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TDM #1

TEST DRIVE MEME

This Mess We're In The city sun sets over me...

You awaken slightly disoriented on a beautiful, smooth stone floor. A look around will tell you that this place is a hilltop temple with a good view of the beautiful city below. On opposite sides of the temple are genderless depictions of deities. One is clearly powerful, made of onyx, held up in an imposing stance with one hand holding a gilded flogger and the other outstretched with an open palm as if to enforce a command. The other, made of polished white marble, has taken a knee to the dominant statue across from them. One of their hands is a vase for fresh flowers and you can see that new ones have been placed there today.

The music of an unseen harp begins to play and a golden light permeates the temple. Suddenly, you know what is happening here. The duality that is worshipped here, the figures in the temple, they have a name. The onyx one is Ceannasach and the marble one is Cuiristeach and together with their combined power they are the ones who have brought you to Parthas.

What is Parthas? Parthas is paradise! You have either been brought here because Ceannasach believes you contribute to your world in some glorious way and deserve to be honored and served or because Cuiristeach believes that you would be excellent in a service role, perhaps they even feel sorry for the state of your life back home and want to show you something better.

The deities here also brought you because they need lik which is the energy that allows them to exist. Lik is created in small amounts when you interact with other people, in greater amounts when you grow fond of certain people, and in greater still amounts when you begin to use physical affection. However, when you orgasm, that creates the purest form of lik there is.

Ceannasach and Cuiristeach reward you in a special way. When you have sex with your soulmate or your hjarta, your vördr, or spirit, leaves your body in a time-frozen moment to commune with the deities and ask for something big or small that you might like. Sex carries on as usual and only you will know that you asked for something. If you ask to be sent home, the deities will send you into a hyperaroused state when you least expect it. Hey, you offended them.

The deities also believe you should know of something they have placed in Parthas for your benefit. There is a river in a valley in the middle of housing that will give and take anything you like from your body if you should so wish. This can mean a illness, sadness, a memory or anything else, but be careful because this river runs on fickle magic.

As the harp music continues, you become aware of a new power of yours. You can hear any thought that any other person sends your way, even the ones sent accidentally, and you can see images and moving pictures, as well. Don’t limit yourself to one person! Send that thought to everyone!

The harp music comes to an eventual end and you are left with the knowledge the deities gave you. Your intuition leads you down a southbound path towards a city where a celebration seems to be taking place, if the colorful banners are any indicator. Welcome to Parthas!

Dancing Barefoot She, intoxicated by Thee; She has the slow sensation that He is levitating with She

There is indeed a celebration going on in South City as this is the month of Feabhra. Where it was daylight when you left the Main Temple, now that you have reached the city the only lights are colorful paper lanterns strung up across smooth stone roads. The warmth of the daytime has cooled, so it might be smart to snuggle up with someone in one of the city’s various gazebos – each of them has a swing made for two (or three if you snuggle close enough.)

Harps, flutes, guitars and drums play lively music for everyone to dance to in the city square where garlands of brightly colored and white flowers hang for people to do with as they will. A stately woman dressed in black and wearing a brooch with the face of Ceannasach stands off to the side, her dark hair pulled back in a chignon. Whispers circulate, getting to you and informing you that this woman is E’ara Fraoch, owner of the most successful brothel in South City, and she is paying 50 gold pieces to the best dancers and 100 more if they will come work for her at Where The Wild Roses Grow, her establishment.

I Feel You I feel you, your precious soul, and I am whole

Food and drink is plentiful at this celebration and some of it is even free! The vendors believe that this is a good promotion for their stores during the rest of the year. They wheel their carts about, humming jaunty tunes and offering delicious things to you, the new arrivals, and everyone else in the city.
There is a man named Sam wheeling his cart of beverages and chocolate dipped waffles through town. If you catch him, he’ll probably suggest you order the alcoholic drink The Spirit of Feabhra. This drink does not come without side effects. It tastes like a fancy gin cocktail, sparkling and sweet with the flavor of berries and mint hitting your tongue, but the moment you get close to someone you actually have feelings for, you start to feel it… Them. Their thoughts, their emotions, their dreams… It’s as if they have melted into you.

Is This Desire? Is this desire; Enough, enough; To lift us higher; To lift above?

