#(also I think this scene gets misremembered sometimes - it's not even an argument

[mirai-desu]

Eliza and William Moments » Series 2, Episode 1

“William, in answer to your question, would I have taken the case had you asked me not to... the simple truth is denying me would have made me want it all the more. My freedom to make my own decisions and to choose the work I wish to take is everything to me.” “Eliza.” “Please, let me finish. You mean a great deal... but I will not be dictated to. I will have no master. So if we are to have some kind of future, I thought it important to be clear where I stand before we go out to dine.” “Eliza, I have cancelled our dinner reservation.” “Oh.” “It is pointless to deny the truth that if we were anything more than friends my position would be untenable. The fact is, I am undermined already without adding humiliation. It's uh... it's better for both of us to-- to leave things as they are for now. Goodnight, Eliza.” “Goodnight, William.”

[variousqueerthings]

When i was writing it i also kept think about blindfolded Hawkeye, all evidence really does point towards him loving it...

He really does get lead and pushed around so often, I'd love to see someone's take on how it contrasts with his control and responsibilities as chief surgeon. Even outside of surgery, the contrast of him being with someone and then having a nurse or doctor coming in to ask for help or giving him an update on a patient and how he can swap between both mindsets ect.

I firmly believe that Hawkeye would valiantly try to be had by all of the nurses if given the time and opportunity. And any attention is good attention is the sort of mindset that Hawkeye would take and then promptly act like a terror until he got the attention he wants. I feel like he wouldnt have to do this with bj as much as others but he does anyways just to be a problem.

Margaret's a strange one bc it would make sense considering her personality and Hawkeye's interest but like, idk. I think its too much of a contrast in my head from his refusal to show her respect as a major, their relationship in the later seasons (in my head) hinges so much on their views of each other as equals and i think the power dynamics would be a mess.

Its kind of funny how they have Hawkeye acknowledge how sexist some of his actions were when i feel like i always remember there being more women in those earlier seasons. I might be misremembering but i feel like if theyre going to do that they could at least make female characters more core. Like not every woman has to be plot relevant to be featured.

Aro Hawkeye my beloved <3<3 I get him, he loves his friends so much it hurts and also is so so horny. He deserves to be held gently and then absolutely railed and then held again.

-majoranon

(listen okay sometimes I get worried that an ask is too personal or inappropriate so i hold off sending my name with it but the fact that you knew it was me is so funny. What tipped you of?)

Alright, post the first out of... maybe three (maybe four)! (the others of which will be about women in MASH and much shorter I think + blindfold Hawkeye + some more aro talks beyond this + idk, sometimes you’ve just got to see where the typing takes you)

THE FIRST THING I DO IS APOLOGISE FOR THE RAMBLES AND THE FACT THAT I COULD WRITE THIS BETTER AND MORE SOURCED IF MY BRAIN WAS WORKING AND I HAD TIME... I don’t, I’m sad....

I’d originally put your message into bits and was answering them one at a time, but then everything started being about a few of the same things, SO

trust me this all comes from your message 😂 

This post: aro Hawkeye 🤝 aro Margaret and my actual dream relationship on the show (or, you’ll never guess where this meta/headcanon is going, or maybe you will, idk)

ALSO KNOWN AS: I make the argument that Hawkeye and Margaret are already in an aromantic life-partnership and so her occasionally topping him is really just a part of the benefits for both of them (but also I barely make the latter half of that argument, I’m sorry, I go all over the place with this one)

I think (and I mentioned that in another post) that Hawkeye being chief surgeon and Very Good at his high-stress job is a feature in this entire (somewhat jokey, but also haha kidding... unless... you know?) headcanon -- lots of people with those kinds of jobs want to get to shut off any decision-making/responsibilities outside of that space and we see that a lot with Hawkeye (in a non-sexual sense). He really really hates being in charge when it’s not about the job 

I just rewatched Carry On, Hawkeye and I love how there’s that scene where Margaret is like “I should be in charge now” and Hawkeye basically goes “absolutely, have at it,” but because she’s so used to him being contrarian and bitchy with her, she thinks he’s arguing that she shouldn’t 

and it gives us this interesting line:

and then in the same episode having just given Margaret the reports she needed, if we’re going for the “Hawkeye and strong women/Hawkeye and I’m just a little guy/Hawkeye and putting himself on the table” well...

literally.... on the table....

(Margaret if you’re in charge you have to get used to a lanky weirdo lying about on your desk, that’s just who he is)

and then of course:

S I R (mr alan alda, you cannot tell me this guy has never been topped by a woman (we leave domming out of the discussion for today kids, but youknow.. it’s Margaret, she of the riding crop and vibrator))

Anyway this takes us neatly into “Margaret and Hawkeye” territory... 

*

1. first there’s all this stuff around sexuality and gender and romance and relationships happening between those two -- Margaret and “sir” and incorrect womanhood leading her relationships to not work and being openly sexual (and highly suggested dominating), Hawkeye and calling himself “aunt” and being a motherhen and all the being pregnant jokes, and being stepped on jokes, and “joking” about being married to men, etcetcetc -- 

of course the crux of which is that amazing conversation they have in “Stars and Stripes” in which it’s made textual how similar they are in their ideas about relationships. One of the main reasons I like to hc them as aro is that the way they phrase it is so... vague.... they can’t pinpoint why it never works out for them, time and time again, other than “they can’t change who they are,” and they’re looking for a “custom fit,” but at least with Hawkeye he’s been shown to “fall in love” with people very fast (Erika, Kyung Soon, Inga, etc) and (due to the nature of syndication) get over those relationships again/fall in love with someone new just as fast -- and a note on Erika is that he’s literally suggesting marriage and she’s the one to shut him down (in an also very aro way)

not to mention Carlye whom he proposes to have been in love with for years/never gotten over, but when given the chance for a do-over doesn’t leap at the chance... again because of vague “you choose your job over romantic relationships” reasons (any aromantic who can relate to that reasoning/has literally scoured for historical people who were described that way, raise your hands) 

with Margaret you do get the sense that she’d wanted these relationships/that she invests in them, but that the men can never accept her as she is (which Hawkeye does -- and he doesn’t even do it on purpose, to begin with they’re scratching and clawing at each other as we all know), so you see, she’d love to be in a romantic relationship if only she were a completely different person, but alas she can’t be and so she’ll never be a correct woman (again, any aro who’s felt that connection between brokenness and incorrect gender and aroness raise your hands...) and to stretch that one even further, the imagery in “Dreams” of her in the wedding dress with those bodies of men in her bed and the miscarriage-looking blood-stain, it’s all... very evocative of that same incorrect/broken woman, who will never get those things that society promises are what brings happiness that she won’t have and maybe doesn’t even want, but what’s the alternative being offered here? 

dead bodies and a lifetime of being alone?

*

2.  I think it’s interesting that you said that because Margaret’s and Hawkeye’s later relationship hinges on them being equals that the power dynamics would be a mess, when that respect is actually the very thing that makes me think of them being perfect for each other in this scenario – there’s a lot of trust and vulnerability that goes into that, especially considering aforementioned gendered expectations and the ways they both already fuck around with them, and how well they know each other at that point. And if I’m gonna take “Inga” at face value, Hawkeye isn’t as out about his (in this headcanon) preferences as one might have thought, so being vulnerable with a stranger? Or someone who isn’t as under his skin as Margaret is?  

What I do wonder about is whether later seasons Hawkeye is… all that interested in sex? Overall? Comparatively? Sure, there’s the occasional “Hawkeye has a date” or “Hawkeye does some flirting (with friends),” but – I will go more into this in my next post about women in MASH – when he talks to Marina in opening s10 about how he’s not treated women right in the past + has seen too much to ever be wide-eyed again, it is both good reasons to blow her off, and also something I definitely read at face value.

It also goes into something someone said on a post (I’m sorry I cannot remember where) about how later seasons had less sex, but also less homoeroticism hand-in-hand with that, but also that it’s just that the tone is overall – for Hawkeye more than any other character (he frequently gets The Narrative end of the stick, while everyone else is having a bit of a laugh) – less light-hearted at that point, and also it may have had to do with how they wanted to write the women who did come on the show (again, for next post). My point is that it all adds up to make him seem both Really Really Tired and Much Less Interested In Sex, and then as a consequence gives it a fun read of maybe he's less interested in sex, because he’s so damn tired?

In that scenario is he looking for an occasional fun time with his good friend Margaret Houlihan who maybe would step on him wearing heels (a thing he has canonically lamented her not doing at one point on the show) if he asked nicely and called her sir? Or is it that by the time they become good enough friends that he might trust her and she might trust him with these sexual and gender transgressions, he’s not in a place to try and make anything like this happen at all, because he’s just… tired?

