[arvnsis]

𝐀𝐑𝐕𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐒 —- 𝗦𝗜𝗥 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗖𝗬 𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗬 of 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚂𝙲𝙰𝚁𝙻𝙴𝚃 𝙿𝙸𝙼𝙿𝙴𝚁𝙽𝙴𝙻 ! book based with influences from the wildhorn musical & the 1982 movie . by knight .

[arvnsis]

003, 029, 042, 080 

                      CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT 

003. does your character like coffee better, or tea? 

percy likes tea. a lot of that stems from his childhood, where he’d visit his mother and they’d have tea together. it’s comforting and familiar. there are very few things that are actually comforting and familiar to percy in his adult years, because everything ends up as such an act — one that has its good reasons, but still. that’s a meta for a different time, though. 

029. what sort of sense of humor does your character have? 

well, percy does tell some really stupid jokes at parties, because good god, he acts like a total fool. but, his own sense of humor is … a lot of wit. he’s witty and clever and so really, if you think about the jokes he tells, there’s a lot of hidden meaning even in the stupidest of his jokes? it’s more of a case of percy actually likes riddles, because he likes solving them? otherwise, it’s nothing totally out of the norm. 

042. what is their greatest achievement? 

well, by the end of the revolution, percy has saved a LOT of people from the guillotine and he honestly thinks that’s his greatest achievement, because he put his skills to good use and let people have the chance to live, where they would’ve been denied that simply due to social class. i wrote a meta on percy’s understanding of the fact that yeah there are some REALLY SHITTY ARISTOCRATS, he knows that some of them really did exploit those who were less privileged, but he also knew that was NOT how all aristocrats were. and it wasn’t just aristocrats who were executed, or were under the threat of execution. anyone who was “not a friend of the revolution”, regardless of social class or status was at risk, and so honestly it wasn’t just aristocrats, it was people who understood KILLING WAS NOT THE ANSWER. and percy gave those people a chance to live and he’s proud of himself for it, even if he never reveals the truth to anyone outside the league, it’s something he doesn’t need to flaunt, it just makes him feel happy to have been able to make a difference, y’know. 

080. how easy is it for others to read your character’s emotions? 

it’s pretty hard, really. percy has this act, you know, the one where he seems like an absolute fuckwit. this act is so perfectly crafted that literally no one suspects a goddamn thing, except marguerite, but she’s also the cleverest woman in europe. so of course she knows something’s up. chauvelin figures it out when he only finds percy ‘asleep’ in the library at lord granville’s ball instead of finding the scarlet pimpernel and his league. so he connects the dots there, but before then? nah, and chauvelin is also noted to be very sharp! so, percy is very good at hiding his emotions, and very few people can pick up on things being off, if they are off. it’s a case of having such incredible control that he … he lets out what he needs to let out. he shows what needs to be shown, but unless you’re a member of the league or marguerite, good luck at figuring out what’s really up. because even chauvelin isn’t sure what’s going on, even after discovering percy’s the scarlet pimpernel … 

[arvnsis]

happy sunday now ill give u some spicy percy facts ( and some that are just relevant facts & not as spicy; not under a readmore because what if i move blogs ... )

—- it probably isn’t a surprise that percy keeps literally his entire body tidy, so that does mean trimming. not as spicy, but he also shaves his legs, it makes the stockings way more comfortable. due to his desire to be well groomed, the first thing he’ll do when he returns from a particularly long journey ( other than giving marguerite many enthusiastic kisses ) is take a bath and freshen up :) 

—- percy is uncut. he’s also just shy of 8″ hard and has a decent girth. he’ll give his partner a pleasantly full feeling, although, the only person who would actually know that is marguerite. still, it’s spicy info. 

—- while percy is flirty and sensual, he really has to be with the right person to really be sexual. since he’s head over heels for marguerite, and they have AMAZING CHEMISTRY in literally every aspect of their lives, people think that he’s a lot friskier than he really is. as in, when marguerite is around, he really doesn’t know how to keep his hands to himself, but if he’s away from her , it isn’t easy to get him hot and bothered. 

—- percy is incredibly secure in his masculinity. wearing something with even finer lace than marguerite doesn’t make him less of a man, in his eyes, it makes him even more of one. percy thinks of himself almost like a bird. the flashier he is, the more he struts, the more manly he is, and no one will ever be able to break him of that notion , ever. 

