#arkley

[dubmill]

Arkley, Barnet, London; 25.4.2021

[sepublic]

         Despite my prior clarification that the Queen of Tears is NOT an Escapee… In a way, she kind of is?

         Like the Escapees, she is a prisoner of the Tower of Tears; I included the detail of her being bound to that structure simply because it seemed cool to me, but now I have narrative justifications too. Like the Escapees, she is freed when Wayvren the Fallen destroys the Tower of Tears.

         The Queen of Tears is someone preserved for all eternity because of the Magical Tears… in this case, because she’s made of them. Her spherical, droplet shape mirrors the frozen globes the Escapees are trapped inside; She IS the prison, with nothing really inside as a result. But is a prison also imprisoned by itself?

         She gathered the Escapees to make her child feel happy, understood, and less lonely; And she sees her purpose as essentially doing the same, to alleviate the pain. The Queen of Tears believes she shares a calling with these Escapees, as tools and toys for her child’s benefit. They have a place with each other by her child’s side, and surely will be able to relate to one another over this, find happiness in that role.

         The Queen of Tears is obviously an outlier; She IS a Tear, she is the one who started all of this. She chose it completely, and she was not imprisoned by a Wayvren but herself. But as I’ve suggested before, I might explore the idea of a more conventional Escapee who wasn’t imprisoned by the Wayvrens, but by someone else, and/or the Queen of Tears herself. So that just further blurs the line and distinction between Queen of Tears and Escapee; Like yes there IS an imbalance and disconnect, she is their warden.

         But man. There’s a case to be said that the Queen of Tears is the Proto-Escapee, the original, before the concept was refined. Does she insist on differentiating herself from them, and to what extent? Does she insist on kinship, and believe the Escapees fleeing their assigned task is them denying this; Rather than the Queen of Tears being inadvertently freed, a reiteration of her parallels to THEM, instead?

         Would she see herself above these Escapees, or project a kindred understanding that she needs them to reciprocate, for her child’s sake? In the end, the Queen of Tears would be the only Escapee who actually wants to go back, and is working to ensure all of them return to that status quo, and revoke their status of freedom that made them known as Escapees to begin with. Speaking of, what would those dinguses be called, prior to them escaping?

         Because it’s not like the Queen of Tears would call them Escapees from the beginning, she doesn’t intend for them to escape! Transfer ownership to her child, which COULD be interpreted as ‘escaping’ the Tower of Tears, but not really in her droplet-shaped eyes. Prisoners is too ugly of a word for her, she wants something soothing and palatable for her kid, and everyone else!

         There’s lot of words and terms; She might refer to them as her ‘charge’, people she’s assigned herself over as she has done for her child. The Protected, the Meek, people who need to be preserved and saved. The Salvaged, mayhaps? I’m also partial to the Gifted; To the Wayvrens who don’t know the Queen of Tears’ true purpose, it might seem like a reference to each Escapees’ unique skills, talents, and danger they present to the world. Someone like Midas is ‘gifted’, in the sense that he was a brilliant scholar who became the Golden Man because of this; And his dangerous Gold Touch is a ‘gift’.

         Plus, there’s connections with Arkley’s alumni, who are also a menagerie of freaks and deviants, molded by an older person for a purpose within a tower… I’ve discussed them in a previous post, but there’s a lot to be said about how many alumni are burnt-out gifted kids who’ve suffered from the pressure and expectation to succeed and outdo the others, as can be seen in David Kress especially. People who feel like rejects and failures.

         So then it’s funny to make those parallels with the Escapees and these young adults who are in many ways still stunted kids, and who are being followed by a generation of actual kids; Kids they hate, kids among whom is Lloyd, which the Escapees seek to kill and/or exploit. And these kids escaping Arkley is an inciting incident, just as the Tower of Tears being fled is; The Arkley Gang pursues these children to bring them back, like the Queen of Tears with the Escapees. 

        She does it for her kid; Arkley does it, for many reasons, but part of it may be a twisted paternal sense that he hopes may offset his own empty loneliness and regret. Parallels and foils, one adult expects herself and others to do it all for the kid, the other adult expects all the kids to do it for him. And that goes with the idea that the Escapees are more alike with these kids they target than they care to admit, and that’s part of the senseless tragedy of it all, that they’d target of all people these fellow freaks, instead of recognizing the solidarity to become allies.

         But back to my point; That’s the initial interpretation, the assumption. Each Escapee has been ‘gifted’ with some strange body or power and skills that might’ve led to them becoming like that. But in reality, the Queen of Tears calls them gifted, because they’re the gifts; To be gifted to her child. The presents, the toys for them to wake up to. It’s a double-meaning that the Wayvrens are totally oblivious to.

        She’s a fairly serious person, but… c’mon, the Queen of Tears must’ve been chuckling, patting herself on the back at least a little, when she referred to her prisoners as such in front of the Wayvrens, knowing how they’d interpret it, and thus have nothing to fear of them picking up on that title as a clue to her real intentions. She must’ve felt mighty clever then.