But overall, I do think out of anyone at the 4077th… except for maybe Klinger (and also Sid, if we’re going beyond-but-adjacent), Margaret is the person who might be able to accommodate for Hawkeye the best, and Hawkeye might be able to give Margaret something she doesn’t entirely know how to balance with other men (the one downside is that technically Margaret would wanna be doing something like this with a guy like Trapper – bigger/more traditionally outwardly masculine, but it’s not like she doesn’t find Hawkeye attractive/I don’t think it would be a total dealbreaker – anyway, also smthinsmthin Hawkeye and Margaret are often attracted to the same kinda guy… as for women, I think Hawkeye is pretty broad, while Margaret likes Strong Women (similar to the men))

Meanwhile Margaret, it feels like, has prepared herself for this lifetime of loneliness, except she’s got this family all around her and maybe this guy who’s also not looking for normative relationship structures and is also Not Correct in vague, unspoken (queer) ways. But maybe, again, around the time where it could conceivably be going on, neither of them are in that headspace or maybe they can get each other out of the more tragedy-filled-careening-towards-the-end-of-the-narrative headspace, I can’t say for sure until I’ve finished the show

and speaking of that unknowable space...

What about after the show then?

*

3. So here’s some stuff I can’t know until I’ve finished it -- I don’t know where Hawkeye ends up and I don’t know where Margaret ends up (or anyone else for that matter), but I do think they’re the two characters who are the most conflicted at this point and likely will be right through to the end 

Margaret has made a choice to not get into a romantic relationship with anyone unless they understand her as she is, and so to all intents and purposes has practically sworn off romantic relationships -- this is also framed as her putting her career first, although not entirely. It’s more like she’s putting herself first, but also… there’s something there that doesn’t quite fit. It’s certainly more possible for her to stick with the military than to conform to a housewife ideal, because she’s been with the military her whole life, but she also no longer idealizes what it is and stands for. I really do wonder where she’ll be by the end and I sort of assume she’ll stay with the military, but I also read that somewhat through the lens of disappointing, but expected romances.

Because she’s changed a lot. I don’t think the military really is her home, but I don’t think she knows of anywhere else to go. So I wouldn’t be surprised if she stays with it – I think it would be in character – I just think it would be bittersweet. Better than a marriage, but also not as good as she could do if she could unpack some more of those vague ideas that niggle in her brain (it’s queerness, but not just that, but this read of her is based around that aromanticism in particular).

And meanwhile Hawkeye is just a mess. Idk, I can’t see that changing. I also can’t see where I’d place him after the war, because I can’t see him as okay in that movie-lotr Frodo Baggins Can Never Go Home way. I can’t see anyone as technically “okay,” but I don’t think he has anyplace where he could go to attempt what people call “resuming a normal life.” Hell, I’m not even entirely sure I could see him continuing as a surgeon (that episode with the surgeon who completely breaks down is uh… well, it’s not there for nothing). Similar to Margaret, but with added PTSD, there’s all that Vagueness niggling at his brain, which maybe angers him, because he already knows he’s a big ol bisexual who falls for married men, so what gives? And he doesn’t even have a fallback like the army. At best he might simply be a surgeon or a general practitioner, but you know… The Horrors. I can’t see him as anything but haunted for the rest of his life

And so thinking of a dream scenario where they both somehow make it and it’s not just “trying to get by (trying to get by in the army, trying to get by back in Maine, trying to remember what “home” is supposed to be)” I’m like… what if they just moved in together and tried to deal with the Vagueness together, same as they’ve done multiple times on the show? 

(And sidenote I maybe should’ve gotten into earlier, it’s so interesting that their romantic travails are shared with one another more than any other character -- Hawkeye is the person who knows the most about what was going on with her and Frank/Don/Sully, and she knows about him and Kyung Soon, and the aforementioned Big Conversation about The Revolving Heart Of Korea, which is said by Margaret, but is really the both of them)

(sidenote: Hawkeye is consistently the person who makes her smile like this the most)

(other other sidenote: “double-solitaire” ought to be codeword for queerplatonic aro partnership?????)

(other other other sidenote: literally just watched “Birthday Girls” in which Margaret rails against getting sympathy, but in this one she accepts it so readily from Hawkeye, and has done multiple times ever since the episode with the dog)

Margaret is the woman (maybe even the person) that Hawkeye knows best/has Hawkeye’s number and has done from very early on (but now she’s incredibly fond of that nr), Hawkeye is at least 10% of Margaret’s perfect man, it would be a great beard for the both of them, and they’d be able to draw a lot of comfort from each other.

And you know... they See Each Other and don’t expect the other person to change the core of themselves to fit, and they could challenge one another to become their most truthful selves better than anyone else could 

*

SO IN CONCLUSION WOULD MARGARET DOM HAWKEYE (is barely the question that’s been answered in this long fucking post): IT DEPENDS 

early seasons Hawkeye would have been SO up for it, but Margaret would not + it wouldn’t have been great for either of them I think? Although, sometimes they got along, even then, so maybe off the back of an episode like that... (but I do think it matters that they never canonically have sex until “Comrade in Arms”)

later seasons Hawkeye may have been too depressed for sexual frolicking and Margaret was going through an identity crisis, so idk, somewhere in between all of that somewhere? 

POST seasons Hawkeye and Margaret... maybe? depending on where you puttem? if they get to spend time together?

would they at the very least have fantasized about it? Oh yeah, absolutely!

I leave you with this image:

[ebdanon]

something is off with me because im not sure why you were worried about where i was going with the story 🥲 i mean i know its a shitty story but i never expect anything horrible to happen

and yeah there's never been a single reasonable parent between mine and my husband's parents lmao while his dont care about arguing in front of strangers as long as the scene looks like they're the victims, mine have always strived to appear perfect in front of strangers. i met my in laws a couple of months after we started dating, i was invited over for dinner, and my mil had no problem starting a screaming match about some local politician's election promises. on the other hand, i met my best friend over a decade ago, when her family moved to the apartment next door to my family's. the building is structured in a way where we shared a single wall across half of the rooms, e.g. my and her bedrooms were separated by a single wall, and if we felt like hanging out, we'd knock on that wall to let the other one know lol her family never knew about a single raised voice or argument or anything in my family despite those things happening regularly, because all those things happened in the room that was most remote from all other neighbors, so that my parents could continue presenting a pristine image to the rest of the world. now both sets of parents are irritated with us because we never have arguments, since we're able to sort out any misunderstanding calmly and quietly - no malice, vengeance, or ego - because we both understand how bad they are from growing up in a similar way. we both saw one of those "its not you vs me, it's us against the problem" quotes and took it to heart lmaoo

funny story, i feel like fate or the universe was involved in us meeting because it turned out we'd been orbiting each other's lives and friend groups the entire time before we first saw each other, which is kinda weird. like both of us being at the same time and place, but never seeing each other. ive seen pictures of us at the same parties in bars, separated by a table or two. or even just hanging out with friends, my friends had a preferred bench at a local park, turned out so did his, and it was literally the one 30ft away at the same park. we knew each other's friends but never actually saw one another so we could meet until we were in our 20s lmao the universe kept saying "not yet" till we grew up 😂 quite literally, my other best friend knew him personally but i never even saw him until years later lmao

anyway, a day after the whole shitstorm argument, and we have my mil twisting everything to fit her worldview. for example she claims she never called me a piece of shit, she was actually calling my husband that, despite me literally quoting when and how it happened, it's being turned into me "misremembering" despite it happening multiple times, but i only quoted one situation, but its fine because that's what narcissists do lmao

the fact that you WERE surprised i was worried is concerning 😭

also thats very sweet with your husband, the invisible string of it all 🥺 its crazy how you can orbit someone for years and not even realize it. i remember one of my best friends and i discovered we were at the same party one night our sophomore year of college and completely missed each other. i was there with my shitty ex roommates and met some people there who were also not the greatest to me but sometimes i think i needed that to get to where im at now

also my mom does the same thing tbh but idk if shes doing it maliciously or actually has memory issues 😭 girl had insomnia and lack of sleep can fuck your memory. but it drives me NUTS

[forestlingincorporated]

I wanna talk about Janet Drake

I’m not against exaggeratedly evil versions of Tim’s parents, tbh. It’s fanfiction, if we can depict an Exaggeratedly Good version of Bruce (which we can, and I do, and I love) then we can depict the Drakes as Exaggeratedly Bad. As someone who personally identifies with Tim, and his brand of complicated parental abuse in particular, I find it cathartic to uncomplicate that abuse and rescue him from the Obviously Evil Bad People. 

