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#but ultimately that girl being her sworn enemy?

raayllum · 8 months

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Anyway Runaan-Callum parallels slap so let's talk about 'em (semi requested by the lovely @hoothalcyon)

Although Runaan and Callum are about as different presentation wise as they could possibly be, especially in Arc 1 - one a stoic, serious Moonshadow elf sworn to duty over family, who believes wholeheartedly in a dastardly human enemy, and the other a goofy heart-on-his-sleeve prince who always believes elves may be worth reasoning with - they do have, at their steely cores, have a fair few similarities. This is largely in their respective relationships with Ezran and Rayla.

For starters, in spite of Callum's idealism, he does have a more skeptical core (just like Runaan) both in regards to potentially listening to / trusting 'former enemies' and in trusting the people they love with possibilities they've already deemed impossible.

Runaan: No. Humans are liars. This is a trick and a trap. You're a fool, Rayla.

Rayla: Just... trust me. Callum: Right, right. That makes sense. Since we go way back. Like that one time, ten minutes ago, when you chased me through the castle trying to stab me. Haha, good times!

You have Callum and Runaan both being terse/angry at Ezran ("Ezran, you don't get it, do you? Why do you think they're sending us away? Because they're coming to kill him!") and Rayla ("Of course he was afraid, but you had a job to do! You let him live but you killed us all") for not seemingly getting the severity of the situation they've found themselves in, even though Callum told Ez that everything was okay when the younger boy expressed doubts earlier, and even though Runaan didn't listen to Ethari's cautioning that Rayla wasn't ready for this sort of mission.

Runaan and Callum are both also lied to / betrayed by people they trusted, leading ultimately to disaster once the illusion has been revealed; for Runaan, it is his adoptive daughter, and for Callum, it is his childhood friend(s) in Claudia and Soren. And both turn away from each girl in the end, leaving them staring off sadly as Runaan and Callum devote themselves to the missions they believe have to be done that Rayla and Claudia were attempting to derail.

Callum and Runaan also believe that Rayla can be better than how she's presenting herself ("Why? You know this is wrong" / "You're better than this") even if they have opposite ideas of what 'better' is. For Callum, it's Rayla embracing her compassion ("You have a big heart") and for Runaan, it's largely shutting it off ("Your heart isn't hard enough to do whatever it takes"). Which is why I think it's nice that they are both the ones who label Rayla's said compassion, initially in Callum's case, as hesitation.

And of course, in Chasing Shadows, they are the two voices inside Rayla's head, helping her retain her identity (to a degree with Runaan, who is also paralleled with RedFeather in spite of the distance and/or fraught dynamic between them, as well as being the two people to pull her out of the water from near drowning.

“An island is land,” said a voice in her head, so playful and cheeky she could almost see his smile. [...] “A hidden dagger,” Rayla understood. It was something Runaan had told her time and time again: “a defenseless enemy may keep their daggers hidden.”

I love you. I wish I could say that we will see each other again, but I don’t know if we will. I hope so.

Callum can also be determined bordering on stubborn, like Runaan (a trait many of the main cast share, given the adversity of their circumstances; "We have to keep going, no matter what" from 1x08; "Justice will not be denied" from 1x03) but he is ultimately more willing to change. He can be stoic (in S4) if not very well, and has his own self sacrificial tendencies, particularly if that means protecting his loved ones: "We'll be stronger as five" now that Runaan knows the mission will likely require sacrifice and "I need you to kill me" now that Callum knows Aaravos has turned him into a threat. Given the trouble that magic has recently brought Callum, I wonder if we will start to see him have similar doubts as Runaan in Bloodmoon Huntress over being an assassin, of "I wonder if perhaps I shouldn't have become..."

However, as Ethari lays out in BH: "Souls like that feel called to protect everyone as fiercely as those they hold close. I've known since we met that this is Runaan's calling, that nothing will deter him from his duty." When Runaan is offered freedom and a chance to go home to Ethari - to free himself and return to his loved ones, to ease their suffering - he doesn't take it. It is the end of his episode in which he states, "I will never help you," allowed to hold fast. (Even though, if he had been freed, he possibly could've taken the coins holding Lain and Tiadrin with him as well, if through force.)

But Callum has his "I will never help you" at the beginning of his episode, so it's unsurprising from a structural standpoint that Callum's vow doesn't hold (and doubly unsurprising from a characterization standpoint) since as we all know, Callum "values those close to him more than anyone or anything."

Now, we don't know what Runaan would've done if one of his loved ones' lives had been on the line, as opposed to Viren just further threatening his own safety, but he was willing to sacrifice the lives of all of his assassins (granted that they were equally willing of the risk), so there's a little grey room. We also know that Finnegrin had to meet a challenge similar to Viren's: Callum didn't fear his own lack of freedom, torture couldn't break him, and he wasn't scare either when it seemed he was assuming he was the one going to be fed to the giant sea serpent. So Finnegrin had to find something that Callum, likewise, would "fear more / find worse than death" and he did:

Magic is very important to Callum and it's what he absolutely wants to pursue, but he's not willing to risk his life or heavily bend his morals just for his calling (2x04, 2x02, 2x08); he is willing to do those things for his loved ones, time and time again (1x01, 1x02, 2x07, 3x09, 5x08).

The fun thing is that we see this sort of language (Finnegrin's whole thing about fair prices) reflected in BH with Runaan as well, specifically with Kim'Dael holding an innocent Skywing boy hostage and using him as leverage for Runaan to sacrifice himself (which, given Callum's subsequent dark magic use, is also a level in 5x08, because he's also willing to sacrifice/risk corrupting himself further to save Rayla):

Which we could see Callum consider if there's something that requires him to do dark/dangerous magic again in S6, since in his mind, he's already 'tainted' and stained by dark magic, just as Kim'Dael taunts Runaan over it (and those sweet assassin-dark mage parallels continue to persist):

I know you're brave. The kind of brave that would sacrifice your life to save the ones you love. Let's make it simple. Give me your blood, assassin, and those two you came with walk away free. You've killed, but they haven't. They can still have long full lives.

(I do still lean towards this ultimately coming back around for Rayla first and foremost because BH basically exists to hold up a sign like "Runaan and Rayla are similar" / her paying the price motif and sacrifice, but I do think ultimately both Callum and Rayla will end up in a situation similar to Runaan's above whether in structure or in how they process it.)

Where are all these parallels going, besides Callum being the one to free Runaan and co. in S6, and Runaan possibly encouraging the "You need to kill me" idea at first? No clue! But they're fun either way.

Other fun misc. parallels:

Guiding moon (Ethari and Rayla to Runaan and Callum respectively, parallel, maybe)

And last but not least, the parallel that gave me the tag for their foils / dynamic in the first place

#the dragon prince #tdp #moment of truth #tdp runaan #analysis series #tdp callum #arc 1 #s1 #arc 2 #1x03 #elf fam #parallels #requests #hoothalycon #runaan #callum #mini meta #bloodmoon huntress #analysis

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bizaar · 2 years

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Okay bear with me because this is an extremely specific scenario that I don’t have time to write out right now, but lately, I am obsessed with the concept of a reader who has been Dustin’s babysitter for actual years, like from elementary school on.

You’re the ultimate be-all-end-all super cool babysitter who sits and plays Atari with him, talks about comic books and Lord of the Rings, chaperones trips to the arcade and movies, and gets super into it when you step in to play an NPC in their D&D games. Dustin has had literal heart eyes for you since you first started babysitting, and probably has a secret vow that he’s going to marry you someday when he’s an adult. And then devastatingly, one day you show up gushing about this guy you met at school, how he’s really cool and funny and you think Dustin would love him because he’s into all that “nerdy fantasy stuff” and plays D&D, and that’s bad enough because you literally never stop talking about this guy, but then one day he’s gone from being just some guy you like to fully and officially your boyfriend and it’s all Dustin can do to keep from blowing his lid because who the hell does this guy think he is swooping in and stealing you like that? He’s known you for years and this guy, whoever he is, has just fully got the audacity to just ask you out? And it’s like a full year or two of Dustin having to endure listening to you gush about your stupid boyfriend, getting wildly jealous and snotty about it when you go on and on about how fun and funny and nice he is. He can’t even be too mad about it because honestly, your boyfriend does sound like a really cool guy, he even helped you plan a mini-campaign to run for the Party and it was actually super fun, despite what Mike said about it being “baby-shit”. It’s annoying because Dustin can’t deny that he’s happy you’re happy. Eventually, he can kind of start to ignore it because he’s got Suzy (and he really, really likes Suzy, but let’s face it, she’s not you). Still, really, he’s just biding his time until he’s old enough for you to take him seriously, and for you to break up with your stupid boyfriend (or for him to just die, whatever comes first).

Then one night, after you’ve graduated and right before he’s about to start High School, you show up to babysit (which is ridiculous, he’s thirteen now, WAY too old for a babysitter) and you aren’t your normally happy, self. Your eyes are all puffy and swollen like you’ve been crying, and it turns out you and your stupid jerk boyfriend finally broke up, but he can’t even be happy about it because you’re devastated, and before he knows it, suddenly Dustin is vowing to avenge your honor against the no-good son of a bitch who broke your heart, partially because he is honor bound to be the sworn enemy of anyone who makes you cry, but also because it finally makes you cheer up a little.

Then he starts school, and he meets Eddie and everything changes. He’s arguably obsessed with him, because he’s so cool and fun and funny, and he’s into all the nerdy fantasy stuff that Dustin and his friends (and you) like. He runs an awesome D&D club, and he wants to be just like him, but mostly he can’t stop thinking about how much you’d like Eddie too. Sure, he’s a little rough around the edges but he’s really truly and deeply nice. It makes Dustin happy to think about sharing his new friend with you because Dustin shares everything with you (he even told you about Eleven way back when they’d first met her and Will was still missing, but you’d scrunched up your features and told him that it wasn’t funny to joke about keeping girls in basements, so he’d made sure not to tell you about the crazy stuff with Eleven and the Upsidedown, if only to keep you safe from that super scary dangerous part of his life).

Time goes on and Dustin keeps trying to get you two together, not out of some desire to hook the two of you up, but just because he wants his friends to be friends too so that he can hang out with you at the same time, but you’re both busy with your own lives and it never ends up happening.

Then it’s spring break, and Chrissy’s dead, Eddie’s in the wind, and Dustin has vowed he’s going to help clear his name no matter what, so he goes to find you, because as an authority figure from his childhood, you’ve always had really creative solutions to seemingly impossible problems. Dustin drags the party down to the diner formerly known as Benny’s where you’ve since started working, he leans over the counter and asks conspiratorially,

“Do you know Eddie Munson?”

And suddenly your face goes steely in this bizarre, super serious way. You clench your teeth and swallow hard, and say sure, you know Eddie, (which honestly throws Dustin for a loop, how the hell do you know Eddie? All this time he’s been trying to get you two to meet and suddenly you already know the guy? What the hell?) and when pressed for your help, you agree right away, in fact, you think you know a few places where he might be hiding out. The party splits up, with you an honorary addition striking off on your own with a walkie-talkie to go turn over the few rocks you have in mind.

“How do you think she knows Eddie?” Lucas asks once you’re gone, and Dustin shrugs feeling weirdly a little jealous.

“I don’t know, they probably went to school together.”

And Max heaves a disgusted sigh, because oh my god, you guys are idiots, and she drops the take of the century on the Party.

“Morons. They used to date.” She says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “I used to see them together at the mall and stuff, making out all the time, like, super in love, it was actually really gross.”

And suddenly Dustin feels like his guts are about to drop out of him, because Eddie??? Is your super cool (ex)boyfriend??? He wants to tell himself Max is wrong, that she doesn't know what she's talking about, but suddenly there are a bunch of annoying little puzzle pieces all falling into place to make a picture of the last couple of years. He remembers seeing you get into a big shitty panel van blaring overloud rock music, you stealing away from outings at the movies or the arcade to go talk to some guy with long hair he'd never really gotten a good look at, the specific details of the D&D campaign you'd run for the Party, and how he'd thought he'd recognized minor NPCs in Eddie's own campaigns. Honestly, Dustin doesn't know how to process the information, so he stuffs it into the back of his mind and tries to forget he ever heard Max say it. It's almost impossible, especially when they finally find Eddie at Reefer Rick's, and for as relieved as he is to see him, he can't help but be ever so slightly hostile towards him, because he can't rationalize the conflicting truths he has wrestling around in his brain.

How is he supposed to be Eddie’s protector now that he knows he is the stupid shithead douchebag who broke your heart and had you sitting on his couch, crying, over the summer? The person he is sworn to protect is the same person he has sworn his mortal enemy? How does that work? Conflicting vows off honor are no good…

(anyway I’ll cut this off here because I could literally write a whole novel about this concept, it’s just giving me brain rot)

UPDATE: Parts One and Two are up ...

#reader insert #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson #there's literally so much more to this but I can't mentally wrap my head around sitting down to write for real right now #maybe later this week #eddie munson x female reader #cruel summer

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fathermarty · 2 years

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Too Stunned To Speak ✰ Sirius Black

┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┐

Request: This is a prompt from my request inspo, requested by the ever-so-lovely @sai-kida134! She wanted the reader to be in Slytherin, and we all know I am an absolute sucker for the Marauders.

→ Where the reader + any Quidditch player from the Golden Trio Era or the Marauders Era, are sworn enemies and when the final Quidditch game comes around the reader's team loses, + to shut up whoever the story is about the reader kisses them + says something like “I like it better when you’re too stunned to speak.”

Pairing: Sirius Black x fem!Slytherin reader

Warning(s): swearing, taunting, let me know if I missed any.

M I N O R S D N I

└── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┘

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor is something everyone at Hogwarts is aware of, and with the tension of the house cup, the last Quidditch match between the two houses has gotten nasty. Slytherin and Gryffindor are head-to-head in points, whoever wins the Quidditch match will win the house cup. The Marauders were of course not on their best behavior. None of them were innocent in any of the shenanigans, in fact, the four of them tend to find themselves at the center of a majority of the drama. So much so, that both Sirius and James were threatened with having to sit out during the match if their behavior did not improve.

This leads to both James and Sirius being on their best behavior in all their history at Hogwarts. Y/n was not nervous about the game, no matter how much Sirius Black tried to instill fear into her. Sirius, being the Keeper, tends to come head to head with y/n because she is the top chaser for Slytherin. Their banter was nothing close to friendly, y/n would borderline consider them enemies because of how much she despised his existence. Sirius on the other hand found y/n to be quite fascinating. Mostly because of how she presented herself to everyone, she did not care how others perceived her and to him that gave her this power.

However, as of recently, y/n has found herself with the never-ending attention of Sirius Black, who instead of pranking the girl was annoying her with compliments and flirty remarks. In every single class he had with her, he would compliment her and give her hi utmost attention. While to Sirius everything he was saying he truly believed, to y/n she assumed he was trying to get under her skin and distract her from the upcoming match.

Even on the day of the match, Slughorn had not canceled their potions lesson, insisting that their education was more important than the two houses' rivalry. Ultimately this led to another encounter between Sirius and y/n, before class started "Y/l/n darling, have I told you that y/h/c really brings out your beautiful y/e/c? I find myself getting lost in them quite too often dove."

Sirius was propped up on y/n's table she shared with her housemate Jess, his hands intertwined in front of him staring at y/n with his head cocked to one side winking at the girl.

Y/n rolled your eyes, bumping the boy with her hip to get him off her table. "You know what Black, your charm won't work on me. You can save all the compliments for when Slytherin wins and you can kiss my arse." Y/n winks back at the befuddled boy, not only surprising him but herself. Y/n was never one to talk trash to anyone.

Sirius ultimately huffed at her remark, "I was just trying to be friendly y/l/n, but it's clear all Slytherins are snake bitches."

"If that is your best rebuttal Sirius, you have seriously lost your touch. I suggest you go sit beside Lupin over there so he can teach you better remarks and how to properly articulate your frustration. I am sure Pettigrew could come up with a better come back." Y/n twinkles her fingers in Potter's and Pettigrew's direction, both of which are laughing at the interaction between their friend and the Slytherin girl.

