u/MajesticFan4

Toying around with an AU where the tourney of Harrenhal is pushed back 2-3 years. In this timeskip, Aerys and Rhaegar's relationship devolves even further. Aerys keeps pressuring him and Elia to have another kid, even going so far as to imply that if Rhaegar doesn't do it then Aerys will give her a child himself. He also keeps Rhaenys secluded and away from her family just as he does Viserys. Rhaegar begrudgingly agrees, but after Elia is pregnant, takes her and his kids to Dragonstone (Aerys releases Rhaenys after Elia's announcement). Elia is very weak and dies in childbirth. I haven't decided what path i'm going to go with the baby.

This enforces Rhaegar's anger and is the final nail in the coffin for his coup idea. He collaborates with Doran and Oberyn to get Aerys off the throne, and they use the same poison that Tywin consumes in canon. Aerys dies and this cements Rhaegar's bonds with her brother and keeps Dorne firmly in the fold and allies. He invites Doran to be his hand, Arianne to be a lady-in-waiting to Rhaenys, and later on will have Viserys squire under Oberyn while away on sea adventures.

Rhaella also dies giving birth to Daenerys.

When Harrenhall rolls around, Rhaegar is widowed. He's a little depressed and pursues Lyanna strictly because of the prophecy. This of course, pisses off the Baratheons but doesn't cause a rebellion. Jon is born legitimately between Lyanna and Rhaegar.

The Targs

• Lyanna v Rhaenys- Rhaenys doesn't have the best relationship with Lyanna and Jon. She never fully accepts Lyanna. Fully steps into her role as crown princess and runs things after her mom passes away. Is reluctant to give any inches to Lyanna and there are constant power struggles between the two.
• Rhaenys' prospects-- Rhaegar betroths Rhaenys to Tyrion (or another Lannister) in an attempt to smooth things over with Tywin. She doesn't want to marry him at all though. Wants to marry Viserys. The two get along great and when he leaves to squire, they constantly write to one another. She plans on being with him somehow.
• The eggs-- Viserys gets the three dragon eggs on one of his voyages with Oberyn. He doesn't hatch them like he hoped, but I think i'll still have Dany hatch them.
• Jon-- still feels very much like a outsider. His mom is isolated and he doesn't appreciate that. Aegon is friendly towards him but Jon is jealous of him a little. Rhaenys treats Jon like he's not part of the main family. Unsure of what his bond with Rhaegar will be like.

Starks

• Brandon and Catelyn marry and have 2 daughters: Sansa and Arya. Their marriage is cold but dutiful. Brandon finds her too southern and proper. He also quitely resents her never giving him sons. Often strays from their bed and ends up giving Barbrey Dustin 5 bastard sons.
• Ned--marries Ashara Dayne and has 3 sons: Robert, Brandon, and Rickon. Their marriage also isn't the best after a while. She hates the North and doesn't enjoy being a mother as much as she thought she would. Experienced post-partum after Bran and Rickon. Feels trapped in her marriage and eventually leaves for back home. She still writes to her sons constantly and sends them gifts, and even invites them to come visit her family home when they're of age.
• Ned and Catelyn-- grow close over the years. Ned helps Brandon run the House and is a great-uncle to Sansa and Arya. Held his brother accountable for his activities with Barbrey and condemned him. Catelyn adores Ned's sons and often steps in where Ashara fell short. Their kids were incredibly close, as were Ned and Catelyn. The two have much fondness and respect for one another but would never act on anything.
• Powerstruggle-- Sansa is logically next in line but the North has never has a woman ruler really. Her looking and acting Southern doesn't help. And the fact that Brandon has five bastard sons that look exactly like him, are charming and diplomatic, and embody the North, scares Catelyn for Sansa. She could engage her to Robb but since he's so close to them and already vouches for Sansa, marrying them could be wasting the oppurtunity to gain another ally. I think I might engage Jon to her.

As far as the other houses like Baratheon and Lannister, I don't have any concrete ideas on what I want to do with them and am open to suggestions. As well as opinions on that i've already came up with.

Basically the title. With Rhaenys and Viserys being the top rival claimants, a Rhaenyra/Laenor match makes sense no matter which way the Council goes. in the event that Rhaenys’ line wins, Laenor would be her heir. He’s wed to Rhaenyra but is still gay and possible infertile.

If their marriage played out similar, how do you think Corlys and Rhaenys would’ve reacted? Would they have put a stop to her and Harwin procreating sooner? Would they try her for treason and disown the sons? Would they simply engage kids to Laena‘s and call it a day? Or something else maybe.

In this scenario, Viserra survived. She married Manderly and gave him one son named Aerys, and he passed away less than two years later. No foul play was involved, and she immediately came back to court with her son. While in court, she and Otto caught each other's eyes. Both were moderately ambitous, had mutual respect for one another, and just a decent bond. After the passing of Otto's wife (they didn't have any children together here), their bond turned romantic, and they wedded. It wasn't a lovey-dovey marriage but they were very compatible, in tune, and just understood each other.

