#later nicky finds out that joe was the one who actually painted it at booker's request fsbsjsbsjshsjsjss

[wingodex]

Sourcing Copley’s Sociogram

so this started out because i recognized some of the photographs and art on copley’s wall, and got curious about everything else. i know that the dates and locations of the original pictures don’t necessarily have anything to do with what they’re supposed to be in the movie but i thought it was interesting enough to share. plus i spent a not insignificant amount of time tracking down some of these images. the organization is a mixture between chronologically in the show and from a timeline perspective. the rest is under the cut

So we start out with this mosaic that you see when Andy looks at the sociogram for the first time while confronting Copley. This is a Roman mosaic found in Antioch, which is near modern-day Antakya, Turkey. It’s from the 4th century CE and shows an Amazon Warrior in mounted combat against a Greek soldier. Mosaics were found in both private and public buildings throughout the Roman empire. They’re made up of small cut pieces of marble, tile, glass, pottery, stone and shells called tesserae.

Here you have the title page of the 1668 edition of Andromaque, a play written by Jean Racine. It was first performed in November of 1667 for the court of Louis XIV by a company of actors called “les Grands Comédiens.” The play follows the story of Andromache after the Trojan War when her husband Hector has been killed and she has been taken prisoner.

The portrait of Andromache is from the book “Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum” by Guillaume Rouillé. The book was published in Lyon, France, in 1553. The book is made up of portraits designed as medals, along with brief biographies for notable figures. The art was done using woodcut and there are 950 woodcut portraits in the book.

This is a fresco of Mycenaean woman bearing gifts. It’s from Thebes and was reconstructed by H. Reusch in 1956. The original fresco is from 1400-1200 BCE. Frescos were popular decoration, not just in palaces and tombs but in storerooms, kitchens and workshops. Fresco painting is a technique where the drawing is made on wet plaster. When the plaster dries, the image becomes a permanent part of the wall.

You also have a map by Bernardus Sylvanus (Bernardo Silvano) of Northern India and Central Asia. It’s one of the earliest obtainable maps of the area and the first printed in two colors. This map first appeared in Silvanus’ “Claudii Ptholemaei Alexandrini liber Geographicae” published in Venice in 1511.

This is a photograph of an ornamented, golden Minoan double-axe, or a “labrys.” In ancient Crete, the double axe was an important sacred symbol of the supposed Minoan religion. In Crete the double axe only accompanies female goddesses, never male gods. In Roman Crete, the labrys was often associated with the mythological Amazons.

This is a picture of the Holyland Model of Jerusalem in the Israel Museum. It’s a 1:50 scale model of Jerusalem in the late Second Temple period. It was originally commissioned in 1966 by the owner of the Holyland Hotel and was eventually relocated to the Israel Museum in 2006.

The first image is the cover of the book “Heroines of the Crusades” by C. A. Bloss. I don’t know if this is the original cover, but it is certainly an older edition. The book was originally published in 1853 and contains biographies of notable women who were involved with the crusades, as well as a general overview of the first through to the eighth crusade.

And then hey, it’s The Hague Map of Jerusalem! This is one of the artworks that I knew before. The original map is from 1190-1200 CE. The map takes some liberties with the layout of the city, prioritizing aesthetics decisions like making it have the layout of a cruciform. Circular maps are also like a thing from this time. It also uhhhhh mislabels some things, such as the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque, but that’s maybe expected. At the bottom you can see some mounted crusaders chasing after Muslim fighters. It’s drawn on vellum.

I’m grouping these two images together for clarity, because they’re both by the same painter. From the moment I saw the paintings, I thought that this was kind of a weird pull for Copley, but not necessarily for us as viewers. These paintings were done by Italian painter Paolo Domenico Finoglia (known as Finoglio) and are from a series of large paintings based on the poem “Gerusalemme Liberata” (Jerusalem Delivered) published in 1581. These paintings are baroque in style and were commissioned in 1634. The first painting is “The Duel of Raymond of Toulouse and Argante” and the second painting is “The Duel of Tancred and Clorinda”. Now, when I say this choice of paintings makes sense to us, what I mean is that parts of the poem Jerusalem Delivered are about a Christian crusader falling in love with a Muslim defender who he then kills on the battlefield (that’s the second painting of Tancred and Clorinda). It’s a fun parallel, although Clorinda converts to Christianity before she dies. Sidenote, but Joe and Nicky probably hated Jerusalem Delivered if they ever read it

This motherfucking painting. Finding out where this painting came from was an absolute nightmare. Not the worst to find, but certainly frustrating. So this painting can be found in the Borodino Panorama museum, although it’s not part of the panorama. The artist is unknown. The year it was painted is unknown. For all we know fucking Joe painted it. This is such a deep dive, I don’t know how Copley found this image. This painting shows French soldiers in Moscow as it burned. It’s called “Французы в Москве” or “The French in Moscow”.

Did you think we were finished talking about Napoleon? Well, we’re not! Copley has a lot of paintings from Napoleon’s Russian campaign on his board. There might be more on his eastern Europe wall too, but unfortunately, I can’t see it well enough to identify any.

The counterfeits potentially made by Booker show the 40 franc gold coin, known informally as the double Napoleon. These coins were first issued by Napoleon in 1803 to replace the earlier Louis coins. They were originally minted in two denominations: 20 francs and 40 francs, although they were minted in denominations of 5, 10 and 50 at various other times. The coins were designed and engraved by Jean Pierre Droz, and Pierre-Joseph Tiolier respectively. In the particular image of the coin that I found, you can actually see Droz’s signature. Tiolier’s signature appears in full on the dies that he cut himself (these coins only have a monogram). From screenshots of the end credits, I can’t actually see the specific denomination, nor can I see the date clearly, however I do know that the coins were minted sometime between 1807 and 1808. There were many different issues of these coins during Napoleon’s reign, and the fact that Napoleon has a laurel crowned head and that the coin says République Française rather than Empire Français narrows the timeline a bit. I might revisit this topic at a later date so watch out for that.

The first painting is “The Battle of Borodino, 7 September 1812” by Louis-François Lejeune in 1822. It’s oil on canvas. This painting depicts the attack on the Shevardino Redoubt, seen from the French side. While it was a French victory, it was a costly battle for both sides. During the Russian Campaign, Lejeune was général de brigade, although he ended up abandoning his post because of frostbite during the retreat and got arrested. He actually kept his paintbrushes with him on the battlefield. This painting was his masterwork. Now, with regards to the actual content of the painting, Booker would have been in the Battle of Borodino, as he didn’t try to desert until after the Battle of Smolensk.

The second painting is “Die Schlacht bei Borodino” (The Battle of Borodino) by Peter von Hess. It was painted in 1843 and is oil on canvas. Von Hess was a German painter who specialized in historic paintings of the Napoleonic Wars and the Greek War of Independence. This painting depicts the same battle as the previous one, although the focus is on the Russian and Lithuanian soldiers, rather than the French. This also shows an event from later in the battle; the counterattack on the Rayevsky Battery.

The last image is “The Boasted Crossing of the Niemen at the Opening of the Campaign of 1812 by N. Bonaparte” by John Heaviside Clark and Matthew Dubourg. The painting was based on a sketch by an officer, then painted by Heaviside Clark and engraved by Dubourg. It’s a coloured aquatint and was published in 1816. The crossing of the Niemen marks the beginning of the Russian Campaign in June of 1812.