It was no doubt that the Gryffindor was now fuming with anger, y/n has never been one to give in to Sirius' shit, and it was irritating him beyond measure that he could not get under your skin. He was now determined now more than ever to win this Quidditch match so he could rub it in your face.

"Well Pads, it looks like you dropped something mate." James Potter says snickering to his friend retreating back over to his friends.

Sirius looks behind him to find y/n's eyes boring into his with an amused expression, "What did I drop Prongs?"

"Your dignity."

☆。*。☆。

Sirius had made no more attempts to talk to y/n through the rest of their potions class; however, he found himself getting annoyed when the girl answered a question right and received ten points for Slytherin.

The time of the match rolled around and y/n found herself getting slightly more anxious. Not because of what the game holds, but more so because she talked a big game to Sirius Black and she would be humiliated to lose now more than ever. In a way, this gave her more motivation to crush the Gryffindor team.

All the players found themselves on the field, both Slytherin and Gryffindor on opposing sides of Madam Hooch. The stands were filled to the brim with every Hogwarts student and professor in attendance. Icy glares were shared between the players, and as if the universe was playing some cruel joke on y/n, Sirius was directly in front of her sending her a wink.

"Okay everyone, try to keep this game clean. Yes, that goes for you too Potter. Captains, shake before we begin." James Potter and the Slytherin shook hands with a little more force than normal never breaking eye contact. It was now y/n's turn to wink at Sirius before taking off.

Besides Sirius, James was the other most popular player y/n came in contact with. They never spoke, but sent each other smirks here and there. Which lead to where they are now, James hot on y/n's tail, while she races for the goal posts guarded by none other than Sirius Black.

"Oi Black! Think you can move your massive head so I can score?" Y/n yells approaching fast towards Sirius.

"LOOKS LIKE Y/L/N IS APPROACHING GRYFFINDOR GOAL POSTS QUICK. WILL BLACK BE ABLE TO STOP THE GOAL?"

Y/n took a deep breath and drowning out the commentary before throwing the quaffle with all her might towards the middle goal.

"GOAL FOR SLYTHERIN! 10-0! SCORED BY THE EVER-SO-BEAUTIFUL Y/L/N. I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF BLACK WAS DISTRACTED BY HER BEAUTY AND GRACE. I MEAN SHE-"

The commentary was drowned out by the stands cheering for y/n. She waved and smiled toward the group of Slytherins in the stand. When she turned around she was receiving icy glares from the messy-haired boy who was being lectured by James.

"You have to have your head in the game Pads, we need-"

Y/n interrupted James' pep talk, "You know Sirius, you should take a picture it will last longer."

Before James could say anything Sirius hollered back at the girl, "Don't worry dove, I had to let you get at least one goal before we crush your spirits."

The rest of the game was one for the books, Sirius was playing defense like his life depended on it. Y/n was throwing the quaffle with more speed than ever. The interactions between the two got more heated as the game went on.

The game was now 140-10 in favor of Slytherin. Tension was getting worse as time ticked on, it was anyone's game.

"Y/l/n, you sure you don't want to kiss my arse when we catch the snitch?" Sirius Black yelled over to the girl who was attempting to intercept the quaffle from James Potter.

"Yea right Black, in your dreams-"

"IT SEEMS THAT BOTH THE TEAMS SEEKERS SEE THE SNITCH, THEY ARE IN A HEAD-TO-HEAD RACE!"

At the commentators, words both James and Y/n whipped around to see both seekers reaching for the Snitch. "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, GRYFFINDOR'S SEEKER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! PUTTING GRYFFINDOR IN THE LEAD 160-140! WHAT AN-"

Y/n drowned out all noise as she landed and dismounted her broom. The field was being flooded with students. She turns to see Sirius Black cockily strutting towards her with a smirk and his posse of troublemakers behind him.

"What was that about me kissing your arse when Slytherin wins? It seems to me that-"

Sirius was cut off by y/n walking up to him and grabbing his quidditch robes. He thought for sure she was about to hit him, but instead, she pulled him down to meet her lips. Sirius found himself putting his hand on y/n's hips, pulling the girl closer and deepening the kiss.

Y/n flattened her hands on his chest before pushing back, breaking the kiss. Both their lips were swollen, and teammates from both houses stared at the two bewildered at their actions.

"You know what Black, you're more tolerable when you're too stunned to speak. Maybe I should make a habit of kissing you to shut you up." The girl sent a wink his way before turning around and walking towards the castle.

"Hey Pads I think you dropped something." James says trying to hold back a laugh at his best friends astonishment.

"It sure as hell wasn't his dignity," Lupin replied.

"No, but I am pretty sure it was his heart."

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Holy Smokes. That was so much fun, thank you to Sai for requesting this. I absolutely love Sirius, and a power fem character lol. My inbox is open and I would love to write more imagines. I am a sucker for fluff so send me any ideas!

#sirius x reader #sirius black fluff #sirius black x reader #slytherin #quidditch #gryffindor #marauders imagine #sirius black imagine #marauders fluff #marauders era #hogwarts #peter pettigrew #remus lupin #hp fandom #harry potter #james potter

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mejomonster · 9 months

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I'm Watching episode 5

It's so fucking funny fang duobing is like I live here now. I'm your partner now. I'm not leaving. I ran from my aunt yeah, they took my servant home yeah, I have no money but I WILL PROTECT YOU. We will be friends in the wide world (li lianhua: I'm not in the wide martial world and do NOT want friends) anyway as I was saying this food is mine this table is OURS I'm moving in yeah. (It's so funny fang duobings trying to pitch "heroes who travel together in the jianghu" to a guy who clearly is not trying to be in that life lmao).

It's also so funny Fang Duobing is simply. Clinging. I mean yeah from a logic standpoint he's both broke with no options except this guy he knows is easy to cling to Because he's not a skilled fighter, and also he's an entitled rich bitch young master who wouldn't take no for an answer easily even IF li lianhua was able to sword fight him out of the house

Di feisheng really is ;-; oh man. He's like I had one rival, li xianyi, now that he's gone I have no one. Real Yu Liang from Hikaru No Go energy. Also really genuine, almost noble energy? I'm really glad (so far) he's not the demon sect stereotype character. He values loyalty and honesty, he doesn't like betrayers. I'm surprised he killed li xianyis sworn brother, given he doesn't seem to enjoy underhanded means. He disliked a military win using bombs that hurt his own people. He disliked Winning by only half a move. He seems too honest and noble to kill a sworn brother to simply provoke his enemy, it's too underhanded. My theory at present is either: sworn brother wasn't a good guy and was actually betraying li xianyi but li xianyi still doesn't know that. Which is my favorite theory, since that guy was rude to his nephew fang duobing, sucky enough that fang duobings mom may well hate the martial world Because Of him, would cause maximum angst for li xianyi to find out his most beloved person didn't care about him back and would actively hurt him/the sect etc, and mean di feisheng ultimately was trying to protect/help his rival so they'd be on equal footing... And did not mean to hurt li xianyi by killing the guy. Other theories: the girl in red killed sworn brother of li xianyi, or the medicine demon.

Girl in red: I love her a LOT. I get vibes she's likely to be more like this shows "villain" but honestly if she's the villain I'm gonna be very engaged. I'm intrigued by both her loyalty and how her possessiveness strikes as perhaps the most terrifying element in her entire clan. She wants di feisheng like a trophy, like a pet, like a weapon to use for herself. She deserves the role of leader she got, to be fair, because she did do a Great job leading the sect while he was gone. But based on her private behavior? I'm assuming maybe di feisheng was actually in charge 10 years ago because he may well be a better leader... as in less power hungry, more concerned for the well being of the group, caring about the entire sect before himself. Which is why he does give the role of leader to her in this episode: he is aware he's stuck in the past, aware he's not thinking like a leader, and knows she's done a good job fulfilling the role. So he's leaving the role in her care where he knows his hang ups won't affect things. I am also predicting... much like li xianyi, he might be tired of being the leader. He probably had a shitty of a time being leader as li xianyi, to a degree. He blames himself for the deaths in the battle 10 years ago, for the violent choices of his own subordinates that got their own people killed. There's a sense he also doesn't want to be the person everyone puts on a pedestal and blames and has to be Perfect somehow anyway to be a good leader.

Again I'm just. Very impressed di feisheng isn't being painted like say the wen clan in The Untamed, the demonic cultivating sects in Love and Redemption, the demon clan in Eternal Love. In fact, their entire wuxia setup here doesn't even (so far) imply the demonic sect does anything particularly wrong. Just that, they're in an on and off conflict with the sects that call themselves "just." With a leader like di feisheng, at least so far, he doesn't seem to have particularly cruel intent. He wants payback on sects that attack his, and wants increased power in the jianghu for his sect (at least he did 10 years ago if we guess by how his sect has acted since). But the same could be said of the sigu sect from what we know so far. The "detectives" group is a little more noble, since they have a legal set of laws and some kind of investigation and court process. But the Bai detectives group is not a sect specifically increasing power anywhere so much as they feel more like a "generally broadly respected" independent unit through the area. (I could be wrong later as we learn more though... for all I know, later we will find out they're like The Untamed Jin sect and oppressing all areas they operate in, who knows).

#mysterious lotus casebook #lb

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nirawuu · 8 months

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Full Name: Nira Wu

Nicknames: Ray

Pronouns and Gender: She/They, Nonbinary

Age: 30

Birth place: Buffalo, NY

How long have they been in town?: 10 years

Sexuality: Bisexual

Housing: Fisher's Cove

Occupation: Piercer @ Crescent Moon Tattoo

@aurorabayaesthetic

THE LIFE IN BULLETPOINTS.

originally from buffalo, new york with immigrant parents, nira was an only child with a lot of secrets and a lot of aspirations.

she kept her head low and often avoided social situations thorugh schooling strictly due to lack of emotional care. she would rather spend most of her time drawing in her notebooks over paying attention to class, though she had fairly good grades for the majority of her school career.

they'd always been interested in girls, though typically she never expressed her sexuality to anyone other than herself due to the struggles of being gay in a very restrictive and oftentimes unaccepting household.

tired of being the golden child, they set out to eventually avoid going to college -- instead saving up money through their summer jobs and part-time endeavors between school years.

eventually this led to meeting their first ever relationship with romina cortez, who lived in the same area as nira at the time. nira spent most of their time engulfed in this relationship, suddenly shifting gears with what she wanted to do with her career. this relationship, however, would take a hard turn - leaving nira brokenhearted and ultimately pining for a future she was ready to create with someone she barely knew.

after the relationship died, nira realized she'd nearly abandoned her desire to leave new york altogether. at the age of twenty, she made the choice to ditch buffalo with just a backpack to her name, eventually stumbling onto aurora bay after researching places that could live up to the aesthetic she once craved as an artist.

ultimately all she had ever wanted to do was live in art. originally striving towards a career in cinematography, she drew a lot of inspiration about the sea and the natives of this town. although she never said much to people, she was constantly people watching on her extensive walks around the town.

eventually this gave her the freedom to express her individuality, as well as her realization of being nonbinary. nira would go by she/they pronouns to those closest to them.

instead of returning to a film career, nira took up an apprenticeship at a tattoo shop for piercing. eventually she landed herself a job at crescent moon, where she's spent a better part of a few years now working as their sole piercer.

for now, nira lives to work only in her hobbies, and still tries to connect with the artistry that drew them to aurora bay in the first place.

PERSONALITY.

+ creative, passionate, reliable

- antisocial, pessimistic, perfectionism

BONUS ROUND.

lowkey has a video game addiction

kinda pretentious at times when it comes to movies and television, but has been learning to dial it back now that she's gone over the hurdle of turning 30 (bo burnham vc: nooooo)

is known to be quiet, often mistaken as rude given her lack of socialization/blunt jokes

not really a workaholic but gets fixated about new projects

lovesick over her ex to the point that it ruins most chances of current relationships, but still frequents tinder and bumble.

still has a tumblr they use daily to post favorite movie stills.

drunk snack of choice: jalapeno poppers

CURRENT CONNECTIONS.

cod lobby friend - asher ortiz

THE ex-girlfriend - romina cortez

unplanned caretaker / mentor friend - santiago de leon

boss / friend - aeris flores

sworn enemy / coworker - mack montgomery

friend - clayton jeong

client / friend - lorelai lewis

WANTED CONNECTIONS.

friendly.

new york childhood friends / family friends / co-workers / ride or dies / pseudo-siblings / friends / video game buddies / new friends / positive influences

romantic

ex-flings / friends with benefits / one time hook ups / tinder matches / unrequited crush (can be either way) / exes from high school / flirtationships

antagonistic.

enemies / former (best) friends / former friends / exes on bad terms / frenemies / rivals / negative influence

#aurorabay.intro #tw homophobia mention

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ohtobealady · 2 years

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Could you do 15 for both Cora and Robert??

#15: Schooling/Education! Loooooved this one!!!! (And would love everyone else’s ideas, too.)

Cora:

I wanted to write her first because we have actual little canonical hints that Cora likes learning and finds it important. In most of her interactions with the grandchildren, she’s pulling out books for them to look at (at the places she and Robert have been) or reading with Marigold or Sybbie. We also see that Cora is also on Sybil’s side in S1 in that tiny argument with Violet about wanting to go to school. She encourages Edith to keep using her brain, and Cora is happiest when SHE’s using her brain (except for organizing the bazaar).

My headcanon for her is that she attended a school for girls, something akin to Brearley in NY. She’s overall very academically gifted. She did well in everything she tried. She excelled best in literary studies, but she enjoyed mathematics, too — she liked that there was an answer to the problem out before her. She despised rhetoric, even if she did well. (In a way, she much preferred absorbing ideas and formulating opinions on her own than being the director of other people’s ideas.) She went to an art class, too, which she loved most of all. This evolved into having private tutors for art; she sketched and painted very, very well. She learned several languages, French being one she learned alongside her mother, Martha (who insisted that she’d do well to know better French for when they went abroad to the House of Worth in Paris). She would’ve enjoyed university, but that was never even a thought. She was always going to be a wife and mother, and she WANTED to be a wife and mother, especially the latter. She wanted desperately for her own daughters to have the kind of education she had, though tradition (and Violet) really won out. After all, if it meant they’d marry well, then that’s what was to be done. Their place as women of society was really important to Cora’s world at the time, and that meant marriage to the right man and heirs.

Robert:

Like most other aristos, Robert had private tutors until he turned thirteen and was sent away to study at Eton. He loved Eton’s history, and he was generally very popular (as we know lol), but he wasn’t really one for academics. That isn’t to say he didn’t TRY, but it just didn’t come to him as naturally as some others. He didn’t loathe it either, but he was much better at people skills.

His one real academic love was literature and he stayed an avid reader … he really liked poetry, though Violet blinked at him incredulously when he admitted to such a thing. He also rather enjoyed history. Numbers were, and remain, his sworn enemy.

What he lacked up for academic prowess, he made up for in genuine friendship and understanding of people.

Oh, and obviously he adored anything about Egypt. He borrowed every book about Egypt he could get his hands on at Eton. He would’ve loved to have gone to Egypt and excavate all sorts of treasures, but lol. No.

This next bit is in part due to something @modernamericangirl mentioned before: We never hear Robert talk about any school except Eton. So I’m thinking that upon graduation from Eton, the opportunity was there for him to go to Oxford afterward, and he would’ve liked to in some small way, but perhaps at this point money was an actual issue. And it wasn’t like academia was a true love or desire of his. So he went ahead, after a little bit of a gap year, and started in the military as he was always going to do. He liked it more than studying, anyhow. It was full of camaraderie, duty, and service to Queen and country, his ultimate favs.

Ask me headcanon stuff!

#cobert #downton abbey #cora crawley #robert crawley #my headcanon fun #ask me stuff

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babybluesquid · 1 year

Text

Consequences of Karrnath Session 44

Crimson Tears and Crimson Vows

Our Players this week:

Dagne, Redemption Paladin, party leader, an undead soldier created by the Odakyr Rites, but has a soul. They are a Seeker sworn to protect the living. Has a skeleton horse mount from Find Steed named Coffin. Can be abrasive and dishonest, but they are ultimately kind. They intend to meet their destiny to defeat Mordakesh to protect the world.

