#character : arya nightmare

[modern-inheritance]

Modern Inheritance: Not Your Fault (Arya to Eragon)

A part of the 2024 Modern Inheritance Whimsical Whumps of Winter prompt challenge! This is a mix of the prompt Nightmares (Eragon) and Not Your Fault (Arya to Eragon). Prompts are still open so feel free to submit a request via reply, dm, ask or reblog!

I tried my best but I don't think it's exactly what you were looking for @thearunadragon so I apologize in advance. You could look at this as a bit of a tie in to the previously established story far earlier in the timeline (as this story takes place in the weird and wild extended war area and the story I'm about to mention is immediately post-Brisingr) Collateral as it deals with some similar topics.

Anyways, on to it!

TW: Mentions of child death, civilian death in warzones, soft target deaths and general war trauma. ~~~ Eragon pries himself from his Waking Dreams, haunted by the specters of civilians lost in a recent battle where he was the leader. Unable to bring himself to tell Saphira of another guilt she does not fully understand, the young Rider finds himself aimlessly wandering the Varden's camp, followed by his Waking Dreams, until he comes upon Arya having her own moment alone on a cold night. ~~~

“Can I…” Movement in the corner of his vision stopped Eragon’s question dead. The little girl was still there, staring at him with wide, frozen eyes. 

“You said we were safe there!” Her voice wasn’t accusing. Shit, sometimes he preferred when they were aggressive, so he could push back and not feel so ashamed of it. But she– ‘Vivian.’ he remembered with a hollow pang, the screams of the child’s mother echoing through his skull –Vivian always sounded so small and terrified. Confused. “You said we were going to be okay!”

Eragon closed his eyes and forced himself to breathe. The icy air stung his nose and crackled in his lungs. Even with the world shut out for a moment, he could still see the ghost of his Waking Dreams there. Off to the side still. Clutching at the gore soaked fabric of her woolen dress where shards of metal had shorn the cloth away to reveal destroyed flesh beneath. 

“Can I sit with you?”

Arya gave him one of her half quirked grins. “Thought we were past you having to ask.” With a sweep of her hand the woman cleared the thin layer of snow that had collected on the frozen ground beside her. “All yours.”

Eragon did his best to return the smile despite the child weeping in the corner of his eye. “Thanks.” 

“Anytime.” 

They sat together in silence. At least, it was mostly silent. Even at night the sounds of the Varden’s camp continued, subdued by the decrease of alert inhabitants and muffled by the thin blanket of snow falling around the tents. 

And of course, it wasn’t silent for Eragon. Somehow Garrow had entered his Waking Dreams, admonishing the little girl for getting so messy, telling her in clipped tones that Eragon couldn’t be everywhere at once, so stop whining that he let her die. After all, he let his own uncle die, the man who raised him, so how–

“Who are you seeing?” 

Eragon jolted at Arya’s voice, his head snapping to locate the sound despite her proximity. The elf turned the page of the small book she had splayed open on the fingers of one hand, entirely nonchalant. When the Rider did not answer, she repeated her question. “Who are you seeing?”

The young man worked his mouth, trying to find words. How could she tell? “I’m not sure I understand your–”

“If I don’t get to lie to you about my shitshow nights, then you don’t get to lie to me about yours.” Marking her spot with a finger, Arya closed the book and turned her head to look him dead in the eye. Ah. Of course she could recognize it. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. I’m not going to force you.”

Eragon couldn’t tell if it was relief that rushed into his chest, or another wave of hurt. There he went, worrying the people around him again. 

He had so, so many people he could go to that would meet him with understanding and support. Brom, Glenwing, Roran, even Nasuada and Katrina had all comforted him in their own ways when he had confessed his troubles to them in confidence. Not to mention Saphira, his Partner of Heart and Mind, his everything, his other half! 

And yet somehow, sometimes, none of them completely understood. Even Saphira, who did all she could to give him comfort and clarity, did not always understand how he felt about the war. About the lives taken, intentionally or not. The others did, in their own way. Everyone experienced it differently after all. 

But this was Arya. Arya, who had joined the war at what was considered the elven equivalent of the age Eragon had found himself swept into the conflict. Who, at least from what he had learned, spent more nights awake than most grappling with her own feelings of how her actions affected those around her, and how to best take the weight off the shoulders of her comrades in arms. Duty and sense of right and wrong clashing with what needed to be done, making the choice and living with it. 

Maybe that was why he came to her, after all. Not Saphira, nor Brom, Glen, Roran. To her, the only other person who might truly, fully understand where this pain, this guilt, was coming from. 

His shaky breath out spawned a cloud of mist in the air before him. “I’ve been…having nightmares again.” 

“Visions?”

“No.” Eragon shook his head. “Nothing like that. Just…” He bit his tongue as Vivian’s crying reached a hysterical pitch. “The wolves. In my head again.” 

Arya did not respond with words. Instead, Eragon felt warmth hovering over the back of his hand and flicked his gaze down to find that the elf had hesitantly reached out to him. He gave her a tiny nod and her fingers settled over his, a point of contact for him to follow should he fall. 

“I keep thinking about the last mission. That town.” Vivian abruptly stopped crying at Arya’s touch. She vanished into the softly falling snow, Garrow following her, as Eragon finally shook off the final dregs of waking sleep with his continued speech. “I know…I know we did everything we could to get the civilians out of the way, but…” His voice caught suddenly. “The little girl. And all the others. So many of them died.”

“I can’t stop thinking that…” Eragon swallowed, the next words thick in his throat. A grim confession, an admittance of his guilt. “That she died, and the others died, because we were there.” The young man tightened his grip on his knees, fighting to contain the tears that welled up. “That fight wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t there. And it wouldn’t have gotten so out of control if Saphira and I weren’t there. It’s my fault.”

Arya did not answer immediately. The elf took a moment to properly mark the page she had held with her finger and set the book aside before she leaned her head against the rock at their backs. Eragon took no offense at her pause, having long ago come to understand that when Arya took her time it was out of sincere care for the subject at hand. 

She took a long, calming breath in before letting it steam out of her nose in twin clouds of vapor in the chilled air. 

“Your logic…” Arya began slowly. “Is not inherently wrong.” Eragon’s stomach sank. She must have caught his dropped expression, because the woman put her hand out in a gesture of calm. “Hold on. Let me finish. Your logic is not inherently wrong, but it only takes into account a single moment.”

Arya held her extended hand up and curled it into a fist, her thumb extended to the side. “Yes. That fight would not have happened if the Varden had not sent us there. However, the Varden would not have sent us there if the Broddring soldiers were not sent there to conscript all the men in that town for Galbatorix’s army.” She raised her pointer finger. “The need for more men to be conscripted to Galbatorix’s army would not have happened had the Varden not engaged the Empire in full scale war.” Another finger joined the others. “The Varden would not have engaged the Empire in full scale war had Galbatorix not sent the Urgals to Farthen Dûr to attack the resistance at its heart.” Again, another. 

“Eragon, I could go on and on and on.” Arya dropped her hand. “I can go back over a hundred years, to the day that Galbatorix and Jarnunvösk chose to enter the Spine knowing full well that it was Urgal territory and arrogantly considered themselves untouchable despite the known risks.” 

Eragon wiped his eyes. Even as the woman spoke, he felt the lump in his throat rising. “That’s true. But I still gave the orders that day. I…I’m the one who told the families to hide in that part of town, even though–”

“Eragon. Stop.” Rough palms settled on his cheeks, gently turned the young Rider to face her. Arya’s eyes shone in the darkness, flickers of familiar pain that Eragon was sure he would see had he found a mirror that night. “Enough. It was not your fault. This war, it is not your fault.” 

“But–”

“Shush.” Soft but commanding, Arya silenced him with a finger to his lips. “It is not your fault, and it is not Saphira’s fault, that you both were thrown into this war. This war was made by a man who never took time nor responsibility for his grief and instead decided to inflict it on the world. 

Every day, since the day I met you, I have seen you and Saphira take action.” She lifted his chin, swiped away a tear with her thumb. “And every time, I see you both consider the consequences in all that you do. You came into this war as children, forced into it without a choice in the matter, and you both have learned and grown so much despite your circumstances.” 

Eragon swallowed hard and tried to shake his head. Saphira, he would agree, had taken on her role like a fish to water, like…well, like a dragon to the skies. But him? The scruffy farm boy, the fool who had not only taken part in battles where hundreds of lives had been lost, but the imbecile who had cursed an innocent babe, had failed to save so many, had–

Arya’s voice took on a brittle tone for a brief moment. “Eragon, if you keep disagreeing with me right now while I’m trying to comfort you and explain this, I swear I’ll have Saphira relocate the cook tent’s viscera pile to your bedroll. Am I clear?” 

Oh, he did not doubt her in the slightest. He summoned his will to, at the very least, bite his tongue and nodded.

“Good. Now. I have met countless men and women three times your age and more, who hold the lives of their troops in their hands, and they did not even consider what could happen when they give their orders and make their choices. They didn’t even give time to the idea of thinking any of it over! But you and Saphira do.” 

Arya gave him a soft smile. “So I know. I know neither of you intend to hurt anyone you don’t have to. You try so hard to keep the civilians out of it. You set clear, hard boundaries and fight for them when they are tested or broken. But war…fuck, war hurts. It hurts everyone. And if you didn’t feel some guilt then I’d honestly be more worried about you than I constantly am!

“Eragon, it is not your fault that war did what war does. You and Saphira did everything in your power to try and keep those people safe. You stacked the deck in their favor and yet war decided to say ‘fuck you’ and snapped a cable in some shitty old Broddring artillery that shouldn’t have even been there and shouldn’t have been aimed into a town allied with its owners and sent a fucking cannonbomb into what happened to be the same area we, yes, we, agreed to shelter the civilians while we rooted out the soldiers.” 

Arya released her grip on his face and shifted her hands to his shoulders. “Eragon. It was not your fault.” She shook him gently. “Say it.”

“I–”

“Say. It. Don’t you call me a liar to my face. Say ‘War sucks. It’s not my fault.’”

Eragon dropped his gaze. “War sucks. Not my fault.”

“Say it again and maybe I’ll hear it this time.”

He breathed in. Breathed out. “War sucks. It’s not my fault.”

“One more time and maybe I’ll believe you.”

That quirked a tiny smile at the edges of his lips. Hell. He was starting to believe it himself. “War sucks. It’s not my fault.”

