#I have so many ThoughtsTM about these two

[imagineitdearies-old]

Question: Are we going to get a glimpse of what’s happening with Rhaenyra and Alicent in Duty and Sacrafice? Because i’m just as invested in them as I am Aemond and Luce at this point.

Ya know, I’ve begrudgingly been coming to terms with the fact that I might need to make this a series, just so I can add drabbles/deleted scenes/Rhaenicent snippets.

The whole reason I extended D&S is because I got too obsessed with the Rhaenicent and Lucemond parallels, and didn’t want my girls to not have a hopeful/happy ending too. And yet it’s only making me want to flesh out their side of things more, I’ve even written a few (unfinished) scenes! 

So to answer, yes, I do think you can anticipate a glimpse into what’s going on with them beyond what Aemond's POV in D&S. Probably after I finish it, so buckle in for a wait.

But in the meantime, here’s a glimpse of a glimpse:

“I noticed Aemond under the weirwood this morning,” Rhaenyra remarked over breaking fast a week after their sons’ wedding. Her violet eyes glinted, pleased, though Alicent wasn’t sure quite yet why. “Does he frequent that garden?”

Alicent sipped from her goblet, prolonging her time to answer. “I took the children there to picnic on occasion, once you all left,” she admitted after a moment. “Helaena liked the insects; Aegon liked the attention. Aemond…he used to say his mind went quiet there. It must still.” Then she added more dismissively, “It’s a time they all look back fondly on I hope, despite everything else.”

Despite the sudden estrangement from their nephews, the increasing negligence of their father, and Alicent’s own frayed mental state with her uncle sending constant missives and messengers about seizing their chance after Rhaenyra left the Red Keep.

Despite the stitches still fresh in Aemond’s listless face.

She gave up the habit when the drinking habit becoming a drinking problem for Aegon, after he and Helaena were wed, and the nonsensical whispers of her daughter turned to shrieking in the night. Neither of them were willing to go, after that, and with Viserys more and more often abed, Alicent became too busy running a kingdom.

“And you?” Rhaenyra raised a brow, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

Alicent felt a quiet, wistful sort of melancholy, remembering the girl she used to be under that tree. “I have…mostly fond memories there, yes.”

She watched Rhaenyra’s face quickly grow sober, and was quick to grasp the alpha’s hand—an affection they’d reclaimed with one another with a surprising sort of ease, this past month.

“Some I’m not proud of,” Alicent continued, grateful when Rhaenyra squeezed her hand back. “You didn’t deserve my ire, after you proposed to Harwin. It was not my place—“

“I still shouldn’t have said what I did,” Rhaenyra shook her head, surprising Alicent. “I had gotten defensive, but it still was wrong. And I was too proud to apologize, later—but I regret it every day.”

What does it matter if I can’t birth a child? I’ll marry Harwin, and use an omega surrogate like the Valyrians of old. What else do omegas want marriage for?

Alicent laughed sadly. “And then I called you a knotless alpha that wouldn’t have any trouble birthing pups like the worst kind of omega whore.”

“You were right on both accounts, though,” Rhaenyra answered in a dry tone. She rubbed her free hand over her own stomach with a soft smile. 

“No,” Alicent said, still holding tight to Rhaenyra’s other hand. “I don’t think I was right about anything, in those days.”

She stiffened when Rhaenyra raised their entwined fingers, the alpha pressing a kiss to the back of her hand.

It’d happened more and more, recently—mostly when Rhaenyra greeted her or said goodbye. Quite memorably, the night of their sons’ wedding. When Rhaenyra found her tearing off whole pieces of skin from her nail beds, numb to the blood staining her lap, the alpha entwined their hands and pressed kisses to each bloody finger. She swore they made the right decision for their sons and the realm. That Lucerys and Aemond were both ready to do their best by each other. Then she kissed Alicent’s hand one last time—in the center of her palm—before leaving for the night.

Alicent would never get used to it. Wasn’t sure she was supposed to grow comfortable with such blatant affection from an alpha, even if it served her ends at the moment. They were both unmated now, it was true, if only for the last moon in Alicent’s case. 

