#misa tag

[emilykaldwen]

FFWAD 24 - Sins of the Father by @selfproclaimedunicorn

For my first foray into this yearly celebration with @renegadeguild, I picked the brilliant and fantastic story, Sins of the Father by @selfproclaimedunicorn. Misa has taken the fantastic AU premise 'What if Daemon Targaryen and Rhea Royce had kids?' and has run with it in the most delicious and satisfying way. The story isn't complete, but the first 'arc' has a good stopping point at a whopping 160k words, which made for the chonkiest book you could imagine.

This was the twelth book I've bound (both fic and rebinds of old favorites) and I tried several new techniques for it including rounding and backing the spine. I also stretched my legs in the formatting department and went all in with the interior. That meant ordering some special springhill paper to do these fantastic maps for the endpages. Full details behind the cut!

Typesetting: Normally I've kept my settings pretty minimal as I got used to the ins and outs of InDesign (during this, I did purchase Affinity Publisher and might end up moving to that, but I'm finally getting the hang of ID and you can pry it from my cold hands). I really wanted to mimic some of the interior of Fire & Blood for this, so I hunted down the fonts used and took an image of the decorative banner you see on the sides to use for the chapter openers. I also wanted to include timelines and family trees in true historically inspired fantasy tradition.

The family tree was created based off of the author's spreadsheet in Google Drawing, which I found to be the easiest thing to use when it comes to creating chaotic family trees like this (In the past I'd used lucid chart for a printable version, but google worked better here).

the timeline is honestly my favorite thing and I learned how to use tables in ID for the first time. I'm incredibly pleased with it. The formatting is based upon the line of kings in the source. The timeline covers the events of the first arc as printed in this particular story.

The chapter openers are some of my favorite! As the children are proud to be House Royce, I wanted to reflect that. The runes you see behind the Chapter number and title are the Floki font and name the character whose the POV for each chapter.

Since there's plenty of High Valyrian spoken and the author doesn't include the translations within narrative, it was the perfect moment to set up footnotes. I'll absolutely be doing this for my own story when I bind it!

Rounding and Backing: So this was a total adventure, but I really wanted the old book feel. I made the mistake of pressing the book for too long and lost a lot of the swell in the spine to round but it worked out AND I managed to back it a little bit. Since I wasn't doing cord tapes for the spine (this was a version of the three piece bradel), I had to troubleshoot. I ended up cutting strips of the leather cord I bought from michaels and laminating those pieces together and placing them on the oxford hollow on the spine (given how thick the book is, I wanted to give it as much structural strength as possible). The 'leather' covering you see is actually the craft leather (polyester) from Dollar Tree and it's pretty awesome but definitely has difficulties staying put with glue. I followed the normal procedure and slathered both sides up and used twine to compress the bookcloth along those leather pieces. there's a little gaping in some places which I think would help if I'm able to properly apply backing paper to the polyester.

HTV do's and don'ts: Hi! don't be me and forget to apply your teflon sheets before applying the HTV because then you fuck with the polyester but it's not too bad. The other pro-tip is to gently apply the iron to the cover so it's warm before applying the HTV so it can start to stick. I had to apply the front cover in three pieces and do the title twice. Also, it's really difficult to apply HTV to a rounded spine so I'll have to figure out how to set up the spine and cover before applying (since there's a certain amount of stretching the bookcloth over the spine). The spine might end up having to be regular adhesive vinyl for that. Also, it's stupidly hard to find metallic HTV in bronze.

Front matter and final thoughts: The bronze dragon was a lucky find through an extensive google search, and the runes surrounding it are 'we remember with fire and blood', a combination of House Royce and House Targaryen's words. Seems fitting four Yorick, Ella, and Aemon! The copyright page is mimicked off the source's style, including the AO3 information, the creative commons and fair use information, the guild stamp, a QR code to the AO3 page, and my own press stamp! The summary is pulled from AO3 as well.

All in all, I made this book twice and I loved it and learned so much every time.

I'm so happy with this project and I'm so excited to do the next arc! Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful story, Misa!

