Ink and Wine

Certain rarepairs have a small circle of devoted, yet copycat, authors penning the works. They praise each other, like each other's work, and tell each other to keep going. And, one of them wonders why I kept calling Napoleon 'Italian'. An ethnic Frenchwoman doesn't know her own history? For shame, considering the French are always so proud of their history. This work is yet another Arno/Napoleon story, penned with an author by the name of 'LooIsHere'. I'm not sure if Loo is aware that her name means 'shitter' in English slang, but oh well.

The last letter he had received from Napoleon, dated March 11, had announced his departure for Nice, by which he would join Italy. He again asked him, with his usual obstinacy, to accompany him in his campaign. What he had tacitly refused, but with more impact than with words, by not responding to his missive.

 Arno massaged his temple mechanically, wondering if he would answer. When would it be wise to answer? With what tone? Their relationship had evolved, it was obvious - more than obvious, if Arno agreed to remember their brief private exchanges - but the undisguised restraint of the letter called for only equal reserve.

This story takes place in 1796. Loo has written other stories during this time frame, and a few before. Her other story, 'Somno', has Arno cheating with Napoleon while Élise was still alive. When asked about this, Loo responded, 'I like to think they're soulmates, but the more the merrier!'

Here, it's clear they had a romantic, if not sexual, relationship. Whether this still occurred while Élise was alive, or after, cannot be said yet. It should be known it is happening when Napoleon was married to Josephine, the woman he adored.

Nothing like gay cheating. It's OK, because they're gay.

I assume you have a lot to do in Paris. The capital, although capricious and difficult to move, is constantly in turmoil. Paris is bubbling, I know, and your business is probably flourishing. I will not hide from you, however, my disappointment at not having heard from you.

I hope to soon be able to invite my wife to join me. Her tenderness is sorely lacking in my heart. I am not unaware of its activities in my absence, but I have good hope that it is only the result of the sorrow emanating from the idea of ​​my long distance to come.

Loo has written of Josephine before as being a 'seductress', and she apparently was unaware of the love letters Napoleon sent her. In reality, Napoleon was the one who courted her, and his mother, not Josephine's father, was adamantly against the marriage. She approached the marriage coolly, while he was infatuated.

The disappointment in this case stems from Napoleon getting the cold shoulder. I would think he wouldn't care, given Arno's personality of being neither here nor there.

He didn't know what to write. He refused to respond to the general's innuendos, as he refused to call him Napoleon . It was an intimacy that they had not shared since Bonaparte's arrest in August 1794. He dipped the pen in ink then put it on the sheet with the coldness he wanted to convey, and started with General Bonaparte .

This is the paragraph which establishes their sexual relationship. It should be noted this occurred not even a few days after Élise's death. Loo and the other authors of this pairing do not seem to understand that individuals interpret grief differently. In Arno's case, he was completely jaded from life. It is highly unlikely he would jump into anyone's arms for grief sex. Edward and Ezio are far more likely to fit the bill.

In one letter Napoleon writes to Arno, this is said:

Convenience would like me not to write this to you in almost public correspondence, but I deemed the expression of my dismay essential.

It seemed to me, during our last interviews, that we had mutual sympathy. However, I did not find it in your mail. Did you find a new object at your inclination, my friend? Are you unhappy with the events of March?

If it is about my departure, please ask one last time to consider yours for Italy. If this is my marriage to Madame de Beauharnais, please do not see it as an affront. My feelings for her are pure, but this sweet Creole hardly shares them, and although united in a civil union I fear that our souls are not linked.

This letter gives the impression Arno is presumably jealous of his marriage. Why? Is Arno a jealous person? No, he is not. Also in this letter is the implication Josephine does not share the feelings Napoleon has for her. He should be aware of this; after all, he willingly married an older woman with children, against the wishes of his family. Before he became aware of her affairs, he was totally smitten. He should be saying these things after, but for the sake of this plot he's pleading to Arno to remember their sexy times.

The Assassin closed his eyes for a moment. He hated reading Bonaparte's misunderstanding. He didn't hate it because it made him mad, he hated it because he felt guilty about it. He had sworn to do good around him, no matter what form, whether to protect or kill. And yet, in trying to bring order to their respective two lives by closing their chapter, it only hurt. The last line, too difficult to write on a page too difficult to turn, refused him. 

