[VIDEO] backdated, shortly after NPC post

[dorzalta]

» WHO: All
» WHEN: The morning following Tyr and Laufey's announcement on 7/17
» TYPE: Live broadcast

[ It takes some tinkering and awkwardness at first, along with a series of huffs and grumbles you thankfully miss... but when the feed does appear, enjoy a perplexed Daenerys looking at the screen (as well as a reflection of herself, Jon, and Robb). They are wearing modern clothes: button-down shirts for the men, a blazer for Robb, and a royal blue halter-like dress for Dany. ]

Well met, Wanderers. [ … she is speaking to you all, she hopes. ] My name is Daenerys Targaryen. This is Jon Snow and Robb Stark.

[ The feed will jerk as she attempts to angle the screen to both men, respectively. It's not at all elegant, and is, in fact, an eyesore to watch. Which is why seconds later she gives up on it and leaves the strange screen in place in front of her. (Robb gets up as if to try and help her, but his attempts are just as bad as hers. Eventually, he gives it up as a bad job too. Jon, who had inclined his head when Daenerys attempted to introduce him, merely watches now with a skeptical expression: it's going to take a while for them all to get the hang of this.) ]

In our world, war is commonplace. We have armies and generals, as well as a means to communicate when there is an attack on a city or castle. Here, that doesn't seem to be the case. [ Which is strange to her. For all her wariness of these self-proclaimed gods, the smallfolk of Asgard appear to be happy. ] It's why we've approached the gods about a means of gathering. The chaos which followed the dragon's appearance makes us believe that a type of war council is necessary for this realm.

[As Jon begins to speak, he seems a little bit uneasy, slightly awkward, but as his words spin out and gather momentum, he becomes visibly more comfortable with the idea of addressing everyone. It doesn't come as naturally to him as it seems to come to Daenerys.]

When the people of a realm don't work together to face a threat, the end is calamity -- death and hunger and suffering, for those who fought and for those who could not fight. When we know what our strengths are, we know how best to defend against what may come. And when we know what to do, we can be ready to do it, even when we face something that seems impossible to overcome. This is our realm now, all of us. Today, we can put our strengths together. We can begin to make those plans. Maybe we won't ever need them, it's true, but if we do, we won't be caught unawares again.

I know that you may not know us. Each of us has been a king or a queen; not one of us was born with that title. None of us means to try to rule anyone else here, none of us expects to be the loudest voice on any council, but we all have experience with planning for war, and with several kinds of threat.

Daenerys rides a dragon at home, and has taken cities in the East and freed thousands upon thousands of slaves there. I have been Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and King in the North: I've spent long years scouting and defending and preparing for great attacks on my homeland, fighting Wildlings first, and then making an alliance with them to fight the Army of the Dead. My brother Robb was King in the North before me; he was a successful general several times over in campaigns in the southron lands. He knows tactics, battle strategy, better than almost anyone you'll ever meet.

We have all fought for the lives and safety and freedom of our fellow men. We want to continue to do that here and now. We want you to join us, if you will.

[ Jon looks over at Robb, and Robb picks the thread up: ] Understand, we are not asking to go to war. This council is only meant to make certain that we are not caught so off our guard as we were when the dragon attacked. In order to do that, we’re going to organize the council into different groups: preparations, battle and response. We Wanderers come from different worlds, and in times of crisis our different strengths come out. We need to combine our strengths and work together if we are to effectively respond to whatever threats may come next.



( OOC #1: if you want to address a specific cast member, please indicate that in the subject of your comment--otherwise we’ll read it as fair game for any of us to attack C:

OOC #2: We made a spiffy ooc post detailing the war council, as well as sign ups for it. Check it out HERE. )

Comments

video;

[needsnoheadsman]

[oh great it’s Theon what the hell

The worst part is—they could use his help too. Theon had proven himself during the war, before he’d turned his cloak, and Robb knows he’s at least capable of holding his own in a full-scale battle, but. Well. Still. Still.]

Is that all, Greyjoy. You’ve nothing more to say?

voice;

[reek]

[ Love you too, Robb.

He supposes he can switch to voice, just because he still holds some semblance of respect for Robb despite being left with a nice shiner thanks to him. But he doesn't respect the others. He doesn't respect the idea they've come up with, even if he knows he could be of help. ]

What more did you want me to say? I trust neither your brother nor the Targaryen woman.

[ And he won't help people he doesn't trust. You're the only one who remembers things are as they were. It's a thought so bitter he could choke on it. ]

video;

[needsnoheadsman]

I trust my brother. If he trusts the Lady Daenerys, then [I trust her is a bit much, and so he doesn’t say that, but he does say,] I trust his judgment, and that she can help.

And we need as much help as we can get. [Even Theon’s help.] Gods only know if something like that attack is going to happen again. I wanted you to—

[He cuts off with a frustrated noise.]

Never mind. I shouldn’t have hoped.

[ttly not here except also like three feet away during this exchange]

[northerndragon]

[That's right, Robb. It's Theon. YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE HOPED. 🙄 ]

[also on the sidelines not eavesdropping but totally is]

[dorzalta]

[ She'd pat your knee if she knew you better, Robb. You're quickly becoming a Stark she likes okay.

But also like, wow about trust issues. ]

[reek]

Aye, you also trusted Roose Bolton.

[ You trusted me as well, is something he could add, but he doesn’t. It already speaks for itself. It's a cruel but true comment. They both placed their trust in the wrong people. Theon is the one who's being cautious now. ]

You wanted me to what?

