#brutally tortured by your father and your friend's ex-teammate

[nickireadstfc]

The King’s Men, Chapter 13 – WHAT THE FUCK, Pt. 2

In which Neil’s father happens.

Sounds good? Who are we kidding. It’s time for Nicki to read The King’s Men.

So.

We finally made it here after all, huh?

Glad you’ve come around to watch the show, friends. Gather round, sit down with a blanket and a book to clutch, and get ready for literal hell.

Our boy has been running from this for two and a half books, and now he’s finally – unfortunately – made it. Neil has stopped running, has stopped hiding, has shed his lies and his disguises and even his name, and has overall wished his life goodbye.

Except, well.

We, of course, have not.

Let’s go.

             Lola had lined the back of his hand with crosshatches and burned angry circles into his knuckles. Another burn mark stained the tender flesh between his thumb and index finger. The burns were starting to ooze, but dried blood smothered most of the mess.

Holy shit.

My non-native English speaking ass had to look up what crosshatch is, and yeah, Lola essentially cut Neil’s (Nathaniel’s?) hand up into a nice argyle pattern.

What the fuck. #deathoutforlolamalcolm

(Thank you to permanentchaos for this gem of a hashtag.)

             He was in the cellar, which meant they’d come in through the garage. An underground tunnel led from one to the other, installed for the sole purpose of moving the occasional body.

Natch.

Fucking natch that this man would have a BODY MOVING TUNNEL.

The Extra™ runs in the family, apparently.  

             Nathaniel and his mother had escaped through it nine years ago. It was only fitting that he was returned home the same way.

Okay, nice. That’s some good ass poetic symmetry right there folks.

I’m in a state of anxiety and dread right now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate some sweet sweet writing.

             Nathaniel brandished his hands at [Lola]. “These are going to get infected if I don’t clean them soon.”

             “I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.”

             “You’re not me,” Nathaniel said, and got to his feet.

Glad to see that Nathaniel is as much of a sassy shit as Neil was.

I’m not kidding, this had been an actual concern of mine.

However, my tiny flicker of enjoyment of this scene is quickly dissolved as things developed and they had to develop – we meet The Man™.

Mr Chop Chop himself, Nathan Wesninski, has entered the room, accompanied by his bodyguard Arnold Schwarzenegger, Evil Edition.

Oh boy.

             “On your feet,” Nathan said. (…) “You know better than to sit in my presence.”

             Nathaniel told himself to stay put, but he was already getting up.

Heck nope.

Just this bit right here already tells us so much about this character and the power dominance in his relationship to Nathaniel, and those are legit his first few lines.

Nathaniel has been so conditioned to follow his father’s orders that he literally can’t not do it. Jesus fuck.

Bless you (but also curse you), Nora, for always introducing characters so spot on.

             “My son,” Nathan said. “My greatest disappointment in life. Where is my second greatest?”

             “Mom is dead,” Nathaniel said.

Holy sHIT.

“My second greatest”, can Nora STOP WRITING SUCH GOOD VILLIANS.

This is a+ wording right there.

I am very, very quickly eating my words about my appreciation of Nathan’s character as he shares some of his, well, fantasies. And not the sexy kind.

(Although I would have a similarly repulsed reaction to hearing Nathan Wesninski’s sexual fantasies, thank you very much.)

             “I’m indecisive. I might skin you alive. I might take you apart one inch at a time and cauterize the wounds. I think no matter what I choose we are going to start by slicing the tendons in your legs.”

Any other time, I would have called him out for being ~Dramatic~, but after what Lola did to Nathaniel in the car and how much she was not overstating her cruelty, I’m kinda fucking terrified.

And mind you, Lola is supposed to be the watered down version of Mr Chop Chop.

Where do I sign up for an exit program right the fuck now.

             “Fuck you,” Nathaniel spat at him, voice sharp with horror.

Glad to see Nathaniel keeping up the Brand™ even in this time of stress.

And by glad I mean absolutely peeing myself in fear.

             Metal flashed a scarce inch from [Nathaniel’s] face as Nathan took a swing with the axe.

And with that, Nathaniel’s father, his gang, his cleaver and his axe set to doing good on their word.

