middaeg | [closed]

[ all is fair. he knows mihairi would’ve shown some sort of sign if she knew (beyond clocking morgana, once) or even the parliament themselves when he walked among them constantly. there was the chance they were keeping exclusively to themselves and missed it, there was a chance they turned a blind eye purposely, at least someone did in there.

there’s no way to find out until they have facts. all they have are hunches to lead them.

eren grunts at her telling like reliving his own. they would oppose her. it was the reason why eren didn’t say a thing, to anyone, when he decided to oppose a city for an upper hand. he forced comrades into battle. he was imprudent, he took all fame and glory for being o’ horrible, but it was the only way he had with a mostly favorable outcome and a chance to keep fighting. he got it done. there’s no batting a lash, or look of concern when he considers what she asks of him. if she truly wants this, she isn’t wrong in her choice— the part-dragon before her only hopes that her wish is possible.

eren stands when she does with a gesture offered to him, and uniformly, hooks the towel, closest to him, into his talons, gentle enough to leave them untorn. if he had the aids he used during his first months, oils and herbs enchanted with coolness to ease the burn away, he’d give it to her. for now— she can handle it. she can handle many things, he feels. ]

If it’s in my hands, it’s done. [ there’s cogency in a voice so deep that is seems to growl, when he nods to her and accepts. this is mutual, and he knows he doesn’t have to repeat the words back to her. kill one, two or five to save thousands. kill hundreds to save millions. it’s a burden he was built strong enough to take. he is a man with eyes that many fear— not because they are slit, like a beast’s, but because they are unrelenting. he forces his heart cold for some, at these moments, but it burns strong for those who matter more. ] . . . And if the number is avoidable, I will.

[ if. he still won’t allow that to become an obstacle. ]

[ It's sad that Dany always gets her most loyal guys while she's standing around naked.

Jorah, Daario – he joins their ranks, although for purely noble reasons.

Eren had proven himself useful enough for her to allow her walls to come down, to trust someone not of her 'world'. It's a benefit... of someone not distrustful of the Targaryen nature bred and ingrained in her, one that sees her as she is. Perhaps better than anyone else since she arrived.

If he was so kind to pass the towel off, she'll wrap herself up quickly and step out of the tub – if not, she'll go to him directly. Closer.

His words were a vow she takes to heart. A silent nod, words spared for a gesture that doesn't need any confirmation. If he believed in her views enough to agree as much as he did, he believed in her

That was a boost back to her confidence, at least.

She rings her hair out over the tub, silver-gold sprawling and bundling between her fingers and catching on her slightly sharpened nails. Tugging any loose strands to the pool of water below. He'll see the damage on her neck easily – and she lets her guard down enough for him to view her without her own discomfort. ]

It's going to be difficult to convince the others to act. They are blindly loyal to Aefenglom or they do not believe we should act.

[ there are times when you don’t look (as many times, with eren, blind-sighted with focus) and there are times when it’s rather hard not to look. quick as it was, an almost involuntary glance of her bareness that accompanies the need for his tongue to flick, for taste and smell to ride the particles of steam and commune much better with the halves of him that were more dragon. he only realizes he’s done the lizard thing™ once it’s already back in his mouth and pressing up against the roof of it.

the towel is handed to her, within her range and with the stretch of his wingspan. the contrast of his scales are much darker than her silver, like the moon, flesh hurt by their growth (which he considers, truly, to find and bring her the salves and oils, if he could find them here. for now, the color to his saturates. the freckles of dull red gleam scarlet, and what looked yellow are now strikes of titian. opaque black is inky, at times indigo. it’s physiological, a mood indicator with an umbrella of possibilities that were rather large to list: happiness, excitement, fortitude, anger, arousal, dominance— only to name a few.

though he would not say which it was, nor does he give himself the leisure to reflect. she trusts him to an extent that couldn’t go ignored, and eren does similarly. he does not speak to many about these issues. it isn’t worth the time wasted. at least . . . it doesn’t feel wasted, here. ]

It’s either difficult or impossible. [ he pauses. ] I don’t think we have the time to change their minds. It’s like arguing with walls.

[ there’s . . . something, he remembers. ]

I visited the Parliament, before we left. I heard some say that Aefenglom has no chance of a war against Dorchacht. Some considered giving us up to them to keep the peace. [ a huff at this ] I’ve seen their military. It’s nearly disbanded.

