#Bran is almost 9

[zoueriemandzijnopmars]

As for their children, the younger ones had been mewling babes for most of his years at Winterfell. Only Robb and his baseborn half brother Jon Snow had been old enough to be worth his notice. The bastard was a sullen boy, quick to sense a slight, jealous of Theon's high birth and Robb's regard for him. For Robb himself, Theon did have a certain affection, as for a younger brother. - Theon I ACOK

"These are your foster brothers we seek." "No Stark but Robb was ever brotherly toward me, but Bran and Rickon have more value to me living than dead." - Theon IV ACOK

Theon reframing the narrative already before his big trauma hits is so interesting to me actually.

[melrosing]

watch mojo top ten Lannister v children beef

10. Loras v Jaime: about as lighthearted as any of this gets

9. Tyrion v Robert Arryn: sometimes the kids do have bad vibes

8. Tywin v Robb: he got so mad he threw a tantrum and demolished Robb’s whole family (almost)

7. Jaime v Robb: he did try to kill him but also he respects him

6. Jaime & Cersei v Arya: oft forgotten latecomer. Arya doesn’t even know

5. Tyrion v Joffrey: sometimes the kids really, really do have bad vibes

4. Cersei v Sansa: a sure classic

3. Cersei v Margaery: like half the driving force of AFFC, some real beefing w a teenager going on here

2. Jaime v Bran: the original Lannister beef with a child, nobody doing it like them, etc

1. Jaime v Hermione Granger: need I say more

[kitnjon]

I would love if you could recommend some newer modern Jonsa fics!!!!

Hi anon, Sure! Some modern AU's I am reading/read this year

You tend the ash, and I’ll tend the pine by @eruherdiriel

“Are we really never gonna talk about it?” Arya snaps. “We’re all gonna pretend everything is normal and happy when Sansa just got divorced?” “Statistically, it is normal,” Bran says. “The divorce rate is something like—” “It’s not normal! Not for this family, and not for Sansa. True love, forever and always, that’s Sansa.” “Jon isn’t the person she married,” Catelyn chides. “Not anymore.” — Sansa and Jon get divorced, but fully untangling their lives is impossible.

2. all eyes on us by @theshipshipper

Sansa is one of the biggest popstars on the planet, Jon is among the top streamers in Westeros -- and the internet goes wild when their well-hidden connection is uncovered.

3. frozen pines by @cellsshapedlikestars

It hits Jon, then - the sharp smell of ozone. A scent that years ago, he’d become all too familiar with. The aftermath of a lightning strike, the burning of wires. Electricity heavy in the air. The hair on his arms still stands on end. The scar on his hand feels tight. His heart is still pounding. It’s just a storm coming, he tells himself. He’s in White Harbor, not Eastwatch. It’s just a storm. or, the Exclusion Zone spreads for the first time in almost fifty years, with Sansa trapped inside. Jon will do whatever it takes to get her out.

4. tell me, what's the perfect time? by @prclainivrysteel

"I'm Jon," he reaches out for a handshake, "I probably should've led with that." "Yeah, probably," she replies, fighting against the goofy-looking smile that threatens to take over her face, "I'm Sansa." She slips her hand into his. His fingers are calloused, but the way he touches her is gentle. The cold press of his rings sends a pleasant shudder down Sansa's body, making her toes tingle. Jon softly repeats her name. The tips of his ears are red, most likely from the chilly, September winds. He looks away for a brief moment, as if gathering his thoughts, before meeting her gaze once more. "That’s pretty."

5. how she died by @cellsshapedlikestars

She's buried on a cold, dreary day in late January. That’s all Jon can seem to think about at the funeral. It’s too cold, the sky is too grey. Bleak and barren; there isn’t even snow. It’s an inane, intrusive thought. It could rain, at least, he thinks. The sky should weep for her. The universe should mourn. It doesn’t make sense. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t understand why anyone would murder Sansa Stark.

6. i'm on fire by @cellsshapedlikestars

“Okay,” she says, voice shaking. “I’ll do it. I’ll order an escort.” “Are you sure?” Randa asks, eyes wide like she doesn’t think Sansa is. It only makes Sansa’s teeth grind together. “Yes, I’m sure,” she grits out. If Harry wants an open relationship, she’s going to give it to him.

7. trojan horse by @cellsshapedlikestars

He’s only known her for an hour, but he’s pretty sure he’s in love with her.

8. Attorney–Client Privilege by @kit-kat21

No one in her family had ever done this before. Her parents were true soulmates. Sansa hated to admit that she partially blamed them for giving her such high expectations of marriage and love. Her brother and his wife, Jeyne (Westerling), had just celebrated their twelfth wedding anniversary. None of her grandparents, aunts or uncles had ever been divorced. Sansa Stark was the first in her whole family to have this distinct honor. So there was no one she could ask for help or advice. When she told her parents that she wanted to file first, Ned and Catelyn did what they did with all of their children when one of them came to them. They dove right in and helped the best they could. Googling divorce lawyers seemed to be the only thing they could do and from there, they read reviews because just like restaurants and hair salons, divorce lawyers were online-reviewed, too.

9. snow angels by @kingsansa

He finds, as the hairs on the back of his neck rise, as his heart completely fucking nosedives, that her voice is lower than he remembers, but unmistakable all of the same. Sansa Stark stands in the hallway of his shitty, hole-in-the-wall, egregiously outdated bar; unmistakable.

10. Later Nights by @justadram

Her husband, Jon Snow, might be in his off-season--blessedly. But with the Summer Olympics around the corner, her late-night Olympic show producer, Tyrion Lannister, hasn't forgotten about the unlikely Team USA star and their recording-setting ratings in 2022. He has his sights set on a triumphant rematch between the newlyweds any way he can get it.

11. We Run the Gamut (Let's Run Away) by @hilarychuff

Boy and girl meet. Live parallel lives. And, one day, they start to come together. Scenes inspired by all the different types of love for the Jonsa Valentine's Day Event 2024.

12. Touch me, I’m going to scream by @eruherdiriel

He’s one building away when he sees her—auburn hair in two neat French braids, a grey peacoat on, and hands in green fleece gloves holding a shopping bag that looks heavy. Sansa Stark is walking up the steps of the triple-decker, leaving a sleek, black sedan idling by the curb. Flustered, Jon jogs the rest of the way and reaches the steps just as Sansa raises a hand to ring the buzzer. “Hey,” he says, and she stops her motion. When she turns to him, Sansa’s eyes go wide. “Are you all right?” — Jon and Sansa—how touch evolves between them over the years.

[jozor-johai]

Revisiting the Rat Cook, Part 1: The Best Pie, and Lord Lamprey

This is the first part of a series I've been sitting on for a while, where I'm going to examine the symbols and themes present in the "Rat Cook" story, as relayed by Bran in ASOS Bran IV, and search reappearances of those elements throughout the rest of ASOIAF.

This series is predicated on the understanding that these books are rich with intentional symbolism, metaphor, and allegory, and that the repetition of these symbols and themes adds to their meaning.

In general, the symbols that are present in ASOIAF are limited by their ability to be inserted into the plot of the story (i.e. if the symbol of a stag killing a direwolf is important, there must be a way in which the characters are able to encounter such a scene within the plot's context). However, the metadiegetic legends that exist in-world for the characters of ASOIAF are not beholden to the same restrictions, and because GRRM is able to invent these myths in their entirety without restrictions on any of the individual symbolic elements, we can trust that each separate element of these in-world myths was placed intentionally.

With that in mind, I believe we can use stories like that of the Rat Cook as a sort of "road map" when looking at the reappearance of these same symbols and themes elsewhere in the story; I believe the "Rat Cook" story is the most distilled example of these elements. I don't mean to say that every instance of "rats" references the Rat Cook directly, but that the Rat Cook story provides a place where Martin is able to use these symbols in their most abstract form and describe their relationship to each other, so that when we see them appear again elsewhere in ASOIAF we might better understand what we are being shown.

So, among other things, the Rat Cook story is about a rat which eats rats, or a cook who serves kings; The Rat Cook story is about fathers and sons, about cannibalism, about trust, about vengeance, and about damning one's legacy.

This is likely going to be a 9-part series, but ideally almost all of these parts will be able to stand on their own. Each post will inform the next as I build my analysis, but hopefully each individual post is also interesting in its own right.

RtRC Part 1: "The Best Pie You Have Ever Tasted" and "Lord Lamprey"

This opening part, for better or worse, is going to retread some well-discussed ground: the clear parallels between the "Rat Cook" story and the incident in which Lord Manderly serves certain overlarge pies in ADWD The Prince of Winterfell, a scene lovingly dubbed "Frey Pie". However, as well-established as this comparison is, I want to begin here so I can begin to introduce how a closer analysis of the Rat Cook themes are present in this uncontroversially parallel scene, and how they might add more depth to interpreting that moment.

Not only does the scene evoke the same imagery, serving pie to the Lords amidst conspicuously missing sons, but the connection becomes even more direct when Wyman Manderly looks directly to the camera and says, “Hey reader, if you’re wondering where those Freys are, think back to any scary stories you know about pie”.