There are actually quite a few photos of ToG during the Crimean war (1853-1856). These are actually some of the first war photographs ever taken, which is kind of neat, I guess. These photos were taken by Roger Fenton, a British photographer. These photos would have all been taken in 1855, so the tags on the photos are anachronistic but we can let it slide. The first image with Joe and Nicky is of Croat labourers. The second image of Andy is of a vivandière, a French woman attached to military regiments as a sutler. The last image (also of Joe and Nicky) is of British soldiers and is on of the covers of the book Victorians at War by Ian Beckett.

The photograph from the American civil war was originally of Union Generals, including General Philip Sheridan. At the time of this picture, Sheridan lead the Cavalry Corps, and the flag that you see in the picture is cavalry, so ToG rode horses during the American Civil War, according to this picture. It was taken in 1864.

I find the pictures of Haiti to be very interesting. First off, (and unrelated to the photographs themselves) because there was literally a coup d’état about every two years during this period in Haiti and unlike some of the other photos, these ones don’t even try to pretend they were all taken at the same time, or that they’re related at all. They’re just some pictures of Haiti during the early 20th century and it’s funny. All of photographs were taken in Port-au-Prince in Haiti. The first picture (from the upper left corner) is of the Market Square between 1909-1920. The second image is a street scene, between 1890 and 1901. Now the third photograph is making me lose it because in the movie it’s all mysterious, with a figure circled and a question mark, but in the original image it’s just a little kid standing on a public fountain. He’s not a member of the old guard. He’s not even 10 years old. This picture was also taken between 1890 and 1901. The last photo is another street scene, taken in 1901. I have to say, I’m very glad that the people in charge of the sociogram didn’t edited any of the guards’ faces on to anyone in these photos considering every single person in them is Black.

Okay, so now we’re getting into the First World War photos. There are A Lot of WW1 photos. This photo of Andy is actually from Gallipoli and was taken in 1915 by Ernest Brooks, an official war photographer. The Gallipoli campaign was an attempt by the Entente to weaken the Ottoman Empire by taking control of the Turkish Straits. All invasion attempts were unsuccessful and eventually they evacuated the area at the end of 1915. Andy seems to be wearing an Anzac uniform.

As for the rest of the photos in this shot, they’re also all from the Gallipoli campaign. The first photo is from War Illustrated in June of 1915 and shows  Australians soldiers dragging an artillery piece into position at Anzac during the Battle of Gallipoli. The second image is also from 1915 and shows soldiers bringing supplies to the Australian camp. The last image is of Anzac cove shortly after the landing there in 1915.

Originally I didn’t notice that this was an edited picture, but since I was already looking, I decided to track this one down too, and turns out it is edited. I honestly can’t tell whether it’s Booker or Joe, but that kind of looks like Matthias Schoenaerts’ nose, so I’m gonna say that’s Booker. This photograph was taken in May 1917 by Lieutenant John Warwick Brooke in Arras, France. These are British troops at the Battle of Arras, which at the time achieved the honor of longest advance in trench warfare. The battle was very costly on both sides, with around 290,000 casualties total. Warwick Brooke was an official British war photographer.

On the very right-hand side, you can see two pictures. The first one is of infantry of the 1st Canadian Division having a meal in the trenches at Ploegsteert, March 1916. It was taken by another official British war photographer, Lieutenant Ernest Brooks.

The next photo is from a series of photos of a raiding party of the 10th Battalion. It’s of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) waiting in nap for the signal to go. John Warwick Brooke, the photographer, followed them in the sap, where a shell fell short killing seven men. It was taken near Arras in March 1917. This photo takes place after the Battle of the Somme, during the German withdrawals to the Hindenburg line.

This fucking image. I’m so angry about this image. I spent hours going through World War 1 photo databases and then when I found the original source of the image it told me absolutely nothing!!! A waste of time!!! This is an image of a British soldier assisting two little French girls who had just escaped death but I knew that already, that’s how I found it in the first place. This photo was from the Haig “Official Photographs” series, which were from 1916 onwards. Edit: I found it again!!! This photo was taken in Bethune in May 1918. It was taken by war photographer Ernest Brooks. In April of 1918, the German Sixth Army tried to attack Bethune during the Battle of Lys (Fourth Battle of Ypres) but were repulsed. It was taken between offensives on the Western Front during the German spring offensive. The next major battle on this part of the Western Front began weeks after this picture was taken.

On the top of the screen there are two photographs. The first is a photo by Ernest Brooks from the Battle of Broodseinde (October 1917). The battle was part of a larger offensive - the third Battle of Ypres - engineered by Sir Douglas Haig to capture the Passchendaele ridge. This is an anti-aircraft gun in action during the battle. 

The next photograph is also from the German spring offensive, between the Battle of Lys and the Battle of the Third Battle of the Aisne. It shows a 12-inch gun (named "Bunty") of the Royal Garrison Artillery firing at Louez in May 1918. This is another photograph by John Warwick Brooke.

This image of Andy was also originally a photograph taken by Lieutenant John Warwick Brooke. This photo is of the 4th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders (51st Division) feeding a French refugee child in their improvised trench near Locon, France in 1918.

There are so many WW1 photos. The rest of these don’t have any of the characters in them as far as we know, so I’ll go over these quickly. The first picture is from the Western Front in France and was likely taken by John Warwick Brooke. This photograph was taken at night and shows two teams of machine gunners, strategically positioned behind some vegetation. The ground behind them looks sandy, suggesting they might be near the coast. Directly in front of the gunners a mine has just exploded, showering the men with debris. This picture was taken in sometime between 1916-18.

The next photo was also taken by John Warwick Brooke in 1917. This picture is of the Battle of Cambrai and shows a 'C' Battalion tank bringing in a captured 15 cm naval gun. Cambrai is an interesting battle because it was a tank/artillery fight mostly, and the British used a lot of new tank/infantry maneuvers. It also ended very badly for the British.

The third photograph was taken by Ernest Brooks. It shows soldiers of the 8th East Yorkshire Regiment moving to the front near Frezenberg in October 1917 prior to the assault (Battle of Broodseinde) the following morning. It was a victory for the British, which eventually led to the Germans withdrawing from the Belgian coast.

The last photograph was taken by Lieutenant William Ivor Castle, the Canadian official photographer in September 1916. It shows a shell being loaded into a 15 inch howitzer. This photograph is from the Battle of the Somme. The Somme was a Franco-British victory but of the 3 million men who fought in it, around 1 million were either injured or killed, making it one of the deadliest battles in human history.

So there’s actually photographic evidence of almost all of ToG being involved with the Spanish Civil War, but I’ll get to those in a second. The image that we see of Nicky in the credits places him at the Battle of Irún in 1936. He is with the Spanish Republican People’s Army. This was a major battle at the beginning of the war, as it allowed the Nationalist Army to capture the province of Gipuzkoa after Irún fell, which had been held by the Republic. It allowed the Nationalist Army to control supplies. The photographer is unknown.

Jumping forward a bit here, but I can’t believe I found this photo, like I wasn’t even looking for it and I found it, but still. Wow. So on the board, it’s shown that Nicky was in the Congo in 1964 during the Simba Rebellion. The original image is of mercenary Gerry Moggach, from Scotland, with self-made guns (Molotov cocktails lmaoo) in November 1964. The Congo Crisis was a period of political upheaval and conflict in the Republic of the Congo (which is now the DRC) and involved a bunch of civil wars that also served as a proxy conflict in the Cold War.

