asgardgenesis | [VIDEO] backdated, shortly after NPC post

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[VIDEO] backdated, shortly after NPC post

» 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. )

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Isn't he your ally? [ Someone's gotten under the lion's skin. ] Or was... before he turned tail after seeing a wight.

[ That's more than her entire line received... Dany nods, one sharp motion. ]

It was. You've my gratitude for offering her that choice.

My sister's ally, perhaps. [Under one lion's skin, and into another's.]

It pains me to admit that some small part of me regretted that kindness, after she had admitted to murdering my nephew. It's one thing to commit the treason of kingslaying, but wholly another in shedding your family's blood.

[Joffrey was a little shit, and maybe he did need to be killed, but that doesn't change the fact that he was his son, and she took him from him.

He sighs.] But I won't insult you by pretending you don't harbor similar feelings against me.

We can agree on him being a headache.

[ Considering she's loathe to agree with the man on anything speaks volumes.

As for the mention of his nephew's--the sharp lift of an eyebrow being the only sign of her disbelief--death, there's very little to say about that. Cersei had her revenge without even realizing it when she destroyed the Sept. ]

The wheel is always turning, ser Jaime. You've the misfortune of surviving whilst the Usurper does not, in my case.

Do you not feel ill will toward your brother?

There are always new usurpers, your grace. Regardless of who sits on the throne, there will always be another claiming the seat is rightfully theirs. Some succeed, some fail, but there will always be another. Maybe that's part of your "wheel".

[He digresses mostly to avoid speaking more of his brother, but the expression on the girl's face as he talks tells him that he isn't getting out of this.]

He conspired with Lady Olenna in the murder of King Joffrey, and in his escape from justice he split our father's gut with a crossbow bolt. Then, just when I think I'll never see him again, he arrives with a foreign army at the side of a queen who seeks in no small part to destroy what little of my family that remains.

Tell me, how would you feel about such a person?

It's not part of it.

[ Maybe one day she'd explain it. The wheel, how their Houses trample upon the smallfolk. How their fathers ruined this country, left it in tatters, left children ill equipped to rule... rule. As for now, she's a great deal to discuss with regards to brothers. ]

Are we still speaking of the same man? [ Or has Cersei's lies won? ] I was unaware my Hand was on such good terms with lady Olenna. She pressed that we attack King's Landing straight away, whilst he fought for a... gentler approach. One which spared many in the city. [ The same could not be said for Cersei's antics with wildfire. ] I imagine he would willingly have taken credit for Joffrey's murder when he told me of the reasons why he fled east--seeing as he did have a reason to try and impress me at the time. I don't believe the man capable of murdering his nephew.

[ His father? Certainly. The man was a wretched thing, just as her father was. ]

I think you sorely misunderstand both the man, and his queen. Perhaps you should consider why he sought that queen to begin with, when sister and father turned their backs on him. And perhaps you should also be grateful to the man. Were he not counseling me on a dreadful many things, the Red Keep would be gone, and that little remnant of the Lannister family along with it.

So tell me, ser Jaime: what do you think of that man now, who so willingly stands before a dragon and is able to change her mind?

[It may not have been Cersei's lie, or at least, she likely wasn't the originator. Even Jaime had his doubts that Tyrion was his killer, it was why he helped him escape, after all. Still, that he would murder their father and help plunge their kingdom and their family further into chaos was something he could not entirely forgive.]

...Who knew charging at dragons would run in the family? [He offers a weak smile, deflated by a conflicted sigh.]

I suppose it's good to hear Tyrion has softened in his age, but he is a fool to believe Cersei would even consider stepping down peacefully. If you truly seek to take the Iron Throne, there's only one way this can end.

[ It's not her responsibility to reassure him of his brother. She owes Jaime nothing, not even the words she's spared him thus far. But she would defend Tyrion--he's her hand, after all. She chose him for a reason. ]

He stands tall, even in the face of a dragon's anger. [ She tilts her head, then rolls her eyes. ] And then he drinks and tries to pass off his own words as ancient wisdom.

[ Imagining the Kingslayer and speaking with the Kingslayer are... two entirely different things. He's an arse, of course he is, but he's not a wretched person to speak to. (Which only makes her wonder what she might've thought of him, had her father still lived.) ]

It leaves you in a rather uncomfortable position, doesn't it?

