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[anvilled]

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✉️ text — un: hammer.

[principled]

Have you yet found a horse that suits you? I am told there is a garden, separate from the grounds, within riding distance.

1/?

[anvilled]

[ Just a blurry photo of half of Maekar's face from below, mostly blocked by his thumb. He's still learning. ]

2/?

[anvilled]

I

3/?

[anvilled]

[ 10 minutes later: ]

Is this fucking thing working properly

4/done

[anvilled]

They are all insipid creatures hardly suitable for a child
But there may be one or two with spirit

[principled]

[ Ten minutes pass. He considers a response, or returning to their rooms, and refrains from both, when age makes matters of pride simultaneously easier and more difficult. In truth, he finds the devices they've been assigned no less difficult — he simply has, and has always had, more patience. ]

It is working, or so I assume. I cannot yet claim to know what would be considered entirely typical.

Would you ride with me on the morrow? I had thought to venture out after breakfast.

[anvilled]

[ Maekar is still poking at the thing, trying to figure out what he's supposed to be doing with it, when it vibrates in his hand. Luckily, it survives being thrown at the wall and the maid cleaning the fireplace nearby is able to recover from her surprise; he retrieves it with a muttered curse and reads his brother's message. ]

You need not ask brother, I will be there.
Do you expect to find anything in this garden?

[principled]

Some sense, at least, of the boundaries of the place, and some fresh air.
I doubt the greenery will be any more forthcoming than the rest of this place, but it is a recent addition, by my understanding.

[anvilled]

Gardens and dinner parties.
There's no end to the frivolous nature of this house
Have you noticed there are no defences? No wall or tower?

[principled]

They've no need for towers or dungeons to keep us prisoner; it stands to reason they would not need them to repel that which might seek to harm them. Or they expect that such things would give us cause to pay more mind — to this place, to the nature of it — and prefer the alternative.

Then again, the festivities seem just as like to lead to slaughter as to debauchery.

[anvilled]

It sounds like we're trapped at some cursed tourney.

[ Appropriate enough. ]

[principled]

A tourney, at least, would have an end.

[ Which serves as the first indication he's given as to any real annoyance or displeasure. ]

[anvilled]

And a better selection of ale, no doubt

[ A little shared complaining is never a bad thing. ]

Let us go on your ride
Perhaps we'll scare up quarry for a decent hunt.
I've heard these woods have deer, at least.

[principled]

[ In a wave of memory that pushes up like so much seafoam, he thinks of Ashford — of when Daeron and Aegon had still been missing, of Maekar's suggestion of a hunt, then. ]

That will be one familiar thing, at least.
Tomorrow, then.

✉️ text — un: hammer.

[principled]

We are not the first of our name to pass through this place.

Apparently we were preceded by a number of those who fought in the Dance of the Dragons, as well as a girl a century or so on from our own time.

[anvilled]

[ A short delay; he's still not in the habit of checking his phone. ]

How is that possible?

[ Afterlife theory gaining traction.. ]

[principled]

I could not rightly say. But I was given the names of Queen Rhaenyra, Prince Daemon, and Prince Jacaerys, as well as Alicent Hightower, three of her children, and one Daenerys, the last supposedly from our future. None of them now remain.

[anvilled]

Are you sure they're not lying to curry your favour?
How could a girl from our future be here if she is not yet dead?

[principled]

If it is a lie, it is a needlessly elaborately constructed one.

And I do not believe all who pass through here to be familiar with the Stranger.

[anvilled]

Why else would we be here and not where we are supposed to be?

There is some fucking plan at work here brother
I refuse to believe their lies.

[principled]

I will not argue the point on these devices.

[ Not a concession, nor an explanation, when what he means is, I refuse to believe you are dead. ]

But the fact remains. There are some here who do know of our family.

[ And who may not think of them kindly, but that's hardly different from their usual circumstances. ]

[anvilled]

Hardly notable. There are birds shitting on black rocks off the coast of the Northern isles who know of our family

What should we do about it in any case?
Better that they know who and what they're dealing with. I would not have them disrespect us.

[principled]

It requires less action than awareness.

[ Though he finds it stranger to be known than Maekar does, having already experienced his fair share of blank stares in answer to his family name. ]

And we shall deal with the rest as it comes.

🎀?

[anvilled]

[ Unhappy to be agreeing, but glad to be able to rely on his brother's guidance: ]

Very well.

@🌸, misfire

[fleurfleur]

Have you thought of me since the bathhouse, Your Majesty?

[anvilled]

[ Local man startled out of a nap because he forgot his phone can vibrate. Give him -- a number of minutes. ]

I think you have mistaken me for someone else
Now fuck off

[fleurfleur]

[ oh? ]

My mistake. I didn’t realize there were two of you here.

Brothers? Or another relation?

[anvilled]

Two of who?
How do you know me?

[fleurfleur]

I’m a witch who knows all things.

[ she is pulling your leg ]

[anvilled]

You are a witch and you have been consorting with my brother?

[fleurfleur]

I would argue that he’s equally been consorting with me.

[anvilled]

You are a liar

[fleurfleur]

Mm, sometimes. But that’s beside the point.

You’re protective of him, aren’t you?

[anvilled]

He is the heir to the Iron Throne, the Hand of the King, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and the future King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men. Those who do not seek to protect him seek to oppose him and will meet their rightful end as traitors to the realm.

And he does not consort with whores and witches.

[fleurfleur]

An awful lot of titles for one man, and only two for me? Don’t worry, I’ve been called worse than whore and witch.

And what do they call you?