Fourth head of the Dragon (SI/OC into Younger brother of Aegon the conqueror)

[Aegonthebeardless]

When people talk about the afterlife, they never mention the part where you get thrown into your favorite fantasy series. After dying quite pathetically via the tripping of some stairs at the tender age of 17 (Okay, I wasn´t paying attention to where I stepped, but I totally needed to answer that message on the phone) I was expecting ... well I wasn´t expecting anything because I was dead, but that´s beside the point. The point is I now get to be the younger brother of Mr. Aegon ''kneel or die'' Targaryen, Daeron Targaryen. The fourth child of Lord Aerion of Dragonstone and Lady Valaena Velaryon was born 6 years after Visenya, 5 after Aegon, and 4 after Rhaenys.

Fun.

So ... I guess this is the part where normal people freak out about the fact they are about to live in the shithole that is Westeros. But not me, I am a huge stinky nerd who´s into that shit. Think about this way, i went from a relatively normal teenage boy who liked History, math (weird i know), and in general lazing around to someone who will ride a dragon and can fulfill probably every single power fantasy imaginable. I am quite literally going to be at the top of the food chain.

There are some...bad parts about it, however. First off i am expected to marry Rhaenys and uhm... yeah...marrying my own sister is going to be hard to say the least. Worst, I am quite terrified that Aegon might get a crush on her like in canon and do god knows what to me. Not that I can blame him, 13-year-old Visenya is strict enough to make Stannis shed a tear with pride, I can´t imagine she´s getting any nicer.

Speaking of my other ''siblings'', They are all one year apart in age and I can´t help but snicker at it, Aerion has been busy.

12-year-old Aegon is intelligent, hard-working, and quite charming when he wants to be. He also has an Ego that puts Walter white to shame and is a bit of a loner, if you aren´t from our family, he probably won´t interact with you. Not due to any personal animosity or shyness, but just because he won´t be interested. Visenya is terrifying, she is Stannis with boobs and a silver-haired whig, mind you, she is 13 now. I can´t help but pity Aegon for having to deal with her.
Rhaenys is ... weird. She is obsessed with dragons, though she has yet to claim Meraxes, (Visenya has Vhagar already and Aerion rides Balerion so Aegon will have to wait) Impulsive, kind, and mischievous. Unlike my other two siblings, Rhaenys´ hair is golden instead of silver. None of my siblings hate me or dislike me ... but they also don´t love to the same extent as they do each other.
Orys is the eldest of us all, being three years older than Visenya, and he is surprisingly nice to me. Where my other siblings are a bit distanced, Orys is very warm and affectionate. He has black hair and black eyes. But not the black that Bobby B would have almost three hundred years later, that black comes from the Durrandons and Argella.

And me? I look like Aegon, but less bulky. I´ve been here in Westeros for seven years now, I have been making a concerted effort not to abuse the fact I am essentially a teen in a child´s body and just clown all over the Maester´s lessons. I didn´t want to be known as a weirdo who started writing at three months old. That meant ''struggling'' to read and learn the alphabet, choosing which lessons to excel in and which to slip the errors in here and there. I am not looking forward to being regarded as a genius child or anything like that, first of all, because I am not the questions are just too easy (Maester asked me to my face what´s the sum of two plus two as a question that was supposed to ''test'' me) and second of all, because it would mean more lessons, and I say no to that.
My mother has arranged for me to start Fostering here in Driftmark. Now, i have my own sneaking suspicions as to why she did that. Valaena is a faithful follower of the Seven, and I am sure she hates The Targaryen incest. She has been pretty much forced to accept Aegon and Visenya´s betrothal, but me and Rhaenys? not so much. It´s very glaring to me how her brother Daemon Velaryon´s daughter keeps hanging around. I doubt the poor girl named Daenora has any idea of what´s going on considering she´s a ten-year-old. But her father is not so innocent in my eyes.
I have been here for a month or so and ... I have been enjoying myself. The castle folk are nice, my cousin Aethan Velaryon has been a nice friend, and Uncle Daemon isn´t half bad either. The only problem is the distinct lack of Dragons here. In this timeline, Balerion laid eggs after getting on Dragonstone as the Targaryens fled from Valyria. Most of the hatchlings died, but one with shining golden scales and green eyes survived, it hasn´t been tamed by anyone before so it doesn´t really have a name and the dragonkeepers just call it ''the golden''. It´s slightly bigger than Meraxes and that´s the one i plan on taming if I can ... a big emphasis on IF, I have no idea how taming works or feels.

Now, there is a slight annoyance here in Driftmark, a horrific form of oppression that every child and teenager across the world faces around the world, a noose hanging around our necks that squeezes the joy out of our lives called: Studying

''We have been progressing nicely in our studies of history Daeron, now, just some questions to test your knowledge'' said maester Orwyle, an old man that had so many links in his maester chain that the dude might as well run around with bells from all the noise these things did when he moved
''Thank you maester, ask whatever you want, and i shall answer'' The maester nodded in approval.
''Excellent. Can you tell me why your ancestors settled on Dragonstone Daeron? '' well, this one was easy for any lore fanatic like I had been in my first life ''Daenys the dreamer foresaw the doom of Valyria in a ... well dream. She told her father Aenar the Exile who attempted to warn the other Valyrians of the freehold. His urgings were ignored and Aenar packed his things and went west, eventually landing On Dragonstone, house Velaryon also followed him and settled here in Driftmark. 12 year later Valyria was destroyed by the doom.''
''well done Daeron. Now, can you tell me each of the seven kingdoms?'' It was a bit funny studying this now since in like... two decades Aegon was going to destroy all seven of them. ''The kingdom of the Rock, The kingdom of the reach, the Kingdom of the Storm, the Kingdom of Mountain and Vale, The Kingdom of the North, The kingdom of the isles and Rivers, then there´s Dorne as well''

The maester seemed satisfied. He then proceeded to destroy every ounce of self-confidence I had by asking about the faith of the seven. I hadn´t even bothered to read the seven-pointed star and missed every question that wasn´t the bare minimum, things like ''Name the seven aspects'' or ''Explain the concept of knighthood'' were all i knew. Not my fault the faith of the seven is the only religion that doesn´t do shit. The old gods have their weirwood magic and the children of the forest, the drowned god is essentially Cthulhu and his priests consistently practice resuscitation in their drowning rituals, the red god is unquestionably real as Renly found out the hard way and the Valyrian gods have dragons and blood magic as proof.

''My boy, you must study the seven who are one more intently. I see this is an aspect of your education I have been failing in. '' I grumbled internally. I hate this...'' I shall maester Orwyle'' I quickly got up and tried to leave the room before Orwyle could really do anything, but that Rat bastard just looked at me with a grin that could only be described as predatory ''Where do you think you´re going Daeron? We will begin by reading the first 10 chapters of the seven-pointed Star''
I felt as if this old dude had just slapped me in the face. The books never mention how boring the seven-pointed star is, but I can confirm it´s repetitive enough to make a robot get tired. I stood there, paralyzed and looking at him with a pleading expression ''p..please no Maester... I...will be a good student from now on.''
the son of a bitch smirked smugly at my despair ''Sit. We are not done'' I grumbled and threw a childish tantrum before complying.

Fuck everything about Westeros except the dragons

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

You know, you never realize how much the small things in modern society make life easier.

Everyone who´s ever gone down that road of thought has probably considered the lack of electricity or air conditioning or television as the main things that would be missed. And to a certain extent, they´d be right. Only having candles for illumination means you can´t read at night unless you´re willing to slowly lose your eyesight, the lack of AC is a sword lodged in my heart and the fact I can´t catch up on my favorite shows is also tragic.
Nobody has ever thought about how much missing pens is bad, writing with quills SUCKS. The thing just has this tendency to spray the ink all over the place if you put even the tiniest bit of strength in your grip, the freaking feather covers up what you´re writing, and good lord is having to use inkpots awful, half the time I will bathe the damned quill in it and STILL won´t write, and the other half I will cover the parchment with what looks like a petroleum leak from all the ink that dripped down from the tip.
Case and point: I was performing the arduous task of writing to my family in Dragonstone. I have been in Driftmark with the Velaryons for a whole month and that´s enough time to warrant some letters, ravens, and broken quills.
Yeah...I have to write something to each member of my family, so it´s probably for the best I find a system to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible, especially considering i will be here in Driftmark for the foreseeable future.
So, letters to Visenya: As curt, blunt, and objective as possible. Avoid giving her any details, or she will find something to nitpick and get disappointed. And if Visenya gets disappointed i can expect her to reply with what´s essentially a military routine disguised as ''counseling''. And she will find a way to know whether I follow it or not. Jesus Christ, you can feel her dissaproval from the other side of the world once it locks on you.
Orys; Dude´s illiterate. Don´t write him anything. It´s very depressing how Orys was conceived when Aerion claimed the right of the first night, only got martial aspects to his education, and is still better treated than most bastards in Westeros. In fact, Aerion having four trueborn children who know how to read and write is an achievement here in Westeros. Where some lords genuinely think books are ''unmanly'' and that Women reading will give them ''poisonous ideas''. The ironborn specifically think that reading is some cursed form of sorcery that must be avoided at all costs. Morons, lackwits and imbeciles.
Letters to Aegon are the easiest. Tell him what I am doing, and that miss him. Aegon and I have this weird relationship where he´s too much of an introvert to seek bonding with his little brother, and I am a seventeen-year-old mentally, so I have a hard time pretending to actually enjoy playing children´s games, still, we aren´t on bad terms just... a bit distant.
Dealing with Rhaenys is something I struggle with. It´s very hard to bond with a kid once you know you´ll be forced into degeneracy (Fuck incest, all my homies hate incest) with her. She also struggles at keeping still for over 5 minutes straight and is in constant need of stimulation to avoid boredom. The only things that can truly capture her mind are dragons, singing, and dancing. I guess I could sing her some songs from the modern world and see how she reacts? actually ... that´s a good idea I should have had earlier...Dancing is a hell no for me. Dragons are the only truly positive thing that being a Targaryen in Westeros brings, so I can at least relate to her on that.
Since she struggles so much with attention span, I should probably fill my letters with those things so she can read them. She´s quite a sensitive person and I don´t want to pass off the impression that I despise her.
Letters to my parents? simple! Tell father and mother I love them, tell them that Driftmark is a cool place and all that. Throw some shade on the whole incest thing to please my mother, but do it in a way that sounds more like a kid being curious than deliberately attacking the practice. Aerion is a die-hard Valyrian supremacist and passed that crap down to Visenya who is his favorite child and will not take kindly to literally any questioning of his ideals. Great dad by Westerosi standards, but still a degenerate.

Also, can we talk about how bad it is to be the wife of a Targaryen? Imagine being poor Valaena right now, Aerion only married you because you had Valyrian blood and he didn´t have any available sisters. And now she just has to watch as all her children are forced into something her religion considers a sin and the offspring, her grandkids, abominations. That´s horrifically depressing. The Velaryons never practiced incest since they weren´t a dragon-riding house in old Valyria, so even to them the Targcest is weird and kind of disgusting ever since they converted to the seven. Speaking of the seven, it´s very jarring to me how Aerion and Visenya believe firmly in the fourteen flames (Gods of old Valyria) while my two other siblings don´t give the slightest shit about any religion And my mother has used the fact i am here on Driftmark to have try and have me converted to the most useless of the faiths in the world of GRRM. I am R´hllor all the way, he gives me shadow assassins, revival powers as well as the ability to see the future in the flames. None of the other gods have shown this amount of power...but then again, he also requires human sacrifice, so maybe I won´t be a red god fanatic. Best to consider all cards on the deck though.
*sighs* Best get scribbling with this FUCKING QUILL. I swear to god i wish i knew how to make a pencil or a pen all on my own. Unfortunately, the only uplifting i can bring here to Westeros is basic hygiene practices like washing my hands. That´s already a big deal however, I´m sure the women in labor who won´t get a septic shock because of me will all be grateful for my great idea.

Whelp, scribble scribble.
''To my dearest sister Visenya ...''

...
''No, no, no. You´re doing it all wrong Daeron'' That was Driftmark´s master at arms, a jackass named Ser Jacaerys Waters. Responsible for teaching me how to use a blade and fight. He´s given me this big wooden sword for me to practice proper sword stances and footing. Apparently, I am doing it all wrong, but in my defense, a seven-year-old shouldn´t have to learn this shit. ''Put weight on your left foot, cock those hips slightly, drag your other foot back unless you think stepping on yourself mid-combat is a good strategy.''

''Like this ?'' I did what he told me and looked at him, the poor guy wasn´t very good-looking, he had this big scar on his cheek that he got from fighting Hoare pirates that had sailed from the Blue Fork and into Blackwater Bay. Considering just how bad it was, I can´t complain about how grumpy and angry this guy is all the time. Even if i do want to, he´s a veteran being forced to baby a seven-year-old, I can understand his frustration
''That´s acceptable. Now, put your sword up and hit this dummy for me'' I did as he said, doing a sword thrust straight into what would be a throat if this dummy was a person instead of ... you know, a dummy.
Jacaerys grumbled '' You used the sword tip instead of the edge. Most younglings like you prefer to do these massive swings that butcher off half a man´s body. What you did was much better, a clean and precise blow to a vital area. Tell me Daeron, do you know why the tip is better than the edge in a battle ?'' The dude was actually mad i did the right thing so he couldn´t berate me.
I was quite smug over that question of his, reading all those Bernard Cornwell novels is paying in dividends now ...'' Because if I have enough space to use the edge that means my army formation has been routed and I am getting chased by the enemy before getting myself killed like a pig. When people are tucked together during a battle I cannot use a sword swing without the risk of accidentally killing a friendly whereas with a thrust I have much more control over who gets hit. Also, it leaves me less open for a counterattack.'' Well, what I said was more valid when people used shield walls which aren´t really a thing here in Westeros for some reason. But the concept stays the same i am sure
He narrowed his eyes as if he were a comic book character catching onto a murder suspect, it was not fun being on the receiving end of that glare.''That is ... a surprisingly coherent and well-thought-out answer with bizarrely specific details Daeron. Tell me, where did you learn about any of this?'' Oh shit. I forgot about the fact I'm supposed to be a stupid little seven-year-old instead of a person with average intelligence. There´s a glaring difference between the two. Fuck me in the ass.

''uhm ... I read it in a book'' That seemed enough to appease Mr Waters, besides it wasn´t actually a lie. I basically copypasted the speech of a character named Owen to the protagonist of the warlord chronicles.
He snorted '' I guess they´re good for something '' Aww, he wasn´t mad at me for once! '' Unfortunately, your execution is terrible. Your blow was too weak and slow and you require physical conditioning.'' Can´t I have anything good in this place? ''I will give you a training routine that i will expect you to follow to the letter, is that understood ?''
''Yes, Ser.'' He grumbled and cursed some more before saying ''You better mean it, i have this whip here that is just itching to give you a lashing in case you neglect your duties boy.''

Who hurt you in your childhood man?

''Cousin Daeron !'' By the voice I knew it was Aethan Velaryon, he´s one of the people I've struck up a friendship with here in Driftmark.He likes sailing which is good considering he is a Velaryon, i like him because he is honestly quite chill for a 12-year-old kid.

''Cousin Aethan , what is it ?'' he was approaching me with a grin on his face ''My father says that tomorrow we will go trading with him on Duskendale, isn´t that cool ?! You´ll get to board a ship with me !'' ''

''Yes Aethan...'' i muttered a half-hearted response, but my mind was only thinking about one thing :

Am I smart enough to introduce Embezzlement into Westeros like Littlefinger did?

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

The sea travel was quite nice.
I hadn´t gotten around boats in my first life, being a city boy the only ''sailing'' I ever did was in Assasin´s creed Black Flag. And my skills at fictional pirating and sacking did not, unfortunately, transfer into doing it in practice. Thankfully, the waters around Blackwater Bay were quite calm and peaceful, and i did not get seasickness.
Being fostered by House Velaryon means i will probably spend a decent chunk of my time in these little wooden things. But i could not truly blame them for being so maritime, the Velaryons had quickly realized that the island of Driftmark on its own was simply not populous or fertile enough to sustain itself, agriculture was hard and mostly dismissed in favor of fishing if previous generations of Velaryon lords had fewer brain cells they´d use the tried and true feudal technique of ''Tax the peasants more'' until it collapsed the economy
Instead , the Velaryons used their powerful ships to control trading along the gullet and Blackwater Bay. They had no competition from the Storm king, the Arryn fleet was built completely for battles and not trade and thus didn´t even try, and the only other Kingdom that could have contested that control , the Kingdom of the Hoares was under the command of a young Harren the black , who only cared about ruining his own country to build up Harrenhal. Occasionally some Ironborn reavers would pack together a ragtag grouping of 12 or so Longships and sail down the blue fork and into the blackwater rush, but they were no threat to the Velaryons who used bigger ships designed specifically around making boarding as difficult and cumbersome as possible, though it was impossible to outrun the Longships of the ironmen, it was not impossible to fight them off or give them incentives to not attack however. The ironmen are pirates, and pirates like easy targets, because no loot is worth dying for despite what they might tell you in their cups.
Almost 100 years after the doom of old Valyria and the Velaryons still had contacts in Essos from where they could get luxury goods for a cheap price. The poor Westerosi simply could not compete with that, and Daemon Velaryon was so confident in this that if any rival trading house dared to rise up, he´d sell his products at a price so cheap he suffered financial loss just to bankrupt said house. And if they persisted in contesting his iron grip in Blackwater bay, they should not be surprised if their trading fleets was mysteriously attacked by brigands and cutthroats of the worse kind. All a coincidence of course.

Basically, my uncle was the Vito Corleone of the Blackwater, and people knew it . So they went out of their way to please him. All in All , House Velaryon ran its affair much better than House Targaryen, who just preferred to sit around in Dragonstone meddling with the free cities and never making any gains. I don´t doubt that Aegon seeing his Velaryon side of the family find so much success in Westeros was a reason why he looked west instead of east. My uncle was a goddamn master and making coin out of nowhere, unfortunately (for everyone else, not for me) i knew of some other guy who made money appear out of nowhere...

''I am so excited cousin, this will be my first time going trading with Father, he says that when i become lord of the tides it´ll be my responsibility to make sure Driftmark continues to grow more and more wealthy !'' that was my cousin Aethan , he is a chill kid who just wants to impress his dad. I can relate, when i was his age i wanted to do that too.
''I am sure you´ll do fine Aethan, just don´t expect me to go haggling around with you and uncle. I'm only seven and that´s boring ! i just want to look around Duskendale , i´ve never seen one of these mainland castles before'' That was a lie , i had a pretty Cool (read immoral) idea on what to do here in Duskendale.
Aethan shrugged ''If you say so Daeron, but i am curious , why don´t you want to see my father ? Everyone tells me he can make gold from nowhere.''
I could not resist getting a little smug ''Uncle Daemon is a great master , no doubt about that ... but he´s not the only one , tell me Aethan , have you ever heard of this essosi merchant named Ponzi ?''

...

The port of Duskendale left me a bit ... unimpressed. The city just sucked and the Dun fort (Fancy name for the lord´s castle) stood impassibly at the distance. The noises of the waves crashing against the shore filled my ears, that and seagulls, sailors drinking and Daemon Velaryon shouting orders for his trading fleet to prepare to dock. You´d think docking would be easy, but when boats get as big as Daemon´s, it's something that needs to be done quite slowly or else it will become quite the mess.

While his men did as he said, Daemon turned around to look at me and Aethan with a satisfied expression. ''Son, I want you to stay quiet and simply observe what i do and say, is that something you can do ?''
Aethan nodded enthusiastically ''Yes, Father, I will make you proud !'' Daemon ruffled his son´s hair with affection ''You always do child. But i am serious about this , I am to speak with Lord Richard Darklyn about very serious issues. When it is your turn to be lord of Driftmark this will be your responsibility. And you, nephew.''
''Yes, uncle ?''
''You will follow me and Aethan to properly introduce ourselves to Lord Darklyn, after that I will give you an escort of guards and a bag of coins ... I would be pleased if you were to spend time with Lord Darklyn´s son. He is more or less your age, so it would be quite beneficial if the two of you got along.''
''I shall, uncle'' This was going much better than I expected. On one hand, I felt bad, because I was about to manipulate a child into financial fraud.
On the other hand, this was literally too easy to pass up, and I am the type of person to do things for shits and giggles.