Nux, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, a young teen Marcher who escaped an imposed warlock pact and is now discovering their own innate magic. Their personas are Murlo, a preteen orc girl, Orim, a young adult elf boy, and Vel, an adult tiefling enby. Since dying and being brought back to life, they accepted a pact with the Killing Cold in order to ensure victory.

Vaeren, Gloomstalker Ranger, a blind former Deathguard. They were initially sent to investigate Dagne, but instead started dating them. They’re contemplative and disciplined, and are recently tired, only wishing to defeat Mordakesh and settle down.

Evakhal, Zealot Barbarian, a mysterious half-orc Gaash’kala who joined the party due to his visions of the future where they stop Morakesh. He’s generally optimistic and supportive of the party’s efforts, but now undermines Dagne’s authority in favor of getting his version of the job done.

Dagne approaches Inesa, voice cold, “I made an oath to protect the living. I took that to mean I should not kill. I see now that sparing you will only lead to more death. Go to Dolurrh, Inesa.” Hurriedly, Inesa throws up a magical shield, seconds before Dagne’s hammer smashes through it like glass. As she’s knocked to the side, Dagne comes in again, driving their enchanted poleaxe right through her cuirass and into her heart. The square fills with the blinding red light of Dagne’s smite. They push her off the tip of her blade and she falls, no, stumbles backward but remains standing. The amulet on her chest glows with golden sunlight, and in spite of the obvious pain on her face, her unsteady breaths, trembling legs and shaking hands, Inesa smirks. “Not dead yet.”

Another soldier jumps the barricade. As they charge, Dagne wheels around and its them in the shoulder. They scream in agony as their bones shatter and they drop to the ground, passed out from shock. While Dagne is busy, though, two more soldiers cut behind their back to attack Nux. The swordsman slashes at Nux’s arm and side. Then, the other swings his swordstaff in a powerful arc. Nux has no option but to dart forward, getting struck by the pole of the weapon instead of its head. It hits them hard in the temple and they drop.

Two soldiers gang up on Hynek, managing to get hits in on him as he tries to fend off both of them. In the distance, Vaeren hears a voice shout, “I knew she would be here!” It’s Seven’s voice. Despite their injuries, they nock another arrow and fire at the enemy archer. It flies true, right through the woman’s left eye, and she tumbles down ff the roof. They hear the clamp of warforged footfalls, two individuals, approach from down the street and reach the party. Dagne sees Seven sharge in, brandishing his spear and shield. The other warforged carries a pair of handaxes, and when Dagne spots a ‘96’ on the back of their hand, they realize who it is. It seems that Seven has recruited the former Red Watcher into his mission of revenge.

Seeing Nux unconscious, Seven shrugs, says, “same trick works twice,” opens his jaw and retrieves his healing potion from his mouth. He then runs to Nux’s side to administer it, Ninety-six covering his back and attacking the swordsman. They back his helmet hard, but then the man wheels around to block and parry their other attacks. Two soldiers mob Ev and their combined efforts break his defenses. Another soldier steps over her unconscious comrade to shield bash Dagne, but they stand their ground.

Looking around in desperation and seeing all his allies too occupied to help, Hynek takes a deep breath to steady himself and raises his left hand. Dark energy gathers in his palm, then lashes out at the seven nearest Red Watchers surrounding him. Two stop breathing, but remain standing as zombies. The remaining five are visibly shaking as the life is drawn from them, forming into a stream of green light. Hynek directs the stream towards Nux, “open your mouth.” Though confused, Nux complies and the light forces itself down their throat, closing their remaining wounds as it spreads throughout their body. The process burns, and the light tastes bad and settles wrong, leaving them feeling nauseous. “Hynek, what in the world? That was supposed to make me feel better? I’m gonna hurl.” Too busy to respond, Hynek advances and grabs a knight by the face, draining his life until he collapses. Seeing this, one soldier turns and runs. Another keeps his composure and stabs his zombified ally through the eye, killing it. Another zombie falls over a knight. The rest close on their former Red Watcher allies.

Dagne comes in with a slash of their axe blade. Inesa, getting over the magically induced pain, dodges. They strike again and she catches it with her parrying wand, then as Dagne brings the mutt of their weapon around, she manages to parry it with her saber.

Nux, realizing everyone is once again, grouped up, announces, “everyone! It’s gonna get hot!” They call upon their magic, invoking Caraslak yet again, but once again the Killing Cold is offended and turns the spell. The entire party and all their enemies are engulfed, but Nux’s intent reroutes the magical blast around their allies, sparing them from the biting wind. The zombies are all frozen, as well as three of Inesa’s soldiers. The knight at her side disengages and flees. Inesa shouts after him, “coward!” “I warned you of our intent,” Dagne tells her, “surrender. Now!” Inesa only grips her weapons tighter, gritting her teeth, “no surrender!” At that moment, Boki reaches Vaeren and assists them in picking out their target from among the crowd. One, two arrows fly true, one embedding itself into Inesa’s cuirass, the other in her shoulder. Inesa screams and seethes, her amulet glowing brighter with yellow-orange sunlight.

She doesn’t get a break. Seven and Ninety-six wheel around the come against her, coordinating their assault. Seven knocks her to the ground with two powerful shield bashes, then stabs through the hole in her cuirass with his spear. Ninety-six follows with a chop of their axe, and Inesa barely manages to roll aside their second strike. Another of Inesa’s men runs away. The last goes to follow, but Evakhal does not allow it. He advances and smashes him over the head with his hammer, killing him instantly. Hynek advances on Inesa with murder in his eyes, but Dagne calls out to him, and everyone, “wait.” He hesitates, then nods and readies himself. Inesa drags herself to her feet, looks around, and suddenly there’s a bright flash of golden light. The searing bright light of the artifact burns the entire party, overcoming Nux as they fall unconscious. Taking advantage of that distraction, Inesa whirls and swings at Dagne, her flaming saber beating into them. Calmly, Dagne uses their lay on hands on themselves and entreats, “Inesa. Stand down. You’ve lost.” “I don’t stand down,” Inesa hisses. In response, Dagne enters a guarded stance.

Nux rolls a death save. Nat 1.

Vaeren aims again and fires at Inesa. She throws up her magical shield and one arrow shatters against it, but it’s spent. The other strikes her in the gut, staggering her. The artifact about her neck glows brightly, and it seems now, with so many mortal wounds, that it is the only reason she’s still alive. In the next instant, Seven knocks Inesa back down to the cobblestones. “Seven! Wait!” Dagne shouts. He does not wait, stabbing her twice through her leg and arm while she’s down. She screams and cries, the amulet not protecting her from the pain. Ninety-six backs a step, concerned by the turn the situation is taking. With that, Dagne turns to the last support they have, “Ev, help me. Restrain her,” then kneels by Nux to heal their wounds.

Evakhal lunges in, grabs the amulet, and tears it from Inesa’s neck. “Ev!” Dagne shouts in shocked anger as Inesa gasps, but does not breath out again. They hurry to her side, taking weapons from her dead hands and tossing them aside. Nux, awake and with only a second to assess the situation, yells in angry dismay, “oh no you don’t!” They leap onto Dagne, but they’re unable to knock them over. “I must bring her in,” Dagne replies as they tear the arrow from Inesa’s side. “Bring her in cold!” Nux screams into Dagne’s skull. Seven speaks up then, “she’s already dead and that would just make her second death more painful, if you know the customary death for traitors.”

“I know!” Dagne shouts, “I just can’t have this on me!” At that moment, Vaeren reaches the party and asks Dagne, “what are you doing?” “I must bring her,” they reply as they frantically apply first aid. “You can bring her in dead,” Vaeren responds calmly, “it’s going to save a lot of hassle for everyone.” “Not like this.” “This is the highest dumbassery you have achieved!” Nux exclaims. Dagne ignores them and spellcasts, but it fizzles and stops, Nux blocking the reviving magic from reaching Inesa. “Nux! Stop it!” Dagne shouts. “How about you stop it!?” “This is more trouble than it’s worth,” Vaeren insists. “I don’t care.” “Why don’t you care?” “It can’t be on me,” Dagne repeats, hanging onto the sentiment in desperation. “Who decided it was on you?” Nux asks.

Dagne looks down at Inesa, the grasp of death fully taking her that moment as they know they won’t be able to coax her soul back from Dolurrh. “I’m the leader,” they say, “this is my responsibility.” “But you weren’t the only one attacking her,” Nux responds, “we all did. We should all have a say in what happens. Being a leader doesn’t mean you should control what happens,” they trail off a little bit as they carry their thoughts to their conclusion, realizing, “it means you take responsibility for what happens.” The moment is interrupted by the sound of something clattering to the ground. Seven has dropped his spear and shield, and he’s shaking profusely. “Are you alright?” Nux asks. “I am functional,” he confirms. “She’s dead,” Dagne says, realizing what this must mean for Seven. “So she is.” “What will you do, Seven?” “Return to my captain.” “Questions?” Seven nods. “Good,” Dagne says sorrowfully, “try to find a better path forward, friend.” “I shall.” Though still shaking, Seven picks up his weapons and taps Ninety-six on the shoulder, “come, brother. It’s time for me to go home.”

Then, Dagne turns, their tone icy, “Ev, give me the amulet.” “Okay,” he responds, glumly handing it over. “Let’s go back to Korth,” they announce, picking up Inesa’s body and cradling her close. Vaeren retrieves her weapons and helmet, finding them all magical with runes inscribed, and with that, the party sets off. However, Dagne soon receives a sending message, “I can probably pick you up. Did you do it yet?” “Yes,” they reply, “our mission was successful.” The party returns to the library, finding Mistress Ozanka there. She teleports the group again, not commenting on the corpse, and they find themselves on a street corner in Korth, standing in a temporary chalk circle.

The party walks to Crown Home. They’re spotted and guards ferry a few messages ahead of their arrival, and then the whole party is let inside. One tries to take Inesa’s body from Dagne, but they refuse to hand her over. A gnome servant approaches the group, “all of you will see the king. He is currently in his harem, but this is okay. You have very important business.” With a nod to Dagne, he leads them to a large room. As the door opens, the party can hear Kaius speaking, telling his companion that he understands his concern, but they need to talk later. Then, when the door opens fully, he looks at the party, “this is something I should talk about now though.”

Kaius is sitting, wearing trousers and no shirt. He’s accompanied by a khoravar man, somewhere in his 20s, with long brown hair and blue eyes, and a guard in full plate armor standing behind. The king stands and approaches Dagne, “it is done.” The khoravar is averting his eyes from Inesa’s corpse. Dagne retrieves the amulet of Ivara Zemin, holding it with the same hand which cradles Inesa’s neck. “Never call on me again,” Dagne says coldly. Kaius turns to the armored guard, “Dalor, get me a shirt, and make sure Ellar gets extra compensation. He should have the witness such an unsightly scene.” The two bow and leave, then Kaius reaches out for the amulet. Dagne hands it over without further comment. He puts it on around his neck and immediately stumbles back onto the couch, wincing in pain. The amulet glows brightly with sunlight and, as he seethes, the party sees color rush to his cheeks and fangs recede in his mouth. Within just a few seconds, he is breathing hard, but steadily.

Kaius rises again, speaking in a voice that is strained but strong, “my greatest thanks to all of you. I am free. Is there anything any of you want? I can give you many things, this is the greatest service any of my agents have done for me. Speak and it is yours.” “Can you make them my parents?” Nux blurts out, then points at Dagne and Vaeren for clarity. Kaius looks at the two, and both nod, so he writes a note and hands it to Nux. “Give this to House Sivis,” he instructs.

“I want my citizenship,” Dagne says. “Easy enough. Citizenship papers will be delivered to you shortly.” “I’m Dagne, not Almante,” they add. “Of course,” the king replies in a curious tone. Thinking of The Wall and Seven, Vaeren speaks up, “release the warforged from their servitude.” “Would you like anything else? That was already part of my plan.” “Then make me a citizen as well.” Kaius nods. “And I’d like to be paid for my service to you,” Dagne says. “Is 300,000 galifars sufficient?” Kaius asks. Nux can’t contain their astonishment at the number, exclaiming, “wha?” “That will do,” Dagne says flatly. Kaius turns then to Ev, but before he can say a word, Ev replies, “no thanks.” The king looks bothered, “okay.”

“Now,” Dagne announces with gravity, “I’ve done my part for you. I’m going to kill Mordakesh, and I expect to be left alone after that.” Kaius is shocked, “wait, what?” But as there’s no hint of irony and no further response, he adds, “honestly, I believe you.” “Farewell, Your Highness,” Dagne says, their tone inscrutable.

The party leaves Crown Home and all go their separate ways to perform errands. Nux puts their adoption through with House Sivis. Meanwhile, Dagne buys a pair of rings for 400 galifars. Vaeren charters an airship for the Ice Wood, to leave in seven days, for 8,000 galifars. Ev goes to Andrev’s home to arrange for the cats to stay there, finding Vakaris living with him. The party reconvenes for dinner, finding a fancy place in High Court Ward. Dajaana’s a Galifar fusion restaurant, with its menus stored on spellshards instead of paper.

Ev gets Aundarian crepes with sweet wine sauce and fruit ice cream. Nux tries to order stuffed ashi bread, but the server has no idea what it is, so they order Brelish pizza with extra meat, some boiling water to steep their tea, and a shot of vodka that they pick at random. Vaeren gets chicken with white sauce and a glass of red wine. Dagne, missing food, orders a bowl of beef bone broth and the same red wine. The food arrives, and it’s so fancy and delicious everyone ends up sharing with each other, except Dagne who cannot really eat. The bill comes out to eighty galifars.

Once the eating slows a bit, Dagne turns to Vaeren. They ask, “once this is over, I’d like to learn a trade that isn’t murder. Would you like to join me?” “Absolutely,” Vaeren replies, “anything you have in mind?” “We could open a brewery and bar.” Vaeren laughs, “always with the alcohol, you are. We could open a tea shop. Something floral, perhaps.” “I’d love to open a tea shop with you,” Dagne says, retrieving the set of rings and holding them out in their palm, “want to make it official?” Nux coughs. Vaeren pauses, then smiles, “I’d want nothing more.”

“We can hold the ceremony before we leave,” Dagne elaborates, “I’m thinking nobody there except our party, Andrev, my brother, and Seven.” “That sounds wonderful,” Vaeren says, then adds jokingly, “you’ll look gorgeous in a dress.” The comment hangs for a second before Dagne replies quietly, “actually, I’d like that.” “Really?” Vaeren grins, “that’s amazing!” “I have to get out of the armor sometime,” Dagne says. “Always should. We’ll have to get a dress specifically tailored though… we’ll need to find somewhere to hold it as well. We’ll figure this out tomorrow, I suppose.” “Indeed, tomorrow.”

The rest of the week is spent on logistics for the wedding and Nux hanging out with each of their party members. Then, on the sixth day, the party, Andrev, Vakaris, and Seven head out into the woods for the ceremony. The party gathers in a clearing, standing in a circle. Dagne and Vaeren stand together, and Dagne pours a cup of wine. “We’re supposed to prick ourselves and mix our blood,” they explain. “But you don’t have blood,” Vaeren replies. “I know. I have no blood, no life, no divinity within to offer you. This union is sacrilege. But I can offer my soul and my love. I hope this is enough.” Vaeren smiles, “that’s more than enough, love.” Dagne offers them the knife. They take it, make a shallow cut on their arm, and let the blood drip into the cup. Dagne takes it, drinks a sip, and hands it back to Vaeren, who drinks as well.

“We’re joined now,” Dagne announces to everybody, “body and light. May we face the darkness together. May we find comfort in each other.” Nux holds back their tears, sniffling. “For the rest of time,” Vaeren says with a smile, “we’ll do it all together, I promise. I’ll never let you go.” “I love you.” “I love you too, Dagne.” Dagne kisses Vaeren. Nux begins to cry. Dagne takes their hand and pulls them into a group hug. They cling to Dagne and Vaeren and sob harder.

