more or less

Silk ~part iv

summary:

The pub Louisa finds is rowdy; patrons streaming in and out through the open doors and spilling out to the smoking garden. It’s too much– she turns and leaves. Around the corner is a dimly lit spot with a far more manageable atmosphere to drink herself to better spirits. It seems she’s not the only one. The pale hair is hard to miss even in the dark

cartwebb secretary au

> River recieves gifts: dead bugs in the mail. he's like ew wtf disgusting but also intrigued. obv knows who they're from, his peculiar friend. Spider is all yay courtship 🥰🕷🪱 but if pressed to explain he'd laugh it off. "hey, i'm just messing with you, Cartwright"

> they work together for MI5, see each other every day in the office. the attraction is there, but River is shy... Spider picks up on it and teases him bc he's a brat and just here to have a good time.

> something leads to a fight, things get physical and both discover it turns them on. they start doing stuff but it's not a relationship bc they never talk about it (canon btw, relationship in a limbo if you never establish that you're dating...). they don't even need to have sex here, just kinky play and maybe masturbating in separate rooms (as per movie)

> this lasts for a while until river gets scared, the shame of dating a man or finally finding something that fits him sexually but is too emasculating (dom sub play, humiliation etc.) makes river pull away, seemingly ending the relationship. spider is sad :( and pissed! (maybe that's why Stansted happens... or whatever)

> both try to move on. river (or spider) starts dating someone else, a nice healthy relationship without any excitement. one thing quickly leads to another, suddenly he's engaged.

In an interview with BlackGirlNerds for House of the Dragon Season 3, Frankel admitted that he really wanted fans to (again) root for Criston. "Dude. I know, so was I. It was a bit of a turn that I didn’t expect, but you know the writers want to keep me unlikable, man," he said. "They want to keep my career derailed." Co-star Olivia Cooke revealed that Criston did have "different sides" in Season 2, but Frankel explained why fans never saw those scenes. "They got cut. Anytime we try to bring a little bit of humanity to the thing, Ryan [Condal] and Sara [Hess] just want me f***ing really down and dumped," he quipped. [...] "I don't know. I mean, does he have a code? His code’s always changing. It's like one second his code is that he supports Rhaenyra, and his code is honor, and then that code is gone. Then he takes the white cloak and sleeps with the Queen and Rhaenyra, and then that code is gone. Then he's on Alicent's team, but then he betrays her in the small council. I mean, what’s his code?"

explicit | 90k | ongoing → part i / part ii / part iii / part iv

“You’ve not said a word to me since I got here, and since everyone else has taken the time to berate me for something, I thought it only fair to give you the chance.”

Unlike the past, there’s not a lot of anger in the attempt—it’s mostly just kind of sad, which makes it harder to be angry at. But it still rubs him the wrong way. Leave it to River to always play the victim in a situation that he created.

“Doesn't self-pity ever get tiresome for you?”

“Doesn’t self-righteousness ever get tiresome for you?”

There’s barely any heat in it now. The words carry a distinct lack of that directionless anger River’s been made up of since the moment they’d seen each other in Taverner’s office; it’s more like defeat. A drowning man’s last attempt at a fight he knows he won’t win so he can die thinking well, at least I tried.