You have been told repeatedly throughout the night by smiling (creepy) faces not to wander out of the city limits into the wilderness, but now that you are here you just don’t get it. Lichens and fungi light up the night with a soft glow from the tree trunks, seemingly drawing you in.

In the forest, the music fades and the chittering of small animals creates a different tune. You don’t seem to be in danger. You might come across the healthiest, most beautiful apple tree you’ve ever seen. It is completely free of pests and only the dew clings to the apples’ shiny surface.

Should you pick one for yourself, you will feel a strange compulsion to bite it. Go on. Do it. If and when you have, you will find yourself incredibly aroused, but you won’t be able to bring yourself to orgasm – another must do it. If you didn’t bite the apple, maybe you gave it to someone else. In that case they will be unstoppably attracted to you with arousal to match. If you chose to plant it near your home, a tree like the one it came from will grow there and you will ICly receive a special reward.

Dead of Night When delirious fun; Has seriously begun; You'll be down on your knees; You'll be begging us please

Now you’ve done it. You’ve wandered into the woods without a spiritual guide from the temple. Now the vættir have been awoken and they are ready to fuck shit up… Sort of. Right now, these spirits kind of only want to ruin this party, but who knows what they’ll do later?

A low-lying cloud of black smoke crawls down the hills from the forest to the city until it covers the smooth stone roads and reaches up into everyone who is either of weak constitution or just simply tired and possesses them. It doesn’t take total control, but rather influences them, and causes them to destroy decorations, vendor carts, and do wild things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. Basically, these spirits want to cut through the façade and see you party like a rock star.

The only way to exorcise one of the vættir from a friend or loved one is to call on the deity of light – Cuiristeach. They accept demonstrations of service as the highest form of prayer, so get on your knees for your friend and get this done!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A Baratheon? [She looks both disgusted and enraged. How could a Baratheon take over? Well at least it wasn't a Lannister. Of course Rhaenyra has no idea that she's also the Great Great Great Great Grandmother of Robert Baratheon as well. Still none of it makes a lot of sense to her.

It even makes her pause while dancing with him, a little pre-occupied with what he's telling her.]

My Father is King Viserys. He has married Alicent Hightower. They have two children, Aegon and Helaena. Sometimes his brother, my uncle, visits. [Or gets thrown out, but she doesn't mention that. She won't give credence to rumor.]

The Dead?! [If Jon has shocked her before, she's even more surprised now. Viserys had told her of Aegon's dream, and the fact that Jon is so easily telling her this as her stumbling back for a moment, forgetting the dance altogether. This is her legacy he's telling her. This is everything that has meant anything. The fact that a Baratheon was on the Throne, that the Song of Ice and Fire has happened, it leaves her almost speechless.]

Aegon's dream. It came true.

Aegon had a dream? About the war? That long ago, back to the Conquest?

( Jon doesn't know this, the history of his Targaryen family. He knows the history of his Stark family and he knows which houses stood with him against the Boltons and against the Lannisters but this - this is something his birth father would have told him if he hadn't died before Jon had ever drawn breath. )

I didn't know he had a dream. I don't know anything about my Targaryen family. Neither did Daenerys - we were the only two left - and now there's only me. What was the dream?

[Rhaenyra steps back away from the dance floor, needing to compose herself. Jon has just thrown a lot at her, and it's better to discuss generational curses away from partying guests. The room spins a little, and she touches her palm to her head before slowly looking up at him, not surprised that he's still by her side.]

It was something passed down from every Targaryen heir to the Throne. Aegon the Conqueror had a dragon dream that the White Walkers would come again, heralding in the Prince That Was Promised. My father told me that it must be a Targaryen that sits on the Throne. He unified the Seven Kingdoms because of this threat.

[It was the trigger that started it all, their lineage, their history. Targaryens were unknowns back in Old Valyria, but they brought the Seven Kingdoms back together because of the threat that Aegon dreamt. Shock still washes over her as she looks back at him.]

You must be the Prince That Was Promised.

I didn't know that existed. I guess I am. My father was a Targaryen prince and my mother was a lady of House Stark. I never knew either of them. She died giving birth to me and he died before I was born. I guess they would have told me about it.