This relationship was bound to fail. Arno jumped into his arms, it was a whirlwind romance, Arno admitted it was wrong, and did the best thing and ended it. Now he's regretting it. What I don't understand is that he began said affair not even after Élise's body was cold. That doesn't say 'love' to me.

Napoleon fell in love too quickly. His Corsican temperament worked wonders on the battlefield, but what disaster did he not cause in his heart.

 Arno blew out the candles, undressed and slipped under the sheets. Bonaparte now had a wife. After all, was it not her duty to ensure that her marriage prospered? He could not leave the general infatuated - in both senses of the term, he noted for himself - to jeopardize what he had accomplished and still had to accomplish for some errors . 

Here again is the implication Arno is jealous, be it for Napoleon's marriage or because he didn't act on their affair beforehand. In the letters it is clear Napoleon is double-teaming for men and women, disregarding his apparent love for his wife and dreaming about Arno at night. As Loo said, 'sharing is caring'. Be sure to wash your cocks.

Arno sat down in his bed and combed his hair back. It was out of the question for him to believe his dreams, much less to think that his letters were enough to destabilize Napoleon. Joséphine herself plunged him into amorous despair, and yet he was not yet dead. He nodded to himself, resolved. Bonaparte was on a military campaign, what the hell, not on a pastoral escapade. 

It's true Napoleon's view on love was shattered when Josephine cheated on him. In turn, he cheated on her. I'm quite sure Arno's letters wouldn't destabilize him, especially if he was double-teaming.

That's all, my friend. Since that fateful day, I bear the immense sorrow of having lost this man without succeeding in fully tasting the joys of our brilliant victories. And Josephine who does not come. And you, Arno, who don't come either. I am now alone here without you.

Loo was not aware Josephine was sick at the time, and could not join Napoleon immediately. She interpreted this as Josephine giving Napoleon the cold shoulder, when this wasn't the case. I notice how Napoleon cares more about Arno not joining him than his wife.

Shaking his head, he got up suddenly and left the letter behind him. He had things to do, and for starters, keep up with the news. He put on his Assassin outfit and folded the hood over his face before going out on the roof terrace and greeting the gardener before going down the street by the stairs. Walking rapidly through the still sparsely populated streets of the morning, he nimbly slipped between people to reach the small square where he was sure to find a town crier. 

Loo also isn't aware that the printing press did exist during this time. Sure, paper and lumber were scarce, but magazines and whatnot were still in circulation. Paris was one of the top cities for newspapers, and Paris had a high literacy rate. Town criers would be more appropriate in the provinces, not the city where social clubs could give you the news.

Arno was no longer listening. He got lost in his own thoughts. Was that what Napoleon felt, he wondered, when he was among his men on the battlefield? The feeling of belonging to an inseparable whole and yet of feeling a dull loneliness there?

No, certainly not, he said to himself. Napoleon was the heart of this campaign and this army. Without him, nothing was possible. Arno bit his lip, concerned. How desperate was the general to feel so alone when he was the center of the operation? 

Why is Arno wondering about this particular feeling? He should know it, being an Assassin and all. Assassins are sneakier mercenaries, killing specific targets for the good of humanity. He of all people should understand what it means to be alone even when you are the driving force.

The Assassin observed the burrs in the last sentence which indicated a hesitation, perhaps thirty seconds or more, in having allowed the ink to accumulate in the pen. His attentive gaze turned to the task at the bottom of the page. The task, he noted. One, round, of wine. The other, a partial imprint, of ink. He touched it with his thumb and thought of the circumstances under which Napoleon must have written this letter to him. He swallowed his saliva and folded the paper to put it back in the envelope. He tried to persuade himself that the general-in-chief was drunk when writing this letter. After all, it couldn't be otherwise, he couldn't have written it with all of his wits. 

Well, of course he has to be drunk. He has to drink away his sorrows and ignore how Josephine's illness prevented her from coming. In his anger and his infatuation, he has to tell Arno how much he misses him and how he's the 'only one I have left.'