That said, since much of comics lore is passed down word of mouth, the oral tradition surrounding Tim has developed this idea of Janet as The Worse Parent between her and Jack that was never really present in the comics. We see much LESS of Janet, and we have 20 years worth of comics depicting Jack as a neglectful hotheaded idiot who ultimate does love his son. More importantly, Jack isn’t very much LIKE Tim, so there is a habit to attribute Tim’s traits to his mother... and, as someone who really really identifies with Tim, Tim has... some negative traits. Tim can be a bitch sometimes. He’s fiercely intelligent and sweet and kind, with a strong sense of justice, but he can be cold and judgmental and unthinking - he fights those traits, but he does have them. 

And it is perfectly fine to depict Janet that way. I’ve enjoyed depictions of Cold Calculating Janet Drake, but it’s not the ONLY option, and I want to challenge fans to consider different avenues. Tim could pick up these traits from anywhere: a nanny, Mrs. Mc Ilvaine (”Mrs. Mac”), a teacher, tv, Sherlock Holmes novels, Bruce Wayne himself. Tim is capable of not being like EITHER parent. 

So, what do we KNOW about Janet? (I’ll also touch on Jack, but only in scenes he appears with Janet.) 

When Janet was first introduced she was depicted as a gentle but “modern” woman. This was written in 1989, told by a 13 year old Tim, so this theoretically was meant to take place in 1979. I’m not here to give a lecture on the history of sex discrimination in the united states, but much of the legislation protecting women in the workforce or surrounding women’s bodily autonomy would have been very very new in this initial depiction. 

Here, Janet is shown to be encouraging, emotional, maternal, and projects her own feelings onto Tim. Jack is shown to be slightly sexist, possibly discouraging, but not overbearing. And the artist is shown not to know how to draw children. 

To insert some speculation, I think it’s important to note all the Drakes witnessed a terrible murder/accident that day. I point this out, because this is the last time Jack and Janet are depicted this way. It’s possible they changed as a result of this event specifically. 

However, this is also a story being told by Tim. It’s also possible these events aren’t really “real” at all, and Tim is misremembering what his parents were like as a three-year-old, possibly projecting a more palatable version of his parents into the narrative. This is entirely up to personal interpretation. 

In fact, the Drakes are shown in Legend of the Dark Knight attending Haly’s Circus, and the artist knows what a toddler looks like and they’re depicted as already having a slightly strained relationship. Jack is clearly on the defensive, and Janet seems to be passive-aggressive, though she could just be attempting to explain the situation to her toddler honestly. The intended tone isn’t especially clear. 

I do want to point out, in this depiction, Tim isn’t being carried like he was in the previous one. He’s walking ahead of his parents, which isn’t a terrible horrible crime, but could be dangerous in a crowded place like the circus. Might be a subtle hint to his parents overall neglect. 

Back to A Lonely Place of Dying, in Tim’s memories of the night he discovered Robin and Dick Grayson were the same person at nine-years-old, his parents are home, and watching TV together while Tim played... trucks, idk, in the living room with them. (This is semi-interesting, because you could say “oh, Tim liked vehicle toys as a kid” or you could extrapolate that this is another subtle indication of Jack’s sexism, providing Tim with appropriately “boy toys.” Either interpretation is valid. If Tim was assigned female at birth, would they have been given “girl toys,” or allowed to play with whatever they wanted?) 

This is, to my knowledge, the only panel of the Drakes when Tim is between ages 3 and 13. They’re all together, which might indicate that the Drakes were home more often when Tim was 9, only later going on business trips when Tim was “old enough” but... 

This is Tim’s boarding school when he’s 13. While most boarding schools in the US are for grades 9-12, Tim is clearly not a freshman at age 13; look how much younger the other kids in this panel are. In the US, the youngest you can attend most boarding schools is 7. 

That means Tim could have begun going to boarding school anytime between 7 and 13. He most likely spent all of middle school in boarding school, at least. There are an almost infinite number of possible ways the Drakes handled having a business that required lots of international travel, an archeology hobby, AND a very young child. Janet staying home until Tim was 7, 11, 13, is equally possible as the Drakes having a nanny until 7, 11, 13. Tim just doesn’t talk about that period of his life very much.

(”What about Mrs. Mac?” - it is unclear when Mrs. Mac begins working for the Drakes. We only see her when Jack comes out of his coma. She could either be a long standing staff member, or a recent hire.) 

Note: I’ve seen it said that it’s canon that “According to Tim, when his parents were home, they made a point to try and include him in their activities, bringing him along to events that were normally adults only.” I have never seen this panel, or I don’t remember it, so I cannot confirm, but I also cannot debunk this because... comics. 

By the time Tim is 13, Jack and Janet are away on business trips a lot, with limited communication, and no firm return date. If I’m feeling generous, I’d say it was harder to communicate internationally in 1990 than it is today. If I’m not feeling generous, I’d say the Drakes are extremely wealthy, and international communication was easier than ever before in the 80s and 90s. They’re not even going home to see Tim in a week or two, they’re going home and calling Tim at boarding school in a week or two. 

Even Bruce thinks its weird, though he doesn’t say so to Tim’s face. It’s written almost as if Tim’s parents’ neglect was meant to be a plot point that just got forgotten about. 

Tim’s parents are fighting at this point (their poor assistant), but Janet still goes with Jack on these business trips. And she’s clearly involved in the business, somehow, but the comics never SAY what Janet’s JOB is. We’re told Jack is the exec, but Janet is ONLY ever referred to as Jack’s wife, though they’re later described as the “heads” of the company, plural. 

Just to be clear, this is Jack’s business. There’s a perception that Jack is a bad business man because he and Janet fight over company decisions, and Jack looses the business after Janet dies, but Jack looses the company YEARS after Janet dies, and maintains it for about a year after No Man’s Land at that. We’re not told how Jack looses the business, but he’s got to be doing something right. Janet isn’t necessarily the “real brains” of Drake Industries. 

And I’m not... gonna... touch the... exploitation and racism because... I’m not qualified to do that. But, here’s the panel. The Drakes sure seem exploitative and racist in their business decisions. Someone else can... analyze that with more nuance. 

Regardless how how long they’ve been fighting, when their lives are in danger, the Drakes fall back into a loving husband and wife. Their marriage may be falling apart, but they do care about each other. 

I want to show these panels because it shows that Tim and Jack do have things in common. They’re both level headed in a crisis and can be somewhat cold in their practicality. Janet meanwhile and silent. Jack is later willing rant and rave at their captors, but Janet remains silent. 

That is, until they’re alone, and she finally lets herself fall apart. 

God, Jack can be obnoxious. Janet just looks miserable and resigned. I actually think Tim takes after his parents in this respect in equal measure. Tim can have a temper, but he can also be fairly melancholy and defeatist. 

Jack keeps reminding Janet to be strong and in control, which could be period typical sexism? But Jack seems so practiced and ready with the words of encouragement, and with Tim’s history with depression, I wonder if Janet has an inclination towards it as well. 

As the end approaches, when Jack brings up Tim, Janet seems to have a lot of regret. She talks about “wasting” the good things, and I don’t think it’s too big of a stretch to assume she’s talking about time spent with her only child. 

From this point on, Janet is at times spoken of, but not seen. Like here, when Jack says Janet wouldn’t approve of him and Tim being so “far apart.” He says this after he tells him he takes back his threat to send him back to boarding school, which might imply Janet was against the idea of boarding school? Though she obviously lost that argument when she was alive. 

Jack will of course renege on this later, but that’s Jack Drake for you. 

Or here in Tim’s illness induced dream, where he gets everything he wants. Though, since this is a fantasy of Tim’s, where his father and girlfriend are both more accepting and understanding than they are in real life, I would take this depiction of Janet with a grain of salt. 

After loosing Drake Industries, Jack thinks about Janet (though, they call her Catherine/Cathy for some fucking reason) during his depressive episode. And... uh... 

Hallucinates a Valkyrie???? Is this symbolic of suicidal thoughts, or is she... real? Or is he seriously hallucinating? 

Anyway, we’re not here to discuss Jack’s mental state, the fact that he forgot Tim’s birthday, or that concerning “I was going to knock some sense into you but you’re still bigger than me” statement from Tim, we’re here to talk about Janet. And even though this entire arc is about Jack mourning his first wife, they don’t SAY anything about Janet herself at all. I mean, they don’t even get her name right, so I guess what was I expecting. 

Then there’s Origins and Omens, which also doesn’t say anything about Janet, except that Tim’s memory of her is faulty - Janet was poisoned, her assistant Jeremy’s throat was slit on television, but Tim seems to have conflated the death he did see with the death he didn’t. 

The only piece of canon to suggest that Janet might be cold, is Tim compares her to Thalia. And even then, he’s really just saying Janet was protective of him. It’s kind of a scary look to make at your kid, but Bruce does the same thing, so. 

