#which is my bad tbh. i didn't need to mention the needles. and then i did

[safyresky]

OOH GIRL I HAD A FUN IDEA!

I was thinking about random TSC characters if they had tattoos (which I hope to make my own post about eventually, another one added to the pile) AND THEN I remembered that one Jacqueline Frost exists and I wanna know if she would have any tattoos! What of? Where? Would any of your OTHER oc's have them?

Idk just a thought to roll around in your head. Cause it's certainly been pinballing in mine!

This pin balled in my head ALL NIGHT, I TELL YOU. ALL! NIGHT!

I asked Jacqueline and she had 0 reply so I was left on my OWN here. NONE of the characters were like, sups vocal about this. BUT ANYWAY after a good night's sleep and some pre-bed pin balling, I have a list of likely to get tattoos/want them at the VERY least:

Fino and Fiera deffs would. They probably would get something matchy for funsies at some point, somewhere like. Obscure?? Like their side or like, shoulder or like leg somewhere. Deffs a nondescript one! And probs just before they turn 2000 lol. (tho the image of two rather small 1200 year olds going HI YES 1 MATCHING TATTOO PLEASE is so fucking funny)

Fiera would get more tats than just that for sure, lol.

Blaise would tattoo. does he have any? Not that I'm aware of. But he deffs would

Jacqueline simply has 0 ideas for a funky little tattoo, so she has 0 plans for one/want for one/need for one. Part of me is like, maybe she'd tattoo her scars?? But I think she leaves them as is. She thinks they're neat. They're tinged blue. Nobody ELSE has scars like that (you can imagine how this makes literally every other Frost feel lmao. Except the Twins, they're like "yes girl get it!" Fiera more so than Fino ;) I could MAYBE see her doing one with Dite? But neither of them are like, screaming OMG YES WE HAVE ONE ALREADY EVEN so take that with a smidgen of salt

Winter would not tattoo, but her sisters would! Autumn would get smaller ones but deffs in full colour. Summer is like MY BODY IS A CANVAS LET'S GO! She'd have even MORE colours than Autumn. Spring is a basic bitch and probably has a basic tattoo somewhere like a butterfly or a flower or something. Like, a really stereotypical "I got a tattoo omg!!" kinda thing! I WILL SAY. If she got a phrase in another language, Spring would Spell Check That Shit 100%

If Blossom wasn't a bunny, she'd have tattoos (I don't want to think about the logistics for an anthropomorphic-ish bunny getting a tattoo)

Grand Witches deffs have tattoos. Both of them. What are they? Idk! But they have them!

In terms of other Legates: I think Charlie would get a tattoo >:). Xander is a solid maybe. He could go either way. Day MAYBE and Night DEFFS and his are cool. I bet they're silvery and look like they are made of moonlight (they may very well be!). I already covered Jacquie and Dite (Dite would probably get a tattoo! Doesn't have any that I know of presently but deffs would) Myles I think has a thing about needles so he probably wouldn't get one unless Olivia went with him for emotional support. Olivia would NOT get a tattoo, but probably has the best ideas for them!

Upon further reflection, Winter is not a tattoo person BUT. DEFFS KNOWS HOW TO GIVE THEM. I feel like that's an unexpected hobby she'd have and that she's probably really good at it, too.

I hope this adds a second pinball to your pinballing ;) Sorry there's no concrete like OH YES THIS PERSON WOULD DEFFS GET THIS!! I am very much camp Jacquie and Myles, in that I think tattoos are very cool but A) have no idea what I'd get/want for a tat and B) DO have a thing about needles and would not want to even ATTEMPT to get one, my needle thing is that bad.

[fearful-quartet]

So I've been listening to The Magnus Protocol, and managed to get my dad into TMA last year so he's now listening to Mag Protocol too. So last night we were listening in the car to the latest statement, and I was half-jokingly saying which fear the statement sounded like mostly, to which my dad starts talking about how he doesn't think these statements and the O.A.I.R are connected to the Fears at all. I'm gonna try to put a cut for anyone not caught up but here's how this led to a theory of mine:

So Lena said to Gwen that there's good and bad forces that need to be balanced, but she never said which side of that the O.A.I.R. is part of, if any. I was noting this when it hit me.

Every single Magnus Protocol Statement so far has been about misfortune coming around due to perceived fortune or a fortunate opportunity becoming misfortune.

