text || un: IAMNEDSTARK

[learned_to_die]

IT APPEARS THAT THIS IS SOME VERSION OF COMMUNICATION, AKIN TO MESSAGES RECEIVED VIA RAVEN. I CANNOT YET UNDERSTAND HOW SUCH THINGS ARE POSSIBLE, NOR CAN I UNDERSTAND HOW I AM EXPECTED TO SO ACCURATELY PRESS MY FINGERS TO SUCH PAINFULLY SMALL LETTERS ON THIS THING CALLED A "KEY BOARD."

[Ned is part of the Old Dads club; he has accidentally turned on his caps lock and has absolutely no idea how to turn it off, nor does he have any social precedent for understanding how hostile this makes him look.]

I AM TOLD THAT I AM IN A CITY CALLED WYVER, A NAME AS FOREIGN TO ME AS THE REST OF THIS IS. THE LOCALS HERE ARE NOT INCREDIBLY FORTHCOMING WITH ASSISTANCE OR INFORMATION, AND AS SUCH, ANYTHING THAT YOU MIGHT OFFER WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

THANK YOU FOR WHATEVER YOU MIGHT PROVIDE.

-- EDDARD STARK, LORD OF WINTERFELL, WARDEN OF THE NORTH, HAND OF THE KING

Comments

sure! -> [action]

[learned_to_die]

AS YOU WISH.

-- LORD EDDARD STARK, LORD OF WINTERFELL, WARDEN OF THE NORTH, HAND OF THE KING

[Perhaps Ned will ask one of his children what such a term means. Obviously it carries a negative connotation, but he'd much rather know the origin or meaning of it, in case he ever hears it again. Such foul things would rarely, if ever, leave Ned's own mouth, but he knows how others speak. He doubts it is all that different from home.

After some wandering and asking passersby for aide, he locates the marketplace, the sight of it as familiar as it one would expect. He meanders around, investigating some of the stalls and wares for sale, while keeping an eye out for the man he'd seen in the video.]

oops apparently this tag never sent

[hedonistic]

[As crass as Kagari is, he's not talking to some guy who's probably ancient as shit like Masaoka about vaginas or the cleaning thereof. That's just too weird. Save urself, Ned, u don't wanna kno.

Anyway, Kagari's fairly easy to spot in the marketplace, what with his distinctive hair and all. He's leaning against some kind of stall, messing around on his phone when the older man comes by, seeming to be searching for someone. Kagari never saw the man's face, but--]

Yooo, you wouldn't happen to be Eddard Stark, He of Way Too Many Titles, would you?

[he couldn't resist the sass, sry not sry ....]

no worries!

[learned_to_die]

[.. Well, that's an introduction of some kind, though it's certainly not what Ned's expecting. He turns on his heel to face the boy - no, he's a man grown, by the looks of it, though barely - and nods his head. A hand at his waist, he offers the slightest bow. The deeper ones are, of course, reserved for those with titles and royalty.]

Indeed, I am the man of whom you speak.

If you think my titles too numerous, imagine having to announce them at every gathering, before any decree, and before passing any judgment - not to mention time in Court.

[hedonistic]

["Just barely" is a good way to put it, honestly. He certainly doesn't act like a man grown most of the time, anyway. u_u

Ned's bow, slight as it is, has Kagari freeze for a moment, deer in headlights. He has vague and fuzzy images of bowing to elder relatives as a very small child, but he's pretty sure nobody has ever done so to him. He's still unused to the idea that he's the same as everyone else, here. There's nobody to view him as beneath human, nobody to pass judgment on him just for existing. Freedom is a strange thing, after the initial exhilaration passes; adjusting to having what everyone else takes for granted is strangely difficult, wonderful as it is.

He covers it with a laugh as Ned describes how often he must recite his titles.]

Oh my goddddd. Hah, well, that's what you get for being Ye Olde Nobility, I guess.

[dont meme at ned, kagari pls]

I'm Kagari, by the way. [Beat.] Just Kagari, much quicker to say.

Perks of being a Ye Olde Nobody.

[fingerguns.]

[learned_to_die]

[Ned thinks he's perhaps slighted the man somehow, with the vacant and frightened expression that spreads across his face for the briefest of moments. It's only a glimpse, barely a breath, but Ned clearly sees the small boy who is still underneath the man opposite him - and he wonders what it was about the bow, as he's determined that to be the offender in question, that has made him react so viscerally, albeit briefly.

As he's about to ask if the man's all right, he speaks - and it's Ned's turn for the vacant expression. He .. doesn't understand much of what he's saying, though he understands there's an introduction in there, and a name.]

Kagari.

I'd beg to argue; one can't be nobody if one exists.

[hedonistic]

[It's gone as quickly as it came, and the relaxed air seems to return to the younger man -- though when he laughs again, there's something of an edge to it.]

You think that because you're somebody.

[Something about his grin no longer seems quite so boyish. Indeed, it becomes more obvious as he speaks that Ned's words have affected him in a different way than the bow earlier. Where before, a hint of vulnerability had leaked out, now his posture is different. Something that speaks to old anger and bitterness, to things that festered like poison and never healed.]

Lord of wherever and all that. You were important and shit. People like me, though? We were the gutter trash all the somebodies would rather forget.

[learned_to_die]

Lords would not be as such if it is not for the people they were meant to care for and protect.

[Ned's heard similar talk from low-born folk throughout Westeros, though he'd rarely heard it spoken in Winterfell. He of course knew that, if such words bubbled on their tongues, they'd have fallen quiet at his or any of the Stark family's approach, but throughout Winterfell and Westeros, Ned was known for being a very just, kind, and considerate lord. He did his best to provide for all of those who relied upon him, never putting himself or his family above anyone else if it could be helped.]

I won't speak on behalf of those who've slighted you and treated you as foully as they have, but I can assure you that you are nothing of the sort to me, and I never intend to treat you as anything less than my equal.

[hedonistic]

[Kagari feels almost like something in his own brain is short-circuiting as he listens through that entire speech. When it's over, he's silent for a moment, all but frozen, before he suddenly starts laughing helplessly.]

Oh my god. I can't tell if you're messing with me right now or if you're actually for real.

[How the heck is this guy any sort of lord? He seems like the sort of person who gets trampled over at the first opportunity, not someone who can hang onto power and authority.]