Okay, he doesn’t actually say that, but it’s close enough, and as much of a nudge we’re like to get from Martin (and which still went over my head on my first read through). Instead he does the next best thing, cueing Abel to sing while staggering past our POV:

"We should have a song about the Rat Cook," he was muttering, as he staggered past Theon, leaning on his knights. "Singer, give us a song about the Rat Cook."

Manderly seems to acknowledge the similarities himself, and most have noticed as well.

However, making the comparison between the story of the Rat Cook and Manderly’s actions is particularly interesting in their differences.

There are many ways in which Manderly’s pies, as a mirror, are appropriately an inversion of certain elements in the Rat Cook myth.

Returning to the scene as we see it in ADWD The Prince of Winterfell:

“Ramsay hacked off slices with his falchion and Wyman Manderly himself served, presenting the first steaming portions to Roose Bolton and his fat Frey wife, the next to Ser Hosteen and Ser Aenys, the sons of Walder Frey. "The best pie you have ever tasted, my lords," the fat lord declared. "Wash it down with Arbor gold and savor every bite. I know I shall." “True to his word, Manderly devoured six portions, two from each of the three pies, smacking his lips and slapping his belly and stuffing himself until the front of his tunic was half-brown with gravy stains and his beard was flecked with crumbs of crust.”

Manderly takes on only some of the roles of the Rat Cook here. Despite his status as lord, he plays the role of the humble cook, personally serving Roose Bolton, Walda Bolton (née Frey), Hosteen Frey, and Aenys Frey, all standing in for the “Andal King”. In this way, the role of “Andal King” as someone who has official power and the role of “Rat Cook” as effectively powerless dissident are played out straightforwardly. Bolton and his allies are backed by their army and the authority of the crown while Manderly has no official backing of his own.

Wyman even physically resembles the Rat Cook; Wyman’s blue eyes indicate he is presumably pale, and Wyman is prodigiously large, to mimic the descriptor of “white, and almost as huge as a sow”.

However, like the “Andal King” himself, who had a “second slice” of his own son, it is Wyman Manderly, and not Bolton nor the Freys, who devours two portions from each of the pies. In this way, the roles have elements which are interchangeable.

Wyman is acting out both roles, which is especially interesting because in this comparison is a single most definitive contrast: The Rat Cook, most notably, is not punished for serving the pie, as "a man has a right to vengeance". Instead, he is punished for violating guest right.

Now, Wyman—who lost his son to the Freys at the Red Wedding—certainly has a “right to vengeance”, but betraying guest right is something which Wyman Manderly takes great pains not to do. Manderly conspicuously notes that he gave the three dead Freys guest gifts upon their parting, marking them as no longer guests under his roof, and subsequently, theoretically, freeing him to kill them. Manderly introduces the idea while Davos marks the distinction for the reader’s sake in ADWD Davos IV:

“The Freys came here by sea. They have no horses with them, so I shall present each of them with a palfrey as a guest gift. Do hosts still give guest gifts in the south?" "Some do, my lord. On the day their guest departs.”

The Freys, on the other hand, as executors of the Red Wedding, are the most notable violators of guest right, while the Boltons contributed their part as well; both are being punished for that sin by Manderly-the-Rat-Cook here, marking the inversion of the story. In this iteration, the party serving the pie seems to warrant no judgment; instead, the pie itself is the judgment, served as retribution. With that connection in mind, it's worth remembering the other importance of the Rat Cook story, based on its placement in ASOS and which I think has often been overshadowed by Manderly’s “Frey Pies” incident.

In the Rat Cook story, after the Rat Cook's punishment, he spends an immortal future forever eating his own descendants, a scenario in which Bran describes the rats of the Nightfort as “children running from their father”. That eternal, kin- and legacy- devouring doom does not just come secondary to the punishment, it is a part of the punishment following the violation of guest right, and introduces the notion of an entire family being cursed for that violation... and, for good measure, is brought up in ASOS Bran IV, chapter that occurs only a few chapters after the Red Wedding itself.

In one respect, this is just another reinforcement for the reader of the sanctity of guest right and of the laws of the old gods. Coming so soon after the Red Wedding, the Rat Cook story hints at the fall of House Frey. Walder Frey, most culpable violator of guest right, has apparently doomed the rest of his dynasty to death, punished for his actions, the way that the Rat Cook, too, is a patriarch who creates not only his own ruin but also the ruin of his progeny. Although Walder himself is not literally tying the nooses, it is Walder who has metaphorically become the father "devouring his children" indirectly through his ruthlessness. Wyman Manderly, then, is merely an agent of that doom.

On the subject of the Freys being cursed by violating guest right, only one of the named consumers of the pie, Aenys Frey, is truly mirroring the Rat Cook legend by literally eating his own son, Rhaegar Frey. Both Aenys and Hosteen Frey, on the other hand, are specifically called out in the scene as being the “sons of Walder Frey”. It’s appropriate within the mirrored Rat Cook motif to invoke Walder’s name as patriarch as well as the promise of other “sons” that might succumb to their father’s insatiable appetite for status; this sentence invokes the dynasty of the Frey household. Indeed, Walder Frey himself also has shared motifs with the Rat Cook: like the immortal Rat Cook, Walder Frey has nearly innumerable children and grandchildren, and he too seems to refuse to die.

If a named heir in Westeros is like the ASOIAF version of Chekov’s gun, then the Late Walder Frey is sitting on Chekov’s arsenal; once he becomes the late Late Lord Frey, it’s going to explode. If that happens in an upcoming book, then the Rat Cook story might be setting up the idea of how an eventual succession crisis of House Frey might further this metaphorical connection, with this doomed family turning on itself, each running from the shadow of their father’s legacy like the Rat Cook's children run from him in the Nightfort.

Lord Lamprey

Now, to push through a little more symbolic linking between the Frey Pie scene and Lord Manderly:

If we consider the “pie” element as a key part of the Rat Cook story, then seeing a “pie” specifically in the hands of Wyman Manderly prompts a connection with a noted favorite of Manderly’s: lamprey pie. As early as ACOK Bran II, we learn that:

“His own people mock him as Lord Lamprey”,

Interestingly, we see in that same chapter a telling metaphor considering Manderly and lampreys not in a pie:

“Lord Wyman attacked a steaming plate of lampreys as if they were an enemy host”.

Considering Wyman’s lampreys-as-enemy association makes for curious contrast later, in ADWD Davos IV, as Manderly is feigning allegiance with the hated Freys. Here, Manderly has just stepped away from the feast in order to secretly treat with Davos, and the food served may contain more meaning than at first appears:

“In the Merman's Court they are eating lamprey pie and venison with roasted chestnuts. Wynafryd is dancing with the Frey she is to marry. The other Freys are raising cups of wine to toast our friendship.”

The reappearance of this noted lamprey pie might take on more significance knowing that some of those eating it become a pie later on. The reminder of the association between Manderly and his lamprey pies seems even more intentional when the “Lord Lamprey” nickname conspicuously returns as Bolton’s men search for the missing Freys in ADWD Reek III:

"You did not find our missing Freys." The way Roose Bolton said it, it was more a statement than a question. "We rode back to where Lord Lamprey claims they parted ways, but the girls could not find a trail."

Invoking his nickname in this scene draws a connecting line between Manderly’s favorite pie, the “enemy host” of lampreys, the missing Freys, and “lamprey pie” being served as a symbol of the fake “friendship” between the Freys and Manderlys.

If that Frey-Manderly friendship is marked by mentions of lamprey pie, and Manderly loves to eat lamprey like he would eat an enemy, and we see in The Prince of Winterfell that Manderly apparently loves to eat his enemies, having two portions of each Frey pie, we might think that the Freys are being paralleled with Manderly’s favorite pie filling: lampreys. If that is the case, then comparing the punished Freys to lampreys is a scathingly fitting image, and I mean that literally.

Considering that carnivorous lampreys latch onto fishes to slowly eat the fish’s blood and flesh while the fish still swims, then looking at an image like this makes for some serious symbolic resonance if you consider the Tullys as fish (as they often are described) and the pie-filling Freys as pie-filling lampreys. It certainly provides a strong visual metaphor for the Frey’s “late” and half-hearted vassalage to Hoster Tully, how they dealt with Catelyn, and how they are now parasitically using Edmure—he sits in Riverrun at the end of ADWD, but with Freys latched onto him, bleeding him like they did his family.

This series is otherwise about pies and rats, not lampreys, but I will mention a few other interesting associations with lampreys that are worth looking into. The Stokeworths, when they are desperately trying to secure a match for Lollys, serve each of their prospective suitors lamprey pie, perhaps a signaling of the Stokeworth’s parasitic place at court, or the attitude towards their search for their daughter’s match. Note that in that context, Littlefinger remarks that he loves lamprey pie, perhaps fittingly for someone who has risen high by making use of his parasitic attachments to those more powerful. By contrast, when our intrepid advocate for truth and justice—Davos—is jailed after his return from the Battle of the Blackwater, he is served lamprey pie in the dungeons, but finds it “too rich” to eat. We have already seen that Davos has no stomach for the blind flattery that some of Stannis’ other lords have, and this scene describes that same character trait. I believe there are even further associations that are worth investigating, but for the sake of this essay, we must move on and end here for now.

In the next part, I'll focus on how it's relevant that the Rat Cook's pie and Manderly's pie were both allegedly "pork" pies, and where that reappears as well.

