#This one is bleak

[mariana-oconnor]

The Greek Interpreter pt 3

Back to Mr Melas and his mysterious plaster-faced man.

...as he opened the door of our room he gave a start of surprise. Looking over his shoulder, I was equally astonished. His brother Mycroft was sitting smoking in the arm-chair.

Given the fact that it seems as though earth's orbit through space is more erratic than Mycroft's schedule, and easier to divert, this is quite astonishing. Also... didn't they literally just leave him? The man must have moved like the wind.

"Here it is," said he, "written with a J pen on royal cream paper by a middle-aged man with a weak constitution. 'Sir,' he says, 'in answer to your advertisement of to-day's date, I beg to inform you that I know the young lady in question very well. If you should care to call upon me I could give you some particulars as to her painful history. She is living at present at The Myrtles, Beckenham. Yours faithfully, J. Davenport.'"

Is she really living there at present? Mr Davenport? Is she? are you sure she isn't living somewhere else right now?

Also, lol at Mycroft being sure to put in the type of pen and the fact that the writer is middle-aged and has a weak constitution.

It was almost dark before we found ourselves in Pall Mall, at the rooms of Mr Melas. A gentleman had just called for him, and he was gone.

What? The man who was told he would be in grave danger if he told anyone, and then you broadcast the fact he had told people in all the daily papers is missing? I'm sure this is absolutely fine and in no way at all worrying. Definitely not connected to the fact that you broadcast the fact that he had told people the villain's secret in the newspaper.

Mr Melas is totally fine.

"He wasn't a tall, handsome, dark young man?" "Oh, nor, sir. He was a little gentleman, with glasses, thin in the face, but very pleasant in his ways, for he was laughing al the time that he was talking."

Well shucks. Who could have foreseen this? No way to have stopped it. Absolutely unpredictable circumstances here. No one to blame. No one at all. It was impossible to foresee this turn of events.

"He is a man of no physical courage, as they are well aware from their experience the other night. This villain was able to terrorise him the instant that he got into his presence. No doubt they want his professional services, but, having used him, they may be inclined to punish him for what they will regard as his treachery."

Excuse me? 'no physical courage', wtf is that supposed to mean? How is courage physical, for one, and secondly, did we listen to the same story? Where he managed to get information from the prisoner without alerting the bad guys even though he was scared. Then afterwards, rather than staying quiet for his own safety he brought the tale to the attention of people he thought could help? Wtf do you consider courage, Holmes? And then he just went about his day, knowing his life had been threatened? no physical courage?

Gonna have to respectfully disagree on this point.

Also 'they may be inclined to punish him for [...] his treachery'? You think?

So weird that no one seems to have seen this coming. Like, my dudes, you took an ad out in the paper. In the era when everyone (except Holmes) reads the paper. What did you think was going to happen?

On reaching Scotland Yard, however, it was more than an hour before we could get Inspector Gregson and comply with the legal formalities which would enable us to enter the house.

'We can't go in without a search warrant' is an age old complaint, it seems. I love that this is in here.

"You may have observed the same wheel-tracks going the other way. But the outward-bound ones were very much deeper--so much so that we can say for a certainty that there was a very considerable weight on the carriage." "You get a trifle beyond me there," said the inspector, shrugging his shoulder.

Little sad for Gregson that this is 'beyond' him. This is one of the clearest and simplest pieces of evidence we've seen Holmes provide.

"It is a mercy that you are on the side of the force, and not against it, Mr Holmes," remarked the inspector, as he noted the clever way in which my friend had forced back the catch. "Well, I think that under the circumstances we may enter without an invitation."

Yes. Because you got that search warrant... that you mentioned before. Not by name, exactly. But you got legal right to enter the property. So... you can enter the property? Unless you still needed an invitation even with that, but if you had an invitation wouldn't you already have right to enter? Or maybe they were legally only supposed to enter while someone was present.

He dashed up, the inspector and I at his heels, while his brother Mycroft followed as quickly as his great bulk would permit.

Did Watson mention that Mycroft is fat? I'm not sure he did.

