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zzoomacroom · 11 months ago

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Hey guys, soooo I have never written fanfiction in my life, but this just fell out of my brain for some reason. I don't know what came over me, but here's a little crackfic drabble for ya. Just a thousand words of Matthew being a complete idiot. Enjoy! (Yes, I know this premise has been done to death, but I'm having fun so shhhh)

Edit: now on ao3!

.......

So there Matthew was, just minding his own business, catching up with Merv in the gardens outside the palace, when a goddamned nuclear bomb went off.

"JEEZUS FUCK!" Mervyn bellowed, his cigarette dropping from his open mouth and into the pile of leaves he'd been raking. Matthew squawked and catapulted himself ungracefully to the top of the nearest tree.

Oh, so not a bomb then, thought Matthew as he watched the stunning display of fireworks that had erupted above the palace, gold and crimson embers now drifting lazily towards the ground. Still, what the hell was that all about? He would have to ask the boss--if there was some kind of celebration happening in the Dreaming, he wanted to join the party! Hopefully he'd be off his feathery tits on dream champagne before the day was over.

Matthew launched himself from the tree branch, ears still ringing as he made his way up to the palace. He soared through an open window to the throne room. Hmm, empty. So where was the party? He made his way to the library--Lucienne would know what was up.

"Heya, Loosh," he called as he circled down to the table where Lucienne was occupied with cleaning up a puddle of ink that was spilled all over the yellowed scroll she had been writing on. "What was up with the fireworks?"

"Hmm?" she glanced over to him, preoccupied. "Ah. That sometimes happens when...actually, it's probably better if you don't know. For your own sake," she adds pointedly, peering over her glasses at him.

Uh, wow. Ouch. "What? Aw, come on, don't leave me out of the loop. Ravens aren't invited to the party? Wait, why aren't you at the party?"

Lucienne stared at the raven, confusion and irritation mingling on her face. "What party? Lord Morpheus is in his private chambers, there is no--"

But Matthew was already hopping off the table and flying towards the nearest window. So it was a private, VIP kinda thing, then. He was a little hurt that he wasn't invited, but no matter. He would slip in and infiltrate the event, just in case the boss needed protecting from a disgruntled fae or something. And if he managed to dip his beak into some unattended booze, he felt he was sneaky enough that no one would be the wiser.

"You really don't want to know!" Lucienne called out exasperatedly as he flitted away, not looking up from her work. "Don’t say I didn't warn you!"

Yeah, yeah, he'd been to parties full of snooty elites before. Whatever weird shit they were into couldn't be any worse than what he'd seen during his recent trip to Hell. He circled upwards towards the highest tower and perched on the balcony outside the boss's private chamber. There was definitely something happening in there, judging by the noises coming from inside. It sounded like things were getting crazy--a shout, glass breaking, a thud like a body hitting the ground, a screech that may or may not have been human. Shit, the boss man might be in trouble! Good thing Matthew was here to...well, he wasn't really sure how he could help, but he'd figure something out. And he just really, really wanted to know what was going on! Curiosity may kill the cat, but the raven should be fine, right?

He darted into the darkened room and blinked as his eyes adjusted. Oh. No party, then. The boss was standing in the middle of the room, looking even more like he'd just sucked on a lemon than usual. His robe flicked around him and drooped off one shoulder, like he'd just hastily pulled it on (was that...a tentacle peeking out from under the hem?). And was he sweating? He didn't normally sweat, did he? And hold on--did he have cat ears?? Matthew stared, and just as he noticed the ears they receded down into his disheveled mop of hair and disappeared.

"What is it, Matthew?" the Dreamlord demanded icily.

"Uh...sorry to interrupt whatever...this...is, but I thought maybe you were in trouble. And I was just wondering what was up with the fireworks. Scared the bejeesus outta me and Merv," Matthew explained.

The boss looked confused for a moment before answering. "Ah. My apologies for the disruption," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm even as Matthew failed to get the hint. "The matter has been handled. You need not come to my defense."

At that, a poorly-stifled chuckle sounded from behind a marble pillar. "Sorry," the pillar mumbled sheepishly. The boss shot a withering glare at it and the pillar instantly dissolved into a pile of sand, revealing...

Ohhhh. "Um...hi, Hob," Matthew said with an awkward wave of his wing, wishing very much that he could dissolve into sand right about now. Hell, that may very well be his fate soon enough, based on the way the boss was glaring at him.

"Hey Matt," Hob replied with a bashful smirk. He was mostly naked except for an Elizabethan ruff, white knee-high stockings and a pair of 18th century shoes with little bows on them. And he was wearing the boss's helm. But not on his head (cool, cool, not like Matthew had followed the boss to Hell to get it back or anything). Oh, and he also had cat ears. Wonderful.

"Ya know, I better get going, I think Merv may need some help with--oh, yep, he set the garden on fire." Matthew peered out the window down to where Mervyn was currently shouting at no one and flailing around a steadily growing conflagration. "So I should go deal with that. Just wanted to check in, glad everything's good here. Uhhh nice to see you Hob, Boss. Not that I, uh, saw anything. Okay bye!" Matthew zoomed out the window before either of them could say anything else. God, he really needed a drink now.

.......

Morpheus continued to glare at the spot where Matthew had been perched as Hob came up and wrapped an arm around his waist.

"Right. So where were we?" asked Hob, apparently unphased by the whole incident.

"I think we should take this to the Waking if we wish to avoid any further interruptions," Dream replied through gritted teeth.

Hob chuckled and started to massage the knots out of his lover's shoulders. "Yeah, probably. Kids, right?" he sighed.

Morpheus raised an eyebrow at him. "Matthew is not my child."

"Isn't he, though?" Hob replied with a grin, peering over Dream's shoulder to watch Matthew and Mervyn frantically darting around the flaming pile of leaves, making no progress whatsoever in putting out the blaze. Morpheus merely sighed in exasperation.

