#yes Ned did die because of it

[elegantwoes]

What do you think would happened if sansa stayed in winterfell instead of going to KL?

I am gonna assume that you mean Sansa stayed in Winterfell, but the other things still happen? If so, then Sansa’s fate would be a hundred time worse. Theon had this nasty little thought about Sansa:

A pity Ned Stark had taken his daughters south; elsewise Theon could have tightened his grip on Winterfell by marrying one of them. Sansa was a pretty little thing too, and by now likely even ripe for bedding. But she was a thousand leagues away, in the clutches of the Lannisters. A shame. (A Clash of Kings - Theon IV)

Theon would absolutely try to use Sansa and if, by a miracle, she managed to escape him she would fall in the hands of a bigger monster: Ramsay and tv-show scenario would play out. If you look at it from this perspective Sansa was not wrong for not agreeing with the plan to go back.

[lightbluetown]

i saw some people say ed and zheng are master strategists while stede is just some guy with ridiculous luck, but i think that's unfair. sure stede's ideas are insane, but they fit the looney tunes ass universe of ofmd perfectly. they're mostly well-thought-out, well-executed and they showcase stede's strengths and growth! so allow me to talk about them:

1- ghost of the forest - 1x02

a fuckery™ before stede even knows what a fuckery™ is! this is amateurish and stupid in every way. he's not even threatening izzy with a real dagger-- that's a letter opener. does izzy actually believe that stede has a huge crew hiding behind the bushes? doubt it! but this weird little act is enough to establish stede as a (ridiculous) pirate figure to the legendary izzy hands and to accomplish his goal of taking a hostage back

2- lighthouse - 1x04

imagine coming up with the exact same idea at the exact same time as the most brilliant tactician of the seven seas! we don't know who came up with which parts of the plan (honestly it was probably mostly ed) but this is still bloody impressive

3- stark revelations - 1x05

stede's first big success! he uses his knowledge of the aristocratic world to get a shipful of rich assholes to destroy each other, but he's also showcasing what sets him apart from them: this plan only comes to fruition because stede talks to frenchie, olu and abshir as equals. as people he can learn from, as sources of inspiration

4- duel with izzy - 1x06

this one was absolutely unhinged, but its success was far from dumb luck. only stede could think of using a brazillian cherry wood mast and ed's weird stabbing lesson to win a duel, and that's what makes this plan so undeniably stede and brilliant

5- faking his death - 1x10

i love that he just had to "die" in the most dramatic way possible. a heroic fight (tiger), a realistic accident (carriage) and the most cartoony death in the book (piano)... not only is his triple-death able to convince everyone in barbados that he's dead for good, it also allows him to have closure with his family. it's filled with stede's ridiculous unique flair, but it's designed to be a fuckery™ through and through. ed would be SO proud

6- stealing jackie's indigo dye - 2x01

quick little stealth mission. did ricky manipulate stede into trying this out? sure. did ricky also ruin it? absolutely. but it was working until then! the swede isn't part of stede's crew at this point, but his respect for stede is what gets him to cooperate and risk his relationship with his beautiful wife. also, it's thanks to his love for fine things that stede immediately recognizes the value of "blue dirt"

7- prison break - 2x03

in my eyes no scene depicts stede's growth better than this one. knocking zheng's entire crew out with tea is the most stede thing out there, and this plan uses the cherry wood mast as well! this plan relies on stede's (unrealistic) tea knowledge, overly-fancy ship and ability to coordinate his crew. what makes it breathtaking is that he secretly sets this plan into motion while actively mourning the "death" of the love of his life. he's putting his life on the line to rescue ed's "killers" because he's emotionally mature enough to look at things from their perspective and forgive them

8- inciting a mutiny - 2x06

yet another brilliant plan that could only be executed by stede. this entire episode revolves around his idea of "turning poison into positivity" and here he, well, fights poison with positivity. stede captains his pirates with respect and care (best he can) which just so happens to be the opposite of ned. he exploits this and gently gets ned's crew to turn on him. he singlehandedly saves himself and his entire crew from a notorious pirate! oh he also literally invents walking the plank right after this

9- "it's only suicide if we die" - 2x08

okay, yes, this one didn't go that well (sorry iz). but it's not like ed, zheng or anyone else had any other ideas! stede's weird suicide mission, for the most part, worked. they needed to get through british soldiers to reach their ship and they did exactly that. if only they'd remembered to check if ricky had his gun... oh well, you live and you learn

sure, ed and zheng are legends and stede is a silly newbie with wild luck. but he's also quick-witted, creative, confident and brave! he's a damn good captain and he deserves to be recognized as a good strategist!

[rrcenic]

in the honor of my marvel obsession creeping back to me + my family being in disneyland and exploring avengers campus, have some ✨avengers incorrect quotes✨ as things my friends and family have said

a shit ton of these were conversations between @cissyenthusiast010155 and i lmao

-

peter: indulge in my child-like whimsy. buy me a web slinger

-

steve: is that an igloo over there??

peter: …it’s a hippie house?

tony: did you hear about the hippie states wife?

steve: why on earth is there a hippie house in the cars theme park?!

tony: babe. did you hear about the hippie states wi-

peter: what’s the hippie state?

tony: the hippie states wife is mississippi!

steve: what on earth are you talking abou-

tony: like,,, mrs. hippie?? mississippi?

steve: …

peter: …

tony: …

tony: i thought it was funny

-

tony: “i can do this all day”? that’s what she said

steve: SHHHHHH!!!

natasha: ooh, you’ve finally been shushed

-

loki: a kid ran in front of me and my reaction was “broken child!”

steve: wHAT?!

loki: i didn’t say it out loud!!!

-

scott: please sir, you don’t understand, if i don’t get my 20 dollar sunglasses back, my children will die

-

peggy: i support neil patrick harris being gay

natasha: peg, you’re a lesbian

peggy: yes, but i am an ally to his gayness

natasha: you are gay

-

peter: they should let me stay up late. because. if they don’t it would be…

ned: transphobic?

peter: YES

-

bucky: i smelled grass! and now i want some!

steve: you want to eat grass?!

bucky: absolutely

-

peter: and they were LAB PARTNERS

harley: oh my gawd they were lab partners

-

tony: i want shawarma

steve: i want to go to sleep

tony: it’s only 4 pm

steve: and?

-

steve: oh, this boba pearl is stuck in the ice…

bucky: just like captain america!

tony: aaaah, good one

-

mj: “what kind of girl do you want” a red one

peter: …

peter: are we talking about cars????

-

thor: i don’t understand the scientific physics

bruce: the what

-

peter: please bring back the cheese man

tony: that could really mean any of us

-

*at their first meet up in a while*

natasha: yknow, i’m just now being reminded of the fact that i hate half the people here

-

bucky: i hate will ferrell

sam: how can anyone hate will ferrell?!

bucky: well, i liked him in barbie

sam: and he was funny in the lego movie!

bucky: true, he was awesome in that

sam: oh, he was also megamind!

bucky: yes! i loved him with that

sam: you don’t actually hate will ferrell, do you?

bucky: …

sam: you just hate elf

bucky: …i just hate elf

-

steve: “rogers: the musical” can only be described as feeling like bad fanfiction

tony: isn’t it amazing

-

*playing heads up, prompt “avengers: civil war”*

peter: when! when the divorce!

scott: ant man’s first fight!

natasha: when everyone decided they didn’t like each other anymore!

-

harley: oh, c3p0 and r2d2 are a gay couple!

peter: duh??? did you just realize that???

[diamondperfumes]

When people argue that Barristan should have bluntly told Daenerys that she is a child of rape, are they genuinely motivated by Barristan making amends to Dany, or are they motivated by wanting Dany to spiral into darkness and hate herself and her family, to pave way for their theory that she should die to let the Targaryen name die?

I ask this because the biggest proponents of this line of argument, or other criticisms of Barristan (who yes, deserves his critiques, no doubt about it), don't apply this logic consistently.

Who will tell the Starklings that their grandfather, Hoster Tully, forced their aunt Lysa to abort a child and marry a pedophile who raped her, at the age of 16? Who will tell the Starklings that their father, Ned Stark, was best friends with a serial rapist and abuser, Robert Baratheon? That Ned Stark's mentor, Jon Arryn, was the pedophile their aunt Lysa married? Particularly because "Barristan served Robert, how dare he try to serve Dany" is one of the criticisms being levied at him––so should not the Starklings know that their father went south and signed their destruction warrant by serving such a man?

You see, if it's about "Dany has to confront the legacy of her horrible family," and "Dany should know that she was only conceived through rape and only exists in this world because her father raped her mother," then shouldn't the Starklings confront the direct role their family has played in aiding and abetting abusive, sexually violent, and predatory men?

Perhaps the logic is that unlike Dany, the Starklings have enough distance from the crimes of their father and grandfather. Or their father and grandfather shouldn't be held accountable to begin with. Theon comes to mind here, as someone who lived alongside the Starks during his formative years. Will those Starklings confront the reality that Ned Stark held him as a hostage, and would have killed him if Balon Greyjoy made the wrong move? Is that something the fandom consistently wants to see, as much as it bays to see Dany react to the knowledge that she was conceived through rape? Will this change how Bran feels about Theon's conquest of Winterfell and betrayal of the Starks?

Should Asha and Theon learn that Victarion murdered his wife to please Euron? That Euron likely raped Aeron? Is this something the fandom yearns to witness, for the Greyjoys to "confront their legacy?"

The only person who has to "confront her legacy" is Dany––the orphan with no family by her side––and this is fashioned through criticisms of Barristan with a fake concern for Dany. Absolutely, he should tell her the truth. Or someone should. But how should that truth be told? And what effect do you want it to have on Dany? Do you want her to know the truth so that she can be a better ruler, or do you want her to know the truth so that she can hate herself, and willingly be a corpse that the rest of the characters step on to see the dawn of a new day?

The proponents of this argument also believe that Rhaegar raped and abducted Lyanna. Who will bluntly tell Jon that he is a product of rape, if you believe that Rhaegar raped Lyanna? Should Jon confront his Targaryen legacy, or is he distant enough from it to not have to die to lay the Targaryen name to rest? Does anyone want to see his emotional state, or do they just skip to "Jon will reject his father and embrace the Starks?"

I'd much rather see Tyrion tell Dany the truth. Tyrion, who was born to a terrible father, like Dany. Tyrion, left to suffer under his elder sister's hands, like Dany was left to suffer under her elder brother's hands. Tyrion, who knows exactly what it's like to strive to embody your identity, all while knowing your family did not want you. Tyrion, whose mother died in childbirth, like Dany's. Tyrion, who is the embodiment of his father and his house, despite being hated by his father and family. Tyrion, who clashes with his family's values and goals. Tyrion, who remains proud of his Lannister identity in spite of it all. The very specific subjectivity of knowing that your father is a rapist, a horrible person, a tyrant, and knowing that you carry his name, is very specifically shared between Dany and Tyrion.

But I want Tyrion to be the one to tell Dany the truth about Aerys because I want to see mistrust evolve into shared understanding and empathy between them. I want it to be a moment of catharsis for them both, of relating to someone who is probably the only one in the world who knows the exact thing you're going through. The rest of you, however, want it to be Barristan, or Jaime, because if we're being honest, you want Dany to hate herself and spiral even more afterward, paving the way for "Dany dies to make the Targaryen name die" endgame.

[welikeimagines-andfandoms]

100 Random Prompts

1. “I fucking hate you, but I don’t hate fucking you”

2. "I get so hard when I'm around you. I've tried fucking other people and pumping my cock every night and yet my body craves you."

3. “How did you manage to hurt your hand this badly?” “Well I’ve never punched someone before, I didn’t realise how hard peoples faces are.”

4. “I love you and I hate you all at the same time.”

5. “Yeah, sometimes I get sad, but then I look into your beautiful eyes and it’s all better.”

6. “You like when I call you ‘princess’? Will you be my good little princess?”

7. “If you do this, I’ll show you my boobs”

8. “Has the fire revealed any secrets in the 15 straight minutes you’ve been staring at it?”

9. “Please don’t leave.”

10. “I’m here, it’s okay, no one will ever hurt you like that ever again”

11. “Guess we’re the only two idiots in the whole city stupid enough to go to a museum in the middle of a thunderstorm”

12. “You deserve to be looked after.”

13. “Give me a kiss, and everything will be alright.”

14. “I just want to die”

15. “We’ve got to hide!”

16. “Scream my name so everyone knows who fucks you this good”

17. "I'm sorry." "You have nothing to apologise for, darling.”

18. “Bend over, slut”

19. “Ned i postog a nin, ni bant” (When you lie beside me, I am complete)

20. *gets insulted* “aawww thank you.”

21. “Le i velethril nîn” (You are my love)

22. “A warrior out there, but in here, in this bedroom, you’re nothing but a little weak whore.”

23. “I just feel so drained.”

24. “What happened to you to make you so wise?”

25. “If I’m being mean to someone, I’m probably flirting.” “Is that why you’re always mean to (character)?”

26. “Thiol vae” (You look good)

27. “I just did it to make you jealous.”

28. “Stay nice and still for me, baby, just like that. Let me take care of you.”

29. “You know you sure do have a lot of teeth for someone so stupid.”

30. “They do realise I can understand what they’re saying, right?”

31. “Would you like to dance with me?” “only if you don’t get upset if I accidentally step on your foot”

32. “Fuck, I need you so bad!”

33. “I think it’s best I leave”

34. “I’ll never forget you.”

35. “How clever of an insult, and how quickly you thought of it. Very surprising for someone so dim witted.”

36. “I’m not afraid. Please touch me.”

37. “Of course you can stay.”

38. “I wish you well.”

39. “Come down here so I can kiss you!”

40. “Fuck, turn around for me, princess.”

41. “No gûn annin” (Bend over for me)

42. “You look so lovely on your knees, sweet boy.”

43. “You’re so pretty”

44. “What’s that?” “Trinket, I like trinkets”

45. “You deserve nice things”

46. “Our sweet girls pussy is so tight!"

47. “Take your shirt off!” “Why?!” “Distract them from the pain!”

48. “Darling I’m (hundreds/thousands) of years old, that isn’t vintage/old to me.”

49. “I’m doing this because I want to and not because you told me to”

50. “You belong here, in my arms, forever.”

51. “You lied to me”

52. “Borrow my jacket, keep it nice and warm for me”

53. “You look so divine when you dance.”

54. “You look lovely, Y/N.” “Please don’t lie or pity me so.”

55. “Le vaethor veleg” (You are a mighty warrior)

56. “Ni am gin anin lû hen?” (Can I be on top this time?)

57. “Stop fucking swearing”

58. “aran vuin” (Beloved king)

59. “I hope you don’t mind.”

60. "Those for me, sweet girl?" "Oh! It was gonna be a surprise but yes, yes they are."

