#i'm so done asdfghjklç

[cookie-de-baunilha]

My BOTB rereading actually got me curious about the John/Percy interactions in Bees, so I searched for Percy's name in the e-book and read their scenes.

First of all, I second everything @britishguyslover and @andrasta14 said in this post.

What a waste of potential.

Secondly, I'll read the whole book at some point, but after reading these (very few, might I add) scenes I have some considerations (and questions too, if anyone would be so kind as to answer them):

Their scenes were really weird

Don’t know if I feel like this because I haven’t read the whole book and I might be missing important details. So please, correct me if I’m wrong, but apart from the boat scenes, the rest felt like it went nowhere…?

In the first one, Percy says he is about to betray France. Asks John for a favor to help him with that.

I have to say it makes 0 sense for Percy to do this at this point, since he knows John is pissed at him. Why would Percy think John would help him?

But pushing that aside, nothing comes out of it. We never get to hear what exact favor Percy was hoping to get from John because John doesn’t even want to talk to him.

In their second scene, Percy asks for help so that he can talk to Fergus again. He blackmails John out of nowhere??? Again, it makes no sense for him to do this. Wasn’t he trying to turn his coat? Why would he piss off John even more? Also, what was he hoping to get from it exactly? How does Fergus fit into this mess? Is Richardson behind this? We don’t know because John leaves before the conversation goes somewhere.

And again, it leads to nothing apparently. Or does it? I haven’t read the whole book but Percy’s name doesn’t appear that much and I couldn’t find other scenes with him using the search tool.

Percy's nom de guerre

This is me being picky af, but back in Echo, John remembered the name Beauchamp from his years in the English Black Chamber. He knew Beauchamp was a spy from the French Black Chamber. So I was under the impression "Beauchamp" was the name Percy used in his official spy errands — which doesn't make sense, honestly. But in Bees Percy brings up John's alias (Buttercup... cute lol) and we find out Percy's was Monsieur Citròn. Which makes a lot more sense but... how did John know Beauchamp was a French spy then?

Because you see, Percy found out Buttercup was John after 6 months. But John seemed surprised to know Percy was Monsieur Citròn. And yet, he knew the name Beauchamp. So he never made the connection between those two? Tsk tsk John, you weren't doing your best job. Point still stands tho: how did he know Beauchamp was a spy? "One of the most active members" of the French spy network. Was Percy running his errands with both names? Using your real (married) name doesn't seem smart.

Honestly, it felt kinda off to be presented with this information at this point in the story. Shouldn't it have been brought up in their very first conversation back in Echo? 1) John could've not recognized the name Beauchamp; 2) then, Percy could've called him Buttercup and John would've realized Percy was Monsieur Citròn.

It was also a weird scene because John seemed more surprised at the fact that Percy was a French spy who already knew John had been his opposite… but hadn’t John deduced this already in Echo when he remembered the name Beauchamp?

I swear to God this woman forgets the things she writes.

Why the fuck did Richardson even allow Percy ashore?

It doesn't make any sense to me. He had Percy's written confession, but he still needed him for a personal testimony, I suppose? Why would he risk that? Because Percy could've just run away at any time. "Oh but Richardson knew he wouldn't leave John" then he must have known that Percy cared for/loved John enough to also pose a threat to his plan, since he could've found a way to contact William at any point. In fact, that's exactly what he did before dying. So congratulations, Richardson, you are really dumb.

I mean, did Richardson (like John) also underestimate Percy's courage and thought he wouldn’t go after William? Still not very convincing to me. Because if he considered him to be that much of a coward, he would also consider the possibility of Percy escaping.

And he would have good reason to do that. After all, with that written confession, couldn’t Percy be accused of sodomy too?

Percy's death scene was horrifying and weird and i’m very confused

Amaranthus knew the brandy was poisoned? I didn’t read the whole book so this poisoned brandy stuff is confusing to me. It wasn’t clear to me if the bottle on the floor was the same brandy Amaranthus was offering Percy moments before. Because when William tried to grab it she said “not that one”, so she knew (or thought) that was the poisoned one. Was that the same brandy she gave Percy then? lol

Buuut

Diana did imply that this brandy wasn’t actually the poisoned brandy in a post in the litforum… so how was Percy poisoned? It must have been before he got to John’s house, since it’s stated several times during his conversation with William that Percy did not look well.

I also read the scene with Percy, Fergus and Roger… The lawyer was Richardson?

This Fergus-Beauchamp plot is getting ridiculous atp. How many scenes like this didn’t we have already? Percy goes after John, Claire, Fergus, whatever, tells them Fergus is St. Germain’s child and nothing comes out of it. It’s like a dog running round in circles. For God’s sake, it’s been 3 books with this nonsense. One or two scenes like that would do, why have so many if the plot doesn’t go anywhere?

I’m mad