driftfleet | WE'RE ALL WEIRD PEOPLE & WE LOVE IT

[And this topic treads dark waters for Riona, as this is something she's experienced. Not quite to the scale Dany may have, but in a way it's worse. Dany had not yet been born when this happened, and knew none of these people. Riona saw it with her own eyes. She knows of the anger both Dany and Robb hold, and of that want to never forgive or forget what happened.

The answer is likely in the vein of "Let it go and move past it", but can she honestly tell Dany that? How much of a hypocrite would it make her? She, who robbed the remaining Howes of their land and titles because of what Rendon did. And what would she do if she met one of his children? ~~Which, she will eventually but that's neither here nor there~~]

It seems there are many pieces to this puzzle. [And it's hard to advise when she knows so little of what happened.] I take it Lord Stark came after your family in part because of his sister?

In part, yes.

[Gods, there was so much more her father had done. She didn't want to lie to Riona about it, but she also wanted to make her understand that she was nothing like him. She had not inherited his madness. All of that madness had been for Viserys and perhaps even Rhaegar. She didn't want to think she was like that.]

Lord Eddard Stark, Robb and Sansa's father... I am told he was an honorable man but I don't know what to believe. I understand that there are many sides to war - that my family was not blameless. My own father was a vicious man, I'm told. He had madness in him that was beyond imagination. He burned people alive - Eddard Stark's father and eldest brother among them. I was not alive when these things happened but I have heard enough of them to last me a lifetime. It is all some sort of cautionary tale by now - to never trust a Targaryen on the Iron Throne.

[She laughs a bit at that, biting back shaking in her voice and drowning it with more tea that she gulped down.]

[Riona can't help but grimace as Dany speaks of her father. Maker, but that was brutal. She cannot blame the people of Westeros for overthrowing him. Though that did not mean those involved went about it the right way.]

War brings out the worst in people. Sometimes, we don't always have a choice and we must do awful things in times of war, but that means it's all the more important to do the right thing when the option is presented. I know he was your father, but clearly he needed to be stopped. It does not forgive what Lord Stark did - or did not - do to the rest of your family.

[It just sounded like an awful mess all around. One that just needed to be acknowledged for what it was and let go.]

Let me ask you this: say you manage to hold your cities and manage to get ships to cross to Westeros. you land there with your armies and dragons. What would you do next?

Truthfully, I have no love for my father. I never knew him. He had no impact on who I am. I am glad that I did not see what he did - for those things shaped my brother Viserys in a myriad of horrible ways. It is merely the part that Lord Stark played in displacing me from my home that I detest. If we had stayed, my mother would have died the way Elia had and I would not be here.

[She hates to speak ill of the dead but Viserys had every bit of cruelty that she imagined her father had. It didn't change that she had loved him once, that he had been her whole world for as long as she could remember. At Riona's question, she sits up more squarely, her posture giving off the confidence of her answer.]

I would seek justice of those seated on the throne, for they have played the worst part of all of this, and anyone remaining of House Lannister or the other Houses would be asked to bend the knee. There is no other need for bloodshed and the people have suffered enough tyrant kings. I am not a tyrant. I did the same in Yunkai, Astapoor and Mereen. I made those who hurt those below them suffer and liberated those who needed liberation.

[It isn't all so cut and dry, unfortunately. There were many who opposed the changes she made to their slaver's lifestyle.]

[Bryce had been such a huge part of her life; it's hard to imagine Dany's situation where she felt nothing for the father. Not that she blames Dany, but it's still bizarre to her.]

And if they do not bend? Out of fear for another Targaryen sitting on the throne, fearful of reliving the reign of terror of your father? And what justice would you place on those on the throne?

[In sum: how far is she willing to go? That's where a person's character is defined, in those crucial moments where options are limited.]

My people need me. I won't just abandon them. Not to the lords and ladies who play games with their corpses.

[So... yeah she'd go pretty far.]

I have three dragons and an army of 8,000 and more. I find diplomacy works well enough when you show enough of your cards to make the other player nervous, don't you? I won't force anyone but they would be foolish not to see what is best for their people. Divided, all there ever will be is war. War between kings and queens and those who want power. I want power to set it right, to unite people so that they no longer have to be afraid of who sits on the throne. And yes I intend to kill Lannisters if I have to. They deserve no less, I assure you. Lord Tyrion and Robb Stark would agree with me on that.

