#red dragon story

[cinderoo]

[acquired-stardust]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories Gameboy Color 2000

[cits-cookie-brainrot]

BIG BRAIN TIME!!

The WHOLE red dragon crew is now parents/family to lil baby Snapdragon. The little rascals was just born and is already collecting their found family like Pokémon cards.

Pitaya is their dragon parent.

Hollyberry is the cool mom.

Tarte Tatin is the cooler mom.

Royal Margarine is the funny uncle.

Wildberry is their big brother.

And Buttercream? Well…

[hallowshumour]

BEAST OF THE BAY 🧿🌊🩸⚓️

[m00nyixl]

Happy Lmk s5! I watched it and cried :'D

[ghost-bxrd]

Me, reading the idea that Jason thinks he accidentally kills Dick in the dragon au: WAIT no-

Me, imagining Dick surviving somehow - on a wing and a prayer, and him clawing his way back to Gotham with Nightwing because there's no way he's letting this be the last time he sees his family and brother: wait.

Me, imagining that instead of going home, Dick just drags himself to wherever Jason's kingdom is, confronting him there and seeing just how badly Jason spiraled after thinking he killed his older brother: okay this may be onto something here.

Omg!!! Bonus points if Dick only gets so far in his journey because well meaning commoner recognizes the crown prince and realizes that “shit, if the new tyrant/king/whatever went crazy because of this dude, maybe getting him back will do the reverse thing? And stop him feeding people to Red?”

[sorrcha]

warmup drawing i like enough to put here- a complete redesign of one of my ocs, skaldi. she's got an entirely different look and story now.. gonna play her as a resist durge in bg3 ^w^

[druidonity2]

Jaina of the blue flight and Varian of the black flight

[cairafea]

stupid dungeon meshi au where laios is an unexplainable eldritch monster thing that constantly eats anything he can get his hands on. everyone in the party treats him like a slightly disorderly raccoon. everyone outside the party gets a fastpass to heaven from just seeing him.

[lotusliasart]

I don't know what happened but I fell into the Evka/Antoine pit overnight after rereading parts of Tevinter Nights, and there's only a handful of things when I search for them so I'm adding to that pile myself!!

They've appeared multiple times in short stories and even the comics so I'm just waiting for DA4 stuff like "👀". Bioware pls give us the cute Wardens (preferably alive and well shjhfg but I'm expecting them to hurt me emotionally anyway bc this is DA after all, and there's been so much foreshadowing ;;v;;)

(Lineart below)

[andrewknightley]

da2 love interests getting a lil red decoration when they are with hawke really peaked like uuuugh is such a tiny detail but its SO GOOD!!!!

[marwyn]

HOTD 1.01 | The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black | “The Bloody Chamber” by Angela Carter

[alexissara]

Sapphic Games List Summer 2024

Welcome to the Upcoming Sapphic Games List Summer 2024. This is a series where I the divine goddess of the lesbians grace the video game information I painstakingly researched onto you my humble sapphic audience. This is not a review series or a series of pitches but a best guess series with some amount of impressions and details to give you an idea of games you might get to see yourself represented in if your a person who wants sapphic romance in their life. These are upcoming games so I really can’t promise their quality, the details, and even games with clear cut queer romance could idk pull a shocking homophobic ending or something so remember this is based just on trailers, demos, previews, interviews, and me asking questions to developers. These games are still in development, things can change and some of these are just strong guess although I try to make my reasoning make sense or put it in high probability rather than any other section.  You can check out the last two ones I did of these here and here.

I am making this before whatever Nintendo Direct in June happens, I attempted to wait it out but they hadn’t announced it by the 14th so I decided to simply wrap up this article. To that end I may do a quick extra addition with a few more games as I keep digging, which I am always doing plus whatever has potential from there if there is anything new. 

It takes a lot of research to make these so if you’d like to send any support at all my way Patreon and Ko-fi are the best ways to help me keep making these while I work on making my own lesbian art for sapphics of all kinds to enjoy badass sapphics. 

Action Lesbians

Nova Hearts 

Nova hearts is a magical girl dating sim RPG. While a bit closer to a Visual Novel then say a persona game Nova Hearts still has solid evolving RPG combat paired with social sim mechanics that grow relationships between your main character and the cast both in the party and outside of it.  It's really cute and you can play the first chapter of the game yourself for free with Nova Hearts: The Spark.