The elf pulled him closer after the words left his mouth and, in one of the favorite little gestures they shared, pressed their foreheads together. No words were spoken, just a thread of relief that passed between them in the contact. His relief at the confirmation of his lack of guilt, and hers at his understanding of what she tried to convey.

And then Arya drew back and settled against the rock again, shoulders squared. The posture told the Rider multitudes. Eragon was with her, and he needed help. Arya was protecting him, alert, watchful, that vigilance colored with warm care towards her friend. Not quite On Duty, but happily taking him on to keep his demons, real or imagined, at bay. 

He couldn’t have asked for a better friend.

Eragon sniffed one final time and rubbed away the last traces of tears on his face. He already knew her answer from the way she had shifted, but he always felt the need to ask. "Can...Can I stay here? I don't want to worry Saphira. She'd understand better if she finds you watching me."

"You can stay, but only if you get in here. I’m fucking freezing." Never taking her eyes off the tents around them, Arya lifted her arm so that her cloak opened to him, gathered warmth spilling out into the chill night. "Come on."

The easy smile she gave him was all he needed in that vulnerable moment. Eragon scooted over and let the elf drape her arm over his shoulders and rearrange the warm fabric so that it wrapped around them both. A gentle squeeze had him leaning into her side. He tucked his legs up to where he had pulled his arms and fists under his chin, and just like that...Eragon found himself being cuddled.

Arya rubbed his far shoulder with a quiet sigh that ghosted puffs of mist into the air. "Damn, you've definitely got that elven blood going. You're warmer than you used to be." With a deft flick of her wrist the elf opened her book to the page she had marked. "Now get some sleep. I'm not going anywhere." It was silent for a handful of seconds after Eragon closed his eyes. “...You’re going to keep me safe if Saphira gets jealous of this, right? This is usually her move.”

Eragon let a sleepy smile grace his lips. “I’ll try my best, but no promises.”

“Fantastic. Go to sleep, dork.”

[lady-lye]

Alayne Stone / Princess Sansa Stark (2/?)

Uh.. hi! It has been a strong two months since I very brazenly announced my plan to draw every female ASOIAF character. Well, I never said I’d do it QUICKLY. Life happens! I won’t go into detail. So here is Alayne/Sansa. I also drew her in her Sansa era but it was kind of giving depression vibes so I probably won’t post it. Plus I don’t want to commit to having people appear twice in this series-- it would make the Arya situation a nightmare. Anyway. I appreciate all the lovely asks I’ve gotten about characters and YES I WILL DO THEM though I might be 93 by the time I finish. See you in 2023

ALso! I’m thinking of opening up a couple commissions this winter, let me know if you would be interested. <3

[hello-nichya-here]

Do you think there's some misogyny in the way George writes Sansa? Pretty much every other chapter there's a character telling her she's stupid for having her head filled with songs and romantic ideals, she's constantly getting assaulted and beaten as a consequence of having loved Joffrey, she gets punished for rejecting Sandor and Tyrion by being stuck with Littlefinger and having to act his daughter/lover, and even in chapters that have nothing to do with her it seems like the story is mocking her (i.e. Jon saying that women like Val, Ygritte and Arya are much better than damsels in a tower)

Absolutely not.

"Pretty much every other chapter there's a character telling her she's stupid for having her head filled with songs and romantic ideals"

Yes. There are a ton of characters in a book series called A SONG of Ice and Fire that think there's no truth to be found in songs. I think the title of the books alone spells it out for us that they're wrong - even more so when we look at the characters that mock Sansa for her optimism/romanticism:

1 - Cersei Lannister. A misogynistic, narcisistic, delusional woman that is causing her own downfall because, while people fear her or are at least interested on her family's wealth, no one actually admires her. She's also a hypocrite for making fun of Sansa's dreams, since she herself has always dreamed of being queen AND fully believes that her twin is the other half of her soul and they are fated to die together.

2 - Littlefinger, a manipulative, delusional creep that actively tries to isolate Sansa and make her think he's her only hope AND is as much of a hypocrite as Cersei, since the whole reason he's so obessed with Sansa (and her mom) is because he very much believes he is the hero of an epic romance and is actively trying to force Sansa into being the maiden he is rewarded with at the end of the tale.

3 - Sandor Clegane, the Beast to Sansa's Beauty, aka the guy that is transformed by her compassion and falls madly in love with her, aka George R.R. Martin's favorite story EVER. An idealist that tried REALLY hard to kill his inner romantic because he'a afraid of being hurt, yet is constantly being Sansa's disgraced knight, full on asks/threatens her to sing him a love song about a fool-turned-knight, and cries when Sansa sings to him about mercy changing a man's heart and saving him.

These interactions don't happen to prove how foolish Sansa is. They happen to show us why she'll survive while they won't (unless they change their ways, like Sandor did)

"She's constantly getting assaulted and beaten as a consequence of having loved Joffrey"

All the Starks go through horrible shit, and some died, as a consequence of not knowing how to play the Game Of Thrones. Sansa's past feelings for Joffrey are not demonized, though she is criticized for letting them blind her to some red flags.

All of her siblings are basically trapped in nightmare versions of something they wanted. Instead of just being allowed to be a skilled swordmaster to bond with her brothers, Arya is now fighting for her life every other chapter and being trained to be an assassin, and obviously getting traumatized as fuck in the process.

Jon is offered the chance to be legitimized as a Stark, but only after his entire family (allegedly) dies. Not to mention, when he first goes to the wall, he is called out for thinking of himself as better than his brothers of the watch, and then forced to reconsider if Free Folk don't have a VERY good reason to not want to submit to the watch/king.

Sansa is not being singled-out by the narrative as the one having her dreams turned into nightmares, or to need to be taught a lesson, and like I said, Martin toys with romance tropes between her and Sandor constantly, including through the lenses of his favorite story ever.

"She gets punished for rejecting Sandor and Tyrion by being stuck with Littlefinger and having to act his daughter/lover"

Sansa rejected Sandor's offer to be her knight in shining armor because he barged into her room in the middle of a PTSD episode, drunk as hell, and held a knife to her throat. This rejection leads to Sandor finding Arya, which eventually leads to him getting Westeros's equivalent of therapy and rehab, meaning that if they were to meet again (which is likely) he'd actually be fit to be Sansa's protector like he wanted to.

Sansa refused to sleep with Tyrion, despite him being her husband, because he belongs to the family that murdered hers. The books also show how, despite having tons of qualities, Tyrion can also be selfish, entitled, violent, and capable of both rape and murder. Not exactly a saint, even when compared to Littlefinger.

And while Petyr Baelish is absolute scum, not to be trusted, and VERY creepy, the whole point of him taking Sansa as his daughter is so he can teach her how to play the Game of Thrones, to make her go from pawn to player - which will inevitably lead to his downfall and Sansa's return to Winterfell. There's a reason George was FURIOUS the show replaced that with just making Sansa be abused by Ramsay and then say she's only strong and smart after BECAUSE of said abuse. That was pure misogyny and "fuck you for having hope and wanting love, you stupid girl, learn your place"

"Even in chapters that have nothing to do with her it seems like the story is mocking her (i.e. Jon saying that women like Val, Ygritte and Arya are much better than damsels in a tower)"

Not a single character in the story is a fully unbiased narrator. Jon was an outcast due to being a bastard, so naturally he bonds more with "unfeminine", wild, warrior-type women because they're also seen as deviating from the norm - not to mention, Sansa wasn't exactly kind to him, so naturally he develops some aversion to the more typically "feminine" women that remind him of her.

Just like Sansa's prejucide against bastards and unlady-like women is meant to reflect poorly on her instead of on her siblings , Jon's opinions on what kind of woman is "better" says nothing about Sansa's worth.

Again, if you want to see actual misogyny, watch the show since the writers went from having Arya say things like "the woman is important too" and genuinely have nothing against Sansa to being an arrogant "not like other girls" kind of character that says most girls are idiots, without a shred of self-awareness.

[alexitheslayer02]

Fandoms: Please Read, I will rant a bit, but this is also a thank you to Lies of P and Jttw fans/fandoms. Be patient with me because I do go on a tangent hhh

So far, the fandoms I felt the most comfortable around have been the Lies of P fandom and the Jttw fandoms. I have not felt unwelcome with these fandoms, and that is a first. For context. I have seen Bnha (or Mha, aka. My Hero Academia), Creepypasta, ASOIAF/GoT. [Note: I'm a former member of Quotev, and I was young when I started interacting with fandoms. I was like, eleven to twelve, and not supposed to be on the internet at that time] Now, I know people have to know about some of these fandoms. Some are fairly infamous. My experiences with the ones mentioned above, specifically bnha and creepypasta, have lead me to say things like "I am a fan of the media, but I am NOT part of the fandom", because I never really felt welcome in the fandom, OR, people assumed things about BECAUSE I was in the fandom. For example. Bnha. Now, I hate confrontations. I hate conflict, and I just don't like to get involved in it. And I honestly could not care less what people ship because it's none of my business, that's their business and it's fictional characters. Bnha had the BIGGEST ship war I have ever seen when i got into the fandom. The war of Bakudeku was intense and brutal, to the point where I was like "fuck this shit I'm out". Cause some folks got mad at me for trying to play Switzerland.

Now, Creepypasta. This was my first fandom, and the people I met and interacted with were, thankfully, the chill half of the fandom. The casual enjoyers of the stories. This was during my phase when I was really into horror. I still am in all honesty. I watched horror films a lot. My dad is a big fan of horror. Specifically, my first slasher film was the og A Nightmare on Elm Street. Then my first paranormal film was The Conjuring. So there we go. Now, my problem here was, I was chill. I just found the stories fascinating as an aspiring writer. The characters were interesting to me at the time. My favorite was Candy Pop and BEN Drowned. What happened was people harassed me for being a fan. Cause apparently the fandom is infamous for being, fanatically, unhinged. These strangers, whom I never interacted with, claimed I was a "murder simp" because my account was BEN Drowned themed at that time. I would never simp after a murderer. I know the difference between right and wrong. But apparently, these people were so convinced of my supposed guilt, that they reported me, and I had to create a new account on Quotev, (you can join Q without an email). I never went Creepypasta themed again, because I was scared of getting harassed again, and I almost lost complete contact with my girlfriend (we were only friends back then, again, I was twelve at the time).

