#tho honestly how there aren't more Pern AUs in this fandom is a mystery to me

[sheliesshattered]

Cataloging all the HotD Daemyra fic ideas floating around my head that I definitely have zero time to write right now. In no particular order:

-First Of His Name: Realizing that he murdered his wife in pursuit of a male heir that died only hours later, that same night Viserys tells Daemon to look after Rhaenyra and restore the glory of their house, then khs in front of witnesses by stepping out the window Tommen Baratheon style. Suddenly Daemon is King, and the last line of support to Rhaenyra who lost her entire family in one day. The political mechanizations of those who want to see the Targaryen dynasty fall, a brewing war in the Stepstones, and the need for one or both of them to marry and produce heirs complicate Daemon’s long-held dream of being King. Slow burn from grief-comfort to ruling power couple.

-The Bed Is A Battlefield: One-shot set between eps 7 and 8, Rhaenyra explains to Daemon that she’s always had to keep her lovers secret for fear of what discovery would mean. But now that they are married and settled on Dragonstone with their children, she would like him to actually share her bed and not slip away in the small hours of the morning. Domestic fluff by way of Rhaenyra demanding what she wants like the queen she is.

-Vanity and Frustration: AU where Daemon and Rhaenyra marry in ep 5, and early in their marriage Daemon decides to start growing his hair out again. And as anyone who has grown out their hair knows, there are awkward stages to endure. Harmless harassment between newlyweds as Daemon grumbles about the state of his hair.

-The Last Dragon: 15 years ago, shortly after Daemon took Caraxes and fled to Essos to avoid a forced marriage to Rhea Royce, a coup executed by the Lords of Westeros resulted in the murder of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne and all their descendants, as well as nearly all of the dragons. There are rumors that a few Targaryens may have escaped, and some of the unclaimed dragons fled across the Narrow Sea to save themselves -- but all Daemon knows for certain is that he’s the last of his family he knows of, possibly the last living Targaryen anywhere in the world, the last dragon rider, and the rightful King of Westeros. 

But he knows he can’t take revenge all alone -- he needs heirs, he needs more dragon riders, he needs to rebuild the House of the Dragon to a force that can burn down all those who murdered his family. And for that, he’s in need of a wife. There are no legitimate Targaryens left, at least none living openly, but there are pale-haired violet-eyed descendants of Valyria to be found all throughout Essos. He simply has to find one he can craft into a queen and the mother to all future Targaryens.

After years of searching, his sources in Essos bring him “Neera”, an orphaned young woman raised in Pentos who has the right look and strength of will to fill the role, if only Daemon can convince her that she should want to be his wife and queen, that he is different from all the other men who have offered to pay someone else money for her maidenhead. Slow burn enemies to friends to lovers, to a complication as the truth comes to light -- the truth of Neera’s birth, and the mother who gave everything to save her from the fate that befell the rest of their family.

-Her Protector: A few years after Viserys marries Alicent, Rhaenyra is kidnapped from her bed in the Red Keep late one night. She is held captive by rough men who cannot seem to decide if they should ransom her or kill her or do something far worse, and in their indecision merely leave her locked up in a cell for long weeks -- until the glorious day that she hears the screeching of dragons overhead. Her uncle Daemon has come to save her, and kills everyone who took her, then carries her back to King’s Landing himself, never letting her out of his sight.

In King’s Landing, the people rush into the streets to see her, weeping to see the Realm’s Delight returned home alive, calling her Queen and throwing flowers at the feet of Daemon’s horse as they ride through the city with Rhaenyra curled in his arms, too weak to ride on her own, too anxious to get home to wait for a wheelhouse to be summoned. It is only then, at her insistence, that Daemon reluctantly reveals that Rhaenyra is in fact Queen -- her father was killed the night Rhaenyra was kidnapped, along with her step-mother and half-siblings. If only Daemon had been there, perhaps he could have stopped it, but he had been banished by Viserys yet again. Rhaenyra swears she will never banish him, and in fact she would make him her King Consort, if he will agree.

Years pass, and Rhaenyra recovers from her ordeal and grows into a strong, just Queen, with her husband Daemon always at her side. She has borne princes and princesses, the next generation of their house, and all in life seems to be exactly as she would want it. Until a sellsword, sentenced to death for his crimes, levels an accusation that it was Daemon who planned the kidnapping all those years ago that resulted in the death of King Viserys and Queen Alicent and their children. Who is Rhaenyra to believe? The convicted murderer seeking to gain her ear by spinning an unfortunately true-sounding story? Or her husband, her uncle, the father of her children, the man who rescued her all those years ago? And even if the sellsword’s story is true -- even then, could that possibly change how she feels about Daemon?

