babydraco

This heat is ridiculous.

There's only three chapters left in my fic, but the one I'm on now is really complicated. Just trying to figure out how to put new spins on unavoidable "Stations of the Canon" moments. I'll definitely do a second series made up of short fics of scenes that should have been in this main story but aren't. Like the development of Silas and Dianna's relationship, Dianna's relationship with Michael, maybe Jaqui's attempt at marrying Kurt Ghent, how Jaqui and Abigail learn to get along, definitely a stand alone Jaqui/Josephine fic... This is not The Newbie's Guide to Kings, I don't have to retell every second of the entire thirteen episodes but it's possible that following the fic at all requires knowing that plot?

I should have done more with the conflict between Rose and Jaqui. Queen Rose, on the show, basically had Katrina (Jack's first fiancee) die in a “car accident” because she couldn't handle the thought of being supplanted by a younger queen. She makes sure that Lucinda, Jack's second choice, won't even think about making a power grab. She's much harsher with Michelle than with Jack, throwing her to the media wolves to protect Jack's reputation. And in Queens, the struggle between queen and princess should be explosive, so maybe look for more of that.

Someone on Tumblr is roleplaying Fem!Bucky and they've been using Nina Dobrev as their PB. I think I'd briefly considered her for Jaqui and then discarded that because I thought she was too tall or too tan or something but you know what? I'm gonna go with it. Because they have about twenty pages of pictures of her looking sooo Jaqui. And I said I didn't want someone who looked frail like Allison Miller.

Considered Natalie Dormer. Because there's something a little Anne Boleynish about Jaqui's situation. This person who could've ruled the world if she hadn't been reduced to her ability to have children or not, and got imprisoned for the "treason" of her sexuality and failure to give the king an heir. And there's a desperation, because her entire life is depending on this. So there's that. Plus, she's a little shorter.


(Nina Dobrev)
http://bourbonandbullets.tumblr.com/tagged/%5B-I-see-those-cigarettes-Nina-put-those-down-%5D
http://bourbonandbullets.tumblr.com/post/50525025011/elena-gilbert-jogging-3x06-3x10-3x16
http://bourbonandbullets.tumblr.com/search/fem!bucky
http://bourbonandbullets.tumblr.com/tagged/%5B-You-are-ever-so-beautiful.-%5D
http://bourbonandbullets.tumblr.com/post/47601474366
http://bourbonandbullets.tumblr.com/post/46850305242
http://bourbonandbullets.tumblr.com/post/46756991285/itsbedlambaby-nina-dobrev-photoshoot-by-jake
http://bourbonandbullets.tumblr.com/post/46619725777/ive-spent-so-much-time-running-and-lying-just-to
http://bourbonandbullets.tumblr.com/post/47378899682
http://bourbonandbullets.tumblr.com/post/51419675539

Dianna is officially going to be Tracy Spiridakos

TJ versus Jack

This gifset makes an interesting point TJ is Joseph, not Jack.

Makes perfect sense.



Meanwhile, it's so cold I'm having trouble typing, which is why I'll leave it at that. It's May. Some people say it snowed last night.

Oh New England....

Jack Benjamin gets sent to war, held hostage, and has to be rescued by his best friend again. ( I know this isn't meant terribly literally, it's more of a reference to the fact that they're played by the same actor).

Steve and Bucky (and we're talking mostly about the 2011 movie here) certainly have a David and Jonathan vibe. But more in the traditional Bible sense, not as much the "Kings" version. Bucky starts out as Steve's protector, the confident, successful one. Steve has the heart of a warrior but no one wants him on the battlefield. And then when Steve eclipses him via Deus ex Machina, and becomes a potent national rallying symbol in war time, Bucky, just like Jonathan, graciously deals with it like a grownup and accepts his supporting role because he loves him that much. As anyone who has seen Kings knows, this is not how Jack Benjamin reacted to David being praised as the hero while he was given a desk job and told the hostage situation was his own fault. He's not at all proud of David for turning out to be just as awesome on the outside as he always knew David was inside.

( He didn't...actually know David before David rescued him )


I'd like to mention that that hot fic I linked to earlier, it's gone. This makes me sad and disappointed and a little freaked out. Why is it gone? What happened?

So, I don't think I'm the only one whose mind almost goes to a dirty place in the "kiss the ground I walk on" scene. If Kings had lasted more than one season and into the Tumblr era, there'd be a Confessions blog and that would undoubtedly be a popular Confession.

But I think Silas/Jack dub con is a little gross. I'm over parent/child (and I say that as probably one of the only people to ever write a threesome involving Saul and Jonathan, but they're all about the third person in that and never really touch each other).

Look, I don't have to justify where I draw the line or why I used to not draw that line in other fandoms but now draw it everywhere.

So I'd read it but with someone else sitting in that chair.

