hillary schuster

hillary, she/her, chicago dweller, designer, coffee drinker, popculture obsesser, sketcher, fandom geek, recovering engineer, amateur writer, cat owner, beer lover, wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend. this is a place for me to post art and writing. mostly fan art and writing. mostly fan art and writing about Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister.

[hillaryschu]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

I finally posted my modern baths fic if anyone is interested in checking out (it’s first full thing I've written since last year's summer exchange).  Summary: Brienne accidentally takes Jaime somewhere super sexy for his birthday and they realize it's actually what they both want. A trip to a modern bathhouse.

[hillaryschu]

Hey! Decided to plunge into your 90s playlist, and wow, the nostalgia is wonderful! Thanks for sharing that! 💖💖💖

Wait, which is that? What’s it called? The Jaime 80s/90s one? Or a different one (I feel like all I have is 90s playlists)

[hillaryschu]

WIP Meme

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs (I’m not going to do this—surely everyone in the fandom has been tagged already).

I got tagged by @catherineflowers29 and @theunpaidcritic.

Pretty sure Catherine tagged me in the same thing last time, in which basically nothing has changed.​

I don’t really have a WIP folder so much as one MASSIVE single note with lists and text snippets and links and all sorts of shit. There’s a list of 54 ideas that haven’t been started at all.

All of my WIP drawings just live in Procreate. My WIP writing is either in notes or in Google Drive—it’s all over the place. I’ll add a link below if I’ve shared anything about the WIP before.

WIP DRAWINGS

J/B in canon

Nik hawaiian shirt (this drawing is a lot further along since I shared last)

Nik laying in flowers (I don’t think this is any further along than the link)

ACTUAL WRITING WIPs

Brienne dancing (turn into a ficlet?)

modern au - OCEANS - in the car, the wedding

Three Cats and a Lion - night 1 and night 19

Tell Me It’s Real - fix it - here, here, and here

resort reunion (turn into a ficlet?) - see more here and here

Modern baths - I talk about it here, here, and here (oh, and here)

Rocks of Tarth (turn into a ficlet?)

FICS WITH MORE DEVELOPED NOTES

Felicity pilot AU

J/B play a game of HORSE (basketball) - one-shot or ficlet

college meet cute - J/B from Margaery POV

Pacey/Joey

BONUS FROM NOT-YET-STARTED LIST OF 54 IDEAS so many of them make no sense at this point--months after I came up with the ideas

Halloween - Jaime as Egg on the Calculator (Aegon the Conqueror)

My Aaron Pedersen story

waiting around for people to fall in love with her

[hillaryschu]

WIP Wednesday: the sketch that never ends

I haven’t done anything in fandom in months but I just slowly started reading some stuff again and I just picked this drawing back up (working on B’s arm). I hope to actually (for real--honestly, I mean it) complete it soon. 

I saw that I’ve been tagged on here on Tumblr a few times recently. Sorry if I missed doing any memes or anything. Maybe I still will--I love that I’m thought of--thank you, friends. I’m getting a little burned out on my fandom replacement (i.e. playing the app/game Redecor) so we'll see what happens. In addition to uncompleted art, I also have SO MUCH wip writing. I could use some motivation to return to it.

[hillaryschu]

fan art: come away with me

here’s some jaime/brienne fanart that I gifted to jencat on AO3 ( @it-may-be-dull-but-im-determined​ here on tumblr), and a little blurb I wrote to go with it. She prompted the song Come Away With Me by Norah Jones, and the lyrics made me think of Tarth.

Come away with me in the night Come away with me And I will write you a song

Come away with me on a bus Come away where they can't tempt us, with their lies

And I want to walk with you On a cloudy day In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high So won't you try to come

Come away with me and we'll kiss On a mountaintop Come away with me And I'll never stop loving you

And I want to wake up with the rain Falling on a tin roof While I'm safe there in your arms So all I ask is for you To come away with me in the night Come away with me

- Norah Jones

When Jaime had suggested this spontaneous trip, Brienne hadn’t thought it out of the ordinary—her best friend was always coming up with big plans and wild ideas. She hadn’t anticipated that it could potentially change everything.

