#barnabus hale

[dinoburger]

I think I'm ready to call this done, mid-October seemed like a good deadline for a Halloween comic.

Specifically, this one is focused on the 1800's crew, so a brief summary for those unfamiliar:

contents includes alcohol, violence, body horror and death, and some implied child neglect I suppose. Mostly within the bounds of what's typical for TF2... mostly.

I would like to thank everyone who gave me feedback, schnozzbun-art for help editing and Nominel for his astute observations.

I feel it would also be amiss not to mention themannfamily who's writings have been a huge source of inspiration, I don't think I would conceive of Silas the way I do if not for them

so without further ado...

[tf2-pngs]

Why he kinda gender Original on the left | Edited version (shadow and pants) on the right

[aprofessionalwithoutstandards]

Hidden illustration of the original Mann Co. lineup, including Silas Mann, who became the Horseless Headless Horsemann upon his death, on the right, from the first Scream Fortress Update in 2010 (the portion on the left was originally included in the first Halloween update in 2009)

(descriptions in alt text)

[beastinthecave]

Since i am making my tf2 fangame in godot with a lowpoly style i thought it would be funny to draw one of the characters in a cruelty squad inspired piece of concept art featuring barnabus hale as a Mr House like computer man :)

[themannfamily]

The mysterious mann and the analysis of the portrait.

(+ an image of young Gray)

Unknown individual?

Every time it comes to discussing this portrait, people tend not to believe that Gray is depicted on it, but I believe the opposite. Let's start with the period of the appearance of this portrait, which was before the comic book Blood Brothers and any mention of him. The authors introduced a new mode and a new character through a mystery, but before the comic, the appearance of the birth certificate and the will of Zepheniah, their original idea clearly underwent changes. (This also explains the fact that the figure of the mysterious man is definitely higher than Gray.) And yet the information from Zepheniah's will gives us the knowledge that Gray blackmailed his father to get his cache of the australium, which suggests that Gray wrote to him before. This led me to a solution by which we could combine the original idea of the portrait, taking into account the changed circumstances. According to my suggestion, Gray followed his family to America and visited his father before his death, a little after sending him a blackmail letter (which is probably burning in the fireplace at this moment). I believe that it was a fateful meeting for this family, which finally destroyed it.

A few assumptions about his appearance.

His hair (the color of which could have been ironically inherited from his father) was roughly cut by him, but carefully styled for the first meeting with his family in his life. His clothes are a simple dusty suit, definitely too big for his build. Gray's position in society is extremely low, given that we have no information about his guardians. We can assume that since his return to civilization, he has been in the lower circles of Victorian society, in poverty, and worked hard, honestly and not, to feed himself.

Only his mind allowed him to survive years among animals and indifferent people.

Analyzing the portrait.

Gray's strained smile, hiding his anger and disappointment, goes against the general mood of the image.

Zepheniah, absolutely exhausted by the disease, has no strength to resist what is happening. Next to him is his maid Elizabeth, who supports his mood, and his friend Barnabus, either trying to smooth over the situation as always, or not taking it seriously.

We only see the consequences of the quarrel, and no matter what Zepheniah said to drive his son away, he could not get rid of Gray's presence in their last family portrait. For this audacity and for this smile, he was probably torn out of the photo by his father himself.

Redmond and Blutarch, as always oblivious to anyone but each other, are indifferent to the family tragedy. They will not remember their brother in years to come. (This is not surprising, because of their senility, they forgot who he was when he just introduced himself to them.)

On the right, as if separated from everyone else, there is the only grieving family member — Silas, who hardly fully believes in the reality that Gray was abducted by an eagle, but probably did not expect that that his brother was going to strangle his son. Now he sees that the younger one is alive, and despite this, Zepheniah deprived his child of the opportunity to return for years. He is crushed by the truth and the shame that has befallen their family. His condition is not improved by the thought of the approaching death of his younger brother. Upset and shocked, he is detached from what is happening.

Soon after this meeting, Gray will leave the family forever, having never been accepted by her, Zepheniah will die painfully from diseases, and the enmity of Redmond and Blutarch will reach its peak when they start a war that neither Elizabeth nor Barnabus will interrupt, and their descendants will support.