Food Devils 

This might be more of a Make Your Own Gay but given the roster has 3 women and 2 men plus an avatar of your chosen gender it’s pretty hard but I guess possible to make it where the game ends in all MF pairings. That said I have a strong feeling that there will be some degree of canon queerness outside of player choice given the game has chosen to default to the female avatar and the main romance they showcase is her romance with another woman. It's an SRPG with base building and it seems like romances will go beyond the devils too and give the player some options to romance maids and butlers as well thanks to kickstarter goals being met. It seems like it's going to have like an interesting twist on some coz vibes of cooking food and romancing hotties. 

Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection

A remake of an amazing Lesbian Roguelike game is in the works and set to be released probably pretty close to when this goes up. You play as sword Lesbian Tama who is willing to do anything to save Koko who eas tragically killed recently. You gain The Sword Of The Necromancer and use that to revive monsters and fight through the dungeon to gain enough power to revive Koko. 

Sword Of The Necromancer: Revenant

The original intended game from Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection, Revenant adds a man to the fold which, yes boo, tomatoes, tomatoes [or at least it seems to] but it keeps our main two adorable lesbians in the plot after their happy ending and brings them into the fold in this new chaotic story remaining main characters. Spoilers for the above game I guess, the lesbians are unburied in one of the possible endings and this game follows that.  We'll have to see how it ends up working but Tama and Koko both seem to be playable in it and so it seems like you'll just have a little party to use in the plot. 

Abyss  X Zero

This game is getting a gay benefit of the doubt. The creators are queer, their last game is queer, I can assume somehow it'll be baked into the story of A and Z probably them being gay for each other despite them both needing to fight the other.  The games a 3d metroidvania with a super nice art style, some level of customization and two Playable characters. They look great and the game looks great, very cool action and really brimming with style. 

BRIGHT RED SONG OF LOVE

A new game being developed by Lily Valeen, creator of Boss Game. Boss Game was a game about girlfriends being gay and working gigs and fighting monsters so and this game looks gay too, so expect some gay ladies doing some cool stuff. All we have is screenshots and it’s probably like omega early in development but I wanted to mention it because lily Valeen made a really cool game and this is a great reminder to follow her and maybe check out boss game on Steam or on your phone or on Itch.io. 

Crescent County 

You ride on a motorbroom and try to make some cash cuz your broke as fuck. You are a gay witch looking for cute girls, new friends and new rivals, maybe all three at once. It looks really cool and fun and she kisses a girl in the trailer so I know it’s gay. It sounds like you might have several romantic options but it doesn’t seem like optional queerness just romantic options. I didn’t have a queer racing game on my bingo card of types of games I’d update y’all on or see but here we are, so cool, I love it. This seems like it has a queer dev team making a queer story in a new interesting way that I haven’t seen many games do. It sounds like the romance system is pretty neat too the dev mentioned that like you need a bed frame to have a girl over cuz she is going to have more self respect then to fuck you if you just have a matress on on the floor. So like, it sounds like a lot of fun.

Unbeatable 

You are a pink haired girl who beats up cops and is in a rock band and the cast seems to mostly be women, if you are not gay in this game I believe it to be a hate crime and I will fight the developers. The game looks incredibly cool and the stunning hand drawn animation is just great. It is a kinda rhythm game I think in a setting where music is illegal and you love doing crime. I’m sold on this game I just need it to be gay, that’s it. I’ve bought it in my heart already but make it gay please, please, please.  Also it looks like it’s tagged as LGBT+ so you know, it’s possible, I believe, I chose to believe. It looks too good to not be gay. 

Make your own Gay

Demonschool 

In This game you do tactical combat against a flurry of demons and build relationships with other characters. I had romances confirmed and well the trailer shows our main protagonist reaching for another woman’s hands. I also had confirmed there is some side stuff that isn’t the main character Faye with someone so there may be some canon sapphic stuff that isn’t just player directed and optional. This is a tactical RPG with shin megami tensei flare but doesn’t play like any other SRPG I’ve played even SMTs own SRPG, Devil Survivor. This game is heavily focused on unit placement and doing things in really tight deadlines. I hope they have an easy mode or something in the full release because I utterly love the social sim elements here and would love a bit more room to fuck up. On the sapphic end the roster seems to have tons of cute girls even outside of the probably intended to be canon romance girl there is a haughty rich girl who seems like a perfect enemies to lovers arc and a cool delinquent girl, there is a lot of range for a lot of dynamics but we’ll have to see how all of those systems work on release. 

Long Story 2

A very kid friendly visual novel type experience. It’s cute, it’s sweet, it’s simple and it’s the kind of soft story you can get excited about if you just want something wholesome to enjoy. You really Get to craft your story so it's very craft it yourself. 