Let's break this down ep by ep so you see what I mean.

Episode One: It's a little hard to figure out what the fortune is to the misfortune, especially since it's mostly getting us used to the characters and the overall setup of the show, but for the first statement I think it's not the statement giver, but the husband. Harriet (the one emailing) says he sounded excited in an unsettling way (I am assuming the "he" she is talking about is her husband since she doesn't mention anyone else). When she meets him, or what has him, she describes that he laughed and laughed. Her misfortune was his fortune, his joy.

The second statement in that episode of course is about the Institute, but by way of a bunch of spelunkers looking for something intriguing to discuss. I haven't quite figured out the connection here but I am sure there is one, even if it's through the characters (aka Sam) finding something within it.

Two: A lot easier to connect to this. Daria is finding joy through getting this tattoo that allows her to change how she looks and alter her appearance immensely (and grotesquely). Enough said.

Three: This statement is one that overall I just don't understand tbh, but I think it shows the opposite? As in the victim is experiencing fear and discomfort the entire time, but towards the end you'll notice he gets much more happy and calm about the situation.

Four: This is again easy, it's about a violin that needs blood but will give you amazing talent if you pay that price, and horrible bloodshed if you don't. Self-explanatory.

Five: The guy is trying to make a living off watching and reviewing horror movies, gets excited at a live showing of one just for him, then realizes it's not what it seems and posts everyone should see it. Easy enough. (Very Grifter's Bone in energy)

Six: The introduction to infamous new tumblr sexyman, Needles. I shouldn't have to spell out how he gets pleasure from others in pain by needles.

Seven: All I gotta say is it's "all for a good cause" and you should get the picture.

Eight: Utilizes that uncanny fear of false hospitality if you ask me, but either way this statement is clearly taking something associated often as comforting and twisting it.

Nine: The dice literally affect fortune and misfortune and likely make the statement giver into the embodiment of fortune. 'Nuff said.

Ten: Bonzo needs no explanation for this in his introductory episode so let's move on.

Eleven: This one goes more into obsession territory than anything, which is another running theme of the show and another theory, but it also talks about how the sea brings comfort so that could be part of it. (Also I noticed the sneaky possibly Dr. David reference in there lol)

Twelve: Now I know what you're gonna say, "How is this one connected to fortune at all, Cal? It's about some woman being traumatized at a strip club!" Well think about this: what if it wasn't supposed to end in Bonzo? Gwen gave Bonzo an "assignment," didn't she? And Lena pretty much outright says that this statement was that assignment. So it's possible this is what happened after stopping the initial outcome.

Thirteen: The latest episode as of typing this, and the most clear with evidence. The man literally gains a fortune from his own misfortune, so ya know it's right there.

So every statement is a good thing turned bad or a bad thing turned good. So what? Magnus Archives had plenty of statements similarly framed, so why am I focusing on it here?

Because what is the tagline for Magnus Protocol again?

Fear takes many forms.

[citrus-soda]

for fandom ask: 9 for ship ask: 10 with giroaki for character ask: 11 with kururu

...which characters I think should have interacted more in canon.

tbh i think we have similar ideas on this lol. Fuyuki and Kururu's friendship (or what we see of it anyway) is very cute. Fuyuki would LOVE to chat about anything alien / space related with Kururu. I also think Tamama and Kururu have the potential for a fun friend-dynamic as the two youngest on the team. They need to team up as the trendy youngins. I remember reading a fic where these two had to interact for most of it and i LOVED their dynamic. They squabble and bicker yet at the end of the day they do care about each other. Like hell theyd ever say so though.

For something you yourself didn't mention earlier... Well this kinda relates to the next question but i think its weird Giroro never had more interactions with Aki and Fuyuki. He LITERALLY lives on their property? He arguably would be seeing them all the time. fwiw Giroro and Fuyuki have a cute dynamic when they do interact at least. Giroro helping fuyuki be less of a indoorsy pushover is v fun. Sorry my GiroStepDad propaganda is poisoning me. uhm anyway. Next question!

Im putting the rest of this under a readmore it got long.

...rate the level of stupid they reach in their pining.