Viserra already had Aerys, and with Otto she welcomed Alicent, Gwayne, and two other sons.

How would this change things? Not just events, but characters, dynamics, etc?

What is instead of having a son and a daughter, Corlys and Rhaenys had two daughters: Laena and Eleanor. Eleanor keeps Laenor's same personality and struggles with sexuality.

Would the Velaryons have had more success with making one of them queen if they had two girls, or would they have both gotten turned down? With a marriage to the heir not being possible, waht family do you think Elaenor would've been forced to marry into? How would Corlys' game plans change? Would he accept defeat and stay out of the politics, try to push for Daemon, align himself with Alicent's kids in exchange for engagements? Who does Rhaenyra end up marrying and how does that change things?

What if Rhaenyra kept all her canon children (bar Visenya), but they just happened to be born girls?

What would've changed about how Rhaenyra went about things? How would she raise and prepare daughters vs sons? Do you think Laenor would've had the same bond with them? Would her relationship with Alicent and her siblings change for better or worse? How would the kids' personalities change and the dynamics between the strong girls and the Targtowers? What are the Velaryons gonna do?

Hello! graduated with a bio degree in 2024. was able to land a job somewhat in the field a couple of months ago but am now about to go back and further my education.

The top three I am interested in are nursing, medical lab science, and sonography. I keep bouncing back and forth though.

for nursing, it seems to have the best job availability out of the three, offers a comfortable salary, and I’m confident I can get into programs. It’s very flexible as a career and has broad opportunities. The whole reason I’m going back to school is because I want something that has steady job availability and pays decent, and nursing seems like a no-brainer for that. Not to mention, I originally chose my major because I wanted to be a healthcare provider and I can still do that here. I’m just worried because I hear so many bad things about nursing in the healthcare system in general. I don’t want to get the degree, and then hate it so much that it becomes a waste. I have worked with nurses before as a CNA, but watching the work is not the same as doing the work and I realize there might be a wide gap.

for sonography, it has a very good wage and less stress. has patient interaction, but not constant stimulation. My boyfriend‘s grandmother has been a sonographer for decades and highly recommends it. I’m unsure how hard the program is, but I know they’re a whole lot more competitive than the nursing programs in my area. It seems like it has pretty good job availability, though not as good as nursing.

for MLS, the pay seems good and I have a strong background of science courses from my degree. I’ve always enjoyed my labs, and did want to pursue something in that field, although I did want it to be more geared towards research. The program seems a lot more rigorous than nursing from what I’ve heard (I’ve never heard it compared to medical school on multiple occasions). It also doesn’t have any patient interaction. I wouldn’t call myself of people person but I have learned throughout working at the hospital as a CNA and at a nursing home briefly after graduating high school, that I do find some patient interaction meaningful. MLS just seems very solitary and while I’m fine with that for a job, I’m unsure that’s something I want in a career. My own Lab job right now is very tedious and confined (it doesn’t help that I work the night shift) and a big reason I’m able to pass the time and not go completely bored and up a wall is because there’s little supervision so I’m able to watch videos or play a podcast on my phone sometimes while I do my tests. I’m sure MLS would have more oversight.

I’m unsure which one of these to go with. Any advice would be much appreciated 💗.

Hello! graduated with my bachelors in biology in 2024. The job search has been rough and I had started applying to nursing and mls programs before I got my current job.

Im a QA lab specialist. make abt $23/hr and have been here for only like a month. Also, I live in North Carolina for some context. it’s very easy and good way to gain experience. it’s a very decent wage for me right now, but I’m unsure abt it as a career. especially in today’s economy. I’ve been doing some research on the field and position, and there aren’t that many openings. the ones I do see pay like $26/hr and require like 5 yrs of experience. the only real growth I see is as a supervisor which requires 7-10yrs of experience. I haven't seen a lot of openings for those positions either and they don’t post their salary so I really don't know as much as I would like to abt it.

I will have to move out of my parents house soon and it’s making me a lot more anxious about salary. I’ve been thinking about going back for my nursing degree or maybe medical laboratory science, but I want to do more research before that.

Any advice for been in a similar position? And for those who were able to find a job within their field, what do they do now, what is the name of your the availability like, and what is the pay like?

Hello! Some background that I'll try to make as quickly as possible. When I was younger, I originally wanted to be a nurse, a midwife specifically, but family and other adults in my life said I was "too smart" for that and "everyone is becoming a nurse.". Convinced me that I should be a physician, so upon graduating, I chose biology and intended to pursue medicine. Quickly found out that it wasn't for me. Also had some anxiety and depression and didn't perform well in my first semester, and was advised by my advisors that I probably should think of other career paths. Was aimless for awhile then during my last semester, I got into a lab under one of my professors. Quickly found out that I enjoyed it. Became excited again for the first time in a long time. I planned to spend my next semester there exploring that path fully since it wasn't on my radar before. But I got the news that I was good to graduate in a week for the ceremony and decided to pack up and move back home (which was probably a bad choice in hindsight).

