@sansa.stark

[isherarmor]

I'm in need of at least three people who are very sure what powers they have been given since arriving in New Amsterdam. It might be best if those powers are not of a destructive nature, but of course I'll take what I can get.

If we are strangers, all the better, but it's not necessary.

I could be of better use in New Tokyo if I can figure out what my power truly is, and I don't think that's going to happen alone.

Comments

[isherarmor]

It doesn't have to be, but I don't know if that will make it less likely to work or not.

Touching might help, but of course I am willing to try without it if it's just too ...much.

You've met my brother, Jon. He told me that you talked of dragons that are ships that launch fire.

[kleptocratic]

Good news: my power isn't leprosy.

[ He probably could do touching if he had to, but it's still very much, thank you. ]

Yes. I talk about a lot of things.

[isherarmor]

[Intended or not, the response elicits a laugh.]

I wouldn't put it past some places to give the "gift" of leprosy, but luckily for you (or more likely: me) this place does not seem to be one of them.

That's not a bad thing. What is your power?

[kleptocratic]

Yes, leprosy seems a bit common and mundane for our current surroundings. There's probably a rule. Skin diseases should glow at least as brightly as a candle.

I become difficult to touch.

[isherarmor]

[Now she's really curious what might happen. Once she might have wondered if there was a rule - and worse yet, that it might hear them speak of it, but now she's mostly abandoned the idea that anything is listening.]

This should prove ...interesting at the very least. Difficult how? Is it pain, or...?

Do they have that in your world? Luminous skin diseases and yet no living, breathing dragons?

[kleptocratic]

It doesn't hurt.

We do not have luminous skin diseases or living breathing dragons, powers, electricity, or pancakes. I am forced to expand my vocabulary.

[isherarmor]

That's good to know, at least.

These places certainly force one to do just that. I didn't know of most of those things either, not at the very beginning. You'll expand your palate (and your stomach) if you manage to find some proper pancakes.

I'm trying to decide where it would be best to do this. With any luck there's at least one unused room that's relatively quiet.

[kleptocratic]

"These places"? Plural? [ Does she mean the dream or something else? ]

I've already had pancakes. It's an experience I'd be willing to repeat.

Maybe where they keep the luggage. The storage rooms are locked but I bet I could get in.

[isherarmor]

I've become something of an expert on waking up in strange places.[It still sounds vague, possibly strange and irresponsible, but she doesn't mean it that way at all.]

A trade then? Your help and your time for a plate of pancakes (with chocolate if I can find it) and a waffle or two? Three, even, provided I've the coin for it.

That's a good idea. I take it you are good at breaking in to places? I imagine it's going to take a lot of concentration and not be as easy as it was in dreams, so we'll need a bit of privacy. Did you find yourself in more than one? Dreams, I mean?

[kleptocratic]

[ Hmmm. ]

But if you wake up too many times in a strange place, it stops being strange.

There is very little I can say no to if it ends in a good breakfast. You'll have to cut the pancakes up for me, though. [ Eugenides doesn't know if Jon mentioned that he only has one hand, but it'll be obvious soon enough, anyhow. ]

I was a thief. I'm not as good as I used to be, but in some ways better.

Dreams are difficult to count. Perhaps there was only ever one, and we just find separate corners of it.

[isherarmor]

Not when it's a different place each time. New Amsterdam is the fourth in a series of them. I'd like it to be the last.

[She doesn't ask why she might need to cut them (though an injury crosses her mind - perhaps sustained from what had come to pass in dreams) - it's curious, yes - but not so odd that she feels she should question it.] Fair enough, it's no trouble.

Used to be?

I hadn't thought of it like that, but in some of them that's how it was. Looking back on it is so much different than being inside it.

You're the one that my brother learned the trick from. Scoring the hides before striking.

[kleptocratic]

I would like to be back home.
[ Although, he isn't sure where that is anymore. ]

People don't carry coin in their purses here, and it makes a traditional approach to thievery more difficult. I've always been a staunch traditionalist when it comes to my profession.

So. Your brother is a fine swordsman. [ This is a major compliment coming from Eugenides, who is not much for compliments or swordfighting. ]

[isherarmor]

Most people I meet are in agreement with you. I know I'm the outlier, there. It's understandable, and though there are some I'd greatly miss (and do miss) I hope they've all returned to where they wished to be. You might be lucky enough that your wish comes true.