...
Robert Darklyn, Son of the lord Darklyn of Duskendale. Was quite interested in me , asking questions non stop. We walked around Duskendale with some guards behind us who were clearly bored over having to follow around two stupid little kids walking around the shithole that was a Westerosi castle . Driftmark had spoiled me too much, in the Velaryon island, everything was organized and clean. Duskendale had none of that , the ''road'' was a muddy little track that smelled of every type of shit imaginable, from horses to bulls and even people. It was also so ... crammed is the word. Some families had to share houses and share the burden of the taxes to survive, one specifically unlucky bunch shared their house with 4 other families to afford living. Yikes , i don´t want to imagine how going to the bathroom works around there.
''Is it true that in your family, brothers marry sisters ?''
Damn. Did he really have to ask about that ''uhm ... yes''
''That´s disgusting,'' Darklyn said it while grinning, not even realizing he had insulted my house. Ah , the naivety and obliviousness of children. It was endearing how a child can be so blunt and not even realize it.
''And the dragons, can i see the dragons someday ?!'' Well, that is a less disgusting question ... and brings him right where I want him....
''Dragons? I can give you dozens, maybe a hundred dragons.''
''You can !? Where are they? WHERE ?!'' . I snickered at his excitement ''Calm down Robert, these dragons are right here in Duskendale, we just have to go and get them.''
He looked absolutely shocked ''H-here ? '' I playfully put my hand on his shoulder .''Yes, right here. The best type of Dragons, i am surprised you don´t see them. Golden Dragons. Tell me, Robert, have you ever heard of this Essosi merchant named Ponzi ?''

...
Our first pit stop was a guy named Hareg who worked as a blacksmith. His father had been an Ironborn named Harwyn who´d escaped from the oppression of his namesake Harwyn Hoare. So our friend Hareg here is quite concerned about being kicked out of Duskendale over supposedly being an Ironborn spy under the command of Harren the Black. The ironborn are the boogeymen here in Westeros before the conquest, Harwyn Hoare had conquered the Riverlands, Qhored Hoare had sacked Oldtown and controlled all the western coast of Westeros, from Bear Island to the Arbor. He could boast without lying that his writ ran wherever men heard the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore. So i could understand the whole ''Fear everybody that was ever born in the Iron Islands'' sentiment. Even if i didn´t really agree with it . Learn how to build proper castle walls against these fucking pirates and your problems go away. But it was about to work in my favor here, i needed the bottom of the pyramid scheme to be someone I knew couldn't refuse, Hareg would give my little friend Robert here some coin to seem more loyal.

Hareg had been hitting a sword with his hammer when he saw Robert and i get close, he immediately looked at the guards behind us and realized i was highborn as well , Robert was already his acquaintance.
''Uhm , hello Lord Robert and Lord ?...'' He sounded a bit nervous.

''Daeron , of the house Targaryen''

He cleared his throat and tried smiling '' Uhm .., What is it the two of you want from this blacksmith here? a sword? I can make you two the best swords and spears in Duskendale.''
Robert was about to say something , but i spoke first '' See , mister Hareg , i want to present you with an unique opportunity .''
He narrowed his eyes in suspicion ''What would that opportunity be ?''
Now it was my time to clear my throat and try and sound important. It´s very hard to sound anything but cute when you are in the body of a seven year old ''See , you will give us 10 golden coins today and get 20 tomorrow.''
Hareg didn´t want to give his coins , but looked at Robert ,who had a pleading expression , and relented ''You best not be lying , my lords.''
I smiled ''I am not. Just one more thing , tomorrow when we give you your 20 coins, would you mind spreading the word about our little service here ? just tell anyone interested to give 40 coins instead of 10''
he grumbled but said yes.
This shouldn´t be this fun...
...

Next, we spoke with a woman who was an ambitious social climber by the name of Sybell. Our talk with her was mostly the same, except we asked for 30 coins instead of 10. She tried her best to flatter a 7 seven-year-old child . It was quite disgusting how she treated Robert Darklyn like a god just so she could get a good word in for old lord Darklyn. Whelp, i guess that´s how feudalism works....but it´s going in my favor. I am a child, which means my credibility is naturally limited, so i needed to show that giving me money wasn´t actually a bad idea, so i chose people who i knew could not refuse me. Hareg for fear of being seen in a poor light by the Darklyns and Sybell for ambition.
We got the money from Sybell, then went to speak with Hareg, we paid him his 20 coins and then split up the 10 remaining evenly. He quickly spread this to the other merchants in Duskendale and we got more and more of these ''loans '' . We paid off Sybell quickly enough, seeing Robert Darklyn be so full of himself was quite funny to be honest. He hadn´t done anything to help besides ''being the lord´s son'' but that was sufficient.
We were making cash so fast that it was quite scary. Master Ponzi would be impressed and the Egyptians would bask at my pyramids, even if they were of a different sort.
Is this unsustainable? eventually, yes. But i am really quite curious to see how far it can go. There won´t be any real consequences to it, i doubt Lord Darklyn will let it out of control once he finds out what his kid is up to.
...
We were sailing back to Driftmark after spending two weeks in Duskendale , Aethan was regaling me in details of his father haggling like a fisherwife. Daemon Velaryon on the other hand looked at the fact i had three sacks of coin instead of the one he´d given me in confusion. He knew i hadn´t commited Robbery as his guards would never allow me , so in his view i had just made the money show up from thin air.
''Nephew'' he asked softly ''From what i heard you employed some strange... loan system with Robert Darklyn ? i am pleased you two found some common ground but ... care to explain to me where you got this...idea of yours ?''
I smiled smugly''I got it in an old book uncle , you see , there was this old essosi merchant...''

Now, the only thing playing in my mind is a certain 80´s classic ''Money for nothing....''
Suck it Baelish , you ain´t got nothing on me.

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

I have felt anxiety before. School tests are absolute pains in the ass and the feeling of dread that mounts up when the clock is ticking and you realize your current pace is not fast enough is akin to Lovecraftian horror. Incomprehensible, inhuman and infinite. Attempting to engage women in conversation when you are a big fat nerd like I was is also quite a daunting task as well. But nothing could compare to the dread of receiving ravens.

I had sent four letters, one to each of my siblings and one to my parents, four replies I have received.
I cautiously look at them one by one ... thinking ''Which do I read first ?'' Well, there is but one answer, of course, I will read them in the order of the people i sent them to. This does however have a horrible implication: Reading Visenya´s first. Though that also means i don´t have to read it later... decisions...decisions...

There isn´t any avoiding it... so its better to do it as quickly as possible.

''To my brother, Daeron.
I have reviewed the contents of your message, and I have not been pleased. You have failed to adhere to a proper routine and i have , after reading in between the lines , deduced that you lack discipline and organization.
That is why i have taken it upon myself to make a routine i expect you to follow to the letter and without questioning or resistance. You are the blood of the Dragon and Old Valyria and I will not have you shaming our house. Failure to comply will result in harsh measures being taken until your cooperation is secured.
You must wake before the sun rises and run for at least one hour. The breaking of your fast must be done austerely, you must not be a glutton and must also not waste any more time than necessary with something as futile as eating. You eat to live brother, you don´t live to eat.
I will want you training with Ser Jacaerys the rest of your morning until it is time for the Luncheon. The same principles from Breakfast apply here.
Your studies with maester Orwyle will be done in the afternoon. I am not amused with his attempts at cramming down the faith of seven on you. I have raised my objections to our father and mother. Always remember this Daeron, you are the blood of Old Valyria and you will worship the fourteen flames like father and i do. I have encountered resistance on this subject with Aegon and Rhaenys. I will not tolerate it coming from you. I am however satisfied with your reported lack of interest in the seven. That is assuming you were telling me the truth in your letter.
Do not attempt to lie to me under any circumstances, i warn you that father has been teaching me spells of Old Valyria and i have gained some capacity to watch you from afar. There are some conditions to it, of course, but that is not what you need to know.
What you must understand is that i will know if you are lying, I AM watching you, i will know if you are following my commands and I will punish you in case you do not. You are my little brother and that is why i must be harsh on you to assure you grow into a proper man who will assist me and Aegon when it is time for us to rule Dragonstone.
Continuing your routine , you must do some more physical exercise in the period between the lessons with Orwyle and dinner. I would suggest swimming as it will help you develop your muscles and will make sure you grow more. I will not have my brother be a dwarf.
After your dinner, I recommend you acquaint yourself with the library. The mind must be sharpened like the body and books are its whetstone. I would like you to begin with themes of a more military nature. Read on the wars of the Freehold. I recommend the battles against the Ghiscari empire or the war against Garin the great and his Rhoynish water magic. I will expect you to write me essays on these topics in future letters.
Afterward, you must sleep, and make sure not to sleep too late , there is nothing more devastating to the mind than losing your average 8 hours of sleep at night. No , you must not allow inconveniences or unexpected happenings to disrupt your sleep schedule. There are very few things that compare in importance.
Drink Water. Plenty of it. I hear reports of Andal lords giving children your age some sips of wine. You must refuse if it is offered.
As previously said , I AM watching. Failure to comply will result in punishment. Do not doubt that I can inflict it, you know I can.

With care and concern, Visenya.''

...Holy shit...Is...is this real? i... I don´t even...
First off, Aerion is the father of the year right there, teaching witchcraft to his 13-year-old daughter so she can act like Big Brother from 1984. Second of all , what the fuck is wrong with this child? what ...who just wakes up one morning and decides to act like a police state to an 8-year-old child... a good chunk of her advice is good...especially the sleep part. Visenya would have a seizure with the school system it seems.
But...i don´t think i want to find out what her punishment is ... if she actually does know witchcraft.... i ... i am feeling quite a bit scared now. She is in my walls and in my head rent-free.
I don´t know if this confirms that Maegor was conceived through magic in canon but .. i am not doubting it anymore... guess i´ll have to start following her military routine now...boring as it may be... i am not an idiot and no way in hell am i testing to see if she´s bluffing or not.
Anyway...uhm....onto Aegon´s i hope he is more sane ... he is always sane.

''To Daeron.

Dragonstone has remained the exact same, brother. Dreary, gloomy and beautiful in its own solitary way.
It has gotten me thinking brother ... father and Senya always talk as if we are superior to everyone around us , yet we are stuck with barren islands on the narrow sea. At least the Velaryons engage with Westeros in trading...Father is always looking east to the free cities but... it never seems to work out for our house.
Perhaps we should look west instead of east? I am quite curious to meet these andal lords but Father never lets me. All he says is that we shouldn´t mingle with our lessers and all that babble about the fourteen and blood of Valyria and such...
I suppose this is all a preamble to me asking you for a ... favor.
Your nameday will come in two months and father will allow you a brief visit here in Dragonstone to celebrate it . I would be very grateful if you were to request him a small family trip to Oldtown as a nameday gift ... I understand that we are not the closest siblings but ... I would be quite grateful if you did this for me. Visenya won´t and Rhaenys only has her nameday by the end of the year, and even then she is more like to request a dress or frivolity of the sort, mine is also quite far away and i would rather not wait.
Oldtown is the heart of Westeros and i am very intrigued by it, the citadel especially. It is hopefully an interest that we could share brother, I am eager to learn and compare myself to the Andals. Are we truly better as Father says if we have dragons and no willingness to use them? I do not want to be another Targaryen lord of the narrow sea that does little and less during his tenure, i am unsure as to what my ambitions for my time as ruler shall be but ... there will be something. I will want you , Rhaenys, Orys and Visenya alongside me during these challenges when they come.
This talk must be boring you, but I do urge you to consider my request. I would be quite grateful
with care, Aegon.''

Huh ... so he started having ideas about Westeros this early? it is interesting to think about . I know in canon he visited the Arbor and Oldtown before the conquest , so i guess he must have gotten the idea from that ? or was the whole ''i saw white walkers in a dream'' thing what pushed him over the edge ?
i don´t know what´s more terrifying, Aegon brutally subjugating the seven kingdoms because he wanted to and could , or because he had a nightmare one day. One of these is scary in the cold calculated way, and the other is just unhinged, if he dreamed that genocide needed to be done then uhh goodbye dorne i guess.
But as far as the letter itself? it was uncharacteristically sweet of him. I will actually do what he asks because i am also curious to see the rest of Westeros. I could be a bit miffed that he literally did not respond or care about my experiences in Driftmark and made it all about his own person but... i won´t because i am not really all that mad about it. Go Aegon for being more level-headed and reasonable then police state Visenya.

'' To my sweet brother Daeron
I miss you, brother! Dragonstone is not the same without you when we are wed you must promise to not abandon me like this! it is not fair, Visenya gets Aegon and i have to stay alone. It makes me feel unwanted.
I was quite sad to hear that Ser Jacaerys has been taking it hard on you, i don´t have any interest in blades like Visenya, but i am sure it must hurt a lot to do all these things he demands of you! Maester Orwyle seemed kind though, i like maesters and i love my dancing instructor! When you return you must dance with me brother, i will be patient with you, i promise.
I also convinced Father to hire some bards and ministrels to sing here! you know how much i love songs! it makes me sad that you cannot hear them there in Driftmark . Don´t worry, I am sure that you will hear them whenever you come to visit us!
But something here has left me quite vexed: Father won´t let me tame Meraxes! It's not fair, NOT FAIR! i want a dragon and i am tired of having to ask for rides on Balerion and Vhagar. Meraxes is meant for me and i can feel it in my heart! Why did he let Visenya claim Vhagar at my age but not me? I call it NOT FAIR AT ALL! I even tried sneaking out of my room at night, but he somehow knew what i planned and caught me! my luck was terrible! i considered trying to tame the golden but no one can even find that dragon half the time, and I know how much you want that one for yourself so I left him be.
Oh, but i want Meraxes so baaad ! her silver scales are so beautiful and they reflect and shine in the moonlight! i love the feeling of the air on my hair when i am flying and i hate that I have to keep begging Father and Visenya all the time for it. It is so CRUEL! so cruel to force a lady like me to beg on my knees for something that is my birthright as a Targaryen.
I swear that I will do nothing more than fly when I get my dragon, i don´t think I´ll ever want to touch the ground again .
with love , Rhaenys.''

Ah...Rhaenys ... my relationship with her is quite ...complicated...i don´t really have any ill will against her or any of the sort . But it is very , very hard to be near someone when the whole sibling fuckery thing is always in the back of your mind. That´s made her uhm... try and overcompensate some flaw she thinks she has that makes me hate her ... man, i really should have done a better job dealing with her and making it clear that i don´t despise her

...
Maester Orwyle was continuing his great lecture about the seven, Andalos, and the Starry sept . I have heard this old toad speak of this shit ten times over by now, and i am quite fucking tired of it.
So, i did the most reasonable thing ever and decide its time to go for shock value , i have to admit that it gave me way too much pleasure.
''And King Hugor of the hill was crowned by the father himself with seven stars being pulled down from the heavens to make his crown...'' The maester carried on his boring lecture.
''Maester... i have a confession to make'' i really tried suppressing my amusent from the tone of voice.
''What is it Daeron ?"' He asked kindly
''I have seen the light of the one true god Maester. PRAISE BE R´HLLOR!'' I said with exaggerated excitement !
The maester paled with shock and started mumblinb incoherently ''b...but Daeron , th...the sev-''
I literally glared at him ''Can the seven provide me with shadow assasins if i bang i priestess ?! can they bring me back to life after just a fucking kiss !? CAN THEY PREDICT THE FUTURE IN THE FLAMES ?! NO! THEY CANNOT! R´HLLOR is the only god that matters to me!

...
As fun as that outburst was , it ended up with the tripling of my classes , so not worth it in the long run . At all.
I don´t even worship the red god , i just said it as a fuck you to Orwyle.
Westeros is awful , can´t wait to grow up and get DRAGON !

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

Dragonstone is grim as hell. Seriously.
The day was cloudy as fuck and the sun was blocked out and the dragon-themed architecture of the castle alongside the smell of ash and brimstone didn´t help with convincing me I was not going to Dracula´s lair. Seriously, Dragonstone was built by Aenar the exile, and his followers who made this castle through the use of Valyrian sorceries and such ... maybe they could have tried and lightened the mood a bit? perhaps including literal ( and I am not making this up) Demons as part of your architecture was not a good call ... every tower of the castle had some form of Wyvern or dragon decoration, and even some chairs were dragon-shaped. Subtlety is not a trait of Old Valyria apparently.

Now, I still kinda love this place actually ... despite all the grimness, it is actually remarkably calm and peaceful, chill even. Sea Dragon Tower has a big library for nerds and a nice view of the shore.
There are also the big flying lizards. They are a massive upside to Dragonstone.
I was coming back to the island after more or less three months to celebrate my nameday! pretty neat if I say so myself. In my first life, I was always a bit of a greedy child when it came to birthdays. I tried to maximise the number of gifts received so that meant inviting a bunch of people that had nothing to do with me and probably didn´t even know my name. Seriously, I had my whole family tree drawn on a piece of paper to make sure I would not miss any cousins and uncles from the maternal or paternal side. The party was never something I actually enjoyed because loud noises hurt my fragile little ears.
Now that I am more ... grown up? does it work like that if I am 8 now but died as a 17-year-old? nobody ever thinks about the logistics of being an SI...*sigh* anyway, now that I am more mature as a person I realize that being a greedy grubber who doesn´t care about anything but getting gifts is an easy way to have no friends. Absolutely no one likes greedy, grasping people who pounce on every opportunity presented to them ... it's gross.

My uncle Daemon Velaryon had arranged a ship to take me from Driftmark to Dragonstone. It's a pretty short trip and I was already seeing my favorite bunker/Home of future war criminals that happened to be my siblings...The gigantic towers with dragon-shaped statues stood imposing in the distance, I could also see the docks I´d disembark on. Sweet.

First off, I need to make a *plan* for what I intend to do here. Step one, catch up with my favorite tavern brawler Orys Baratheon... I doubt i will be allowed to see him today because my mother would not like my family reunion to be ''sullied'' by the presence of a bastard. But I will try and find him later. Step two, try and maybe ask my father to do that trip Aegon wanted, doesn´t strike me as a bad idea to see the less shitty parts of Westeros. Especially considering Aegon is likely to be more emboldened by the presence of a fourth dragon rider and he might just decide to pull off the conquest early, and it would be good to at least know a bit of the places we will end up burning and subjugating in the future. My main focus is not ending up as the sibling that has to deal with the yellow toad of Dorne, that shit should not be my problem. Step three is *to try* to speak with Rhaenys ... look, being around her is very weird for me, because of the ... implications, so I generally just avoided her. But that also means that.Rhaenys, in her great childish intellect, decided that i absolutely despised her for some reason. And she just can´t handle it, Rhaenys is someone who craves acceptance and adoration at literally every moment. It's not nice of me to just let the poor child feel hurt like that.

Step 4 is my favorite step! I try to claim a dragon, the golden one! Now, there are a few ... restrictions on this ... lord Aerion will not allow me to claim one as I am way too young. So I´ll have to slip out of my room at night all sneaky peaky like... and that is also assuming i succeed in claiming the dragon instead of getting Quentyn´d ... I do not want to end up like Quentyn Martell. Finding said golden Dragon at night is easy because his scales are quite shiny and easy to spot... and he´s also a lazy fucker that no one bothered claiming before for some reason. He doesn´t seem to be the most aggressive like Vhagar, nor the most gentle like Meraxes. He likes to just sit in his place and hunt down sheep, though he will become murderous if bothered. He´s still a dragon

Now, the fact he hasn´t been claimed before means I get to pick his name ... on one hand, I could name him Sunfyre after the OG, and it would fit because of the color, and Sunfyre does sound nice but...that would mean associating myself with Aegon II and uhm... no thank you. There are worse Targs than him like Aegon the unworthy, Daemon the lord flea bottom, Aerion Bright Flame, and Aerys II... but that doesn´t make him good. That just makes him mediocre at being evil, which in a way is even worse.

Now, I also am maybe considering naming him after a Skyrim dragon like paarthunax or Alduin but that´s cheesy... am I that cheesy? dunno, I will figure it out later.
I guess a Valyrian name would be appropriate but i struggle to pronounce something like Jaehaerys if i choose some bigass mouthful of a name like Aegaerax I would barely be able to say it! but then again, so would the other people in Westeros...man, it could be kinda fun to name him something like that just to hear the Westerosi butcher his it ...
Maybe I´ll leave all this talk about his name for when he´s actually claimed. It seems like a most judicious proposition as Vizzy T would say.

...

I finally arrived at Dragonstone proper and stepped foot on the island! The first thing I see is my family, who was waiting for me. Nice.

Lord Aerion is a tall man with broad shoulders and deep purple eyes, his hair is more gold than silver. He is quite a nice father by Westerosi standards, he allows and supports Visenya breaking all the things expected of a woman in the world of ice and fire, while also supporting Rhaenys in her choice to be more ''girly'' if you will. He cares about Orys (who has an extremely dodgy conception, let's not focus on that) despite him being a bastard, he tries to be present in Aegon´s life and he hated sending me off to foster because it meant being distant from one of his children. He only relented after my mother insisted. He wore a red doublet, ironic considering that will be the color of House Targaryen in the future when Aegon creates the house sigil, words, and all those little details.
Unfortunately, he is also a massive racist with his whole Valyrian supremacism and he uhm...*coughs* claims Right of the first night.