Now, back to Spain and the rest of the guard. From this BTS image of Copley’s sociogram we know that both Booker and Andy were involved in the Spanish Civil War as well. The first image, which Andy is apparently in, was taken in 1936 and shows her with a miliciana, which were battalions of woman who fought to defend the Republic. The photographer is unknown. The second image is of Republican soldiers and civilians. Booker is in this image. The original was taken in 1937 by an unknown photographer.

Now we get into the World War II photographs. This photo of Booker from WW2 was originally taken at Mount Tambu, New Guinea in July of 1943, by Gordon Short. The photo is of Leslie “Bull” Allen, an Australian soldier who was awarded the US Silver Star for rescuing 12 US soldiers while under fire. The battle was fought between Japanese and Allied forces. Australian forces eventually secured the area in August of that year.

This photo frustrates me. First, it doesn’t even look like they manipulated it, but also because “pacific” is written in the near the bottom right corner. Now, I’m not saying that Nicky wasn’t in the Pacific Theatre but now that I know where this image was actually taken it’s like. Ugh. This photo was not taken in the Pacific Theatre, it was taken of American soldiers at Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.  Omaha was the codename given to one of the five sections during the Allied invasion of Normandy. D-Day is the largest seaborne invasion in history, and it eventually led to the liberation of France and the Allied victory on the Western Front. Now personally, I think Nicky being there is very interesting and the timeline meets up better with his other WW2 picture. If you’ve ever seen Saving Private Ryan (1998), that movie opens with the invasion of Omaha Beach.

This photo of Nicky excites me for several reasons but also brings up some important questions about what the fuck Nicky was up to in 1944. The original photograph shows Private G.R. MacDonald giving first aid to a French boy in Brionne on August of 1944. The interesting part for me is the uniform though. MacDonald was part of the Toronto Scottish Regiment (75th Battalion). The Toronto Scottish Regiment were actually part of Operation Jubilee, although they weren’t able to land because of the tide and only had one fatal casualty, which good for them considering what happened to everyone else at Dieppe. Although Nicky probably wasn’t a part of that considering he was with American soldiers earlier in 1944.

Next to Nicky, on the right, you can see a picture of a plane and an explosion behind it. That picture is from Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The picture is taken at the Ford Island seaplane base and you can see the USS Shaw (DD-373) explode in the center background. USS Nevada (BB-36) is also visible in the middle background, with her bow headed toward the left. Several planes are in the foreground, a consolidated PBY, Vought OS2Us and Curtiss SOCs. The wrecked wing in the foreground is from a PBY.

This photograph is of French resistance fighters and was taken in September of 1944. The French resistance was a movement that fought against the occupation of Nazi Germany after 1940. The resistance engaged in guerilla warfare, published underground newspapers, acted as spies for the Allied forces and kept up escape networks for trapped soldiers and airmen. Although the woman in the original picture isn’t identified, there were many other women involved with the French resistance like Simone Segouin, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, Lucie Aubrac, and Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux.

The first image is of a Boeing B-29A-45-BN Superfortress 44-61784 6 Bombardment Group G 24 BS. It was taken in June of 1945 while it was firebombing Osaka, Japan.

The next two images are of the smoke from the atomic bombs. The first picture is of the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and was taken by George R. Caron on August 6th, 1945. The second image shows the cloud over Nagasaki and was taken by Charles Levy on August 9th, 1945.

Okay, so this is my absolute fav manipulation in the whole movie, because it looks so good. Here we have Nicky, Joe and Booker as guerrillas during the Cuban Revolution. If you saw this image and thought “wait is that Fidel Castro?” you’d be right! The man gesturing to the ground with a stick is in fact Fidel Castro. Now, what you might have missed is the man next to Castro who has been edited to look like Booker... yeah I’m like 95% sure they put Booker’s face on Che Guevara.

This image of Nicky during the American Civil Rights Movement is from the March on Washington which happened in August of 1963. 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to call for fair treatment and equal opportunity for Black Americans. This is where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a Dream” speech.

This picture of Andy, Joe and Nicky is of Martin Luther King Jr’s speech at UC Berkeley in May of 1967. The speech was attended by about 7000 students and he spoke against the Vietnam war. Photograph by Michael Ochs (?)

This photo was taken of US soldiers in Huế during the Vietnam War. The photo was taken in 1968 during the Tet Offensive. Booker is the one behind the medic. There’s a post it note that you can see fully in a BTS image of the sociogram that confirms it’s Booker. The Tet Offensive, which was launched in January of 1968, was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, and the largest up to that point. It was a campaign of surprise attacks by the VC and PAVN against military and civilian command and control centers in South Vietnam (ARVN and the USA). The Battle of Huế lasted over a month and resulted in the destruction of the city and the massacre of thousands of civilians.

This photo of Andy helping with Operation Babylift was originally taken in 1975. Operation Babylift was an evacuation of orphans from Saigon in the face of a North Vietnamese Offensive. 3000 orphans were evacuated and at the end of April, Northern Vietnamese forces launched rockets at Saigon.

This image of Andy shows her on the Berlin Wall. The original photo was taken near the Brandenburger Tor in November of 1989. The photo shows West Berliners helping East Berliners climb the Berlin Wall after the opening of the wall was announced by the East German Communist government. The photo was taken by Jockel Finck.

tw ethnic cleansing, tw islamophobia, tw genocide. The photos of Booker in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a combat medic indicate that Booker was in Sarajevo for the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, however the original photo was taken of the Cheshire Regiment (1st Battalion) in Ahmići, in April of 1993. The Ahmići Massacre was committed by the Croats during the conflict and was part of a larger series of attacks called the Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing, and targeted Bosnian Muslim civilians. Around 120 people were murdered in Ahmići.

These last images are all from wars within the last 20 years. The first image was taken in Daychopan, Afghanistan by Sgt. Kyle Davis in September, 2003. The photo is of Company A, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division. They were searching for Taliban fighters and weapon caches.

The next image is of two aerial photos of the ISIS command and control Centre in Syria, before and after it was bombed by a US F-22 fighter jet in September 2014.

The last image is of a US soldier assisting a wounded Iraqi civilian in Fallujah, Iraq in November, 2004. Photograph was taken by Cpl. Theresa M. Medina.

As for the rest of the photos, (Joe and Nicky saving the man in the cave, Joe in the DRC, some WW2 photos and some background photos in the BTS images and during the movie) I haven’t been able to find them because they’re not clear, I don’t want to look at historical archives anymore or I don’t even know where to start with searching for them. I might pick up searching again later if I decide to become even more like Copley than I already am. If you have any additional info about some of the missing photos let me know! Also if you want any of the original photos or resources just let me know and I can send them to you!

edit: I just want to make this very clear, but some of TOGs involvement here is suspicious as hell. Obviously we don’t know the exact circumstances, but things like Nicky being shown as a mercenary during the Simba rebellion, Booker as an American soldier during the Vietnam War and the images of US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have some incredibly negative and incriminating implications. I worry that in my excitement about finding some of these images I glossed over pretty horrific details and context. It’s important to be conscious of some of the very real tragedies and atrocities being shown here.