Giroaki pining.............. Ok well ofcourse Giroro is the top piner. He's so pine he's practically growing needles. He's got TONS of reasons why he should not be pursuing Aki romantically, and yet... he just can't get his mind off of her. If you sneak a look at any scratch paper that's been in his possession it'll probably have little hearts and G + A's on it. "Hinata Giroro" maybe if its REALLY BAD. He is cooked. If she pats him on the shoulder he's thinking about it for the next two days. And then feeling ashamed over his reaction for one more day.

He's a mix of lovey-dovey and feeling VERY guilty for the lovey-dovey!

"We are from different worlds and can never be, but also I'm daydreaming of you at least once a day" pining. Absolute clash of his principles and his heart. Loving her feels like spitting in the face of his entire upbringing. But why is it so wonderful anyway...? ( its because women are epic and you gotta ditch the military giroro. )

On the flip side I think Aki is pretty calm with the pining. This lady is BUSY she does not fucking have time to sigh and shuffle over some dumbass alien frog thing. Her pining is much less intense and comes as quickly as it goes. Maybe she sees Giroro being nice to her kids and she wonders what life would be like with him in it... I don't think she has any qualms over romancing an alien she seems cool like that. Her main obstacle is her busy work life.

...how well I actually understand them. Do they feel like a very vivid character to me or are they kind of bland and hard to get invested in?

Yeah Kururu is tricky for me. Most of what i get from him is from reading other ppl's character analyses lol. If you'd asked me a few months ago i would've said he was just a sinister silly guy. Which is all LIES apparently.

He's such a guarded character and it can roughly be implied that most of what we see of him is just a facade... So what's under that facade then? Does he seriously micromanage every single one of his interactions? Im the kind of person who SUCKS at crafting a facade and controlling my actions to reach a desired outcome, so I cannot wrap my head around him. He strikes me as very calculating... the kinda guy who knows more than he lets on. Wonder if he ever gets strained from the constant daily masking.

[lastoneout]

So! Good news and some bad news!

The good news is the migraine pain is still completely gone!! Which is very exciting!!

The bad news is I made a mistake bcs my pain specialist is a fucking asshole.

CW: for what I would absolutely consider to be fucking medical malpractice as well as mentions of medical procedures involving needles.

TLDR; please for the love of fucking god listen to your gut, don't let them give you shit you know you'll have a bad reaction to, and don't fucking go to the worst ER in the entire city when you have the completely predictable bad reaction to the medication they shouldn't have given you in the first place.

I do not react well to steroids, something I found out when I was getting nerve blocks done in my lower back. I end up with my heart rate at like 130 BPM for hours and hours, and I'm typically very irritable and shaky and tired, it's just a mess and it has absolutely landed my ass in the ER before. My old pain clinic was chill about this, and when I told them about my reaction they immediately switched from doing traditional nerve blocks(injecting a numbing agent and steroids around the nerves to numb them and give me pain relief for a few months) to performing diagnostic nerve blocks(just injecting the numbing agent a few times so I can see if that helps my pain, just to be sure we've got it right) and when those worked they did ablations to those nerves(sticking long needles down to the nerves that get hot at the ends to essentially burn off the nerves, giving me relief for like a few years or more, depending on how long it takes my body to repair the damage). This was fantastic and worked perfectly.

My current pain specialist is not super great at listening when I talk to him, and tbh I just don't really vibe with him at all. When I asked him if this procedure might help he went "yeah sure maybe" and handed me a piece of paper as he was literally walking out the door. He also didn't ask any questions or order any imaging, which my previous pain clinic did, just to make sure this was the right choice and everything was where it was supposed to be. So I called his assistant on the phone to let her know about the steroid issues and ask if they could offer any type of sedation(I have a debilitating fear of needles, during my other injections I had to be knocked out completely just to make sure I didn't freak out), and she assured me it would be fine, they don't knock people out completely, but could give me valium to help me calm down and they just wouldn't use the steroids. She just instructed me to get there an hour early, so I could bring up my concerns with the doctor and I would have enough time for the valium to kick in before the procedure, and to let the receptionist know I needed to go back sooner when I got there.