I do want to say... it’s not 100% clear if Tim is even talking about Janet. He could be talking about Dana. Dana was observably protective of Tim, though I don’t think he’s ever called her mom. He PROBABLY means Janet. 

And finally we have Tim visiting his mother’s grave (in a duel Christian/Jewish cemetery, make of that what you will), where Tim says she was “a little religious.”

And that’s it! That is all we know about Janet Drake in New Earth. Hardly the Mom From Hell, but she isn’t perfect. I’d be interested in seeing some alternate depictions of her within the fandom. 

I’m still gonna eat up Terrible Parents From Hell like a starving puppy dog, though. Just some food for creative thought. 

[fedonciadale]

Do you think Arya might be misremembering the Horseface thing? I think it’s weird that Sansa supposedly called her that, when the entire AGOT it is only Jeyne. We have Arya in her first scene resenting and shifting blame on Sansa, but Jeyne called her horseface. We are inside Sansa’s head for several chapters, and she never thinks of Arya that way. We have arguments where she calls her ugly and stupid, but never horseface. I think we are all the way to ADWD before any mention of Sansa calling

/2 her horseface, and even then it’s in the shape of “to her sister and her sister’s friends and all the rest she had just been Arya Horseface.” And a couple other people saying that she did it, Theon being told by Jeyne herself that she was the one that made it up.  I also thinks it fits poorly with Sansa’s image of herself at she perfect, gracious little lady to be calling her sister names. In AGOT she only does after Lady dies and Sansa for a time blames Arya for it - and again: not horseface             

Dear nonny,

this is an interesting idea, but I am not quite sure about it. It’s worth looking at it and I put it under the cut

In her first chapter in AGOT, Sansa thinks about Arya’s “horsey grin” and her “horsey face”, but we do not hear her tell that out loud. We never hear her call Arya horseface, and interestingly enough we never read about Sansa thinking actual “horseface” in her chapters.

The context of the horsey face and horsey grin is interesting as well, because Sansa thinks about the fact that Arya does not behave like a lady on their way south and I guess these inner thoughts reflect that Sansa thinks, Arya is acting improperly.

There are telltale quotes:

The only thing that scared her about today was Arya. Arya had a way of ruining everything. You never knew what she would do.

and:

Sansa regarded her scrawny little sister in disbelief. “You can’t look for rubies, the princess is expecting us. The queen invited us both.”

It is just after that, that Sansa thinks about the horsey grin, but you can actually see, how she starts thinking only about meanly Arya and some of Arya’s physical features, and her being scrawny, horsey etc. after Arya “embarassed” her by declining the invitation to the Queen’s wheelhouse. (just as an aside, Septa Mordane expected Sansa to bring Arya along, so Sansa thinks, she fails her task here.)

Sansa was running out of patience now. “You have to come with me,” she told her sister firmly. “You can’t refuse the queen. Septa Mordane will expect you.”

And Arya does as she wants and this is when Sansa again thinks about her horsey face.

“I don’t care what you say, I’m going out riding.” Her long horsey face got the stubborn look that meant she was going to do something willful.

So, Sansa has to return without Arya.

Alone and humiliated, Sansa took the long way back to the inn, where she knew Septa Mordane would be waiting. Lady padded quietly by her side. She was almost in tears.

Might I say, that we see some very bad parenting here. Ned doesn’t care, Septa Mordane tasks Sansa with something she herself should do, and you can see how this is habitual. As a parent I know that sometimes you have to tell the older children to look after the younger, but it should never be a habit, never ever. And you might tell the older children to look after the younger for a time but they should not be in the habit of doing the actual parenting. Certainly it should not result in the older sister being responsible for bringing the younger sister to a duty she hates, and the invitation to the queen is a duty. I don’t blame Sansa or Arya that they are both resentful about this. Arya hates getting told by Sansa what to do and Sansa hates that Arya never does as she is told - which might even result in Sansa getting scolded. No parent who wants siblings to get along sets up such a situation. It is a recipe for disaster and quarrel.

We actually see Sansa insulting Arya to her face twice: There is the time, when they fight, Sansa acts haughty and Arya ruins Sansa’s dress:

“You’re horrible,” she screamed at her sister. “They should have killed you instead of Lady!” (AGOT, Sansa III)

They fight again when Ned tells them they have to leave:

Sansa threw back her head in disdain. “You? You couldn’t sew a dress fit to clean the pigsties.”

Sansa does not accept Arya’s offer of peace here.

“It won’t be so bad, Sansa,” Arya said. “We’re going to sail on a galley. It will be an adventure, and then we’ll be with Bran and Robb again, and Old Nan and Hodor and the rest.” She touched her on the arm.                 

“Hodor!” Sansa yelled. “You ought to marry Hodor, you’re just like him, stupid and hairy and ugly!” She wrenched away from her sister’s hand, stormed into her bedchamber, and barred the door behind her.

So, we only see Sansa actually insulting Arya, when she is in emotional turmoil.

I would be reluctant to deduce too much from AGOT though, because neither Arya nor Sansa have that many chapters, but I would argue that the tendency is that Sansa thinks about Arya being horsey, scrawny etc. when she is annoyed with her (or her task to do the parenting that Septa Mordane just does not do and Ned can’t be bothered to). Immediately before she looks down on Arya because of her looks this happens:

Arya gave her a look like she was so stupid.

So, here you have it. Sansa thinks Arya is ugly, and Arya thinks Sansa is stupid, and they are both enough in the habit of letting the other know this or hint at it, that Sansa interpretes Arya’s look (she didn’t say anything after all) like she wanted to insult her intelligence.

It has been said by others before me. Both sisters suffer from self-confidence issues. Arya thinks she is not pretty, and Sansa thinks she is stupid, although both are not true. It is also interesting that both might not understand each other but know each other quite well. In cases they are reminded of each other it is usually something they see in another person which is typical for the other.

Let’s have a look how horseface looks from Arya’s PoV.

In Arya’s first chapter we find this: Jeyne used to call her Arya Horseface, and neigh whenever she came near.

Then there are wordings like “At Winterfell they called her Horseface”. The mentions of “Horseface” in this way which conceals the speakers occurs quite often.

In ACOK (Arya IX) there is the following: Sansa used Horseface, and her father’s men once dubbed her Arya Underfoot,

And then we have the chapter in ADWD (The prince of Winterfell) and Jeyne telling Theon “It was me made up that name. Her face was long and horsey. Mine isn’t. I was pretty.” Edit: This is after Theon tells her that Sansa used that insult. This added to the evidence from Arya's first chapter where we see Jeyne making fun of Arya, certainly suggests that Jeyne was in the habit of doing this.

And then you have Arya in ADWD (The blind girl): To her sister and sister’s friends and all the rest, she had just been Arya Horseface.

All the rest at least confirms that it were several people at Winterfell who called Arya “Horseface”.

So, on the question of Horseface, I do think we can deduce that there might really be a memory lapse and it would be all too understandable. Arya cares very much about the insult, and it would be natural that in her memory the people who use it all blur together. And it is no surprise that she bunches Sansa and her friends together.

The thing is, the evidence is not conclusive! I think this should be stressed. Arya remembers being called Horseface by several people, Sansa among them. And we know from Sansa’s chapter that she thinks about Arya’s horsey face, when she is annoyed. But we do not see Sansa calling Arya Horseface, and I think it is interesting, that when we see Sansa freak out in her fights with Arya, it is not horseface she uses. So, tentatively we could argue, that she was not in the habit of using it, or she would have fallen back on using ‘horseface’ when fighting with her sister.

It is interesting to see that Arya’s behaviour in a way mirrors Sansa. She often questions Sansa’s intellect in her own thoughts:

Suddenly Arya remembered the morning she had thrown the orange in Sansa’s face and gotten juice all over her stupid ivory silk gown. There had been some southron lordling at the tourney, her sister’s stupid friend Jeyne was in love with him(ACOK, Arya IV).

But that was just stupid, like something Sansa might dream.(ASOS, Arya XII)

In Arya’s thoughts many things Sansa likes are stupid: princesses, tourneys, ladies, dresses, songs, heart break. Arya is not alone in this. Bran also thinks that Sansa’s love for songs and stories is stupid.

"Some books. I like the fighting stories. My sister Sansa likes the kissing stories, but those are stupid."    (ADWD, Bran III)

Interestingly though, Arya does not call Sansa stupid to her face. And it is not because she doesn’t use the insult. She calls other people stupid all the time (Gendry for example). So, there is a certain measure of restraint for both sisters.

And I should add that at least Ned actively discourages the sisters to insult each other, so that might be something Ned and Cat insisted on - at least in their hearing:

"I don't care about their stupid tourney," Arya said. She knew Prince Joffrey would be there, and she hated Prince Joffrey.

Sansa lifted her head. "It will be a splendid event. You shan't be wanted."    

