Six. Dragon Truths.

[wakethedragon]

{Voice transmission. Viserys sounds completely calm, with a sort of cooing sound to his voice, like he's telling a bedtime story to a kitten.}

I never wanted to be king. I was never meant to be king. I was the second son, I was meant for other things. Prince of Dragonstone until Rhaegar's son came of age. A position on Rhaegar's small council. I

Comments

[dont_tell_sansa]

I hate the Lannisters too. I can show you how to use a sword, I learned once. And then we can gut all the Lannisters. And the Mountain.

[wakethedragon]

[This is like his first eight name days all rolled into one.]

I would love for you to show me how to use a sword. I've held one and waved it about, but it wasn't mine, and I probably wasn't doing it right. I want to know I'm doing it right when I slice Jaime Lannister from groin to eyeballs.

[dont_tell_sansa]

Syrio Forel taught me how a bravo fights. I can teach you that, if we had swords. Sticks are good, too. Sticks are a good way to learn. When I didn't have Needle, I used a broken broom handle to practice. I think I'd like to teach someone what Syrio taught me. Especially if it's to slice Lannisters.

[wakethedragon]

I used to have a sword, the one Illyrio let me borrow, but they took it from me.

We could break Illyrio's chairs. I don't much care for them. Would chair legs work? [He's used one for a club, but never for a sword. Why didn't he think of breaking one and using it for a weapon before? Instead, he's been carting around silverware.]

Or we could steal some brooms. [If they even had brooms here.]

[darknessb4me]

...

Are you from Elric's world?

[SUP HAIR BRO]

[wakethedragon]

Who is Elric?

[Shake that pale silvery hair like you just don't care!]

[darknessb4me]

Elric of Melnibone. Royalty like us. He called himself a silverskin but he was the only one I've seen here that looked like a Death Knight but wasn't. Except you.

[wakethedragon]

I've never heard of Melnibone. It's so nice to hear from someone else who is royal. I get tired of all these fucking peasants acting like kings are beneath them.

What is a Death Knight? Are Death Knights a company of sellswords? They sound fearsome and really quite amazing. I've never heard of a silverskin either. I've heard of worgs and skinchangers. I have silver hair but I know of no one with silverskin.

[giftedtwin]

How would a child grow up to be a dragon?

[wakethedragon]

If my brother's children favored the Targaryen line, they would be dragons. If they favored Dorne, they wouldn't be. Honestly, no one gets this. We are not flesh-and-blood dragons. The dragon is our sigil. My ancestors raised dragons, tamed them, rode on their backs and used them to conquer Westeros. Some Targaryens have high heat tolerance. Some Targaryens are obsessed with fire. Some of us only dream of fire.

[giftedtwin]

So a form of magic, then, or something carried in the bloodlines.

[wakethedragon]

It's the bloodlines. We marry brother to sister, like in old Valyria. My brother didn't have a sister to marry, so he married the Dornish girl. Aegon the Conqueror married both of his sisters and got sons on both of them.

[Private]

[sixthanimorph]

[Hey, Viserys, someone read this and kinda feels bad for you.]

Hey, dude... I know this ship kinda sucks monkey balls. We all kind of feel alone on this thing sometimes. You're, uh... you're not alone.

[Private]

[wakethedragon]

[Dude...monkey balls...wut.]

I feel very alone. No one knows what it means to be the dragon. People mock me here because they don't understand. They know nothing of Westeros. I'm the rightful king of the Seven Kingdoms, and I may as well be a harlot's whelp.

Someone here once told me to make allies, but that's hard to do when you don't know how to trust people. I have nothing to bring to an alliance because I'm here instead of there.

[Private]

[sixthanimorph]

[David's an army brat, Viserys. You've got to expect colorful language from him. xD]

No, people here mock you because they're assholes. You've gotta let that shit slide off your back, you know? It's like school, people are gonna try pushing you around every chance they get. The only way to make them stop is to push back.

You're the rightful king of this Westeros place, right? That means you've got stuff to bring to an alliance. I bet you know a lot about... kingdoms and ruling and stuff. Just because you don't trust people doesn't mean you can't make allies - I've got like three or four people I count on for stuff, and I don't trust 'em any further than I can throw 'em.

[Private]

[wakethedragon]

[Oh Viserys is quite fond of the f-word, he just doesn't know what 'dude' or 'sucking monkey balls' is. He could probably work out 'sucking monkey balls' if he gave it a few minutes.]

I am the rightful king of Westeros, yes. My family ruled Westeros for three hundred years before the Usurper decided to overthrow us.

[He considers things.]

I need to learn more about the people on this ship to know who proper allies would be. I haven't bothered because this ship is strange and I really don't see why I'm even here. The bastard says it's to get my kingdom back, but he may be telling me what he thinks I want to hear.

[notrueking]

At least you have some knowledge of how utterly terrible you'd be. That's more than I would have expected from talking to you previously.

[wakethedragon]

I don't want to be terrible, but I wasn't the Crown Prince. I would make a great historian. I know everything there is to know about Westeros and Valyria. I could write a book about the Targaryen legacy. But no one ever taught me how to use a sword.

I could probably make wildfire, but I'd burn myself.

[notrueking]

What you want to be rarely has anything to do with what you actually end up being. Knowledge of history is useful in politics, at least, though I can't imagine why no one taught you how to use a sword. Swords tend to be more reliable than books and wildfire.

[wakethedragon]

I was eight years old when most of my family was murdered. I should have held a sword by that time, undoubtedly, but eight is a bit young for combat training. I should have been my brother's page, but he was never all that fond of entering the lists. My father was too paranoid to leave me alone with him toward the end.