( Jon slips his arm around Rhaenyra to steady her a little and feels terrible for having brought up such things in such a public place. He'd just been so shocked to see a Targaryen, to see a flash of what could have been Daenerys, that everything had just come pouring out. )

I'm sorry for just...saying everything. I thought you were her. Daenerys. You looked like Daenerys but when I got closer I just realized you were a Targaryen and not her. I guess if you ever get to see your father again, you can tell him that he was right. Everything is at peace now.

[She's in enough shock that she accepts his arms around her, leaning a little more on him than the stone pillar she had been leaning on before. She swallows sharply, opening her mouth and then closing it to compose herself. This certainly isn't easy to hear, but everything he's saying must equally have been a lot for him as well.]

If your father was heir, he would have known. It is information that has only been passed to heirs. I-- I have something in my rooms if you wish to see it. [Which of course strikes against propriety. And yet, she does not think Viserys would care all that much about her inviting a man to her rooms if it was the heir, The Prince That Was Promised.]

I-- I do not blame you, Jon. It sounds as if you have been through much. My father is trying to supplant a war with my being heir. [She is not entirely sure if that is possible, but certainly she is not going to go and try killing her siblings. Things just already feel tense.]

Will you tell me what happened to this-- Daenerys, while we walk? [She'll head toward her rooms if he's amenable.]

( Jon keeps his arm around her to keep her steady, not wanting her to fall, and when she asks if he'll tell her about Daenerys, he nods. It is a hard thing to speak of Daenerys, to speak of what once was and what could have been, but it feels good to describe her to someone who would have been dreaming for her and waiting for her as nothing more than a promise of future blood. This is someone who would have loved Daenerys. Her family. )

You would have liked her, I think. She was small, like you are, and had the most beautiful hair I had ever seen in my life. She had three dragon eggs that hatched for her after all the dragons in the world had died. She...Daenerys was never afraid. Ever. She and my sister both were queens and while my sister lived a hard life, she wasn't one to fight with her hands like Daenerys. My sister fought with words. Daenerys rode on the back of a dragon or lifted a sword or did whatever she needed to do.

( The more he talks about her, the more he misses her, and his words catch in his throat for a moment. )

She died in King's Landing. Without her, though, no one would have lived. She wanted to set things right after Baratheons and Lannisters had torn it apart. She was my father's younger sister and we were of an age. It was difficult not to love her. She would have loved to meet you.

[Side by side, she walks the halls, feeling a little like walking through the Red Keep itself. Their steps clacked and echoed off the stone as she moved through the halls, remembering where she was rooming. It's not nearly as lavish, but it is nice enough.

And she does listen deeply when Jon talks of Daenerys. Despite the fact that they were Targaryens, he clearly did love her. She smiles sadly, listening to what happened, gasping when Jon talked about the end of the dragons as well. Rhaenyra cannot fathom this future where a Baratheon has taken the throne, and there are no dragons left.

It's heartbreaking. All of it. To hear what comes, what happened to the dragons, the war, and to her predessors. As they approach her door, she touches his arm gently.]

You truly loved her. [Rhaenyra doesn't entirely know what that is like per se. She cared for Criston Cole, but that feels torn now. Her Uncle she adores more than anyone, but part of it seems like a game and a challenge, and she doesn't entirely know where she stands now that she is literally about to be married.]

She was lucky to have someone who loved her, and I am sure she loved you as well. [It could not have been easy to tell her all of that, but she is grateful and thankful that he did. She steps into her room then, shifting over to a pair of dressers where a white cloth wrapped something up. Rhaenyra had stowed it away in her rooms, but she did not figure that it needed any special protections here. No one would have known what it was, locked in her room. Opening the linen, she offers to show him the dagger, the birthright of all Targaryens.]

My father gave it to me as King Jaehaerys gave it to him.

( It feels like a benediction to be told that he loved Daenerys and he hopes that somewhere Daenerys understands that he does love her and he didn't stop loving her. Ending her life had made him heartsick and no one understood it. His Stark family saw a threat gone, her Unsullied saw him as a traitor. No one can forgive him but Daenerys but it feels nice to have told her story to someone like Rhaenyra who could appreciate her and not be afraid of her.