[argentinagp]

Nico:3

[queen--kenobi]

Dealers choice for ship, I simply request to see this: a character’s had a nightmare, and needs company to feel safe enough to go back to sleep

reasons for there to be only one bed ˗ˏˋ ꒰ 🍊 ꒱

Idk why but this gave me massive Tyland and Elayna vibes in the Western AU

Also is it a nightmare or PTSD? The world may never know

He's not expecting the knock on his door.

Tyland looks up from the paperwork on his desk. The only other person in the ranch tonight is Elayna. Her room sits across the hall from his. She rarely, if ever, ventures to his room. Even with company present, Elayna stays in her area, although it's under the pretenses of being a good Christian woman and not living in sin with her fiancé.

"Come in."

The door creaks as it opens. Elayna must have crossed the hall in the dark; Tyland can't see her until the light from his desk and bedside candles illuminate her.

"Elayna. Are you alright?" Tyland stares at her. Her night gown is drenched with sweat, evident from how red her face, her whole body, is. Her hair falls all over the place. She looks at him, eyes wide in a way he's never seen before.

"Had a nightmare." Elayna finally speaks. A small pang of guilt hits him. Her voice is raspy, not with sleep but as if she'd been screaming. Tyland turns fully in his chair to face her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Tyland internally winces at how hesitant he sounds. Comfort has never been his strong suit; he knows he's supposed to ask but beyond that, words and actions fail him. Thankfully, Elayna shakes her head. Her gaze goes back down to the floor.

"Talking about them makes them real." She murmurs. Elayna picks at the left sleeve of her gown. Tyland tries to fight his surprise but fails. He never took her to be a particularly superstitious person so to hear her say something along those lines almost takes him aback. He leans forward some.

"What do you need from me?" He keeps his voice low and gentle. The last thing he wants is to make her feel unsafe; the Lord only knows his nephew has done enough of that. It's taken several months to even get Elayna to this point. Tyland imagines the damage extends far deeper than he's aware.

She sways slightly. Elayna's gaze stays downcast, and she presses her lips tightly together.

"Can I- Do you mind if I sleep in here with you?"

Elayna's tries to seem calm, as if she'd be okay if he says no. Her eyes betrays her. Normally, they're bright and oftentimes sharp. At this moment, her brown eyes look like a doe's, wide and innocent. He sees Elayna clearly struggling to not cry, tears collecting in the corners. She clears her throat and blinks hard. She squeezes her eyelids tight, as if willing the tears away will make them stop. She tries to smile. It falls flat.

"I'll take the couch."

"No!" Panic surges through her voice. Tyland’s never heard her reach such a scared and fevered pitch. He's on his feet before he knows it. Elayna tries to cover her mistake. "I mean, you don't... I have no desire to put you out."

"Would you like me to stay?"

He closes the space between them without thinking. Elayna sniffs. After a moment, she nods.

"I don't want to sleep alone."

Elayna's defeat makes his heart ache. Her shoulders slump, and she curls inward. Her whole body shakes as she finally succumbs to her tears. Without a word, without thinking, Tyland wraps his arms around her. The steadying contact makes Elayna almost wail. She buries her face into his shoulder. Tyland shirt soaks through within a minute; he barely registers it, instead focusing on holding her. Elayna squeezes him tight, almost tight enough to hurt. She digs her hands into the fabric of his shirt.

"It's okay. It'll be okay." One of his hands finds the back of her head, stroking her hair gently. The other rests between her shoulder blades as he rubs a gentle circle on her back. When she sobs harder, Tyland presses his forehead to the top of her head. She tries to speak but can't string together a coherent thought.

Tyland rides it out with her.

Eventually, Elayna stills. Tyland doesn't let go. When she eases her hold, he takes his cue. Gently, slowly, he loosens his arms.

"Go ahead and get into bed. I shall be behind shortly."

Elayna nods. Her shoulders stay down. She moves almost sluggishly. Tyland doesn't even realize he's still touching her as he guides her towards his bed, his right hand staying in its earlier place. The contact clearly grounds her. Tyland only withdraws when they get to his bed as he pulls the covers up. Elayna stands beside him and sways. She places one of her hands in the crook of her elbow and looks down.