[ao3feed-tf2ships]

♡ O' MY HEART ♡

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/55865347

by bottomcest

Barnabus Hale and the young Classic Heavy spend time together.

Words: 296, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 18 of ♡ TEAM FORTRESS 2 ♡ |

Fandoms: Team Fortress 2

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M, Gen

Characters: Barnabus Hale, Heavy (Team Fortress Classic), Original Team Fortress 2 Character(s)

Relationships: Barnabus Hale/Heavy (Team Fortress Classic), Barnabus Hale & Heavy (Team Fortress Classic)

Additional Tags: One Shot, Age Difference, Teacher-Student Relationship, Grooming, Implied Sexual Content, Groping, Non-Consensual Groping, Title from a Mother Mother Song, chopping wood, Nature, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Sexually Transmitted Diseases, STD, Teenagers, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family Issues, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Sexual Abuse

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/55865347

[jevilowo]

GUYS WHAT THE FUCK

ACCORDING TO THIS, ZEPHENIAH'S WIFE WAS THE DAUGHTER OF "Wm Darling Esq.". SHE'S PROBABLY RELATED TO CHARLES DARLING. LORE.

ALSO!! In the comic where she died, Barnabus Hale was shown to be sad about it. Barnabus, as in grandfather to Saxton, as in WAS MENTORED BY CHARLES. IT'S ALL CONNECTED.

[iswmperson]

Lets be real, Barnabus probably DID boink Bette, i mean, HOW ARE THESE 2 (ignore Zepheniah)

THE SONS OF THIS EBENEZER SCROOGE LOOKING DUDE???

I mean, Gray looks like Zepheniah, sure, but then again, dude's literally got far more advanced tech than Blutarch and Redmond sooo-

you’re all gonna think i’m batshit crazy for this, but bear with me here. this is a page from blood brothers. lady up top is a midwife, to the right we’ve got zepheniah mann (the father of the mann brothers) and the bloke on the left with the mustache is barnabus hale, saxton hale’s grandfather.

the context for this is that bette, zepheniah’s wife, just died during childbirth while delivering the mann triplets.

look at barnabus’ face. that man looks shattered. notice the small and quiet way he says the first name of zepheniah’s wife. look at the way he clutches his chest.

call me crazy, but i think the mann triplets might’ve been the bastard kids of barnabus hale and zepheniah mann’s wife. and none of them knew it except perhaps barnabus.

(which, if you think about it, would technically have made gray mann the rightful heir of mann co, since he’s the closest living descendant from barnabus.)

also, apparently bette was the daughter of “william darling,” which may or may not make her related to charles darling, who is saxton hale’s rival.

[hop-a-lot]

thinking a quite about them

[swamp-gremlin]

Barnabus Hale, Redmond and Blutarch Mann and an unidentified man after a sponsored hunting trip; circa. 1850

[tf2incorrectquotes]

Zepheniah Mann: So, the lesser people-

Barnabus Hale: Lesser people? Fuckin’ lesser people? Who the fuck are lesser people?

[dinoburger]

the protege

[cultofmalcolm]

BY JOVE THAT IS WHAT I MEAN

also I'm shit at explaining things be warned if nothing makes sense

I introduce to you...

Why I think Gray Mann is Barnabus Hale's son

RIGHT, so we start with australium. It's heavily implied that it lies in a person blood stream, from the injector thingy the Mann brothers and the admin use to even the robots that Gray made to "suck the australium right outta their blood streams."

Another thing that I have that backs up the 'It works through simply being in contact with your blood stream is when C!Heavy just shoves it into his OPEN WOUND during his fight with Heavy.

In addition, we know from when Elizabeth was talking to Radigan Conagher that Australium can majorly increase a person's intelligence, as seen with Australians in the 1800s.

Now, imagine Australium is like a blood disease for a moment. This means it can be easily passed on through to your offspring, and since Gray was extremely smart at birth (for a newborn), we can infer that something in there wasn't natural, almost pointing at him having australium (something not natural) in his body at birth.

