Still with us, Princess?

#did I ever tell you all about the time (shortly after folklore came out and I was re-reading the queen of attolia) #I had this intensely emotional film-like dream possibly inspired by the song my tears ricochet? #basically I dreamt I was reading an alternate version of QoA in which irene DID execute gen at the beginning and then spends the rest of the #novel undergoing a similar redemption arc but while grieving the realization that he'd loved her and was her best chance of survival #and her country's survival (she goes through all the same war experiences personal revelations just with regret regret regret) #I think parts of it might have melded with Till We Have Faces because she had these long monologuing arguments with the gods about it all #and in the end she DOES suffer the consequences and she DOES lose things she might've gained otherwise #but the fact that gen loved her is still this unbreakable thread this overarching melody this theme that runs through the whole book #and the conclusion is that she basically loses the world but regains her soul #and this dream haunted me for DAYS and WEEKS and I still can't listen to the song without being like oh yeah that film that film in my head #the one that broke me and put me back together THAT film #that doesn't exist #unless................................... I write a book like this some day #anyway it's been a hot minute since I dipped my toes into the QT fandom hi and whenever I hear mwt talking about doing the Worst Thing first #in QoA please know I'm sitting there buzzing with The Dream and the thought that the worst thing didn't actually happen but what if it had #what then #(clearly I'm normal about this)

"What do they say?" asked Gandalf and Thorin together, a bit vexed perhaps that even Elrond should have [discovered the moon letters on the map] first, though really there had not been a chance before, and there would not have been another until goodness knows when. "Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks," read Elrond, "and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the key-hole." "Durin, Durin!" said Thorin. "He was the father of the fathers of the eldest race of Dwarves, the Longbeards, and my first ancestor: I am his heir." "Then what is Durin's Day?" asked Elrond. -The Hobbit