#the sandman #sandman #sandman fanfic #sandman fanfiction #sandman crack #sandman crackfic #fanfiction #crack fic #dreamling #matthew the raven #mervyn pumpkinhead #lucienne the librarian #dream of the endless #morpheus #lord morpheus #hob gadling #zoom writes

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raidark · 3 months ago

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The thing about Jacaerys not considering his half brothers threats and the difference between Jace/Babies and Rhaenyra/Aegon is that there's the assumption that they would all be raised by Rhaenyra with the knowledge/belief that Jace is the rightful heir to the throne after her passing. The one who would be most interested in poisoning the kiddos to get the throne would be Daemon, but even then there's a considerable chance that Rhaenyra would bring him into Jace's camp; especially after his loyalty was congealed by his Harrenhal ayahuasca trip. Aegon was easy to put against Rhaenyra because Alicent spent YEARS poisoning the Targtowers against them and Rhaenyra herself never made much effort to getting close to her siblings. Not only would the kiddos ideally be raised by people who mostly support Jace in the throne and would deter sedicious thoughts but Jace himself has been shown being a goos brother whenever he interacted with the siblings, I am sure he would be the same for them if given the chance. The dragonseeds plan as cooked in the show is different in context, it's like giving random people (including the town's drunkard) the nuclear codes that your family has been using to cement power.

I'm actually writing a VERY LONG post about how much the show has hurt the character of Jace and make him had a very inconsequential arc with artificial drama. In it I also talk about Show Jace's reaction and fears about his succession and I comment the very same thing you're explaining here. I do agree with you, anon. The situation with Aegon and Viserys is very different. Especially in the book where they're explicitly said to have adored his older half-brothers, and Jace is shown to be super protective of Aegon and Viserys. I truly think that it would have been impossible for Daemon to pull something in the book, and it would also be hard for him in the show.

However my post was about Show Jace's mind and his point, which wasn't precisely logic either. There's a lot of arguments against how he frames the Dragonseeds issue as a threat to his succession. The reason Hugh and Ulf are a threat is not because the nobles are going to support them in virtue of looking more Targaryen than Jace, or because they have the same claim. The threat they represent is merely because they have two of the largest dragons, because they have Vermithor and Silverwing. It's dangerous because they're giving two of the strongest nukes to unknown people, but not because they represent a truly political threat to Jace. I'm talking more about this in my huge post but realistically there's no reason to believe they have a claim or that nobles would wholeheartedly support them at all, if anything, they would see the danger they suppose and be glad to eliminate them, especially if that means being rewarded by the Crown. Hugh and Ulf can't always be with their dragons after all, and at those moments they're completely helpless.

It's also not like Show Jace has ever interacted with his younger half-brothers so we could know what he thinks about them at all, and since they were made too much younger it's not like we know if they like their older brother either. We know Book Jace loved them, but nothing says the same about Show Jace. Show Jace didn't even say goodbye to them at all, only to Joffrey.

What I wrote in my previous post is that it doesn't make sense that Show Jace as he's written doesn't have even the slightlest doubt or repressed resentment about Aegon and Viserys. He's consumed by fear, doubts and self-loathing. He has two younger half-brothers who represent everything he was made to fear and be worried about in the show, who are a clear parallel to Rhaenyra and her half-brothers, regardless of the differences. They're undisputably legitimate, have the hair he wished he had and will never have to worry about rumors like he and his brothers did (or if anything, he could think there will be rumors about how Aegon should be Rhaenyra's heir instead of him). He also knows Daemon, who in this what if scenario would be the Otto/Alicent instigator, and Rhaenyra has been recently taken decisions that he didn't like and suppressing him, keeping him in the dark while she trusted and took the decisions with Mysaria.

But he never talks about what could have been otherwise a pretty legitimate issue and worry to Rhaenyra while he does snap about a very necessary decision during the war, with arguments that aren't that certain to begin with, even if pretty valid considering his psyche and humanity. If you are going to sell me this... arc, then make it better.

If you ask me this whole thing is stupid. I don't like this artificial and inconsequential drama, because it's inconsequential and won't go anywhere. We all know what's going to happen in early S3 unless they make yet another massive change. Book Jace's arc was stripped from him, given to other characters and instead they made up a filler arc for him that will have no different outcome and that no one will remember anyway. The fandom will barely remember him as the bastardy/mommy issues boy since he doesn't have anything else. The characters will forget him, just like they did with Luke and Visenya.

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leahazel · 2 years ago

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How to write a summary (the cheater's method)

I've written about this subject before (and I know I'm not the only one), but I still see people struggling with it pretty much daily. So here's my cheat sheet for how to produce a story summary that focuses on the story's essentials.

There are five pieces of information that need to exist in every summary:

Where and when the story takes place (for example, Victorian London, a nuclear submarine, a moon colony, a pseudo-medieval forest full of elves).

Who the main character is (for example, a young royal, an apprentice mage, a space marine, the eldest of five unmarried sisters).

What the main character wants (for example, to win a war, to prove their innocence, to get married, to survive in the apocalypse).

And, critically, why I, the reader, should care about it. This last one is hardest to give pithy examples for, but that only emphasizes how important it is.

I will give a more detailed example of why each item on the list is necessary behind the fold, using my own story, Turncoat Chronicle.

Where and when: TC takes place in a pseudo-Renaissance low fantasy setting. This tells you that if you enjoy the feudal dynamics of fantasy, you might enjoy this story, but if you mainly like fantasy for its magic and monsters, you probably won't.

Who: TC's MC is the heir of a king notorious for taking his throne by force. This tells you that if you love playing wealthy, privileged characters, you might vibe with the MC. On the other hand, if you're bored of fantasy that focuses on the monarchy, you probably won't.

