dracoserpentis

[dracoserpentis]

MUSES MOVED BACK TO MY MAIN MULTI @legaciestold

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@everythingheard (king peter)

REBECCA FERGUSON as Elizabeth Woodville and MAX IRONS as Edward IV in "The White Queen" (2013)

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she can feel her heart pounding in her chest, hear it in her mind as if it was war drums. chaos remained in every direction as sounds continued. a booming sound shakes the walls suddenly as if something large crashed into the castle. it's not like before when the dragons had slammed against the walls, this time it had come from above. he grabs her arms and it's the only thing that steadies her in the moment. it's the only thing that keeps her from looking back upon the bloodstained floor where bodies lay and horror is abound. her light hues bore into his, desperation within hers. she needs him to promise her. she needs him to make her believe that they will survive this. that someone will survive this. that they can do it together like they always have. not a knight and a princess but a girl and boy who had shared so much with each other. oh she knows she set him alight with frustration much too often but she couldn't handle the thought of a world where he wasn't a part of it and fear courses through her as her eyes drift to his wound and back up to his face.

promise me, ben. please. her eyes plead but his words contrast and it makes her whole body tremble because she knows the truth of it. the fates could be just as cruel as they could be good. he can't promise her his life anymore than she can promise him hers. even though she knows he'd ensure her life with his last breath.

he brings her hands to his lips and her eyes close for the briefest of moments as the tears she'd violently wiped away from her cheeks threaten to return. horror seeps into the edges of her body, shock and pain and loss and fear, anger... all course through her at once. her father. her father. her father could be alive but-- she couldn't.. she couldn't leave ben. she couldn't leave her father if.. her mind spirals in a dizzying fashion. there's dragons. apo had said there were others willing to help them. "i won--" she begins but he cuts her off, her eyes boring into his at his words. you. he says. no, us. she thinks and her gaze screams it at him before he's leading her further down the corridor.

the hidden corridor was growing close, just around the bend. they are almost there when a surge of fire flies past the interacting corridor and the sound of metal against metal is heard. there's magic being used, a mage though she doesn't know who's side they are on it. there's no time to react or ponder as a bloodied head freshly severed slides across the floor in front of them and she halts, staring, frozen as she screams though she doesn't even realize she's doing it. a sword drags across the ground around the corner before the king appears with blood upon his sword. he'd always proven a capable warrior, human yet able to battle any manner of species with skill. her eyes drift upward as her scream is choked back when her eyes meet her father's and relief floods her. but it's that relief which blinds her to the festering and blackened wound present at his side and the way dark streams of veins are creeping up his neck from the top of his shirt. he hadn't been in his armor when the attack had begun.

lyliana's hold on ben releases as she surges forward and into her father's arms automatically. him hugging her to him with all of his might. he'd believed her already lost, having seen the dead man in her room and.. the body of his wife and son. he'd doubled back through another secret passage knowing where her mind would take her should she still be alive and fighting his way through. his hand holds her head as he mutters her name, his eyes closing for a moment before they open and look directly at sir ben with an intensity and message that he thinks needs no voice. protect her. save her. the king knows ben had seen what his daughter had not. there was no escape for him. he'd already known it. now, all the king could do was trust this man to be as devoted to his daughter as he always appeared to be and attempt to go after myra before her curse took him.

the king pulls back after a moment, looking back upon his daughter who clings to him, finally seeing the wound before peering back at him in terror. "father-- what.. we need to.." she can't find words again. footfalls echo in the distance. 'shhh. my little sprout.' his hands come to her face, cupping it with a pained expression. 'we don't have time. i love you. if you take one thing with you, remember that.' he tells her, placing his sword into her hands and pressing her fingers to the hilt of it. 'you are the future of this kingdom. you need to live. your people, our people will need you. your brother will need you.' panic engulfs her as he speaks, her head shaking frantically as he looks over her to benjamin again. 'sir poe took his dragon to the portal outside the city. i have to believe the gods are with him and he made it before myra's forces could prevent him.... eldenvale will prepare for you. she has to touch the painting. it's old magic.. it's not like the other.. passages...it'll let you through with her.. but she must touch it to open it.." his features strain in reaction to his wound, he's starting to falter even as he holds himself up with the strength of a warrior king.

there's men at the end of the corridor, them seeing the three of them and beginning to move toward them quickly, swords drawn. lyliana's hold on her father tightens instinctively as if her body knows what her mind won't allow her to understand yet. "daddy--" it's a plea, her ability to breathe escaping her as she gasps it out when he looks upon her again as if he needs to remember his daughters face. see it and commit it to his memory one last time.

