Stop me if I'm asking too much but I'm playing a ttrpg where I have taken a lot of inspiration from your Moran Moriarty interpretation so I'm thinking SO MUCH on their dynamic lately and I love your takes.
I know you've written two fics on Moriarty meeting Augustus (both on my podfic list)
You've made Moriarty's views on him clear enough I think - he doesn't respect him, uses it as information to know when to be tender to Sebastian and to stick up for him in an area of life where he feels small, and to not scold him while he's feelings vulnerable.
In a prec answer you mentioned Moran's daddy issues , which I love. But I'm wondering if you could elaborate on that and if you think that after the initial rage/sorrow has past, or in an encounter where Augustus doesn't spit venom at Sebastian, so you think Sebastian has some pride over feeling more sort of empowered/comfortable as a man around Moriarty that he didn't aoridn his father or the army, and do you think that Augustus can see rhat?
No I LOVE talking about them and people hardly ever want to really talk about them, this is great, thank you.
The funny thing is my views about Augustus and Sebastian's relationship with him can vary pretty wildly from 'Sebastian would actually end up murdering him' to 'Sebastian finally comes to realise how pathetic Augustus really is and that changes everything for him and that is what empowers him and takes away any power Augustus had over him'. I tried really hard to make Augustus more of an actual villain in my modern AU but it just did not want to work out that way. I suppose in the modern day when people generally aren't quite so repressed and obsessed with the 'stiff upper lip' then Sebastian has got more chance of having a realisation that Augustus is really just quite a sad and lonely figure and not someone he should be allowing to have that much influence over him (also now I really want to introduce Sebastian's stepmother, who would also change things quite a bit).
Even in the Victorian era though, assuming Sebastian isn't actually provoked into killing Augustus or Augustus doesn't just die anyway before they ever really resolve anything, I can see Sebastian still realising Augustus is basically just a sad bitter old man and also the product of several generations screwing each other up more and more and as such he's not worth bothering about and a lot of that would probably be down to Moriarty and how he treats Sebastian. I mean I think Moriarty is definitely quite possessive over Moran but with him it's a benevolent possessiveness almost - he wants Moran to be his but he likes Moran's spirit and self-confidence and arrogance even and he likes that Moran isn't afraid to stand up to him and that he can be kind of a bratty sub often in the bedroom too. He wants to preserve that not try to wear Moran down and he's definitely not going to tolerate someone else trying to come onto the scene who is trying to wear Moran down and demean him and break his spirit.
And sometimes it is hard to see the full extent of how messed up a situation is when you don't really have anything else to compare it to. But I think even Moriarty (who struggles to understand people often and who probably himself didn't exactly come from a close, loving family) sees how messed up that father and son relationship is and that this is something that went way beyond just the usual Victorian father disciplining his son situation. And then Moriarty is respectful towards Moran, Moriarty praises and rewards him and nurtures his talents (even if those talents often tend to involve murdering people. LOL) instead of disparaging him constantly, Moriarty treats him with kindness and tenderness even. That gives Moran some sort of reference point for him to realise more 'hey maybe my father and the way he treated me (and my mother) was even more messed up than I ever thought it was' (also I think that gives Moran validation about his opinions regarding the way the army treated him and many of his men too, that they never really valued him or them either).
I think it's completely possible for him to get past his initial reaction to Augustus (which can sometimes involve flashbacks to being a little boy again, never mind that he's a grown man, sometimes Augustus can still make him just kind of snap back to being a child again which is why he does struggle sometimes to actually stand up to his father) and realise you're really not worth bothering about and even maybe finding Augustus amusing rather than upsetting, and he would feel pride in that, especially because I think Moriarty does praise/reward people when they do good - he doesn't just achieve loyalty through fear and terror and threats, he knows there has to be something good to give people an incentive to be genuinely loyal too) and he has always praised Moran and encouraged him to accept that praise and feel pride in his skills and he has built up Moran's ego (which wasn't exactly small to start with - I don't think Moran's ever truly been lacking in confidence or anything like that overall). And Augustus probably would back off if Sebastian did stand up to him and stopped being bothered by him any more. He's never going to be the doting father or truly accept Sebastian for how he is or truly love him either but if he's not getting a reaction out of him any more or maybe if even Sebastian just ends up laughing in his face or something like that, I think it would squash him down and make him sort of see he's not the 'big man' any more and Sebastian isn't a child he can intimidate either. He's probably always going to resent Sebastian and see him as the child he didn't really want and who will always be a let down but I do think it's completely plausible they can at least achieve some sort of truce between them and they might from time to time even manage to have a vaguely civil conversation and if so that is going to be largely down to Moriarty and his refusal to tolerate Augustus's behaviour towards Sebastian and him thinking that Moran is mine, not yours, and you don't get to have power over him any more and him subtly manipulating Moran into realising actually he is strong and clever and he is deserving of good things and of praise.
Also tied back to the concept of masculinity, I do think demeaning Sebastian's masculinity is one way Augustus does tend to abuse him, sometimes in relation to Sebastian's queerness - acting as if he's 'less than a man' if he ever cried or because he liked playing the piano instead of lots of sports or because I think once he did catch Sebastian kissing another boy as a teenager and then later he probably does work out that now his son is in a sexual relationship with another man which to Augustus is not 'manly' behaviour either. Moriarty never genuinely demeans Moran's masculinity though, he doesn't treat him as if Moran's somehow lesser for more usually being the receptive partner in penetrative sex and Moran knows that the more kinky things they do together are just games, even if Moriarty is making him put on 'ladies' stockings and high-heeled boots or a dress or make up, it's just a game and it's not done to demean him.
Also I think there's something about Moriarty's demeanour which can intimidate people. I do think that is something that's really well done in the canon, that Moriarty talks in this 'soft precise' way, he seems very composed, very calm, he is not someone who really loses his temper easily and he looks like this boring academic. There's something very quiet about him. But I think he would intimidate Augustus because of that, because he doesn't react explosively or aggressively or very emotionally often. Someone like Moriarty just doesn't really respond in the way Augustus is used to people responding to him and even if he tries to hide it, I think Moriarty does unsettle him and that would further undermine Augustus in Sebastian's eyes too and help him realise he's still clinging on to these ideas of his father from when he was a small boy, the idea that Augustus is a big scary man who could really hurt him but also someone he needs to seek validation from, when actually Augustus is just an ageing and increasingly frail bully and whatever power and hold over him he did have is now largely gone and his opinion of Sebastian is worthless. Augustus is not the big man any more, Moriarty's the bigger man.
