ataraxion | 03

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03 | video

For all the talk of help and friendship that trust is easily broken.

[ That young, sweet white haired girl that you've seen before? Today her sweetness is gone, her manner harder - angrier and her words commanding. Like a Queen, except right now that isn't her business ]

I would ask- [ No. A Queen does not ask, not when she has been wronged ] You will tell me where you have taken them.

[ Her children - her dragons. Daenerys doesn't know that they're not here, that they're still as eggs (she was updating in the jump, but her dragons haven't been updated with her) ]

If they have been harmed- [ She doesn't have a threat to follow up to that. No one with her, and she can do little herself ] your actions will be answerable. I am the Khaleesi, and I shall take my rights with blood.

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For the moment. [ That's exactly the non-committal answer you were looking for, right? ] I suspect no man ever truly has his fill.

[ Her mouth purses. You are the actual bane of her existence, Jaime Lannister. ] How spoken like a true Lannister.

[ His mouth twists in a pursed mirror of her own, half-smiling, half-not. ] Someone has to be one.

[ A pause. Less catty, more thoughtful. (Against her best judgment, she always looks to understand what lies behind the Kingslayer's words.) ] Your smile falters, Kingslayer. Are you not taken with the task?

I am the son of Tywin Lannister, Lady Stone. There is no task to be taken with.

[ A judicious answer from a man not usually prone to them. Jaime is very aware that they are not in private. ]

[ A judicious answer and telling as well. None of us chose to be Lannisters, she thinks Sansa would say. But we are, nevertheless. They are alike in that respect, though the commonality makes Alayne bristle. ]

Tywin Lannister is not here. [ Nor is he anywhere. Alayne keeps that to herself. ]

[ Jaime, however, is clearly thinking the same thing, even if Alayne has managed to restrain herself from saying it. ]

And were my dear father here, and were you to tell him that, I imagine it would amuse him to think that made a difference.

His amusement matters not to me. [ A pause. To think a man who killed the king he had sworn fealty to would just as readily be a dutiful son to a father dead and gone and disapproving. ] Does it matter to you?

[ Would he be right? ]

He was my father. [ Jaime's tone is a little disbelieving, as though he cannot fathom that this requires explanation. Perhaps they were not the Starks, but the Lannisters were a family, at the end of it all. ]

As often as I disobeyed him, he was still that.

[ To Alayne the Lannisters are not a family. They are a name, a house, and a self-ravaging beast. There was no love between the Queen and the Imp, there was no kindness in seeing Tyrion married to Sansa — only spite. The lions mauled at one another just as readily as they mauled at the wolves, but to that truth Alayne can only think: gods be good. ]

Then why disobey him, if you knew what it would earn you?

[ Jaime shrugs. It is not his usual careless shrugs. It is too stilted for that. And Jaime is aware that it is stilted and bothered by his inability to feign nonchalance. ]

Why does anyone disobey anyone else? I thought I knew better.

[ She should glean some satisfaction from that. From seeing how his mask slips, in knowing she can put him at unease. The Kingslayer is more unflappable than most — a fact that has proven vexing to Alayne in the past.

Still, she cannot bring herself to glut. ]

And do you have shame or regret for what you have done?

[ For that question, so bold in its way, Jaime finds a smile again, even as he carefully chooses not to give much consideration to his answer. ]

Quite a broad question, that, Lady Stone.

Such a gracious lack of answer, that— [ A pause, mouth thinning. ] —Ser Jaime.

[ It is on the tip of his tongue to ask her if that, saying his name, was such a difficult task. But he does not. ]

It's as I've said before: I am what I am, my lady. The things I have done are part of that.

[ A kingslayer. An oathbreaker. A knight. A Lord Commander. A brother. A father to an abomination of a son. A Lannister, a Lannister, a Lannister.

Alayne would point out all of these unkindly, but the matter at hand— ]

Do you wish to be murdered in your sleep?

[ The sudden privacy she's encircled this conversation with tells Jaime all he needs to know about the change of subject at hand. ]

It would be a new experience.

[ She has no love for the Kingslayer, nor true pity for the noose he hangs around his own neck. If one were to ask, she would say she speaks for the good of the entire ship, to keep war at bay. But the fact that she hides her words gives away her hand. ]

Spare us all your intrepid spirit.

Edited 2012-09-09 21:08 (UTC)

[ He has become used enough to this device that he can turn the video function on just now, just to raise his eyebrows at her. ]

In truth, you seem one of the few who would wish to be spared it, Alayne Stone.

[ If there is an implication there, she ignores it. Fervently. ]

I would see these halls spared of Westerosi blood. [ There are those she wishes to see buried and gone, but the Kingslayer's death would not satisfy such wants. ] We have seen enough of it already.

[ Jaime tips his head, giving the thought consideration. He's not certain he wholly believes that this is her motivation -- or not solely -- but he chooses to let it lie for now. ]

You're not a soldier, my lady. I imagine bloodshed of any kind would seem undesirable to you.

[ It is with a touch of her usual petulance that she declares: ] I am a woman, Kingslayer. I am more familiar with blood than you give me credit for.

Familiarity is not the same as fondness, Lady Stone.

[ After all, familiarity and contempt so often went hand-in-hand, a lesson learned early and often in House Lannister. ]

[ A lesson learned early and often in House Lannister, but oh how Sansa had taken poorly to their colors. ]

Not all bloodshed would displease me, no. [ How often had Sansa wished for Joffrey's head; how often had she prayed. ]

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