Moonlight Peaks 

We really do not have a ton of details but it’s likely to release in 2026 since that’s when they said it would and have have a pretty strong publisher in Marvlous behind it. This is one of the most exciting farming sims I've seen. You play as a vampire and unlock new vampiric powers over time. It looks as if there will be 7 women who are different kinds of super natural for you to romance in this. Also an interesting talked about feature is the werewolf romance options might shift in personality a little on a full moon and stuff like that which makes for a neat way to push for a different vibe in a farming sims cast.

Monster Prom 4: Monster Con

The 4th game in the monster prom series, the potentially PVP dating sim is back at it again with more goofs, new monsters to fawn over and a new setting.  If you're fiending for more Monster Prom, Camp or Road Trip then you already are gonna be grabbing this but if you're new to hearing about this series or finally wanting to check it out because one of the characters designs it’ll be an exciting jumping on point. Romances are player focused, characters themselves though are canon queer sometimes having same gender exes and stuff. We have a canon queer trans woman as one of the main love interests this time so that is really excited and also a really cool set of two new women. If you come with a full party of lesbians as it stands you’ll have to fight over at least one girl given there is only 3 women to romance and 3 men but if your playing 3 players you can each aim for a different girl in a run if you want to avoid PVPing or simply play in single player for a chiller romance comedy vibe. This is a really silly game series that is all about the bits but there is a lot of good stuff even outside of the comedy. 

Arcadia Fallen II

Arcadia Fallen 2 is the follow up to Arcadia Fallen. The first game let you be sapphic and this game probably will also let you be sapphic as well. I think it’s a safe bet, they say there will be 3 body type so probably the typical choice of He/She/They pronouns with a chose whatever body suits you best choice. This should be a choose your own adventure style visual novel with a magical setting and while I haven’t played the first yet, I am keeping my eyes on this one’s kickstarter to see where it goes. The artstyle is gorgeous and it’s always nice to see artists from across the world making games where you can be sapphic, in this case some awesome Danish devs. 

Sensei! I Like You So Much!

This game bills itself as a fangirl simulator where you create your own favorite characters and geek out with fellow fans, take commissions and gather in community with others. My vine is this game will have no romance however, I feel compelled to bring it here because I mean you can be really into a lesbian ship and geek out with other women who are really into a lesbian ship or so it seems from the trailer. Obviously, like any of these I only have whatever the devs have said and whatever I see in trailers, screen shots, etc to go off of but it looked like you could make a girl and it looks like in the trailer they made yaoi so I am gonna guess you can make yuri. So, here we go, it’s sapphic but like, different than other sapphic games, probably, I’d personally be way more into romancing a fellow fan of something than a lot of other concepts for a dating sim so I’d love to be wrong and there is some secret dating sim element. 

Reanimation Scheme

It’s an Otome visual novel where you can date four men but also there is one sapphic wrote. I hate these kind of gender rations but hey, this exist, it’s upcoming, you should know about it, maybe it’s written super good. The art style is solid and if you like the design of the exactly one woman you can date in the game you can prep for some sapphic fun even if a lot of your time in the game will be interacting with men, You play as a Necromancer which is always really cool and ya, enjoy. 

The Crush House This is a reality show managing sim with a spooky mystery. It’s like putting you managing the sims lives in context where you try and push people to behave particular ways based on audience demands and what you feel like. You can make women be gay with each other and even run a show for Girls for Girls audiences and stuff so there is a lot cooking here for a silly and strange little game. 

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Dragon Age, a little known indie series from abusive publisher EA from Abusive company Bioware now potentially hanging onto it’s last chance for life with a brand new game. Dragon Age is a fantasy roleplaying game where the people who look like lesbians are straight and the people who look straight are lesbians at least that’s the classic Bioware flavor.  This time though, unlike these other games, an actual queer woman is the director [after like 4 directors left] and she seems like a really cool person with good taste so I want her to be successful and for this game to not crash Bioware into the dirt like so many other studios under EA. You’ll likely be able to make a character of one of two genders and have them fill a role in this plot.  We know that every character will be pansexual in the game meaning you’ll be able to romance anyone and if you don’t romance characters they will romance each other. 