[He would help if Robb asked. But Robb isn’t asking, and Theon isn’t budging. Not for Jon Snow or Danaerys Targaryen. ]

[needsnoheadsman]

Jon is not Roose Bolton.

[Or you. Daenerys isn’t mentioned, because Robb might like her, but he doesn’t entirely trust her enough to say so for certain. Jon, though, is family, and more than anything, Robb trusts his own family. Probably a lot more than he trusts his own judgment sometimes, because, see again: Bolton, Roose. And the Freys.

Begrudgingly:] You fought at my side in the Whispering Wood, and all the battles before I sent you to Pyke. You were able to take Winterfell with, what, twenty, twenty-five men, in the middle of the night? I know you can fight, and you have a good head for strategy. I was going to ask if you were willing to help. [And he would’ve, though it’s plain to see the idea of trusting Theon again that way, asking for his help in such a public place, would have galled.]

But if you can’t take this seriously, then. [A shrug.] I won’t get my hopes up.

[reek]

[ He’s glad Robb can’t see his face. He would see his smirk falter and the cracks start to show. It’s every word he would have loved to hear from his father, or from Ned Stark, or from anyone in his life, and it comes from the man he betrayed.

It makes him want to smash his head against a wall. Robb shouldn’t be saying these things now, not when their friendship seems incapable of being mended. It's always been easy to play to his ego, but he needed those words before Pyke, not after. ]

When have I ever taken anything seriously?

[ He can’t think of any times he hasn’t turned to a jape to make things easier. ]

You were going to ask, but I've yet to hear you ask.

[needsnoheadsman]

[Robb's hands clench into fists, before he forces himself to relax. In truth, if the Kingslayer himself showed up to a council and asked to join up, Robb would take him, but he'd keep an eye on him. Theon—

Well. Practically speaking, they need every fighting hand they can get, and some who aren't fighters. Quite a few people who've responded aren't fighters, and they haven't turned them away, and so Robb can't turn Theon away either simply because of the rift between them, because Theon took his home behind his back. He glances sideways at Jon and Dany, then bites out towards the camera:] Would you join us, or not?

[Every word of the question he's just asked is poisoned with the memory of betrayal, of the Red Wedding, of Theon's taking Winterfell. He knows Theon is cunning, and knows how good he is in a fight. He knows, too, that if he's betrayed them before, he might do it again.]

Understand, if you come, this doesn't mean you will go unwatched. I've had enough betrayals not to learn to keep an eye on turncloaks. [He spits the word out like it's bad food. Theon Turncloak.]

[reek]

[ Theon doesn’t expect Robb to forgive him. Not today, not next week, maybe not ever. But he’s been presented with an opportunity to try to mend their friendship. After all, he never intended to hurt Robb, and Robb isn’t telling him that he isn’t unwelcome. Nothing in his life has never been as easy as all of that, but he may as well take what he can get. He can always jump ship later on.]

Aye. When all you have is Snow, I suppose you need me.

[ He’ll still never miss an opportunity to take a shot at Jon. ]

Do what you like, but I'll take no orders from those two.

[needsnoheadsman]

[Robb’s flatly unamused look towards the camera says it all: be nice towards Jon.]

I’m not asking you to take their orders. You’ve had trouble with those before, as I recall. [cough Pyke cough] I’m asking for your voice at council. I wasn’t flattering you when I said you had a good head for strategy—should we find ourselves besieged again, and by something much more intelligent than a dragon, we may well be in need of your experience.

[Theon is a knife in his back just waiting to happen, he knows that. He’ll use it, if he has to.]

[reek]

[ Theon only chuckles. He could be nice towards Jon, but there’s absolutely no fun in that. He doesn’t try to make another quip, though, even if it would be so easy to compare Jon’s intelligence to less than that of the dragon’s. Sorry, Jon. ]

Then you shall have it. Though, I do have one suggestion.

[ A note of amusement creeps into his voice, though it isn’t particularly cruel. ]

Don’t put yourselves in front of this device until you understand how to work it.

[ See, if he acts like nothing's wrong, maybe nothing is actually wrong. ]

[needsnoheadsman]

And you do?

[It would've been lighter, before. It would've been teasing, it would've been easy banter said with a laugh bubbling behind it.

But now it's hard, now it's a warning. He asked Theon for help, but it isn't an offer to mend their friendship, whatever is left of it, no matter how much Robb might want that bond back. (And he does, gods help him, he does.) It's a tenuous alliance struck between two people who have no real reason to trust each other besides being stuck in the same land together, or at least that's how Robb sees it.]

[reek]

[ Theon knows there's no going back to how things used to be. He may trust Robb, but Robb has no reason to trust him. There's no going back to the easy jokes and laughter. That's gone now, and Theon is the reason.

He hasn't lost his inate ability to show off, though. He snorts and finally flips the device to video. It's held still. ]

I would say I do know.

[ He hates being made to look the fool. He had decided it was better to figure it out in private before putting it to use. ]

[needsnoheadsman]

[Oh, okay, that's. He does have a point, it's much more polished than the three of them fumbling around with a device and making themselves look a little foolish, despite the seriousness of the matter.]

We'll take your suggestion into consideration. [Begrudgingly conceding this one to Theon.] What else do you suggest? Besides changing our clothes.

[reek]

[ Theon can think of a number of things to suggest in addition to his critique of their clothing, but he’s given Jon enough grief for now, and he’s made his dislike of Daenerys quite clear. If he’s actually going to be a part of this, maybe he should make a real suggestion. ]

Keep tally of how many are trained in combat and how many others are willing to learn. You say you aren’t suggesting war, but it may come to that whether you like it or not.