On Kindness and Affection
So, this essay has been brewing for a while and kinda expanded in my head due to certain events tonight. It will therefore be long. Also it contains spoilers, probably. BE WARNED.
Attachments and the World
“I have chosen,” says Francescu, “to live an untroubled life, severed from fear and pain and sorrow. To fight the shadow-it would force me to abandon that way of life and bury myself again in a hopeless world."
--Unclean Legacy, "Francescu's Answer"
Francescu, in canon, isn't attached to anything except his comfortable lifestyle. He feels a mild bond with his some of siblings -- enough exert himself slightly on their behalf, occasionally -- but not enough to risk himself. At the same time, however, he knows that his way of life is balanced on a razor's edge. The act of *choosing* to help his sister fight the Devil (in this example) will return him to the world of struggle -- and attachment.
[WARNING: Hitherby Digression Goes Here]
Francescu is a reflection of another character in Hitherby Dragons' primary storyline, Mei Ming. (To explain why this is so requires a fairly long digression into the structure and nature of the Hitherbyverse, which is tangential to this essay.) This is important, because in the story of Mei Ming and Martin there are echoes of Francescu's story at camp (though possibly the more accurate ordering is the opposite.) Mei Ming believes that she can only exist in the shadows, and that to enter the world would be her death. Martin believes otherwise, however, and in the Hitherbyverse Martin is usually right unless arguing against Jane.
[End Hitherbyverse Digression]
It's necessary to understand before going further that the entire family Gargamel is canonically and completely topped by kindness. The *only* people who are nice are Yseult Saraman and Violet Gargamel, and both of them can order anyone else in the canon around despite their lack of any useful power. (Not that they order, per se, but other people do what they want.) Violet genuinely loves her siblings, and they know it, and they take things from her that they would never have accepted from each other. (Ref: Tomas, re: "God is an illusion," in "The Nine-Fingered Man.")
So, Francescu comes to camp and has two options. The first is to establish himself with a duplicate of his comfortable home somewhere in the woods, and live as he had done before. The second is to reveal his presence, work with others to open the barrier, and eventually return home. This, in essence, is the same choice as the one he faced in "Francescu's Answer," and by choosing the second option (out of the knowledge that he would eventually need to pursue his father's legacy), he reentered the world.
So he made his first post, and people were *kind.* Sure, there were a few who were hostile or WTFing, but generally people were nice, and helpful -- two things that top the Gargamels, as seen above. The fact that they were willing to act this way to a perfect stranger made it ten times more powerful; Violet at least had the excuse that she was family. He had literally never experienced charity or the kindness of a stranger. I'm being a little repetitive here, because I can't emphasize the point enough. At this point, he still believed that any attachments he formed would be temporary, and that he could break them and step back from the world once more if he chose. He did not realize that he had alreay made a definitive choice; he had reentered the world and not been destroyed.
Master and Student
“It’s easy to laugh when you can tie up the Devil and make butterfly trees!” Francescu protested, although in fact making butterfly trees is an ineffectual weapon against the darkness.
Gargamel scratched at his face, getting a few little flecks of dead skin on his fingers. “Such little things,” he said. He shook his head tiredly and straightened. “If you want such power as that, Francescu, you need only ask.”
--Unclean Legacy, "Tomas vs. Francescu: Fight!"
Francescu has ended up with several apprentices, Hisoka foremost among them but including Ken and Sai as well. I've made the assumption that, as in most high-fantasy universes, the bond between master and apprentice is a strong one (though not always friendly, of course.) What this means is that when Francescu agrees to teach someone, he feels responsible for them and protective of them. (Francescu, himself, was never actually apprenticed. His father effectively compressed a hundred years or so of training into an instant and crammed it into his skull.)
Sai was Francescu's first student, taken on primarily out of guilt. When they first met, Francescu accidentally broke Sai, and he felt responsible; he'd repaid kindness with trauma, which left him in debt. Nothing much came of this particular apprenticeship, but it paved the way for others.
Francescu originally agreed to teach Hisoka because of Umeda's wishpost; Hisoka's wish hit a nerve, because it was precisely why he himself asked his father for the power of sorcery. He hadn't originally intended to teach the young shinigami much; enough to refine his own magic and possibly use a few additional tricks. The attachment was formed, though, and Hisoka's quick mind and eagerness to learn began a firm friendship. It also tied him just a bit more firmly to the world.
The Realm of Onyx
...slowly his heart calms, and his mind grows easy, and there is the breath of the void on Francescu’s soul.
He closes his eyes.
