#idr how to tag

[guroseinsei]

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better.

*

ohh i havent done these in a while but i love 'em. tagged by @rinn-e <3!

Three ships: ,, that's tough. but currently feral and diving into: AskeFinn (Vinland Saga); KakuHida (Naruto); Snarry (Harry Potter)

First ever ship: Kagome/Inuyasha was my first ship. My first yaoi ship however was Kakashi/Naruto.

Last song /album: Last song i listened to today was Painkiller by Three Days Of Grace👌. Banger, banger song!!!

Last movie: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I haven't had much time to pick out a movie to watch,, I'm mostly catching up with series rn. But that movie was great, i love it, the songs, the plot and most of all it have me a great new ship (Namor/Shuri)

Currently reading: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I have unfortunately become an extremely slow reader with novels... so I'm only past page 55 lol. But I read one of her other books "The Night Circus" an year or so ago and I absolutely loved it - it is on the list of "my favorite books". If you're a fan of fantasy, angst and a bit romance thrown in then yeah, it's pretty great! And her writing style is absolutely beautiful!

Currently watching: I'm watching three series at once... it depends on my mood lmfao: "The Alienist" (rewatching this, I love it sm. Psychological, mystery, crime, 1800s era), "The Last of Us" (I need to catch up, I'm on ep 7 or 8? But I am loving it and crying) and "Chocolate" (K-drama i fell in love with in 2020 that kinda became my comfort show. I watch it whenever the days are tough sksks)

Currently consuming: Water, lmfao. Remember to hydrate!!! (as a friend of mine would say)

Currently craving: Sleep, more time to write fic and draw too, does food count too? cause i'm craving halwa rn (a sweet confectionery)

Tagging: @itshomobirb @sleepyviri @cinnamon-roll-is-sleepy @bombom-666 @thebeingofeverything @queen-of-the-nerdlords @fairyceridwen @thetiredintp @disasteroulik (sksks idk if you guys still do these either lmfao, feel free not to do it <3)

[rowdyrhapsody]

Holy fuck I miss him

[ingoodjesst]

one thing i really like about the apothecary diaries is how fluidly maomao moves between high- and low-class society, between the rear palace and the pleasure district, allowing us to see the parallels in the power dynamics. in both settings, we see women trying to make the most of their relative stations with whatever tools available to them, which are often shared. much of the politics of the series centers women and the ways they try to navigate the world through seduction, marriage, beauty, fashion, manipulation, etc, because these are the things they're valued for. their appearance, their social graces, their "purity", their marriageability, their ability to bear children, and beyond - these all lend political, economic, and social leverage to themselves and their families regardless of class.

the mystery angle in particular enables the story to closely examine what tools and motives are available to women in the apothecary diaries in a way that's contextualized and humanized. it's also how the series highlights said women operating with a keen awareness of society's expectations and systems. whether that's applying deathly white powder to maintain impractical beauty standards, faking illnesses to deter certain visitors, using parlor tricks to subtly punish callous men, or wearing ostentatious outfits to hide a certain truth, each mystery we encounter reveals more about what it means to navigate the world of the apothecary diaries as a woman in addition to revealing their cleverness (or lack thereof) in doing so.

maomao is no exception to the rule, often weighing similar questions of propriety and power before she acts - although she does engage from a unique position. she's a literate woman from the lower class with special circumstances surrounding her birth, versed as an apothecary, and favored by highly ranked members of the court. this, plus her marked lack of ambition beyond medicine, gives her a lot of mobility between and (relatively) unbiased insight into both the high- and low-ranked parts of society. in turn, we readers are given a fantastic protagonist to explore what i consider a core draw of the series: seeing how maomao chooses to move through the world, highly conscious of her own social positioning as well as that of all the other women around her

[harpuiaa]

(person that has never seen saw but has read yugioh voice) yeah? so he traps people in evil puzzle rooms? sounds a lot like a guy i know

[akiacia]

maggie scenes for fun 🤣

[dameaylins]

EMMA (2020) dir. Autumn de Wilde

[jacksoldsideblog]

study 4

[nitroish]

holy shit cloud au vessel just dropped !!! and some psyche stuff win-win

[mintypsii]

one piece x steven universe au where instead of being a crystal gem, luffy is sort of a rogue who flies around in a spaceship adventuring through space and making/recruiting friends on different planets and gem colonies, he was inspired by earthlings and now he wants to live freely without the constraints of gem roles and expectations (tagging this with #gem piece)

[junuve]

does anyone else interpret Chell jumping at Wheatley in the beginning of portal 2 as her trying (and failing from grogginess) to grab Wheatley? like one of the last big things she did was jump up and grab orbs off of GLaDOS to defeat her. i think Chell's natural reaction to seeing an orb is to grab it and burn it. Wheatley was very lucky that there were no operable incinerators around when Chell was carrying him. she would've dropped him into the intelligence incinerator without even a second thought, mark my words

[geoledgy]

"Empty streets and stolen cars

Sleeping under desert stars

It reminds me of you

Everything reminds me of you."

