Little things in TSH that I had missed or forgotten the first time I read it:

It took Richard a whole year of pestering the college to let him in. It really proves how obsessive he is

Richard bumping into Francis in the hall before he joins the study group and being like: “Wowee I can’t believe that guy touched me. That was so cool; he was SO cool :D”

Francis talking to a cat he found on campus 🥹

CHARLES AND CAMILLA HAVE SLIGHT SOUTHERN ACCENTS

Julian loves flowers and keeps a bunch in his classroom

Richard’s Totally Real Car, Christine

Judy costuming, in her own words, “fucking As You Like It” implying that she also has to study obnoxious literature for her classes

Bunny genuinely believing Francis is as smart as Henry

Bunny is the only person who can make Henry laugh 🥺

Francis had a relative who died on the Titanic

Bunny would hide out at Richard’s whenever he pissed Marion off

Francis used to read Richard’s French homework out loud for him

Bunny’s hero is Caesar

Henry’s middle name is Marchbanks

Francis is a fan of the Boston Red Sox

The twins shrug with one shoulder

Henry finds Gucci “rather grand”

Charles’ wild cat that he forces Francis and Richard to bring to the farmhouse

Richard reads Proust *cough, cough, kinda gay, cough, cough*

When Francis is in the hospital in the epilogue, Richard reads “Our Mutual Friend” to him which, according to Goodreads, is about “the unfailing power of wealth to corrupt all who crave it.”

can we talk about how literally all of the Greek students in TSH took various pills, downing them with alcohol, or drinking alcohol around the same time?

the fact that they didn’t die or end up in the hospital because of it is astounding. immortal is really their middle names.

Richard and Francis, respectively.

never forget that the first time richard saw henry he thought he wasn't handsome and when he saw francis his first thought was he was the "most exotic of the set".

richard also proceeded to deny the gay allegations with all his heart but

tomfoolery part ???

I love Richard Papen drooling over Francis Abernathy before he ever even talks to him:

page 18= The third boy was the most exotic of the set. Angular and elegant, he was precariously thin, with nervous hands a shrewd albino face and a short, fiery mop of the reddest hair I had ever seen… [He wore] a black greatcoat that billowed behind him as he walked and made him look like a cross between a student prince and Jack the Ripper.

✨my fave, page 22= Only the day before Francis, in a swish of black cashmere and cigarette smoke, had brushed past me in a corridor. For a moment, as his arm touched mine, he was a creature of flesh and blood, but the next he was a hallucination again, a figment of my imagination stalking down the hallway as heedless of me as ghosts, in their shadowy rounds, are said to be heedless of the living.

page 33= I saw Francis Abernathy stalking across the meadow like a black bird, his coat flapping dark and crowlike in the wind. He was preoccupied, smoking a cigarette, but the thought that he might see me filled me with an inexplicable anxiety. I ducked into a doorway and waited until he had passed.

—

at this point they’ve talked, but barely know each other so Richard is still all starstruck:

page 67= Francis, majestic in his long black coat, clutching, with a black-gloved hand, the neck of a bottle of champagne.

—

more Richard lusting after Francis to come! (I’m rereding TSH ;)❤️)

if papenathy ended up being together when they’re 50 richard would absolutely be messing with francis mid argument

like

francis: listen, you just don’t want to-

richard: is that a gray hair i see?

francis: NO WAY! WHERE?? i’ve JUST dyed my hair

and he would run to the mirror to examine his roots

And if Francis is a Hozier fan I think that Henry winter would be a HUGE Lana Del Rey fan like listening to it with Camilla while helping her doing her greek exercises as she stands in his lap and they study together

Currently thinking about Richard Papen & Francis Abernathy w/ Line Without a Hook by Ricky Montgomery

Is there seriously NO ONE who has read the little friend 😭😭😭😭

My biggest red flag is that I think I’m better than Richard Papen despite being just like him (I hate myself, I was the last person to know I was bisexual, I 100% think I could bag Camilla, I’m low-key attracted to Francis, I believe in murdering annoying people, etc.)

thinking about how henry is so superstitious that he put out a saucer of milk on his porch at night to ward away evil spirits. bro must’ve not realized that he is the evil spirit 😭

Went through the notes I took while reading TSH.

This is my list of all the Queer Vibes:

1. The way they dress. (dark academia gothic umbrella whore, twins in lightcolored coastal grandma looks, Francis.) (ITS THE 80s! Why're you dressed like that?)