What: The central conflict of TC is between the MC staying loyal to their father, or betraying him and siding with his worst enemy. This tells you that if you like stories about difficult choices and conflicting loyalties, TC might be for you.

Why: The stakes for TC are established early on. If the MC sides with his family's enemy, they will have to kill their father. On the other hand, if they side with their father, they will lose the opportunity to end a generation-long grudge. If you are interested in games that allow you to make history, these stakes might appeal to you.

At every step along the way, the summary is designed to help you gain readers who would enjoy your story and lose readers who would find it dissatisfying. The goal is to bring stories to the attention of those who are most looking for them as efficiently as possible, through the medium of a concise and informative summary.

These are the kinds of elements that I look for in a summary when I'm looking for stories to read.

#writing #plot #summaries #dodgy advice #not claiming this method is perfect but it works well for me

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butchhamlet · 2 years ago

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what are your favourite things about king lear? also do you know any really good productions that i can watch online for free? asking because i didn’t really like king lear when i read it (except for edmund. i love edmund) and knowing why other people like it might let me look at it from a different angle. because i know it’s objectively a good play, and there’s a 50% chance of me having to study it next year so i want to like it

so i started writing a response to this ask and then paused to plot out my points (as if writing a goddamn essay) and then i looked at my points and i had written

fucked-up families

apocalypse vibes

women are hot

which. yeah, that's it, isn't it

anyway, to elaborate on that: i will admit that some of this is just personal preference, because i love stories about complicated nuclear-waste-toxic family dynamics, and lear is, like, one of the original Nuclear Waste Family Dynamic plays. (so is the oreisteia, incidentally.) what gets me specifically is that this is a play about power, yeah, but also about love: everybody in lear wants love, and nobody is getting enough of it. and the dynamics of the two families here get immediately more interesting if this isn't JUST a who-inherits-the-throne thing. edmund wants political sway, yeah, but maybe he also wants to be seen as more than a bastard. goneril kills her sister out of jealousy, yeah, but also, has she ever had a person care about her like edmund? (does he care about her? how much of the love triangle is about love vs lust vs calculation? these are questions that could be answered a thousand ways.)

i also read this play counter to old white guy traditional scholarship because i think lear (the guy) sucks. sorry. i think he sucks. i think he's terrifying and tyrannical and his daughters can do whatever they want (imo, his main problem is trying to apply his political power to his personal relationships, and that's not something caused by his senility. goneril and regan state at the end of 1.1 that, while he's going off the deep end a little more these days, "the best and soundest of his time hath been but rash." this guy has always sucked). speaking of goneril and regan, they're not evil hags--they're women trying to live with an unpredictable father, as well as trying to retain the little power they have in a male-dominated world. (notably, regan's husband is on her team, while goneril's isn't, and lear seems to have a lot of hatred for goneril specifically. which colors how both of them interact with power, edmund, and each other.)

i could actually talk about lear family dynamics forever (do cordelia's sisters love her, resent her, or both? how does edgar feel about edmund? how does edmund feel about edgar, for that matter? does he feel guilty at all for doing what he does? does edgar feel guilty about killing him? is the relationship between lear and gloucester entirely professional, or are they friends? can lear even have friends when he sees everything as some sort of zero-sum power love game? is kent gay for lear? <- yes) but i won't. because i have another point to make!

which is that it's somewhat comforting to me, in an era of [gestures at the news and broad state of the world], to read a play where people are like "holy fuck the world's going to shit and all the rules of society are inverted!" i read lear for the first time during pandemic quarantine, so. it felt fitting. your mileage may vary here (maybe you prefer escapism), but i think one could draw a lot of parallels between lear and [gestures out the window again]. this play is bleak in a way that few other shakespeare plays are bleak. (maybe timon of athens.) it's set in pre-christian britain, and the gods are invoked, but they're not really present. no one who appeals to higher powers ever seems to get any help or even comfort. and the original story of king leir didn't end Like That. shakespeare decided his play was going to end with the emotional equivalent of getting bricked in the face. cordelia's death doesn't mean anything at all! it didn't have to happen! edmund tried to stop it! she doesn't die in the original myth! and yet we're left with this horrifying apocalyptic last scene, where all the struggles for love and power come to almost nothing. maybe, if one is concerned about current events, this would make one feel worse. but i fucking love tragic catharsis and i feel bleak about the modern world so this horrible upsetting play is quite close to my heart <3

finally: i've already touched on Hot Women, but . i am a simple butch. i think goneril and regan are soooooo sexy. i love when women are mean and ruthless. i love when women kill with swords. i think conflating the two of them/treating them like two halves of the same Evil Daughter Character is a cardinal sin of shakespeare studies; you have to be reading with your eyes shut not to note stuff like regan's desire to outdo goneril, goneril's comparative lack of fulfilling relationships (re: lear fucking hates her and her husband sucks), or the differences in their dynamic with edmund (regan is still mourning cornwall at this point--does she love edmund at all, or is she just playing the political long game?). and cordelia, too, is more than just the Angelic Good Daughter; she's on stage much less frequently, but she shows a stubborn virtue that honestly borders on naivete and maybe an inclination toward martyrdom. how does she feel about her father? does she really forgive him? how does she feel about her sisters, for that matter? i'm not saying this play is, like, the most feminist shakespeare play ever written; i just really love the lear sisters.

other misc stuff: the themes are tasty! look at the authoritarianism! (is it right for one man to have this much power? see that line about the king being a wheel rolling down a hill destroying everything in his path as he destroys himself, or whatever). look at the gender dynamics! (goneril's dominance over albany and edmund in turn; the question of her womb; the mutual violence of regan and cornwall; cordelia leading an army.) look at the debate about fate and predestination! (#redditatheist edmund i love you). ++ the fact that it's set in some kind of nebulous unclear time period and the fool sings about merlin who wasn't even alive yet. i just think it's neat <3

as far as productions, i have a friend who swears by the bob jones university prod, though i haven't seen it in full (hi @lizardrosen :D). i also hav NTLive and RSC lears somewhere, i think, but shhhhh don't tell

i'd apologize for this ask being this long, but when my parents asked me to explain the plot of lear to them in 2020 i talked for 25 minutes so i guess we're all getting off lucky here

#max.txt #asks #dm me if you want those. i think i have them.#to be clear you do not have to like king lear. you can thikn whatever you want about king lear #but i like it a lot so here are some of the reasons why <3 #lear

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two-white-butterflies · 1 year ago

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post mortem | part two

Description: Six thieves gather hostages and lock themselves in the Royal Mint of Spain - a criminal mastermind by the alias of the Dragon manipulates the police to buy them enough time to print money. (money heist au) Pairing: Daemon Targaryen x Reader, Aegon Targaryen x Reader, and Aemond Targaryen x Reader. Rating: Mature 18+

series masterlist | part one

(Toledo, 6 MONTS BEFORE D-DAY)

Viserys takes a cautious step towards the board - smiling at his students. "Thank you for accepting this job offer," he humored, looking around the room and familiarizing himself with everyone's faces. Some were familiar like - Aegon, Aemond and Rhaenyra, but some were new like - you, Harwin and Mysaria.

"We'll be living here, for now - until the heist happens and it won't matter wherever you go." he smiled, turning back to the map on his hands. It was a map of Old Valyria (a city that was now filled with nuclear waste) but it was his home - his father's home - and their names will be built around that.

"I thought we were using planets da-I mean sir." Aegon raises his hand. "I was supposed to be Mars, and one-eye can be Uranus." he kicked the chair in front of him - earning a small chuckle from his uncle. "I don't want to be Uranus," Aemond rolls his eye.

"Why?" Aegon frowned.

"It's an anus." Aemond turned to look at him - nailing daggers on his brother's face. "Language! Young man." Viserys scolded, walking back to the board.

He reaches for the chalk, writing on the board what names were available for the choosing. "No one is allowed to use their real names - just in case someone gets captured and etcetera," he mumbled and the crowd erupts into a chorus of agreement.

It made absolute sense to stay anonymous.

Daemon turns to look at you - a mischievous glint on his eyes. "It makes sense," you mumble - playing with a pencil. Viserys turns to look at you - a smile was on his face. "Why don't you choose first?" he offered. There were interesting names on the board.

Lorath, Lys, Myr, Norvos - but Volantis felt right.

"Volantis," you answered quickly - and the man turns to offer other people their choices of names. Daemon wraps his arms around your waist, leaning closer towards your ears. "The oldest and the proudest of all the Nine Free Cities. But Volantis has changed its name - it's Thessaloniki now." he whispered.

Viserys glares at his brother - seeing the closeness between you.

"- and you?" he raised an eyebrow.

Daemon reaches his full height.

"Rhyos. I am Rhyos."

That was the day you started calling yourself Volantis. The man beside you who was ogling at your breasts was Rhyos or Daemon. His face was familiar - you've seen him in the television - from millions of pounds to diamonds to armored cars. He's the biggest criminal in Europe and Asia. He was a fucking shark - but anyone can swim with him, you'd just feel nervous all the time.

The other guy who was staring at Mysaria's ass was Aegon or Norvos. He's not that big of a criminal - but he's wanted for stealing one of the Ambani Family's treasured jewelry. There's a saying 'Steal from the poor and they'll vote you for the next election. Steal from the rich, and they'll bite your ass.'

The guy in front of him was Aemond or Lorath. He went to jail at sixteen for leaking an unreleased episode of his favorite show - pretty much a rookie as the episode was getting aired the following day. Fuck, Game of Thrones eh?

Then there's that beautiful woman a few inches away from you. Her name was Rhaenyra - she is yet to choose a codename, but everyone already knows who she is. She used to be a model in the '00s. The most beautiful woman in the world - was what they called her. Until she was caught laundering billions of euros - she would've gotten away with it if her step-father didn't rat her out.

She's your role model. Your barbie, basically.

And the reason for why you know all of them?

You spend a lot of time reading the news.

(D-DAY 8.35 AM)

Six months of planning and it was reaching fruition. "Hands where I can see them!" you yell, pointing it at the truck driver. The first step of the plan was getting the unmarked paper bills to the Royal Mint.

"If someone calls the radio, you will answer like there is nothing wrong, okay?." Daemon briefed, pacing back and forth between the men - exuding his confident aura.

This was one of the few moments you were thankful for the minimum wage. These men were paid 1,600 euros per month - thus they didn't care whether or not their cars were getting hijacked. If their daughters were in the trunk, they wouldn't have opened it - but paper? Darling, they couldn't have given a lesser fuck.

"Now, let's go." he turned to look at you - leading the team towards the hijacked cars. Mysaria hands you a blonde wig - fixing it on while you settle the seatbelt in between your breasts.

"Don't take your eyes off the girl, we can't afford mistakes." Daemon looks at you - holding your chin softly. He takes a moment - licking his lips, then moving back and tapping the car - telling Mysaria to drive away.

"Let's find the little lamb," Mysaria breathes - driving through the empty road swiftly. "Who even takes a field trip to a Royal Mint? It sounds boring," you slump on your chair, holding the seatbelt tightly as you cruise closer to the Mint.

"Boring when you're poor, but classy when you're rich." she replied.

Entering the Mint was easy - but finding the little lamb.

"Where the fuck is she?" Mysaria curses, opening all the bathroom stalls. "It's like a game of Where is Waldo," you sigh - pointing the gun at every door you open. "What?" she raised an eyebrow, unfamiliar with the game. "It's a game where you find this little guy in a striped shirt," you explain and she rolls her eyes.

"Where is the little lamb," she rephrased the game - smiling in satisfaction as she opened the last stall. Revealing Cersie Lannister.

"Thank the Seven," you breathed - grabbing the girl by her arm and dragging her to where all the hostages were. "I-I need my phone," the girl stuttered reaching for the Iphone on Mysaria's hands.

The older woman pulls it away.

"Influencers," you mumble like a slur - earning a glare from the child.

"My boyfriend took my phone and retweeted a fucking anti-climate change movement. I don't care if I die today - I will get cancelled." she cried, and you pointed a gun at her waist - making her cries harden. "Are you serious?" you frown, biting back a loud laugh.

Being cancelled was going to be the least of her worries.

Daemon removes his mask as the last hostage puts on a blindfold. "Happy Friday, I hope everyone has had the chance to go to do their novenas. I want to say sorry for what we're doing today, it's not a happy way to end your week. Follow our instructions and you'll be safe." he smiled, Aegon nods his head - telling him that all the phones were currently under control.

"I hope that you enjoy this experience - write a book about it in the future, it might get you into a good college. Harvard or Yale, they love their sob stories." he chuckled, playing with his rifle that he named 'Dark Sister.'

A groan escapes your mouth, pointing a pistol at an old man's head. "What's the fucking pin?" you cursed, holding his Samsung with your left hand. A tear rolls down the man's eye. "Pin?" you repeat in an annoyed way - knowing that this wasn't supposed to be your job.

Another tear falls down his eyes.

"0."

He lowered his head in shame.

"0." he whispered, and a small laugh exits your mouth.

"You were acting really smart with me - and your pin is 0000?" you tease him, throwing his phone down the other sacks of phone. "Anyways, no shame in that." you chuckle, taking a step away from him.

"All the phones are unlocked, Lorath - you know what to do."

Aemond nods - smiling at you.

(Toledo, 6-MONTHS BEFORE D-DAY)

"Do you know why I do this?" Rhaenyra slurred - laying on your bed while she stunk of whiskey and vodka. "- because I want my sons back. I want them back from their father - whose actually not their real father." she chuckled bitterly, feeling the tears fall from her irises.

She grabs into your collar - pulling you closer to her body.

"I know where they are - they're in America with their fake grandparents, and I'll get them back once I get the money." she swore to herself, ultimately mumbling their names before falling back asleep.

next chapter>>

@fan-goddess @marvelescvpe @theshatteredideal @acollectionofcells1 @mxacegrey @bellstwd @nyctophilic0vitnir @icarusgloom @pearlstiare @shruie @immyowndefender @ammo23

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#daemon targaryen x reader #daemon targaryen #daemon targaryen x oc #house of the dragon #daemon x reader #daemon targaryen imagine #aemond x reader #daemon targaryen fanfic #aegon targaryen ii x reader #aemond targaryen x reader #aegon ii x reader

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amaiguri · 7 months ago

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The WIP Questionaire

Thanks so so much from @verba-writing for the tag! I had such a fun time reading your answers too and I'm very excited for paranormal romance 😍

I feel like I wanna flag that a lot of my answers are very anime/gaming-sphere oriented and I hope I'm not totally alienating my mutuals by revealing just HOW MUCH I'm not a book person lololol But this is with what we're working:

The Questions are:

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

The very first thing I made was the high premise: It was synthesized from the Overly Sarcastic Productions question "What if all the Kings Under the Mountain came back...?" and then I added the context "...in a Nuclear Crisis to discuss piece?" And in my head, it was this HBO-style modern fantasy Game of Thrones meets West Wing type deal. But then... I didn't want to write the modern piece. (The modern piece should be written by people in countries from all over Europe about what it means to be a hero in various cultures.)

So I set it in 1800s fantasy world instead!

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

The first arc would be Dance in the Game by Zaq

The second arc would be Lacrimosa by Kalafina

The Gods' Arc would be Paper Boquet by Mili

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

Is it to cliché to be like "my current self-insert protagonist is my favorite character I've ever made"? Her and my antagonist are just THE BEST and I love them.

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

Mmm, I think Untitled Yssaia Game's story would appeal to queer Game of Thrones fans who could FEEL the straightness in GoT, especially if they also like anime. I would hope I could get general anime fans as well as Arcane and Genshin Impact fans, but I feel like those are too mainstream and Yssaia is not. Realistically, I think I'm gonna get the Wadanohara people and the Ib people and, if I get really lucky, the To the Moon people.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

Marketing lol -- explaining what it is to people in a way that they realize they want it.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

Fuafua 🥺🥺🥺

Look at her! She is a six-legged, six-eyed slug cat called a Maret. Marets fill the same role as ocelots in Yssaia, except they're more semi-aquatic like otters and their skin has a stressball-like texture.

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

They walk or ride Rumateurs (which are alpaca-like beings with ossicones) or take ships or airships or trains. I don't like writing about travel that much though so it is a background element.

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

I am pre-editing the first arc for my alpha readers and the third arc has another 50k to 100k words to draft. We're at like 250k words total right now and it is so unwieldy 😭😭😭

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

Oh, I have a convenient graphic for this. Hang on...

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

I was just diatribing about this earlier but the DREAM is to turn it into an RPGmaker adventure game and have it go viral and make a million bucks off it. I'd love to be the next Undertale but it'll never happen because I am not positioned to be the next Undertale, you know?

So yeah, that's what's what! Thanks again for the ask! This was so fun! I'm gonna pass this to @maiemorrae, @moonfeatherblue, @zebee-nyx, @winterandwords, @modernwritercraft, @words-after-midnight, @spideronthesun, @theprissythumbelina, @thepanplate, @thetruearchmagos, @maskedemerald, @moondust-bard, @pluttskutt and @emelkae 😍😍😍 I actually internalized Verba's WIP so well from this tag and I wanna make sure I'm updated on what all you cool people are working on! Open tag to any of my other moots too! 🥳

IMPORTANTTTTT⚠️

I will edit this to have a blank easily copy-and-pasteable question section when I get back to my computer. If I forget, @ me!

