tushanshu | [Console] (Video) ❅ The First

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[Console] (Video) ❅ The First

(She waits until she is sitting primly in a chair, her back straight and her hair braided neatly over one shoulder. Appearance is everything - or so she has learned time and time again. No matter how uneasy she feels, she cannot show it. Alayne Stone won't break.)

I am new to the kingdom of Keeliai, but I have been well-informed. (A small smile - one which doesn't reach her eyes - follows before she continues:) My name is Alayne Stone and I am from a world called Westeros. Should my world sound familiar to anyone, I am eager to speak with you.

(Though perhaps not meet. The fact that is standing on her own hasn't escaped her. She no longer has Littlefinger's protection.

The next part is strange to word, so she decides to just say it.)

Is it true that we are on the back of a giant turtle? I find that hard to believe. Even the largest of turtles are not spacious enough to hold a world, surely?

(What happens when the turtle turns the wrong way?)

Are there other creatures of such a considerable size? I should like to avoid the predators.

(The turtle should avoid them too.)

There are items which I will eventually need. Where might I procure them? Is there a market and some sort of currency?

(Yes, she knows she needs to focus on the things she can control. Otherwise... Otherwise...

She will lose the hope she has been able to retain.)

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That is a fitting skill for a boy to learn.

(Not in her world.)

Surely your sisters or female cousins saw to mending your clothes?

(How do other worlds work? She really has no idea.)

A fitting skill for anyone to learn. And it's served me well.

[He blinks at her question.]

I didn't have any. It was just myself and my mother.

[His expression twists into something resembling distaste.]

...and after her, my stepfather and his men.

I did not think it would ever serve me. (Rather, she had hoped it never would.) I was foolish.

(She blinks and watches him curiously.)

I could show you how to sew and mend if you like? It isn't a difficult task if you have the patience.

Do you know how to fight?

[He blinks as well, a little surprised by the offer.]

I...wouldn't mind learning, actually.

I fear I do not. Mister Shudder seeks to fill that gap in my education.

(She feels grateful to him and this world. Giving back comes naturally.)

I would like teaching you.

I don't think he's going to be teaching you the style I learned growing up. If you'd like to learn, I could teach you a few things. Throws, and so on.

..well, I guess I'm going to need to get some supplies.

I would. I tire of having to rely on others for my safety. (Then she feels guilt over them having to do that much for her.) Throws...?

I will search for them as well.

Yeah, like...if someone attacks you, how you can grab them and use their own weight and momentum against them. It's best for larger attackers. But it works for anyone.

I've seen that... In tourneys and bouts. I wondered how much smaller knights could overwhelm larger foes.

[He smiles.] Looks like you're going to find out.

[Beat.] Wait, knights?

Yes. They are frequent in the larger cities. I haven't had much association with them. (Which is a lie, of course, but not for Alayne.)

I...can't say I've ever met a knight.

[Well, there was Count Nefaria's henchman guy, but they're not really acquainted. He does hang out with an armored idiot on the reg though. ~~And no, not the armored idiot he sees in the mirror every morning.~~]

Should one from my world arrive, I shall introduce you. (Unless it's the Mountain that Rides or some other horrible man with only murder on his mind.)

I'd like that.

[Please do not introduce him to the Mountain. That will not end well for anyone.]

So what is Westeros like? If I may ask.

There is much war and chaos. The Seven Kingdoms are divided over who must take the Iron Throne. He - or she - who sits on the Iron Throne rules them all. However, in the Eyrie, we are detached from the violence. The days are long and sometimes boring.

But the snow is pretty.

[Oh. That sounds...really stressful. ~~Also where does he get himself one of these Iron Throne thingies?~~ Gene knows what it's like to be in the middle of a power struggle.]

At least you're not in the middle of it in the Eyrie, I guess? How does Westeros even keep itself going during a civil war?

(No. No Iron Thrones for anyone.)

I do not want to be in the middle of it, so the Eyrie suits me. (That's said a little sharp.) It wasn't always so torn. Many Kings have ruled the Seven Kingdoms and some were...good. They brought peace with their reign.

[That's cool, he already kind of has one.

Oookay, tone sharpness read and acknowledged! Clearly Alayne doesn't want to talk about that. He files it away for later.] If there's one thing I've learned, it's that good rulers are rarely great, but bad ones are always ruinous.

[Not like he speaks from personal experience or anything.]

(Try again?

Her only other choice is somewhere that leads right back to King's Landing and a nasty execution.)

I have seen one who is ruinous. (There is something about her eyes that looks haunted, but the shades are chased away with a small smile.) Perhaps the next will be better.

[He smiles back. It doesn't quite reach his eyes. This is the face of a man who's immune to hope. But if she ever brings it up...he knows what it's like, to not be able to go home again.]

I hope so.

We don't really have kings where I come from. Well - we do - but they don't have any real power.

[Hey Alayne, do you want to learn about representative forms of government?]

Are they figureheads? (She can see the logic behind having one King over the Seven Kingdoms, but it's disastrous when he isn't prepared or - worse - mad with power.)

Some of them are. Most countries don't have royalty, though. The people choose who gets to rule, and they only get to rule for a few years at a time. Then they have to be elected again.

[Barring the handful of functional monarchies, and dictatorships. And Latveria, which is both. Except maybe not, now that Dr. Doom is chilling with an elder god due to his own hubris. Ha! ~~He'll feed your enemies to the selfsame elder god if you tell him he's pretty, Alayne.~~]

I could see such a system being useful. (Better than being stuck with a mad King for life.) But it would be disheartening to lose a honorable ruler that truly cares about their people.

(Can the people push the pause button and stay with one ruler?)

Have you had any close contact with these...leaders?

Most of the time, if the ruler is one the people like, they get to come back.

And, uh... [Well...technically yes?] I have. Briefly. [Gene...kind of deposed him. With help from his dumb boyfriend, he guesses. Hey, Doom had it coming. That's what he gets for trying to trade people to an elder god like human pogs.] Not one of the good ones, though.

So the power lies in the hands of the people where that is concerned.

(Which means the people need to be much better informed.)

I'm sorry. I like to think not all of them are monsters.

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