When I get there, however, the receptionist tells me I need to talk to the nurse about that, and I can do that when I go back. I go back much closer to the appointment time, and I know from experience valium in pill form takes like an hour or more to kick in for me(my body is just really fucking weird about absorbing certain meds idk) so I need that time to make sure I'm actually calm. When I tell the second receptionist about it she says to tell the nurse. So I go back and tell the nurse about this, and she brushes it off and tells me to talk to the doctor about it. I finally see the doctor way too close to my appointment time for the valium to do any good at all, but I still bring it up as well as my concerns about the steroids. He essentially tells me that there's literally no point in doing the procedure AT ALL if they don't use steroids, which I know from experience isn't true, so I ask can't this just be a diagnostic test and so we know if this is what's causing the migraines or not and then come up with a treatment plan that doesn't involve steroids, and he brushes that off and basically tells me that they can try doing a lower dose of steroids, but it probably won't be as effective. That's not what I asked, but whatever.

Now here's where I fucked up. I was in the ER Monday and Tuesday with one of the worst migraines I have ever had in my entire life. It lasted four days, two before I went in and then Mon and Tue, and while they did get it down to like a two, it hadn't even gone away completely yet, and that means it could rebound, and tbh I was in that "I would do anything if it meant making the pain stop" mental state. I don't make good decisions when I'm in that mental state. And I did have some steroids the night before in the ER and I didn't have a bad reaction to them, so I go ahead and say fuck it.

This was a mistake.

He also agrees to give me the valium, which takes the nurses like 20+ minutes to EVEN FIND and they end up having to go down to the hospital pharmacy to get some. By the time they come back there is absolutely nowhere near enough time for it to kick in, but I take it anyway and convince myself that at least by the time I get home I'll be on the fucking moon so whatever, and they say they can give me like 15 minutes or so.

They do another patient before me, but by the time they come back the valium hasn't kicked in at all. I felt nothing. They told me they were running out of time and either I would have to reschedule or just let them do it now.

I decide to just let them do it because again, migraine me is a fucking idiot. The needle part actually wasn't that bad, and the lingering migraine pain went away completely. There was a little swelling and soreness, but it didn't feel like my migraine pain. This was it, we figured it out, I know what's causing them now. I go home and am very happy.

The valium still hasn't kicked in.

However very quickly after I get home I start to feel extreme pain in the right side of my head and neck. Now I am one of those bitches with a really high pain tolerance, so pain bad enough to actually affect me is always Concerning. The injection site is swollen bigger and I literally can't even put an ice pack on it because ANY contact no matter how light is excruciating(like cloth brushing across it lightly made me want to break down sobbing, it was bad). My neck starts to swell a little too. I eat dinner bcs god dammit I want to eat dinner, but by the time I'm done moving my neck, chewing, breathing, and fucking TALKING all hurt. I am at an 8.5. We call the on-call doctor, it takes like an hour to get through to him bcs ofc it does, and he is like "oh yeah you need to go to the ER like right now" so I do.

Second mistake, I go to the ER in the hospital that I had the procedure done in. This is the worst reviewed ER in the entire city, and I've had so many bad experiences there I generally flat-out refuse to go there even though it's like a 3 minute drive from my house and the good ER is like 15 minutes away, and I tell all of my friends and family to also literally never go there unless they have no choice.

(For reference, once I brought my mom there with a huge open infected wound on her leg and they didn't see her all night, no one even helped her bandage it despite the fact that it was wrapped in a fucking plastic bag that was falling off, and she needed help going to the bathroom and the nurses refused. Apparently, some guy threw up on the floor while she was there and no one cleaned it up. The next morning we came back and took her to a different ER and they freaked out the second they saw her leg and admitted her right away, She was talking to a doctor within SECONDS and she was in the hospital for a fucking month. So yeah I generally don't go to that first ER bcs I'm pretty sure I could collapse in front of the triage nurse and start bleeding out on the floor and they still tell me it will be a few hours before anyone can help me.)

But fine we go there. By the time we roll in I'm at a 10. I can't move my body without being in pain. Walking hurts. Any adjustment to my upper body is fucking agony. I'm basically sobbing in pain. Other patients are staring at me.

THEY MAKE ME WAIT IN THE ER WAITING ROOM FOR FOUR FUCKING HOURS BEFORE CALLING ME BACK.

When they do call me back it takes like another 45 minutes for the doctor to even come to talk to me. Thankfully she does a thorough examination and determines that I'm just having a really bad reaction to the steroids, but it's not life threatening. She gives me some ibuprofen and tylenol and it helps take the pain down to a 6 so she sends me home. Which I agreed to bcs I hate it there and I just wanted to fucking leave. (There is a cancer patient behind me and he mentions that they wanted to admit him a week ago, but told him it would be a week before he could see an oncologist so he just went home. This hospital is fucking morally bankrupt.) I'm thankfully able to get lots of sleep once I'm home, and I'm only at like a 3 as I type this.

