Today's dream
Aug. 29th, 2013 12:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethThis morning I dreamt an epic run around where I first had to get to the Court Imperial, escorted by Prince Clint who may or may not be the prince an old treaty had betrothed me to, then be presented to the Emperor (as played by the 6th Doctor, looking as he does now), be entertaining without provoking any kind of reprisals, survive both my wedding and the subsequent attempt to poison the pair of us and frame my other suitor, then head out to rescue said suitor from wherever his kidnappers stashed him.
Not a relaxing morning, then, but rather a fun one.
Three kingdoms within an empire, two princes and me as a princess who would become a ruling Queen, the three of us schooled at the Court Imperial after the age of 11. Princess's parents never told her which Prince she would be marrying because of the decades of waiting between treaty and ceremony; they'd fully intended to recalculate their advantage when they got there. Weddings needed Imperial consent so we had to get to Court to even try to fulfil the treaty, and many of the other kingdoms, plus factions within our homelands, would rather we stayed unallied. I met Prince Clint Barton on the way there and there were many adventures and hardships and attempted murders, but he got me safely through. Of course by then I was wildly in love, but I knew my duty, so there wasn't even kissing. A bit of clothed snuggling, but nothing proper scandalous. And he would of course respect my decision, and just make angsty puppy eyes about it. By the time we got to Court I had weighed up all the advantages of my kingdom allying with his, of joining our turkey farms with their breadbox of endless grain farms, and I thought it would be a good match for our kingdoms too. But there was of course the other prince.
In the dream the other prince was an art student I used to know from school. I think for story purposes I should swap him out, because he wasn't especially princely when we were all 15, and rather less so from here.
Swapping him for Steve keeps the occupation but feels all wrong for a prince. I mean, the thing about princes is they're born special, and the thing about Steve is there's nothing special about him (as far as he says), he's just a guy from Brooklyn. Closest thing to a prince the movie Avengers have is of course Tony, and I'm happy to put him in most any story.
... Clint makes an odd sort of prince too. I just keep thinking how cooped up he'd be in a role like that. Shooting things would not be a particularly helpful trait. Also, with an older brother, he'd be the spare. Good for treaty marriages, not so great for... him.
If I borrow some from ultimates (but not much because eeeew ultimates) then Tony can be the younger brother too. His kingdom would be heavily populated but importing most of its food. Their major concentration would be on technology, research, and education. My kingdom marrying the bread farmers would be to our mutual benefit, but wouldn't change much. Linking the turkey farms to the big city would benefit the city greatly, and in the best possible world give a better education to all our citizens, but would run the risk of draining off the brightest for better prospects. While I sympathise with anyone who looks at their farm and decides their life needs not even one more turkey, it wouldn't be great for the kingdom. Either kingdom, if things got too imbalanced. So it's a risky strategy, marrying the rich neighbours.
Also, on the one hand there's (sober) Clint, and on the other there's (epically not sober yet) Tony.
And any potential benefits would rely on either the death of their elder sibling without issue, something that can't even be hinted at in the planning stages when so much politics goes on knife first, or said elder sibling retaining some bond of affection for their relatives.
... yeah, that's... not the most reliable plan there.
They'd make a good pair of contrasting princes though. There's one dark and one blond, one all smiles and one with a default grumpy face of doom, one highly educated and one... more physical. But they'd also have similar temperaments in some respects. At least if fanfic Clint is anything to go by, and lets face it, fanfic Clint is the only one I know.
In your usual romance there's two contrasting guys, and one looks right but turns out to be flawed, and the other is hanging around being reliable and eventually wins. So if Clint is the one with me through thick and thin then Clint gets the girl at the end.
Except in this dream, we got to the Court Imperial, unsealed the treaty, and found that my parents had signed me over to the other Prince.
Clint looked me in the eyes and finally we kissed. ... a sort of song lyric kiss, first kiss goodbye.
We all knew our duty, so Clint wasn't going to risk kingdoms on romance. But he remained devoted to me.
Not being much for words he resorted to mangling quotes. "If by my life or death I can serve you, I will." And then he knelt to me and kissed my hand, and I took his hands between mine, accepting his oath of service.
He'd effectively just given up being a Prince to be my bodyguard, but he'd decided that suited him better anyway.
So then I had a whole other wedding to prepare for.
This was complex, and involved paying respect to the ceremonies of many countries and many intelligent species. Organising for the humans was a tall man with fox red hair, slightly curled, and a beard that really needed either a few more years or a lot more razor. His non-human counterpart was amiable enough, but the human representative seemed edgy around them. He made some comments focusing on racial differences and wondered aloud what it was like living as a... possibly not quite polite word for non-human. The non-human asked in turn what it was like living as a human, and fox hair admitted with a slant smile that it was impossible to convey.
I disagreed, and said so. Being human was like spending all your time in the library, while the other races had the playing fields.