—- as far as what happens in the bedroom, percy does have skill! he only ever had marguerite as a partner, but it wasn’t that he didn’t hear other men talk, and it wasn’t that he didn’t read. he’s also a fast learner, and he listens to marguerite when she tells him what feels good and what doesn’t. he also knows what he likes and doesn’t like, because percy blakeney never thought of masturbation as a sin, but an expression of self love and adoration for one’s own body. in fact, he thinks that if God wants mankind to love others and love themselves, then there’s no reason that someone shouldn’t worship their own body and touch it with adoration? because that makes sense to him, y’know.  

—- percy is a switch! his beloved is his equal, it’s not his right to be dominant over marguerite. she is his wife, not an item? on that note, he hates the notion that people consider her his property- she’s a person and he makes sure that she also keeps that in mind especially when they are both arguably at their most vulnerable.  he encourages her to take control, but they certainly playfully wrestle for it, too. 

—- on the subject of kinks, percy really likes bondage for himself because he also lives for the thrill of escaping and he sees it as a mental challenge as much as it is something sexual. it definitely gets him going, because he also is well aware that the only person who will ever be able to tie him up in a way that he can’t get out of on his own is marguerite and that’s hot to him. he also enjoys eating marguerite out :) honestly, he’ll let marguerite do most things to him, because he trusts her. 

[arvnsis]

let’s kick this blog off with the usual. lengthy meta analysis. first up, i want to talk about percy’s behavior, specifically the actual brilliance behind his supposed idiotic persona.

for a recap: as far as everyone (save nineteen men and perhaps the prince of wales, and eventually his wife) knows, sir percy blakeney, bart., is one of the wealthiest men in england. he lives a lavish lifestyle, enjoys going to fancy parties, and has the bonus of being incredibly handsome — devastatingly so with golden blond hair and blue eyes, six foot odd of gorgeousness. surrounded by like-minded friends, it’s more of … well, he inherited his father’s title, but perhaps … not much in the intellectual department. 

he is married to marguerite st. just, one of the most brilliant women in france, and no one can think of any reason marguerite would’ve married percy beyond his looks and his wealth — as clearly she had many other suitors who had much more in the intelligence department. percy makes odd commentary and most of it really is inane, although it does make him endearing, in the obnoxious and foppish sort of way.

in reality, sir percy blakeney, bart., is a gentleman spy and vigilante with skills rivaling arsène lupin, who saves french nobles from the guillotine. a master of disguise, he is known for his daring acts by the name of the scarlet pimpernel. no one connects the pimpernel with percy because of how percy acts in public. this also means that barely anyone knows the real percy blakeney, and even those who know the truth don’t know the entire truth.

born in 1760 to sir algernon blakeney, bart., and sibyl auguste, percival benedict nicholas walter blakeney, or percy, dealt with the expectations of being a noble, as well with the trauma that came with his parents’ health. rather, his mother’s health and his father’s horrible coping. percy was tutored by the best, as the family had plenty of money to spare. he had every material thing he could ever ask for, but always faced the emotional stress of, well, someone would have to take responsibility for things. suffice to say, percy didn’t get a childhood. he got stress and anxiety and depression, and he learned to hide it well. his carefree and whimsical persona is his way of having the childhood he was emotionally denied, and serves as a shockingly effective coping mechanism considering the trauma that does come with being a vigilante.

if people are well educated, they may have a suspicion that percy isn’t as dim-witted as he acts. while superficially inane, many of his comments are actually incredibly clever and point to a vast knowledge on many topics, a love for literature and philosophy, history and science. it’s just that most people don’t take the time to think that hard on what he says, since he does it with such a flourish.

the tldr is percy is brilliant and it shows so long as you always pay attention to the details.

[arvnsis]

lmao i have to redo my carrd oh my GOD why is blog revival so much work... why cant u all jus tbe like “yeah we know this guy” and i dont need a rules page u know me ill just write ... but ok i will make a carrd eventually just as i will make graphics eventually... we will get there 

[arvnsis]

guys this is exactly what it looks like . idk how i didn’t do a redraw of this EARLIER , anyway ill color this … uh . tomorrow , but u kno . :) 

also @europescleverest once again im tagging u . 

mutuals can rb . don’t repost my art , obviously 

[arvnsis]

What is Percy Blakeney’s opinion of aristocracy in general? 

              𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐘 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐒! accepting 

“hot new idea, we eliminate the horrible economic divide by actually not hoarding things” says percy blakeney, bart., the richest fucking man in england, as he donates 5 houses so that others can have them, as he gives tips to people that are likely more than they’ve ever had as money in their whole lives? i mentioned once how percy doesn’t understand how RIDICULOUSLY RICH he is, and in a lot of ways, he doesn’t, because pocket change for him is like someone else’s entire rent for three months. but in other ways, he really does know that there’s a HUGE DIFFERENCE. what he does know is that what he has is NOT NORMAL, it’s because he was born into a rich family, and his father didn’t spend their vast fortune by partying and whatnot because percy’s mother was ill. so, for a good 20 years, that money mostly just sat there and gained value, as money does. 

percy is well aware that the world he lives in is SO SURREAL to like 99% of people. he is in the vast minority of economic groups, with more money than he knows what to do with. he knows this, because he sees not only the vast difference in wealth in england, he also rescues people in france and the state of everything in frace was yikes. despite this, he always underestimates exactly how vast the monetary divide really is, because it’s hard for him to even wrap his mind around it.

there’s a misconception that did arise about the scarlet pimpernel, that he didn’t care about those who weren’t rich, which is VASTLY UNTRUE. percy cares about everyone. he hates that the people of france were in so much pain that they decided to just kill people who had money. that’s anarchy and solves nothing. the scarlet pimpernel rescued people who had no crime aside from the bloodline they were born into, and he also rescued people who weren’t aristocrats, but thought that maybe uh senseless slaughter was not the answer and basically having common sense was a one way ticket to getting madam guillotine’s kiss. money does not make you a better person, percy is well aware of that. 

he thinks that, while going to parties is very fun, the greater the divide, the greater the strife between the people. he has mentioned that a good deal of generosity is missing from the world. and percy has been known to be very generous. he pays his house staff incredibly well, when he finds he has no idea what to do with things he has, he donates them. everything from houses and carriages and horses to various furniture, so on so forth. the only thing he doesn’t seem to part with is clothing ( that fits him, but he has donated the clothes from his childhood! ). 

so i guess the point is that percy really uh. he has so many mixed feelings because he’s an aristocrat who thinks that the aristocracy is doing shit wrong? and he’s hoping that people will follow his example with kindness and generosity like they follow his fashion sense.

[arvnsis]

       PERCY’S TEMPER,                      meta analysis                   warnings for threats of assault if not worse and of course percy does get violent.

when percy first disarms chauvelin in their swordfight and grabs him and says "a gentleman always removes his coat" ... and you can HEAR how under all of the typical percy playfulness he’s PISSED and ready to end the man’s whole career like. i bring this up because percy is usually so good at maintaining his composure, but he’s still human, he can slip up — prime example from the elusive pimpernel, where chauvelin is trying to get percy to essentially publicly expose himself as the scarlet pimpernel. 

“My share of the bargain, sir, is simple enough: Lady Blakeney, escorted by yourself and any of your friends who might be in this city at the time, shall leave Boulogne harbour at sunset to-morrow, free and unmolested, if you on the other hand will do your share…”

“I don’t yet know what my share in this interesting bargain is to be, sir… but for the sake of argument let us suppose that I do not carry it out…. What then?…”

“Then, Sir Percy… […] then, Lady Blakeney will be taken to Paris, and will be incarcerated in the prison of the Temple lately vacated by Marie Antoinette—there she will be treated in exactly the same way as the ex-queen is now being treated in the Conciergerie […] she will never be allowed solitude for one single instant of the day or night… it means the constant proximity of soldiers, drunk with cruelty and with hate… the insults, the shame…”

“You hound!… you dog!… you cur!… do you not see that I must strangle you for this!…”

The attack had been so sudden and so violent that Chauvelin had not the time to utter the slightest call for help. But a second ago, Sir Percy Blakeney had been sitting on the window-sill, outwardly listening with perfect calm to what his enemy had to say; now he was at the latter’s throat, pressing with long and slender hands the breath out of the Frenchman’s body, his usually placid face distorted into a mask of hate.