61. “I love when you wear a skirt/dress, it’s so much easier to fuck you like this.”

62. “Life doesn’t feel so bad when I’m with you.”

63. “You don’t know a thing about me!”

64. “I failed them! They died and I failed them! It’s all my fault!”

65. “You’re such a little thing, and we can have you anyway we please.”

66. “Trust me, Y/N! (Character) likes you!” “Don’t lie to me!”

67. “Baby, tits arent supposed to be perky and perfect. They’re supposed to be soft and natural and beautiful like yours”

68. “I’m not your servant, I’m not your slave, but you could be mine if you like.”

69. “I know we don’t know each other very well but I’m really sick and I need you to pick me up from work, please.”

70. “It’s alright, my love, don’t be afraid, we’ll make it out together.”

71. “No, stay. You’re warm and soft”

72. “Trust me, I adore you.”

73. “Avo dharo!” (Don't stop!)

74. “You know I could kill you if I wanted to.” “Do it then, I really don’t care.”

75. “I might be little but I can still kick your ass”

76. “I just don’t know if I can do this anymore”

77. “Of course I will serve you, my prince/princess/king/queen/lord/lady.”

78. “You wouldn’t know anything about this (character), but it’s exhausting being this gorgeous, and I need a lot of sleep.”

79. “Its real cold tonight. You wanna come over and keep me nice and warm?”

80. “That sounded dirtier than I intended”

81. “You don’t have to be alright, you know”

82. “How can I love myself, when I’m so draining to everyone?”

83. “Please! I’ve been such a good boy/girl!”

84. “You just want to be used so fucking badly don’t you, sweet thing?”

85. “Please! I was a fool and I can not apologise enough! Please y/n…. Please….”

86. “Do you need a hug?”

87. “Come on, princess, hop on my back”

88. “What you makin’?” “Chocolate cake. You wanna help?”

89. “Don’t leave. Please?”

90. “Why do you always annoy me so much?” “Coz you’re sexy when you’re angry.”

91. “That’s better, isn’t it? You just needed to be filled with my cock”

92. “That’s the cutest sneeze I’ve ever heard.”

93. “Istog an challas perian maer” (You do know what hobbits are the right height for)

94. “Oh fuck, sweetheart”

95. “I’ll punch you in your stupid face!”

96. “Tonight I will be the powerful warrior, and you will be the tiny mortal beneath me. You will worship and praise me like the goddess I am.”

97. “Aaaaww! Aren’t you sweet!”

98. “Hey” “*flirting* Oh, heeeyy” “No! Absolutely not!”

99. “You don’t scare me.” “Yeh, but I bet I turn you on.”

100. “Are you going by to be good for me?” “Ye-yes.” “Good girl. If you do behave I’ll give you a reward.”

[stolaz-the-artist]

May you make a murder drones au of nexo knights Please 😢

MURDER DRONES SPOILER WARNING

I mean yeah, that's kind of obvious.

This Is gonna be a loooong post. Longest ask I've worked on.

I didn't need to make so many drawings but I had so much fun I just kind of had to.

im gonna do everyone a favor and kind of digitalize my writing under each page, just in case its hard to read.

Serial Designator C

"I don't know because you won't tell me!"

"Oh please don't run! if I miss it will just prolong your suffering"

"Oh i do wanna be dapper *sigh* but alas"

Clay: Are you . . . new drones?

Macy: Uh, sure?

Clay: Hm. . . Well I have been saying we need more bots

Serial Designator W

"C-100110010! HOW DARE YOU LOCK YOUR MOTHER UP!? You let me out this instant!"

"Wait . . . Prom queen?"

Lance: He's literally so ungrateful. Like you're so cool.

"How did you even manage to knock yourself offline?"

*Rebooting. . .*

"If the other one survived after all this time it's truly a miracle"

Serial Designator F (Fletch)

Post limb change

Him and Izzy are very close friends (She think its cool when its revealed he's a Disassembly drone)

Was "adopted" by two worker drones (That W killed in an attempt to get him back)

He's a bit taller due to his torso, but because his legs cant fully support him, he's constantly hunching

"Im so tired of this shit"

Gets called names like • Loose-limb Fletch

•Drop-A-Limbs

•Disjoint-Drone

•Snap-off Fletch

Fletch: WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?

Wanda: Literally barely anything. Just put the right limbs on

Wanda: Like what kind of idiot tried to connect Worker drone limbs to a Disassembly drone torso?

Macy Doorman

"Huh, knew illegal downloading all those Ned Knightly movies would come in handy"

"EAT PLASMA BITCH!"

Macy: One more buzzword and I'll do it

Jestro: . . . Equity Partnersh-

"Oh bite me"

Clay: Now im pretty new to this "Rebelling" stuff. But uh, do I have to fight my mom? Its just that-

Macy: YES!

Clay: sighhh Fine, lets do this

Aaron

"The hell happened to you?"

Aaron: So do you think they like video games?

Lance: Doubt it

Aaron: Then why are we here?

Lance: Blackmail

Aaron: Oh fair

One of Macy's best friends (And the friend she's had the longest)

"Super invited to my shindig next week"

Aaron, whispering: I mean, he's fun sized?

*sizzle*

Aaron, whispering: Ok so not fun

Macy: whispering: OH REALLY!?

Lance

Axl: Where's Macy

Lance: She went out

Axl: Out? Have she lost her mind?

Lance: Think so. Oh and Aaron went with her

Axl: Excuse me?

Lance: Yeah . .

Phone focus cuz tiny space

Wanda: This is so shit

Lance: I know right

Fashionista. Yes he knows there are non flip phones, he has one, but it just doesn't meet the same level of sass as a clip phone

Lance: Do you understand what will happen if you go out there? Let me spell it out; D-E-A-T-H! Are you out of your-

Aaron: I'll come lol

Lance: Yeah, no. You two gp enjoy dying. The hell you think this is, a shitty horror movie?

Axl

"Im gone for 5 min to get some actual edible snacks and everyone is dead!?"

Accidentally gave her the gun idea

Really fixated on food, spends a lot of time recreating food

His bigger legs make him a bit less flexible, but he packs a mean kick (home made)

Axl: There we go!

Lance: Aren't you worried someones actually gonna drink it thinking its actually edible- or drinkable I guess

Lance: But idk, people are pretty stupid here

Axl: Hm, no you're right

Decoration don't drink u'll die lol

Serial Designator J

"its tricked you! and if I promised you anything . . . It tricked me too . . ."

"Ha-ha! I-am so good-at-hiding!"

Is AD's most "trusted" worker (And with ,pst trusted I mean most easily manipulated)

Clay: What will the company do to us once we're done? How do we know the company wont get rid of us?

Jestro: Awh, im so sorry. You know the consequences of questioning the company

*virus*

Clay: Hm, fair enough

Monstrux

Merlok

Absolute Destruction

"The flesh demands invitation"

"Dropped this-silly"

Pre-skinning Merlok

Robot view

Monstrux: You look g-great, toots! hm . .

Monstrux: Have you considered a hat-tho

~*~

There's a few extra sketches I did for fun lying around, and if ya'll want that (plus the story line of what's happening) just tell me I would include it here but this is painfully long enough

(Oh and all relationships are kinda neutral here. They don't entirely line up with the show. Ship whoever I don't care)

Anyways, this took weeks to make (cuz of studying and the fact I got sick in the middle of it) but im rather happy with what I have came up with!

Always feel free to make asks like this! I enjoy them a lot! might take a while for them to come out cuz of school but I'll do my best!

(Also I'm aware some are a bit out of character, it was for comedic purposes)

[atopvisenyashill]

I'm going to say something really controversial as a Lyanna stan and Rhaegar hater: my problem with Rhaelya is not the age difference. Yes, Rhaegar was an adult and Lyanna was not. Even by Westerosi standards. I am not saying people can't get pissed about that. But personally, my issue with Rhaegar stems for the fact that Rhaegar was already married, so he could not offer her marriage, unless he wanted to commit polygamy, which is a sin in the eyes of both the Old God's and the new. If Lyanna had lived, she would be relegated to the role of mistress at best. I mean, it's not Elia is just going to drop dead. For all the talk of her supposed frail health, she survived childbirth twice.

Rhaegar also didn't do whatever he did with Lyanna in public. He instead took her away from her home, family, friends, the court, and locked her in his tower to die birthing his prophecy child.

Even if Elia died, and he married Lyanna, it's not like her son could be king over Elia's without inciting civil war. And even if Elia and her children too died, I don't think the public would take kindly to all this convenience of royal deaths.

(I want to state here that i do not want Elia or her kids dead. What happened to her and them in asoiaf is a great tragedy.)

And what about the fact that his father murdered her father and brother? And demanded her other brother's head? And Ned barely survived being murdered by the kingsguatd acting on Rhaegar's order?

Safe to say, age is not the only thing standing between a Rhaegar x Lyanna love story.

Okay anon, so the thing is....all those issues....they stem from the age gap!

He's already married because he's a lot older than her. He has the political power to convince the Kingsguard to help him kidnap her because he's old enough to be a political player in a real way (whereas a 14 year old would be less so - look at Joffrey!). He isble to convince her to go on this hare brained plan that gets her entire family killed because he's older than her and more mature. This is what I mean by "age informs the dynamic." The reason Rhaegar can do all this stuff is because he has more power, more privilege, and more life experience than Lyanna, because he is older.

All of those things are very valid reasons and they're things I rail against a lot - there's just no way to handle Lyanna that doesn't make her and Jon look bad at court with the way he goes about things, he completely sets them up to fail, then potentially keeps her trapped in the tower while he wages a war his father helped escalate by murdering her brother. There's a lot of sutff that leads me to believe that Rhaegar is concealing a lot and Lyanna is not as willing as she might have been initially, yes, but a lot of why their dynamic is so off is because of the age. If Lyanna was older, more sure of herself, of her place in the world, had more agency, more life experience to let her know that what he is saying is not adding up to protection for her, this dynamic would not exist the way it does. It exists this way because Rhaegar leverages his maturity and experience over her, and uses her immaturity against her.

[rise-my-angel]

hi! i wanted to get your opinion because i admire the way you write these characters and you're so knowledgeable of the lore.

do you think robert actually loved lyanna or do you think she was just something he felt he was owed? like a prize that was taken away from him by someone else rather than her being her own person.

keep in mind i've only ever seen the show but his behaviour always struck me as obsessive rather than a man truly mourning "the love of his life."

i also don't see lyanna liking robert as 1) he was much older than her right? and 2) arya was a lot like her right? so she was a free spirit and wanted to learn and fight and not be a lady and robert doesn't strike me as someone ok with that in a wife. 3) robert's always been a whore so even if he did "love" lyanna he wouldn't be faithful regardless.

i know ned loved robert but he too saw the type of person robert was (and became after the war) and i don't see ned being truly comfortable with him being with his sister.

anyway i just have a lot of feelings about lyanna even tho i don't know much about her (i've just started the first book!) and i feel for her because girls are never allowed to just be girls. men always ruin everything with their wars and their egos and it's always the women who suffer, especially in game of thrones.

i think often of what it would be like if she lived and how horrid her future would be because of men in her life especially if she still gave birth to jon. she didn't deserve to die but maybe death was a kinder fate.

So interestingly enough, Robert in the show actually provides a lot more interesting perspective on this. Robert in the books is a lot more blatantly dislikable and unsympathetic, but the show provides us a new version of Robert that is actually as tragic as he is pathetic.

The simple fact of the matter is Robert didn't really know her. Robert liked the idea of Lyanna, but because she was gone so early before he could know her, he doesn't actually have a memory of her that is solid and concrete. He only has the memory of the idea of her, and he can only mourn that. So as the years go on, by the time we meet him, he has really nothing left but those scraps of a girl he hardly knew.

It's more explained in the books, but Lyanna did not like Robert. She didn't like he got around so much he had bastards yet was betrothed to her, she didn't like the fact that she knew he would be unfaithful, and clearly did not wish to marry him. Now Ned did try and tell her otherwise because partially yes Robert is his friend, but also because Ned knows he has no control over that marriage and would rather try to make his sister feel better and say maybe it will get better then just tell her what a miserable life shes in store for. Ned wanted to give her hope rather then give her literally nothing.

But Robert in the show is much more interesting, because he in the show, knows exactly what he's turned into. Robert in the show is smart, we see in the way he senses war coming, the way he understands what would happen should the Dothraki invade and in reterospective he was right about getting rid of the Targaryean threat early on before they slaughtered the people of Westeros. We struggle to see he's right though because both what we know about Jon and how that influences Neds responce to all this, and also his passion for his own hatred is off putting, but he's right, he's smart and he knows he is washed up from his own hand.

But Robert too, knows hes pathetic. He knows he has given himself no life to value now, so all he has is the past to cling onto. It's why he cannot give up Lyannas memory. She died before he had the chance to know her as a person and thus his memory of her loss is shrouded in the falsehoods he painted about her.

There's this scene he has with Cersei discussing her, and it's why I think Robert both does and doesn't love Lyanna, it's also one of the most emotionally honest scenes in season 1 from Robert of all people:

"You want to know the horrible truth? I can't even remember what she looked like. All I know is she was the one thing I ever wanted. Someone took her away from me, and Seven Kingdoms couldn't fill the hole she left behind."

Robert is trapped at Lyannas loss. He has never moved on, and he still mourns her as if right in that fresh memory. But he also knows he has so little of Lyanna that he barley has her image in his head, all he has is the memory of loss. It's pathetic and he knows he's pathetic because he laments with shame to Cersei just after this that he never could've loved her in Lyannas place.

He loves the memory of Lyanna rather then her, but Robert in the show is more sympathetic about it. Him saying Seven Kingdoms couldn't fill the hole she left behind is such a good line. He's saying being King did not fufill that loss and thus nothing at this point ever will. He's admitting being King was not a solution to trauma but he knows no other way anymore.

Now would she have been happy with Robert? No. I don't think Lyanna wanted to marry at all, or at least at that age she held no interest in marriage. She was wild and fun and passionate about her people, her brothers, her friends. She wanted to be a girl who still had time to live her passions and maybe pursue something more to her duties as a highborn girl later in life.

Now, some people think Ned would never have stepped in on Lyannas behalf with Robert, but no. Ned hid Lyannas son from Robert, which considering who the father was, that act by Ned could've been considered treason for Jons whole life. Ned does not value Roberts friendship or his loyalty to Robert over Lyanna. And some people equating how Ned handles Cersei to how he'd handle Lyanna is wrong.

Ned KNOWS Cersei is the enemy. Ned KNOWS Cersei would rather see him dead then what she's built up dismantled. Ned feels for her abuse at Roberts hands but will not step in because Cersei has given him no reason to be loyal to her more then his oldest friend.

