#jaime flowers is flower flower and some guy who is also a flower

[knightofspades]

Happy Birthday Satoru Enishi!!

i call him both names so ummm... he gets full name status here LMAOOO

[darklinaforever]

Anti-incest shippers make me laugh trying to imply our real life morality and going so far as to say that we have an incest fetish.

WTF ?

Incest is once again a super common trope in fiction that we can appreciate for various reasons linked to the narration and the issues it poses.

I like this trope, but that doesn't mean I'm going to ship every incest couple that comes my way.

For example, even if I appreciate their inclusion in the story for various reasons, I still don't ship Thomas & Lucille from Crimson Peak (even if the chemistry between the actors is great). I ship Thomas with Edith, the heroine. I don't ship Jaime & Cersei either. I ship Jaime with Brienne. Or more recently, in the film Flowers in the Attic : The origin, I do not ship the character of Corinne with Malcom, even if instead I ship her with her uncle and half-brother Christopher (🤭)... To go to Greek mythology, I certainly ship Hades & Persephone, uncle and niece incest, but I do not ship Hera & Zeus, brother and sister incest, for example.

Why don't I necessarily ship these relationships ?

A lot of factors come into play. Depending on whether a healthier and more convincing relationship is offered next door or not, for example.

I mean, clearly Thomas with Lucille, Jaime with Cersei, Corinne with Malcom, it reaches levels of toxicity leading to the probable destruction of the characters at a given moment, even the most sympathetic of the two, who we tend to like more and generally support and wish him out of this horrible relationship.

And do I need to talk about what a dysfunctional and toxic relationship Hera & Zeus is ? I do not believe. Although I know many actually like it, and it's to their credit if that's the case.

So when I'm accused of having an incest fetish and only liking a relationship if it has that aspect, that's stupid.

We ship for the chemistry, the history between the characters, what they bring to each other or not, the way they are represented within the relationship as horrible or not so horrible, etc.

As in the end... any type of ship.

It's not for nothing that we ship brothers and sisters or other members of the same family in fiction even when there is nothing incestuous between them. Usually, it's as simple as enjoying the chemistry between two actors. Nothing to do with a fetish either, since I don't ship all the fictional non-incestuous brothers and sisters that exist.

So accusing me of that is once again stupid.

It's like when I'm accused of shipping only when it's extremely problematic (especially for the woman whereas.. wtf ? I also ship when women are the bad guys, or the couples are lgbtq+ these people are stupid), which is ridiculous.

I can appreciate a ship with toxic aspects, but I will inevitably reach my limit at some point (and sometimes I'll just ship chips that are healthy). And even if I ship something truly objectively horrible in the story as this post shows :

That doesn't mean I expect the characters to get together, not at all.

I just generally appreciate the chemistry between the actors, more than the story of the characters itself which would lead me to ship which is certainly not the case when you see the horrible things that happen there.

At least, that's in my case, everyone has their own tolerance for toxic relationships depicted in fiction.

Saying that we have a fetish about incest or toxic relationships because we appreciate fictional tropes or alchemy between actors is just an excuse made by the antis so that they can justify their hateful attacks behind their screen.

Basically giving yourself a good moralizing role.

[freedelusionshere]

Cicero always puts money first.

All his conversations revolve around money and being successful. Sports metaphors and how botching a win is because of that one guy. It probably deserves a very long and detailed post about how many times he does this? (Someone may already have one, hit me up if you do.) How many times he tells people the audience loves that he loves them, but then is looking out for his finances first and foremost and how it’s understood that others can lose, but his team must not and cannot.

He talks to Carmy in Apologies about how dreams costs money to make them happen (in America is the subtext) and then compares it to this talk he attended at Chicago U praising how all these really great ideas, “innovations”, “started right here in Chicago” (btw, the Uni loves the show mentioned them LOL and talked about it on FB), but…he’s talking about the Manhattan Project, isn’t he? Innovation. Not the aftermath.

He keeps apologizing and wishing he’d “done more” for the kids, but the vibes to me are he’s roped Donna and her kids into The Beef to chase his dreams. (This is also another role cast with someone who often plays likeable characters who are not menacing, just like Jaime Lee Curtis has to this point.)

Some of the subliminal stuff in The Bear is leaning heavily into Hitchcock films directly, but I keep thinking about David Lynch on rewatch, and how his Twin Peaks efforts have a lot of similar themes of death and addiction and the dark side of American culture that lies just under the surface of it all? Mikey is the Laura Palmer of The Bear, the cool guy who died with all the secrets. Or am I wrong here?

Even bringing Scorsese in, narrating about illusions when Scorsese rose to fame by depicting Italians as mafia culture, and now he’s making stuff like Killers of the Flower Moon, which is about how American “progress” was too expensive a cost and talks about the specific ways indigenous women were exploited through marriage contracts to extract their wealth. Cicero trying to get Syd to sign that agreement?

Got a lot on my mind! @whenmemorydies @yannayartside @gingergofastboatsmojito @currymanganese any thoughts on this? (Sorry if I left anyone out, I'm still learning the landscape).

[melrosing]

sparknotes for ep 2 of my made up Robert's Rebellion adaptation because I don't trust HBO :) this part is more detailed because the introductions are over and I am having fun. once again, some changes: Rhaegar and Joncon canonically meet when squiring together, but I want to introduce him slightly earlier so now they'll first meet with Joncon as a page at the Red Keep (so he's maybe a little younger than Rhaegar). also, spot bonifer hasty - this is just before he finds jesus Prev Part - Episode 1

Next Part - Episode 3

Episode 2: The Boys Are Fightinggg

It’s been five/six years since ep 1. We open in the library of the Red Keep, where a fourteen year old Rhaegar Targaryen sits reading a heavy tome, brow pinched. After a moment, he shuts it carefully and rises to walk to a window overlooking the training grounds. A maester asks if he’s alright, and Rhaegar answers “it seems I must learn to fight” (cryptic lil fuck)

Opening credits roll. They’re the same as GOT except the music is caramelldansen

Joanna Lannister at Casterly Rock, sat in her solar with Genna; she’s visibly pregnant. A maid enters the solar looked panicked, and insists she speak to Joanna alone. Joanna allows this, and the maid confides something (guess what) concerning the twins. After ascertaining the maid won’t speak (and maybe issuing a tiny little threat), Joanna dismisses her with a bag of gold

Joanna confronts her children one at a time. Cersei is belligerent, insisting it was only a game. Jaime is distressed, unable to comprehend why what they were doing was wrong. Joanna states she will be placing their rooms apart, with a guard on Cersei’s etc - and don’t make her tell their dad. Both children look utterly horrified by that prospect, and Joanna seems uneasy threatening it

Aerys and Tywin at the King’s council. Lots of matters on the table etc. Some guy called Denys Darklyn is asking for a charter for Duskendale (it's clearly not the first time), which Tywin dismisses. Some Kingsguard has died, and they need a replacement. Tywin makes some suggestions of his own, and asks Aerys which he would prefer. Aerys is not really listening, only waving his hand over the flame of a candle. Tywin interrupts his musings, and Aerys burns himself in surprise. Asking the King his input on some matter, Aerys has little to offer. Tywin says something faintly facetious regarding the King’s attention span, and Aerys thinks he sees Pycelle smile

Rhaella, also pregnant, is in the gardens at the Red Keep, sat beneath a memorial statue of her parents. She grasps a bunch of flowers that she presumably means to lay at their feet, touches her bump and looks uneasy. Watching on is a castle guard who stands at the garden gate; Rhaella meets his eyes, pleading him closer, and they hold one another’s gaze for a long moment. Ultimately the guard breaks it, and looks down to his feet. Rhaella, looking away in despair, stiffly but violently shreds her flowers, and drops the remains beneath the statue before rising and leaving the garden

Anime boy Rhaegar learning to fight in the training yard. He seems a little surprised if reassured by his own skill, overpowering the master at arms at one point. Young page Jon Connington watches on, looking like he’s about to burst into applause. Aerys himself looks on from a high window, and looks Intensely Bothered

Aerys walking through the halls past a small crowd of men. He hears one say that Tywin truly rules the Seven Kingdoms, and turns abruptly to see the speaker - one Ilyn Payne, who looks shocked to see Aerys there. Aerys looks violent, like he might do something for a moment, but is ushered onwards by Barristan Selmy

Rhaella and Rhaegar at the dinner table in the royal… chambers??? whatever lol. Rhaella says she’s heard Rhaegar is fighting: that is good. Rhaegar is not super responsive to this praise. Rhaella then asks her son if she thinks the baby will be a boy or a girl. Rhaegar looks at her sadly