Fox hair didn't much like that, but the emissary we were supposed to be pleasing liked it quite well.
The dream kind of skipped most of the actual ceremony. Blur to next major political scene, the feast after. Clint was missing, and someone served me and my new husband salad sandwiches, which was at least edible. Or so I thought. The first bite was subtly off, with an aftertaste I feared I recognised. I stopped my husband from even trying his and went to try and upchuck that first bite, but I was delayed when the fox haired man relayed my comments on humanity to the human Emperor. He asked for an explanation, though from the Imperial throne 'asked' has more weight than most men's 'demanded'. So I had to stand and orate on the topic.
We were in the great throne room, where certain magics were woven through it, to make communicatio easier. I asked for access to them, and he granted it, with a slight raised eyebrow. It was like a holodeck, or a symphony, something I could conduct to convey not just in words but in sights and sounds and feelings what these things meant to me. I showed them what a Library was to me, a place of quiet refuge, calm reflection, and unlimited possibility. Humans have no in built advantages. Centaurs run faster than human legs ever could, but they do it from shortly after birth. An avian spends their time growing into a body that will fly, if they put a bit of effort into it, and they enjoy that effort. All their special gifts come easy to the other races. Humans have to set their minds to it. But once they do, there is no achievement that is beyond them. We start with the Library, the whole of human history and achievement, and we build on it to become whatever we wish. We are the stars of the great powers, I say to the great hall, and illumine the Emperor to shine brightly among us. Then, diplomatically less bright, I light each individual, and show them each with vast expanse around them, then light it with distant other stars, that gradually come together, until the Emperor has whole constellations dancing attendance.
By the time I'm done, the perceived slight is well erased, and my mastery of the hall's magics well demonstrated. I let it go again and step back with a bow, feeling tired by the display, but also feeling very ill indeed from the delay.
Given the Emperor's leave to go, I left quickly and got as much of that poisoned bite out of my system as possible, but enough remained to make it a very bad day for me.
Clint was of course suspected, since who is actually nice enough to step aside and not marry their love? But I thought he was that nice, actually, so I went looking for him to rescue him, not for revenge as everyone expected.
My new husband accompanied me, and to do so had to clean himself up and demonstrate substantially more depth than had ever previously been apparent.
By the time we're all together again, I'd spent about the same length of time with both princes, and of course both were totally in love with me. The witnesses at the wedding were by then dead, being behind the poison plot. And the wedding was unconsummated.
So that left me with a choice again.
My kingdom being matrilineal, I had a better idea. It didn't matter to my lot who sired my kids, and my suitors, it had become clear, didn't matter enough to their brothers for the treaty thing to work right anyway. How about they both stick around?
I like it better than standard romance plots because there is in fact more than one Mr Right, and people can grow and surprise you when they need to.
I like it not so much because when one of the people that need to surprise you is an alcoholic, there's a lot of mileage to cover to get where they're at all helpful, and they can't do it with the expectation of getting the girl at the end.
So I reckon somewhere in the middle we find Clint, and there's a kiss, and Prince Tony reckons he's lost me to Clint and buggers off to head home. First stop the pub. But when he gets there, he just sits there and looks at the drink, and realises that what with one thing and another he has, since sobering up, had the most fun he's had in years. So the key, for him, is deciding to just not have that drink. Because of his own reasons.
then after that there can be Plot and Adventures and possibly it's his turn to need rescuing? and after that he can join the happy poly marriage, but only after he's sorted himself for himself.
quite a lot of that echoes a Tanya Huff book, but I liked it so that works.
It's a good plot for one of those travel guide fantasies, where you take a tour of the nations before achieving your goal. There's the contrast between home and the Court Imperial. there's the patchwork of other races, and different ways they get along within the different kingdoms of the empire. (if I'm drawing on Marvel there are a bunch of characters who could be considered not-human and borrowed for templates. and I can give Magneto his kingdom and his scattered peoples.) different scenery, lots of riding around, lots of travel time.
and then if everyone takes turns being rescued... hmmm, the first turn is for the princess, that won't work, I'd get fed up by that story long before it was anyone else's turn.
maybe it's more of a trial, and gathering allies along the way is the preferred method of passing it?
like, she's going to be Queen, she has to understand all the races of her subjects and be able to get along with them.
and then once she's done the Progress she needs to get to Court, but she'd need to cross other people's kingdoms first, and it's around then that things get hairy. so she's strong first, but then she needs more help, from Prince Clint.
and then they take turns saving each other.
I quite like this one today. this could totally get written up.
I'm not quite sure on Prince Clint though. I might need to change that for reasons other than serial number erasure. Doesn't have a regal ring to it.
... or, that could be an advantage.
*ponders*
Not a relaxing morning, then, but rather a fun one.