"i love you! i love you! it's we can.. dad.." the king looks at ben again, though it pains him to look away from her. then he speaks his command. a king to a knight. a father to the man who he trusted to protect his daughter like he always had. 'take her. give me your sword and take her. once you're through they won't be able to follow you. go now.' lyliana shakes her head again but she's already being pushed back toward ben, backed into his hold as her father takes his sword and moves toward the men almost upon them. she's thrashing almost immediately, trying to follow her father without a care for the men coming toward them. "no! no! daddy i can't.. you have to come with us! dad!" his sword clashes against the first man and then the other with precision despite his wound. 'go now.' he commands again.

Myra...

The name was spat from Lyliana's lips like venom, and Benjamin nearly drew to a stop at the admission. Eyes sparking like flint, his jaw tightened so harshly that his teeth ached. He knew it...he knew it!

"She won't triumph," he promised. "One way or another, she will meet her end, whether it be through your fire or the tip of my sword."

Even amidst his savage determination, something about the princess' wild, frantic eyes disarmed him, and a raging swell of guilt stabbed between his ribs once she practically threw herself upon him, begging and desperate.

Catching hold of her arms, Benjamin lowered so that they were gazing eye-to-eye, his expression grim as he shook his head.

"ben, promise me we are going to survive this together."

"I can promise you nothing -- not without tempting fate," he reminded her, gently squeezing her elbows. "I will try to remain by your side, just as I always have. There's nothing that gives me greater pleasure than fighting alongside this kingdom. It's always been the two of us...through hell and high water."

Reaching for her hands, Benjamin winced as the chilling sensation of blood dribbled down his arm, sickening and warm. "We still haven't determined the fate of your father," he pointed out. "If by some miracle he is alive, I want you to take him on Apo instead. I don’t wish to slow you down -- I can stay behind and fight."

The fiery look in Lyliana's eyes proved she would not agree with his terms, and swallowing past the dryness of his throat, Benjamin drew her hands to his lips and admonished, "There's no time to argue. Let's get you to the tunnels."

Lifting his sword, he entwined their fingers and encouraged her to stumble with him past the newly fallen bodies. His head was starting to pound, and dizzily, his boots tromped heavily against the cold stone flooring, some of which was besmirched with the gore of battle.

[dracoserpentis]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 1.04 | ‘King of the Narrow Sea’

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DAENERYS TARGARYEN 1.08, The Pointy End

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[dracoserpentis]

|| I'm sorry for the inactivity, things with my move and new job have been hectic and not going to plan and I'm sick on top of it. Please bare with me on my blogs and I will do my best to get to replies in the next few days.

[dracoserpentis]

DAEMON TARGARYEN + Queen of Sass

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Graphic by @enastrcs

[dracoserpentis]

|| so i'm finally moved to indiana, albeit with some issues with the new house but its being worked on, and i start my new position at work (same company, different role) in chicago tomorrow morning! wish me luck! if i'm a little quieter on some blogs this week, that's why! but i do fully intend to still be working on replies!

[dracoserpentis]

[dracoserpentis]

lyliana had once told benjamin that she would be the safest princess in all the ten with him at her side and gods knew, she may have been the safest without him too. (though she doubts it.) she certainly had been the most guarded even if she often shed her guards in favor of adventure (at least most of them, save for ben) at least up until this night. but danger had been something the princess had rarely encountered herself aside from a few close calls which perhaps were somewhat of her own fault. oh she was not stupid, she understood the world they lived in was not without strife. she knew of wars and conflicts, she knew of her uncle eagon's plots. she had not been spared the story of how her parents came together as her father made a different choice than what he had been sent for, for lyliana had to be made to understand the dangers which lurked in the world. their family (eagon's side aside) was strong and faithful to each other but houses continued to play games of powers across the ten and the eight. her uncle eagon had sent her adoptive cousin to wed her under a guise of peace with the full intention of her death following an heir and it had only been due to prince ming's reckless and inebriated nature his plot had been uncovered and her saved from it from his threatening encounter with her. lyliana knew of war and conflicts too. she'd been educated in it.