In the more recent months. ASOIAF has been frustrating to me. It has amazing fanart. I adore the series. My favorite characters are Robb, Arya, and Jon. I fucking hate so many of the fans though. Specifically how they talk about GRRM when it comes to Winds of Winter, like... I get it. You want to read the book, some of you have been waiting a long ass time. But as an aspiring writer, and someone who tries to be a decent person, it deeply bothers how they treat the man. WRITING IS HARD. The man was depressed because he had friends die back to back and had to rewrite the entire book. And I doubt anyone saying "he'll die before he finishes the series" is helping anything! Patrick Rothfuss' fans are another fanbase I have a grudge against for how they treat the author, and I have not even read Mr. Rothfuss' books. That man is a manic depressive and a perfectionist, yet fans keep shit talking him for not completing his book. WTF people, what is wrong with these so called 'fans'? Shit talking is not gonna make people write faster, in fact, if I was the writer anyway, I would be less inclined to write with those people on my case, I would get depressed! *cough*

Anyway.... I digress. I have problems with ASOIAF fans. SO what was the point of me bringing those other fandoms up? Because Lies of P and Black Myth Wukong fandoms have been so nice and so chill with their own brand of chaos that is honestly beautiful. Literally when it comes to the fanart cause my LORD these two fandoms in particular have some GORGEOUS fanart, I absolutely ADORE these artists! And like, they've been so welcoming as well. While I have not directly interacted with a lot of Lies of P fans, since it was before I officially started blogging, but I met some really nice people in comments. As for jttw, when I started blogging my reading progress with Journey to the West, I had a really fun conversation with someone who read it before. And when I saw a particularly gorgeous piece of fanart (it was for lmk, which I still have yet to watch), and the artist and I had a fun conversation as well about art and the show in question. WHICH, if I can find it, I will watch it with my little brother. I am intrigued because of what the artist said, I also talked to my girlfriend about it, and she said it was good. So don't worry lmk fandom, I'm gonna be on it soon. But yes. The Lies of P, and Jttw fandoms (including Lmk and Black Myth: Wukong, cause it all sort of merged into a beautiful amalgamation XD) have been real nice to me as far as first impressions go, and it is such a huge relief to me. This is one of the few times I can say I actually feel part of the fandom instead of a "fucking tourist" (as the Dragon Age devs would call me -_-)

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to these wonderful, chaotic people ^^ Some honorable mentions to certain people I talked to. (@un-dermask by the way is the artist in question. I highly recommend checking them out, they have some beautiful artwork for lmk, as well as an interesting au for the undertale fans)

(@weaverworks is the kind soul whom I spoke to while blogging my Journey to West progress. DON'T WORRY, I will continue to read it. I just have some work to get done. Though I don't guarantee I will blog it as much as I did yesterday. We'll see.)

[buttercuparry]

I now know why the idea that courtesy is the answer to every conflict is so prevalent in the fandom. You have a handful of tumblr intellectuals who would rather discuss if Arya should have been feeling guilty about killing the Bolton guard or the degree of it ( he is just a guy standing around, we don't know anything about him, hey maybe he doesn't get paid enough to stop 3 prisoners from leaving!), rather than acknowledge that Arya had gone through hell to survive and she more than any other Stark kid knows the cost of war. Arya's list is called fucked up ( they add the "understandable" adjective immediately after but reiterate that it's fucked up). And the prevalent idea then, in use of all these words is equating Arya to violence. Which is why all those incorrect quote posts of 'Arya's every solution being violence' get so many notes.

Arya's list isn't the measure of her violence. It instead is the proof of her trauma. And she tries again and again to leave the nightmares behind: the countless times she tries to reach Jon, her feeling what good does Joffrey's death do if her mother and brothers are dead, her wanting to stay on with the crew of Titan's daughter.

They would talk about how fucked up her list is hence insinuate the tremendous capacity of violence and draw up theories after theories about Faceless Men but won't ever be conscious enough to recognize that Arya never truly wanted anything to do with the FM ( even after reaching Braavos she tries to stay on the ship).

So imagine knowing all these. To have read all these chapters and to get stuck on the ethics of murdering the Bolton guard. Mind you this is brought up because it has been admitted that previously Arya has had to kill in self defense and for others. There has been a reiteration that there these kills are pardonable since there had been an active threat on her. But the murder of the Bolton guard is a matter of ethics!

And you know what I am not even arguing about that. It is a grey area. But it's the extra scrutiny placed on the female character that gets to me. A clood blooded premeditated murder committed!! As if this murder exists in vacuum. As if this girl who the world around knows to be a commoner would have been allowed to leave Harrenhal by that guard just standing around. As if prisoners and slaves have a say on what is to be their fate. As if each day and every day Arya isn't surrounded by the violence wrought in Harrenhal. As if this violence wasn't necessary for her to make a safe escape.

They would argue it wasn't and here I realize that the issue goes deeper than that. Here is an excerpt of their dialogue:

They maintain that only Gendry and Hot Pie had been in danger here. That Arya was actually safe as she could have just revealed her identity anytime and apparently there were ways of proving it without one recognizing her face ( I doubt that).

Somehow this makes me realize that this sort of thinking is what dismisses Arya's entire arc. This is what had been going wrong in the tv show which reduced all of Arya's trauma to ✨adventure✨because they think all the suffering Arya went through was intentional and could have been stopped anytime! All she had to do was reveal her identity.

I honestly do not know what Arya could have done to prove she was a Stark. When they sent guards to hunt her down and Arya realized that maybe in convincing her two friends to run away with her, she has in turn condemned them- Arya makes a decision to reveal who she is and let herself taken hostage. But here's the thing and no matter how many so called intellectuals throw up shit that her identity could have easily been proven-there would always, always the matter of chance. They could believe or they won't. And what would happen if they won't? Arya would be killed.

Now let's see what would have happened if Roose had ahold of the real Arya? Wouldn't she be in the place of Jeyne Poole. Jeyne has had to suffer under a monster, under a sadist. And those cries that echo around Winterfell now, would have been Arya's. This is what the fandom wants. I mean to say this is what the fandom wants from its female characters. Be the passive recipient of all that is to happen. There is no admiration in taking yourself promptly out of a situation that can be dangerous by actively interfering in the storyline. Act only when an action has been committed against you. There would have been more sympathy for Arya if she bled the way they wanted her to. If her cries echoed through halls. If she wasn't an active participant in her own storyline.

The other thing is the matter of could have. There is always the matter of could have when it comes to Arya. Arya could have tried to be more courteous. Arya could have just let Joffrey cut Mycah's face. And now Arya could have hatched a plan keeping in mind the safety of not only her party but of everyone else ( the Bolton guard) and snuck past. Every decisive control Arya takes is countered with a could have. That Arya chose to simply eliminate the risk in a situation that begged a safe escape isn't taken well. There is always a could have even when the text itself provides us with no definitive answer to this alternative could have.

I never understood how people could judge Dany when she actively brings down an empire of slavery. But now I think I can. There is no passivity. There is unapologetic action against the slave masters. They too perhaps are just some guys standing around to many in this fandom. And every decisive move against them, every violence against them also brings about the compulsion of the could have.

These female characters refuse to be a part of the could have. Of passivity. Their grey actions are to take back control of their storyline. Hence are they vilified. And hence should there be guilt and remorse on their part.

[esther-dot]

Idk how to explain it in better terms but the fact that Jaime focuses more on wanting to be perceived as good than actually doing good is a huge turn off for me and the reason why I don't believe grrm is writing a redemption arc for him.

So, here's a definition of redemption arc,

What exactly is a Redemption Arc? It's a type of character development in which your protagonist starts bad and becomes good in the end, often culminating in a heroic act that atones for their past

And I agree with you. His story won't fit the above. Jaime is bitter that doing the right thing is viewed the way it is by Westeros, and we can understand why he's angry, but I haven't seen any genuine regret about trying to kill Bran, for example, and kid killing is a big no-no, so imo, the flow of the story hasn't been to move Jaime from morally bad to morally good the way that expression implies.

In fact, in AFFC, he's talking about how he would have killed Arya and threatens to trebuchet a baby. When we have Ned's horror over Elia and her kids' deaths, over how the Hound murdered Mycah, his refusal to participate in the assassination of Dany, and his decision to risk his life/jeopardize his family by committing treason to protect Jon, I think we know Martin hasn't moved Jaime over into his "good" column. Our perception of his infamous act evolves, but that's not the same thing as Jaime changing.

What I think is so often perceived as a redemption arc is merely that Martin engaged our sympathy for Jaime later in the series and fans equate understanding/caring for a character with moving them into the "good" category rather than accepting that Martin routinely does this. The Hound, Tyrion, Theon...he calls them all villains, but at one point or another, we get tragedy and suffering in their lives That leads fans to conclude that the Hound and Tyrion are actually decent people, when by any objective standards, they aren't. The point isn't to move them from villain to hero, it's to offer believable explanations for why they are who they are, do what they do, and make them dynamic characters. Embracing the idea that good and bad impulses can exist in the same person, that the same person can be brave and kind as well as murderous and cruel, that's not too big of an ask. And imo, it's a shame fans want to use one to negate the other.

Even Jaime killing Aerys which kinda seems heroic is shaded by not only his greater loyalty to his family, but his own feelings about Aerys, and part of his memory is how he stood by while Aerys committed other cruel acts. In killing Aerys, he saved countless people, familial loyalty or no, it was the right thing to do, but we have all the rest of the series showing us, doing what is right really isn't of the utmost concern to Jaime. His loyalty is to his family of origin, he has an obsession with Cersei, and doesn't even seem to care much for his own children which again, I think indicates that as layered as he becomes with each new book, it's a misread to settle on the idea of redemption/good guy.

Fans think he's gonna kill Cersei as that final redemptive act, but to me that feels like looking at things from a Cersei hater perspective, not Jaime's. The man has been written as rather, disinterested in acting on a right/wrong spectrum, and is generally more concerned with family, it seems a little unreasonable to think a suitable ending for him is to reject that because how would such a man continue? He needs peace with his decisions, what he does has to flow from the essence of who he is, so it seems more likely to me that his end is dying with Cersei. That isn't redemption in the eyes of the fandom, but I think it could very well be redemption for himself. He has that nightmare about Rhaegar blaming him for Elia and the children's deaths, his own children may all die, there is nothing he can do about that, but going to their mother, the person he was faithful to his entire life, who is essentially his life partner/wife, it allows him to be truly loyal when all others think him faithless, and as annoying as some will find it, I think it gives him his own form of honor.