Aerys arrives belatedly to ruin dinner, decides he dislikes how quiet and miserable his family looks. Cracks a shit joke, doesn’t like the way his son looks at him, reads judgement in the kid’s eyes. Aerys is about to escalate in this sudden disagreement with his son, when Rhaella begins panicking - there’s blood pooling beneath the table. As Aerys realises what’s happening his anger abruptly turns to Rhaella, and he looks like he might strike her - then Rhaegar stands between them, and silently warns him off. Aerys is furious, but it works, and he storms out

Now Aerys is storming into the throne room, where Tywin sits his throne, listening to the grievances of some visiting lord. Aerys identifies Ilyn Payne at the sidelines, calls him over, and orders his tongue ripped out. This is appropriately grim :) Tywin looks on, displeased but unable to say anything. Aerys orders him off of his throne then takes it himself, and announces that as king he is ordering a tourney: the winner will join his Kingsguard

[agentrouka-blog]

Do you think if Cersei married a decent lord who treats her better she would actually at least have one child fathered by him ? I don’t think she’s going to cut off her relationship with Jaime but it got me wondering if she’s gonna take it a step further and have hers and Jaime’s children instead of this good guy

When Cersei did conceive her first child by Jaime, it had a direct relation to Robert's disrespectful treatment of her:

As soon as Cersei closed her eyes, the king would steal off to console the poor lonely creature. One night she had Jaime follow him, to confirm her suspicions. When her brother returned he asked her if she wanted Robert dead. "No," she had replied, "I want him horned." She liked to think that was the night when Joffrey was conceived. (AFFC, Cersei V)

Her decision to not have Robert's children at all is also motivated by his treatment.

"A dozen years," Ned said. "How is it that you have had no children by the king?"

She lifted her head, defiant. "Your Robert got me with child once," she said, her voice thick with contempt. "My brother found a woman to cleanse me. He never knew. If truth be told, I can scarcely bear for him to touch me, and I have not let him inside me for years. (AGOT, Eddard XII)

In various instances, she describes how painful, violent and humiliating Robert's sexual abuse of her was. Alongside the humiliation of his public infidelity, the bastard children, the disrespectful treatment in public, the non-sexual violence, the drinking... She specifically did not want his children because she hated him from the bottom of her heart and it was her way of exercising control.

Meanwhile, her little escapist fantasy about Rhaegar does feature trueborn Targ babies:

Her aunt had lied, though, and her father had failed her, just as Jaime was failing her now. Father found no better man. Instead he gave me Robert, and Maggy's curse bloomed like some poisonous flower. If she had only married Rhaegar as the gods intended, he would never have looked twice at the wolf girl. Rhaegar would be our king today and I would be his queen, the mother of his sons. (AFFC, Cersei V)

So, if - and this is a big if - a husband was capable of both treating Cersei with the respect she feels she is due and capable of holding her attention enough, she would probably have had trueborn children without any resentment whatsoever. Perhaps alongside children by Jaime, perhaps not. This doesn't mean she would necessarily be happy, but she would certainly be less furiously unhappy and resentful.

[maddiemuu]

14, 20, 21 for the ask game :3

HAII sorry it took me longer than i thought it would to answer this. my week was inexplicably very long ':3

14. Any favorite motifs

i'm not rly sure!! most of my cartoon pieces r just for funsies, so i don't always feel pressured to push myself stylistically or thematically lol. a lot of the time it is just A Guy. i do really like eye imagery, fabric drapery, and foliage/flower imagery, though!! i also like obscuring/removing facial features.

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

HANDS!!! hands r my bestfriend. they definitely CAN be hard to draw but i don't find that offputting- it makes it like a fun puzzle!!! (my true anatomical enemy is the dastardly foot...) also, to a lesser extent- fat people. i don't think fat bodies are actually nearly as hard to draw as ppl make them out to be, though :]. but i feel like that is a different and very long conversation lol.

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

OHG I HAVE A LOT... i will narrow it down to just a few. recently i've been rereading some lynda barry comics and MAN i love the energy of her art. such beautiful colors and bold lines!!! the looseness a lot of it has rly enhances the emotional gut punches i find a in a lot of her work lol. for another comics style, i wouldn't consider jaime hernandez's style to be too dissimilar from mine, at least in the grand scheme of things, but the sleekness in his lineart is something i can only aspire to. love and rockets is one of my favorite pieces of art ever <3. this is also a much broader category but i'm a big fan of a lot of soviet cartooning and animation styles, especially the more shape based ones!! tbh i think at least part of it is the novelty- i'm from the USA, and at least in my experience, we've never fully let go of the stigma around soviet (russian specifically) art lol... especially when it comes to the realm of cartoons/non fine art. it's very interesting to see how similar and dissimilar it can be to contemporary US art :]. i also really like a lot of color field painting, though it's not a style of art i personally feel creatively fulfilled by making. i especially love barnett newman's work. who's afraid of red, yellow, and blue iii is a personal favorite!!! i have a lot of thoughts on it and how it was vandalized.

[rpgadverts]

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Thunder in Our Hearts - Stranger Things BFFs wanted for super active Joe Kerry!

Bad Influences friend group - (potential dual ad)

Three male spots open to round out a misfits/Outsiders/bad influences type of group of high school friends who have since grown up. They came from messy lives and continue to have messy lives. However they consider their group of friends to be their family and there isn’t a thing they wouldn’t do for those within that group. True ride or die friends who still like to stir up trouble, knock back a few, and just have a good time with one another. These are your guys who are salt of the Earth, have some red flags they like to wave around but do really have a good heart despite the messes they seem to leave in their wake.

This ad can be combined with the love interest for Nicole Kavanagh. One of these fellas is also the father to son Walker Driscoll (Jacob Elordi) who along with Dylan Gray (Zendaya) are the next generation of this friend group!!!! So much fun!

Suggested faces are: Chris Hemsworth, John Krasinski, Tom Hardy, Ryan Reynolds, Anthony Mackie, Jai Courtney, Tom Hiddleston, Ryan Gosling, but completely open

I'm the Drama - Open FC foster siblings/adopted siblings wanted for Black Sheep/Bad Boy brother Chris Evans and Perfect Golden Boy brother Sam Claflin and mom Jamie Lee Curtis. Lots of family drama!!!

Trailer Park Siblings - Jeremy Allen White/open wanted as half brother to Chelsea Cross who grew up in the trailer park along with their other half siblings. Everyone has the same mom but everyone has a different dad!

Let's Share a Wall - Friends loosely inspired group of roommates wanted for Zendaya and Jacob Elordi. Lots of potential for these folks to be doubled up and can fill multiple want ads! Super tightknit group of friends who celebrate everything and cry together when needed.

Blooming in the Night - Flower named siblings wanted for Saoirse Ronan

[secretsofblackthornhall]

Emma to Dru

Dear Dru,

Hey, baby bat! So how’s Shadowhunter Academy? Still having a good time? How’s the roommate — Thais, isn’t that her name? How’s having a roommate? I always kinda wished I’d gotten to go to SA, although obviously the weather was better in California. But you like things dark and gloomy! Just, you know – try to get some sun sometimes, okay? While I know you love your ghostly pallor, vitamin D is a real thing.

Not that we’re getting any sun here in Chiswick, where England is being fully England with the weather. I guess it goes with the house, though. You’re going to love this place when you see it, by the way. It’s the most goth building you’ve ever seen. The whole place is full of crumbling statues and faded wallpaper with creepy stains and a LOT of these dark brambles—

Huh, I guess it makes sense there are a lot of black thorns at Blackthorn Manor. Still, they’re a huge pain to cut back. Why didn’t your ancestors go with something less pointy? This was owned by Lightwoods for years, why no light woods? We may never know.

(I always forget about the Lightwoods because I think of it as Blackthorn Manor but I found a diary of a girl who grew up here, hidden under one of the floorboards. Like way back in the 1870s. She’s just a normal Shadowhunter teenager of the time, complaining about boring history lessons and obnoxious older brothers. Normal stuff! She’s about 13 in the part I’m reading but it goes for a few years. Her name was Tatiana Lightwood, I wonder if Isabelle and Alec have heard of her?)

Anyway, Jules is working hard on de-spookying the place, but trust me, it’ll still be gothier than a ripped fishnet whenever you get to see it. It’s going to be ages before we’re done with all the hallways full of empty birdcages and decaying books. This house is big. And extremely busted.