Rhaenyra parts from him when they reach her rooms and while he'd normally be a little more mindful about being with a woman alone, he doesn't think this matters. This is someone who shares blood with him and a home with him, even if it's years apart, and he would never hurt her or let anyone else hurt her. No matter what, he intends to make up for failing Daenerys by protecting Rhaenyra. She brings a dagger to him, showing it to him on clean linen. )

My father would have had this, then. It must have been lost in the Rebellion because Daenerys didn't have it and my Stark uncle - the man who raised me - he didn't have it either. I don't think he would have gotten rid of something so important. He was an honorable man. It's Valyrian steel. There's so little of it left now.

[She closes the door when he steps in, offering for him to take the Valyrian blade. It is still something rare, important. She wants to share this with him though, to let him see a part of his history. It's something they share in a way, this knowledge that gets passed on, that he then finishes.]

Does it feel good now that it is all over? [It's only just begun for her, this weight and this journey she's on. She knows it, but it is interesting to hear his perspective with all that he's gone through.]

You aren't alone now at least. [She doesn't try to sound like she's placating him. She wants to be here, beside him. She cannot imagine not being raised with Targaryens. She had Jaehaerys, her father, her uncle, her cousins still even if they were Velaryions. Family was truly everything. It was the reason she was heir, it was the reason she must marry. It was duty.]

It feels good to stop fighting. I went to the Wall when I was sixteen. Have you ever seen it? I don't know if you ever got to travel to the North or anything but it's something so vast you can't comprehend it unless you've seen it.

( Jon smiles a little when she says he's not alone now, at least, and he traces his fingers along the length of the dagger. This is his legacy, his family, and Rhaenyra has been keeping it safe until the future. It seems a strange thing to him, to be something hoped for by Targaryens all the way back from Aegon. It shouldn't be him. It should have been Daenerys. )

I didn't fit in at Winterfell. Lady Stark made sure I knew I was a bastard and while my brothers and sisters tried, there was no mending that. I wanted to leave. I wanted to be something else. I guess I was something else the whole time, a Targaryen, and I just didn't know it.

( He takes the blade and offers it back to her. )

You have to keep it safe while we're here. That's not for me to do. That's your duty just like mine was to fight. You said your father made you heir?

I have never traveled that North. Even on my tour to find a husband. [The North didn't marry from the South after all-- or rarely did. Lord Stark was far too old himself.]

Lord Stark did come down though. He pledged his House to me when my father named me heir. [And Rhaenyra knows how the Starks take their word. Even if Jon speaks on the Starks in not the best light, she still wants to connect to him. The Starks are still a great family, even if he is Targaryen.

She takes the blade back, nodding to him.]

I will. I do not know why it came here with me since it is my father's still. He made me the first female heir. [Really, that should have been Rhaenys, but she isn't about to start a gender equity talk right now. Instead she just wraps the Catspaw Dagger back up and moves to set it back on the dresser, out of sight.]

You have family now. I can tell you anything you wish to know. You are owed at least that.

I love my Stark cousins. The wars did much to tear us apart and when we found one another again, we knew we never wanted to let go. I still think of them as my brother and sisters even if I know we aren't. Still, it isn't the same as knowing my Targaryen family. It's like only having half of me, aye? Your father, King Viserys? What's he like?

( Jon has never had the ability to talk to anyone about this side of his family because it had been too much a shock when he found out and then he was a threat to Daenerys' claim even if he never wanted any of it. This is something good to know, he thinks, to learn about the people his father came from and what Rhaegar's history was. )

[Once the dagger is away Rhaenyra moves to sit on the bed, offering for him to join her while they continue their talk. It certainly is no night talk, so she doesn't think much of it at all. Besides Targaryens had their queer customs as it were anyway.

He asks about her father, and she smiles a little before sighing.]

Stubborn. [It comes out quickly, but there's no malice in her voice. Honestly she misses him.] Wise and hopeful. He's keeping the peace in the kingdoms, and it means a lot to him to do so, even with my uncle being the war hero.

[She hums a little, knowing that she's stepping on dangerous territory here.]

They love each other though. Daemon is unpredictable, strong, and enigmatic. He makes things difficult for my father. Much like I do, it seems. I just do not want my only battlefield to be a birthing bed.