Grave Seasons 

Like farming sims, like murder mysteries, want to make sweet sweet passionate kissy faces with a murderer? Then Grave Seasons might be the game for you. You do typical farming sim stuff but a randomly generated one of the NPCs that are romanceable. You need to figure out the mystery, if the hottie you're making heart eyes at is the killer and if they are what you wanna do about it. If it’s not you might want to find the killer and fast lest your cutie get taken out too. At least that’s what it sounds like to me. There should be several women you can romance and it seems like a fun game to replay and a farming sim that puts the romance at the front even for people who want to be efficient because well you don’t want a bunch of people dying do you [unless you do]. 

Freeride

So this one is really making your own gay cuz I do not think they gender proto and proto is just supposed to be a stand in for you but I flirted with a cool looking bunny girl in the demo and she seemed to be into the conductor who was a demon girl so like maybe it'll even be explicitly represented in this. It's hard to know with so few details but you can gift people stuff and everything.  It's a physics based game mostly focused on choices and doing a secret personality test on you. 

Fable 

It looks like this Fable game just has you play as a woman, like I am just taking precedent here to say that romance to some extent will exist and you can in fact marry women. It be weird if you couldn’t so I’ll say that is very likely here. If you like RPGs with big budgets then this might be the one, it doesn’t seem to be as silly as some of the previous games but they weren’t always going for silly so I think the tone seems just about right. 

Narrative Games 

Cage of Roses

Lesbian vampires are always a good time. It's a visual about some lesbian vampires. You're in by the art style and visual novel or you're not. It sounds exciting to me. 

Rainbow Valley 

A game from yuri game developer and publisher Studio Elan. This is a collaboration with a monster high focused YouTuber and you can see the Monster High inspirations in the designs. I imagine this is really going to capture the vibes adult fans of monster high really have been wanting to explore while not being locked down by the big company. 

Tithe In Blood 

Another  game from yuri game developer and publisher Studio Elan. This is a darker yuri story about a woman practicing blood magic after the loss of a loved one.The romance and blood magic lead to a lot of deadly twists and turns. 

The Witch's Bakery

The Witch’s Bakery is a game coming to Kickstarter soon that’s about running a cozy bakery and being a little gay witch doing it. This game is coming to kickstarter at some point in the near future at the time of writing. It has a canon romance so I don’t think you’ll be picking who you swoon and instead you’ll get to play out a soft little love story while you bake, run a shop and make friends. 

Lost Records

Life is Strange and Tell Me Why Developers are back with a new game and the first trailer had the main four women of this plot kissing so it’s gay, that’s like locked in it’s not even like Life Is Strange 1 optional gay it’s just gonna be gay. It seems like a nostalgia trip featuring a bunch of sapphic women in the lead and that seems like the most perfect game for Dontnods main audience. 

Cabernet

A gothic vibe lays over this game, it tickles at horror while also not being terrifying, you are the vampire newly created and enter this society. This is another one that might be more of a Make your Own Gay but it’s vampires and that’s inherently gay so I gotta put it here. I had the devs confirm to me that this game will include gay romance and you can have your girl read Carmilla so as far as I am concerned I think her sexuality has a decent shot at being part of the narrative and not just an option. 

Tavern Talk

This is a game inspired by exclusively other queer games in the same style of those queer games, I am gonna say it’s safe to guess this is a soft little queer game that will take you through an interesting narrative perspective all while mostly being behind a bar and making drinks for people. 

Psychroma

This is a horror game with what seems to be a queer non binary protagonist but it may not be all sunny and rainbows, for sure prepare yourself for angst. The protagonist has amnesia and doesn’t remember who seems to be her girlfriend. This is a cyberpunk horror which is shockingly not a super standard combination despite the clear synergy between the two. It has a sapphic energy, it’s always hard to draw the line on a non binary character and if their sapphic or not before you get the context because well that’s a massive umbrella of genders, identities and feelings. Still the vibe test for me passes as sapphic and I am here to tell you about vibes, that’s the point of this series, I have an extremely high success rate and so I will take the shot here. If you're looking for something creepy and queer then this is for sure it even if the sapphic vibes are a false flag. 

Life is strange: Double Exposure

IDK if they’ll make Max and Chloe canon here or how they will right around it but also like the game studio making this game has a bunch of like allegations against them so I don’t particularly care too much. I do want to find out so I will look around for details but ya know I mentioned Lost Records earlier maybe look to that one instead if these come out around the same time at least. Otherwise, idk you do dialog and stuff in this one and mess with timelines. It does look like Chloe is dead so, you could go to your local library and read Life Is Strange: After The Storm for free instead, a possible suggestion too. 

Love Ghostie

Your a lil ghostie and you play match maker and you can make little sapphic pairings so, ya you can make sapphic stuff happen in this game and it’s like part of the point. It’s a very adorable game with very adorable little monsters and looks to be a great game to cuddle up and just live your best shipping life. 

