driftfleet | [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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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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