But it wasn’t the short time since Viserys’s death that made her uncomfortable—42 days, not that she’d been counting—it was the knowledge that she’d wanted Rhaenyra’s affection over her own alpha for all twenty four years, three moons, and 15 days of their marriage. 

Most likely her entire life.

And for twenty four years Alicent had no intentions of facing that truth, till now.

[altschmerzes]

Thoughts on the new episode???????? There were SO many jamie feels tonight

LET'S GOOOOO okay it's Thoughts Hour here at chez gav altschmerzes [cracks knuckes]

there SURE WERE and once again we get a disorganized bullet point mess of My ThoughtsTM

first off, i did indeed enjoy it in cosymode once more and this will be a recurring ritual. cannot recommend it more highly. cosymode my beloved. really enhances the experience even if it does mean i get Imprisoned By A Creature as soon as the episode ends (climbed on by my cat)

we still don't know what zava's first name is. it is still distracting me.

COLIN'S BF (!!!!!!!!) SEEMS SWEET I LIKE HIM A LOT

oh my gd all the stuff with colin in this episode was absolutely brutal. i have a..... Hard Time with narratives around being closeted just on a personal emotional level but overall i'm like, invested as hell and i love that they went this direction with him. BOY it'll be interesting to see how they handle it going forward. juxtaposing the two moments he has with isaac in this episode, the "haha that's a little gay" comment that obviously hit hard and then that sincere like, checking on him, you're gonna be alright, thing later was like. damn. damn, damn. that hit.

also - when shandy said that thing about saying something shocking in an interview i was like oh no oh boy oh no Oh Boy- colin, honey-

something is. Up. with shandy. i don't know what or how it's gonna manifest but. something is up there and idk what. there's the same sort of tense feeling to her scenes as there are with keeley's company scenes. something's on the horizon.....

also i have to believe that trent isn't going to out colin, for the record. i just don't think he's gonna do that. i have reasons, but i don't think i even really need reasons, i think it's just..... i don't think it's particularly likely even.

speaking of zava, when i said last week that i was either gonna be riveted or i was gonna want this guy outta my face right now? IT IS BOTH, IT TURNS OUT. i do not like him. i think he's bad news and i think he's like, bad news in a very insidious way. i feel like...... it was fine in this episode - again, this is a comedy, i am aware of the genre and what it encompasses - but if this like. everyone's sycophantic adoration of him stretches on much longer it's gonna grate on me real bad. this was probably the episode where i had the most acute awareness that i was Watching A Comedy than any other episode, i had to do more like, averting my eyes and trying not to fast forward in this ep than in any of the previous ones. which is fully a me thing! this a me problem! i am not a comedy guy and i am watching a comedy. but oh my gd.

getting to see sam's restaurant coming together was so, so fucking good. he was so excited and happy and i'm so thrilled to see that all start to pay off. he's so proud of what he's done here and he SHOULD be. ugh i just love to see sam successful and thriving and everyone is so happy for him [sobs into my hands] isaac being like no. you do not understand. it is the best. was so funny and very sweet. i loved it, augh.

AND THE JAMIE OF IT ALL. oh my gd. he was having a bad one this whole episode and i kind of loved it because we know me, we're realistic about who i am as a person. i love characters having a bad time sldfks as long as we're gonna do something with it. and BOY DID WE.

boy they really did get me with like. the bit in zava's first match where he tells jamie to get open and he'll find him i did have a MOMENT where i was like okay maybe he's just kind of eccentric but overall fine, maybe i was wrong and he just grates on my nerves a bit. but WHOOF. nope. so he was just fucking with jamie orrrr because. yipes!

and man the timing of seeing zava call jamie over and say something to him being when ted's almost panic attack starts is like. [shrieks into my hands] he's already amped up about henry and then he sees this interaction happening and doesn't know what's going on and it's like. jamie just told him he's got concerns about this guy and now he might be messing with him and it clearly set ted off. aaaaAAAUGH.

i'm just. so proud of jamie tbh. he isn't throwing a fit, he's celebrating these wins, he very maturely and reasonably expressed his concerns which i think he's right about - i think roy thinks he's right too, based on his face during that scene. i was really gratified for that like, i was being a hypocrite thing at the end bc it made it clear that like, this isn't the show making a 'haha see he doesn't even realize that's exactly what HE is, he's still the same....' joke. his discomfort with zava isn't just played off and i really enjoyed that.