I struggled to get a job in a lab or any research role for like a year and a half. During that time, I worked as a CNA in med/surg and didn't like it. I had decent interactions with my patients and most nurses, but I just felt like what they asked didn't match the pay, and didn't like the unit. When I was offered a job as a respite caregiver that was only 9a-1p, I took it and work there now. I also do some office/administrative work for my mom's business and get paid for it. Very flexible. All in all, I was bringing in about $3,400/month. Not bad since I don't have a lot of living expenses. My car was a graduation present. I give my parents insurance money but there's no payments on it. And I live in my parents' old house (they separated and both moved out, and I'm staying there while they finalize things and decide what they want to do) and pay no rent, only utilities and upkeep.

About a month ago, I finally got a job in a QA lab. Pay is decent (abt $3,200/month). Schedule by itself is manageable. I work about 36 hours a week, in 12hr overnight shifts. It has benefits and is actually pretty easy. The only thing is im unsure about it as a career. There's raises over time but the max for this position is about $26/hr, and the only real lateral movement is a manager, for which i'd need about 7-10 years of experience. There also not a lot of similar positions in my area (NC, charlotte/concord area). The rest want 3-5 years of experience and thats just to qualify, not to be competitive. And the pay i've seen for these jobs isn't all that much higher than the one I have now. So i've been revisiting the idea of nursing more seriously.

Nursing has the things I want most right now: stable pay and job availability. I'm nervous about all the responsibility, and since within the next year i'm gonna move out and start paying rent, i'm worried about being able to work to afford my rent while in nursing school. There are more career paths of course. I've considered songraphy (too competitive) and medical lab science (I considered this a lot, but I'm not too sure about the job availability and don't want to get yet another degree I can't use). I just don't know if I should just wait it out at this job or make the jump to a different career.

I still work my 9a-1p job on top of my overnight one, and I'm spreading myself way too thin. I originally planned to drop my part-time job after I got settled in at this job, but if I'm gonna go back to school, it doesn't make sense to get rid of the more flexible and adaptable job (I've talked to my employer, my client's family is willing to shift around hours or let me switch to weekends if need be). Either way, I have to make a decision soon. I'm just so sleepy all the time and can barely do anything.

Any advice would be welcome.

Basically, the title.

A little background for me: I graduated with my bachelor's in biology in 2024 with the intention of working in research or some type of lab setting. The search for a job has been long. I decided to go back to school for nursing. At first I wanted to do an adn, bc It seemed like less financial and time commitment. I even got accepted into one, but declined after registration. dumb in hindsight, but I didn’t know that none of their nursing classes could be taken concurrently. So even though I only needed abt five classes, they would’ve been spread out over 2 years. Spending 2 years to get a bachelor's just makes more sense.

Finally landed a job. It’s in quality assurance for a beverage company. The pay is good, especially for starting out. It’s more money than I’ve made. Still, I’m not too sure about growth opportunities. And while I know I'll be a better candidate for jobs once I have more experience, it's still a trash market overall, and I don't think I want to stay with a career path that's so unsure. So i'm applying to nursing programs again.

Nursing seems like it has good availability and stable income, which is what I'm looking for most right now. I have most of the prereqs (retaking the last 2 right now), my CNA license, and I did originally intend on going into healthcare (as a physician, different role but same setting) when I first chose my major, so it's not like it's some new idea for me. But a lot of the discourse I've been hearing recently says the opposite: no one's really hiring new grads rn, the money isn't all that high, the job environment is so terrible that all the benefits are irrelevant, etc. So I wanted to know for any of those who've pivoted from their original career path and went with an ABSN, do you regret it?

What are some higher level lab roles?

i graduated fall 2024 with a bachelors in biology. after over a year of not finding and suitable lab jobs, i decided to go back to school for nursing since it was a more employable profession. Had already taken 2 prereqs and was abt to sign up for my last ones when I got a call back for a Quality Assurance lab specialist position. Got the job!

I’ve had some doubts abt the job though, and shared them with friends and family who agreed and suggested continuing with the nursing path. I also talked to my department supervisor (asking abt his job and path. didn’t tell him I was having doubts abt the job) and he basically said the best course of action would be to work abt 7-10 yrs as a lab specialist and then hopefully become a manager or supervisor.

It kinda made it seem like there weren’t really that many advancement options, so I just wanted to do research to get a better idea of the long term outcomes for a position like this. That way I can make mor informed decisions.

Did anyone flow that path? did you obtain a different role? Did you go back to school for your masters or something different? What’s the pay like for your position?