#writeblr #wip questionnaire #writing #indie game dev #interactive fiction #indie gaming #fantasy writing #dark fantasy #game dev #game writing #gamedev #yssaia #amaiguri

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iluminaughter · 1 year ago

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Billtober Day 5 — Solving a...Rubix Cube?

"Even the all-seeing eye can find it difficult to solve these things, is it because of the cube or perhaps it reminds him of... something else?

When his world don't have... any color?

Or maybe, He still has a flat mind and doesn't want to admit it.

And there he is, eternally, trying to solve that human riddle."

~Me, early morning, thoughts when writing this post.

#art #day 5 #dailybilltober2023 #billtober2023 #gravity falls #gf #gravity falls fanart #bill cipher #bill cipher fanart #fanart #SoundCloud

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kellyvela · 2 years ago

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GRRM ABOUT DRAGONS

A compilation.

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A Dance With Dragons spends quite a lot of time in Essos, which is kind of the analog to Asia and the Middle East in the world the story takes place in, as opposed to Westeros, which seems to owe a lot to Western Europe. When I was reading about Dany, who has become a light-skinned, foreign ruler of an exotic land, it reminded me of The Man Who Would Be King, the Sean Connery and Michael Caine movie that is based on a Rudyard Kipling story. Do you think about these parallels — colonialism, the “white man’s burden” — when you’re writing?

I’ve said many times I don’t like thinly disguised allegory, but certain scenes do resonate over time. Other people have made the argument, which is more more contemporary, that it might have resonances with our current misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. I’m aware of the parallels, but I’m not trying to slap a coat of paint on the Iraq War and call it fantasy.

When civilizations clash in your books, instead of Guns, Germs, and Steel, maybe it’s more like Dragons, Magic, and Steel (and also Germs).

There is magic in my universe, but it’s pretty low magic compared to other fantasies.

Dragons are the nuclear deterrent, and only Dany has them, which in some ways makes her the most powerful person in the world. But is that sufficient? These are the kind of issues I’m trying to explore. The United States right now has the ability to destroy the world with our nuclear arsenal, but that doesn’t mean we can achieve specific geopolitical goals.

Power is more subtle than that. You can have the power to destroy, but it doesn’t give you the power to reform, or improve, or build.

—GRRM - Vulture - 2011

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balinares

I'd agree... except DRACO. Draco Draco Draco. Nicest dragon ever. If the Cocteau ever does a dragon event, I sure hope Dragonheart will be on the list, because intelligent, friendly dragons need more recognition. Doesn't hurt when they're voiced by Sean Connery, either. (...)

volk_nn

Draco is the most friendly and charming dragon of media culture, IMHO =)

grrm

Yes, but dragons are not meant to be friendly or charming.

—Coolest Dragons Ever" (Feb. 10th, 2014)

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“I mean battles and wars interest me too - and medieval feasts interest me. And you know I’m creating a whole world here and every facet of it. As I get to it I try to approach it as realistically as I can, but ultimately as I said before, it’s it’s the human heart in conflict with itself. It’s what makes Cersei Lannister the way she is, and is she capable of learning and changing? What drives Dany? With Dany I’m particularly looking at the… what effect great power has upon a person. She’s the mother of dragons, and she controls what is in effect the only three nuclear weapons in the entire world that I’ve created. What does it do to you when you control the only three nuclear weapons in the world and you can destroy entire cities or cultures if you choose to? Should you choose to, should you not choose to? These are the issues that fascinate me. I don’t necessarily claim to have answers to these. I think exploring the questions is far more interesting than just me giving an answer and saying to the reader, here’s the answer, here’s the truth. Now think about it for yourself, look at the dilemmas, look at the contradictions, look at the problems, and the unintended consequences. That’s what fascinates me.”

—“Interview exclusive de George R R Martin, l'auteur de Game Of Thrones” de -Le Mouv’- 2014 - [Transcription]

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How do you analyze this question of power? I think I was struck by the reading of the Lord of the Rings. I find that Tolkien is a little simplistic on the subject: at the end of the book, Aragorn becomes king, and we learn that he ruled in a wise and just way for a century, for he was a good man. But I read history books, I'm contemporary news, and I'm convinced that being a good man is not enough to make you a great leader. Because governing is a delicate exercise that makes you constantly make difficult decisions, solve problems where there is no good solution, that would solve everything by magic. Those are profound questions for the human race. And then there is the war, another subject that is close to my heart, I was a conscientious objector at the time of the Vietnam War, and this question still concerns me. I look at what is happening in the Middle East, with the Islamic State, and I can not help wondering: who are these monsters, these modern orcs? Who can be sympathetic to them? And yet, fighters say thousands to join them. More seriously, what motivates them? And how should we fight them? If I were Daenerys Targaryen. I could ride on my dragons and eliminate them in the flames. But is death the only solution we have to offer? How react to another who is so radically alien to us? These questions are very difficult - and I do not pretend to have the answers. Because there is no simple answer to these questions. —Lire Magazine - April 2015

