#francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour

[aurpiment]

I had a dream that I was watching The Terror again and it was… a bit different.

There was a plot where Francis Crozier was pregnant. Not by Fitzjames, no; they weren’t close like that. I think by someone who was 1) a casual hookup and 2) dead. He was confiding in Fitzjames about it, though, and complaining of breast soreness. Fitzjames asked him if he was sure he was pregnant and he said yes, that he recognized the symptoms from when he was younger, and then told a story about how his mother had helped him get an abortion when he was a teenager so he could pursue his then-incipient naval career.

Unfortunately, in the dream, I was watching this version of The Terror with my father and brother and they were confused. “But he’s a man! How is such a thing possible?”

“Transgender,” I explained impatiently, because it was obvious this was the direction the show had gone with the character, even though the actor playing him was still cisgender actor Jared Harris.

“But still, no way this would happen,” I added. “I mean, look at him. He’s GOT to be post-menopausal.”

#mt #this was like #well after the men had started dying #there’d been some disaster and the party had split and regathered #they’d gotten back onto the boat? #the ice had melted enough to sail a little? #mr hickey was there and kept trying to joint the conversation and Crozier kept telling him exasperatedly to drive the boat #all the while Crozier had a hand up his own shirt trying to relieve his #breast pain #anyway before you ask he DID have pale pink white person nipples. I seen them. #I think in the dream it was mastitis but that’s so rare antepartum #just one of the many ways the writing was unrealistic smdh! #but shout out to the imaginary Irish Catholic woman helping her kid get an abortion in like 1812. I DO want to believe. queen shit fr! #the terror #god Fitjames was such an idiot about it #it was like month four or five and he was like ‘do you think it could be a tumor’ #TUMORS DONT KICK HE JUST TOLD YOU IT WAS KICKING #DUMB ASS #but he was genuinely concerned as a friend so some crimes can be forgiven #francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour #edit: the croziers were from ulster and Presbyterian. my bad! #sorry for calling his ma a Catholic do you forgive me

[aurpiment]

#mt #the terror #francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour #named thomas after his father thomas blanky #my art #Thomas Qaulluqtuq

[aurpiment]

I’m literally so proud of this. Crozierbaby sweep

h/t @sillyzone

#mt #francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour #the terror

[aurpiment]

A couple other characters bond with wee Thomas right away but Crozier takes a while to feel parental feelings for him—till he figures out how to route his relationship to his new son through the brainspace of the navy. A switch flips and he’s like OH this is kind of like a really small and vulnerable ship’s boy who needs to eat every sixty minutes. Ok lad you’re my little buddy now.

#mt #Francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour

[aurpiment]

Ok I rewatched the terror to make the situation from my dream make more sense and I think that Mr Blanky is the most sensible candidate for father of Crozier’s baby. They have sex but they’re not romantically interested in each other. They’re old friends and it’s cold and what the hell else are they doing.

Crozier’s decision to stop drinking is made for him by that fact that all of a sudden whiskey makes him throw up.

I also spent half an hour on the phone with Molly @activatedsludge this morning and we named the hypothetical teenage lad the baby grows into “Thomas Qaulluqtuq,” and talked about how, by pure coincidence, he has adidas stripes on his caribou pants. He likes soccer but he only knows the half-remembered version of the rules Crozier remembers. He doesn’t know about penalty shots.

Also he doesn’t trust the English because his Da told him that Englishmen wanted to eat him when he was a baby.

#mt #mr. Hickey thought #swift’s modest proposal was a recipe book #the terror #Mr Blanky still dies sorry #he died doing what he loved covering himself with forks #thomas qaulluqtuq #francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour

[aurpiment]

O that was so much more painful than I expected it to be (/POSITIVE SO POSITIVE). Gonna make an AU of your AU so I can respect the existence of the excellent universe that you’ve created but also have a little snowglobe in my pocket wherein they get rescued or smthn. Thank you for the pain it’s so good. Crozier allowing dying Fitzjames to hold this little fragile thing that’s only just barely alive hits like a punch to the gut. Everyone else hovering over them bc JFJ’s so weak and they’re kind of worried he’ll drop him somehow even lying down. Him trying so hard to keep his arms steady but it’s hard even under the weight of a newborn. Many such thoughts in my head now

Aw thank you. I love the tragedy of the terror so I want to preserve that tone but if I were to make an AU of an AU…

In the rescue timeline, they make it back to England and Crozier and Fitzjames resign from the navy. They settle in Liverpool, so Thomas’s accent is Scouse rather than Gjoa Haven. And they have the time to properly fall in love.

They straight up don’t explain wee Thomas to anyone except the Rosses. But Fitzjames does start looking more feminine and people do connect the dots along that line. At the same time, James hasn’t officially claimed to be a woman so the navy won’t do anything funny. Also James doesn’t work for them anymore.

The surviving Crozier sisters are obsessed with Fitzjames. He’s welcomed into the family.

