes their separate ways. John lives in Beecher's hope and Arthur becomes a bounty hunter. Eventually Arthur is found by Ross and is given the offer he gave John in canon. Kill Bill, Javier and Dutch. And after he kills Dutch, Ross forces him to tell him where Marston is. Arthur would rather die than give John and his family up, so Ross kills him.

Long version.

Thomas Downs refuses to take Strauss's loan so Arthur doesn't risk getting TB in the first place and absolves the loan because he remembers Dutch's old philosophy. "Kill folks who need killing and save folk who need saving." Arthur absolves the debt and the Downes family lives in peace.

Skip to Chapter 6 and Dutch still makes Micah second in command due to Micah never doubting Dutch and seemingly always allying himself with Dutch. This said, Dutch listens to Arthur more often than in canon RDR2. Dutch leaves Arthur to die at the oil fields and Arthur more furious than in canon RDR2. Otherwise, Arthur and Eagle Flies manage to escape alive after Eagle Flies kills Colonel Favours. Arthur shares his experiences with the other gang members which sparks doubts in the ears of Javier and Bill.

The robbery on the patrol train still occurs and Abigail gets kidnapped. Arthur and Sadie go into Van Horn to save Abigail with both of them storming in the town. When Sadie heads in the fence, Milton holds Sadie with a gun to the head and demands Arthur turns himself or Sadie will die. Arthur kills Milton and cuts Abigail free and finds a letter indicating Micah had been sharing information on the gang. Arthur is still furious with Dutch and Micah so he tells Sadie to get Abigail to Jack and Tilly. Arthur heads back and shares the letter to Dutch. This makes Dutch confused but still deciding to side with Micah after John reveals to be alive. The gang is torn apart between Arthur, John and Javier since Javier has witnessed John being left for dead and hearing about Arthur's experience at the oil fields. They are disrupted by the Pinkertons and Arthur, John and Javier run off. Javier suggests they go back to get the money, John has a family so Arthur has to choose to go after the money with Javier or help John escape.

If Arthur decides to go with Javier, Micah will shoot Javier with his last bullet and Arthur and Micah will fight. Arthur would fatally stab Micah and Dutch would walk away like in the canon. Arthur would live as a bounty hunter. Until one day Ross and Fordham come a knocking. Offers him the offer he made John. Kill Bill and Dutch and he can be a free man. Arthur kills Bill at Fort Mercer because he doesn't have Javier to run to. "You were always a weak minded fool." Arthur kills Dutch. He looks at him with disgust. "Hello Arthur, my son." "Oh, I'm your son, am I? That didn't mean a damned thing to you all those years ago when you chose the rat over me." "I....I did no such thing, you and John BETRAYED ME and now you're working for them." "It's either work with them to kill you or I die" and look at you, using another tribe of Indians like you used Eagle Flies. You're pathetic." "If it's all the same to you,I'd rather kill you Dutch." During the shootout on the mountains, Arthur is mocking him for allowing the once great man to be reduced to his shell of his former self. Dutch telling Arthur he should have left him on the streets to die. Arthur mocking his lack of plan and just telling Dutch to "have some goddamn faith" When he has him on the cliff of Coachinay, Arthur just mocks him. "The great Dutch van der Linde, the man with a plan!" For the first time in his life, Dutch shows an ounce of humility and takes responsibility. "Arthur, I let him damn us all. If I had just listened to you, Hosea and John, we would've made it." "If I had just let him hang, we would be in Tahiti" At the end of the mountain, Arthur and Ross are by Dutch's corpse. Arthur demanding to know if he's finally free. Ross tells him one more mission. Kill John Marston and before Ross can say anything more, Arthur grabs Dutch's gun and kills Ross. Fordham sees what transpires and mocks Ross "Oh trust me, it'll look better in the report" Fordham telling Arthur what makes him think they won't kill him. "You know why? I know too much. See, I know why you used me. Your governor Nate Johns election is coming up and he needed you and you needed me to clean up the state. Lets just say I told some folk and if word gets out I'm dead, then mr Johns won't get reelected. You leave me and John Marston alone and no one talks. And just like that, Arthur and John live.

If Arthur chooses to help John, Javier will go after the money and escape while Arthur and John will try to escape. Arthur notices that they are outnumbered so Arthur sacrifices himself to get John to Abigail. Micah runs after Arthur but Arthur tosses him down the edge. Arthur beats the shit out of Micah and kills him. Dutch would return to see Micah's body laying there. Arthur returns to Mary and they live their life in peace.

Arthur would return to Mary with a bunch of money and eight years later, John, Arthur, Charles and Uncle will help build Beecher's Hope. After John and Abigail's wedding, Arthur, John, Sadie and Charles parts ways, and with no Micah leading Ross to Beecher's Hope, neither John nor Arthur are forced to become Ross' puppets and they live their lives in peace.

lovers

Dentist office doodles

oh you’re neurodivergent?? how many times have you watched the BBC’s Merlin (2008) ??

I love how in Fandom we can choose to live in denial, and that is ok 👍🏻

For example, I loved the series Merlin from BBC. 🥰

Do I enjoy the end?

What end? 🙃

Y'know, as much as I love marthur having some sweet domestic fluff, sometimes I want to see their silly little dream coming true, but it's not as dreamy or perfect as they thought it would be.