Anger flashed across Father's face. "Enough, Sansa. More of that and you will change my mind. I am weary unto death of this endless war you two are fighting. You are sisters. I expect you to behave like sisters, is that understood?" (AGOT, Arya II)    

So, my guess is - and please note that the evidence is not conclusive - that both Sansa and Arya think mean things about the other when they are annoyed. And they are habitually put into situations where they are bound to be annoyed with the other by the Septa. And yet, the rules to not insult each other seem to be rather strict - at least in their parents’ hearing. We see them irritating each other, teasing, skirting insults, but we witness them insulting only twice, once when Arya ruins Sansa’s dress and in the extremely emotional situation when Ned tells them they have to leave. In both situations Sansa seems to be the one who freaks out more. At least when they are told they will leave, Sansa is more distressed about this. It is not bad for Arya since Ned promised her that Syrio will come along.

So, you could argue that the “horseface” only ever happened in the presence of the Septa, if even that (which fits with none of the other siblings nor Ned or Catelyn ever commenting on it). More likely it is something that happened when no adults were near.

If Arya indeed misremembers, it could be a sign that she might also misremember a more important event: Arya was present when Ned was beheaded and she wondered about Sansa being prettily dressed and seemingly happy (which we know she was because she thought Joffrey would pardon Ned for her sake). Later she hears Sansa screaming and crying, but what if she forgets that? Will this be the grounds for misunderstandings between the sister when they meet again? I hope that we’ll be spared the “Winterhell plot” in the books, but I do have the feeling that the sisters might have a conflict before all is said and done.

Ultimately, though, the sisters love each other: Even at the height of their quarrelling you have this:

He sounded so tired that it made Arya sad. "I don't hate Sansa," she told him. "Not truly." It was only half a lie.    (AGOT, Arya II)

And then you have this memory:

She scooped up a handful of snow and squeezed it between her fingers. Heavy and wet, the snow packed easily. Sansa began to make snowballs, shaping and smoothing them until they were round and white and perfect. She remembered a summer's snow in Winterfell when Arya and Bran had ambushed her as she emerged from the keep one morning. They'd each had a dozen snowballs to hand, and she'd had none. Bran had been perched on the roof of the covered bridge, out of reach, but Sansa had chased Arya through the stables and around the kitchen until both of them were breathless. She might even have caught her, but she'd slipped on some ice. Her sister came back to see if she was hurt. When she said she wasn't, Arya hit her in the face with another snowball, but Sansa grabbed her leg and pulled her down and was rubbing snow in her hair when Jory came along and pulled them apart, laughing.  (ASOS, Sansa VII) 

How anyone can read this and think that the sisters will end on different sides is beyond me. And I sincerely hope, that the books won’t have any conflict. I want my Stark sisters to be on a team.

Thanks for the ask!

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

ASM vol 5 #10/811 Thoughts

I suspect I’m gonna be a bit more down on the issue than everyone else!

 Fundamentally the things that put my feelings into conflict with this story are how the past of the characters should be reconciled against the needs of the present.

 What do I mean by this?

 Well in this issue we have Peter being chill with Black Cat and also MJ claiming that for the longest time she couldn’t handle worrying about Peter and this would lead to a cycle of them breaking up and getting back together, and she also felt she was not on his level that she was dispensable and that maybe he should be with someone else. These pieces of dialogue are accompanied by images clearly evoking marriage era MJ which allegedly post-OMD still happened but they were not married.

 If you go by recent history Peter should just not be this chill with Felicia. She is literally a burglar and he was willing to let her walk away which wasn’t his origin entirely about how doing that once killed his uncle? This isn’t even getting into her body count during her Queenpin tenure. I now they provide a sort of fix for that but my point was before that fix happened in the story he was clearly still chill with her and that is BS.

 If you go by the wider history of Peter and MJ her statements do not really add up. Even in the 1990s MJ didn’t literally spend all her time worrying about Peter (she went out partying in Torment for example) and both back then and even before they married she clearly could handle his life, just not handle it in a wholly stressfree manner (because nobody could do that). The idea that this inability to handle his life, specifically the fact that she worried constantly about him, was the reason they’d break up before getting back together is also not true.

 If you even include their break up under Marv Wolfman’s run MJ broke up with Peter the first time mostly due to her commitment issues. The second time they sort of broke up was in Spider-Man vs. Wolverine where there was a miscommunication problem but that was also due to her commitment issues a little bit. However it is obvious Spencer wasn’t referring to that stuff but the stuff during their marriage and during their marriage (I know they weren’t married now but you know what I mean, I’m just using ‘marriage’ as shorthand) they broke up just twice.

 The first time was during Mackie/Byrne’s run and it wasn’t because MJ worried too much about Peter it was because she felt dispensible to him, that she didn’t really matter in his life, that he did not in truth need her and that he didn’t in effect love her much more than he would have loved a mistress or a trophy wife. The second time was in OMIT where they broke up over MJ feeling like being with Peter endangered her family too much. Granted that last one was indeed about not being able to handle his life but it wasn’t about concern for him or even herself as the issue implied. Moreover multiple times during the marriage, in fact very specifically during the issue they reunited under JMS it was made clear to MJ that she WAS indispensible and that Peter truly needed her. He said as much even in Spencer’s debut issue (if you discount the FCBD issue of course).

 All of which means MJ’s statements don’t really ring true to her character or her shared history with Peter. She knows she doesn’t need to be a part of his world to matter. Now I say all that with the caveat that you can of course explain away the discrepancy to a degree. Perhaps in this one moment out of nervousness, or the chance to FINALLY unload her feelings, the sake of brevity and/or some combination of those things MJ is misremembering things.

 There were periods where she found coping with Peter’s life very hard, and they did break up. And perhaps in seeing him with Black Cat and Mockingbird feelings of inadequacy crossed her mind and in this moment all those things are mingling together coalescing into her not truly accurate account of their relationship.* Equally her presenting their relationship as a constant merry go round of breaking up and making up could be her conflating the entirety of their relationship before and after their marriage, including all of Slott’s dumbass teases of them getting back together (and the Superior stuff too). Remember in-universe all the stuff she is talking about played out across several years and their break up depicted in OMIT was several years ago circa this issue (Superior alone played out across 1 year in-universe).

 So there are totally ways of explaining this in-universe, even if there aren’t any for why Peter was so chill with Felicia.

 However this is where we get into the ‘needs of the present’ as I discussed above.

 Because it is plainly obvious to me that Spencer with this story was doing yet more clean up of BND and Slott’s mess more than trying to religiously fit everything into continuity.

 Spencer has done much already to fix things but there is still much that is broken, so much like JMS I think we need to say its okay for him to bend certain bits of characterization in service of over all setting the ship back on course and cleaning up the mess he inherited.

 As I said JMS did this too. To be incredibly harsh right now the fact that Peter and MJ were stayed broken up as long as they did under the JMS run really wasn’t in character for either of them.**

 However his genius game plan was to course correct the series over all and do that by illuminating just WHY their relationship was so important and he did that by examining their feelings about NOT being together and making a story about them working to get back together.

 It was a neccesarry direction to go in as it conveyed to readers on a meta level WHY them being together was a good thing and why it was in fact vitally important to the lead character and over all series.

 Spencer in this story I think was doing something similar.

 On a meta level he essentially connected Felicia losing her memory of who Spider-Man was, of what their relationship was like WITH her mischaracterization since OMD. Which works in-universe perfectly fine but along with Peter’s chill attitude to her it was set up for his big fix of her re-learning his secret and essentially going back to (starting to go back to) what she used to be like and what she always should have been like.

 After all it NEVER made sense for Peter to have kept her in the dark at all so bending his characterization by ignoring her recent activities is equivalent to how he ignored the baggage from post-OMD to just immediately get Peter and MJ reunited.*** Although he again here provides a short yet solid explanation even for that just to address everyone who really was annoyed by Slott’s BS characterization being ignored.

 With the MJ thing I think that storyline existed more for Spencer through MJ to essentially address readers’ (especially recent readers’) beliefs surrounding the character and her relationship with Spider-Man. It was essentially post-OMD MJ bringing up common arguments raised against her being with Spider-Man by editorial and characters within the comics (including her from Slott and other author’s stories) and then through the story debunking them. In this way using Black Cat, Spider-Man’s most famous super hero girlfriend (and sometimes romantic rival to MJ) as a representative of every potential argument in favour of Spider-Man not being with a civilian like her was simply genius.

 It was Spencer writing on a level Slott never did, weaving these disparate plots together organically to deliver a statement on the characters, who are the reason we are reading this after all.

 So that is where I am at with the story.

 Trying to reconcile the technical mischaracetrization with that mischaracterization being in over all service of fixing the decades long mischaracterization and misconceptions of the characters.

