#asogfabbchallenge

[oscartullyofriverrun]

Coronation Challenge for A Song of Golden Fire and Black Blood

Make a moodboard outfit/overall style for the Coronation Ball, then write a breakdown of it's elements!

Oscar has always been a slightly ostentatious dresser and it’s a description he accepts with pride.  He had restrained himself to a more subtle ensemble at the coronation, but for the coronation ball he decided to wear a highly ornamental black outfit highlighted with Tully red to represent his pride in his house.  He paired the outfit with a pair of knee high boots decorated with silver pieces to match the ones on his sleeves.  Oscar had always enjoyed jewelry so he adorned his favorite bracelets and rings, along with a chain that ran across the back of his hand.  It was often said the Tullys were poorer than many of their vassals, but Oscar was determined the people around him would think the opposite when gazing upon his outfit tonight.

[goldaegontargaryen]

Character Challenge for A Song of Golden Fire and Black Blood

Aegon Targaryen - Prince of Dragonstone

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Only with Helaena can Aegon find peace.  It wasn’t always like that.  When they were first married, Aegon had resented her.  Not Helaena as a person, but the life of duty and responsibility she represented.  Marrying her had felt like a loss of personal freedom, his binding acknowledgement that he would spend his life attempting to be a perfect and dutiful son even though he always failed.

Yet, over time, having Helaena as his wife opened his world.  She loved as easily as breathing, not just him, but their children, her dragon, the servants, and even tiny bugs that most other people overlooked.  Perhaps most miraculously of all, she loved him.  He wasn’t sure he deserved it, in fact he was fairly sure he didn’t, but there was no one who understood him better or who Aegon trusted more with his thoughts.  For his entire life, Aegon had assumed he was difficult to love.  Helaena was the first person to show him that wasn’t true.

[goldaegontargaryen]

Character Challenge for A Song of Golden Fire and Black Blood

Prompt:

Write a scene of your character preparing for King Viserys's funeral.

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The King was dead.  

It was easier to think about things that way.  He could make it through the King’s funeral.  He had no idea how to react to the idea of his father’s funeral.  There were too many complicated emotions caught up in his father’s name and the title of his relationship to him.  It was easier for Aegon to separate himself from the personal nature of it all when he only thought of his father by his title.  

Almost as if they were reinforcing his thoughts, the bells signaling the death of the King rang continuously, scattering most of his thoughts as soon as they entered his head.  He focused on completing one task after the other.  He stepped into his boots.  He forced his unsteady fingers to buckle the various straps attached to them.  He pulled on his coat.  Just actions with no meaning.  That was the only way he could make it through the day.  

Just as he finished dressing, the door flew open and a small shape ran across the room.  He recognized Maelor just as his son threw his arms around him and Maelor’s constantly tired maid, Janna, ran in after him.  She was already appropriately dressed in dark mourning colors, though her chase after Maelor had brought a bright color into her cheeks.  “I’m so sorry, my prince.  I told him you were busy getting ready, but the little prince insisted and slipped away from me.”  

Aegon waved away her worries.  Maelor was also already dressed in the dark outfit chosen for the funeral and even his wild curls had been tamed into some sort of order.  “It’s alright, Janna.  I’ll help him finish getting ready.”  

“Are you sure?  I wouldn’t want to put any extra pressure on you with your father—” 

“I’ll be fine,” he promised, quickly cutting her off.  The last thing he wanted to hear right now was condolences about his father.  He would have to suffer through those all day as it was.  “Having him around will cheer me.”

Janna slowly nodded and shut the door behind her, though Aegon didn’t miss the expression of pity on her face.  She’d known that Aegon and Viserys weren’t close, but he supposed the passing of a father received pity from all, even if he hadn’t much cared about his children when he was alive.  

He looked down to his son who was still clinging to him with his eyes firmly fixed on Aegon’s face, his expression focused.  “Jaehaerys said I wasn’t supposed to bother you and mother.”  

“Why did he say that?”

“He said that you were going to be sad because of the funeral today.”  

Aegon brushed an errant curl behind Maelor’s ear.  “Jaehaerys was wrong.  You can bother me all you want.  But your mother may need her space today, I’m not sure.”  Aegon hadn’t talked to her as much as he should have.  Both of them had gone their separate ways to prepare for the funeral and to start to process their individual grief.  

“What are funerals like?” Maelor asked, finally releasing his tight hold to sit on a stool that stood by the dressing table.  

“They’re very sad and usually very boring.”  

“Will Baelon be sad?” Maelor’s closest friend in the castle was Rhaenyra’s youngest son, whose name Aegon usually couldn’t remember but thankfully Maelor had reminded him.  

“I imagine so.  The King was already very ill by the time he was born, but his mother is going to be very sad and I imagine that will make him sad too.  Be patient with him.”  

To his surprise, Maelor didn’t follow up his last question immediately with another one.  It was strange for him to be quiet, but Aegon allowed him his silence as he put on his jewelry.  The only things he bothered to adorn himself with were his sun ring and his wedding ring from Helaena.  The last thing he wanted was to draw any attention to himself.  