“You cur!… you cur!…” he repeated, “am I to kill you or will you unsay those words?”

Then suddenly he relaxed his grip. The habits of a lifetime would not be gainsaid even now. A second ago his face had been livid with rage and hate, now a quick flush overspread it, as if he were ashamed of this loss of self-control […]

“Lud forgive me!” he said quaintly, “I had almost lost my temper.”

the tldr of that is chauvelin threatens percy with the fact that if he doesn’t comply, marguerite will go through ABSOLUTE HELL, and percy loses his shit. the #1 way to get percy to lose his temper is to threaten the safety of those he loves. not that he can’t have malice in his tone in other situations ( see: the swordfight at the end of the 1982 movie ), but this level of violence is in fact rare. he also does his best to collect himself, because percy feels like he really does have an appearance to keep up, and in some ways, that’s very true. the scarlet pimpernel is not a vengeful hero, but a gentleman. 

it’s also shown that percy can get snippy, when he tells armand that his loyalty is to the league and armand says “you don’t even know the meaning of love", and percy might seem calm but he uh. that’s sure insulting. every time armand brings up percy’s issues with emotional expression and trust, it’s sorta like a punch to the gut, but all he does is … either tell armand he’s wrong, or divert the conversation, or both. percy is capable of being cold and distant from anyone, even marguerite before he learns the truth — after that, she’s the only person he can’t be that cold to, because he loves her with his whole self. 

anyway, yeah. percy sure can get to the breaking point, and his breaking point is SORTA TERRIFYING, thanks for coming to my tedtalk.

[arvnsis]

ON PERCY’S YEAR OF MARITAL STRAIN.           meta analysis

           i think about this a lot my dudes. this is going to be really long because it includes QUOTES.

“Armand knew that: her impulses and imprudence, knew it still better; but Blakeney was slow-witted, he would not listen to “circumstances,” he only clung to facts, and these had shown him Lady Blakeney denouncing a fellow man to a tribunal that knew no pardon: and the contempt he would feel for the deed she had done, however unwittingly, would kill that same love in him, in which sympathy and intellectuality could never had a part.”

so ok there are a few things here. one is that armand is very wrong in the fact that percy is an idiot. percy is far from slow-witted, but on the other hand, armand is right that in this scenario, percy only listened to facts.  percy DID just take the information on marguerite’s supposed part in the eventual execution of the marquis de st cyr … at face value. which ok yeah is he hypervigilant because he’s the scarlet pimpernel, yes. but also, he decided not to trust his wife. the woman he adores more than life itself ( and no, his love for her never died ) and because of this disaster yes of course there was strain on their marriage, even when — no, especially when percy found out that marguerite was tricked and in the matter she was innocent. 

percy is prepared for basically every situation, he KNEW marguerite had once been friends (?) with chauvelin. even if he didn’t let on how much he knew about her, he’s the scarlet pimpernel, he keeps himself informed on people because there’s also an inherent fear of betrayal. and nothing could’ve prepared him for hearing about this — and so he was suspicious of her for the entire fucking year because he had this kneejerk reaction. for percy, knowing he was WRONG was absolute hell. he hates that more than if he’d been right in thinking he married someone who could betray him. because he hurt her. he was distant and honestly really fake in basically every aspect for the whole year and she was miserable. and she comes to warn the scarlet pimpernel about chauvelin, not knowing it’s percy, and he’s literally punched in the gut because what does he do now, knowing the truth and knowing he’s been an absolute ass, a real idiot, for NO REASON — 

and STILL, his pride stands in his way, he can’t even tell her when they’re in the garden of THEIR OWN HOME? instead, percy is still a goddamn headass, 

“Twenty-four hours after our marriage, Madame, the Marquis de St. Cyr and all his family perished on the guillotine, and the popular rumour reached me that it was the wife of Sir Percy Blakeney who helped to send them there.”

“Nay! I myself told you the truth of that odious tale.”

“Not till after it had been recounted to me by strangers, with all its horrible details.”

