So, not asking for spoilers but what are Otto’s thoughts on Alyssa Royce? He was clearly delighted by her insulting Daemon at the dinner.
well hellooooo Chess darling!!!
I'd imagine, given time and space, Otto and Alyssa could have an estimable relationship insofar as one can have with a scheming, Machiavellian coded grandfather-in-law.
For now, she's largely a piece on the cyvasse board that he's positioning and maneuvering around - sound familiar much with another Otto interpersonal relationship we see with a lady in his sphere of influence?
Sure, he's made concessions for Alyssa and the Royces through those legal channels when Jeyne and him were dithering back and forth over the marriage contracts.
But I think where Alyssa has actually pinged off his radar as someone that isn't just a silly, frippery girl is when Aemond threw his unholy fit over 'GET ME THAT ROYCE GIRL' and it largely did not track on Otto's radar.
Then, the real seal on the deal of her inching up a titch in Otto Hightower's esteem was when she very boldly showed moxie (or stupidity, you be the judge) in the face of Daemon's insults with an insult of her own that genuinely seems to have gotten under his nemesis's skin.
Something that wins her points outside of the political landscape, and this goes for Alicent and Otto both: her care and favor towards Helaena and her children. I think Otto is the classic 'I fucked up as a parent and you'll have to put thumbscrews to me to admit as much but by god I do love my granddaughter and great-grandkids' with his own very special brand of what passes as love and care. Anyone who is genuine about their care and safety gets a gold star.
What will really win her more brownie points with the grandpops is the amount of money and dedication she shows to the Green cause, which is yet to be seen until we get further down the road as to which way loyalties lie for Alyssa when put to the test...
if you guys didn’t think I was gonna write a little steddie something-something inspired by the new fob song, you were wrong. it won’t be for a couple weeks but oh my god.
We were a hammer to the Statue of David. We were a painting you could never frame and you were the sunshine of my lifetime. What would you trade the pain for?
I need to finish Mortimer’s page because I haven’t added to his old bio the stuff about how he was turned into a vampire.
For those of you who have been following me for years, I will now only be writing Mortimer as a vampire. I might potentially do stuff set before he was turned, but now his main standard verse he is a vampire. I’m also not going to really set a time frame for his main verse, but anywhere between 1860s and present day will work. I’m super flexible with other people’s verses and AUs, so literally just tell me what setting you want and I can find a way to put him in there.
With that being said, however....
Here are some things about Mortimer’s particular flavour of vampirism (CW for body horror/gore):
The only thing that happens to him in sunlight is that he gets weak and sick. He got pretty use to feeling miserable before being turned, so you will readily see him out during daylight hour, though he does do his best to protect himself from direct sunlight.
Heat, especially when mixed with high humidity, also makes him ill. Though he cannot actually rot away, his body will start to undergo some of the signs of decomposition -- he will begin to cough up dark-coloured, foul smelling purge which if left to progress will also start running from his nose and eyes, his skin will start to turn grey then green, and in the most severe cases he will experience some skin slippage. He will experience a little bloat in the beginning, but he much more quickly emaciates.
When underfed or sick from heat, his hair will get greyer and and sparser, and he will overall appear to advance in physical age. This happens much more quickly in the latter than the former.
With that all being said, if you put him somewhere dark and cold and get him something to eat, he’ll be good as new.
Mortimer really does not like to hunt and will try to go as long as possible without feeding. He can eat “people food”, but besides the pleasure of taste it really doesn’t do anything for him. Eating rare to raw red and organ meat can help him stretch out feedings a little longer, but not by much.
He cannot turn himself into an animal, but he can turn himself into 2D shadow. (He casts no actual shadow of his own.) This often occurs when he is particularly anxious and put out of sorts. Initially he was unable to control this ability -- one second he would be anxiously standing there and then poof just blinks out of existence. Is that the “Hat Man” or other shadow person in the corner? No, it’s just Mort. However, he has learned to be able to control this ability and use it at will.
He does not like traveling over running water. He will try to avoid it if he can, but if he is forced to, it makes him horrendously uncomfortable, like the type of crushing anxiety that makes you feel like someone is literally tying your stomach into knots and there is an entire anvil on your body. Again, he is pretty good at keeping a straight face when uncomfortable or upset, but he can only keep this up for short spurts like traveling over small bridges.