Quit playing with yourself Hooper!

I am currently rotating the image of a lonely, grieving 15 or 16 year old arthur lester around in my brain, confused and angry with his parents still, and now with the world too as it cleaves itself in half. Arthur is not a kind boy and he is not a gentle boy, and he figures he’ll probably die in a couple years anyways, so why not die for some kind of purpose? Doing something somebody could be proud of? (He is getting peer pressured by random women in the streets. Someone gave him a white feather and he about knocked her lights out.)

I haven’t decided when he deserts, but I can imagine its like. Late 1917? maybe early 1918? Early 1917 could also work… before america joined the war I figure he would assume it would stay neutral (safe place to desert to) but this is less important right now. I cant remember when he says he met bella (IF he even says when he met bella) but he either got a blighty and snuck off while he was recovering, or just. Managed to fuck off to america somehow without anyone noticing. Maybe some kind of near death experience… anyways he 100% baby traps the first (single) woman who will entertain the thought of having sex w him so he’ll have an excuse not to go back LOL.

I think the PTSD makes him a worse husband and a worse father. He’s on edge constantly those first few months with bella, yells at her for little things, goes catatonic seemingly at random, loses his temper at simple things, cant hold a job, etc etc. I think the music probably helps, and is probably the only thing in his life he truly loves until faroe. Besides alcohol. Even then, mental illness isn’t something you can just turn on and off, and he’s likely more of an absent father than he is in canon. I can imagine that he yells at faroe too when he gets in his moods, snaps at her when she makes too much noise and tells her to leave him alone when she interrupts his composing, which is largely why he hired the help.