Video - Day 412

[snowcrow]

[Welcome to Jon's face. It's not a particularly happy face. In fact, it looks pretty sour at the moment. He really hates having to use the bracelet, but he has a very important announcement to make.]

This is a message to the gods that have stolen us and brought us here.

[He has no actual knowledge of who the gods are or if they even care about their charges, but as they seem to have more of a hand in the affairs of others than his own gods, he'll see if a direct approach works.]

During the... incident which had your blasted magic working ill against those you gave it to, my brother wound up losing his hand. Due to your ineptitude and this unwanted sorcery, he has a stump where a perfectly fine hand was before. What sort of gods give people powers they don't ask for? It's bad enough you've brought children here, but you seem not to care about the ill effects of your war on those that are hale enough here to fight it.

[The sour look is directed more intensely at the screen now.]

I insist you fix it. I've gone to your temples and asked for this, but as it's seemed to fall on deaf ears, perhaps you need it shouted in your face.

Fix my brother or you'll have me to deal with and Asgard's gods will join him in missing body parts.

[Caw caw, motherfucker.]

Comments

[exiling]

I am glad to hear it. This world has many dangers. [ But then so does our own. Bran must be one of the dead boys, Arya the other sister. She wanted little to do with the Starks when she first arrived - and then much the same when more of them arrived in droves, but it would not hurt for Dany to keep an eye out for the small ones.

Her face is still at the mention of her own brother. ]

He is. [ Clipped, almost defensive. She tries to relax. ] My brother remembers an Aemon Targaryen, one that corresponded by raven with our elder brother. [ For that she smiles. Giving up this information can cost nothing, not when no one will be able to remember it in Westeros. ]

[snowcrow]

So I'm told. So I've seen.

[Such as the shadow that had stalked her. He would be thankful someone kept an eye on the younger ones. They were easily lost in a city this size and had trouble in their veins.]

Maester Aemon. He is a good man, my lady. Wise and kind. [He makes no more mention of her brother, recognizing that tone well.]

[exiling]

[ Such as whatever took his brother's hand. Of course he has seen, and for a split second she feels silly for repeating it.

A beat, and then: ] Did he ever make mention of us? Of any of his family?

[ She hadn't bothered to ask before, not when there was no way to tell whether he spoke truthfully. ]

[snowcrow]

Once. To me. In passing. To try to get me to change my mind about something. Brothers of the Night's Watch give up all claims to titles, family, their lives outside of the Watch, my lady.

He was pained to learn of the deaths of his blood, but he could do nothing about it.

[exiling]

[ Viserys had said the same, though all of that had been mostly conjecture.

A line creases on her brow. The parallels seem clear. ]

You wanted to go - to fight in your brother's war. He stopped you. [ Your brother instead of Robb Stark. This is a new sort of dance, the steps are almost completely foreign to her. ]

Do you regret your choice? [ That was what he called it, wasn't it? ]

[snowcrow]

I wanted to go to get my father. Then to avenge him. Then to save my sisters and, yes, help my brother in his war. Vows or not, it's hard to sever the ties of blood. He didn't so much stop me as... give me perspective.

[If Aemon could keep to his vows through the slaughter of his entire family, Jon could stay where he'd promised to stay and do his duty.]

I regret that I had to make a choice. It was all senseless and should have been avoided.

[exiling]

[ Another short pause. To agree that it was senseless would be a lie, perhaps not the rest of his family - but she would have seen Eddard Stark dead with the rest of the Usurper's dogs. She shakes her head. ]

This time you've no choice at all in the war we fight, but still are given a second chance to stand by your blood. As have I. [ She doesn't even notice the slip. ]

[snowcrow]

And what of your choices?

[He asked out of curiosity. There were always rumors about the beggar king and his sister from across the sea, but the news was always about Viserys. Viserys and his sister, not Viserys and Daenerys. Little was said about the youngest of the Targaryens, other than she seemed to have the same coloring as the rest of her clan.]

[exiling]

Always the same. To move forward, or to die. [ Answer for answer - she'll grant him that, but the truth is grim, Jon Snow. ] I lost a husband, a son. [ a brother ] I watched many more of my people die of famine and plague and war. For my choice I gained an army of thousands, a brick city. I gained dragons.

[snowcrow]

I am sorry for those you lost, my lady. Even if there's gain from it, it can still sit heavily on you.

[Killing the Half-Hand, even though it got him an in with the Wildlings and with Mance Rayder still weighed on him. That was his brother, another crow, and he'd killed him with his blessing.

Didn't make him any less dead.]

[exiling]

[ You got her to talk about something personal. Achievement unlocked. ]

And what we gain comes with new grief. [ Wow, depressing much. But it was Viserys he was getting at before. ] I worry for my brother's safety, as you do for yours. Our world was never kind to him. It seems much the same here.

[ Though Robb Stark seems as though he might have been actually competent with a sword, before losing his hand. ]

[snowcrow]

Seems our world has been cruel to both our families. I'm told he's died back home.

[His eyes drop and he keeps them there as he hides the grief that fills them.]

We were fine until the king came calling and ruined everything.

[exiling]

[ She goes silent for a moment. Did Robb Stark tell him about the younger Starks? About their home burning? ]

Robert Baratheon was a beast in a man's skin, his corruption spread across the Great Houses. He was never meant to be king. I will see the Seven Kingdoms righted, one day. [ She sounds as though she believes it. ] Perhaps then our world will know a little less cruelty.

[snowcrow]

[He took a deep breath before he answered her, weighing propriety with truth.]

I've yet to see any 'king' or ruler as such care about more than themselves. Mance Rayder, for all his folly, had the right ideal in mind. He fought for his people. The kings of Westeros fight for a metal chair and a position that's taken easily by wine and sloth.

[exiling]

Kings you call them. [ And you think me like them? Or perhaps a silly girl? She fought for her people, refused to leave them behind when the chance to sail to Westeros had been offered. Paid a high price for it.

A home. That is all she ever wanted. ] Your Mance Rayder has the right of it, whomever he is. All kings must answer to their people. To their kingdom. In the end we serve them.

[snowcrow]

He's not my Mance Rayder. He's a crow turned wildling who united those that lived up beyond the wall. Even the giants.

[He heard her words and truly wished that they would be taken to heart by those that wore a crown in his realm.]

Yet I've not seen one do such a thing in my life time. It may be wrong to speak ill of the dead, but Robert Baratheon drank and whored his kingdom away. He'd no love for those he ruled, nor does Joffrey. Even the other kings, Renly and Stannis, seem more concerned about the right to have a crown than what comes with the crown itself.

[exiling]

[ She could certainly go on a fresh rant about the Baratheons, there's no problem with speaking ill of the dead here. ]

In my lifetime I have never known my home. In the Free Cities they even have a different name for it, the Sunset Kingdoms. [ Her voice is distant, not quite sure where she's going with this. ]

[snowcrow]

[He might not have had a name, but he had a home. Catelyn hadn't forced Ned to send him away, so he'd grown up where his blood came from. He had that luxury over her and it was... strange. To have something over someone that held not only noble blood, but the blood of the dragons.]

Is that your wish, then? To find your way back to Westeros?