#pbec felix

[explorers-central]

Hey everybody I know it's been a bit, forgive me!!!

Lately I've been thinking about the internalized sexism in The Polar Bear Explorers' Club, specifically in Stella. So here's an absolute ramble for all 8 of u:

I mean, obviously Stella thinks women can be explorers, but she doesn't fail to make fun of and absolutely hate on her Aunt, Agatha, who would apparently represent the norm for women at the time. She resents her, in fact, for not being a total hippie like Felix is. But Felix has freedom as a man that Agatha doesn't!! Stuff like Stella pointing out her nostril hair (everyone has nostril hair???) and how she dresses just feels so odd. It's like she's saying "you're not even doing gender roles right".

Stella's written as an odd-girl-out and it can make her a little unlikeable at times. The "not like the other girls" approach to her character makes it so almost every other woman in the book is belittled or negatively portrayed.

The least feminine woman in the series would probably be Scarlett, and she's quite literally the antagonist. Cadi I would say is a close second, and while she is liked by Stella it's because she's cool and still girly, to an extent. I can't even really recall other women in the story, because they're all so bleh. The decrepit old witch? Evil for like half the series, then a plot device, then written out. What I'm trying to get at here is that Stella has no meaningful female connections, not really. She doesn't identify with them, or the image of women at the time. Still, she wants to be pretty.

Listen, I'm all for the "WOMEN CAN KICK ASS IN DRESSES!!!" thing, and I appreciate that Stella does wear trousers and stuff on the expedition. But the level of pretty sparkly unicorn dress seems like a last ditch effort to say STELLA STILL LIKES GIRLY THINGS! SHE LIKES WOMEN!

I think we have to blame Felix for Stella's mindset here, a little! I love Felix, you love Felix. But he's a rich, white, man (I know he's gay but like woowww a privileged gay man who's written to be loved the challenges the representation!) that despite his best efforts to project his borderline toxic positivity onto Stella, he still let his distaste for his sister seep into Stella.

Obviously, women in this society are basically raised to hate on each other, and themselves. It's not all Felix's fault, and he's doing pretty well considering.

I think Stella could've done with having some sort of female role models, there can't have only been her, Cadi and Scarlett defying the norm out there. I also think Felix should've made more of an effort to expose her to stuff like that. He is very "women can't be explorers" until he's like "let me use my man money power to let you be an explorer" instead of actually like... Helping to change things himself, he basically puts all the pressure on his 12 year old daughter with no experience exploring or representing women as a group at all into the position of being "the first woman to be an explorer". It just feels like bad parenting, to me.

Anyway, Stella ur my queen 🫶

[nyenylon]

GET IT STELLA GET IT USE THOSE BOYS FOR WHAT THEY GOOD FOR

God this fandom has one great trailblazer

[explorers-central]

When Felix mentioned Oscar at the end of PBEC 2 (OWM) little me CLUNG to that so now I've made up the tragic homosexual lore!!

(They meet two times, a couple years apart.)

Summarized-ish version of their first period of time spent together under the cut. Please forgive my poor writing, it's been a while and I've had this cooped up inside my head for months.

Oscar was lodged in Coldgate while his boat got repaired, they had hit an iceberg passing through, trying to export valuables under the Royal name.

Felix, being around 16 at the time, was interested in these foreigners. He was always interested in places, and where people came from. Especially when they looked so cool.

Over a few weeks, Felix befriended Oscar. They got into all sorts of mischief together. Oscar had even got a tour of the nearby prestigious Explorers' Club that Felix was a member of. That's when he really got a grasp of how wealthy Felix must be.

Oscar decided to stay in Coldgate a while. He let his crew go on, getting a job as a footman at the Explorers' Club.

During this time, however, he had been instructed by his crew to scout out the club for valuables. They weren't really innocent voyagers, of course, but bandits.

Oscar really was fond of Felix, his affection for him only growing as he worked in Coldgate. In the Club, they secretly chatted away in corners. They stole tobacco from the older explorers, and flicked through ridiculously exaggerated Flag Reports.

Part of Oscar wished he could stay forever. Then finally, the day came where his boat docked once again.

He met up with his crew and discussed the layout of the club with them, knowing every inch of the grounds at this point. That night, after everyone had left, or, were dozing away in one of the ancient libraries on the grounds, he would disarm the alarm system for the trophy room. Then, he would open the gates for his comrades.

Even as he said it, he felt his heart sink. As if he were merely eavesdropping on the very same scheme. How could he do this now? Yet, he continued on as planned.