Ignore that, for now. Now, if we look at Bette Mann. We can't. She has no canon design. However, if we look at how Zephaniah Mann, her husband, and Barnabus Hale, her husband's business partner

As seen in the images above, Zephaniah couldn't give less of a shit about her death. From this, we can infer that their marriage was loveless and even possibly arranged. However, Barnabus is absolutely broken at this news, suggesting that they had something going on on the side, which would line up with Gray having Australium in his body at birth, and being able to talk at birth.

But I hear you asking (probaby), "but Colin, how did Bette have Gray, and Redmond and Blutarch at the same time?!!" It is possible to have two twins from different fathers, and since Redmond and Blutarch are identical, we know that at one point they were the same person.

I really hope this made sense, honestly it doesn't read like it does

Ask if you don't understand anythjng, please

I don't think Gray Mann is related to Zephieniah Mann. I might elaborate.

[samglyph]

Ok final thoughts and theories!

I really liked the murder mystery element, I think it was well done. It’s the classic clue “I’ve brought you all here for a reason” set up and I thought the suspects were laid out in an interesting way since I started off almost certain is was the friar but the revelations about barnabus have led me to change my mind (like Arthur in the scene itself). The introduction of a new colorful cast also helps. I’m hoping that the Frenchman doesn’t immediately die because I really want us to talk to him.

With the information about each of them belonging to a different cult, it does make me wonder what the original Warren worshipped. We might be able to get that information out of yorick, but if not I could see Arthur either claiming horig as his deity (which could help his illness) or potentially the kiy, considering John does have the ability to manifest, which could ‘prove’ Arthur’s allegiance if needed. My instincts are saying everard and his fathers deity is likely to be Azathoth (mention of fathers, far outer reaches, and the fact that the black stone is being kept hidden from kayne, not to mention the slightly antagonistic energy towards the fallen star)

I’m wondering if the witch is either everard’s daughter, another family member, or potentially a romantic entanglement, because there was a brief line where he spoke to her in a sort of gentle, kind way that made me think it wasn’t just a master/servant relationship. I think it would be interesting if she was a daughter, considering that would potentially add a layer of resentment to Arthur and his relationship— where Arthur despised Larson for willlingly sacrificing his daughter, Arthur might both resent everard for having his daughter do “unnatural” things/forcing her to work while also having trouble with the fact that she’s hale and whole, but I might be looking way too closely at one throwaway line and jumping the gun a bit. He could just be chill towards her.

[themannfamily]

bit of a follow-up question, how aware are the rest of the family of Silas/HHH haunting the manor, if they are at all? would they even know HHH's true identity?

Silas is buried in the family cemetery near the Mann Manor, so they probably understand everything, considering that he climbs out of his grave, leaving it empty. Besides, even apart from the fact that they should know what clothes he was buried in, they know that uncle was left without a head.

I believe that with this, everything is the same as when he was still alive. Not everyone is happy with his presence, but everyone knows about him and does not want to do anything about it.

He was never particularly noticed for various reasons, including his own guilt. He did not seek to take the initiative. Silas has always been gloomy and isolated, so it's obvious that it's hard to be around him. He also cannot compete with the authority of Zepheniah or the bright disposition of Barnabus.

Zepheniah preferred Barnabus' company in many ways, and since Redmond and Blutarch consider their father to be exceptionally right in everything, they adopted his views on things. Barnabus might well have seemed like an uncle to them even more than their own.

In addition, I believe that it was their uncle who was one of the important reasons for the boys' confrontation, because it was looking at him that each of them was afraid to take such a position in the family as Silas occupied. (that's hurtful, yes.)

So it turns out that everyone knows about him and just lets him do what he wants. After all, in life as well as after death, he did something for their good. Even if his distraught remains guard the manor and its inhabitants in such a bloody way.

In addition:

I sincerely believe that he distinguishes his relatives even in this state and will not touch them.

When Redmond and Blutarch talk on the phone, Redmond casually complains about Halloween madness and only then they remember about their uncle.

Silas's spirit must have scared the staff, especially Redmond's servants, when he lived on the Mann Manor. When the family manor passes to Gray, he will inherit a new horror of meeting his uncle.

All the brothers also know that the regretful ghost of Zepheniah wanders the Badlands.

Zepheniah is used to Silas not making a sound, so after death, Silas' noisy spirit irritates Zepheniah's spirit.