#the old guard #Andromache the Scythian #Yusuf al Kaysani #Nicolo di Genova #the old guard meta #tog meta #tog posts #Sebastien Le Livre #long post #tog history #also i will say #if anyone does want to track down the original joe in the congo pic #please look after yourself #i stopped trying to find it because going through pictures from the DRC can be very disturbing #i think it's also worth noting that in terms of the context of each image i decided to go for picture specific #while leaving the broader cultural context more vague #like i'm not about to explain the crimean war or the congo crisis on this post #this is just a jumping off point about certain events!! do your own research too!! #also lmaooo do you know who was also in the congo in the 1960s? fucking che guevara #i am also like 80% sure the cave rescue picture was staged #i simply cannot find it #anyway now that this is done comparative timeline drops soon

[historic-old-guard-lover]

What would be some hobbies of the old guards ?

People have been having fun for centuries, only limited by their surroundings. Of course, a life of travelling to fight in wars is not very conducive to collecting belongings, so I like to think that the oldest members had less material-dependent hobbies. In the way that the younger members all seem to like reading to some extent, I think the older members loved singing and reciting epics, especially if they were involved in them. Besides these, I’ve gone and given them a “personality” and matched up three relatively correctly-aged activities that they might have picked up when they were younger.

Lykon aka the Practical Hobbyist: wrestling (which we know goes back 15,000 years) especially with Quynh who taught him northern Vietnamese styles called vật cổ truyền, clay sculpting (an old and respectable art, can be for useful things), and blade-smithing (making and repairing their own weapons was important because pre-Iron and early Iron was prone to damage)

Bonus: board games simply because of how novel they must have been ~3,000 years into life (the earliest we’ve found was from ~3100 BCE) and why not pick up the games of Senet and Mehen from Ancient Egypt?

Andy aka the Adrenaline Junky: horseback racing and eventually chariot racing (which is famous for being bloody) because horse domestication was incredibly important to the steppe nomads, free-hand mountain climbing because she loves the views, and eventually got into fishermen’s jousting aka water jousting (which is what it sounds like: knock your opponent into the water) in Ancient Egypt (where people usually drowned or were maimed by crocodiles/hippos)

Bonus: Knattleikr, an all-day full-contact ball game invented by the Icelandic Vikings which involved hitting a heavy ball with a stick (or your hands), which she’s really sad that no one knows how to play anymore

Quynh aka the Eclectic: sailing (she can make a mean thung-chai or coracale ten different ways) which was crucial in southern modern-day Vietnam, falconry that she picked up in ancient Mesopotamia (~2000 BCE) because it was cool, and what we now would call gymnastics when the Guard traveled in Ancient Greece (and then later the Roman Empire) at first as a battle skill but then later for fun

Bonus: woomera/atlatl or spear-throwing, which she could have picked up from the First-Nations Australians (aside: “aborigines” is disfavored by the indegenous groups because of the colonial implications) or various Central American indigenous groups because bows and arrows are cool but atlatl/hul'che/woomera were both faster and traveled farther

Nicky aka the Monastic Lifestyle Lover: gardening and animal-husbandry because “his heart overflows with kindness” = takes care of baby animals, debating philosophy especially with the Love of His Life and especially if he can read (boy is he in for a surprise with the libraries of the Islamic Golden Age), and leather-crafting that starts as a chore and grows into an artistic passion (he made Andy’s arm braces)

Bonus: he’s been working on his poetry after a few centuries of Joe wooing him with his skills (he’s not great at it, but Joe loves it)

Joe aka the Artist: traditional Islamic arts of poetry, calligraphy, and painting/sketching, picked up goldsmithing (which is actually any precious metal) at some point to make wedding bands but found out he really loved it, fell in love with performing arts (mostly theater) at some point and may or may not have been cast as Othello in one of the first performances

Bonus: wrestling (did you see that bear hug at the beginning of the film?) which reminds Andy and Quynh of Lykon who loved it just as much so they encourage it all the time

Booker aka the Insecure Eclectic: reading and collecting antique books especially if they’re older than him (age inadequacy issues amiright?), playing around with explosives especially once dynamite gets invented (1867) and he doesn’t have to worry about setting his clothes on fire with gunpowder, using and collecting “modern technology” like owning one of the first light-bulbs or telephones which everyone else kinda laughs at but Nile thinks is very cool

Bonus: he made the other three teach him the basics of archery and sword-fighting for the novelty but found out that he LOVES Andy’s labrys when he gets the opportunity (though axe-throwing is a good second choice)

Nile aka the Millenial: making playlists for every mood and occasion (she has one for each the others that she puts on when she misses one of them when they split up), video games which she starts collecting once she realizes that it’s going to be difficult to find an x-box or wii in 200 years, and one-on-one pick-up basketball which reminds her of growing up with her brother

Bonus: once she’s come to terms with what it means to be immortal, she decides to pick up fire performing because it both awed and terrified her when she was mortal (and Booker is a bad influence with explosives)...Nicky is still mad about what she did to the garden at the Malta safehouse when she was still learning

#asks #answering other people's asks as a hobby #lovely anon #the old guard #hobbies #pasttimes #giving my opinions #historic #but only slightly #brief references to what's cannon

[cryhardanddanceharder]

Andy’s headcanons because we need to talk more about her:

She’s 6732 years old. She says she doesn’t remember her age, and it might be true, maybe she forgot to keep counting, but she thinks she’s somewhere between 6500 - 7000.

She’s a warrior since she’s a teenager, because the time she was borned was the “eye for eye, teeth for teeth” period.

She’s more an action person than a word person, because her first language was everything related to gestual actions. She can read body language better than anyone, so she can make you feel the more comfortable or uncomfortable you ever felt in your life depends the situation. She does little actions to show her love.

She’s ambidextrous. She can use her weapons perfectly with each one of her hands. (and later write too)

She’s been worshipped as a goddess at least in two or threes comunities she’s been part of. She actually thought she was a goddess at the beginning, because she was the only one who couldn’t die. But then, when years passes and she’s the only one not dying, but she loses all the people she loves and trascend generation after generation, she stops thinking it like a goddess thing and starts seeing it as a curse.

She used to wear clothes made of extinct animals skin, necklaces made with teeth, flowers and horns crowns.

When she was a goddess she had slaves, but once she overcome her goddess complex and realises how wrong it is (because all humans are equal, they all die no matter their social status, their nationality, their religion, skin color, gender, sexual preferences) she stops it. She starts fighting against it, every time she can. She still fight against it in the present time (human trafficking). 

I feel like she could also been a slave or prisoner in some period time. Maybe as a punnish from her inmortality? Because mortals see her as a threat?

She loves storytelling and stargazing. That’s why in present time she loves to go camping, she loves sleeping outside. She’s so old that even she had seen the sky change. The stars constellations changes but she learns those changes. There is something comforting about stargazing, so she keeps doing it.

She has very good location sense. She can always find the way to get to where she wants to go.

She’s been there when the first language was created, that’s why it’s easy for her to learn new languages. 

She was there when the pyramids of Egypt were built, maybe she worked in the construiction of one of them (?

She’s gender fluid and bisexual (or could be pansexual).

She knew the Sahara dessert before it becomes a dessert. She knew it with trees and vegetation.

She loves horses more than (most) people. 

 She was the lider of the scythians.

Her name “Andromache” comes from all the legends, that actually are true. She’s the amazon who defeated Heracles and once upon a time she was married to Hector of Troy.

She was the one who trained the amazon warriors on how to be warriors.

She was a gladiator for some time and had fights in the roman colliseum.

She writes mixing languages, because why not? That’s how her thoughts are anyway, in mixing languages. “Let’s put this word in scythian, and that one in greek, and the other in saumerian or tamil, and let’s finish in italian because italy it’s actually the country i am at the moment”.