“Come away with me,” Jaime had said during a shared lunch break, leaning across the small table filled with Brienne's large Niçoise salad and his overflowing plate of nachos.

“What?”

“Come away with me. During the break between Sevenmas and the New Year.”

“I was going to clean and organize my kitchen pantry,” she replied, postponing her inevitable acceptance. She almost never said 'no' to Jaime.

“Yes, yes, I’m well aware. I’d like to think that spending a week with me in some exotic locale would be preferable to labeling your dry goods.”

“Come with you where?” she pressed, tilting her head to the side, voice resigned. Spending a week with Jaime was, most definitely, more exciting than the chores she had planned but it was also more difficult, seeing as she’d been basically in love with him for over two years now.

“I don’t know. Tarth?”

“I’m sorry, so you want to come away with me?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes, exactly—you get it. I’ll buy the tickets. We can leave in the evening on Sevenmas.” With that decided, he shoved a tortilla chip in his mouth.

It’s a digital drawing in Procreate on the iPad (you can click the images to enlarge and see better). Jaime is based on NCW but Brienne is based on the model Kelly Mittendorf. I played around a little with hand-lettering to see how that worked.

you can find it on AO3 here, if you want to give it a comment or kudos.

[hillaryschu]

7 sentence tag

Tagged by @virareve

Rules: If you’re tagged, post the last 7 sentences of the last WIP you worked on and tag 7 more people to keep the challenge going, if you’d like. I’m not going to do this part because I’m doing this way after the fact. I’m sure everyone is over it but I promised I’d do it.

I really haven’t written at all lately. I’ve taken notes on fics but haven’t strung any words together until today. This was written in bits and spurts while the kids drove me up the wall and Iaid in bed with a sore back. This will probably be rewritten but it’s seven sentences from an update to my Modern Baths WIP (which I shared a bit of here and here).

They slowly submerge themselves in the warm, glowing pool. Brienne dips back and flattens out her body. There was a small part of her that thought maybe she’d sink because she’s so solid, but as claimed, the water keeps her floating along the surface. 

There is some otherworldly music playing--it sounds like something from a dramatic science fiction movie--and Brienne brings her ears back above the surface of the water to confirm that it’s just being piped under the water. She closes her eyes and just lets it all overtake her; the warmth of the water, the serene music, the feeling of weightlessness. She feels like she’s drifting through space and is just starting to calm her feelings down when she collides with another body.

She quickly gains her footing and is about to apologize when she realizes it’s Jaime.

[hillaryschu]

Blue Lagoon Jaime and Brienne (posted for @jaimebrienneonline). I paid for a year of this dumb app because this one made me laugh so much. HMU if there are any others that the people need to see.

[hillaryschu]

Resort reunion for the wips, please!

I really have very little of this written. I posted most of what I have once before (including the mood board above which is shockingly similar to one @ddagent​ did). Mostly the idea struck me because I’ve stayed at some all-inclusive resorts and I can just imagining being in a sem-contained situation with an ex- or something like that.

I don’t exactly know where it goes from the intro, but I have a bunch of notes jotted down that go over the course of a few days and outline what happens real-time vs. before. I picture the whole thing taking place at sort of a combination of a bunch of the places I’ve stayed or visited in Jamaica (Grand Palladium, Alfred’s Ocean Palace, Kuyaba, and Rockhouse, which I had lunch at but have always wanted to stay at), despite the initial vibe of the moodboard being way more LA. 

[hillaryschu]

I'm intrigued by you Modern Baths idea and I'd love to find out more!

I shared this before, but I’ve been to Aire Ancient Baths here in Chicago and it’s sexy AF. I have this idea of J & B going there, kind of accidentally because Brienne doesn’t know what it’s like, and the vibes turn their mutual pining to boning (not at the baths obvi).  I shared a bit of the beginning, here, and TBH haven’t gotten too much further. Here’s one more quick little bit:

Brienne had felt like she was being played but had let Sansa drag her along to the mall anyway. Being off-season, there weren’t a ton of choices. She ended up settling on a sapphire blue two-piece with high-waisted bottoms and a full-coverage top with a low scoop neck and strappy back.

