driftfleet | [video/Action]

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[video/Action]

Who: Kitty Pryde and everyone who tags!
Broadcast: Yep!
Action: Planet fun! Or Windrose maybe. I'm flexible.
When: Now or nowish. Definitely now-adjacent.

[Broadcast]
I have an important request. I need someone who can make cheese. Do cheese makers have an old timey name like cobblers and haberdashers or are those only for clothes? Anyway, calling all of those.

Cheese doesn't seem to be a thing here from what I can tell, but we're just one ingredient away from some really great pizza. I have no idea what cheese requires other than cows or goats or something. I grew up so close to Wisconsin, but I feel like I learned so little.

I would also accept alternative cheese. I know there were vegan kinds made out of hopes and dreams or something I assume. I can pay you or share the finished pizza or do something in trade if I had skills. I could beat someone up for you maybe. [She's not going to do that. Probably.] We'll work it out.

[Action]
[She's on the planet doing all of these things and more but this post won't get to CAPTCHA! You might find her on the Windrose veeeery rarely!]

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[Maybe they should meet up and hold hands and take some of the edge off this glare you're getting.]

Some people don't deserve to be fathers. [Tyrion told stories on himself too, so it doesn't come as a surprise, but she does tense realizing Theon so accurately pegs Tyrion as the one who had been talking about him. She doesn't want to be putting him in harm's way.] If you think any of that is worse than what you've done then you're an idiot too. [Okay, so killing your own family could be pretty bad, but in the context as she understands it, she'll defend it.]

[ I don't know, he might end up with some broken fingers if that happened. That's quite the glare, and his smile can only take him so far. ]

If you think it any better than what I've done, then I could say the same for you.

[ He doesn't know the reason as to why Tyrion chose to kill his father, but he does know what he expects of fathers. Cold, mistrusting men who offer little praise or affection to their sons, who in turn just can't seem to do anything well enough. Ned Stark is surely the only exception in the entire world ever. ]

Fathers are fathers, the same as they have always have been. What makes one less deserving than another?

Some fathers abuse, humiliate, and torture their children. Some abandon or use them. Real fathers are supposed to love you unconditionally. They might make mistakes but they do their best for their kids to make their lives better. They live for them. They'd die for them. [Too close to home. Way too close to home. In fact she didn't need to go into any kind of an explanation right there, but parents in general are kind of a sticking point with her. Seeing hers murdered was pivotal in her life.]

[ That...actually hits very close to home for Theon too, in a different sort of way. He's seen both sides of the father coin. His own father always seemed so incapable of love, a deep contrast to the way the Stark children were treated by their own father. Theon had always been jealous of that.

He just shrugs. ]

Like I said before, fathers are fathers. Some children just have better luck.

[ That's what it is. Luck of the draw. You get a good father or you get a shitty father. ]

[There is a pause as she gets the feeling from this that his father was a bad one. The only thing she really knows about him is that he gave his son up after losing a war. And, yeah, that's pretty messed up. She doesn't know if he had any choice, but even if he didn't something like that is going to leave a mark.

But she doesn't want to feel sympathy for him. How many times has having "sympathy for the devil" come back to bite her? Enough to know she'd rather not repeat it.]

Unlucky kids might have a case against their fathers. They don't have one against innocent children.

I never claimed to have one.

[ He's never been a humble man, but even he knows better than to even try to justify that particular action. He would much prefer to step around it because he has no excuse. It was done out of desperation, with added pressure from a literal devil on his shoulder.

Weird situation all and all, really.]

You know nothing more than what you've been told.

[She's actually surprised he doesn't just double down on what he did, defending or praising it.]

So what don't I know? [Not that she'll know any more than what she was told if you tell her more things.]

[ Believe it or not, he has some standards. He feels nothing but regret for his own actions, but he can't exactly take them back now.

Again, he shrugs, resigning himself to the fact that no one will ever really get it no matter how well he explains. ]

Why do you care? You'll believe what you want to believe whether you know the rest or not.

[ Wait, what happened to the cheese conversation? ]

[Why does she care? He's not of her world or her ship. But he is a person and one in her world now like it or not. Aside from some early possible threat made to Margaery that she heard about third hand she doesn't know of anything he's done recently except be a childish ass to people who probably didn't deserve it like his captain and Jon. She trusts Tyrion, but she's always one to asks questions and learn more when she can.]

When I was 13 a man tried, but failed to abduct me so I could be tortuously experimented on and probably brain washed. He changed his ways and is a teammate of mine now. I managed not to murder him on a regular basis. [Not that Sabertooth would have been easy to murder.

And maybe she just loves a good redemption story too much because it seems like hope for her. Not that she ever murdered children. ...But she did fail to save some.]

[ He listens, but he isn't entirely sure what to make of this story. His own childhood was far from ideal, but not exactly comparable to the story Kitty is telling him. Still, he doesn't scoff or sneer, but he does get a pinched, frustrated sort of look on his face. He just doesn't quite understand. ]

Why are you telling me this? Am I meant to take away some sort of lesson from it? Or perhaps you wish to swap stories.

[ His mouth twists into a bitter sort of false smile. ]

That can't be it. You've already learned all you care to, all from the tongue of someone who wasn't even there.

[She sighs and just barely resists rolling the eyes as if she'd been super clear. When, she kind of hadn't.]

I'm saying sometimes I change my mind about people when they prove themselves worthy of it. But so far you're only telling me about myself.

What reason do I have to share my entire life story with you?