Seriously though, Aerion and most Valyrians, in general, are so overwhelmingly racist by default. Visenya just thinks every other race is full of ''barbarians'' who are not even worthy of being ''civilized'' by her. Rhaenys is a bit less extreme thankfully, but her motto still pretty much is ''no grounded man will ever be worthy of me''. Aegon catches a monster W by not thinking everyone else is beneath him because he won the genetic lottery and got the dragons, he mostly judges people based on their skills. The trust he gave to Orys in the canon is proof of that.

Like, really the attitude of ''i answer to neither god nor man'' fell apart quick as fuck in Dorne and for Maegor who made the impressive achievement of sucking so bad that the Westerosi lords put aside their bickering just to get rid of him. That is genuinely an achievement considering Westerosi loves nothing more than to slaughter each other. Turns out that Dragons are kinda like fighter jets, they will win you any fight against someone who doesn´t have them. But they won´t help your soldiers occupy the territories you just took. There is a need for local support. Thankfully Aegon understood that and so did Jaehaerys. Every king that did not understand that and used the ''I am a dragon !'' line gets killed. Maegor, my namesake the young dragon, and even Aerys II are examples of that
It also falls apart when you realize the human body is very easy to stab

My mother was standing right beside him with a gentle smile. She was slim with the same purple eyes as my father, though her hair was more on the silver end of the ''silver-gold'' color that the Valyrians have. She wore a blue dress to pay homage to house Velaryon since she was born Valaena Velaryon and not Targaryen.
Visenya was uhmmm....glaring inside my soul with a stern and serious expression that made me want to run away. She wore hair with braids and mostly seemed annoyed at having me here. But then again, she is always annoyed, not really my fault i suppose.

Aegon is just a miniature of his father in every way except the hair. Aerion liked his a bit longer while Aegon preferred it cut short He had a blank expression, even as a kid Aegon was a master of doing the poker face. God knows what he´s thinking about and unless you ask he will never tell
Rhaenys had her golden hair long and loose, she wore pretty much just a replica of our mother´s dress. She was also quite uhm...excited to see me considering i was basically tackled into a bear hug by her. It makes me a bit sad. She does it because she thinks I despise her for no reason and Rhaenys craves acceptance from everyone around her... I just really cannot look at her without remembering ''oh yeah, you are going to have to marry this child, your SISTER'' and that makes me push her away...so I suppose it is my fault.
'
'Brother !'' She cried out while giggling and holding me in a tight embrace ''How I have missed you !''
''o...Oh yes, I missed you very much as well Rhaenys...'' speaking is quite hard since she´s crushing my ribs with a strength no 11-year-old girl should have.
'' Now, now Rhaenys, calm down, we all want to see Daeron as well'' That was my mother speaking and saving me from getting squeezed to death by Rhaenys.
She pouted and looked hurt when I gently pushed her away from me ....great...I am already offending this girl without even trying. It's not my fault her skin is as thin as glass! ...But it does make me feel guilty ... so I try and hold her hand to make up for it...she seems appeased. For now. ''Son '' my father said ''It has been a long time has it not ?"'
''Only three moons father. It has not been long at all. Though I have missed you dearly all the same, of course.''

He smiled at me with genuine happiness. ''It pleases me to know i am so loved by my child...'' he seemed to remember something ''I am sure you still know where your chambers are. Go and rest my son. You must be exhausted from all this traveling... I will have the servants prepare you a bath. We shall have a feast in your honor this day!''

I smiled ''Thank you father , i am very grateful.'' He waved dissmissively ''It is no more then you deserve for something as important as your nameday ! You are my son , a true dragon. The blood of old Valyria runs in your veins. Anything less would be insulting !'' Aerion actually made my heart melt a bit , my ''first'' dad was not the loving type . So this is quite a unique experience for me ...
I looked at Visenya ''Sister, I read those books you spoke of , about the wars between the freehold and the ghiscari. The essence of it is that the Valyrians win because they have dragons , while the Ghiscari lose because they don´t'' There really isn´t much else to talk about it. Legit military training and tactics kinda go out the way when you can repel a host 100 times your size just by saying dracarys and letting your pet do some barbeque.

Visenya was grinning at me from ear to ear . I don´t know what´s more disturbing. Her happiness or her annoyance. If she´s happy, general rule of thumb it´s at the expense of someone else. Her annoyance is also like a predator missile once it locks on to you, say goodnight. ''Yes, little brother. That is just how things work, our ancestors burned these dogs and salted their lands for their audacity of trying to claim our dragons ...the only negative was that the freehold didn´t finish cleaning the world from the dirt that is the Ghiscari. I am pleased you did as instructed. I was watching.''
Switch Ghiscari for Jews and Valyrian for German and Visenya will sound more like Hitler than the actual Hitler. HOLY SHIT.

''Ye...yes, sure, sister...'' i really don´t even know how I am supposed to answer that...
''Brother'' rang the voice of Aegon'' about that ...thing i asked'' i gave him a thumbs up ''Don´t worry about it brother.'' Aegon at least managed to mutter a half hearted ''Thank you'' before retreating back into silence like Homer Simpson blending into a bush.
''Now , i know all of you are missing me dearly and all , but i am quite tired ... so i am going to my chambers now '' My family nodded in understanding . Except Rhaenys who just kept clinging on to me '' Sister....please let me go''
''No.''
''I am asking nicely''
''the answer is still no.''
''I promise i´ll...uhm... Dance with you . There, that´s what you like right ?'' I will come to regret this decision.
She seemed very, very pleased with herself' ''Yes... I can accept that...''
I went to my room and promptly collapsed in the bed and took a sweet sweet nap. First the feast and then (hopefully) claiming a dragon! (Getting Quentyn´d)

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

Feasts in Westeros are strange, dangerous things. Once you start thinking about it, more major characters have died during feasts than battles during the main series. Robb and essentially all the northern nobility, Joffrey getting dunked on, there is the infamous Oakheart wedding in Dorne where Wyl of Wyl (Absolute Dornish asshole and general POS) invaded a wedding, killed the brides family and sold off Alys Oakheart to Myrish slavers.
For me? the danger in feasts comes from two different, though not less dangerous, threats. Horrible music. Seriously, if I hear the bear and the maiden fair one more time I am going to explode. Florian and Jonquil is a horrible song!. Although i am not allowed to say that near Rhaenys if I wish to continue living. Ever.
Thankfully Lord Aerion is a very private guy and made this feast family only, at which point I requested no music, much to the delight of Aegon and Visenya and the horror of Rhaenys who looked at me as if I had slapped her in the face.
The second threat is, unfortunately, unavoidable: Pushy family members.
*sigh* at least the food is nice
''Yes Rhaenys , Driftmark was nice'' I said drily. Since we are betrothed she sits right beside me on the table...and oh boy is this girl talkative.

Unfortunately, she is still a child. So her conversation is not particularly...interesting. She mostly tells me some gossip that i don´t care about and asks me the same question ''How was it in Driftmark'' Over and over again but with slightly different wording. I know that´s what children do, but damn if it isn´t annoying AF.

She giggled ''i hope you don´t plan on sailing instead of flying when we grow up.'' I glared at her ''I am not an idiot sister. Why would i ever do that? Dragons are so much better in every possible way'' Rhaenys looked delighted. Dragons are the only interest we share pretty much. ''Right ?! I feel so sad for everyone who isn´t a part of our family, they will never know how good it feels to fly, i can´t wait to claim my own Dragon so I can be at the clouds whenever i want instead of begging for Visenya or father to take me on a ride'' She crossed her arms in annoyance''It is so unfair! I am sure I could claim a Dragon, but our father always says I am too young, but he was fine when Visenya did it.''
''Father knows best sister.'' Rich and hypocritical coming from me, considering i am planning on claiming my own Dragon today. But I have little sibling privileges and I intend to abuse them to their absolute maximum. ''And you know it was different with Visenya.''

Rhaenys violently shook her head ''No it wasn´t, father just likes her better. Did i tell you that he´s given her Dark Sister ?''
Well. Visenya is Aerion´s favorite. But that doesn´t mean his love for the rest of us is little or anything like that.
Wait a minute.
What did she say about Dark Sister?

'' Excuse me, sister. Father gave her *what*?''
''Dark Sister,'' Rhaenys said. I stared at her dumbfounded, who the fuck gives a sword to a 13-year-old? I can see why Visenya thought it would be OK to give the sword to Maegor at the same age now. Jesus Christ.
''And...you didn´t tell me that instead of gossiping because ?'' Rhaenys shrugged ''I had forgotten, these things about swords and fighting are terribly dull for me. I don´t like seeing people getting hurt. I don´t see why our sister likes all these things with battles and war.''
''If you don´t care for swords, why are you jealous father´s given her Dark Sister ?''
Rhaenys had an actual software crash in her brain and just stared blankly at me trying to think of an answer. It was genuinely entertaining to watch. Words can´t do it justice. Eventually, she recovered and kicked my feet from below the table in revenge. Petty.
''Children! Children!'' Said my father on his dragon-shaped throne . It honestly looked pretty cool, the chairs that me and my siblings sat on were also shaped like dragons , but they were much smaller and less detailed in comparison to his.

We all turned to look at Father. Aegon and Visenya sat on the other side of the table. Beside one another like me and Rhaenys since they were also betrothed.
''Since it is just family here, i will spare a speech, i do hope you forgive me for that Daeron.'' My father said chuckling.
''I will Father. Whenever you go on one of your speeches, you talk too long and I stop listening.''
My father deflated a bit but my mother snorted ''He is right Husband. You do tend to drag on''
Aerion recovered quickly ''A TOAST ! for my youngest son and his 8 years of life !''
The toast was a bit strange since...we were children and drank water for it. But it did get better since my mother came near me and gave me a kiss in the cheek ''I will always love you, little one.''

Aww motherly affection always makes my heart melt a bit.
Afterwards came a tradition of sorts. Westerosi lords allow their children a sip of wine during their nameday, some like Aerion allowed an entire goblet. But only one thank god. The children of Westeros are already fucked up and generally grow up into vile despicable monsters that consistently perform marital rape and mass oppression of the common folk, they did not need child alcoholics on top of it. They get into that stuff anyway when they grow up.
Rhaenys held the goblet for me because of tradition and stuff. She does not really understand that Wine was meant to be appreciated and sipped slowly instead of chugged down the throat. So i had to , very gently of course, show her how it was actually done , she looked a bit offended but acquiesced. It is for the best that a child does not understand how to properly go on a drinking binge. I was a very naughty teen who sometimes sneaked a drink or two when my parents were not looking. Maybe that´s why i am such an asshole. But i ain´t ashamed of it, for the force to be perfectly balanced, Assholes are necessary.

Aerion and Valaena looked at me lovingly and proudly as I slowly sipped the wine. It was actually really fucking good . So sweet , and it was not even the arbor gold that everyone in-universe likes to talk about. Man , i am definitely tasting that when i get the chance. Just gotta make sure not to become like my namesake the drunkard, i prefer Daeron I thank you very much. The Gigachad who started a pointless war in Dorne successfully subjugated the country without dragons at age 14 and then died in an ambush without any heirs except a religious fanatic, his god-tier uncle, and...Aegon IV. The Young Dragon is my personal GOAT.

As I was drinking i realized that Aegon was staring at me with a pleading expression. Oh right. That.
''Father, might I make a request ?''
''Of course !'' He answered brightly ''this is your nameday, you are entitled to one.''
''Well, I... would like for us to make a family trip to Oldtown Father. I am quite curious to know all these Westerosi Lords and Ladies and their castles.''
Aegon and Valaena jumped on that shit so fast that it was comical ''Father I think that´s an excellent idea that my little brother has ! '' this is probably the only time i´ve seen Aegon cheerful instead of his quiet self.

''What a fantastic idea my son !'' Said my mother with wayyy too much enthusiasm ''I think it would do wonders for Daeron and Rhaenys to meet all the lords and ladies they can, and i am sure Visenya will not complain if i bring her with me to visit the Starry sept.'' Last part was said more as a command than a statement. Because Valyrian supremacist Visenya would not enjoy visiting the Starry Sept. Not at all. But i know i would enjoy seeing her attempting to be civil and polite. It would be amusing at the very least.
My mother was always a bit bothered by the fact that her children were either completely uncaring about her gods or actively hostile. She probably thinks it would do ''good for our soul'' or something like that. I really don´t care much either way to be honest.
Aerion looked at me, befuddled.''Why would you wish for such a thing my son ? what could these Andal Barbarians have that is of interest? they are inferior to us in every way, i can guarantee that no Andal castle, lord or lady will ever compare to Dragonstone or your own family.''

''Exactly Father.'' Said Visenya with an angry glare directed at Aegon. She probably understood exactly what was happening here and did not like it in the slightest ''There is nothing that the Andals have built that can even hope to compare with our own glorious castle. I think my little brother´s wits must be impaired from the wine , perhaps he could a different request tomorrow. When he is control of himself.''
Aerion smiled at his favorite child ''Perhaps we should do that , Daughter.''
I shook my head and sighed.I can´t believe i will have to play on the racism of my family to get my way . But i´m an adaptable guy... ''Father , you promised me a request on my nameday , you cannot go back on your word...but as for the reason i wish to see the Andals ? it is... curiousity and nothing else. Like how some of our forefathers collected wild animals to watch.''

Yeah. I am going to puke afterwards. Aegon understood my game here but even he looked like he wanted to puke a bit. Jesus christ.
Aerion shrugged ''I suppose i can understand that....very well my child if that is your wish then it shall be done !''
Rhaenys looked a bit excited , she is a very outgoing type of person and it does seem in character for her to like travelling ''Oh ! i wish to see the tourneys ! I´ve never seen a tourney before !''
Visenya looked quite displeased ''It is fake fighting sister. Nothing more.'' She then turned to Aegon and then whispered something that made him sweat. I gave him a look of pity. Good luck bro , you´ll need it.
''Father , this has all been very good but ... now i am quite tired , would you mind if i went to my chambers ?''
''Of course not my son.''
''Not so fast brother'' said Rhaenys holding my shoulder. ''You promised me a dance !''
Right . I did that.
Fuck.
''*sigh* fine sister... let´s do it.''
''And i want everyone to watch !'' Said Rhaenys with glee

NO NO NO WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU GIRL ? DO YOU WANT TO HUMILIATE ME !?
''Of course we will , Daughter !'' Said Valaena.
FUUUCK
Rhaenys took me by the hand and... she spun me around like a freaking ragdoll. I had no idea what the fuck was happening, i managed to not stumble too much and not step on her feet so that was nice.... she then started speeding up. I felt my dinner rise to my throat. Thanks, Rhaenys.
Seriously, what does this girl do all day? it is not normal for a child to be this good at an activity.
''S..sister please slow down'' i said feeling as if i was about to puke. She giggled in response. The nerve.

I puked on the floor. She looked horrified.

Giggle at that you little shit. Hope you hit your pinky toe on the furniture.
My mother was as fast as the flash and in the blink of an eye was holding me to see if i was fine. Rhaenys was gracious enough to apologize at least.
But what truly matters is this: Right afterwards I went to my good old chambers! There was not a lot here truth be told. Some books from my time before Driftmark. A cozy bed and a window that would serve my purpose now.

See i had everything ready. By everything, i mean a horse (Technically a pony but shush) and a whip. For dragontaming!
The dragon I want to tame lives inside a cave on a hill quite close to the castle here. It´s like...a 30-minute horse ride at most. He´s a lazy bum of a dragon so i know he will be there.
Lord Aerion would not let me do this, so all I have to do is go behind his back like the good son that i am!
Oh, and before anyone dares question the logistics of this :
SHUT
UP
Thank you.

...

My (Soon mine actually but let´s ignore that) Dragon was feasting on a poor innocent lamb he had probably hunted down mercilessly. What a chill fellow.
Her (I think it´s a she , but i dunno how dragon sexes work) golden scales were extremely shiny , even in the night. If she weren´t a monstrous murder machine I´d even call her beautiful! The green eyes she had really complemented the gold.

Her cave was massive. But that made sense as she was also massive more or less the size of Meraxes who was bigger than Vhagar and like...half of Balerion? At some point, scaling becomes difficult with these truly massive beasts that defy human proportions and physics. Seriously, Balerion was so incomprehensibly huge that his sheer weight should cause him to collapse. But i guess Dragons are creatures of magic and can bullshit their way through logic. Great work George.
You know , now that i am confronted by this creature i am somewhat hesitant to keep going. Alas, my mother raised an arrogant derp, but not a bitch.
I cleared my throat and tried speaking in the harshest tone possible. Which was not very harsh considering i had the vocal cords of an 8-year-old. But i can only work with what I've got.
''Dohaeras''

The lazy ass dragon didn´t even lift its head to acknowledge my presence. That....that is humiliating...like...come on now...
OK, that didn´t work, lets try...bartering.
''I promise I will give you...uhm.... lots of treats! that´s right! sheep, lamb, and cattle? Do you want it? it´s yours, my friend! as long as you let me be your rider !''
Completely ineffective. The little bitch had the absolute nerve to make what sounded like a dragon laugh. Or maybe that was my imagination dunno.
If being gentle won´t work, let´s try being harsh! Dragons like strength after all, so I hit her with my whip!
''Dohaeras !'' I said more forcefully this time.
That did get the dragon´s attention. She stared right at me and...
I was burning.
Oh
I am getting Quentyn´d
FUCK

Ok, i exaggerated a bit ... she did not burn me whole...she gave me some (painful as fuck) burns and melted my clothes , but i am mostly intact. But if a dragon spit out a bit of fire at you , what other reaction would you expect besides complete panic? Seriously. Getting Quentyn´d is not something anyone wants in their life.
Perhaps trying to use force on a creature that can quite literally kill me with its breath, was not the best idea of mine...She even seemed amused.*AMUSED* with my despair. My dragon was a troll at heart. I would love her if she wasn´t trolling ME.
*sigh* what do I do here? being gentle won´t work. Being harsh is one way ticket to hell...what can i possibly promise this little shit that will convince her ...actually....
I just had a monkey Neuron activation moment here, how stupid was I not to think of this before?
''Listen here girl'' i said with a soft tone '' If you allow me to be your rider, i can promise you we will do a ton of War crimes together! Just think of all the fields and armies you will get to burn ?''

The dragon seemed interested.

what fucked up world am I living in.

''That´s right girl, just think on it... is being my dragon so bad when you get all the war crimes? I promise you I will give you cities to raze to the ground.''
I got closer to her and petted her chin a bit
''There there sweet girl...'' i said in a gentle tone
clearly she was liking it considering she was purring like a house cat
I tried climbing on her back now... it was a bit hard with my legs being so tiny. But i got the job done!

I am going to name her Shrykos after the Valyrian goddess of new beginnings. Why ? because being an SI is a new beginning and I'm cheeky , but most importantly
I have a dragon.
I HAVE A DRAGON.
We´re going to have so much fun together!
*maniacal laughter*

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

Do you know something about parents and authority figures in general? They do not like being disobeyed. Even benevolent authority figures are like this, perhaps even more so, as they see resistance to their commands as essentially a way of self-harm.
Case and point: Aerion is a bit, just a little bit, vexed with me. He is someone who deeply loves his children. The very idea of one of us getting hurt is enough to rile him up into homicide. It is a bit interesting how someone who, by our moral standards, is completely despicable with his racism, incest, and feudalism, can at the same time be a genuinely caring dad. People are funny like that.

I suppose he is not *totally* wrong. Attempting to claim a dragon as an 8-year-old in the dead of night with no supervision is not a very wise thing to do. It does not help that I got some (mild but painful) burns and that my clothes got melted. Oh, he is also not a big fan of the whole going behind his back part of this. To be fair, if my kid had put himself in a dangerous situation and returned with an injury, I'd be pretty miffed about it. Especially if I had told the child *not* to do it. Aerion is very direct when it comes to dragons: Aegon would claim (or try to claim, but Aerion has zero doubts Aegon will succeed) Balerion after his death. Rhaenys and I can claim one when he deems we ''sufficiently prepared'' and Visenya claimed Vhagar on her thirteenth nameday while he was watching and Dragonkeepers were around to make sure she didn´t mess anything up.
'' WHAT WERE YOU THINKING !!!'' My father screamed. I was back inside the hall of dragonstone. Shrykos had been taken by the dragonkeepers and I was getting some maesters to treat the couple of burns I had on my body. My mother looked at me with tears of worry in her eyes (for no reason besides being a protective mother).

''I wasn´t papa, soowy'' I tried making my best baby impression. I am an 8-year-old. I look and sound cute and I will charm my way out of anything! I even put my head down to add to the look of pure guilt, sorrow, and innocence! emotional manipulation at its finest.

Aerion´s voice softened but it was still laced with concern and anxiety he gripped my arm. Poor dad was shaking with worry ''Child, there are reasons why I do not allow any of you near Dragons without supervision. Their power must be respected Daeron. I am so disappointed, you were always a well-behaved child. What brought about this change ?''