I wrote once about thinking he would die with Cersei:

I'm ok with Jaime deciding his fate is to be with Cersei, in birth, in life, even in death. As I thought it worked in the show, returning to Cersei in the books will likewise mean he is able to have some self-respect. I don't think you can read his, I mean, I would say Cersei obsession and believe he'd ever have any peace of mind if she died alone while he had to go on living. (link)

In that post I linked to meta about that and a great write-up on Jaime that I think you'll enjoy!

[iaminfourthwing]

The Generals Daughter

Arya Melgren

From official documents it is stated that Arya Melgren was born in the night of the 22nd March 613 AU, the stormiest night of the month.

While it was claimed that General Melgren is her father, it is not known who the woman is, that has brought her into life. No one is allowed to ask the general anything about Aryas origin.

To limit questions, the general used all his power to keep her a secret for as long as possible to outsiders, beside the nannys that raised her, since her father was always busy with the safety of Navarre, and the teachers and trainers she had since she was of six and ten years.

She originally wanted to chose the path as a scribe in the Archieves but was strongly refused by her father, that claims she is born to be a rider, nothing else. She learned this the hard and painful way.

Arya has natural vibrant red hair, that earns her a lot of attention since it seems to be uncommon. Her eyes are of a blue-grey color that is described to be a dark blue, almost black when she gets angry and a sparkling blue when excited. She is described to be a little more curvy, but on a muscular side due to her long training. She is around 5'9'' tall. Her face is adorned with multiple scars around her right eye and two under her left one. Some of them around her right eye are deeper than the others but she was incredibly lucky that her eye itself was not damaged.

Though Arya seems cold and emotionless to outsiders, throughout her first year her squad mates realize how intelligent, friendly and selfless she really is. Although she wears her last name with nothing but disdain, her friends always remind her that she is more than just a name to them.

How she would be described, if you'd ask her squad mates:

clever, quiet, icy, polite, brave, serious, intelligent, wise, selfless, stubborn, sassy, sarcastic, dangerous

She doesn`t talk much but when, then she can be very humorous (with a big sprinkle of dark humor), dry, sassy and sarcastic. To the surprise of the other cadets (and as a nightmare for the professors) she finds a partner in crime in Ridoc (and sometimes Sawyer). She is heavily judged by her father for the choices she makes in her first year.

Many think that because she is the generals daughter, she will be as controlling, a strict rule follower, terrifying and heartless as the one everyone fears. She is suspected to step into her fathers footsteps and expected to be great and powerful. (You don‘t have it from me, but after the reveal of Arya, words travel fast and soon there are bets placed between the Navarrian Officers what dragon she`ll bond, what signet she could have and if she even has a chance of surviving.)

Throughout the story we will learn a lot more about her character and most importantly - where her loyalty lays.

[naggascradle]

i just finished hotd so im obviously thinking about it more but ive been really working to try to narrow down why i found hotd so much more fun to watch despite its flaws compared to my frustration throughout all of game of thrones with the character reductions and missing the point of the books.

first of all i think its down to the new showrunners understanding themes and like... what makes a story compelling in terms of characterization and what you can flesh out from a more barebones text. there's a lot to that you can have fun with & turning vague historical figures into a story to follow. i loved the alicent and rhaenyra background where we see them as children! episode one of season one is such a strong set up for the rest of the show and the themes it wants to deal with on the horror of motherhood and women being seen as vessels to carry children, which leads into the primary theme of the show and assumptions of people based on physical appearance.

which like, compared with game of thrones which seems sort of confused? about what it wants its themes to be for the show? like the books have a pretty major theme of the sins of the father sort of narrative and the cyclical nature of abuse and the way society pushes forward the abuse. the show removes most of these themes, oddly, like the biggest examples to me were tyrion's abuse by his father with tysha (this gets a mention in the show), the greyjoy family nightmare of abuse that just keeps going (the most we get on tv is theon being like my dad doesnt really like me :( and thats it but the books are pretty brutal in being like theon gets told someone's dad will beat them and he's like well my dad did that to me so idk what you want me to do about it.), arya's whole book narrative is how revenge begets revenge and in the process of revenge you will lose your own identity in pursuit of violence as a cycle, the point of the Others is to have the realms of men unite against an evil so great it will kill them if they keep doing petty squabbling, the list goes on. but the show doesnt really seem all that interested in playing with the ideas of cycles or what they mean? i honestly cant even tell you what i think the theme of game of thrones the tv show is. violence hurts people, i think?

hotd does a better job with picking a theme and running with it (the theme being what the assumption of a person means based on their physical traits; societally, politically, and personally). this is a major focus of a song of ice and fire as well, so it lends to the story of house of the dragon in a great way! we get larys who is disabled and his explicit discussion with aegon about how people will underestimate you and it will be your advantage (great parallel to doran martell in the books), the bastardy of jaecerys and his disgust with himself and following it up with him meeting the dragonseeds who have an entirely different view of being bastards (something id love to see more of in season 3, despite knowing jace's eventual end), rhaenyra & alicent obviously and the way people treat them as women. rhaenyra's conversation in episode one with aemma is suuuch a haunting one by the end of the same episode. alicent of course with her discussions about being undermined in front of her sons and how no one will be able to control them if she is continued to be shown as incapable in front of them.

anyway apart from themes hotd does also play with the concept of what adapting stories means, and how they'll play out differently on the screen, especially in a context of an adaptation along the lines of a historical fiction sort of show, as f&b isnt a chapter novel, more like an outline of how the history went. historical adaptations can be fun too in how the narrative is told, like giving nuances to characters when we just have their actions on paper. aemond unintentionally killing luke is up there for me in terms of "this is a really fun way to interpret the text" because all we know is that aemond killed luke when pursuing revenge over his lost eye, having their dragons act like actual animals with minds of their own in that moment was a strong choice! like of course vhagar will turn and try to kill a much smaller dragon for attacking her head on, she's a three ton massive sky beast. luke is a 14 year old with an adolescent dragon that's much more nimble, it makes total sense he could outjuke vhagar for a moment to get a direct fire shot on her. and it makes sense for aemond in turn to try to get control back of vhagar and fail. those are all incredibly compelling character choices to do when the accounts are so vague.

the other historical adaptation moment i really enjoyed was the dragonseed storylines (...enjoyed is a bit of an overstatement, i thought some of the dialogue for these scenes couldve been better.) where you can be like ?? who are these guys why do i care. until addam gets seasmoke and its like ohh those other two are the other two dragonriders ulf and hugh. got it.

honestly this is a very low bar in most shows but game of thrones really, really hated doing things like this except like once or twice (the only example i can think of is olenna tyrell getting a bunch of camera shots with the goblet at joffrey's wedding). game of thrones removed most of its foreshadowing in the tv show for major events that are borderline told to the reader that will happen in the books, and it makes the show a lot worse because it means it doesn't trust its audience can still be compelled by the story if they can figure out what will be happening (leading to like everything from s6 onward in terms of plot decisions lol), as well as made characters like ridiculously stupid in terms of their plans from the start because the show didnt seem to trust the audience in understanding what was happening in the story either? like the whole sansa being snuck out by dantos is... there for like one scene, but the book version makes it a whole shock twist that it was littlefinger arranging the whole thing (which was something you could pick up on beforehand, but from sansa's point of view she had no idea who was doing all this for her.), the show changes it to have petyr straight up tell sansa in the middle of the red keep "i'll sneak you out of here" and its like ?? people can say the characters got a case of the stupids in the later seasons but they definitely had the case of the stupids in early seasons too. why the fuck would littlefinger straight up tell her where everyone can hear him. this successfully lowers the stakes, makes littlefinger look like an idiot & everyone can guess who has sansa. like do varys's little birds mean something in this show or do they not.

i do think hotd leaves room to be desired with not making rhaenyra nuanced enough, but i can see where they really want the audience to root for her. regardless i dont think there's much where i was like "wow this character is ooc" its been pretty decently consistent about every character being consistent, and i do worry about if they start making rhaenyra have bad decisions itll be weirdly ooc lol. she's been shown to be prideful and wanting to be the only person making decisions & getting annoyed at others without her approval which i think is a pretty decent flaw to not make it overkill in making her an incapable ruler. idk i think rhaenyra is like. fine. as is. if she becomes bad at ruling id rather it be a slow progression over her control issues stemming from the way people treat her like she doesnt know anything and doing things without her approval. because it looks like they might lean into that and especially so after jace's and joffrey's deaths.

generally ive been reading everything hotd chooses to do as like this is a historical adaptation and some things will get changed for adaptability reasons. yes some things wont hit as hard if you loved them in the book but for the most part the changes have been in service of the themes i listed before, making the show feel like it has a purpose and wants to try and say something, so im more willing to forgive a lot of things in service of that.

anyway i wish we did have halaena's choice & nettles </3 those are the only two i dont really understand yet but im willing to wait and see how they play out

[dwellordream]

the best advice i could give anyone as a fic author is when you are not fond of a character… just don’t write them lmao. so many people give characters they clearly disdain POV chapters and like. we can tell lol.

it’s not subtle when you give sansa or arya or dany a PoV just to point out how stupid or shallow or redundant you think they are.

if i have to read one more fic that claims to ‘uplift the girls’ but arya is just sansa’s bodyguard, dany is a narcissistic nightmare, or sansa is a shrill bitch who exists to be smacked down, i’m gonna lose my mind.

[duckprintspress]

Why Query Letters are Good Actually 

Part One of a Two-part series of guest posts by Alec J. Marsh.

Hello, it’s me, Alec. I’m a new editor to Duck Prints Press and the resident corporate shill sellout. I love Duck Prints Press and their ethics (and will write an opinion piece soon on why they rock and you should submit to them). I also…. love traditional publishing. 

I’m sorry! I know this makes me a trend-following sheep. I know it’s a hot take in the indie pub crowd. Traditional publishing absolutely has its flaws, and I could go on at length about them. I’m still aiming to get my novels traditionally published. I want to be able to find my book at a Barnes & Noble and be nominated for a Hugo. Sorry not sorry. 

One of the worst parts of traditional publishing is the arcane hoops you have to jump through to participate. As anyone who has poked querying with a long, tentative stick knows, there are many requirements, and every agent’s website uses slightly different phrasing, and it’s a nightmare to navigate. It’s an extra nightmare if you’re neurodivergent and desperately seeking a clear, simple list of expectations. Unfortunately, the basic requirements are there for a reason. A GOOD reason. Learning the skills required to put together a good query package will serve you well, whether you want a ten-book deal with Tor, to sell hand-stapled zines at the local convention, or anything in between. 

So let’s get into it! 