I want them to fight, I want them both to cry and probably regret marrying each other at some point.

But then I also want them to make up, to resolve their problems and differences, and they'll eventually work it out because they do truly love each other.

Anddddddd this is happening in the fic that I'm writing rn

So you're telling me when Hozier sang You keep tellin' me to live right it wasn't Mary talking to Arthur?

And you're telling me I aim low I aim true, and the ground's where I go I work late where I'm free from the phone and the job gets done isn't literally Arthur explaining his lifestyle to Mary, and knowing that his role in the gang is getting the job done?

And you're saying You treat your mouth as if it's Heaven's gate the rest of you like you're the TSA is not about the fact that Mary opens herself to Arthur's love just to take the rest of her away because of her ties to her family and the current society standards for a woman? And in a sense, this is still Arthur talking- acusing Mary of keeping away, not seeing her side.

And you're still expecting me to believe You know you're bright as the morning as soft as the rain pretty as a vine as sweet as a grape if you can sit in a barrel maybe I'll wait IS NOT ARTHUR TELLING HOW MUCH HE LOVES MARY BUT THAT HE SIMPLY HAS TO WAIT FOR THE RIGHT TIME FOR HIM TO LEAVE GANG? HUH?

I just think that many of Hozier's songs are perfect love songs that go with Arthur and Mary or John and Abigail. In this essay I will- *gunshot*

Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) by Nancy Sinatra is so Marthur-coded but specifically from Mary's POV, I can't stop thinking about it

“Scapegoat” (Story told through the Incubus Maine News Gazette)

(Warning for literary descriptions of violence, death, and injury)

~~~

“2 Bodies Found In The Harmony Arcadia; Owner Claims “Killer Robot” Is To Blame”

On April 22nd, 1994, The body of 25 year old [REDACTED] and 34 year old [REDACTED] were uncovered within the Harmony Arcadia. The victims were found tangled in an axial fan of the main ventilation system, recovered by unsuspecting maintenance workers. An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be blood loss and asphyxiation; [REDACTED] suffered blunt force trauma to his skull and chest, while [REDACTED] had visible fractures on her neck and clavicle from strangulation. The case was ruled almost instantly as a murder.

Police noted long, abnormal rows of shallow bruises and lacerations on both parties, wrapping around the limbs and torsos in a “spiral” pattern. Closer examination confirmed the wounds were sliced with metal coils, such as those represented on the Henry Security puppets (the Arcadia’s robotic security devision made to replace human security guards.)

Forensic investigators came to a definitive conclusion that the puppets were somehow used in the murders, and received verification from Arthur Greywhinder—the founder and creator of the Harmony Arcadia— in his police interview.

He confirmed that the puppets are programmed to only ever act on the commands of their artificially intelligent leader, the Commander Henry. Every action they make is result of its own explicit instructions, which provided a compelling lead to a deeper investigation. According to investigators, the Commander wasn’t able to be brought in for questioning; it verbally invoked its “fifth amendment right to remain silent” before the interrogators had the chance to speak with it one-on-one.

Only when security camera footage was accessed did law enforcement unfold the hidden story. Video logs reported that on the night [REDACTED] went missing, the Commander intentionally disabled all cameras in the Arcadia until the next morning. The same was said for [REDACTED], whose car would never be moved from the mall parking lot. It remains unclear whether or not the Commander itself was behind the assault, or if it sent the other security puppets to attack the victims, but its unmistakable involvement was enough to convince authorities to take action.

On April 30th, after the video footage was released, Commander was officially handed over as evidence to the Incubus Maine police department. First-hand police accounts reveal that the puppet violently resisted the arrest, regarding that it took six officers to restrain the machine and move it outside of the building.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” one injured officer told reporters. “You know, you wake up, have breakfast, go to work like usual, and the next minute you’re expected to take down a killing machine with a couple of your partners. Like c’mon now… I just barely got my shoes on. It’s too early for this…”

Greywhinder spoke with press that afternoon concerning the murders. He suggested that faulty wiring must have been the initial cause of the robot’s malfunction, but later doubled down on his first assertion, claiming instead that:

“…The Commander Artificial Intelligence grew sentient, and became filled with a bitter hatred for humanity…”

He continued:

“…What was once created to protect the Arcadia became its greatest threat… I believe I speak for all of us when I say no one could have predicted these horrific acts at the hands of our trusted ally. Given the subject matter, I fully understand the public scrutiny. A case as this one feels all too familiar…”

As of writing, the investigation is still underway. Greywhinder himself declared in his speech that Commander will be disassembled on May the 8th by authorities, and that the security puppets will be temporarily discontinued to avoid the risk of anymore attacks.

“…There comes a time in every man’s life where he has to put his foot down in the event of a liability. You do what you have to in order to protect your family. The Commander—in this situation— is a rabid dog. A once beloved pet, reduced to nothing but a raving, sputtering mess of an animal. It’s best for all of us that he’s swiftly put down before he gets the chance to infect anyone else…”

Ultimately, a trial will not be held for the android, nor was a confession ever recorded. The Commander was last seen in its final moments being transported away from the mall in a police vehicle. The Arcadia has agreed to make investments towards more human security guards, and the families of the deceased will be awarded with financial compensation.

—Journalist I.F. of the Incubus Maine News Gazette

~~~

them... ☹️