#songs from the shore

[edinburgh-by-the-sea]

sea fog comes, like a river rolls a stone, it's rolling me

[remaining-pain]

SONGS ON REPEAT IN 2024

Homesick, Drag The Lake, Sun//Eater, Breathe Me In, Time Changes Everything, Glisten

1/?

[hella1975]

there must be more than blood by car seat headrest is a touya song btw. nervous like a wild dog waiting for the attack. you go back to the old house but you've been locked out and it wasn't for love that you went back home. they had all of your life to get it right they had all of that time just to change their minds. how could they treat you like a forgotten card? dear dad, I'm sorry thank you very much. what difference does it make when they throw you away?

this is like 9/11 to me

[druddigoon]

👀👀👀 what are your favorite oh hellos and crane wives songs?

oh hellos - hello my old heart

crane wives - safe ship, harbored

i've listened to pretty much all of their music though and i love all of them :] but these two hold a special place in my heart personally

[deadqueernoldor]

Thinking thoughts about those from Cuivienen and how they later treated the Valar, especially after Cuivienen was destroyed.

I imagine a foundation of sorrow and a layer of betrayal and pettiness. They had promised safety. And how did it turn out? Kin of Tata and Tatie their first leaders, slain in Valinor by the Dark Hunter from which the Valar promised protection in Valinor.

And then, the War of Wrath comes and with it the destruction of Cuivienen.

If any of those were re-embodied in Aman, I wonder if they make it a point to always turn their back to Valar and Maiar. I wonder if they only speak in the tongue they had first devised all those millennia ago and spoke in Cuivienen before time and different kindreds changed the tongue, not Sindarin or Quenya from the Great Journey's time or later. I wonder if they sing songs in their ancient tongue, songs about the beauty and unsullied health of Cuivienen every time any of the Ainur are near.

I wonder if the Valar feel any shame when those who they once looked upon in wonder and love gaze back at them with indifference or disgust.

[typewriter-worries]

being so normal about this

[doom-dreaming]

Cheerful Oblivion

Thought that I was hungry for love… Maybe I was just hungry for blood. **********

I met a woman in a club once. Years ago. Can’t get her out of my head. If I didn’t still have the napkin with her number on it… Well. Would’ve been easy to assume I dreamed the whole thing up.

It was a miserable night to be out. Rain was coming down in buckets, flooding the streets. Could almost hear it over the music, pelting the roof. But there she was. Filling the entire doorway. No coat. No umbrella. Nothing but a black tank top and jeans that looked too tight to be comfortable. Soaked to the bone, dripping wet, faded blue-raspberry-bright hair plastered to her neck. She looked like she’d dragged herself straight out of the ocean. In hindsight, maybe she had.

********** England is only ever gray or green. The girls glitter, Striding glorious and coatless in the rain. I remember falling through these streets, Somewhat out of place, if not for the drunkenness… It makes my chest hurt to think of it, Not of regret, but of missing that… …cheerful oblivion… **********

I remember the way she stood there, caught under spotlight rays of blue and green, the rain on her face sparkling like diamonds… She looked like an angel. Could’ve been. Probably wasn’t. More than likely…something else.

She didn't belong there. In the club. I don’t mean that in a judgmental way. Maybe philosophical. She didn't really seem like she belonged anywhere. But I could see it in her eyes, almost fluorescent blue under the lights. To her, it didn’t matter where she belonged. What mattered was where she wanted to be. And she wanted to be there. In that club. On that night.

I’d never been afraid of being noticed by a beautiful woman. I craved it. Don’t we all? This was different. She was different. Never felt my blood run colder than the second our eyes locked. It felt like being hunted.

********** It was not all pain and pavement slick with rain, And shining under lights from shitty clubs, And doing shitty drugs, And hugging girls that smelled like Britney Spears and…coconuts… **********

She flowed through the crowd like water, parting the proverbial sea, leaving a wake of awestruck stares. If she knew she was the center of attention, she didn’t care. She was a full head taller than anyone else, a titan amongst mere mortals. Muscles rippled when she moved. Wet skin shimmered. I tried not to stare, I really did. Couldn’t help myself. I could’ve watched her for days.

She swept ashore at the bar, smelling like petrichor and oil slicks. Ordered a drink. Smiled down at me, sitting so small a million miles beneath her. There was nothing human about that razor-sharp flash of teeth.

She asked if I wanted another drink. Hadn’t realized I’d finished the one in my hand. I nodded. Couldn’t find my voice. Tab’s on me, she’d said. Not here for long, least I can do. After tonight, you’ll never see me again.