[novelmonger]

1-6, 9, 12, 16-19, and 23 for the Rocky Road asks, please?

A book you regretted reading

The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Hated it, hated it, hated it. I honestly see no literary merit in it, and I probably shouldn't have finished it because of the kinds of invasive thoughts it was giving me, but it was for school, so I read the whole thing. I really should have asked the teacher if I could do a different book, but instead I just tried to get through it as quickly as possible. My biggest regret in regards to this book is that I asked my mom if I could burn it (she said no), instead of taking it and burning it on my own. I needed the catharsis.

2. A book you couldn’t finish

Most recently, They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera. If I'd taken five seconds to look at the tags on Goodreads, I would have realized it wasn't going to be the book for me, but alas. Instead I got invested in the characters and read until I couldn't kid myself anymore about the budding romance I didn't want to read, at which point I put the book down.

3. A concept or plot that you thought was squandered in a story

The Dragon's Legacy by Deborah A. Wolf is...not a great book. I could wax eloquent about all the problems I have with her dumb matriarchal desert society, but the biggest shame in that huge waste of time was a really cool idea about these people who have a telepathic bond with big cats. It was a really cool idea, especially when (if I'm remembering right) usually it's only women who can bond with them, but one of the main characters is a boy who manages it. The whole story could have been about that, and it would probably have been much more interesting than the big nothing of a story I slogged through instead that was apparently just setting up the next book.

4. An underutilized setting or world

I am on what is probably a lifelong quest in search of a well-written fantasy based on some Middle Eastern culture. It has to be written well, avoid egregious stereotypes, and capture in some way that particular old-meets-new feeling, that warmth and vitality and history and darkness and light, of the Middle East. All of which is apparently hard to do, because I keep on running into stories written by Westerners who don't seem to have done much research beyond watching Disney's Aladdin. Or it's ruined by an explicit sex scene on like page 5, because that has happened with alarming frequency too :/

5. A character you want to rescue from the story they’re in

I think Kaladin Stormblessed would really benefit from taking a vacation from the Stormlight Archive and getting some intensive therapy :P

6. An author you want to rescue from the story they told

I want to rescue Jack London from The Call of the Wild, which is the one story he's known for. Let's have the world forget about that story for a while and pay attention to the far superior White Fang instead.

9. A character type, plot, or element that you normally don’t like but did like because of the execution

This is probably not what the question is getting at, but it's the one example that's coming to mind right now: The Wheel of Time. There were a lot of characters I couldn't stand as written by Robert Jordan. Like...almost the entire female cast, for one. But then in the last three books, when Brandon Sanderson took over...suddenly I liked them! I ended up crying at the death of one of the characters that annoyed me the most! And that was entirely down to Brandon Sanderson knowing how to write distinct characterization that makes sense and makes you care.

12. A book on hold that you do mean to finish

One day, I will finish The Idiot by Fydoor Dostoevsky. I will! Let's just...ignore how I've been working on it for like half my life at this point >_>

16. A book you hold a grudge against (read or unread)

Fifty Shades of Grey. 'Nuff said.

17. A book that you were spoiled for

I will forever resent Pinterest for spoiling the "Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do" moment from Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson.

18. A book where you like the adaptation or an element therein better than the book itself

The Maze Runner movies are vastly superior to the books, surprisingly. The movies actually tell a coherent story, all the characters are more believable and proactive, and while there's still some eyebrow-raising things about the plot, it's much more satisfying and compelling. The books are weird, man.

19. A book you don’t really like but have kept for other reasons 

I don't really like any of the Ender's Game series other than the first book, but the series should stay together, and I want Ender's Game on my shelf, so the rest of the series is there too :/

23. A highly-hated or derided book you love

I don't know exactly how hated/derided the Jedi Apprentice books are, but just about the only thing I ever hear anyone talking about in relation to them is getting angry at Qui-Gon for leaving Obi-Wan on Melida/Daan during the arc where Obi-Wan leaves the Jedi. Sorry, everyone can die mad about it, because I love that series anyway. Both of their actions make sense in context, mistakes are acknowledged and apologized for and forgiven, and I'll always have a soft spot for those books.

Rocky Read Asks

[visenyaism]

reading fire and blood and i'm increasingly convinced George has never actually met a child

it is very very consistent in ASOIAF that almost every child character acts about 2 years older than they are: Arya seems about 11 but is 9, Sansa seems 13 but is 11, Bran acts 8-9ish but is 6, etc. fire and blood is just completely worse in every way including realistic child behavior though lmao. I’ve worked with kids for many years when i was younger, I had to do so much developmental psych during college, and it’s just consistently way off in this series. You just have to turn that part of your brain off a little bit. 

[yaneznayunichego]

I think I'll be adding ~2.5 months (+ 21%) to every Asoiaf year in my mind from now on (maybe the months just have more days like 36, I don't know, but it adds up to 14.5 of our months per year).

So Sansa is 11 years old in the first book, but if you switch to our timeline, she's over 13. Better! Dany is about 16 when she weds, Bran is almost 9, Jaime is 37 yo, maester Aemon died at the age of 123 etc

It's not critical to the storyline and the experience of growing up, but it's a little less ridiculous

[dancing--lights]

7, 11, 29, and/or 30 for a rook of your choice!!!!

Thanks so much for asking! I had a blast doing these.

Rook Codex Writing Prompts

7. Something Written By a Character From a Previous Game About Rook

A Letter En Route to Kirkwall

Hawke,

I hope this makes it to you. It'd better. I paid five extra gold for a "guaranteed safe delivery." Five! These gods are making things worse, and more expensive, for everyone. The Lords and I are doing our best to cause trouble for them and the Antaam. We've discovered they're working together, so it's really a two birds, one stone sort of thing. Convenient, isnt it? Whatever else happens, those gods, all of them, will pay for what they did to Varric, I can promise you that.

You remember that Warden he wrote to us about, the one he took under his wing? Rook? I finally met her, and he wasn't lying. She's good. I think her and her team might actually have a chance. Taash likes her. And I can see why Varric took to her the way he did. She's sweet, a bit of a flirt, and damn good at cards. She beat me just the other day, and I was cheating! She's not too bad with a blade either. Almost beat your record in the arena. You might have to defend your title soon if she keeps it up.

You know, it's strange. The way she laughs when she starts to tell a story, this crooked smile she gets when she's joking, how she can't seem to walk away from anyone that might need help... it's Varric all over. He definitely left his mark. Or maybe I just miss him. I know we all do. Damn it.

Anyway, enough of that. I won't ask if you're alright, because of course you are. The blight may have reached Kirkwall, but you can handle a few darkspawn. They would have to get through Aveline first, anyway, and that's no easy thing to do. Say hello to our new "Acting Viscount" for me, will you? Don't let her kill Bran.

I hope we can sort this out quick. The shoreline feels empty without you, the ocean bigger, somehow. And, my bed has been far too cold lately for my liking. Come home soon.

-Isabela

11. Report summarizing what is known about Rook by an allied or enemy faction.

(A crumpled report found in the Weisshaupt library.)

First Warden Glastrum,

You requested a dossier of any information the Order might have on Warden Elodie Thorne, now operating under the moniker “Rook,” as I understand it. I have combed the records, and have made several inquiries around the fortress; mainly among junior Wardens that might be considered her peers or comrades, but also received some illuminating remarks from her former trainers and superiors. I now put forth here a summary of what I have discovered:

Place of Birth: a small, unnamed village in the High Anderfels (As you know, there are many such places. It is quite possible the village Warden Rook is from is no longer inhabited; overrun by darkspawn, or fallen on hard times, its people forced to relocate elsewhere).

Age: around 30

Date of Conscription: 15 Wintermarch, 9:45 Dragon

Date of Joining: 22 Justinien, 9:47 Dragon

The circumstances surrounding Warden Rook’s conscription are murky, and accounts among her peers were varied. Rumors of a duel with a chevalier were presented. Others recounted her murdering said chevalier in cold blood. I’m inclined to believe the first as familial ties to Orlais were mentioned. Written accounts from the Warden who conscripted her mention a mother and sister, both succumbed to blight sickness. Library records provided little enlightenment on the subject. The Order’s disinclination to ask too many questions of its conscripts is sometimes as much burden as it is boon. Whatever she was before, Rook is now a Warden, and was afforded the respect of one at the time of her conscription.

One peer described her as “stupidly brave.” Another as “chatty,” and “a bit of a showoff.” Still another who served multiple missions alongside her recalled her as resourceful and generous. “Give her impossible odds, and she’ll beat them every time. She was always the first one in, and the last one out,” was this Warden’s account. She was known to spend much of her time with Warden Evka Ivo, and later, Warden Antoine, when their duties allowed. 

Some of her commanding officers painted a less than flattering picture. “Reckless.” “Stubborn.” “Prone to insubordination.” You were aware of her reputation before the town hall incident, so I won’t elaborate. But many of her teachers and trainers also spoke highly of her. Her combat trainer colorfully informed me, “she could show up to training hungover, after spending a night sleeping it off in the dungeons, and still beat everyone in the yard.” Charming. 

