rthstewart | More of the Meme -- TSG Backstory

linneasr asked me about Asim in the previous meme and the response is too long to fit in a comment. So, if you aren't interested, you can just move along.

Sorry it has taken me so long, but I had a long backstory on Asim and it’s been a long time since I’ve thought about it. When I first started thinking of the story, I was really powerfully motivated by the pictures below. The first two are from or about the film Becket, the last is from the film Lawrence of Arabia and the one right before it is the true Prince Feisal, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca. Both films star a much younger Peter O’Toole and to the extent I had visuals of Peter, they come from this as well as the film The Lion In Winter. I was really interested in the friendship shown in the films between Henry and Becket, and between Lawrence and Ali.

O'Toole and Burton in Becket

Becket

Prince Feisal, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca

Omar Shariff and Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia

When I actually started researching T.E. Lawrence, as opposed to merely my romantic notions of the film, I came away decidedly disillusioned and Asim was born of that study. As a child and teen he rode and fought with the great men of the Pan-Arab movement, Faisal, his father, Hussein bin Ali, and his brothers Abdullah I and Ali, and the Bedouin leader, Auda Abu Tayi. Because I rapidly learned that there was so much I did not know about that world, that culture, and that religion, I’ve left much of Asim’s backstory untold. Everyone says he’s from Egypt, which is true of a sort, but it’s actually very far east, and specifically, Hejaz, on the eastern side of the Red Sea which is part of present day Saudi Arabia. Hejaz had been under Egyptian and Ottoman control and briefly was its own independent nations. Asim grew up there, with no parent he can recall.

The British were tramping all about the Negev Desert pretending to be archaeologists but really doing intelligence work and that is where Asim met them, working as guide and eventually interpreter. When riding with the Arab Irregulars, he became particularly expert in the various exercises in sabotage committed on the Hejaz railway lines. What exactly he did between the wars and how he came to the rank he has is a mystery, though for a time he was certainly one of Edmund Allenby’s boys and did all manner of tricky things for the Field Marshall when he was in Egypt and the Sudan until 1925 (or thereabouts).

God found him sometime after Allenby’s death and as Asim’s hopes to see a united Arab nation dimmed. It was very reminiscent of Saul on the road to Damascus, a thunderbolt out of the sky that threw him to the ground and when he awoke, God was with him. He enjoys dark chocolate, has never had a sip of alcohol, and he has never been in an intimate relationship with anyone.

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I still maintain that according to the Law of Romantic Cliches, Asim/Lucy is Meant To Be. :P
(that's not a request!)

How did he come to have loyalty to England?

Loyalty to England is a really good question. I'm not sure how much of it is disillusionment with the inability of the Arabs to develop their own pan-Arab identity. He's lived under the Empire his entire life and while he will be glad when the sun sets on it, he owes a lot to the British military. He had the benefit of working with and around some extraordinary people, Lawrence (who he admired, but also saw as very flawed) and Allenby. He admires their competence and plumbing, their tea, and their eye for talent. There is a decided lack of assassination and certain British have been very, very good to him.

It is always so interesting to see who ships who. I am always surprised!

That sounds really interesting. Contradictory and nuanced, like all real things are.

Incidentally, I wasn't exactly serious about Asim/Lucy. I just find the idea vastly amusing for some reason. I seem to have completely failed at communicating this though, as, unfortunately, happens far too often to me.

Oh goodness, no apologies!!! I mean, I've got readers who ship Peter and Asim (there may actually be fic out there.) And there's this whole thing involving dark chocolate too.

More importantly, your comment generated the Lucy and Asim idea of one of them as a Time Lord -- YES PLEASE. Lucy in a Tardis that is in the shape of a wardrobe. And Intrikate said that Asim is always worrying about logistics at the next planet while Lucy madly pushes buttons.

I prefer bluejayfic/dark!chocolate to Asim/dark!chocolate. (You know, "I want you inside of me", etc.)

This is where I really wish I had watched more than a single episode of Dr. Who. I've picked up the general gist over time, which allows me to appreciate the idea, but it feels like it has lots of places it could go... Still, I've inspired an idea! *pats self on back*

More of the Meme -- TSG Backstory

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