********** And with your mermaid hair and your teeth so sharp, You crawled from the sea to break that sailor’s heart. You only get one night upon the shore, So dance like you’ve never danced before. And the dance floor is filling up with blood, But, oh Lord, you’ve never been so in love… **********

I asked her where she was from. She laughed, a harsh bark of a thing that ripped out of her throat like it hurt. Nowhere. I asked for her name. She didn’t answer. But that animal grin flashed back, a bright white scar across her face. For no reason, I thought about moths. And flames.

We stopped talking. Kept drinking. Started dancing. God, the way she moved. Like a machine. Like a predator. Like a ballerina. Equal parts precision, power, beauty.

I couldn’t keep up. She didn’t seem to care. I was a prop. A plaything. An entertaining little toy, something to keep her distracted. From what, I didn’t know. But it didn’t matter. It felt like an honor.

********** And the mermaids they come once a year, They climb the struts of Brighton Pier, They come to drink, they come to dance, To sacrifice a human heart. And the world is so much wilder than you think. You haven’t seen nothin’ ‘til you seen an English girl drink… **********

I do still see her. Sometimes. In my dreams. In those hazy amber-clad memories. It’s hard to know what was real. Don’t know who she was. Or what she was.

Never did call that number. Not sure she’d really wanted me to. Probably for the best. I get the feeling that if we’d been in that club alone together… She would’ve eaten me alive.

And I think I would've let her.

[atopvisenyashill]

“i’m not a traitor like that bitch rhaenyra” - stannis baratheon, davos iv, a storm of swords

wrong as usual stannis. let’s dig in!!

the technical, legal heir

"the throne by rights passes to lord stannis, the elder of robert's two brothers." - ned, xiii "The Princess of Dragonstone remained his heir, with half the lords of Westeros sworn to defend her rights...The matter had been decided, so far as King Viserys was concerned; it was not an issue His Grace cared to revisit." - heirs of the dragon: a question of succession, f&b

argue with the wall over how “really legal” it is, that’s not the point of this meta, the point is that Rhaenyra and Stannis not only see themselves as the righteous legal heir to the throne and all others as traitors to the realm, they both talk about this constantly. It is integral to how they see the world.

dragonstone as a base of operations

"And while Robert had been riding north to Winterfell, Stannis had removed himself to Dragonstone, the Targaryen island fast he had conquered in his brother's name. He had given no word as to when he might return. " - ned, vi "Thereafter Queen Alicent kept to the Red Keep, whilst the princess spent her days on Dragonstone..." - heirs of the dragon: a question of succession, f&b

we see this retreat happen several times with lords paramount like edmure, robb, and tywin and with other targaryens like visenya & maegor, rhaena and baela, and daeron ii. it makes sense that, when faced with a political faction they can’t quite get ahead of, they choose to run home to recoup.

HOWEVER.

They both really fumble the recouping!! Stannis knows no one likes him and he’s fighting an uphill battle wrt getting anyone outside of Dragonestone’s vassals on his side, yet he doesn't reach out to anyone at court nor does he do much to endear anyone else to his side. Rhaenyra meanwhile, fucks up in the exact same way - she doesn't ask an ally to spy for her at court, doesn't attempt to endear herself with anyone in the realm except the Velaryons (and then, only specifically Corlys) until the war has already started.

resentful of younger brother because of strained relationship with older male relative

"I never asked for Dragonstone. I never wanted it. I took it because Robert’s enemies were here and he commanded me to root them out. I built his fleet and did his work, dutiful as a younger brother should be to an elder, as Renly should be to me. And what was Robert’s thanks? He names me Lord of Dragonstone, and gives Storm’s End and its incomes to Renly. Storm’s End belonged to House Baratheon for three hundred years; by rights it should have passed to me when Robert took the Iron Throne." - prologue, acok "What a king had done, a king could undo, Viserys pointed out. She would wed as he commanded, or he would make her half-brother Aegon his heir in place of her. At this the princess’s will gave way." - heirs of the dragon: a question of succession, f&b

both of them are deeply resentful of their younger brothers for stealing what they feel is their right; for stannis, it’s storm’s end and for rhaenyra it’s the iron throne. it doesn’t help that both renly and aegon are a) known for being party dudes, something stannis resents bc he’s a stick in the mud and rhaenyra resents because aegon can be a partier and a mess but she tries to fuck criston one (1) time and she’s forever a whore and b) this resentment is fueled by an older male relative.

