I hope the warning works because I don't know how to do it on tumblr
Some time ago, my friends and I discussed an AU (?) where Starscream could attend Megatron's performances as a gladiator in his youth, but I only got around to it now. Oh yeah, the violent middle aged thug and his two non cis fans (one will later become his husband and the second will become something like an adopted son)
Note: Megatron's mouth is bleeding because he bit someone's ear off, not because his teeth were knocked out. I think that's an important clarification, yeah
It was incredibly grating. He grimaced, squeezing his eyes closed harder before trying to blink them open. The brightness of the room made the back of his head throb furiously and his eyes water, but when he tried to bring a hand up to swipe the moisture away, his arm felt weak, his fingers still as unfeeling as carved wood.
The sound came again and it was on his right, just to the side of whatever bed he was laying on. He swung his gaze toward it carefully, trying not to move his head, and squinted, finally resolving some of the blurry details. He was both relieved and baffled to see Maekar’s bruised and scratched face.
“What are you doing here?” Baelor’s own voice scraped out of his dry throat, sounding slurred to his ears.
“Maester Yormwell let me in,” Maekar answered, lifting his mouth from the flagon in his hand, which was painted a strange shade of pink. He was sprawled in a chair at Baelor’s bedside, looking unreasonably pleased with himself.
Baelor stared at him confusedly. “Were you watching me sleep?”
“Well, dear brother, I only just arrived. I was going to leave, but then you woke. Seven gods, what’s your fucking problem?”
“Nothing. What’s your problem?” Baelor grumbled halfheartedly, head throbbing and vision blurring.
Maekar finally showed some familiar sign of irascibility, squinting at Baelor.
“Your giant guard dog of a hedge knight is my problem. He looked ready to bite my head off my shoulders every time I dared to walk past your doorway. I had to bribe Aegon and Daeron to distract him so I might have some fucking privacy to check you were alive with my own two eyes."
Maekar brought the flagon up for another insouciant slurp. "Other than that, not a care in the realm.”
Baelor huffed and looked away, up at the ceiling, vision clouded by a memory.
“I saw him, Maekar. The Stranger, as they took my crushed helm off. I saw him once before, in the aftermath of the Redgrass. I couldn’t tell what he was at the time because he was sitting, and his face was covered with blood and muck. I just thought he was a squire kneeling by the side of a dying knight. But I saw him again after the Trial, and he was kneeling next to me. I’m not supposed to be here.”
Maekar sighed, then nodded slightly. “You can blame me for that," He confessed. "It was my mace that cracked your head open like an eggshell, though I do not remember swinging the blow that did it.”
Baelor shrugged one shoulder against the pillows piled behind him.
“You would have done anything to get to your son’s side. You would do anything for him, full stop. I believe that is where this trouble with Aerion began.”
Chastened, Maekar leaned away and scowled. “Yes, well, now I’m banishing him to Lys. I hope that satisfies,” he said bitterly, more shame than bite in his tone.
Baelor did not answer at first, his thoughts still returning to that strange figure leaning over him in the gloom. Not Ser Duncan, he thought, whose arms he could almost still feel around him. The smaller figure on his other side, the thing with cold hands and sad eyes.
“I’m not supposed to be here,” Baelor murmured again.
Maekar sighed, then leaned forward and rose from his chair with a grunt. “I’ll come back on the morrow.”
“As you will,” Baelor replied absently.
“Don’t ever change, brother.” Maekar walked slowly out of the room, turning one last time to make a rude gesture with his hand as he backed through the doorway. Baelor weakly raised the same rude sign in reply, staring after him long after the door stood empty.
i’ve been working on this nonstop since RWD s3 ep8 dropped and i got to this scene (time stamp is 1:56:00) (i took liberties with the dialogue but y’know). i started working on it while finishing the episode so That Thing That Happened Later in Limbo happened right when i was already screaming at myself over posing/anatomy/perspective/all that technical stuff. devastating.
i would’ve had this done probably yesterday but i made a custom brush for the very first time for the beetle swarm and that took me an ENTIRE AFTERNOON so lol
i do not do a lot of digital art so the sheer number of things i learned doing this ONE comic page is...a lot. gratifying but also exhausting
anyway way back in s1 ep1 i didn’t think dani would be my favorite but she just keeps coming in clutch in just about every situation. dani supremacy
alt one liners i was considering for the final panel:
