#hurlumerlu

THANK YOU <3

1 ⧽. if you could sit down and finish any one of your wips without anything stopping you (time, tiredness, etc), which fic would you choose? tell us about it if you want!

PARENT TRAP DIVORCED MADHEL AU from the musical Death becomes her. I want to write the shenanigans, the yearning, flirting, fighting and the drama of an 11 year old trying to bring her mothers together.

OR I started writing a birthday fic for Father Brown two years ago, with a murder, everyone is here. I have the whole plot planned and everything but I can't seem to write it.

4 ⧽. is there an au or trope that you haven’t written before, but would want to try?

I don't think I ever wrote a slow burn and I don't think I'm strong enough or just straight up Angst that doesn't end well.

7 ⧽. is there a fic you wish you received feedback on, but didn’t get any/much? this ask game is asking someone else to then give feedback on said fic, pretty pretty please!!!

The last chapter is from 2023 but I still like it so much: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10799514/chapters/23958468 (it's vignettes about Lady Felicia Montague from Father Brown's losses throughout her life)

I had good feedback on this BUT it's the most fun I ever had writing something so I wish I could share it with more people: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65317363/chapters/168055774 (again vignettes, with Madeline Ashton and Helen Sharp as a couple throughout their lives, they're both college professors living in NYC and there's a lot of musical mentions).

20 ⧽. answer any one of the other questions that you want to!

I'll answer question "19 ⧽. give a hint/teaser about something you’re writing without any context or explanation! tease us haha"

“You’re still a little in love with both of them, aren’t you?”

Ernest makes a horrified face. “Goodness no! I just think we should lock them up in a padded room with an army of therapists and not let them out until they stop lying to themselves.”

🧡 Ok, I'm gonna have to think about this... and I'm sure I'll think of more later, but lol, we're doing the usual with me and talking about House Martell.

A lot of the meta bloggers seem to think Arianne is doomed. She certainly could be - the story so far seems to be setting her up to be with fAegon, who is probably an obstacle in the way for Daenerys to make her break bad, and I think the consensus is that he's going to go up in flames when she invades Westeros - but I also think there's a lot to suggest that it's setting Arianne up to be a good and effective ruler, and particularly better than her dad is.

The two oldest Martell children feel like they're meant to comment on how Doran's fatal flaw is trying to be the Chessmaster without really taking into account the characters and choices of his pieces (that's why I think it's telling that he's bad at cyvasse, which is Westerosi-chess, because I think the big thing he's lacking - and I know this because I'm like this too - that you need to be good at chess is the ability to anticipate the other player's next move. He can't do that at all! That's how his plans keep fucking up). He thought he could hide the secret marriage pact from his children without anticipating how they might feel about that, and how the lack of knowledge of that might influence the four different players involved, and the idea that Viserys might be an unsuitable match for Arianne but for reasons he wouldn't know when he was little, or that Viserys would get himself killed, etc. With his kids specifically, it's clear that Doran projected hard on to Quentyn from a young age, saw a lot of himself in him, and didn't recognize Arianne as a possible capable leader because she reminded him of his impulsive brother. But we know that Quentyn is doomed, because he essentially only has his dad's negative traits. Whereas Arianne, despite being more compared to her uncle Oberyn in character, has her dad's more positive traits, plus some he doesn't have that he needs - like being more action-oriented and less inclined to let her plans cook until they're burnt. Doran and others see that as impulsive, but we see over the course of the series that Arianne can recognize that and learn from her mistakes. Quentyn obviously hasn't been able to recognize the issues with his own negative traits (including way more impulsivity than his dad recognized, which of course is how he ultimately met his end with the dragon).

So I think there's actually a lot set up for Arianne to take over and kind of be the perfect middle-ground in the Dornish approach to leadership: she learns when to hold back when necessary (learning from the failures of her plot to crown Myrcella) but also knows not to wait forever (from watching her dad screw up in that way).

They could still go the other way, but it's interesting to me that I haven't really seen people propose this when I think there are a lot of breadcrumbs sown that could portend that. Maybe - and this would definitely seem like a Martin-style subversion, with how much her story seems to be pointing toward another Martell-Targaryen marriage alliance - she figures out what's actually going on with fAegon, or just realizes she doesn't really want to be his bride for whatever other reason, or she marries him but is able to anticipate and avert the danger of Daenerys in some way - and so she survives. I mean, this seems way too pat and neat, but maybe there's an ending where she and fAegon rule Dorne together instead of Westeros. Who knows? Part of the fun of this story is all the different ways it can go. But a lot of people treat her story as headed toward one particular dead end and I'm not sure that I buy that.

A lot of Song of Ice and Fire seems to be about the people who are traditionally cannon fodder or left out altogether inheriting the story: the wife and daughters and disabled son, rather than the patriarch and his brash young heir. Arianne is the kind of character who'd just be a femme fatale orientalist stereotype in another story (and I mean, Martin does indulge in a lot of that orientalism in the actual books anyway, I'm not sure if fully realizing) so I think it would fit within that pattern for her to be the Martell who ultimately triumphs and becomes a sober-minded, capable ruler in the model of her dad, but without her dad's glaring faults that keep screwing him over.

It would also make her a fun reversal of him, where it's clear Doran is distrustful of impulsivity because the one time he gave into it - with his marriage - blew up in his face. Arianne seems to already be recognizing that her crowning-Myrcella plot needed more careful planning, but she doesn't seem to have gone to her dad's opposite extreme and decided any impulses/action is bad. So again, the more honed version of his blunter weapon (ironically).

Oh and one more: I don't really buy the idea that's been floated a few places that Sansa is going to lose sense of her identity and fully "become" Alayne Stone. I know Martin has teased this but I think it's a red herring, I think throughout those chapters we've seen that she's very aware of who she really is and is thinking strategically for what she needs to do to get to where she can retake that identity. Likewise, I don't think Arya is ever going to fully lose sense of being a Stark and become "No One" like the House of Black and White wants her to; I think her continued warging powers are a sign that that connection can't really be severed. I think the story with both Stark sisters is the different ways (using their different talents) they have to survive environments that want them to forget who they are, and how they play into that role, but secretly keep that knowledge and keep it close to their hearts. (And I think some of it is about them learning a little bit of the other's skill set, but that's another essay...) (Later edit: Also, we have a different surviving Starkling who seems much more headed toward genuinely losing his identity, so it would be a little dull to have them all go that way, right?)

🎧! here's a song for you:

This would be very on brand if I could make it canon era somehow.

DEEP SEA

space is fucking terrifying it’s just full of nothing ? every direction is a direction in which you are falling. it’s dark as fuck. it’s the worst fucking kind of claustrophobia I do not want to go in space thank you very much

Ohhh! A new ask game I see.. Hm... I think if I really have to pick from those (it's still a limited pool of roles).. King?