 I suspect with time I will be more okay with it and lean more towards the latter. I do hope though we don’t see more stuff like it though because I’d rather the marriage era be celebrated positively than negatively the way post-OMD portrayed it.

 Other points I want to hit up.

 -          Ramos seemed better this issue than in the other ones

-          There were some honestly hilarious scenes like the phone app and the reference to Spider-Man’s hyphen

-          The lack of jealousy from MJ was a nice piece of maturity and subversion of expectations from her, especially given who she was dealing with. I also adored Peter just being up front with her and clear about what went down. You know...doing the resposnsible adult thing. That’s not even great to see in Spider-Man, it’s subverting an annoying as Hell trope in countless pieces of fiction to generate cheap drama.

-          I almost feel Centipede guy is like Scarlet Spider because his costume colours were very reminiscent of Spidey’s but he also adorned a hoody

-          There was a misplaced word balloon which is...c’mon guys try to catch those obvious mistakes...

-          The cover hilarious and a great meta joke.

-          Bandini’s art was still gorgeous

-          I don’t know if all of MJ’s jobs and life prior to working for Stark (which still makes no sense) honestly could be regarded as the opposite of Spider-Man’s career strictly speaking. After all...they both earned money from posing for photos so...Maybe from her pov tha’ts just how she feels about her jobs, a little like how she felt in Unlimited vol 3 #2.

 I’d give this an A- at worst, A at best.

 Which is like...I know I brought up a lot of draw backs but look how far we’ve come in such a short space of time!

 I was honestly jealous of everyone who read this before me! That’s where I am at with modern Spider-Man and it feels good!

  *Also whilst Peter might’ve made his need for MJ explicit in issue #1 that might not have fully convinced her thereafter that maybe he’d be better off with another super person. After all he said what he said after almost dying so he might not have been thinking with a totally clear head.

However given how MJ, in two brilliant little scenes, takes Jarvis’ words of wisdom and also seems to absorb and grow past her insecurity rather quickly you could argue that said insecurity was less truly something weighing on her mind and more a wobble she was having at that moment. We all have little wobbles and moments of insecurity that do not necessarily speak to anything deepset within us.

 **It made a little more sense when JMS retconned in the reason for why MJ left Peter but he didn’t reveal that for the first ¼ of his overall run so MJ appeared to be OOC for that time.

 ***Also once Spider-Man learns Felicia’s misdemeanours are partially his fault because they are connected to her loss of memory which he caused and perpetuated then it makes his willingness to forgive her and (presumably) trust she is on a path to redemption more believable.

p.s. Flash’s death being used as the explanation for MJ and Peter’s reconciliation is a microcosm of the issues I discussed with the story.

On the one hand Flash’s death is at last acknowledged. On the other it’s lack of acknowledgement before this and presumably after this story will continue to be eye brow raising because why be so unaffected by the death of your close old friend?

But at the same time diving into the realistic ark and depressing emotions of grief that should accompany Flash’s death would compromise the necessity of fixing the broken Spider-Man series so once again, we got to ‘bend the rules’ as it were.

[sanctferum]

Dangan Ronpa V3 Chapter 3 class trial START!

Last time, we avoided Kokichi becoming the third victim, and went under the floor and found a sickle, and etc.

Kaito laments that he won’t be of much help, since Monokuma disrupted his investigations. He did? That’s not that I remember you pausing your investigation for. Also, betcha someone, probably Maki, says “we weren’t expecting anything from you anyways.”

I was wrong. No one said the obvious joke.

A bit of back and forth later, Himiko speaks for the first time since she found Tenko’s body. A simple question: Who? The two people closest to her…both were killed. WHO?

Tsumugi says that maybe only one of the blackened is here at the trial grounds. The transfer student. Tsumigi is shaking. Kaito is freaking out. Time to prove Tsumugi wrong!

The Necronomicon is intact, so Angie can’t have completed the ritual, which requires burning the book.

Kaito is relieved. Well, no matter. The ritual wouldn’t have worked in the first place.

But Monokuma interrupts to say that it would have actually worked. And he never lies about motives…Monodam’s the one who gave out the motive, not Monokuma.

Maki thinks Monokuma is just trying to confuse us…I just noticed, Angie’s portrait at her courtroom podium isn’t crossed out, but instead has a halo and a pair of wings.

Miu declares that Kiyo killed Angie. Tenko’s blackened is still up in the air, but Kiyo was the one with the katana, right? But…how would he have gotten in?  The door was locked, and Angie wouldn’t have let him in. So, is the blackened on the student council, then?

Kokichi claims to believe in Angie and Himiko’s friendship, which places Himiko beyond doubt. He even used the usual protagonist buzzwords regarding such stuff…if obviously insincerely.

Kokichi is pushing a theory that the culprit is Keebo, Gonta, or Tsumugi. I don’t feel comfortable dropping Himiko from the suspect list just yet, though.

Mass panic time, starring Gonta, Keebo, and Tsumugi! Tsumugi keeps defending herself and Gonta and forgetting to defend Keebo from the accusations as well. Keebo is none too pleased.

Are they the only ones who could have gotten in? Well, the only non-Council member who could have gotten in was Kokichi, with his lock-picking skills.

Kokichi confessed. To Angie’s murder, at least. There’s no way that’s actually true, so what is his game?

Everyone is confused, but Shuichi knows Kokichi’s ways by now. Kokichi couldn’t be the culprit. How would he have closed the door and locked it after leaving the lab?

Kokichi picked the lock…but we already know that’s not how the door was really locked. First of all, the front door was locked before the back door, which means locking the back door would’ve happened right when the blackened was leaving the crime scene. And when they locked the door, they used a certain tool.

Mind Mine! It’s the katana, duh. Hey, there’s a hidden Monokuma hidden on one side…nice, that’s all of them for this chapter.

The katana was used to hit the lock knob after the culprit left. I’m guessing the Kaede effigy was strung up so that it would fall down under its own weight. That would send it swinging across the room, hitting the lock, then rocking back and forth until it stopped, way before we ever found Angie’s body.

And our proof is the gold leaf. Monokuma finds that evidence familiar. It rings a bell, a school bell to be specific. Monophanie asks if he’s talking about a different school. Which school was Monokuma at before the Ultimate Academy? (Hint: it’s Hope’s Peak.)

The effigies were hung up all together as a diversion, just like Miu said at the beginning of the investigation. If only Kaede’s effigy had been hung up, or any of the other three, it would have been obvious what had happened…so the blackened hung all four up, despite only needing one. Kaede’s effigy…or more accurately, the effigy closest to the back door!

How did they calculate that the effigy really would fall down and swing into exactly the right place and then eventually be still? Kaito could’ve calculated that, or Miu, but I dunno.

Psyche Taxi. Fuck.

The first two questions were easy, but...the way the katana was used wasn’t swinging, so that messed me up. It was spinning.

The culprit might’ve had to try a few times, but the crime was committed at night. No one would have been around to see if they messed up and had to reenter the lab.

So the murder weapon was used to lock the door.

Kokichi was just fucking with us, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t actually be the culprit.

Just as I thought. Kokichi wasn’t just trolling us…he wanted to hear if anyone would say anything suspicious while the pressure was off of them. But in the end, no one here believed Kokichi, so if the culprit had wanted to pin the blame on Kokichi, they would have been forced to either look suspicious or remain silent.

Miu is fired up! Kokichi…is playing along with her innuendos with some of his own.

Who set up the locked room mystery…without already knowing who the blackened is, we can’t answer this, so it’s a pointless question.

…Kokichi, did you just actually say that? What the fuck man. I know Miu likes to brag about her supposed sexual exploits, but what the fuck was that.

…Miu gets an ahegao face from being called a cum dumpster. Yeah, she’s a masochist all right. God fucking fuck.

Moving on. MOVING ON. Who could have gotten into Angie’s lab in the first place? It had to be one of six people: the rest of the Student Counsel, or Kokichi.

You guys keep leaving out Himiko. Kokichi…what were you up to when you shifted suspicion off of her…? Tenko’s also a possible culprit.

Kokichi stop being a little shitter.

Maki has a point. Kokichi has been leading the debate so far. He’s a potential suspect, isn’t he?

Suspect Rangers?

What should the Student Coincil survivors say to prove they aren’t suspects?

We’re going back and forth...and then Himiko brings up another thing. Tenko. We can’t say that the blackened who killed Angie wasn’t the one who killed Tenko, right?

Kokichi seems to have been waiting for Himiko to bring up Tenko. He calls her case meaningless until Angie’s case is solved.

For maybe the second or third time in the game, Himiko is showing emotion. And it’s anger. How dare he. How dare Kokichi call Tenko’s death meaningless…

Kokichi counters by claiming Himiko is lying. Up until now, Himiko seemed to regard Tenko as a pain, like many other things. Why is this display of emotion coming after Tenko is dead?