Peering in, we could see that the only light in the room came from a dull blue flame which flickered from a small brass tripod in the centre. It threw a livid, unnatural circle upon the floor, while in the shadows beyond we saw the vague loom of two figures which crouched against the wall. From the open door there reeked a horrible poisonous exhalation which set us gasping and coughing.

Well this is horrifying. Slowly gassing people to death. These guys are really horrible. Such a terrible way to kill someone. Are they trying to make it seem like an accident?

"Where is a candle? I doubt if we could strike a match in that atmosphere. Hold the light at the door and we shall get them out, Mycroft, now!"

Because an open flame is... better than a match? I do not understand this logic.

The other, who was secured in a similar fashion, was a tall man in the last stage of emaciation, with several strips of sticking-plaster arranged in a grotesque pattern over his face. He had ceased to moan as we laid him down, and a glance showed me that for him at least our aid had come too late. Mr Melas, however, still lived, and in less than an hour, with the aid of ammonia and brandy I had the satisfaction of seeing him open his eyes, and of knowing that my hand had drawn him back from that dark valley in which all paths meet.

RIP Paul. They really fucked you over with that newspaper ad, didn't they? Your full name just out there in the world, being suspicious. Or maybe you outlived your usefulness to them.

Glad Mr Melas is okay, and it's nice to see Watson using his expertise to save the day a little bit. Even if the circumstances are pretty awful. This story is pretty dark, especially compared to the blue carbuncle goose chase (even with its brief commentary on the prison system) and the yellow face was pretty optimistic, even if I feel like everyone needed a lot of therapy. Here we have a man imprisoned, tortured and then gassed to death. And another almost suffering the same fate.

Watson's poetic turn of phrase softens it a little, but also makes it a bit more melacholy. Bleak, I think is the word I would use for this one.

His visitor, on entering his rooms, had drawn a life-preserver from his sleeve, and had so impressed him with the fear of instant and inevitable death that he had kidnapped him for the second time. Indeed, it was almost mesmeric, the effect which this giggling ruffian had produced upon the unfortunate linguist, for he could not speak of him save with trembling hands and a blanched cheek.

I am informed that a life-preserver is a type of bludgeon. And this little giggling man sounds utterly terrifying. I would absolutely do whatever he said if he threatened to bludgeon me to death. Watson seems surprised that Mr Melas is suffering from trauma. I get that Watson's a little... unhinged? regarding life or death situations, but between this and the lacking physical courage comment from before. Rude. Guy almost dies multiple times and it's definitely partially their fault for not trying to protect him. And they're busy judging him for going along with it.

And now we get a bit of an exposition dump.

...the unfortunate young lady came of a wealthy Grecian family, and that she had been on a visit to some friends in England. While there she had met a young man named Harold Latimer, who had acquired an ascendancy over her and had eventually persuaded her to fly with him. Her friends, shocked at the event, had contented themselves with informing her brother at Athens, and had then washed their hands of the matter.

A+ friends she has there. Wow.

'Acquired an ascendancy over her' is such a poetic turn of phrase for 'manipulated and controlled her'. This whole story is tragic and horrible. And so dark.

The brother, on his arrival in England, had imprudently placed himself in the power of Latimer and of his associate, whose name was Wilson Kemp—that through his ignorance of the language he was helpless in their hands, had kept him a prisoner, and had endeavoured by cruelty and starvation to make him sign away his own and his sister's property.

Seriously, this is horrible. Oh look, these people have no support system and no way to communicate, let's take advantage of them and torture them and no one will care. If it wasn't for Mr Melas, no one would even have thought to look.

...the plaster over the face had been for the purpose of making recognition difficult in case she should ever catch a glimpse of him. Her feminine perception, however, had instantly seen through the disguise when, on the occasion of the interpreter's visit, she had seen him for the first time.