Also . . . haunted. At first I think we were both in denial. It was just weird moving shadows, cold spots in places — if this was one of your mundane movies, we’d still be arguing about what was going on. But we’re Shadowhunters. We know ghosts exist. And we finally broke down and admitted to each other that there’s definitely one in this house. Somebody’s moving small objects around and playing the piano off in the distance… low, haunting bits of sweet music we can both hear. But here’s the thing — the only piano here isn’t even playable. It rotted through a long time ago.

So, we have a ghost. But they don’t seem definitely or even particularly hostile. It could just be a bitty poltergeist, or a passing unquiet spirit. I’ve just started going through papers and it’s obvious Some Stuff Went Down Here at some point, lots of weird references to demons and bindings. (Oh, I’m putting a thing aside for you, it’s a taxidermied raven covered in flowers, I think it used to be part of a really extra hat.) So the potential for unquiet spirits is definitely there. One more thing to deal with along with the need for all new drains. (What, exactly, are drains?)

Anyway, I can’t wait to see you and oh no, I spent most of the letter telling you about the house but I really do want to hear about the Academy and your roommate and teachers, like is Catarina there? What about Ragnor? Have you seen Jaime lately? Tell me everything!

XOXO

Emma

PS I just found out who Tatiana Lightwood thought was the cutest boy in London. Will Herondale. Wasn’t that the guy Tessa was married to, a long time ago? Would she think this was funny? I mean, it’s kind of funny. Always a Herondale, you know?

[incorrectbatfam]

Got any more batfam dreams?

I'm at a gay bar, and at the time I had this dream, I was underaged and using a fake ID. I'm sitting at the bar with my girlfriend and an empty seat beside me. Jason walks in with a Daft Punk type of helmet tucked under his arm and wearing a NASCAR driver uniform. He orders a beer, takes a sip, complains it's too cold, and asks the bartender to microwave it for him. At this point, I'm like "what the f—" but he stops me and checks over his shoulder before whispering, "It's to degrade the microchips. They're after us." He then distracts my girlfriend so she walks away and takes me behind the building, where he pulls up a map of my city and points to one of my university's lecture halls. At some point I change out of my clubbing dress into an all-black spy uniform but I don't remember the details. We somehow end up there, where, despite it being nighttime, a philosophy lecture is being held by a panel of 5-6 funeral directors. Jason sits me down in the back row and hands me a loaded crossbow. He tells me to watch the second guy and shoot when the guy takes a sip of his water. After a whole debate about the validity of evolution, the second guy picks up his water and I shoot. The arrow goes straight through the glass and into the guy's hand and all hell breaks loose. Me and a classmate that I recognize corral the students out while Jason starts gunning down those funeral directors, and I discover a bunch of cocaine bricks and chewed gum in the desk drawer.

Tim drops his fried egg on the road and starts crying.

Tim, Bruce, and I are at one of the Kitchen Nightmares restaurants pre-renovations. I order a chocolate cake while Tim orders some kind of shrimp dish and Bruce gets a burger. When we get our food, it turns out the kitchen combines the entire table's orders into one dish as the restaurant's signature gimmick or whatever, so it's a chocolate cake with shrimps baked into it and frosted with pulverized hamburger patties and cheese.

Dick's chilling on top of my apartment building as Nightwing, eating a tomato like an apple. I ask him where he got the tomato and he reveals this whole tote bag of produce that he confiscated from a robber.

Not batfam, but there's a dream where I'm doing one-on-one tutoring with Jon, who's struggling with multiplication tables, and he keeps insisting that 13 is a multiple of 3.

Jason offers me pot brownies at a Rise Against concert.

I'm having dinner at Wayne Manor with Bruce and somehow we get onto the topic of serial killers, and I rant about how there are people out there seriously making pastel flower crown edits of Ted Bundy just because he was good-looking. Bruce then reveals that he is Ted Bundy.

My friends and I are watching Interstellar in theaters. Steph is in the front row on her phone live-tweeting spoilers. My friend throws a piece of popcorn at her to get her to stop, because her screen is lighting up the whole room. Without looking up from her phone, she gives him the middle finger.

Barbara adds me on Facebook (note: I don't even have a Facebook), tags me in a bunch of pictures that I'm not in, and then sends me a private message asking if I'm interested in buying a couch.

(Also not batfam.) Hal Jordan and Jaime Reyes crash-land in the quad of my school. They then ask me and my study group for directions to the nanotechnology lab, so we lead them to the building that is absolutely not the nanotechnology lab. We then navigate the maze of basement hallways until we reach a small room holding multiple vending machines. Hal opens his lantern, which is filled to the brim with dollar coins, and puts one into the vending machine. He gets multiple bags of chips, and gives me a chili cheese Fritos, saying, "The fate of the solar system now rests in your hands." I can't figure out what that means, but literally nothing dramatic happens for the rest of the dream.

(Again, not batfam.) Bart Allen enrolls in my sophomore physics class the day before the last midterm. He asks me how he can get caught up on everything, so I show him to the library, where he speed-reads everything on the shelves. Then he tells me he's hungry so we go to a Mediterranean restaurant, where the only thing on the menu is hummus. As we're waiting for the food, he twiddles with the corner of his napkin and says, "You know what's sad? When you die, there will be people who mourn the person they thought you were instead of who you really are, and they'll take their idea of you with them into their graves." After that, we get our food and, among other things, he's served a whole bell pepper that he cuts with the butter knife and puts in his ice water.

[vivacissimx]

lyanna stark, a drop of the wolf-blood, & the pragmatism underneath

the youngest we see lyanna (in my estimation), is this vision from bran

Now two children danced across the godswood, hooting at one another as they dueled with broken branches. The girl was the older and taller of the two. Arya! Bran thought eagerly, as he watched her leap up onto a rock and cut at the boy. But that couldn't be right. If the girl was Arya, the boy was Bran himself, and he had never worn his hair so long. And Arya never beat me playing swords, the way that girl is beating him. She slashed the boy across his thigh, so hard that his leg went out from under him and he fell into the pool and began to splash and shout. "You be quiet, stupid," the girl said, tossing her own branch aside. "It's just water. Do you want Old Nan to hear and run tell Father?" She knelt and pulled her brother from the pool

- Bran III, ADWD

but four books earlier, we see this quote from ned:

Lyanna might have carried a sword, if my lord father had allowed it

- Arya II, AGOT

so we know that that ned was close enough to lyanna to know that she enjoyed swordplay, close enough to know her desires and to know that rickard would never accept this (for whatever reason).

...but not close enough to be the one she practiced sworldplay with in secret. the picture this paints is telling. lyanna was explicitly banned from something, and chose to pursue it in a secret and harmless way, with someone she trusted.

but ned isn't privy to that information. whether because he wasn't around, or because lyanna thought he would disapprove, or because he just thought it was childish - either way, we see that lyanna is picky about who she trusts, bred out of having to be sneaky in achieving her goals under her strict father's nose. she even identifies old nan as a snitch (et tu brute?). clever kid.

lyanna has other hobbies, too. she loves flowers. she loves riding horses.

"You ride like a northman, milady," Harwin said when he'd drawn them to a halt. "Your aunt was the same. Lady Lyanna. But my father was master of horse, remember."

- Arya III, ASOS

[Brandon] loved to ride. His little sister took after him in that. A pair of centaurs, those two.

- The Turncloak, ADWD

Horses … [Domeric] was mad for horses, Lady Dustin will tell you. Not even Lord Rickard's daughter could outrace him, and that one was half a horse herself.

- Reek III, ADWD

worth mentioning, imo, that even though lyanna was an excellent rider, she couldn't beat domeric. this is paralelled with arya, who is great on horseback, but not faster than harwin the son of winterfell's master of horse. this isn't a case of 'not like other girls' syndrome, of mary sues who are magically the best there ever was. conversely, adversity doesn't scare either of them off - lyanna was clearly competitive, with domeric and likely with brandon before him, and it all added up to her being remembered as a fantastic horserider despite effectively leaving the north at 14.

so lyanna is determined. she's willful, to hear ned say it.

then, of course, we have this

"Robert will never keep to one bed," Lyanna had told him at Winterfell, on the night long ago when their father had promised her hand to the young Lord of Storm's End. "I hear he has gotten a child on some girl in the Vale." Ned had held the babe in his arms; he could scarcely deny her, nor would he lie to his sister, but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true who would love her with all his heart.

Lyanna had only smiled. "Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man's nature."