-Yet Another Mob Story: When the Targaryen mob family split over her father’s decision to marry outside the family, Rhaenyra sided with her uncle Daemon against her father and his new wife (her ex-best-friend). Years pass in a stalemate, until one day Rhaenyra sees Daemon’s new lieutenant Criston having lunch with Alicent and realizes that Criston is a spy sent by the Hightowers. She and Daemon devise a plan to get rid of Criston without letting the Hightowers know that they’re onto them. Really just PWP, with a little murder on the side, as a treat.

-Jane Austen Emma AU: The age gap is the same! I have no solid ideas for this one but that little detail makes me crazy!

-The Last of Us AU: I’ve posted about this once before, but the basic idea a modern apocalypse AU where Rhaenyra and her gay husband Laenor and their mutual husband Harwin (and their three sons) have to try to make it to the isolated bunker house of Laenor’s sister Laena and her husband Daemon (and their two daughters), and bad shit happens along the way but Laenor and Harwin are so determined to protect their sons and their wife that they sacrifice everything to keep them safe and get them to Daemon and Laena, up to and including their lives. Eventually Rhaenyra shows up on Daemon’s doorstep in half-feral mamabear mode, absolutely willing and able to kill anyone or anything that threatens her sons, only to find that Daemon has recently lost Laena and is similarly ready to murder to protect his daughters, and they have to come to a hesitant and wary understanding and then eventual partnership and co-parenting of their collected children. Maybe Targaryens naturally run hotter than most people, so are immune to the zombie fungus?

-Dragonriders Of Pern AU: Meleys, queen dragon of Weyrwoman Rhaenys, has laid the golden egg that signals the impending birth of the next queen dragon. Daemon (or D’mon for you Pern purists), rider of bronze Caraxes, is sent on Search to find young women to be candidates for the hatching of the new queen. In the company of other bronze riders, including Corlys and Laenor, he returns to the Hold where he grew up, where his older brother Viserys is now Lord. There he meets his niece Rhaenyra for the first time, a young woman of strong will with a natural talent for the telepathic communications of dragons. When she speaks to Caraxes as though his rider hardly existed, Daemon knows that Rhaenyra is destined to be the next weyrwoman. And as he trains her in the ways of being a dragonrider, it slowly dawns on him that he would allow none but him to stand beside Rhaenyra when Syrax’s first mating flight finally comes.

Edit: omg I forgot one! This one is so clear in my head but so difficult to describe in brief, so I’ll keep it short:

-An Eye For An Eye: The night Aemond loses his eye, when Alicent comes at Rhaenyra with the Conqueror’s dagger, her downward slash hits higher than it does in canon, striking Rhaenyra in the neck in a life-threatening wound the maesters scramble to stitch before the Crown Princess’s life slips away. With what she fears might be her last breaths, she commands Daemon to protect her sons, and he swears to hear he will protect her family -- or avenge them if he cannot. While the maesters try to save Rhaenyra, Daemon sits vigil with Rhaenyra’s sons and his daughters, watching over them while they sleep and talking long into the night with Laenor. But when Rhaenyra, only barely mended, asks for Daemon to be brought to her bedside, Aemond decides that his mother’s attempt at justice falls far short of his standards, and moves to exact his own revenge while Daemon is away...

#Daemyra #Daemon and Rhaenyra #Rhaenyra Targaryen #Daemon Targaryen #House of the Dragon #HotD #my writing #my fanfic #or rather the ideas I hope to maybe turn into fanfic eventually #right now I am so busy with work and cosplay sewing that I've barely been able to do more than jot a few words down here and there #please DON'T use these as prompts #or at least message me to talk about it first if something strikes an idea in your mind #some of them are general enough that there's plenty of room for other interpretations #but some of them are pretty specific and I'm really attached to #you know how it goes #tho honestly how there aren't more Pern AUs in this fandom is a mystery to me #but do feel free to message me! #either about writing something similar or to talk about these ideas or to chat about Daemyra in general #I'm full of Daemyra brainrot and short on time to write #2023 mood #I suppose