ALSO THE FUCKING VALIUM NEVER KICKED IN?? It's fucking conspiracy brained but given that the last time I took valium I was higher than I've ever been in my entire fucking life I'm not entirely convinced they didn't just give me some fucking ibuprofen or something. What the complete fuck.

Anyway, yeah. So that sucked. I have already called my neurologist to request an appointment and I am absolutely going to ask her to refer me back to my other pain clinic because after all that there isn't an amount of money in the entire fucking world that could convince me to see this fucking pain specialist again, and if she can't do it I'm going to ask my primary, and I will keep asking because again, I am not seeing that man again.

I'm also never taking steroids again unless it's a life-or-death situation. This is more than enough proof that my body just can't deal with them.

But hey at least I know what's causing my migraines now. So that's a win.

Yay.

I don't really know exactly why I'm posting this, I guess I just want to share my joy, but y'all...the nerve block worked. My migraine went down a little over the night so I was only at like a 1.5-2 but I swear to god the second they were done EVERY SINGLE PART of my stopped hurting. The only pain I'm feeling rn is at the injection site and a smidge in my jaw, but that's not a huge deal bcs I know the steroids take a long time to do their thing and I usually have pain around the injection site when they do this in my back, plus I did already suspect something like 10% of my migraines aren't entirely due to my neck, but like...it worked. It fucking worked.

I've been living with chronic migraines my entire life, and in the last five years, they've gotten so bad that I can't work and have to cancel streams and hangouts with friends all the time. I have migraines more days than I don't and I've never been able to find out what my trigger is aside from not sleeping well and eating lays potato chips(rip I miss them so much) or gluten or being on my period?? and on some days I'm in so much pain I can't even feed myself or shower. 8-10 is the norm, they don't go lower on their own, they NEVER go away on their own, no matter how much time I spend lying in bed in the dark with icepacks on my face. My migraine rescue meds don't always work, or they work for a day and then it comes back, and I seem to be fucking Immune(tm) to Excedrin and ibuprofen. All that together has legit been ruining my entire life.

And I am not even a little ashamed to admit that once they were done and asked how I felt I broke down sobbing in the exam room because it WORKED. Instantly. Years of pain and agony and no help from my doctors, of blaming a medical condition that treatment hasn't fixed, telling me to limit screen time and lose weight, forcing me to try 50 different medications none of which help, of spending long nights in the ER hoping they can fix me even though it's typically a 50/50 chance....and now it's over. I don't have to do that anymore. They fixed it. They fixed it.

I'm crying right now as I write this. I never thought this was possible. Like I believed that it was my neck and my doctors agreed, but I was so worried that this would all be for nothing, I didn't think it would work, I know most disabled people dream of finding the One Thing that's causing all their problems even though most of us never do, but I guess luck decided to smile on me this day, this is what's causing my problems and it's treatable. It's over. I found the path out of this hell and it was the right one. I don't even know what to do, what to say. I'm so happy I can't even be happy, all I can do is cry because the hardest part is over.

There's still work to be done, but the path is clear. And honestly @ any gods that are listening, please grant this to my fellow disabled people. They deserve to feel this, we all do.

[need1etail]

I have 3 questions about your AU! :) I'm a dummy and confused myself on some stuff, so wanted to ask before I got further haha

1. Has Witch replaced Tree completely in your AU or does he still exist, and maybe the cats will need to find him reason later (or even he gets a cameo?) for some reason? I like Witch, but grew fond of Tree after reading his novella and TBC. If Witch has replaced him, did you not like the extra-toed cat part of the prophecy? I just imagine them walking around with a buncha extra toes on their lil paws and a split face, making them even weirder-looking than Tree, so was wondering lolol!!