- Eddard IX, AGOT

this seems fairly clear cut, but let's break down this conversation:

lyanna (told the news by the authoritative father; being approached by ned, the sibling who is best friends with the guy in question; thirteen years old): he will never keep to one bed. he has a bastard already, on a common girl he cannot marry which speaks to his character

ned: it isn't robert's actions that matter, it's his feelings. *crickets on lyanna's feelings*

now lyanna is thirteen. but she already recognizes that this is a losing battle. why? because she can't change robert?

no. because she cannot change the minds of rickard, or of ned.

there is no doubt in my mind that both these men loved her. but do they listen to her? clearly not.

lyanna doesn't bother to fight this fight she cannot win. she just smiles, realizing that rickard/ned are not going to hear her out on this, and gets the last word with "love does not change a man's nature."

this isn't the divide between lyanna and robert - this is the moment of divide between lyanna and ned. they're siblings who love each other, and love is sweet, but none of that changes that ned is on rickard and robert's side. it's a rough moment for a teenage girl. she was right earlier, she must realize - benjen is the brother she can trust.

so lyanna is determined, but she is pragmatic.

the next time we see lyanna, she's kicking ass at harrenhal.

[...]they heard a roar. “That’s my father’s man you’re kicking!” howled the she-wolf…

The she-wolf laid into the squires with a tourney sword, scattering them all. The crannogman was bruised and bloodied, so she took him back to her lair to clean his cuts and bind them up with linen.

- Bran II, ASOS

here is where lyanna really shines.

she has a moral code all her own, we already know this from her assessment of robert's child that differed from how catelyn views bastards disconnected from the home.

she dislikes bullies, which is fairly common (jaime hated bullies growing up, for example) but for some reason at this very moment, she also has a tourney sword in hand - why? well, because lyanna stark takes her opportunities when she has them. barred from swordplay? that's fine, dad, but when you're not looking is another story.

she doesn't go rushing in, nor does she ignore the scene. she watches long enough to see if howland can fight them off (he can't), giving her time to identify him as a crannogman - possibly even as a highborn crannogman. and then what does she do? she weighs her options, decides that she can probably beat the bullies, and does so. then she takes care of howland reed, picking him up like she picked benjen out of the water in bran's vision.

[T]here was to be a feast in Harrenhal, to mark the opening of the tourney, and the she-wolf insisted that the lad attend. He was of high birth, with as much right to a place on the bench as any other man.

- Bran II, ASOS

she claims his rights as a highborn lord to attend. he doesn't have clothes, nor does howland insist that he can go, but lyanna makes a reasoned argument that howland has every right to attend and that surely benjen can find him some clothes!

so lyanna is determined, pragmatic, and a problem-solver.

[T]he Knight of the Laughing Tree spoke in a booming voice through his helm, saying “Teach your squires honour, and that shall be ransom enough.” Once the defeated knights chastised their squires sharply, their horses and armour were returned.

- Bran II, ASOS

here, lyanna displays a trait that sets her apart. howland memorizes the face of his bullies. he wants to "revenge" himself on them. but lyanna does not go directly for the bullies, she challenges the lords to whom the bullies squire, and commands them to chastise their squires.

lyanna understands the chivalric system she lives in, and that she will not be listened to (how? her own father and brother don't listen to her!), so she figures out another way to get justice that plays on the very ideas of might & honor that exclude the weak. she is confident in her abilities (being experienced riding at rings), gathers up all the material she needs, and takes a calculated risk.

she manipulates the system, plainly. she plays the players at their own game and wins.

and she does it for a guy she met a few days ago.

lyanna is determined, pragmatic, a problem-solver, and ascribes to a moral code that is all her own, one that rejects societal hypocrisy.

You have a wildness in you, child. 'The wolf blood,' my father used to call it. Lyanna had a touch of it, and my brother Brandon more than a touch.

- Arya II, AGOT

so how do we square this away? lyanna was wolf-blooded. she was wild. she was untameable.

or was she?

any girl/woman with half a personality gets described as "spirited" or "willful" or "stubborn" in asoiaf. it's a polite of saying "hard to control." we see several times that lyanna takes a measured approach to matters. she is brave, yes, but she is also thoughtful and chooses her battles with the information she has. when she is denied something for no reason beyond her gender and status, she finds a way to pursue her interests regardless.

but robert is something lyanna can't avoid. and that had to rankle her, the betrothal she is determined to avoid, but pragmatically cannot due to her family's insistence. the marriage that goes against her moral code (i'm sure lyanna noted that robert gladly volunteered to capture the KOTLT, regardless of what punishment might be given down by a deranged aerys).

[i'm going to skip over her relationship with rhaegar, because there isn't enough/any text to analyze that explicitly deals with their dynamic post-harrenhal. speculation isn't the point of this post. suffice to say she saw in him something she did not in her family or robert.]

then aerys burns her father and brother.

could rhaegar have stopped aerys once he made up his mind? we as readers know the answer is no. grrm says so much himself, that it was aerys who kicked off the war in this interview:

The Mad King was mad. He was paranoid and violent and he was abusing his power... [Robert's Rebellion] was triggered by[...]the execution of Ned’s father and brother, it was the thing that radicalized, as we would have said in the 60s, Ned and it put him in opposition to it. Robert was just rolling for a fight and it might affect that he’d lost his girlfriend.

the absolute power of kings is continuously critiqued in the series.

so how did lyanna react? of course she grieved deeply. even if she knew that she would likely not see her family again for several years at least, for them to die in such a terrible manner is horrifying.

but lyanna has been forged into pragmatism. she looked at the squires beating up howland and saw that the issue was not the bullies, but the corrupt, lazy lords they squired for.

why would she not be able to see that aerys's abuse of power was what had killed her own family? she's realistic and she's a moral actor and she understands the social system around her. whatever her opinion on feudal lordship before, abuse of power has now killed two people she loved. only extrapolation can say how she would react, but given that we see her in similar situations - it is safe to say that the she understands the removal of aerys from power is a necessity, and that a king who is ruled by his urges is unfit.

[lyanna doesn't have the highest opinion of robert, does she? would she think him fit to be a king? doubtful.]

however, she also wants her family to be safe - a family which is now going to include her unborn baby.

[Ned] could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes. Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black

- Eddard I, AGOT

the promise she solicited from ned is to care for baby jon, presumably.

more importantly, in this final conversation, lyanna is putting all her trust in ned.

this moment is a tragic one, but it is also a cathartic one. whatever has happened, and there is plenty of difficulty between ned and lya at this point, they are putting that to the side and affirming what matters most: their love and loyalty to one another, not in service to house stark, or to any king or cause, but to each other as lyanna and ned.

ned didn't listen before, but he promises her now. lyanna didn't confide in him before, but she does now. yes she's on her deathbed, but this is powerful anyway. it's a healing moment for them both, one lyanna held on for even though by all means she could have trusted the kingsguard to whisk baby jon away earlier and succumbed to the pain.

lyanna doesn't spend her last moments begging for forgiveness or explaining herself. she spends her last moments trying to solve the problem of jon's safety, of her son's life. even at the end, she is determined that he will live.

she dies fearless. she smiles, maybe the same way she smiled in winterfell when ned told her robert would be a good husband and she saw the love in ned's words but not the respect. a bittersweet smile, because jon will survive but she won't see it.

"She should be on a hill somewhere, under a fruit tree, with the sun and clouds above her and the rain to wash her clean."

"I was with her when she died," Ned reminded the king. "She wanted to come home, to rest beside Brandon and Father."

- Eddard I, AGOT

this is our actual introduction to lyanna, when robert and ned initially visit her in the crypts. given everything we know, it's so fitting - robert is displeased with her gravesite. he never got what he wanted (his manic pixie dream girl </3), and even in death he doesn't like her grave.

lyanna was never the person robert projected her to be. in her crypt, she's still defiant against him/what he symbolizes. her determination, her wishes, her home, they all shine through.

But there were others with faces he had never known in life, faces he had seen only in stone. The slim, sad girl who wore a crown of pale blue roses and a white gown spattered with gore could only be Lyanna. Her brother Brandon stood beside her, and their father Lord Rickard just behind.

- Theon V, ACOK

in the end, lyanna's close to her family (even by their side in theon's dreams). she's close to brandon, rickard, ned, old nan, everyone she ever knew growing up, and most importantly: to jon. it's a romantic ending for a minor character, a character grrm clearly cherished when he wrote.

the point of this post is that i want to leave behind the idea of lyanna stark as this harbinger of tragedy. the woman who ruined every man who looked into her eyes (robert, ned, rhaegar) and is now turned to stone. lyanna stark isn't written as a cautionary tale, as a romanticized medusa - instead, her memory lives on in a son who doesn't know her but still loves her, in how the people she knew remember her for what she actually loved, and even in lyanna mormont (a fitting namesake). there's defiance and meaning in that.

i could never say it better, so have hélène cixous's banger to round out my thoughts on lyanna:

You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her. And she’s not deadly. She’s beautiful and she’s laughing.

