text ↪ un: steve.rogers, dated before the closed door meeting

[fossils]

Everyone's already got their hands full so I'll cut to the chase:

There's room at the table for us at the upcoming meeting between Capt. Childe and the Thessyx representatives. Don't know how many seats or what's going to be discussed, but if you want to be the one representing us, or otherwise got any strong feelings on the matter

Now's the time to speak up.

( ooc: the mods said they'll be RNGing to pick from candidates for the closed door meeting! but if you've put your character forward OOCly already feel free to use this post to make their case ICly, groupchat amongst each other, etc! )

Comments

[northerndragon]

Just so. The same wishes and the same fears, even if they stand in different places.

cw: fantasy racial violence

[sunmon]

[ it's hard to agree with that entirely — when no one here seems to fear or desire to experiment on grisha, when no one has looked at her twice for being shu. agreeing with jon would require boiling those sentiments, common in ravka and its neighbors, down further to their core, an empathy that alina can't quite extend to people who want her dead. ]

Is she your queen?
Daenerys.

[northerndragon]

She is my ally. I support her claim to the Iron Throne.

[OOC: because no one has actually told him yet that he bent the knee ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

[sunmon]

[ that's ... not the same as a yes ??? ]

But you're from the same place. That's all I was really asking.

[ YET SHE STUMBLED UPON SOME DRAMA ]

[northerndragon]

We come from different parts of the same world. The history of our lands is long and bloody, and I’m no maester to write the tales of three or four wars. I will speak of House Targaryen and House Stark another time, if you wish it. Better to speak now of who will meet with the people who hold these lands.

Daenerys has my friendship and my respect. That may not mean much to most of you here, but it does to me.

[Stark… but this is from @ jon.snow, isn’t it?]

[sunmon]

[ young adult brain be like 'filter? i don't know her' ]

If House Stark is yours, then why's your username Jon Snow?

[northerndragon]

Lord Eddard Stark was my father, but his lady wife was not my mother. Snow is a name given in the North to the baseborn children of lords, like me. We cannot have our father’s names, but we can try to be as honorable as anyone who’s trueborn.

[sunmon]

I don't think anyone here is going to check your birth certificate if you take your father's name, you know.

If you were Lady Stark's child, they'd just call you his.

At least, that's what they'd do in Ravka.

So there's no reason to pretend you aren't.

[northerndragon]

[… “birth certificate”?]

A lie is a lie, no matter who is there to see it. There is no longer anyone to stop me from calling myself Stark at home, now, but I won’t do it. And it may mean something to the other children called Snow that it’s the name of their king. Do you know what it is to be raised as a bastard? People think ill of bastard children, even if the child is good, through and through.

You did not know what my name means. Even if I meant to lie, I would have no reason to. Stark and Snow mean nothing to anyone else here.

[sunmon]

Common people aren't called bastards. That's a title for the children of kings and nobles.

I was just an orphan. But I keep my parents' name because it's all I have left of them. If only one of them had been my parent, it wouldn't stop me from wanting that connection to them.

[northerndragon]

Where I come from, any child may be a bastard, but to be given a name like Snow or Stone or Hill, they must have a highborn parent. My name does not make me less my father’s son.

Your parents’ name, is it Starkov?

[sunmon]

[ he misses the point — because of course he does, he's highborn. she only sighs. it just doesn't matter that anyone's a bastard if they're not inheriting anything but a name. but she doesn't expect him to gather that. ]

It is.

[northerndragon]

[She doesn’t understand what it means to be a Snow and have men trust you anyway, and she doesn’t — she can’t - really know about his father’s wife. It doesn’t matter that they’re both dead. A lie is a lie. Still…]

It’s a good name. Not so far from Stark. What’s the A for?

[sunmon]

Alina.

[northerndragon]

That's a good name too.

[Well, it's not a bad one, and he has a long memory of his sister telling him that a compliment on a lady's name is a kindness.]

What sort of place do you come from, Alina?

[sunmon]

I wonder what you think a bad name sounds like 🤔

Ravka. It's colder than here. Not as many machines. We have a queen like you do. And a king.

[ how else do you explain a place to someone who's never been there? well. she knows one feature. ]

Cut right down the middle by a sea of darkness filled with monsters.

[northerndragon]

I don't like the name Lannister, don't like the name Bolton. Don't much like Frey. But those names don't mean anything to you. They killed my father, my brothers.

It is cold in the North, too, and we have monsters, but we have a great wall of ice to keep them out. I don't know what we would do if we could not hold them back at least some of the time. How do you survive it?

[sunmon]

The volcra stay within the Unsea. You only risk life and limb by crossing it — say, for trade with the western half of the country, or any other country, since that's where the coast is.

The shorter answer is that people don't. Not most of them, at least. My parents didn't.