“I think I’m sad too,” Maelor finally said, breaking the silence.  His face was creased with deliberation as if he was working out a difficult problem given to him by his Septa.  “But not because of grandfather.  He was scary.”  

“He was very sick when you visited him.  He was a kind and peaceful man.”  That would be how he was remembered.  Not by Aegon, but by most.  “Why are you sad?”

“Because you’re sad.  I can tell.”

“Oh Maelor, I’m not—” To his shock, Aegon was forced to stop talking, his throat suddenly feeling tight.  

Before he could recover himself, Maelor had already run back over to hug him again.  “Can I hold your hand at the funeral, father?  And mother’s too?  To help you feel better?”  

Aegon quickly nodded, wrapping his arms tightly around his son.  

Maybe he would make it through his father’s funeral.

[goldaegontargaryen]

Character Challenge for A Song of Golden Fire and Black Blood

Prompt:

Write a scene between your character and any other character within the RP that is not currently written or playable.

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It was not Viserys who gave Aegon the confidence to be a father.  

Two weeks after the twins were born, Aegon crept out of the Red Keep in the dead of night to visit the Sept in King’s Landing.  It was a place he often fled when he wanted to find refuge.  It was quiet and nobody would think to look for the degenerate prince in a place so holy.  That night though, Aegon had arrived to actually pray.  

He cautiously opened the doors and was relieved to find the main prayer room empty.  The doors to the Sept were never locked in order to allow people to pray whenever it was needed or desired.  He had a dark hood pulled over his hair to allow him some anonymity, but even the empty room didn’t make him feel comfortable enough to pull it down.  Someone could walk in at any moment and Aegon didn’t want to be perceived by anyone.  Not tonight.  

Aegon had never given much attention to the statue of the Father.  He’d kneeled before it many times, often in the company of his mother, but he had never examined the carved stone face or taken in the serious, almost brutal, expression carved onto his face.  The statue looked stern and strong, exactly as a father should.  It was everything Aegon was not.  

He knelt in front of the statue, mimicking the position he’d taken many times in this Sept but had never truly meant.  Even now, he hadn’t changed his belief system, but he was desperate enough to give prayer a try.  

Please, he thought, hands clasped tightly in front of him.  Father, do not let me ruin them.  

Before he could continue on with his prayer, he heard a soft voice inquire, “I don’t mean to interrupt your prayers, but my name is Septon Lark and I was wondering if I could do anything to help?  I could pray with you?”  

Automatically, Aegon turned his head towards the voice, taking in the appearance of a slim, older man with light brown hair that was beginning to gray at the temples.  It was only when the man’s dark brown eyes widened in recognition of Aegon’s face that he realized his mistake.  

“My Prince,” the man, Septon Lark, said, clearly surprised “What are you doing here?  The hour is quite late.”  

“Praying.  I thought that was obvious,” Aegon said flatly, hoping the older man would hear the hostility in his voice and leave him alone.  

“I hope all is well?  We all were very happy to hear that Princess Helaena had a successful and healthy birth.  And to twins, no less!  All of them are healthy still, I hope?” 

Aegon nodded.  “They’re fine.”  

“That is a blessing.  What brings you to the Sept to pray then?”  

Aegon ignored his question and answered with one of his own.  “How can you believe in the Faith?  There are clearly no gods in this world.”  

He expected the Septon to become angry or at least annoyed, but instead he chuckled as if Aegon had told a particularly funny joke.  “I’m afraid that answer is individual to every man.  Why do you not believe in the gods?”

There were many reasons Aegon could not believe in the gods, but lately there had been one stuck in the forefront of his mind.  “If the gods were real, then the Father and Mother would not have given me children who are so perfect.  I will only ruin them.”  

The first time Aegon had held each of the twins, he’d been overcome with a love so strong that it almost knocked him off his feet, an emotion that was quickly accompanied with a proportionate feeling of fear.  His twins were so small and tiny, with beautiful purple eyes and sweet smiles.  Little Jaehaerys had been born with six fingers and toes, but Aegon had not seen it as a flaw.  Only another way that his child was special.  No responsible god would have ever chosen to entrust those children to his care.  

“You’re not the first man who has been afraid of becoming a father and you will not be the last,” the Septon said, moving to slowly kneel down beside him, facing forward and clasping his hands.  “But I do not think you will be a bad father.”  

Aegon was sure the answer was supposed to be reassuring, but it only made him angry.  He did not want to hear false platitudes from a foolish man who didn’t even know him.  “I will be.  I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors about me.  They’re all true.  I’m a drunkard, and I’m cruel and irresponsible.”  

Septon Lark shrugged as if Aegon’s words were hardly a concern.  “So, you are not a good man.  There are many great men who have been terrible fathers and many bad men who are good fathers.  You do not have to be a good man to be a good father.”  

At his words, Aegon quickly turned towards him, heart pounding in his chest.  “Do you really believe that?”

Septon Lark nodded, though he didn’t take his eyes off of the father’s somber face.  “I do.  You’ll be a good father, Aegon Targaryen.”  

“How could you possibly know that?”

The Septon smiled, finally turning to look at him again.  “Because you are here trying to protect them. That is what a father does."