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There is one remarkable phrase in this story. The plot is about the interstellar Grand Inquisitor from the Catholic Church, which has spread to many planets. And there is the Inquisition, which hunts heretics. And there is such a phrase: “This episode was illustrated by a magnificent picture. Judas in a dark cave, with burning eyes, waves a white-hot scourge, not letting a huge golden-green dragon approach him. He has a basket under his arm, the lid is slightly moved, the heads of three dragons that have just hatched from eggs stick out of it. You've been into dragons from the very beginning! GRRM: Dragons are cool! (burst of laughter) - What makes dragons cool? GRRM: I don't know... what makes dragons cool? When I was little, I had not only aliens, but also plastic dinosaurs. And dinosaurs are cool. (audience laughter) Dragons are fire-breathing dinosaurs with wings, which just adds to the level of coolness. (audience laughter) And what's interesting is that different cultures around the world have their own legends about dragons. Of course, Chinese dragons are fundamentally different from Western dragons, but nevertheless, there are similarities between them. And so I keep wondering: what if dragons evolved from dinosaurs? Perhaps our ancestors stumbled upon the bones of dinosaurs in the fields and thought that they must have been dragons. And they came up with all these legends. - Your colleague, G. K. Chesterton, said: "The stories about dragons are more than true: not only because they tell us that dragons exist, but also because they tell us that dragons can be defeated." This, too, is reminiscent of the synopsis of A Song of Ice and Fire. GRRM: Yeah, I'm not sure Dany would agree that dragons can be defeated. (laughter in the hall). We will find out. - I'm not even going to try to scratch out of you details about the plot of future books! But in your world, dragons are some kind of superweapon. Nuclear bombs of Westeros. GRRM: It is, yes. Nuclear weapon. This book that you are holding now is this big one, “The World of Ice and Fire” - this is the history of the entire world of Westeros, written by me together with Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson - legends, and all about the Targaryen kings. There are excellent illustrations. Among other things, it talks about dragons in the days when the Targaryens had dragons. They held them for 150 years, and the great war, A Dance with Dragons, was a civil war where dragons fought against each other. There is a lot about the power of dragons and how hard it is to kill them. But on the other hand, many dragons died then, because they are still not invincible and not immortal. They are difficult to kill, but possible. And, of course, they can kill each other. So it's all there. Does this anticipate major events in the cycle... we'll have to wait and see. —George R.R. Martin in Hamburg: "Dragons are cool!" - 2015 - [OG Source in Russian] - [Secondary Source in Russian]

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[Unclear question]

GRRM: Oh boy, who would they be? Um, I can think of some analogs to Mr. Tr*mp, but you know, it would must be a villain character, but my villains are actually smarter than him. You know, just this comment he made last week or so about, oh, it would be good. “You know, we shouldn't have to worry about North Korea having atomic weapons. We should give atomic weapons to other people in the neighborhood and like, you know, Japan and South Korea, and then they can deal with it.” That's yeah. Clear proliferation. That's great. That would be equivalent for people in, you know, my world saying, you know, everybody should have dragons, why don’t every House in westeros had dragons, that would really help. So, uh, there we're.

—BALTICON 2016

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GRRM: “People read fantasy to see the colours again,” he says. “We live our lives and I think there’s something in us that yearns for something more, more intense experiences. There are men and women out there who live their lives seeking those intense experiences, who go to the bottom of the sea and climb the highest mountains or get shot into space. Only a few people are privileged to live those experiences but I think all of us want to, somewhere in our heart of hearts we don’t want to live the lives of quiet desperation Thoreau spoke about, and fantasy allows us to do those things. Fantasy takes us to amazing places and shows us wonders, and that fulfils a need in the human heart.”

The Guardian: And the dragons?

GRRM: “Oh sure, dragons are cool too,” he chuckles. “But maybe not on our doorstep”.

—The Guardian - November 2018

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Esquire: How will Fire & Blood deepen our understanding of Daenerys and her dragons?

GRRM: This is a book that Daenerys might actually benefit from reading, but she has no access to Archermaester Gyldayn’s crumbling manuscripts. So she’s operating on her own there. Maybe if she understood a few things more about dragons and her own history in Essos, things would have gone a little differently.

—Esquire - November 2018

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Sitting down with news.com.au in New York City, Martin dropped dark hints to the suffering awaiting the war-torn world of Westeros as the battle for the Iron Throne reaches its peak.

“I have tried to make it explicit in the novels that the dragons are destructive forces, and Dany (Daenerys Targaryen) has found that out as she tried to rule the city of Meereen and be queen there.

‘THE POWER TO DESTROY’

“She has the power to destroy, she can wipe out entire cities, and we certainly see that in ‘Fire and Blood,’ we see the dragons wiping out entire armies, wiping out towns and cities, destroying them, but that doesn’t necessarily enable you to rule — it just enables you to destroy.”

—GRRM - Fox News Channel - November 2018

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John Howe: Can I ask you why Dany is a princess and not a prince?

GRRM: I made this choice a long time ago, I think I wanted to play a little with the genres and reversed things a little, and of course in my head the expression "mother of dragons" is much better than "father of dragons". There is also this link with the woman who gives life, who transmits lives, carrying a gigantic power of death, of fire, of destruction. There are very powerful metaphors in there.

—Dragons! (2/4) Dragons d'Occident, la figure du mal [2018]

Video (13:10 - French audio and subtitles but you can hear GRRM talking in English in the back)

Reddit translation (Last quote)

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They [the dragons] represent power, of course, in the books. You know, I don't believe any more than JRRT did in fantasy novels as allegory, but there are certain things you can look at. The dragons can win wars for you, that's established in the histories, but they can't necessarily produce peace or prosperity or help you rule a nation, you know, Daenerys Targaryen is finding it out in Mereen, when she, you know, she defeats the cities of Slavers Bay with her three dragons, but then in trying to rule as Queen, she can destroy Meereen any time she wants by just unleashing the dragons, could kill a lot of people, you know, wipe out the most of the population of the city, reduced the entire city to a fiery inferno, but that doesn't help her to come up with good laws, or to establish peace between the original inhabitants, and the the freedmen, and people that she's brought in, so ruling is more than just the power to destroy and that's a lesson that she's definitely learning.

—Guerra dos Tronos. A entrevista de George R.R. Martin à RTP - 2019

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The Targaryens are also an ancient house but they're not an ancient Westerosi house. They knew that destruction was coming to Valyria and went far away from the capital city and the settled on the volcanic island of Dragonstone. They were dragon lords in Valyria. Now dragons are really formidable and they can turn the tide of a battle. It flies, it's difficult to hit, it breathes fire, against which most knights and men at arms have little or no protection. So if you have dragons, that's were the nuclear option analogy comes in. You're hard to mess around with. So the dragons and fear of dragons was one of the things that made the Targaryens very secure in their power.

