A Vicious, Vengeful Sea
is an A Song of Ice and Fire fanfic by kenniiohontesha. A Modern AU Fic with the twist that it's set in a version of Westeros with 21st century technology rather than the real world, it follows Wylla Manderly as she attempts to piece together what exactly happened to Jeyne Poole and Theon Greyjoy during their imprisonment at the hands of infamous Serial Killer Ramsay Bolton.
Provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: Cersei Lannister's only appearance is as a Goop-esque figure who appears on morning shows to promote her juice cleanses with no indication she has commited any crimes.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Wylla Manderly, who hasn't been onscreen in ASoIaF long enough to show any interest in any one, is in this fic disappointed when she finds out Asha is engaged to a man.
- Amoral Attorney: Baelish is Ramsay's lawyer, and his entire strategy boils down to "Paint the teenaged Sex Slave as an unstable addict who took advantage of her rapist". Later chapters reveal he's the one who sold her to Ramsay in the first place.
- Blaming the Victim: Baelish's entire defense strategy at Ramsay's trial is to present Jeyne as a drug-addicted temptress who willingly became Ramsay's Sex Slave for money.
- Bland-Name Product: The fic uses a lot of Westeros-inspired names for things, Including Meraxes as a car manufacturer, WheelHaus as an Uber-like app, and Vhaegarade as Gatorade.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: One of Asha's chapters describes the only things she cared about at 16 as "Lhazareen thrash metal, the Islandic Separatist Movement and the eating disorder she had developed".
- Butt-Monkey: Asha first describes Tris as "horny and socially inept", and his entire portrayal is of a guy who's fundamentally decent, but kind of an idiot and the butt of every joke.
- Covered with Scars: Theon's body is absolutely covered in scars from being tortured for months.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Asha has cerebral palsy, and uses crutches to walk in this canon. She's based on one of the author's friends.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Ironborn and Northerners are both written as being based on various First Nations cultures, rather than Vikings and Medieval Europe. The fic uses descriptions of traditional regalia and facial tattooing in the worldbuilding, and the treatment of the Ironborn by the mainland (being blamed for their own oppression, being portrayed as if they should be "grateful" for colonization), is directly based on Anti-Native racism.
- Forced Addiction: Jeyne Poole is forcibly addicted to heroin by the men who traffic her to Ramsay Bolton to control her. In the trial against Bolton, Baelish uses her addiction to undermine her credibility as a witness.
- Flaying Alive: Ramsay maintains his propensity for flaying people, at one point even flaying some of Theon's tattooes off.
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: In-universe version. Asha is treated as an amazing inspiration by most of the adults in her childhood for being a smart girl with cerebral palsy. She resents it a lot.
- Interrupted Suicide: Theon tries to kill himself on livestream using sleeping pills a few months after Ramsay's trial because he doesn't think he'll ever recover. Jeyne finds him passed out and calls the hospital.
- Mega Meal Challenge: Tris completed one called the "Lost Light Leviathan", which is "Squid rings around a lobster tail inside clam chowder in, like, an egg-in-a-hole format inside a tuna steak inside a swordfish steak inside a whole albacore". It tated disgusting, but he wasn't going to turn down the potential of that much free seafood.
- Parental Favouritism: Asha got a lot more attention and praise from Balon when she and Theon were kids, both because she's very good at academics, and because her disability means she needs a lot more care.When she wasn't being fawned over she was being celebrated.
- Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: Both Jeyne and Theon are covered in scars after being imprisoned and tortured. Jeyne is coping better, and also looks much better physically.
- Platonic Life-Partners: When Wylla is confused about if Jeyne and Theon are a couple, Asha tells her not to think too much about it. It works, and that's all that matters.
- Playing with Syringes: Ramsay's tortures are frequently described as "amateur surgeries". We don't get a ton of the details, but Jeyne and Theon are both sterile, and Theon ends up with severe enough brain damage to affect his ability to speak.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Roose and Ramsay are both Andal supremacists: Roose is obsessed with Andal cultural heritage and opposes Northern Cultural Revival, in addition to belonging to multiple Andal-supremacist/anti-Ironborn Facebook groups. Ramsay sterilizes Theon and Jeyne to keep them from reproducing.
- Race Lift: Notherners and Ironborn are both made into Fantasy Counterpart Cultures for First Nations people. Wylla and Jeyne met as kids at a cultural symposium which is described as having traditional dances and regalia.
- Real Men Can Cook: Tris is really into grilling fish with incredibly masculine posture. Noone is impressed, and Asha even calls him from in her bedroom to tell him he's doing it wrong rather than come outside.
- Serial Killer: Ramsay was already built on a lot of serial killer tropes like Hunting the Most Dangerous Game, but the modern setting makes it explicit. An author's note even calls the Boltons "Robert Pickton Looking asses".
- Sex Slave: Jeyne is trafficked and ends up enslaved by Ramsay for both rape and torture. Unlike in canon, Ramsay is also sharing her with his friends, and explicitly raping Theon as well.
- Stupid Evil: Ramsay is caught primarily because he posts a picture of one of Theon's tattooes flayed off to his shock site. Said tattoo is literally the Greyjoy symbol, and is therefore very easily identifiable.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Balon's Rebellion is turned into an insurgency against the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, which ends when the Northern government resorts to missile strikes. Asha and Euron both ran for Counsellor on independence platforms, and while Euron won he's still described as a terrorist.