The party heads back into Korth, to the Wall headquarters to have the afterparty. Seven congratulates the couple. Vakaris pulls Dagne aside to tell them he’s glad they found happiness. Andrev drinks significantly, and bubbly, tells Dagne “good job!” For gifts, Ev gives Vaeren hair pins and Dagne a matching circlet. Nux pulls three lockets of out their pocket. The first is silver, for Vaeren, with morning tea set into one side of it. For Dagne, gold with night tea. The third, for themselves, is bronze and has midday tea. The other side is left hollow, ready for a portrait. Nux explains, “so, this way, we can still be together, no matter what. Through life and death and all planes of existence.” “Thank you,” Dagne says. Vaeren puts it on immediately, “I love it. Thank you, my child.”

Later, the trio get their citizenship papers, then stop to have three arcane photographs taken of their family to place into the lockets. They then head back to the inn for their last night in Korth before heading to the Ice Wood. Nux sits down on their bed, “I’m sorry.” “Why’s that?” Vaeren asks. Dagne, however, already knows, “I’ve forgiven you.” Nux shakes their head, “we’ve just become a family and now I’m gonna have to leave you guys behind.” “Well, we’re together now, right?” Vaeren offers. “I understand your decision,” Dagne says. Nux regards Dagne with a curious smile, “sweet Eberron, I’m really starting to become like you, aren’t I?” Vaeren laughs a bit at that. Dagne takes their hand, “the path you’ve chosen will be painful, but I trust that you’ll find peace and love at its end.” “I will once I return to both of you, or once I am with Castle.” “We’ll always be together in some way,” Vaeren says, touching their locket, “we’re a family, after all.” “That’s honestly all I’ve wanted,” Nux says. “Me too…” says Dagne, “let’s get to bed, we have a demon to kill.” Vaeren lifts them up then and spins around the room, exclaiming, “this is more than I could’ve asked for! I love you!” Dagne leans their skull into their shoulder, “I love you, too. Let’s get to bed now.”

——————

Highlights:

Inesa’s death was perfectly brutal and tragic. I love how it went down.

Ev betraying Dagne’s trust to kill Inesa was absolutely shocking.

Nux realizing that Dagne was right about Inesa in real time was incredible.

Love the wrap up to Dagne’s conflict with Kaius, asserting that it’s finally over.

Yes Dagne officiated their own wedding. It’s called being a total chad.

Vaeren’s sheer joy this session was beautiful.

Dagne, Vaeren, and Nux are a family! :D

Session 44.

#the penultimate session #it's nearly time to say goodbye ;n;#dnd #d&d #dnd campaign #d&d campaign #dnd story #d&d story #dungeons and dragons #my post #my writing #consequences of karrnath #eberron #dagne #vaeren #evakhal #nux #session 44

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ofplague · 1 year

Text

── 𝑷𝑹𝑰𝑵𝑪𝑬𝑺𝑺 𝑺𝑬𝑽𝑬𝑹𝑰𝑵𝑨 𝑱𝑼𝑵𝑶 𝑨𝑬𝑳𝑰𝑨

skeleton · doc · pinterest · soundtrack

─ 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖

tw ─ death, murder, patricide

born as the first child to the kingdom’s royal family, severina is hardly given acknowledgement or a welcome ─ she is a daughter, not a son. she is to inherit nothing and to rot away within a gilded cage. king of drought follows her a couple years later, and he is favoured, fated to become another wicked, bloodthirsty patriarch.

severina, in turn, becomes a wicked, bloodthirsty girl. she steals pistols in the night and teaches herself how to shoot. she distances herself from her brother ─ her enemy, the one who robbed her of a crown that ought to be her own. severina grows into an envious thing, and anger rots away within her, corrupting her from within.

cruelty becomes her. she is educated in the art of girlhood. purity, innocence, elegance. severina, in turn, defines her version of womanhood ─ it is not drinking tea but poisoning her lady in waiting. it is not dancing but threatening. it is not innocent curiosity, it is shooting those who dare oppose her.

the first time she runs away, she is thirteen and carries supplies and stolen weaponry ─ and promptly dragged back to the castle, kicking and screaming. she runs again when she is older and starts to plant seeds of rebellion within towns, playing the long game ─ setting up a future coup to take the throne for herself. cursed soldier found her and, once again, dragged her back.

her final attempt to run was successful: severina faked her own death by putting herself in a comatose state, and taking advantage of her culture’s funeral rites ( which involve setting women upon a raft and sending them off to sea ) she fled to plot the coup she would attempt to carry out.

fruit of her cunning and unquenchable thirst for power, severina snuck into the palace one night, killing numerous guards in doing so ─ all to assassinate her brother. he wasn’t there, so she killed her father instead and planned to kill her brother next and secure the throne, but she was arrested and found guilty of high treason & regicide.

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

chaotic evil with an emphasis on evil. absolutely merciless, has zero empathy and no moral compass whatsoever, only a raw desire for power.

extremely driven. will stop at absolutely nothing to achieve her ultimate goal of being queen ─ which at this point, looks a lot like taking a seat among gods.

bloodthirsty, wicked, has made a habit out of killing as she sees it as a means to a glorious end. like i said, zero empathy or regard for the value of human life. to her, people are no more than pawns in her game of chess.

so incredibly bad at socialisation that it’s cringeworthy. she is blunt and brutal, and it translates into her way of approaching people. just an asshole with no friends ( deserve ) .

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃

– my darling, despicable reflection. someone severina sees herself in. she has a love/hate relationship with them for it, flipping between endearment over their similarities to wrath as they remind her of her flaws. it varies according to her mood. lamb in a slaughterhouse. she sees them as weak and preys on them accordingly, seeking to exploit it for personal gain ─ or, if that fails, simply for fun. predator toying with prey. – i wanted to break something inside you. enemies ! but genuinely feral sworn enemies, ones who are waiting on the other to be conveniently alone to strike. dull these blades. i am tired of the hunt. a confidant, a source of calm, someone who makes severina settle down and offers a sense of refuge ─ not that she would admit it, of course. on the surface, they bicker and cannot see eye to eye. behind closed doors ? severina dares to relax. – you have seen the rotten streak in me and you have come back. someone who knows, for one reason or another, the extent of severina’s cruelty ─ and yet, they do not condemn her for it, nor do they see her as something disgusting. their thoughts on her are completely utp, but suggestions include them fearing her, feeling bad for her, admiring her, or relating to her. – you are killing me, but you have a right to. severina betrayed them in the past for personal gain with little regard for any consequence. now, the past has caught up to her ─ and this muse is not happy about being around her once more.

wanted 2 electric boogaloo

heard a story about u once ! heard u were a massive asshole ! time to underestimate u <3

“you may be bad but i’m WORSE and that makes me cooler and also hotter than you” but spiderman meme

“you want to fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid”, said the person with a knife at their throat to the one holding it

we have a combined charisma of negative 10 and so the only thing to do is team up and give each other advice on how to befriend other people except do we even want to follow it or do we just want to appear like we know what we’re doing

you once woke me up in the middle of the night and i attacked you on instinct but damn i kinda don’t regret it :/ ( bonus points if this was pre prison and the attack was a gunshot )

#〈 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑔𝑢𝑒 + introduction 〉

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the-ship-maker-2 · 3 months

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Hello there! You've been visited by the random question fairy! ~ ☆

What was the most meaningful relationship (platonic or romantic) your character has had with another person? Why was it so meaningful? Ultimately, what happens to this relationship?

Tabby

Michael: her step-dad. The man who raised her when no one else would. Her first real friend and the only one she came to respect on her own without being forced too. Set up her core foundation of who she was today and raised to become what she is now. The main source of her trauma. Very estranged now.

Adam: Her baby brother her pride and joy. She was forced to raise him at 9 since he was born. He is her living proof that she is not a monster and a bad person contrary to her step dad's belief. For how can someone so bad raise someone so good? Eventually they come back into each other's lives.

Horatio: The first person she ever met at Rosewood. became rivals and became each others equals. Also a main source of trauma and the bane of her existence. Taught her heart break and betrayal and that there is more than meets the eye. How to humanize people. That you can't save everyone if they don't want to be saved. They become sworn enemies again.

Autumn: Her best friend. Her second in command. her big sister. her human diary. Her other half. Pick one and go with it. The person who taught her what love, home, understanding and acceptance was. She balanced out Tabby's darker tendencies from her step dad. Would become the basis for what moral compass she has. Unfortunately death has kept them apart.

Toby: The boy who unknowingly saved her in more ways than one.Her savior and they one she grew to fall l in love with. Taught her that a second chance comes with everything, There is more to life than being a proxy and that you have relatively good people around you if you look hard enough. I can't give spoilers for ERHIT but it's becoming something worth while.

Chase:

Connor: the boy who was by his side since day 1 in the orphanage. His best friend and soul mate. He showed him that he wasn't a monster and not to fear him. He never had that before in his life. For once he had something to fight for. Unfortunately due to trauma and tragic events they're both dead and become very estranged.

Sister Mary-Angela: the nun that took care of him and Connor. The seemingly only good one in that place. She gave them a mother figure that they both could trust and rely on. Unfortunately she dies for them and they both mourn her greatly.

Connor:

Chase: his first real friend at the orphanage and his first real love. He never strayed too far from his side and fought for him. They're unfortunately very estranged now.

Sister Mary-Angela: same as chase up above

Juliet:

Louisa Monroe: her mother and one of the few family members she was close to. Definitely a mommy's girl. Gave her the doll that looks just like her and the only thing that she has left of her mom. One day she walked out on them and never came back. Needless to say I think they would be very estranged.

Evan Monroe: her older brother by 4 years. The second one she was closest to after their mother left. Only for a bit of course. Until their step mother came into the picture and began to turn on her. Needless to say they hate each other.

Fallax: a friend. A demon who haunts the abandoned carnival grounds that Evan forces juliet to explore every night. Her first true friend and savior from her broken home. They're relationship is very good very much a guardian/mentor/apprentice type of relationship.

Robbecca:

Tbh I haven't done enough development for her to answer that question.

Amelia:

The college gangTM (Smiley, EJ, and Locklear): her friend group all throughout college and med school. EJ was the baby of the group. Locklear was an honorary member, and Smiley was her first love, although they were never officially together. They helped each other grow and develop. Until the death of EJ and then the group became distant and disolved. They were very estranged for a while after getting the group together in nearly 20+ years, but they're currently working on mending their relationship with each other. It's not perfect buy its a work in progress.

Anna: her lifeboat and savior after the group. Was there when she lost her medical license and got her in the medical cult to get it back. She turned out to be a back stabbing bitch so amelia killed her.

The cult: her one hope to getting her medical license back. She never truly belonged there but it was all she got left. Eventually she got out by killing all of them.

I hope you like these and feel free to ask again!

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earlgreydream · 3 years

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rough.

| draco x reader | angst | smut |

enemies to lovers 🖤

anon requested. theyre enemies but deep down theres a sexual tension and one day theyre on vacation and have to stay in one room together

cw: angst, name-calling (degradation), hate-fucking, very slightly dubcon

“I can’t stand you! I don’t want to stay in a room with you!” You shouted, shoving him away from you.

“I’m just as angry as you! I don’t know how the hell this happened!” Draco snapped, pushing past you into your shared hotel room.

You had gone on vacation to America with some of your schoolmates, and due to a mix up in the planning, you and Draco had ended up in the same hotel room. To make matters worse, the room only had one bed.

Draco was your sworn enemy since first year. He’d embarrassed you in front of the Weasley twins, the boys you had a crush on, and you’d retaliated by tainting the love potion he gave to Pansy. It had started seven years of fighting and backbiting, the two of you always at each other’s throats and never seeing eye to eye.

It had become second nature to fight with Draco. Screaming matches with him lit a specific fire in your belly— different from anything else. It burned through you, igniting every nerve in your body. You thought it was anger, though it proved to be more when nothing satiated the rage, and your mind began to wander.

The electrically charged energy between you was hard to ignore. It was like a live wire, blazing everything in its wake, or an oil spill, turning everything flammable.

“Malfoy-” you started, but you were cut off by his sharp glare.

“I was going to suggest that we change quickly and meet the others in the lobby. I was going to ask if I could use the loo, but I was going to give you the courtesy of offering it first,” you hissed, and he shook his head.

“Go, it’s fine.”

You stepped into the bathroom, closing the door. You were desperate for some distance from Draco. You freshened up in the mirror, not taking too long so you didn’t get him even more agitated than he already was.

“What are we going to do about-?”

“We’re going to worry about it when the time comes,” you interrupted, glancing at the one bed.

The bathroom door slammed shut, leaving you alone in the small room. There wasn’t a couch— and the chair simply wasn’t adequate. Ultimately, you both knew the two of you were going to end up in bed together that night, whether you liked it or not.

A deep sigh left your lips, and you grabbed your bag, preparing to meet your friends downstairs. Draco locked the door behind the two of you, and the elevator ride was painfully silent.

“My two favorite people. Sorry about the room situation,” Theo grinned, opening his arms as you walked up to him.

You stepped into his chest, letting tattooed limbs wrap around you. He kissed the top of your head, grinning into your hair.

“If Malfoy’s mean to you, you just let me know, okay? I’ll take care of him,” Theo promised you, finally getting you to giggle.

“Maybe tell her not to be a right bi-”

“Draco, baby, try a little harder,” Theo hummed, kissing Malfoy’s cheek before getting pushed off. You laughed at them.

Seven years, and you still wondered how it was possible for Theo-- the sweetest boy in the world, to be best friends with Draco Malfoy-- the devil’s incarnate.

“Come on, we’ll get breakfast then catch the ferry,” Cedric said, handing out ferry passes to your group: Draco, Theo, Blaise, Fred, George, Hermione, Ginny, Pansy, Cedric, and you.

Hermione took your hand, pulling you from the Slytherin boys.

“It’s going to be fun. And besides, we’ll only be sleeping in the rooms. It’s not a problem,” Hermione assured you, the girls walking ahead of the others.

“Except there is only one bed,” you muttered, and Ginny and Pansy spun to look at you.

“Are you serious?” Ginny giggled, and you smacked her arm.

“It is not funny!”

They held their hands up in defense, though their amusement was clear. You took the subway to the ferry, crowded with American muggles.

“Careful!” Draco hissed in your ear, catching you ask you lost your balance. His hand went around your waist, pinning you to his chest.

“M’sorry, I slipped!” you were thankful for him holding onto you, even if you’d never admit it. You gripped the pole for support, trying not to lean into him too much. He helped you off of the train, and you took Theo’s hand as you boarded the ferry.

“Look at the statue!” you gasped, admiring the skyline and leaning on the railing of the boat as you road to Staten Island.

“Don’t fall,” Draco came to your other side.

“Are you serious? Draco, I’m not a child!” you snapped.

“You’re leaning on the railing, and we can’t be using magic to drag you out of the water!”

You shot him an indignant look, and climbed up to stand on the railing. Even Theo looked anxious at your actions.

“Get the fuck down, right now.” Draco’s grey eyes were wide, and you stared back at him, daring him to touch you.

“We’re going to dock, and it’ll knock the-” Theo was interrupted before he could finish his sentence. The boat stopped suddenly, and as you caught yourself, Draco grabbed your waist, pulling you off of the railing.

You shrieked, struggling away as he pulled you down. He refused to let go of you, and you tried to shove him off.

“Knock it off. And quit doing dangerous shit,” Draco swatted your ass through your denim shorts, making Theo choke on his water bottle. You immediately stilled, staring at him in horror.

“Did you just spank me?” You gasped, startled.

He let go of you, answering with only a cold look. You shook your head and went to join the others, Theo and Draco falling into conversation with Cedric and Blaise.

“What happened back there? We heard you yelling,” Hermione asked, grinning behind her oversized mirrored sunglasses.

“Draco just being an ass. It’s fine,” you said, stealing her sunglasses and putting them on.

“Come on, let’s go have some fun.”

You spent the day sightseeing, walking around Staten Island before going back to Manhattan. The sun was warm overhead, the summer heat getting to your minds. You’d managed to avoid bickering with Draco most of the day, but now the sun was hanging low in the sky, casting a golden-orange glow over everything. You were drinking cocktails at a place near Times Square, tired from being on your feet all day.