educated her entire life to one day be a ruler.

yet another facet of such had been to learn compassion and love and protectiveness toward her people too. her uncle of the eight sought to rule over people and yet never be of them, but lyliana's parents had always encouraged the opposite. they sought to help others, had even brought many of the city's people into the safety of the palace when a fire had broken out and ravaged an entire section of the city before mages had been able to stop it from spreading. it was that nature which she had always believed would make her a good ruler when the time came. but it was that nature which had doomed them now. her parents had faced an eastern threat and found lady myra and some of her people playing captive and sought to save her. they had welcomed them into their home, into the heart of the kingdom because they had kindness in their heart and now myra was repaying it in blood.

lyliana had never wished death on anyone before. even when the decision of exile back to the eight or death had been brought forth in relation to prince ming she had advocated for his life even knowing he had desired to plot her own death down the line and the vile things he'd called her for having taken part in the spring rite previously because a part of her understood he had been twisted by her uncle and she felt saddened by it. would she ever trust him again or even want to see his face? no. she was no fool. but she had had a large heart and held compassion in her soul. now, however, lyliana wants myra dead. she wants her to suffer. how many lives had already been taken and still will be taken this night? would her and ben both still meet the twins in death yet?

"myra." she'd answered with venom before they moved into the chaos and it was the thought of the woman which had propelled lyliana's strength as she'd attacked the lord who now lay upon the floor next to her dropped sword. it's the thought of the evil woman which makes her reach up to her face and harshly drive away her tears because they don't have time for her to lose herself again. they don't have time for whatever horror was building within her. myra has to pay for this but they had to survive to make it so.

ben takes her hand and she lets him lead her until they are faced with a wall and two directions to go forth. thankfully they hadn't encountered another group of threats (despite still hearing the chaos echoing in the building) which either meant something had already transpired in this corridor where her parent's chambers were or had yet to reach it. she tries not to allow herself to go there. she tries to have faith that her father, that gods above, her father could still be alive but it's hard. it's so hard and she squeezes ben's hand tightly and takes a grounding breath. however his words give her pause as she starts to pull him to the right and stops, whirling back to look at him with wide eyes as multiple realizations hit her at once.

firstly, her dragon. it had to have been apophis rocking the castle that second time, only stopping when he realized she was.. well, alive.

secondly, her own emotional state had seemed to block her communicating vocally from her dragon until now, the princess taking another breath and opening her mind back up.

<where are y--?> lyliana projects before she's cut off by a series of flashes of the city and apo's own emotional state. she gets the sense she's doing the same to him, her dragon already knowing of her intended escape route.

<i can be there if you can get to the end of those tunnels. she's using old magick princess. she's enthralling dragons. the skies will not be easy but it is the only way out. some of the wild clutch is with me. with you. they will help cover us. hurry lyliana. hurry.> her dragon speaks in her mind before lyliana's gaze refocuses on ben and she fully understands his previous meaning.

the third thing lyliana realizes is that ben intends for her to leave him and ride away on her dragon and if their lives weren't already on the line she'd kill him herself for such a suggestion, at least metaphorically. the princess hadn't stayed awake for over three days attending to a feverish ben after he'd nearly drowned, nearly getting sick herself to leave him to the mercy of the woman who had taken everything else away from her in the span of a few hours.

"i will not leave without you. i'll die first, ben. she can't have you too. i can't lose you. so take leave of any of such thoughts. apo will be at the end of the tunnels. we just have to get there. and he'll take both of us. both of us. do you hear me?" her tone is suddenly commanding like a ruler, as if she needs to hear him say the words, as if the fear of losing him to this horror had overridden anything else that she was reeling from. she's not shaking anymore, no, her hold on him is fierce and gaze determined and stubborn. "ben, promise me we are going to survive this together." this moment, this escape, the war that's sure to follow.

Finally, a flicker of life entered Lyliana's eyes, though the spark was akin to an ember, a blaze, and once her hand curled around his own, Benjamin allowed a fraction of grief to weigh down heavily upon his heart. This wasn't how things were supposed to be -- it couldn't be the kingdom's promised fate -- and yet as Lyliana grabbed her assailant's sword and stumbled to her feet, he remained dutifully silent in his disbelief. His burdens were not hers to bear.

With her fingers clasping his arm, Benjamin listened to the caustic vitriol in her voice and frowned. "Who?" he demanded. "Who will pay?"