Blanky confesses everything to his wife, Esther, and she’s not thrilled but she’s not furious either. She’s just like, ‘ok, well obviously gay stuff on a boat doesn’t count as cheating because I’m the only woman in your life (she also subscribes to this view. messy bisexual4messy bisexual marriage) but don’t get your man friends pregnant again, please.’ And he’s like, ok 🫡. He resigns from the navy also but joins a whaling ship. You can take the sea dog out of the sea but you can’t etc.

Thomas gets to know his half-sister Hannah, who is thirteen years older than him and coddles him like a doll.

Goodsir returns to the Arctic permanently and marries Silna.

Tuunbaq also lives and recovers from Englishman poisoning. He outlives everyone and settles down in Greenland, where he bites Robert Peary in half many years down the line.

#mt #the terror #Francis Crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour

[aurpiment]

Fortunately, the slops still fit.

Unfortunately, [everything else]

#mt #my art #welcome to my twisted mind #i guess #francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour #the terror #wee Thomas

[aurpiment]

In my AU Silna doesn’t get exiled

#wee Thomas #mt #Francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour

[aurpiment]

The first person I post Crozierpreg for is me. The second person is my beloved mutual who hates it but still reblogs it anyway. The third person is viewers like you

#mt #the terror #francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour

[aurpiment]

This is the dynamic for them. Thomas living his own life with delight stops his father from morbing too hard. There is beauty in this place! See it with me!

#mt #Francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour

[aurpiment]

#mt #the terror #francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour #perfect Health is the funniest thing to bestow upon this man and his baby #yes his body does make its own vitamin C #and no lead can forged against him shall prevail #my art #wee Thomas

[aurpiment]

I am obsessed w crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour your mind is so powerful. Does James know the deets of how crozier is pregnant ?what kind of relationship does he have w wee Thomas? (Also I absolutely love that you were like. Actually there are not enough Thomases about. ANOTHER)

James knows but Crozier is the least forthcoming man ever so he almost doesn’t find out.

“How did it happen?” Fitzjames asks, meaning to ask, of course, who?

“I’ll not invite speculation,” Crozier answers.

“If you don’t tell,” Blanky says, “You’ll invite speculation upon an innocent man,” and when Crozier peers at him, perplexed, Blanky adds. “A man who gets close enough to you to count and clip all eleven of your little whiskers.”

Crozier grimaces as though Blanky had suggested he’d bedded his own son. Blanky places a hand over his, and asks, “Shall I tell?”

In that moment, Fitzjames is sure Blanky doesn’t need to. Why else had he joined them in this meeting? Blanky is not a captain, steward, or lieutenant. He is an old friend, perhaps Crozier’s oldest friend on Terror, which grants them an intimacy transcending rank.

“You,” Fitzjames says.

Blanky nods once.

Regarding Fitzjames’s relationship to wee Thomas, he only gets to know him for three months, since Fitzjames does succumb to the ailments in the end. But he likes the little fellow right away. He genuinely tears up when he gets to hold newborn Thomas. What a small and precious thing thriving so well in such a cold place.

(Crozier takes a lot longer to bond with his son because he’s been in a stressful scenario for the past few months. He didn’t decide to have a baby; it sort of happened to him and left him with a whole new set of responsibilities. Just like when Sir John died. Part of the reason why Thomas is named Thomas is to honor his friend Blanky, who is the father, but part of it is that he was not in the brain space to be thinking of baby names, and be planning for the future, and be thinking of himself as a parent. For the first solid half of the pregnancy, he doesn’t feel like he’s going to have a child, he feels like he’s been parasitized by a horrible creature.)

Anyway JFJ is very preoccupied with the notion of illegitimacy, so he brings that up with Crozier. Fitzjames has an excellent solution. Crozier can marry him, and Fitzjames will be the bride so that Crozier doesn’t have to out himself as trans when they go back to England. They are NOT a couple at this point. They’re just in the very beginning of having tender feelings for each other.

Crozier‘s reaction is ‘hm. well... sure, okay.’ He has doubts about whether the plan would work, but James seems to be invested in this idea, so he acquiesces.

And now Fitzjames harbors all these hopes of being a mother to wee Thomas when they get back to England. And when James gets sicker, he starts drafting a letter to the admiralty asking for his pension to be allotted to the care of Thomas Crozier. It is a long and weird and rambling letter, because there’s lead in his brain, but it comes from a very sincere place of feeling like Thomas is somebody that he gets to care about and care for.

James is also one of the five people besides Crozier allowed to hold the baby. The other four are Blanky, Goodsir, Silna, and Jopson.

#mt #Francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour #the terror #crozier/blanky #fitzier #Although I don’t know if I should tag either ship on here #Since the former is just a friends with benefits situation gone weird #and the latter is an incipient romance that doesn’t get to flourish past a bud

[aurpiment]

I need u to know I can’t stop thinking abt the forbidden geriatric pregnancy au specifically jfj faking a pregnancy… did she just shove a pillow up there. I love her so much.

Ann Ross commissioned a special corset with a hard leather “bowl” attached to the front. It is not the most comfortable thing, but it is relatively unobtrusive. The rest is done with padding and clothing silhouettes.

A question you didn’t ask but that I’d love to answer, because I am the way I am: Does Fitzjames get couvade syndrome? Yes.