Now in the locker room, Brienne scrambles to tie the back of the top and throw on her spa-issued robe and weird bath socks. She lets Missandei know that she’s ready to head to the baths.

The pretty, petite woman leads Brienne through a door at the back of the locker room, and, well…

Fuck.

The space is dark and cavernous. The walls are all made of well-worn brick, seemingly left over from whatever warehouse or factory that the building once served as. Chic wooden grates cover the windows and there are exposed industrial support beams throughout the space. Ceramic urns line the walls and candles sit on every possible surface.

The pools glow a soft turquoise—looking like something from a different world. A place where everything is quiet and calm, beautiful and perfect. She feels so out of place she wants to scream.

Right before quarantine, two of my girlfriends from HS were supposed to come down to Chicago and the idea was to go to Aire AND King Spa, the giant Korean spa in the ‘burbs. A little high-low. Which, doing a series of J and B accidently get sexy at spas would be kind of funny. The Korean spa is hilarious and fun but decidedly not sexy. (also: swimsuit reference)

[hillaryschu]

Oooh, Felicity pilot sounds intriguing 🙂

I love the very first scene in Felicity where she’s pontificating on the end of high school and then she gets her crush Ben (who she’s never really talked to) to sign her yearbook. He writes a very personal/deep message and she’s floored.

Anyway, I started thinking about this as J/B and initially thought of Brienne as Felicity but then, as I was watching the rest of the episode (for the umpteenth time), I was thinking that they could both map to either character depending on the specific trait. I ended up deciding to do more of a gender swap kind of thing, where Jaime is in the lead role.

I can’t decide exactly what I want to do with the idea, though. I definitely want that first set-up of the yearbook and J following B across the country to college. But then…I’m not sure if I want to do just the initial set up or expand on it with my own story or do a close mimic of the first episode. I’d call it A New Version of You (if not already taken) after the opening credit theme song (s3 and on).

This is how I’d map the characters:

Felicity —> Jaime Ben —> Brienne Julie —> Addam or Oberyn Noel —> Cersei or Melara or Elia  Meghan —> Sandor Sean —> Cat Sally —> Arthur Dayne

If I think there’s any chance I’d extend it into a series (doubtful), I’d for sure do Oberyn for Julie and then Addam would be Elena. Also, I’d maybe reconsider Cat/Sandor because Meghan and Sean get together. Although, of course, I could change anything I want.

Look, all I know is that Javier would be Davos.

[hillaryschu]

I have a soft spot for any outsider pov, so the Meet Cute please? 🥺☺️

So, it’s a Margaery POV that’s a bit built on my own college experience at a big state school. In it the Marg POV is kind of mine, playing off some memories from freshman year: meeting my college roommate for the first time (which will be the Brienne role) and then meeting my buddy Alan (that’ll be Jaime). I don’t have a full plot at all, just that sort of Marg first impression of her roommate Brienne (which, in reality, for me was WAY off the mark) and then the meet-cute part (which is Jaime coming to B and M’s dorm looking for Tyrion--in reality Alan had been looking for a German exchange student he “misplaced”). Writing Margaery will be kind of tough, I think. I imagine her a little faux sage-like--kind of like Jane Austen’s Emma. I shared this on here on Tumblr already, I think, but this is the vibe of the beginning. I think it’s missing a sentence or phrase between the two, but you get the picture.

Everyone keeps asking me why I would want to go to state school. But it's precisely this: the rich tapestry of humanity does not exist at a school only for rich white people.  

[hillaryschu]

WIP sampler basket: a meme for people with too many WIPS!

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and interests you and I’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it!

Tagged by @catherineflowers29.

It’s sad, because I’ve only ever posted four fics but I still have a good handful of WIPs. I’m just generally more of an ideas person, I guess. A couple of these are older than the pieces I’ve actually shared. Thinking off making a few of them just ficlets and starting one story for them.

ACTUAL WIPS

Tell Me It’s Real (fix it)

modern au (car ride)

Brienne dances (turn into a ficlet?)

Three Cats and a Lion

resort reunion (turn into a ficlet?)

modern baths 

Rocks of Tarth (ficlet?)

