#current mood reading

[23]

Irene hadn’t been an X-Force fighter yet, and though Logan had only just met her, he’d been quick to respect her. There had been a seer, a mercenary, hired by the cult Logan was tracking, who was attempting to weaponise nightmares. During the confrontation, the mercenary’s powers and hers had been temporarily suppressed.

Mister Teatime had been very confident about his ability to physically dispatch a blind woman – right up until she impaled him with the poker.

AKA

The two paragraphs which turned into ‘Four o’clock in the Afternoon.’

But if you think this tells you what to expect from the forthcoming Chapter 03, think again.

[22]

And THEN.

Betsy pretends that she Pestilence could go with Erik to Karnak one day, to search for the secret burial vault.

…Poor Betsy.

[21]

And now let’s talk about adamantium, and poor Betsy’s soul. (This is going to be a long post.)

We begin with the origins of the crown:

As the liquid star-silver is poured into the casting mould, they imbue it with the essence of their immortal soul. For they are Maa-Antuf, Seer-of-Malaise, of discomforts, illness, and unease

So, with what we’ve already learned about astral echoes of the soul, we can see this relic was crafted with purpose, for a specific purpose. (Even if there’s no further context on the why yet.)

He wears the white crown of Pestilence with pride, honoured to serve his god, the mighty En Sabah Nur.

The issue of servitude is reinforced, calling back to when we first discovered the relics, and the oath inscribed on the chest. There is no separation between the relic and their Horseman.

The moment she has enough energy for a psionic flame, she’s going to set herselfon fire.

And then we get an entire memory, where (much like with Erik while in astral-Egypt) Betsy’s name isn’t mentioned, and her companion is named Angel. It’s an important memory of hers, and yet there’s intent in the focus on the chain mail; her cold symptoms; and the aforementioned fire quote.

The turning point, bookended by mentions of white (the colour of her relic), concludes with:

Death is holding her crown, and her head is throbbing unpleasantly. The sharp white is so bright, so beautiful. “Psylocke.” Bound by oath – maybe her fate truly is unavoidable. She will bear the mantle of Pestilence.

This section was lifted from the earlier scene with Betsy and Death. The contrast between how she feels in that scene, VS the lack of context here, is her undoing.

The metal attunes itself to her specifically, becoming a chain mail headdress. Betsy gets caught in the literal crossfire, and then doesn’t immediately respond to her own name.

[20]

Okay. Let’s talk about Erik’s constant struggle to believe he’s a good person.

Here we have him put in a situation where the only option they have, in trying and prevent certain doom, is for him to intentionally cause harm to poor Betsy’s soul. And so he does, and he’s good at it, because he’s good at causing pain, at waging war, at being a weapon. Erik knows: he’s a force of destruction. It’s inevitable – he was always going to hurt someone, because for all his efforts to protect those he cares about, he always fails.

(ERIK YOU ARE WORTH MORE THAN THIS, PLEASE LEARN TO BELIEVE IT)

He’s fairly certain his magnetic field is encompassing the whole museum at this point, the amount of energy he’s putting into the effort.

It’s well established by now what this means: Erik’s just announced to Shaw exactly where he is. And yet, he doesn’t hesitate, no matter how detrimental this is to him, because he wants to help.

ERIK IS SUCH A GOOD PERSON

PROTECT ERIK LEHNSHERR AT ALL COSTS

[19]

Those of you who appreciate my sneaky foreshadowing skills –

You ain’t seen nothing yet.

You’re welcome.

[18]

The Revitalisations of Anput are quite important to the story/series – so, of course, I’m not going to say anything specific about them for now. Raven’s got good instincts though.

But something related I will say:

“The goddess Anput.” It’s rare to see the deity of the Underworld depicted in her female form.

Because it’s rare for Anubis to assume his female form of Anput, and, oh hey, what a coincidence that we happen to see Anput in Chapter 02 of ‘Four o’clock in the Afternoon.’ I’m sure that’s not important at all.

[17]

It’s very cute to imagine Charles giving an intense lecture about Scholarly Things™, only to stop mid-way because – Oh! *Kisses Erik* – and then just picks up his lecture where he left off. All while Erik is a blushing, grinning mess.