Coincidentally; number of nights spent in the dungeons (recorded): 17

I hope this has given you some measure of insight. If I might give my own opinion, you may do with it whatever you wish. I did not know Warden Rook well, but the times our paths did cross, she seemed to me, like many of us at Weisshaupt, a lost soul trying her best to be found. She would often come to the library asking for books on our history, for tales of the most storied and legendary heroes among our ranks. She told me once her father used to read them to her when she was young. I believe they brought her comfort. I believe that she believed in what they stood for. Yes, she had the tendency to talk too much, and too loudly, while in the library, and a penchant for finding humor in the most baffling of places, at the most inappropriate times, but I don't believe her loyalty to the Order should be in question. I implore you to listen to what she has to say.

-Chamberlain of the Grey

29. Something written to Rook post-game.

A Letter From the Lighthouse

Rook,

I hope you and Lace are enjoying your time in Ferelden. I know you, and I know you’re probably spending a lot of that time working. The blight did a number there, so I’m sure the relief efforts are keeping you busy, but please take a moment to breathe every now and then. I know. Rich coming from me. I’m working on it. If I am, you can, too. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help.

Things in Minrathous are going about as expected. Which is to say, there’s something new to deal with every day. But it’s a good problem to have. There’s a Minrathous left to help. It’s more than I could have asked for. Hope? Well, that’s something else I’m working on, isn’t it? I told you, you’re a bad influence.

Lucanis says hello. I think he misses you. I know he misses Harding. The others miss you both, as well. Me? Well, I’m the one writing this, aren’t I? 

This place really isn’t the same without you.

-Neve

30. A note/letter that Rook never sent.

Things To Remember When It's Too Late

(a folded piece of parchment; the edges are frayed, as if unfolded, read, and added to often)

Your name is Elodie Thorne Rook

You are a Grey Warden

This is your Calling

You will take down as many darkspawn as you can before you can’t anymore

You will leave this world a little bit better, a little bit brighter

You had a father, a mother, a sister

They loved you

You love them

Now, you have Weisshaupt the Lighthouse

Remember Evka

Remember Antione

Remember Varric (this has recently been underlined multiple times)

Remember Davrin

Remember Assan

Remember Neve

Remember Lucanis

Remember Bellara

Remember Taash

Remember Emmerich

Remember Manfred

Remember Lace

She loves you

You love her

You are a Grey Warden

This is your Calling

Your name is Rook

[ai-megurine]

Lady dreamfyre 1: What inspired you to write the fic this way? 2: Which scene did you put on first? 3: What is your favorite plot? 4: What's your favorite line of dialogue? 5: Which part was hardest to write? 6: What is your fic special or different from all your other fics? 7: Where did the title come from? 8: Did any real person or event inspire any part of this? 9: Was there an alternate version of this fic? 10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story? 11: What do you like most about this fic? 12: What do you like least about this fic? 13: What song did you hear that made you want to write this story? Or if you haven't heard anything yet, what do you think readers should hear to keep us reading? 14: Is there anything you would like readers to learn from reading this fic? 15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

Hello!!!! I'm so sorry for being late 😥

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I was thinking about how the characters of Hotd are bad at the game. Like, any character from GOT would have obliterated EVERYONE. Can you imagine if Cersei had been in Alicent's place? And Tywin in Otto's? The Dance wouldn't have happened cuz Viserys, Daemon and Rhaenyra would have died Red Wedding style. We're talking about Tywin "Reynes/Rains of Castamere" Lannister.

And then it occured to me that Sansa would have 100% gotten along with Alicent and/or Helaena.

At first, I considered teleporting Sansa in that era, then I found the idea silly so I went for reincarnation. I just need to pick in whom!

2: Which scene did you put on first?

Helaena riding Lady Dreamfyre and Bran talking to Sansalaena

3: What is your favorite plot?

From the ones who have been published, I have two. Aegon deciding he wants to be King and working for it, and Helaena plotting to help him

4: What's your favorite line of dialogue?

From the published one it's : « You could lose a leg and I would still love you the same. It isn't the state of your body that determines your value. It's your heart. And I love your heart. I love you. » by Helaena in Chapter 27.

I also love this exchange: « "And one more thing. Have the watchtower repaired before the lords arrive, and light a beacon in it." "A beacon, my lord?" 'Lord Larys, why does Her Grace always wear green? It isn't the colours of House Hightower.' 'The beacon on the Hightower, do you know what colour it glows when Oldtown calls its banners to war?' "Aye. And make it green." » by Cregan in Chapter 24

I have other planned that I like more than this one, but I won't spoil you 😉

5: Which part was hardest to write?

Rhaenyra in general. She's incredibly difficult to write in my opinion because I don't want her to be cartoonish but at the same time she's genuinely entitled and dumb

6: What is your fic special or different from all your other fics?

I planned the ending before posting anything

7: Where did the title come from?

My love for magical bonds between dragon/direwolf and their human. Also I love Dreamfyre and Lady

8: Did any real person or event inspire any part of this?

Reading isekai manwha definitely helped 😆

9: Was there an alternate version of this fic?

Yup! Sansa was almost reincarnated into Alicent

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

Helaegon brainrot got to me. At first Helaegon was mostly due to the arranged marriage being logical for the time, but it got to me!!

11: What do you like most about this fic?

The blending of Sansa and Helaena!!

12: What do you like least about this fic?

Maybe rushing Sansalaena acceptance of her fate? I don't know. I'm pretty happy with my work ����

13: What song did you hear that made you want to write this story? Or if you haven't heard anything yet, what do you think readers should hear to keep us reading?

No song made me write the story per say but I have several songs that remind of the characters.

• God of War by Peyton Parrish → Lyarra Umber

• Warrior Song by TheFatRat → Daeron

• Raise your banners by Within Temptation → The Greens

• Worthless by Bullet for my Valentine → Aemond

• Sound of War by Timothee Profitt → Aegon

• Close to the Sun by TheFatRat → Helaena

And many others!!

14: Is there anything you would like readers to learn from reading this fic?

Magic isn't good or bad. It just exists. Same with dragons, direwolves, etc.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

That I love writing court intrigue!!!! I'm already planning other Dance AU.

[dragoneyes618]

The only problem with Tudor food was getting enough of it. If you were wealthy you could eat very well indeed, but most people were not and frequently had to endure shortages. Even in the great households the best stuff - the roast meat and imported almonds, currants, sugar and spices - was kept for the lord, his immediate family and guests. The kitchen accounts at Ingatestone Hall, for example, talk of cattle being butchered into half a dozen 'roasting pieces' and forty 'boiling pieces,' and the volumes of imported ingredients purchased are very much smaller than you might imagine if you simply looked at the recipe books of the era. Late spring was the hardest time for most people. After months living off salted, dried and smoked foods prepared in the autumn, and grain from the harvest, stores were running low across the country and prices at market low. Despite the green flush of growth, very little was yet ready to eat. Hard decisions often had to be made.

If you had a few animals, did you slaughter them now when they were at their smallest and thinnest, or could you wait till they had grown and fattened? If the harvest last year had been poor, you may have been forced to eat some of your seed corn, so you knew that this year's yields were going to be small too. With the countryside fully settled and all of the natural resources owned by someone, there was very little opportunity to supplement food stocks from the wild. All wild animals and plants belonged in law to the person who owned the land they were on - not the person who rented it, but the freehold owner. This excluded most small-scale and even fairly substantial farmers from the rights to fish from the streams, or take pigeons or even rabbits from their fields. Even hedgerows were owned, with different individuals having the rights to the trimmings, the timber from trees that stood within them and the herbs that grew at their feet. And since those who owned these rights were frequently reliant on these resources themselves, they guarded them fiercely. When the weather turned bad and crops suffered, the whole country looked on with a worried eye. Severe food shortages struck several times during the sixteenth century. The years 1527-9 were particularly bad, as were 1549-51, and almost immediately the harvests were disastrous again in 1554-6 and there was another longer bout of hardship in 1594-7. At such times those who were accustomed to eating wheat bread ate barley, and the humbler people had to move to coarser fare, mixing pea flour and brand and even ground acorns to fill their bellies. Everyone felt it, but the poorest could be in real trouble. The local governments within port towns and cities tried to buy in grain from abroad and offer subsidized bread, the wealthy were urged to open their granaries and sell their stored surpluses, and everyone was instructed from the pulpit to give food to the poor, but still some people starved. Very many more faced severe malnutrition, getting by on one meal a day of bread full of nutritionally poor bran and acorn flour. the bones of several of the crew of the Mary Rose show evidence of healed childhood incidents of disease linked with malnutrition: rickets, scurvy and anaemia. Since the ship sank in 1545, these men would have been young children during the bad years of 1527-9. It's likely, therefore, that they were among those who suffered the pangs of hunger. Those pangs have to be severe indeed to leave a trace upon your bones.