“And you believed them then and there,” she said with great vehemence, “without a proof or question–you believed that I, whom you vowed you loved more than life, whom you professed you worshipped, that I could do a thing so base as these STRANGERS chose to recount. […] had you listened, I would have told you that up to the very morning on which St. Cyr went to the guillotine, I was straining every nerve, using every influence I possessed, to save him and his family. But my pride sealed my lips, when your love seemed to perish, as if under the knife of that same guillotine. Yet I would have told you how I was duped! […] I was tricked into doing this thing, by men who knew how to play upon my love for an only brother, and my desire for revenge. Was it unnatural?”

percy gets to know that wow he really fucked up. literally right before this exchange, he accuses her of basically just kicking his affections aside ( as evidently , the marquis was executed a year before they married ), and then. THEN, this dumbass fucks up AGAIN. marguerite tells percy armand is in danger, and he basically tells her ‘ask chauvelin for help’ because good god he’s really just doing HORRIBLY, so we get to this,

“Faith, Madame, since it distresses you, we will not speak of it… . As for Armand, I pray you have no fear. I pledge you my word that he shall be safe. Now, have I your permission to go? The hour is getting late, and …”

“You will at least accept my gratitude?” she said, as she drew quite close to him, and speaking with real tenderness.

With a quick, almost involuntary effort he would have taken her then in his arms, for her eyes were swimming in tears, which he longed to kiss away; but she had lured him once, just like this, then cast him aside like an ill-fitting glove. He thought this was but a mood, a caprice, and he was too proud to lend himself to it once again.

at this point, you’re probably wondering if i’ll ever be done talking about this or if percy’s headassery gets any better and in order yes and … not during this particular interaction. because percy’s a FUCKWIT, he actually CAN’T function if he doesn’t have a plan for a situation. without that absolute control of things from his perspective, he’s truly as stupid as he pretends to be, and it shows. the worst part is uhh as soon as he just tells marguerite ‘it’s late go to bed’, mind you, she’s in tears, HE KNOWS THE TRUTH NOW. HE FLAT OUT WITNESSED IT and HE’S STILL ACTING LIKE THIS. yet, he’s too fucking prideful to show his emotions until marguerite goes into the house and percy … 

Before entering, she paused once again to look at him, hoping against hope to see his arms stretched out to her, and to hear his voice calling her back. But he had not moved; his massive figure looked the very personification of unbending pride, of fierce obstinacy.

Hot tears again surged to her eyes, and as she would not let him see them, she turned quickly within, and ran as fast as she could up to her own rooms.

Had she but turned back then […] she would have seen […] a strong man, overwhelmed with his own passion and his own despair. Pride had given way at last, obstinacy was gone: the will was powerless. He was but a man madly, blindly, passionately in love, and as soon as her light footsteps had died away within the house, he knelt down upon the terrace steps, and in the very madness of his love he kissed one by one the places where her small foot had trodden, and the stone balustrade there, where her tiny hand had rested last.

percy worships the ground marguerite walks on, LITERALLY. and he always has, and the issue is that he let his pride win in those moments and if she hadn’t figured out he was the scarlet pimpernel, who knows if this shit would ever have been resolved? that very thought haunts him. all of this haunts him, and honestly, it’s what he’d consider his greatest failure in life. he hurt the woman he loves more than his own life and even if she forgives him, even when she does, he never forgives himself for this.

[arvnsis]

ok gotta do... fgo verse for percy lmao. i have to do a lot of verses for percy... pokemon verse because galar exists :) and so does kalos :) love me some historical fiction and now make it adjacent to even more things. also, i have to repost metas 

[arvnsis]

augh need to redo icons .... so mcuh to do here... 

[arvnsis]

gonna revive this blog lmao impulse choices at work to do later

[carrotsofthepirabbean]

Sir Percy Blakeney would have been considered mega-hot if he wasn’t such a fucking idiot

Orczy, E. (1905). The Scarlet Pimpernel. London: Greening, p.43. (via missanthropicprinciple)

[z-ndjenja]

[arvnsis]

that one van dyck self portrait but i straight up decided to make it percy .

[venusaurasaboy]

i am a luxury few can tolerate

[arvnsis]

shoutout to when margot thought that even if percy wasn’t that smart he could rescue armand by basically using money or coldclocking some people bc that’s unforgettable