Ah, yes, I hadn't thought of that. I'm neither used to carrying coin in my purse or in my ...head (yet). I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to the latter. Did you only steal coin? Surely people carry other things on their person, or even hide it in locked rooms. [Is she...encouraging stealing? Of course not.]

He is. He's many a fine thing, though he might do his best to dodge the compliment if he heard it. I am grateful that you came to his aid, or he to yours. And you to mine as well.

[kleptocratic]

We have a saying where I am from. "It is not my own will that leads me to Caernetha."

I can steal anything.[ Obviously. ] I don't usually feel the need to separate people from their mundane effects, unless they're particularly ugly.

Perhaps he would parry it. In any case I'm glad to not be eaten by an imaginary dream monster.

[isherarmor]

Is that the name of your world? I think I understand. If will or wish alone could do such things, well, half of us would not be on this train let alone in this world.

Anything at all? What might you do with such unsightly spoils? Would they be made less so by altering them in some way, or sunk like stones at the bottom of some sea with only the fish to bear witness to their ugliness?

He might to that as well. ;-) I am glad you were not eaten, though likely not as glad as you. I narrowly escaped it myself more than once.

[kleptocratic]

Carnetha is a city on the coast, or it's said to be. The scholars argue the exact location. It's a line from an old poem. But you're right about the meaning.

Anything. I offer them to the gods as tribute, that they might not smite us for our terrible taste. After all, they are keepers of many ugly things, and I am very humble.

Then I am glad that you were not eaten, though not so glad as you are.

@jon.snow

[998]

Parry the blow, and return it: you yourself are a fine swordsman, and I could use a hundred men like you at the Wall.

And I'm told they have false hands here with moving fingers, in case you grow tired of making my little sister cut your food.

[kleptocratic]

Yes, I am. But you shouldn't say the rest of it when you don't know anything else about me. A good swordsman can make a poor soldier. What is this Wall?

I know about that, too. I looked into it, before the snow. [ It would probably need to wait until they got back. ]

[998]

[honestly the bar is very low. anyone who wouldn't stab him for trying to help the wildlings would be ideal.]

A place for thieves, for one. Most of my men took the black to escape the gaoler or the hangman. Someone who can read and write, and picture a world different to the one he knows, would be worth his weight in gold.

It's a massive Wall of ice, separating the Seven Kingdoms from the wild lands beyond it. The Night's Watch holds it against all the threats they pose. I was its Lord Commander.

[kleptocratic]

[ Eugenides wouldn't stab you for trying to help the wildlings because he is trying not to stab anyone, thank you. ]

If "take the black" means you wear black all the time I am definitely not interested. I do not know if most men slowly turn into their fathers but I am determined to not dress like mine.

But at least I better understand the reason for your recruitment drive. I won't pretend I can't read just to be obnoxious. What threats do the wild lands pose?

[998]

Aye, we wear black, but it's meant to stop you dressing like your father. We give up our ties to our houses, their colors and sigils. We hold no lands, father no children, win no crowns nor glory. Take no wives, neither. I never said I thought you'd join, only that I'd be glad to have you.

We face threats now that haven't been seen in my world for thousands of years. Dragons have only been gone two hundred, so I don't think you'll believe what I tell you. Nevertheless the White Walkers march again with their army of the dead, and seek to make war on the living. They come from the Land of Always Winter, as near as we can tell. The people that live beyond the Wall, the Free Folk, sought shelter from them below it. As Lord Commander I was able to settle those who couldn't fight and man the Wall with those that could, though many of my men objected, as the Night's Watch had come to see them as their enemy, since no other had presented itself since the Dawn Age. But they have come again for whatever reason, and they hate all that lives and breathes. They are like men made of ice, and their eyes grow bright blue. I have seen one of their number myself, and my friend killed another with a dagger I gave him. I burned my own hand putting down their dead men. Their eyes glow blue as well.

[kleptocratic]

So it's a scheme designed to match second sons to a use and a need.

Why does every other country have terrible monsters living outside it? You did the right thing, though, letting the Free Folk shelter with you. Desperate times make for strange bedfellows and all of that. It is hard for most people to see beyond the light of their own hearth. And I thought I was fairly far-seeing before I turned up here.