In the cold wet darkness of his mind he knows the peace of nothing mattering at all.
--Unclean Legacy, "Despair"
So we come to Francescu as he was in late April: changed, but mostly unaware of it, and confident that his attachments did not *matter* -- that he could, if he chose, retreat again from the world. At which point he walked into Del's Discount Ball Of Crazy(tm), and to escape his delusions drew upon the power of the onyx realm, which dreams of stillness and the dark. Effectively, he reset himself to pre-camp, temporarily severing all the attachments he had formed. When he released the power, the contrast nearly broke him, and only Tsuzuki's interference saved his sanity.
Tsuzuki was already important to Francescu; the guardian of death was the first to declare himself Francescu's friend, in canon or out of it. Add this to their shared sorcery and the fact that Tsuzuki is made of kindness (see previous re: topping) and you have a strong attachment. The Ball of Crazy cemented this; Tsuzuki reminded Francescu of the value of attachments, and that they are worth fighting for -- a decision he'd made subconsciously, but hadn't realized he'd made yet. Francescu came out of the incident with an awareness of the changes in himself; more importantly, he consciously decided he liked those changes and wanted to keep them. (He's also attached to Tsuzuki with an adamant grip, and will level anyone who hurts him, but that's a slightly different essay.)
Affection and Touch
“Listen,” says Sophie, and her face grows hot as she speaks. “You don’t have to care what they think. You don’t have to care what anybody thinks. If you can find some shelter in her arms, Manfred, then you should take it and shout praise for that opportunity to Heaven. If you can find real love with her that isn’t a sorcerous binding, then I say, do it now and don’t count the consequences. Find something that is yours and real and take it and never let it go."
--Unclean Legacy, "Abandoned"
Despite the general subject heading, this section is mostly about Francescu and Ken.
Ken was Francescu's second student, taken on as a favor to Swift and because of his responsibility to Sai. Ken's a likeable guy, though, and Francescu found himself forming another attachment quickly; it helped that Ken seemed at first to be almost completely outside his experience, a normal young man from a technological world, without the heavy cares of sorcery or the Gargamel family. When Ken first came to him, almost broken, it was mostly the apprentice-bond that led Francescu to help him (and talk to Ranma on his behalf); during the ensuing conversation, he was surprised and touched at Ken's sympathy for his emo backstory (which he's pretty open about). This is pretty much what moved the relationship from master-apprentice to friendship; their conversation after the Ball of Crazy Incident completed the transformation.
It's important to understand that there are exactly two instances of affectionate touch in all of Unclean Legacy (not counting Montechristian Gargamel and Yseult Saraman, who are married), and neither of them involve Francescu. It's not a particular stretch to think that he hasn't been hugged for comfort since his mother died, when he was five years old. When Ken first hugged Francescu, he didn't understand it, but the action spoke to something in him which wanted the affection and the comfort of someone else's presence, and he recognized that need subconsciously in Ken. Consciously, he knew that Ken was very tactile, so he began to justify physical contact as a tool to center Ken at need. Francescu is *only* tactile with Ken, though it's possible that he could become tactile with others through similar patterns.
This is approximately how matters stood at the beginning of May: Francescu had realized that his return to the world was irrevocable, and that he was comfortable with that. He was actively preserving and enhancing his attachments and friendships, because he'd learned what they meant to him. He was perfectly content to remain at camp as long as he could, so long as his father's legacy was appropriately settled (which means that he'd have to leave camp at some point, and probably return.) It was at about this point that Ken kissed him.
Francescu was aware of sex in theoretical terms, but he had no practical experience. He also had no expectations surrounding such activity; he doesn't, for example, automatically assume that Ken is in love with him or even interested in a relationship. Mostly, though, he holds the idea of sex separate from himself; it literally never occurred to him that someone would connect the two. His reaction was therefore to ask questions after his brain recovered from the shock. The answers he got essentially stabilized him; Ken wasn't in love with him, but thought it wasn't fair that he hadn't experienced kissing. This put the experience into the "unexpected kindness" category, which is something that Francescu can deal with mentally. He isn't, however, willing to kiss people often (or really much at all), even Ken; there's a part of him that feels like it's too much intimacy. Essentially, he still doesn't see himself as a sexual being. On the other hand, he tolerated and even enjoyed the kiss because it was born of kindness, and because he's used to a higher level of tactility from Ken than from anyone else. It shook him, but it ended up not changing him all that much.
As it stands, Francescu's changed a lot in a short period of time, but hopefully this essay's cleared up a bit of the how and why. I welcome commentary or criticism, so if people are reading this please feel free to poke at it. I may eventually add to it if circumstances warrant, or if I come to new conclusions.