[tinietrex]

Caregiver! Konner Kent / Superboy headcanons

(For my lovely friend @wonderinglullaby 💛 )

Konner CG's for Tim Drake and Bart Allen (sometimes Cassie will help out or also be babysat)

Konner and Jaime will often meet up to take care of the boys and do day trips as a family (Jaime also CG's for Bart)

He loves to play video games with his littles! No matter what game it is, though Bart will often ask for Minecraft.

Konner plants/pots every flower Bart and Tim give him so usually his house (designed by Tim in a lovely crayon blueprint) is surrounded by flowers and full of flower pots

Sometimes the boys will just sit in his lap or in a chair next to him (a beanbag for Bart) and watch him play

I imagine he would also be a handler for Bart, as Bart would also be a puppy regressor

He LOVES to give head scratches and pats to his pup and loves when they play wrestle

He cannot be strict with his boys, one flash of puppy eyes and he'll give them a treat and cuddles

Kon is an expert sandwhich maker! But he is absolutely horrid at making any other food so Tim and Bart usually tease him (/lh) and run off to ask someone else (they get tickled for bullying their dada/baba later)

Tickle wars! Kon loves to play the "tickle monster" so there is lots of running and squealing around the place while Tim and Bart run away from him to try and avoid tickles

Expert piggy back ride giver!

Can and will carry a baby on each hip like a cool mom™️ (with his sunglasses on obv)

Loves taking the kiddos to parks and pushing them on the swings!

Park trips do however usually end with him having to fly and hope no one sees him as he rescues Tim who stranded himself on top of the monkey bars again

His jacket and sunglasses get stolen and chewed on all the time. Bart likes to try and put everything in his mouth and unfortunately that also means Konner's sunglasses

Konner is an expert at fairy princess dress up games. He gets Cassie to help put glitter makeup on them. Sometimes she'll join in too.

Sometimes Konner takes the boys for flights. (Yes they get strapped to him in a makeshift baby carrier.)

He reads a bedtime story to the boys every night because they love the voices he does

He also has every word to finding dory memorised because it's Bart's favourite movie and every line to Rio memorised for Tim

(Tim loves infodump babbling about endangered species during it. Usually they get halfway through the movie before leaving)

Konner also makes sure they all do "dance breaks" as a chance for Bart to stim (canon adhd) and for Tim to have time away from his screens and have some fun time with his cg and baby brother

(This is my first Caregiver HC post! I'm so nervous. I hope you guys like it! Leave a comment or ask if you have any more characters you'd like to see)

[kellyvela]

GRRM has said in interviews that he’s purposely played with the romantic tension between the hound and Sansa. What do you think the endgame purpose of the unkiss and that playing is meant to be for?

This is all what he said about the matter in question so far:

The Hound and Sansa, romantic or platonic? It could be very different things to each of those involved, mind you!

JUNE 24, 1999 THE HOUND AND SANSA

Moreta12: I understand, I’ve heard your opinion on that. In ACOK, it seems that the relationship between the Hound and Sansa had romantic undertones. Is that true?

GeoRR: Well, read the book and decide for yourself.

Moreta12: I’ve read the book and I’ve debated those particular scenes with a few others. Half say that it’s romantic and half say it’s platonic. I’ve taken the romantic stance.

GeoRR:  It could be very different things to each of those involved, mind you

Moreta12:Yes, but it seem like evidence points towards romantic undertones. Will the Hound appear later?

GeoRR: Yes, the Hound will be in STORM OF SWORDS. In fact, I just finished writing a big scene with him.

[Source]

When will Sansa be “legal”?  **ºª@”¡¿x<%$!&?

OCTOBER 05, 1999 AGE OF SEXUAL RELATIONS IN WESTEROS

The nature of the relationship between Sandor and Sansa has been a hot topic on Revanshe’s board. Sansa’s youth has been one focus of the discussion. What is the general Westerosi view as to romantic or sexual relationships involving a girl of Sansa’s age and level of physical maturity?

A boy is Westeros is considered to be a “man grown” at sixteen years. The same is true for girls. Sixteen is the age of legal majority, as twenty-one is for us.

However, for girls, the first flowering is also very significant… and in older traditions, a girl who has flowered is a woman, fit for both wedding and bedding.

A girl who has flowered, but not yet attained her sixteenth name day, is in a somewhat ambigious position: part child, part woman. A “maid,” in other words. Fertile but innocent, beloved of the singers.

In the “general Westerosi view,” well, girls may well be wed before their first flowerings, for political reasons, but it would considered perverse to bed them. And such early weddings, even without sex, remain rare. Generally weddings are postponed until the bride has passed from girlhood to maidenhood.

Maidens may be wedded and bedded… however, even there, many husbands will wait until the bride is fifteen or sixteen before sleeping with them. Very young mothers tend to have significantly higher rates of death in childbirth, which the maesters will have noted.

As in the real Middle Ages, highborn girls tend to flower significantly earlier than those of lower birth. Probably a matter of nutrition. As a result, they also tend to marry earlier, and to bear children earlier. There are plenty of exceptions.

[Source]

Unreliable Narrator

JUNE 26, 2001 SF, TARGARYENS, VALYRIA, SANSA, MARTELLS, AND MORE

[GRRM is asked about Sansa misremembering the name of Joffrey’s sword.]

The Lion’s Paw / Lion’s Tooth business (*), on the other hand, is intentional. A small touch of the unreliable narrator. I was trying to establish that the memories of my viewpoint characters are not infallible. Sansa is simply remembering it wrong. A very minor thing (you are the only one to catch it to date), but it was meant to set the stage for a much more important lapse in memory. You will see, in A STORM OF SWORDS and later volumes, that Sansa remembers the Hound kissing her the night he came to her bedroom… but if you look at the scene, he never does. That will eventually mean something, but just now it’s a subtle touch, something most of the readers may not even pick up on.

[Source]

(*) It was Arya who misremembered the name of Joffrey’s sword tho…

Unreliable Narrator 2.0

OCTOBER 05, 2002 SANSA’S MEMORY

[Note: This mail has been edited for brevity.]

… this is an inconsistency with ASoS more than an outright error. In ASoS, Sansa thinks that the Hound kissed her before leaving her room and King’s Landing. In ACoK, no kiss is mentioned in the scene, though Sansa did think that he was about to do so.

Well, not every inconsistency is a mistake, actually. Some are quite intentional. File this one under “unreliable narrator” and feel free to ponder its meaning

[Source]

Unreliable Narrator 3.0

NOVEMBER 27, 2007 GEORGE R.R. MARTIN ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS

Here’s a really particular question (which I realize means it probably won’t get asked in a general interview): In A Storm of Swords, there is a chapter early on where Sansa is thinking back to the scene at the end of A Clash of Kings when The Hound came into her room during the battle. She thinks in the chapter about how he kissed her, but in the scene in A Clash of Kings, this actually didn’t happen. Was that a typo or something? —Valdora

GRRM: It’s not a typo. It is something! [Laughs] ”Unreliable narrator” is the key phrase there. The second scene is from Sansa’s thoughts. And what does that reveal about her psychologically? I try to be subtle about these things.

[Source]

Sansa may be dead but Alayne is alive

APRIL 15, 2008 FUTURE MEETINGS, POVS, ARYA’S ROLE, EASTERN LANDS, AND ASSASSINS

[Will Sandor and Sansa meet?]

Why, the Hound is dead, and Sansa may be dead as well. There’s only Alayne Stone.

[Source]

A lot more dangerous than romantic

AUGUST 2, 2009 AS SER JORAH MORMONT…

weltraummuell: The Hound Oh please don’t cast an old guy for the Hound, his scenes with Sansa are so romantic and erotic, I couldn’t bear if it’d feel creepy all of a sudden. Well, that’s me making demands. LOL

GRRM: Re: The Hound Old guy? No, but… the Hound is still a whole lot older than Sansa, and was never written as attractive… you know, those hideous burns and all that… he’s a lot more dangerous than he is romantic.

kestrana: The Hound Yeah its a “girl always wants the bad boy” kind of thing although Sansa seems to pull something else out of him. It feels so wrong sometimes but I want to see them together again tee hee.

weltraummuell: The Hound Hehe, George, maybe you didn’t intend it, but he turned out to be a very erotic character to female readers. Especially since he’s mutilated and dangerous. Makes him unpredictable and vulnerable which is the most explosive aphrodisiac for a girl’s fantasy. ;)

weltraummuell: The Hound And I know from discussions on other board other women feel just the same about Sandor. He’s an absolute favourite with the ladies!

halfbloodmalfoy: The Hound LOL, you’re such a man. To many of us women, dangerous *is* attractive.