David? No, I don't think he'd do that, not even at his most corrupt but if they were alone and it was part of a semi consensual game of some sort, where David's like, "you're mine now, sorry but that's just the way the world's gonna work now since I'm king and you're not" and Jack's like "This upsets me but I also sort of dig it because I was into you long before you were into me but no way am I admitting that out loud, I'm just trying to protect my family- I HATELOVE you so much you bastard", a story which I'd totally accept instead. David loves that family, it'd have to be a dark timeline indeed for him to treat them with anything less than total dignity and respect in front of other people. He'll just make Jack pay and pay in private.

This song should somehow be involved. Because if ever there was a "Kings" song, that's it.


Oh, this is only barely related and total mood whiplash, but it's hilarious.

http://pinterest.com/pin/66428163223869990/

http://pinterest.com/pin/46724914854050831/

http://pinterest.com/pin/212302569904082078/

Basically, they're Polyvore sets for a Rule 63 Sebastian Stan...

HAH! I love it (and I am totally requesting that for the Porn Battle). They seem more based on his characters than anything (#1 Jack, #2 Carter, #3, obviously Alice in Wonderland themed) but then, I think his personal style is harder to pin down. Cause sometimes he wears stuff like this Although I think #2 works well.

Where's the Bucky and Chase Collins outfits though? (I will be right back)


a few weeks ago, I made some outfits for Jaqui Benjamin, based on/inspired by his outfits on Kings (and some totally made up ones from the Fic) and a Jefferson. I am actually going to try and find reasonably priced versions of the Jefferson outfit pieces, because I actually want to wear that to my next cosplay opportunity. For Halloween and/or Arisia I have found that it's best to dress in layers (Arisia is in Boston in midwinter, and no one ever wants to drive me so I always have to come on the train and walk to the hotel from there) and more cost effective to use pieces that I can reuse later.


Did you know, we have the same birthday? I don't know how I kept missing that info, but yes, same day, one year apart.

Why yes, I'm not writing like I'm supposed to be, how did you guess? I need to get outside and clear my head.

Later, I'll try to pull some thoughts together on last night's Once Upon a Time.

I've already said I don't think Jack would vocalize the fact that he and Lucinda were sexually assaulted, not just because so much of the world is conditioned to not let guys say that out loud (and it's his parents that do that to them, which might make it even harder to acknowledge). I don't know. But also,

The show also never used the word "gay", or the phrase "veteran with serious PTSD". Now, I'm sure the lack of use of the word "gay" was to prevent angry protests from more puritanical viewers (oh if only enough people watched to generate angry letters!) but also...it helps establish this fictional world as a place where people just don't talk about stuff. I mean, when he comes back from the front, people basically act as if he was merely in a bad car accident or something. His entire unit was slaughtered and he was taken hostage. He might be having all sorts of FEELS that no one seems very interested in hearing about and which are causing a great deal of his over emotional, erratic behavior. Not that I believe he was a Super Good and Stable Person before, I think he was already a little broken, but if you see him as a PTSD suffering veteran, he starts to make more sense.

Weepy, mood swings, rage, disturbing risk taking, wildly shifting between sadism and masochism, heavy drinking, abusive to lover, girlfriend, sister, surrogate brother... this is a person who is clearly going off the rails and almost no one is doing anything about it. ETA: well, I think Silas wanted Jack in a desk job for maybe that reason, that he was afraid for Jack's mental health and physical safety but of course he doesn't come out and say that. So Jack thinks he's let everyone down and goes overboard trying to compensate.

Shame about being captured and needing to be rescued when he was supposed to be in charge and come back a hero.
Guilt about being one of two survivors out of fourteen men. Can you just stop and try to picture that scene from his pov for a moment? No one comes out of something like that okay.
A warrior kept out of the fight, trained 24/7 to respond to situations in certain ways, trying to readjust to civilian life (having trouble settling on on a way to be of use until he decides Being King is it) where he is...
Blamed for screwing up even though he didn't, he was set up. He knows enough to know that he was not at fault, but people are totally gas lighting him about it.

When he's alone with Belial, he comes close to really losing it, it's his first time back on active duty, he can't get David to follow orders, and...he seems to be having trouble fitting into the role he's always played so well before, instead of continuing to calmly torture the guy for information, Jack allows Belial to make him lose his composure.

It also explains why Jack is so determined to avoid too much bloodshed and why William doesn't consider that relevant. Jack's been out there, fighting William's war, watching his own friends get mowed down (he also knows that William is supplying both sides in order to prolong the war and make more profit). William and his cronies sit up in their offices and get Jack's friends killed.


I kind of like that they don't come out and say most of this, partly because unpacking it on my own gives me more to analyze in a show that was cancelled four years ago and only has thirteen episodes. Not sure how well I'm doing at following this tone in my own fic, but I am monitoring that situation.

The fic is slowing down a little. Because there are some storytelling choices I need to make before I can keep going, and I'm not sure what to do. Four issues, to be specific.

Jack tells his driver, Stu, “It's good to have someone I can trust”, just before they go have sex. Later, Jack will say something very similar to David before lovingly adjusting his tie and hugging him (Jack doesn't initiate hugs with any other character). Lucinda walks in on Stu and Jack being flirty. Stu is playing with the end of Jack's tie, and lovingly adjusting/playing with someone's clothing is repeatedly used on this show to denote a sexual relationship or the desire to have one with a person. Toward the end of the series, Lucinda attempts to fix Jack's collar and he angrily rejects her efforts.