...Aerion might have been emotionally touched or something. Visenya was not. Not in the slightest. She was doing her usual of glaring into my soul and ripping out any secrets that I possibly kept close to my chest. Aegon was right beside her with an expression of concern and relief. Concern for me and relief that he was no longer the target of Visenya´s ire as he had been since yesterday. He even had the nerve to imitate the look of ''Good luck bro'' I had given him the previous day. Thanks for the support, DICKHEAD.

''You do know he is lying, father ?'' she said in a cold tone. This time I narrowed my eyes right back at her. You´re my big sister, you´re supposed to help me get away with this type of thing! ''He had a mount and a whip with him'' she added drily ''This was clearly planned''
Valaena gasped. ''My son! why would you go behind our back like this !?''
Aerion´s eyes darkened and I gulped. Oh, I hate being on the receiving end of scoldings in any way shape or form. Thank you for all the help Visenya, i will be sure to remember this moment.
''You foolish child'' he sighed and tightened his hold on my arm even more. ''That was ill done and attempting to lie your way out of it even more so. You knew i would not allow you to claim a dragon so young , so you went behind my back and plotted. I do not know whether to be furious that you did it or proud of your intelligence for it. Either way my son, you have a dragon. That comes with responsibilities. What have you named your dragon ?''
''Shrykos , father.'' i said meekly ''After the goddess of new begginings...''
''Good'' he said ''You honor our gods . You will begin instructions with the Dragonkeepers as soon as possible. I will not have my son unable to ride the dragon he has claimed. You will not cheat these lessons, my child. Do not try.''

''Y...yes father...''
He shook his head. Tired ''If I had half a mind I would cancel that trip of yours. Yet I gave my word and for some of us that matters. *My Son*. I will make sure you have a dragonkeeper with you when it is time for you to continue fostering in Driftmark. That is all. You will be confined to your rooms until your burns heal.''
I walked back to my room after that. Though I had to handle twenty-ish minutes of my mother looking betrayed and horrified. Seriously, she acted like I turned into Harvey Dent with half my face burned off but no. I had some slight burns in the chest, that´s it. However, her hurt and grief did manage to touch my selfish and arrogant heart. I do not like seeing sad moms, moms deserve the world.

Anyways... I was about to open the door to my chambers when i heard a certain girly voice behind me. ''What was that you told me yesterday, *little* Brother? that father knows best?''
'' Oh, uhm...hello Rhaenys'' I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. Which was not a lot.
''Why did you do that ?'' She asked with clear bitterness

I blinked ''That what ?'' Rhaenys looked annoyed now ''Lie to me! Why didn´t you tell me what you were going to do? why did you say one thing and then do the exact opposite? '' I put my hands up in a futile attempt to calm her ''Look sister...It was a very unkind thing of me to do...and I am sorry...*but* I did it because I didn´t want you following me around or telling.''
She looked even more annoyed ''I wouldn´t have told anyone! I am your sister !'' Yeah, tell that to *dear* Visenya. ''And why didn´t you want me to come with ?! I could finally have claimed Meraxes, we could be flying together! Do you just not want me ?! Is that it !'' her voice starts to crack and I can see tears forming in her eyes

Oh shit. Why the hell is she going to that line of conversation !??? Bail. Bail now. ''NO NO NO Calm down Sister... i was just worried you would get caught is all , you uhm... told me you got caught once and I worried you´d get caught again if you tried ...'' I added a nervous chuckle at the end of this pathetic attempt at recomforting her that was just that: pathetic. Rhaenys didn´t even hear what i said pretty much. Really, she is acting more like an 8-year-old than I am. It´s jarring the difference in maturity between her and my other two siblings. Maybe being more ''childish'' so to speak is why Aegon liked her over Visenya in canon?

She was full-on crying now. *sighs* way to go with emotional reassurance...''It´s so unfair... I want a Dragon, why do you and Senya get one but not me? Why is it you can go and claim one in secret without getting caught but not me? Aegon will be lord, Visenya is stronger and smarter than me, she has Dark sister and Vhagar and now you get a Dragon despite being my younger *sobs* I am useless !''

Just great. The kid´s throwing a tantrum now. I ain´t got no idea how to deal with this shit...how the fuck did I trigger a fucking inferiority complex in Rhaenys just by claiming a Dragon? Did she always have one when I wasn´t looking? Possible I guess. If I'm being honest here, dealing with her shit was not something I did before. Time to try now, calming an 11-year-old girl doesn´t sound hard. Just infuriating.

I moved in to hug her. She sobbed on my shoulders and i felt her tears ''No Sister, you are not useless. Don´t think like that! Sure, Aegon will be lord , Visenya will be a warrior and you aren´t and sure I tamed a Dragon before you. But you know what you have we don´t ?''
'' W...what ?"' She asked
''A kind heart''
''Just that ?'' she asked dissapointed. Of course, trying to be cliche with an 11-year-old blew up in my face... of course...
'' You can sing and play music''
She still looked sad ''Oh well ? so what? nobody cares about that...'' I sighed, the girl is stubborn. ''No Rhaenys, there is someone who cares about that. *me*. I care. So how about you...sing for me ?''
Rhaenys looked a bit touched now ''Y...You want to hear me sing ?...'' I wiped away the tear in her eye ''Yes I do, Father wants me stuck in my rooms anyways. Surely you can help me not die of Boredom?

She looked a bit embarrassed before grinning from ear to ear in excitement. How emotionally stable of her. ''Let me just go grab my flute !'' She then ran off so fast i swore this was a cartoon and I would be able to see a smoke trail soon enough. Roadrunner and Coyote style. It took her less then two minutes to come back with a flute in her hand. Rhaenys then spent the rest of the day singing to me. She sang until her voice started giving in and i listened to each and every single one of her songs. Most were the average Westerosi tunes I despised but pretended to like for her sake and a couple few she made up on the spot that actually sounded pretty good. Rhaenys *was* actually pretty good with a flute.
She only left late on the evening. ''Sister. Would you...like to fly with me later ?''

She immediately nodded. That´s probably the thing she desires the most in the world. The maesters were absolutely not exaggerating how much she liked it. Really , whenever Rhaenys does get around to claiming Meraxes she probably won´t touch the ground again , Aerion and Visenya have gotten tired of saying ''no'' to her consistent and relentless requests for ''quick'' rides on their dragons that last like the whole day.
''YES! I Would love to !'' She narrowed her eyes ''You will always fly with me when I ask , *right* ?'' Man... I fell headfirst into that one.
''Of course sister , whenever you want a dragon ride just ask me and I´ll give you one !'' She legit clapped in excitement, kissed me on the cheek, and then ran off.
Afterwards i collapsed in my bed and started staring at the ceiling. Wasn´t there someone i forgot to speak with ? Like...who was it again ?
Oh right. Orys.

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

Fun fact: Flying is very, *very* cool. The feeling of the wind on your face at high speeds is...quite hard to put into words. But I think exhilarating is an acceptable way to describe it. You also get to see a lot of cool views from so high up! Dragonstone looks just as gloomy and depressing from high up as from below! Seriously Aenar, when you built this place, you should have tried making it more cheerful. But it does look cool in its own way.
The part where you basically are flying on a pet is also...very entertaining to say the least. Shrykos is a little bitch who (I AM NOT DELUSIONAL I SWEAR) has been trying to give me motion sickness for no reason besides the ''lols''. A troll at heart. Mounting her is also tiring. Like, mounting a dragon does not seem like something that should be tiring since you´re just sitting in a single spot, but it is *very* exhausting. Shrykos herself gets tired after over three hours of flight.

Dragonriding also gives you drip. Riding clothes are actually kinda cool looking, the saddle is comically big for a single person. But I will forever whine about the gloves that we have to use to grip the reins are a bit rough on my little baby hands. *Whiny noises*
Alas, like every activity, it requires ...training and practice to be performed well! In no time at all I´ll be able to properly commit war crimes with my siblings! Lovely!

''Sit up straight in the saddle Daeron,'' said Visenya in her typical disapproving tone. We were up in the skies, she was on Vhagar, her bronze dragon with blue eyes. Dark sister was on her hip. It´s disturbing that a 13-year-old has a Valyrian steel sword.''I will not have my brother be a hunchback.''

I grumbled in response ''It would be easier if there wasn´t so much extra weight on my back !'' Rhaenys had invented medieval glue and refused to leave my side now that I had a dragon, clinging to my back while I rode. ''Oh shush brother, you promised me that whenever I wanted to fly with you, I could !'' She even made sure to cling to me tighter as if afraid I'd make her leave, but Visenya narrowed her eyes at our sister ''He is right Rhaenys. Before he can take you flying, he needs to learn it himself.''

I felt extremely smug at that moment, while Rhaenys just looked as if someone had betrayed her family and burned down her home. Very reasonable reaction girl, very reasonable. ''You two can´t get rid of me!''

''Fine, fine just stop putting so much weight on me !'' She pouted but did as I said. It´s so weird being around two cute children knowing they all grow up to be monstrous war criminals. I mean...if you think about it, Rhaenys died after incinerating hundreds of thousands in an incestuous marriage with her brother and other sister leaving her three-year-old child motherless. Visenya did the same except she supported her tyrannical and rapist son on top of it while keeping her grandnephew and grandniece as political prisoners. That´s not mentioning the genocide and terror campaign in Dorne.
Yeah, they´re pretty messed up. And when war inevitably comes (because I can´t see a reason why Aegon won´t try the conquest in this timeline) I will also become a war criminal who borders on genocidal. It´s a Targaryen tradition, it would be racist to stop me.
''The bond between a Dragon and his rider is unique, one of a kind'' said Visenya making her best impression of a teacher ''My bond with Vhagar is not the same as your bond with Shrykos and your bond is not the same as father´s with Balerion. In time, your feelings will become one with hers and she will obey your commands without question.''

I nodded and tried paying attention as she continued her explanation ''Remember that a dragon chooses its rider and has its own personality. If Shrykos allowed you to claim her, there must be something in common between the two of you.''

My dragon made its opinion known by grumbling. Dragons aren´t supposed to grumble. ''Make your authority known, little brother, by whipping her in case of misbehavior but reward her for the opposite. Speak all your commands as clearly as possible, as time goes on she will know what you want just from thought but until that happens Shrykos must learn to obey your voice, so don´t speak so fast she cannot understand your meaning. Especially when it comes to using Dragonfire. The keepers will use some goats for you to practice it.''

Rhaenys was listening to all that as if it were the Gospel coming from the mouth of a saint or something. She has an obsession with Dragons and flying, but it is a bit cute seeing it in person. I have caught her drooling and mumbling about it more than once. Although her expression changed to mischievous. I hate mischief.
''Sister, Daeron. How about the two of you go on a race ?''
''No'' Visenya and i answered drily and at the same time.
''Oh come on now , You know you want to Senya. And you do too Dae.''
I fucking HATE nicknames that just shorten people´s names. They´re unoriginal and just not very fun.
''No i don´t.'' i said but Visenya looked conflicted for a bit before huffing out ''Fine , how bad can it be ?'' Rhaenys looked smug
I hate her.
''Don´t lose Daeron! it´ll look bad for me since I am on your back !''
I lost.
Miserably so
Visenya even gave out one of her very rare smiles of happiness ''You rode well brother! I just happen to have more experience, there is no shame in losing.''
Rhaenys was not so kind and kicked me in the shins when I dismounted at the end.
*Sighs* Sisters are hard to deal with.

...
Orys Baratheon is an ...interesting fellow.
Mother hates him for a simple reason: he´s a bastard. Unlike Catelyn who felt Jon was a threat or something, Valaena absolutely knows Orys can´t do shit because he doesn´t and will never have a Dragon. So she´s just being petty.
Unlike Jon Snow, however, Orys has absolutely *no* shame or remorse about being a bastard. He doesn´t give a fuck about never inheriting anything and he doesn´t really feel any jealousy towards us. He likes fighting and he is a drunk despite only being 16. Being a bastard gives him quite a lot more leeway and freedom to just kinda do whatever he wants. Our father intends for Orys to serve as master at arms for Aegon, and that´s something he is actually quite suited for.
He´s also quite a doting older sibling. Aegon, in particular, likes hearing his stories about hunts and tavern brawls, Orys really does love his tavern brawls and oh boy does he get on them a lot. He has thick black hair, black eyes, and a bit of a beard. One thing about him that is quite...concerning, is his absolute inability to let go of grudges. Canon Orys died staring and smiling at the hand of a dude called Walter Wyl he´d claimed in ''repayment'' for the hand that his father Wyl the widowlover had taken from Orys like ... 20 years prior. That´s what I call holding a grudge.
I hadn´t gotten the chance to speak with him in a bit. Valaena wouldn´t let him in official feasts and such, and while Aerion did have the power to overrule her there, Orys himself just isn´t someone who cares about formalities or pleasantries. He´s a pretty blunt person and I enjoy his presence quite a bit, he´s essentially Robert Baratheon before his decline personality-wise. Not in fighting skills though, Orys is quite good and practices a lot...but prime Bobby B is an entirely different beast.
I would also like to know who his mother was and why he is called ''Baratheon''. But Aerion never tells and Orys himself doesn´t know or care in particular.

I found Orys in the yard having a friendly spar with Aegon. They hadn´t noticed me yet and I just stood there watching and feeling a bit like a creep.
Aegon is quite adequate with a sword for his age, while Orys is pretty good with all weapons, with the comical exception of the hammer. Aegon swung with all his might, and Orys held himself back so as not to hurt his sibling.
''Stay still !'' Aegon whined when he missed for what seemed like the twelfth time. Orys only laughed in response ''You won´t be laughing when I hit you !'' Aegon replied with his pride hurt. So Orys laughed even more and slowed down just enough that Aegon would clash swords with him instead of just whiffing. Aegon had a proud grin in his face and probably thought he had done a great achievement.

He hadn´t and Orys disarmed him in the blink on an eye , putting Aegon down on the ground with a face full of shock. Aegon had that goofy cartoon villain look of ''IMPOSSIBLE'' that made me laugh. Aegon is *quite* prideful for a child so losing in any way irks him.
Orys turned around at the sound of my laugh and smiled ''Daeron! Brother how I have missed you !'' Baratheon put me in a crushing bear hug that made me gasp for air , he´s just too strong for his own good, but mainly too strong for *my* good. Thankfully he noticed that he was committing murder and put me down with an apologetic expression and patted my head as his way of saying sorry. It took me some moments to recover and actually speak
''M..Miss you too Orys....'' I panted a tiny bit and then smiled at him ''I see you enjoyed putting Aegon down in the dirt.''
Aegon looked personally attacked at just a tiny teasing remark and managed to mutter ''Shut up brother...why don´t *you* try fighting Orys!''
''Because I am small'' I replied immediately and smugly. Being the little sibling comes with privileges!
''You think you´re being cute !?'' Aegon said a bit angry now.
I answered with even more smugness and self-satisfaction. I am a prick and I am not ashamed of it ''I´m adorable, brother.''
Orys thought it was the funniest thing ever while Aegon could only narrow his eyes in frustration before huffing ''Why are you like this ?'' I just shrugged in response, while Orys tried giving actual advice to Aegon. I then proceeded to watch them fight all day, Aegon is nothing if not dedicated, and handing him out some compliments here and there is a good way of making him feel nice.

...
I am going back to Driftmark after all this, now with a dragon.
Aerion is working on that little trip to Oldtown. I assume Aegon will think everything there is very nice and would be even better if he was in charge so uhm...there´s that. We will probably do it at the end of the year. Visenya will just end up being annoyed that she can (probably) beat up all the boys her age who will spout typical westerosi drivel about ladies and childbirth. Rhaenys will honestly be fine most likely, I am just going to try and enjoy myself and maybe cause unnecessary chaos for the fun of it. Nothing is better than unnecessary chaos.
Scratch that , there is one thing better then unnecessary chaos: Burning people. This Targ blood has got all my war criminal instincts flaring up and lord Daemon Velaryon´s eyes when he saw me come back with a dragon had the shape of a dollar sign.
''Sweet nephew'' he spoke ''I see you have claimed a dragon for yourself'' He looked at Shrykos´golden scales ''A very beautiful one, may I know the name ?''
''Shrykos, Uncle'' He ruffled my hair ''Very good nephew ...now, would you mind using this dragon ?''
''How so uncle ?''
''See..there are some...Pirates , yes only *pirates* that have been meddling with my trading ships and i think it would be very good for you to burn them all.'' You know, something tells me that he doesn´t want me to just burn down pirates, more like everyone that he doesn´t like. Also, asking an 8-year-old to commit mass murder in your name is certainly a Westeros moment
''Nuncle, are you sure that I should do it? Why not ask my father.'' Daemon sounded bitter now ''Your dear father is too busy with his Valyrian scrolls and prophecies to help your dear uncle. I had hoped that you would help me now that you have this magnificent mount...or are you scared? It´s fine to say so, you are only 8 years old.''

Damn. I am a very shallow person. Getting called a coward hurt my ego. ''I am *not* scared nuncle. I´ll do it for you''
He patted my back ''Good! now, come inside and i will have a bath and your favorite foods prepared... afterward, i will ask the smiths to make you some armor, there shouldn´t be any risk for you since you´ll be flying but i don´t want my nephew getting hurt.''
Well , my reasoning for burning people is: Cause fuck´em. That´s why.
Also, why are there so many Westerosi kids that are child soldiers? Dalton Greyjoy started at age 5, Ben Blackwood at age 11. At least i have the advantage of being a dragon rider, i just sit on top of Shrykos and cackle while people in tin suits get turned into chicken dinner.
Oh and, what was that about armor for an *8 year old* ?

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

Geneva convention? I think you mean Geneva suggestion.
That is my new motto as of late. Uncle Daemon has had me burn down 'pirate' ships (Read anyone he does not like) in the narrow sea. It is cute how he tries to manipulate and gaslight me into not understanding what´s going on. To be fair, he has no way of knowing his 8-year-old nephew is actually an SI. I pretend not to be totally aware of the fact we are basically acting like thugs who burn down ships that either: Threatened his commercial interests, did not pay his ''protection'' tax, and sailed on waters claimed by house Velaryon without permission or just actual pirates. Every once in a while some Hoare asshole decides that sailing down the blue fork and into the Blackwater Bay is a great place for plunder. To be fair, they are right most of the time. *shrugs*
As to *why* I am totally cool with this well...because it´s honestly kinda fun to ride my dragon and say ''Dracarys'', quite relaxing in truth. Besides, since i am a Targaryen and a Valyrian, mass murder is a cultural tradition. It would be racist to stop me. Not only that, but I died and came back as an SI, who´s to say the people I kill won´t have a nice afterlife too? CHECKMATE ATHEISTS.
So in summary: For the shits and giggles. And there are a lot of shits and giggles.

Uncle Daemon made me dragon-riding armor! Perfect for a child soldier! (Seriously, there are far too many child soldiers in this world, Dalton Greyjoy started at age *5*) It looks pretty cool. It´s a black shirt of scales, greaves and gauntlets. He also gave me a little cape that I requested be colored red as a reference for the future. My father´s men think I look kinda cute and like to dote on me now. Reminds me of Caligula, whose name was actually Gaius. Caligula means ''little boots'' because his father was a Roman general named Germanicus who would take his son to the Roman camps and let him dress up with miniature legion armor. Thus ''little boots.''

Honestly, the fact that my father is so neglectful of his duties as a lord, preferring to spend his time with Valyrian scrolls and such, that his brother-in-law got desperate enough to use his 8-year-old nephew as a child soldier to defend his interests is truly something. What´s even more amusing is the fact Dragons are so overpowered that I could have the intelligence of an actual 8-year-old and be totally fine, all I have to do is stay up and TF2 Pyro these merchants and pirates that have no crossbows or scorpions to shoot me down.
Our glorious mode of operation is this: Uncle Daemon tells me that we have some ''pirates'' to raze and he knows exactly where they are right now, so he takes his fleet (doesn´t put his flag up, nothing says that we´re doing perfectly nice stuff like concealing your identity) I follow on Shrykos from extremely high up so the ''Pirates'' don´t see me and then rain hell on em.

No survivors allowed, I burn all the ships and then Uncle Daemon and his men make sure to clean up for any survivors or people that play dead and such. He is quite thorough and is willing to search for up to an hour to make sure no one escapes. Ruthless stuff. Afterwards, we go back to Driftmark and I get some feasts or other rewards/prizes. Cool.

Case and point, right now.
I am as high as the clouds on Shrykos, feeling the wind blowing right on my face and hair. Below, i can see some galleys, cogs and carracks. Around 20 more or less. The sails are painted with the symbols of the house Rosby. The house of eternal losers. Name a single Rosby who ever succeeded at anything, I dare you.
From up here i can see they´re carrying a lot of nice stuff, wines, clothes, food, and sweet gold! Would be a terrible shame if someone were to take it all...well burn it all in my case but the argument stands!