- Teenagers (The Summer Set ft. Against the Current)

[lilies-of-the-fields]

Stand in solidarity with the Miccosukee:

Big Cypress Preserve is part of the Everglades, one of the largest remaining tracts of wetlands on Turtle Island (North America).

The Miccosukee Tribe have lived there since time immemorial and their care for their home has shaped it into the beautiful swamp we know today.

The National Parks Service is trying to rush a change in Big Cypress' designation from a Preserve to a Wilderness area. [plain text: The National Parks Service is trying to rush a change in Big Cypress' designation from a Preserve to a Wilderness area.]

This would give the area stronger protections for water quality, but would significantly limit the Tribe's access to their homelands and completely ignores how their stewardship of the lands and waters was and is crucial in maintaining the health of ecosystems.

There hasn't been a good faith effort to include the Miccosukee in a meaningful way (ie free informed prior consent & input!!!) on this change to their sovereign territory.

If you want to practice allyship, here's a chance. Sign the petition to show your support / solidarity with the Miccosukee. [plain text: Sign the petition to show your support / solidarity with the Miccosukee.]

Personalize it even just a little, even if it's just adding your own name or hometown. If you're able, print it out sign it and mail it. The Tribe and organizers working on this have a goal of getting 500 letters to the NPS/Secretary of the Interior. The online petition is almost at its goal! Just over 2,000 signatures left (as of Mar.16th 2024 21:30EST).

Please please share! I have it on good word that the NPS is trying to push this through before folks really have a chance to hear about what they're doing or make a fuss. So make a fuss we must.

The mailing addresses are below the cut for anyone who can send a physical letter!

Mail to:

Charles F. "Chuck" Sams III, Director

National Park Service 1849 C Street NW Washington, DC 20240

Secretary Deb Haaland

Department of the Interior 1849 C Street, N.W. Washington DC 20240

[giddlygoat]

[beats on skillet] SODA POPPER POSTING! COME GET YALL SLOP! [singular lonesome tumbleweed drifts past the painfully vacant scene]

[carlpalmer]

mike rutherford - 1973 bataclan interview (source)

[atopvisenyashill]

AU where instead of having a dead ladies club we have a dead dudes club: Aerys dies in Summerhal and Rhaella eventually becomes Queen regent for her son. Joanna, Minisa and Lyarra live while their husbands Tywin, Hoster, and Rickard don't. And Cassana survives the shipwreck along with patchface.

me seeing this ask:

anyways, let's first establish how each man dies.

Aerys - like you said, just killing him at Summerhall is easiest.

Tywin - if we kill him during the Reyne/Tarbeck revolt, it butterflies away all the Lannister kids so we'll have it be that something goes horrifically bad during the Defiance of Duskendale and he dies there.

Steffon - Cassana washes up on shore with Patchface in 278.

Hoster - this one's a bit tricky because in order to die before Robert's Rebellion kicks off, something Weird and Tragic has to happen to him during a time period that is more or less chill in the riverlands. He does fight in the War of the Ninepenny Kings but that happens in 260 and Edmure likely isn't born until 267. We could say he dies in the Greyjoy Rebellions, but that's after Robert's Rebellion by a few years. We'll just invent a sickness or accident that kills him, instead of Minisa dying in childbirth lol. if it makes the plot more interesting for him to die during the Greyjoy Rebellions though, tbh, that's probably also fine, but I do think having only one (1) parent at Riverrun is important to how the kids develop.

Rickard - this one is similarly difficult. we could just have him die when he does die, and just say that Lyarra didn't die.

anyways, let's dig into what this changes right off the bat, sort of set the scene here-

Rhaella is like 13-14 when Summerhall happens, and then like 15-16 I think when Jaehaerys II dies, so not only is she a very young Queen, she's likely to remarry. Since she's not even at the age of majority yet (jfc), I think if we assume she's regent, it means she allied with Aerys' friends to oust Jaehaerys II's small council - so Tywin is for sure still Hand, and ruling the entire realm in all but name. I do imagine that not only is Steffon very close at court as well, but Cassana becomes close to Rhaella.