- How To Be A Tudor, Ruth Goodman, pages 148-149

[astoriacolumnstaircase]

tag 9 people you want to get to know better

tagged by @overnighttosunflowers

favorite color: yellow. All hues, but there's a very sunny maybe almost obnoxious yellow I painted my hallway and stairwell that is maybe my favorite

currently reading: This Is How You Lose the Time War, but only in fits and starts. It's not the fault of the novella, it's really good, i'm just having a hard time holding attention with reading right now so it's probably time to seek out short stories again.

last song: Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring. I don't remember which movement, it was on the radio when I was turning on something to dance to.

last series: Summer Camp Island. I love that show it's so good.

last movie: Probably My Neighbor Totoro? Or Rescuers Down Under? I don't remember. Edit: holy shit death on the nile i watched it on a plane and my memory Sucks. French and Saunders were in it! I love them

sweet/savory/spicy: All of these options are so good. Probably savory, but I have been craving a good bran muffin lately, which is like, savory sweet when made correctly.

currently working on: tailoring a dress so the sleeves fit where I like to wear them. And a long story about a woman building ancillary bodies out of the things she's killed in the forest.

Tagging @batwingsandblackcats, @soudeorabisk, @antlereed, @jupitersson, @masterqwertster, @picturesofthegoneworlds, @distant--shadow, and @bolo-from-aeor

[lolitastories]

BLACK AND BLOOD

Y/N L/N is the daughter of the Great Khal Drogo although she was raised by the king of the unknown lands. After finding out he died she travels and finds the one who caused his death. Along this adventure she meets the mother of dragons. Jon Snow. Night walkers. We will see if she really has the Dothraki blood flowing through her veins.

Chapter 9

We walk back to Winterfell in silence. He told me he wanted me to meet someone. Something about him being a true fan of stories like me. I don’t know how he got the idea of that, I dread having to read even a message. “This is Samwell. Has read millions of books in his short years of life”

“Nice to meet you Samwell”

“Please just Sam” I smile

“Y/N”

“I bet you two will have fun” Bran says as he leaves the room. I turn back to Sam who stares at me with no clue on his face.

“I told him one story and now he thinks we can be bestfriend because we have that in common”

“Well if you came to become bestfriends you’re too late, Jon is my best friend” I laugh at his sarcasm.

“That pains me. Oh well” I take a seat. I grab and take a look at some of the books he has on the table. “So you and Jon are bestfriends?” He nods, taking a seat infront of me with more books.

“He saved me when I arrived at castle black and has been saving me from that day on” Alway trying to save people. “We became brothers of the night watch together. We crossed the wall together. We survived the wall together. We found love together.” He turns to me, lowering his voice. “Her name is Gilly. We have a kid but its a long story. His was a wildling named Ygritte. That is when the night watch didn’t get along with the widling and got into a war. Ygritte got killed.” He sits back closing his book. “At this point Jon has lost his father, lady stark, his first love and two brothers. I don’t know how he keeps standing”

“He still has something to fight for. His two sisters, Bran, and all of the north”

“Yeah. I mean after getting killed by his own man and surviving it. Going to war with a ruthless guy, Bolton. Survivng the dead twice, I don’t know how he keeps on standing” My gaze falls off the books. I look up to Sam.

“When you stop fighting, that is when it's all over. There is always a reason to continue and Jon has plenty of those”

“Yeah.”

“So, tell me about Gilly. Why is the story long?” I could see his eyes light up at her name. I stayed with him for a while, hearing his story. How they met, to when they moved so he could become maester up to now.

“I want to marry her when this is all over. Live the life she deserves after almost her whole life she was kept by her father-” He stopped when a knock on the door interrupted us. “Come in” And in walked Jon.

“Hey” Before I could answer Sam spoke up.

“Hey! I was just telling her how you are my bestfriend” He goes over and wraps one arm around his shoulder. “And how many times I had to save you” Jon laughs

“Seems like you needing saving is something common” I stand walking past them. “I need to check up on my people. It was nice to meet you Sam'' With a smile I walked out. I didn’t know what it was but I had a weird sensation. Like I couldn’t make myself look at Jons eyes. Maybe it was the Ygritte thing bothering me. His first love. Maybe I am angry at myself for being stupid enough to think I was his like he was mine. Maybe I am being stupid right now to think this is important, that I am important. We haven’t established a set relationship but damn, I knew getting into any of these was not the best idea. I rush towards the gate and see the unsullied and dothraki on guard while some sleep.

“Princess, would you like us to set you up for the night?” I nod at the dothraki offering. I go around the camp, tiring myself out. I couldn’t help but feel a bad feeling. The cold was becoming bearable at the time I laid down. The use of fire wasn’t necessary until we traveled across the sea. I like to admit that the sound of the wood burning while my eyes closed was sort of calming. Like fire making music. Back home there was a water feature in the castle that surrounded and echoed in the walls. The water making music. While traveling towards the sea you could feel the air. The air making music. I am yet to feel the earth make music. Another thing I loved about sleeping to music is hearing the birds sing. In Winterfell the only birds I heard were crows. At first light coming visible I stood and took in a deep breath. I walk into the gates and towards the stairs.

“Goodmorning Y/N” I smile as I see Sansa walking towards me.

“Goodmorning Lady Sansa” I bowed my head a little. We both turn around looking down below at the people working early in the morning.

“We had a room in order for you”

“Thank you, but I prefer sleeping where my people sleep” She nods.

“Can I ask you a question?” I respond with a simple yes. I turn towards her, giving her my full attention. “You don’t seem to trust Daenerys as much as everyone does. My brother seems to trust more in her than the person leading her army” I chuckled.

“Trust doesn’t come easy. I think in this world you can’t give your trust to many people. I am here for loyalty. Yet, your cause is convincing to fight as well. I will say trusting without letting your guard down is advisable. She is here to help your cause. Once this is all over, I think she will be very generous with your idea on what to do with Winterfell.”

“So you're telling me to trust her because she is fighting a war for my cause. Yet this can cause her to lose just as much if Winterfell stood alone” The grin in my face didn’t leave. She was a strong girl. Strong girls in this world are tested every day. But she is more than strong, she is delicate to the touch. Someone who would do anything for her people.

“Yes. Thankfully she understood this can affect her in the future. Now she is here fighting. If you can’t trust the people who choose to fight alongside you, then that is how the otherside might win. The good thing is that when this is all over, Winterfell will only have one queen”

“That is not what I want. I want Winterfell to be independent, people want Jon to be King” Her eyes fall to the ground. Turning her body over the balcony again.

“One thing I have learned about the Starks is that they will do anything for their family. And this family will fight and die for the north. The north sees that and will continue to support whoever supports them”She only gives me a nod. I shake it off. “Now if you will excuse me. I will continue on with my walk” walk? I didn’t even know where I was going. After my departure I enter the common room. Traveled through the dining area. I stopped when I reached a hallway. At the end of it was red eyes staring back at me. I have seen dogs before but nothing like this. The creature stood up on his four legs. Shaking his white fur and taking one step forward. I raise my hand towards him. A low growl came from his end. Backing up was no longer an option as I hit a dead end. I look over to my left, from where I came from but if I made a run for it or scream, the creature would get to me before I could escape. Desperately I moved my hand around to touch the back wall and twisted the handle, got in and closed the door. “Who leaves a huge dog outside like that?” I sigh, pressing my forehead against the door. Now how do I leave?.I turned around and saw that I walked into a bedroom. The fire was on and the bed made. I rushed over towards the window but it was too high for me to climb down. I heard scratching on the otherside of the door and I swear to you that almost made me jump out the window. Maybe the snow will be a nice place to land on. The sun was rising more and more and the scratching continued. The door creaked open, caught my attention and I saw Jon standing beside the creature.

“Are you okay?” I shook my head quickly seeing as he took steps closer the creature wasn’t far behind. “This is Ghost. A direwolf” I give him an uneasy smile.

“Oh hello Ghost” Sarcasm all over my voice. “Did you teach him to corner people?” Moving closer to the wall beside the window. Jon shakes his head with a laugh.

“No. He is harmless.” Really?! I doubt that. “Its okay” he whispers as he takes more steps towards me until he is right infront of me. I grip onto his leather as I hear the direwold growl again.

“Does that sound harmless?!” I close my eyes having seen the direwolf walk closer to me. I could feel his nose smelling me.

“You’re a stranger. He won’t do anything to you” I grip harder pulling myself closer to him now. “Ghost. Sit” Jons arm wraps around me. I felt the vibration of his laugh. “See? Harmless” I look up to him rolling my eyes. “Don’t like wolves much?”

“Not ones that growl at me” There it is again a laugh. “Not funny. He could have easily ripped me to shreds” One of his hand moves to grab my cheek. I look at him and his grin has gone away. I closed my eyes as I felt his lips on mine. My mind goes back to last night. She is not here anymore. I never cared about what people thought about me. This will not stop me from fullfilling anything I set myself to do. The pain that might come as the result of this at the end will not stop me from hearing my heart. When I pulled him even closer is when I heard another growl. Now that will stop me. I looked down at Ghost who was just sitting there, looking at us.

“Ghost” Jon warned. “Come on.” I watched as he opened the door for Ghost. But before he leaves I could sware he gave me a warning with his eyes.

“Ghost doesn’t like me” I hear the door close. I walk over to the fire, trying to warm myself some more. “If he could speak he would tell you he doesn’t like me. I am going to wake up tomorrow to him staring at me, ready to jump on me.” I looked over to Jon who was standing there watching me.

“Sam told me what you two spoke about yesterday”

“There is no need for an explanation.” I wave him off.

