Icy Chronicles

the sight is enough to stir even arthur. arthur, who clearly shows resentment for johns year absence, he's at a loss for words for the sight. no wonder he was talking about not dying yet when john was grunting and bloodied in pain, he was disturbed and that's that. it chews at my brain that javier simply names him "the horse john rode in blackwater". does john really have a record for naming horses by little phrases?? (looking at "old boy". common misconception, they could really think he's just calling it an old horse).

this could've been the result of two days, perhaps even one if we count the faint track trails. that ungodly sight came quick and was probably one of the only things john could think of while keeping his body heat. despite spending his time resting soonafter, he grieves for a short amount of time because that's who john is. he doesn't fret survival, john lives and bottles it into anger we see far later onward.

arthur keeps little fragments of those who passed with him at a sentimental value, whether keeping it alive in the spirit of conversation or from writing. he's the gangs enforcer yes, the main provider, but has this subconscious dependence to the gang. he'd "happily die for it". when it comes to really talking about loss later, he mourns the life of living and the time he never really had with it, silent tears and exasperated apprehensiveness.

the two share the handwriting style: cursive. it's expected as cursive was a common handwriting technique in the 19th century.

cursive was used because it was a faster method and speed was prioritized over legibility. private conversations were more efficient if the words were harder to decipher, and so on so forth.

I've left a link to a reddit post with different letters, so feel free to check those out!

but in the context of rdr2?

the gang all write under the name "tacitus kilgore" to the post office and to make it harder to track the fake alias down, it wouldn't surprise me if dutch and hosea taught arthur and john to write similarly. (I'd assume that's the case because mary's letters are picked up by other members of the gang and a dialogue I vaguely remember in the new south(?) about the name... uhh)

arthurs penmanship is bigger than dutch's with a slight slant to it too. he spends his solitude in solace with a journal, and it's likely that the bigger handwriting just means he's not as interested in writing than he is drawing. the penmanship is perfect for captioning his sketches too, frankly enough...

but dutch's? a different case. his journal has lines, indexing them much like his own makeshift book (like the philosophy books he has, such can be found and read in horseshoe overlook) he's crafted. he's had the time to individualise those entries, order them out and make sure those words of his are strong.

he has the time to breathe and think it through. LITERALLY.

annoyingly enough I cannot for the life of me decipher the text... if anyone HAS, FEEL FREE TO MESSAGE!

arthurs more creative, yet runs on wasted time. similar to his position in the gang and how he operates.