—Before the Dance: An Illustrated History with George R.R. Martin | House of the Dragon (HBO) - August - 2022

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Would you rather have a dragon or a direwolf?

GRRM: Well, that's an interesting question too. The dragon has certain advantages, number one it is you can fly, and I would love to be able to fly. As a kid, you know, I read superhero comics, I didn't want to be Batman, swinging on a rope, but I wanted to be Superman and flying through the skies and all of that stuff. Flying is a primal dream, so yeah, flying on a dragon and being able to burn the hell out of my enemies, that's useful too. On the other hand, the direwolves are friendlier than the dragons. And you know, they're like big shaggy dogs and there was probably more of a close and affectionate bond between them. And I would like to have a direwolf right now at my house in Santa Fe, we moved into a new house a while ago, it's beautiful house, and it has a little kind of waterfall in the back and a well, it has a couple pools, beautiful pools, and I stocked those pools with Koi, because I thought that would be cool, and the raccoons ate all of my Koi, but if I had a direwolf, those raccoons would stayed hell away. (...)

Would you rather freeze to death beyond the Wall or burn alive in dragonfire?

GRRM: That's another tough one. Can I just live forever? I can't die the way Tyrion wanted to die, that's a pity. I can't say how he wanted to die, but it's in the books. Read the books. He's asked that question by Shagga son of Dolf. I think freezing. Fire is supposed to be a really, really painful way to die. I've always heard. (...)

Do you think it's possible to have a dragon and live a benevolent life? Like, would you inherently get pulled into using that power?

GRRM: Well, that's an interesting question too. And it's a question if I may verge away from medieval history and metaphor to the current reality we live in, you know, it's often been said that the dragons are the nuclear weapons of my imaginary world. They are the most devastating weapon, and they cause great destruction, massive loss of life; but they're not necessarily, you know, I mean, this is part of Dany's storyline and the original novels. I mean, Dany . . . Dany has three dragons, and she can destroy these cities, like Meereen where she finds herself queen, but it doesn't mean she can necessarily rule them easily without destroying them, so, when do you do that? And I grew up, I'm a baby boomer born in 1948, and growing up in the fifties there was always the specter of nuclear war. I mean I lived through the Cuban missile crisis, and Khrushchev and, you know, saber rattling and, you know, all of the books about the nuclear holocaust, about Armageddon and, you know, about what was gonna happen, we were worried about that. Actually there's nuclear weapons that have only been used twice in all of History, and they've been used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Afterwards, there was a long period where only America had nuclear weapons; nobody else in the world had them, and there were people, believe it or not, like you're a science fiction fan, you know who Robert A. Heinlein was? [Yep] Heinlein, the dean of science fiction, fascinating guy, because his politics a lot of people think of him as conservative because of where he got in end of his life, but earlier when he was a young man, he was sort of a socialist, he ran there for office in California on Upton Sinclair's platform, and he actually advocated in letters that you can find, that at the end of World War II, when only America had the atomic bomb, he said America should give the atomic bomb to the newly formed United Nations, and it should be prohibited to all other countries, so we would have a world government and only the United Nations would be able to enforcing, and can you imagine if that had actually been done, what a very, very different world that we would live in. Maybe not one that we would like, but there's there. And thereafter, there was always these concerns about, well, we can win any of these wars, you know, why did . . . . I mean, MacArthur and some other people wanted to use the atomic bomb in Korea, in the Korean war, and, you know, when China invaded, well, why are we letting them do that? We could win the war. Of course, by then the Russians, I think, had it too. Or Barry Goldwater in 1964 election, why are we fighting this war in Vietnam? Let's just drop a nuke on Hanoi, or at least that was the charge. But we never did it, we always refrained, we were the dragon riders who would not use our dragons, although we would kind of use them to intimidate them, except now more and more countries have that. We've tried a nuclear non-proliferation, but, you know, Britain got them, Soviet Union got them, Britain got them, France got them, then it went to India and Pakistan and North Korea, for God's sakes, and Iran is trying to get them, and there's always the rumors that Israel has them. As more and more countries get this, I think the danger becomes greater and greater, someday someone is gonna use them, and right now the danger is very high! I mean, you can turn on the news every day: Is Putin losing the war in Ukraine? Is he gonna resort to nukes? And then the question becomes, what if he does? If Putin resorts to nukes, does America unleash its dragons? Or do we not? And let him get away from it. These are profound questions, we could debate this for hours with a panel of political scientists and things like that, and it's not an easy answer to.

—A Conversation with George R R Martin | A Celebration of the Targaryen Dynasty [October 24th, 2022]

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There are also dragons, who confer monumental power to those who dominate them. Did you incorporate them for the show, or to emphasize something broader? GRRM: I have never consciously inserted any contemporary political allegory into my works. However, some have compared dragons to nuclear weapons, and they may be holding something. I have tried to make the over-power of the dragons very explicit in the novels, they represent a destructive force, and Daenerys realized this when she ascended the throne of Meereen. Thanks to the dragons, she has the power to wipe a city off the map, to eradicate whole armies. That does not mean that this weapon allows you to reign afterwards. Here, there is a metaphor that, I believe, means the following: to reign and to destroy are two very different things. —Society Magazine Interview [https://www2.lekiosk.com/fr/publication/society/21423629█ 201812 Society Magazine.pdf]

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#grrm #asoiaf #dragons #sweet stark fanboy georgie is recreating winterfell in his new house huh?#that event from last year it was a targ celebration or something and he was fanboying over having a direwolf lol #he can't stop comparing asoiaf dragons with nuclear weapons . . . .#UPDATED

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