[16]

So, Logan asks Irene: “Got your fireplace poker?”

This is both an expression of concern, and a warning.

(See the forthcoming Chapter 03 of ‘Four o’clock in the Afternoon’ for backstory.)

[15]

Erik snarls. Several metal fixtures throughout the hall groan. “Inevitable or not, I’ll have no part in his designs. I reject his will.”

Erik is the absolute BEST, folks.

[14]

Logan: I’m not going to worry about these idiots. I don’t care.

Idiots: *Arrive*

Logan: *Worries about these idiots, while caring, a lot*

[13]

Erik Lehnsherr, recounting a traumatic incident he’s suffered:

“To begin with [REDACTED] hurt. And then [REDACTED] hoped it wasn’t [REDACTED] bad. Unfortunately, [REDACTED]. But, I survived. It could’ve been worse.”

Because of course he’s going to redact his own experiences.

[11]

It’s also worth noting, just like with Death and Famine, Stryker’s name gets traded out for others: Commander; Warrior; Pre-War; and then finally becomes War, after slaughtering an entire room of people.

[10]

In conjunction with the last post, things we’ve learned about Stryker:

• Desires an obedient army (don’t worry, Famine has you covered)
• Will easily experiment on mutants
• Lives in a cycle of violence, revolving around toxic masculinity
• Will sacrifice his ‘allies’ if it suits his purposes – such as murdering his wife and son for questioning his authority

And –

“What else do you desire?” The First One asks.

Pre-War reaches for his sword, caressing the rounded hilt. “More adamantium.”

I’m sure this doesn’t bode ill for any of our heroes…

[09]

Story time, with ‘The Taking of Joppa’ – a tale which is much more mainstream knowledge than most of the other literary pieces thus far (being a precursor of the Trojan Horse story).

Thematically, there’s a lot going on here.

• The man of war, armed with an adamantium weapon; an unstoppable force.
• The idea of a hierarchy within a hierarchy, and how one defines their own authority.
• The scope of violence, from large scale massacres to domestic violence, and how such things can always be ‘justified’ or ‘excused.’
• Victim blaming – the false notion that if you’re not ‘strong’ enough or ‘worthy’ enough, then you deserve what happens to you.

Also, a note on worldbuilding –

By using small details to flesh out characters. In a previous chapter, Stryker made a toast to the god Shezmu, who is then mentioned again in this tale Stryker’s telling. (We’ll see this happen again with Betsy, next chapter.) This reinforces the sense the characters live within this world.

[08]

Stryker is so very jealous of Erik. As he should be, because Erik is awesome.

[07]

The philosophical musings about war were really interesting to write. Especially since both Stryker and Shaw are unreliable narrators, and both use harsh truths as weapons.

[06]

Stryker: Shaw’s a fairly decent guy.

Readers: We despise you utterly. Suffer and die.

[05]

(I’ll address Betsy and the crown during a later scene.)

At least she’s still self-aware enough here to run.

But she’s sick. And Death can be patient.

[04]

Some more thoughts on poor Betsy’s now-tragic relationship with Warren Death.

Their relationship is important to her. It comes with well-earned, established trust, which is now being exploited. There are things about Betsy which Death knows, which he (and En Sabah Nur) can take advantage of.

“Don’t you wish you had more reach?”

Of course she does, he knows she does, they’ve had that conversation many times.

It’s never a good sign when a character finds themselves lacking, even before being menaced by a god is poised to offer them anything.

[34]

And thus concludes the live-blog commentary for ‘The Consort – Chapter 13: What it boils down to.’

We’ve caught up to the current content! Thank you so much, everyone, for your support and love during this fun little project. And never fear: I’ll continue with the commentaries for Chapters 14-20, once ‘The Consort’ has been completed in its entirety. We have many loose ends of foreshadowing yet to be threaded after all.

I said at the start of this commentary there would be new content arriving for the series - and you may have noticed the many references to ‘Four o’clock in the Afternoon′ made during this live-blog.