“Tomorrow we’re going to the MET,” Theo said, checking the plans.

You stayed out late, talking and laughing until the lights of the city had drowned out the ink-black sky. You were tired, a little buzzed, overly hot, and you wanted to sleep.

“What the hell was that on the ferry? Do you think you can just-?” Draco grabbed your arm, cutting off your rant that you’d saved until you were in private, not wanting to fight in front of your friends. Your back hit the hotel room door, Draco’s chest pressed up against yours.

“Do I think I can just what? Knock that bullshit little smirk off of your face?” Draco seethed.

“Tell me what to do!” You pushed his shoulders, though he didn’t move.

“It’s clear that you can’t be trusted to make good choices on your own.”

“That’s rich coming from you-” you hissed, feeling the familiar burning spread through your abdomen.

“You should learn a little respect,” Draco’s hand wrapped around your throat, the rings on his fingers cold against your warm skin. A moan escaped you before you could stop it, and his eyebrows shot up.

“Is this what you need? Do you just need to have the bitch fucked out of you?” You squirmed, gripping his wrist and trying to pry his hand off of your throat.

You were seething, the energy between you becoming intensely sexually charged. You hated yourself for growing aroused, but you couldn’t keep the heat from spreading through your body, and you were becoming keenly aware of your throbbing sex.

Draco pushed his knee between your thighs, and you shook your head.

“No, no.”

“No? You aren’t horny and desperate? I know how much you hate me, and I know you’ve been dying to release all that pent up energy. You’re going to be sleeping in the same bed with me tonight, trapped under the sheets with my body. If you don’t act now, you’ll have to go untouched for the next week of this trip...” he smirked, knowing he had leverage, able to see how desperate you were.

Truly, Draco was desperate for you too. You made him so angry, but you managed to turn him on as you got under his skin. He was aroused now, growing harder as he watched you squirm in pure need. He was waiting to hear you say yes, to give in. He may have hated you, but he wasn’t an animal.

You bit your lip so hard you tasted metal, trying to hold in a scream. Your chest heaved with heavy breaths, your eyes narrowed into a glare. His thigh was pressed against your sex, and you fought against the urge to grind against him, desperate for friction.

“Fuck,” you swore, and Draco squeezed your throat, making you whimper.

“Is that a no, Y/N? Do you want me to let go of you? Let you go finger yourself in the shower?” he mocked you.

“I hate you.”

“I know. It’s mutual, love.”

“Alright, Draco. Please fuck me. But this doesn’t mean anything!”

He smirked, letting go of you and tossing his shirt aside. You rid your own clothes with his, freezing as your eyes lingered on his naked body. The need and arousal pulsing through your body was overpowering, and just the sight of him was making you falter.

“Do you need me to do everything for you? Get over here,” Draco’s hand wrapped around your elbow, tugging you toward him. He ripped your panties off, the veins in his hand flexing at the display of strength.

“Draco!”

“Save it.”

Draco hauled you to the bed, bending you over the edge. You struggled, trying to sit up. He shoved your head back down, pressing your chest against the duvet.

“Are you serious?” you snapped as he gripped your wrists in one hand, holding them at the small of your back.

“You’re going to lay here and be good or you’re not going to get fucked at all,” Draco threatened, and you burned in shame. You stopped straining yourself to look at him, residing to resting your head on your side, ceasing your struggle against his hold.

A choked groan left your lips as Draco slammed into your cunt all at once. He buried himself deep enough to where his hips were pressed to your ass, his body bent over yours. Draco slammed into you, frustration powering his rough thrusts. You writhed under his strong grip, moaning and squealing as he tore into your tight heat. Even with how wet you were, your body spasmed at the force.

It felt primal, rough, and dirty.

Fucking Draco was scandalous, even for you. The two of you getting so angry that the energy had to be channeled into sex felt deviant, Draco’s cock tainting your innocence with every thrust.

You felt better than Draco had imagined. Your noises were erotic, encouraging him more than the momentum he was gaining. He kicked your legs further apart, shoving himself deeper into your sex. Your moan was muffled by the duvet, squeezing your eyes shut. It felt like he was tearing you open, and you couldn’t get enough. Your head was spinning, and your fingers flexed, the only part of your body you could move freely against his hold.

“You’re fucking divine,” Draco breathed, reaching his hand under the two of you. His fingers found the area where your bodies connected, sliding upward through your folds.

“Draco, fuck, please!” you cried, arching your back as he pressed against your nerves.

“Please what, love? Are you going to quit being contrary?”

“Yes, I’ll do anything, just please touch me there,” you begged, abandoning your stubbornness.

You buried your face in the bed and screamed, your back curving into a bow as he fucked into you in time with the circles he was tracing with skilled fingers.

Draco swore as you pulsed around him, squeezing his cock as you cried from euphoria. Electricity shot through your limbs, your orgasm ripping through your body. Draco was quick to follow, pulling out and coming over your ass, watching you shudder and throb around nothing.

As his memories being frustrated with you returned, he continued his assault on your clit, pinching you harshly to watch you writhe and scream.

“Draco, Draco, I’m sorry, I’ll be nice, just stop!” you squealed, trying to kick him as he overstimulated you.

He released you as you asked, taking in the sight of your absolutely wrecked body. Your arms were shaking as you brought them under you, trying to push yourself up onto your elbows. You heaved in deep breaths, still trembling as you came down from your high.

Draco wiped down your skin for you, finding some decency.

“Hey, look at me. You alright?” Draco held your jaw, tilting your face up. You nodded, and he slid boxers up his leg before digging for something in his jacket pocket.

“Y/N. Come here,” Draco’s voice was low and husky, his back to you.

You forced yourself to stand up, your legs weak as you stepped toward him. You followed Draco onto the balcony, where he sat down on a lounge chair. Ringed fingers wrapped around your wrist, pulling you to sit sideways on his lap.

His touch was no longer aggressive or harsh, but instead moving you with authority. You held a blanket loosely around your body, shielding you from the cool night air.

Draco didn’t speak as he pulled a cigarette from the box, putting it between his lips. He lit the end before setting the box and the lighter on the table, leaning his head back and taking a drag. He held your jaw, pressing his lips against yours before exhaling the smoke into your mouth.

He turned, watching the city lights glitter around you. He offered you the cigarette, and you accepted, sharing with him.

“Our secret?” you asked softly, and his silver gaze connected with his.

“Our secret.”

“Do you still hate me?”

The corners of Draco’s lips pulled up, and his fingers brushed over your bare back, his hand resting at the base of your spine.

“Only when it serves me, I suppose,” he murmured, and you fought off a smile.

“You’ll not bite me in my sleep then?”

“Full of questions. I make no promises, I’ve found I rather like how you taste.”

He kissed you then, under the city lights, tasting like smoke and sage and secrets.

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aboveallarescuer · 3 years

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Parallels between Aerys II Targaryen and Cersei Lannister (and why they are both foils to Dany)

In this post, I gathered all the parallels I could find between Cersei and Aerys II after recently rereading Cersei’s chapters and Aerys’s section in TWOIAF. While a lot of people have made good points criticizing how Cersei was written (namely, as incompetent, misogynistic and irredeemable, at least in the canon timeline where her fate is already sealed) considering her special place in the narrative (namely, as arguably the female character who most frequently and openly questions and challenges the validity of Westerosi patriarchy, as well as the only major female villain of the story and the only woman among the three Lannister siblings), it’s also true that GRRM intended her to be paralleled with Aerys II in many ways, which will be laid out here.

Recognizing how Aerys II and Cersei are alike is particularly important for emphasizing that both characters were written as foils to Daenerys, so I will also explain how Dany doesn’t share their similarities.

Both believe they are destined for greatness

Aerys II:

Aerys II did not lack for ambition. Upon his coronation, he declared that it was his wish to be the greatest king in the history of the Seven Kingdoms, a conceit certain of his friends encouraged by suggesting that one day he might be remembered as Aerys the Wise or even Aerys the Great. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Cersei:

The Lord of Casterly Rock deserved rainbows. He had been a great man. I shall be greater, though. A thousand years from now, when the maesters write about this time, you shall be remembered only as Queen Cersei’s sire. (AFFC Cersei II)

That’s not the case with Dany. Her titles (the Unburnt, Mother of Dragons, Mhysa, Azor Ahai, etc) were given to her by other people, she doesn’t think she’s special despite birthing dragons and receiving multiple prophecies and she’s incredibly hard on herself for every mistake she makes. She simply doesn’t have an exaggerated sense of her importance or abilities like Cersei and Aerys II do.

Both are cut by the Iron Throne

Aerys II:

Yet still the blades tormented him, the ones he could never escape, the blades of the Iron Throne. His arms and legs were always covered with scabs and half-healed cuts. (AFFC Jaime II)

Cersei:

The barbs and blades of the Iron Throne bit into her flesh as she crouched to hide her shame. Blood ran red down her legs, as steel teeth gnawed at her buttocks. When she tried to stand, her foot slipped through a gap in the twisted metal. The more she struggled the more the throne engulfed her, tearing chunks of flesh from her breasts and belly, slicing at her arms and legs until they were slick and red, glistening. (AFFC Cersei I)

While Cersei was only cut in a dream, this moment is still significant because the Iron Throne is infamous for only harming and ‘rejecting’ the bad rulers. GRRM could have written a similar dream for Dany if he wanted to make her and Cersei follow the same direction, specially in AFFC/ADWD where he noted multiple times that they’re meant to be paralleled and contrasted. Instead, while Cersei’s first chapter in AFFC begins with her dreaming of being on the Iron Throne and being cut by it, Dany’s first chapter in ADWD begins with her dreaming of a house with a red door. Also, while Cersei wishes she could sit on the Iron Throne but is unable to because only the King and the Hand can sit on it, Dany willingly gives up on the privilege to sit on an elaborate throne and chooses an ebony bench that "did not befit a queen" in Meereen. So, not only the author emphasized that Dany doesn’t want power for its own sake (but rather to help people) and that she wants to be at the level of her people, he also didn’t take the chance to portray her as a bad ruler (because she is a good one) like he did with Cersei and Aerys II.

Both feel excitement and pleasure at the sight of wildfire

Aerys II:

Frustrated, Aerys turned to the Wisdoms of the ancient Guild of Alchemists, who knew the secret of producing the volatile jade green substance known as wildfire, said to be a close cousin to dragonflame. The pyromancers became a regular fixture at his court as the king's fascination with fire grew. By 280 AC, Aerys II had taken to burning traitors, murderers, and plotters, rather than hanging or beheading them. The king seemed to take great pleasure in these fiery executions, which were presided over by Wisdom Rossart, the grand master of the Guild of Alchemists...so much so that he granted Rossart the title of Lord and gave him a seat upon the small council. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

The sight had filled him with disquiet, reminding him of Aerys Targaryen and the way a burning would arouse him. A king has no secrets from his Kingsguard. Relations between Aerys and his queen had been strained during the last years of his reign. They slept apart and did their best to avoid each other during the waking hours. But whenever Aerys gave a man to the flames, Queen Rhaella would have a visitor in the night. (AFFC Jaime II)

Cersei:

Cersei thought of all the King’s Hands that she had known through the years: Owen Merryweather, Jon Connington, Qarlton Chelsted, Jon Arryn, Eddard Stark, her brother Tyrion. And her father, Lord Tywin Lannister, her father most of all. All of them are burning now, she told herself, savoring the thought. They are dead and burning, every one, with all their plots and schemes and betrayals. It is my day now. It is my castle and my kingdom. (AFFC Cersei III)

Cersei felt too alive for sleep. The wildfire was cleansing her, burning away all her rage and fear, filling her with resolve. “The flames are so pretty. I want to watch them for a while.” (AFFC Cersei III)

Jaime knew the look in his sister's eyes. He had seen it before, most recently on the night of Tommen's wedding, when she burned the Tower of the Hand. The green light of the wildfire had bathed the face of the watchers, so they looked like nothing so much as rotting corpses, a pack of gleeful ghouls, but some of the corpses were prettier than others. Even in the baleful glow, Cersei had been beautiful to look upon. She'd stood with one hand on her breast, her lips parted, her green eyes shining. She is crying, Jaime had realized, but whether it was from grief or ecstasy he could not have said.

The sight had filled him with disquiet, reminding him of Aerys Targaryen and the way a burning would arouse him. (AFFC Jaime II)

That never happens with Dany. She does describe the flames positively during the ritual to hatch the dragon eggs, but so does Jon Snow and GRRM himself. She does claim the fire as hers, but it has to do with her magical intuition as she puts two and two to birth her children and is ultimately validated. Most importantly, unlike Aerys II and Cersei, Dany a) never feels excitement while watching things burn for their own sake, b) never takes pleasure viewing or imagining her enemies burning and c) is never compared to Aerys II to highlight any disturbing behavior from her part. She is called the Mad King’s daughter by her enemies (the slavers and Mace Tyrell), but the characters around her and the ones who have nothing to gain by defaming her (Barristan, Tyrion, Illyrio, Quentyn) reiterate that she’s nothing like him. Meanwhile, two of the people who have known Cersei the longest (Jaime on the quotes above, Tyrion) compare her to Aerys II.

Both grow paranoid with time; they imagine implausible scenarios in which their perceived enemies are working (often together) against them, accept their baseless fears as truth and make hasty decisions based on them

Aerys II:

The march of the king's madness seemed to abate for a time in 274 AC, when Queen Rhaella gave birth to a son. So profound was His Grace's joy that it seemed to restore him to his old self once again...but Prince Jaehaerys died later that same year, plunging Aerys into despair. In his black rage, he decided the babe's wet nurse was to blame and had the woman beheaded. Not long after, in a change of heart, Aerys announced that Jaehaerys had been poisoned by his own mistress, the pretty young daughter of one of his household knights. The king had the girl and all her kin tortured to death. During the course of their torment, it is recorded, all confessed to the murder, though the details of their confessions were greatly at odds. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

The birth of Prince Viserys only seemed to make Aerys II more fearful and obsessive, however. Though the new young princeling seemed healthy enough, the king was terrified lest he suffer the same fate as his brothers. Kingsguard knights were commanded to stand over him night and day to see that no one touched the boy without the king's leave. Even the queen herself was forbidden to be alone with the infant. When her milk dried up, Aerys insisted on having his own food taster suckle at the teats of the prince's wet nurse, to ascertain that the woman had not smeared poison on her nipples. As gifts for the young prince arrived from all the lords of the Seven Kingdoms, the king had them piled in the yard and burned, for fear that some of them might have been ensorcelled or cursed. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Captivity at Duskendale had shattered whatever sanity had remained to Aerys II Targaryen. From that day forth, the king's madness reigned unchecked, growing worse with every passing year. The Darklyns had dared lay hands upon his person, shoving him roughly, stripping him of his royal raiment, even daring to strike him. After his release, King Aerys would no longer allow himself to be touched, even by his own servants. Uncut and unwashed, his hair grew ever longer and more tangled, whilst his fingernails lengthened and thickened into grotesque yellow talons. He forbade any blade in his presence save for the swords carried by the knights of his Kingsguard, sworn to protect him. His judgments became ever harsher and crueler. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Once safely returned to King's Landing, His Grace refused to leave the Red Keep for any cause and remained a virtual prisoner in his own castle for the next four years, during which time he grew ever more wary of those around him, Tywin Lannister in particular. His suspicions extended even to his own son and heir. Prince Rhaegar, he was convinced, had conspired with Tywin Lannister to have him slain at Duskendale. They had planned to storm the town walls so that Lord Darklyn would put him to death, opening the way for Rhaegar to mount the Iron Throne and marry Lord Tywin's daughter. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

And when the triumphant Prince of Dragonstone named Lyanna Stark, daughter of the Lord of Winterfell, the queen of love and beauty, placing a garland of blue roses in her lap with the tip of his lance, the lickspittle lords gathered around the king declared that further proof of his perfidy. Why would the prince have thus given insult to his own wife, the Princess Elia Martell of Dorne (who was present), unless it was to help him gain the Iron Throne? The crowning of the Stark girl, who was by all reports a wild and boyish young thing with none of the Princess Elia's delicate beauty, could only have been meant to win the allegiance of Winterfell to Prince Rhaegar's cause, Symond Staunton suggested to the king. (TWOIAF The Fall of the Dragons: The Year of the False Spring)

When the news reached the Red Keep, it was said that Aerys cursed the Dornish, certain that Lewyn had betrayed Rhaegar. He sent his pregnant queen, Rhaella, and his younger son and new heir, Viserys, away to Dragonstone, but Princess Elia was forced to remain in King's Landing with Rhaegar's children as a hostage against Dorne. (TWOIAF The Fall of the Dragons: The End)

Cersei:

“I am counseling you. If you will not yield the regency to me, name me your castellan for Casterly Rock and make either Mathis Rowan or Randyll Tarly the Hand of the King.”

Tyrell bannermen, both of them. The suggestion left her speechless. Is he bought? she wondered. Has he taken Tyrell gold to betray House Lannister? (AFFC Cersei II)

“Lord Manderly hacked the head and hands off the onion knight, we have that from the Freys, and half a dozen other northern lords have rallied to Lord Bolton. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Where else can Stannis turn, but to the ironmen and the wildlings, the enemies of the north? But if he thinks that I am going to walk into his trap, he is a bigger fool than you.” (AFFC Cersei VII)

“No doubt. Tell me, was it our little queen who commanded you to kill Lord Gyles?”

“K-kill?” Grand Maester Pycelle’s eyes grew as big as boiled eggs. “Your Grace cannot believe ... it was his cough, by all the gods, I ... Her Grace would not ... she bore Lord Gyles no ill will, why would Queen Margaery want him ...”

“... dead? Why, to plant another rose on Tommen’s council. Are you blind or bought? Rosby stood in her way, so she put him in his grave. With your connivance.” (AFFC Cersei IX)

She knew Joff was too strong for her, Cersei thought, remembering the gold coin Qyburn had found. For House Tyrell to hope to rule, he had to be removed. It came back to her that Margaery and her hideous grandmother had once plotted to marry Sansa Stark to the little queen’s crippled brother Willas. Lord Tywin had forestalled that by stealing a march on them and wedding Sansa to Tyrion, but the link had been there. They are all in it together, she realized with a start. The Tyrells bribed the gaolers to free Tyrion, and whisked him down the roseroad to join his vile bride. By now the both of them are safe in Highgarden, hidden away behind a wall of roses. (AFFC Cersei VI)

Cersei’s case is complicated in that she has valid reasons to be anxious: prophecies come true in her world, the Tyrells did kill Joffrey (she’s right in that regard, at least) and the coin found in the cell could be evidence that the Tyrells were involved in Tyrion’s escape. The problem is how she deals with her suspicions. To defeat Margaery, she projected her experiences on her (every widow definitely has sexual appetites, so Margaery definitely has lovers), held on to the few dubious signs that she was cheating on the king (Margaery asking Pycelle for moon tea or having a lively court), tortured an innocent man to confirm the story she needs to incriminate Margaery and arrested several innocent people. Besides that, Cersei also: alienates Kevan by avoiding his recommendations and giving important titles to other cousins based on her hunch that he was bought by the Tyrells (quote above); avoids giving the Tyrells help when the ironmen attack the Shield Islands based on her baseless suspicion that Stannis made an alliance with the ironmen and was, therefore, behind the attack on the Shield Islands with the intention to turn Cersei’s eyes away from the Storm’s End and Dragonstone (quote above); forces Pycelle to "confirm" what she wants to believe because of her guess that he helped the Tyrells kill Gyles Rosby (quote above). And these are just some of the major examples.

Dany has moments when she is unsure of whether the people around her are reliable or not. She questions if Reznak is trustworthy or if he, Hizdahr and the Green Grace joined forces against her or if Groleo could be one of the three prophesied treasons, but she remains willing to listen to their advice and never undermines or punishes them solely based on her suspicions because, unlike her father or Cersei, she has a healthy distrust of others.

Both choose to be excessively and needlessly brutal against their enemies and the people who offend them (even when their offenses are relatively minor and/or not supported by facts)

Aerys II:

When one such reported that the captain of the Hand's personal guard, a knight named Ser Ilyn Payne, had been heard boasting it was Lord Tywin who truly ruled the Seven Kingdoms, His Grace sent the Kingsguard to arrest the man and had his tongue ripped out with red-hot pincers. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

By 280 AC, Aerys II had taken to burning traitors, murderers, and plotters, rather than hanging or beheading them. The king seemed to take great pleasure in these fiery executions, which were presided over by Wisdom Rossart, the grand master of the Guild of Alchemists...so much so that he granted Rossart the title of Lord and gave him a seat upon the small council. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

When Darklyn and his family were presented to him in chains, Aerys demanded their deaths—and not only Darklyn's immediate kin but his uncles and aunts and even distant kinsmen in Duskendale. Even his goodkin, the Hollards, were attainted and destroyed. Only Ser Symon's young nephew, Dontos Hollard, was spared—and only then because Ser Barristan begged that mercy as a boon, and the king he had saved could not refuse him. As to Lady Serala, hers was a crueler death. Aerys had the Lace Serpent's tongue and her womanly parts torn out before she was burned alive (yet her enemies say that she should have suffered more and worse for the ruin she brought down upon the town). (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Cersei:

"M'lord, begging your pardon, Her Grace said those as didn't meet their numbers would have their hands crushed," the anxious smith persisted. "Smashed on their own anvils, she said."

Sweet Cersei, always striving to make the smallfolk love us. (ACOK Tyrion III)

"Y'Grace," he said quietly, "the boys caught a groom and two maidservants trying to sneak out a postern with three of the king's horses."

"The night's first traitors," the queen said, "but not the last, I fear. Have Ser Ilyn see to them, and put their heads on pikes outside the stables as a warning." (ACOK Sansa VI)

“I hope you did not wake them, Ser Boros. Let them sleep.”

“Sleep?” He looked up, jowly and confused. “Aye, Your Grace. How long shall—”

“Forever. See that they sleep forever, ser. I will not suffer guards to sleep on watch.” (AFFC Cersei I)

“His Grace should send the Wall a hundred men. To take the black, ostensibly, but in truth …”

“... to remove Jon Snow from the command,” Cersei finished, delighted. I knew I was right to want him on my council. “That is just what we shall do.” She laughed. If this bastard boy is truly his father's son, he will not suspect a thing. Perhaps he will even thank me, before the blade slides between his ribs. “It will need to be done carefully, to be sure. Leave the rest to me, my lords.” This was how an enemy should be dealt with: with a dagger, not a declaration. (AFFC Cersei IV)

“Send some of your whisperers to these shows and make note of who attends. If any of them should be men of note, I would know their names.”

“What will be done with them, if I may be so bold?”

“Any men of substance shall be fined. Half their worth should be sufficient to teach them a sharp lesson and refill our coffers, without quite ruining them. Those too poor to pay can lose an eye, for watching treason. For the puppeteers, the axe.”

“There are four. Perhaps Your Grace might allow me two of them for mine own purposes. A woman would be especially ...”

“I gave you Senelle,” the queen said sharply.

“Alas. The poor girl is quite ... exhausted.”

[...] “Yes, you may take a woman. Two, if it please you. But first I will have names. (AFFC Cersei V)

“I cannot have Falyse spreading tales about the city. Her grief has made her witless. Do you still need women for your ... work?”

“I do, Your Grace. The puppeteers are quite used up.”

“Take her and do with her as you will, then. But once she goes down into the black cells ... need I say more?” (AFFC Cersei VII)

Dany doesn’t act like this. She burned the masters in Astapor to protect her retinue and punished the Meereenese leaders who ordered the crucifixion of the slave children, but she also spared all the Yunkish masters and most of the Meereenese masters. Her leniency is the root of her problems in ADWD, since it allowed them to retaliate against the abolition of slavery. Additionally, Dany doesn’t punish Ghael for spitting on her, she doesn’t punish a boy for trying to attack her, she doesn't punish Xaro for threatening her to her face, she chooses not to follow her councillors' advice to punish the former slavers indiscriminately and so on. You can read more about how Dany's tendency is to avoid using violence in this meta.

Both use torture to get people to confirm what they believe or what's convenient for them

Aerys II:

Cersei:

“Tell us how you pleasured the little queen. [...] How many of them did you have carnal knowledge of?”

“None of them. I’m just a singer. Please.”

[...] Lord Qyburn ran a hand up the Blue Bard’s chest. “Does she take your nipples in her mouth during your love play?” He took one between his thumb and forefinger, and twisted. “Some men enjoy that. Their nipples are as sensitive as a woman’s.” The razor flashed, the singer shrieked. On his chest a wet red eye wept blood. [...]

By dawn the singer’s high blue boots were full of blood, and he had told them how Margaery would fondle herself as she watched her cousins pleasuring him with their mouths. At other times he would sing for her whilst she sated her lusts with other lovers. “Who were they?” the queen demanded, and the wretched Wat named Ser Tallad the Tall, Lambert Turnberry, Jalabhar Xho, the Redwyne twins, Osney Kettleblack, Hugh Clifton, and the Knight of Flowers.

That displeased her. She dare not besmirch the name of the hero of Dragonstone. [...] The Redwynes could not be a part of it either. [...] “All you are doing is spitting up the names of men you saw about her chambers. We want the truth! [...] Horas and Hobber had no part of this, did they?”

“No,” he admitted. “Not them.”

“As for Ser Loras, I am certain Margaery took pains to hide what she was doing from her brother.”

“She did. I remember now. Once I had to hide under the bed when Ser Loras came to see her. He must never know, she said.”

“I prefer this song to the other.” (AFFC Cersei IX)

Dany doesn't act like her father or Cersei in that regard either. She allows the use of torture (which is normalized in her world) to question people regarding the murders of former slaves, but she stops it once she realizes that the results are unreliable because, unlike her foils, she cares about punishing the actual perpetrators, not about having her beliefs confirmed at any cost.

Both are often cruel, rude and disrespectful to others

Aerys II:

At the great Anniversary Tourney of 272 AC, held to commemorate Aerys's tenth year upon the Iron Throne, Joanna Lannister brought her six-year-old twins Jaime and Cersei from Casterly Rock to present before the court. The king (very much in his cups) asked her if giving suck to them had "ruined your breasts, which were so high and proud." (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Over his Hand's strenuous objections, the king doubled the port fees at King's Landing and Oldtown, and tripled them for Lannisport and the realm's other ports and harbors. When a delegation of small lords and rich merchants came before the Iron Throne to complain, however, Aerys blamed the Hand for the exactions, saying, "Lord Tywin shits gold, but of late he has been constipated and had to find some other way to fill our coffers." (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Tyrion, as the babe was named, was a malformed, dwarfish babe born with stunted legs, an oversized head, and mismatched, demonic eyes (some reports also suggested he had a tail, which was lopped off at his lord father's command). Lord Tywin's Doom, the smallfolk called this ill-made creature, and Lord Tywin's Bane. Upon hearing of his birth, King Aerys infamously said, "The gods cannot abide such arrogance. They have plucked a fair flower from his hand and given him a monster in her place, to teach him some humility at last." (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Cersei:

Cersei stared at her, aghast. “Your lackwit sister gets herself raped by half of King’s Landing, and Tanda thinks to honor the bastard with my lord father’s name? I think not.” (AFFC Cersei II)

She wanted a storm to match her rage. To Jocelyn she said, “Tighter. Cinch it tighter, you simpering little fool.”

It was the wedding that enraged her, though the slow-witted Swyft girl made a safer target. (AFFC Cersei III)

“Would Your Grace honor her white knight with a dance?”

She gave him a withering look. “And have you fumbling at me with that stump? No. I will let you fill my wine cup for me, though. If you think you can manage it without spilling.” (AFFC Cersei III)

“Very well. Get off those saggy knees and try to remember what it was to be a man.” Pycelle struggled to rise, but took so long about it that she had to tell Osmund Kettleblack to give him another yank. (AFFC Cersei IX)

For the vast majority of the time, Dany is kind and courteous. Her detractors tend to question that fact with two main arguments: a) she laughed at Quentyn; b) she is intolerant about Meereenese culture. Their first argument is very weak. Dany didn't laugh at Quentyn, she laughed about the reason why Quentyn is called frog and then forgot to explain why she did so in the Common Tongue. Even then, though, Quentyn is so overwhelmed by her kindness that he only remembers that "the queen had always spoken to him gently". Their second argument is also unconvincing because Dany's dislike of several aspects of Meereenese culture has to do with their ties to slavery (case in point: the fighting pits) and, even then, she makes several concessions to culturally adapt. Additionally, unlike Aerys II or Cersei, she doesn't express her critical thoughts (which are way less common and way less derogatory than Cersei's) verbally.

Both give rewards and promotions to those who blindly obey and agree with them, regardless of whether they’re experienced, competent or trustworthy

Aerys II:

He was also vain, proud, and changeable, traits that made him easy prey for flatterers and lickspittles, but these flaws were not immediately apparent to most at the time of his ascension. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

His father's court had been made up largely of older, seasoned men, many of whom had also served during the reign of King Aegon V. Aerys II dismissed them one and all, replacing them with lords of his own generation. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

The king replaced him as Hand with Lord Owen Merryweather, an aged and amiable lickspittle famed for laughing loudest at every jape and witticism uttered by the king, no matter how feeble. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

The Mad King could be savagely cruel, as seen most plainly when he burned those he perceived to be his enemies, but he could also be extravagant, showering men who pleased him with honors, offices, and lands. The lickspittle lords who surrounded Aerys II had gained much and more from the king's madness and eagerly seized upon any opportunity to speak ill of Prince Rhaegar and inflame the father's suspicions of the son. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Cersei:

"A weak ruler needs a strong Hand, as Aerys needed Father. A strong ruler requires only a diligent servant to carry out his orders." (AFFC Jaime II)

The Kettleblacks would charm her, take her coin, and promise her anything she asked, and why not, when Bronn was matching every copper penny, coin for coin? Amiable rogues all three, the brothers were in truth much more skilled at deceit than they'd ever been at bloodletting. Cersei had managed to buy herself three hollow drums; they would make all the fierce booming sounds she required, but there was nothing inside. (ACOK Tyrion IX)

My councillors. Cersei had uprooted every rose, and all those beholden to her uncle and her brothers. In their places were men whose loyalty would be to her. She had even given them new styles, borrowed from the Free Cities; the queen would have no “masters” at court beside herself. (AFFC Cersei IV)

Grand Maester Pycelle had wanted an older man “more seasoned in the ways of war” to command the gold cloaks, and several of her other councillors had agreed with him. “Ser Osfryd is seasoned quite sufficiently,” she had told them, but even that did not shut them up. They yap at me like a pack of small, annoying dogs. (AFFC Cersei V)

"She would have done better to leave the tower and burn her Hand. Harys Swyft? If ever a man deserved his arms, it is Ser Harys. And Gyles Rosby, Seven save us, I thought he died years ago. Merryweather ... your father used to call his grandsire 'the Chuckler,' I'll have you know. Tywin claimed the only thing Merryweather was good for was chuckling at the king's witticisms. His lordship chuckled himself right into exile, as I recall. Cersei has put some bastard on the council too, and a kettle in the Kingsguard. (AFFC Jaime V)

Besides the Kettleblacks (as shown above), Cersei rewards many other people that are rarely, if ever, willing to question her - Harys Swyft, Orton Merryweather, Aurane Waters, Gyles Rosby, Meryn Trant, Qyburn (the only one who doesn't turn his back on Cersei after she falls from power), etc. The only one that disagrees with her decisions regularly is Pycelle, which is why she rebukes him quite a few times throughout AFFC. Also, while Cersei considers Aerys a weak ruler, they both believe that their Hands should be servants that know their place and follow them blindly.

Dany doesn't restrict herself to only listening to the people she agrees with. She welcomes dissent multiple times throughout the books and so, consequently, her council gives voice to multiple groups (from the Unsullied to the freedmen to the former slavers to the Dothraki).

Both alienate and undermine important allies because of disagreements that could have been mended and fears that lead both rulers to perceive these potential allies as enemies

Aerys II:

The growing rift between the king and the King's Hand was also apparent in the matter of appointments. Whereas previously His Grace had always heeded his Hand's counsel, bestowing offices, honors, and inheritances as Lord Tywin recommended, after 270 AC he began to disregard the men put forward by his lordship in favor of his own choices. Many westermen found themselves dismissed from the king's service for no better cause than the suspicion that they might be "Hand's men." In their places, King Aerys appointed his own favorites...but the king's favor had become a chancy thing, his mistrust easy to awaken. Even the Hand's own kin were not exempt from royal displeasure. When Lord Tywin wished to name his brother Ser Tygett Lannister as the Red Keep's master-at-arms, King Aerys gave the post to Ser Willem Darry instead. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Perhaps seeking to gain advantage of His Grace's high spirits, Lord Tywin chose that very night to suggest that it was past time the king's heir wed and produced an heir of his own; he proposed his own daughter, Cersei, as wife for the crown prince. Aerys II rejected this proposal brusquely, informing Lord Tywin that he was a good and valuable servant, yet a servant nonetheless. Nor did His Grace agree to appoint Lord Tywin's son Jaime as squire to Prince Rhaegar; that honor he granted instead to the sons of several of his own favorites, men known to be no friends of House Lannister or the Hand. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Lord Denys, seeing that Aerys's erratic behavior had begun to strain his relations with Lord Tywin, refused to pay the taxes expected of him and instead invited the king to come to Duskendale and hear his petition. It seems most unlikely that King Aerys would ever have considered accepting this invitation...until Lord Tywin advised him to refuse in the strongest possible terms, whereupon the king decided to accept, informing Grand Maester Pycelle and the small council that he meant to settle this matter himself and bring the defiant Darklyn to heel. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Cersei:

Garth the Gross on the small council and his two bastards in the gold cloaks ... do the Tyrells think I will just serve the realm up to them on a gilded platter? The arrogance of it took her breath away.

“Garth has served me well as Lord Seneschal, as he served my father before me,” Tyrell was going on. “Littlefinger had a nose for gold, I grant you, but Garth—”

“My lord,” Cersei broke in, “I fear there has been some misunderstanding. I have asked Lord Gyles Rosby to serve as our new master of coin, and he has done me the honor of accepting.”

Mace gaped at her. “Rosby? That ... cougher? But ... the matter was agreed, Your Grace. Garth is on his way to Oldtown.”

“Best send a raven to Lord Hightower and ask him to make certain your uncle does not take ship. We would hate for Garth to brave an autumn sea for nought.” She smiled pleasantly.

A flush crept up Tyrell’s thick neck. “This ... your lord father assured me ...” (AFFC Cersei II)

Cersei had named her cousin Damion Lannister her castellan for the Rock, and another cousin, Ser Daven Lannister, the Warden of the West. Insolence has its price, Uncle. (AFFC Cersei III)

“I have been remiss. With a realm to rule, a war to fight, and a father to mourn, somehow I overlooked the crucial matter of naming a new master-at-arms. I shall rectify that error at once.”

Ser Loras pushed back a brown curl that had fallen across his forehead. “Your Grace will not find any man half so skilled with sword and lance as I.”

Humble, aren’t we? “Tommen is your king, not your squire. You are to fight for him and die for him, if need be. No more.”

She left him on the drawbridge that spanned the dry moat with its bed of iron spikes and entered Maegor’s Holdfast alone. Where am I to find a master-at-arms? she wondered as she climbed to her apartments. [...]

Aron Santagar was Dornish, Cersei recalled. I could send to Dorne. Centuries of blood and war lay between Sunspear and Highgarden. Yes, a Dornishman might suit my needs admirably. There must be some good swords in Dorne. (AFFC Cersei V)

He had even had the temerity to object to her sending to Dorne for a master-at-arms, on the grounds that it might offend the Tyrells. “Why do you think I’m doing it?” she had asked him scornfully. (AFFC Cersei VI)

“Your Grace, let me take Dragonstone.”

[...] No one had given Cersei such a lovely gift since Sansa Stark had run to her to divulge Lord Eddard’s plans. She was pleased to see that Margaery had gone pale. “Your courage takes my breath away, Ser Loras. [...] Swear to me that you shall not return until Dragonstone is Tommen’s.”

“I shall, Your Grace.” He rose.

[...] Pycelle had to struggle to keep up. “If it please Your Grace,” he puffed, “young men are overbold, and think only of the glory of battle and never of its dangers. Ser Loras ... this plan of his is fraught with peril. To storm the very walls of Dragonstone ...”

“... is very brave. [...] I have no doubt that our Knight of Flowers will be the first man to gain the battlements.” And perhaps the first to fall. (AFFC Cersei VII)

Dany doesn't do this; instead, she makes plenty of concessions to appease her influential allies, from wearing the tokar to marrying Hizdahr by Ghiscari rites if he gives her ninety days of peace to allowing Hizdahr to reopen the fighting pits to accepting a deal between Meereen and Yunkai that allows the latter to reinstall slavery. All of these decisions are ultimately mistakes since they unwittingly prioritize the privileges of the former masters over the rights of the former slaves, but they still show that Dany is capable of making alliances in a way that Aerys II and Cersei aren't due to their black and white thinking.

Both are extravagant rulers who plan grand schemes that are never realized

Aerys II:

His Grace was full of grand schemes as well. Not long after his coronation, he announced his intent to conquer the Stepstones and make them a part of his realm for all time. In 264 AC, a visit to King's Landing by Lord Rickard Stark of Winterfell awakened his interest in the North, and he hatched a plan to build a new Wall a hundred leagues north of the existing one and claim all the lands between. In 265 AC, offended by "the stink of King's Landing," he spoke of building a "white city" entirely of marble on the south bank of the Blackwater Rush. In 267 AC, after a dispute with the Iron Bank of Braavos regarding certain monies borrowed by his father, he announced that he would build the largest war fleet in the history of the world "to bring the Titan to his knees." In 270 AC, during a visit to Sunspear, he told the Princess of Dorne that he would "make the Dornish deserts bloom" by digging a great underground canal beneath the mountains to bring water down from the rainwood.

None of these grandiose plans ever came to fruition; most, indeed, were forgotten within a moon's turn, for Aerys II seemed to grow bored with his royal enthusiasms as quickly as he did his royal paramours. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Cersei:

“Would that we could do the same to the rest of this foul castle,” said Cersei. “After the war I mean to build a new palace beyond the river.” She had dreamed of it the night before last, a magnificent white castle surrounded by woods and gardens, long leagues from the stinks and noise of King’s Landing. “This city is a cesspit. For half a groat I would move the court to Lannisport and rule the realm from Casterly Rock.” (AFFC Cersei III)

A group of merchants appeared before her to beg the throne to intercede for them with the Iron Bank of Braavos. The Braavosi were demanding repayment of their outstanding debts, it seemed, and refusing all new loans. We need our own bank, Cersei decided, the Golden Bank of Lannisport. (AFFC Cersei VIII)

That's not the case with Dany either. Throughout her reign, she only makes reasonable and attainable decisions to improve Meereen's economy, such as planting grapes, beans and wheat, replanting olive trees, making an alliance with the Lhazareen and freeing the slaves of the hinterlands to bring crops to the city.

Both are unpopular with the common people

Aerys II: (note that Tywin himself is unpopular with the smallfolk)

They cheered Father twice as loudly as they cheered the king, the queen recalled, but only half as loudly as they cheered Prince Rhaegar. (AFFC Cersei V)

Cersei:

As she made her way through the ragged throng, past their cookfires, wagons, and crude shelters, the queen found herself remembering another crowd that had once gathered on this plaza. The day she wed Robert Baratheon, thousands had turned out to cheer for them. [...]

No one was smiling now. The looks the sparrows gave her were dull, sullen, hostile. They made way but reluctantly. (AFFC Cersei VI)

Thrice that day she heard the sound of distant shouting drifting up from the plaza, but it was Margaery’s name that the mob was calling, not hers. (AFFC Cersei X)

We have yet to see how the common people in Westeros will view Dany, but she is very popular among freedmen and slaves from all over Essos, so she doesn't fit this either.

Both feel threatened by the shadow of Tywin Lannister

Aerys II:

By this time, King Aerys had become aware of the widespread belief that he himself was but a hollow figurehead and Tywin Lannister the true master of the Seven Kingdoms. These sentiments greatly angered the king, and His Grace became determined to disprove them and to humble his "overmighty servant" and "put him back into his place." (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Cersei:

“Lord Tywin was a great man, an extraordinary man,” he declared ponderously after he had kissed both her cheeks. “We shall never see his like again, I fear.”

You are looking at his like, fool, Cersei thought. It is his daughter standing here before you. (AFFC Cersei II)

She was tired of Jaime balking her. No one had ever balked her lord father. When Tywin Lannister spoke, men obeyed. When Cersei spoke, they felt free to counsel her, to contradict her, even refuse her. (AFFC Cersei V)

This is not a perfect parallel because Cersei alternates between hero-worshiping and drawing inspiration and strength from Tywin to resenting the control he had over her, so much so that she lists her father alongside her enemies and takes pleasure in the fact that he's now dead. Even so, both Aerys II and Cersei feel that they were owed the treatment that people gave Tywin.

This doesn't happen with Dany because she doesn't feel threatened by anyone nor does Tywin play an important role in her story.

Both feel threatened by a younger, more beautiful, more popular would-be king/queen

Aerys II:

The cheers of the crowd were said to be deafening, but King Aerys did not join them. Far from being proud and pleased by his heir's skill at arms, His Grace saw it as a threat. Lords Chelsted and Staunton inflamed his suspicions further, declaring that Prince Rhaegar had entered the lists to curry favor with the commons and remind the assembled lords that he was a puissant warrior, a true heir to Aegon the Conqueror. (TWOIAF The Fall of the Dragons: The Year of the False Spring)

The lickspittle lords who surrounded Aerys II had gained much and more from the king's madness and eagerly seized upon any opportunity to speak ill of Prince Rhaegar and inflame the father's suspicions of the son. (TWOIAF The Fall of the Dragons: The Year of the False Spring)

Meanwhile, King Aerys was becoming ever more estranged from his own son and heir. Early in the year 279 AC, Rhaegar Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone, was formally betrothed to Princess Elia Martell, the delicate young sister of Doran Martell, Prince of Dorne. They were wed the following year, in a lavish ceremony at the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing, but Aerys II did not attend. He told the small council that he feared an attempt upon his life if he left the confines of the Red Keep, even with his Kingsguard to protect him. Nor would he allow his younger son, Viserys, to attend his brother's wedding. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

The memory was still bitter. Old Lord Whent had announced the tourney shortly after a visit from his brother, Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard. With Varys whispering in his ear, King Aerys became convinced that his son was conspiring to depose him, that Whent's tourney was but a ploy to give Rhaegar a pretext for meeting with as many great lords as could be brought together. Aerys had not set foot outside the Red Keep since Duskendale, yet suddenly he announced that he would accompany Prince Rhaegar to Harrenhal, and everything had gone awry from there. (ADWD The Kingbreaker)

Cersei:

Her mood was not improved when Mace Tyrell arose to lead the toasts. He raised a golden goblet high, smiling at his pretty little daughter, and in a booming voice said, “To the king and queen!” The other sheep all baaaaaaed along with him. “The king and queen!” they cried, smashing their cups together. “The king and queen!” She had no choice but to drink along with them, all the time wishing that the guests had but a single face, so she could throw her wine into their eyes and remind them that she was the true queen. (AFFC Cersei III)

“Your Grace, she ... she is the queen ...”

“I am the queen. (AFFC Cersei IX)

It was a pity that Maggy the Frog was dead. Piss on your prophecy, old woman. The little queen may be younger than I, but she has never been more beautiful, and soon she will be dead. (AFFC Cersei IX)

Cersei's case is more justified in that she believes that, by defeating the YMBQ, she'll also prevent her children from dying and the valonqar from killing her.

This doesn't happen with Dany.

Both lost a child (children, in Aerys’s case) and fear for the safety of their remaining child (children, in Cersei’s case) to the point that these concerns become intertwined with their fears that someone is out to get them

Aerys II:

Cersei:

I am dreaming still, Cersei thought. I have not woken, nor has my nightmare ended. Tyrion will creep out from under the bed soon and begin to laugh at me.

[...] A dream, that’s all it was, a dream. I drank too much last night, these fears are only humors born of wine. I will be the one laughing, come dusk. My children will be safe, Tommen’s throne will be secure, and my twisted little valonqar will be short a head and rotting. (AFFC Cersei I)

Cersei had a sudden vision of the dwarf crawling out from behind a tapestry in Tommen’s bedchamber with blade in hand. Tommen is well guarded, she told herself. But Lord Tywin had been well guarded too. (AFFC Cersei I)

The younger queen whose coming she’d foretold was finished, and if that prophecy could fail, so could the rest. No golden shrouds, no valonqar, I am free of your croaking malice at last. (AFFC Cersei X)

Like in the previous parallel, Cersei's bad reactions are more justified due to the fact that prophecies come true in her world and due to her understandable sense of self-preservation.

This doesn't happen with Dany.

Both had unhappy marriages and believed that their spouses weren’t the right ones for them

Aerys II:

What Tywin Lannister made of this is not recorded, but in 266 AC, at Casterly Rock, Lady Joanna gave birth to a pair of twins, a girl and a boy, "healthy and beautiful, with hair like beaten gold." This birth only exacerbated the tension between Aerys II Targaryen and his Hand. "I appear to have married the wrong woman," His Grace was reported to have said, when informed of the happy event. (TWOIAF The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II)

Cersei:

“...Your father will find another man for you, a better man than Rhaegar.”

Her aunt had lied, though, and her father had failed her, just as Jaime was failing her now. Father found no better man. Instead he gave me Robert, and Maggy’s curse bloomed like some poisonous flower. If she had only married Rhaegar as the gods intended, he would never have looked twice at the wolf girl. Rhaegar would be our king today and I would be his queen, the mother of his sons.

She had never forgiven Robert for killing him. (AFFC Cersei V)

The major difference in this parallel, of course, is that Aerys raped his wife and Cersei was raped by her husband.

This doesn't happen with Dany.

Comparisons in the text between Aerys II and Cersei

"Let all of King's Landing see the flames. It will be a lesson to our enemies."

"Now you sound like Aerys."

Her nostrils flared. "Guard your tongue, ser." (AFFC Cersei III)

The sight had filled him with disquiet, reminding him of Aerys Targaryen and the way a burning would arouse him. (AFFC Jaime II)

"Westeros is torn and bleeding, and I do not doubt that even now my sweet sister is binding up the wounds … with salt. Cersei is as gentle as King Maegor, as selfless as Aegon the Unworthy, as wise as Mad Aerys. She never forgets a slight, real or imagined. She takes caution for cowardice and dissent for defiance. And she is greedy. Greedy for power, for honor, for love. Tommen's rule is bolstered by all of the alliances that my lord father built so carefully, but soon enough she will destroy them, every one.” (ADWD Tyrion VI)

Again, as I said above, the comparisons between Cersei and Aerys II come from two of the people who have known Cersei the longest (Jaime, Tyrion).

Meanwhile, Dany is only called the Mad King’s daughter by her enemies (the slavers and Mace Tyrell). The characters who actually know her and the characters who have nothing to gain by defaming her (Barristan, Tyrion, Illyrio, Quentyn) reiterate that she’s nothing like him.

#aerys ii targaryen #cersei lannister #daenerys targaryen #asoiaf meta

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rein-ette · 3 years

Note

So I read the tags in your engbel post and honey you KNOW what I am here for

Please share all of your engbel ;A;

I thought this would be easy but it actually turned out a lot harder than I thought. I hope this delivers on both your and @mr-nauseam's expectations.

1. Many Belgian ports were part of the Hanseatic League, thus though inland Belgium came under heavy French influence, it's great port cities were in contact with English influences as well for hundreds of years before the 16th century. Hence, like Hanover, Belgium was just a girl that Arthur would meet in his travels. Since Arthur tends to be in good moods whenever he's "escaping" from his duties at home and at sea, these interactions were amiable, but not prolonged or particularly memorable (for him).