while robert likely meant Dragonstone to be a gift of affection for stannis - even though robert does away with the prince of dragonstone title, he still gives dragonstone to stannis, who robert likely saw as his legal heir until joffrey was born, it wasn’t meant to be a demotion but a promotion! stannis, however, takes this as a huge sleight and stews over it for years and years. similarly, though viserys makes it very clear who his heir is (its rhaenyra), he makes things more difficult for rhaenyra and fans the flames of distrust between her and aegon by threatening to disown her when she chafes at being married to laenor.

relationships with illegitimate children descended from the first men

The Strongs are "...an ancient line of noble warriors boasting descent from the First Men..." that live somewhere in the Riverlands before taking over Harrenhal (and then dying out completely). Obviously there is some controversy in universe over whether Harwin is the father of the Velaryon boys or not (but. Come On Lmao), but ultimately the main reasoning for why Rhaenyra should be disinherited is that her heir, Jacaerys, is illegitimate. Jacaerys was also rumored to have married another bastard with the blood of the First Men, Sara Snow.

Stannis, meanwhile is heavily associated with two bastards as well - Edric Storm and Jon Snow. Both Cortnay Penrose and Davos Seaworth get incredibly protective over Edric when the boy is faced with death, albeit for different reasons than Rhaenyra gets protective of Luke but there is still the very real fear that someone may kill the boys for who their parents are. Later, Stannis allies with the Night’s Watch and Jon Snow specifically, unsuccessfully needling him into being lord of winterfell, relying on his advice re: the northern lords, and leaving his wife, heir, AND closest ally (melisandre) under Jon’s protection. What i think is a fun parallel here is that there’s a lot of controversy over Jon’s parentage just like the Velaryon boys and what’s more, he’s actually the son of a WOMAN who had a bastard, not a man, just like the Velaryon boys.

fire obsessed lover with a penchant for murder

do i need to explain this. obviously there’s massive differences in their characters but they both serve as the sort of devil on the shoulder types, they’re both associated with the color red, they both use fire to kill, and they both fucking love a murder.

low born advisor who others at court don’t like

again, massively different characters, but what’s important is that what we know about mysaria is how she is perceived & little else, and she is perceived as being a bad influence on rhaenyra. davos is also considered a bad influence on stannis due to his lowborn status.

it’s also fun that you have davos/melisandre & daemon/mysaria.

female heirs

Obviously. Rhaenyra is a woman and her claim is challenged because of that. As a matter of fact, the quote that sparked me thinking about how many similarities they have is Stannis’ own low opinion on Rhaenyra, which i jokingly alluded to above:

"Traitors have always paid with their lives... even Rhaenyra Targaryen. She was daughter to one king and mother to two more, yet she died a traitor's death for trying to usurp her brother's crown." - davos iv, asos

Stannis is calling Rhaenyra a traitor. Stannis is also about to explicitly name Shireen as his heir:

The knight hesitated. "Your Grace, if you are dead — " " — you will avenge my death, and seat my daughter on the Iron Throne. Or die in the attempt." - theon i, twow

The dissonance in this man’s mind makes me weep.

tense and sexless marriage

Stannis had always been uncomfortable around women, even his own wife. When he had gone to King's Landing to sit on Robert's council, he had left Selyse on Dragonstone with their daughter. His letters had been few, his visits fewer; he did his duty in the marriage bed once or twice a year, but took no joy in it, and the sons he had once hoped for had never come. - prologue, a clash of kings

Thereafter, though he joined his wife for important court events where his presence was expected, Ser Laenor spent most of his days apart from the princess. Septon Eustace says they shared a bed no more than a dozen times. - heirs of the dragon: a question of succession, f&b

For both couples, it really goes beyond "we don't like each other that much" like lysa/jon, for example, who do still have sex regularly and have several children (they just all died). instead, it's more in the visenya/aegon category - these couples are actively avoiding each other's beds and company.

homoeroticism

PLUS - it is funny how both marriages have some weird gay subtext going on. laenor is actually, canonically gay and rhaenyra is “more than fond” of laena velaryon. read: they’re fucking. i don’t care if you don’t believe laenyra is real in the books, because do you know when else the term “more than fond” is used in this series? to describe sam’s feelings for gilly, lothor brune’s feeling for mya stone, and arianne’s lack of feelings for arys. it’s romantically used THREE times, and then once for laena and rhaenyra. even if they never actually had sex, there was a romantic friendship there, and not just a Girls Supporting Girls thing.

And I will make the exact same argument for davos and stannis!! although that one is less controversial because Davos is walking around saying that his tongue belongs to Stannis and Stannis calls Davos “MY onion knight”. everyone in the book remarks on how Stannis doesn’t like women, and part of that is just his weird personality but there’s a weird, repressed sexuality thing happening with him here, in an odd sort of parallel to Rhaenyra's very damaged view of sex and sexuality as well (what with all the incest and grooming).