When he gently nudges her, Elayna takes her cue. She carefully climbs onto the bed and under the covers. Tyland waits for a second to make sure she's comfortable before turning to going back to his desk.

" 'm sorry." He barely hears her. Tyland turns back to her. Elayna doesn't lift her head up, but her eyes do find his. "I don't mean to put you out."

"You aren't." He assures her. Truth be told, he should have already been asleep but got caught up in going over the miniscule details of the land acquisition he'd been reviewing. Tyland feels a sudden urge to reach out and take her hand; instead, he lets his hands stay limp by his sides. "I'll join you in a second."

Elayna nods. The answer seems to satisfy her because she looks away. Whatever the nightmare was, it must have been intense because she stares blankly at the wall. Even as Tyland moves about his room, she doesn't move or lift her head. She barely even seems to register when he finally gets into the bed beside her.

It scares him. Tyland bites the inside of his cheek once he lays down. He wants to reach out, but he doesn't know if the contact will do more harm than good. He sighs. He feels her presence, feels the warmth of her body and the way the bed dips where she is. He doesn't feel her, though.

They stay still like that for a moment. The space between them almost feels enormous. He wants to reach across the space and comfort her, but he's afraid. The thought of her taking his intentions as impure scares him.

Elayna moves first. She half slides, half shuffles over to him. Tyland adjusts to accommodate her as she buries herself into his side. She tucks herself into him, her whole body pressing against him. He rolls partially onto his side to better hold her. She instantly presses her face into his chest.

" 'm sorry." Elayna murmurs after a minute, the sound muffled.

"Don't. You have nothing to apologize for." His hand finds the back of her head. Elayna sighs.

"I'm intruding."

"I would have said no if you were."

A lie, but she doesn't need to know that. The fear in her eyes left him with no choice but to say yes to her request. Not that he would have turned her down anyway.

Elayna makes an unconvinced noise but doesn't argue. Instead, she tries to push herself even closer to him. Tyland reaches for her. He places his hand on her bicep as a way to steady her.

He falls asleep more quickly than he wants to admit.

He expects her to be gone by morning light.

Instead, when he swims back to consciousness and wakefulness, Tyland feels a heavy weight on his body. The soft sound of breathing follows, a steady rising and falling. He cracks one eye open.

Elayna's head rests on his chest. They must have rolled in the middle of the night. Her body sprawls halfway on top of his, her left leg thrown over his left thigh and left arm crossing his chest. Her head sits just below his clavicle. The rising sun catches her brown hair, bringing out a light color he's never really seen before this moment. Tyland absent mindedly strokes her arm. Some of his recreational reading describes a loved ones hair as looking like a halo; he can picture the image vividly but never saw it in real life.

This must be what they mean.

With her features soft with sleep, she looks angelic. Tyland studies her. She has freckles, he realizes. They cluster together on her nose, not a large cluster enough bunch to be obvious but enough his eyes follow invisible patterns and lines. His eyes wander her face, taking in ever miniscule detail. He wants to trace the lines of her jaw with his fingers and then with his lips.

A grunt makes him blink. Elayna's eyes stay closed, yet he sees the steady awareness building in her. She turns her head. Tyland lets his gaze go to the ceiling. The bed creaks as Elayna shifts. She throws more of her leg over him. Tyland lets himself relax into it, let the weight of her body make his body heavier. He knows he should get up but can't particularly find it within himself to do so, not with how warm and comfortable he is.

Work can wait another five minutes, he supposes.