[thegarbagechute]

We're strolling down memory lane and I forgot about the perfect, hilarious shit down along that path ksdjfksdfkjsdf

I made it better.

Again.

[bineshbpt]

Arkley/Barnet

[uhitsmearchive]

[topcat77]

"well situated home", 1991

Howard Arkley

[justmuscle4u]

Marshall Arkley 🇬🇧

[thunderstruck9]

Howard Arkley (Australian, 1951-1999), Sampler: Formal, 1998. Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 120 cm.

[dubmill]

Barnet Gate, London; 17.12.2023

[zushwood]

[sepublic]

💚

This time I'm picking Tamara; She's pansexual and open to romance. I guess she's a cis woman, but it's also possible that she's fully transitioned, because magic and potions make that sort of thing possible in the GEverse. And as horrible as the Arkley Gang is, I just like the idea that Arakchos and Draik WOULD help a student transition; Arkley has gone out of his way to provide stuff like holiday celebrations for his students, so this hardly seems a stretch by comparison.

[atlantes96]

Marshall Arkley - 15.1.25

✅ 530

🏳️‍🌈CLICK 👇👇👇

[dubmill]

Moat Mount Open Space, Barnet, London; 28.10.2023

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Joan McCarter at Daily Kos:

The Senate Judiciary Committee has given the right-wing benefactors of Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito plenty of opportunity to tell their side of the story when it comes to the lavish gifts and trips the backers have supplied. But those wealthy benefactors—Leonard Leo, Harlan Crow, and Robin Arkley II—have refused to cooperate. So they’re getting subpoenaed. Sens. Dick Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sheldon Whitehouse, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, announced their intent to subpoena the three Monday, writing, “Due to Crow, Leo, and Arkley’s intransigence, the Committee is now forced to seek compulsory process to obtain the information they hold.” The vote will be held as soon as Nov. 9, the leaders told The Washington Post.

Durbin told Politico he believes that Judiciary Committee subpoenas could reveal more information about the connections between these Republican megadonors and the conservative justices. “I’m sorry to say, I think there's a lot more there,” he said. His isn’t the only committee delving into the finances and ethics of the justices. The Senate Finance Committee has an ongoing investigation into the largesse Thomas has received from multiple donors—or “friends,” as they insist on calling themselves. Durbin is confident he will have the votes of all of the Democrats on the panel to approve the subpoenas now that newly appointed California Sen. Laphonza Butler is on the panel. The long illness and death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein meant that the committee was in a stalemate with Republicans for much of this year. Democrats have the majority again, and they plan to use it.

Leonard Leo, Harlan Crow, and Robin Arkley II will finally be subpoenaed to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).

[sepublic]

            I want to discuss Kress, and specifically why the Arkley Gang cast her out. As I’ve established, it’s because Arkley saw the type of magic she was getting into as too threatening even for him, or more specifically, it had too much potential to be turned against Arkley.

         Right now, I’m trying to decide on the nature of this magic; What exactly was Kress dabbling in? I’ve considered that maybe she had a particular innate talent for Chimera Casting, having the potential to create entire armies of chimeras at her beck and call. But the thing about Chimera Casters is that their creations are loyal to them, and them only; They can order a chimera to prioritize someone else, but nothing’s stopping them from changing their mind, either.

         To Kress, there were only benefits to indulging in this potential of hers; The idea that she could turn her army against the Arkley Gang was unimaginable, she didn’t even bother to consider it. But to Arkley, the idea of one of his ‘children’ being such a load-bearing element for an entire aspect of his organization, and one that had all of the control for whom he could only depend upon the loyalty of, did not sit right with him. He didn’t like relinquishing that much control, and reasoned that any benefits of having an army of chimeras would be immediately offset the moment Kress realized she could turn against him.

         At least with Three-Bladed Sam and her Terror Triads, they were still their own independent people who could think for themselves and be reasoned with; Theoretically, Sam could order her troops to turn on Arkley, but Arkley could always appeal to the Terror Triads’ greed to have them maintain loyalty to him. But the chimeras were bound to their creator and wouldn’t entertain treachery, nor would they hesitate to uproot their entire system on the whims of someone who wasn’t even at the absolute top.

         This might be why the Arkley Gang discouraged Kress, who either felt betrayed and THEN attempted open defiance and was exiled, and/or was directly betrayed ahead of time by the Arkley Gang. I’m still figuring this out, but by the present day, Kress is working with Trexdis to gather materials for all manner of chimeras, gradually amassing an army, one beast at a time, and storing them somewhere. Chimeras are still very mortal, so Kress insists on saving them only for the big push against Arkley, and not against other threats like the Escapees, or even her fellow alumni; This is for balancing purposes.