( Jon sits beside her and hears her talk about her father wanting to keep peace and her uncle being a war hero. The way she describes them, the words she uses - just as she knew he loved Daenerys, he thinks he can reasonably say she loves them too. When she talks about not wanting her only battlefield to be a birthing bed, Jon touches her hand. )

Doesn't have to be. Best women I've ever known fought in real battles and none of them had to do with having babies. Loved a Wildling woman who shot me full of arrows once. My younger sister, Arya? She trained with the Faceless Men in Braavos to be an assassin. Sansa could hear ten arguments at once and determine which one was the best compromise, the thing that would be good for the people. And Daenerys, well. She had dragons. Do you have a dragon?

They sound like strong women. [And she knows he means well when he says it, but she looks down at his hand, voice lowering now.] My mother was, too, and she died on the birthing bed when my father decided to cut my brother Baelon from her belly. He didn't live either.

[A woman's role is precarious. She never wants to be in that position that a man can decide for her, even if Viserys has essentially done just that with marrying her off, but at least she's taken charge of the potential relationship with Laenor.

Her hand doesn't separate from his though when she looks up at him, brows furrowed.]

Of course I have a dragon. [Not all Targaryens are dragon riders, she knows, but the question almost seems silly until she frowns again at the remembrance that there are no other dragons in his time.]

My father was the one who started putting dragon eggs in our cradles. Syrax is my dragon. She's a beautiful gold she-dragon. One of the best.

( Jon squeezes her hand a little when she talks about her mother and brother. Bearing children is a dangerous thing and the women in his life haven't had to do that except one, the most important one: his mother. )

My mother died giving birth to me. My uncle, the man who raised me as his son, he kept a promise to her to keep me safe. The birthing bed is something I don't know I'd ever want to put a woman I loved through. I wouldn't want to lose her.

( When she says she has a dragon, though, he feels as if a dark cloud has passed. He only got to ride Rhaegal for a little while but he'd loved every moment of it. It had been terrifying but good at the same time. )

My dragon was Rhaegal. He was Daenerys' dragon, really, but he let me ride him. She rode her biggest dragon, Drogon. Rhaegal, though, he was green and bronze. I was terrified the first time I rode him. I thought he was going to kill me. I think he was just trying to see if I was Targaryen enough.

[His touch is a comfort, one that is shocking since they've only just met, but she can feel it. There's a pull there, a familiarity that extends beyond the binds of time and reality. Rhaenyra doesn't question it, like she doesn't question her attraction to Daemon. It just is. So she smiles lightly.

She deems that Jon is a good and caring man. There aren't many of those, that much she knows for certain. She thinks she wants to get to know him better, know more about the Westeros he lives in, hoping it truly is a better world than the one she comes from.

But the talk of dragons does lighten things a little, and still she does not let his touch go.]

He is your dragon then. He will not let anyone ride him until your death. [It is how dragons operated, she knew. This Daenerys may have raised him, but if she sat atop Drogon, than Rhaegal would need a rider, and Jon was his rider.]

There is a bond we have as dragonriders. It is in the blood. The blood of the dragon.

Edited 2023-02-01 05:07 (UTC)

I never understood it. It was almost like he knew what I wanted to do and I didn't have to tell him. It's nothing like riding a horse. It's different. It's better.

( Jon laughs and he thinks it's the first true laugh he's had in a long time. He remembers the day that Daenerys had told him to try to ride Rhaegal and he asked if he was going to be killed and she said it had been good to know him. That day was good, as was the dizzying flight down the mountains where he barely kept his seat. )

Wish they had saddles though. Hard to stay on unless you're paying attention and you'll drop straight down if they don't want you on.

That's the bond. It is like they become a part of us. I think they can feel us, too. They know where we are, what we want. Riding them is an art-- but so much freer.

[She closes her eyes, imagining being on Syrax in that moment, and she squeezes Jon's hand. She misses it already. She misses her dragon. It's like a pang to be separated, and she has to open her eyes slowly to look back at him.]

Of course we have saddles. Each is individually made. They're kept in the dragonpit. Or I suppose wherever the other dragonriders live.

