♱ plotted starter for @niieve ( arisu )
one moment she was walking down a busy street, the other she found herself in a catastrophic scenery. either way, what a bliss. this alternative universe or whatever it truly was, brought the worst in wednesday. to place an anti-hero in a dystopic firmament of what the world used to be like, that’s madness. but oh, she enjoyed madness. her visa was about to expire, having less than twenty four hours to complete a game before dissipating into thin air, as if she hadn’t existed, her persona just a figment in others’ imagination. it isn’t that she didn’t enjoy playing the games – the rush of sentiments that swarmed over her petite frame as she ran from shooters or manipulated the enemy, it almost felt like home. whatever good deed brought her to the borderlands, she’s glad for it. being so close to death, hearing it whisper in her ear that her time’s almost up, that was the nudge she needed, to not forget her roots. SHE’S AN ADDAMS.
she enters the building signaling a game of diamonds. that’s her speciality, wits and instinct hadn’t failed on her just yet. wednesday survived thus far, hasn’t she? a look around, inspecting the other participants. for a brief moment, she almost felt sorry for them, for their demisal that is. the only prop for this game was something she has seen before, a collar that closes and if one’s unlucky to lose, they’re quite literally doomed to lose their head. wednesday puts it around her neck and it clicks. no turning back now. chin lifts up to the surrounding speakers from which a voice begins narrating the rules.
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED. THE GAME WILL NOW COMMENCE. GAME, KEMPS. DIFFICULTY, QUEEN OF DIAMONDS. RULES. EACH PLAYER HAS A SYMBOL MATCHING WITH ANOTHER PLAYER’S COLLAR. THEY FORM A TEAM. ALL CONTESTANTS HAVE TWO MINUTES TO FIND THEIR PARTNER AND CHOOSE A WAY TO SECRETLY COMMUNICATE DURING THE GAME. CLEAR CONDITION, BE THE LAST TEAM WINNING BY SIGNALING YOUR PARTNER YOU HAVE FOUR MATCHING CARDS IN YOUR HAND. THE PARTNER SIGNALED MUST ENNOUNCE 'KEMPS' FOR THE GAME TO FINISH. GAME STARTS NOW.
wednesday takes a step back and looks around. some participants were agitated. she approached a woman and simply told her the correct symbol displayed on her collar. not waiting to hear the other respond, she turns around, approaching a man. he looked familiar. “spades.” she utters, lingering a tad longer than she wanted.
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So, in Busman’s Homeymoon, Lord Peter buys Harriet Vane a mink cloak worth 950 pounds (according to the Dowager Duchess’ journal entry), but he buys Tallboys for “only” 650 pounds.
Even bearing in mind that real estate really did used to be cheaper, do you understand how that is possible? Or how to find out more about relative purchasing power? I used an online calculator website which gave me some figures, but it still seems insane that one could buy an entire Elizabethan farmhouse for 2/3 the price of a garment! Very curious to learn from others who understand this better than I do.
Ah, I see my esteemed colleague @oldshrewsburyian has also had some interesting thoughts on this, so I'll link that here as well before I begin.
So, it's a legitmate question, and there's no catch-all simple answer (in the gotcha sense of 'why didn't i know that bit of cultural Truth'), but there are mitigating factors that take it from a ridiculous price comparison, to merely outlandish. Even taking into account that the coat is quoted in guineas, not pounds, and that PW says the bank valued Talboys at £800 via a mortgage (the paid price was a discount, for paying in cash quickly, which is Plot Relevant), it gets us to roughly the same place, value-wise. Or shall we say PRICE-wise, rather than value, as I'll get into below. There's several factors at play here - they mainly relate to class, and spending power:
-The house is Not That Great, in terms of the kind of property that PW would usually be buying. I mean it is still a large-ish house, big enough to have 2 adults and small children in, but it's not what would be on his radar normally. The only reason they know about it, it that it's near a place where HARRIET grew up as a child. It's not getting any high marks in particular Beauty, Convenience, or Quality - the main reason HV's drawn to it is sentiment, rather than anything else. They both know that they will have to significantly add to it, and alter it, in order for it to be a comfortable home. That would usually be out-of-budget for someone in Harriet's position, who would expect to buy something that meets her needs 'as-is'. Most people looking at buying that house would be Harriets not Peters, so it might be a tough sell.
-The house has no power, and limited plumbing: There's dark references to DRAINS by the dowager duchess, it's entirely possible that this house has no modern plumbing at all - they make the comparison that the huge palace the Wimseys grew up in wasn't plumbed until recently, but then again they do have about 800 servants, whereas Talboys is just a regular house: they will have Bunter alone (at first), with an assist from Mrs Ruddle. There's mention of "a cistern" with some basic valves, but the scullery is mentioned as having a copper, from which hot water is "scooped into a large bath-can" - a copper being, simply, a large metal basin over a fire, in effect. No running hot water, maybe no flushable loos - it's a factor. They also talk specifially about having to electrify Talboys themselves - it's candles and lamps until then. It's fancy camping. By the mid-1930s, a lot of middle-class buyers would expect a little more convenience in both water and wiring, unless they had significant support staff, which Talboys would not be expected to house.
-There's probably no farm! It's a farm house - not a wider land purchase. People like PW's brother the Duke are wealthy primarily because they own land, not because of the big palace they have (which eats money, rather than generates it). The land is what gives them spending power, because other people are paying them rent to live on it, farm on it, or both. PW's own personal 'younger sibling' wealth is also mentioned somewhere to be primarily in real estate (assumed to be in London) - sad to say: he's a landlord, and that's why he's rich. Talboys, on the other hand, as a purchase, would not, in almost any way, be expected to generate revenue through either farming, agriculture, or charging rent. Until they invent house flipping in 80 years, or until the motorway goes through in 40 years, there's not much expectation that Talboys would increase all that much in value.