Three kingdoms within an empire, two princes and me as a princess who would become a ruling Queen, the three of us schooled at the Court Imperial after the age of 11. Princess's parents never told her which Prince she would be marrying because of the decades of waiting between treaty and ceremony; they'd fully intended to recalculate their advantage when they got there. Weddings needed Imperial consent so we had to get to Court to even try to fulfil the treaty, and many of the other kingdoms, plus factions within our homelands, would rather we stayed unallied. I met Prince Clint Barton on the way there and there were many adventures and hardships and attempted murders, but he got me safely through. Of course by then I was wildly in love, but I knew my duty, so there wasn't even kissing. A bit of clothed snuggling, but nothing proper scandalous. And he would of course respect my decision, and just make angsty puppy eyes about it. By the time we got to Court I had weighed up all the advantages of my kingdom allying with his, of joining our turkey farms with their breadbox of endless grain farms, and I thought it would be a good match for our kingdoms too. But there was of course the other prince.
In the dream the other prince was an art student I used to know from school. I think for story purposes I should swap him out, because he wasn't especially princely when we were all 15, and rather less so from here.
Swapping him for Steve keeps the occupation but feels all wrong for a prince. I mean, the thing about princes is they're born special, and the thing about Steve is there's nothing special about him (as far as he says), he's just a guy from Brooklyn. Closest thing to a prince the movie Avengers have is of course Tony, and I'm happy to put him in most any story.
... Clint makes an odd sort of prince too. I just keep thinking how cooped up he'd be in a role like that. Shooting things would not be a particularly helpful trait. Also, with an older brother, he'd be the spare. Good for treaty marriages, not so great for... him.
If I borrow some from ultimates (but not much because eeeew ultimates) then Tony can be the younger brother too. His kingdom would be heavily populated but importing most of its food. Their major concentration would be on technology, research, and education. My kingdom marrying the bread farmers would be to our mutual benefit, but wouldn't change much. Linking the turkey farms to the big city would benefit the city greatly, and in the best possible world give a better education to all our citizens, but would run the risk of draining off the brightest for better prospects. While I sympathise with anyone who looks at their farm and decides their life needs not even one more turkey, it wouldn't be great for the kingdom. Either kingdom, if things got too imbalanced. So it's a risky strategy, marrying the rich neighbours.
Also, on the one hand there's (sober) Clint, and on the other there's (epically not sober yet) Tony.
And any potential benefits would rely on either the death of their elder sibling without issue, something that can't even be hinted at in the planning stages when so much politics goes on knife first, or said elder sibling retaining some bond of affection for their relatives.
... yeah, that's... not the most reliable plan there.
They'd make a good pair of contrasting princes though. There's one dark and one blond, one all smiles and one with a default grumpy face of doom, one highly educated and one... more physical. But they'd also have similar temperaments in some respects. At least if fanfic Clint is anything to go by, and lets face it, fanfic Clint is the only one I know.
In your usual romance there's two contrasting guys, and one looks right but turns out to be flawed, and the other is hanging around being reliable and eventually wins. So if Clint is the one with me through thick and thin then Clint gets the girl at the end.
Except in this dream, we got to the Court Imperial, unsealed the treaty, and found that my parents had signed me over to the other Prince.
Clint looked me in the eyes and finally we kissed. ... a sort of song lyric kiss, first kiss goodbye.
We all knew our duty, so Clint wasn't going to risk kingdoms on romance. But he remained devoted to me.
Not being much for words he resorted to mangling quotes. "If by my life or death I can serve you, I will." And then he knelt to me and kissed my hand, and I took his hands between mine, accepting his oath of service.
He'd effectively just given up being a Prince to be my bodyguard, but he'd decided that suited him better anyway.
So then I had a whole other wedding to prepare for.
This was complex, and involved paying respect to the ceremonies of many countries and many intelligent species. Organising for the humans was a tall man with fox red hair, slightly curled, and a beard that really needed either a few more years or a lot more razor. His non-human counterpart was amiable enough, but the human representative seemed edgy around them. He made some comments focusing on racial differences and wondered aloud what it was like living as a... possibly not quite polite word for non-human. The non-human asked in turn what it was like living as a human, and fox hair admitted with a slant smile that it was impossible to convey.
I disagreed, and said so. Being human was like spending all your time in the library, while the other races had the playing fields.
Fox hair didn't much like that, but the emissary we were supposed to be pleasing liked it quite well.
The dream kind of skipped most of the actual ceremony. Blur to next major political scene, the feast after. Clint was missing, and someone served me and my new husband salad sandwiches, which was at least edible. Or so I thought. The first bite was subtly off, with an aftertaste I feared I recognised. I stopped my husband from even trying his and went to try and upchuck that first bite, but I was delayed when the fox haired man relayed my comments on humanity to the human Emperor. He asked for an explanation, though from the Imperial throne 'asked' has more weight than most men's 'demanded'. So I had to stand and orate on the topic.