When she starts dreaming about Quynh she thinks she’s crazy, untill she starts dreaming about Lykon too. She tried to indentify wich languages they speak in the dreams, so she could learn them before meeting them. 

She met Jesus once. She doesn’t find him that special. He didn’t come back to life, at least not in the way inmortals do.

Lykon, Quynh and her have a chaotic dynamic. They always die to save the others, to save them from the pain; wich in some way it’s ridiculous because they are all inmortal. But they always fight about it like children.

She can speak all the languages (even those that are extinct), only she sometimes forget how to speak in some of them, but remembers once she hears someone speaking it.

She knows more way to kill than entire armies will ever learn. 

She can use any kind and type of weapon. She’s as good as archer as Quynh and as good as a sniper as Nicky, but if she can choose another weapon she will do because she prefers hand and hand combat. 

She feels every death. She might have been a warrior all her life, but she doesn’t take pleassure on killing. We can see that in the church scene, her face tells us all how much it takes from her to be that lethal.

She’s very protective of the others inmortals. They are her family. And she feels like she has to protect them, because she has been alone for so long that she doesn’t want to take chances on that ever happening again. 

She’s become more protective after Lykon’s death, because now they know even them don’t last forever. She wants to protect the time she has with the other and thinks the best way to do it is to be the one who always goes first. 

She hates to dream about Nicolo and Yusuf at the begining because it hurts her to see them killing each other. For someone who has been alone for so long, it hurts to see that. Because for her they are lucky to have started their inmortality together.

Lots of deaths and trauma. She probably been raped at least once. 

She died from dehydratation and hunger more times that she can count. That’s why she’s not picky with food, she’s happy as long there is something in front of her to eat. She can cook good enough, but she’s not fan of doing it.

She died from every tipe of weapon: spears, swords, arrows, axes, throwing stones, daggers, knives, cannons, guns, grenades, bombs. Also she died from being dismembered, from being hanged and burn alive.

Once Quynh’s is taken to her ocean prison, Andy was tortured and burned alive. They chose water methods for Quynh and fire methods for Andy.

She have tried to kill herself sometimes when she was depressed. They way i see it probably three times: one when she found out her inmortality and wanted to see how it worked, two when she lose her goddess complex and was tired of being alone for so long, and three after she realised that finding Quynh was impossible.

She spent lot of years looking for Quynh with Joe and Nicky, untill they realised it’s an impossible mission. She still checks new technological inventions and andvances to see if they have a chance. But as long as she knows it’s impossible and technology doesn’t help, even the marines and ocean experts says it would be easier to find something in the moon than in the bottom of the ocean.

The only time she prayed in her life was to ask for Quynh’s death, so she would stop suffering from constantly drowning. And for hers, because she doesn’t want to keep living without Quynh.

She keeps Quynh’s belongings saved in one of her fav caves.

She likes wearing things from the other inmortals because it gives her comfort and help her feel ground. She always wears Quynh’s necklace. And sometimes she wears Joe’s cap, Nicky’s hoodie, Booker’s jackets. She also shares t-shirts with them, or more like stole t-shirts from them.

Wars she probably fighted in: Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley, Corsica civil war, war between Corinth and Corzira, Expedition of the Ten Thousand, Latin wars, First Peloponnesian War, First medical war, Thasos Rebellion, Roman-Etruscan wars, Samos War, Second medical war, Wars of Veii, Trojan war, Sicilian wars, Alexander The Great  conquest of Persia, An Lushan Rebellion,  Mongol Conquests, Conquests of Tamerlane, Qing dynasty conquest of Ming dynasty, Dungan revolt, Hundred Years’ War, World War I, Russian Civil War, Ten Years’ War, World War II, Vietnam War, Afghanistan War.

Some modern revolutions and independence processes she possibly was/could be: French Revolution, Haitian independence, USA independence, Russian Revolution, Cuba revolution, LATAM independences, India independence, Australia independence, New Zeland Independence, Africans independences.

She died from electrocution, trying to find out how electricity works.

She died learning to drive a car and learning to pilot a plain. 

In World War II she was a pilot of the night witches.

Baklava and really anything that is sweet are her comfort food.

The first time she had ice cream she became a fan and only eat ice cream for like an entire year.

She likes percussion music: all types of drums, cymballs, tambourine, maracas, bongos, castanets.  

She likes theater more than cinema. 

She likes tea more than coffee. 

She can sleep everywhere. A chair? Good. The floor? Good. The earth and grass in the middle of nowhere? Good. A cave? Good. A tree? Good. The train. Good. A Car? Good. The bus? Good. A plain? Good. The couch? Good. An armchair? Good. All is good. Sleep when you can moto is big on her, because beds are a modern concept she still can’t fully incorporate. And without Quynh doesn’t feel like doing it. 

She’s very good on learning new things because she’s used to everything constantly changing. And when she finds something hard to learn she is patient, after all she has all the time on the world to learn it and master it (she’s kinda perfectionist).

She’s okay with technology, she could understand more if she wanted to. But she let’s Booker have that place and handle it, because she sense he needs to have something as his responsability to feel he’s useful to the team.

There’s personal things (clothes, weapons, paintings) of her in lot of museums. Joe and Nicky would try to recover some things of her (and them) from time to time.

Hard on the outside, soft on the inside. Ironic and dark humor.

She’s the best at dissapearing when the team takes time out of their missions, if she doesn’t want to be found there is no way you could find her.

She’s been nomad most of her life. She can’t stop moving. She loves traveling with no destination in mind, just for the act of it.

She gives up sometimes because she’s old and she’s tired, but if you give her a good reason to keep fighting she’s all in. 

She has the biggest heart (even if she tries to hide it) and actually loves humanity, if not she wouldn’t have fight for so long… and still does. 

(if you want to read more headcanons: here are the ones i have for Quynh)

#if you have more headcanons please share them with me #andromache the scythian #the eternal warrior #fav ♥ #the old guard #tog headcanons #andy's headcanons #some of these headcanons are actually inspired in my tog fic a million ways to die #sorry if there are any typos #english is not my first language #andy defense squad #andromaquynh #should i do andromaquynh headcanons after this?

[captainpikeachu]

Differences between The Old Guard film & Book 1 of the comics (and how I feel about the changes)

Long story short, I actually do prefer the film version of the story, as I think it makes for stronger character dynamics established upfront and for greater character growth and arcs throughout the story.

I’ll list the differences here and I will speak about how each of these changes I think affects the story we saw on film versus the one we got in the comics, and how these changes may play into character dynamics and arcs if a sequel film were to happen.

1. No Baklava tasting scene.

In the comics, the team meets up at some outside cafe to speak about meeting Copley and teases Andy a bit about her “hall of fame” of bed partners. In the film, we have the Baklava tasting scene when everyone meets up at the hotel. The big difference between these two scenarios is that in the comics, it is to set up the job, and to comment upon Andy’s rotating door of bed partners which we are shown over the opening narration. But the film forgoes to the more sexualized focus on Andy’s love life to explore and show visually the bond of these 4 immortals. Using the baklava tasting, we immediately establish the character personalities and dynamics of the team, making us more invested in this group and their bonds with each other - all without sexualizing Andy, in fact, there’s more than a few times in the comics where Andy’s love life gets randomly brought up, including Andy saying Nile’s brother is hot upon seeing his photo. The film thankfully decided to focus on the character dynamics instead.

