eachdraidh | video, open to both courts (action if you are at the barrel)

[ Alice has been at the Barrel for a few weeks now. No one's asked her to cook and clean, but it's been a bit of an engraved habit brought over from her time in London. It's only through getting children's clothing and interacting with the nearby town that it's been plaguing the back of her mind. Unlike the last time she's popped on the lockets back in December, Alice looks healthier, but she is still pretty thin.

As usual. And as usual, her white rabbit is sitting there beside her, munching away at a bowl of food. She's not good at public speaking. ]

Hello.

These may be strange times to open a dialogue about this subject while both of our courts prepare for another skirmish. There are plenty of natives here of various ages who have been hit the most by war, especially children. I used to be the maidservant of an orphanage back in Whitechapel London.

[ Her face only flashes with a hint of pain when she mentions it. ]

Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth—if you heard of it. And the children there came from similar backgrounds, that they were all traumatized and lost family either by sickness, death, or murder. These children are often overlooked, sometimes they are swept up by those with ill intentions and treated even worse. But they are still children and they still have pieces of their innocence left.

I may not have the resources nor the... capacity right now to replicate that orphanage, but I still want to help the youngest natives here have the smallest comforts like food or clothing. I've only had a handful of opportunities in Redgate and the Station to make good on my word and clearly I need the additional hands.

In addition to natives being sent away from the path of war, I hope that there can be a way to provide resources for them or find them the appropriate care somewhere down the line. I know that it is silly to think of such a thing when all the adults in this world are preparing for battle, but they are so young and they deserve so much more while they are being guided to safety.

But if I were to oversee these things, I reserve the right to be very picky. The children I cared for weren't even spared from the cruelty of adults, even the proprietor of that orphanage.

Surely my friends will be thrilled if I focused my attention on children rather than them. I know they must tire of my nagging.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I remember that well enough. If you was to do them some real good, you might find them apprenticeships instead. When me mum died, I was made an apprentice. It kept me fed and a dry place to sleep and I learned plenty to earn me coin now that I've grown.

[Not that an apprenticeship was cheap. He never knew why he was given one, but for these children... well, it was better than simply growing up without any useful skill. Being an armorer's apprentice had saved his life once already.]

It would be an idea to consider, yes, but I will still be exceptionally leery of any teacher or master to send them to.

[ All sorts of things can happen to children with adults who put on faces. ]

Besides, from the sounds of things so far, I have other women willing to aid teaching them. That would also do them good.

What are they going to teach them? How to be septons?

[Gendry had no faith in some goodhearted souls teaching them to read or write or history and songs. What good did any of that ever do him? It was hard skill they needed to know to survive.]

[ Even as she has a feeling she won't like the answer... ]

I am afraid I do not know what that word means. Knowledge and wisdom are important; there is nothing wrong with bettering the mind with arithmetic and literature.

[ So she has a lot of feelings on that, no thanks to her own father. ]

What good is all that? Unless you mean to give them some keep or castle, none of that will do them any good. They'll be tending fields or shoveling shit when they've grown, if that's all you teach them. If they've the chance to learn, they could be crafters or bakers and have a chance for a decent life.

How else do you mean to break a cycle of class and warfare? Through knowledge. To strip them of that is to strip further generations of innovators, creators, and healers! How do crafts and such began? They all have roots in arithmetic. They can learn to write books on crafts and baking and share the wealth of knowledge to another who doesn't know how to do it. I don't know what world you come from, sir, but I assure you, while I've been dealt a similar hand to the natives on the streets, education has been a cornerstone in humanity to change the world.

And if they need a roof over their head the entire time, so be it. Perhaps I want to change their lives away from the life I've had and others have had. You may think those things are useless, but I assure you, they are not. Look around you, look to your fellow travelers, they come from worlds rich in education and knowledge. I do not care how long it takes, I will do it.

It occurs to me, that the ones that do all the bloody fighting are the ones who get the bloody educations. It's the nobles and their highborn learning that decide to go fight another highborn and take their lands. I ain't ever seen no baker or smith ever start a war over nothing.

video, open to both courts (action if you are at the barrel)

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