Himiko claims that what Kokichi said was true…and that’s why she’s so upset. Before, she ignored Tenko, and now…it’s too late. Too late for anything involving her. She’d wanted to thank Tenko…

As she starts to collapse under the weight of her own grief and guilt, Kaito steps up to the plate. Himiko cannot turn away from Tenko’s death…she has to face it, head-on! Only then will the truth be revealed!

And…if we never find out who killed Tenko, we’ll never be able to trust each other again. So we have to do it. So that we can survive.

God, I love Kaito and his hot-blooded inspiration speeches. He may be an idiot, but unlike Hiro in DR1, he’s actually useful sometimes.

Time to figure out whether both cases had the same culprit.

Did Kiyo change the topic on purpose? Or Kokichi, or Maki? Is someone playing us, even now?

Shuichi, Kiyo, Himiko, and Kokichi…but I’m certain none of them killed Tenko.

Kiyo suggested the whole séance idea, but he wanted to do it even before anyone died. And he’d mentioned the ritual to other people before everything went to shit, so.

Himiko selected the center room for the séance. I thought it was Kokichi? Maybe I’m misremembering. No, she was the one who suggested that.

And of course, the people not at the séance could have entered the room from beneath the floorboards, in the dark.

And if that’s true…Kiyo has a guess as to who killed Tenko. Keebo. Who could have moved in the dark? But we know that isn’t true. Keebo’s light would have been seen.

They marked Tenko with glowing paint? What does this look like, DR2 Case 1?

Monokuma says that sounds familiar as well. I cannot tell if he’s breaking the 4th wall, or if this game does have some kind of connection to the previous Dangan Ronpa games…

Tenko woulda noticed if the culprit had snuck in through the floorboard. Was it used as a means of escape, then?

When was Tenko killed? Whether it was before or after the thunking noise would be useful information.

We can’t figure out how Tenko was killed in the darkness, so Miu suggests that Tenko was killed some other time. Gonta suggests it was at the moment the cage was lifted…but the white sheet was removed before the cage was lifted, and at that time it already had been splattered with blood.

Miu refuses to back down, though, but no matter. Her argument rests on Tenko’s position being a sitting one. She wasn’t there, but we know better than that.

Kokichi humiliates Miu some more. Roasted!

So. Right now we’re having trouble figuring out how she was killed through the cage. The cloth over the cage would have had a hole where the weapon went through. Maybe the murder weapon is wrong, or…

Kokichi says it’s impossible for a living person to have killed Tenko during that time. The implications are that a dead person did it. Who? Angie? The transfer student? Don’t be ridiculous.

Angie’s spirit killing Tenko? Ridiculous. But Himiko seems to be taking Kokichi seriously. Kokichi proposes that Tenko killed Angie, and this was Angie’s revenge.

Kaito has an interesting idea. The blackened was hiding inside the cage during the séance. Maki thinks so as well. As for why the culprit wasn’t seen…maybe they didn’t need to hide in the first place. Huh?

The culprit could’ve killed her at any time during the séance.

Select a person? I, I don’t have enough clues. Also we’re not even halfway through the trial.

Uh…who would have been in the cage with Tenko? The only person in the cage was Tenko.

Then…is Maki calling it a suicide?

She volunteered to the person trapped in the cage. The sickle was under the floor…the floorboard was removed…she could have used her final moments to drop the sickle through the floorboard. But there’s something missing here. Himiko and me both know what that is: a motive. Why would Tenko try to get everyone killed?

Even if Tenko turned out to be the person who killed Angie, why would she kill herself, and try to kill everyone else?

I don’t think Tenko would kill herself to kill everyone else…certainly not Himiko, despite Kokichi’s theory. And besides…she wanted to live. She told Himiko that the two of them and everyone else would survive and get out together. She said this as one of her final sentences before she was killed…

Maki hid that she was a killer, but Tenko…she was very open. There’s no way she could’ve lied like that.

Kaito is calling Kokichi naïve. Oh how the tables have turned.

Keeping secrets is fine, Kaito says. If you have something you don’t want to share, it’s fine. The thing that matters is whether there’s malice hidden in those secrets.

Kaitoi believes in himself. He believes in Maki. He believes in us.

Kokichi can’t bring himself to trust other people.

Himiko knows believing in Tenko won’t bring her back. But even then, she wants to believe in Tenko. There’s no way Tenko would kill herself, OR others!

We need to defend Tenko’s honor with some reason why she wouldn’t or couldn’t have done it. And it just so happens that while I got nothing, Shuichi has an idea. Some other bit of Tenko’s final words…”I’ll see you all after the séance”. She thought she would be alive on the other side.

Let’s get going. If they think Tenko threw the sickle under the floor, we’ll lie. We’ll tell them she died instantly. Maki knows that Shuichi is lying, which is why Shuichi asked her to trust in him beforehand.

Maki comes through and backs up our lie. Which means we’re back to someone else killing Tenko during the séance…

Something peculiar during the séance? Why yes, there was a strange sound…something fell down from somewhere. It was something to do with the floorboard. An intense impact that loosened the floorboard, huh?

After a bunch of thinking, I decide that the floorboard must have come loose because of the missing crosspiece.

Hmmm. There’s a diagram…were they trying to tip the balance of the floorboard? What would that accomplish? Unless part of the iron cage had a sharp protrusion. Or…maybe it was to get Tenko’s neck in range of the sickle. Either way, it had to have involved a seesaw effect.

So someone stomped on the floorboard, and Tenko found herself being lifted into the air. Then what? The sickle was taped to the top of the cage?

Apparently so. The God Dog statue kept the blade in place, too. Hmmm. Things don’t look good for Kiyo, then.

Before anyone can accuse Kiyo of anything, Kiyo takes the initiative. In his eyes, Himiko was the one who killed Tenko. The only one who could have. As the one who suggested that the séance be held in the center room…as the one who first lifted the cage, a perfect opportunity to retrieve the weapon and drop it below the floor…Himiko could’ve snuck into Kiyo’s lab and read about the séance beforehand, too! But like the suicide theory, we still lack a motive.

Himiko, say something in your defense.

Himiko is reacting strangely. Very strangely. As if she’s just finding out that she killed Tenko. But if she prepared the crime beforehand, that shouldn’t be the case.

Halfway through the case now! We’ll finish this later.

[theartone]

A Study in Miscommunication - Chapter 16

<<Chapter 1 <Chapter 15

----John's POV----

I didn't get a chance to voice my praise out loud, which was probably for the best. Sherlock had said it was fine at the crime scene but it seemed rather inappropriate, never mind embarrassing. Anderson had decided to speak, "So we can read her emails. So what?"

I had to admit he had a point. But Sherlock would have a good reason for wanting her phone. After all, she wouldn't have left the clue if there was no point to it. Maybe she knew the killer? He was sending her threats or something?

"Anderson don't talk out loud you lower the IQ of the whole street."

That was a pretty good comeback. I wondered if he came up with it on the spot or had been sitting on it. I leaned over Sherlock's shoulder trying not to stare at his long pale neck and focus on the dead woman's information.

"We can do much more than read her emails. It's a smartphone; it's got GPS which means if you lose it you can locate it online. She's leading us directly to the man who killed her."

I realized that I'd been leaning in, getting far too close to Sherlock. I hadn't even realized I was doing it. As I watched the hands spin around the clock on the screen I leaned back a bit.

"Unless he got rid of it." The DI piped in from behind me.

"We know he didn't," I said to let Sherlock focus.

"C'mon, c'mon! Quickly!" Sherlock snarled at the screen as if that would somehow speed it up.

"Sherlock, dear," Mrs Hudson said, slightly out of breath, "this taxi driver-"

"Mrs Hudson, isn't it time for your evening soother?" Sherlock interrupted, ignoring her words.

I took Sherlock's seat and watched the screen while he was talking to the landlady. A map popped up while Sherlock was discussing tactics with Lestrade. I half listened as the two discussed their plans. The map zoomed in, finally stopping at... No, that can't be right. "Sherlock?" He ignored me and I double checked but, "Sherlock?" I tried again.

"Where is it? Quickly, where?" He leaned over my shoulder but I couldn't remove my eyes from the map.

"It's here. In 221 Baker Street."

I looked at the luggage while Sherlock mumbled to himself. He had checked the case thoroughly, hadn't he? Had he asked me to go through it to make sure? Why hadn't I checked it? But, no, that didn't make sense.

"Well, maybe it was in the case when you brought it back and it fell out somewhere."

No, it couldn't have because-

"What? And I didn't notice it? Me?!"