2. In the comics, it’s Nicky and Andy who meet Copley instead of Booker and Andy. (also Booker and Andy’s dynamic)

This change in the film where we have Booker and Andy meeting Copley instead is a continuation of the film’s intention to highlight Booker and Andy’s close dynamic. In fact, it begins even earlier as the movie opens with Andy and Booker meeting up first and Andy giving Booker the first edition Don Quixote. And this continues throughout the film where Booker basically acts as Andy’s right hand man, and this dynamic remains even through Booker’s betrayal and in the ending scene where they part ways. The little change with a different character swap doesn’t seem very important until you see the whole film and realizes that a lot of hinges on selling the audience of Booker and Andy’s relationship and Booker’s love for the team. And this is where the film, aware of each character’s full arc, changes things around to make sure every scene in the film is used to push character arcs into the right resolution at the end.

3. Killbox scene - in comics, team is still standing on their feet. 

I noted upon reading the comics that when the team gets shot by the soldiers in that killbox ambush, the team are still on their feet, and Andy verbally signals “it’s our turn” before attacking. In the film, our team actually falls and dies, the soldiers then turn away from the group as the team regenerates and between a few shared gazes, wordlessly get up and attack. This is another indication of the film’s intention to SHOW not TELL. Through the visual language the film uses, we immediately not only see that our team can fall and die and the healing takes time and is not pleasant, but also that they move as a unit without so much as a word. And just like that baklava scene in the beginning of the movie, it builds up the team’s relationship and speaks to their years together without having to dump any exposition.

4. No Andy and Nile fight scene on the plane. (also Andy and Nile’s dynamic)

Not only does Nile not have a fight scene with Andy, for pretty much the entire run of Book 1, Nile really does not exhibit much agency beyond just following along with everyone else. Sure she asks questions and such, but her relationship with Andy is not built up much, and Nile seems to only be there because she’s got nowhere else to go, she seems to just serve as a plot point that happens and less as a character. The film, on the other hand, carefully crafts an arc for Andy and Nile to go on, culminating in Andy and Nile sharing that scene where Andy expresses that she now knows why Nile appeared when Andy lost her immortality. We see their relationship grow and change throughout the film, we see Nile react to Andy and eventually teaching Andy about how to live again. 

5. Nile does not meet Nicky and Joe before their kidnapping.

In the comics, Nile does not meet Nicky and Joe until the very end fight when they’re all escaping from Merrick’s place. Nile basically has no relationship with Nicky and Joe, barely even knows them, because when she comes to the safehouse with Andy, Nicky and Joe were already kidnapped. The film instead changes scenes around where Nile does return with Andy and meet the team, spends at least some time with them before Nicky and Joe get kidnapped. I tweeted to the director Gina Prince-Bythewood to ask her about the decision to have Nile meet Nicky and Joe before the attack on the safehouse, and she confirmed my belief that it was to establish a stronger family/team dynamic to the audience. After all, if your main cast of characters don’t even know each other’s names until literally the last act of the movie, it is very difficult to make the team/family dynamic believable. This change of having Nile knowing Nicky and Joe establishes Nile’s further relationship and attachment to the team, that they aren’t just two random strangers that she doesn’t even know. And it builds up this team of 5 so that when they do go on to escape from Merrick’s labs at the end, we are cheering for this team to kick ass together, rather than wondering why Nile would care to go rescue two strangers she’s never met.

6. Copley is not sympathetic.

Copley in the comics is not a sympathetic character. While he is not necessarily evil, there is no motivation of grief and loss that drives him to act the way he does. He basically bails on Merrick at the end out of self preservation. In the film, we know that Copley watched his wife die and that pushed him to wanting to create a cure to end suffering, his backstory mirrors Booker’s struggles, in turn creating sympathy for both characters. The fact that Copley in the film is still a decent person makes Booker betraying the team and working with Copley a more palatable and understandable choice, especially as Copley ends up helping Nile get to Merrick’s lab and even ends up serving as the team’s tech/eye-in-the-sky person. This change for Copley’s character serves as another aspect where the film took great care to focus on character motivations and arcs. Copley’s research at the end serves to give Andy a reason to keep fighting, thus helping Andy and the team complete their arcs where they started jaded and tired, but now ready to fight another day.

7. Booker shoots Andy and Nile in revelation of his betrayal.

In the comics, Nile is also there with Andy when Booker turns on them upon meeting up with Copley again. Booker shoots both of them and doesn’t really say much as Copley talks about why they’re doing this. Then Andy basically kills Booker, threatens Copley, and jumps out of a window with Nile and Booker. They get to a desert where Booker and Andy proceed to shoot each other again multiple times until Nile stops them and Booker tells them why he betrayed the team. This chain of events is obviously different in the film, and this difference sharply contrasts Booker and Andy’s relationship in the comics as opposed to what they are in the film. In the film, when Booker shoots Andy and she’s tied up, he keeps on trying to explain to her why he’s doing this, Andy’s reaction is pained and heartbroken, and Booker is too and later on panics when she won’t stop bleeding. When Merrick’s men arrive, he tries to get them to leave her alone and fights to get to her when they take them both. This change, along with Andy’s more touching reaction to finding Booker injured at the safehouse, paints a more deep and nuanced bond between the two of them. Instead of them just repeatedly yelling and shooting at each other, we actually get to see them talk, we see them being gentle and physically caring towards each other. This shows to an audience a relationship that feels deeper and more loving than the comics which seem almost colder in comparison. And this deep bond the film creates plays into both Andy and Booker’s character arcs at the end of the film upon their separation. Again, the film takes care to focus on character relationships, and allow those relationships to fully form and fully reach the resolution that befits the character arcs. 

8. Merrick is far more despicable and murderous. (also his doctor character is toned down)

Merrick in the comics is literally psychotic. He not only stabs Joe once, but multiple times, and proceeds to do the same to Nicky. And he constantly talks about wanting to hurt them and takes pleasure in it. Merrick in the film is not only smaller in stature than his buff comics counterpart, he’s also less physically violent. Sure he stabbed Joe because he wanted to see the evidence himself and he’s hardly that caring about ethics, but he still seems like an otherwise normal if not just simply greedy CEO type, not psychotic serial murderer type. This difference in toning down the character ultimately I think serves the film better because as Copley is more sympathetic, having him work with someone who is clearly and obviously behaving like a murdering lunatic would be really hard to swallow. This toning down of characters also happens with the doctor. In the comics, Doctor Ivan is basically just stated to not care about ethics, while Doctor Kozak in the film does share a talk about ethics and morality with Nicky where she says she believes they can be used to save the world. Again, the film seems intent on giving every character an understandable motivation, even among the villains of the story, which grounds the film in a feeling of reality, because no one is so outlandishly just being an evil mustache twirling villain. This change also produces some possible loose ends for the film’s sequel, as while the comics version of the doctor is dead, the film version only got whacked on the head by Nile, not outright killed so she may pop back up again in the sequel.