GRRM: The Hound But no one has any love for poor old Sam Tarly, kind and smart and decent and devoted…

[Source]

I played with it but I didn’t get the answer I was waiting for

JUNE 22, 2012 SWORD & LASER VIDEO PODCAST

GRRM: I am sometimes surprised by the reactions, of women in particular, to some of the villains. The number of women over the years who have written to me that their favorite characters are Jaime Lannister or Sandor Clegane [the Hound] or Theon Greyjoy… All of these are deeply troubled individuals with some very dark sides, who have done some very dark things. Nonetheless, they do draw this response, and quite heavily, I think, in the case of some of them, from my female readers in particular.

Veronica Belmont: I’m a big fan of the Hound, myself, actually.

Tom Merritt: Of Sandor? Really?

Veronica Belmont: Yeah, the Hound… Maybe it’s not because I feel any compassion towards them, I’m not really sure what the attraction is. Ah, I’m not going to call it attraction, actually. Let’s just say it’s a fascination, perhaps.

GRRM: [Chuckles] Well, I mean, fascination is one thing, but some of these letters indicate that there really is like a romantic attraction going on there. And I do know there’s all these people out there who are, as they call themselves, the “San/San” fans, who want to see Sandor and Sansa get together at the end. So that’s interesting, too.

Tom Merritt: The TV show has sort of played with that a little, and probably stoked those fires.

GRRM: Oh, sure. And I’ve played with it in the books. There’s something there, but it’s still interesting to see how many people have responded to it.

[Source]

I played with it but I didn’t get the answer I was waiting for 2.0

JUNE 23, 2015 GRRM Q&A AT THE SCIENCE FICTION BOOKSTORE IN STOCKHOLM

Question: “Is there any fan reactions that you have been surprised by, like is there a character that’s more popular than you thought or have people been shocked by something you didn’t think we would be shocked at?”

GRRM: “I’m reasonably certain what people will be shocked by. I knew that the Red Wedding would provoke a big reaction and it did. I was pretty confident that, you know, throwing Bran out the window and then killing Ned in the first book would get reactions, and indeed they did. All of those worked exactly the way it did to the extent that things that have surprised me, they tend to be smaller things. I guess I… Maybe I should not have, I don’t know. How do I phrase this without getting myself in terrible trouble… I guess I don’t understand women, but I was definitely, you know, way back when, surprised by the number of women who reacted positively to characters like Theon and the Hound as dashing, romantic figures. The san/san kind of thing took me by surprise, I must admit, and even more so the women who, and there are some, who really like Theon. So that surprised me.”

[Source]

Unreliable Narrator 4.0

DECEMBER 2016 ASKING GEORGE R.R. MARTIN ABOUT S@N/S@N

My question is regarding Sansa Stark. Her sexuality has evolved through every book and yet the memory that seems to stick the more with her in this regard is the night of the Blackwater. So I was wondering if you can expand on your view on what this is, since as before that night her interactions with Sandor Clegane weren’t really physical.

The night of the Blackwater, yes. Ahhh… Well, I’m not going to give you a straight answer on that hahaha… Uhmmm, but I would say that ahhh… you know a television show and a book each has its own strengths and weaknesses; there a re tools that are available to me as a novelist, that are not available to people doing a television show. And of course there are tools available to them, that are not available to a novelist, I mean they can lay in a soundtrack, they can do special effects, they can do amazing things that I can’t do, I just have words on paper. What can I do, well I can use things like the internal narrative, I can take you inside of territories… thoughts, which you can’t do in a TV show… Ahhh… You just have the words they speak, you see them from outside because the camera is external, while prose is internal, and I have the device known as “unreliable narrator”… Ahhh… Which again, they don’t have. So, think about those two aspects when you consider that night of the Blackwater.

[Source]

Do with it what you will.

[secondgenerationnerd]

who were omega squad + kathy & maya’s first crushes??? (also i love your account and characters so much💗)

Thank you, my darling!! So I think I answered this a long time ago (well over a year) but thought I’d update it!!

Jai: No joke—Lian. She hit him with his toy truck and Jai was hooked. That same truck was at their wedding years later.

Lian: Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean. Her dad and Jason (who were on/off most of her childhood) were watching the movie with her. She was about 6 and had the biggest heart eyes for the characters. Roy jokes she inherited his taste in partners.

Colin: another boy from his orphanage, Isiah Peterson. Then a girl from school, Molly Williams. Adding to his moral crisi early.

Milagro: either one of Jaime’s old friends or a boy from her kindergarten class. She definitely smacked Lian when asked “Did you already have your thing for redhead white guys or…”

Jon: For a brief moment…Wonder Woman. He was 5-6.

Damian: Irey. He refuses to elaborate more.

Mar’i: a very sweet guard on Tamaran. She gave him flowers she and Kor’i got in the garden. He kissed her hand and said they were nearly as beautiful as her. Mar’i reconnected with him and his husband when she was older and he’d kept some of those flowers (“One does not throw away a gift from the princess.”)

Irey: she was 3 and it was Billy Batson (13-14 at the time)

Kathy: a pretty girl, Mary Ellen, who lived a few farms over. She saw her in the farmers market and was in love. At least as much as a 5 year old could be.

Maya: Kathy, HOWEVER! Because Maya had a lot of trauma and self worth issues, she didn’t feel worthy of Kathy. While she dated a few people, guys and girls, none of them felt…real. Like she was still putting a mask on and being someone she wasn’t.

[makimacult]

My top 10 fics read in 2021

guess who spent like an hour making this instead of studying. might as well turn this into a tag game at this point.... @jangiri @epanije @pirate-and-swan and all my followers plus anyone else who wants to give this a shot, go ahead (really PLEASE go ahead, this is just an excuse for me to find new awesome fics) :D it physically pained me to leave certain fics off so that the list could be 10 fics long 😔

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The Northern Caves by nostalgebraist

An online message board devoted to a cult fantasy author wrestles with his baffling final book

i feel like this is cheating because this is an original work hosted on ao3 and not a fic but a) it IS on ao3 and i DO have it bookmarked and b) it’s really fucking good and i spent days thinking about it so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Wisely, I Say, I Am A Bachelor by Mithrigil

How Cinna became a revolutionary, and other stories; most notably, how he deconstructed Finnick Odair.

THE cinna fic. so i reread thg this year and i found this gem and it made me cry and also see finnick and cinna in a new light. warning for canon typical dystopic stuff and also finnick’s whole life.

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I Was Screaming Your Name Through The Radio by ElectricSplatter

“Four months from now will be the seven year anniversary of when you and Osamu Dazai released your hugely successful first and only album Double Black and its diamond single Corruption. After performing with Dazai earlier this year, are you planning anything special to celebrate?”

“Corruption is insanely overrated, and I would prefer to never hear Dazai’s voice for the rest of my fucking life.”

sooooo i actually don’t ship soukoku that much but this fic is hands down the best bsd no-powers au i’ve ever read. like they don’t have powers but they’re all traumatised and effed up as they are in canon! and they work through their issues by making bad life choices and writing songs about each other.

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the ghosts won't matter cause we'll hide in sin by soapboxblues

wherein rhaegar wins the war, and jaime manages to keep his head by taking a stark for a wife; or five times jaime lannister braved his marriage and the one time he was brave for its sake

okay i know the premise sounds bizarre but THIS FIC IS JUST. BEAUTIFUL. jaime gets so much character development in like 10k words and i know that lyanna doesn’t even have a canon personality but this fic gave her so much depth and flavour

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Were I That Burning Star by californianNostalgia

An old panic gripped me—the breathless fear of being forgotten, being lost. Would anyone remember me when I was gone? Would someone think to lay a flower down on my grave and say some fond nothings like, “Was a pretty cool guy, that Lester,” while wiping off a single dramatic tear rolling down their cheek?

Oh, who was I kidding. So what if no one remembered? There wasn’t much I was proud to be remembered by anyway.

After defeating Python and bringing down Nero, Phoebus Apollo reclaims his godhood. He is glorious once more. But for some reason, he can't quite make himself go back to how things were before.