[ Sometimes, the weight of his strange upbringing is almost entirely too heavy for him to carry. In moments like that, he really wouldn't mind telling someone all his pitiful, bitter feelings, but he never does. He bottles them up until they explode into something like the massive meltdown he had in Winterfell.

He seldom shares his feelings with anyone, and this is a particularly difficult topic, so he puts it the only way he knows how: ]

Isn't it better to be feared than to be made a fool of?

If I had to guess? I'd say loneliness. [What little of him she thinks she knows is that he's done little to make friends here. Maybe anywhere.] So, a desire to connect. To be listened to. To be understood.

And no. I never cared for being feared and I've had a lot of practice.

[ It's almost a little scary how dead on that guess is. Theon has always been a good actor, but his facade has been cracking since Winterfell. Maybe it's just that no one paid much attention before, or maybe the chinks in his armor are growing larger and his act isn't holding up quite as well as it used to.

He's a little taken back by how well she's pinned him, though. So much so that he can't even deny it. ]

Maybe so. Desire doesn't make people listen.

[It's not so hard to land a guess that resembles or at least has resembled your own feelings at times. Not that she exactly sees herself in Theon—small favors—but some of his responses do trigger a familiarity of being misunderstood and feeling like it wasn't going to change.

It also doesn't hurt she spent so much of her time in the prison with an FBI profiler. Took his class on the subject. Picked his brain. Shared a life for a time. She definitely learned from the experience. She's always trying to learn. Maybe she can do some of that now.]

I'm listening. [Her tone is even, not challenging. Not that child murderer is an easy accusation to overcome, but she'll keep an open mind.]

[ So finally someone is willing to listen. There had been times when even Robb refused to hear him, but now someone, albeit someone with preconceived notions, is open to hearing him speak.

He isn't sure what to make of it. He doesn't wish to be further villainized, but any chance at relief from the weight pushing down on his shoulders seems well worth it. So he shrugs, and he begins to speak. ]

When I was a child, my father attempted an uprisal against the crown. He was defeated, my brothers were killed, and his last male heir was taken from home as a hostage to House Stark for his good behavior. If they heard so much as a stirring from him, I would be the one to lose his head. For ten years, I was raised by a man who was not my father among a family that was not my own.

[ He truly isn't gunning for sympathy. He knows he doesn't deserve it. Everything that happened in Winterfell up to the burning of the castle was done at his command, but he wants so badly to be understood, and the only way he can think to do that is by explaining everything that led up to those events. He does take a moment to laugh, though; softly, bitterly. What a childhood he had. ]

I suppose Tyrion Lannister has told you all of this already. Told you how well I was treated, fed and dressed as any other lord would be. Aye, I dined at Eddard Stark's table. I was referred to as a lord and raised alongside his own children, but I wasn't one of them. You can dress it up any way you like, but I was always their prisoner, someone who was there only to hold peace between the Iron Islands and the crown. No one would have shed a tear if the time came for Lord Stark to take my head. I could never be one of them. [ But oh, how he'd wished he was. He doesn't need to say it. It lingers in his words. ] When I was sent home, it was only with the purpose of persuading my father to ally with the Starks. [ A mistake. Even he can see that now. ] He rejected the proposal. He wanted to take the North for himself. He doubted me. He doubted my capabilities and my loyalties, so I allied with my family. My own family. My real family.

[ As much as he cares for the Starks, how was he supposed to turn against his own family? He wonders why he regrets his decision now. Perhaps he would have regretted it either way.]

I took Winterfell from Bran Stark--a child. [ It's pitiful and low and he knows it. ] I thought the people might bend easily to someone they knew, to someone they saw every day. I never meant--I never meant any harm. [ It's been easy until now. Those were old wounds, stories he's had to repeat hundreds of times, but these wounds are still fresh. They sting, and the guilt makes certain that they'll never heal. ]

There was a man--a prisoner who vowed to serve me if I released him from the dungeons. [ Ramsay Snow, not Reek. He grits his teeth, still angry with himself for being so blind to Ramsay's tricks. ] He offered fine counsel, but But Bran and his brother escaped, my men abandoned me, my sister offered me no aid. I grew desperate, so I allowed him to do as he wished and flay two boys in Bran and Rickon's stead. Now that man and his father hold the North and it's all been my doing.

[ Somehow, it all poured out of him: things he's only told Robb, and only told him out of necessity. Perhaps it's just easier to say it all to a stranger. ]

I do not defend my actions. I take no joy in knowing what I've done and being unable to change it, but Tyrion Lannister was not there. Robb Stark was not there. Even Bran Stark was not there to the end. Only I know what happened, and no one trusts my word enough to listen.

[She listens thoughtfully and carefully. She tries to actively employ things Reid taught her about microexpressions and word choices. All of it. Of course such things don't always play well with people from wildly different backgrounds and worlds, but some of it is just human.

She doesn't interrupt and she keeps her expression neutral even when it might have shown compassion or disgust by turn. She does feel for the child he once was. It doesn't matter how well you're treated when you're a prisoner you're always a prisoner. That goes for these places too. Even if this life is better than the one she had at home—one she wouldn't have had much longer—she wasn't about to thank the Atroma for what they've done in stripping her of her freedom.

When he finishes she says nothing for a time letting the last words settle before she chooses her own.]

I believe you.

[And she does. The story makes a sort of sense throughout and he admitted his wrongdoing. She wouldn't hold trying to take Winterfell against him. Of course he'd want to prove himself to his family. It might look like he had two families, but it must have felt like he had none and that is the loneliest kind of feeling.

There's more she would say, but for now she just wants that to sink in. To see if he's able to believe her.]

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