[ Perhaps Eren simply needed to taste the air — to confirm that she too was dragon. Sampling the parts of her that was as he was now, however little they were. ]

Such is life. You do not argue, you take. [ Says the privileged khaleesi who defied fate. It's hard, she knows — it comes off as stubborn and childish. Many in Qarth had viewed her as such and it boiled her blood. ] We need do not need an army to take a city. We need people who know where to strike. You do not talk to a wall nor do you overcome it easily — you find its weak point and chip away. Strike your hardest.

[ Her strike team had freed an entire city, after all with select warriors under the guise of night.

The talks feel weary, however — circled infinity. Dany's unmoving thoughts, Eren's realism. They were not a good partnership right now. However, when he speaks, she listens. She chews the words and truly listens. ]

You're joking. [ To both! Things! ] Please tell me you are joking.

It’s the truth.

[ eren does not joke!!! and when he jokes, it’s a rare occurrence, pigs literally fly. a rather sad truth, but one he was expecting ever since he got here. the military was the first thing he looked for and asked of, literally, five months ago. it’s always been little, because of aefenglom’s focus on the blight. ]

. . . But we’re on the same page. [ fear not, he’d rather hear what sounds like a stubborn child than a crying one who is unwilling. he’s been called childlike as well, for taking action such as these. stubborn, imprudent. people tend to call you such when you’re the black sheep among a white herd, hammered down like the only nail sticking out from wood. the only fish trying to swim up the tide. the only way he sees is exactly that, strike, take, and control. the question is where and how many people are actually willing.

if there are few, it’ll just take longer. but if there’s a way to coax things out in that favor . . . ]

I’ll look for weak points, during the next few days. How strong the Resistance is and how our numbers are. [ he means our in the likeminded sense, and will soon be searching about for that as well. ] It might not happen as soon as we’d like, [ there’s studying to do. there’s preparation. he had to stay in marley for months until he felt it was time. then, called upon the shock team.

they did not take a city, but they did do what he sought out to do— take power for himself, and leave the city in shambles that would take ages to recover from. ] but it will happen.

I will never trust Aefenglom's intention. They survived this long by satisfying their own goals, ensuring their own survival. We have nothing to give them in return – for that, we can be expendable.

[ He may not be joking but man, does she grow heated!!! ]

There does not need to be a war. I grow tired of people being unable to separate acting and declaring war.

[ Dany moves to the small mirror, looking at her own reflection in an idle daze. ]

Thank you. Ser Jorah usually assists with espionage, but he has been gathering more intel on the conditions of the monsters and their masters. [ On if there was a way to sway them, perhaps? Her hands place on her reflection, wiping away steam to better see herself. How silver wraps around towards her throat like a hand choking her – squeezing away at every bit of what made her... her. ] ... I do not wish to rule over these people. I am not their Queen, but my heart bleeds for them and they could prove to be valuable. Inspired to assist against matters that do matter. All we can do is assist them.

For our gain, [ he says, realistically, because that’s what they’re doing there. ] and for their’s.

[ a life as a willing cow grazing quietly in the pastures, content with that— a slave who satisfies themselves with the thought of slavery and nothing more— he couldn’t hate that more than he did. complacency twisted his gut and soured his tongue. it was easier than change, it was weakness, and he hated that when people could do and be so much more.

because, like him, like her, like one born in chains and ripped of their memories, there’s no difference in why they’re all special. they were born.

being forced to, on the other hand, when something could be done was impossible to ignore. he doesn’t have a plan— it’s too early for that. but, like dany, he has an idea. the one thing that can never die. he’ll see what the majority says soon, if they were to be prompted suddenly, as well as oddly. the easiest of ways to see what one thinks is giving them the space to do it. the rest will come with his escapades.

escapades that he should be returning to soon, shifting himself closer to the window he came from. ]

My friend would get along with you. [ he says “friend”, and his eyes soften, warm up like little orbs of heat that’re cooled by the nips of sadness. ] She’s the same way.

[ —but, enough of that ]

If there’s anything else you should know about, you’ll hear it.

[ His words do mean something to her, hold a weight that she did not quite understand. Just as she relied on her advisers, this man held some experience she did not – in this world and with his form. She glances to him, over the new shapes his body makes and the changes sprouted from his core... There's a kinship there that she does not feel was important to address, to rely on despite clearly doing so.