2. They sometimes walk together in a horizontal line.

3. Richard looks at all of them with such awe, like that's your queer awakening, hon.

4. They all study Greek and Latin. The Classics. (Notoriously queer)

5. They have orgies for experiments.

6. Love Hexagon.

7. Richard's feelings toward Francis.

8. Charles' feelings toward Francis.

9. Francis' feelings towards both of them.

10. Richard imagines growing old with Francis.

11. Richard was nervous around Francis, until he flirted with him on the boat.

12. Richard drops everything to go see Francis in the hospital. (Also, takes him to the hospital that one time.)

13. Richard is so fucking worried for Francis because he has to be forced to marry a woman.

14. Camilla is tough bisexual coded. She gets hurt by a shard of glass in a lake, or shows richard her bruises / injuries (LITERALLY ABUSED by her brother) and she acts like it's not that bad. (I also headcanon Camilla as Trans.)

15. Richard's feelings toward Henry.

16. Henry and Bunny.

17. Bunny is jealous of Richard.

That’s all I had.

Add yours, if you want.

i love the old married couple portion of your follow up to sober ii (melodrama)! outsider povs just tickle the brain, especially in tsh where the characters are so just disconnected from normal society. out of curiosity, have you thought any more about how students/peers/other people view francis and richard throughout that au?

i love that portion too i think the idea of them as this long established couple (for all intents and purposes, altho they may have deviated from certain aspects of a nuclear family monogamous relationship) is so funny & interesting. like sober ii already does so much legwork from canon and then the followup even further so by the time we hit middle age it’s a free country for what is allowed.

you’re right in that the tsh cast are deep weirdos to anyone normal interacting w them. i think they have naturally changed somewhat by the time we reach them in that portion bc for francis he’s now (gag) middle class and sort of domesticated / for richard he’s like.. in a long term relationship w a man (it’s funny they have reverse things to get used to) & plus yk there’s the whole thing where they’re both deeply troubled individuals with abusive childhood drama and bad relationship history so probably sticking it out together has done some healing / good down the line. so in some ways they’re a little more Normal mentally. but that said they are still weirdo murderers with terrible personalities who would both annoy and enable each other so not that normal.

talking abt how they go from sober ii to where we see them in their 40s is a separate post so in terms of outsider pov specifically i’d say they do kind of stick to themselves (codependent freaks) but like in the neighbourhood / on campus / in montreal classics circles they def have relationships and certain uhh reputations that go with them.

richard’s students are a fairly niche group so i think as a whole they tend to like him- if nothing else he’s genuine in his love of the material and he’s attractive and kind of reserved so he’s probably at his least annoying / cringe / questionable when teaching despite his inner monologue. he probs has bad timekeeping (cf his flop job at hampden) and pretentious grading but generally okay. we know he comes across much more sane and sound to people who don’t know him well (very tartt, we love). and then they don’t know francis at all apart from Maybe as f. abernathy the classics translator guy. so realistically to the students they’re actually quite a cool addition to the student rumour mill. i think over the years there have been random glimpses of them but never anything interesting until the fic incident, or similar ones that make it obvious professor papen has what seems to be a boyfriend. then everyone is ‘literally obsessed’. i don’t know if anyone ever IDs them as witnesses to the hampden murder-suicides on a true crime podcast and then gets excited about their tragic backstory and inspiring romance, but that would be fun.

professional peers see more of them obviously, but they do still keep to themselves a lot. richard’s colleagues’ opinions vary depending on how much interaction they’ve had with him and in what context, bc he definitely has beef with administration and some colleagues whose courses he doesn’t respect. he’s professionally respectable though. francis is a fairly lowkey presence in translation- he got initial buzz from the julian student clout but he only sporadically networks. he definitely has culture friends who gossip amongst themselves about him vanishing from boston so close to the wedding and no one hearing from him until his book got published. alex from NY wants to fuck both of them but finds them annoying as talents and good in small doses as friends. most of that author circle is at least a little jealous of them as a couple, maybe because they flourish when amongst people they can close ranks on.

in terms of other canon charas… some of that feels like its own post too. judy does not particularly get why richard is into francis but she thinks they’re a hot item and she overall likes them and their weird little bohemian* lifestyle (*misrepresented). she thinks they’re a good match. charles would not have very nice things to say. i think he’d think richard ‘fell for it’ with francis. his own complicated relationship with francis would predispose him to think they weren’t a genuine item. if he saw them down the line as an established couple he would probably just find it funny. and camilla… she’s sort of like “good for you crazy kids”. like it’s completely random to her but it tickles her nihilistic brain. later esp if she’s around them in person for some reason she’s just completely on board with it and has a strong fondness for their relationship bc it’s like, this one weird positive thing to have come out of the whole hampden disaster, AND it’s taken a lot of the strain out of richard’s relationship to her even though he never especially lets go of his camilla-shrine. richard’s naturally Very Embarrassed about being in any way datey with francis around her but it tapers off with age/habit despite his best efforts. francis on the other hand perversely enjoys making richard uncomfortable around camilla. guess which one she enables.

eat up