“I would feel much better if I did” he walked closer taking both my hands in his. “Ygritte was someone I fell for and will forever love” That felt like a stab. The words I know I didn’t have to say were stuck in my throat. “We were at war and I had to choose.” my eyes move up to meet his. “This is a way of telling you that I don’t want to choose this time”

“You don’t have to.” I didn’t say this because this situation was different than it was with Ygritte and him. We are fighting for the same side. We don’t have to kill eachother. “It's not the perfect timing but whatever you choose, I will accept” I move my hands to hold his face closer.

“I want to be with you, and I want you to be by my side.” a smile creeped on my face. “I don’t mean drop everything for me, or give up on things you believe in because of me, I just want you to be with me. Just-”

“Ok” I give him a quick kiss. “Ok. I want you by my side too. King or no King. Lord Commander or not. Fighting against the dead or against the queen. I don’t care as long as you are with me. Whatever happens will happen, you just have to promise me that it will always be us”

“And Ghost” he quickly added. I laugh, shaking my head.

“And Ghost” I kissed him again. “Your siblings” another kiss. “Mine” another kiss. “But mainly and most importantly, us”

“Us” The next kiss spread fire around my body. His arms wrapped around me and pulled me towards the bed. I was laying under him and his kisses traveled down my neck.

“Jon” I sighed, gripping onto his clothes, trying to move it away. He got the message. I could no longer feel leather or fur but his warm skin under my finger tips. He stopped kissing looking down at me as he untied my shirt. “Will you be careful?” His eyes were warm against mine. He didn’t have to answer because I knew he would be. Maybe it was me being under him that made me feel safe. I heard so many times about how this is supposed to be a nervous situation and that it wouldn’t be something as easy as breathing. My breathing was rapid but my head was clear. Everything he was doing, my body was moving in sync with his.

“Anything for you princess” He whispered, coming down to take my lips again. My upper half was naked and I did the same to any other clothing we had on us. My hands moved to grip onto his back and he gripped onto the fur sheets on the side of my head. His kiss traveled down my neck again but I couldn’t hold it any longer.

“Jon” I whine. “Please?” he hovered over me. The disapperation in my face showed. “I need you” My legs wrap around his waist pulling him down.

“Anything for you princess” I closed my eyes, taking in what he was doing. His kiss moves up to claim my lips again. One hand moving inbetween us to place him in the right direction. The warm feeling was there again. He pushes in and my whimper is swallowed by him. The grip around his back grows harder as he keeps pushing in. His thrust goes slow, allowing me to feel every inch of him. The uneasy feeling below was heaven. My head was in ecstasy as the feeling of everything was becoming too much. “You’re doing so good” oh that right there. That right there was the moment my whines and wimpers turned into a moan. The pleasure running up my spine. His thrust continues to speed up.

“Don’t stop,” I pleaded, pulling us closer. I moan as his cock slammed in harder than before.

“So good. Such a pretty view” Jon grunts, grounding his hips into yours even harder and going so fast that you're shaking the bed. The pleasure and pain mixed into one felt too good to come back to reality, to make him stop. Oh and when I felt a weird sensation I lifted my hips towards him and that sensation increased.

“Jon” I moaned, unaware of what this feeling was. It was a fire burning hotter every second in my lower stomach. I felt it when we kissed but not this intense.

“It's okay.” he moaned, his head falling beside mine. “I feel it too”He speaks out breathily, making more grunting sounds. Jon doesn’t stop his movement after the feeling was residing. I grip hard onto him as the burning sensation came. He moves to hover over me again with pulling out of me. “What?” He asked with a stupid smile.

“Do you mind if we keep practicing this?”

[sixohsixoheightfourtwo]

tag game: 9 questions for 9 people

tagged by @phneltwrites one million years ago (december 2023)

last song: Tell You (Today) (original 12'' vocal) - Loose Joints . this is a disco deep cut that I heard for the first time the other day on twitter. anyway . really really good. i invite you to check it out if you enjoy a bop. go here for an absolutely wild 16-minute version described by the uploadeder as 'super wigged out and funky'.

currently watching: cooking crush. pit babe. the sign. (not up to date on any of these . Sigh.) khun chai (almost finished. love ittt). ossan's love 2018 (listen .... it's good actually). 1670 netflix. Treme (super underrated series about new orleans recovering in the wake of hurricane katria)

three ships: restricting this to the thai bl context 1. I gotta say both jiutian and tinncharn made me absolutely wild in the last few months so i think i have to include filmjam/jamfilm, tho I don't really have any thoughts on them themselves, haven't really engaged with any extra content, i juuuuust think they made good shows. 2. earthmix is probably the ship that I've ended up thinking about the most .. . the lore.....the lore ... !!! i simply cannot comment on this. 3. again i am transfixed by the LORE for OFFGUN....... they've prevailed they've traversed they've grown so much. hopefully they can continue working together for years to come. also you know what sneaky extra one. 4. forcebook. they just have a nice vibe!!! i like it when they hug after doing an emotional scene!!!!!!!!! i liked it when they yelled about their love for each other on top of that bungee jumping tower so sue me!!!!!!!

favorite color: green green green of the sludgy / earthy / olivey tones. I am getting big into earthy orange / terracotta as well.

currently consuming: turkish tea & halva

first ship: ok . how deep we gonna go. stuff I was reading in my early teens. martin / rose from the redwall books. (redwall was the first thing i Ever read fanfic for.) will / bran from the dark is rising. There's a surprising amount of fanfic for them! marcus / esca the eagle of the ninth. tbh several of those rosemary sutcliff books have these VERY intense masculine warrior bonds and it was uhh a Lot to process.

relationship status: n/a

last movie: leos carax, mauvais sang / the night is young

currently working on: wine qualifications!!!!!! honestly not that hard you just have to learn a bunch of stuff & also learn a particular framework to apply it. but also. like anything where you take an exam. you CAN mess up. & also applying for jobs that will work around this.

tagging the last 9 people in my notifs who didn't already get tagged in the last meme @waltermeadows @sirtomksy @luckshiptoshore @toranj @errantpixxi @heathyr @officialhagfish @annmariethrush @smashlampjaw

[captainelliecomb]

WIP Wishlist Round Nineteen

WIP Wishlist

I remain more away than around, but I had this almost done, and it’s a quick thing to wrap up.

There’s a theme this round: Recently Updated.

the road back home again by Roccolinde (22,636 words, first posted 24 Dec 22, last updated 21 Feb 23)

Summary: After eight years, Jaime Lannister is back to run the Castle Black Race: fourteen dogs, one thousand miles, and a woman who can't stand the sight of him after what he'd done all those years ago.

Things I Love: The details of the race, nature as a beautiful, terrible threat, all the hints of the friendships and connects from the past, the character voices.

The Wolf Cub and the Lion by HalfBloodDragon (11,158 words, first posted 31 Jan 23, last updated 20 Feb 23)

Summary: Atop a broken tower, Bran's tunic in Jaime's grasp, some mistakes are harder for Jaime to make the second time around. Westeros's newest champion wishes the gods had picked someone else to send back and re-live their life. Like... oh, anyone with a plan. Or someone who cares. Really, he's not picky.

Things I Love: Bran and Jaime’s friendship, all the things that change and all the things that stay the same, adorable Brienne, Jaime training Bran and Arya, Jaime and the Starklings, Brienne swearing to Robb, the looming threat of the Red Wedding.

Begin Again by PrettyThief (24,363 words, first posted 2 Jan 23, last updated 19 Feb 23)

Summary: The realm is on the brink of war, and Jaime Lannister is recently widowed following the death of Elia - his wife and the mother of their young son. Brienne of Tarth has a responsibility she would like to dodge. Jaime doesn't quite understand why she's chosen him as her escape, but he's not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Things I Love: Jaime and Brienne Road Trip, Joanna’s talk of duty and how her survival changes things, the sweet, lingering love between Jaime and Elia, Brienne young, and stubborn, and restless, Jaime’s determination to save Tommen.

Cruel World by keepinmind (14,228 words, first posted 4 Feb 23, last updated 3 Feb 23 (somehow))

Summary: Mostly canon until 8x03. What were to happen if Brienne were injured during the Long Night, and lost her memory along the way, all before either Jaime or Brienne were able to express their feelings toward one another? More importantly, who would take advantage, and drive them further apart?

Things I Love: Amnesia plots, complex, manipulative women, bisexual women, the promise of Daenerys/Brienne and Sansa/Brienne, Jaime’s worry over and care for Brienne, Podrick and Brienne. 

my hand was the one you reached for (throughout the Great War) by chrkrose  (2,687 words, first posted 4 Jan 23, last updated 9 Jan 23)

Things I Love: Jaime’s anger and frustration, Brienne in her sad, stubborn, glorious self, sweet Podrick, dealing with emotions post-LSH, Jaime’s jealousy, Podrick and Brienne, Hyle annoyed Jaime, Brienne and Oathkeeper. 

[jozor-johai]

Revisiting the Rat Cook, Part 2: Prince-and-Bacon Pie, and Pork Crackling

This is the second part of a series where I'm examining the symbols and themes present in the "Rat Cook" story, as relayed by Bran in ASOS Bran IV, and search reappearances of those elements throughout the rest of ASOIAF.

This is the first part, as well as the long version of my introduction.