He had depressurized the cases in the trophy room, something he was taught to do to be able to clean the cases without the alarm sounding. Finally, he approached the trophy room.

This scheme he had worked on for over a year was here, it was happening. Yet, there was a ball of reason clawing at his heart, telling him to stay at the Club, to stay with Felix.

In the doorframe of the darkened trophy room the sconce in the corridor behind him, cas a long and flickering shadow at his feet. It's form wavered almost as much as his will. He stared wearily at his dark reflection when he saw another head pop into the box.

Oscar spun around, met with Felix, stood in a wide stance. He had an unreadable expression on his face. Which was uncomfortable, Felix was always very raw.

There was a very long moment of silent internal struggle, somehow prolonged by the dancing shadows made by the dim flame. Then, Felix began to ask questions that Oscar couldn't answer. The answers he did manage to growl came out in threatening shouts, which he surprised himself with.

All he could really think about was getting as far away from Felix as possible. To keep him safe, and to keep that shame buried deep inside of him. Maybe if he had chosen correctly, he could've become an explorer like Felix. No, though, he was a bandit.

Oscar suddenly turned from the argument he had been having with Felix and smashed the first case he could see with his bare fists. Inside, there were a pair of seemingly ordinary dog tags. Although, when Oscar picked them up, he found they were frosted over, cold in the way it sticks to your skin and seems to take too long to thaw. Except, it didn't thaw.

He could give no more consideration to this, however, as he found himself shoved against the broken case. Glass cut his skin, but the throbbing of the cold object in his hand overtook any pain he might have felt. Without hesitation, he spun around, ramming his fist directly into Felix's face with the momentum.

He hadn't meant it, he really didn't want to hurt Felix. But even he found that hard to believe as he watched Felix's head hit against the doorframe with a heartbreaking thud.

Oscar paused for a moment, kneeling down to Felix with frantic, quiet apologies. When Felix looked up to him his face was half red, blood splattered on the lower part of his face, his nose clearly badly broken. His eyes weren't exactly angry or sad. They were just hurt. Hurt and disappointed. His mouth hung slightly open, breathing used to control his emotions, as his nose was rendered useless.

Oscar wanted to believe Felix would have attacked him if his crew hadn't caught up to them, but he knew he would've preferred to talk. The men asked what had taken Oscar so long, saying they had simply used brute force to get into the club.

Then, they noticed Felix and asked what they should do about him. Now Felix looked angry. For the first time, maybe in his life, Oscar thought. He was wrong of course, but how could he know that? They had only known each other a year.

He tried to help Felix up and lead him to a corner, where he would be kept out of the way. Instead, Felix batted him away with a grunt, pulling himself up using the trophy case nearby. He glared at the men, then at Oscar.

Oscar looked back, trying hard to not look soft in front of his crew, but also to silently beg Felix not to try to fight anymore. He knew he'd probably be killed should he.

Seemingly, he got the message, because the next thing he did was... Leave. He just turned, walked past the crew, and around the corner. It was quiet, so quiet. Even his footsteps had been muted by the carpet of the corridor.

Before Oscar even knew what was happening them, the men were ransacking the trophy room and the libraries a few rooms over.

He didn't take part. He traced Felix's footsteps, all the way to the entrance to the club. Felix was nowhere to be seen, just a memory, or a hope, or something of the sort. It was a funny thing, falling in love with a rich boy when you were a bandit. It was bound to end poorly, he reasoned. Yet he still plopped himself down on the moonlit snow, tracing a finger through the fresh pile. For once in his life, Oscar didn't feel like he was allowed any self pity.

That night, he got back on the boat with his crew and left. He laughed and joked with his old friends, but the dog tags that now hung around his neck cooled his skin, almost to the point of pain. He knew the tags hung there, clacking together, Felix's father's name engraved into them. One curse taken by another in the poor boy's life.

Oscar didn't sleep well that night, or for many more. He never took the tags off, and over time they began to leave red burn marks on his neck. He didn't think about Felix, he chose to replace that pain with this one.

[nyenylon]

This is when Joss and Felix first met, in my head. At daycare, collecting Stella and Beanie respectively.

Felix was NOT used to being a dad in the first place. At ALL. Joss taught him half of what he knows, considering she's a little older.

Bonus Ethan and Julian doodle:

[explorers-central]

What's worse is that the other three go to school together! (I hc Shay moves to Stella and Beanie's school after PBEC 3 because he got expelled from his old school for fighting, and Felix offered his family help with moving and sorting a new place for them to stay, where they could keep wolves more peacefully.)

Sir David Houdini's School for Magically Talented Young Men

The worst place on earth for the boyloser magicianfailure