'Her feminine perception'... i.e. the disguise was terrible and she actually knew what her brother looked like. Feminine perception. Maybe I should argue that in the next D&D session 'my character's female so I should get advantage on perception checks, Sherlock Holmes says so.' Lolol. This is made more amusing to me by the fact that I am both female and well-regarded as being one of the least observant people most of my friends and family know. My mother makes a game of it sometimes 'can you tell what's different in this room?'

No. The answer is always no.

Months afterwards a curious newspaper cutting reached us from Buda-Pesth. It told how two Englishmen who had been travelling with a woman had met with a tragic end. They had each been stabbed, it seems, and the Hungarian police were of opinion that they had quarrelled and had inflicted mortal injuries upon each other. Holmes, however, is, I fancy, of a different way of thinking, and holds to this day that, if one could find the Grecian girl, one might learn how the wrongs of herself and her brother came to be avenged.

Fuck yeah, Sophy. Stab them. I hope they knew it was you as they died. There is at least a little satisfaction in that. There's a whole story in those last few sentences which would be an epic revenge tale.

I had genuinely forgotten how many of these stories end with things happening off screen without Holmes or Watson being involved. This is another case where the villains get their justice meted out extra-legally, but this time it at least seems to have been a result of their actions rather than divine intervention. The point of the stories is clearly the method not the resolution.

It's... not satisfying. And like I mentioned before, it's a really dark tale. I didn't not remember it ending so horrifically. Also Sophy's friends are all terrible and should be ashamed of themselves.

I watched Magpie Murders on the BBC this week and the whole thing revolves around the fact that the last chapter of a whodunnit is missing. They say multiple times that it's the most important part of the book, and I don't necessarily disagree, but its strange to see in these stories, which were not the first mystery stories but early in the genre's evolution where the emphasis lies. Whodunnit is important, but the comeuppance clearly isn't. And even the who isn't as important as how Holmes gets there.

The slight mentions of mesmerism are interesting, and could totally be rolled into my 'Holmes but supernatural' alternate universe, where Kemp is accomplished at mind-control. That would make it even darker, if anything though.

This whole thing is just a tragedy from start to end.

Copper Beeches next - and I've read that one many times. Copper Beeches and the Solitary Cyclist used to be my favourites as a kid. I'll be interested to see how much I remember. Also, it'll be interesting to see what current!me makes of past!me's taste.

[uncanny-tranny]

I guess what gets me about fatphobia is seeing someone literally recovering from addiction and gaining weight being framed as a bad thing because a substance use problem that is eating you from the inside out is preferable so long as you are twenty pounds lighter.

It has never been about people's health.

[dapper-lil-arts]

Forgotten Friendship is the best piece of MLP media no substitutes. It's a gift that keeps on giving

[tired-all-the-time22]

Ghost King Phantom's secret twin brother WHO?!?!?😱😱😱

[mohntilyet]

illario as the grandchild that is most like caterina is something i'm loving to chew on. the grandson that took her lessons to heart the most. kill anyone who sees your face and knows your name, "we are not revolutionaries", the first out of the two to prioritise the contract. power at any cost, and the only one to lean into the unnecessary abuse that their grandmother told them was tradition. why is anyone surprised he allied with the venatori? and then there's illario's considerable skill in infiltration and manipulating any mark, he has always had the charisma that lucanis lacked. illario isn't attached, he has/can/will use someone and immediately drop them; "that does free me from promises i don't intend to keep". he can lie about how much he cares so well that he fools a magister into believing he loves her. he kills zara without hesitation to cover his own tracks, meanwhile lucanis blindly promises a young girl in the middle of a siege that he will help her find her father. even the lessons about family stick with him, and in this entire messy power struggle, he never actually orders anyone to directly kill caterina or lucanis, not until he's backed into a corner.

and even after all that. despite even lucanis believing illario should be first talon, lucanis is still the better killer. illario is not strong enough to be the brutal assassin caterina needs him to be. so when lucanis seems to fill the role his mother left, grief and love for her dead heir apparent remains, and any of the other qualities caterina needs in her next talon doesn't matter. whatever his mother was, lucanis has to be. what illario does doesn't matter, because he will always be second best to caterina's memory of her favored daughter.

