a cathedral where you cannot breathe

You may address me as ‘President Prentiss’, not ‘David’.

I must say that your way of thinking is clever. However, it is flawed. Benison should not be kept around to influence Todd, not when I can do so much better for him. Also, Benison is not Todd’s true father, therefore by marrying him I would not even be Todd’s father by law. 

Todd accepting me as a father to him is not the only part of my plan for this world, in any case. Marrying Benison is impractical - I have an army to lead, a world to bring to peace under my rule.

No, it is better that Todd accept me as his father. It will be better if it comes from him, more certain - with encouraging from myself, of course.

Benison could not help me, for I have more control than he ever will.

I like how he never brings up the issue of “What are you talking about men can’t get married why would I want to marry a man that’s gross you’re gross.” O rly, “President”? Something you’d like to share with the rest of the class?

UPDATE: I wish I could actually respond to this, but I know for definites that I could never fit it within the character limit. So, I’ll post it here.

Okay then, Mister Democratically-elected Official. I just figured that since you keep trying to get people to refer to you by your first name, but they never do, because they hate you, you might appreciate someone using it for once. How do you feel about “Davy I”, though?

But to the point. I think you’re missing some key details. To start, obviously legal custody is not what you’re going for, so it shouldn’t matter if Ben is his father by law or not— incidentally, I’m surprised that you have custody laws in place, since there was apparently no law in place allowing for Todd’s biological parents to transfer custody in the event of their deaths. But that’s neither here nor there, as even had you married Todd’s biological father, you still wouldn’t be granted any custody over him, as he has reached the age of majority in your society.

Which leads me to the meat of my argument. As things stand, Todd doesn’t exactly like you very much and, as an adult, there’s nothing stopping him from grabbing Ben and Viola and riding off into the night, never to be seen, nor heard from again (except, perhaps, for the distant echo of “See ya’, fucker!”). Unless, of course, you were to imprison him or threaten his loved one, which, I actually think I need to tell you, will not endear him to you. Like, at all.

And, as much as you hate it, you’re going to have to accept that Todd loves Ben and Ben will be an influence in his life, because your only other option is to remove him from the situation. And, again, I do need to tell you that this would make Todd hate you forever. You are going to have to finesse this situation like the boss you are.

Now, what you’re missing here is that marrying Ben is only the first step of the plan. The real action comes when Todd realizes that, in order to spend any time with Ben, he’s going to also have to spend time with you. And it’s not because you’re threatening to kill his girlfriend or anything— this time, it’s just because you’re his step father, and there’s nothing he can do about it! Plus, as Ben’s waifuhusband, you’re in a position to undermine his influence on Todd without running into any of the pesky side-effects of previously-mentioned solutions.

As for your, uh, career, I hardly think marriage would hinder that. Plenty of people get married, only to dedicate all of their time to entirely different pursuits— it’ll be fine.

Obviously, you’re no stranger to psychological manipulation— you just haven’t taken it far enough. Don’t just decide to switch to violence half-way through when you have so many more tools at your disposal.

can i get uhhhhh hhhh some prentiss please

ahhh sorry it took so long! I almost didn’t notice this ask in my notes. thanks for sending this anon!

(also, please notice spoilers ahead) 

The first character I first fell in love with: Well, it has been a really long time so I can’t really remember but it was probably either Manchee or Ben. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: I feel like Davy is the typical answer for chaos walking but I can’t quite say I love him. I empathise with him, I love his arch, maybe I could love who he was about to become, but he still did some awful stuff. So the character I choose is Corinne, who is one of my faves. She started off looking like a very harsh and unpleasant person but now I love her to death. 

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: I don’t really like the Return. I get where he’s coming from but I just don’t like him as a person, though I do think he is a great  realistic character.The character I love that everyone else hates: I can’t think about anyone. The hated characters in this fandom usually deserve the hate imo.The character I used to love but don’t any longer:I used to be a lot more forgiving with Davy, but, well, see question 2. The character I would totally smooch: *giggles nervously* uhhh Lee is a total cutie and probably the hottest character *hides behind some bushes*The character I’d want to be like: Either Viola or Wilf but I also really appreciate Ben. Probably a mix between the three of them. The character I’d slap: Mr. Hammar. I hate this dude. I practically cheered when he got burned to death 

OH MY GOD I COULD CALL IT MAYHAM NO THAT’S PERFECT THANK YOU!

Against my better (???) judgement, I decided to search for Hammar Things, in case the "movie" generated any content (if he was even in there, I wouldn't know). Apparently I forgot that there would probably be a year between each post that wasn't made by me.

ahhh sorry it took so long! I almost didn’t notice this ask in my notes. thanks for sending this anon!

(also, please notice spoilers ahead) 

The first character I first fell in love with: Well, it has been a really long time so I can’t really remember but it was probably either Manchee or Ben. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: I feel like Davy is the typical answer for chaos walking but I can’t quite say I love him. I empathise with him, I love his arch, maybe I could love who he was about to become, but he still did some awful stuff. So the character I choose is Corinne, who is one of my faves. She started off looking like a very harsh and unpleasant person but now I love her to death. 

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: I don’t really like the Return. I get where he’s coming from but I just don’t like him as a person, though I do think he is a great  realistic character.The character I love that everyone else hates: I can’t think about anyone. The hated characters in this fandom usually deserve the hate imo.The character I used to love but don’t any longer:I used to be a lot more forgiving with Davy, but, well, see question 2. The character I would totally smooch: *giggles nervously* uhhh Lee is a total cutie and probably the hottest character *hides behind some bushes*The character I’d want to be like: Either Viola or Wilf but I also really appreciate Ben. Probably a mix between the three of them. The character I’d slap: Mr. Hammar. I hate this dude. I practically cheered when he got burned to death 

OH MY GOD I COULD CALL IT MAYHAM NO THAT'S PERFECT THANK YOU!

The Knife of Never Letting Go, after Viola kills Aaron so Todd won’t do it:

“I couldn’t let you,” she says, “He would have won.”

“I woulda done it,” I say.

“I know,” she says, into her hair, into the falls. “That’s why I did it.”

I let out a breath. “You shoulda let me.”

“No.” She looks up from being crouched over. “I couldn’t let you.”

Monsters of Men, when Todd is forcing Mayor Prentiss to go into the water to get eaten by the fish:

“Save me?” I say and I think Step back and he steps back one more step.

“Yes, Todd,” he says, sweat forming on his upper lip, trying to resist me. “I want you to stop forcing me into the surf-”

“Fat chance of that-”

“Because I’ll go into it myself.”

“No more games,” I say, forcing him back another step. “This is finished.”

“But Todd Hewitt,” he says, “You’re the boy who couldn’t kill.”

“I ain’t no boy,” I say, “And I’ll kill you.”

“I know,” he says, “And that would make you just a little bit more like me, wouldn’t it?”

…

He takes a step back.

A step that I didn’t make him take.

“If you kill me, it’s one step further away from being (Ben),” he says, “And if that’s as far as the goodness of you has changed me, goodness enough to stop you becoming me, then that’ll have to do.”

I don’t know exactly what I want to say about these two scenes, but there’s some kind of parallel there. Both Viola and the Mayor want to prevent Todd becoming a killer, even if they have to sacrifice themselves* in the process. Which is interesting because Mayor Prentiss was originally behind the whole idea of Todd (and every other boy) having to kill someone to become a man.