No, the killer called! He had the phone! He had to have it. "Anyway, we texted him and he called back," I said because Sherlock was still stuck and clearly wasn't going to mention that bit. I could tell the police wouldn't believe Sherlock otherwise.

"Guys, we're also looking for a mobile somewhere here. Belongs to the victim." Lestrade said, ignoring me.

Sherlock was quiet, lost in thought.

I couldn't figure it out. The GPS on the thing must be faulty. Those things were off, sometimes by quite a bit, right? I wasn't able to devote my entire focus to it because Sherlock was starting to worry me. He was moving about but not saying anything. I'd never seen him this quiet. His mobile pinged, he read the text and didn't seem surprised.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm... fine."

Well, that wasn't reassuring. "So, how can the phone be here?" I asked. He must have thought of something.

"Donno."

"I'll try it again." Maybe it messed up and somehow found our location instead of the mobile's. I didn't know quite how these things worked and it was the best I could think of.

"Good idea," Sherlock said absently before walking off.

"Hey, where are you going?" I asked. He was acting weird. I didn't want him out of my sight.

"Fresh air. Just popping outside for a moment. Won't be long." He said in that strange monotone.

"You sure you're alright?" I wasn't sure if I should wait here or follow.

"I'm fine!" Sherlock called back with more life in his voice.

That made me feel a bit better so I went back to the computer. Maybe the stress of dealing with all these people about his flat got to him. They were moving about, digging through Sherlock's stuff with more purpose now. I ignored them and rung the pink lady's phone while watching Sherlock though the window. I wanted to make sure he wasn't about to pass out or anything. He hadn't had any dinner.

Donovan was being bitter and I ignored her. There was obviously some history there that I didn't understand.

"I'm calling the phone," I said when Lestrade stared at me. "And it's ringing out." It might be on silent but I didn't think so. It wasn't here.

"Well, if it's ringing it's not here." Lestrade echoed my thoughts.

"I'll try the search again." Sherlock had gone off. Had he figured it out? Oh, God! Was the murderer here? Had he followed us from Northumberland Street? Had Sherlock left in pursuit? The murderer was dangerous. Sherlock had a history of running off when he had a lead.

Idiot!

----Sherlock's POV----

"Isn't the doorbell working?" Mrs Hudson came up, interrupting my thoughts. Scattering them like so many leaves in the wind. The drugs hadn't completely left my system and I was stuck in hell. "Your taxi's here, Sherlock."

"I didn't order a taxi. Go away," I need to think! Of course, she didn't leave. She chatted away with John. Saying inane things. John was being judgemental about my past. Then Hudders did something stupendously stupid. In the middle of a drugs bust, she spoke of her herbal soothers plain as anything. Idiotic woman! I needed to distract everyone from that. "SHUT UP!" I shouted and ranted, saying Anderson was putting me off so no one would remember Mrs Hudson's comment. I didn't really care if Anderson turned his back. Still, no one wanted to be quiet so I could just think in peace!

"What about your taxi?"

"Mrs Hudson!" She needed gone so she... "Oh." Obvious. I should have seen it. I explained how brilliant the woman was. Genius! If I hadn't had the case no one would have figured it out. They were all too slow. "She left the phone in order to lead us to her killer."

"But, how?" Lestrade asked.

Was he serious? "What do you mean how?" It was clear as day! "Rachael!"

Both John and Lestrade were giving me equally vacuous looks.

Maybe they didn't hear me? "Don't you see? Rachael!" I tried again.

No one in the flat understood. Not one. It was so... disappointing. It was a wonder they got anything solved at all. "Look at you lot. You're all so vacant. Is it nice not being me? It must be so relaxing. Rachael is not a name!"

"Then what is it?!" John snapped.

He was the only one with a bit of brains in the whole place. If I gave him a bit more he could figure it out. "John, on the luggage, there's a label, email address."

John read it out to me. I went to the website and typed in the information, explaining as I went. "And all together now the password is?"

Of course, John was the only one to answer. Probably the only one to know the answer too. Idiots, the lot of them. Except John.

"So we can read her emails. So what?" Anderson sneered from the kitchen.

I volleyed the insult I had readied from the suitcase incident, "Anderson, don't talk out loud. You lower the IQ of the whole street," and continued, "We can do much more than read her emails."

John bent over me and I forced myself not to lean into him. I wanted him closer... But now was not the time.

I continued to explain as the search worked. Slow! It was as slow as I'd been! "C'mon, c'mon!" I growled at it. "Quickly!" There was no telling when the battery would run out.

Mrs Hudson stomped up the stairs and went on about the taxi driver. What was the use of her if she couldn't even tell one man to go away?! "Mrs Hudson, isn't it time for your evening soother?" I hissed.

That was a bit not good. But we were so close! "Get vehicles," I ordered Lestrade, "Get a helicopter. We're going to have to move fast. This phone battery won't last forever."

"We'll just have a map reference. Not a murderer." Lestrade mumbled. It was a weak argument and he knew it; that's what they had me for.

"It's a start! Narrows it down from just anyone in London."

"Sherlock?"

"It's the first proper lead that we've had."

"Sherlock?" John called again.

The trace was done! "Where is it? Quickly, where?!" I leaned over to get a look. We were running out of time. If John misremembered- Oh, his neck. It's quite nice. He smells divine! Focus!

"It's here. It's in 221 Baker Street." John couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe it either. "How can it be here? How?"

"Well, maybe it was in the case when you brought it back and it fell out or something." Lestrade guessed.

But that didn't make any sense. "What, and I didn't notice it? Me? I didn't notice-"

"Anyway, we texted him and he called back," John stated the obvious for the yard and I was grateful. John was superb. I had to find a way to keep him.

I looked at the facts. "Who do we trust even if we don't know them?" The cabbie that'd been harassing my landlady's medallion swam in my vision. "Who passes unnoticed wherever they go?" The cases flashed in my mind, I put the missing pieces in place. "Who hunts in the middle of a crowd?" It fit every case. It made the most sense. I checked them off, one by one. I saw the cabbie send a text with a phone in a pink case and my mobile pinged.

A number I didn't have stored, the pink lady's number.

COME WITH ME

in all caps.

He was looming behind Mrs Hudson. I needed to get him away from her. But I couldn't let him go. If I lost him now I might never find him again. Even if his cab was registered to him he'd have plenty of time to kill again before the yard could catch him. I couldn't see his face so I couldn't deduce him. I didn't know the risk.

John said something... "Sherlock, you ok?"

It took a moment for it to register. "Yeah, yeah, fine." I set my responses on auto.

John called after me, his tone registering. He was worried but he couldn't follow! "I'm fine!" I called back. Too dangerous! The man wanted me. He was at the end of his game. John could easily become collateral.

I took my coat from the bannister. The game was on but I didn't feel a rush. I was low. The drugs were nearly gone. John craved danger. But he'd already almost been killed once. I knew how my life ended; I wouldn't make it far past thirty. I was lucky I'd made it this long honestly. I couldn't bear it if I were responsible for John's death. Mrs Hudson, too. I shouldn't have rented from her. She was at risk.

They were good people. They didn't deserve a grisly end.

"Taxi for Sherlock Holmes." The cabbie said before I'd even shut the door. I stayed away from him. It'd be easy for him to drug me with anything if I got close.

"I didn't order a taxi." Time to play the game.

"Doesn't mean you don't need one." The older man replied.

"You're the cabbie. The one who stopped outside Northumberland Street." I remembered. His face, hidden in the shadows. Those glasses, that hat. "It was you, not your passenger." It was brilliant. If he'd come alone I would have seen instantly. But he had a passenger. Genius!

"See? No one ever thinks about the cabbie." He said semi-bitterly. "It's like you're invisible. Just the back of a head." His accent was misleading. I could read so much from him, even partially hidden in shadows as he was. "Proper advantage for a serial killer."

"Is this a confession?" Maybe I should have done this upstairs. Maybe he wasn't interested in playing.

"Oh, yeah." The cabbie said, chipper as ever. "I'll tell you what else. If you call the coppers now I won't run. I'll sit quiet and they can take me down. Promise."

"Why?" If he didn't want to play why drag me out?

"'cuz you're not going to do that."

"Am I not?" Why shouldn't I?

"I didn't kill those four people Mr Holmes. I spoke to them and they killed themselves." He paused but I didn't need the time to register what he was saying. "If you get the coppers now I promise you one thing, I'll never tell you what I said." He strode off toward the driver's side.

"No one else will die though, and I believe they call that a result."

"And you won't ever understand how those people died." Without that there was no way to guarantee a proper conviction even with a confession. It didn't matter, not really. If he went back on the streets I'd have another crack at him. But the next person he picked up could be Mrs Hudson. Or John. That was unacceptable.

"What kind of result do you care about?"

Chapter 17>