2. At this point it wasn't entirely clear that Belgium was even a nation, though she certainly wasn't human. I haven't quite decided what she was the representation of, since the low countries were so politically fractured at the time -- perhaps it wasn't obvious to her, either. I like the idea that nations carry a bit of mystery, a seed of the future in their existence.

3. Since she may well have been one of those semi-immortal nations who drift in and out of this world rapidly like a spring breeze, she felt a certain fascination with England, who was older and seemed more sure of himself, rushing around like he always had something to do. She was particularly taken by the fight in him, the way he lived so vibrantly (she was not the first or the last). For her, England and Portugal belonged to a richer, more fast-paced world than the simple, provincial lives she and her brothers led.

4. Everything began to change with the Dutch Revolt. In many ways it and the ensueing 80 years war had the same impact on Belgium's psyche that a civil war would. It was the first time her family, her status quo, her identity were torn apart with breathtaking brutality. She could not quite understand the white-hot fury of her brother with the Spanish, nor could she forgive Spain for treating her own with such violence. Though the southern provinces of Belgica Regia would ultimately remain Spanish, the long, terrible sieges on Antwerp and other cities left her reeling. Britain, despite being offered to rule the United Provinces, remained relatively uninvolved. Still, it was the first time Belgium and her people mattered politically on the international stage, and Arthur would not forget her again.

5. But England remains closer with Netherlands than with Belgium. This would later crop up as a source of doubt between them -- Belgium was somehow too French, even though she often did not want to be, and if France was England's sworn enemy, well -- how could they ever work out? She was "other", and yet she was not. This would somewhat undermine Belgium's confidence later, but this straddling of two worlds actually prompted England's first real curiosity to know her better, though he did not (in typical Arthur fashion) act on it.

6. The next turning point was the French annexation at the end of the 18th century, leading into the Napoleonic Wars. Belgium had endured centuries of conflict, back and forth tug of war, and a bid of independence against the Austrians. She was still not a true nation, but she was no longer a little girl on the docks, either. She had learned to fight, to conceal, to want things for herself. England too was no longer the wild, fierce thing that had once visited her shores. He still had that fight in him -- but the edges had turned bitter, and his eyes held more and more doubts about life than convictions in it. They were no longer young.

7. During the Napoleonic Wars, incidentally, is when Belgium first falls in love. That brilliant red coat, that trim waist and dark eyes -- he had traded his childhood intensity for a different kind: an intensity of hatred, of ambition, of objective. It thrilled her -- perhaps because she too, had tasted the pulse-quickening thrill of war, had glimpsed the glory of empire. His power was attractive in and of itself, and she wanted to be closer it.

8. Being given to her brother she does not appreciate, but by the 1830s she is free. For the next few decades they begin their carefully choreographed romance: a summer spent at his estate as a visiting lady, a trip to the continent to listen for gossip and buy clothes. Arthur, more settled, less wary, indulges in his past curiosity while trying to come to terms with the fact that while he wasn't paying attention, the girl on the docks had acquired a smile that was razor-sharp. They talk, between the carriage rides and evening parties. They talk of their memories, of their friends, of literature and war and philosophy. She keeps up with him on every topic, something he is astonished by.

9. Their relationship crumbles when she acquires an empire of her own. Historically speaking, England begins its most notable period of splendid isolation from 1885, and relations cool when London becomes a centre for resistance against Belgian rule in Congo. Personally speaking, Portugal breaks up with Arthur and he spends the next decade moping like a little bitch, mostly around Paris so he can distract himself with inane drama. Belgium too finds increasingly that she no longer wants a one-sided relationship she isnt sure was love in the first place. The power she was so drawn to in him -- she could have that for herself.

10. The First World War ends all dreams. Despite it all Belgium fights like hell, crops her hair and binds her chest and fights on the front lines. Two years in and England too is worn through with worry, exhaustion, grief. There is no space for glory or pretense anymore. For the first time, perhaps in their entire relationship, they meet each other's eyes as equals and they talk. They ask each other the difficult questions and they do not shy away from the difficult answers. It's a trust that's taken centuries to build, but when the next war comes they don't even need to ask questions anymore. From then on their relationship turns back to idle conversation and coffee dates -- whether it's coffee dates in bombed out cities or among the skyscrapers of the 21st century matters little -- but it's not playing house. Neither wants anything from the other and their curiosity has been satisfied. They simply know each other, and it's enough to be together in that knowledge.

#hws england #hws belgium #engbel #my hcs #it feels like a fic tho my god #you asked for all my engbel and that’s pretty much it #I’m fresh out of engbel

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sesskagarchive · 3 years

Note

Hello, do you have any fanfic recommendations of a Lord/Concubine or Mistress AUs? Anything from Sesshomaru having a harem or him being in a political marriage and falling for Kagome and be his mistress kind of concept. I read a fanfic (The Twelfth Concubine by Aubrey Simone) with that concept and I freaking loved it but unfortunately was abandoned and I've been looking for fanfics similar ever since but I am failing miserably. Thank you so much and I really appreciate what you guys do in the Sesskag community! I would be lost if I didn't find this blog to look for good fanfics.

Hi Anon,

Thanks for submitting this ask. Here’s what I was able to find. Happy reading!

-Admin Sage

Concubines by Oki

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: The humans lost the war between the Demons and ultimately lost their freedom. Now there's a new ruler, rumors of a coup brewing inside the borders, and humans are now forced into breeding or servitude. However, not every demon supports this new world order. Any chance for Humanity's freedom now rests solely on the shoulders of a Miko concubine named Kagome and a Demon Lord named Sesshomaru. Status: Abandoned

Deep Desires by Shastuhh

Posted on: A03, Dokuga, FFnet Rating: T Summary: Sesskag prompt raffle: She was forbidden to him, but he wanted her anyway. She was his brother's favorite concubine.

Koshitsu no Sokushitsu *Imperial Concubine* by Joo777

Posted on: Dokuga Rating: M Summary: To aid her in escaping a life of hardship Higurashi Shin, a poor merchant registers his 16 year old daughter Higurashi Kagome into an Imperial Concubine audition. Will Kagome survive the Palace's tasks and obstacles to become the Koshitsu no Sokushitsu? She captivates the emperor with her wit, personality and piercing blue eyes but as an Imperial Concubine she will belong to both the Emperor and his son Crown Prince--Sesshomaru Taisho. Is she willing to share herself amongst the Imperial house or will her humanity and hearts rationality stand in the way? (Ps: This will eventually become mainly a Kag/Sess pairing ) Status: Abandoned

Miko of my Desire by ruuruu-chan

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: Caught by slave traders; Kagome is forced into the harem of her sworn enemy Sesshomaru. Now owing him a significant debt she is forced to be his personal servant and to bow at his every need. Will Kagome be able to escape her fate? Love is truly a demon.

Sesshomaru’s Concubine by Lady of the Gaia

Posted on: FFnet Rating: MA Summary: Sesshomaru mated soon after Naraku's defeat, but she kept a secret from him...she's barren. His mother tells him to get a concubine that could give birth to his children, so his line does not end. But it seems that the newly returned Kagome is the one chosen to do so. Rated M for a reason, people, so don't complain if you don't like it. Not for little girls or boys!

Suddenly A Concubine by Stella Mira

Posted on: A03, Dokuga Rating: MA Summary: Kagome only wanted to save a few hanyou children from starvation and mistreatment. How she ended up as a potential concubine of the Western Lord when she was brought before him to answer for her supposed crimes was beyond her understanding. Semi PWP. Status: Abandoned

The Virginal Concubine by misty

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: Sesshomaru has been feeling the pull of his instincts and can't ignore it any longer. He needs his pack with him- but there is just a few tiny problems- 1) his pack is dead. 2) the only family he has left is a young girl that doesn't know him. and 3)if anyone learns of whom her father is- her life is forfeit. Status: Abandoned

When the Belladonnas Bloom by NovemberDoll

Posted on: Dokuga Rating: MA Summary: Cursed upon birth, exalted as the most notorious puppet of the Warlord Onigumo, his first and beloved consort finally turns sixteen. A gift from her generous lover: a harem of her own, to quell her insatiable lust. But many a man that stepped in her bedchambers were never seen alive again. That would change tonight, when a golden-eyed concubine accidentally unravels a most hidden secret. (AU) Status: Abandoned

#sesskag #sesskag fanfiction archive #sesskag fic recs #sesskag fanfiction #requested rec list #Admin Sage

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dykeseinfeld · 3 years

Note

u asked someone to remind you to post about your pjo dual protagonist thalia/bianca au and i am SO intrigued by this idea please say more

anon asked: hey queen hope your homework went good yesterday 🌸…now what were you saying about thalia and bianca 😳 ?

ok y’all i’m here...the moment almost none of y’all have been waiting for....bianca/thalia protagonists with alternating pov’s au

warning it’s kind of super long and may or may not read like a 2nd grader’s semi-coherent game of pretend so under the cut it goes!

so the main things you need to know about this au are 1. thalia survives and 2. annabeth’s + luke’s ages are a lil diff bc canon is my sandbox 3. i can’t decide if percy exists in this au or not (maybe y’all can help me decide?)

so the first book:

would start a few months after grover brought thalia (12), luke (13), and annabeth (10, not 7) to camp half blood. they were chased by monsters sent by hades on the way, and thalia almost didn’t survive, but ultimately she got lucky and managed to send a bolt of lightning through her spear for the first time and they made it into camp

it’s been some time so annabeth is happy as a clam in the athena cabin doing her 10-year-old-with-severe-mommy-issues thing and luke is actually pretty popular with the hermes cabin bc he actually Met Their Dad Holy Shit and also he’s getting pretty good with a sword

at the same time, thalia is alone in the zeus cabin. everyone has been freaking out bc they all saw the huge bolt of lightning that incinerated a couple hellhounds as they made their grand entrance and What The Fuck Child Of The Big Three???

she’s also further isolated because chiron will take her for private training sessions sometimes, since she is clearly really powerful already and also Hades Himself was trying to kill her (chiron told her the reason was the big three’s pledge not to have kids, and maybe about the great prophecy? if he tells her that then she’s sworn to secrecy)

once grover leaves on another protector assignment, thalia mostly hangs out with luke, and annabeth. luke + annabeth both will try to eat meals with her at the zeus table but annabeth doesn’t want to get in trouble and luke is genuinely making friends in the hermes cabin so thalia will feel bad sometimes and send him back

kronos, seeing this bitter isolated child of the big three’s dreams: it’s free real estate

MEANWHILE

hades is Pissed that thalia survived and zeus got to break their oath And get the glory of a prophecy child

so he sends someone to take bianca (12) and nico (10) out of the lotus hotel and casino a little early.

grover is still their protector, but since the Stirring hasn’t begun in earnest yet and hades is lowkey determined to keep them safe, they make it back to camp half blood with no escort/incident

bianca + nico are put into the hermes cabin, and luke kinda takes them under his wing bc while he’s not bitter he still needs therapy bc this 14 year old has never met a pre-teen he couldn’t try to parent

luke introduces nico and annabeth since they’re the same age and they become really good friends!! she Loves mythomagic and he thinks her dagger is super cool and they’re both just really excited about camp <3

bianca is more reserved and resistant to the whole thing, and she wanders around alone exploring and runs into thalia in the zeus cabin

at this first meeting they get into a bit of a fight bc bianca is still in shock/denial about the gods being real, but thalia at this point has zero patience for this

anyway after that and maybe another scuffle during capture the flag or something they hit it off and become best friends in the way girls can, especially bonding over how they’ve both had to take on raising annabeth and nico basically on their own at the age of 12

~QUEST TIME~

thalia is given a quest for [unspecific reason] and chooses bianca and luke, they go off leaving annabeth and nico frustrated at home

quest hijinks etc, bianca is trying to figure out her parentage + her weird mysterious powers? and thalia is arguing with luke because he’s settling into camp/hero life really well actually but she’s getting progressively angrier with the gods for trying to kill her and also keeps getting dreams from kronos and doesn’t get why he doesn’t seem to remember all of the shit that the gods have put him through

bianca + thalia have las-vegas-style-heart-to-hearts where thalia shares her tragic backstory about her mother and her brother and how hades tried to kill her and even about the great prophecy and how she’s trying on this quest bc of that and her dad but at the same time these dreams are making her suspicious that he might’ve been responsible for her mom’s death.

bianca then shares her own stuff, about how terrified she was being on her own with nico having to protect him but also not remembering most of her childhood and not remembering her parents or how she ended up in the care of this lawyer and just the absolute mindfuckery that her memories/past are

luke is asleep in those scenes i guess lol 🧍‍♂️

anyway eventually they finish their quest in this massive climactic battle where bianca discovers her powers in a huge-showy-”i’m the ghost prince”-way and is formally claimed by hades which thalia sees as this Massive Betrayal obviously and bianca is horrified too because she knows what hades did to thalia but at the same time she’s just so happy to finally understand at least part of her past

thalia just reaches a breaking point though because everyone around her just doesn’t understand her anger and just when she thought she had found another sympathetic person who understood what she was going through she joins hades??? no. no fucking way. kronos reveals that he’s the one who has been sending her dreams, prob by sending some messenger who he possesses or smthing and when he offers thalia the chance to join him? she does (dun dun dun)

main beats of the rest of the series:

thalia and bianca on opposite sides of the war training to be the prophecy child, they come together a Lot and have like melodramatic fight scenes where they talk out their anger and try to get the other to join them bc they don’t want to kill each other

luke is extremely conflicted/betrayed and there’s a titan’s curse moment prob towards the end of the third book where they’re fighting and thalia is trying to get her to go with him but here he actually does go to join her (gasp!!) and is evil for at least one book but his heart’s not in it and he goes back to the good side eventually

by the point of luke’s betrayal, annabeth and nico are growing and developing and old enough to go on quests w bianca and by the last book they’re a main trio of sorts and their hypothetical character development is already making me emotional

there’s just a lot of general sexiness with foils and inner conflicts and bianca doesn’t even want to be the prophecy child but she needs to for the fate of the world and bianca is so angry at thalia bc thalia is a daughter of zeus and could control her powers and is perfect and just meant to be the prophecy kid, not some daughter of hades who they didn’t even have a cabin for before

hm maybe by either the last or second-to-last book thalia + bianca are close to reconciling or at least their interests are aligned for the moment and they read the text of the prophecy together and things go Wild bc they both think “single choice shall end his days” either is about luke or nico and it turns up the gas to their fighting both of them care about both of them and yeah

and then i can’t decide if there’s romantic arcs at all but if there were it would go like this:

just a dash of thaluke where at first it was luke having a one-sided crush but thalia misses him a Lot after she goes to kronos and wonders if it’s that she misses him or if it’s something More until to get him to defect there’s like a melodramatic moment in the fight where thalia kisses him and they go off to be Evil Together but it ends bc luke doesn’t believe in the cause and only joined her in hopes of getting thalia back to his side

once luke leaves/is kicked out thalia realizes that she didn’t love luke she just wanted a family and also in the second half of the series she realizes she’s a lesbian as a parallel to her redemption arc

bianca meanwhile is unconcerned w romance until she has her botl-hoe-moment where within one book she 1. runs into the hunters on a quest and has a thing with zoe nightshade who tries to get her to join plus tells her about that time she met thalia, 2. she goes to calypso’s island and falls in love w her in the moonlight or w/e and has her what-if moment, and 3. when they meet up that book thalia somehow knew abt zoe + calypso and seems almost angrier abt them than the war?? weird bc bianca knows that thalia is Totally Straight right??

my main point is that bianca/thalia is our friends-to-enemies-to-lovers endgame thank you i will take my pulitzer now

#this series is like. if the titan's curse was 5 books long and also specifically catered to 9 year old me #which is very girlboss me <3 #bianca di angelo #thalia grace #thalianca #luke castellan #thaluke #(just a dash. a smidge. for spice.)#annabeth chase #nico di angelo #pjo #keratonin #anon #answered #she speaks

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