[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

[doneforlove]

[Imagine the largest thing you could ever witness, and Balerion was that much larger. That was what the maesters had always told him. Tyrion had always been fascinated by that fact, but Jaime had always been glad that something like that was long dead before he had come into this world.]

We'll need to find something strong enough to pierce it's flesh and dot the walls with enough of them to make a difference. Surely some of the beast's hide still exists somewhere.

As for the fire, I doubt there will ever be enough. Still, were it possible, then perhaps we could ready a stock of wildfire. That would require either a skilled maester, or a gift from these gods, however.

[northerndragon]

Scorpions. [He shrugs, nodding.] Aye, there are trees enough here, and Heimdall to ask for aid.

Wildfire... where would we keep it? Your brother has spoken of using it in the defense of King’s Landing. But it might not be something we could keep on hand here on the mere chance that we might need it, even if we had a way to make it.

[And they both know what his sister is said to have done with it more recently.]

[doneforlove]

[He'd really rather not discuss his sister's atrocities, but that aside it's hard to deny it would be a powerful weapon against whatever threatens them.]

Somewhere cold and dry and far away from anyone stupid enough to toy with it. Underground would be best, but where to keep it, I wouldn't know. But that's the reason we've formed this council, isn't it?

[northerndragon]

Aye. [A beat.] It is.

Places for the smallfolk of these lands to stay if they’re under attack [(the castle should do for that)]; small stations to attend to the wounded, not just their hospital. There’s much to think on.

But if everyone knows where to go and what to do in the event of an attack, if it comes, their chances of living, living without suffering, are better.

[But Jaime knows that as well as Jon does, or he should, Jon thinks.

What else should he mention that won’t already have come to mind? They haven’t always been on opposing sides.]

Your sword. Do you have Valyrian steel here?

[They won’t talk of how he got it — of what it was once, a sword Jon had grown up dreaming of wielding.]

[doneforlove]

We'll want medics for the forward lines, with proper fallback points. Stabilize the wounded and pull them back to somewhere more fortified; someone doing surgery on the battlefield will only get in the way.

[They've been on opposite sides, yet rarely have they come to blows themselves. Jaime had plenty of experience warring with Starks, enough to understand how they fight well enough. Something about Jon Snow seems different to him though. Anyone who can retake a castle as fortified as Winterfell using little more than a handful of banners and some savages from beyond the wall had to know a thing or two about war craft.

But... his sword. Widow's Wail. It was no small tragedy that caused this blade to fall into his hands.]

...Yes, it is Valyrian steel. I'm not the swordsman I was before, but I'll still protect this realm to the best of my ability.

[northerndragon]

[Something about his expression flattens, but he nods several times, quickly.

Sansa had told him much and more about her days in King’s Landing, at Castle Black and then when they were traveling together in the North. She’d had no real ill words for Ser Jaime, other than that he was a Lannister; maybe it was only that she hadn’t seen much of him. And she’d spoken well of Tyrion, and Tyrion seems less adversarial towards his brother than his sister. And Ser Jaime had helped them arrange the parlay in King’s Landing.

So Jon swallows, and his expression becomes more open again.]

Good. Even if your skill isn’t what it was, it can kill living things, and it can kill the Dead.

Some of the people here seem to be as good as maesters when it comes to treating wounds. What I have in mind is more people knowing what their business is and knowing to do it than setting them in any one place, but part of that is knowing that their place is on the forward lines, and where to take the wounded if they can.

If something comes again, there may be times when there’s something we can do to draw it away from the city.

[doneforlove]

Some of the people here have knowledge and abilities far different from our home. It will be difficult to take that into account until we have better understanding of the nature of this world.

[Even the ways in which people speak and act have been absolutely alien to him. It really is like they've all come from different worlds.]

But what are you proposing to draw threats away from the city? An intelligent force would only be diverted by two things-- either something very valuable, or very dangerous.

[northerndragon]

It will help if we keep asking them... the only trouble is, we can't always be sure that we'll know what to ask. "How can you help?" is one thing. Different kinds of fighting won't hurt, as long as we can maintain some discipline.

[At that question, though, Jon looks a little more thoughtful.]

It's hard to know what to propose when we don't know what the danger is yet. There might be different ways for each different threat. I know how to fight the Free Folk, and I know how to fight the Dead, and I know how to fight an army of living men in the field.

Have you heard people here talking about things you can hardly imagine? Harder to strategize against an enemy you don't know, don't understand.