The first thing you need in any submission process is a query letter. What is a query letter? In short, it’s a 3-5 paragraph essay about your book, yourself, and why a publisher should buy your work (and therefore why an agent should agree to represent you). You need to tell the agent the genre, the plot, and why this book is special. They are excruciating to write, because yes, you need to condense your book down to 300 words, maximum, and sell it at the same time. 

But imagine, for a moment, that you’ve walked into Ye Olde Barnes & Noble. There, on the end cap, is a cool new fantasy book you’ve never heard of. The cover has a sword and a snake on it, and you like swords and snakes. But how is it different from the 20 other books with names like A Court of Swords and Snakes that have come out in the last five years? The first thing you do is pick the book up, turn to the back cover, and read. 

You know what’s on the back cover? 

Paragraph one: In a stunning tour de force, ACOSAS takes you through the glittering world of naga politics… (A teaser sentence)  

Paragraph two: Princess Arya has always wanted to be a dancer. But when the evil northerners attack her kingdom… (A paragraph about the main character and the central conflict of the book) 

Paragraph three: Alec J Marsh lives in the Pacific Northwest and has never seen a snake in the wild. (A biography of the author) 

Guess what you just read? A query letter. In many cases, what’s in the blurb is actually pretty close to the exact query letter the author originally sent to their agent. Yes, really. Sometimes a query letter makes it from agent to editor to publicist to final copy.

They’re that important. 

But Alec, I hear you say, I’m not planning to get trad published! Why do I need to do this? Well, indie and self-published people—you will need to write cover copy for your book. And you’ll almost certainly need to write it yourself. The good and the bad part of self-publishing is that you do everything yourself. Less meddling (good!), but less help (bad!). And here’s the hard truth: absolutely no one will spend a single one of their hard-earned dollars on “sex babes get pounded by space aliens” if the back cover says “lol I suck at summaries, I promise it’s good :)” It’s useless, and it’s disrespectful to the buyer’s time and money. 

And that is why query letters are good, actually, for all writers, and are worth practicing how to create!

So go out there and sell your books, and you’ll accidentally write your query along the way. 

In Installment Two…now that I’ve convinced you that you should write a query letter, I’ll go over how to actually, you know, do that. Coming soon!

[sleepy-aletheas]

Casually losing my mind over Celestia

This is me tossing my free train of thoughts with no edits or double-checking, cause it buzzes in my brain so loudly, I need it out.

It's a mess.

Simulanka = same story cycles with each ending its own

Phanes = 4 forms of names/roles = 4 tries of “cycles” = Paimon is 5th??? 4.5???

Primordial One (it/its) = Istaroth/Tokoyo Ookami/King’s Priest = King (incarnation* of the Primordial One) = ? = ?

*incarnation is such a messy word, because it means something along the lines of divinity made flesh; so like, a divine power assumes the body of a human or animal. In Christianity it’s in relationship with Jesus, but apparently it was a hot topic for debate for centuries, cause no one actually ever agreed on one interpretation, where some made Jesus to be the Creator and not the created, or he was God but also Man at the same time…

Since the four shades are split off of PO, it either could mean that they’re all split at the same time into different (but 50% same?) individuals, or the splits came one after another, for each samsara Teyvat went through.

On that note, the Narzissenkreuz split the samsara cycles into Hyperborea, Natlantean, Remuria, Khraun-Arya, in which AT THE TIME THE ORDO WROTE THIS DOWN they were still in the first half of the 4th cycle (since the ordo established after the Cataclysm, but they were children during it, it must be written down 400+ years ago present time). Those names were just taken from ancient texts, and that the samsara (and these names) are in relation to the spiritual evolution. (also there might be some more details in the Akademiya, with how they worded it to not step on toes…hmm)

What if Celestia is empty, because in a last “trial” (a last hail mary) the Primordial One left Celestia to try and mend this corruption that just keeps seeping through the Abyss…and that last trial character, the last role, the last form…is Paimon?

Hell, maybe the Sustainer is another split from Paimon (or Paimon is the little split, connected with a rainbow string up to the Heavens…) who’s job now is not slapping the wrists of Archons for abandoning their gnosis/jobs, or slamming more nails down, or punishing people for committing cardinal sins (we don’t talk enough about those, really), but instead they're keeping the sky from breaking, and stop anyone trying to leave Teyvat (for some reason).

On a side note, the Primordial One is making my brain turn to mush, because what is the deal with it???? Born of an egg with wings and a crown and androgynous, but for the world to be created, the shell of the egg had to be broken, and yet “Phanes” (quotation marks, cause ‘maybe’ feels like a weird thing to put in the sentiment of calling something from the recounting directly from Istaroth…) used the eggshell to separate the “universe” from the “microcosm of the world”. So either the egg never cracked and Teyvat is a dreamworld because we have to wake up Phanes to become real (and if Paimon is Phanes, her continuous dislike and skepticism of dreams and fantasies and absolute refusal of accepting such things for some reason when others are fine with it…is weird, especially when she’s chill with so many other things. Is it because of some weird dream-logic where the dreamer has build in defenses from realizing they dream to not wake up?? I genuinely don’t know, I have lucid dreams, I’m not sure how it usually works), or the egg cracked in some of the samsara (or in each one a little more, in different places) or because of the Second Who Came, and that’s why the abyss (the universe) is seeping into the dream, into Teyvat, and it’s corrupting it with nightmares and corrosion.

In the quest with the Pari, we found out in a document that the Khvarena and abyssal powers work the same way, using the same sort of energy, but have different results (paraphrasing from the back of my mind). And since the Khvarena is music (and so is the Aranara’s Sourcesong, and Remuria with their Phobos/Symphony), we could see Teyvat’s natural power that shapes it as lullabies, and the abyss is the nightmares that seep in from the outside, tarnishing everything it touches.

If Simulanka is the reflection of Teyvat, with its stars representing the people of “the real world”, then Teyvat is a reflection of reality, and the vision bearers (the prominent stars with specific roles and destinies) are a reflection of reality of someone else. The tracks that is destiny to keep the people of Metropolis safe was meant to protect until the people there grew strong enough to let go of it, returning the tracks back to the stars and live their lives on their own. And even if not everyone is ready, they’re not alone, and have to teamwork their way through life.

Maybe Teyvat’s constellations act the same way. Some people gain constellations to fulfill certain roles, and their vision are the training wheels to help them achieve these ambitions. But eventually they don’t need them. And so they go back to the sky. And some destinies can change, because stories follow rules, unfolding in cyclical patterns, but each should follow its own course...

…..

I lost my train of thought. Stormy weather truly messes with me.

[mortumslab]

Remembering to be Human - Chapter 5

A longer chapter this time. But more action-packed.

(tw: blood, depictions of violence, alcohol use.)

Link to Chapter 4!

Two figures. Two beings you recognize. You’ve fought them. You’ve lost to them. You’ve beaten them.

Stairs. Falling. Up stairs. Down stairs. The eye follows you. The eye watches you.

Julia is there. She’s here. She’s protecting you. She wasn’t here at the Farm. You know she wasn’t, but she’s here anyway. Maybe your subconscious is finally fighting back. Against the figures. Against the enemies. 

Green.

But they’re overwhelming. Suddenly alone. Alone. Green. Terrifying.

Alone. Die. Alone.

“NO!” Your scream wakes you. You’re sobbing. The dreams weren’t worse, not compared to some during your early villain career. The dreams, instead, were malicious. Something in your head is fighting you.

Tears streak your face as you cradle your pillow - attempting to block the chorus of voices from your mind. Spasming, you can feel pain wrack your body. Between the mental and physical anguish, it’s no surprise you didn’t notice Julia wasn’t next to you. Panic surges through you. Was it all a horrible nightmare? Are you still alone?

But then, relief. As Julia bursts through the door. She’s wearing an apron and looks rattled. She was making breakfast. You can smell it. You’ve never had homemade breakfast. Despite having had the kitchen installed down the hall. She’s next to you, holding you before you can flinch away. Not that you would have. This safety is new. It’s nice. You don’t deserve it. 

She’s cradling you, making cooing noises. Like soothing a frightened child. It would be a bit pitiful if you weren’t crying in her lap. 

“What happened?” She asks softly, afraid to startle you. 

“Nightmare.” You don’t know how to explain to her that these are normal, but your subconscious has now chosen sides and is waging a civil war in your mind. Whatever the Farm did to you last time isn’t healing anytime soon. Something inside you is trying to get out.

“I made you breakfast.” She says while stroking your hair. Your neat braid came apart. The silver-grey hair coats your back and pillow. You absent-mindedly wonder if Julia would braid it for you. You used to do it for her, but you’re not sure if that was due to inability or if she liked you touching her.

“It smells really good. Is it ready?” Your voice is shaky to your ears. No point in acting tough. Julia wouldn’t believe you anyway. She may not know everything about you, but she can still read you well.

She nods and leads you into the kitchen. There’s eggs, bacon, and toast. You’re not even sure where she got this food. Or if she got it herself. You don’t ask because you’re sure she was careful. She knows what’s at stake if you’re caught collaborating. And you don’t know if the other Rangers know where she is or that you’re together. She doesn’t keep those secrets well. Thankfully, Sidestep and Charge were known for being flirty. So Arya and Julia Ortega can be, too.

Your morning routine is different when Julia is there. You know today will be rough. It’s probably going to hurt, too. You suspect the Rangers may be on your side, but they’ll still take you seriously. They’re still going to be watching for any sign of deceit. There’s hypocrisy in their doubt of you. You smile to yourself. You know each of the Rangers, Sentinel, and Blaze have killed before. The only person you’ve killed was The Void. And even then, you’re not sure they're dead. You may be a villain, but your moral superiority still beats the government’s angels. Though, that might be why they’ve switched loyalties.

“I’m going to rendezvous with the Rangers at HQ. We’ll be at Hollow Ground’s compound sometime after nine.” Julia looks ready for war. No, this isn’t Julia. This is Charge. Charge is ticked off. Charge is ready for revenge. You hope she can take it out on Hollow Ground. Hope someone gets something out of this meeting. You’re not certain you’ll be getting anything except more questions.

The day passes without much incident. You’re monitoring feeds from your office. You have no need to make a show as Heartbreak until tonight. You planned to take on Hollow Ground eventually. It might as well be today. Can’t change the status quo unless you take down the ruling class.

BEEP. 

A tone startles you from your thoughts. You have one cell phone for your villainy and one for your personal life. This was the villainy cell. Like your own personal hotline for evil. 

“Mon cherie, I think I’m ready to talk.”

You let out a sigh of relief. Mortum being open for talking again was faster than you’d expected but she didn’t seem necessarily angry when you left Joes last night.

“Hey… okay.”

“While I wish you wouldn’t have lied to me. I understand why you did. I can’t stop thinking about how much you had to go through to be here.”

“I wouldn’t recommend it.” You try to joke, but it sounds stale. “So what now?”

“What do you need from me, mon cherie?”

“What do you mean?” Is she offering to help in a more official capacity? She’s always been your supplier for Heartbreak’s plans, but she’s never come to you first.

“Well, you’re leading a valiant crusade against the powers that be. You must need some gear. Or am I very much mistaken that you’ve decided to take the fight to Hollow Ground?”

“How do you know about that?” You’re panicking. She shouldn’t know about this yet. Eden would have told her, sure. Arya hasn’t yet. Your mind swims with paranoia. Distrust.

“Relax, mon cherie, I saw Manalo at the bar. I put it together. It’s about time.” The anxiety is still there, but no warning lights go off in your mind. Mortum is a brilliant scientist. She can piece things together.

“Sorry. I’ve been high-strung the last few days. A lot has changed.” You close your eyes for a moment. Centering yourself. “Right now, I don’t need anything besides some good luck.” You smile because you’re talking to her like Eden would. Like a best friend.

“Then, mon cherie, I shall wish you good luck. I will be on the lookout for you to call me and tell me how it goes.” 

Friendship. She’s offering you an olive branch. Despite how undeserving you feel, Julia and Mortum have kept you afloat. Even if Julia didn’t know that. Especially since you barely understood that. Mortum, though, kept you sane. Through Eden. But sane. Human. 

“I will.” You hope your smile translates well over the phone. “I’ll send you a text when I’m safe. Or when the Rangers have apprehended me.” Too late you remember you haven’t told her your plans.

You hear a brief spitting noise. Sounds like the good doctor lost her coffee. You explain yourself before she can chastise you.

“The Rangers and I are working this one together. Unofficially. And they’ll need to put me down in a realistic manner to keep up the charade.” 

“Well, that certainly is a plan that cannot go wrong, mon cherie.” 

Sarcasm. Good. Friends again.

Hanging up, you spend time reviewing the plans of the villa you acquired. Few exits, but it appears to be open to the surroundings. Windows are probably reinforced, but you can manage that. The big question is why Hollow Ground is meeting you come in armor. Heartbreak is Los Diabolos’ hottest new villain. You may not be Pyschopathor, but your feats have been dangerous. And your defeat of the Rangers put you on all the unofficial villain lists. Thankfully, those lists don’t include the large number of villains you’ve put down. Or how many leads you’ve given the DA. Or that you haven’t fought any heroes except for the ones now currently allied with you. Hollow Ground must expect you to be compliant, then. And given their powerset, they might try to influence you. You need to expect trickery. This is Los Diabolos’ kingpin. A finger in every pie. Every line on your planning board goes through them.

The planning board. Your map to freedom. To salvation. Opening the door to your lair, you step inside. A hiss sounds as it seals behind you. Here, you plan your anarchy. Bringing this system to its knees and rebuilding it in your image. Humans made this monster. They also made you. And you will be their unmaking. 

No. No, you are a monster. Do not be the villain they think you are. Hold onto it. Onto the human element. 

Hold onto Julia.

Hold.

A deep breath. Two. Three. You need to control yourself. You are not a tyrant. You are not a politician. You will find someone to install when the FEZ cracks. When they realize their undoing was their own creation. But there are sheep amongst the wolves. They don’t know what was done to you. Though they know about Re-Genes and the Special Directive, you doubt they have ever considered you sentient. Why should they? Status quo has told them you’re nothing more than a tool. No. When the oligarchs of the Free Economic Zone fall, you will install someone just. Fair. You have candidates, but that part of the plan is far too distant to consider further. 

On the board, lines connect Hollow Ground to other monsters of Los Diabolos. Mayor Alvarez. Catastrofiend. Psychopathor. The Void. Heartbreak. Legends of nightmarish potential who have terrorized the people for far too long. Have terrorized you. Your nightmares are a constant reminder of who made you into this. Forged by the Farm. Tried and tested by the Void and Catastrofiend. Bathed in the sea of Nanovores. Baptized in the wake of Heartbreak. Now, you take the name for yourself. As a reminder to those who know the truth. The Farm should see your name and quake. They know your warpath ends with them. It is only a matter of time until you can piece everything together. Until you know what they’re hiding. 

In your scheming, you lose track of time. It is nearly 8:30 by the time you’re suited up and heading down your private elevator.

A message on your HUD pings a message from Julia. The sap.

“Good luck tonight. We’ll go easy on you. Love you.” Butterflies. Is this what being human is like? These thoughts? These emotions? One day at a time. Maybe you’ll just manage to survive.

You shoot back a sarcastic “You sap,” and finally dare to respond with, “I love you too.” You close the window quickly, breathing more rapidly than you’d like. The elevator dings.

Rosie is in the garage, as always. She knows the plan and wordlessly starts the car. A much more low-key luxury vehicle this time. Hollow Ground is expecting a level of decorum. And while you don’t care what Hollow Ground thinks of you, you must keep up appearances. More masks.

The ride feels like it takes forever. You still get pre-mission nerves despite having been Heartbreak for almost a year. In the field, you’re calm and collected. The armor helps cover your insecurities. Your inhumanity. Paranoia and mistrust have kept you alive in your time of villainy. As it did in your vigilante era. Before you died. Before you were broken. No time for those thoughts. Instead, you force them to drift to last night’s discussion with the Rangers. It could have gone worse. They could have arrested you. You would have gone down fighting. Break Julia’s heart again. Like you probably will anyway. You’re Heartbreak, after all. And yet you’re not sure if they quite understood your desperation. They don’t seem to realize that the Farm is dangerous. That they’re planning something. Something huge. Something deadly. Something only you can stop. 

You’re pulled from your thoughts when Rosie taps on the car’s dividing window. You nod to her and, over the intercom, say, “Go home for the night. No matter what, I won’t be coming back to base for a bit.” She nods, looking apprehensive, but waves as she pulls away. You don’t wave back. You’re Heartbreak now. Time to act your role. If it’s even acting. Brutality comes easy to you. Thankfully it’s been directed at Los Diabolos’ more unsavory population. Will you lose your head tonight? Now would be the time. You know the Rangers won’t keep you, or at least you hope they won’t. Arya couldn’t do what was necessary. But Heartbreak can.

There’s a guard at the door to the villa. You can’t sense any dampeners. No one knows you’re a telepath. Good.

Approaching the guard, you fall back into character. Heartbreak is flamboyant, big, loud. Something Arya could never be.

“Good evening, fellow henchman!” Your voice modulator sends just the right amount of sarcasm to your words. Ticking off henchmen makes them harder to predict, but angry people are easier to manipulate. “I am here to meet Los Diabolos’ king.” You’re not shouting, but you can see him wince. He’s outfitted with normal mods. Probably class B. Not a war machine, but will pack a punch if needed. 

“They’re inside.” He looks like he would rather not let you in but steps aside as the door opens. 

The inside of the villa is as you expected. Your sources deliver on their reliability once again. The door from which you entered is the only solid structure in the building. The remaining three walls are windowed, and the one opposite of you opens up onto the ocean below. The wall behind you is patterned with rock, like pebbles on a riverbed. The windows ahead of you look reinforced. You expect it would take solid munitions to carve through it. You hope the Rangers are equipped for a battle. 

A woman who looks to be in her 40s or 50s is seated in a fairly cushy seat. She looks older than Julia but younger than Steel. Though you know the Hero drug and mods can change one’s appearance. And you know Hollow Ground can afford to keep up the maintenance. The other two in the room are known to you. At least tangentially. One is Nocturne. A darker-skinned woman closer to your age. Her eyes are as gold as her garments, like Midas himself touched her. You’re aware her boost is sight-related, but you’re unsure what else she has available. More Medusa than Midas. Further back is Jake Manalo. You know he’s a hitman and a bruiser. You also know his powers are a bit more mysterious. He can change the density of his body, and very few have lived to report on him.

“Heartbreak,” the woman in the middle smiles, “Welcome to my humble abode.” She spreads her hands as if welcoming an old friend. 

Now that you’ve gotten closer to her, you notice several things. Firstly, she looks like an older version of you. Of Arya. Not exactly identical, but if you squinted and saw her from afar, someone might mistake the two of you. Probably why Julia thought you two were related. And, well, you probably are. The Farm only takes the best donors.

“It is certainly… humble.” You try for some humor. Heartbreak is a comedian, after all. All the villain forums said so. “Makes my base look much more evil-villainy.” You see her smirk, good. 

“I, as you can probably tell, am Hollow Ground.” She stands up to shake your hand. This is probably how she does it. You could shake her hand with the glove or keep up pretenses of friendliness and remove it first. You’re fairly certain you can resist the threading, but the last thing you need is to get killed tonight because you couldn’t resist her powers. 

Shaking her hand with your gloved one, you sit down at the offered chair opposite the kingpin. You speak first. Heartbreak is a volatile figure. Dealing with Los Diabolos’ underground has made you more proactive. Less like Sidestep. Sidestep is dead. You are not. Not yet.

“So, Jake tells me you have some information I’d be interested in.” You nod at Jake. He doesn’t nod back. You scoff; the modulator makes it sound like a bark.

Hollow Ground pretends not to notice the slight and says, “You are correct. Have you had any run-ins with the Special Directive yet?” 

Your mouth goes dry. You don’t sense any thought voids in the area. You’re powerful enough to be able to tell. The Rat King signals all good. You try to breathe, their chittering calming you like always. “I have not yet had the misfortune,” you say, thankful the modulator masks your nervousness. “They’re far too rare to be sent after the likes of me.” Eventually, you will be a large enough threat to warrant them. But not yet.

“Well, I assume you’re aware of who and what they are?” You nod. “Good, then you should know that they’re contracted by the FEZ and U.S. government to rope in large-scale disasters. Psychopathor being the last target that required their use.” You know this very well. You’re the one who called them.

“I had heard the titan was brought to heel by the Directive. What does this have to do with me? I don’t imagine you’re going to call them on such a small threat as myself.” You put as much humor into your voice as you can muster. It seems to do the trick.

