video ; both courts, open

[survivra]

I don't want a locket.

[ katsa's dangling hers in front of her face, close to and giving a clear (as much as the locket's image quality is capable, anyway) image of her mismatched eyes, one an unnaturally vibrant green and the other a bright blue. she's Not Happy, if the pull of her eyebrows is any indication, and her voice is impatient. though the scene behind her isn't easy to make out, since she's holding the locket close, an astute observer might notice the twisted branches and dark green flora of la llorona. ]

I don't want any gifts. I'm not here for any kings and queens, so you can have this back—I'm not going to be yours more than I am anyone else's to do your bidding. There are enough kings to deal with already in Lienid and the Middluns. Do you imagine I won't find my own way?

[ well, all she heard was "from high king and queen" and "send a message" as she was busy trying to kick an imp in the face when she got her locket, so she thinks this is how this works. ]

Comments

[survivra]

It rarely does. [ that's dry. ] I won't be asking for another.

[ not that she would even expect to get anything out of it, if she even wanted anything ]

[bullhorned]

What I mean is, you intending to stay don't mean nothing. There ain't no exchange. You're here. There's naught else to it.

[Basically his way of 'get used to it'.]

[survivra]

There's myself to it. [ she says it loudly, maybe a little more than necessary. katsa does not like getting used to it!!! ] I can find my way to the sea, and a ship...

[ she trails off. there's one thing even the map the imps gave her and her own internal compass isn't telling her, and that's where she would go from there. she sees nothing she recognizes, nothing even like the seven kingdoms on this map. ]

[bullhorned]

I don't think this is your land. It's not my land, either. I don't know what's out there on the sea. Besides sea monsters, at least.

[Their ship nearly ran into one. They had lucked out and evaded it.]

[survivra]

Sea monsters? [ that's said with almost too much interest. were they talking face to face, she would have leaned in, curious to hear more—katsa spent weeks at sea, and she never saw such a thing.

...she might like to, though.

she continues talking without waiting for his immediate response, trying to get a handle on who he is, or the kinds of places he's been, where he could have seen such things. ]

Where in the kingdoms are you from? Not Estill, or Nander?

[bullhorned]

Aye. Sea monsters. Krakens and the likes. Mutts, mayhaps. [But only because Gale said so.]

I'm from the Seven Kingdoms. [... yeah.]

[survivra]

[ WELP. she's already rattled of four of the kingdoms without any note of familiarity, but she's going to run with what she's got—familiarity is in high demand, so Katsa's going to be jumping to some conclusions until noted otherwise. ]

There were no kinds of monsters on my trips to and from Lienid a few months ago. [ and Po's never said a word about them. maybe they don't inhabit southern waters. so they're north of the kingdoms? ] I'm the Lady Katsa, of the Middluns. Have you seen one yourself?

[ ...momentarily distracted from the issue of where she can and can't go. never mind, she can get around to that. ]

[bullhorned]

[Unfortunately Gendry is poorly schooled. He knows the names of the Seven Kingdoms, but could scarcely name locations within them. Talk of places like Lienid and Middluns mean nothing to him, for they might as well be some place buried in the Westerlands.

Worse yet, he does not like to confess to his own ignorance. But the moment she mentions Lady, his tone goes sour.]

I've not ever been to sea before this place, m'lady. But here, a creature followed us each night for near a week. We never was certain what it was, but the sailors knew it weren't no simple whale.

[he was still stuck on the kraken theory.]

[survivra]

[ Katsa assumes the shift in tone is more to do with her reputation than merely her title. It's a shift that's not unfamiliar, so her own resulting change in tone is almost automatic, terser and quieter. ]

...But it never attacked. [ it's half an assumed statement, half a question. ] Could it have been a monster, if it let you go?

[bullhorned]

One of the mates on the ship said we outran it. The wind was with us, so it let us alone when it tired of chasing us.

[It's what he believed at least. Everyone had been pretty tense during that time.]

[survivra]

[ That makes more sense to Katsa, though it does nothing to lessen her curiosity about seeing one. ] You're lucky. At sea, there'd have been no room to move.

