imogen, king of tarblade bay

My AFTG exchange fic for @piratekingimogen. Thanks for the awesome prompts! I will have the rest of it out soon!

It came to me in a dream.

Working on Tobias rn :)

Another animatic thing i made from last year of the one scene in tst where imogen was tied up being interrogated and jaron blew everything up lol

-healers!!! -imogen knows a lot of folk remedies and old folk tales and tobias loves picking her brain and testing new treatments together -when they’re hanging out in the greenhouse or picking herbs in the garden tobias does the vast majority of the talking. it’s soothing for both of them; he likes rambling, and she doesn’t feel any pressure to fill the silence -that being said, they’re both the BIGGEST gossips and love sharing juicy news they heard around the castle -imogen argues with tobias less than anyone else, mostly because they rarely have conflicting interests -cheek kisses :) -tobias goes to imogen for relationship advice because she’s his token female friend, but she gives really bad advice. yes she’s dating the king of carthya but she doesn’t know how she did it -they are not very good at horseriding. the squad will go out for a ride and the king, the captain, and the ambassador are all on this fine stallions that could probably kick through a wall and then tobias and imogen are trailing behind on these old ponies that stop every few minutes to graze -they talk about farthenwood sometimes. by the time they left, they were both focused only on surviving connor’s scheme, and sometimes they have to just shake their heads and appreciate that things turned out so well

-they definitely got to an awkward start, mainly because they were in an arranged marriage but both fell in love with someone else -jaron worried that he couldn’t measure up to darius and didn’t like amarinda’s ease with the courtiers that he didn’t trust, and amarinda was put off by jaron’s stiffness and unwillingness to be diplomatic -jaron is very comfortable pretending to be someone he isn’t, but he’s bad at hiding his emotions; meanwhile, amarinda couldn’t imagine impersonating an avenian pirate but is very good at maintaining an attitude of pleasantness and calmness -amarinda is better at reading jaron than he realized at first; she was the first to guess that he would go to the pirates -jaron and amarinda are the two big-picture thinkers of the group. maybe it comes from both of them being raised as royalty, but even roden, a talented military planner, doesn’t have the same grasp of the delicacies of international strategies -once they break off their engagement and stop trying to push a romantic element to their relationship they get along MUCH better -amarinda really helps ease jaron back into court life -a gentle brother-sister relationship -amarinda is slow to condemn, so if she criticizes something jaron says or does, he takes it very seriously. on the other side, she values his input a lot and will always take into account his gut feelings or concerns -they bond over memories of growing up in court. jaron tells amarinda stories of his youth, and she tells him what life was like at the castle after he disappeared. they both miss darius -on the anniversary of his family’s death, jaron and amarinda take flowers to their graves in silence -with her permission, jaron starts calling amarinda his sister-in-law, saying that between her betrothal to his brother by blood and her marriage to tobias, who he considers a brother, surely she’s part of his family -jaron goes to amarinda for relationship advice. amarinda does not ask jaron for relationship advice. -they’re both REALLY bad at cooking– amarinda because she grew up as a princess and a constant guest, jaron because he grew up as a prince and then a peasant with no fancy ingredients. imogen tries to teach them but spends most of the time laughing at them and cleaning up spills

-out of the squad, these two are the quickest to start a physical fight -these two have SUCH a fascinating relationship in canon. they do not always get along, but they understand each other instinctively. in peace they may get along or drift apart but if the world were burning down they would be fighting side by side and breathe their last together. just big dramatic brother-at-arms, aragorn-boromir energy. -on a lighter note, they team up to tease tobias a lot -although imogen also went to tarblade bay and worked for the pirates, only jaron and roden have the pirate brand. -they’ve both been pirate king, and it’s no secret that roden desperately wanted the crown of carthya. in order to become allies, roden had to give up a vengeful sense of ambition and his shot at becoming either kind of king -not that it was a one-sided sacrifice to get along; jaron put his physical safety on the line to turn roden from the pirates and very nearly died -the two military strategists of the group -roden is very verbally blunt, whereas jaron is quick-tongued and jokes around a lot, which is sometimes a source of irritation -actually, they get irritated with each other a lot, but it just… doesn’t really matter. they start a fight in the morning, go to a war council together and support each other unreservedly, and continue arguing in the evening. -trust each other unconditionally to do what’s best for carthya -unlike imogen, amarinda or even tobias, roden doesn’t really mind not knowing jaron’s plans. once he decided to trust jaron, that was that– as long as the plan works he doesn’t care what it is. -consider themselves the protectors of the group. roden is the only one that jaron is willing to ask to endure physical danger or harm.

-big on physical touch! this occasionally manifests as making out in public but is more often a LOT of hand-holding and hair-combing -the whole time they were courting the regents were terrified they were going to elope -neither of them expected to take the throne so they have to work through bouts of self-doubt -their mutual capture by avenians seriously shook them, and they both still have nightmares about the treatment they had when they were prisoners -because of this, they’re intensely suspicious of attempts to turn them against each other. they’re still working on trust issues but are mutually determined not to let their hot tempers be used to the other’s harm. -imogen spent a good part of their relationship sternly telling herself that she was a servant and he was a king and there was no way they would end up together, which made jaron’s dismissal of her in the runaway king especially hurtful -both are physically reckless and would canonically die for the other -they’re used to pretending to be what they aren’t. imogen grew up pretending to be mute, then trying to fit in as a noble in drylliad, then sneaking into the pirate camp as a serving girl. jaron’s situation is even more intense, with the pretending to be an orphan, pretending to be avenian, and his extensive history of lies and half-truths. once they get married and rule carthya, they often rely on this to pretend they know what the heck is happening, but they get very good at noticing when the other is pretending or putting up a facade and checking in. -imogen tends to go nonverbal when she feels unsafe or overwhelmed, which is always a signal for jaron to shoo people away or switch tracks -in general imogen doesn’t talk much but jaron loves the sound of her voice and will occasionally just start saying the stupidest stuff until she laughs and begs him to stop -jaron grows his hair out long literally just so that imogen will run her fingers through it -neither are big fans of the council of regents and often have to be pushed to be diplomatic by amarinda -speaking of which, they both go to amarinda for relationship advice -in reference to imogen’s flowers at tarblade, they leave flowers for each other as a quiet way of saying ‘i’ve got your back, i’m here for you’ -even after tobias becomes the court physician, imogen insists on caring for jaron when he’s unwell

-the two best cooks. roden is the only member of the squad that imogen trusts in the kitchen.

-interesting dynamic because roden was initially intensely jealous of jaron’s kinghood, but amarinda was a little relieved to give up her claim to queenhood -they never become close confidants, but have a lot of respect and affection for each other -their relationship ends up being a platonic courtly lady & knight dynamic– roden carries amarinda’s colors at tournaments and would immediately challenge anyone who badmouthed her, and she always speaks well of him and sends tokens to his troops -roden would never dream of saying a word against amarinda, which is kind of funny because he has no qualms about entering shouting matches with the actual queen (’imogen doesn’t count, we knew each other before’) -amarinda helps roden adjust to the revelation that he’s harlowe’s son and encouraged him to build a relationship with his newly-found father -when amarinda’s leaving on diplomatic missions, roden usually accompanies her at least part of the way, which works both because he’s the captain of the guard but also because they get along well and are unlikely to cause trouble (unlike most pairings)

-although competent and trusted advisors to the king, tobias and roden lose every single brain cell when they’re together. they can’t get anything done– it’s all ‘i saw you fall off your horse last week’ ‘you literally misspelled your name on the last decree’ ‘hey give me back my quill!’ ‘stop throwing rocks at me!’