Rhaegar won't be allowed to wait until he's like 21 to marry, they will be looking at marriages when he's like 12-13 and likely intend for him to get married right away at like 15-16 and consummate, because he's the only male heir.

Edmure becomes Lord of Riverrun very young, Minisa as his regent. I think given that Minisa will be regent, Catelyn still has a lot of parentification stuff happening here, but I do think it's more likely she notices the crushes going on between Lysa, Cat, and Petyr.

Robert still becomes Lord of Storm's End - he's 15 when Steffon dies, which is plenty old to take up his seat. However, with his mother still around, Stannis and Renly have a parental influence at least.

alright let's go event by event here:

262 AC: Jaehaerys II dies and little three year old Rhaegar Targaryen is crowned King. Though there is an initial push by Edgar Sloane and Jaehaerys' small council to establish one of their own as Regent and Hand of the King, Queen Rhaella is successful in ousting her father's men in favor of her own - mostly the husbands, brothers, or cousins of her ladies. This includes, of course, the impressive and young Tywin Lannister as Hand, probably Steffon Baratheon, and honestly, it's quite possible here that Lewyn or Loreza's husband is named to the small council as well, given the fact that we know one of Rhaella's ladies was Loreza. Despite being so young, Rhaella is named Regent.

272 AC: A decade with the trio of young Rhaegar, Queen Regent Rhaella, and Hand of the King Tywin has allowed the realm to prosper. Without Aerys pawing at her ladies, Rhaella holds onto several close allies, and neither Tywin nor Joanna spend their days being humiliated at court to curry favor with the king. Rhaella is likely more level headed than Aerys, and isn't overpromising on things and then abandoning her projects soon after. There's likely been a push for her to remarry, if only so Rhaegar's children may have a Valyrian option to marry somewhere down the line? But on the other hand...it might be possible there's some problems at court re: everyone gossiping that if Tywin is the real King, and Rhaella is Queen, are they not...you know....that gets back to Joanna. Not only that, but I can bet there's tensions between Loreza's Dornish faction and Tywin, probably with Steffon in the middle because Tywin is clearly trying to get Rhaegar/Cersei hitched from an early age, Loreza is clearly trying to get Elia/Rhaegar hitched from an early age, and Steffon and Cassana are desperately fucking and having kids in the hopes of having a girl for Rhaegar to marry. We know there was a visit by Rickard during the first ten years, so it's very possible that Lyarra develops a friendship with Rhaella, and that instead of that dumb "i'm going to build another Wall" plan, Rhaella starts encouraging more people to be sent to the Wall.

275 AC: Rhaegar comes of age and takes his position as King without a regent. While I don't doubt he would keep Tywin on, I do think there's going to be tension here - we see this with both Jaehaerys and Aegon III, and even Joffrey really, that the move from child to adult can be a bit rough on the Hand/Regent/King relationship. I think Rhaegar, melancholy as he is, would want to be known as a good king, a kind king, and probably doesn't appreciate Tywin's cruelty. I think it makes a lot of sense that he'd purposefully scorn Tywin specifically for this reason - the same as Alysanne purposefully spurning Rogar's match or the Dragon Twins + Aegon III purposefully spurning the lords for Daenaera. It's about making a statement, it's about power, it's about standing out from the people who are trying to rule through you. I almost think it's likely Rhaegar and Elia still marry here, but it's possible Rhaegar decides to just straight up marry someone who isn't connected at court at all - not a Martell, not a Lannister, but maybe a Hightower or Tyrell. Especially, imo, because of Rhaegar's prophecy obsession - what if he visits Jenny's woods witch on his own? Or what if he visits Oldtown and sees Mad Maid Malora is heavy with magic? Maybe, knowing how often he stays at Summerhall to be an emo fuck, he marries Ashara?

277 AC: The Defiance of Duskendale. I don't know if an 18 year old would be this stupid, it does seem likely that he would just fall into the same trap Aerys did - ie "I want to prove I'm better than my Hand and I'll deal with the issue myself" - but I think Rhaella would be like "absolutely fucking not, you're the fucking KING, and you have no heir/only a baby for an heir, if you don't want Tywin to do it, send someone else then." I think it would be really fun if Rhaella got caught in this trap, Tywin completely botches getting her out and gets himself killed, and Rhaegar just goes "oh fuck that noise" and burns Duskendale to the ground his damn self. It could be an interesting change here that Rhaegar's madness + obsession with the prophecy gets kicked off not by his father's own madness but by the near loss of his mother. Even if Rhaella is mostly fine (she went years being tortured by Aerys, I think she's made of sterner stuff! I can see her being real shaken up for awhile before chilling out), the idea that he could really be The Last Dragon is terrifying. Suddenly, he needs to set this prophecy in motion, he needs to have more dragons, it can't just be himself and his mother.

