dragonwarder | (no subject)

[When she had prepared a meal for him, it had been light, on the sweet side, not spicy or sour. He settles on a pale wine, the one more like summerwine. And, in its way, more like the Northern mead he’s used to.

He pours it out and sets it in front of her.]

At least I know what wine is. I have more trouble when there’s a lot of custom in the place. I’d never heard of half the things these people want to drink.

I was angry, when I was a boy. When I was given my place in the Watch and they made me a steward — sweeping floors and pouring wine. I’d wanted to be a ranger, fighting to protect the Kingdoms. But if had not been a steward for a year or two, I wouldn’t know what to do in this city. It would be harder to find work as a guard than it was to find work here.

[All of this, he tells her to explain his work: why it is easy and why it is not. The last reason why it is not, because he has grown used to having command, goes without saying.]

[She nods along after he's passed her the wine, polite enough not to take a sip until he is well into his explanation.]

Indeed. Not very much work for a queen, here.

[And she wasn't about to be someone's trophy wife, which was the only other job she'd ever held. If one could call it that.

Kylo Ren's arrival back to New Amsterdam had been timely. Another month of absence of her roommate, and she'd have been homeless for certain. But she does not offer that, either.

Instead, she lifts the glass she'd drank from to inspect it, offering him a pleased smile.]

Good guess.

[He nods at the praise, smiles slightly, looks down, looks back up.

He has never been truly good at making conversation.]

We know how to lead, but we don’t have the chance. And we wouldn’t know what we need to know to do it. I knew — I know — all my men as much as I can. The ones I don’t know, I try to learn about. But here, I hardly know the next street.

If you could choose any work here, what would it be? Not the simple things they set us to.

[Anything.]

[Her smile fades some, at his question. She shouldn't be so frigid, she knows. It is part of the reason she is in her current situation, after all. Stubborn, but not entirely blind -- given enough space from the problem.]

I want for very little in life. I was happy where I was -- with what I was doing. It was important work, something I was uniquely qualified for. It is hard to imagine anything might recapture it.

[Yikes, Dany.]

I suppose ... there is something of interest. A curiosity, of a sort.

[She leans in just enough to make it clear that she does not want this information spread too far.]

Do you perhaps recall some of the animals that wander about here?

Edited 2020-04-25 08:18 (UTC)

[Nothing can recapture what either of them was doing before being unceremoniously deposited in this city glowing like the eyes of the dead, but losing his position, not being the leader of anything, makes it harder to aid people. He is not sure that much he’s done here since he’s arrived has really helped anyone, apart from a few other new arrivals.

The way her smile recedes makes him regret his words a little — of course nothing is the same as taking cities, ruling them, having three dragons and a strong claim to the Iron Throne — but he listens to her, answers her question.]

The strange ones, with golden eyes?

[He remembers the disquieting feeling that they were watching him.]

[Daenerys nods, clutching her glass of wine in between her hands.]

They were not always so common here. I have been watching them, since they began venturing inside of the city.

[Truthfully, she had hoped they might lead her to another sort of creature -- but she has long given up that dream. Even still, she is certain there is something there. Whether they are of this world, or like the Displaced, it isn't exactly difficult to wonder after her interest.]

There are others not of the Displaced that are studying them as well. I have made a friend or two among them.

[He listens closely. As long as he’s not weighted with cares or listening to someone who’s talking useless nonsense, he has always been a good listener, sometimes even able to glean what people aren’t saying. Sometimes not.]

Do your — the other creatures you’ve spent more time with, do they help you underst—

Wait, they’ve only just come? [That makes him frown.] How long? What do your new friends say about it?

[The unfinished question only earns him a light smile. She likes to think so -- but she cannot say one way or another.]

Truthfully, I have not gotten very close. They cause a sickness within us.

[She waves a hand gently to ward off the subject, like it was no big deal. Just in the event that anyone is listening to them.]

Indeed. But they don't say very much to me, yet. Not altogether keen on sharing.

[Which obviously only makes her more curious, judging by the way she pointedly takes a sip of wine.]

But it is something I have my eye upon.

[He’s silent for a moment, visibly thoughtful, pondering the implications of what she’s saying.]

Who are they? People with something to hide, or —

What sort of sickness?

More than likely.

[Aramis isn't a scientist, and so they are not very privy to some of the information she wants. But she's working on that angle as well.]

Anger. [But that doesn't quite encapsulate it--] Intense anger. Violence. Problematic for the Displaced, given some of the alterations we've all experienced.

[He looks both more interested and more perturbed, standing across from her with his hands laid flat on the wood of the bar.]

I could kill a man as soon as look at him, if someone made me angry like that here. Wouldn’t need a sword to do it.

[That may be a slight exaggeration, but there are times here when he’s much stronger than he should be, and if he were to become reckless then, it would be easy for him to do serious harm to another person, whether or not they were the sort that needed to be harmed.]

Some of us, you, were taken, back before we opened the gates. If someone made us sick like that —

[He shakes his head, a little disgusted at the implications. The Displaced could be used to someone else’s ends, or they could be made to look like a threat that they might not otherwise represent.]

How many people know this?

Edited 2020-04-25 11:26 (UTC)

You. [She pauses deliberately.] Some whom were in New Rio, perhaps.

[She hadn't spoken to anyone very explicitly about the connection she had drawn, not because she was intent on keeping it a secret, but at the time it had been stressful to confront. A part of her regrets it now.]

The knowledge will become common before too long. I intend to share it with the research facilities, and use it to find my way among their number.

[And thus comes the answer to Jon's original question.]