[ But she can't help but wonder, her own imagination suddenly kicking into overdrive, how one might fight such a monster on a ship. They would have to keep damage from the ship itself, or draw only its attention above the hull. How well would arrows work? Perhaps one could dive under...

Maybe it was luck, or— ]

Was your captain Graced?

[bullhorned]

[Graced? He tried to relate it to his own (sometimes unfortunately limited) vocabulary. He associated that to mean purity or greatness of some kind. The captain had been a bald and bitter looking woman with a nasty tongue and not a touch of sweetness about her. Gendry had liked her, but she was certainly not graced.]

No more than I am. She knew her business at sea. It was enough.

[survivra]

[ And that's fair, too, though it must have been an impressive woman to reach such a position without a Grace. Katsa's silent for a moment, thinking about this. ]

That's all a sailor needs, I suppose, to know their skill and the sea.

[ Graced or Ungraced, man or woman, what mattered was getting where they needed to go and staying alive to do it. ]

[bullhorned]

It's all most folk need is to know their trade.

[Not titles and lands and servants to be useful for you. That's his subtle implication anyway.]

[survivra]

And with it, the opportunity to reach their highest levels.

[ she doesn't quite grasp his implication ]

[bullhorned]

[He snorts.] If they live long enough for it. It's not like to happen with highborns and their bloody wars.

[survivra]

[ Again, Katsa doesn't answer right away, ignoring him to play with the twisting locket on the chain. She's never been much confronted with her own status. Her uncle was a neutral king and her leash-holder for all but the last year of her life, and Katsa's only job had been to obey his orders and, later with her own initiative, to help the people who couldn't help themselves. Barring that, her best friends are mostly royalty and landholders.

She takes a moment to consider Gendry's statement. ]

Is that not why people with power should help them?

[ Her work with the Council had started as a reaction against Randa's control, but as time went on she found it absurd that those already with power were trained to become even more so and the people born without it left defenseless. ]

[bullhorned]

Little chance of that. They're best if they bugger off and keep to themselves.

[But he's venting uselessly. He's not even particularly unhappy. But he's come to like or tolerate the nobles from his own world, so he's left with little to do but to point all his unhappy anger about the nobility on unsuspecting nobles from other worlds.

He figures they probably deserve it.]

[survivra]

[ This would usually be where Katsa ends a conversation, neither sure of how to reply nor willing enough to try. However, she doesn't yet have a handle on how the locket works, and even she thinks it would be strange to put it away here, anyway. She shrugs instead. ]

I doubt that's likely to happen.

[bullhorned]

You're not wrong on that. [He frowns and decides to just go with the question on his mind.] So who's your king, eh?

[The safe answer for anyone is of course Tommen, but he's curious to see if perhaps she has some other loyalty.]

[survivra]

[ That's a weird question to ask, and since she's already told him her name and her title, Katsa wonders if he simply doesn't know the names of other kings—or even his own. She frowns back. ]

My uncle is King Randa of the Middluns, and Queen Bitterblue is taking to her new role well in Monsea. But I owe my allegiance to none but myself, and those to whom I choose to give it.

[ There are no conflicting claims over the same thrones in Katsa's Seven Kingdoms, only the squabbles of kings across borders. ]

[bullhorned]

[None names that he recognized. He should have guessed.]

My mistake, m'lady. I took you from someone else from the Seven Kingdoms.

[survivra]

[ deeper frown. ]

For what other person did you mistake me?

[ it isn't arrogance, really. her name is mostly recognizable alone, and the colors of her eyes she thinks should have sealed the deal. ]

[bullhorned]

No one. I ain't ever had time to learn the names of all the important highborn lords and ladies and where they build their keeps at.

[Still he'd not even looked at her, as the locket hung loosely at his chest. He was silently cursing himself for his confusion. He shouldn't have assumed.]

[survivra]

Most lords keep to their own lands, at least in the Middluns. I stayed in my uncle's court until last year, for the most part. You've not heard of Randa's Graceling killer?

[ her tone is dry. she expects it. ]