Arno ran a hand through his hair. The urgent tone of the letter awakened in him the guilt he had hitherto managed to silence. He could not afford to leave Paris while he still had poisoning to solve and files to find. He rubbed his face and sighed. It was simply impossible for him to join Bonaparte in Italy. Their relationship was no longer the same, they no longer felt the same - if they had felt anything in the first place. 

So really, it was a relationship based on lust and sexual carnage, not love. I'm pretty sure it's contradictory for him to say they 'never felt anything', when the story itself stresses they did. It is indeed true Arno is too busy to leave. Napoleon doesn't understand that, and still insists Arno drop everything and come to him. Demanding, no? The next paragraph offers more of the same:

The Assassin clenched his teeth. Who was he trying to trick, if not himself? The painful loss of Elise on July 28, 1794 and the imprisonment of Napoleon on August 6 of the same year had put an abrupt end to what was between them, but Arno could not hide what they had shared . Nothing, almost nothing , he said to himself. A few furtive caresses around a deserted corridor. One, two surprisingly chaste kisses for men with a fiery temper. Nothing .

In another story, Loo wrote Napoleon getting fucked by Arno (in a scene of one of the few where Arno actually tops and isn't the token bottom) while saying, 'He loves women, of course he does, but none had ever made him feel good like men did, like Arno did'. Yeah. Pretty sure you don't like chicks that much. In this case, Arno willingly and quickly jumped into the arms of another man days after the so-called love of his life died. Now I am to believe all they shared was a kiss and caress? Nah, man.

Arno refrained from crumpling the letter and throwing it into the fire. He had sown the wind and he was reaping the storm. Not just any storm, he curses himself. That of the Corsican general to whom everything seemed to succeed. That of the young man whose daring and ambition were second to none. That of the lover who opened his heart too easily. 

Oh? Here I thought you wanted to end things. Now you're getting upset Napoleon isn't playing your game? For shame. All this for a few hugs and a kiss.

A dull rage took hold of him and he saw, unsurprisingly, that he was turned against himself. He sneered bitterly. After having attracted the wrath of Bonaparte, he attracted his own. He got up, put the letter on the desk in his room and went down to the cafe theater. 

I don't get why Arno is angry. This is what you wanted, dude. Deal with it. Or maybe you wanted him to play coy so you could feel in control?

If he confessed, as much to Napoleon as to himself, that he still had feelings, he would have to go to Italy. Calvary , he quipped inwardly, than joining this all too familiar general. If he continued to deny his feelings, he was sure he would finally be able to put an end to what was between them. Succeed. He massaged his temple. Was it really what he wanted? What was left, if not Bonaparte, now that Elise was no longer there? 

 
Let me get this straight: you wrote the letter to burn the bridge you wanted to burn. When Napoleon coyly avoided the issue, you flew into a rage. Now, after telling yourself it 'doesn't matter', you then say it does and that of course you have feelings for the guy!

Are you sure you're writing a man, Loo?

Arno understood that this was the last letter he would receive from Napoleon. He knew that his return to France would sign the end of their relationship. And that was what he wanted. With this ending point in their story, Arno could finally forgive himself for having abused the trust of his beloved Élise. He still wondered what madness had taken him to secretly sport with Corsica. What would he not have given to exchange every second spent with Napoleon for another second with Élise.

I always have hated these 'I love you, but I hate you, but I also don't love you yet I kinda love you' trope in these stories. Pick one. If you can't, have a legitimate reason for it. Here, Arno willingly fucked over the so-called love of his life, with a man, while she was still alive. And not even days after she was dead.

It's bullshit for him to say he'd trade every moment with Napoleon with one for Élise: if you loved her when she was alive, you would never do this. Every story I see has used her as a Red Herring and insults her memory and her character. If you could fuck another man so easily, don't expect me to believe you ever had love for your girl. In Loo's logic, this is perfectly fine. 'The more, the merrier!'

"You let me wait alone for over a year." His hand tightened on the armrest. “You answered like Josephine: pretending everything and anything so as not to join me.”

 “It's not c-”

 "You didn't have to travel here to humiliate me, Arno. What is it ? Is it my character that displeases you so much now? Can't you bear that my Corsican accent is scratching your eardrums? ”He swallowed his saliva to hide the trembling of his voice.