THE WHOLE THING WITH ROY. LIKE- every time he noticed jamie was having a hard time this episode he like. seemed to be making a note of it? he didn't snort and shake his head or smirk or whatever, at least not more than once-ish, he like. noticed, made a note, and seemed worried about it. and then at the end he not only went over to check on jamie at the restaurant he offered to work with him directly? without being prompted? i could shriek.

everything about that conversation made me lose my mind. jamie's earrings were FANTASTIC. the like- 'you thought i was the best' 'you still could be' [screams into my hands] 'only if you fucking mean it' i.e. the same thing roy said to phoebe's team, and the VERY PAINSTAKINGLY SINCERE 'i do mean it' i could've CRIED.

as i said to a friend earlier, their dynamic is a rich tapestry of things that make me fully insane

(to have a bit of a gripe - we got a couple of That's A Bit Much moments in this episode too. ted agreeing that yeah, fragile little bitch is pretty much what he meant, was weird and out of step. and then roy smacking the utensil or whatever out of jamie's hand which clearly startled him at minimum at the end of the episode was like... hoo boy. we're doing this i guess. it's not the type of thing i'd like, zoom in and harp on if it weren't for everything i already talked about in the previous episode. just like. again. i keep coming back to this phrase but It's A Bit Much. i was worried i might lose steam for my 3x02 tag after the new ep but nah, i am still amped up for it.)

(oh another gripe real quick - ho boy so dr jacob is just like, the shittiest therapist, eh? like, that whole thing is. Ethically Fucked Up. i absolutely hate whenever a show is like hey this person is now dating their former therapist, it feels weird and gross every time and i already had a really bad opinion of this guy's ethics and approach to practice just based on like. we know that michelle already had a therapeutic relationship with him before she and ted started seeing him for couples' therapy which is a Big No. and maybe i'm biased here because my parents knew a therapist for several years that they ended up dragging my sister and i to see with them when we were in high school and it went really fucking badly in a way directly related to them having an established relationship with that provider but uh. bad news bears. red flags. field of red flags.)

(someone do something about jane. speaking of red flags. WOW.)

(red flags again! the psychic thing. what are they implying with the matchbook, that the psychic was RIGHT? whoooooof. that's all i'll say on that.)

[flip-flop-lover-will-byers]

I said I'll give prompts and I'm giving prompts. This is how I cope I'm just throwing out ideas, feel free to do whatever with them-

1) Heartstopper AU with artist-jock Will (aka letterman jacket!Will) who is neither in the closet nor out of it. One day paired up in a class with Mike Wheeler, the loser drama kid. The only cool thing about Mike is his leather jacket. He is also the straightest kid to ever straight. Or is he?

2) Divorce lawyer!Will as a meta homewrecker joke. Bonus points if you come up with an absolutely buckwild story of how he came to be a freaking divorce lawyer. Mike Wheeler, reluctant client.

3) Mermaid AU. Sorry, but I am coming out as an absolute sucker for mermaid AUs. Those things slap. Did you know the Byler tag already has like 3-4 mermaid AUs? Which is a lot. But I'm greedy. Mermaid AUs are where you go WILD. Write some totally sick shit with evolution, biology, magic, culture, worldbuilding, philosophy, DRAMA.....

Mermaid+soulmates AU. Will is sceptical of this human who claims to be his soulmate. Mermaids don't have soulmates, nor does Will want one. Mike knows Will is his soulmate- it's not unheard of for humans to have monsters as soulmates. A man though...he's never heard of men being soulmates. Dive deep into that question of what makes a monster. Who gets to decide where humanity begins and where it ends? What makes a soulmate? Can fate and free will coexist?

