Hello there!
This is the update for my on-going ASOIAF fanfiction, The Ghost in the Rock.
TGITR takes place in a modern AU, Brienne of Tarth is a working single mother in a hot, sweaty town in the Riverlands, doing what she can to make a life for herself and her daughter. Jaime Lannister is her co-worker and a source of much irritation (and desire) in her life. She knows little about his past except for the violent crime he committed that saw him disowned from his family fortune and esteemed place in the world.
One summer night they’re thrust into a terrifying, and inexplicable experience that changes their understanding of the world itself and puts them into grave danger. Suddenly the find themselves working against a supernatural force to save themselves and those they hold dear.
Read the latest chapter here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66325276/chapters/198672296
Well hey anyone out there! Been a bit since I’ve had time to write and post a chapter retrospective. I work in retail and the week leading up to Christmas has been a flurry of long hours and back to back shifts.
But, apologies aside, let’s get into the chapter!
This chapter is a Hyle/Brienne/Rainbow dominant chapter and, since I’m a Cancer, I love writing family dynamics.
Hyle is written in the series as a less cool, kind of Proto-Jaime, same irreverent sense of humor, cool confidence and flirty-as-a-baseline kind of personality. But, unlike Jaime, there is very little depth to him. Jaime has a core of sincerity and sensitivity under his mean-girl/jock outer layer, while he is cynical about most of the things others think of as important, he takes his love very seriously.
Meanwhile Hyle doesn’t seem like the type of guy who cares about ANYONE or ANYTHING with any particular intensity and seems to have a natural repulsion towards deep thought of any kind.In AFFC he’s shocked and angered by Brienne’s continued dislike towards him, almost as if he’s just now coming to the realization that Brienne is an equally sentient being.
In the context of TGITR he’s more than a few years emotionally matured past that sleaze-ball who played a vicious joke on an innocent person, and while he does feel shame, he feels a stronger urge to protect his self image as a “good guy.”
I wanted to mirror a dynamic I see in a lot of co-parenting dynamics where one parent has to urge the the other to take their child into account when it comes to planning their life, that parent usually being the the primary-parent. Like in the books, it’s only with Brienne’s insistence and presence that Hyle begins to feel any kind of responsibility or sense of care for others.
I also thought it would be realistic to include the clashing parental styles, I imagine Brienne as being a more emotionally mature parent, going out of her way to explain things to children and actively guide them as we see her do with Podrick Payne. Hyle in canon says he think’s children should be ignored until they reach puberty, which mirrors how a lot of people think of children even in the modern day; almost-people who exist to serve the emotional and practical interests of the adults (the real people) around them.
Now moving onto the phone call with Jaime, I would say it is my least favorite part of the chapter. I like writing mutually antagonistic Braime, comfortable familiarity Braime, and mutual pining Braime. I’m in an odd place in this chapter because Jaime and Brienne aren’t in any of those positions with each other at this point in the story. J
Jaime is in love with Brienne. She is suspicious of him. They’re both connected through their mutual care for Tyrion/Tysha and their shared responiblities at work. They are tacitly polite flip-flopping between moments of flirtatiousness and genuine dislike (from Brienne’s side).
It was tricky to write, I don’t want to overdevelop the relationship, but don’t want their later romance to seem unfounded. It’s a long way to Casterly Rock you know?
But, I like writing a them as coworkers, I think one of the most charming Braime hallmarks is how well they work as a team. They have an immediate understanding of each other that they don’t have with any other characters and I just love how they bounce off of each other, even when they hate each other!
Oh, and before I go, a note on Tysha’s characterization: I am essentially making another OC in having her play such a large role in the story. All we know about her in canon is that she’s a young girl who is briefly in love with the equally young Tyrion and then horrorifically abused and disposed of, another crushed human being under the wheel of feudalism and a device in Tyrion’s story. So, I decided to make her into an artsy and kind, but slightly self-centered young woman.
I thought that since Tyrion is kind of over-dramatic at times, self-centered and interested in philosophy and science that an over-dramatic, self-centered art school graduate would just to his taste. I actually quite like the woman that I wrote into this story, I’ve known her so many times in my life and in so many places, and she always lights up a room.
Anyways, that’s all folks! Thanks for reading if you did, and there is more to come!
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