My uncle´s own ships are mostly longships built for speed instead of fighting. 30 in number. The ''fighting'' part is up to me, they´re here to chase down the survivors or just loot anything that manages to survive Shrykos´fire. So not a lot. They were split into two detachments, one under the command of Daemon Velaryon who would do the ''looting'' and another under Ser Jacaerys, the same asshole that trains me, who would do the...'' wet work'' after I execute order 66
Oh boy, here I go killing again. I order Shrykos to start heading down. Those poor, poor merchants see me now and feel quite terrified that a golden ass lizard is coming down from the sky.

Remember

No Russian

'DRACARYS !'' I say as loudly as possible much to my war criminal Dragon´s glee. The fire comes out of her mouth immediately, the first trading ship to go up in flames. I see charred corpses as the mast and prow practically melt from my Shrykos´flames. Crispy.

I can hear some desperate screams of horror and fear. They had a few people hired to protect/escort the ship...but they were here prepared to face reavers and corsairs, not dragonfire. at best 15 of them wielded some crossbows whose bolts had no chance of penetrating Shrykos´golden scales. They would also need to have some sort of MW2 lobby Intervention 360 no scope-level luck to hit her eyes or even me. I was flying at very high speeds on top of just being a kid with the small little body of a child, so yeah, they ain´t hitting me.
I moved to the next ship, and then the next burning and razing them one by one . I even unsheathed the little sword...dagger thingy that I was given as part of my riding stuff pointed it upwards and screamed ''FIRE AND BLOOD BITCHASSES !'' Technically these aren´t the Targaryen house words yet. We don´t even have a *banner* yet. Aegon made them both during the conquest in an attempt to integrate with the rest of Westeros. Aerion and the previous lords of Dragonstone still saw themselves as Essosi and ''above these Westerosi barbarians''. Visenya still has that mentality, Aegon does not, while Rhaenys just doesn´t give a shit about either and follows what her siblings do. I guess I agree with Aegon on this.

The Velaryon ships moved in now, so I held my fire. Hurting your friends is never nice. Shrykos seemed frustrated about it, she was giddy while performing her war crime spree, so stopping must have felt like some form of personal attack. I petted her a bit so she could calm down ''Don´t worry sweet girl, I´ll let you eat the corpses. How´s that sound ?'' She purred like a fucking house cat. The WMD purred like a CAT. ''There there....who´s a cute girl? You are! Yes, you are !'' I petted her some more. Dragons are cute when you´re the rider.
Daemon´s men jumped from their own vessels to whatever remained of the burning ships for loot. Most of the stuff was lost but a precious few commodities did manage to survive my wrath. I also saw Ser Jacaerys hacking down at some poor merchants who had jumped to the sea and attempted to swim away, a couple used parts of the ship that had broken off to hold themselves. They were the first to die as being out in the open made them easy to spot.
Watching the scene unfold comfortably from the back of Shrykos I realized something.
Man
I am a very bad person.
Don´t care though.
It is also worth pointing out that since there will be no survivors and since neither Daemon, his men nor I are going to talk about this, absolutely nobody will know what happened. So as far as everyone in the continent knows, everyone that crosses Daemon Velaryon just never makes it back, i guess he´ll get the Tywin Lannister reputation three centuries early.

Also, my dad won´t find out either. He´s not someone who pays a lot of attention to ''governing'' or ''rumors''. Although Mother might and Visenya definitely will with her whole ''I use sorcery to watch you'' thing. But you know, that´s not *MY* problem. That´s going to fall on Daemon Velaryon for taking his 8-year-old nephew to a war zone. If/when this blows up right on Uncle´s face, I will be there to laugh as the world burns!
I let Shrykos land in the water. Baths are good for Dragons and she wanted a snack on the bodies. Uncle´s ship went near me.
''Uncle !'' i said cheerfully ''Did i do good !?'' Daemon chuckled ''That will teach these Mer...Pirates to not sail on our waters nephew! I am pleased with your performance, i can promise you the cooks will prepare your favorite foods when we get back to Driftmark.''

He squinted his eyes a bit ''Though i am not pleased with your vocabulary, where did you learn that word ? Bitch i believe it was ?'' I genuinely wanted to deadpan at this dude. Mass murder is fine, but swearing is too much? ''Uhm...I heard it from some sailors uncle.''
He sighed ''I will have these fools hold their tongues when near you then...'' He looked at the burning ships wearily ''Does something trouble you uncle ?''
''Yes'' He replied with a tired tone ''Volantis has resumed their attempted conquests in Essos...They have attacked Tyrosh, Pentos intervened and Lys has rebelled. Essos drowns in blood.''
I am supposed to be a child so uhh...''I didn´t understand a single word uncle, why is that a problem ?"'
He sighed ''Volantene control of the Stepstones is weak now, there are important trade routes that pass from the summer sea and i had half a mind to seize one or two of the islands ...Bloodstone perhaps ?''
Oh.
I Don´t think you can hide *this* from my dad if you end up taking me along.

Fuck, I´m in.

''Uhm... I don´t know what you want Uncle, but if it involves fighting then i want it !''
He had a small smile on his face ''What a warrior my sweet nephew is! ...Yet there should still be Volantene outposts there, they will be armed with scorpions and ballistas. Unlike the ....pirates... you face here... I would not want to risk your life ...but I suppose it could be done... '' He waved dismissively ''Don´t worry yourself Daeron , just let me make the decisions alright?''
''Of course uncle !'' i said with a happy smile. Shrykos burped.''But i do hope you don´t restrain yourself for my sake! I am a big boy and Shrykos will always protect me...''

War is fun when you´re not the one getting hit.

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

My uncle took precisely a day of deliberation before deciding that war in the stepstones was the only way forward. Imperialism at its finest
Can´t blame him though. It is actually kind of sitting there, undefended. We are in the so-called ''century of blood'' , the 112 years that came after the doom of Valyria. Volantis considered itself the one true heir to Valyria and began aggressively expanding its borders. The other free cities said ''absolutely not'' to that and banded together to stop the Volantenes. Meanwhile, the Dothraki popped up from wherever the hell they were before and began their own aggressive expansion, destroying the kingdom of the Sarnori and settling in what became Vaes Dothrak.

These wars have a weird ''heat up'' and ''cool down'' stage. Where Volantis pushes, wins, and then pauses. During these ''cool down'' periods, they subdued the stepstones because of trading routes or something, I ain´t no merchant to understand these things in depth, my rudimentary comprehension is that, as the stepstones are in between the narrow sea and the summer sea. They are important trading outposts and also serve as pretty much a mandatory stop to anyone bringing commodities from that side of the world.
Right now the war in the east has heated up again, my uncle had told me that Volantis attacked Tyrosh, which led to Pentos jumping in because they felt threatened and Lys , who had been previously subjugated by the Volantenes, rebelled. But it was *so* much worse than that. Braavos joined the coalition against Volantis, the Dothraki, being the opportunists they are, have begun just attacking everyone at the same time and last I heard even the motherfucking Storm King Argillac (Yes *THAT* Argillac) was sailing to fight against Volantis. Who somehow managed to hold them all off at once. Militarily, the last news my uncle received was that the Volantene fleet was fighting the Bravoosi near Lys with so many dying that the sea was red with blood. Yikes.

This means that the garrisons in the stepstones are well...pretty empty, and considering the scale of this war, he doubts it´ll be over soon. Meaning that we can take some of the islands of the stepstones without any real intervention from Volantis proper. My dear uncle is a fucking crow. Even then he is a bit nervous because the Volantenes are actual gigachads that are simply fighting like the Doomguy, beating coalitions of 10 and 20 at once. Another thing he´s worried about is sweet sweet *me*. See, unlike the defenseless merchants that he had me cook alive, the Volantenes have scorpions and crossbows, know how to use them, and are *not* afraid of Dragons, so trying scare tactics won´t work.

Having me burn some merchants would probably vex my father if he found out, and having me fight in a war against a serious foe would probably infuriate him, but if I was killed because of my uncle well.... he would get to know how Balerion´s belly looks from the inside. Uncle Daemon is kinda counting on tremendous success and the fact he has kinship ties with Aerion to shield him from punishment when my dad inevitably finds out about this. That doesn´t seem like the ...wisest...choice but then again, my dad is chronically lazy when it comes to actually ruling. So if my uncle asks him for help in the stepstones he probably won´t receive it.

All this talk about war brought my mind to two things firstly, at just how *old* these westerosi kings are. Harren the black, Argillac Durrandon and the Yellow toad are all the same monarchs that Aegon will face some years in the future. The second thought is the conquest itself...i suppose Aegon will grant me lordship over one or two of the kingdoms, as long as it´s not the Iron Islands, the North or Dorne i am fine. Dorne is also something that plagues my sleep at night, i have the dreadful feeling that *I* am going to have to deal with Dorne... and that´s just no fun. Seriously Yellow Toad, I know you are absolutely insanely cool...but by the love of god just surrender. I am cooking up plans to deal with her. But there is one thing that has me curious.

Marriage. Think about it like this...i am kinda forced to marry Rhaenys, but what about Polygamy? will that be a satisfactory way of forming alliances? would it be a good idea ? and finally, would Rhaenys herself not murder me for it? The answer is probably it won´t work. But it *is* worth the shot I guess. *shrugs* Polygamy is significantly less disgusting than incest to me and I really am morally bankrupt considering i perform what is essentially a terrorist attack with my uncle on Blackwater Bay. There is also the slight issue of *the faith*. Having more than one wife before landing in Westeros isn´t exactly something the faith can do anything about...taking women to wife afterward is bad and cosplaying as Maegor ''the cool''. And I am not as cool as he was, (un)fortunately.

From the window of my chambers, I can see my uncle raising his warships, 47 in number. I don´t have Theon Greyjoy Syndrome and I know that warships have exactly one purpose: war. Sadly, the traders that come to Driftmark don´t have it either, so Uncle Daemon is keeping them here to stop them from babbling about it. Forcibly. How so very nice of him.

...
''That´s better'' Said Ser Jacaerys about my sword posture. ''You still need practice, but it is a start.'' I wiped the sweat off my brow. I am not really a talented swordsman if truth is to be told here, but i have *Dragon*. Cousin Aethan spends his time begging for me to give him a ride. I occasionally do so.''Thank you ser.'' I replied with a smile. I don´t really like this dude, ''Jacaerys'' is a mouthful of a name that just sounds wrong.
''Don´t go thinking because you have that shiny golden lizard you won´t need your sword arm anymore '' He said with a huff ''When assassins come after you , I´d like to see if your precious beast will save you. Don´t make it your crutch, boy. That said it is quite....useful for clearing up these pirates....'' He finished mockingly
''Of course, ser. If you say so'' I replied with utmost indifference. I am not Aegon or Visenya. Rhaenys and I have no interest in swinging swords about when we can fly and hit them from above.
''Nephew !'' Said my Uncle from behind me. I turned to look at him, he wore a fancy blue doublet. ''Sweet Nephew, how are you ?''
''I am well uncle " He got closer to me and ruffled my hair with affection. Despite using me like a child soldier he actually does care about his nephew , i am still his sister´s son.
''I hope you don´t mind if i fetch Daeron from his training Ser ?'' Jacaerys waved dismissively, not giving a single fuck about me. Ass.
''What is it you want from me , uncle ?''
''To talk with you a bit , boy.'' He said gently ''We will sail to the stepstones tomorrow when the sun rises. I just wanted to...tell you some...ground rules.'' He chuckled nervously.
''I will have some guards near you whenever you are not flying Shrykos. Do not stray from them , they are there to protect you from disgusting assassins who would attack you while you are not ready. Do not fly anywhere without warning me first and finally'' He held me a bit tightly and protectively. Awww ''Do not take any risks when fighting. AT ALL. Do not try and fly headfirst into scorpions , do not think that you are invincible simply because you are flying. If you cannot follow these rules , our whole campaign will have to be canceled. I cannot allow you to get killed, no matter what. Is that what you want ?''
''Of course, i don´t want that uncle !''
''Then follow my rules.''

Don´t tell me twice Uncle, i don´t want to follow my sister Rhaenys´ grindset with scorpions, neither hers nor Jace ''Velaryon´s'' I do not enjoy the idea of dying.
...
Just as he promised, at Sunrise the fleet began their sailing. I was high above flyin´ in the clouds!
It is quite fun to have a relaxing dragon ride before mass murder. The two best attributes of being a Targaryen.

This will be so much fun! I can imagine myself like Freeza cackling as Planet Vegeta is destroyed, MONKEY and NICE FIREWORKS HAHAHAAHHAHHAAHAHAHAH
Anyway, I think I need to sing something to myself until we actually get to the stepstones, i am high in the sky, ain´t no one but myself here, and no one can judge or listen to my music tastes!
*AHEM*
''Jump up loud for Flumpty´s jam...''

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

There´s a certain song called ''Into the Fire.'' It´s about the use of Napalm in Vietnam. And the more I think about it, the more Dragonfire just seems like a magical Napalm that comes out of living beasts that act as helicopters. I was always a big metal fan in my first life, not to be edgy or different or anything. I just like guitars.
Uncle Daemon was about to start a war with a surprise attack on a foreign power that had done absolutely nothing to offend us for no reason besides greed. That´s about as imperialistic as it gets. And I'm here for it, Rule Driftmark (Britannia).

We had set sail almost a turn of the moon ago. Our forces, around 5 to 7.000 soldiers, around a third of those were veterans from combat against Ironborn raiders , these men were commanded by Ser Jacaerys. The other two-thirds were the average peasant levy whose combat technique could be summed up with ''stick`em with the pointy end''. Admirably simple. Our fleet was 47 warships strong, thick vessels with iron Rams and an enormous mast , built for battles instead of the much smaller longships that were built for speed and raiding. My uncle commanded the pride of the fleet, a Ship named ''Sea Song''. We had intentionally sailed far from the coast in order to avoid being spotted, there was a certain risk in getting lost or scattered by storms. But my uncle was a wise sailor who could accurately pinpoint his location from the stars. Every once in a while i would also fly Shrykos and try to find some banner that could allow us to confirm that he was right. Uncle Daemon was always right.

We would make landfall on the largest of the islands, and the one used by the Volantenes as a form of ''capital'' for the province of the Stepstones. An island called Bloodstone. We did not have the manpower to individually conquer each island one by one, not even a dragon can hold land, but Uncle Daemon was a shrewd man. The stepstones are thinly populated and mostly used as trading outposts ... or pirate dens. The Volantines cracked down on piracy , Uncle Daemon figured that since the Volantene fleet was busy fighting far away in Lys and the Stepstones would be under our assaults, the pirates would seize the chance and return, attacking the Volantines in an attempt to reclaim their dens. From there, he would negotiate.

Daemon had no problem negotiating with the pirates if they were to prove reasonable ... yet these Volantine governors, seeing that the city of Volantis was unable to protect them, might consider submitting and putting themselves under his protection. Fair game I guess.
The weather had been absolutely splendid, fair winds and no storms. Maybe I should convert to the drowned god as a form of saying ''Thank you'' or i could also go full on Euron Greyjoy ''God is me'' and search out magical power and stuff... nah, maybe not.

When we were only a couple hours distance, Ser Jacaerys had the Fleet sail in a horizontal formation, to spread us out. The reasoning is simple, the more clustered our troops are, the easier it is for the enemy to shoot at us. He also ordered complete silence. No men were allowed to speak until we were already spotted, in order to preserve the element of surprise for as long as possible. We were attacking deep at night and for once my Dragon being a shining golden color was *not* ideal. But i will kill anyone who says a word about it , my dragon is beautiful and i will not tolerate slander.

We approached the coast now. Complete silence beside the sound of the waves and the soft noise of our muffled oars. The shore of Bloodstone was an ugly ill ill-made thing, rocky and salty with the sea having a weird gray color instead of being blue. We saw the enemy fortifications as well. A tall outer wall made of stone and an enormous watchtower made of the same material. Behind the walls was a small little town that had been raised . I could see some candlelights from far away.
I was about to light up a bigger candle, to say the least.
Alright.
Breathe in
Breathe out
It´s Murderin´ time.
I flew right at the sight of the guards of the walls , who rightfully shat their pants for a moment before recomposing themselves and sounding the horns. These Volantene soldiers were well-trained and well-armed. A third of them used bows, crossbows, and Scorpions so uhm...let me channel my inner Dbz abridged Piccolo and ''DODGE''.
''DRAGON! DRAGON! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK !'' Yelled a guardsman before lifting up his crossbow. That was the last thing the poor unlucky idiot ever did.
''DRACARYS !'' I yelled back, Shrykos set forth her golden flame and incinerated the guy until not even his bones remained. I´d say chicken dinner most of the time, but this is a bit too overcooked for my tastes.

Bolts and arrows flew at me. Most were so far off target i had to snort. But a precious few even managed to mess up my hair with their wind. That made me laugh a little less...for about 5 seconds.

''DRACARYS! DRACARYS! '' I yelled again with more excitement this time, the garrison threw and threw arrows and bolts and even some gigachad threw a rock at me that came absurdly close to smashing my forehead. But it was all for naught. There were many charred bodies that continued to burn even after the person was dead. Some very nice fireworks if I do say so myself.
Uncle Daemon´s plan worked like a charm. While the garrison was busy trying (and failing) to shoot me down from the sky, the land army was having their own little D-day-type thing. With the warships dragging themselves ashore using the momentum of the previous hours of sailing and rowing. The soldiers leaped out of the boats in one singular swift motion and ran in the direction of the walls. They carried ladders and grappling hooks. Some of the Volantenes realized this and began to fire at the troops...to which i responded with more dragonfire. I am a bit needy and in need of attention fellas, all eyes on me.

Especially these guys who picked out some pots with boiling oil, you guys especially *EYES ON ME*. I could have melted the iron gates, but that would actually have been pretty dumb. This is a surprise attack based on speed , melting the gates doesn´t make the iron go away, it just turns it into a disgusting metallic blob that falls on the ground and liquefies any moron who touches it. In a siege it would be fine, we would just wait for the thing to cool down. On a quick attack not so much

I flew up higher now and into the little town that was behind the walls. i did not even need to say the word as Shrykos began the burning on her own initiative. While the walls were made of stone, the houses and inns and little stores had roofs made of wood. And wood spreads my fires. In a little over ten minutes the whole thing was aflame , lighting up the sky and filling it with the smell of ash and smoke.

I couldn´t help but shed a tear with pride, my eyes glinted with satisfaction.

I am not deranged, unhinged, mad, or a pyromaniac. Why did you ask?

I kinda understand how Frieza feels now, to be honest. This honestly does kinda look sick and does fuel my ego as a powerful person.

I smiled at the sight of Uncle Daemon´s troops breaching the walls. The battle was won! Most of the Volantines were retreating into the stone tower. I´m gonna stop´em just give me a moment to stretch a bit, you guys have no idea how much it strains your back to sit on a dragon for 12 hours straight, nor how tiring it is.

SON OF A BITCH !!!!
I GOT HIT BY A FUCKING ARROW IN MY SHOULDER!
THIS SHIT FUCKING HURTS!

I looked down to see , WHO , just *WHO* had had the *nerve* , the *gall* the *audacity* to hurt ME! I saw the cretin looking at me with a bow in his hand. SMIRKING. SMIRKING RIGHT AT ME ! He was tan, he wore fine armor, he had expensive armor and helmet and he had the pin of a tiger. The commander most likely. I gritted my teeth and had Shrykos fire some flames at him , but the bastard was clever and managed to get away, scurrying off to somewhere I hadn´t seen.

Oh dear god I am getting dizzy... just uhm...give me a moment here to.., recompose myself...*pukes* ok...not getting better...i gripped my reins in fear of falling...i am uhm..losing a sizable amount of blood...The arrow went through my dragon riding armor as if it were butter and uhm...it´s gone pretty deep...shit...i uhm.. i did enough right? the battle is won and all that...i think i am peacing out and landing somewhere safe...Already had my fun anyway... And like previously stated war is fun. When you´re not the one getting hit.

...
No jokes. I am not in a good fucking mood.
That shitty arrow wound infected and I spent two days bedridden and sweating with a fever. The maester that Uncle Daemon brought tended to me day and night. The possibility of my death was not something that Velaryon wanted to even think about. Firstly because I do believe he likes keeping his head. Second, because i am his nephew.
''Nephew'' He came over to speak with me ''How are you feeling? Are you well''
''I am mostly well uncle'' I replied while still lazily lying down in a feather bed, covered by a fur blanket.''My shoulder feels a bit...stiff and sore. But i am assured it will heal.''
''Good'' He said , visibly relaxing ''That is very good.''
''May I ask you a question uncle ?''
''Of course'' he answered cheerfully ''I am indebted to you dear nephew. This victory was your doing, the men cheer their drinks with your name. A question is the least i can do for you.''
''The man who shot me.. he had a tiger pin , he was tan and he wore some expensive stuff...Have you anyone who matches that description ?'' i said with no effort to contain my hatred.
Daemon smirked ''That man is Commander Lysander. We have him in chains ... what is it you want with him?''
''I want him dead.'' i replied with vicious satisfaction. Yeah... i am not a very forgive-and-forget guy , even if the dude was absolutely 110 percent justified in shooting me.I *am* the aggressor here after all

Uncle Daemon shrugged ''You might just get your wish. The rest of the Garrison has holed up in that infernal stone tower. We could storm it...but we would take heavy casualties. I will starve it instead..but first, I will use their commander to try and get them to yield...if not, then he will die.''