All of this is of course very reminiscent of Neil’s scar-inducing trip to Evermore in The Raven King, except in TRK most of the torture done to him was off-screen, whereas here it is very fucking not so.

I am attributing it solely to my dad exposing me to violent action movies at a young age that I did not get sick reading this.

This is an 18+ book, folks. And in all seriousness, I feel like there should have been a warning about that somewhere.

I am sparing y’all the descriptions of the following pages because you’ve already been through it once already, but.

Please know that this is the most explicitly violent, brutal and terrifying shit that has gone down in this entire series so far (and also, I hope, ever.)

             “We’ll slit your ankles, then your knees,” Nathan told Nathaniel. “And if you try to crawl away I will take your arms from you too.”

Literally HOW IS THIS MAN REAL.

(He’s not. He’s fictional. I know that. Shut up.)

HOW DOES SOMEONE DO SHIT LIKE THIS. HOW DOES SOMEONE DO SHIT LIKE THIS TO THEIR OWN SON.

I’m quitting. I am the fuck OUT.

Nice knowing y’all, but I am deleting this account, see y’all nev–

             “Lola,” Nathan said, but he didn’t get to finish.

             The cellar door opened from the outside, and a swarm of strangers came in shooting.

Wait, what.

Oh SHIT.

STUART’S HERE, the badass distant uncle has come to save the day.

Does this feel a little ex machina? Yes.

Do I care? Absolutely the fuck not, because now my boy Nathaniel gets to live another day with both of his legs intact.

             Nathan was kneeling in the middle of the room with four guns aimed at his head. He started to get to his feet, but someone knocked him back down with the butt of a rifle.

Now that’s what I like to see, folks.

Hit that fucker.

             “How dare you,” Nathan said savagely. “You defy Moriyama by coming here and killing my men. You are a dead man walking. You don’t have the power to–“

             Stuart didn’t let him finish. Nathan’s body jerked as two bullets punched holes into his chest.

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL QUALITY CONTENT.

HECK YEAAAHHHHHHH.

When his father is killed, though, Nathaniel has an interesting experience:

             That wrenching feeling in his chest wasn’t grief, but a need so fierce Nathaniel thought it would kill him. (…) He couldn’t breathe, much less explain the terrifying exhilaration.

Sounds to me like he’s experiencing Wanting To Have Killed Daddy Himself, but I could be wrong?

Could also be relief, if you consider that Nathaniel legit spent over half of his life running from that guy.

I am mildly confused here as to whether this is what Nora means or if we’re not supposed to understand this feeling either and it’ll be revealed/explained later.

If anyone has anything (spoiler-free) to offer on this, hit me up.

Moving on – Stuart Ex Machina gets Nathaniel out of the house and hands him right over to the FBI, which is at least better than the Torture Cellar of Hell.

             “My name is Nathaniel Wesninski,” he said, “and my father is dead.”

HECK YEAH.

Tattoo this sentence on my forehead, please and thank you.

We’ve been waiting for this for TWO AND A HALF BOOKS, I lowkey can’t believe we’re finally here.

This new development is also pretty okay by Nathaniel (and me), seeing as it’ll finally provide him with some good good medical attention.

Oh, and also opportunities to be a sassy shit.

             “Are you going to be a problem for us?”

             Nathaniel struggled to look up and focus on the man’s face. “I’ve been a problem for nineteen years. I’m too tired to be one tonight.”

I love this boy, whether Neil or Nathaniel or whoever.

Said boy then – understandably – passes the fuck out, and wakes again in a place where I wished he would have been approximately fifty times those past two and a half books:

A goddamn hospital, getting himself goddamn patched up.

Oh, also the feds are here.

Oh, also he’s kind of under arrest.

What can you do.

             “We’ve got a string of offenses we could charge you with, starting with the fake IDs in your wallet and escalating to your mother’s current whereabouts. Just let us know if we’ve got to play hardball.”

             Nathaniel made a rude noise. “You couldn’t at least use an Exy idiom?”

I am CACKLING.

This absolute NERD.

„Yes officer, you have me arrested, but gosh fuckin darnit honor the might Exy, will you.”

