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[song_of_ice]

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Dominant
Highrise #45
@zokla

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[song_of_ice]

So do I. I know what I need too.

[dorzalta]

Which is?

[ If he says defeat the dead, she might throw a shoe at his head. ]

[song_of_ice]

[There is an obvious answer, but he was never a man who knew what to say at the right time. He wasn't sophisticated with this and could only speak honestly. So when he typed the word, it was a simple, bald truth.]

You.

[dorzalta]

[ A long, long silence. ]

How can you know that?

[song_of_ice]

[He was starting to think he scared her off when she finally answered.]

I don't know. You never felt it?

[dorzalta]

[ He's sorely underestimating her if he thinks she'd be scared off. ]

You need my dragons and my armies.

[ Or maybe he hasn't, seeing as she's evaded. ]

[song_of_ice]

You know that isn't what I mean.

[dorzalta]

Isn't it?

[song_of_ice]

I'm talking about me, not the world.

[dorzalta]

Funny, that was the impression I received when we first met.

[song_of_ice]

You are looking for a fight. I'm not going to discuss our world now or like this.

[dorzalta]

[ Good, at least he's not speaking of impossible things like him needing her. ]

Is it not true?

[song_of_ice]

[Gods help him. She was pushing and pushing and couldn't resist the bait.]

I need your dragons and your armies to fight the dead, aye. It's not about me or you, it's about the world and the people we've sworn to protect.

But I'm as much a man and I can't live with just duty. I did that before and lost everything.

[dorzalta]

Yes, the ever mysterious dead. My people need me to protect them, and I do that by winning the war against Cersei. That is my duty.

[ And she will ignore that bit about being a man, and how he lost everything. First, because that would imply that as a man, he needed her as his woman (too much, too much right now), and second, he's making mention of his death, and she's no desire to think of that either. ]

[song_of_ice]

I have a duty too. The throne, the crown, it's nothing compared against the force coming south of the Wall. Your forces won't simply be dead, they'll be in service to the Night King.

[Why was he falling back into the same argument? She wasn't going to listen or believe him. There was no dragonglass to mine here, only a stubborn woman that refused to see beyond her family's claim.]

[dorzalta]

Prove it, then.

[song_of_ice]

After all of this time here, you still think I am a liar?

[dorzalta]

If I'm to be honest, I think you more a madman than a liar.

[song_of_ice]

[Somehow that stung more.]

I wish I were about a number of things, but I'm not. I'll leave you to saner company then, your grace.

[dorzalta]

Even so, very little else about you has proven to be mad in the time we've spent together.

[ She continues on as if he'd never answered. ]

And while I still think what you say is insanity, this place has proven that things beyond our imagination is possible.

That doesn't make me wholeheartedly willing to believe in the dead, though.

[song_of_ice]

[It seems like she always manages to get the upper hand. Not only to have the last word in yet another fight, but the right words to squelch his feelings of anger.

He hadn't intended to look at any more of her messages, but the pull towards her is too strong and he found himself softening at her concession...however slight it is.]

I know.

[You had to see it to know.]

I-

Thank you, for that much, at least.

[dorzalta]

Perhaps you should pick the minds of those who reside here. Surely if dragons are common enough, be it through existence, extinction, and folklore, then your dead must be as well, no?

[song_of_ice]

[He never thought of that or considered finding if someone else had heard of such a thing. Maybe there was an answer somewhere, beyond her?]

From all of these worlds, there might be something. But do you think we might be able to take the answers with us or even remember when we are sent back?

[dorzalta]

[ There is never an answer beyond her, Jonny Boy. ]

I think it would be foolish not to take advantage of that opportunity, memories or not. It's not stopped you in other pursuits.

[ Namely: them. ]

[song_of_ice]

[She knows the right way to stroke his ego, which had long ago disappeared since boyhood.]

One is an unstoppable force. Worlds, memories and people don't seem able to stop it.

But you're right.

[Something she likes to hear, right?]