''Oh , Shrykos and i would just *love* to see that.''
Uncle Daemon seemed worried ''Nephew...are you sure? killing a man from up close is not the same as with a dragon and...can you walk with your injury ?''
''I will make due'' I replied drily. Yeah, i am dropping the little kid act completely. I AM FUCKING LIVID.
...
The tower that the garrison had holed up was tall and made entirely of stone. Shrykos was not a small dragon, not even close to that. She is around the size of Meraxes, which automatically makes her bigger than essentially every dragon in the dance. But she is also not Balerion. So melting this tower as if it were Harrenhal simply isn´t an option. There is a singular wooden door that i could easily melt, hell, there´s no need to melt it, the soldiers can just kick it down. The problem comes in the fact that this tower has this circular stairway as the only way up. Something like that is *extremely* defensible. And dragons can´t exactly fit inside it.

Luckily, I can see that the tower does have a few ''openings'' that serve both as windows and as ways for air to come in, so I am not worried about how to deal with it, i already know what I´m gonna do. This tower is supposed to be where the garrison sleeps, so it´s full of weapons and food inside. Just great.
There would be a brief ''Parley'' where Uncle Daemon would basically say ''yield and live , resist and we kill your commander right here and right now.''

I stood right behind my uncle, surrounded by a great quantity of guards to protect me. I couldn´t move very well and had my shoulder bandaged. Shrykos was also here , nice. I love my dragon
Uncle brought Lysander in chains and gagged.
''Your fortress is taken !'' He yelled ''There is no sense in fighting for a lost cause. Surrendering is not shameful'' he added softly.
Nothing came from out the tower besides the voice of who was likely the second in command who took control of the rest of the garrison with Lysander´s capture.
''We fight for the true heir of Valyria! You are a coward Velaryon, you should have joined Volantis, not fought against it. You cowardly crow who only dared to strike when our backs were turned with that Golden beast !''
Daemon´s expression hardened ''There is no use in insulting me. The fortress is mine, this tower will soon be mine and the stepstones will follow suit. I have your commander.''
''You have him gagged because Lysander would tell us to keep fighting if he could! CRAVEN !''
''Is that your answer then ?'' Asked Daemon
Silence.
Uncle shrugged ''So be it. Execute the prisoner.''
''UNCLE , WAIT A SECOND'' I yelled ''Might i have a word ?.''
Daemon shrugged a second time. Uncaring.
''Dracarys.''
Lysander was burned to a crisp by Shrykos immediately. Daemon and the people around me jumped out the way in horror.

''Since i am a very devout follower of the seven'' i said through gritted teeth '' I will offer them this sacrifce...''
*chomp*
''A bite for the father.''
*chomp*
''A bite for the mother,''
*crunch, crunch*
''Two for the crone and the smith''
*crunch, crunch*
''Two more, one for the warrior and another for the maiden.''
Shrykos spat out Lysander´s leg
''And *that* is for the stranger.''
To say shock and horror were the reaction of the people near me, would be an understatement.
''Well...'' Uncle Daemon said sweating ''That is a better way of conveying a message than simply hanging...''
Alright, back to a happy fun time. My temper is calmed by getting revenge
...
Dealing with the people at the tower was actually easy work. And something I did after a week or so
I am still a child, technically. Uncle Daemon will not take my words about war strategy seriously, neither would Ser Jacaerys. But what i proposed myself to do was not hard either.
I am quite beloved at camp and it warms my heart. to see that. I just had to ask the soldiers to do me a couple of favors, they were all bored out of their minds and thought it was a nice idea. Besides I am kinda cute when I want to be.

I essentially asked them to fetch a good amount of wood,
I used a small part of it to board the door to the tower. Making it so the people inside could not escape.
The rest i put in a bunch of piles all around the tower and then had Shrykos set them aflame. The smoke went to the skies and right into those little openings of the tower and... yeah.

Choke on *that*.
When it comes to war , i do *NOT* pull punches.

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

''You say he had them *suffocate* to death ?'' My uncle asked Ser Jacaerys with a flabbergasted look. When He was met with a nod he said ''What is wrong with this child ?''

Hold on

This whole operation was your idea, to begin with!

''Wrong ?'' Asked Jacaerys ''I´d say what´s right? The lad handed us over the tower without losing a single man. He´s deserving a treat or whatever it is that you give to children.''

Uncle Daemon shook his head ''I don´t deny that what he did was most useful...'' My uncle said carefully ''What is concerning is that my 8-year-old nephew had in him enough cunning and active malice to board the doors of a tower and choke the soldiers inside, It´s one thing to just sit atop a Dragon and say Dracarys but this ....This, Whe...Where did he even get that idea ?!''

I activated my trap card. Being a little kid. That means I can look kind of cute whenever it suits me, and escape both complicated questions alongside any form of accountability. Who doesn´t like avoiding accountability? I know all the politicians love it.

''Is something wrong with me ?"' I asked teary-eyed. My uncle´s expression changed from confusion to concern, he ruffled my hair and put a hand on my cheek affectionately ''No no, of course not sweet boy... there is nothing wrong with you...I misspoke, apologies my boy...but you must admit that your behavior is quite...eccentric...it is unusual for children your age to have this type of...thought...''

Sorry to break it to you uncle, but my brain doesn´t exactly think. It has a rational part that tells me things like ''Targcest is necessary to keep the dragons in the family'', ''Risking your life at 8 years old with no discernible reward is stupid'' or the classic ''What you are doing is morally reprehensible''

but there´s another part that just says ''Haha, Fire go brrrr''

You know which part always wins in the end.

''I got it from some soldiers at camp nuncle.''

''That makes more sense'' I heard him mutter. It is still pretty absurd if you think about it. But try telling Daemon Velaryon that his 8-year-old nephew is some 17-year-old shmuck named Mike that died by tripping down some stairs. Truth is always crazier than fiction as they say.

In fact, if you ponder about it long enough, being an SI is just following the Drowned god´s creed. You die, but not really, then you come back as a powerful person in Westeros, so harder and stronger. That also boosts my self-confidence, i am literally living a second life, i have died and come back. In other words...

IM FUCKING INVINCIBLE

''My lord'' Said Ser Jacaerys Waters in a dry tone ''Can we discuss the important matters now? That Lyseni pirate you wished to barter with, Lysandro Saan, he is to arrive in a fortnight''

''Yes'' My uncle said ''We shall. Go along dear nephew.''

I did leave, a little miffed. I like talking about pirates. They´re cool when they´re not robbing *me* or my family.

It´s also very important at the moment, my uncle´s attack on the Volantene outposts has made these fuckers appear from every nook and cranny they could have possibly been hiding in. There are like 16 pirate kings that call themselves kings of the stepstones and the narrow seas. This Lysandro Saan is one of them and my uncle is hoping to speak and *hopefully* make some form of compact with him. The fact that the guy is named Saan and Lyseni is an indication he´s related to that pirate that Davos brings over to help Stannis in the war of the five kings. Cool, I suppose.

Being a little kid means I don´t get to listen to the strategy meetings or anything cool and important like that, no, Uncle Daemon just tells me who I need to burn. To be fair, that is all i want to hear anyway. But I do get to listen to the soldiers gossiping, and what they have to say about this Lysandro is not exactly encouraging. Apparently, this motherfucker speaks about himself in the third person, like... what?

Sadly, my little shoulder is so sore that I can´t fly. Utterly tragic. How am i supposed to live without that sick smell of smoke and ash? completely impossible, Targ blood gives you an unhealthy necessity for war crime Olympics. And i don´t like losing, ever. I am also a bit disappointed with my skills in burning this city to the ground. Plenty of buildings escaped my wrath, including the one Uncle Daemon has taken as his headquarters of sorts. This manse of some fat slaver that I somehow missed when I was lighting this place up.

At least I got a nice bed and a comfy room. That´s always good. Especially because, since I can´t fly for a bit because of that despicable arrow wound, I have to enter hibernation and sleep like 13 hours a day. There´s just nothing good here in the Stepstones man, calling this place a rock wouldn´t even be an insult, it is just genuinely a big fucking rock that happens to be in a strategic place. There´s no agriculture here, there´s nothing to mine, there are no commodities or anything of the sort. Just rocks, pirates and some small coastal towns that are filled to the brim with Brothels and STDs. Like, what is an 8-year-old to do here besides ride his WMD?
Is this how the Iron islands are like? Because I can understand the Ironborn sucking so hard if they have to live in this type of garbage. I´d want to make people miserable alongside me as well.

War-wise, there is some news. While my uncle has not moved an inch out of Bloodstone these past weeks because of the fact he´s down a dragon rider, the pirates have as previously mentioned, but even the Dornish want in on the fun. Literally, everyone in reach is just gangbanging the stepstones. I´m sure this will be a problem and I do *not* want to be on the bad side of Meria Martell the Yellow Toad. She´s a genuine baddass and just said ''no'' to Balerion and Vhagar with an added ''Fuck you'' to Rhaenys and Meraxes. Hopefully, she won´t do that to my sister on this timeline. I would hate to see Rhaenys dead.

Speaking of Rhaenys , i am quite curious about her reaction to my little war crime operation here in the Stepstones. My other siblings are a bit more...predictable, while my parents will probably explode with anger, though not at me, but at Uncle Daemon. Can´t say i feel bad for the guy , he did just kinda start a war for no reason besides wanting to and greed. In fact, as much as i like the people around here, i won´t exactly feel bad if they bite it. Everyone around this camp is awful, except the poor peasants that just happened to get dragged here because of feudalism. They deserve sympathy. Everyone else, me included, ? FUCK NO AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH

So to recap this absolute insanity of a conflict, We have : The Velaryons who attacked the Volantene controlled Stepstones. Dorne who decided to join in too , the pirate kings who have been making a mess of things, Volantis in the east is fighting Tyrosh ,Lys , Pentos and Braavos , while the Dothraki are also just attacking everyone they can at the same time
In other words
Your average EU4 coalition when Aggressive expansion get´s too high

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

I changed my mind. Pirate Kings are *not* cool.

My uncle had tried to make any form of agreement with the Volantenes that remained here in the Stepstones. It probably would have been smart of them to have done it, considering that these islands are getting the Tysha treatment from everyone around and that Volantis proper is fighting half of Essos. But they didn´t, unfortunately. So my dearest Uncle decided to try his luck with the many, *many*, Pirate Kings that popped up. Only one of them had enough grey matter to consider it, a Lyseni freak named Lysandro Saan. Daemon Velaryon''plan'' is pretty much to hand control of the Stepstones to this guy and in exchange he´d give a bunch of trade concessions and not attack Velaryon ships and blah blah blah, I DO NOT COUNT COPPERS!

You might ask yourself, why not just *take* the Islands? Well, because of the fact they´re completely worthless outside of the fact they´re in a convenient spot for commerce, and they are hard to hold for long periods of time. If this random pirate is willing to do the hard and costly job of holding them, while also giving access to the trade money that Daemon actually wanted, why not just give it to him? Installing friendly regimes in places is hardly a new practice. I mean, if you need a regime change, just tell the USA there´s oil in your territory, and that you´re not willing to sell it. You will be democratically liberated in a heartbeat.

So this pirate guy, he has 60 hips in his pirate fleet. That is not as big as it might seem, since these ships are mostly stolen cogs, carracks, and some Longships, much smaller than my uncle´s Warships. But it is still a ridiculous amount for a pirate, he could probably rival the fleet of some small Essosi city-states with these numbers. Yikes.

So, I naturally built up an image of this guy. I didn´t expect much, but man, I was disappointed. Though at least the rumors that this dude spoke in the third person were false, he is just very prideful. I swear to god if he started each sentence with his own name instead of saying ''I'', he´d get to know Shrykos from the inside because I am not tolerating that level of cringe near me.

He and his pirate fleet landed here in Bloodstone today. The pirates that crewed his ships came from all corners of the world, though most seemed either summer islander or Lyseni, I could spot a few Ghiscari, an Ironborn or two, and even a guy from Ibben. Pretty cool to be honest. It reminds me that Planetos is genuinely immense, not just Westeros, the free cities, and Slaver´s Bay as the main book series would have you believe.
My uncle, Ser Jacaerys, and I were watching these pirates slowly disembark. The fact i am included in the official greeting is quite hilarious, to be honest. Any sane person would not allow a child near a slave-trading pirate. Because, oh yeah, he´s an Essosi pirate. Of course, he dabbles in the slave trade. Fucking degenerate.
But that is the one thing I can give to my Uncle Daemon. He is completely anti-Slavery and has set all the slaves that the Volantenes kept here free. He has not forced them to labor for him afterward, though most choose to do so, and they all get paid for their work. So yeah, my uncle has done one good thing with his invasion. One of his conditions to MR Lysandro here is no more slave trading. That´s genuinely a good deed, Nice Job Daemon Velaryon, you could have sucked harder as a person.

Said freed slaves looked at the pirate fleet with hatred, they´d probably been brought here in the first place by ships like these and i do think that is a reasonable justification for grudge-holding. Very reasonable

When Saan finally did come out of the ship, my disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined. He wore a turban and some fine Essosi clothes, my guy looked more like a merchant than a pirate. He was slim, tan and old-looking. Not really muscled, he was also the smiley type. What did not disappoint me was the fact this dude had an actual pipe for smoking. It´s a rarity here in Planetos, only the summer islanders seem to have it for some reason. Still, when I imagine pirates, I´d imagine someone like Euron, Victarion, or maybe even Dalton Red Kraken. Not...this guy... this guy is Captain Crack Sparrow without the charm.
It took him exactly 5 minutes of walking to finally get near us and actually begin speaking. ''Lord Velaryon.''
''Saan.'' My uncle replied drily. The pirate pointed at the pipe he had ''You should try this Lord Velaryon , i cam guarantee it will make you feel things you never even imagined were possible.''
''I appreciate the offer, however, I would prefer if we could cut the pleasantries.''
The pirate laughed ''You Westerosi are always in such a hurry. Well , he who hurries through life hurries to his grave...'' He turned to look at little *me* ''And you little boy, who would you be ?''
''Daeron, of the House Targaryen. Rider of the Dragon Shrykos.'' I tried to sound intimidating because well...i didn´t want this guy near me but, alas, an 8-year-old cannot sound very scary now, can he?
The pirate chuckled a bit ''So many titles for a boy so small.'' He smoked the pipe a bit ''Would *you* like some of this ?''
Wait a minute...
this smell...
I know what it is...
This motherfucker´s a Stoner.
What has my life become? Being turned into an SI for a character that isn´t even supposed to exist was weird, being a war crime enthusiast with a fantasy B-52 Bomber was even weirder, but now I am a child soldier getting offered weed by a fucking Pirate king.
Can we get much higher?

''No,'' I replied as curtly as possible. My mother might have raised a freak, but not a Stoner. Lysandro Saan put his hand on my shoulder ''Are you sure boy? I promise it´s wonderful.''
''Do not touch my nephew'' Uncle Daemon hissed. Thank you, uncle, thank you so much. Lysandro Saan thankfully backed off. ''Don´t worry for your nephew near Lysandro Saan. I can promise you that he will not be sold to the Brothels in Lys , Slavery will no longer have a place in the Stepstones under the rule of Lysandro Saan.'' The guy squinted his eyes and muttered ''Though he would have fetched a good price...''
JESUS CHRIST.

''Let us speak in my Solar.'' My uncle said sweating ''I will be sure to provide you with accomodations.''
Ser Jacaerys stepped forward ''Follow me and I will take you to them'' He said drily. The pirate king shrugged and followed after him.
''Uncle.''
''Nephew.''
''He touched me in the shoulder.''
''Yes.''
''I need a bath.''
''Yes.''

...
My shoulder is finally good enough for riding, and Uncle Daemon alongside Captain Cannabis have finally decided to attack another of the Stepstone islands, so I get to use some more fantasy napalm on (mostly) Helpless soldiers. Noice. Shrykos is already making giddy dragon noises and i haven´t even gotten started.
The island we are about to attack is called ''Torturers deep.'' Which brings up a levy of questions, the most important of these being ''What the fuck happened here for a place to be named after torturers? I am quite...concerned to be honest, maybe a proto-Ramsay Bolton lived here? Or Valyrian blood experiment shenanigans ? Either way , knowing GRRM, it is probably something extremely disturbing that somehow involves copious amounts of violence, Rape and Incest all at once. Because that´s just how his writing works when you think about it hard enough.

This island could be a slightly tougher nut to crack. It´s full of rocky hills , caves, and narrow passageways for guerrilla fighting as the Crabfeeder did to Daemon. But the troops here are, thankfully, commanded by a Moron named Nyessos Vhassar. Coming from one of those long noble lineages, this guy got all their pride, but none of their wit. That´s on top of just generally being a 19-year-old trying to kickstart a political career by being a glory hound.
Case and point: Instead of taking all the supplies and abandoning the keep, this dude decided to stay holed up there. Well, that´s not entirely true, he also sent some soldiers to ''Ambush'' Uncle Daemon´s army by hitting them from above.
Normally, this would be a great idea, It´s much easier for his troops to hit ours from above than ours to hit his from below. And there aren´t really many other safe paths here in Torturer´s deep that can´t be exploited like this.
Unfortunately for him, these are not normal circumstances. I have a Dragon. I can fly and hit his extremely exposed troops who really should have known better and just mutinied.
Whelp.

War crime blast

Shrykos Lit them up real quick, at this point I feel that I have just gotten used to the smell of burned bodies, but that does not mean i have gotten tired of it. the smell does genuinely remind me of Barbeque, and I want MOAR.
I am perfectly stable.

Our march through the island and to the castle only took two days, we suffered some small night raids, but the Pirates of Lysandro Saan were ready for it. Probably because Pirates should know how raiding works and are expecting it, I cannot complain about it, worked like a fucking charm!
Most of the Volantene raiders were killed in the fighting or the chase that came afterward, a very smell amount was captured...and subsequently used as target practice by the Pirates of Lysandro Saan after being tied up. The pirates must have had some form of Aim bot , because they rarely missed and they always aimed at the dick.
Oof. Not the dick, that´s a low move bro, literally.
...
''Holy moly, that´s a lot of scorpions''
Those were my first thoughts when I saw the Volantene Stronghold. Our Army had encamped at the top of a hill at the distance of about a 20 minute horse ride from it. Uncle Daemon gave us all Myrish lenses to look at the thing from far away. Except for me, I had to share with Captain Crack.
It had 4 tall stone walls, on top of those walls were well, a shit ton of scorpions.

I can see that Uncle Daemon is feeling a bit nervous at the prospect at throwing me at this thing because well...Dragons are quite tough, but uhm, hit the Wing membranes or the eyes and they´ll die. But then again , the strengh of Dragons is so inconsistent i don´t even know if Shrykos would be bothered by it at all. Caraxes was able to completely ignore Scorpion Bolts, but Vermax was killed by arrows. Syrax got axed by a peasant? I know that they are differently-sized
Dragons, but I find it absurd that an adult Dragon like Syrax could get killed by a fucking Axe.

Either way, I don´t care. By putting all these scorpions there this man is just challenging me. Challenging *me*. Well, here´s a tip: When you come at the champ, expect to lose. There is no way I will allow that type of provocation to without an answer, instead of running away in fear or feeling despair like a student at the last minute of a test, I will instead approach him. Because I ain´t no bitch and i don´t take shit unless I am forced to.

''That will be tough to assault my lord.'' Said Ser Jacaerys ''The walls are thick and Strong, we should repeat what we did at Bloodstone , let them keep their eyes on the Lad´s dragon while we climb the walls.''
My uncle sighed ''Could we not start a siege ?'' Lysandro Saan laughed .''There is no need for a siege, or for an assault friends....why, we will simply have them open the gates for us.''

My uncle looked confused and Jacaerys unamused ''Explain'' The knight asked ''Explain now.''
''The Volantenes must have hundreds of Slaves in that little castle. And we will...generously...abolish Slavery here in the Stepstones will we not? Perhaps if some brave soul were to go and say such things to the Slaves, promise them freedom and revenge against their masters...why, I am sure that they would love nothing more then to open these gates and let us in.''
''Aye'' Jacaerys conceded ''But we can hardly get inside the castle can we ?''
Lysandro Saan smoked his fucking weed with a smug expression before replying. What the fuck is my life? ''Perhaps not you Westerosi. Oh, your kind is so loud and blustering...but many of my crew were once Smugglers and Thieves in the Free Cities before, there are no walls that can keep them out whenever gold is involved...and besides, if it fails, so what? We lose 5 or so men and the enemy gains nothing.''
My uncle thought about it for a bit...''I give you leave. Do as you see fit.''

