dragonwarder | (no subject)

( wryly, )

You'd know if I was patronizing you. I'd be calling you Your Highness.

( he still reverted to that in arguments with leia sometimes. somewhere along the way it had become a title of affection, but. still, slightly patronizing. )

Look, I've been on hundreds of planets. Seen just as many different forms of government and then some. I know what people are like. Human, mirailan, twi'lek... it doesn't matter. They're the same everywhere. Dumb and greedy and selfish, and only a few have what it takes to rise above that. Everyone just wants to survive. It gets old after a while. Maybe your world has something I haven't seen before, but... a friend of mine has this saying.

( he misses maz, all of a sudden. she always knew how to make sure someone's head was screwed on straight. )

'If you live long enough, you see the same eyes in different people'. You? I see my wife in you. Leia — she's a princess, I mentioned that. She watched her home be destroyed by her own father. She had to go on the run for years. She became a general, same as me, doing the same stuff. Fighting against an impossible enemy with all the advantages. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing your story is something close to that.

[There is something strange about being told that you remind a man of his wife. She decides not to unpack that, and instead take it as the compliment it is meant to be.]

You are wrong.

[She says this firmly, though not unkindly. Now is not the time to unpack her tragic backstory -- truthfully, she does not feel nearly comfortable enough to go into all the gorey details of it.]

The enemy is not impossible. And the advantages are mine, now. Three of them, along with a navy, and an army that twice outpaces the tyranny I seek to snuff out.

[She sips at her wine thoughtfully. The more she told this story, the more anxious she got. It all seemed so far away, and she was getting more and more eager to get back to it. As if Cersei was somehow gaining ground while she was gone, even though in her heart she knew that was impossible.]

If they ever dane to send me back, the pretender on my throne will never have a chance to sacrifice another life to feed her greed ever again.

( the advantages are hers now. he takes it for what it is, and gives a genial shrug. he's got enough of her measure that he doesn't need to be right on the money. the point is, he's not wrong. )

And then what?