Nathaniel, despite what he said to them last night, continues being A Problem for the FBI, answering only the minimum of questions and then turning to repeating pretty much one phrase, despite what the feds try to bribe/threaten him with:

             “I want to see my teammates.”

Fucking iconic.

Oh yeah, also said teammates have been brought in for questioning and now know everything about Nathaniel’s dirty gritty backstory. Oops.

I doubt they will care, but apparently the FBI does not share my opinion.

             “You’re wrong,” Nathaniel said. “They can’t leave without Andrew, and Andrew won’t go anywhere until he talks to me.”

             “You don’t know that.”

             “Yes, I do.”

HECK YES HE DOES.

Andrew will absolutely rip him a new one for hiding all this shit from him, but I’ll be damned if he won’t activate heaven and earth to see his boyfriend.

             “You can take me to him, or you can let me rot silently in a cell somewhere. Those are your only options.”

Heck YES.

God, those two. <3

The FBI are not as hyped about Andreil as I am, sadly, and the next day they take him away into custody without letting him see anyone.

A blasted shame.

             Nathaniel couldn’t sleep, but at least he could daydream his father’s death over and over again. That was almost enough to make him smile, and eventually it thawed the chill from his veins.

And in a way, that is strangely comforting.

I’ll see y’all next week.

If you like what I do here and you want to help me through the heartbreak of this chapter, why not buy me a coffee? Every lil bit helps, getting me through uni and all that jazz. Thanks so much!

#tfc #the foxhole court #aftg #all for the game #andreil #tkm #the king's men #nora sakavic #nicki reads tfc #I'M BACK Y'ALL #regular updates again from next week on #thx for bearing with me #please come cry in my inbox if you have feelings bc bish me too

[conversationaltreestump]

Women have to suffer to be heroes, apparently...

Ya know something that’s been kinda bugging me lately? The ‘accidental hero’ origin story, and how it seems to be an exclusively male trope. Let me explain:

While it’s quite a common trope for a male super-powered characters to get said powers by random chance or some kind of accident, when it’s a woman, their origin is more often linked to a traumatic event.

(I’m going to start this off with a disclaimer that I do genuinely enjoy most of the media I’m going to be using as examples, it’s just this trope that I find frustrating)

Every hero starts off somewhere, (x) and one of the most common origins is the ‘lucky accident’. Our hero is in a certain place at a certain time, and a lab accident or radioactive animal grants them powers and transforms them into a hero. The problem for me is, when it is a male character, that ‘lucky accident’ is the beginning and end of his origin story. He got bit by the spider, blasted with radiation, got his powers, and that’s it, all done and dusted. When it’s a female character however, there is more often a crueler aspect to the way they get their powers. They more often become super-powered individuals because of what someone has done _to _them, or the accident that gives them their powers is often more violent, invasive or emotionally disturbing than it would be were it happening to a male character.

Let’s start by looking at the Avengers. (I’ll be focusing on the MCU, since I know more about that then the comics). In the male dominated team; Thor has powers just by birth; the non-powered members Iron Man, Hawkeye and Falcon earn their place on the team with unique skill sets; Captain America volunteers to get his powers through an experiment, and Vision is basically created by happy accident. Hulk is the only man on the team whose origin would have been traumatic. Compare that to the two women on the team- Black Widow undergoes brutal training at the Red Room, and Scarlet Witch is imprisoned and experimented on. The women have origin stories significantly more traumatic than those of their male teammates.

Other characters in the MCU also have more pleasant origins than these two women: Ant-Man's cheery origin story is a combination of the ‘magical accessory’ and a helpful scientist; Peter Parker becomes Spiderman through the ‘lucky accident’ spiderbite; Doctor Strange gets trained in sorcery and succeeds primarily due to his own hard work.

While there are some exceptions, for the most part the men have an easier time of it than the women when it comes to their superhero origins.