...
To say it worked would be an understatement. Lysandro Saan had some men get inside the Slave quarters and break the chains of a few , the Slaves whose chains had been broken would then go on and break the bindings for his pals and yeah...in half an hour the Garrison had suffered forms of Violence i didn´t even know were possible, i saw some shit that´s gonna haunt my mind forever. There was a guard with his balls cut off and stuffed inside his mouth. EWWWWW
But that´s not what matters. No, it´s not.
What matters is what happened when we captured the Garrison commander , that 19 year old glory hound.

Oh the Slaves wanted him torn apart but my uncle wanted him alive. His family was important in Volantis and well...hostages are good.
When he was brought to us in chains i saw that he had a sheated sword with the pommel in the shape of a tiger. At first i was just annoyed , i don´t find Tigers particularly interesting or cool. And the fact all the Volantenes use it as a symbol because of the dominance of the militaristic Tiger party in their politics.
But then i noticed a little detail : It was Valyrian Steel.

I was a huge DBZ fan in my first life , which means i watched the abridged Version , so my mind was screaming like Vegeta :
MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE
So i yoinked it.

Uncle Daemon was breathless when he saw it and tried to commit his own form of theft. He used a bajillion arguments, ranging from ''You are my ward and thus you cannot claim these things without my permission'', ''House Targaryen already has two Valyrian Steel swords, House Velaryon has none. Do you dear uncle a favor and let him keep it'' and finally ''I AM BEGGING ON MY KNEES GIVE IT TO ME''

Lysandro Saan as well tried to convince me to give it back , promising me ''a dose of the good stuff'' if i just handed him over the sword.
I said no.

When they grew insistent , Shrykos shut them up.
It´s actually kinda useless for me to have it , i am a mediocre swordsman at best and don´t plan on getting much better anytime soon. But a Valyrian Steel sword iss just something too cool to pass up . I´ll have to obviously have someone melt it down and reforge it with all Dragon-themed stuff because fuck tigers, and then give it a new name!
Man, i do suck with names. I´ll think of something later.

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

Fun fact: I am a moron.
I found out that sword pommels and grips can, in fact, be removed. That melting down Valyrian steel requires a certain level of skill that no one in these shitty Syphilis-infested islands has, and that walking around with a big sharp stick on my waist is actually kinda fun.
Asking for help tampering with the sword had been a ...hassle. It is quite awkward to ask for these types of things when you are 8 years old. And having the smith explain to your face, with the kindest words possible of course, that you possess the intelligence of Balon Greyjoy is soul-crushing. My brain is so smooth it is aerodynamic.
So I just had him put this dragon head on the pommel. That and a big red ruby. You might ask me ''How did you even find a ruby'' The answer is: I paid the Iron Price for it (Theft).
I struggled with the name for a brief amount of time. Cheekiness like just naming it ''Excalibur'' because I was a King Arthur main in Smite, or ''Goldfyre'' to Kinda copy Blackfyre being named after Balerion´s color since Shrykos is golden. Other possible namings popped up, like ''Bacon.''... Don´t judge me. You gotta treat your sword like you treat a car, call it by things you like. And i like that Bacon in the morning.....*Salivates*

In the end, I named it Dragonclaw. You can ask yourself ''Why ?'' But then the answer is very simple.

It was revealed to me in a dream.

I did some slashes with the sword here and there. Although Dragonclaw is a *big* Valyrian Steel sword, and I am a *small* little child, Valyrian Steel is extremely light and i can wield it without difficulty... Unfortunately, I got bored quickly. Look, there´s not a lot to do with the sword for now except hack at trees with it, and that´s not a lot of fun now is it? Despite what anime will tell you, simply ''Training yourself YOLO'' isn´t a thing really. You need actual proper guidance and directioning, otherwise, all you´re doing is just internalizing all the mistakes and shitty habits you have, and putting them into muscle memory. Normally the asshole Ser Jacaerys would train me , but we are in the middle of a *war* and he´s got better things to do.
So i mostly just walk around with this big sharp stick on my hip to make myself look cool. You can judge me, but let´s be real, you would do the same in my position. Who wouldn´t? Swords are a part of the medieval drip kit. That and the Capes. I do like some capes, makes me think I´m Batman or Thor. I don´t actually want to associate myself with the freak who dresses himself as a bat and has a hard-on for women in tight leather suits while simultaneously profiting off Child labor. I am already associated to my Uncle who covers the Child labor part, thank you very much.

Speaking of Daemon Velaryon, he has holed himself up in ''his'' Solar. (That is actually someone else´s and he just waltzed in and took it) and made the oppressive decision of Summoning me right when I wanted a little Nap. I am a child and require 13 hours of sleep to ensure I have enough energy to fuck shit up when i am awake. By limiting my sleeping time, he is limiting my destructive potential.
ABSOLUTELY UNNACEPTABLE!

...
Daemon Velaryon was sitting in his solar wearing a blue doublet with the Velaryon seahorse on it. The fact that the Velaryons have a banner but not my house is honestly a sign of just how detached from the world we Targaryens can be.
''Nephew'' He said cheerfully ''I am so pleased to see you.''
''Hello nuncle'' I replied a bit worried. Uncle Daemon is only ever happy or cheerful when he gets his way , generally by fucking over someone else. Hopefully it´s not me that´s getting fucked over.
''Here'' He gave a little cup of wine ''Sip.''
Well chief, if you give me alcohol i am *not* complaining. ''Thank you Nuncle, could I know why you gave me that ?''
He smiled and patted my head ''It is in celebration Daeron.''
''Celebration of what ?''
''Our victory.'' He took the cup from my hand after i finished drinking it ''The Volantenes have managed to subjugate Lys once more, yet their fleet was destroyed in the fighting. Volantis will not have influence in the Stepstones for the foreseeable future. Some Dornishmen will come to discuss terms with me about the islands they have occupied...I am sure we can come to a satisfactory agreement. Lysandro Saan will have to make some concessions for them I am sure, yet what matters here is that my control over the trade between the narrow and sunset sea will be secured. And all of this was thanks to you, sweet boy. The fighting would have been an uncertain and bloody affair were it not for your Dragon. And for that I must thank you

Daeron. I am very proud of you nephew. But this is just the beginning, there are more ... interventions i would like to perform, in places like the Summer Islands. I am sure you would not object to assisting me ?''

I can literally see his eyes turning into Dollar signs as if he were a cartoon character. My uncle is as greedy as 19th-century industrialists. JESUS CHRIST HE´S FUCKING SALIVATING AT THE IDEA OF GETTING MORE COIN.

To be fair, I don´t really have much of a problem with it. War crimes and all that can be very entertaining, especially because it´s all just gonna blow up *spectacularly* in Daemon´s face.
''I would Nuncle , but what was that you mentioned about Dornishmen ?''

I remember getting told that Dornish had also joined in on the Gangbang here in the Stepstones after my uncle seized bloodstone, them, and the Pirate Kings. But I was hoping that it wouldn´t be a problem *I* would have to deal with. For one simple reason :

I hate Dornishmen.

Daerons that get involved with Dorne have a coinflip success ratio. I can either go into Dorne and walk out with Martelussy like Daeron the Good, or i can get Young Dragon`ed. My personality does not really fit Daeron the Good´s, so I expect to get Young Dragon`ed. Daeron I was my favorite Targ King back when i read the Lore. I am Dornephobic.
Worst, this is Dorne in it´s most ''Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken'' moment of its history. Under the Yellow toad. She has grade A badassery despite being fat , old and Blind. With adamantium Plot armor that allows her people to simply ignore the mass burnings of their territories and the Starvation that would likely have come from it. Seriously GRRM, how does the Dornish resistance even make sense?

I also don´t want to get near Wyl Widowlover. FUCK THAT GUY.

''They will be coming here to discuss terms with me and Lysandro Saan.'' He said dismissively ''I will even have a feast thrown in their honor and to celebrate peace...'' He ruffled my hair a bit ''Listen here Nephew, a question for you. Why did i attack the Volantenes, yet negotiate with Dorne? Call it a lesson for you;''
The true answer is: Because you are an opportunistic crow. But that won´t exactly give me any points with Uncle Daemon will it?
Do i care ?
no.
''Because you hit Volantis from behind , while Dorne is ready ?'' I said trying to sound uncertain. But my uncle chuckled with satisfaction. ''Yes sweet boy, that is exactly why. Do not listen to those who will teach you to fight fair or to be chivalrous. Honor your agreements, of course. but when it comes to politics, hit your enemies first, hard and fast.''
''If you say so Nuncle.'' He narrowed his eyes now ''Say Daeron , you have not consumed...whatever it is that Lysandro Saan is handing to our men have you ?''
''No.'' I replied drily.
''Good , whatever it is , the Soldier´s wits are impaired afterwards and they seem...dependant. I do not like it.''
Oh you sweet summer child, That´s only weed, just wait until Lysandro Saan brings out the cocaine.

...
The boring peace feast was in full swing.

Man. I don´t really like this. The food sucks and there´s barely any music besides the drunken singing of Lysandro Saan´s pirates.
My uncle, Captain Drugs, and the Dornish, whom I did my absolute best to avoid in order to continue living , came to some boring agreement that probably involved haggling like Fisherwives but ended with the Dornish gaining some permanent Outposts here in the Stepstones , but recognizing Mr Saan as king of these worthless lands.
Good for him.

Speaking of my least-liked pirate. He´s sitting right beside me. Why you might ask ? Because i decided that the best way to avoid Dornish people , is to be near someone who´s a freak even for their lax standards. My uncle however was seated beside the Dornish represantive , who was a smoking hot woman. Don´t look Daeron , Don´t be seduced by that Dornussy, you are way too young anyway...

''Ah,'' the Pirate said ''You will have to leave soon and thus wish to bask in the glorious presence of Lysandro Saan ?'' He laughed ''That was a wise decision, boy.''
''If you say so.''
''If you say so , *your grace* '' He added teasingly ''I am King Lysandro Saan now... The only downside is the lack of Slavery. BAH , your uncle and his Westerosi Sensibilities. If only he knew the coin he was missing'' Saan shook his head ''Oh well , Lysandro Saan is a man of his word.''
He smirked and pulled out his pipe and a bag that smelled ...oh boy.
''It might be years until you see me again , child...Just accept this gift from your King , Lysandro Saan.''

You know what ? Sure. Why not. How bad can it really be ?

I won´t smoke it. I´ll keep the pipe until the day we find coffee , and i will use the drugs as a way to cause mental deficiencies in people i don´t like by making them chemical dependants.

Perfectly reasonable.

No , I am not lying to myself about not being a stoner

I left the hall afterward for ...reasons.

Say , i don´t think this place is supposed to be this shadowy this early at the afternoo-oh that´s Balerion.

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

Do you know what the best part of being a little kid is? People blame the adults in charge of you for your misdeeds. Allowing said child to avoid accountability. And everyone knows just how nice it is to avoid accountability, especially medieval warlords, modern-day politicians, and corporate businessmen. Well, these people and the teacher´s pet. I really did not like the teacher´s pet back in my first life. I was a gigachad who refused to do homework and only studied the day before the exams. It worked out pretty well, I consistently got grades around the A score, before promptly forgetting everything I learned the very next day. Remember kids, School isn´t here to teach you anything besides how to cynically abuse the system to your own benefit. Nice.
I am very thankful for that little perk of being a child as I look at Balerion landing with my Dad atop him.

Balerion is massive. George must have been smoking some of Lysandro Saan´s special drugs when he thought of this monstrosity. There is simply no way a creature the size of Balerion can exist without immediately collapsing in on himself because of his massive weight. This lizard should *not* be flying and magic is a bullshit excuse for Grrm not understanding how numbers work. Meraxes, Vhagar, and Shrykos are all big dragons, but they look downright *puny* when compared to the Black Dread.

My uncle Daemon had left the hall when he heard Balerion´s roar and I can see the sweat coming off this guy´s face as if he were a League of Legends player. The Dornish were there too I guess...The pirates were the smartest people and opted to stay inside, drinking. That is genuinely the best move for them once you think about it hard enough.

My dad dismounted Balerion and oh boy he´s mad. Aerion is tall with broad shoulders and he does have a good amount of muscle that he passed on to Orys and Aegon. He wore plate armor and iron gauntlets. Blackfyre was on his hip and *man* that sword does look very cool. It's a shame it´s not that useful besides looking cool and prestige stuff, I mean, we fight on the Dragons and only rarely go on 1v1 sword fights. But still, that´s just Dragons being OP, not the sword being bad.
''My lord'' Uncle Daemon said with a nervous chuckle ''I am pleased to see you here, to celebrate our glorious victory in the stepstones !''

Aerion walked towards my uncle and punched him in the jaw making Daemon fall like a fucking ragdoll. I have to admit I might have done a discreet chuckle at the sight. Come on now, you can´t expect me actually to feel bad for this guy right? He totally brought it on himself, what exactly was he expecting to happen when my dad found out that his 8-year-old child was being sent to a war zone? Daemon is the kid with the cookie jar, he wanted it so much he didn´t ask himself if he should have.

''Snake'' My father hissed''I entrusted my son to you! You were meant to guide him, to protect him, not to...whatever this is meant to be !'' Aerion kicked Daemon right in the ribs while the guy was down. ''My lord I can expla-'' Dad hit him again, this time right in the face to shut him up. Afterward, Aerion picked him up by the doublet, slapped him twice, and punched Daemon in the jaw again and I´m quite sure I saw some teeth flying.
Get rekt.

''There is no justification. What you did bordered on *Treason!*'' My father made sure to spit on Daemon who was not exactly having a good time at this point. ''You are *lucky* to be my Wife´s brother. *Lucky* to be the uncle to my children, and *Lucky* that i will not have you fed to Balerion. How dare you put the life of my son in danger, how DARE you ?''
My father turned his gaze to me now and spoke in a much softer tone ''Daeron. My sweet son, have you been hurt ?''
Uncle Daemon turned to look at me with a pleading expression.
So I have a choice here.
I could just lie and protect my uncle.
Or
I could tell the truth and see him get his ass handed to him a bit more. Trolling in order words.
...

He´s an asshole who deserves it anyway.
Peace was never an option.
''My shoulder was hit by an Arrow father.''
Aerion beat the shit out of poor Daemon until someone had to casually remind him that my uncle would die if he continued the pummeling. At which point Aerion let my uncle *gently* fall on the ground again before being dragged to a maester. My father then looked at the Dornish , who seemed more amused than shocked at this point, with a tired expression. ''Whatever deal my unruly goodbrother arranged with you will be honored. He had no authority to make it in the first place, but now the milk has been spilled.''

The dornish merely nodded in acknowledgment.

My dad gave me a tight hug. Aww, how cute. He then ruffled my hair. ''Is Shrykos sufficiently well rested for a journey to Dragonstone? I want you out of this place as soon as possible''
''Yes Father, but...how long have you been riding for? Do you and Balerion not need rest'' My father shook his head ''I will make due, child.''
Well...this is awkward... I do think it´s pretty safe to say I won´t have to be fostered with Uncle Daemon anymore. Can´t exactly say I´ll miss him. He was kind of an opportunistic cunt. I only liked the war crimes he gave me leave to perform.

...
Traveling is much faster when you don´t need to wait for ships is what I learned. It had taken a whole month or ''turn of moon'' as the folk around here say, for me and the Velaryon fleet to go from Driftmark to the Stepstones. Doing the exact same journey but with Balerion is taking like 12 hours. Dragons are far too good at everything in the world of ice and fire. From traveling to warfare to emotional therapy in the form of violence, there is nothing that Shrykos can´t help me with. It also put into perspective that it´s been six months since my nameday. Time flies when you are attacking merchant ships and warmongering in foreign territories.

''You will be staying with us in Dragonstone for the foreseeable future, Daeron.'' My father said from the back of Balerion ''Until I find someone else, more trustworthy, to foster you.'' It is a tradition for second and third sons to be fostered. My only hope is that wherever I get sent to, I can take Shrykos with me. Because flying is easily the best thing to do in this world...okay, second best. You guys know what number one is...

''Oh, I almost forgot, child. We will visit Oldtown as you ask a moon from now.'' He said it cheerfully ''Your mother and brother are very eager for it. Visenya and I...not as much. But I will do anything for you and your siblings.''

Oh, right. I had asked for that. Kinda forgot about it in the middle of all the burning and stealing.

''Thank you father.'' I replied.

We had an awkward silence for a bit until my dad spoke again.

''So...you found a Valyrian steel sword ?''
''Yes, father. I named it Dragonclaw.''
He chuckled ''We should find a fourth sword for our house, Rhaenys cannot be allowed to be the only one of my children without one.''

''She does not even like swords father, the only thing she wants is Meraxes.'' Not entirely true, Canon Rhaenys wielded Aegon´s sword Whitefyre many times over if what the maesters wrote is an indicator. That also reminds me again that i will likely have to sleep with her. *Gross*. I might be a psychopath who killed for the fun of it and stole family heirlooms because i wanted to and could, but I do have the sliver of decency to recognize that incest is wrong. Do I care ?...that is actually a real question. Hopefully, the answer is that I *do* care. Being a degenerate isn´t anything to be proud of. Professionals have *standards*

My father groaned with annoyance ''Don´t I know it? She has been caught attempting to repeat your stunt with Shrykos three times now.''
Points for persistence I suppose. The girl really wants a dragon. Shame she simply does not have my level of skill to claim one. I am HIM. ''Son.'' My father said a bit teary-eyed ''I am so sorry for not noticing what your uncle was doing, war is a glorious and honorable business for members of our house but...but you are still a child. You must have felt so much fear....''

''I liked it, Father.''

''What ?!'' He asked me with confusion
Dragonstone was in sight now. Seeing it from above makes it look much better than the gloomy and dreary Dracula castle that it is from below. Not because it looks more cheerful or anything, no, but because if I am seeing it from above, then *i* am the Dark lord here, and the aesthetic fits perfectly for that.
Man. I am tired as fuck, so is Shrykos. I do not understand how my father and Balerion are still standing. I am going to take a piss and then nap. I am a little child. That is what I do, alongside chaos and destruction.

The Dragonkeepers were down below, just waiting for us to land so they could tend to our dragons. I also saw Aegon, Rhaenys, and my mother. Visenya is not there, thank god... I have a feeling this will only make things worse for some reason. I sense a disturbance in the force.

Now, I might be tired as fuck and physically falling apart. But I still made sure to perform a barrel roll before landing. I am simply built different. The literal instant Shrykos landed and i put my feet on the ground, and my mother hugged me.

I get hugged a lot don´t I? That´s good. I like hugs.

''Son....'' She said patting my back ''You are safe now, your mother is here, do not worry.'' She started inspecting literally every inch of my body in a very embarrassing display for me. Once she saw that i was whole , Valaena sighed with relief and then hugged me again, a bit tighter this time, and then looked at Aerion ''Have you dealt with my brother ?'' She said the word Brother with so much venom i almost felt bad for Daemon.

Almost.

''I put that worm in his place.'' My father replied with anger. ''Good.'' My mother said viciously.
''Brother !'' Rhaenys said getting closer to me ''Father told us about what Uncle Daemon was doing with you ! That was awful of him! How could he put you in so much danger!.''
I narrowed my eyes a bit. Annoyed. ''I was not in danger, Rhaenys. I *was* the Danger. A guy goes off to fight and comes back burned and you think of me? No. I am the one who Dracarys´.''
Rhaenys looked at me dumbfounded ''Brother? A..are you well ?''
''I am perfectly right in the head sister,'' I replied as cheerfully as i could.
''I..If you say so...'' She said
''Daeron.''

''Aegon.''
Aegon stared at me for a bit with his typical poker face. He´s annoying like that. Eventually, he pointed at Dragonclaw. ''How did you get this ?'' I shrugged. My mother was still holding me and playing with my hair. She was so relieved at having me back i doubt that she was even listening to whatever it was her children were saying. ''I took it from some Volantene.'' Aegon frowned ''You stole a family heirloom? '' ''Do you care ?'' There was a brief pause until Aegon replied ''No. But I am happy for you, Visenya has Dark Sister. I will have Blackfyre and you have...'' He trailed off ''Dragonclaw. I named it Dragonclaw.'' Aegon waved dismissively ''Yes, Dragonclaw. We should find something of Valyrian Steel for Orys and Rhaenys. Our siblings deserve only the best.'' Valaena did not like the positive mention to Orys. But Aegon simply does not care , he is very my way or the highway. As him subjugating an entire continent and being genocidal in Dorne shows.