[She falls quiet for a moment after that fierce speech.]

I cannot say what I can do for the North. I do understand their mistrust. There is more to it that Robb Stark does not know about and I will not speak of it unless Lady Sansa has spoken to you herself. Needless to say - the North no longer has a Stark sitting in it, at the time I have arrived from. That is all I know of the matter.

[It feels like a cold stone has lodged itself in the pit of her stomach by the time Dany is done. Most of it comes from what she's said about the North. A Stark no longer ruling... what happened to Robb?

Dany knows more than she's letting on. The question hangs on Riona's tongue, and it's likely obvious in her expression that she wants to ask... but a part of her is afraid. Does she want to know? Maybe, but it should come from Sansa or Bran, if nothing else.]

Then things are worse than I thought.

[She blows a sigh through her nose.]

...tell me this, at least: do most of the Starks still live?

Edited 2016-04-24 03:56 (UTC)

That, I don't know. I only know what is told to me by my advisors and messages that are carried across the Narrow Sea.

[She could only imagine how any of them felt to be with one another, knowing back home they could all be dead. It was a burden she did not want for herself.]

Shit.

[Not what she wanted to hear, though she didn't blame Dany. She hoped to the Maker and back that some still lived. Her eyes closed, a hand rubbing over her face. No point in getting upset about this. All she could do was pray Robb was the only casualty so far... and find the strength to still face him after learning this.]

That's why you wanted to know about Sansa's opinion? If she has no one to defer to... I still don't know.

Maker, your political climate makes Thedas's look tame in comparison, and that's saying quite a bit.

If it is chaotic that is only because others have made it so. I don't envy the Starks. Their house is in a similar position to mine, though I cannot confirm the truth of that or not. I do know their lord father died and that is what sparked the War of Five Kings when Robb Stark chose to march against the usurpers holding the crown.

[And they could have been allies in that because the Starks were wronged just as much as her own house but the only thing stopping them was stubbornness on her and Robb's parts.]

I want Sansa to join me in taking back our homes.

Ah, so that's what made him rebel. [Another piece to the puzzle falls in place.] I do not know if Sansa would be in a position to be able to join you. The details are unknown to me, but I know the Crown has not been kind to her. She was its ward, from what I heard.

[She withholds a bit of information. She does know Sansa has... escaped, or so it seems. But she does not know what her current situation is, and if she would risk earning the Crown's ire. And with Margaery to be queen, would she really want to march against her own friend?]

I suspected their father had died, but hearing it confirmed... [Her tone hardens; she knows their pain all too well.] I sympathize with them. What was done against you, and against them... I do hope justice is rendered in due time. [Hopefully by their hand.]

Yes. I would have done the same had I been able. I was only an infant when my House was led to ruin. My brother was all I had for a long time, just as Sansa has hers here.

[Though, unlike Sansa, she would not wish Viserys to be here in the fleet. Who knew what would happen and she was not the same meek little girl anymore. Even so, without Drogo or her Khalesaar she would be incredibly vulnerable.]

I imagine she will make the choice that suits her the best, whatever that will be. I don't plan to force her into anything, only hope that we can reach our own goals. She is a smart girl and so many girls are taken advantage of and don't know their own strength. It is a curse upon our gender, I suppose.

The world perpetuates and enforces that "curse". And by world it's usually the men. While it happens in Thedas, it does not seem as prevalent there as it is in your world. I know so many women who would laugh at and stab anyone who tried to force them to do anything. [Herself sort of included.]

Usually, if there is a man I don't like and he chooses to treat me that way - my dragons tend to be convincing enough without me having to do much in the way of lifting a finger. Here... everything is so different. My crew has been kind and no one is left out. It's been lovely.

Honestly, I've heard next to nothing about that sort of thing going on. Of course, I hardly have tabs on anyone, but no news is still good news. And if someone tries, well, that's why you learn how to break someone's thumb.

WE'RE ALL WEIRD PEOPLE & WE LOVE IT

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