But Ned cared more about Lyanna then Cersei and more about Lyanna then Robert.

Some people think Ned wouldn't have intervened if Lyanna suffered with Robert but thats not true. Ned hid the biggest secret Robert would've killed for, from him even beyond Roberts death. If Ned wouldn't have stepped in for Lyanna against Robert, he wouldn't have taken Lyannas son in as his own and hidden him from Robert his whole life.

Ned also DOES push back against him. Talks him out of stupid ideas, tells him off, quits being Hand of the King (which too is actually about Neds own fear about Robert learning the truth of Lyanna and Jon, its actually not about Dany at all). Ned clearly does not put Robert ahead of his family until he is given no choice but to stay and serve him. Robert all but orders him to stay in Kings Landing, which even then, Neds plan is to still send his children home even when he couldn't go with them.

I can't say for sure if Robert would've treated Lyanna the way he did Cersei, but I don't think it would be like that. He'd still be unfaithful and hostile, but he hates Cersei partially because he was forced to marry a woman soon after losing Lyanna. He resents Cersei for not being her.

If he married Lyanna I don't think he'd mistreat her the way he blatantly does Cersei but no, it wouldn't have been a happy marriage. But I don't think the degree of abuse and marital rape would have occurred the way people think it would've.

Robert and Ned both do not value Cersei's life the way they both valued Lyannas, and thus the way she'd be treated or protected would be vastly different then how both of them separately handled Cersei.

Robert in the show is more tragic then he is hateable. He didn't know Lyanna and cannot move past the trauma of how she left this world. But in the show, he knows that and he knows he's pathetic for it. Now, what would've happened if Lyanna still gave birth to Jon but lived?

Thats a harder thing to hide. I think Ned still would've done the same thing, still lie and claim Jon as his own son, but would've done everything he could to ensure Lyanna does not marry Robert so she could stay in Winterfell with her son.

The question comes down to, would Robert treat Lyanna and Jon the way he tried to do with Dany when learning she was pregnant. And I don't think I can say conclusively one way or another. Clearly Ned is terrified that the answer is yes, and thats why he quits and desperatly tries to leave the captiol with his daughters. He's terrified of this reaction not for Danys sake but because hes realizing that Roberts love for Lyanna STILL would not protect Jon. He tries to leave the captiol because hes terrified that his best friend would murder Jon if he learned the truth even now, and is living in a trauma asking himself if he'd have killed Lyanna too.

But how Robert would handle Lyanna if she lived, objectively, I do not know.

Robert would try to kill Jon, but would he really harm Lyanna? It's impossible to say. But Lyanna should've lived no matter what. Rhaegar kidnapping her and she survived childbirth, or if that scenario never happened, I fully believe Ned and his brothers would've stepped in if Lyanna was mistreated by Robert. Brandon literally rode to Kings Landing to confront Rhaegar to resuce his sister, had he lived, at the least, Brandon absolutely would've stepped in on Lyannas behalf since he has no emotional attachment to Robert. And I fail to see why Ned would put his friend over the sister he literally risked everything for.

The Starks protect each other. If Ned wasn't willing to side against Robert on his sisters behalf, he never would've hidden Jon from Robert in the first place. He protected Jon because it was his final way of protecting Lyanna.

In the books, I think theres more of an argument to say Robert would've mistreated her, but in the show? I cannot say yes or no, Robert Baratheon in the show is a completely different version of this character.

And I think show Robert is a lot more sympathetic then haters of book Robert will give him credit for. Which I can say, because I, a fan of show Robert actually fucking hate Robert in the books. Get away from Cersei you abuser, I know she's crazy and evil but hiss hiss bite bite.

But really that one line I quoted earlier tells me that he has always had a soft spot for Lyanna, and he knows that being King didn't actually help him move on. In his own way he loves Lyanna, but the way he loves her is just different then the people who are Lyannas actual blood. The same is true for Robert, Ned, and even without realizing so directly, Jon too.

Seven Kingdoms couldn't fill the hole she left behind.

[esther-dot]

Cat was supposed to marry Brandon only for him to die brutally by the hands of king. Shortly after she married to Ned only for him to leave for war against the king. How much terrified she would have been especially when she became pregnant? One thing after is happening and it's like she didn't get the time to process.

Absolutely. Having an heir was important, the books press on that issue a lot, so on the one hand, it had to be a relief to potentially be having the Stark heir, but it was right in the middle of so much chaos and trauma. Cat's entire life is marked by being forced into difficult situations without ever having a choice in the matter. There's a lot of pain in this passage,

When the last of Edmure's foot had shuffled under the portcullis, Brienne asked, "What shall we do now, my lady?" "Our duty." Catelyn's face was drawn as she started across the yard. I have always done my duty, she thought. Perhaps that was why her lord father had always cherished her best of all his children. Her two older brothers had both died in infancy, so she had been son as well as daughter to Lord Hoster until Edmure was born. Then her mother had died and her father had told her that she must be the lady of Riverrun now, and she had done that too. And when Lord Hoster promised her to Brandon Stark, she had thanked him for making her such a splendid match. I gave Brandon my favor to wear, and never comforted Petyr once after he was wounded, nor bid him farewell when Father sent him off. And when Brandon was murdered and Father told me I must wed his brother, I did so gladly, though I never saw Ned's face until our wedding day. I gave my maidenhood to this solemn stranger and sent him off to his war and his king and the woman who bore him his bastard, because I always did my duty. (ACOK, Catelyn VI

And then after losing her fiance, marrying a stranger who might be on the losing side of the war --terrifying prospect--and who might die, she has his child, goes home to a place in a region that's unknown to her, only to find he's installed his bastard there before his true born son, the son she bore him,

He did more than that. The Starks were not like other men. Ned brought his bastard home with him, and called him "son" for all the north to see. When the wars were over at last, and Catelyn rode to Winterfell, Jon and his wet nurse had already taken up residence. (AGOT, Catelyn II)

Trauma, terror, trauma, terror. The things she could have thought that implied! I totally agree she didn't have the opportunity to process any of this. I don't think Ned processed his trauma either. I was really struck by Brandon's presence in their marriage all these years later. Even though they've come to love each other, Ned can't seem to move past his insecurity and guilt, he's living a life that was never meant to be his:

Brandon had been twenty when he died, strangled by order of the Mad King Aerys Targaryen only a few short days before he was to wed Catelyn Tully of Riverrun. His father had been forced to watch him die. He was the true heir, the eldest, born to rule. (AGOT, Eddard I)

She finished for him. "… crown prince, and heir to the Iron Throne. And I was only twelve when my father promised me to your brother Brandon." That brought a bitter twist to Ned's mouth. "Brandon. Yes. Brandon would know what to do. He always did. It was all meant for Brandon. You, Winterfell, everything. He was born to be a King's Hand and a father to queens. I never asked for this cup to pass to me." "Perhaps not," Catelyn said, "but Brandon is dead, and the cup has passed, and you must drink from it, like it or not." Ned turned away from her, back to the night. He stood staring out in the darkness, watching the moon and the stars perhaps, or perhaps the sentries on the wall. Catelyn softened then, to see his pain. Eddard Stark had married her in Brandon's place, as custom decreed, but the shadow of his dead brother still lay between them, as did the other, the shadow of the woman he would not name, the woman who had borne him his bastard son. (AGOT, Catelyn II)

Neither was able to fully process and move past the trauma their marriage was created by and in. That tragic context for their relationship makes what it became so much more beautiful though, and this passage, all the more touching:

And was it really such a terrible thing, to want a pretty wife? She remembered her own childish disappointment, the first time she had laid eyes on Eddard Stark. She had pictured him as a younger version of his brother Brandon, but that was wrong. Ned was shorter and plainer of face, and so somber. He spoke courteously enough, but beneath the words she sensed a coolness that was all at odds with Brandon, whose mirths had been as wild as his rages. Even when he took her maidenhood, their love had more of duty to it than of passion. We made Robb that night, though; we made a king together. And after the war, at Winterfell, I had love enough for any woman, once I found the good sweet heart beneath Ned's solemn face. (ASOS, Catelyn V)

Not merely a good heart, a sweet heart. Not merely a survivable marriage, but love.

[ironspiderfics]

hush little spider

by @iron--spider for @whimsicalethnographies

~

Tony dreams of clouds.

 No, a bubble. A bubble that’s wispy and purple and green and he’s inside it and he’s floating and it’s hard to breathe. The world outside warps and they can’t hear him. He’s high above New York and he’s a spectacle but they still can’t hear him.

 He opens his eyes just the slightest bit and sees Pepper already dressed. He groans, and she laughs in that breathy way that she does and she leans over and kisses his cheek.

 “No,” he grunts, still half-asleep. “Nope. Canceled. It’s canceled, I’m canceling it.”

 “I’ll be back tonight,” she laughs, kissing the corner of his mouth this time. 

 “Pete’s still here, right?” Tony asks, struggling to keep one eye open. 

“Yeah,” Pepper says, stuffing a few things in her purse. “He and Ned—actually fell asleep in the lower lab, something I’ve never seen anybody else do—ever—how strange…”

 Tony snorts, closing his eye again. “Only the occasional…similarity…”

 He hears her zipping her purse, and she kisses his cheek again. “Sleep in—sleep in for once in your life.”

 He turns his face into the pillow. “We’ll see,” he says, not anticipating sleeping any later than seven or eight, because the only times he does that are when he’s nearly been killed or some shit. Maimed beyond repair. Worrying about Rhodey so much he passes out, recovering from watching Spider-Man nearly die, things like that—

 But sleep is already dragging him back down again, as if it wants him, as if it’ll let him stay a while.

 And he dreams again. Dreams about almost losing his left arm, and his dream morphs reality and his false worries together like bad patchwork—arm, no arm, iron arm, half an arm, iron man, no arm, arm—he sees himself in bed he sees himself hobbling around he sees the line of suitors outside his door, all the people he knew loved him, all the ones he thought didn’t, everyone ready to start over with no qualms no teams no past mistakes, and he can hear his own voice strung up like Christmas lights saying it wasn’t just me. It wasn’t. But they’re here for him. They’re here to thank him. Here to comfort him. 

 His dream is a flipbook of that time—things that happened twisted with things that didn’t, the kid saying he wasn’t going on that Europe trip and Tony’s secret relief, Pepper scaling the side of the newly acquired tower, which was re-acquired but definitely not scaled, at least not by her—Happy starting to date May, yes, and Tony sees an array of dates he never saw but some he heard about, and the twenty-two or so pizzas feels fake, too. 

 His dreams are wacky sometimes—most of the time—and this feels like a play, almost, and he’s the only audience member, and he feels like something shuts down—

 And there is a stage. Shakespeare in the Park, and he’s standing in the rows of hard chairs and Peter is on the stage alone. 

 “Pete?” Tony calls to him. “You okay?”

 “I’m playing Hamlet,” Peter says, and he’s wearing a top hat.

 “You’re not supposed to say that in a theater,” Tony says, even though they’re not really in a theater, because he can see the sky. The stars. There’s grass under his feet.

 Is that right? Hamlet? Not allowed? Is it him that’s not allowed? Dreams are wrong. Dreams are facts that aren’t facts.

 He hears something shutting down. The wind stops and all the trees go still. 

 “Did you hear that?” Tony asks, glancing up at Peter again. 

 Like a computer shutting down the wrong way. He heard it plenty of times in college, in his many impatient moments. 

 It sounds like it’s everywhere. In his ear canals.

 “Pete, did you hear that?” Tony asks, starting to walk down the middle aisle. 

 Peter looks at him, and shakes his head, and he’s standing under a spotlight now. “I don’t hear anything,” he whispers.

 ~

 Tony startles awake, and the air feels stale.

 He can tell the power’s off immediately.

 He says Friday.

 Except he doesn’t say it.

 He looks around, eyes narrowed. The room is dark, the blackout shades still enabled, and he says Friday again, except he doesn’t say it. 

 He sits up in bed, his heart hammering. He rubs his throat a little bit, and tries to clear it. He can hear that, and he does it a few more times, and then he says Friday, but still, he doesn’t say it, the word doesn’t come out, his mouth moves and he shakes his head and tries to enunciate but still, no word, just silence.

 He sucks in a couple frustrated breaths, and he pulls himself over to the bedside table and picks up his phone. 

 It’s dead. He tries to turn it on again and it’s dead and it’s fucking plugged in, and still, dead, and he unplugs it and tries to turn it back on, two, three, four times, and then he’s tossing it onto the bed and leaning back against the pillows. 

 He stares off. He feels insane. Maybe he’s still dreaming.

 He pinches his arm and puts that to bed, and his heart starts speeding up again. 

 He closes his eyes. Tries to calm down. 

 He says Friday. 

 But he doesn’t. He doesn’t say it.

 His voice is gone.

 He can’t fucking talk, the power is out and his phone is dead. 

 And he’s not sick—he wasn’t screaming, there’s no reason for it—

 This is an attack. It has to be. 

 He runs his hands over his face, heaving a sigh, trying to—catalog things in his head. 

 Why did this happen who did it is he still here what’s been compromised how did he do it is he more than one person and if so how many can they turn on backup power without their voices can they get out of the building easily or are they trapped who is inside right now who stays here overnight who was still working who could have—

 Shit. He says it, but he doesn’t say it, because…because. 

 How the fuck—

 Peter is here. Peter and Ned.

 Tony wants to curse and shout but he gets out of bed and moves for the closet.

 ~

 Peter wakes up to someone hitting him. He narrows his eyes and sits up from his very uncomfortable sleeping position on the workbench, and Ned is hitting him and hitting him and hitting him.

 It’s dark in here, he can barely see, what is going on—

 Peter says hey but the word doesn’t come out, and Ned hits him and hits him and hits him again. He’s not hitting him with any real force but he’s like a very panicked butterfly, and Peter tries to say his name but that word doesn’t come out either.

 He clears his throat but before he knows it, Ned is grabbing his chin.

 Ned’s mouth is moving very fast, but he’s not making any words either. He points to his own mouth and then Peter’s mouth and he shakes his head. He lets go of Peter and walks over to the desk and picks up both of their phones, holds them up and wiggles them around, and puts them down again. He points to the computers and the workstations and makes an X with his arms, and Peter stares at him. 

 Peter tries to say Ned but nothing comes out of his mouth but air. 

 Ned glares at him. He points up at the ceiling and he covers his eyes, and he does that three times. It feels like a really weird game of charades.

 No lights. No power. Phones off too…

 A little bit of fear creeps into Peter’s gut, and he sucks in a breath. He tries to say hello hello, but it doesn’t work, and Ned throws his arms up and they hit his legs. 

 Peter does it back at him.

 They stare at each other in the darkness.