Attachments and the World
“I have chosen,” says Francescu, “to live an untroubled life, severed from fear and pain and sorrow. To fight the shadow-it would force me to abandon that way of life and bury myself again in a hopeless world."
--Unclean Legacy, "Francescu's Answer"
Francescu, in canon, isn't attached to anything except his comfortable lifestyle. He feels a mild bond with his some of siblings -- enough exert himself slightly on their behalf, occasionally -- but not enough to risk himself. At the same time, however, he knows that his way of life is balanced on a razor's edge. The act of *choosing* to help his sister fight the Devil (in this example) will return him to the world of struggle -- and attachment.
[WARNING: Hitherby Digression Goes Here]
Francescu is a reflection of another character in Hitherby Dragons' primary storyline, Mei Ming. (To explain why this is so requires a fairly long digression into the structure and nature of the Hitherbyverse, which is tangential to this essay.) This is important, because in the story of Mei Ming and Martin there are echoes of Francescu's story at camp (though possibly the more accurate ordering is the opposite.) Mei Ming believes that she can only exist in the shadows, and that to enter the world would be her death. Martin believes otherwise, however, and in the Hitherbyverse Martin is usually right unless arguing against Jane.
[End Hitherbyverse Digression]
It's necessary to understand before going further that the entire family Gargamel is canonically and completely topped by kindness. The *only* people who are nice are Yseult Saraman and Violet Gargamel, and both of them can order anyone else in the canon around despite their lack of any useful power. (Not that they order, per se, but other people do what they want.) Violet genuinely loves her siblings, and they know it, and they take things from her that they would never have accepted from each other. (Ref: Tomas, re: "God is an illusion," in "The Nine-Fingered Man.")
So, Francescu comes to camp and has two options. The first is to establish himself with a duplicate of his comfortable home somewhere in the woods, and live as he had done before. The second is to reveal his presence, work with others to open the barrier, and eventually return home. This, in essence, is the same choice as the one he faced in "Francescu's Answer," and by choosing the second option (out of the knowledge that he would eventually need to pursue his father's legacy), he reentered the world.
So he made his first post, and people were *kind.* Sure, there were a few who were hostile or WTFing, but generally people were nice, and helpful -- two things that top the Gargamels, as seen above. The fact that they were willing to act this way to a perfect stranger made it ten times more powerful; Violet at least had the excuse that she was family. He had literally never experienced charity or the kindness of a stranger. I'm being a little repetitive here, because I can't emphasize the point enough. At this point, he still believed that any attachments he formed would be temporary, and that he could break them and step back from the world once more if he chose. He did not realize that he had alreay made a definitive choice; he had reentered the world and not been destroyed.
Master and Student
“It’s easy to laugh when you can tie up the Devil and make butterfly trees!” Francescu protested, although in fact making butterfly trees is an ineffectual weapon against the darkness.
Gargamel scratched at his face, getting a few little flecks of dead skin on his fingers. “Such little things,” he said. He shook his head tiredly and straightened. “If you want such power as that, Francescu, you need only ask.”
--Unclean Legacy, "Tomas vs. Francescu: Fight!"
Francescu has ended up with several apprentices, Hisoka foremost among them but including Ken and Sai as well. I've made the assumption that, as in most high-fantasy universes, the bond between master and apprentice is a strong one (though not always friendly, of course.) What this means is that when Francescu agrees to teach someone, he feels responsible for them and protective of them. (Francescu, himself, was never actually apprenticed. His father effectively compressed a hundred years or so of training into an instant and crammed it into his skull.)
Sai was Francescu's first student, taken on primarily out of guilt. When they first met, Francescu accidentally broke Sai, and he felt responsible; he'd repaid kindness with trauma, which left him in debt. Nothing much came of this particular apprenticeship, but it paved the way for others.
Francescu originally agreed to teach Hisoka because of Umeda's wishpost; Hisoka's wish hit a nerve, because it was precisely why he himself asked his father for the power of sorcery. He hadn't originally intended to teach the young shinigami much; enough to refine his own magic and possibly use a few additional tricks. The attachment was formed, though, and Hisoka's quick mind and eagerness to learn began a firm friendship. It also tied him just a bit more firmly to the world.
The Realm of Onyx
...slowly his heart calms, and his mind grows easy, and there is the breath of the void on Francescu’s soul.
He closes his eyes.
In the cold wet darkness of his mind he knows the peace of nothing mattering at all.