2. Who all were the cats Needle saw saving her? I just finished reading the chapter where the missing cats were found (wonderful writing...!) but got confused by who is who and where. Needle saw two white cats, a torbie, a gray tortoiseshell, and a brown tabby. But when I read the reunion chapter, we only saw Dawnpelt (gray tortoiseshell), Cloverfoot (gray torbie), Beenose (white), Pepper (black with white paws and tail-tip), Birchbark (beige), and Lioneye (yellow). Who was the second white cat and brown tabby? I know it can't be Snowbird (white) or Snakepaw (tabico), because Snowbird said she was wandering Twolegplace completely alone until she and Snakepaw found each other, and Snakepaw didn't mention being around others when she woke up. She just mentioned Witch helping heal her. Did someone who helped save Needle die? :(

3. Who all from former ShadowClan is still with the Kin? I know Slate is (confirmed he attacked Spark...! Asshole!) and Sleek was until she was exiled for failing to kill Needle (or so she says...I'm keeping my eye on you, miss gorlie!), as well as the cats mentioned in the prologue before Sleek set out to find Needle, but I'm lost on who else is there!

Sorry for all the questions 🥲 just curiosity!

Never apologizs for asking questions, I love them <3 and thank you so much 💞💞

1. Yes, Witch has replaced Tree <3 Tbh I just. Didn't like Tree and Violet's relationship as much as I liked her's and Zelda's, so, originally, Zelda was gonna replace Tree. But after a while I, too, grew fond of Violet and Tree's relationship. So I combined them lol which is why Witch is a brown (Zelda) and golden (Tree) chimera! At this point, i kind of wish violet were in a poly relationship with Zelda and Tree, but I. Really like Witch 😭 they're one of my favorite Warriors OCs I've made, even if they're a combo of two canon cats. So no, unfortunately, Tree will not show up in this rewrite since, technically, he is Witch. I like the idea of Witch having extra toes lol but it might not be said in canon. They are a strange lil cat I adore them <3

2. Sooo I messed up and I have to go back and fix that thank you for reminding me. It was supposed to be two black-and-white cats! Beenose and Pepper. While technically Bee isn't black-and-white, I will continue to call her that lol. You're right about everyone! The brown tabby was Marshstripe and he is a-okay :) i really hope i mentioned him in the chapter where the lost shc cats are found i wouldn't put it pazt myself for forgetting whdbxhxh. I always forget about Marshstripe I'm as bad as the Erins 😭 he'll show up in Needle's Light <3

3. As of the end of Stalking Darkness, it is only Spikefur, Slateclaw, Juniperfang, and Rippletail I believe! All the jackasses <3 they'll be acknowledged eventuay don't worry, just haven't had the chance yet 😭

[bitchfromtheseventhhell]

AU where Nymeria didn't come soon enough and Joffrey maimed (murdered?) Arya. What would've happened? How do you think the story would proceed?

well this ask is sure a punch to the gut so thanks for that.

but after that initial punch, i had fun with this.  my goal was to keep major strokes of the plot largely the same but to justify them with different characterizations that precipitate from this different scenario.  

this is also long bc i had fun so i’m putting it under a cut

trident:

arya: 

first thing’s first--i’m not killing arya.  sorry will not will never.

so let’s assume some maiming of some sort.  joffrey’s got live steel and is swinging it, so my guess is he’d hit either her arm or her abdomen.  

if abdoment, i’m going to assume a not deep strike/miraculously misses internal organs swipe--but one that bleeds a lot and one also that takes a while to recover from.  

if arm or leg, there’s going to be muscle damage depending on where he strikes. in any case--how that would affect her permanently i’m not sure.

ned: 

look ned was super fucked up by arya’s disappeareance to begin with after she fled the scene, my guess is he’s going to be even more fucked up by the fact of her being physically attacked.  can you imagine arya being brought back somehow covered in blood and the lyanna flashbacks he would have been having?  (especially if, given that arya disappeared for several days in canon, he may have already have been having lyanna flashbacks).  he’s really not going to be ok with any of this.  

while he can’t call for anything bad to happen to joffrey, i wouldn’t be surprised, actually, if he told robert he wouldn’t be hand, and then had robert cajole him back into it; i think he would likely break sansa’s betrothal to joffrey as well, or at least say that he was considering breaking it pending joffrey’s further behavior.  i think he’d want to believe that “children fight” but i don’t think he’d be willing to accept that “children fighting” = joffrey turning live steel on his daughter.

if they continue to king’s landing, my guess is that guilt would wrack him a whole heck of a lot.  if they turn back north, it’d probably be the same.  ned carries guilt really intensely.  for the sake of this au, i think they continue on south.