Both Stannis AND Rhaenyra find themselves craving intimacy but whereas Stannis never acts on it and now everyone thinks he’s a prude, Rhaenyra does act on some of her desires and gains the reputation of being a whore. So much gender dynamic shit going on, so much that’s interesting in the way gay men are desexualized and bisexual women are hypersexualized. But moving on to my very last point of comparison!

some opinion on the alicent and cersei of it all

i think a lot of people balk at Alicent/Cersei comparisons because they feel it’s an insult against one or the other. The thing is, I think it’s very on purpose that Alicent and Cersei serve very similar functions in their respective stories - queen mother who uses her son to help advance her own station from a politically active, incredibly rich family with one sweet daughter and multiple sons of wildly differing temperaments - but for literally the EXACT OPPOSITE REASONS.

Similarly, I think Rhaenyra and Stannis are also meant to be a bit of parallel in their stories - a Dragonstone dwelling, fire and murder loving, aesthetic heavy sect of the royal family who somehow managed to produce the only vaguely well adjusted members of the family that are utterly doomed by the narrative (rip shireen and the strong-velaryon boys). But again for the EXACT OPPOSITE REASONS - Stannis is protesting the legitimacy of Cersei’s children while it’s Rhaenyra’s children whose legitimacy is being questioned. It’s a really fun connection between the Dance and the Wo5K to me.

SHOW ONLY BONUS: PROPHECIES ABOUT THE LONG NIGHT

a prophetic dream by aegon the conqueror about a threat from the north has supposedly been passed down from king to heir, and is passed from viserys to rhaenyra in house of the dragon. it plays a significant role in the story; viserys, alicent, rhaenyra, AND daemon all interact with it in some way or another, and the fact that viserys told rhaenyra and not daemon is just, A Huge thing for Rhaenyra. Just look at that face, I’m sorry, the acting delights me:

emma d'arcy the actor that you are!!!!!

Meanwhile, in the books, Stannis not only believes he is Azor Ahai (who it is theorized is the same thing as the prince that was promised), but Stannis going North is a huge turning point in Team Dragonstone, and Jon’s, stories. Just as Rhaenyra takes strength in the idea that SHE is the true heir, a Targaryen capable of uniting the realm to fight the Long Night, Stannis is convinced that he is a fabled hero who will save Westeros from an evil threat.

It seems unlikely it’ll ever be relevant to Rhaenyra in the books but we do know some sort of prince that was promised prophecy does exist and was found by at least a few targaryens because maester aemon mentions it and dany has a vision of rhaegar telling elia. regardless of its relevance to book!Rhaenyra, I find it fascinating that Stannis has this in common with the show version of her.

Anyways, to sum up:

[sirensea14]

Another of Allen Shore :3

Damn, he's fine af (do note this is just my hc of what he looks like😭)

Im listening to his song rn :))

[danidoesathing]

"When they get to telling spooky stories, there's no stopping 'em!"

Alive From Whispering Pines - Episode 425

[antiparticular]

the welcome back o sleeping dreamer music video has dropped and do I understand what the hell it is about? not in the slightest. is it absolutely yucky with viscera and what I think is ichor? fuck yeah it is

[lilmisswhyso]

do yall ever think abt the lyrical parallels between chords and not yet and just go insane

pick your chords well love but sing your notes off key, you can’t rehearse the chorus but the verse is sweet // sing me awake with a song about pirates, and i will try to harmonize

they’d paint your eyes with sunsets // sip the sunlight from your eyes

i know they think i’m a nightmare // i held your hand as you shook in the middle of the night

just tell them what your haggard mother told you long ago // just remember those wicked words your mother used to say // where is god ma, where’s the vodka, if my old mum could see me now, oh how she’d howl 

i don’t want them to go // i need them to stay // all that matters is that you’re here

chords’ recollection of memories at the seaside (waves, sandcastles, paddling pools, hidden caves) vs not yet’s dreamlike scenes involving ships and pirate captains

[blueswoo]

Waiting for the new year

[owlcoholik]

mostly i drew this because i didn't want anyone thinking i named her after roxy homestuck

[bluejaybytes]

hey does anyone want to guess what video game i went autistic for this year. any guesses. any guesses. any guesses-

[woundedheartwithin]

Yeah I’m an adult, but that doesn’t mean the edgy 14 year old that lives in my head doesn’t fucking love it when the people parked next to me come back to their car and look at me weird because I have the window down and Lorna Shore blaring