 This is bad. Tony is here somewhere and Pepper could be too—and a bunch of other people probably—

 He needs Tony’s help, Tony can figure this out, they can figure it out together—whatever it is—

 Peter swallows hard and puts his fingers together to mime writing with a pencil. Ned just stares at him, and Peter widens his eyes and does it again, with more dramatic flair, and he starts searching through the desk. He doesn’t know the last time he’s seen Tony actually write anything down. 

 Ned is still just standing there and staring at him, so Peter huffs a sigh and slams his arms down on the desk and makes a very exaggerated scene of pretending to write, and Ned sort of goes oh without saying it, because—they can’t, for some reason—and he starts to help him look through the drawers. 

 Ned nudges Peter with his elbow. Peter nudges him back, and they’re sort of pushing back and forth for a second like they’re five years old at the watercolor table and not two adults in a situation. 

 Who the hell could do this? What is going on? How could someone steal their voices?

 They look for five minutes before they find a stash of paper and a few pencils in the desk by the wall. The dark is starting to hurt Peter’s eyes, and Ned snatches a piece of paper out of his hand, and Peter scoffs and throws the second pencil at him.

 They both hurriedly write out their messages. 

 Peter holds his up.

 WE NEED TO FIND TONY AND WE NEED TO SEE IF WE CAN GET OUT OF THE BUILDING AND WE NEED TO SEE IF THE TECHNOLOGY SITUATION IS AFFECTING MY SUIT THE ONLY ONE I HAVE HERE IS THE NEW SCARLET SPIDER ONE TONY AND I WERE WORKING ON AND IT’S IN THE LAB ON LEVEL 14 SO WE ALSO HAVE TO CHECK OUT THE ELEVATOR SITUATION AND SEE WHAT IS GOING ON FROM THERE AND THE LIVING QUARTERS ARE ON LEVEL 42 SO WE ARE REALLY IN A SITUATION AND WE HAVE TO BE CAREFUL WHEN WE LEAVE THIS ROOM BECAUSE ANYTHING COULD BE OUT THERE SO JUST STAY BEHIND ME

 Ned stands there and squints and reads the whole thing. He steps a little closer and finally finishes, nodding, and he swallows hard.

 He holds up his paper.

 so this could be aliens

 ~

 Tony doesn’t like not being able to use his voice. His voice is his greatest weapon, and one he uses often, in every situation, whether he’s quipping at a giant purple asshole trying to bring the world to its knees or bargaining with Pepper about the need for cookie dough ice cream. 

 And he keeps forgetting he can’t use it, and he keeps almost yelling out as he surveys the halls—empty, mostly, up here, because he guesses the kid stayed down in the lab all night with his buddy. Rhodey is supposed to show up tomorrow, and Happy might have been out of the tower already before whatever the hell happened…happened…and Natasha is in Chicago with Clint and his family and Thor is still off-world and Steve is in Brooklyn for that anniversary thing—Barnes and Wilson might be here, somewhere, maybe. They’re here sometimes. Tony really needs to get better at keeping up with who’s here and when. He knows Friday knows, but Friday is out of commission, and whatever the hell is going on with his voice is keeping him from resetting her and the system.

 Purposeful. Smart. Too smart. 

 He arrives at the main stairwell and sees—it’s caved the fuck in. Like a controlled explosion, and he can’t go down or up, and he peers over what’s left of the railing and sees a few of the other stairwells look the same.

 Who the hell is blowing shit up in here and he didn’t hear it? How would he not hear that? 

 He wants to say shit and he tries but he fucking can’t and he rushes over and hits the wall next to the elevator instead. Not even hard enough to make a dent, and he sighs and presses the button a bunch of times. He knows it won’t work, but he does it anyway. 

 And then the whole building groans, like the unmistakable sound of a wounded Titanic slowly sinking, and Tony stands still, eyes cutting around manically. 

 He has a horrible thought that they’re trying to bring the building down, whoever the hell ‘they’ are, but why all the theatrics? Why the shit with his voice? Is that happening to everyone? Is that happening to Peter?

 Tony sets his jaw, the thought of the kid bringing things back into focus, and the metallic moaning and groaning stops. 

 No matter what’s going on, there are innocent people in this building, and Peter is one of them. Tony has to start making his way down, and maybe he can find a suit he can activate manually. Maybe this tech crash didn’t affect his suits, but he won’t know until he finds one, and they’re down where Peter is. Slim chance, but it’s something to shoot for.

 He feels like he can hear footsteps. On this floor, on others, and it’s underlined in the silence, in the lack of screaming for help. 

 He’s gotta get to the back stairwell and see if that’s intact, and he swallows hard and heads that way. He weaves around, and he feels like he’s thinking more now that he can’t talk out loud—

 —gotta find the kid gotta see if we can get out cover the exits try to make contact with anybody else on the team might be here gotta find the manual overrides that don’t require voice activation and that’s probably zero considering my paranoia and there has to be backdoors for that to get around it and what if we’re stuck in the building because we probably are because who would go to all this trouble just to let us walk right out and thank God Pepper isn’t here that’s one less thing to worry about and if only Rhodey was a day early even though I don’t want him trapped in here either and Jesus who else is in here, it’s a weekend, who’d be staying, Jesus, gotta get to Peter, and Ned, Ned’s here too, can’t talk, can’t talk, it must be everyone—

 —and this atrium is filled with sunshine from the long line of windows, and Tony jogs over there to see if—to see if—

 He tries to say that’s not a cloud out loud but, of course, he can’t, just tiny newborn kitten mouth movements, and he huffs at himself and rolls his eyes and he’s seconds from a tantrum that he hope they’ll watch and laugh at on the cameras three days from now oh wait the cameras are fucking off—

 —but either goddamn way the tower is surrounded by something greenish purplish nebulous…like they’re inside someone’s chemistry experiment—

 This time, when he tries to say shit he tries to say it with such force that he gets out the rush of breath that would start the ‘s’, if not anything else. 

 So he races towards the back stairwell hissing and shushing over and over to himself like an angry librarian or an oncoming train.

 ~

 Ned runs out of paper. 

 And Peter doesn’t know how the hell he did that—well he sort of does, because he’s been wasting the paper on dumb stuff, like worrying about aliens, and sure, that’s a completely normal worry, but how many times is he gonna write it? And then waste the paper? He’s gone back to pick up paper he’s dramatically thrown to the ground like eight times. As if they’re walking around in some post-apocalyptic wasteland and not Stark Tower.

 Ned is tugging on Peter’s arm for more paper, and Peter turns around and holds up one finger at him. Ned shrugs at him and Peter feels like they’re not making any progress at all—they saw the screwed up staircases, and they could maybe get around those, maybe, and they saw the weird shit outside the windows which makes him think this is some magic spell or something—well, obviously, you can’t just steal people’s voices with a special remote—but he’s gotta see—he’s gotta see if he can get outside.

 And he’s having crazy ideas about how to—do that.

 If they just would have figured out how to teleport like in Star Trek then they wouldn’t be having this problem at all. 

 Peter sighs and then he sees one of the classrooms Tony carved out for team meetings, once he re-acquired the tower, and he has an idea. He points at the classroom to Ned, ignores his immediate defensiveness, and he heads over there. 

 Ned grabs onto his shoulder, and maybe Ned is missing the sound of his voice. Peter has to remember that Ned isn’t exactly used to situations like this, and he pats his hand, but then he turns around and indicates that he’s gonna knock down the door.

 It only takes one hit, and the door slams to the ground, and Peter sees the whiteboard on the wall that he remembers Tony writing on, and Sam snickering at. 

 And within a minute or two, he’s ripped off two relatively equal squares of it, and found two dry erase markers. And when Ned catches on, they make two paperclip necklaces and hang the boards around their necks. 

 Ned immediately writes on his.

 SO SMART PETER

 Peter draws a big smiley face with a bunch of teeth. And then he writes.

 THANKS. OKAY NOW I GOTTA TRY TO JUMP OUT THE WINDOW.

 Ned’s face falls.

 ~

 The building makes more noises, and Tony tries to determine if he thinks it’s actually moving. He hears banging, more footsteps, and he chalks that up to other people trying to get around, and he can’t count how many times he tries to yell out like a moron only to be met with more silence. He’s running down the stairs as fast as he can, his thoughts almost painting themselves outside of his head, in big bold read letters hanging in the air—

 And he’s breathing hard and he feels like he’s hearing things by floor 35 and is he hearing—laughter? Who’s laughing? He can’t laugh, so he’s assuming—who would be laughing in this scenario except the person who caused it?

 Here somewhere, in the shadows, lying in wait—

 And the laughter seems to echo, and it sounds like it’s getting closer, and more intense, like this person laughing is everywhere and right next to him all at once—

 And normally Tony would be shouting obscenities and trying to pump himself up with long soliloquies but he can’t do that, he can only breathe, and panic, and he thinks about the kid somewhere in this building, voiceless and in danger—

 And he nearly trips on the landing to floor 34 and someone catches him—

 And he pushes this person away and his heart is in his throat, beating and beating and choking him, and he doesn’t have a suit and he immediately drops into a defensive stance, one fist cocked by his face and the other outstretched, and Rhodey smacks his hand down and huffs at him.

 Tony stares. So many words are on the tip of his tongue, held back by brick walls, and Rhodey huffs again and gives him a little smile and Tony grabs onto his arms. Rhodey grabs Tony’s too, and for a second they’re—jumping? Up and down? And they realize they’re doing it immediately and they stop and then Tony pulls him into a hug.

 He rolls his eyes at himself, his face burning, but hey, Rhodey was doing it too. 

 They pull back, and Tony pats Rhodey’s shoulders. He points at him, throws his hands up, as if asking when the hell did you get here. Rhodey narrows his eyes at him, waves his hands through the air, backwards, as if trying to convey—who the fuck knows.

 Tony still can’t believe he’s in front of him, and they need to get somewhere with more light. He points down, tries to tug him forward, but Rhodey shakes his head. He gets close to Tony’s face, and mouths words. If it was anybody else, Tony wouldn’t be able to interpret it, but it’s him, so he can.

 CANNOT GET OUT OF BUILDING. TRAPPED.

 Tony nods—he figured as much—but he tugs on Rhodey’s wrist anyway. He mimes shooting a web, does an exaggerated version of Peter’s swinging, and points down again. Realization dawns on Rhodey’s face, and he points down with raised eyebrows, and Tony points down too. Rhodey nods at him, and he starts down the stairs, linking his arm through Tony’s.

 The silence doesn’t feel as heavy, with him here.

 And they try to pass little messages back and forth, through hand gestures and lip reading, and Tony finds out that Rhodey put a couple people from payroll in a safe room on the 20th floor, barring the door that Friday would normally seal. The front and back exits are completely blocked, and one guy from marketing tried to get through and was unceremoniously bounced back inside by some unknown force. Rhodey’s been hearing the laughter too, and the building groaning, and he’s seen the shit outside the window. He thinks someone is here, waiting to pounce, or maybe more than one someone—

 And they walk down to the 18th floor landing and Peter’s body is splayed out against the door in a mess of blood.

 ~

 Ned underlines his NO. He makes it bolder. He shoves it in Peter’s face.

 Peter sighs. He holds up his message again. 

 IF I CAN GET OUT I CAN CRAWL UP THE BUILDING—

 Ned rubs away Peter’s message with his hand. Peter sighs, and Ned writes underneath his NO.

 YOU KNOW THERE’S PURPLEGREEN JELLY OUT THERE OR WHATEVER THAT IS AND IT CAN EAT YOU AND ABSORB YOU MAYBE. AND IF YOU DO GET OUT UR LEAVING ME HERE.

 Peter sighs again. He misses his voice, he misses both of their voices. He takes a few steps away from Ned, braces his board on the wall, and writes what he hopes is the kicker.

 If I get out, I can climb down, and I will probably get my voice back, and I can connect to Friday from one of the remote facilities down the street, and I can turn her back on in the building, and then Tony will take over and save everybody and everything and find the bad guy inside. And I’ll come back and help!!!!!!

 Ned reads it. He squints at it, and he does that every time, and it makes Peter think he needs glasses. He hasn’t ever watched him read this much.

 Ned sighs.

 Ned sighs pointedly.

 Peter nods at him and hopes that’s the end of it, and they already discussed where he would go if this worked the way it’s supposed to, and it probably will, so he sighs again and hangs Peter’s board around his neck too, and grips both markers in his hands.

 Peter hugs him, fast and tight, trying to soothe him and give himself some sort of confidence too, and he knows he can’t waffle around for too long—so he doesn’t make eye contact with Ned again, and he rushes towards the window, heading for it with his right shoulder.

 And he bursts through—and he’s blasted through plenty of windows in his life so he’s not exactly surprised he’s able to do it—and there’s glass everywhere and he shields his face and maybe he should have thought this through a little more but the tower is hard to traverse right now to find shit, and he barely has any time to even breathe the outside air or perceive the weird gelatinous cloud before some otherworldly force is launching him back inside.

 It’s like he’s in the palm of someone’s giant hand, and he can feel his voice on the other side of that purplegreen cloud, he can feel it, and it dies away as soon as he collapses back onto the floor at Ned’s feet.

 Ned’s forgotten he can’t talk. His mouth is moving rapid fire, and he bends down in front of Peter and keeps not talking and Peter just stares at him, flabbergasted. Peter has cuts from the glass all over him, and the wind is whipping around through the newly created hole, and he feels like he can hear the purplegreen cloud. Wobbling and squishing. 

 He covers Ned’s mouth with his hand, still staring out the window, and it seems to jolt Ned back into their current situation. He quickly takes off Peter’s board, puts it back around Peter’s neck, and he shoves the marker into Peter’s hand. Then he takes off his own and starts writing on it.

 OKAY it says, in shaky hand NOW I’M FOR SURE ABOUT ALIENS

 ~

 Tony feels like he’s doused in ice, frozen in his tracks, unable to breathe. And he can’t talk and if he could talk he doesn’t know if he would be screaming and shouting or just like this—aghast, horrified, and he nearly trips down the stairs trying to get to him—

 Even in the darkness Peter doesn’t look like he’s breathing—

 And Tony drops to his knees beside him and—

 He’s gone.

 Peter disappears.

 Tony stares at the empty spot, and the silence is so loud that he can hear his heart stuttering and speeding up, and he runs his hands over the spot where he was the spot the empty spot what the fuck what the fuck—

 He hears Rhodey coming down behind him, and he hauls him to his feet. Tony’s heart is still beating a mile a minute and his eyes are starry but not in the good way, and he wants to say something he wants to say something, and that’s when he hears the laughter.

 OH TONY a voice says, a fucking voice, and it’s everywhere and nowhere all at once, and Tony has a hard time not falling back against Rhodey completely. HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED? WELL THAT’S WHAT I’M HERE FOR, TONY. MAYBE IT WILL. MAYBE I’LL TAKE RHODEY TOO. AND ALL YOUR LITTLE FRIENDS IN THE BUILDING. AND YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO HELP AND YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO SCREAM OR CRY OR ANYTHING. AND THEN I’LL KILL YOU, TONY. YOU’LL BE LAST.