[noeverse]

Swooping in to ask about Auryn for the character bingo bc that's babygirl

baddest bitch in westeros 🫡

[cerseiwexler]

For the oc of your choice: 👑 - Person who raised your OC and/or was important during their formative years & 🍑 - Notable flings

i will answer for mae! she’s one of my few who’s ever had a proper Notable Fling tbh.

her parents are artsy types both born and raised in tx — mom in austin, dad in dallas. they met as young hippies at woodstock, where they accidentally conceived mae’s big sister; it was lucky as hell that they were both from the same region, and mae’s dad moved to austin where they got married. it was a really fateful match — they ended up being truly compatible long-term! mae was born 5 years later. mom eventually became a sculptor and dad became a landscape designer who specializes in pretty gardens. they’re pretty good parents — a little freewheeling and unreliable growing up, but always loving and never neglectful, and very supportive into their kids’ grown up lives!

notable fling: tbh i haven’t even decided on a name for him. mae met him the summer before senior year of high school at an acting camp, and spent the year in an infatuated haze wherein they made grand plans to move to hollywood after graduation and get famous. and it looked like those plans were going to pan out! but he backed out last minute, less serious about the whole thing than her. and her reaction to this was feeling bummed that she wasn’t more bummed 💀 it’s not that she hadn’t really loved this guy, but her dreams were so much bigger than him. and it really cemented for her that moving there was the right choice — if it was so easy to leave something that had been considered important to her behind, it just went to show how much more important her career was in comparison.

[emilykaldwen]

@selfproclaimedunicorn bbg!Rhea 2

[emilykaldwen]

For my bbg Abby:

what sort of music would they like? have you thought about what genres or bands do they lean towards? do they have a favorite song?

their favorite place to be?

OC Ask Game!

2. what sort of music would they like? have you thought about what genres or bands do they lean towards? do they have a favorite song?

Oh god I'm so bad at this because I primarily listen to classical/soundtracks. But I think Abby would definitely like... She's bopping around to Friday, I'm In Love by The Cure and she's got Tears for Fears... so definitely an 80s Rock/Pop/Gothy vibe? Throw some Debbie Gibson and Tiffany in there as well as some good classic rock that her dad would be playing. I can definitely see this and so anything modern that evokes that would be up her alley. But I won't lie, this girl would be a straight up Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch (with some Avril Lavigne) fan has-gone-to-their-concerts, gotten the autographs, will hunt down the vinyls. Like girl is laying in bed thinking about Aegon while playing Tuesday Morning by Michelle Branch and Wanted by Vanessa Carlton with all the achiness in her belly that it deserves.

21. Their favorite place to be?

In absolute generalities, her favorite place is the place she can't ever go back to and that's her father's office in the tower of the Hand. It smells of wood smoke and parchment and dust, and the spicy scent of her father's soap. Theraxis laying on her lap while she reads by the fire and Lyonel is working on Business Things.

It's gone now. The presence of him has been scrubbed and washed away, her mother's pillows riddled with cat kneading gone into storage, the maps replaced with Hightower tapestries.

She can never go back to the place she felt safest and loved.

[murmel-malt]

Mo, I need you to know that I'm as obsessed with Daera as I am Rowan. Idc what crimes Hedaera commits, she's never done anything wrong ever in her life & if she wants to smother Viserys with a pillow I will be her fall guy

You with Rowan and Daera 🤝 me with your Royce-Targlings, Daenys and Aldreda.

They all deserve to commit as many crimes as they want and we will all simply pull a Vizzy and gaslight everyone about it.

[queen--kenobi]

3. how you feel about your current WIP & 19. the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic

✍️ more fic writer asks!

3. How do you feel about your current WIP?

Okay so uuuhhh if we're talking kinktober, I feel okay about it? I'm really struggling since it's so close to the end and I've written a lot. But if we're talking fics, actually pretty good! I've just got several sections of the first chapter of Elayna’s story to go, and like. I'm happy with what I have even if I feel a little stuck

19. The most interesting topic you've researched for a fic?

So I'm gonna cheat and say everything I've researched for any Western-like fics, mostly because things we often taken for granted were rich people things. Like ceiling fans were around in that time period, but you had to be fucking rich to have them. Same goes for certain types of stoves and how coffee was made. It's surprisingly interesting

[emilykaldwen]

@selfproclaimedunicorn

[argentinagp]

nico magazine cover RAWRRRRR

here u go 😁 last but not least! hope u like it blorbie!