sansa:

sansa’s whole drunken experience on the banks of the trident is already 12 times of overwhelm for her.  agot sansa--and agot-sansa-i-sansa which oh hey here she is!--especially is someone who does everything she can to believe that things are good, right, fair, just, perfect, etc.  so there are two options for her witnessing joffrey swing and hit her sister with a sword:

blame arya for it--if she hadn’t gotten in the way and had just come to the wheelhouse with sansa the way sansa had wanted everything would have been fine.  

be immediately disillusioned by joffrey--seeing him for the cruel boy he is.

i lied there’s a third option which is some combination of the two but

i, personally, am leaning option 2 laced with option 3 but really more option 2 than anything else: why? because lady’s still alive coming out of all this since it was nymeria who attacked joffrey and if nymeria didn’t attack joffrey both wolves get to stick around.  since so much of the lady’s death symbolism is connected with the way that sansa engages with the truth and reality (among other things) but if lady’s alive that is a literal game changer for like all of sansa’s characterization. i def think it’s gonna be a “dragged kicking and screaming” kind of thing for sansa (see: secret option 3 maybe transitioning towards option 2), but i think it’s a major shock to the system: her perfect prince almost killed her sister because she tried to get him not to beat someone up.  like imagine nymeria snuggling and being all protective of sickbed arya the way that summer is of bran, and lady keeping them company because pack!!!!!! and suddenly you’re going to have a very different world experience for sansa within a game of thrones because her wolf is choosing her pack for her and is not being severed from her symbolically or literally. that’s a big deal.

let’s say that sansa’s betrothal is on hold.  let’s also remember that both lady and nymeria are alive and still with the party at hand.

lannisters/baratheons of a lannister vibe: 

my guess is that cersei’s furious with ned to begin with and believes whatever it is that joffrey tells her.  

i think joffrey, knowing he’s in deep shit, lies, and does a lot of blaming of arya, saying his same story that she and mycah set upon him with clubs.  i think he sticks to this story.  

because of this it’s likely that mycah is killed still.  which means that arya’s likely going to still blame herself for the whole situation; the difference is that i think that she’s more likely to get support from sansa out of this because lady’s alive and a lot of sansa’s lash-out was about lady’s death.

i bet nymeria’s not thrilled with joffrey, but stays close to arya (playing more defense) and i bet lady growls every time he lies and, as septa mordane points out, sansa’s “as willfull...as arya” when it comes to lady.  and while i do think she may well play that “i don’t remember everything happened so fast” card when people ask her what happened, i think that 1) ned being livid and potentially freezing her betrothal to joffrey and 2) lady growling all the time will keep the situation real for her.

but i think that there’s still a lotttt of love lost between lannisters & starks heading into king’s landing.  it’s got a different flavor to it.

king’s landing (and beyond):

ned:

i think, for the most part, ned’s political actions and moves are going to be similar.  he’s going to have a lot more open hostility for lannisters earlier on, but is also going to need to play it cool.  he’s also going to be tetchier with robert sooner (which may mean no hand’s tourney? since robert doesn’t want to alienate him and ned can really push down on that “your son attacked my daughter” thing.)  i think he is likely going to follow littlefinger down the road to hell as he does in agot, and is likely going to rat himself out to cersei, and is going to get iced.  i don’t think this will change in its grander arc though details of it will change.  the nature of his need to comfort arya will be different because nymeria will be there and she’ll be recovering from injury.  syrio might be more of an active “self defense for the daughter” and less a “welp my dad was a dick to lyanna so i guess i won’t be a dick to you and get you a teacher” move.

sansa: 

i think things will be rocky with joffrey for always.  i mean they’re rocky in sansa ii (when the hound walks her back and freaks her out; this might not happen in this au bc chances are lady’s enough of a guard for sansa, if the tourney happens which as i said maybe it doesn’t), but i think sansa’s wary of him because she has seen his violence and has had to live with the ramifications of it rather than being able to compartmentalize them away and blame arya for lady’s death.  i think it takes a long time (as mentioned above) for her to wrap her head around this, but it’s a very intense “life is not a song” thing for her earlier than it happens in canon.  my guess is that, rather than getting meaner to arya as time progresses as she does in agot, she’ll get easier with arya.  if life’s not a song, then she’s not “a lady in a song” at least not the way she thought she was at the start of the series and--lbr here--i think the fact that lady and nymeria are both present is going to drastically change the way that they engage because even if arya and sansa argue--which they will.  as i said this characterization is different but that doesn’t mean that what we started with goes out the window--the wolves are pack and i think that’s an odd point of clarity for both of them amidst the “wtf is going on” that is 1) king’s landing and 2) pre-pubescence on sansa’s part coupled with the privilege she has of being the elder sister and the conventionally beautiful one.