He speaks of friends and there's a weak-willed smile on her features shortly after. ]

Then you should be use to dealing with a woman as ambitious as I. I will not show restraint, not with you, then. [ Was she teasing? The amusement in her voice may indicate as such. ] I do have one question. Not pertaining to what lies outside of these walls.

[ Facing him fully, her hand clutches to the top of her towel, eyes more studying him plainly. ]

...Does it hurt further? The changes. [ Because right now, yes they suck. ] I believe we are the same.

[ no don’t tease him it’s cute and he hasn’t smiled in 84 years

which is to say! he doesn’t quite smile— it felt so misplaced for a man so centered that he teeters off guard, just enough for his pointed teeth to poke out from underneath his lips. brief and temperate. you can say he approves of her candor.

the question is what gets his head to dip— more than he already does, from being so much larger than her. when he stops to look at it all himself, he’s . . . changed. changed a lot. he’s only a small scrap of what human features he had left, lifting his arm for the membranes to drape outward, holding his hand out, palm up— and spreading his inked digits out. his legs, his many scales, the horns that weigh on his head. ]

My head hurt when my horns grew, [ he doesn’t say it with such prominence, though. it was a dull ache, and scratching, at least for him. ] and my limbs ached.

[ when, you know— the rest came in. ]

It only burned worse when the moons came. [ . . . but, there’s a tip he has to offer, wetting his lips. ] It’s still there— but it’s turned into a part of me now that makes it feel like . . . Background noise. [ like the vibration of a voice you aren’t listening to. like a hush that keeps hush rather than screaming. a presence that’s still there, and always there— but far more tolerable. ] It hurts next to nothing after you accept it.

[ it’s like the pain didn’t matter anymore. for him, it hardly ever did, but fighting less was what made him sound.

then again, eren has a monstrous threshold for pain. ]

[ Smile, Eren, while you can.

It was a heavy question, she knows. The discomfort she has in being a monster, in any form of magic that could impact her weighs to her like scales made of iron itself. Many accept what they are – part of Daenerys does too, the haunting memory of Viserys claiming he was the dragon waiting to be awoken. It's a poor fate that in truth, it was her this entire time.

His admittance was something she knew was coming. Why did she even ask such a foolish questions? The scales on her flesh grew into her more fleshy areas with little restrictions – her thighs and hips peppered with beautiful white scales with a dull blue shimmer. But the rest of her? The ones on her neck, her shoulders – those were painful. A pre-cursor to the changes to come.

She thinks them over, horns and limbs – how they'll change over time... ]

I accepted I was no girl, but a dragon I needed to be long ago. [ It was not a lie she told herself. ] ... Dragons are a part of the Targaryen family, ser. My family rode them valiantly, raised them, died by them – wanted to be dragons in human flesh. I bore three children from eggs in fire and raised them until they soared through the skies like ships in the water. They are the only children I will ever have – and now, this form is still the closest I or any Targaryen has ever been to being a dragon.

[ There's almost a crack in her voice. Almost. ]

It frightens me.

[ maybe someday, said in conch voice. the story of her ancestry is one he listens to with the same attention he’s given to every word she has spoken— albeit with a bit more wide-eyed curiosity, and lack of blinking. the way each world played out was so different to his, and yet . . . there’s a part of him that hasn’t died with his innocence long ago, and that was his desire to know what awaited beyond their sights.

it’s that very intrusiveness that has allowed him to break walls and see beyond. he’d never want to lose that.

so he considers: dragon riders. massive beasts that could bring an unready city down in moments. a queen to the throne from a line of many like her. or, unlike her. there was something about lineage that not everyone sought to follow, and if freida has shown him anything in her memories . . . no, the little cycle that all humans are subject to follow if they can be influenced— ]

Because of what they were?

[ eren can guess the concern accurately, and he doesn’t mind speaking with her of it, if she has been willing to tell him that much already. ]

[ Her ripple of vulnerability was more like a tidal wave, something she can't stop — a force of nature dwelling from inside of her. It's a rumble that quakes her core. A shiver of a snowstorm that chills her bones. A spark of lightning that crackles down her spine. ]

No. Because where the dragon begins, the girl ends. [ Where the girl begins, the dragon ends, she implies with how she looks to him. ] Dragons are feared, not loved. Dragons are tamed for gain, if only rarely. Dragons are alone, by nature and history.