But he knew... Somehow, a part of him just knew -- and feeling a swell of anger roiling within, he kept his arm wrapped supportively around Lyliana's shoulders, his free hand holding his sword aloft while they burst from the room and out into the fray.

Their destination soon became apparent. Ever since he could remember, they'd traversed these very halls, typically in secret rather than their present urgency. Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones who'd chosen to seek this direction...

Two men charged them from either side, and forcing his injured arm to lift, Benjamin grave a great cry just as the first man's sword clashed with his own, the force of the blow causing him to slide back as Lyliana joined him in the fight. It wasn't her battle to endure -- oh, God, why must he fail her in this too? -- and just as he sliced his blade through the assailant's stomach and slashed upward, Lyliana leveled her very own attack. The lord fell soon after.

She started shaking, overwhelmed and disoriented, and tears tracked through the blood and dirt on her pale cheeks. "You did well," Benjamin commended, though he could tell Lyliana was far from pleased. Taking her elbow, he pleaded with her, "Come -- we can't stay here."

"the tunnels, we're almost--- there's an entrance.. down this.. corridor."

Nodding, he took her hand and tugged her along, wincing with every step. His shoulder wound strained and bled, and giving her fingers a supportive squeeze, he pressed, "Can you call Apo? Can your dragon come get you?"

Benjamin feared he might slow them down -- it was a laughable thought, he supposed, given how a dragon could surely support them both -- but he'd also never been overly fond of riding any creature other than a horse, and his present dizziness would surely not be abated by being airborne.

[dracoserpentis]

[dracoserpentis]

RHAENYRA APPRECIATION WEEK -> FAVORITE TRAITS, EMOTIONS

RHAENYRA'S ABILITY TO CALMLY READ TO FILTH THOSE WHO ASSAULT HER WITH PHYSICAL VIOLENCE

[dracoserpentis]

there is a 𝙎𝙏𝙄𝙇𝙇𝙉𝙀𝙎𝙎 to grief

that can't quite be put into ｗｏｒｄｓ ．

[dracoserpentis]

HARD-TO-FIND HURT / COMFORT ACTION PROMPTS.

a selection of some of my favorite underrepresented situations and actions for one of my favorite tropes! feel free to add + REVERSE to any of the prompts to change the situation and provide context as necessary. do not add to this list.  

CRADLE : sender picks up the injured / unconscious receiver and holds them close to their chest, carrying them to safety. 

GUARDIAN : facing down a threat, sender pushes receiver back with an arm, moving to stand in front of them and protecting them with their own body.

TENDER : receiver wakes up to sender caressing them gently; a hand carding through their hair, brushing hair off their forehead, a hand on their cheek, a thumb swiping under their eye.

SHELTER : seeing a threat barreling toward them (such as a storm, the shockwave from an explosion, or a building they’re in collapsing), sender holds the injured / incapacitated receiver close, turning their back to the threat to bear the brunt of the impact instead of the receiver.

FLICKER : sender thinks they’re too late to save receiver and begins to mourn them / sinks in defeat and grief, holding them close, only to find through a simple action (a cough, a twitch of a hand, a murmured word) that they haven’t left them after all. 

DELIRIUM : receiver wakes up to sender’s relief, only for receiver to not believe it’s really sender (that they’re imagining sender or that they don’t think sender would come for them) or that they’re finally safe. 

CONCEAL : both muses have been injured or have fallen ill, though sender keeps their injury / illness secret in favor of taking care of receiver. however, as receiver gets better, sender’s injury / illness worsens from lack of care, and they wind up collapsing, their injury / illness fully revealed. 

GUIDE : sender has been injured, but their skills are needed to help with the muses’ current situation (an escape plan, tending a wound, or diffusing a weapon, for example). sender has to walk receiver through the procedure, all the while trying to stay conscious. 

SAVIOR : receiver is at the mercy of a threat, and all seems lost, only for sender to suddenly burst in and come to their rescue, bearing weapons and all the protective spirit they can muster, to the relief / confusion / anger of receiver. 

LAST RESORT : injured / sick and alone after an encounter with a threat or a run-in with a dangerous situation, sender finds themself at receiver’s door, coming to them because they have nowhere else to go.

[dracoserpentis]

favorite DAENERYS TARGARYEN looks 1/?