-Lastly, there's a massive disparity in what The Market Will Bear when we compare a basic residence vs a luxury item (like a mink coat) in the mid-1930s. This is not particular to that time, though. Like any first-year economics student will tell you, the price of something is not it's intrinsic value, it's what someone is WILLING to pay for it. If someone is willing to pay such a price, that's the price it will be. So, we're not comapring Objects, we're comparing Buyers: the the main purchasers of a slightly run-down farmhouse located nowhere special are Harriets, and main purchasers of mink coats are Peters. Talboys is priced for Harriets. The mink coat is priced for Peters.
Compare for example, a contemporary parallel: the Hermes Birkin bag. It's a leather handbag with a starting retail price of about USD 11,400. Just for the bag. Then, you have fancier versions of the fancy bag, eg wikipedia tells me one version sold at auction for USD 380,000 in Hong Kong in 2017. Now, the Harriets of today are not buying a Hermes Birkin handbag, but they are probably trying to buy slightly run-down houses outside urban centers for (one hopes) slightly less than 380k. The Wimseys of the worlds are clearly buying Birkin bags. In that way, it's actually pretty easy to get to a place where Person A might buy a single luxury item for X pounds, and Person B might buy a whole residence for X pounds, and neither feel like they'd done something insane. The key here is in a Wimsey/Vane marriage, they run up against this concept immediately, and repeatedly.
There's a good reason the first epistolary section of the novel is almost entirely taken up with money chat - the ring, the purchase of shirts from Burlington Arcade, the marriage settlement, the gift from the bride to the groom, the mink coat, the bitchy exchange between Helen and Harriet about HV being allowed "six free copies of her book" to distribute. These people come from 2 fundamentally different experiences of the world. They might have gotten engaged using the word 'Magistra', specifically to emphasise their fundamental equality (in the context of learning and the mind, to begin with), but it can't be denied: there's gaps that need to be bridged. They both know parts of their married life will be spent in attempting to do that, hopefully to their mutual satisfaction. Mention of a mink coat for 950 guineas is a nice, neat shorthand for illustrating what's still at play between them here.
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thinking about just how likely it is that Batman was the only person Harley told about having suicidal thoughts whilst in Arkham in Detective Comics #831
"I was seriously considering hanging sheets from the light in my cell and doing the maximum checkout when I heard this voice..."
Detective Comics #831
and how he knew when she strapped that bomb to herself in Batman (2016) #100 that he had to go after her because she was going let herself die in an attempt to end Joker's rampage for good but that she refused to physically do it because he didn't want to her Kill him and he told her that so she's found a middle ground
"We don't need to end it this way. He needs to be locked back up."
that she'd rather die than keep living with his presence in the world haunting her, haunting Them.
That if he did choose Joker, she wasn't going to disarm the bomb herself.
"Honey. You're talking to the wrong girl if you think he's not dangerous locked up in Arkham. It's like I said. That's not good enough for me. Not anymore."
the way he yells for her as she leaves.
"You're only going to get to one of us in time, Bats. Who's it going to be?"
"Harley!"
the way the two men stare at each other in the way they have so many times before, in those moments when Joker stayed or prioritized their fight over her. the way he knew Joker loved the thrill of it all and thought it was funny, thought there was No way Batman would leave him and that this game had to end as according to the rules. And that Batman would do so, he would follow the rules and save him. The way he immediately assumed Batman would choose him, choose his life and choose to stay and disarm the bomb.
And how Batman didn't do that. How Batman walked away from him, leaving him to die or escape or whatever, because He was choosing Harley and her safety and prioritizing her life over him.
The way he stared him in the eyes before choosing the woman Joker had always left to die over him. The way that it was always Him, it was never a question if he would choose Batman over her, but when faced with that type of scenario, Joker is the one that gets left behind to die.
The way she literally woke up in the hospital instead of them having a scene just outside after he removed it. because she didn't intend to live in one of the two options. the way the bomb probably did go off to some capacity because you don't just end up in the hospital knocked out for a week.
Him saying that he's glad she's okay, after everything they've been through, this war and Everything else. and the way he didn't brush off her concern
"I'm glad you're okay."
"Are you?"
"I had to bury my father again today. I did it with my family."
i just, i can't,,,,, i cant
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Hello, same anon from yesterday. I respect your opinion, but Jojo has released before a post that shows Warriors having attraction for a female, and as it does not specify whether that attraction is sexual or romantic.
Now I think you misunderstand what a headcanon is. You see the definition I have found is that a Headcanon is a term used by fans of various media of entertainment, such as TV shows, movies, and books, to refer to their personal beliefs about a story they love. It is an unverified, unique interpretation of canon that supplements the official story. Not something you just make up about the character despite canon. As you can see its an interpretation of canon. (You can try searching this up) Now I could care less if you headcanoned the link from HW because I have yet to play the game and do not know if he shows any attraction.
However as the artist and writer of her own AU, Jojo has clearly shown her character of Warriors finds females attractive (Like I said, romantically or sexually is unknown) And I feel to just ignore canon and make your own assumption on a character would be more of a Au of the AU. And since you tagged it as Lu Warriors who is shown as straight, and not as HW Link. My question was merely asking what action or behavior of Warriors led you to headcanon that he is Ace as I have yet to see any behavior showing just that. Anyways my question was just completely wondering why you headcanon a shown straight charecter as Ace and why you feel it so.
No hate at all towards you at all, I respect your opinions, and was just curious. I love all your art and I think your style is super cute!
wdym anon? wars literally said he's ace in the comic????
see it's right there
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