Sigh of the Abyss Sigh of the Abyss is doing something really cool in the visual novel space and it’s bringing a feature I’ve wanted in games with mix gender romance for a long time to the table. You can in your options at any time say your looking to romance Men, Men and Women, Women or no one. In the game you play as a woman and the game defaults you to being bisexual but you can actually have it where the game simply does not have men push romance on you which is such a relief because it’s one of the world part of mix gendered dating games for me is being here for the women but having to be flirted with by every man and never able to say “Hey, I’m a lesbian.”  How deep these options will go I am not sure but it was really swift in easy in the demo. If you're looking for some dark fantasy story telling this seems like an exciting place to go for a story. 

High Potential 

Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2

I mean it’s got vampires and roleplaying like probably. Maybe it'll be too uptight and serious but we'll see what it's like. 

Sorry We're Closed

The games listed as LGBT and the main characters on the art and stuff are women so pretty clear. It’s a horror adventure and it seems really aesthetically unique, I think this is one to keep your eyes on it might just be a big new thing.

RPG Maker WITH

I mean it just depends on if people make a sapphic game in it and share it. It's like a game about making games. There's a good chance someone will want to make Yuri but also I wouldn't expect it near launch.

Ra Ra Boom

There is a vibe here, it's a beat um up which is a kind of game not famous for it's story but idk the vibe tells me these super cheerleaders are gay.  That’s all I got to say really, it looks fun and if it’s gay bonus points to me.

Fighting Games

So Fighting games are hard to cover on this because fighting game devs are cowards an also don't make their narratives compelling and their mostly about men with women relegated to the sides. I love fighting games though and I don't want to ignore them so I put just a general pin on potential sapphic characters dropping in 2024. Like Skullgirls recently added Marie who has some queer coding with Peacock and she's like a main villain so there's stuff. Guilty Gear Has a season 4 coming out which could add a story expansion and idk confirm Bridget is a lesbian. Granblue's next characters are likely datamined but there is a chance of a suprise appearance and many likely candidates are sapphic characters. Plus a new game might come out, maybe Diesel Legacy will have the cool mobster girl be a lesbian, we just won't know util stuff comes out. 

gillford academy 

This is an rpg putting a lot of emphasis on your choices mattering with characters. The characters are pretty young but there is a chance they might be sapphic at least in a if player chooses the right choices way. 

Mixtape

I think I saw a gay moment in this trailer. It's like 90s nostalgia the game, I have no idea how it’s supposed to play. I assume it's kinda standard narrative 3D gameplay  which I think is always a pleasant time.  I don’t know a ton about this game but I am keeping my eyes on it in the future that’s for sure. 

---

If you enjoyed this post and want to help me do the level of research I put into these please, please, please consider funding me on Patreon or giving me a one time donation over on Ko-fi. I am a writer for a living so that means being professionally poor and any bit of money really helps so much. Every dollar helps me make new sapphic art myself from making TTRPGs to working on my own game project and lots more. If you don’t have cash following me, sharing, etc is always lovely and I love nice comments. 

There should be more of these in the future. I couldn’t fit every single game I saw with potential or even straight up confirmed into here so I am hoping to make this more regular maybe even pivot to video and do game by game chats or something. We'll see what the future holds but I hope you found at least one new game to look forward to.

[mothscotch]

i think khezus should get more appreciation

[kingsanddragonsandgods]

a/n: this is just the story preface, not yet chapter one. for this fanfic i am keeping mostly the book timeline, but there will be a little bit of show timeline further ahead.

it is a AU which blends aspects of book and show canons but is also a lot of headcanons. i am a bit of a history nerd, so there is bits inspired by real life historical events, i also drawn a lot of inspiration from medieval/renaissence royal courts to write how i imagine life at the Red Keep would be, most numbers i will use in this story are also taken from history (noble households, courtiers, armies, ships and crews etc), as are titles for functions an jobs that are not shown on the show or books. There are a couple of Original Characters that are going to be introduced over time, and a few canon characters that are barely mentioned or not seen at all on the show. additional information: I chose to keep the show's 'ages' for some characters, so, for the sake of the story: Viserys was born in 70 AC, Daemon in 74 AC, Rhaenys in 67 AC, and Aemma and Rhea share the year 76 AC.

