- For some reason I fully believe George is slightly anal-retentive about his stuff. Like I just had a mental image of George’s room at the Dancing Dove being immaculately clean, and all of his goods, both stolen and legally owned, being organized in a precise and specific way. I’m not saying shrink wrapped or on display in a collector’s cabinet with special lighting, just normal stuff, but it’s very neat and there’s a system. It irritates George when people move his stuff around, and his friends did a lot of eye rolling as he yelled things like “These books have specific spots on the bookshelf, for the love of Mithros you can’t just jam them back in wherever!” at them.
- Alanna, on the other hand, is a bit of a slob. Her whole life she’s grown up with servants, and also her bio dad, brother, and adopted dad were all absent-minded professor types who surely left/leave books, papers, and supplies out haphazardly all over their respective offices. Page training forced Alanna to be much more organized, and of course she takes very good care of her armor and weapons, but when it comes to her everyday belongings she’s still a bit haphazard. When she first moved into the Swoop, George and Alanna sometimes argued about how exactly their shared room should look, but now they mostly have an equilibrium. Alanna is careful with George’s belongings and puts them back exactly. George refrains from comment about the stack of papers and books on her bedside table, or the fact that her trunk has a small layer of debris lining the bottom because she never fully cleans it after a trip. Occasionally when Alanna is teasing George and feeling petty she might move something, or even hide it, but these days its (mostly) all in good fun. When they first moved in together, knowing how George was and also having intimate knowledge of Alanna’s room as a squire, Jon was very amused by this dynamic and made it a point to ask them both how the transition was going a lot, struggling to keep a straight face.
- Despite what it may seem, Alanna really is ok with the fact that Aly is so close with George. When Aly became a teenager it was a more purposeful rejection of Alanna, and that hurt. But Alanna loved seeing little Aly love her Da so much, and her Da loving her back. Alanna didn’t have a good relationship with her father, so watching Aly and George bond felt like therapy sometimes. During the few times when Alanna was home and George was gone, Alanna would hear a knock at her door late at night, and Aly would come shuffling in, saying “I miss Da. I wish Da was home,” and Alanna would hold her close under the warm blankets and whisper back, “Me too, little one”. It made Alanna feel like she had picked right, that even during times she was angry with George, or uncertain about her life, at the base she had at least picked the right man to be the father to her children. Alanna was at least happy that she had succeeded at giving her daughter something Alanna had never had.
- George definitely took the lead on the day-to-day bits of parenting, and was the more full time parent, but there were some things Alanna had a better grip on than George. I imagine that outside of his forays into crime, George was actually a pretty well behaved child. I would bet that Eleni needed to be working a lot of the time to keep them afloat and that while she was working George was expected to be quiet and keep to himself. Whereas Alanna and Thom, protected by being nobles, obviously spent their childhoods getting into trouble. I feel like there had to be many times when Aly and Alan did something completely outrageous and Alanna had to reassure George that they weren’t budding sociopaths. “Oh please, Thom and I used to light things on fire all the time! It’s normal, just send Aly and Alan to their room. Oh, be sure to take the flint and steel away before you do though”.
- George is obsessed with books. Books were absolutely a luxury in medieval times, and being able to read and write was a huge status symbol, which is why Eleni notes that people thought “[Eleni] thought [herself] better than they were, because [she] kept her home and [her] child as clean as may be and taught him his letters” (Terrier, pg. 2). Eleni taught George to read, but I can’t imagine they had many books, and if they had any they were probably tomes about healing, not fun reads. I have to think, someone as smart and interested in the world as George is, he must have thirsted for books. I think that when he got into thievery he either stole books as well, or used the money he got to buy them right away. Other thieves probably teased him about it, but George paid them no heed. As an adult he takes great satisfaction in his library, growing it constantly. As a parent nothing pleases him more than giving his children books. George doesn’t want his kids to grow up soft and spoiled like other nobles, he tries very hard to teach them the difference between “want” and “need”, to teach them the value of hard work, to teach them gratitude. But when it comes to putting books in their hands all that goes out the window and he indulges them endlessly. He even makes them their own stories and books, like Aly’s Guide for a Young Spy. Studies in general, George was willing to spare no expense to ensure his children got the best tutors in almost every subject. He is intensely proud of Thom for how well he’s doing at university, and Alan’s reports home saying his schoolwork is more than satisfactory.
- Speaking of Thom, that was a rough transition for George. George doesn’t have magic, and had basically no formal education. At some point in his education, Thom will definitely far surpass what George can comprehend. When his wife talks magic with Numair past what George understands, he feels only pride and love for her before he turns his attention elsewhere. When Thom does it, George starts to feel like he’s losing him. Thom used to think George knew everything, and now his father can barely understand a word when Thom talks about his classes. For a little bit George has no idea what to do, he never wants Thom to feel badly about succeeding, but George starts to dread talking to Thom about school (although he’s still immensely proud of his son’s accomplishments). George tries to swallow the feeling, but he can’t. He starts trying to teach himself magical theory from his wife’s books, although he can hardly make head nor tail of it, which only makes the feeling worse. One day Alanna catches him trying to teach himself, and although George tries to lie she persists in asking him, “What are you doing?” and he finally confesses his fears about never being able to hold a real conversation with his son again. After comforting him, Alanna promises to help. She starts bridging conversations, taking a long complicated thing that Thom has said and replying, “So you’re practicing two types of basic transmutation magic for the next few weeks, then moving on to a more advanced theory?” and George starts to feel like he can follow along again. Also, as time goes on and the experience isn’t so fresh and new, Thom wants breaks from school when he talks to his family. He seeks his father out for advice on everything from friends, to living in Corus. Every time Thom finds him alone and says sheepishly, “Hey Da, can I ask you something?” George feels more foolish for his fears of irrelevancy.
*ok, these are headcanons, not facts. But these started coming to me and they felt right, but I wanna discuss/debate them with people in order to fully flesh them out. Please feel free to agree or disagree with me and then tell me about it.
“Oh please George it’s no big deal Thom and I used to set stuff on fire all the time and we both turned out perfectly – hey, don’t give me that look!”
“Alanna… sweet… what starts with ‘n’ and ends with ‘ecromancy’?”Alanna:…
Alanna: One time!
George: *throws his hands up in the air, leaves room immediately*
Facts* About Alanna/George
Published
what i do is not up to you 