Laughing, Hollow Ground says, “No, of course not. They’d paint my walls red, and I don’t exactly want to redecorate yet. No, I called you here because I know your plans for Los Diabolos include shuffling the status quo.” She pauses and takes a sip of a glass of brownish liquid. She also drinks dark liquor. A coincidence? Probably not.  

“And while I know that includes me, I figured I could redirect you for a bit. The Directive has plans that include this city as well as all of the FEZ.” You know this, but how does she? And you do know the Directive is planning something. That the Farm is. But you only know it has to do with the failing Core. What the Core protects is the largest unknown.

She continues, “The Directive wants to install themselves as an arbiter of power and control. And I’m willing to point you in the right direction. If you agree to work with me.” 

There it is. There’s the bargain. She’s worried. She knows you’ve brutally beaten many of her associates. Umbral’s missing income probably hurt more than she’s letting on. 

You laugh, the noise sounding demonic on the modulator, “Work for you?” You continue to laugh. It becomes slightly manic. It feels good. 

“I like the spirit, though!” You probably sound like a madman. You doubt anyone has laughed in Hollow Ground’s face and lived. But here you are. True to form. 

“Actually, I have a question for you: why did you let me walk in here in my armor?” This was something that bothered you about this meeting. They know you’re dangerous in armor. Hollow Ground doesn’t let anyone see her face, but here you are. Anonymous. You laugh. 

You could tell something was wrong with the layout of this house. Hollow Ground thinks your powers are related to disintegration. That has been the media’s current understanding of you. You know from the Villain Indexing System that Heartbreak’s boosts aren’t known. And no dampeners means Hollow Ground doesn’t know either. You suspect this house might be invulnerable to most known disintegratory powers. 

“Because you either join us, or we’ll kill you.” Hollow Ground is deadly serious now. Jake’s powers would be difficult to fight if you were reliant on a disintegration-type power. His ability to shift through matter makes disintegration nearly impossible. “You’re a danger to our operation. I had hoped you would cooperate.”

Your laugh echoes through the chic home.

“Is something funny?” Her voice now drips with venom. She appears placid, but you can feel her emotions. Even passively, as you’ve restrained your telepathic senses. Anger. Good. Time to turn it up a notch. 

“I don’t like killing.” You’re thankful no one can see into your helmet. You’re scowling. Sitting before you is the villain who killed Marshall Hood. The kingpin of Los Diabolos. One more hurdle for you to clear in your pursuits. “But I know you don’t mind it.” As you talk, you pick up the liquor bottle in front of you. It’s filled with a brown liquid. You twist the cap off and twirl it between your fingers. Be unpredictable. Be enigmatic.

Before she can speak, you continue, “Now, I’m a forgiving villain, but I do not wish to replace one evil with another. And you’ve caused enough heartbreak.” You laugh at your own joke. Maintain the act. Be the villain. 

Swirling the bottle, you don’t look at Hollow Ground when she speaks again. “A bleeding heart? I would never have expected it.” She motions to the guards at the door to remain where they are. You knew they were approaching, but you’re not supposed to be a telepath. “How are you going to change the world without causing some mayhem?”

“I can cause plenty of mayhem without leaving any corpses. There are far worse things than death.” Your laugh sounds manic, but this is the most honest thing you’ve said tonight. You knew tonight was going to go badly or very badly. Seems Hollow Ground has chosen the latter.

Now, however, you sense movement in the surrounding neighborhood. It’s time to act.

“So your answer? Will you work with us?” You had felt your anger coming far before she had made the offer. But now it’s boiling over. How dare she. How dare she puppeteer this city. From her cushy villa. From her anonymity. This is the person who’s caused Julia so much pain. So much suffering. There are many oligarchs in this city. They all need to be put down. 

Red. You see red.

As an answer, the bottle cap you twirled between your fingers strikes Hollow Ground between the eyes. Still got it. One of your old Sidestep tricks. Hilarious every single time. 

“Did you just fucking…” 

Jake flings himself over the couch, but you are already moving; the liquor bottle cracks over his skull with a sharp, sickening noise. 

Jake goes down, not out. He went dense, likely angry at your insolence. Your servos are whirring, and the Rat King is tracking the henchmen behind you. You know Nocturne’s power will be a danger. Good thing you don’t need eyesight to fight. You flip the table with a kick and send it flying at Nocturne. She dodges, barely. 

You leap over the overturned table and catch Nocturne in a backhand. She goes sliding across the ground. The Rat King alerts you to Jake, but you’re a fraction too late. It appears like he’s gone light - more mobile. He phases through you, and a roundhouse kick sends you into the reinforced glass in the same movement. The glass is tough. You’re tougher. A loud crack shoots through the villa. Your suit blinks an orange light, notifying you of compromised integrity to your back plate. Something to have Mortum fix later.

A henchman is on you before you’re fully on your feet. He’s the one from the entrance; the other two in the room are helping Nocturne to her feet. Now it’s five on one. You like those odds. With the exoskeleton set to full power, you go to work.

The first henchman, you call him Chrome-face, as half of his skull is shoddily melded to a metal plate. He seems to have some sort of electrical ability. A mixture of boosts and mods. Chrome-face takes his first - and last - swing at you. Sidestepping this, you pull the full force of your strike into his skull. The metal half dents. The fleshy half breaks. A scream. He skitters to a stop a few yards from you. Still alive, Rat King tells you. Good. 

The second and third henchmen are not even memorable enough to name. Tactically, their best opportunity would be to take you at the same time. Alas, this is likely why they’re henchmen. And you suspect, from the makeup of these two, that Hollow Ground expected your “disintegration powers” to be ineffective. You’ve already shown the world that the nanovores eat inorganic material. The two in front of you appear boosted, not modded.

A pyrokinetic power flares on the first as he reaches you. You catch his fist in your hand. His fire is hot. But your armor takes it without issue. With a flourish, the fire-user is flipped over your back and collides with the wall. The second henchman, a geomancer, flings a large boulder-shaped object at you. You deflect it easily and deliver a kick to his sternum, which snaps with a sickening crunch. He flies directly into Hollow Ground, who, until moments before, appeared unsure if the battle was going her way or not.  

With a thud, both go over the couch and come to rest behind Nocture and Jake. Nocture shouts, going to help her boss to her feet. Hollow Ground looks bloodied and bruised.

You turn to the fire-using henchman at your feet and deliver a well-placed kick to the head. Blood and teeth erupt from his slack jaw.

Manalo is on you before you can savor the damage. Jake’s fist collides with your helmet, and you see stars. Too slow. Weak. Distracted. Too human. 

You kick out and catch his shin, but it probably hurts you more than he. His density is a power you’re not sure how to counter. Dodging the second strike, you consider your options. 

Then pandemonium. 

The Rangers have arrived.

The first thing you notice is the smell of ozone. 

It burns the air around you. Your helmet covers the toxicity of the smell, but you can still feel it. 

All three henchmen were quickly disposed of, leaving Nocturne, Jake Manalo, and Hollow Ground. One moment. Two. Three. Then you’re on Jake. Nocturne is doing her best to shuttle Hollow Ground out of the main room. You peripherally suspect there to be a safe room somewhere in the house. Likely with an escape entrance for the kingpin. 

Jake must not have expected you to leap on him as he was soft enough to hit. Once. Twice. Three times. Your enhanced strength tests the limits of his durability. The limits were reached. Manalo stops struggling. His face is a mash of flesh. You’re laughing. You live for this. Cracking the skulls of Los Diabolos’ underworld. The world you’re on top of. Hollow Ground is next. You look up to find her. To hunt down the remainder of this syndicate.

Behind you, you hear Charge roar. Primal. Angry. Very different from the noises you’ve heard her make recently.

Jake begins to struggle again, apparently regaining consciousness despite the serious head wounds. In for a penny. You hit him again. And again. And—

—A fist hits the side of your head.

Then nothingness.

[kellyvela]

So, if D&D knew that much about the story and so far in advance, why did the Jon & Dany romance feels so stilted and unplanned? Is Jonerys sex a plot point from GRRM or do you think they added in the “romance” to hide the ending? Or was this about keeping Targaryen fans around for the sequels and prequels?

Well, D&D admitted that they didn't invest much in jonerice:

But in terms of the story? WEISS: Jon and Dany are obviously together-together now. We didn't have much time, or any time, to explore that relationship as a real relationship in the seventh season. It came to fruition at the end. It was a lot of fun to write them meeting each other, and now there's a new kind of relationship between them. And here they're together from the beginning. [Source]

Yup, the "romance of the century" was purposely rushed in S7.

I remember how this quote had jonerice shippers so hyped believing their ship would develop in deep during the final season, just for them to crash and burn in S8 💋🗡💀. . . . . LOL

For more about this see here & here.

They even copied Jon/Ygritte "romantic" relationship and especially Jon reacting to Ygritte's death and made it into jonerice. For more about this see here & here & here and again here.

Benioff and Weiss copied a lot of old plots in the Show, especially when they lacked text material. They did the same with Sansa, Cogman said it himself. In S1 Sansa wishes for the South and her golden prince, but her dream turned into a nightmare and her prince was a monster. So they repeated that in S5 with a much darker twist: Sansa wishes to come back North and home, so they put her back in the North, in Winterfell, but gave her Ramsay as a "love interest . . . ." I HATE THEM

So yeah, many think that the "romance"/sexual affair was a device to hide the final clash between [ice and fire] these supposed "lovers." And I tend to agree with them, mostly because Jon disguised his mission to spy the Freefolk by starting a sexual affair with Ygritte and D&D evidently copied that formula. Ice & Fire was never about some grand romance, but about a clash between two deathly forces.

Will it be similar in the books? Will GRRM really give us involuntary incest and/or doomed romance? Will it be Jon/Ygritte 2.0? We will have to wait and see. But as my friend Mary theorized, Jon didn't kill Ygritte, despite her being his enemy, when he realized she was a girl, and later he became her dubious lover. Then he will have to face that conflict again (killing a girl/dubious lover/family member), but with a different outcome.

The thing is, D&D gave "their audience" what they think it was mostly wanted: two hot people kissing and naked [sex sells!!!]. They did something similar with Arya and Gendry, they wondered how Arya's night previous to the final battle would be? Oh let's make her having sex with her childhood crush! [sex sells!!!].

Remember that their goal always was to bring a whitewashed version of high fantasy to "mothers and NFL players". They kinda implied that they made a show "for dummies," not for high fantasy readers:

Sorry mothers and NFL players . . . . [See more here].