9. Nile does not get her solo fight.

In the comics, because Nile escapes from Copley with Andy and Booker, she returns with them to go find Nicky and Joe at Merrick’s place in Dubai. So she is never actually on her own at all in the comics. As I spoke about before, Nile’s character in the comics just tagged along, never really getting to come into her own. There is really no arc for Nile, whereas the film did the opposite. Because the film lets her have an arc, and lets her making the decision to join the team be something she comes to terms with on her own choice, this agency affords Nile growth that the comics doesn’t give her. Her solo fight is the culmination of her coming into her own power and acceptance. Once again, the film is consistent on ensuring that the characters change and grow and have arcs. This character building makes Nile a much more interesting and complex character than one note. Nile also gets to kill Merrick while protecting Andy and mirroring the plane moment from earlier in the film, while in the comics, everyone kills Merrick together. That moment in the comics did not serve the narrative catharsis that Nile taking out Merrick did.

10. Andy is mortal.

In the comics, Andy starts immortal and jaded, and ends the story really not much changed at all. Other than defeating a villain, you really don’t get the feeling that she’s changed from the experience. There is no revelation of her purpose, she just kinda does what she has to do, even if that means threatening an old woman. Andy in the film clearly starts out feeling lost in her purpose, but gradually through Nile’s joining of the team and Booker’s betrayal and her own mortality, she starts to see what her purpose is and wanting to be alive again. The scene of Andy at the store with the employee who helps bandage her up doesn’t exist in the comics because Andy is not mortal, therefore there is no sudden questioning of why, of re-evaluating her feelings about humanity. But the film takes the time to make Andy confront this, forces Andy to not only face it but learn from it. This change not only gives the story more stakes, but also allows Andy to have a character arc that affords her growth and an answer to her opening narration. It also makes Nile more than a plot point and her joining the team be an important narrative that makes an important change.

11. We never see Joe and Nicky’s reaction to Booker’s betrayal.

In the comics, because Andy and Booker never gets captured, when the team meets back up together, Nicky and Joe has no idea of the betrayal. And we never see them find out because after they kill Merrick, the next scene is them exiling Booker. In the film however, we do see Joe reacting angrily to Booker, we once again get a look into their dynamic and Booker pointing out how Nicky and Joe always had each other, meanwhile Nicky is trying to calm Joe down to stop him from saying something that he might regret later. This change is a further way that this film builds upon the established character dynamics. We as the audience see their reactions, see their humanity, and see them behave as a family would when feeling betrayal. But also that Andy has changed from that jaded tired person into someone ready to fight again when she tells Booker that they’ve been doing a shitty job of living and he needs to get up and stop wallowing in his self pity and pain. This makes their separation hit harder at the end because there are real emotions on all sides. Like all families, feelings can be complicated but there is also care and love. At the end, we see Booker nod to Joe as they all leave, signaling that despite the anger and chasm between them right now, they are still family. The film once again reorients the story to focus on character relationship, on selling the audience this familial bond, because if we don’t believe in it, then Booker’s redemption falls apart, and the film in many ways falls apart.

12. Noriko and Lykon.

Now the obvious change here is casting. Noriko is Japanese in the comics and her film counterpart Quynh is played by a Vietnamese actress. And Lykon is white in the comics whereas in the film he is portrayed by a Black actor. In the comics, Noriko fell overboard during a storm. In the film, due to budget constraints, they went with her being dropped into the ocean locked in an iron maiden. In the comics, Lykon spent over 2000 years with Andy before he died during the Renaissance, meaning he would have met Nicky and Joe. In the film and the history clips that Netflix posted, Lykon died before Nicky and Joe were immortal. Obviously with Lykon, it ultimately does not affect the story either way since he is dead, it’s just clearly the film changed the years he spent with Andy to avoid any confusions and to make things a little more simple in streamlining the team’s history. But the change with Noriko/Quynh is a much bigger thing. Firstly, character motivation - it’s one thing to be lost during a storm and another thing to be purposefully locked into an iron coffin and left in the ocean to suffer. This difference could make the difference between how Noriko reacts to Andy and the team in the comics, and how Quynh will react to everyone in the film. Secondly, because of the way the film presents Andy and Booker’s bond and especially now with Andy’s mortality, which the comics does not have, this could spell a big divergence in what a sequel could do with Booker and Quynh’s interactions. Because Booker would still be guilty over Andy’s mortality, and he would be more reluctant to do anything that could hurt Andy and the team, leaving me to suspect that he is less likely to go towards a villain route in betraying the team again. Whatever Quynh may get him to do is likely going to be out of force/coercion, if Quynh’s intention is less than good.

---------------

So these are just some of the big differences that I feel like affects the story ultimately told in the comics and the film. I did enjoy Book 1 of the comic and I am planning to get Book 2 once the collection is out. But I think the film’s changes really made it a focus on enhancing the character relationships and allowing individual characters to have their own arcs of growth. The comic tells a great action fare. But the film’s changes effused more humanity into the characters in a way that I feel the comic lacked. The film also really make you question the issue of immortality and what it all means and how it effects people while the comic focused on more of the action adventure story with the immortality as more or less a tool than really a theme.

Ultimately, I think the changes in the film took what worked in the comics and really elevated the story.

#the old guard #andromache the scythian #nicolo di genova #yusuf al kaysani #sebastien le livre #nile freeman #james copley #steven merrick #the old guard spoilers

[thetransguard-archive]

I really have a hard time with ao3's interface, would you mind posting your fic on here so it's more accessible to me personally? I understand if you don't want to, have a lovely day!

of course, it’s not a problem! putting it under the cut because it’s kind of long 

tw: canon temporary character death (nicky’s shooting), mild temporary amnesia, graphic description of canon typical violence

all the little lives

Later, Joe chalks it up to the adrenaline coursing through his veins, the same purpose that has carried him, exhausted and aching, up and up and up, through the sleek building to carry out Andy’s strategy. So it’s only when he offers the end of the rope to Nicky to tie around his arm, and the green eyes that stare back at him are blankly confused that he realises.

“São Pau-” but he doesn’t let Booker finish his sentence, doesn’t want Nicky stammering apologies for things beyond his control. So he cuts in, “I’ll make the entrance this time.” Loops the cord around his forearm a few times, tightens it. Swaps out his gun for Nicky’s. He has less ammunition in this one, but it’s bigger and louder and here his role is not to attack effectively, just to put them off balance, even for a moment. As he pulls away, Nicky’s fingers wrap around his wrist.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. The tips of his fingers are still terribly cold.

Joe looks from Nicky’s solemn face to Booker’s. The guilt in him pours from his eyes, the slant of his mouth, the set of his shoulders. Pity and pain wage war inside Joe’s mind, but right now there are bigger things to take care of. They don’t need words, not after two centuries of brotherhood.

I’m trusting you, for this. For now. Keep him safe.

He waits three seconds after the fire door slams shut behind them to smash through the window.

--

In the elevator down, his eyes can’t stop drifting to Booker. He’s standing closest to the doors, gun gripped tight. Joe doesn’t want to bore holes in the back of his brother’s head, but he can't help himself. He can’t stop wondering. When? When? At what point did Booker decide that whatever family they had all built together, was never going to be enough? That night a decade or so ago, when he’d smashed the night’s wine bottle in a drunken rage and screamed at Andy and Nicky and him until Joe had cried? Or even before that, the last job in Russia in the seventies, when he refused to speak at all? When they’d laughed over Andy’s baklava? At what point had Booker decided that a chance of true, final death was worth the rest of them?

He feels the beginnings of tears in the backs of his eyes and before he can scrub at them to push them back, he feels a warm hand on the small of his back. Nicky. He refocuses on that small pressure, on the taste of blood in his mouth, the weight of his boots. He breathes, and does not cry. There’s nothing to be ashamed of in tears, but right now he needs to keep a steady head.