[ She lifts her hands up, looking at her nailbeds that have begun to turn a faint silver and black, how her tips now slowly begin to point. ]

I fear that this fate was not the one I sacrificed so much for.

[ in other words— same difference.

it doesn’t change the answer he would’ve given in turn, though he still chews his words for a moment, to visualize, before feeling ready to spill them out. it was rather funny— that the dragons she knew were solitary. alone was everything that eren wanted lately, and yet instinct tugs and says differently: you need someone. you need to be around someone.

dilemmas. ]

Even in environments that don’t give us a choice, [ from experience, he speaks ] we can shape our fates. [ for a price, there’s always one, and he’s paid too many for something that he may know the end, but not the in betweens— it didn’t mean he was happy with them. but then again— how broken would he be, to realize that all his sacrifices were for nothing, as well? he doesn’t. he can’t. he won’t. ] I know it isn’t as easy as it sounds.

[ he’s not trying to tell her she’s wrong— perhaps encouraging, that there is a way. eren just knows that it wasn’t a flippant matter, and that leaves his face dipped and serious, as much as he wants to help.

false hopes is the last thing he wants to offer. ]

[ And the words — each one that spills over his lips make sense. They ease emotions, brings the hollow twist in her stomach undone. ]

It is not, but I have done it before. Many times. [ She clarifies. Adapting to her role as khaleesi, taking the strife of slaves as her own, and staying put in Meereen when every spark of fire inside of her burned towards Westeros. She adapted, she had to. Daenerys gave herself a choice when no one else did — and maybe Eren can feel that self-preserving and survival instinct in himself too.

She gathers her wits, a hand brushing against the tender nape of her neck. ]

I'm sorry, I do not wish to break in front of you. There are much more important things in this world than a girl's emotions. [ So, she buries it. Snuffs it out and stands a bit taller. She'll re-think how she spoke for nights to come, as if judgment will pass. It wasn't as if she didn't trust him, she trusted only herself in the end. ] Thank you for your comfort.

[ great minds think very alike, as eren would only put his utmost faith in himself rather than others, by no means degrading trust. it was just a thing, and a smart thing to have that life teaches rather cruelly.

if she recognizes it for what it is— his words have served every purpose he intended. some people just need reminders. they hadn’t renounced their humanity, not all of it. ]

We’re not stones, [ her thanks is kept quietly, bowing his head to acknowledge the sentiment. ] and we’re not all dragon.

[ there’s still that part that made them who they were, their power, their will— monster or not, it’s how their hearts translated. the rest was up to them to keep or throw away. honestly, he finds comfort in understanding. eren also finds it in the way he’s almost certain he sees the realization etch onto her features and sweep at her shoulders. ]

It suits you better.

[ he gestures lightly at her, the way she stands and the way she lifts herself. a woman who remembers who she is, and tramples easily over the rest. the rest did not matter. she did, for her. that was how she’d survive and leave her mark. that was how freedom worked.

your will over another’s. the world. a notion. it really did suit her, as it did everyone. it was only a sad truth that not everyone could have it at the same time. freedom was a matter of who’s will came out on top. they were both the kind of people to always put their’s first. ]

[ Daenerys already feels as if she overstepped – that she let him see a side no one should. If she is to inspire and lead, who would look to a girl close to crying out of frustration in such a regard? The thoughts bounce in her mind, rearing themselves when her emotions were so delicate.

Sadness, anger, bitterness – it fills her and as he says they are not all dragons... he has to see an irony in that. That this world could very much make them as such. ]

I'm not sure what suits me anymore, but thank you. [ Again, a genuine thanks. She pushes past him with careful steps, to the way he entered her room – where her eyes catch the hazy, fog-ridden sky. ] I must be more than a girl and more than a dragon. Do you see? That is the only way to get home.

[ he’ll act like he never saw it, or else he’d be a terrible hypocrite. she felt something and he was there to rid her of it. eren sees it that way. nevertheless, he implies it simply in his next words: she is not just a girl, and not just a dragon. she is she, and that’s certainly how they get home. ]

You’re free. That’s how to get home.

[ at least how he always gets through to things. they must impose their will onto others before others do the same to them. if she’ll allow it, he’ll dip his head in goodnight, and pull himself out of the window from which he came. slowly, cautiously to get a good grasp on the wall and stone.

it’s a long climb down. ]

[closed]

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