JFJ: God. I’m queasy and my back hurts

Crozier, pregnant with Willa: We don’t have to pretend while it’s just the two of us at home, dear.

JFJ: No, I really *am* queasy and my back really *does* hurt

Crozier: Huh.

James should also have a badass moment of picking Francis up and carrying him when Francis gets a flash of symphysis pubis dysfunction pain. (He didn’t have any complications with Thomas, because it’s funnier that way, but with Willa he can have a little hurt/comfort. As a treat.)

And everybody who sees this is like oh my goodness this woman is so strong and brave, but she shouldn’t be picking up her husband in her condition!

Being carried by a strong, tall woman would be a turn-on for Crozier if he weren’t in pelvis agony. They’ll have to put a pin in that idea to revisit it later.

#mt #Willa is also bigger than Thomas #good nutrition plus second parent tall will do that #at birth she is a size that Thomas did not attain until two months of age #She is Papa‘s special princess who devastated his perineum #Francis Crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour

[aurpiment]

wait when is crozier baby born? and why does crozier have a baby?

Crozier’s baby is born in April 1848, during the events of Terror Camp Clear.

The reason Crozier has a baby is because he thought being close to menopause made him infertile. Sometime in the summer of 1847, after Sir John was killed by a bear and Crozier was made commander, Blanky noticed that Crozier was miserable and had a great idea for how to cheer him up. They’d hooked up as friends before, during the 1827 Parry expedition.

And rekindling their FWB thing starts out fun for them but the trouble is that while Crozier’s got a keen sense of when he’s being used, he’s got a dull sense of when he’s using others, which is further dulled by drink. He’s using Blanky as a stress ball and Blanky can tell. At one point he’s four drinks in and summons Blanky to his cabin, no foreplay or anything. So this happens and Blanky is like hmm. As much as I’d love to go at it, I have to set down a boundary or this could become not-fun and imbalanced very fast.

This is their insane dynamic: Blanky (wise) is like, okay I need to act like I’ve got more self respect. I’m content to be used as a stress ball but I can’t LET myself be used as a stress ball. And Crozier (stupid) is like, the usual stuff we do isn’t cutting the mustard for him anymore. If I want to get off I have to offer him other things.

So when Blanky asks, ‘hey can I get a little more respect, effort, things of this nature,’ Crozier says, ‘what if I let you look at and touch my chest this time? What if we try PIV sex? I’m old so it’s safe.’

Unfortunately, this works on Blanky. He is not immune to old man body. Boundary cancelled!

Thus another Thomas is added to the Franklin Expedition

#mt #Francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour #‘I’m out of respect but I can offer you pussy’ #‘cheers mate that’ll do me nicely’

[aurpiment]

manny manny I see the Sophia fanart and I’m Wondering if she appears in the rescue timeline of the crozierbaby AU?

Yes, and she connects some of the dots. I think during their courtship, she told him that she didn’t want children, and he told her that he couldn’t father children anyway.

I think she comes to visit him wherever he’s staying to talk and ask if he’s interested in renewing his proposal. She’d spent months worrying about him before he returned. He says to her very politely that he hopes to renew their friendship.

I think at this point the official story is that Thomas’s mother is a woman from a whaling family whom Crozier had married, and that she died. But the timeline’s not lining up. Sofia doesn’t ask about her because she doesn’t want to embarrass him by catching him out in a lie.

Anyway, at one point Thomas starts crying because he’s hungry, and Sofia says, “shall I fetch the wet nurse?” and there is a looooong pause. There is no nurse. and then she says, “Francis, may I assume that when you said you couldn’t father children, you were not lying to me?”

and he says, very quietly, a little scared, “You may.”

and she says, “I wouldn’t have minded, you know. If you’d said why. But I understand the cause for caution.”

and he says, “Right.”

And then she completely changes the topic of conversation to something more lighthearted like nothing happened and he puts a jacket over his shoulder and feeds Thomas like nothing happened and then Fitzjames walks in and they’re talking about like different kinds of penguins in Antarctica, or something, all the while Crozier is feeding Thomas. Fitzjames has a brief moment of panic but then Sophia says something like, “You seem startled. Do you see anything odd? I don’t.”

So James sits down and joins them in the conversation and of course the vibe is a little awkward, but thankfully at some point, Sofia decides to claim she has other plans in the afternoon and leave so she says her farewell and as James is helping her into her coat, she says something like, “You have a very fine son,” (Thomas is not Fitzjames’s biological son, but she’s not wrong about his and Crozier’s relationship.) and he says “thank you.”

She leaves and has a little cry about Francis moving on, but she’s ultimately aware that she’s better off not marrying him now because just as she doesn’t want to be a mother, she doesn’t want to be a stepmother either.

I think she gets over him, though

#mt #Francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour #like many British people she had a gay experience in boarding school and isn’t going to talk about it but does have a certain sympathy #towards inverts #though she does NOT count herself as one #(It’s not gay if she’s butcher than you)

[aurpiment]

Ok not going to tag this on OP’s nice post unsolicited but also as I’ve been saying. dream midwifery team (source: it was revealed to me in a dream)

#mt #Francis crozier’s geriatric pregnancy hour