Probably not coincidentally, Stu physically resembles some sort of David stand in (only way taller and that's a little hot and where is this fic?).

Jack is always touching David when he doesn't have to, while Michelle, who is supposed to be openly and canonically in love with him, rarely employs the same sorts of random displays of affection. In Biblical culture, unmarried, unrelated men and women were forbidden from unnecessary touching, yet were free to be as physically demonstrative as they wanted with their own gender, but I can't believe that convention remains in a modern adaptation. Unrelated men and women touch each other all the time on this show. I doubt it's because Jack's just naturally a more physically affectionate person (see above). Jack's all over him in exactly the way a closeted gay person is with someone they have a thing for. The head tilts, the tone of voice, the side eyes, the adorable charming grin-

The only woman Jack shows any genuine flicker of sexual attraction to is Katrina Ghent, a tall, strong looking blue eyed blonde.

Joseph thinks Jack is cheating on him with David when he sees Jack watching David at the club. In fact, Jack begins to reject, ignore and abuse, his actual boyfriend the minute David comes into his life.

He is, blatantly, trying to seduce David in a way, he's trying to find out if David has vices he can exploit, but after "Brotherhood" they become real friends, sort of. And David, he's been seducing Jack all along, but in his own Davidish way, which means he's doing it without even realizing he is.

By the way, in that scene at the end of "Brotherhood" when they're standing in front of the altar, they really do totally look like they're getting married.

"He did come to you. Offered himself behind my back. Yours for the taking. Shameful, the two of you laughing at me." And then Silas is yelling "backstabbing, cheating whore!" as he's choking David. He's talking about God choosing David over him, but geez. I'm pretty sure I actually wrote that in a B!David slash fic and then I wrote it again in an AU story project... And Silas seems to believe that Jack is kind of...that he lacks sexual integrity... and is still angry that he defended David in public, and Jack just tried to steal the throne and...

Because Jack's dad outs him in public immediately after Jack jumps up to defend David in court, the people watching are bound to make certain connections that neither Jack nor David are necessarily aware of themselves yet. But I can see the people of Shiloh automatically starting to frame this as a tragic "gay star crossed lovers" scandal. And they'd be supportive.

Because despite his possible inability to produce a biological heir by directly having sex with a woman, and the fact that he might not have turned out to be a very good king (even without Cross's bullying), the people seem to love Jack. And they *certainly* love David, they'll love whoever David loves.

It's like the incident where Jonathan broke the fast, and Saul wanted to have him put to death because he felt it wouldn't be fair to treat his own son different.

Saul: Well, this is wrenching and tragic but I have to kill my son for screwing up.

The People: Nooooo, leave him alone!

Saul: I really wish it didn't have to be this way, son.

The People: It's okay, we promise, we won't be mad if you just forget he did whatever it is you think he did!

1) Jack and Michelle are not the biological children of Silas and Rose, they are actually Vesper Abaddon's kids. This is based on an offhand remark Silas makes to Abaddon, when he shows him a photo and tells him that "she" is doing well. But where this theory falls apart is the fact that Jack and Michelle look like Silas's kids. I really can't believe that they're anything else, look at them. However, I could believe that Rose and William were the children of the deposed despot. Especially if we're seeing a Generation Xerox thing, with David=Silas and Jack and Michelle= William and Rose. It would certainly explain Andrew, who's just scary insane.

2) Rose will use Michelle's baby and pass it off as Jack and Lucinda's. I can totally see this. Rose may be vicious and dangerous but she's not insane like her husband. She will find a way to get her son freed while also fixing her daughter's problem (of being impregnated by a man Silas wants to kill). One of her kids needs a baby, the other one has a baby no one knows about yet, and her children are twins. It all depends on how angry she is with Jack, and how much evidence is required that Jack and Lucinda actually had sex.

3) Some of the characters are The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

William Cross is War. His company supplies arms and other related things, and therefore he believes war is good for the economy and hence, fantastic for his own wallet. He was willing to keep that war going at the cost of the lives of members of his own family. Unlike many other characters, he has no (as far as we're aware) woobifying excuse, he has just coldly assessed the situation and decided he'll make more money if people die than if they don't.

Michelle is Pestilence. Not knowingly, of course. But her original illness is the catalyst for several important events in the story, and in general, the plot repeatedly associates her with issues of physical health. Silas made his vow to God to save her. She's stumping for improvements in Gilboa's healthcare system. She is also able to remain inside a plague quarantine unit, snuggling up to a patient without getting sick.

Silas is constantly eating, cooking or talking about food- is he Famine? There's just so much food imagery associated with him.

Although the personification of Death does exist in this 'verse and we see her- is David also Death? Well, he's sort of an opposite force... Because everyone whose life he saves just ends up worse off. Every single named main character he saves comes to regret being alive. David ruins everything.