4) Amateur detective!Mike detecting a little too hard and finding the missing man-of-mystery!Will. Was Will running from the UD? The Lab? Lonnie? Mike is then pulled into shit he did not sign up for.

5) Millenial!Mike Wheeler has heard many stories about the kid who disappeared from the woods nearby 15 years ago. He's also heard his new house is haunted. He doesn't think much of it, until one day a man comes out of his walls.

6) Famous artist!Will and fanboy!Mike. Will doesn't know Mike's a fanboy. Mike is both a tumblrina and a Y/N fanfic writer.

7) Famous Author!Mike and fanfic author!Will. Mike comments on Will's every fic and they start chatting. Mike writes a romance novel (heterosexual!) for the first time, and the main characters are saying some suspiciously familiar stuff. Will messages coolpaladinboi69 "hey...did you read Wheeler's new book" and pulls out the receipts from their previous chats. A very on the nose joke on Mike's projection.

8) 12 year old Mike Wheeler discovers a very friendly ghost lurking inside his new house. Nobody else can see him, maybe because they don't want to. Will is so nice though, and so helpful. But wait- is he really dead? Or is his body trapped? Somewhere dark and cold...

9) Will is the guy hired to remodel Mlvn's white picket fence home. Mike is having ThoughtsTM. ANOTHER one for those meta homewrecker jokes. We got a literal homewrecker on our hands, but wait- oh that looks much better, thank you.

10) Mike Wheeler knows that something is wrong with quiet classmate Will Byers. He shows up with bruises, holding his pencil oddly while drawing. They've never had a single conversation, but one day after witnessing a terrifying scene between him and his father, Mike begs Will to let him help. Will refuses, he only has to get through a few more months, and then he's 18, and free. Two weeks later, Lonnie's car goes up in flames, taking Lonnie with it. Will is miraculously unharmed. The police names it a freak accident, but Mike suspects otherwise. He's not gonna sell Will out tho. The Chief is going to call services to take Will to his closest relatives, but before he can Will has blurted out another name. It's just a few months, surely he can spend them at his best friend Mike Wheeler's place? Somebody's gotta explore Will's Lonnie trauma pls

Bonus points if-

- Mike is as pathetic as possible. He needs to be a complete loser. Not a single cool thing about him. Not. One. He is miles below Will's league and everyone is aware of it, except Will himself.

- Lucas-Will bromeos.

- Unwitting chick magnet!Will.

- Mike and Max and their mutual disdain.

- El making at least one fruit joke. El cheering Will on as he homewrecks.

- Dustin being StraightTM and all the queerness going straight over his head. Poor kid has no clue.

[jockrightsnow]

they take so many pictures of each other Where are the pictures of them TOGETHER?????????? are they simply Too Coupley to be posted!!!!!!????? need your thoughtsTM

my feeling on this is there is a specific stage of having feelings for someone where it feels incredibly difficult to admit that the Goings-On are meaningful for the both of you. taking a photo of someone = you don't have to ask, you just do it. it's an independent activity, it's about watching, it's about viewing someone else. taking a photo together...it's trickier, because you have to admit that what you're memorializing is a moment between two people. it's an active admission--i am not just watching you, we're in it together. of course it doesn't need to be romantic, but it is sometimes.

as you may be able to tell, i find this sort of moment fascinating--when you really want to ask this sort of thing, when you want to say "let's do one with just the two of us" in the presence of the rest of the Boys, but you don't for the numerous reasons which feel much larger than they actually are...so what i am saying is petey's modus operandi has always been the creeper photo from the back when brock isn't aware, and brock always responds by reposting the photo instantly...it's a more delicate way of conveying the same sentiment, one with less open vulnerability but it is still quite tender all the same.