( Jon shakes his head and laughs again. Of course they would have had saddles originally when there were plenty of Targaryen dragons but when the dragons died, there were no need for dragon saddles. He grins at Rhaenyra. )

Daenerys and I never used saddles. I didn't even know they were ever made. I don't know what happened - I'm no maester - but all the dragons died out and no more eggs hatched at some point. Dany's dragons were hatched from eggs that were petrified but they caught fire and hatched instead. Do you get to ride Syrax every day then? Or only for special reasons?

A world without dragons seems sad. They are the most amazing creatures. Truly.

[Anything related to dragons being gone also seems sad, like a part of history, a part of her own world, disappears. Of course she doesn't know what happens to the Dragon Pit. There may be some saddles floating around his time, but certainly not accessible, and most likely all destroyed. Again it makes her frown.]

I cannot imagine not riding her. I would try and get out at every chance I could, much to my father's dismay I'm sure. I rode her to Dragonstone once though, kept us from war. [From her uncle, but she doesn't add in the details.]

It will be strange to not have her here though.

We'll just have to talk about it, then. I don't know why this place wants us here or what it thinks it will gain by having two Targaryens but I think we both know we're too stubborn for that. Anyone who can ride a dragon can defy the gods, right?

( Jon smirks a little and squeezes her hand again. It just feels good to share something with someone again and he shares a lot with Rhaenyra for all that they're separated by time. )

The Seven, anyway. We keep to the Old Gods in the North. Who knows, maybe they were dragons. Nobody ever says what they looked like.

The Seven are just the gods of Westeros. [Clearly Rhaenyra has no care for them nor no loyalty. She might be southron, but she's Targaryen, and Targaryens didn't follow the Seven either-- unless they were utterly pushed into it. She keeps her face flat when she looks at him though. There's so much he doesn't quite know about it all though, does he?]

I do not know what we are meant to do here, other than what I think we both know what they want. I do not think it has much to do with dragons, but here we have one another.

[It almost sounds like a proposition. Alleyship could be read in there if he's disgusted by any such notion. She already knows he had his Daenerys, and shes's certainly not trying to replace that. She's never been someone's love before, but she has been a lover. Rhaenyra can offer that without shame despite the familial bond they share.

That is something else she cares less about. The Seven would. His Old Gods might, but she highly doubts the gods of this place care how the lik is created. They have likely already created some between one another, taking in one another's company and holding hands.

For now though, she lets the offer linger, seeing how he'll react to it.]

( Rhaenyra has the right of it. For good or ill, the gods have brought the two of them to this place and he's not naive about what their purpose is. They're meant to be with people whether they would choose it normally or not and while he doesn't know if he's quite ready to love someone again after losing both of the women he's loved, he does know he doesn't want to be alone. If he has to bed people to survive this place, he's going to bed the people he likes. Rhaenyra, he likes very much. She's everything Daenerys should have been able to be - a woman with her family, her dragon, and a kingdom to rule. It's no dishonor to Daenerys to be with someone so like her. Not when the respect is there. )

We share blood, aye, but we also share a home and a way of life. If I'm to be with someone I want to be with someone who understands me and understands Daenerys. I don't think I could tell anyone else about her and have them understand. Not like you do. I see her in you but I see somewhat else, too, and I don't think it dishonorable to her or anyone else if we're allies.

( Jon lifts her hand to his lips and kisses it lightly. )

We're stronger together than we'd be apart.

[She understands what he's saying, the very important role that Daenerys played in his life. It is heartbreaking to hear it, but if Rhaenyra can give him this, she knows that it is something. It's meaningful. It's family. Maybe it shouldn't be, but Rhaenyra has never not attempted to get what she wanted, and she certainly isn't going to start with Jon.

They're alone now in her rooms, and while she certainly hadn't planned for things to turn to this, it also isn't a surprise either. He's handsome and strong. Part of him reminds her of Ser Harwin, though he truly looks like a Stark.]

I would like to be that. [Allies. More. Her voice is barely above a whisper, but she's sure about what she says.] We can be each other's comfort here.

[She shifts then so she can turn in toward him, letting him take her hand and kiss it. Gently she touches his face, oscillating her hand in so that she can caress the side of his cheek.]

You should stay the night. [Another offer, another way of encroaching in on what she really wants.]

TDM #1

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tw: ever so slight spoiler for future seasons

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tw: incest