word count: 2802

warnings: none for this chapter

“...Princess of Runestone, proved herself in her maiden voyage crossing of the Narrow Sea, six pirate ships gave chase as we crossed through the Stepstones, their inferior ships however were no match for our girl or to our brave crew. We had already sunk three carracks when they choose to surrender the remaining three after sighting Archonei descending upon them. We lock the surviving pirates in the holding cells, and seize their cargo, to my great surprise I was able to ascertain that the cargo on the ships once belonged to none other than the Sea Snake.”  Enya reads aloud the letter she received from Ser Orys, her half-brother, coming all the way from Lys, the first stop on his great voyage. “We intend to sell the cargo in Lys, Maester Aldus believes it will yield a great profit, at least 20-times Mother’s initial investment, it seems almost unbelievable that we are only on the first leg of the journey. Gods willing, my next letter home shall be sent from old Volantis. Tell Mother I miss her advice and our morning rides, as I miss your sweet face, and our daily flights. Send my love to everyone home and make sure that young Willam is dedicating himself to his training. Your loving brother, Ser Orys Stone…”  Her granddaughter finishes reading her the letter, folding it carefully and putting it inside the hard cover of the book she has next to her on the wheelhouse seat.

How the girl manages to read in the bouncing carriage is something that marvels her, she feels nauseous just watching it.

Elys would have much preferred to have made the journey by ship, but the early spring storms that plague the East Coast they didn't allow them to leave the safety of the harbour.

The lady wouldn't be making the trip if she could help it, she had just come out of mourning period for her dear husband, all she wanted was to be able to take the time to visit her daughters and spend time with her grandchildren before returning to Eyrie to resume supervising her niece's upbringing. But the beginning of spring means Visenya's relocation to the royal court in King's Landing, to spend the spring and summer with her father and paternal family.

Last time her granddaughter was at court was four years before the death of the Old King, whom she had served as cupbearer when he still had the mental faculties to attend the Council. She had been just a child then, the king's favourite great-granddaughter.

 Since then, she had blossomed into a stunning beauty, no longer a girl but not yet a woman, striking in that way that only those from the blood of the dragon are.

A beauty worthy of a crown.

A crown she had been promised as a child.

If the gods had been merciful, little Prince Aerion would have survived infancy and today he would be a boy of nearly three and ten, the heir to his father’s throne, betrothed to Visenya by the will of King Jaehaerys. But Aenar died in his cradle, followed by his little brother, Aelor, and two early miscarriages. And her granddaughter lost the her chance at the crown promised to her.

“Do you think Orys can one day surpass the feats of the Sea Snake?” Elys turns her head from the window to look at her granddaughter.

“He might,” Elys candidly admits, “Orys has advantages that Velaryon did not, Archonei being the greatest of them."

Elys had disagreed with her daughter's decision to raise the prince's natural son after the boy's mother died—Orys was, in Elys' opinion, the stain on her daughter's dignity, a bastard child her betrothed fathered on a Royce cousin of lesser consequence, during the feast celebrating the union between Houses Royce and Targaryen—as he grew, the boy proved her wrong in her reservations against him. He was as devoted to Rhea as he was to Visenya, respectfully calling her ‘Mother’ after asking permission to do so, loyal and honourable, dedicating himself to every life opportunity offered by his stepmother.

She would never forget his terror when Visenya's egg hatched in his hands, it was the day he won her over, he had tears in his eyes as he asked Rhea for forgiveness for hatching the dragon as it was not his intention, he went on to say that he had never coveted her sister's egg and that she could have the hatchling. Her daughter just laughed, kissing the boy's head and explaining that the dragon had chosen him.

Jaehaerys was not at all pleased with the accident when Rhea sent a letter informing him of what had happened. Daemon finally took an interest in the dark-haired boy Rowena birthed, flying to the Vale to see the dragon, taking it upon himself to have twenty dragonkeepers sent to Runestones.

“I hope he can accomplish it, for himself and for House Royce." Visenya says looking out the window, pulling back the curtains to get a better look, wrinkling her little nose at the stench that enters the carriage and allowing the curtain to fall closed again. “I had forgotten that the city smells so bad.”

“You better get used to it again." Elys passes a bag of scented salts to the young woman. “Tie it to your wrist, you can smell it when the stench gets too much.”

The slums around the city wall have grown considerably larger than Lady Elys remembered from her last visit so many years before.

People beg with outstretched hands on the road as they see the bronze wheelhouse pass by.

It's a sad sight.

The lady sighs before pulling the small dark wooden chest out from under the bench under Visenya's curious eyes. She takes out a heavy bag of coins and pushes the chest back with her foot, hiding it with her skirt. She signals with her hand for any of the knights escorting them to approach the window. Willam Royce, her nephew by marriage, Gunthor’s youngest boy, and Leofric Corbray squire, is the one to come to her.