 He recognizes the voice, and it laughs and laughs and the laughter fades and seems to dissipate in the air. 

 It sounds familiar—

 But he feels like he can’t fucking breathe anymore. And they haven’t found Peter yet, and Tony keeps imagining him dead, and it feels more dire than it did—

 And he shoves forward, doesn’t look at the place where Peter’s body was, or whatever the hell—

 And Rhodey follows him out of the stairwell. Tony stumbles into the main atrium of whatever the hell floor they’re on now—and it looks like Stark offices from the brief look he gets before he bends over and braces his hands on his knees. 

 He tries to breathe. Rhodey rubs his back and sighs a couple times and this is feeling more and more sadistic. Who the hell is this guy? How did he do this? Tony can still hear the laughter, even though it’s silent again.

 Silent, until he hears a banging.

 It’s not the typical bad noises he’s been hearing since this shit started, and he straightens up and looks at Rhodey. Rhodey nods, and he hears it too, and he motions towards—the railing, where they can look down and see the other floors. It’s like that, from the 38th floor down to the main lobby, and he rushes over, Rhodey on his heels.

 He tries to hold himself back, because it could be this asshole tricking him—but the banging keeps on and gets more manic.

 They very slowly peer over the edge of the railing.

 Peter and Ned leap into the air when they see them.

 And they’re wearing tinfoil hats on their heads.

 ~

 Peter can’t believe it. He can’t believe it’s him. He just so happened to be looking up right at the right time to see Tony run out and he thought he might be going crazy but then he saw Rhodey and it’s them it’s actually them, and he and Ned jump and clap and Tony looks at him like he’s never seen him before. Peter’s hands hurt from banging on the wall to get their attention, but it’s worth it. 

 The building starts to make those noises again, moaning and groaning like it’s structurally unsound, but Peter doesn’t trust it, because if it was actually collapsing, or moving somewhere at its base, he’d be able to feel it. 

 Peter points at Tony. Left stairwell? They were going up the right one. That’s so crazy. He forgets he’s got a board around his neck.

 Tony holds up both hands as if to say STOP STAY THERE and then he’s out of sight before Peter can respond. With…whatever response he would have had. Rhodey races after him, and Peter blows out a breath and turns around and looks at Ned.

 He grimaces. He saw Tony and instantly forgot about the hats they made a couple minutes ago when they found the tin foil. Ned is so concerned with aliens and now they look stupid.

 Peter snatches it off of Ned’s head, and then his own, and Ned’s mouth falls open in betrayal. Peter puts them on the ground and quickly writes out a message on his board.

 LISTEN I’VE DEALT WITH ALIENS BEFORE AND THOSE WEREN’T GONNA WORK ANYWAY.

 Ned stares at him, and then calmly claws away part of his message.

 Peter sighs, and then the stairwell door slams open.

 He turns around and Tony is striding towards him. 

 And Peter always wants to feel capable and he’s pretty confident he is, but he always feels safer when Tony’s around. Like he can…really figure things out. Like he won’t get hurt, because Tony won’t let him.

 And Tony wraps him up in a hug that Peter melts into, closing his eyes. Tony holds him tight, squeezing his shoulder, and Peter just lives in it for a second. Tony pulls back but keeps a hold of him, and Peter sees Rhodey and Ned sharing a little moment behind him. 

 Tony pats the board around Peter’s neck, nodding. Peter nods too, and he takes out the marker to write something, but Tony gently takes it out of his hand. He writes on the board, and turns it around for Peter to see. His letters are blocky and messy, and so very him.

 You alright?

 Peter nods at him. He points at him, raises his eyebrows, and Tony nods too. Tony immediately clocks the few cuts Peter sustained in the window incident, and he thumbs over one on Peter’s forehead.

 Peter shrugs.

 IT’S FINE he writes. I TRIED TO JUMP OUT THE WINDOW BUT IT BLEW ME BACK.

 Tony narrows his eyes. He keeps one hand on Peter’s shoulder and knocks Rhodey on the arm, and they have a couple seconds of silent facial communication the likes of which Peter has never seen. Ned knocks Peter on the arm, and looks at him like he wants to replicate it, but he just wags his eyebrows at Peter and Peter has no clue what he wants to say.

 Peter looks across the atrium at the weird cloud through the window. He wonders how far it goes up in the sky—it can’t be too far, it’s probably just…a little taller than the building. Maybe.

 Would it cover it completely, like a bubble? Or is there an opening at the top, the roof exposed to open air because nobody’s up there? Is it worth checking out?

 Anything is. Anything that might end this.

 Now he’s thinking…

 Ned sighs at Peter, and Peter pats Tony’s shoulder. Tony turns towards him again, and somehow he feels even more fatherly in this moment, dipping his head down to give Peter his undivided attention, stepping a little closer and gripping his shoulder. He was clearly worried, and Peter never really wants to worry him, but it feels…nice. Something crazy and insane is happening and Tony Stark is worried about him. He should be used to it by now, after all these years and everything they’ve been through, but he’s not. He doesn’t know if he ever will be. 

 Peter tries to focus, starts to write.

 Is it even worth it to try and get our suits? I know yours wouldn’t work, because they’re all tech, but would mine? Probably not, right? We need to get Ned to a safe place because I have an idea

 And the tail of his ‘a’ is drawn out when the four of them are swept into the air.

 ~

 And Tony doesn’t realize it’s a fucking mini tornado inside the tower until he’s inside it, and it’s huge and big and picking up everything all around them too—chairs and computers and long tables, and one of the tables knocks Rhodey and Ned completely away from them. They’re spinning and being thrown around and Tony can barely see—like there’s suddenly Saharan dust in here—and he grabs onto Peter’s ankle before he can be tossed away from him too.

 And for a minute it’s loud rushing, flying through the air, and what feels like a fucking phone hits him in the head and he sees stars, and he lets go of Peter—

 And he wants to yell out but he can’t, he’s still silent, and he has no idea what the fuck is going on here or who is doing this or how, and he can see other people and faces and bodies and they’re all contorted in the same silent scream, and before he knows it Peter is flying at him and they’re both hitting a pillar—

 And Peter is smashed against him and Tony can tell he’s sticking to the wall, making it so they don’t get thrown around anymore—

 And he’s gritting his teeth and the forces of the fucking tornado are so strong that he can barely lift his arm, but he does, trying to shield the kid’s head—

 And then it all falls, abruptly, everything drops everywhere in loud crashes and bangs, and he can hear windows breaking and other shit breaking but still no voices.

 And then there’s the laughter.

 Tony grabs onto Peter and Peter grabs him, hauling him to his feet. Tony feels dizzy and off-kilter from how many blows he took, and the laughter is moving in and out like a warped Led Zeppelin song, and it almost hurts his ears.

 TONY TONY TONY the same voice as earlier says, as Peter grabs onto Tony’s arm and hauls him over to the railing. I’M COMING FOR YOU TONY AND EVERYONE YOU LOVE—YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY LITTLE WIFEY ISN’T HERE, BUT WE’VE GOT THE BEST FRIEND AND THE LOVE CHILD, HUH? WHICH ONE FIRST? OR SHOULD IT BE YOU? THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STEAL SOMEONE’S WORK, TONY…SOMEONE LIKE ME, I’M NOT GOING TO BE…RATIONAL…

 Peter is breathing hard, panicking, looking all around. They’re a lot higher up now, and Tony can see other people on the lower levels—he looks up, and it seems like there’s only one level above them, so they should be on the 37th floor now. Jesus. 

 The laughter starts again, and it gets so loud that it’s almost ear-piercing, and Tony holds one of his ears and one of Peter’s, out of instinct, he doesn’t know—

 And then he sees Ned, a few floors down, at the edge of the railing. He pats Peter’s arm, and points, and Peter nearly wilts in relief. And before Tony can start worrying about Rhodey, he sees him rush over to the edge, two floors above Ned.

 They all see each other at the same time.

 And it takes a few minutes of rabid communication, wincing, and hand gestures, because neither Ned or Peter have their boards anymore, but they’re able to get Rhodey to start heading to where Ned is. And Tony is able to convey—something, to the other people who see him. Everyone is panicking, but they’re somehow soothed by his presence—something he’ll never understand, but something he takes very seriously. 

 Jesus, he has to help them—

 The laughter eventually tapers off and dies out, and the sinking ship sounds resume. Tony and Peter back up from the ledge, holding onto each other, and Peter pats Tony’s shoulder to get his attention. Tony is distracted by the new cuts, and the blood in the kid’s hair, and he hates himself for getting Peter into situations like this. If he didn’t know him, he wouldn’t be here right now, he wouldn’t have to deal with this. 

 But a world in which he doesn’t know him…well, Tony doesn’t want that either.

 Peter points up. He raises his arm, and keeps pointing, as if to indicate all the way up. 

 Tony mouths roof and Peter nods at him. He obviously has an idea, they were starting to discuss it before the bullshit, and he knows the suits they have here are way below them, and most likely out of the picture now. Probably wouldn’t have activated, anyway. No voices, no tech. Tony nods at him again, trying to imagine what he might be thinking, and they start to head up there. 

 And Tony thinks about that voice. That laugh. The things he said. 

 ~

 Peter worries.

 He worries that his plan is stupid, and it’s barely even a plan, it’s barely even an idea, and it might not even pan out if the purplegreen cloud is covering the whole building. They’re too far away from where their suits are now, and they could try to go down there but the suits probably wouldn’t work anyways. Tony’s is entirely tech, and Peter’s is voice activated. Everything is voice activated. 

 They grab a couple things from the living quarters when they get there—Peter asks for a Friday com, for his haphazard plan, and he nearly jumps for joy when they find a pair of webshooters in his bedroom that he’d forgotten were there. He practices, and they work, because they’re tech but they aren’t tech tech. But they don’t have a lot of webs loaded in, and he can’t find more and isn’t in the right place to make them, so he has to be careful. But the webshooters will make it a lot easier than trying to climb up the antenna and jump over the cloud without anything to help him. 

 And they get some more paper and pens.

 I think this guy is this jerk I fired a couple years back Tony writes, after they get some water and grapes from the fridge. He was insane then and he’s clearly insane now. But more insane. End of the world stealing voices and trying to murder people insane. Earlier he showed me a projection of your dead body and he could do shit like that back then, the tornado, the voice throwing…I’m not even sure if the main stairwell is actually destroyed, he could be faking that with projection too. Everything but the magical aspects feel like him. But we’ve got a lot of magical assholes on our tails and he could be hooking up with them to get at me.

 Peter reads it, drinking his water, and he nods, sighing once he’s drained the bottle. He leans over and writes underneath it, his letters small and close together so he has lots of space.

 MY PLAN IS TO GO UP TO THE ROOF AND HOPEFULLY THE CLOUD DOESN’T COMPLETELY COVER THE BUILDING AND I CAN LAUNCH MYSELF OUTSIDE IT AND THEN SPEAK AGAIN AND CONNECT TO FRIDAY WITH THE COM AND RESET THE BUILDING AND SET OFF SAFEGUARDS TO START FIGHTING BACK. AND IF THE CLOUD COVERS THE BUILDING THEN I HAVE NO PLAN BUT I HAVE A FEELING IT DOESN’T BECAUSE HE CLEARLY THINKS HE’S GOTTEN RID OF EVERYTHING THAT COULD GET US UP THAT HIGH YOU KNOW?

 He’s a little worried, watching Tony read, and worry feels where he lives right now. And Tony does straighten up when he’s done, giving Peter a look. There’s layers behind it—fear, uncertainty, worry, wanting to help, but he nods anyway, even though he looks like he doesn’t want to.

 Peter smiles, softly, trying to be reassuring, but probably coming off as childish and stupid, and he sighs and leans over and writes again.

 HE USED MY DEAD BODY TO UPSET YOU?

 Tony reads, and makes a face at him, widening his eyes and grimacing. He nods, holding that expression. Peter mimes saying awww, and Tony scoffs, gently pushing his face away from him. Peter laughs, and draws a heart on the paper, and Tony snatches the pen and crosses the heart out with an X. But Peter is grinning anyway. 

 It feels good, not to…feel bad. If only for a moment.

 And they head back up after that, with pens and paper and water bottles, Peter’s webshooters on his wrists. They have to keep changing stairwells, because of obstacles and shit this guy’s put in their way, and a few of them are solid and real, and a few of them are illusions, projected to confuse and reroute them. Peter decides to web up the elevator shaft for a while, holding a very irritated Tony along with him.

 They climb out at floor 90, Peter peeling the doors open. He helps Tony to his feet, and the doors slam closed behind them once they’re all the way out. 

 Tony blows out a breath, and he claps Peter on the shoulder and bends his head down a bit to look at him. That look is asking if he’s alright, and Peter nods, and Tony nods back at him, already knowing he wants to ask too. 

 Peter gestures backwards, angrily, at everything, and he puts his hands together as if he’s choking someone and shaking them back and forth. 

 Tony points at his own chest, raising his eyebrows.

 Peter brushes him off, mouths no, and he points behind them, meaning THAT GUY, and he gestures all over and throws punches and pretends to knee someone in the stomach and pretends like he’s choking and he rolls his eyes back.

 Tony stares at him for a second, and then he grins, shaking his head. He throws up his middle finger, shakes his fist in the air, and they keep silently threatening as they walk.

 They head for the stairs and Peter worries. He worries about Ned, about his half-baked plan, about his non-existent back-up plan, about May and MJ hearing about this and seeing what’s going on, and he’s worrying as they step into the stairwell to climb the final three flights for roof access. 

 He’s worrying when he gets shot in the shoulder.

 ~

 And Tony drags Peter to his feet and they’re running, they’re running up the stairs, and he doesn’t feel like he’s moved this much outside of the suit since the fucking Mandarin situation—and the sound of whatever invisible force it is following them and shooting at them is undeniably a fucking drone. Probably two, from the buzzing. 

 Very clearly a Beck production—

 And Tony holds onto Peter, and they keep running, and they zig-zag as much as they can in the narrow stairwell, and Tony hears ricochets and blasts inches from his head and he gets one in the back of the leg that takes him down—

 And Peter pulls him up again, and Tony sees him turn around and fire a bunch of webs, and one of the drones, still invisible, slams against the wall, trapped.

 They keep running, and there’s one left, and they can’t fucking see it, and they keep running and Tony is fucking hopping, and before he knows it Peter is hauling him behind a pillar.

 And the shooting stops.

 And Tony can still hear the drone, can hear it buzzing and ticking and searching for them, and Peter has his eyes closed.