[llamagoddessofficial]

Okay as promised (and hopefully it's not a bother), Phantom ThoughtsTM, post Youtube Show :)c Your Phantom AU is already great and I think about it,, so often, my gods. And the fact that there *is* the three of them? It's just,,, it leads to so many good circumstances - beyond vying for MC's attention, and their illusions being even better together, imagine the graveyard scene- (1/4?)

-with Skull being the one that is entrancing her after her grave song, perhaps, and meanwhile MC's 'Raoul' (Hit, you decided, right? bc appropriate tweaks are appropriate) is trying to drag her attention back - but Red and Sans are there too, joining in from different parts of the graveyard, including Skull leaning in from atop a mausoleum like a towering gargoyle; their powerful voices aching all in different ways - commanding/dominant, yearning, and adoration... (2/4?)

And then there's,, Past the Point of No Return... 👀 Imagine, there's just her, and one of them (disguised of course) going through the scene... but as it weaves and winds in intensity, past the halfway point as it begins to climax, all three of them are in fact there - but moving so smoothly with their black capes swirling/shifting she can't tell as they switch places, catching her, twirling her, dragging her close before weaving away. She can't quite tell, not when she's caught up- (3/4?)

-only for her at the peak to at last catch one of them in her grasp, hand sliding her her arm and along their shoulder- Red, perhaps, just weak enough/in deep enough for a long enough beat... for her thumb to slip at the edge of it's darkness and flip it back to uncover his face. The intricate near-dance comes to an abrupt and heart-stopping stop, and she's at the center of the three of them - The silence hangs, the tension so taught... (4/5)

... then cue the music, softly. And so gently, achingly - Red, the one she caught, "say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime..." all of them, roughly, "lead me, save me from my solitude..." Sans, "say you want me with you, here beside you..." Skull, "anywhere you go, let me go too-" Red, "[MC], that's all we ask of you-!" (5/5)

HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN YES TO ALL OF THIS

I immediately thought of this video where Sierra sings with four phantoms. (Also I fucking love how Ramin (last to start singing out of the four) KNOWS she’s his Christine and absolutely commands the stage, pulling her back to him whenever another phantom seems to get too close. That gentle face touch.... and how he stresses ‘my’ in my angel of music...)

The thing about three phantoms is they’d balance each other out so perfectly. Skull has the dangerous love and adoration and the commanding presence (plus the mask), Red the playful intrigue and warmth and delight, Sans the friendliness and gentle comfort and nostalgic feeling of home. When Mc fears one of them the other two are there to comfort her and keep her under the spell; when first speaking to her they’d interchange but she’d quickly pick up on the fact that there’s more than one voice singing songs in her head. And the fact that she notices they’re different just endears them all the more to her... Their angel of music.

Past the Point of No Return... is it bad my first thought was that the line ‘what warm unspoken secrets will we learn’ would be absolutely OWNED by Red? He’d definitely begin the song. Even while disguised he’s the only one of them confident enough with his attraction to her to pull her in like that with sweet seductive words. Don’t forget he’d be using the Italian accent meant to mimic Piaget... and you absolutely got their order of singing right in the final part. Anyone who’s heard how emotionally the phantom sings ‘anywhere you go let me go too’ will know that’s 100% Skull and his desperation to have her making even the most powerful voice of all crack like glass.

[lunannex]

Allison Hargreeves and Tony Stark

Hey Jen, I hope you've been doing well! The Allison one was answered here, but ooh, I haven't thought about Tony in a hot second so here we go!!! I have Many ThoughtsTM:

-----------

• Favorite thing about them:

Tony’s a complex character with a lot of layers and overall I just really enjoy how his character developed for the better throughout the MCU. He could've easily become the villain (he had valid reasons to choose that route) but he didn't, he chose to become a hero and to do good. And yeah, he fucks up a lot (and I mean a LOT) but he continues to get up and fight for what he thinks is right and I really love that about him! We love to see it!!! He isn't perfect by any means and that's what makes him a great and complex character in my eyes!

• Least favorite thing about them:

Obviously the whole deal with him manufacturing weapons and benefiting from war profiteering. I feel like a lot of people choose to forget about that since he stopped manufacturing them and eventually redeemed himself but like...it still happened.