[badninken]

King of Spider Miles

I was going for 'postcard that the Donquixote Family very generously sends to potential business partners in the shitty little town they chose to reside in, so the people will know what their ruler / local mafia boss pirate looks like'

Nah but, I fell for a fictional town that gets almost no screen time at all. I just love that Doflamingo picked a literal garbage dump as his base of operations, sticking his Family into this fortress-looking waste processing plant, allegedly taking in like 100 hopeful but ultimately useless kids as mobster pirate apprentices and then losing all of them because his weirdo brother beat them and threw them in the trash until they ran off crying. What an era.

The landscape of scrap heaps, smoke stacks, industrial brick buildings and the name all speak to my imagination. It's like, Machinarium and Peaky Blinders meets Law's Little Nightmares-esque experience of being a tiny kid in a big hat amongst HUGE monster men. Just very into the Spider Miles vibes and the potential of that place aesthetically.

I also want to know if Doflamingo could use the constant chimney smoke and smog to create sky paths. Just create spiderwebs in the sky all over town and take a little walk.

[catcrumb]

tomatocat got some good deals at the antique mall, listened to some horror/scifi literature, and walked off into the sunset...

[pharawee]

"You want to be a hero, huh?"

—JACK & JOKER: U Steal My Heart ♠ 09.09.2024

[straight-to-the-pain]

I’ve been thinking about how often we see stories about people getting out of an awful situation and being surrounded with support and care and getting to move on and recover.

But what if they don’t. They’ve spent god knows how long in their own personal hell, captivity, torture, isolation. For what felt like an eternity, they held onto the idea of finally being freed, rescued, released. And one day it just happens. Political pressure, a hostage exchange, a rescue. Whatever happens, one day they’re just free.

But they come home and everything’s different. They never had a huge network to begin with, and now the people who still care just don’t know how to deal with them and their trauma. It’s all too much. They’re not the person they used to be, the person their friends used to love.

Sure, they’ve been given medical treatment for their obvious wounds but the doctors just don’t seem to understand them when they say that there’s a pain that never quite goes away. They’ve had the mandatory counselling, but the therapist’s empty platitudes made them feel all the more disconnected from their reality.

For so long, they waited for this. But now it feels like their past is an impossible weight on their chest, never letting them move forward. People tell them that they have their future ahead of them, but they can’t help but wonder if they should have just died there.

[mollysunder]

Vi and AU!Silco both sort of ended up in the same place. Their both with a partner that assaulted them (Silco's situation escalated into attempted murder), abandoned them, and then gave them a non-apology for what happened. And now Vi has a drinking problem no one talks about and Silco came to community function (which his kids were participating in) already drinking from his flask, and then he took a flute of even more liquor. They're so depressing in a parent-child duo making the same mistakes unbeknownst to both because they live in different timelines way.

[32bitterra]

November 10th happy (non-canon) birthday, Clem

[a2zillustration]

We lived.

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[n1ghteeea]

Hello RGB fandom how are y’all 👋

[defiledtomb]

WE'RE GONNA BE OKAY!!!!

[adh-d2]

"Clone Force 99 died with Tech"

Oh god, he's thought that the whole time, hasn't he? It's the reason he's convinced he's irredeemable. Because the worst happened while they were trying to rescue him from his choices and there's nothing he can do to make it unhappen. The glass can't be unshattered. His brother is still dead.

[20001541]

I like to think that pre canon both AFO and Izuku visited the same online forums where people came together to discuss quirks and often debated with each other about pro hero quirks lol. Their first conversation ever was arguing over aspects of All Mights quirk because AFO said something insulting about him.

Izuku finds AFO abrasive, but creates some of the most fascinating analysis he's ever read that he wonders if AFO is some kind of quirk counselor or doctor who specializes in studying quirks in real life.

AFO finds it refreshing to see someone share the same enthusiasm about quirks like he does and enjoys reading and challenging Izuku's own theories at times.

I wouldn't call it friendship.... but more like two people finding common ground in sharing a hobby that almost no one else cares for.