FICS WITH MORE DEVELOPED NOTES

Felicity pilot AU

J/B play a game of HORSE (basketball) - on-shot or ficlet

college meet cute - J/B from Margaery POV

WIP DRAWINGS

J/B in canon 

Nik hawaiian shirt

Nik laying in flowers

I have a list of 40+ fic and drawing ideas. If only I had the time. I wish I was a faster/better sketcher. There’s so many scenes in y’alls fics that I’d love to make come to life. I have such vivid images of some off them. Someday. Tagging @seaspiritwrites because it doesn’t look like she’s done it but also I bet she has, like, no WIP. 😂 I’ll also tag @virareve who tagged me in something I haven’t done (yet). 😉

[hillaryschu]

Digital drawing of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Quick digital drawing of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (using Procreate), based on this photo.

[hillaryschu]

last line: modern baths WIP

@dame-lazarus tagged me to post the last line I wrote from any WIP and then tag as many people as there are words*.

From the modern baths AU I’ve been sitting on for awhile.

It’s unreasonable and she’s going to leave a bad review for the place if she doesn’t die from embarrassment before the night is through.

*My line is WAY too long and I am sure everyone has already been tagged. If you haven’t, please consider this me tagging you.

[hillaryschu]

Right of the Bat baseball cards

I finally finished the baseball cards that I wanted to do for my exchange fic. It's only like a month too late! I ended up doing their ex-pro cards instead of Little League cards because I wanted them in action/in gear. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

This was for Right Off the Bat, the Jaime/Brienne x baseball x You’ve Got Mail AU that @the-world-unseen​ literally asked for).

[hillaryschu]

lasts/currently

I was tagged by @halcyon-red and @the-world-unseen. Rules: tag nine people you want to get to know better or catch up with, then answer these questions.

Three ships:

1) Jaime x Brienne, ASOIAF/GoT - never have I shipped this hard. I’m a regular shipper but usually not as intense as this. I’ve never written fanfic before J/B (with one exception*), only read it. 2) Pacey x Joey 3) Buffy x Spike (Katniss x Peeta, Felicity x Ben, I could probably go on and on...trying to think if I ever shipped anything NOT canon...).

Last song: Not really sure. I can’t even think what the last playlist I played was (probably a lullaby playlist to get my kids to calm the fuck down). I don’t really listen to new music like I used to. I generally just put on one of my own playlists (most often this J/B inspired/adjacent one or my sexy mix). 

Last movie: The literal last movie I watched was The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars. My life is a non-stop party, y’all. But for real, that shit is terrible. 💯 do not recommend. I think the last movie I watched that was NOT a kids’ movie was Austenland, which I hadn’t seen before and absolutely loved. Before that, I think it was The Sunlit Night.

Currently craving: Food-wise: hmm...either a patty melt and fries or shitty American beef tacos. More high level: quiet. Alone-time. God, what I’d pay to have a day alone in my house, sans kids/huz. I could write fanfic, watch some tv, take a nap, eat whatever I want without it being stolen...

Currently reading: J/B fanfic, my friends. That’s literally it. I keep meaning to read some other stuff, but, yeah. I only have so much emotional energy to give. I’m waiting for new chapters of The Ties that Bind (@eryiscrye) and would bake a 2-layer cake for @ddagent if she’d do more podcastverse. Othewise, I’m making my way through my Marked for Later and the exchange fics. Adding last photo of me just to have something visual. Tagging: Lol, I have no idea who has been tagged or who wants to do this. I’ll tag the two people mentioned above (@eryiscrye and @ddagent), and...@seaspiritwrites, @ajoblotofjunk, @brynnmck, @tall-wolf-of-tarth, @it-may-be-dull-but-im-determined​, @aliveanddrunkonsunlight, @twelvemonkeyswere * I wrote a tiny continuation one-shot from the My So-Called Life finale where Angela came back to talk to Brian after riding off with Jordan.

[hillaryschu]

WIP Wednesday - NCW digital sketch

Here is a little sketch I’ve been working on this week. I have the background done except for Nik himself, but I might change it up - desaturate it a bunch to be more like my last Gwen drawing. Either that or get rid of the lines in the background so it looks more hazy/painterly.