You do know him, don't you? [He shakes his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. Why do the people in his family have to be like this?

Just don't let Tyrion find out you said he "stands tall", Dany. He'll never let you forget it.]

"Uncomfortable" is putting it lightly. I can't abandon my sister, but I don't want anything to befall my brother either.

[ She smirks at that nose pinch. ]

I chose him as my Hand for a reason, ser Jaime.

[ But that borders on falling into sappy words and thoughts, and she's never been so verbally sentimental. It's enough she says things to Jon; she certainly wouldn't be with the Kingslayer, of all people. ]

You stand by her, it's understandable. A knight should be loyal to his king or queen. [ A brother to his sister. And... lovers, if the rumors are true. She considers him on the screen. ] How long should that loyalty last when innocents are murdered?

Many fall in times of war, your grace, innocent or otherwise.

[But that's not what she meant, is it? Undoubtedly she's heard word of Cersei's atrocities the same as he has, and the smoldering crater once called the Sept of Baelor is all the evidence needed to prove that no life is sacred to his queen.]

Is it odd to value the life of one's family more than the lives of others?

More will fall if we lose to the Night King.

[ A compromise, of sorts, to cease that line of discussion--seeing as she's entered both wars. ]

I wouldn't know. [ She did know, once, when Viserys threatened to carve Rhaego out of her belly. That, however, was family against family... not family against others. ] Though I suppose on a personal level, no, it's not. Things change when one becomes a ruler... or a leader of any kind.

[ Family would be weakness then, in the Dothraki's eyes. The slaves she freed called her mhysa. Wasn't she mother to them all, then? ]

[He appreciates the save there, Dany, even if they're jumping from one depressing topic to another.]

That's probably why I never wanted to be a ruler. I can't imagine putting the lives of so many before my own.

But if my brother has chosen to stand beside you, I'd take it you have no issues in those regards. I hear you liberated Slaver's Bay before heading west.

[ Jumping from generalized loss to more personal losses... probably not the best 'save.' ]

May I ask why you became a knight?

[ She's not naive enough to believe all those knighted are good men. Ser Barristan was a rare breed, and while Jorah made mistakes, he's proven himself time and time again. But... that's her extent, really, with knights.

Save for Jaime, that is, and all she knows of him is what her brother's told her. What she's seen of him, as well, limited as it may be. ]

It's called the Bay of Dragons, now. [ Fond memories of flying with all three of her dragons. ] They only needed a chance. Someone to support them as they took their lives back into their own hands.

Mostly the adventure, the action... making my name a part of history, all that.

[And being able to follow his sister to King's Landing without rousing too many suspicions...]

Plus it kept me out of my father's hair. You can only live so much with a man such as him breathing down your neck.

[ ~~God damn you are so disappointing Kingslayer.~~ ]

And what of now?

[~~You sound just like Father, you know that?~~]

Now? Well... [He muses for a moment, tapping his side with his hand.] Now, I have an army of the dead marching towards my home, and only one hand to stop them with. I need to protect the things I care for.

[ ~~Blame that big dick energy.~~ ]

One hand accompanied by eunuchs, savages, and wild beasts — all following a foreign invader. [ She considers him, hating him for having a reason which is completely reasonable. Nothing about that answer makes him unlikable. ] My brother used to speak of how Westerosi knights would piss their pants if they ever were forced into battle with the khalasar.

Funny, my only memories of Viserys are when he was pissing in his pants, so I suppose the feeling is mutual.

[gotem.]

Not that he's entirely wrong, the knights aren't what they used to be, the Queensguard especially. Lucky that armor doesn't rust so easily.

[ She bows her head briefly, sucking in her bottom lip so as not to outwardly smirk at his remark. ]

He was frequently wrong. Wrong about the way to lead and treat people. [ Part of why he's dead. ] Do you remember him screaming very much?

[ That didn't start for her until they were a bit older. ]

Were you there when ser Barristan was... relieved of his duties?

No more than any babe. King Aerys had demanded the Kingsguard watch him around the clock, but he never spoke to us much. I think the armor and swords may have scared him.

[He was far too young for Jaime to ever remember him as more than the second son of King Aerys. That man, for all his terrible flaws, fiercely protected his family.]