 And before Tony knows it, Peter is leaping out from behind the pillar, and Tony sees him grasp his hands together and slam down into open air. But it isn’t open air, and the drone becomes visible and crashes down to the ground, spitting out sparks.

 Tony breathes hard through his mouth, and Peter stumbles back towards him, and grabs his arm again. Tony nods at him, trying to convey a good job, and Peter blows out a breath and shakes his head.

 And they stagger up one more set of stairs and bust out onto the roof. 

 And—

 The kid was right.

 They can see it right away.

 The purplegreen cloud is surrounding the building, and it goes up to just under the antenna. And that’s where it stops. Clear blue sky. 

 An opening.

 It looks easy. He’s seen Peter do harder things. But Tony stands there, frozen, staring up at where the cloud ends while Peter drags over one of the random cement blocks up here and braces it against the door.

 Tony tries to say his name, but he can’t. He still can’t, despite how close they are to the edge of the thing. 

 And Peter puts the com in his ear, ready to connect to Friday when he can. 

 And why the hell didn’t they take their phones with them maybe Tony could have hacked into them if he put his mind to it and why wasn’t he thinking properly and forming his own plans and why didn’t he just go back down and get a suit and make it like he made it in Afghanistan they could have withstood more of Beck’s bullshit if he just put his goddamn mind to it and—

 Peter blows out a breath, and takes a step forward, shaking his arms like he’s trying to get loose. Then he aims one webshooter—

 Tony grabs Peter’s arm, his heart in his throat. He feels insane, was the kid about to just go, just do it—

 Peter turns around and looks at him. And they can’t say anything, even though there’s a million things to say, and Tony can never stand letting him go if he can’t go with him, because what if it goes wrong, what if he doesn’t come back—

 And they’ve been trying to convey a million things without words since this started, and he just looks at Peter and tries to say it all with his face—I restarted the world because I couldn’t live in it without you so you better come back—and he cocks his head a little bit and really looks at him and his eyes hurt—

 And Peter rushes into a hug, a big one, and Tony clings to him and cradles the back of his head and hates this whole goddamn thing. Then Peter pulls back, nodding at him, tears shining in his eyes—

 And he steps forward, away from him, and shoots a web before Tony can say anything else—

 “Well, look at him go,” a voice says. 

 That voice.

 Tony spins around, and the man he knew was behind this is standing there. Right fucking behind him, Quentin Beck, in some goddamn jumpsuit, grinning from ear to ear.

 He punches Tony square in the face, a move that Tony would have parried or dodged if he hadn’t been so fucking shocked to see the guy standing there when nobody was there a moment before, and Beck hits him again off the shock of the first hit—

 And the pain bursts—

 “God, you were always slow, Tony,” Beck says, and Tony is able to dodge the next one he throws, which makes the asshole laugh. “Oh, there he is! There he is! A little fight left in him—”

 ~

 And Peter swings, latching onto the antenna and launching himself over the tippy top of the cloud, and the heel of his foot bumps it and that buoys him further up into the air, and he shoots another web and swings around outside of the spell, away from the building—

 And he can feel his voice in his throat, building up, ready to be used again—

 “FRIDAY!” he screams, shrill and childlike, but he doesn’t care. “FRIDAY, RESET YOURSELF IN THE TOWER ON ALL LEVELS! REBOOT THE TOWER. CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

 And he swings around, in a curved arc, and he can see—

 There’s a man, a man there with Tony on the roof, and they’re fighting, hand to hand—

 And suddenly there’s so many of him, everywhere, the same man, all over the roof, and they’re all attacking Tony, and Tony falls to the ground—

 And Peter can’t—Friday hasn’t yet—he can’t breathe he can’t think it feels like time is slowing to a halt—

 “Resetting,” Friday says, in Peter’s ear, “and responding to an attack, Peter, do you need assistance?”

 “Tony needs assistance on the roof!” Peter screams, and he shoots three more webs and swings around, and the cloud is still up but the tower comes to life inside of it, an energy blasting up and creating ripples, but the cloud doesn’t go away yet, not completely—

 And all the multiples of the man disappear until there’s just one—

 —and Peter sees him stab Tony in the stomach.

 “No!” Peter screams, his heart in his throat, and he starts swinging back that way, dipping and weaving in the air, and he can hardly see through his tears. “Tony, Tony! No!”

 And he reaches out to shoot another web, but nothing comes out—

 He’s out—

 No more webs—

 “Shit!” Peter yells, plummeting, and he swings his arms and tries to get closer to the building so he can stick and the cloud is still rippling and breaking in pieces and if he hits it just right he won’t be bounced back—

 Tony Tony Tony—

 And before he knows it something is crashing into him, and closing him up inside it—

 An Iron Man suit—

 And it comes to life quickly, the heads up display bright and shining, connecting to two other suits currently on the grid—and he’s not falling anymore—

 “Tony?” Peter yells. He tries to get acclimated, quickly changing his trajectory and heading back up to the roof. He’s only been in an Iron Man suit like, twice, and the first time was an accident. “Tony? Tony? Friday is he—Friday, where’s—”

 And just as Peter takes off, the purplegreen cloud explodes, and it knocks Peter backwards, catapulting him back onto the roof of a building a couple blocks over. He hits the wall so hard—

 And Peter dreams of clouds.

 Dreams? Dreams? Is he dreaming?

 Purplegreen—black—stars—voices—

 ~

 “Peter?”

 Beeping. Wind.

 “Peter. I am flying you back to the tower.”

 His eyes are shut. Flying?

 “Peter. The spell has been broken. Doctor Stephen Strange was locked in the lowest level of the tower by the perpetrator, former Stark Employee Quentin Beck. As soon as you reactivated me countermeasures were taken, and Doctor Strange was able to find—”

 “He took—down the spell?” Peter asks. He hasn’t opened his eyes yet. He’s flying. He doesn’t wanna see, his brain isn’t working. 

 “Yes, and—”

 “No specifics,” Peter says, and he finally opens his eyes. He’s heading for the roof—the roof, the roof— “Brain hurts—Friday, Tony, is Tony—is Tony—”

 “Mr. Stark is alright, save for a concussion and a blast wound on his leg,” Friday says, and Peter doesn’t understand, he saw—he saw that guy stab him—

 And he’s heading for a landing, and he sees—Tony, and Rhodey, and Happy, and Ned is there too, and they’ve got this guy on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back. Rhodey is suited up, and Tony’s nanosuit trickles away, forming a watch on his wrist.

 Peter lands, and the suit opens to let him out, and he tumbles like Han Solo out of carbonite in Return of the Jedi. 

 Tony catches him. “Whoa whoa whoa,” he says, trying to gather him up. “There he is, took long enough—buddy, bud, hey, you okay?”

 His voice his voice—

 “He stabbed you,” Peter breathes, trying to get his feet solidly under him. “He stabbed, I saw—I saw it—”

 “See, he fell for it,” Beck says, laughing from his spot on the ground. “I knew he would. I knew it, didn’t I say? Tony!”

 “We need to gag him,” Tony says, pointing over in his direction. “He took my voice, I’ll take his, it’s only fair—Pete, I’m fine, hey—” Tony helps him stand up straighter, and geeze, he must have hit the wall really hard, even in the suit—he feels like jelly. “It was another one of his shitty tricks—when you turned Friday back on she started launching our countermeasures, we’ve got plans for magic too, she’s just gotta be on—Beck kidnapped Strange, took this shit out of one of his spell books or whatever the hell—well, Strange just—Friday helped Strange get out of the building without getting bounced back and he just—said his little spiel—”

 “Okay,” Peter breathes, nodding. “I get it. I get it.” He holds onto Tony’s arm with one hand, and points over at Beck with the other. “You’re a dickhead.”

 “You’re a dickhead,” Beck says, “and now I know who you are, Spidey Widey. Know your whole little identity and everything, what are you gonna do about that?”

 “Rhodey, Hap, get him the hell out of here,” Tony says, waving them away. 

 “Yeah!” Ned says, as the two of them haul Beck to his feet and start him towards the roof door. “Yeah, what are you—I mean, you’re getting out of here, idiot, you’re—you don’t even know what’s coming—”

 And Peter watches as Ned actually follows them out, letting the door close behind them, still in the middle of his tirade. 

 “I’m fine Ned!” Peter yells. “Thanks for asking!”

 “He’s just trying to play coy,” Tony says. “He’s been worried as hell—took you about ten minutes to get back, he was asking where you were every minute or so—”

 Peter nods. “Yeah—but what are we gonna do about Beck, you know, uh—knowing—knowing me?” he asks, looking at Tony, already worrying about May and MJ—and Ned, who Beck clearly knows personally…

 “It’s fine,” Tony says, shaking his head. “He’s done. He’s a terrorist now, like, by definition—he’s lucky nobody died, but attempted murder is on there, and there were absolutely…multiple attempts—”

 Peter nods again, trying to focus. He remembers the stabbing clear as anything, and he’s never felt so far away and so close at the same time. Too far to help, swinging through the air like a moron, but close enough to see the look on Tony’s face. 

 It was too real.

 Peter sighs, and feels dizzy again remembering it, and he straightens up and pulls Tony into a hug. Tony sounds surprised, laughing a little bit, and then he starts rubbing Peter’s back.

 “Are you okay?” Peter asks, closing his eyes.

 “I’m okay, buddy, he didn’t stab me. All good, stab-less. What about you, huh? You okay? Savior of the tower, the one voice that rose up when the others were silenced—”

 Peter snorts, squeezing him for a long moment before he pulls back. “I’m okay,” he says, tentatively. 

 “We gotta get Helen to look at you—she’s coming, she’s on her way. May too, and MJ, they were at the coffee shop across the street—they noticed the cloud before the news did. And they knew something was wrong when they didn’t get their morning Peter texts.”

 Peter shakes his head, glancing back, just to…make sure the cloud is still gone.

 And it is. Clear skies. 

 He looks at Tony. “Maybe we’re a little bit too reliant on technology.”

 Tony wraps his arm around Peter’s shoulders. “You think? I don’t know, I don’t think it’s…unhealthy—”

 “Our entire world was just completely upended because everything needs voice commands,” Peter says, as they gingerly, half-limp to the roof access door. 

 “Listen, Strange’s ancient text also needed a voice command to break the spell,” Tony says, holding the door open and following Peter inside. “What’s that mean, huh? That’s caveman shit, and yet—”

 “Well, he should—keep his spell books, uh—more protected, I guess—”

 “That too,” Tony says. “Though I guess the kidnapping and being left in the basement is his punishment. Come on, Pete, we gotta go—get taken care of, gotta talk to the goddamn reporters, call Pep, start the cleanup, take inventory, make sure everyone’s alright—you’re alright, right? You’re alright?”

 “I’m alright,” Peter says, the last couple hours’ events feeling very strange and fake, even though they were very very real. He needs to decompress badly. But how do you decompress from someone stealing your voice and locking you in a tower with a magical spell and trying to kill you?

 Just another day for Spider-Man and Iron Man, Peter guesses.

 That’s a sentence that would have blown his eight year old self’s mind.

 “Careful on the stairs here,” Tony says, trying to help guide him down, “feel like both of us probably have stair trauma for the rest of our lives—”

 “Oh, I’m either swinging or using the elevator in the tower for at least a couple weeks,” Peter says, smiling back at him.

 Tony snorts. “Noted. Okay, tell me a story, tell me your thought process throughout this whole ordeal, tell me your…next steps, ideas…just wanna hear you talk, buddy, that was way too long of a Peter Parker silence.”

 And Peter’s face goes red, because that feels like one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to him, really, especially since his bad guys tell him so often how annoying his voice is. 

 Well, Tony Stark doesn’t think so, how about that?

 And his main thought, when he realized what was going on, was that he had to find Tony, because they could figure it out together. Tony can do anything, no matter what, and he makes Peter feel like…he can do anything too. 

 “Okay, well,” Peter says, clearing his throat as they keep heading for the 90th floor, where the elevator is. “I don’t even know where to start.”

 “Start at the beginning,” Tony says. “When you woke up in the lab like a young Tony Stark might have…or an old one, couple days ago, either or—”

 Peter smiles to himself. It is so nice to be able to talk again. He doesn’t think he’s ever gonna stop talking. It’s just nice that Tony actually wants to hear it. 

 So he keeps talking. “Okay, well, right away I wake up to Ned hitting me. And he’s immediately concerned about aliens…” 

[ilynpilled]

vows of knighthood:

“… do you swear before the eyes of gods and men to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to protect all women and children, to obey your captains, your liege lord, and your king, to fight bravely when needed and do such other tasks as are laid upon you, however hard or humble or dangerous they may be?”

“In the name of the Warrior I charge you to be brave. In the name of the Father I charge you to be just. In the name of the Mother I charge you to defend the young and innocent. In the name of the Maid I charge you to protect all women…”

“How can you still count yourself a knight, when you have forsaken every vow you ever swore?”

“So many vows… they make you swear and swear. Defend the king. Obey the king. Keep his secrets. Do his bidding. Your life for his. But obey your father. Love your sister. Protect the innocent. Defend the weak. Respect the gods. Obey the laws. It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or the other.”

[…]

“They strangled Brandon while his father watched, and then killed Lord Rickard as well.” An ugly tale, and sixteen years old. Why was he asking about it now?

“Killed, yes, but how?” […] “No doubt Ned wished to spare you.” […] “There were trials. Of a sort. Lord Rickard demanded trial by combat, and the king granted the request. Stark armored himself as for battle, thinking to duel one of the Kingsguard. Me, perhaps. Instead they took him to the throne room and suspended him from the rafters while two of Aerys's pyromancers kindled a blaze beneath him. The king told him that fire was the champion of House Targaryen. So all Lord Rickard needed to do to prove himself innocent of treason was ... well, not burn.” […] “When the fire was blazing, Brandon was brought in. His hands were chained behind his back, and around his neck was a wet leather cord attached to a device the king had brought from Tyrosh. His legs were left free, though, and his longsword was set down just beyond his reach.”

“Gerold Hightower himself took me aside and said to me, “You swore a vow to guard the king, not to judge him.' That was the White Bull, loyal to the end and a better man than me, all agree.”

“Aerys was mad, the whole realm knew it, but if you would have me believe you slew him to avenge Brandon Stark …”

“I made no such claim.”

[…]

“I find nothing about you amusing, Kingslayer.”

“That name again.”

“A king hides no secrets from his Kingsguard. But whenever Aerys gave a man to the flames, Queen Rhaella would have a visitor in the night. The day he burned his mace-and-dagger Hand, Jaime and Jon Darry had stood at guard outside her bedchamber whilst the king took his pleasure. “You're hurting me,” they had heard Rhaella cry through the oaken door. “You're hurting me.” In some queer way, that had been worse than Lord Chelsted's screaming. “We are sworn to protect her as well,” Jaime had finally been driven to say. “We are,” Darry allowed, “but not from him.”