I am currently doing the final read-through of Chapter 03, so watch this space. It will be posted shortly!

Chapter 14 of ‘The Consort’ will also be posted before the end of the week!

[33]

Things continue to get worse for our heroes as we near the end of the chapter.

McCoy is now unconscious. Charles’s astral waves are the equivalent of those video game moves where you sacrifice half your own HP to score a direct hit, and it’s not worth the trade-off anymore. The mummies keep on coming.

And then.

Erik lunges for her.

He misses.

“Erik!”

As Betsy and the mummies fall from the building, a portal opens up beneath them. In the time it takes Erik to shout her name, they’ve already vanished.

Poor Betsy.

And poor Erik. The GUILT he’s about to suffer.

[32]

The entire chase scene was so fun to write. Some highlights:

• Wade flinging himself off the fountain, only to face-plant
• Logan realising he’s also acquired the need to PROTECT ERIK LEHNSHERR AT ALL COSTS and still trying to deny it
• Raven throwing pottery at the mummies
• Charles hiding Betsy’s presence (until she unfortunately draws attention to herself)
• Erik: assassin dancer
• “Hwatcha!”
• Irene, blindly trusting Logan to yeet her up the wall
• Charles and Erik resting their foreheads together during a quiet moment between all the chaos. They are so SOFT for each other

But sort-of-good times are ruined, by Shaw (OF COURSE), who then blows up the souk building. Another one for the count.

[31]

In an attempt to restore a sense of calm… let’s check in and see how the new Horseman of War is doing.

On War’s command, one of the mummies throws itself into the sinkhole. It barely has time to heave itself back onto its feet before War’s sword comes down and cleaves it in two.

Ah. He’s continuing with the old ‘who cares if our canon-fodder slave workers are essentially mummified’ moments. He’s so pleased to have an army of mindless, disposable fodder.

[30]

No surprises - immediately after Shaw’s MURDER of our little lioness of a kitty cat, Erik’s Shaw-centric threat of death occurs.

“Stop killing my loved ones!” His vision blurs. He keeps thrashing, but less in order to try and escape, and more so because he doesn’t know how to do anything other than fight against his grief. “I’ll carve out your liver! I’ll rip out your intestines and strangle you with them! You are dead!”

[29]

“Sekhmet!”

Erik’s not the only one who yells her name, but he’s the one Shaw looks at. “You love her,” he marvels quietly.

Fear crystalises down Erik’s spine, freezing him in place. “Don’t,” he begs. “Please.”

Shaw smiles. The hand holding Sekhmet begins to glow. A moment later, so does she. Sekhmet yowls in agony as her molecules begin to come apart.

OH LOOK - YET ANOTHER REASON TO HATE SHAW

“Holy Hu, he killed her,” Wade breathes, horrified.

Shaw flexes his fingers, still smiling. “You should keep better hold of such fragile creatures, son. Especially if you love them.”

HOW DARE HE DO THIS TO OUR BELOVED KITTY CAT

HOW DARE HE BREAK ERIK’S HEART LIKE THIS

FUCK OFF AND DIE, SHAW

(But at least we know Sekhmet’s not gone forever, because she’s an astral projection of Charles’s. So, small comforts and all that.)

[28]

BRACE YOURSELF, FOLKS

YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

[27]

And so, Shaw blows up the museum courtyard, right out from under everyone’s feet. For those keeping tally, this counts as exploding another building.

[26]

“Then festering boils did break out upon the skin, and those plagued could not stand against the Lord because of it,” Wade remarks, also staring at Betsy. “Used to be my least favourite plague, the boils and sores.” He starts tossing Raven’s coin from one hand to the other. “But I guess I can’t really say that anymore. Don’t worry – you don’t look anywhere near as bad as me!”

…These characters are all going to need so much love and therapy to recover from the events of this story.

And there’s still so many more terrible things to come mwahaha

[25]

The moment where Jonathan pretends to be one of the mindless minions, and it works, is probably one of the best moments in ‘The Mummy (1999)’

[24]

The Apocalypse almost gets his hands on Irene again, via vision. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen a third time…