i think that “shit hits the fan” moment is going to be different for sansa’s character more than for what happens.  i don’t think she nec goes and tells on ned when he says he’s sending the girls north; this doesn’t change anything.  she and jeyne are held hostage; jeyne is sold to littlefinger; sansa has lady with her.

i hate saying this: i think lady isn’t going to survive king’s landing.  there’s no fucking way she doesn’t attack anyone who tries to hurt sansa, even if she’s the most docile wolf, and i think the first time she tries it ends her life.  this, like ned’s death, is going to be deeply traumatic for sansa, esp if wolf-dreams began happening for sansa.  

to me, the timing and the  nature of that death for lady is everything.  lady being killed in defense of sansa, rather than as collateral damage for something she didn’t do changes both sansa’s relationship with her death (ie she’s gonna hate lannisters even more intensely than she already did, and it’s going to be unequivocal, rather than her periodically blaming arya for it) and the symbolic nature of it.  it’s not ned giving lady a northern death, and changing drasitcally the nature of sansa’s connection with the north and with her stark identity--it’s reinforcing i think, given everything that’s going on.  they killed her daddy, they killed her wolf (and lbr here preliminary wolf-dreams are likely here which means ugh with lady dying), joffrey attacked arya, this is bad news bears.  i think she’s terrified of all this, but i think lady has a deeper influence (and she already has a deep one tbh) on sansa and rolling forward i think that just changes the nature of her growth.

this puts sansa’s situation--if not her characterization--back in line with canon.

arya:

first of all hi please imagine arya carrying needle with her always instead of keeping it hidden in her room because she’s scared but doesn’t want to be scared so she keeps needle with her because it reminds her of jon and if she has needle and nymeria she won’t be afraid.

because getting maimed with live steel will make her frightened but she’s determined not to be frightened but, being 9, she is frightened.

she throws herself into her syrio lessons.  i think that--given nymeria’s proximity--it’s possible that those’ll help kick off her wolf-dreams even sooner than canon because a lot of his teachings involve focus and mindfulness which is a lot of what jojen’s trying to get bran to do when he’s controlling summer; also given the sheer power of arya’s warg/skinchanging capacity hell yeah nymeria’s presence is gonna kick that off sooner.  

the challenge we hit with arya is going to be the same challenge we hit with lady: nymeria’s presence is gonna be tricky to navigate when shit hits the fan.  part of how arya is able to escape king’s landing is that she is able to hide and be a streetrat for a few days; that’s gonna be tricky when she’s got a direwolf.  the main solutions to that i’m coming up with are:

she does the rock throwing thing now rather than at the trident.  i think this is unlikely but it’s possible.

she has better control over her wolf than she expects and is able to get nymeria out of the city somehow.  this also feels unlikely, more for the “while i think arya may have some control over nymeria, i don’t think it’s this much control” sort of way.

the most likely is: that you have the goldcloaks finding the wolf, nymeria beasting the shit out of them because i have a sense that they’re freaked out by her and also she’s the literal head bitch in charge of this series, and escaping the city on her own.  i don’t think she goes far--the kingswood maybe at least initially?--but that leaves arya on her own so she can conveniently get picked up by yoren after ned’s beheading and then get boosted from the city.

what i think this means is that nymeria’s never toooooo far from arya.  i think that she’s wary of those around arya, but arya’s dreams have her “safe” and so maybe as arya’s making her way north, nymeria is doing the same.  i don’t think that nymeria is able to go and be at arya’s side again, but i think that--like in canon where she’s kinda helping arya out--she’s never toooo far, and does start her whole pack-building project.

tbh i think in asos they’d reunite??? which would change up arya’s going to braavos bc i don’t think she would if she had nymeria i bet she’d brave the wild and try to walk north to jon.

ok i’m tired and vaguely pleased with this upon a reread so i hope this all makes sense!