"Revisiting the Rat Cook" is predicated on the understanding that GRRM's use of metadiegetic legends provide a "road map" of symbols and meaning, used in their abstract form, which we, as readers, can use to better understand the relationships between symbols, motifs, and themes as they reoccur throughout ASOAIF as a whole.

Among other things, the Rat Cook story is about a rat which eats rats, or a cook who serves kings; The Rat Cook story is about fathers and sons, about cannibalism, about trust, about vengeance, and about damning one's legacy.

This is likely going to be a 9-part series, but ideally almost all of these parts will be able to stand on their own. Each post will inform the next as I build my analysis, but hopefully each individual post is also interesting in its own right.

"Prince-and-Bacon Pie"

Last time, we talked about Wyman Manderly's wedding pies, and his favorite, lamprey pies.

In the original Rat Cook story, though, the Andal King is allegedly served a bacon pie. “Prince-and-bacon pie”, Bran calls it, and he repeats later that a “rasher of bacon” was cooked into the prince pie. The idea of pork served alongside human flesh is given repeat attention in regard to the pie, but it extends elsewhere into the story as well:

When the Rat Cook is punished, in turn, and becomes a cannibal rat eating his own kind, he is transformed into an insatiable rat “as huge as a sow”. Unusually large for a rat, but he is certainly no longer a man, although perhaps close enough, if you trust the moniker “long pork”.

This connection remains true for Lord Manderly’s Frey pies. When they are served in ADWD The Prince of Winterfell, they are introduced as being pork pies:

“…three great wedding pies, as wide across as wagon wheels, their flaky crusts stuffed to bursting with carrots, onions, turnips, parsnips, mushrooms, and chunks of seasoned pork swimming in a savory brown gravy.

Manderly’s pie is nearly identical to the one served by the Rat Cook, with carrots, onions, mushrooms, and, most importantly, down to pork as the main meat—which is to be expected, as Manderly has all but admitted to his influences.

In fact, though, the association of cannibalism, pork, and even pies comes as early as AGOT Jon IV, when the readers are introduced to the notion offhand while the Night’s Watch recruits mock Samwell Tarly:

“I saw him eat a pork pie," Toad said, smirking. "Do you think it was a brother?"

Three-Finger Hobb is certainly not serving Dickon to Samwell, but it contains all the same connections that the Rat Cook story relies on: between cannibalism and one’s own family, children baked into pork pies. The phrase “rasher of bacon” from the Rat Cook story appears in this same interaction about Sam, doubling down on the associations:

"You girls do as you please," Rast said, "but if Thorne sends me against Lady Piggy, I'm going to slice me off a rasher of bacon."

Again, this early instance of bullying, which might instead be framed as the brutal hierarchy of interpersonal domination—or we might say, brothers turning against brothers—is depicted using the same motifs as literal cannibalism. Is it Sam’s blood brother who is a pork pie, or is it Sam, called pork by the men who would become his black brothers? These are brothers turning against their own, and it is the imagined transformation of a man into a pig.

The recruits are joking here, but the comparison between slicing up a human and slicing up pork was brought up with a much darker tone only three chapters earlier, in AGOT Arya II:

Jeyne Poole had told Arya that he'd cut him up in so many pieces that they'd given him back to the butcher in a bag, and at first the poor man had thought it was a pig they'd slaughtered.

It’s dark irony for Micah, the butcher’s boy, to be returned to his father butchered like a pig. It also evokes our Rat Cook story again, with a dead son delivered to his father; like the Andal king, Micah’s father thinks—for a moment—that he’s being given pork. Also present again is the nature of transformation that this death creates: the prince becomes a pork pie, and the Rat Cook becomes as big as a “sow”, just as much as Micah becomes a slaughtered pig.

When the Night’s Watch arrives at Craster’s Keep in ACOK Jon III, Jon finds the similarity again, noting that a pig about to be slaughtered sounds eerily human:

Nearby, a small girl pulled carrots from a garden, naked in the rain, while two women tied a pig for slaughter. The animal's squeals were high and horrible, almost human in their distress.

Immediately later in the same chapter, Dolorous Edd makes a wry joke about cannibalism:

Best leave the wolf outside, he looks hungry enough to eat one of Craster's children. Well, truth be told, I'm hungry enough to eat one of Craster's children, so long as he was served hot.

Just like with the Night’s Watch recruits, this is a joke, but Edd’s line about eating one of Craster’s children transforms the earlier scene into a more chilling image: we were presented with the human-sounding tied pig appearing side-by-side in the same sentence with one of Craster’s small, naked children. With the addition of Edd’s words, both motifs appear alongside a story of eating children—just as in the Rat Cook story, where the Andal king eats his child-as-pork, and the Rat Cook-as-sow eats his own children as well.

Even more can be made of Edd’s jape, if we notice another minute detail: it’s also loaded that Edd uses “he” here to refer to Craster’s child… when Craster only keeps his daughters. Because Edd evokes sons here, Edd’s joke about eating a child calls special attention to the conspicuously missing sons from the scene. Might we expect, in the context of all this imagery, that these sons have been 'eaten' as well, even if not literally? We learn that these missing sons were sacrificed to the old gods later in the same chapter:

But the wildlings serve crueler gods than you or I. These boys are Craster's offerings. His prayers, if you will.

This is the clear meaning of the earlier association between the vulnerable child and the “almost human” pig, which is about to be slaughtered—or sacrificed—so that the keep could live, by way of eating it. It’s the same thing with Craster’s children, who are also, from his perspective, sacrificed so that his keep can live on, untroubled by the old gods.

Note here how all these motifs occur in tandem with each other: pigs as sacrifice to become food, eating children, sacrificed sons, deference (or lack thereof) to the old gods (and, importantly, their laws). The Rat Cook, in retribution, is forced to eat his children, for he forced the Andal King to do the same.

In both scenarios, the gods seemingly ‘demand’ that a father sacrifice his children; the fact that these are sons for Craster deepens the symbolic meaning, as it did with Walder Frey and the Freys in the last part: it is the death of one’s legacy by way of one’s lineage. Only sons bear the family name.

This is the paradox, the 'doom' that Craster, like the doomed characters in "The Rat Cook", is living out. From his perspective, he sacrifices his sons for the same reason he slaughters the pigs: to ensure his keep's survival. They need to eat, and they need to be untroubled by curses. But that sacrifice is Craster's curse, for even as he ensures his short-term survival, he damns his legacy. Craster may have children, but his keep has no future. Every one of his daughters, rather than become their own generation, perversely returns to reenact the role of their mother’s generation as Craster weds her; his keep, as its own patriarchal entity, is stagnant, and will die with him.

"Pork Crackling"

Regarding the equivalence of eating one’s family as an extension of eating one’s legacy, agency, or even one’s self, bear with me into an interesting digression about Victarion:

In ADWD The Iron Suitor, Victarion understands that his role as captain is both inextricably tied to his physical person, and yet is also an idea, separate from him as a mortal man. Referring to his rotting hand, he thinks to himself:

This was not something that his crew could see. They were half a world away from home, too far to let them see that their iron captain had begun to rust.

His mortality—the mortification of his injured hand—would ruin the effect of his role as captain, a higher status which the Ironborn consider to be a “king aboard his own ship”. Victarion may not be socially permitted to be so incapacitated while captain, but he also understands that if he keeps his captain identity separate from his mortal form—that is, if he can lie about the severity of his injury, keeping the state of his body hidden while playing the role of captain—he can maintain his identity as “the iron captain”.

The role of 'captain', and even more so, the arm that is required to be a warrior, is so intricately tied to Victarion’s warrior identity, and therefore to his sense of self, that Victarion refurses to allow the maester to cut off his arm to save the rest of his body. Again, his identity is greater than his mortality.

Yet, when Moqorro suddenly arrives, and Victarion is faced with an alternative, he is willing to sacrifice all else: to stray from the Drowned God towards R'hllor, to put his body into the hands of a “sorcerer” that he just met—all to pursue the ideal of his legacy as captain, divested from his person. And so Victarion, by beginning to sacrificing so much cultural baggage which he believed was part of himself, gets to keep his arm and his captainhood—and what does this arm look like?

Victarion offers this sickening description in ADWD Victarion I:

The arm the priest had healed was hideous to look upon, pork crackling from elbow to fingertips.

It’s a rare case where someone is able to look at their own body and make the gruesome comparison between their own flesh and pork as food, and this moment is Victarion’s reward. Like the Rat Cook who became a rat "huge as a sow", like Micah the butcher's boy who became a butchered pig, Victarion's arm—which was so much his legacy, his identity, that he would not let the maester remove it, so much a symbol of his personhood and his power that he would stray from the Drowned God to get it back—has become pork crackling.

- - -

Speaking of pork crackling, and returning to Craster's Keep...

When they burn the body of a fallen Night’s Watchman in ASOS Samwell II, Sam finds that it smells so much like pork that he is involuntarily hungry:

The worst thing was the smell, though. If it had been a foul unpleasant smell he might have stood it, but his burning brother smelled so much like roast pork that Sam's mouth began to water, and that was so horrible that as soon as the bird squawked "Ended" he ran behind the hall to throw up in the ditch.

