raianet | video @nina

[ You can make VIDEOS ON THIS THING.

Now that Nina knows this, no one is safe. Well, okay, not true, because she's still got to get the hang of it. You, the viewer, are once again treated to a vision of... the Aid Station wall.

Nina: "Where's the camera again?"
John, her long-suffering patient who isn't suffering as much as he is laughing at her: "On the corner, there."
Nina: "But that means I have to hold my wrist like--" Abruptly, the picture changes and now Nina's squarely in view, "--oh yes, you're right. That's a better idea."
John: "...so are you gonna say something or?"
Nina: "Oh Saints, is it recording already? Blast--"

Bright smile is go! ]

Hello, everyone! If we haven't met yet, I'm Nina Zenik.

There are so many of us here from so many different places. It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly two months, and now more of us are coming. I’m not used to making announcements like this [ some noise from beside her, Nina looks toward John and corrects: ] -- or, posts? Apparently they’re called posts. -- but even some the Adament crew I’ve spoken to are interested in my questions, so they’ve assured me they don’t mind if I - post - with this.

So tell us - what’s it like where you’re from? What are the legends that are most popular? What are the courtship practices? [ She’s absolutely not crafting this whole post because she’s searching for ideas on this, nope. ] Are you one of those of us have been fighting a war -- excuse the question if it’s rude, there just do seem to be a lot of us. I’d ask you to talk about your favorite foods instead, but that might be more depressing than helpful. Oh - here’s one: If you’re from an Earth, how do you know it’s a different Earth than all the other Earths? And if not, does your planet have a name or is mine the only one that doesn't?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[One of those things is not like the other!]

I know that it is not my world because most had never heard of the lands I came from before they met me, or someone else from my world. Nor have they heard of any of the other lands or peoples.

From all I could find, Westeros is a little like Great Britain, but it is much, much larger. They had seven kingdoms there once. But no Free Folk, no Children of the Forest, no Andals come over from Essos, no Dothraki. If they had horse lords once, they went by another name. And so on and on.

[He is level and amiable as he explains all this, as if it's not his first time, or his fifth.]

[ She knows what Great Britain is because she found a map of Earth, but the rest of it -- definitely different. She gives Jon a bit of a wry smile and shakes her head. ]

I don't know what those things are either, I'm afraid. So are you saying you're not from an Earth, or just from a very different one?

We call the soil “earth” and we talk of things walking the earth, so I suppose it must be Earth. Never heard the world called much else.

As to legends, a lot of those I know are from the North. Our old nurse told them to us when we were children —- my brothers and sisters and I. There is Ser Wyn of the Mirror Shield, and Simeon Star-Eyes, and there is the story of the ‘Prentice Boys up at the Nightfort, or Brave Danny Flint. That was a girl who disguised herself as a boy to join the Night’s Watch, and had a bad end. The ‘Prentice Boys had a bad end, too.

[His amiable expression sobers a little.]

But some of the tales have proved to be true, and that is my war. One of them.

[ ...Nina is going to put that in the 'Maybe Earth' column, which was not a column she was aware she needed until now, but so it is.

Nina's brow furrows slightly, ]

So you're a soldier as well. Most of the people I've met who've come from the eggs seem to be fighters of some kind... I'm sorry, I know it's not an easy thing to talk about, but did you say you were fighting creatures out of your legends?

[ And did he say that was one of the wars he was fighting? ]

I am. I was raised to it: I am only a bastard, but my father was a lord and raised me alongside his trueborn children, and if you’re the son of a lord, they teach you sums, they teach you the history of the kingdoms, but they also put a wooden sword in your hand as soon as you can walk. You will fight for your House or your people or the king, or you’ll be ready to. I joined the Watch myself just before my eighteenth name-day.

[It is no trouble to talk of the White Walkers, though sometimes it is a trouble to think of them as they are, and to remember feeling the blast of ice in his face as he shattered the body of a White Walker with Longclaw. Sometimes he dreams of that. But if he didn’t talk of them, he would not be able to rally the aid to fight them.]

We do fight creatures out of legend. We did not think to, and people in the southron lands don’t want to believe it, no matter that they are in danger, too. There is truth to the stories of the White Walkers and their Night King. They’re creatures of the cold, always bringing snow and darkness with them, and they raise those they kill to march in their army and fight for them. They are death —- the death of every living thing. All I can hope to do is bring enough people together to stop them.

[And it might be that he has.]

[ She listens with attention. ]

That's a very pragmatic system. [ She sounds like she approves; she does. Grisha in Ravka are given similar options, and that's a sight better than in most neighboring countries. Most people in her generation, and in her parents generation, have been drafted, in fact -- even the lords 'fight,' technically. What he is describing is a lot more than Crown Prince Vasily's 'term of service.' What would it be like to be led by a king who knows the cost of human life?

But what he's describing is horrible; Nina knows a little something of facing the snow and darkness. ]

As horrible as that sounds, I think you have good reason to hope. Most people want to live, when it comes down to it, and will fight to do so. [ She shivers a little. A death of cold and darkness... ] What drives these White Walkers, do you know? Are they beings of intellect, or driven only by instinct?

[What he thinks of the system is that it’s a shame they didn’t train the girls, too. It’s a shame that half the people in his kingdom can’t loose an arrow or swing a sword. They are tough, and loyal, but it would be better if more of them could really fight. Nina’s approval makes his expression brighten. He is grateful for his skill with a sword and a bow, and sorry that so many he loved have fallen to blades and arrows.

But it’s impossible to talk about the White Walkers in good cheer, so his expression falls again when he answers her.]

The White Walkers have some sort of intelligence. They are like generals —- if you fight one, they’ll walk through fire to get to you, won’t stop until one of you is dead. They shatter normal steel blades, but not Valyrian steel, or dragonglass. They are stronger than any man, and cold. There is a mind in a White Walker, although what it is thinking, I couldn’t say. I think the mind of their king is set on killing until there is nothing left.

Wights, though, those are mindless, and there are many more of them. Steel won’t kill them, but it doesn’t shatter. The White Walkers carry weapons — blades and spears of ice — but they use the wights as weapons too. If there are ten wights on you, a White Walker doesn’t have to fight you.

[ They sound more organized than volcra, but still not quite... human, for lack of a better word. His description of creatures out of a legend is more than justified, as is the use of the word creatures. Not human, or able to be reasoned with in human terms -- it's always more than a war when one side has such an imbalance. Fjerda, for example, doesn't just want to defeat Ravka; they won't be satisfied until all Grisha are dead.

But this sounds like the sort of logic that can not be fully understood, or reasoned with, and Nina is firmly on the side of people who want to survive. ]

...well, I've lead us to a dire topic and no mistake. You have quite a fight on your hands. I hope you come through it, once you return to it. This says your name is Jon -- is that your name? Apparently people don't always put their real names on this thing.

video @nina

video @jon.snow

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oh no it’s time for a Jon Snow Speech™️

at least the speech is new to her?

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