"I want you to join me. Plz join me."
"OK"
"WTF I didn't ask you to join me!"

Man, I love how Loo isn't even aware of what she's writing. These guys bitch like teenagers on Twitter.

“So isn't my success enough for you? Or have you found a bigger, more intelligent, more beautiful lover in Paris? ”He replied, and he turned his face a little more to hide the tears he felt filling his eyes.

 “So am I doomed to love only those who prefer others?” He ends up in a whisper. 

Too fucking good. Arno cheats on Élise when alive, fucks her over when she's dead, agrees his relationship with Napoleon probably won't work, tells himself 'nah, it's cool', and Napoleon who kept asking for Arno ends up getting what he wants and it still isn't good enough.

If Arno was taking the BBC, I don't think he'd tell you, Napoleon. Or else he'd get a time machine and let Jacob Frye fuck him, because he's the effeminate one.

“Napoleon.” Arno reached out and touched the back of the hand that was still clutching the chair with his fingertips. "I am sorry."

 "Napoleon." He repeated, and it suddenly seemed to him that he had never called the general except by his first name. "Forgive me. I could have answered you, just as I could have come to Italy earlier, and I did not. I can't change what has already happened so please forgive me. ”

 He slipped his fingers under his hand and took it in his.

 “I convinced myself not to come and think it would change the remorse I felt for lying to Élise to see you. But that didn't change anything, and in return I was losing you. ”

Wow. Cheating on the love of your life, lying to her when she was trying to regain control of the Rite, and doubly lying all those times you said, 'I love you' - sounds like a real devoted lover. Arno is a real shit piece. I don't care if you like to fuck bricks - you don't call someone your soulmate and then turn around and fuck another guy, girl, 1guy1jar1icepick what the fuck ever. It's scummy behaviour. You never really loved that person.

Here, despite Arno wanting to call off the relationship, and despite Napoleon asking him to be there, throws a temper tantrum when he does show up and Arno confesses he was simply 'afraid of losing him'.

“I was stupid. I am not tired of you and I prefer no other, Napoleon. I had Elise and you had Josephine, didn't you? Now I have only you. ”He paused and slowly raised his free hand to caress the young general's face.

You cheated on her, while calling her your soulmate, while she was alive, you fucking numbnut. YES, YOU ARE FUCKING STUPID.

 “You have already accomplished so much from the age of twenty-eight, Napoleon, where I have not even accomplished a quarter from the height of my twenty-nine. You don't need this success. I spent nights worrying that you would never come home. Nights thinking that I might never see the storm of your eyes again, that I would never have the privilege of being able to trace your scars with my fingers to ease their pain. ”

Things Arno Dorian has accomplished:
- Defeat a Master Assassin while still being a newbie.
- End the Reign of Terror.
- Solve murders.
- Can sneak in anywhere
- Expert swordsman, can even beat you with a stick
- Withstood the Sword of Eden
- Is not corrupted by the Piece of Eden
- Defeated a Master Templar
- Is generally better than you

This Arno?
- Cheats on girlfriend
- Worries about his dudebro, who asks him to come. Shows up, dudebro is mad
- Cannot decide whether or not he wants to fuck his dudebro
- Talks about how pretty dudebro's eyes are
- Gets frisky over a hug and a kiss

It ends with the "I have only you" meme. Really? Napoleon - and by extension, Loo - wasn't aware Josephine was sick and could not be by his side. He repeatedly asked Arno to be there, and Arno doesn't answer his letters because he knows a romance would be untenable. This is OK - this is rational. But oh no, Arno shows up and Napoleon throws a fit over something he wanted. 

Every story I've seen, and there hasn't been a single exception, has used Élise as a Red Herring. I don't care if you personally dislike her, but this is over the top. You cannot write the 'Oh but I love her so much, her death affected me so' while having said guy who 'loved her so much' go fuck another guy and openly tell said guy he lied to his girlfriend so he could fuck him. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but if you love someone, you should be dedicated to them. Don't do shit like this. Even open relationships require a contract.

In sum, this story was about Arno reading and ignoring letters, and Napoleon getting prissy over Arno actually showing up. Also, Arno is a cheater and clearly didn't love Élise. What was Loo's response to this? 'The more the merrier!' Because that's such a French thing to do.