279 AC: Another blow, just after losing Tywin and nearly losing {his mom? joncon? does he care that much about joncon lmao}, Steffon dies in a storm coming back from the Free Cities. Cassana lives but is quite shaken up by the entire event and retires from court to stay at home with her boys. Another blow happens later in the year, when Loreza dies, and Doran inherits Sunspear.

281 AC: So....now we're at the Tourney of Harrenhal, where shit gets real. Who Rhaegar marries will decide who is on his side here and who has started getting ready for Mad King 2.0 because I do imagine that in the four years since the Duskendale fuck up, a lot of the lords have started whispering. If he marries Elia or Ashara, he still has Dorne on lock. If he marries Malora, that might mean Doran is involved in the Southron Ambitions plot (although then again, he might not be, it's not like anyone thought to involve Doran in the wo5k until way too fucking late anyway). If he risks marrying someone like, completely outside of Westeros, I think something kinda crazy starts cooking at home with every single region having no reason to be loyal to him. Not to mention, if Lyarra is friendly with Rhaella, does he already know Lyanna? Since Hoster and Tywin are both dead here, it probably means Rickard had to reach out to Minisa and and Joanna and I'm really interested in how this goes, politics wise. Is it just Rickard and Minisa (and Jon Arryn) doing Southron Ambitions? Is Cassana getting involved after the loss of Steffon? And what does Rhaegar's small council look like now? Is it packed with Dornishmen and Crownlanders? With Reachers? Does he have some sort of woods witch as his Hand?

SO WHEN RHAEGAR TAKES LYANNA. For one thing, when Brandon gets to KL and starts shouting "COME OUT AND DIE" Rhaella isn't going to respond by burning everyone. I can see her maybe taking them captive because what they're accusing Rhaegar of, when he's the King, is pretty fucking severe but she's not just slaughtering them. She's sending the Kingsguard to go look for him while she holds the Northern faction at KL, and while I do think they'll go and get him, I think Rhaegar is going to say something like "it's fine, she's fine, leave us alone" and the North is gonna get real shitty about this. Brandon might attempt to leave. Lyarra might attempt to find Lyanna herself with a host of Northerners, or maybe with a host of stormlanders, riverlanders, or westermen. The crown has to respond to that, so there's likely to be some skirmishes here. Either Rhaegar is found with Lyanna at the Tower of Joy or Rhaegar finally appears and is like "why is everyone yelling" while everyone demands to know where Lyanna is. If he's cagey, the North and their allies are going to start attacking more boldly. If he says "yeah she's my mistress now, back off, I'm the king" I think everyone is too amped up to give a shit and the North refuses to stand down, which leads to whoever is leading them - Lyarra, maybe Ned - being labelled a traitor to the crown. This is going to domino effect quickly. If he says "yeah she's my wife now, back off, I'm king" he is losing everyone fast as fuck.

Anyways, I kept this kind of general in case you just wanted some like, general outline of what could happen but if you want what EYE think is most interesting, it's a) Rhaella at Duskendale b) Minisa being the one to mastermind Southron Ambitions, although Cassana could be fun as well c) LYARRA STARK REBEL WAR HERO. I think it's likely Rhaegar would try to "she's my mistress/wife" his way out of this but its not fucking happening. all those theories about how "lyanna and rhaegar got valyrian married jon is legitimate" no he's fucking not because no one is going to give a single solitary shit. Bigamy is not allowed in Westeros anymore or Aegon IV would have tried it. if he legitimizes his own kid, it's sort of like, okay great, but he was born a bastard, now Rhaegar is legitimizing his kid just like aegon iv, and everyone is going to see this as a threat. they're going to say he's insane. they're still going to oust him. the question here is - can rhaella, through her friendships with the wives and now leaders of southron ambitions, keep hold long enough so that even if Rhaegar dies, she can get his kid on the throne? Can she make peace with Robert? Or does she have to go on the run, not with her own kids, but with Rhaegar's children?

[marchsage]

one more fight... can you do it, ninth?

yes

a piece for @aimportantdragoncollector and @mcfanely ‘s One for All October