[foxinthegodswood]

orange & yellow moot

Glad to be jolly with my lil jester

[emilykaldwen]

For Myra:

7. Do they believe in soulmates?

16. What's their sexuality?

33. What words do they desperately need to hear, even if they don't realise it?

OC asks!

7. Do they believe in soulmates? - I’ll be very honest in that I hadn’t thought about it but as soon as I did, Myranda legit laughed in my face. So no, she doesn’t, and I don’t think she has ever been given a reason to. Her mother is the saltwife of the Greyjoy, Briony never wanted to be there but she’s carved out a place. While there’s a certain level of ‘Myra is my girl and I’m teaching her more courtly things’ Briony would absolutely squash any fanciful ideas on that.

16. What is their sexuality? - I would say on paper Myra is bisexual (for mommy Taryne), but man this is a good question. She would experience attraction to both men and women but I think, much like Abby, would need to foster an emotional connection and trust before physical intimacy. I’ll have to see how it develops!

33. What are the words they desperately need to hear, even if they don’t realize it? - You’re safe and no one is going to hurt you. You are safe and you don’t have to fight. You’re safe, you can sleep and I’ll keep watch.

[emilykaldwen]

@selfproclaimedunicorn Rhea 2 and Stannis Energy

Love him... love mr. cool...

[cerseiwexler]

betrayal: Has your OC ever been betrayed by someone they thought they could trust? Has your OC ever betrayed someone who trusted them? --for the OC of your choice

myrei hasn’t been betrayed but has betrayed 💀 the main situation that comes to mind rn is her being complicit in The Melara Thing, but i’m sure there are others i’m not thinking of. in general she’s a bit of a gossip hound and shares everything with cersei at the very least, and sometimes others in her lil circle too, so i’m sure there are people who would feel betrayed by her spilling their beans if they knew about it!

my main oc who GETS betrayed is zeet, a couple times by their shitty ex when he gets into situations he drags them into by getting in trouble and needing them to bail him out, and then there’s a thing that happens in canon that’s spoilers but puts their life directly at risk + their loved ones too so that’s no fun!!!

[queen--kenobi]

Time After Time: what happened right before the start of What Happened In Paris?

Unusual Fic-Specific Asks for Authors

Honestly? Aemond and Elayna's final breakup sdsdsd

They'd been in an on again, off again relationship for about a year, maybe more? And it's one of those relationships where one day they'd be talking about moving in with each other, and then the next they're having the nastiest screaming match you've ever heard. It was... bad

About a week or two before Elayna was supposed to go for the interview, Aemond broke up with Elayna

Now. He specifically does this because he tanked the interview for the summer internship he wanted badly and was going to have to go to his back-up plan of going to Oldtown.

In his mind, Elayna would be so distraught she wouldn't do well on her interview, and then he could come in a month later and say "I know things ended badly between us but here's a peace offering of an internship in Oldtown too that just so happened to be open"

Of course, his justifications for all of this during the fight was well, they were going to be in seperate places over the summer, and maybe they could see how things worked when they got back to school. You know, setting up for the possibility of they could get back together if they somehow ended up in the same place over the summer

And Elayna's just. Elayna is just done by this point. I think both Lyanna (@writingbylee) and Abby (@emilykaldwen) have talked enough sense into her that Elayna has decided the next time they break up is the final time. So they fight, they break up, and Elayna basically tells Aemond she'll come back for all her things the next day. And Aemond realizes oh, he done fucked up because Elayna has literally never said that before, and it's obvious this bridge is burned

Unfortunately, Aemond is a) Aemond and b) a incredibly prideful college boy. So what does he do? He's technically no longer with Elayna so it doesn't matter if he hooks up with a girl he knows Elayna has gotten jealous of before? And what does it matter if he times it so Elayna sees it when she comes to get her things? They're broken up so he can sleep with whomever he wants

Which. Doesn't go over well. Elayna ends up grabbing all her shit and leaving, and then she has the interview like... two days later even more determined she has to get that internship