Yet again, Dolorous Edd appears immediately afterward to bring the cannibalistic overtones to the forefront. Again, Edd makes the comparison between eating pork and eating human flesh, like in the Rat Cook story, and with eating one’s family, as with his own jape a book earlier, as with Rast mocking Sam in AGOT, as with the Freys eating their kin in ADWD. They may not be tied by blood, but Edd jokes about eating his brothers all the same:

"Never knew Bannen could smell so good." Edd's tone was as morose as ever. "I had half a mind to carve a slice off him. If we had some applesauce, I might have done it. Pork's always best with applesauce, I find." … "You best not die, Sam, or I fear I might succumb. There's bound to be more crackling on you than Bannen ever had, and I never could resist a bit of crackling.”

If Sam were to die, Edd suggests, he too would become pork crackling. I wonder if that says anything about Victarion's own fate... but I'm talking about Sam for now.

The even more important part of Sam’s experience here is Sam's knowledge that it is wrong, sickening, to eat human flesh—or, perhaps, to turn against his family, even his adopted family, as the two issues are conflated in these instances. Edd jokes about how delicious Bannen smells to make light of a dark, cruel truth: in these starving conditions, that might be true. Despite that suspicion, it is still firmly the wrong thing to do. Sam vomits even considering the thought.

When it comes to the Rat Cook story, though, that knowledge does not spare the Andal King any more than the Rat Cook; both, ultimately, are forced into the position of cannibalism, which makes it all the more tragic: to know the difference between right and wrong, but perhaps not to know which you are choosing. Did Victarion make the right choice turning his arm to pork to stay the "Iron Captain" he wanted to be? Did Craster make the right choice leaving his sons to die so that he could live untroubled? Do they even know?

As for the Andal King, he didn't even understand the choice in front of him; he was placed into that position by the Rat Cook—because of the violation of guest right, that significant law of the Old Gods.

Guest right is a social contract, the type that is necessary to maintain social stability. To keep interpersonal relationships, to build a community—or a kingdom—a person must be able to trust their neighbor. Practically, a guest must be able to trust that they will not be poisoned with food, in the same way that a host must be able to trust that their guest will not turn their cloak and slaughter them under their own roof. In other words, both parties must be able to trust that the social conditions of peace will be upheld.

The fact that this story of the Rat Cook concerns a power dynamic as well—between the lowly cook and the Andal King—expands the metaphor into one that describes feudalism as a whole… but I’ll expand that idea in the subsequent parts to come.

For now, consider this: that the Andal King, like Sam with Bannen’s delicious-smelling corpse, might have known the difference between right and wrong, but it may have made no difference as to what he actually did: he still ate his own son.

But what of the Andal King's own crime? Who started it? The Rat Cook broke the ancient social contract of trust called “guest right” to punish the King… but for the Rat Cook to be deserving of vengeance, the Andal King must have broken a social contract as well, perhaps a social contract regarding the position of power that a King has over a cook. The King must have broken that contract first, even before the story of "The Rat Cook" picks up.

But that will be further discussed in parts to come. Next part we’ll talk more about trust in particular, finally taking look at Coldhands attempting to feed Bran a “sow”, visiting Arya in the House of Black and White, and looking at Quentyn making a deal Meereen.

[nightsidewrestling]

D.U.D.E Bios: Meinir Rhydderch

The Fomorian Queen of C.R.C Meinir Rhydderch (2020)

Kirby's aunt, the sister-in-law of Hywel, and the wife of Bran, Meinir. A Christian Welsh woman now living on the opposite side of Wales and a hard-working, dedicated mother. Meinir is maternal, almost to a fault, protecting her family with her life.

"A mother is a mother until the day she dies."

Name

Full Legal Name: Meinir Rhiannon Rhydderch (Née Gallagher)

First Name: Meinir

Meaning: Means 'Tall and slender, Beautiful maiden' in Welsh.

Pronunciation: MEY-neer

Origin: Welsh

Middle Name: Rhiannon

Meaning: Probably derived from an unattested Celtic name 'Rīgantonā' meaning 'great queen'

Pronunciation: ree-AN-awn

Origin: Welsh, English, Welsh Mythology

Surname: Rhydderch (Née Gallagher)

Meaning: From the given name 'Rhydderch' from the Old Welsh name 'Riderch', derived from 'Ri' 'King' and 'Derch' 'Exalted' (Gallagher: Anglicized form of the Irish 'Ó Gallchobhair' meaning 'descendant of Gallchobhar'

Pronunciation: HRUDH-ehrkh (GAL-a-ger)

Origin: Welsh (Irish)

Alias: Fomorian Queen, Meinir Rhydderch

Reason: This is Meinir's ring name

Titles: Mrs, Ma'am

Characteristics

Age: 69

Gender: Female. She/Her pronouns

Race: Human

Nationality: Welsh

Ethnicity: White

Birth Date: August 31st, 1951

Symbols: Fomorians, Giants, Crowns

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Religion: Catholic

Native Language: Welsh

Spoken Languages: Welsh, Irish, English

Relationship Status: Married

Astrological Sign: Virgo

Theme Song: 'Respect' - Aretha Franklin (1970-)

Voice Actor: Catherine Zeta-Jones

Geographical Characteristics

Birthplace: Birchgrove, Swansea, Wales

Current Location: Llanfaethlu, Anglesey, Wales

Hometown: Llanfaethlu, Anglesey, Wales

Appearance

Height: 5'6" / 167 cm

Weight: 136 lbs / 61 kg

Eye Colour: Blue

Hair Colour: Black

Hair Dye: None

Body Hair: N/A

Facial Hair: N/A

Tattoos: (As of Jan 2020) 10

Piercings: Ear Lobe (both)

Scars: C-section scar

Health and Fitness

Allergies: None

Alcoholic, Smoker, Drug User: Smoker, Social Drinker

Illnesses/Disorders: None

Medications: None

Any Specific Diet: None

Relationships

Allies: (As of Jan 2020) The Rhydderch Clan

Enemies: (As of Jan 2020) None

Friends: Talulla Rhydderch, Grania Rhydderch, Odharnait Rhydderch, Deryn Rhydderch, Rhosyn Rhydderch, Aoife Rhydderch, Oda Rhydderch

Colleagues: The C.R.C Locker Rooms / Too Many To List

Rivals: None

Closest Confidant: Bran Rhydderch

Mentor: Eluned Gallagher

Significant Other: Bran Rhydderch (68, Husband)

Previous Partners: None of Note

Parents: Murray Gallagher (99, Father) Eluned Gallagher (R.I.P, Mother, Née MacCallion)

Parents-In-Law: Gearalt Rhydderch (R.I.P, Father-In-Law), Angharad Rhydderch (101, Mother-In-Law, Née MacMathan)

Siblings: Too Many To List (Check Bran's Profile)

Siblings-In-Law: Too Many to List

Nieces & Nephews: Too Many To List

Children: Mostyn Rhydderch (38, Son), Darach Rhydderch (35, Son), Branwen McCormick (32, Daughter, Née Rhydderch)

Children-In-Law: Genista Rhydderch (39, Mostyn's Wife, Née Lestrange), Gertrude Rhydderch (36, Darach's Wife, Née Lesauvage), Faron McCormick (33, Branwen's Husband)

Grandkids: Eadberht Rhydderch (18, Grandson), Dahlia Rhydderch (15, Granddaughter),Calla Rhydderch (12, Granddaughter), Bairrfhionn Rhydderch (9, Grandson), Abner Rhydderch (6, Grandson), Zoe Rhydderch (3, Granddaughter), Yvonne Rhydderch (15, Granddaughter), Xzavier Rhydderch (12, Grandson), Wallace Rhydderch (9, Grandson), Venetia Rhydderch (6, Granddaughter), Unnr Rhydderch (3, Granddaughter), Taliesin McCormick (12, Grandson), Samuel McCormick (9, Grandson), Rainbow McCormick (6, Granddaughter), Quintella McCormick (3, Grandaughter)

Great Grandkids: None

Wrestling

Billed From: Swansea, Wales

Trainer: The C.R.C Wrestling School, Gearalt Rhydderch

Managers: Bran Rhydderch

Wrestlers Managed: Bran Rhydderch

Debut: 1970

Debut Match: Meinir VS Talulla. Double Count Out

Retired: N/A

Retirement Match: N/A

Wrestling Style: Hardcore

Stables: The Rhydderch Clan (1970-)

Teams: No Team Names

Regular Moves: Backslide, Brainbuster, Elevated Powerbomb, Diving Headbutt, Double Underhook Piledriver, Enzuigiri, German Suplex, Lifing Double Underhook Facebuster, Saito Suplex, Sitout Double Underhook Powerbomb, Seated Chinlock, Snap Suplex

Finishers: Diving Splash, High-Angle Implant DDT, One-Handed Electric Chair Driver, Cradle Piledriver

Refers To Fans As: The Fans, The Family

Extras

Backstory: Meinir Rhydderch (Née Gallagher) of the C.R.C (Welsh Wrestling League / Cynghrair Reslo Cymru) owning Rhydderch family. Meinir married into the family, specifically marrying the 'Fomorian' Bran, becoming the 'Fomorian Queen'. She's Welsh with potentially Irish ancestry.

Trivia: Nothing of Note