(A Character Study of Various Gods, including but not limited to: Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Athena, Hephaestus, Dionysus, and maybe Zeus)

so this is the fic that made me cry for the pjo-verse greek god. yeah, actually sob for the perpetually absent bad parents and sympathise with them. if that doesn’t tell you how powerful this fic is...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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The Disappearance of Midoriya Izuku by town_without_heart

Fifteen years ago, a boy disappeared. Ripples in the water, the butterfly flaps its wings, and everything changes.

The notice is unremarkable, one face lost among a sea of lost faces. It is a yearbook photo of a young boy in his school uniform. His eyes are wide, shadowed by dark half-circles. His hair is green, wild and curly. He does not smile as he stares into the camera, and the somber expression makes him looks far older than his purported thirteen years. The text below the photo reads: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?

i feel like this is one of those fics that is best enjoyed reread years after you’ve forgotten everything about it so you can be absolutely bowled over by the twists again. A+ outsider perspective, a case fic about—you got it, the disappearance of midoriya izuku.

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the darkness of the depths is forgotten in the surf by poisedwalrus

If people won’t stop saying that personal loyalty is Percy’s fatal flaw, then he might as well show them how fatal it can be.

time travel fic which obliterates the typical tropes of every time travel fic i’ve ever read. also if u are a luke apologist who wanted him to be a good big bro to percy this is the fic for you. percy literally drags luke kicking and screaming into being a good big bro.

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Iron, Fire, Mirror-Glass by PurpleSoot

When Bruce Wayne barely survives a brutal confrontation with the villain known as Bane, he comes away with a broken spine and the terrible certainty that his days as Batman are over. An unexpected discovery among his mother’s old things might offer him a second chance—but at what price?

The story of a man willing to risk his soul for the sake of his mission, the dangerous creature he decides to call Robin, and the unlikely partnership that will come to shape the legend of Gotham’s Dark Knight.

um so basically robin is a murderous amoral fae creature that bruce binds to himself and the gets emotionally attached to. this fic made me cry so here it is on the list.

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These Gifts That You Have Given Me by thearrogantemu

“We are not so foolish as to believe that evil is ended forever. But we do not place our hope in secrecy, but in strength. Strength is found in trust, and trust in openness. So be welcome among us, Annatar Aulendil."

The story of the meeting between Celebrimbor and Sauron, of the trust that grew between them and how it was broken.

this is not redemption fic. this is like, anti-redemption fic. failed redemption fic. “dude you do NOT wanna do this PLEASE try to be a good person for once in your life anddd he’s gone and done it”-fic. and it’s glorious.

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the final cut by Wildehack (tyleet)

A boy is going to die.

The only question is: what is Huaisang going to do about it?

i like my nhs characterisation amoral and unhinged. this is canon compliant sooo uh try not to get too attached while reading? (i totally got too attached to mo xuanyu)

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you make a really good girl (as far as girls go) by suzukiblu

“Oh spirits,” Azula says, grinning widely. The Water Tribe is full of idiots. “You don’t want to marry Zuko, he’s useless. Also, he’s already engaged.”

“He is?” Yue blinks at her.

“Of course he is, he’s going to be the Fire Lord, he’s been engaged since he was twelve,” Azula says. A useless Fire Lord who she’s going to have to prop up, if not outright usurp, but Fire Lord all the same.

The things she does for this family, she swears.

this fic singlehandedly made me ship yuezula. also i am a sucker for chivalry in femslash and azula makes yue a betrothal necklace and fights a duel for her so 😍😍😍 this fic is just pure serotonin

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[jinxedpanda4life]

DamiRae Hospital AU?

  No I am not writing one, if I could write well I would though! So here are some HCs for a hospital AU.    If someone decides to write this then I’ll be your first reader. Also I am sort of basing things off of Grey’s Anatomy just a bit and my limited knowledge of the medical field.

- Starts of as 1st year residents, specialties may vary

- The “Titans” are residents and 1st years that show great promise, this doesn’t really play a role its just what people call them behind their backs

- Dr. Kori Anders is a OBGYN (women parts and birth) resident, a year or two away from finishing

- Dr. Richard “Dick” Grayson is is a surgery resident, trained by the hospital owner Bruce Wayne (who is a world renowned surgeon, has awards, etc), specifically general surgery

- Dr. Garfield Logan is pediatrician (kid doctor) res, bonds well with kids, but is considering going back to school to become a vet instead

- Dr. Jaime Reyes is an oncology (cancer doctor), having had cancer as a teen and is now forever trying to rid the world of it, works mostly with kids and teens

- Dr. Jonathan Kent is a physical therapist that works with pain management. Up beat guy and is always trying to brighten his patient’s lives.

- Dr. Damian Wayne is a surgical intern, blood thirsty little thing, hoping to become a neurosurgeon (brain, spine) (or cardiothoracic (heart, lungs) both are competitive)

- Dr. Raven Roth is an anesthesiologist (the drug person that knocks you out) and is starting her surgical internship (she wanted to do more than just help people get high essentially or whatever) has no current preference for any specific surgical field

- Add in characters:

-- Dr. Jason Todd, trauma surgeon (fits too well)

-- Dr. Timothy Drake diagnostician (medical detective basically) 

-- Dr. Donna Troy gynecologist

-- Terra Markov is a nurse (i don’t like Terra but nurses are the actual best)

- Story stuff:

- Damian and Raven meet as they are put under the guidance of the same resident

-Damian has an automatic dislike for Raven because she knows everyone already and is equally, if not much more, knowledgable about surgery, the OR, the ER, protocol, etc  He also thinks she is cold because she rarely shows emotion (pot kettle Damian)

- Raven can always be found in the medical archives researching old cases and studying new ones, Damian stumbles upon her when looking for an old cardiomegaly case (enlarged heart).

- Raven gets along with all of the past ‘Robins’ making her a go to intern

- Garfield can be seen whenever he is not needed trying to flirt with Nurse Markov and often goes to Raven to sulk 

- Damian and Raven are always early to pre-rounds and are typically the first ones there (usually early in the morning, getting there before 500)

- Jon bumps into Damian more often than not and they start becoming friends (Damian is reluctant at first and is still you know Damian about everything), Damian even recommends patients to him 

- Though Damian doesn’t want to really ‘hang out’ with anyone he reluctantly hangs out with the Titans, because of Jon and Dick

            - When in a large group when at a bar, club or whatever Damian tends to stay close to Raven because 1) they actually have things to talk about 2) she isn’t loud

- Raven & Damian are both assigned to a case that is frankly befuddling and have to start spending long nights and early mornings together to figure it out

- Over that period of time they learn things about each other:

-- Raven learns: 

Damian has a dog (Titus) and cat (Alfred) 

He is single (Kori told her) and lives in an apartment close to the hospital

He has lived in various countries

He is trained in multiple martial arts 

He prefers his tea with brown sugar and a slice of lemon 

His eyes are a true emerald color with a ring of gold and flecks scattered within 

He may hide it well but when Raven compliments him he becomes flustered

He speaks to himself in Arabic when he curses, trying to remember something, doesn’t want anyone to know what he is saying

He isn’t always an asshole

When he actually smiles a true and genuine smile, she has heart palpitations

-- Damian learns:

Raven has two tattoos (neither are a bird), a gang tat (she is saving up to get it removed), and a mantra in Azarathian; Azarath Metrion Zinthos

She immigrated from Azarath when she was around 8

Her notes are in Azarathian

She actually feels a lot of emotion and knows how to control them

If she is not reading about a current or past case she is reading any book or file she can get her hands on, he has caught her reading in multiple different languages; Azarathian, English, French, Russian, Arabic, Dutch, Mandarin, (could be more or less)

She lives alone and has a cat, Nevermore, and thanks to Dick he already knew she was single

She likes all tea, no matter how prepared, but prefers the sweetener to be honey

Her hair is black but shines purple, especially under the ER lights

Her eyes are a purple that at first glance look blue, like Elizabeth Taylor, he realizes though her eyes are galaxies on their own 

When she smiles the world actually stops moving, her eyes shine like stars and he never wants the world to start moving again

She always wears a necklace with a gold and ruby ring at all times (it was her mother’s wedding ring)

- When Damian starts having le feelings for Raven he considers actually seeking medical advice as this has never happened to him before

- Raven tries her best to contain her feelings when at work, going so far as one day a month staying home just to scream, cry and feel her feelings

- It does not help that new feelings towards Damian start popping up, especially since he starts bringing her tea and hanging out with her at work

- During the middle of their 2nd year of residency someone holds Raven hostage in the hospital to fix someone that person loves (this person had connections to Trigon and knew who Raven was)

- That was not a fun time for either Damian or Raven; Damian was outside the hospital pacing trying to figure something out with the other Titans trying to calm themselves and him down

- Shots are fired and when all is said and done, Raven gets shot in the abdomen and the hand (she was in ICU for a hot sec)

- Damian seemed to be there every time Raven woke up, he was always checking on her during rounds even though he wasn’t on her case

- Raven did have to have surgery on her hand and in her abdomen (idk where i’m not getting that specific), she hated being, in her words, coddled 

- Even though Raven was right handed (the one that got shot) she learned how to do everything, writing, eating, going to the bathroom, etc. (many of the other residents are impressed since she keeps working on it after her other hand heals)

- Raven’s room also becomes a space for other residents to destress and just vent about their day. She listens and gives advice, all without looking up from whatever she was doing. 