Moving from superheroes to the supernatural, let’s examine the show Teen Wolf:

The lead character, Scott McCall, receives the werewolf bite when he’s out in the woods alone. While he struggled initially with his new powers, it was pretty much a classic case of wrong place, wrong time. And the character Liam Dunbar who debuts in the 4th season is another case of getting the Bite just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’d argue his situation was less difficult than Scott’s, as he received far more emotional support after becoming a werewolf, but nonetheless, it is the same ‘lucky accident’ trope for both of them. Other male characters on the show such as Isaac Lahey, Jackson Whittemore and Theo Raeken all become supernatural creatures by their own choice. Now let’s take a look at the supernatural women of the show. Starting with the werecoyote Malia Tate, who prior to her debut on the show suffers great personal loss and lives in solitude due to a lack of control over her powers. Additionally, an inital recurring aspect of her character was a lack of understanding of societal norms, which was often used to patronise her. Another leading lady on the show, Lydia Martin, only discovers her banshee powers after being repeatedly attacked and used by the show’s villains. The season 2 character Erica Reyes becomes a werewolf by her own choice(to my knowledge she is the only female character who got to choose to become a supernatural creaure) but she is also far more sexualised than the other men in her werewolf pack: Derek convinces her to receive the Bite partly by indicating romantic interest in her, and later encourages her to use her body and sexuality as a weapon; he does not behave this way with the boys he gives the Bite to. In season 5, the characters Hayden Romero and Tracy Stewart are turned into Chimeras via scientific experimentation without their knowledge. _Teen Wolf _can’t seem to have the supernatural women discover their powers without making them suffer every step of the way.

Maia Roberts, from the TV show _Shadowhunters, _is turned into a werewolf against her will by an abusive ex. This example is not as bad as some of the women from other franchises, as several of the men on the show become Downworlders through unpleasant circumstances: Simon Lewis is kidnapped and turned into a vampire(by a vampire who manipulated him after drinking his blood and injecting him with venom) and Luke Garroway becomes a werewolf after being betrayed by a former friend. So while Maia certainly does not have a happy backstory, there is less of an imbalance between the suffering of the male and female characters.

Animated shows aren’t immune to this either. In TMNT(the 2012 version) an overwhelming majority of the mutant characters are men, and most (although not all) become mutated just by random chance. By contrast, the only two mutant women(that’s right, _only two _female mutants in the entire goddamn show) become mutated under far crueler circumstances. Karai is mutated into a serpent as a ploy by her adoptive father, and Alopex becomes a fox mutant after being tortured/experimented on by aliens. The female lead April, has to be kidnapped and experimented on before she discovers her alien-psychic powers. The new Netlix _Voltron _series manages to avoid the ‘women must suffer’ trend, with paladin Pidge getting her hero status along with the rest of the team, and while she does have the sub-plot/additional motivation of her missing family, other characters having equally unhappy backstories.

And finally, I’d like to draw your attention to Joss Whedon’s upcoming _Batgirl. _It has become increasingly common knowledge that Whedon is actually The Worst, but take a look at this article: http://www.empireonline.com/people/joss-whedon/joss-whedon-talks-batgirl/

I’d like to draw your attention to the line: **...how a young woman could get hardcore enough to need to put on the cowl. Like, what's her damage?

**

He literally can’t seem to comprehend a superheroine origin that isn’t somehow rooted in a violent or otherwise traumatic circumstance. That a women somehow _needs _to suffer in order to rise up and be a hero. It’s worth pointing out that Batgirl’s comic book origin is that she intervenes in a kidnapping whilst wearing a batman costume for a party, and gets such a kick out of it that she decides to become a vigilante. So Joss Whedon has taken a female character who actually has a great example of a cheerful ‘pure will’/ ‘lucky accident’ origin, and now wants to actively give her a more brutal beginning.

Fun fact writers! Women do not need ‘damage’ to get ‘hardcore enough’ to be heroes. Getting superpowers from a radioactive spider will be equally entertaining whether it happens to a girl or a boy. A teenage girl can be walking in the woods and get bitten by a werewolf, you don’t need to have her be coerced or experimented on. Stop thinking that the ‘accidental hero’ can’t be a girl. Lose the double standard between the origin stories you give to men and women.

Tl;dr, stop thinking women have to suffer in order to deserve the same superpowers as men.

#accidental hero trope #origin stories #ugh #this got long #no worries if you didn't read it #i might add more examples as i think of them #this is just something that's been bugging me lately #especially teen wolf #and it's not really something i've seen discussed at length before #so