We were in the great throne room, where certain magics were woven through it, to make communicatio easier. I asked for access to them, and he granted it, with a slight raised eyebrow. It was like a holodeck, or a symphony, something I could conduct to convey not just in words but in sights and sounds and feelings what these things meant to me. I showed them what a Library was to me, a place of quiet refuge, calm reflection, and unlimited possibility. Humans have no in built advantages. Centaurs run faster than human legs ever could, but they do it from shortly after birth. An avian spends their time growing into a body that will fly, if they put a bit of effort into it, and they enjoy that effort. All their special gifts come easy to the other races. Humans have to set their minds to it. But once they do, there is no achievement that is beyond them. We start with the Library, the whole of human history and achievement, and we build on it to become whatever we wish. We are the stars of the great powers, I say to the great hall, and illumine the Emperor to shine brightly among us. Then, diplomatically less bright, I light each individual, and show them each with vast expanse around them, then light it with distant other stars, that gradually come together, until the Emperor has whole constellations dancing attendance.
By the time I'm done, the perceived slight is well erased, and my mastery of the hall's magics well demonstrated. I let it go again and step back with a bow, feeling tired by the display, but also feeling very ill indeed from the delay.
Given the Emperor's leave to go, I left quickly and got as much of that poisoned bite out of my system as possible, but enough remained to make it a very bad day for me.
Clint was of course suspected, since who is actually nice enough to step aside and not marry their love? But I thought he was that nice, actually, so I went looking for him to rescue him, not for revenge as everyone expected.
My new husband accompanied me, and to do so had to clean himself up and demonstrate substantially more depth than had ever previously been apparent.
By the time we're all together again, I'd spent about the same length of time with both princes, and of course both were totally in love with me. The witnesses at the wedding were by then dead, being behind the poison plot. And the wedding was unconsummated.
So that left me with a choice again.
My kingdom being matrilineal, I had a better idea. It didn't matter to my lot who sired my kids, and my suitors, it had become clear, didn't matter enough to their brothers for the treaty thing to work right anyway. How about they both stick around?
I like it better than standard romance plots because there is in fact more than one Mr Right, and people can grow and surprise you when they need to.
I like it not so much because when one of the people that need to surprise you is an alcoholic, there's a lot of mileage to cover to get where they're at all helpful, and they can't do it with the expectation of getting the girl at the end.
So I reckon somewhere in the middle we find Clint, and there's a kiss, and Prince Tony reckons he's lost me to Clint and buggers off to head home. First stop the pub. But when he gets there, he just sits there and looks at the drink, and realises that what with one thing and another he has, since sobering up, had the most fun he's had in years. So the key, for him, is deciding to just not have that drink. Because of his own reasons.
then after that there can be Plot and Adventures and possibly it's his turn to need rescuing? and after that he can join the happy poly marriage, but only after he's sorted himself for himself.
quite a lot of that echoes a Tanya Huff book, but I liked it so that works.
It's a good plot for one of those travel guide fantasies, where you take a tour of the nations before achieving your goal. There's the contrast between home and the Court Imperial. there's the patchwork of other races, and different ways they get along within the different kingdoms of the empire. (if I'm drawing on Marvel there are a bunch of characters who could be considered not-human and borrowed for templates. and I can give Magneto his kingdom and his scattered peoples.) different scenery, lots of riding around, lots of travel time.
and then if everyone takes turns being rescued... hmmm, the first turn is for the princess, that won't work, I'd get fed up by that story long before it was anyone else's turn.
maybe it's more of a trial, and gathering allies along the way is the preferred method of passing it?
like, she's going to be Queen, she has to understand all the races of her subjects and be able to get along with them.
and then once she's done the Progress she needs to get to Court, but she'd need to cross other people's kingdoms first, and it's around then that things get hairy. so she's strong first, but then she needs more help, from Prince Clint.
and then they take turns saving each other.
I quite like this one today. this could totally get written up.
I'm not quite sure on Prince Clint though. I might need to change that for reasons other than serial number erasure. Doesn't have a regal ring to it.
... or, that could be an advantage.
*ponders*
on using pre-existing characters
Date: 2013-08-30 09:40 pm (UTC)I reflect on the fact that the generally frowny Clint is pretty much a movie thing, and may be a matter of the context we see him in the films. Comic-book Clint is a bit more rounded (and can even seem almost manic).
I was trying to think of other artist characters. DC fandom would probably grab Kyle Rayner from Green Lantern for the artist prince, though there a few characters from that company that would work.
But if you mung the character enough, it may be better to have Other Prince be 30% actual school friend and only 10% Tony just to fill in gaps. He is of course already 60% this prince concept from the dream, you see.
Re: on using pre-existing characters
Date: 2013-08-30 09:41 pm (UTC)