Ser Barristan looked up sharply. […] “I am a knight,” he told them. He opened the silver fastenings of his breastplate and let that fall as well. “I shall die a knight”

“I took Robert's pardon, aye. I served him in Kingsguard and council. Served with the Kingslayer and others near as bad, who soiled the white cloak I wore. Nothing will excuse that. I might be serving in King's Landing still if the vile boy upon the Iron Throne had not cast me aside, it shames me to admit.”

“Selmy had never approved of Jaime's presence in his precious Kingsguard. Before the rebellion, the old knight thought him too young and untried; afterward, he had been known to say that the Kingslayer should exchange that white cloak for a black one.”

“I want to know. I never knew my father. I want to know everything about him. The good and … the rest.” “As you command.” The white knight chose his words with care. “Prince Aerys … as a youth, he was taken with a certain lady of Casterly Rock, a cousin of Tywin Lannister. When she and Tywin wed, your father drank too much wine at the wedding feast and was heard to say that it was a great pity that the lord's right to the first night had been abolished. A drunken jape, no more, but Tywin Lannister was not a man to forget such words, or the … the liberties your father took during the bedding.” His face reddened. “I have said too much, Your Grace.”

“When King’s Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were.” “Far away,” Ser Gerold said, “or Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells.”

“The traitors want my city, I heard him tell Rossart, but I’ll give them naught but ashes. Let Robert be king over charred bones and cooked meat. The Targaryens never bury their dead, they burn them. Aerys meant to have the greatest funeral pyre of them all. Though if truth be told, I do not believe he truly expected to die.”

His sword helped taint the throne you sit on. Ned thought, but he did not permit the words to pass his lips. “He swore a vow to protect his king’s life with his own. Then he opened that king’s throat with a sword.”

“Seven hells, someone had to kill Aerys!” Robert said, reining his mount to a sudden halt beside an ancient barrow. “If Jaime hadn’t done it, it would have been left for you or me.”

“We are not Sworn Brothers of the Kingsguard.”

“I did not intend to give offense, Brienne. Forgive me.”

“Your crimes are past forgiving, Kingslayer”

“That name again.” “Why do I enrage you so? I've never done you harm that I know of.”

“You've harmed others. Those you were sworn to protect. The weak, the innocent...”

“…the king?” […] “You are not old enough to have known Aerys Targaryen…” She would not hear it.

“Aerys was mad and cruel, no one has ever denied that. He was still king, crowned and anointed. And you had sworn to protect him.”

"I know what I swore."

"And what you did." She loomed above him, six feet of freckled, frowning, horse-toothed disapproval.

“That was an apology. I am tired of fighting with you. What say we make a truce?”

“Truces are built on trust. Would you have me trust—”

“The Kingslayer, yes. The oathbreaker who murdered poor sad Aerys Targaryen.” Jaime snorted. “It’s not Aerys I rue, it’s Robert. ‘I hear they’ve named you Kingslayer,’ he said to me at his coronation feast. ‘Just don’t think to make it a habit.’ And he laughed. Why is it that no one names Robert oathbreaker? He tore the realm apart, yet I am the one with shit for honor”

“Has my tale turned you speechless? Come, curse me or kiss me or call me a liar. Something.”

“If this is true, how is it no one knows?”

“The knights of the Kingsguard are sworn to keep the king’s secrets. Would you have me break my oath?” Jaime laughed.

“He was going to burn the city,” Jaime said. “To leave Robert only ashes.”

“He was your king,” said Darry.

“You swore to keep him safe,” said Whent.

“And the children, them as well,” said Prince Lewyn.

Prince Rhaegar burned with a cold light, now white, now red, now dark. “I left my wife and children in your hands.”

“I never thought he'd hurt them.” Jaime's sword was burning less brightly now. “I was with the king.”

“Killing the king,” said Ser Arthur.

“Cutting his throat,"

“The king you had sworn to die for.”

everybody points out a bunch of reasons why jaime did not share why he did what he did (thinks the wildfire is better buried, it wouldn’t be in good hands and might not all be disposed of when revealed, we know he fears it happening to this day and he went out of his way to kill everyone who knew where it is, he admits to having recurring nightmares of the city in flames the moment he hears about tyrion using wildfire, he is not aware that it gets more volatile over time, jaime’s gordian knot perspective when it comes to problem solving) but I am gonna lay down the hot take that if I were him and I presented my argument that I had to save a whole city, also prioritizing another vow I swore and not just out of moral obligation, and they even believe me and take my motivation at face value, and there is even the slightest possibility that people respond with these inconsistent hypocritical and contradictory fallacies like they already do every single time I delineate that every single kingsguard had already broken vows they had sworn every single time they did not act against the king and stop what he was doing, and what they are judging me for regarding the ethics of “breaking a vow to kill my king [who apparently everybody knows is mad and horrible and did terrible things to innocent people. which is, again, another vow (defend the weak. protect those who cannot protect themselves. protect all women. be just. obey the laws etc.) that we all acknowledge that me and other kingsguard had sworn (and also rightfully condemn me for breaking later)] who is okay to be killed by anyone else because he deserves to die”, with the only argument now having to be that the kingsguard specifically can’t because they swore this vow, and breaking vows is not ethical/honorable, which actually doesn’t make much sense at all if you think about it for more than 4 seconds (unless the unspoken argument is that the kg vows by have to be prioritized in all circumstances by the kg so my justification is pointless), I would actually become the joker and set myself on fire.

[c0nn0r-c0nn0r13]

“If Tim Drake was meta, his ability would be shadow travel!”

“No, immortality!”

“No, shapeshifting!”

NO. NO. NO. HE WOULD BE SPIDER-MAN. FIGHT ME.

actual explanation:

All ‘weird’ behaviour he does? Spider things. Walk with me. Sleeping in the most random places, spider hibernation. Getting in on high building as a child, sticky. Bad eyesight (thats a personal hc), spiders are nearsighted. Really smart, although arachnids have brains that could literally fit on the head of a pin, the work of scientists suggests that they have capabilities we'd have no problem hailing as signs of intelligence if exhibited by animals with much larger brains. (I copied that off safari but my point stands)

Now, you’ve read that and you’re probably like “but, Connor, thats basically nothing, why are trying pushing spider-man! Tim for meta AU’s.” Well, my answer to that is: i don’t know. But lets compare Peter Parker and Tim Drake for a minute.

Tim:

Heavily shipped with his friends (Conner, Bart, Bernard, Cassie, the rest of the young justice98 line up)

Bi

Wears red

Photography as a hobby

Skateboards

Smart

Nerd

Two (+more) friends that wear red

Peter:

Heavily shipped with his friends/people he works with (Wade, Johnny, Harry, Ned, Harley, Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Felicia, Matt, Flash)

Queer coded/Bi

Wears red

Photography as a hobby

Skateboards

Smart

Nerd

Two (+ more) friends that wear red

See, basically the same person. “But Connor, when would Tim get bit by the spider, or are you just gonna say he was born with it.” Yes and no, i have no idea how meta powers work in dc, so we’re going with marvel mutants, stick with me.

Tim was born with a mutant (meta) gene, but it doesn’t awaken till he’s nine and gets bitten by the spider. The spider itself is a failed lab experiment from one of the rogues. He gets bit when he’s following batman and robin. It gets him sick and he doesn’t end up following them for a while because his body is changing. The robin (1 to 2) switch happens, Tim’s still in boarding school so he can’t follow them everyday anyways.

“If Tims robin, when does he become spider-man?”

I hc Tim as gender fluid, so he goes by arachnid. Anyways, he becomes that universe’s resident friendly neighbourhood arachnid when his red robin arch happens (AND HE STAYS AS ARACHNID, NO GOING BACK TO ROBIN SHIT!) Dick still tries (and fails) to get him to go to therapy, all that good stuff. He still meets Pru, Owen, and Z. They (minus Pru) dies. You know how the red robin arch goes. Explosion and losing spleens.

Now, this had derailed so much, but i’m going to derail it even more. Anita Fite is this worlds Deadpool, and Cissie King-Jones is this worlds Daredevil. Why is this? Because i said so, anyways this is how it works.

When being trained by her mother, Cissie gets into an accident, loses her sight, that goops/ooze things makes her “see” the world like Matt does. She proceeds to relearn archery with her disability, she becomes arrowette, then retires like in canon. But later on, she can’t just sit by and let everything happen. She goes to college and gets a law degree, she quits being an actresses. She opens a lawyer place thingy. But its not enough. So she dawns the mantle daredevil.

Anita Fite’s parents get kidnapped as an attempt to draw Empress out of hiding. She comes to get her parents back, but they get killed in the process. She gets nocked out, then when she wakes up she can regenerate and can’t die. She feels like she can’t go back to young justice so she takes up jobs as merc. Taking the name Deadpool.

Why did i decide to add them into why i think tim drake’s meta ability would be spiderman. This was because i was trying to get you guys to think about my team red! Tim, Cisse, & Anita. *insert evil laugh*

I will be drawing art for this later. Good day (do you guys want more of this, because i want more of it, and have to the one make it.)

[mummer]

hellooooooo smart person!!! i have two asoiaf questions to ask you. so i was reading adwd, the chapter with ellaria sand making her big speech (can i take the skull to bed with me, to give me comfort in the night?) which was literally one of the best monologues ever. but i think it frames justice in a bitter, bloodthirsty manner. the martells are completely understandably pissed off by the lannisters, is george saying in this instance, even though vengeance is good (emotionally), it’ll screw everyone over? and does this apply to the starks/boltons too? we have so many good speeches on war and justice: broken man, this one, bathe in bolton blood, the mummer’s farce is almost over, etc. but they do conflict. is that the point? justice is better not pursued? or needs to be thought out?

ALSO. your vibe is that you’re a theon enjoyer. so i was wondering where his story is. it’s about identity, yes? but who is he? he’s not a greyjoy, i don’t think, he seems so disconnected from that violent culture, but he’s no stark. i think he wants a family, but the north will never accept him as a stark. so what’s theon’s purpose? i’m so sorry for talking so much but i always love your answers

ok ok ok. anon ily. i might answer the theon one in a separate post if i have time; im gonna try to be as brief as possible but i am gonna put this under a readmore because you touched on uhhh probably the central question of the whole series lol! in fact you could probably write a phd thesis about violence and justice in asoiaf lol, but lets see if i can boil it down quickly maybe not clickbait???? (i lied, this got egregiously long)

ok ok ok some disclaimers up front. I personally am probably a bigger pacifist than most people lol, so this may colour my take somewhat. secondly spoilers but my answer is that i dont think the series actually has a solid answer to the question of retribution/vengeance. my favourite kinds of art are pieces that ask questions that can't be answered. and: is violence ever acceptable? can it be used as a means to a good/just end? <- is like, a hugely unsettled matter in the entire human experience. this is a question we all ask ourselves at some point. it's even more complicated and tangled in real life! is the death penalty ever okay? how can we wage just wars? how do we protest subversively? can people be rehabilitated? even: can we change? that's what politics are all about! the q of violence is something i am constantly thinking about and am still unsure of my answers! most people are!

what asoiaf does so well is pick at the idea of violence in about a hundred different ways and though a hundred different lenses. not all violences are equal! of course not! it is very clear about this, as well as that said violence is not always physical, is most often institutional. and justice.... well justice is completely incoherent in this world!!! the first chapter opens with the protagonist executing a man we as readers KNOW did nothing morally wrong! the thing with asoiaf is that there is always an added nuance to challenge you when you think you've made up your mind. someone shows a glimmer of humanity, or else descends into unexpected cruelty, or else complicates the narrative. there is always a 'but'.

for example: take robb's war for ned. he is trying to avenge his father, save his sister. okay, that's noble. that's just. you want to root for that. BUT: their warpath endangers hundreds of thousands of smallfolk, not to mention the thousands of innocents in their armies forced to fight one another and die for the sake of one man. how could that be worth it? BUT: tywin's army was desolating the riverlands anyway, so wouldnt it be a net good to defeat them? BUT: protecting smallfolk was never their priority; their 'justice' is only for the highborn; politically, an independent north would probably not be any better or worse for the peasantry. a tree of hanging women who lay with lions. "the north remembers", when it's first used on page, is not a joyous rally; it's robb reflecting bitterly that harrion karstark cannot openly forgive him for killing rickard, or risk losing face. rickard, who was killed for killing lannisters, because the lannisters killed his sons-- because robb waged war, because the lannisters killed ned! a poisoned cycle that can't end, an ideology defined by war, remembrance and loyalty as its own sort of sickness.

the thing about violence as justice in asoiaf is that it is never portrayed as revelatory. it's not... like... cool lol. did tywin deserve to die? idk, maybe. but this does not lift a weight off tyrion's shoulders. it doesn't feel like he won. this is something all characters must bear and grapple with. arya in particular is rich with this and that could be its own essay ofc. at its simplest, though, we have sandor. he killed her friend. a child. do child-murderers deserve to die? a lot of people in the world would say yes. but when he is at her mercy, when he is literally begging for her to kill him, she can't. it's too much. when dany orders the disembowlment of the slavers, she questions the choice internally. does torture have utility, here? what is it worth? ("But later, when she passed the men dying on the posts, when she heard their moans and smelled their bowels and blood... Dany put the glass aside, frowning. It was just. It was. I did it for the children.") again, i dont think the narrative has a straight or easy answer, which is why she's asking at all! if these answers were easy there wouldnt be a book. or things like jon's babyswap, which i consider its own kind of violence— but it is born from an unflinching desire to avoid worse violence. so... can it be just, then? theon murders the miller's boys. little kids. does he deserve to be punished? yeah, right? but then we are confronted with reek, and the empathy in the reader flinches, says: nooooo not like that!!!! and then feels bad for ever thinking it! so if he can change, did he ever deserve to die? when joffrey dies-- joffrey!!!-- there is very little catharsis to be found. ("He has Jaime's eyes. Only he had never seen Jaime look so scared. The boy's only thirteen.") the prose focuses on his purple face, his futile desperation to breathe. the way he looks like a child, because he is.

and then there are all the logistical, logical ends that need to be dealt with when seeking retribution. you got back at someone: great. now their family or allies or loved ones will get back at you, and on and on it will go forever until no one remembers the original injustice (see: the brackens and the blackwoods). now there is a power vacuum, or a counterrevolution, now the crops have burned and everyone is starving, now there are orphans. so... was it worth it? this is generally never the intent, but none of this can be sidestepped, either. a large point: no matter how justified in war you may feel, these consequences must still be borne. whether they are worth it in the end is your decision to make.

so we come to ellaria, with no clearer answer than what we started with. and i agree, it's one of my favourite quotes too. the endless question of: what do we do with what has been done to us? the violence has already been done, there is no way to bring someone back, there is no retribution. the victims are dead and so is their killer. and yet it is a hollow justice, because nothing has changed. women like elia are still bartered as political pawns and discarded. again, there is no coherent justice in westeros. it is only by chance that gregor died anyway. the systems of power are still functioning, and the aberration of that is felt. the sand snakes are grieving, but they are grieving the only way they know how. oberyn walked past obara's weeping mother when she picked up a spear. the only language in westeros is violence, the only power in blood. well, it's better than being powerless, right? .....right?

there is no good option. doran picks a side, having agonized over it for decades. this was not easy for him! the martells are understandably pissed off by the lannisters— of course— but... who is left to seek justice from? tywin is dead. robert is dead. aerys and rhaegar are dead. gregor is dead. amory lorch is dead. they could war against/kill cersei... i guess. jaime, maybe? myrcella? tommen? great, what would be the point? will their deaths feel good, emotionally, to the martells? or will they just feel hollow, like so many scenes of retribution in the series?

so i might favour ellaria's vision-- peace and submission, anything just to survive, to avoid hurting people. but this has its own very very obvious problems! pacifism is not a get out of jail free card lmao! "war will come, whether we wish it or not," obara says. it's highly possible this move would be seen as a sign of "weakness", and would only invite worse violences from the ruling power. again— the misery of this world is systemic, not individual. that's what feudalism is. that's what power is. it requires violence to maintain. but violence is also almost always required to challenge or protest it. so, ok. fuck. fuck! how can a world like this be borne? and how can we change it?

god i wish i knew!!!!!! — george rr. martin, 2011

[horizon-verizon]

There is a post that says that Alicent is not delusional to think that Rhaenyra agreed to make peace after Luke's death and begins to make comparisons with Cat who freed Jaime because it was more important for her to get her daughters back than her revenge for Ned, so it wasn't delusional to expect that Rhaenyra would rather keep her other children safe than avenge Luke.