         That’s one consideration… But I’ve also had another in mind;

         Remember what I suggested earlier about Nick Dragomir Kajumon just being Ottish Ven, after he lost his memories and was indoctrinated by the Arkley Gang? Arkley would have big reason to fear Ottish Ven, having heard the legends of this charismatic conqueror, maybe even having been alive during his big heyday. He’s a powerful force on a leash, but one that could easily turn against and rival him if it got back its memories…

         So maybe what Kress was doing, unwittingly, threatened to restore those memories. I’m workshopping different abilities/powers for Kress, and I’m currently partial to the idea of sound-based magic… There’s not too much of a correlation with memories and sound, so maybe I’d still have to change/add to Kress’ arsenal, or maybe it was a new field she explored. If that were the case, she’d probably continue exploring that field out of spite when she was betrayed, though…

         Regardless, Kress isn’t a Chimera Caster in this version of events; She doesn’t have the potential to create an entire army loyal only to her. It’s just that her type of magic could allow her to, by accident, undo whatever’s keeping Nick’s memories from returning to him, if it were some sort of mental block, something like that. And THAT’s what scares Arkley… And it’s what also breaks Kress when she finds out.

         Because in this scenario, she doesn’t know what she did wrong; All she knows is that this type of magic was considered a particular threat by Arkley, for some reason, and she didn’t know why. But she’d dive into it regardless to figure it out… For years, Kress nurtured herself on the reassurance that she really was something special and dangerous; That even if she felt stung about the betrayal, at least it affirmed for her just how much she could stand on her own, that she could do her own thing, and really was THAT good. She became Valedictorian for a reason, right?

         There’d be the belief in her capability, to uproot the Arkley Gang; And that’s what would keep her going, help Kress believe she could take on this massive goliath (maybe I should keep Kress male just to retain the name David for symbolism…), because the goliath itself seemed to think so, and was certain enough about that to betray! So to find out the truth…

         In the end, Kress herself wasn’t actually a threat; It was all just someone else. It wasn’t about what Kress was capable of, it was about what her fellow alumnus could do. And that could just add to Kress and Nick’s dynamic, Kress feeling like Nick is an idiot who has wasted his potential, being lowkey jealous… And then finding out that Nick is the sole reason for Kress being taken so seriously, for being cast out by Arkley, unloved. It turns out most of Kress’ coping confidence relies on Nick, so can you imagine how she’d feel? She's nothing without him, and now that Kress has fulfilled her purpose, she’s just nothing, period.

         I can envision it; The big twist that Nick is Ottish Ven, coupled with the big reveal of why Kress was feared. And it wasn’t actually about Kress, and someone, probably Draik or Metallicus, rubs that in her face when the truth is revealed; It was never about you. We never feared you specifically. All you can do is knock down a tiny domino that pushes forward the actual monster, Ottish Ven, and that’s all you’re good for, setting someone else up. And that someone is a person who can't even make full use of his potential, unlike you, at least until now...

         That would break Kress, and I might rub salt in the wound by having Nick’s memories return not even from her, but from some other method, making her feel truly useless. I can imagine Draik or Metallicus feeling particularly cruel, and rubbing it in her face by musing; Well, we only feared you because of your capacity to restore Ottish Ven. But now that that’s already done, you’re no longer the danger we thought you were… So why not come back to us? We’ll welcome you! We have no more reason to be afraid of you, not that it was ever you who mattered, really.

         I just feel like it’d really mess up Kress, even more than she already is, and tie into another character’s arc. It’d be thematically tragic. It’d play into Kress’ whole inferiority complex and struggling relationship with strength, feeling the need to prove a point to someone, to play by their game and its rules. Wondering if there’s anything else to her besides revenge, if she can have that other thing AND revenge, or if they’re mutually exclusive. How does Kress pick herself back up after this revelation, how does her feelings and potential resentment towards Nick, amplified, play into the chaos of Ottish Ven’s return? Does she help, does she just want him dead, what happens?

         So as you can imagine, I’m caught between these two takes, and for all I know I may even come up with a third in the future. Alas, I consider these options mutually exclusive; The whole point of Kress being the one to unlock Nick’s memories is that it’s a tragic realization that shatters her self-perception even further. But if she has an entire army of chimeras cooking somewhere, then that defeats the point. I’ll probably have Nick be Ottish Ven either way, for the sake of HIS storyline… But that raises the question of how Kress will factor into it, and whether it’s the one good thing she’s apparently good for, or not.

         Because I’ll be honest, I REALLY want to explore the fun of a character who can make all manner of horrible fusions from organic life, and have them be based in a ‘normal’ world in order to contrast with the setting. Maybe I should hand this role over to the Horned Demon, who is Tamericus’ master and an alchemist anyhow; That might make more sense. And then I figure out some connection between Kress’ sound magic and Nick getting back his memories.

[dubmill]

Shenley, Herts; 31.7.2022