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Should I maybe pin these until DG can get to them, just so the oldest requests don't get lost?

You’ve hit the nail on the head as far as Clegane, I think. I can see him having that small remnant of what constitutes manners in Westeros, despite how much he loathes most of polite society (I harbor a suspicion he genuinely liked Arya and did not loathe Sansa). But among the wildlings, women are as fierce as the men, as Ygritte proved, and they take what they want just as easily, as Jon Snow learned.

Hello, Isolden, and thank you for your review! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it, and I’m so happy you feel it’s true to character. That the most important thing to me, so it feels great when someone says I got it right. The posting speed may slow down a little during the weekends when I work, but I’m usually free in the week, and the characters just keep yammering away in my head, making me write their words down in odd places, so… seems like it might well continue for a while yet. And although I’ve had to go out this morning, it looks like there’ll be another one by the end of the day, because I’m already on nearly 2000 words of that one. Again.. thank you!

Thank you for this too, Bronx! lol.. I don’t think Tormund could resist that little bit. I suspect Clegane’s dreams are going to be all Brienne, but with a bit of Tormund flavouring from now on As for her, I can’t help imagining that once she’d set her mind to achieving something, she’d just keep right on at it, no matter what. She’s very bright, and it won’t have escaped her attention that oral is a lot easier for them to give to her, but it also won’t have passed her by what a wonderful gift the previous night was. Especially since, despite the Tormund insanity in the morning, she’ll have been feeling pretty damn good about herself all day long. Ah, yes… he is rather special, isn’t he? It’s one of the things I love about his character. Every now and again, just when you think you’ve got him down, he turns around and surprises the hell out of you in wonderful ways. I liked that it happened here too.

Thank you! I’m especially glad you like this chapter, since it’s my favourite so far, even though Brienne’s not actually in it. After I’d written it, I did think about the placement of it, but then I reasoned that there’s a whole lot to get through, in what is really such a short space of time (I’m thinking they have a few weeks, at best), and really, the issues in it for Clegane needed to be faced early on. There is a growning respect between them, and I’m glad of it for Clegane’s sake, since the way he usually gains respect is by fear, and Tormund is not afraid of him at all. It’s a new thing for him, and I think he’s quite enjoying it, really, having a friend in Tormund, as well as a lover in Brienne. Of course, I’m glad it looks like there will be bits of slash content here and there, but I’m still not sure if that will ever go all the way. From the tv canon, I do interpret Tormund as that experienced. I think to him sex is a lot more casual, kind of a means to an end at times. But I also think that as long as Brienne’s around, that’s where he wants his dick to be, so Clegane’s quite safe, lol. As for the issues Clegane faces, I think here I came across a difference between the two of them. For all that Clegane is bitter and twisted, and for all of his encouragement of Arya when she was under his care, he’s part of a world where, deep down, a gentleman (if there is such a thing) doesn’t let a woman just walk into certain death. While Tormund… well. Tormund is from an entirely different world, really. Where men are men. Women are women. And small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri are… no, wait… sorry. He’s from a world where when trouble comes along, if a woman wants to pick up a weapon and walk into almost certain death, fighting, a man probably kind of looks on in sheer admiration for a few seconds before joining in wholeheartedly, hoping they’ll all make it out alive so they can have the chance to proposition her afterwards. It’s not that Clegane doesn’t respect Brienne, it’s that he does. He’s just a victim of his own culture, no matter how fucked up he is, somewhere it still has him in its grip. The more important she becomes to him, the more he’d to struggle with that, so in a way it’s good that Tormund has nipped it in the bud early.

“You’re such a good writer, I’d swer you’re a rapist!” Yeah, fuck you too.

Authors can never be redeemed because they’re the master villains

You’re cruising….

Well, that depends… what exactly do you expect to get from being redeemed? Absolution? I don’t have any kind of faith, so I’m afraid that’s out for me personally. *g* If a character has done bad stuff, there’s not much they can do about it but resolve to do better the next time that situation presents itself, but it’ll always be something they did. In terms of story, it’ll always be part of their background. It’ll be on their sheet, so to speak. And that’s not dissimilar to life. A blank slate is impossible. Forgiveness might be feasible, but then again in my eyes even that might not save a character. Say at some point in the past a character has committed a murder, or even some stupid petty crime like a theft. They might spend the rest of their lives (in the story) doing the right thing. They might do more good than all the other characters put together, but that initial crime is still impacting upon everything they do, not just altering them, but altering the whole storyline around them in its turn. And because of that, it’ll always come back to get them. Everything in a story is significant, even a dropped handkerchief. Going on from that, every action a character takes is significant, and redemption is a cheat. It’s an attempt to delete the handkerchief. It’s already written. It’s already done. There’s no changing it. There’s no escaping it. There’s only dealing with it and writing the consequences of it right up to the very end, whatever those consequences turn out to be. To redeem a character in those terms… impossible. It’s like Astinus says to Raistlin. You may as well throw a pebble into a fast flowing river. It changes nothing. History continues.

My characters better not if they know what’s good for them.