My initial reaction was 🤨 something is very wrong here, but then the more I thought about it my reaction changed to 🙄😒🫨😫😠😡🤬 and I can finally articulate it well.

First, yes, Alicent is totally and completely delusional, I want to clarify that from the beginning and that comparison and hope that Rhaenyra will kneel after Luke's death is many levels because it omits and erases the emotional and political contexts of both situations

A. The first thing that bothered me was the implication that Rhaenyra by choosing to fight is actively putting her children in danger (but not apparently Aegon 🙄).

B. Cat's daughters (daughter) were hostages who tried to use them as leverage to prevent Robb from moving forward. The whole point of getting Jaime and why so many bothered that they would release him It is because he was an ideal hostage precisely to force the return of the girls (Sansa) and good peace talks.

None of Rhaenyra's children are hostages, Rhaenyra could have done what she did later and kept her children out of the battle and close to her.If under that scenario she had lost, the normal thing in that society is that the eldest were sent to the wall and the youngest and most innocent were taken as 'wards' like Theon was or even locked up as the English kings historically did.

C. Freeing Jaime was an emotional response to the death of Bran and Rickon along with the loss of Winterfell, Sansa's marriage (with her possibly being raped), Robb in possible danger and the failure of alliances with the Baratheon brothers. That is why Cat acts at that moment when before Robb was winning the war and had a valuable hostage. This is what motivates Cat to decide that the war has to end NOW and she has to get her daughter back.

Rhaenyra is once again in the middle of raven conversations where it was essentially going to be a penis measuring "Look at my dragons and how many houses support me" that was the strategy of both sides while they sweetened the pot with other terms.

The real comparison on a political level is with Robb already having his army assembled BEFORE Nedd's beheading and on an emotional level to Rhaenyra when Corlys betrays her and Daemon and Joffrey die.

D. The implication that expecting Rhaenyra to act more like a mom and not like a politician was the right thing to do when the serious problem that women in power have had is precisely being labeled as emotional and this is already a criticism that Rhaenyra receives in and out of the universe really pisses me off.

E. I need someone to explain to me why the reaction of her son being murdered under what was essentially political immunity should cause her to submit to the mercy of those people. There is a reason why this is the cessation of peace talks and the beginning of hostilities

F. This sounds like Rhaenyra must have freaked out and bared her neck while handing over the knife herself. So I also need they to explain to me why kneeling would put her children in less danger by submitting to people who have already proven to be a threat.

G. Since the argument is apparently based on the fact that Rhaenyra must have felt intimidated by the danger her children faced because Vhagar is an unstoppable threat. and at this point I'm furious again I'm going to be petty and say that after B&C Alicent should give up and be scared, after all they are not safe inside their house and still their sons and granddaughters can die if they don't surrender!

H. I'd be more inclined to believe that Alicent isn't delusional and thinks Rhaenyra is stupid if the in-universe implication (even by others on the council) wasn't that her letters say: "ops on your dead son, bend the knee or we'll eat another one" because apparently no attempt has been made to smooth things over, more so because they have to be aware that after this THEY are the ones who have to make the repairs and the only thing they could do for peace is say "sorry for your son, here is the crown we stole from you, do you think you can forgive Aemond? Maybe send him to the wall instead of taking his head?"

Even if Aegon didn't make a banquet at the show Aemond has been promoted to best strategist without even a speech or display of censure after, once again, committing assassination of someone with essentially diplomatic immunity using the equivalent of a nuclear weapon

I. My last point is that I also want to know why people defend this line of thinking when, even if Rhaenyra doesn't know it, WE the audience know that the original plan was the murder of her and her family and Aegon and Otto lament how difficult things are because that didn't happen. Seeing that even Alicent admits that she has no power over Otto, Aegon and Aemond (because she never had it over her father and her children are getting out of hand) What exactly does that universe where Rhaenyra kneels look like?

ASoIaF fandom actually read the books and pick up on the blatant AND nuanced differences b/t several diff female characters challenge---FAILED.

Rhaenyra is once again in the middle of raven conversations where it was essentially going to be a penis measuring "Look at my dragons and how many houses support me"

Pfft..

D. The implication that expecting Rhaenyra to act more like a mom and not like a politician was the right thing to do when the serious problem that women in power have had is precisely being labeled as emotional and this is already a criticism that Rhaenyra receives in and out of the universe really pisses me off.

Yeah, damned if you do, damned if you don't. Continuously moving the goalposts. No escape. So you co think that being less politically minded is how she should have been? (not that giving up her kids was politically beneficial, as you pointed out: unlike Cat's daughters who were already hostages, Rhaenrya's kids were all with her...Cat was more compelled to save her kids' lives with them not already by her side).

F. This sounds like Rhaenyra must have freaked out and bared her neck while handing over the knife herself. So I also need they to explain to me why kneeling would put her children in less danger by submitting to people who have already proven to be a threat.

It's exactly they want her to utterly give up. they hate how bk!Rhaenyra refused to assert herself--they already decided that her going against status quo of female behavior condemns her and her sons and/or they are fed up-cornered by how woefully inferior show!Alicent is as a mother, so they collapse the whole meshes of nuance for both situations that and go after Rhaenyra's motherhood with paltry and narrow-minded "critiques".

Great breakdown anon, definitely going in my personal list of posts to reference. I don't have any notes.

[bellarkeselection]

Kingslayer Prisoner pt 2

Part 1 - read first please

Jaime attempts to defend Y/n Tully to her uncle Brynden and they share a moment later

My uncle and Jaime still have swords pressed up against one another. Holding my hands above my head eyeing the two older lords who were seconds from fighting one another. Jaime lowered his sword offering me his right arm so I could grab it and he helped me to stand behind him with his sword raised in defense. “Blackfish, are you really so stubborn to fight with your pride that you would kill your own family. Even though she never had any affair with me?"

"I sent her to gather Intel and recuse her brother and she came back with nothing. And I can see it in her eyes. She's been drawn in by the misleading lion glow!" My uncle raised his sword up to Jaime’s chest with a growl.

Shifting my gaze up to Jaime’s he didn't dare remove his focus from my uncle. I moved one hand forward, gripping his armor of his forearms. "Uncle, believe me when I say this. I don't have any intention of betraying our family to be with him. I am still a Tully born and I live our vow everyday. Family, duty, honor."

“And yet you think that you could convince him to return your brother. His family has done nothing but tear the houses apart. His sister can’t stand not having any power over everyone and everything. Why do you think he is here now?” My uncle snarled through his teeth.

Jaime started to say something. “House Frey just wants the house they were degreed to get. I don’t see it necessary to make men die when I am offering you to just abandon the castle and go somewhere else.”

"This is my family home, Kingslayer. Tell me would you're late father Tywin let someone invade Casterly Rock hmm." The Blackfish got no reply to his question giving him the answer he already knew where he turned on his heels to leave. "No I didn't think so. When you wish to challenge me into a fight let me have one last look at my nephew before you kill him."

Pushing my way past Jaime and against his better judgment, I managed to pick up my sword that I had dropped on the ground when the guards threw me down at my uncles feet. "So family only means something if they are willing to do whatever it takes to defend their house. And if they don't want to fight, you are calling them a traitor like Jofferey did to Ned Stark."

"The only one I consider calling a traitor is you, Y/n. You see, I had you followed by another spy of this family, and they caught a glimpse of you kissing the Kingslayer. So yes, I name you a traitor against your own house from this day until the day I die." My uncle drew his sword over his shoulder about to swing at me once more until Jaime moves in front of me and takes a slice through his armor.

He fell onto a knee before my uncle retreated back into the castle, sending me a half guilty look for what he had done. Wrapping my arms around the lion soldier, I did my best to help him back in his tent and through the campground they had created. An old Maester came in the moment I got Jaime seated on the bed. "I should...uh have you.. stitched in a moment, ser Jaime."

"Uh I'm not so sure you're hands are that steady, grand Maester. I mean no offense by it." I stuttered eyeing the elderly man seeing him struggling to even put the thred through the needle because of how badly his hands were shaking.

The elderly man tried to assure me. "Ah not to worry my lady. I...oh...I have much practice at this."

"Grand Maester, I would prefer you leave the sticking to Lady Tully here. I know Edmure had some wounds on him that I request you take care of." Jaime glanced at the elderly man before he set his tools down for me leaving us with a bow to the commander of the Kingsguard.

Slowly moving in front of the golden lion, I couldn't shake the uneasy question weighing down in the pit of my stomach. "Ser Jaime, I - uh have to ask. But why did you jump in front of my uncles sword and take a scratch meant for me?"

"Because, Y/n... you don't look at me like everyone else does. You don't give me the look that I've seen for 17 years. You don't see me as an oathbreaker. And I don't see you as a traitor like your uncle does at this very moment." Jaime reached for with his real hand gently taking my hand in his with his green eyes pouring into mine so strong and yet so softly too.

I moved my free hand to pull his shirt sleeve up so I could fix the wound, but his words took over all my concentration at the moment. Squeezing his hand in mine I was truly at a loss for words. "I...I don't know what to say, Jaime...or what should I do?"

"Tell me whether or not our short kiss the night I took you hostage meant nothing. That you didn't feel what I did." He blurted out, sending me that cheeky smile, but it dropped when he met my gaze, becoming all serious about his next choice of words. "Or rather tell me if I'm sitting here trying to get this out and sounding like an idiot." I gulped completely in awe and utterly terrified of what to say next to the famous Jaime Lannister.

Comments really appreciated ❤️

Tag list - @makeshift-prime @rosie-posie08 @lover-of-books-and-tea

- Part 3 anyone??? 😉

[oatm3al-c00kies]

currently thinking about the crew as a family and the "they love you ed" line???? like yes they do but it would be a lie to say that they didn’t love izzy as much or even more than they love ed.

(this ended up being extremely long so the rest is under the cut <3)

in season one, most of them were on stede's crew while ed became like the cool stepdad they all adopted. he was a beloved member of the crew but was never quite as close to them as stede was, considering stede was their captain first. at the end of season 1, he forced them to work for him, left some of them abandoned on an island to die, and !!! "killed" lucius, traumatizing him with that experience and with all of the things he had to go through in the time following that.

in season 2, he continued to force the crew into terrifying and traumatizing situations they didn't want to be in simply for his own gain and to deal with his grief. he forced jim and archie to fight to the death for his amusement, shot izzy for standing up to him and just generally created a horrible atmosphere on the ship. because of all he put them through, they killed him (or at least tried to). the crew then had terrible trust issues, were extremely paranoid even when surrounded by (former) friends, and expected the worst from every situation. once ed was back, he gave a half-assed apology (which I dont believe he ever actually remedied?), had a one-on-one conversation with fang, and then just like.. went about his business. i think they cared for him to some extent, but (at this point) did they trust him as much as they used to? was there really much love left there?

izzy on the other hand... izzy they loved. in season one he was, lets be honest, a bit of a shit. but in season 2?? everything changed. he continually put himself in between the crew and ed when he was at his worst, taking the brunt of ed's anger and allowing himself to take the punishments for their wrongdoings, all the while not saying a word (or at least trying not to). when ed was so far gone he was unreachable, izzy was the one in charge of the crew, trying to lead them through it all.

the crew cared enough about izzy to talk to him about his relationship with blackbeard, explaining why it was toxic and unhealthy, and that he shouldn't have to deal with it.

he confronted ed when no one else could, bringing up the concerns of the crew because they were too scared to say anything, putting himself on the front lines yet again.

fang was unable to stop crying after ed shot izzy, and frenchie risked ed's anger to try and get medical supplies for him. they all cared enough to spare his life when they were ordered to kill him, hiding him away and not letting him die even when he yelled at them to kill him. jim defended izzy when archie mentioned that he was kind of a dick because yeah, he was, sure, but he was their dick.

he shot ed when he was about to shoot off the cannon and doom them all, forced himself to get above deck — bleeding and weak with one leg and a head injury, having just tried to end his life — because he knew the crew needed him.

when his wooden leg broke and he was obviously struggling, the crew found a solution and gave him the leg of the unicorn from the front of the ship, making sure it would hold his weight, writing the note to him saying that he was their new unicorn, and showing him that he was one of them, a part of the family, and the thing that led them forward.

he carved the wooden shark for lucius and helped him move on from his trauma with ed. he worked with stede to make him a better pirate captain and validated the crew's fear about the cursed clothes.

izzy shot sarcastic quips at ned low's crew when they were being tortured, trying to lighten the mood and direct some of the anger on himself rather than the crew. he did the same thing when they were all stuck in the jail cell, correcting banes on a technicality and calling him a twat, making a fool of the man holding their lives in the balance to try and make things seem a little less dire.

when he came out in drag to sing at calypso's birthday, the crew danced along, listening to his performance with smiles on their faces, happy to see izzy so free. they made him feel comfortable and allowed him to heal and discover who he was on his own and become the great izzy hands again.

and sure they care about ed and yes he's a part of the crew, but izzy hands was more their family than ed ever was.