• Favorite line:

"I told you, I don't want to join your super-secret boy band." or "Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?"

• brOTP:

Rhodey and Tony, definitely!!! But I enjoy him with Happy, Nat and Peter as well!

• OTP:

Pepperony🥺❤ We were ROBBED of a wedding smh. And Ironhusbands! The power that these two pairings hold ugh <3

• nOTP:

St*rker🤮🤮🤮

• Random headcanon:

Is it canon that he speaks Italian??? I don't think it is so there you go😌

He eventually becomes friends with May!

Obviously the majority of Endgame doesn't exist so I like to think that Nebula snapped instead since she deserves to have been the one to do it (and she survived ofc, I love Nebula smh), while Tony’s just out here retired in the lakehouse. Morgan deserves to have her dad!

• Unpopular opinion:

Part of the fandom is quick to say that Tony "hasn't done anything wrong" when that...really isn't the case. He's made so many mistakes all throughout the MCU and he wasn't exactly the best person in the beginning, but he slowly redeemed himself! And, like I said before, what makes him such a good character is that he ISN'T perfect and HAS done a lot of bad things but still tries to do good despite that.

I don't like how the working class is usually presented as the villains while the billionaire is painted in a mostly positive light. Like I personally don't think Toomes was WRONG, he just went about things in a very...bad way. But the guy did make some Good Points.

• Song I associate with them:

Back in Black- AC/DC

Iron Man- Black Sabbath 

Ready Aim Fire- Imagine Dragons

• Favorite picture of them:

This scene lives rent free in my brain. It's so soft!🤲💖

[disaster-fruit]

when port heard abt what brazil was doing during the paraguayan war he only said “sai ao pai kkkkk” and went back to getting wasted in a corner (ok ok, that was a joke, but how do you think worst dad would have reacted to the war, especially in relation to Brazil?)

kkkkkkk I fully appreciate this joke, but if you want to have a serious conversation about how port reacted to brazil during the 3AW, I have ThoughtsTM

Full disclosure, I have no idea what was going on in Portugal in the 1860s, or how the relationship between the two countries were at the time, and I’ll probably research that for the fic, but for this ask I’m just gonna go with some broad, likely incorrect guesses ausashdu feel free to correct me or share your hcs

But I think port’s feelings about the war – and imperial brazil in general – are a very weird mix between pride and worry. And both feelings come from a place of having been himself a powerful empire once, and now having basically no power.

So on one hand, he looks at himself, and who he isn’t anymore, and then looks at his son and thinks “well… At least I raised him. The main power of Latin America. Not bad huh?” And despite brazil not being super found of him at this time, he still feels pride seeing brazil expand his influence in the continent where Port used to rule half of, and being in many ways a continuation of him, but a more powerful, fresh and young one. One that can look at the British Empire and say “I’m not afraid of you. You can’t tell me what to do. I can fight you” (which you know… thinking about England and port at this time…. I think port would be smiling to himself a LOT seeing brazil give England some headache (and brazils motivations here were TERRIBLE but I don’t think Port cared at this moment)). One that is a lot like he used to be, his legacy, his son.

Like he used to be. Port at this point is no longer a powerful empire, he knows the bitter taste of decline and defeat and how the bad things you do when you’re on top of the world might later come back to bite you (brazil himself being an example). Brazil in the empire is a little too much like him (portu-cale has a nice post about it but I can’t find it ;;), and I think at this time port might fear for what will come for him. He can also see his mistakes, how brazil starts to get HUGE amounts of debt with fukin England to pay for the war, and port knows too well that that can’t be a good idea. Portugal can see Brazil slipping into a very dangerous mental state as the war progresses, willing to do anything except allow peace. And Portugal is in a position in their relationship that he knows there’s nothing he can say that brazil will ever listen, so he cant even worn him about his mistakes.

Anyway this was very quickly written and without much thought, maybe once I finish my research I can come back to this topic but I always feel like rambling about imperial brazil and wouldn’t miss this opportunity asdufha