- During this time Raven becomes hooked on Pretty Pretty Pegasus

- Raven’s room is also full of cards, flowers, etc all from fellow staff and some from patients. When she leaves (she spends a couple weeks in thanks to multiple surgeries, recovery, and other minor injuries) all of the gifts litter her apartment, the cards end up in a box by her desk, she presses the flowers, and stuffed animals are donated to children’s shelter (she keeps some that she has grown attached to)

- During this time Damian is more of an ass than usual (people notice and tease him)

- Damian at some points keeps working without breaks/sleep for hours on end. Dick pulls him aside after noticing, scolds and forces him to sleep in one of the on call rooms. (He really wanted him to go home, but Damian wasn’t leaving)

- Once Raven was discharged Damian and Garfield help her back home (clothes + gifts + Raven w/a healing hand/other injuries = need help) the other Titans would have helped but were needed at the hospital

- Garfield leaves after dropping off Raven and Damian (and her stuff) as he is called in on a Peds case (could be fake, may not be) and Raven & Damian spend the rest of the time basically watching terrible movies. (with Nevermore sitting on both of them)

- That is the night Damian realizes that not only does he like Raven, but he like likes her. He starts devising plans on how to get her to date him. 

- All his plans basically are thrown out the window because of one reason or another (he kept overthinking it)(poor guy)

- It is not until their 3rd year of residency that Raven realizes her feelings towards Damian (Have I made it clear she likes him? I can’t remember...)

- She realizes her feelings when she has to crash at his place for a night (because he lives ridiculously close to the hospital, like how expensive is that??) and he tries to make sure that she is as comfortable as possible 

- She never realized how much he cared for her? Like she was always helping him out and there for him but she never realized he reciprocated that care? *Shocker*

- Raven becomes kind of a mess because of all her emotions that she is trying to bottle up. (all the corks are disintegrating and the jar is overflowing)

- Raven is during her Ortho rotation (bone surgeon people, they are cool, ik from experience) that she actually gets a good release for her emotions (setting peoples bones and drilling and hammering in pins is actually therapeutic) 

- Raven thinks that may be the specialty she chooses

- Damian saw her as a mess and could not fathom why she was said mess, he figured it was about a romantic interest after someone made an offhand comment about her love life and she became a blubbering mess (very un-Raven like)

- After all of well *motions with hands* that Raven asks why Damian doesn’t have a s/o or someone

- He says there is only person that he has been meaning to ask out (looks pointedly at Raven)

- All Raven says is “Go for it.”

And that is where my HCs end. Now if anyone who happens upon this post decides to write a Medical AU with any of these please tag me, tell me, message me. 

You do not have to give me credit, I just want to read it. 

This took me a couple of days to write up, so if it is disjointed I apologize. 

If anything needs to be corrected for any reason let me know!

 I hope this fuels some imaginations!

-I may post more HC AU things if they come to mind, we will have to see.

[trvelyans-archive]

spare ramona lore? 🤲

HEHE WELL THANK YOU FOR ASKING

under the cut bc i assume this will get long.

so. for her Journey.

mona's mom was very young when she had her (19)! she was also a single mom so the two were on their own for most of mona's life. they were really really close and people often thought they were sisters instead of mother and daughter

when she was little mona would help quiz her mom on content from her college courses while maria would make them dinner - she would often sit on the counter and watch her mom cut up all the veggies

her mom got into law school and eventually graduated and it was a very happy day for the family!!! mona was very proud of her mom!!!

since she was little mona always knew she wanted to be a teacher. she found it to be an incredibly noble career and always wanted to help change kid's lives the way some of her teachers had changed hers by helping her and her mom out when they were struggling

she lived with her mom until she got her first official job when she moved into her own apartment and. there were tears. a lot of them. but she just lived down the street so they ate dinner together most days

since they're so close they share an entire friend group - their book club!!! who mona was on a weekend retreat with when the outbreak first started

she and her mom travelled together for years before her mom unfortunately got bit and passed away. mona buried her in a really beautiful flower garden and took her mom's cross necklace to keep with her forever

after her mom died though she thought she would die alone bc she didn't have many survival skills :(( however, a group of scouts from hilltop find her and bring her back with them!!!

she is a really hard worker, teaches any of the kids that are in hilltop, but also helps out in the fields and gardens and takes care of plants. she wears a cute little sunhat every day and little dresses. now she has a safe place to sleep she tries to ignore the walkers as little as possible

she and her bae jaime have a tumultuous relationships but they eventually get married and have a son named santos <3 unfortunately he is born after everything starts with the whisperers and they go through a LOT of hardships before they settle down in alexandria in margot's house

needless to say a house of three adults, one baby and three cats is a very busy house! but it's one full of Love <3

however things are very difficult right now and mona is very scared for the future :(( my poor baby

now for the fun stuff!!!

like i said earlier she keeps her mom's cross necklace after her mom dies!!! she is somewhat religious herself but moreso due to the fact that her mom was. she does try to say grace before dinner though especially because food can be kind of. um. hard to come by in the zombie apocalypse <3

she is a VERY avid reader. whenever her mom had late nights when she was a kiddo she would read by holding books in one hand while doing chores with the other. did it save time? no! did it help her feel less bored and lonely? yes!

she is a romantic but she's also INCREDIBLY picky. she is always very charming and polite and friendly but can also say something insanely passive aggressive and petty and take everyone by surprise. so if a guy does ONE thing she doesn't like she ghosts them completely. she just has really high standards. altho there was one boy in college who was a bit of a bad boy, she thought she could fix him, they ended up arguing a lot before they even really started dating and she had to break it off even though she had already started planning their wedding and their kid's names. she likes tragic sad bad boys and occasionally deep brooding artsy boys but besides the one boy she usually changes her mind abt them pretty quickly

she is a sucker for romance novels and had an extensive collection that was dog eared and bookmarked and noted to hell and back. she is a big fan of Tall Dark and Handsome love interests and has been known to read... a few vampire romance novels................

contrary to that she is very scared of walkers and the worst thing she can imagine is being bitten. if she were bitten she wouldn't even want to wait that long before someone mercy kills her she would just wanna peace out before she even starts to get a fever. she doesn't wanna risk missing out on heaven by turning into a walker (something she'd never vocalize but. she thinks it)

her dream is to have a school in a community one day where she can teach. she really really ignores the apocalypse as much as she can. she is definitely not a runner and doesn't like to be put in situations where she is In Between settlements bc she is scared of getting ambushed or attacked

she is however quite proficient with a gun anyway after years of her and her mom surviving together and having to fend for themselves and also learns how to use a machete

she was also a bit of a. erm. shopaholic before the outbreak. she would usually go out shopping whenever she got a paycheck and would buy herself a nice dress to treat herself but they were..... probably.... um........... too expensive for her to be buying with her salary LKSDJFKLDS but listen. she deserves it okay!!!

she is also a Wine Mom without the mom part. she loves wine. she is also a bit of a wine snob.

her favourite flavour is mint!!!

she has incredibly messy handwriting. like. incredibly messy. her mom even had trouble reading it and they were best friends. her students (who are very young) sometimes have to ask her what her comments on their homework says because it's indecipherable

she likes using red pens. not blue pens. which is probably part of why she likes being a teacher. all red pen and red markers baby !!!

the kids in her school always knew her as being the really nice pretty teacher who always thought of the coolest field trips and had the nicest seasonal decor in her classroom. she was very popular!!!

before the outbreak she had an INCREDIBLY intense crush on the 8th grade english teacher at the school she worked at. he was a dad and he was sarcastic and funny but still nice and she was hopelessly in love with him. she always wonders what happened to him after the outbreak and for a while often had daydreams about running into him and falling in love with him to cope with how isolated and scared and lonely she was

she is beautiful perfect stunning wonderful sexy etc. send tweet