...Sadly, Your Grace, I was not present when ser Barristan left the Kingsguard. I was leading the siege of Riverrun at the time. I had only received word that he had been removed, and that I had received the title of Lord Commander in his place.

Why would the Kingsguard be tasked with watching the king's son so frequently?

[ He's caught her interest. The way she watches him — sharp, attentive, eager, almost — betrays her. This is what happens when she's handed even scraps of stories about her family.

And it extends to talk of those she views as family if not in blood, but by choice. ]

That's a convenient title to receive... [ Convenient for the Lannisters, certainly. Did the title end up being the reason he lost his hand? ] Sadly, though? Would you have done something if you were there?

It had been seventeen years since Prince Rhaegar was born, and not a single child had survived childbirth since. Then there was Viserys. The maesters said that he was... [He shrugs] smaller than he should be, but he would live. After that, your father's paranoia took over.

[But he's caught on to Daenerys's interest for certain. These are undoubtedly questions the woman has kept with her for most of her life. Something to keep in his back pocket, for sure, but it also lent some humanity to the Mother of Dragons. Right now he wasn't the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard talking with some usurper queen. He's just an old knight regaling in stories to a young woman who wanted to hear them. It's... kind of nice, really?]

Convenience is one way of putting it. With King Joffrey recently crowned and my father joining his side as Hand, they needed someone leading the Kinsguard they knew that they could trust. Who better than family?

[Never mind the fact that most of the family actually loathed each other, but Tywin felt he had enough control over all of them to keep them playing nice. He was mostly correct.]

Though I'll admit, even if I were mad enough to speak up for the man, there's little I would have been able to do but throw down my own sword beside him. [Something a younger, dumber, more emotional Jaime may have done.]

But casting aside my knighthood would have meant casting aside my family, and that's not something I'm willing to give up.

So then you were around my mother, as well, whilst guarding Viserys. Were you tasked with guarding her during all her other pregnancies? [ What did she look like? How did she behave? Did she laugh, despite being mindful of her duties to her king and husband? Was she wild, or somber? She bites back her questions. Fingers her mother's ring. ] You must have been bored.

[ Once again, it becomes surreal speaking to the Kingslayer. In some ways, he speaks the same way ser Barristan did when he told her stories of her family. It makes her miss her knight all the more. Makes her wish this place could bring him here. If these gods could resurrect the dead, like Robb and Ygritte, why not bring Barristan Selmy back? He deserved to walk the lands of a realm that weren't constantly in conflict. ]

No, if you'd done that, you'd have found yourself cast adrift, likely wandering Essos as my two knights had. [ She leans back in her seat, tilting her head just slightly as she studies him on the screen. ] You wouldn't have liked me when I was younger.

[ Mostly because she'd probably have murdered him for having the gall to approach her as ser Barristan had. ]

Is that why you allowed Tyrion leave from King's Landing and arranged for the meeting in the Dragonpit?

[Bored. That was a word for it. Despite living in interesting times with interesting people, it's true that a knight's life boiled down to long stretches of boredom interspersed with brief moments of life-threatening insanity. One made you long for the other, really.]

I imagine you'd have wanted my head the moment you'd lay eyes on me. [Was that not true anymore? When they first met in this world, had she arrived flanked by soldiers, would she have taken his life?]

I allowed [and he stresses he word, because there's so much more story to it than that] my brother to leave King's Landing to avoid being executed by my father. I didn't know where Varys would take him. Not exactly. I knew he would never be safe in Westeros, but aside from that... [He shakes his head.]

[ She hides her disappointment well when the conversation shifts away from her family. A smirk always would do the trick. ]

I'm not a savage, ser, and I don't enjoy chopping heads off. [ Her Dothraki, on the other hand... ] Depending on how we met, you might've been welcomed — until ser Jorah told me who you were. Viserys was dead by the time ser Barristan found us. You'd have been spared from him, at least.

[ She shakes her head, neither confirming nor denying that she'd have him beheaded. The circumstances are different with the dead looming. And while there are still so many questions she needs answers for, she neither knows Jaime Lannister well enough to have a sense of whether he's lying, nor does she think she ever will know him well enough to ever know.

He does have her attention, though, when they speak of Tyrion. The way he stressed the word, the things he doesn't say on the network before both she and two Starks. ]

Family will always make things far more complicated than we expect. And sometimes that loyalty will bring us things we would otherwise have avoided.

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