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[nineteenfortyfive]

[Is this not about a medical thing, this time? Seems so. Claire's a bit more relaxed than she usually is when using the network, and it might have something to do with that glass of wine in front of her.]

It's my fifty-first birthday this weekend. Do I win the award for most elderly amongst us refugees?

It's hard to believe I was in my late twenties when I first came to Olympia. Stasis is... strange, to say the least, but I'm sure any of us here for an amount of time realize that.

[Now, let's see who's going to be a smartass and make a grandma comment. She's waiting. It's there, in her smile. Do it.]

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[nineteenfortyfive]

Then ask me something.

[She might always be troubled by the day he pointed out he knew Ramsay better than her. She's tried to be better, in her own little ways, but she still knows far more about him.]

You see, the game is that we take turns asking one another questions. I was going easy on you that turn by letting you volunteer something.

[reek]

[ He still holds to that. He does know Ramsay better than he knows Claire, but there aren’t many layers to Ramsay, and if they are then they’re hidden beneath the layer that hurts and flays and molds someone to fit a different identity.

He genuinely cannot think of anything to tell her about himself. She and Ramsay both know him too well. Ramsay knows him to the point that it’s uncomfortable, but at least Claire knows him because of what he chose to tell her. ]

Even if it’s a question you won’t like?

[ He's going to be a lil shit. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[She'd expect no less. But today is for him, in a way that isn't some sort of medical procedure or erasing some of the physical evidence of what was done to him. So, Claire nods.]

Even if it's a question I won't like. I'll answer.

[He's always been able ask her anything.]

[reek]

[ He considers for a moment, as though weighing some heavy question in his mind. ]

How many husbands have you had?

[ It's seriously just Theon being a lil shit. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Claire sees that. He knows. She clicks her tongue, and for that, will take a piece of whatever is left of his cupcake.]

Two. You've known that, Theon. Please.

[reek]

I think you would like the Iron Islands, given a few changes.

[ He doesn’t say why. He simply smirks impishly and chuckles beneath his breath. This is apparently the most hilarious concept to him. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

I might if it means I get to dunk you into the sea. Brat.

[Only Claire could say that fondly.]

Tell me why.

[reek]

Only the priests can do that.

[ And his cruel older brothers, all of whom are long dead. Sometimes he forgets just how easily they could easily make a reappearance here. They've been dead to him longer than all the others, and he never did like them very much to begin with. ]

On the Iron Islands, a man can have only one rock wife, but he may have as many salt wives as he pleases.

[ There's a more sinister idea behind it; salt wives are typically women who have been captured on raids, but Balon had no salt wives, and Theon's image of the Iron Islands is still very much one he's crafted from bits and pieces of his childhood. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

If you're trying to say that I collect husbands like saltwives, you're mistaken.

[She only ever wanted one. Frank, and then that one turned out to be Jamie.

Now, she has none. It's a terribly lonesome feeling, but she's endured decades alone in that regard. It's just more of the same. Though, some part of her wonders if it's not her punishment. All these times torn away from Jamie in one way or another, then reunited, only for the same fucking thing to happen again.

Is it a sign?]

Of course, that isn't what your saying, is it?

[Answer wisely, Theon.]

[reek]

[ When has he ever done anything wisely? He’s never been married. He’s never even felt that type of love for one person, let alone multiple.

But he neither confirms nor denies, even though he most certainly was saying exactly that. ]

You did say I could ask a question you wouldn’t like.

[nineteenfortyfive]

I did. Because you can always ask me anything, even if you're doing it to try and be a pain in the arse.

[If it wasn't her, and if she hadn't spent so long perfecting the art of bottling up any emotions regarding her marriage, she might actually be upset.]

[reek]

It did work, didn't it?

[ Theon has made plenty of cruel jokes in his day, but he doesn’t mean this one cruelly. He’s made a note about Claire’s husband habits, and he’s found something about them humorous. If she shared more about herself, perhaps he would know more about the entire subject and have reason not to jape. ]

Lords of the greenlands don’t like ironborn traditions.

[ Why would they? Ironborn tradition consists largely of reaving, stealing from the mainlands when trade could be established just as easily. But Theon is still bitter at the way he was treated just for who he was, and that will never wear off. Ramsay dug his claws in deep, but so did the Northmen. ]

But I feel like they would have changed their tune about saltwives if it had come from someone else.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Nobility and men of wealth could have a wife and as many mistresses as they could manage. Just the one wife.

[Claire's quiet for a moment. Not upset, just contemplative. He brought this up, but she doesn't think he actually cares too much about her marriages. Yet she decides to talk, settling her gaze on the waves.]

I loved both my husbands. I planned to spend the rest of my life with Frank, and it would have been a happy one, I think. I never imagined I would... go so terribly off track. I never wanted to marry Jamie. But I had no choice, and... I ended up loving him more than I loved anyone else. I'd never felt anything like it.

So, when I thought he was dead, and I went back to Frank, I tried to get him to leave me. To dissolve the marriage. I said terrible things to a good man that refused to go because he ended up loving Brianna as his own. He didn't want to lose her. I loved him still, but it was a broken love, then.

[She looks back to Theon with a wry smile, if not a little sad.]

I don't think too many husbands would want me if they had to go through that.