fuelled by rage and caffeine

Chapter 30 of To Steel, In Which Assumptions Are Made, is up!

And another anon:

I feel like at the age of fifteen, you are old enough to understand that becoming the mistress of or eloping with a married man is hurtful to his wife and children. It is true that you make rash decisions at that age and obviously Rhaegar is mostly to blame, but obviously Lyanna was acting selfishly, too. She understands the impact of cheating. It’s why she didn’t want to marry Robert in the first place. Yet she has no problem being with a cheater when it’s something she wants.

I tend to think that Lyanna did think about Elia at least somewhat. My going theory is that her thought process was “Targaryen = two wives = everything should be okay.” Which is naive, but we’re talking about a fifteen-year-old.

Unfortunately, whether or not Lyanna thought about Elia, that doesn’t change the fundamental problem here - Lyanna’s society seriously limits her options and forces this tradeoff between her wellbeing and Elia’s. We know Lyanna was opposed to marrying Robert. What can she do, here? Shit, man, I don’t know what I’d pick, if I thought my choice was between marrying someone I don’t care for with all the physical, social and legal vulnerabilities that entails, and being the cause of serious embarrassment and potential political strife to someone else.

Elia and her children deserved dignity and security, but of all the people whose actions led directly or indirectly to the stripping of that dignity and security, it’s the teenage girl trying to avoid a forced marriage who gets slammed as selfish and self-centred? I really do think that the forced marriage thing changes the ethics of deciding to get into a relationship with a married person, here! Is Lyanna obliged to resign herself to a sexual relationship with Robert, or to abandon all social and economic security, or risk her father’s wrath, in order to avoid any and all potential harm to Elia? The problem is the system that puts people into impossible situations. It’s profoundly unfair on Lyanna, Elia, and Elia’s children all together, and the one with the most power to prevent harm to any and all of them was Rhaegar. There’s more than one victim here.

1. Mocked me, 

     2. defied me,

             3. threatened me, 

                      4. OFFERED ME A PEACH. 

I thought he was drawing a BLADE!🗡and went for MINE OWN!⚔️. 

Was that his purpose, to make me show fear???

Or was it one of his   p o i n t l e s s    j e s t s  ? 

When he spoke of  H O W  S W E E T  the peach was, did his words have some hidden meaning???

Only Renly could Vex Me So — WiTh a PiEcE oF fRuiT.😒 

He brought his DOOM on himself with his TREASON, but I DID LOVE HIM, Davos🥺. I know that now.😩 

                                                   I swear

Problem: I can’t leave kudos again.

Beginner: This is a second/third/fourth Kudos

Advanced: This is my second/third/fortieth time reading this, I still love it so much. Here are a few new things I noticed. I like the way you personally do x, y, z compared to other authors I’ve read (in this ship/genre/fandom).

Problem: I don’t know what to say :(

Beginner: Just list what you did to read this fic. “I stayed up late reading this”, “I read this on a crowded train”, “this kept me company while sick”. 

Advanced: X,Y,Z parts made me get butterflies, and I had a physical reaction to this part of the story, I squealed outloud when characters did x,y,z. I blushed at this part. I laughed out loud here. Whatever. 

Problem: I’m embarrassed to leave a comment (what if I annoy the author?)

Beginner: Short answer: you won’t EVER annoy the author (unless you’re needlessly mean) But to start, be generic, you don’t have to spill your soul in the comments section. “I liked this” “I enjoyed reading this” “nice fic”.

Advanced: This really meant a lot to me that you wrote this. This is something I feel like I’ve always wanted to read. This fic hit me in all the right places. Etc. 

Problem: I don’t know how to express myself/my experience