She contains a smile as she sees the boy blush when he notices Visenya's curious gaze on him.

It's no secret that the boy is sweet on little Enya—just like half the boys of similar age in Runestone—in another life he would be a good match for the future Lady of Runestone, Willam is handsome, with dark curls and blue eyes, and will probably grow up to be a tall, handsome man, and appease everyone in the family that the next heir would retain the surname Royce without the need for major manoeuvres.

“Lady Aunt." He greets her with a nod, keeping his horse's gallop in sync with the carriage. “My princess.”

Visenya just smiles at him, looking at him from beneath her lashes, which only makes him blush more.

“Willam, my sweet, be a dear and hand out these coins to the people." She passes the heavy bag into his hand.

The squire just nods again, looking once more at the Targaryen princess before doing as his aunt asked of him.

Once he is away and the curtain is closed again, Elys lets out the laugh she forced herself to hold in, lightly slapping her granddaughter's knee in reprimand.

“Shameless flirt!” The Dowager Lady of Runestone pointed her finger at the girl.

“I have to train for court life, don't I?" Visenya says with a naughty tone. “I'm of marriageable age, I have to charm all the beautiful second sons, have them all at my feet asking for my hand, there is no better opportunity than during a season at court.”

A beauty of beauties in all the Seven Kingdoms, if not in all the Known World.

Visenya is slender, nymph-like of body, with very pale white skin dotted with golden freckles—the only inheritance from Rhea in her appearance—, plump lips and pretty pearly teeth, a neat nose, and large eyes of an unusual bluish-lilac shade. Her hair is a beautiful flaxen, a few shades lighter than Elys own, curled and long—she's not sure her granddaughter's hair was ever cut more than a little trim at the ends—now ribboned for practicality during the travel.

Elys remembers vividly the Good Queen Alysanne carrying the baby in her arms during her anointment commenting that little Visenya reminded her of Viserra, the most beautiful of her daughters, in appearance.

“Be careful child, you don't want a reputation, especially in the Red Keep."

“I can be discreet." The girl winks at her grandmother amid giggles.

The wheelhouse takes a while to cross the city from Dragon's Gate to the Red Keep, the guards escorting it thought it better to go around Fleabottom than through it. Especially with the four glitzy wheelhouses carrying the noblewomen and their ladies-in-waiting, and the wagons with their belongings coming right behind, with things that attract the attention of the wrong kind of people.

Their retinue arrives at the Red Keep midday.

There is quite a crowd waiting to receive them. The standard-bearers stop between the carriage and the people waiting, proudly carrying the banners of Houses Targaryen, Royce and Arryn, and the Princess of Runestone personal crest: a pearlescent white dragon with the halved shield with the crests of Royce and Arryn between its claws in a black field with bronze runes around the border.

“Princess Visenya of House Targaryen, heir of Runestone.” The Herald announces her granddaughter, as a guard opens the wheelhouse door for them. “Her Lady Grandmother, Lady Elys of House Arryn, Dowager Lady of Runestone.”

Elys arranges the balzo on top of Visenya's head and centres the small jewel on her forehead, pinching her cheek for a healthy blush before the girl pushes back the linen curtain and leaves with the assistance of a Kingsguard guard.

The lady fixes her own skirt before leaving the wheelhouse behind her granddaughter.

The first person she notices is the Queen, her younger sister, in the light blue silks of her paternal House.

A chill runs down her spine as she looks at her sister.

Despite her Targaryen blood through her mother, Princess Daella, in appearance Aemma is an Arryn, with pale sandy hair, an aquiline nose and light blue eyes. Aemma is only eight and twenty, a few months older than her Rhea, however, she looks like a woman nearly to Elys own age.

She looks emaciated, haggard…sick. The Stranger follows her closely. Her youngest sister would not survive a full-term pregnancy and childbirth, it surprised Elys even that she had lived until this moment, with so many failed pregnancies and increasingly long and painful periods of recovery.

Beside her, giving her his arm for support, is Viserys, the King of the Seven Kingdoms, dressed in silk damask of gold and Tyrosh-purple, his grandfather’s crown upon his brow, looking more youthful and healthier than his younger wife. His silver-gold hair is kept short, following southern fashion which has a great Andal influence, he also sports a silver-gold moustache, so thin and pale it almost disappears on his face.

He is a handsome man, but pales in comparison to his dashing younger brother, especially when the two are side by side.

