I haven’t written for him yet, but I have been toying with an Arthur Morgan idea. And I like to have “tropes” for dynamics when I write.
For example; Michael & Y/N’s dynamic in SOAF&K/SOACC is greedy and hungry. Y/N desires to be so engrained in Michael’s being that she’s housed in his ribs and warmed by his blood. To take him over from the inside. While Michael is starving, aching for sweetness in a shade of red to seep between his teeth and linger in his mouth, to be full of something that won’t leave. To her, he is a tangy and bitter fruit to pull apart and devour. To him, she is a warm cut of meat, still bleeding and tough, which pulls at his primal need to relinquish hunger and forces him to sink his teeth in like an animal, even if the meal he’s having is keeping him alive. Constantly eating and constantly providing a meal. Ouroboros, if I were to simplify it.
But that’s not how I’d see a character like Arthur, personally. Excluding all his hesitance and self doubt, I can’t imagine his kind of love as selfish. I’m not entirely sure if I’ve pinned it down, but so far, what I’ve gathered in a sense of warmth. A kind of affection that is raw but in a natural way. Not like skinning an animal raw, but bare. Skin warmed by the sun and grown from the earth. And soft spoken sentiments said in private, the wind and sky for a witness. Not out of shame but because to see him so bare is a privilege he’s wary to hand out, and scared to do again. But aching for. The kind of ache that can only be described as hurt, even without physical pain. Like an invisible lead pulling on his soul toward something softer, something more gentle than the life he has, even if he doesn’t think he deserves it. And the desperation to provide an environment for that softness to remain and grow. He’s used to bitter black coffee, and maybe there’s comfort in familiarity, but there’s a healing in something sweet, special for him.
This went on for way too long and I am dissociated, so writing is hard to keep coherent. Cause I am not- here- all the way. But I hope this gets some kind of point across.