They were always implying that "their audience" doesn't need to think much and that's why they changed Asha for Yara, because Asha was too similar to Osha, and they didn't want to confuse "their audience".

“We’re a little bit worried about the Osha/Asha sounding too close together,” David said, making a reference to the Season 1 wildling character. “So it might be a slightly different name.” [Source]

They really think "their audience" was that dumb . . . .

Anyways, here more about D&D knowing about Jon stabbing aunty in the throne room.

Thanks for your message :)

[tragedy-peanut-gallery]

6, 11, 21, 37 for the asks <3

WAUGHHH thank you for sending in an ask!!! Okay onto the questions!

6: Which book character did you not like at first but eventually grew on you?

Surprisingly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Sansa when starting out (I’m a younger sibling who related to Arya who could’ve thunk it), but after reading what she goes through I really started to sympathize with her, not to mention I think her pov is pretty interesting during the king’s landing plot!

11: Favourite Bastard

Shiera Seastar or Alys Rivers. I love witchy women <3

21: A moment that made you cry

Oh, the Red Wedding 100%. Like “Don’t cut my hair, Ned loves my hair!” OKAY WHO’S CHOPPING ONIONS IN HERE 😭

37: An event/era in TWOIAF that you would love to see a tv adaptation of

Tbh I think I’ve always wanted to see an adaptation of the Blackfyre Rebellions, but seeing the Haunted Mansion Hallucination Nightmare HOTD made Harrenhal, I would actually like to see the Tourney of Harrenhal, if only to see the psychological terror inflicted on multiple people at once. The ~insanity~ of it all

[esther-dot]

"When dawn broke over the city, the dark red blooms of dragon's breath surrounded the girls where they lay."- Eddard(AGOT V).

"See how it unfurls across the heavens like a dragon's hot breath, and you the Lord of Dragonstone. It means your(Stannis) time has come, Your Grace."- ACOK(Prologue).

The Red Comet is called as dragon's breath by Mel and Selyse. Ned describe the dawn light as dragon's breath. The first one is positive in contrast to second one. But why the word dragon's breath?

All of the discussion around the comet itself is a lot of fun since all the characters interpret it in their own way, but as for the use of dragonsbreath/dragon's breath in that first quote you sent, that is a little odd when so many other little girl/dragon references were incredibly ominous? As you pointed out over here.

We can read it as Ned protecting the girls although there's danger all around them:

Ned knelt beside her. "He has years to find that answer, Arya. For now, it is enough to know that he will live." The night the bird had come from Winterfell, Eddard Stark had taken the girls to the castle godswood, an acre of elm and alder and black cottonwood overlooking the river. The heart tree there was a great oak, its ancient limbs overgrown with smokeberry vines; they knelt before it to offer their thanksgiving, as if it had been a weirwood. Sansa drifted to sleep as the moon rose, Arya several hours later, curling up in the grass under Ned's cloak. All through the dark hours he kept his vigil alone. When dawn broke over the city, the dark red blooms of dragon's breath surrounded the girls where they lay. "I dreamed of Bran," Sansa had whispered to him. "I saw him smiling."

But considering what happens in AGOT, that doesn't quite work. And Sansa having good dreams is such a contrast to Shireen who has nightmares because of the "dragonsbreath." If you keep reading, this part, which our fandom reads as endgame foreshadowing directly follows:

"He was going to be a knight," Arya was saying now. "A knight of the Kingsguard. Can he still be a knight?"

"No," Ned said. He saw no use in lying to her. "Yet someday he may be the lord of a great holdfast and sit on the king's council. He might raise castles like Brandon the Builder, or sail a ship across the Sunset Sea, or enter your mother's Faith and become the High Septon." But he will never run beside his wolf again, he thought with a sadness too deep for words, or lie with a woman, or hold his own son in his arms.

Arya cocked her head to one side. "Can I be a king's councillor and build castles and become the High Septon?"

"You," Ned said, kissing her lightly on the brow, "will marry a king and rule his castle, and your sons will be knights and princes and lords and, yes, perhaps even a High Septon."

Arya screwed up her face. "No," she said, "that's Sansa." She folded up her right leg and resumed her balancing. Ned sighed and left her there. (AGOT, Eddard V)

And if that's right, that the ending was what was on Martin's mind while writing this passage not the events of that specific book, perhaps this is more R+L=J stuff, and Jon, a non-threatening dragonsbreath/dragonspawn will carry on Ned's role of protecting the girls. I mean, the Watch's vows have some similarity to a lonely sentinel keeping watch over sleeping people until dawn:

"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men.

I think it makes sense that Ned is rewarded for his treason/saving his sister's son. That boy turning around and saving his kids would be a satisfying way to do that. I guess I'm not sure if the dragon's breath here is the threat of Dany + dragons, or talking about Jon because it's describing dawn in this instance which we'd want to see as a positive. I haven't convinced myself of anything! What do you make of it?

[modern-inheritance]

Modern Inheritance Picrews (pt. 1): OG Elf Squad

I was recently tagged on my main blog to make OCs with this picrew and ended up making a few of the MIC versions of Inheritance characters, or at least as close as I can get. I enjoyed the process, and since I can't really draw all that well I thought I'd make more and post them here with some short descriptions of the character appearances as they are in MIC. I used Photoshop and Illustrator to make some edits (Glen's being the roughest) to try and get closer to what I had in mind.

Up first! The OG elf squad!

Fäolin

A handful of years older than Arya at the time of his death, Fäolin was quite young by elf standards, and somehow managed to look both the most human and the most alien of his companions. His eyes, frequently altered to even further increase his darkvision and distance vision for sniping, were always somewhat oblong at the pupils and were a striking green-and-gold hazel. Unlike other elves, Fäolin chose to attempt growing some facial hair through magic, and altered his hair color from the typical black seen in many elves to a rich chestnut worn short at the sides with a tufted ponytail. He was playful and lighthearted, always smiling slightly even during missions, and loved to gently tease his friends. A dark orange and yellow tattoo of a coiled Fanghur decorated his left shoulder, a symbolic gesture of solidarity with his mate, Arya, as well as a nod to the nickname of 'Wind Viper' that some of the Varden gave him after years of sniping high up above the battlefield with frightening accuracy, as though his targets were frozen in place as the Fanghur froze their prey with mental attacks.

Glenwing (Glen)

(I attempted to superimpose a rough aprox of his prosthetic over one of the hands but uh...it sure is an attempt.)

Glenwing, or Glen as most know him, is around 20 years Arya and Fäolin's senior. Born to a healer and a warrior in Ilirea before the Fall, he was old enough to have decent memories of the battles that took place and the effects it had on those around him. After the final battle saw his parents slain, the young elfling dedicated himself to learning healing arts of both body and mind while training to eventually fight back. With his father's bright silver hair tied back and his mother's deep golden eyes, Glen typically looks serene and thoughtful, each movement and word given the time it deserves. This not to say, however, that he is any less deadly than his companions, nor that he does not hold the peculiar wild, near feral energy that Arya so frequently displays. Glenwing knows every way to kill you, and could do so, unarmed and without magic, with incredible accuracy and efficiency. His training to heal gives him insight into biology of elves, dwarves and humans, to the point that he can identify weaknesses and target them on the fly during battle. This makes close quarters combat his forte, and he prefers crossing blades and bare handed fighting to long distance, which lead to the scar across his cheek during a battle with Forsworn-trained soldiers.

During the ambush that set the events of the main story in motion, Glenwing was catastrophically injured and lost his left arm just above the elbow. After months of rehabilitation and work with Rhunön he gained use of a prosthetic made of a combination of low quality brightsteel scrap, aramid weave, and spidersilk plate that moves with him as though it were his own flesh. It still requires constant maintenance and care, something Arya takes over when they return to the field together, and he has his own problems with phantom pain and the trauma associated with not only the loss but his near fifty years of constant war. Due to his time away from it all, though, and his own training in mental health counseling and psychology, Glen has a better grasp on managing his symptoms of PTSD than most. He still has weekly nightmares, often waking up feeling as though his body is on fire and his arm is being crushed, but he manages his sleep cycles and religiously practices the self care he needs to make his life easier and have the energy needed to help others consistently. Despite all the pain, though, Glen would be the first to say he would not trade it for the world. He is doing what he loves, making a difference in the fight, and doing it all next to one of his best friends.

Arya

The scruffiest and scrappiest elf currently walking the lands of Alagaësia, Arya's the young commander of her now only two person squad (including herself) of special forces commandos originally set to protect Eragon, Saphira and Brom. After seventy years of combat, war and politics, Arya's given up on adhering to elvish tradition of prim, proper and put-together in favor of living life in a warzone for the sake of Alagaësia's free peoples. Scars are earned and frequently left unhealed unless life threatening, dirt is considered free camouflage, and having five minutes of calm to tame whatever's come loose from hairbands is a luxury. Brom has told her to invest in a headband, but she keeps losing them.

With Islanzadi's pitch black hair and Evandar's emerald eyes, Arya is fairly striking when you can get her to stay still long enough. A wild, near feral energy roils under her skin and shows itself with bared tooth smiles full of mischief, and full of the naturally sharp teeth most elves sang away in their early years. The scar through her eyebrow is a reminder of a fight long since passed, but the fresh nick on her jaw, scar matted wrists and back, are all badges of pride for what she endured in Gil'ead. There are plenty other scars, but most are concealed by the elf's ever present combat jacket.

PTSD is something the entire squad dealt with before the ambush, but after Gil'ead Arya has taken a particularly hard hit to her mental health. Sleep can come, but it doesn't stay easy, and Arya typically goes two or three nights without more than a handful of hours of sleep. Elves can easily survive on four hours a night, and while six hours every three days can be livable, sleep debt builds up over time. She staves it off through meditation, but Glenwing has been pushing her to reestablish a proper cycle as they both know putting off sleep just intensifies the nightmares and Recall that frequently wake her up. It's a difficult pattern to establish, though, and every other month typically sees Arya with dark rings around her eyes until she relents to Glenwing and sleeps a solid night through with the aid of magic and a hell of a lot of talk therapy afterwards.

Arya's behavior and appearance, though in some ways distinctly elven, falls in the middle of human and elf. Called a mongrel by some of the more...brash...elven youth, Arya honestly couldn't care less, though she draws the line at disrespect towards her comrades and fallen brothers and sisters in arms, no matter their race. Even though her actions no longer serve just the elves, Arya's proud of her service. She's proud to stand beside Glen again and properly take on the role of Eragon and Saphira's bodyguard, even if they sometimes don't quite need it.