“Your Graces.” Visenya makes a perfect curtsy to the King and Queen and stands as if the castle belongs to her.

The couple is smiling at the young woman with indulgence.

“You have grown beautiful Visenya.” The king says, his eyes fixed on his niece.

Elys recognizes the expression on his face.

Like any woman who was once young and desired, she recognizes the almost obscene expression when older men look at women young enough to be their daughters and imagine themselves as young as their sons.

 The look on a man's face when he lusts after a woman old enough to be his daughter, and who he knows he shouldn't desire.

“Thank you, Your Grace."

“Just stating the truth my dear." In a gallant gesture, the king kisses his niece's hand.

“Brother, stop holding up the line!” The prince’s impatient voice interrupts, causing the King to take his covetous eyes away from his young niece.

Prince Daemon is a tall man, only a few centimetres shorter than his older brother, he keeps his silvery hair long, following the fashion of Old Valyria.

Unlike Viserys's ostentatious clothes, Elys good son is dressed in all black leather, well cut and elegant, but infinitely more subtle than the rest of the court. He carries Dark Sister around his waist, and his only ornament is the livery collar that marks him. as a member of the Small Council and Master of Coin.

Visenya smiles and turns to her father making a new curtsy. “Lord Father.”

“Little dragoness.” There is a smile on the prince's face, he has his hands on his only daughter's shoulders, despite being considered a tall young woman, Visenya looks small next to her father. He puts his forehead to hers, saying something that only she hears, and then kisses her cheek.

“Sister." Elys takes her eyes off the reunion between father and daughter and approaches her sister with her hand outstretched.

“My queen." In a gesture of deference, Elys kisses her sister's pale hand and offers a profound curtsy. “Your Grace.” She bows her head to her good brother.

“Lady Elys, it is good to have you at court again." Viserys says amiable. “I am sure your sisters missed you dearly." He looks at Aemma with a smile and at Lady Amanda Redfort born Arryn, standing next to the queen. “Let's give them time to rest from the road, later we shall have a welcome feast.” The king announces to the court members present, taking the queen's hand in his and guiding her into the castle.

Prince Damon follows them, his arm around his daughter's shoulders, and head tilted toward her as they continue their private conversation. One by one the courtiers follow them, even her ladies and her granddaughter's, Elys nods for them to enter, until only Amanda and her remain in the courtyard.

“How bad is she?"

Amanda approaches until the two are face to face, she looks to the side for a moment, making sure there is no one else around.

Her younger sister, like herself, maintains a youthful appearance, even as they have both now seeing past their forty years of age. It comes with their Upcliff blood, their mother died young, not even thirty years old, yet she still had the appearance of a woman half her age.

Amanda inherited her colouring, beautiful red-gold hair, and blueish grey eyes like a stormy sea.  

“The Maestre has already recommended that she not try to get pregnant again after the last miscarriage, she had a difficult time recovering, almost a year," Amanda informs her, there is concern in her eyes “now she is once again with child, and it is taking a toll on her. I don’t believe she will live to see the child.”

“The child will not be born." Lady Elys declares it like a sentence. She can feel it.

 “There is more." Amanda says. “The Small Council has been hinting that he should set her aside, that he should marry a queen who can bear him heirs.” She lowers her tone, tilting her head toward her sister. “There are rumours that His Grace had a bastard boy with a courtesan, and he might be discreet, but I know for sure that there are mistresses.”

“Does Aemma knows?”

“I believe so.” She nods. “They are, however, ladies of little consequence, barely noble, daughters of second and third sons, some not even that, daughters of knights and rich merchants,” Amanda explains, “His Grace has a king’s an appetite and a queen constantly bedridden who clearly does not meet his needs.”

“Hm.” It's the only reaction Elys gives.

A tale old as time, men will be men, even the best of them.

Viserys may be gentle and amiable, but he was always a man of appetites, and pious Aemma was never an ardent lover.

Elys blames the Good Queen for her precocious marriage and sheltered upbring, Aemma was just a girl, still playing with dolls.

The marriage was not consummated before her four and tenth nameday, and until then Viserys would entertain himself with whores and courtesans usually in the company of his brother and half a dozen favourites.

“We shall have to stay alert to whom he takes to bed." Elys says, linking her arm with her sister's and directing her into the castle.

“What happens if she dies or is put aside?"

Then perhaps Visenya will have the crown she was promised. And we might yet have a king of our blood on the Iron Throne.

[jzargo]

i just want to see these two old men fight (fane would win)