--Unclean Legacy, "Despair"
So we come to Francescu as he was in late April: changed, but mostly unaware of it, and confident that his attachments did not *matter* -- that he could, if he chose, retreat again from the world. At which point he walked into Del's Discount Ball Of Crazy(tm), and to escape his delusions drew upon the power of the onyx realm, which dreams of stillness and the dark. Effectively, he reset himself to pre-camp, temporarily severing all the attachments he had formed. When he released the power, the contrast nearly broke him, and only Tsuzuki's interference saved his sanity.
Tsuzuki was already important to Francescu; the guardian of death was the first to declare himself Francescu's friend, in canon or out of it. Add this to their shared sorcery and the fact that Tsuzuki is made of kindness (see previous re: topping) and you have a strong attachment. The Ball of Crazy cemented this; Tsuzuki reminded Francescu of the value of attachments, and that they are worth fighting for -- a decision he'd made subconsciously, but hadn't realized he'd made yet. Francescu came out of the incident with an awareness of the changes in himself; more importantly, he consciously decided he liked those changes and wanted to keep them. (He's also attached to Tsuzuki with an adamant grip, and will level anyone who hurts him, but that's a slightly different essay.)
Affection and Touch
“Listen,” says Sophie, and her face grows hot as she speaks. “You don’t have to care what they think. You don’t have to care what anybody thinks. If you can find some shelter in her arms, Manfred, then you should take it and shout praise for that opportunity to Heaven. If you can find real love with her that isn’t a sorcerous binding, then I say, do it now and don’t count the consequences. Find something that is yours and real and take it and never let it go."
--Unclean Legacy, "Abandoned"
Despite the general subject heading, this section is mostly about Francescu and Ken.
Ken was Francescu's second student, taken on as a favor to Swift and because of his responsibility to Sai. Ken's a likeable guy, though, and Francescu found himself forming another attachment quickly; it helped that Ken seemed at first to be almost completely outside his experience, a normal young man from a technological world, without the heavy cares of sorcery or the Gargamel family. When Ken first came to him, almost broken, it was mostly the apprentice-bond that led Francescu to help him (and talk to Ranma on his behalf); during the ensuing conversation, he was surprised and touched at Ken's sympathy for his emo backstory (which he's pretty open about). This is pretty much what moved the relationship from master-apprentice to friendship; their conversation after the Ball of Crazy Incident completed the transformation.
It's important to understand that there are exactly two instances of affectionate touch in all of Unclean Legacy (not counting Montechristian Gargamel and Yseult Saraman, who are married), and neither of them involve Francescu. It's not a particular stretch to think that he hasn't been hugged for comfort since his mother died, when he was five years old. When Ken first hugged Francescu, he didn't understand it, but the action spoke to something in him which wanted the affection and the comfort of someone else's presence, and he recognized that need subconsciously in Ken. Consciously, he knew that Ken was very tactile, so he began to justify physical contact as a tool to center Ken at need. Francescu is *only* tactile with Ken, though it's possible that he could become tactile with others through similar patterns.
This is approximately how matters stood at the beginning of May: Francescu had realized that his return to the world was irrevocable, and that he was comfortable with that. He was actively preserving and enhancing his attachments and friendships, because he'd learned what they meant to him. He was perfectly content to remain at camp as long as he could, so long as his father's legacy was appropriately settled (which means that he'd have to leave camp at some point, and probably return.) It was at about this point that Ken kissed him.
Francescu was aware of sex in theoretical terms, but he had no practical experience. He also had no expectations surrounding such activity; he doesn't, for example, automatically assume that Ken is in love with him or even interested in a relationship. Mostly, though, he holds the idea of sex separate from himself; it literally never occurred to him that someone would connect the two. His reaction was therefore to ask questions after his brain recovered from the shock. The answers he got essentially stabilized him; Ken wasn't in love with him, but thought it wasn't fair that he hadn't experienced kissing. This put the experience into the "unexpected kindness" category, which is something that Francescu can deal with mentally. He isn't, however, willing to kiss people often (or really much at all), even Ken; there's a part of him that feels like it's too much intimacy. Essentially, he still doesn't see himself as a sexual being. On the other hand, he tolerated and even enjoyed the kiss because it was born of kindness, and because he's used to a higher level of tactility from Ken than from anyone else. It shook him, but it ended up not changing him all that much.
As it stands, Francescu's changed a lot in a short period of time, but hopefully this essay's cleared up a bit of the how and why. I welcome commentary or criticism, so if people are reading this please feel free to poke at it. I may eventually add to it if circumstances warrant, or if I come to new conclusions.