(third lemon cake) voice ✧ open to both courts

[steeledskin]

( VOICE: OPEN TO BOTH COURTS )

Fellow [ ... ] shardholders. Seven blessings upon you all.

[ sansa is back in caer glaem, but there is no visual recording to accompany this address. (perhaps foolishly) she believes she may be somewhat protected from joffrey's attention. she would avoid an address altogether, but she feels there are those in the opposing court who ought to be quietly warned against the evil presence in their midst. trouble is, she doesn't know their names. and so here is a quiet attempt to draw out some of those people she'd spoken with at the very outset of using these lockets. ]

These lands are impressive. I have spent the larger part of two turns of this moon travelling them. Their roads are hard, perhaps, but I find myself oddly...pleased that I made any progress at all. [ there is a quiet (and honest) reverence in her voice. improvement and daring is not a thing she expects of herself, and so the mere understanding that she can now build a fire or ride a horse for days? it kindles something in her heart. a spark of pride. ] Seelie. Unseelie. Both territories boast beautiful landscapes -- I should like to see them painted, perhaps. Are there any artists in either court? Painters? Sculptors? [ ... ] Have we any musicians? These kingdoms must have their own songs. I would fain learn them.

From what played at the first feast, I imagine fairy music must always be a delight.

[ a protracted conversations, perhaps. but she hopes to catch the ear of wary allies and would-be friends. and as for her public behaviour? ah, well. she will be alayne stone a little longer. she is not ready to reclaim herself in one headlong rush. small steps and little leaps must be made. ]

(ooc: this post comes on the evening of june 27th. if your character is in caer glaem and is more apt to find here somewhere around the castle, go ahead and hit me with an action thread instead. i'm good with it. )

Comments

[gordianknots]

[Sorry. That laugh sounds a lot bitter than he meant it to be.]

A terrible one, actually. He was incredibly pig headed, and when I submitted a controversial thesis to him, he decided to publicly humiliate me for having a foolish idea that went against current understanding of the topic at hand. I was about nineteen at the time, and he was an utter ass.

[steeledskin]

[ she hears its brittle tone; she remarks upon it silently, and keeps the thought for later. ]

...Was the idea a good idea, in the end?

[gordianknots]

We'll see. I'm waiting to publish that thesis through proper channels when I get back home. Twenty years of waiting, I suppose, but I'm in a position of greater power, respect, and credibility than I had when I was still a student.

[steeledskin]

How tragic! To see it delayed once more, and for a conflict not your own.

[gordianknots]

I've waited long enough, a little longer won't do too much damage.

[steeledskin]

...Does anything stop you from circulating your thesis in this land, my lord?

[gordianknots]

The scholarship back home lives and dies by experts who know the general field, and either passing muster or generating a conversation. I don't have those peers here, and all my data is back home. I unfortunately don't have it committed to memory, and even if I was to use a boon to retrieve it, that the impact I want to make wouldn't exist here.

[steeledskin]

Perhaps some other Maesters of Chemistry will arrive sometime soon and you will have the peers you need.

[gordianknots]

And hopefully none of them will be teachers from my student days.

[Very hopefully not the first Lord El-Melloi.]

[steeledskin]

Have they all been so rotten, my lord?

[gordianknots]

Not really, but I can still have my concerns, since this place seems to sometimes bring people from the same place, but different times.

[steeledskin]

Yes. [ ...a pregnant pause. that alone is enough to communicate her agreement. but then, softly: ] King Joffrey is no longer king in my lands. But he seems convinced he still is, doesn't he?

It's a strange thing.

[gordianknots]

If it's of any note, the last thing he said that he recalls is his wedding.

[Which, combined with knowledge that Alayne seems to know him but is from a later time, makes some interesting suggestions about that wedding.]

[steeledskin]

[ she pauses again. here, she must move forward on faith. feeling her way carefully across the ice. but in the end, she knows what she's about to tell waver is no more than what any other westerosi of her time could tell him: ] Then he has a scant few hours of kingship left to him, my lord.

[gordianknots]

[That's that hunch confirmed. With a sort of shrug, Waver's voice is fairly cheerful, all things considered:] Well, so long as he doesn't find out, I suppose.

[steeledskin]

I would imagine that nearly every Westerosi in this court knows the specifics far better than I do, my lord -- [ her biggest lie yet, perhaps. because of all the assembled countrymen she is (perhaps) the one who knows the most. ] Whether they've engaged him on the topic or not? I cannot say.

They do not share their politics with someone of my...station.

[gordianknots]

He seemed ignorant enough about the matter when we spoke, and if I judge his personality correctly, we'd know if he found out, yes?

[He is a little saddened to hear that politics are kept from her though, in an official manner.] More fool them for doing so, really.

[steeledskin]

He is given to denial, my lord. As -- it seems -- are all lions.

[gordianknots]

Particular family trait, I take it?

[steeledskin]

[ she thinks on the queen regent. and on the blind eye she seems to always turn upon her son. sansa sighs. ]

I believe so. [ but she must stand behind her lie. ] Or so my father's stories would suggest. He had served at court for some years before he...retired to the lands we now inhabit together.

[gordianknots]

A reliable source, then. [It's something that wouldn't surprise Waver, at the very least.]

[steeledskin]

Thoroughly reliable. [ ha. ] And a better teacher, I half-suspect, than those you would despair to see brought here.

[gordianknots]

There's maybe one person I'd want here that'd be suited for any of this, and I have no promise that he'd end up on the same side as I would.

[steeledskin]

-- Were you to tell me who, my lord, I might watch for him.

[gordianknots]

I don't quite know what name he'd be using - Rider, Iskander, Alexandros, Alexander are all options - but he's about six foot something. Red hair, lots of muscle, and extremely loud, in an affable sort of way.