There’ll be time later.

The gunshots are faint but Nicky still jolts, pale eyes latching onto the ceiling. When the elevator doors open, he sprints, pushing past Booker. Joe’s not far behind, and they help Nile out of the car as her joints snap back into place, muscles reforming around shattered bone. Bonds made in blood, in pain. In love. Joe meets Nicky’s eyes through the dash mirror as they drive into something new.

--

They stop, after a while, because Andy’s still woozy from blood loss and the shock of actually feeling the physical pain through to its entirety. She and Joe swap, and after a brief argument in which Andy increasingly slurs her words in a way that’s alarming to all in the car, Nile takes her place in shotgun. Joe looks back after maybe half an hour and finds their fearless leader drooling a little on his beloved’s shoulder. Nicky’s drifted off a little too, days of almost constant pain catching up to him. They’re only human, after all. Some small selfish part of Joe wants to swap out and let himself nap too, but Nile’s new and has just taken a swan dive out of a skyscraper and doesn’t even know where to go, really, and Booker...

Logically, Joe knows that there’s no chance that Booker would drive them into another trap, another capture. This was his only plan, and he’s shed blood to make it right, however immediately. But this new sting of pain and horror is brand new and fresh in his chest, so he keeps driving, and ignores the way Booker’s eyes keep flicking to his in the mirror. Doesn’t acknowledge him the way Nicky has been doing, but for a different reason. Nicky retreats, when he’s angry- the problem shrinks in his mind, becomes somewhat invisible. His eyes slide over the issue like a river over a rock until it’s eventually worn away. His rage is deep and slow to dissipate. But for Joe? If he lets himself go, he knows exactly the type of venom he’s capable of spitting. And it’s as Andy said. Now just isn’t the time.

So, he drives.

--

Somehow between one blink and the next, they are at the safehouse. It’s almost dark now, the deepening sky wreathed in purples and blues in a way that makes him itch for his paints. If he had the energy for it. He feels worn down to the bone. Joe is just uncurling his aching fingers from the wheel, but Nile is already out of the car, stepping around to shake Andy awake. So young, for all of this already, and stronger than all of them. She’ll be the best of us. Most days he feels fine, is able to keep all of that time packed away, out of sight and out of mind. There’s always something new to see, to experience, to love. Today though, he just feels the weight of all the years.

(He’s so fucking tired.)

A gentle voice to his right, that odd mix of old Ligurian and Arabic that they’d invented, all on their own so many lifetimes ago. He’s smiling even before he knows why.

“Yusuf, love, let’s go. Let’s go.”

He lets himself lean on Nicky, just a little, as they slouch towards the door that Nile’s taken Andy through. She doesn’t try turning on the lights, but he does, and Nile jolts like she’s been shocked when they actually flick on. Booker closes the door behind them with a soft click. Still trying to blend away into the background. They stand there in the atrium for a moment, still covered in dust and smoke and blood. The house is large and it swallows the sounds of their ragged breaths.

“Some of our safehouses aren’t abandoned churches and caves.” Nicky’s voice has gone even softer with fatigue. “Hot water works, too. The rooms have ensuites.” He doesn’t say anything else before he begins leading Joe up the stairs.

Joe, as tired as he is, is pleased to know that Nicky at least remembers these little things. It means he’s healing well.

The bedroom door locks behind them and they strip off their clothes in a pile in the corner. They’ll have to burn it all tomorrow. Now, Joe goes hunting for where they’d kept their spares while Nicky finds the soap and starts the hot water running. When he returns, Nicky is already submerged to his neck. They’d allowed themselves to splurge in buying this place, and when Joe seats himself behind Nicky there’s plenty of room to move. Nevertheless, his heart leans back, damp head on his shoulder. They sit for a moment. Soak in the quiet of it all. They’ll have to rinse themselves off properly later, but for now they let the steam pool and swirl and fill the slightly dusty bathroom.

“How much?”

Sometimes, when one of them suffers a catastrophic head injury, it takes a while to remember it all. The last time had been Booker, and he’d been blown to bits by a mine and died three more times before they could piece enough of him back together for it to matter. They’d taken turns, him and Nicky and Andy, for the few days after, filling in all the gaps that Booker couldn’t recall at the time. The memories all came back eventually, but at least there was a warning. Some things just shouldn’t be remembered alone.

Between the two of them, it had been Joe the last time things were forgotten. He’d been dead and in the process of healing before the tank had rolled over his head, killing him again. He'd awoken to a hysterical Nicky, blood all over his face and hands. Trying to piece his pulverised skull back together. He hadn’t remembered what exactly had brought him to this place, but he’d tried to wipe away Nicky’s tears, first. Always, Nicky first. That kiss had tasted of blood. When it was either of them, they usually just told tales to each other. They’d been together for all of it, hadn’t they?

There is not a single piece of his soul that he hadn’t already bared.

“Just little... Little pieces. Tell me.” Nicky has switched to Arabic, rounding out the sounds in his throat. Joe can feel the rumble of his chest, knows without looking that Nicky’s eyes are closed. He grabs the soap, starts working on what he can reach. Nicky’s sifting back through a millennium of memory. He can help speed things along.

Nicky leans forwards and Joe leans with him, lathering soap down the length of his spine. He considers. He begins, his voice a bare whisper, barely sound. Pure thought passed from one half to another.

“You are Nicolo di Genova. You are Nicholas, and Nico, and Nicky to those who love you. You are loved, dearly. You are the other side of my beating heart. You are the son to parents who did not care for you and deserve no care in return. You are the friend and brother to Andromache of Scythia, and Sébastien le Livre, and… Nile Freeman. She’s new. She saved us. He betrayed us.

We have lived thousands of lives, side by side. I have killed you, and you have killed me. Our deaths are the same. Our lives align. When that final night comes, it shall come for us both. We have walked through war, and peace, through hatred and with love, always. We hurt those who harm. We protect those who cannot protect themselves. You are good with children, and small animals. You have practised kindness until it has become the bedrock on which you build your soul.

You dream, and you think harder than any of us, because out of us you are the one who knows the danger of action without reason. You are the philosopher to my poet. You make sense of my art. You sing, when you can, and it is always the most beautiful sound to my ears, comparable only to your voice, and the beat of your heart.

You speak only when you need to. Your patience is boundless. You inflicted great harm once, on me, on my people and on others. But you learn, and you have grown. You are forgiven. You are always learning, eager for knowledge. Your curiosity is the best part of you, in my opinion. Along with all the rest.

You have purpose. You are good. Always, I love you.”

Nicky’s hair has grown back in exactly the same way it had been before Keane shot him, but the skin is tender under his wet fingers. They turn around in the bathtub, splashing water out the sides, and he feels Nicky’s hands on his shoulders now, easing away the grime.

“And you?” Nicky’s voice is breathless, teasing. Somewhere, somehow in between getting into the water and now, the weight has lifted from Joe’s bones, has set aside that grief and guilt and anger and fear. It’s still there, but he’ll deal with it in the morning. The sun will rise, as it always has, and there will be time later to card through everything and pack it away. Now, however, is cooling water and gentle fingers and cheap hotel soap from decades gone by. Now is the quiet after the storm. The house is shaken, but still standing. Everyone he holds in his heart is still here.

“I am Yusuf, I am Joe. I am yours. And I will never let you go.”

#the old guard #joe x nicky #kaysanova #ty for showing interest lmao #my writing #mine #anonymous #ask #reply