''How was war ?'' He asked with curiosity.
''Fun,''
Rhaenys and my mother looked horrified. Aegon looked even more curious now ''Fun? I have heard many descriptions of fighting, but never fun. What was fun about it? Why? War has always struck me as more of something to be done to further some goal instead of for any form of enjoyment.'' Aegon. You are 13 now since you have had your nameday during the time i was out doing war crimes. STOP BEING PRAGMATIC AT AGE 13.
''Well Aegon, it was fun because i got to fly around on Shrykos and burn things. You have no idea how fun it is to burn things !''
Aegon looked at me as if I were deranged. *ME*. ''Brother, can you tell me about the...important parts of fighting.''
''Important parts ?"' I thought for a bit ''Well , burning down that city , suffocating those idiots at that tower, and feeding that other moron to Shrykos were definitely the best parts of it.''
''YOU DID WHAT ?'' My mother turned me around and looked me in the eyes ''Sweet child, why would you feed someone to your dragon ? Choke them alive ? Oh, my sweet Daeron, think of your reputation for the future !''

''Mother'' Aegon said. ''They were his enemies. Everything goes if it solves the problem the easiest way possible. Although...feeding someone to a Dragon seems...like an excessive and unneeded act of cruelty to me...''
Fuck you Aegon. Don´t remember asking for your opinion on feeding people to Shrykos.

''Are you two listening to yourselves speak ?'' Rhaenys said horrified ''You two are talking about killing people ! It sounds awful. Daeron , how could you do these things and act like it´s nothing ?'' Oh the hypocrisy. Tell that to the Planky town Rhaenys.
Aegon and I stared back at Rhaenys. ''Sister'' Aegon said ''At least to me , war can be good if it is done with a purpose.'' My mother looked at him with some frustration ''Listen to your sister Aegon , Rhaenys is right. If you go to war and die , can you imagine what that would do to your mother ?'' She kissed Rhaenys in the cheek ''You are the only one showing sense Sweet Daughter of mine.''

I spoke as smugly as possible. ''Of the three of you , which one has fought in a war ?'' They stayed quiet. ''Exactly. Only me , therefore , you should all take my word for it. I have more *experience* in the subject.''

Aegon shrugged '' You have not answered my question Daeron. When i asked you about the important parts of war. I meant to ask ''What was our Uncle´s goal with it ?'' , ''How did he plan his invasion'' , ''How did he feed the soldiers.'' Things like that''

I sighed and spent like half an hour explaining this crap to him.
It was not very fun , but he listened to it intently and i am sure he took mental notes.
Weirdo.

...
I was in my room. Nearing sleep.

I heard the noise of my door´s Iron hinge scream as it opened the door. My first thoughts were ''Fuck, Euron Greyjoy has come to ''teach me how to pray'' as he would say it. But when i opened my eyes I saw Visenya Grinning. Uh, this is awkward as fuck. She had her hair braided and was wearing the stuff that boys use on the training yard. I saw Dark sister on her hip

''Sister...'' I said lazily.

''Daeron'' She said getting closer ''I am so very proud of you!''

Wait what?

'' Vise-''

'' I saw almost everything, dear brother my magic still has ...limits...'' She wiped a tear from her eye ''And i could not have been more impressed. Truly , you proved yourself a warrior blood of Old Valyria. I remember laughing when you burned down the fort in Bloodstone. I was even more pleased when you fed the dog that had the audacity to hurt you to Shrykos. These Volantenes have some nerve to call themselves heirs to Valyria when we are right here ... but you showed them that they were wrong. They made their absurd claims and your dragon was enough to prove them completely wrong! You slaughtered them like Sheep !.''

She laughed happily ''And you claimed a Valyrian Steel sword! Oh, Daeron you simply could not have done any better! You can meet me at the yard tomorrow and i will teach you how to use it. Valyrian Steel is quite different from other types of weapons ....''
She saw the anxious look on my face ''Don´t worry dear brother. It won´t hurt *too* much.''
Visenya then turned around and left my room.
....
Let me just go back to sleep...actually...i have some of Lysandro Saan´s special ..thingies...do i use them ?....no. Best not to.

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

You know what I don´t like?
Losing.
You know what I'm doing right now
Losing.
''Try harder little brother'' Visenya said harshly with Dark Sister in her hand. The fact that she thinks it is appropriate to train with Valyrian Steel is insane. Losing on the insanity scale only to the fact she´s doing it with her 8-year-old Brother. ''I do not care that it hurts. You must keep working through the pain.''
I made my cutest kid face possible. ''B..but sister! You are 6 years older and better with a sword! It´s not fair'' She narrowed her eyes. ''Meaningless. You will only improve with a blade if you fight someone with superior skill. Pain is a necessary part of the process, every time you get hurt your body will then heal stronger. Embrace it Daeron! You do not have to enjoy getting hurt, I certainly don´t, but you have to withstand it. When I am wed to Aegon and rule Dragonstone alongside him, I will need every sword arm i can get.''

I sighed ''Must we do it with Valyrian Steel? I fear losing a finger...'' Getting the Urrigon Greyjoy treatment is not what I want. In general, I do not want to be a Greyjoy in any capacity ( Except maybe Dalton) but especially not the one that is known only for being abused by Euron and then dying an awful horrific death. Visenya narrowed her eyes.''Yes, we must do it with Valyrian Steel. You will not be maimed if you fight properly so...''

''Try harder'' I finished for her. ''Can I at least ask you a question before you put me in the ground for the third time in just these 15 minutes ?''
''Yes.'' I Took a deep breath. ''If you were watching me fight in the stepstones, why did you not tell father immediately?'' Visenya scoffed. As if my question was somehow absurd. ''You know that i love our father more than anyone, but he is also too soft sometimes. If i had warned him, you would not have gained much experience as a warrior would you ?''
...ok.

''Thank you, sister. I enjoyed every second of it!'' She smiled at me with an expression full of pride ''That is the mentality I want from you, now, apply it to sword training.''
Fuck.
I raised Dragonclaw, doing my best to enter Ultra instinct as if i were an anime character. I felt the calmness surge within me, I was attuned with the blade. I felt the wind at my back and had the typical smirk of an anime protagonist. I performed my Jojo pose. ''Muda ,muda, Sister, any attack you use against me is useless, useless useless.''

She did not look impressed.

Visenya took three steps forward. I might have been in Jojo pose mode, but there was simply no chance that any attack of hers would get through my Stan- I mean my defenses. She did not even raise Dark Sister...what is her plan? Is this a trap?

Visenya kicked me in the balls.

''What is that posture, you idiot? This is serious training, not a performance for mummers.'' She shook her head in frustration.

I was on the ground, crying hot tears of pain while clutching my future little dragons as a defense mechanism. ''G..Go to the seven hells Visenya ! ARGH IT HURTS SO MUUUCHHHHHH''

Visenya smiled smugly at me now ''There are no seven hells Daeron, only 14 flames. Remember that brother, it is part of our heritage and of our blood, things that make us superior to those Essosi and Westerosi Barbarians.''

Just forget the Slavery, blood magic fuckery, and general degeneracy of the freehold Visenya. Just forget that.

She sighed ''You are not in any condition to keep training...I will let you take the rest of the day for rest. But we will resume tomorrow. And no more mummery or...whatever that was.''
Oh yeah, we will continue this tomorrow you little *shit*. I don´t take crap lying down, I am not submissive and I sure as shit ain´t no SIMP. When someone hits me, I hit back. Hard. But alas, Visenya is simply stronger than me for now...So I will have to search for *backup*...after i am done crying about my balls of course.

...
''Hello Brother !'' I said. ''Oh, Daeron.'' Orys replied.
Orys was at a dragonstone inn. Arm wrestling and drinking alcohol at the same time. All the while a woman of...suspicious virtue , let's leave it at that , was caressing him. In other words, Orys was having the time of his life. ''Just wait a moment little brother.'' He drank a massive cup of Ale in like 4 seconds and then smashed the hand of the other guy who was arm-wrestling him. Orys laughed and looked smug ''Ya wankers owe me 30 gold dragons now.'' The drunks at the inn whined but deposited the coin right at Orys´s greedy hands. He sniffed ''So, Daeron. How are you? I heard you fought in a war ?''
''About that...Orys would you mind if we spoke somewhere else ?....'' Orys realized that *perhaps* a child should not be in this den of degeneracy and quickly took me outside.''Thank you

Orys.'' He patted my back ''It was nothing, little brother...So, about the war ?''

''My uncle Daemon took me to the Stepstones had me burn some things. The only bad part was when someone hit me with an Arrow.''

Orys´eyes darkened and he put his hand on my shoulder a bit protectively ''Who? Who hurt you Daeron ? If this man is still alive i will chase him down even if it means going through the seven hells and ripping him out from whichever one he has hidden in so I can avenge you. No one can hurt my brother and get away with it , do you understand Daeron ? If *anyone* lays a hand on you, I will kill them.''

Well...that was an outburst. ''I had him fed to Shrykos.'' Orys seemed satisfied. This dude is big into revenge.

''Good.'' He replied drily.''So , Orys...would you mind helping me with something ?'' He nodded ''Anything for you Daeron.''

''Could you...teach me how to fight? Like you help Ser Quenton teach Aegon ?'' Orys frowned ''I can help you with the basics of it , but you are still too young for anything too advanced.'' I sighed ''Orys, it´s because I...uhm....*acquired* a Valyrian Steel sword there in the Stepstones and Visenya is ...well obsessed with making me ''worthy'' of it as she says , so she keeps beating me to a pulp! I am tired of losing !''

''Valyrian steel ?'' Orys said with bewilderment but i snapped him out of it

''THAT IS BESIDE THE POINT !''

He shrugged ''Well, I can certainly help you then, Visenya should not be using Valyrian steel near a child, that is *absurd*.''

Orys took me to the training yard and fetched two wooden swords.The reasoning for not using live steel, beyond just the danger of it, is that you can´t practice as well with it. Think of it like this, if I use a shitty wooden sword, i can fight as hard as i want to without fear of killing someone, if I use live steel , the training has to be more careful.

That does not mean that getting whacked by wood doesn´t hurt.

''There is only so much i can teach you in a day.'' Orys said while putting the sword in my hand ''But i can give you the most important part of it all : Footwork.''
I frowned ''That´s boring.''

''Yes. But proper footwork is what allows you to move quickly dear brother, that and not stepping on your toes , not being clumsy...half of fighting with swords boils down to footwork and stance. Now, do exactly as i am doing.''

It was a very boring afternoon, but a very useful one! Orys left after an hour or so and told me to keep repeating what he´d shown me. Fair game bro.

When i was about to leave the yard i saw the setting sun and, man. It is beautiful, even in this place that looks like Skeletor´s castle. Orys ruffled my hair with affection and told me that i did good. Now , i am not good enough to defeat Visenya in a *Fair* fight , which i why i will use a little something i´ve cooked up here in my head. To be fair , it is not some great showing of brilliance , but Visenya is only 14 , she´s gonna fall for it like a fish in a net.

''Daeron.'' I hear an anxious voice from far away say. I turned around and oh.
''Aegon.'' He was fidgeting a bit and sweating with a nervous smile. He is rarely nervous. This is jarring. Aegon came closer and i could feel a trap coming. I can sense the disturbance in the natural order of the elements approaching me and if there is one thing that i am good at, it´s avoiding consequences / problems before they can catch up to me. ''So'' He said

Awkwardly , trying to force himself to small talk.''How was your ...training.''
''Aegon. Get to the point , you do not need to exchange courtesies with me.''
''Oh thank you Daeron'' He replied with genuine gratitude ''I just...need someone to speak with....Visenya flowered last month and father wants me to wed her very soon and maybe you could...''

Ha

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
''No.''
''Please brother, I promise I will make it up to you later when I am lord.''
''No.''
''I AM BEGGING DAERON! Can you imagine how awful it will be for me ?! Senya and I will fight over everything !''
''*NO*''
He smiled sheepishly ''Well uhm...S...sorry for bothering you with this...''
''I am sure You and Visenya will be a great couple brother! Don´t worry about it.''
Fun fact: I am not pulling the pin on that grenade. Reasoning? I am not a submissive person and do not enjoy fighting for control/Getting dominated. Sorry not sorry, I have my type.

...
''So Daeron'' Visenya said with her arms crossed. Dark Sister on her hip and a serious expression on her face. ''Are you ready for your training today? you *better* be.'' I laughed cockily ''Oh yes I am. Don´t worry about me.'' She frowned ''Where has all this confidence come from? Not that I am complaining about it of course, it is good to be confident. But just...are you not afraid of fighting me ?''
''Nah. I´d win.''

Visenya doesn´t even know what nah means considering it´s modern slang. But she hyperfocused on that second part and saw it as a form of personal attack. She smirked and raised Dark Sister ''I told you that confidence was a good thing Daeron, not delusion.''

I lazily unsheathed Dragonclaw, doing my best to maximize my swagness, even managing to sneak in a wink and a smile. Visenya did not like my attitude and charged with Dark sister in hand.

Oh yeah , it´s all coming together.

I raised Dragonclaw and had it reflect the sunlight straight into her eyes , afterwards, i used my god-tier footwork to get near her before she recovered from the temporary blindness and hit her in the jaw with Dragonclaw´s hilt. I am not exactly the strongest guy around considering i am 8 years old. But well , it was enough to put her down on the ground for a second. Probably because she was also confused and blinded.

''What´s wrong Senya ? I thought you were going to beat me ? Or was that all just pride speaking ?'' Visenya got up slowly and with a proud smile in her face ''That was well done Daeron ! Unfortunately...'' She grinned almost like a fucking predator now ''It was not enough.''
''Huh...so it seems i will have to try another trick on you Senya. My most special skill !''

She shrugged ''You will not catch me by surprise like that again.''

I smirked.

My secret technique , passed down after centuries of traditions and studies.
NIGERUNDAYO ( Running away)

''Wa..Wait DAERON WHAT ARE YOU DOING ?! COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!''

I did not come back.

She tried chasing me.

She failed.
I
put her ass on the ground and got away with it. That´s a W. Throughout heaven and Earth, I alone am the honored one. Deal with it Visenya.

...
I was in Rhaenys´room, alongside Rhaenys herself and my mother. You might ask yourself, doing what? Drinking tea. The ladies here do that. I do not care in the slightest that it´s girly or for the social connotations of it. I am only here for the tea. Call me a Brit, but i fooking love tea Mate. In fact, while they are prattling and gossiping about things that I do not care about, I am vibing with my drink here good sir. Even hyperactive menaces such as myself require chill every once in a while.
''I am so happy that your father has agreed to have us visit Oldtown'' My mother said before sipping some tea ''You will see so many wonders in the reach! So many lords and ladies, maybe even King Mern himself! And the Hightower !''
Rhaenys giggled with delight ''Oh Mother I can´t wait! Do you think there will be tourneys there? I´ve never seen a tourney before, father never holds one here.''

My mother chuckled ''Oh Rhaenys, I am sure you will see a tourney. They are very common things on those lands...and who knows'' My mother winked and smirked ''Maybe you will find some knight in shining armor to wed, like in the stories you like to hear so much.''

Rhaenys frowned ''But father says I am to marry Daeron. I can´t have two husbands at the same time can I ?'' Valaena kissed Rhaenys on the cheek and laughed ''No sweetling , you cannot have two husbands at the same time. But if you fall in love with some gallant knight from the reach, your father would surely allow you two to marry.'' Rhaenys crossed her arms in a petty manner ''No dragonless man will ever be worthy of me. So only Aegon and Daeron can have me when I get big !''

''Incest is wrong sister,'' I said drily before sipping my tea. Valaena looked at me as if i were an angel coming down from the heavens themselves. She gave me a tight hug ''YES! Listen to your brother Rhaenys, listen to him! Oh my sweet boy '' She kissed my cheek.

Rhaenys narrowed her eyes ''Are you saying you don´t want me, brother.''
'
'Yes.'' I replied just as drily as before, sipping my tea again.''You are my sister and i love you, but I am sure you can find someone else to marry, or you could just go unwed.'' I shrugged.

''LET´S NOT GO TOO FAR'' Valaena said in shock ''Of course your sister has to marry!''. Rhaenys looked devastated. ''W..what do you mean you do not want me? did I do something wrong?'' I sighed. ''No. You did nothing wrong.'' Oh great she´s crying.
''Sweet Daughter , don´t cry.'' Valaena said while holding her tightly ''Your brother did not mean to degrade you , you are the loveliest little lady and my pride and joy.''
Rhaenys kept sobbing. Oh well, thin skin is her problem. *sip*.

Tea makes me a bit desensitized for some reason. ''Oh Rhaenys, just stay here, i will have some servants fetch you something to clean those tears in your face and your dress.''
The instant Valaena left the room , Rhaenys changed from crying to smirking. ''Little brother.'' She said in a tone that did not have even the slightest tinge of sadness, only self-satisfaction.
Oh great, she learned how to fake crying. I was just staring at her deadpan.

''Listen here Daeron, I did all that just to get Mother out of this room so I could tell you some things.''

''I refuse to marry a dragonless man, so it is either you or Aegon. And Aegon already will have Visenya. I will make due with you. Second, I feel very offended that you would reject me.'' She pouted and crossed her arms ''I have been nothing but kind to you. I understand that Mother speaks to us about incest while Father and Senya spout out the exact opposite drivel , but i also know you have no issues breaking every other form of rule or restraint, so that is no excuse! I want my children to ride Dragons, and if I don´t marry you or Aegon , who knows if they will be able to !''

''Ok.'' I said while sipping from my tea again.
''Are you even listening to me ?!'' She said frustrated.
''Yes. You have been saying a lot of things about Dragonless men while having no dragons yourself.''

Her smirk turned downright devilish ''Yes. And that is why you will help me sneak out and claim Meraxes, do you understand? I don´t know how you managed to do it to claim Shrykos , but
I have tried three times now and i am always caught! It´s not fair that you get to do it and not me, I am tired of waiting !''
''Sure,'' I said sipping some tea.

She blinked ''You don´t need to be convinced ?''

''No.''

How bad can it be anyway? In and out , a 20 minute adventure.

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

Mission Start.

Operative: Daeron Targaryen.

Affiliation: Task Force 141. Former SAS.

Equipment: Pipe and small bag of drugs.(Good stuff. Immediate effects.) Two ponies. (Codenames Smiley and Kovalski) Whip, Natural charm. (Low effectiveness tool)
Psychological Evaluation: Mediocre intelligence. Unpredictable and erratic, Unreliable. Consequence denier and Accountability avoider. Chaotic and violent with a streak of pettiness. Anti-Incest.

Mission debrief: Your sister Rhaenys (Codename Baby Dragon) desires to claim her own dragon. Meraxes.(Codename Mama Dragon.) For that to happen you (Condor I) must successfully smuggle Rhaenys out of her room and neutralize the guards that have been posted nearby due to her multiple failed attempts at slipping out. You and Rhaenys cannot be detected, under pain of failure.

Mission success consequences: Happy sister. This is of some importance to Operative and he would like to see it happen.

Mission failure consequences: Scolding. Sad Rhaenys.

(Queue Looming Dread from Resident Evil 2) Deploying Operative in mission Area (Region below Rhaenys´window.) *Smokes for dramatic effect*

Bravo six. Going Dark.


Operative walks in slow and silent steps. Baby Dragon has been informed of the plan and despite the lack of illumination in her room she is awake. Condor I moving in.
Guards are spotted below the window, protecting the garden that Baby Dragon´s room has a view. They are extra vigilant due to Baby Dragon´s previous half-hearted attempts at escape. They come in the number of two.Wear chainmail and wield spears and large round shields. Condor I moving in to neutralize them.

''Hi !'' Condor, I waved happily and used his body as a child to lower the psychological defenses of guards. Guards appear shocked at the Operative´s presence in the mission area. Proceed with recklessness. ''Lord Daeron...'' one of them says cautiously ''My lord should be sleeping at this time. He is not allowed to wander this late at
night.''

Use: Charisma. Operative´s charisma stat is a solid 7 out of 10. ''I know'' Condor I giggles ''I came here to give you all a gift! You guys just work so *hard* losing so much sleep every day and no one values you all properly ! Just so unfair...mayhaps some day i will teach you about the ideas of this old man with a beard called Marx, as long as you all promise not to overthrow *me*.'' Condor I shakes his head ''I am going on a tangent here , what i wish to share is this '' Condor I pulls out a pipe and drugs and smirks ''Great gift....''

Guard seems interested but confused ''My lord... i am thankful for your gesture but...what exactly *is* that ?'' Condor I grinned from ear to ear ''A one-way ticket to heaven.''

Guard number one smokes before passing it over to guard number two. In no time at all they are in another reality, completely incapacitated. Lysandro Saan´s drugs are of much higher potency than what Operative initially thought.

Operative approaches the window of Baby Dragon. ''Baby Dragon. Condor I to Baby Dragon.'' VIP answers the call ''Daeron!'' she says cheerfully, giggling.''Just wait a second and i will be down there! Also, what are those things you´re saying ?*giggling*'' Condor I is not pleased by Baby Dragon´s lack of urgency.
Baby Dragon used her blankets as a form of ''rope'' to climb down from the window. She smiled happily at the operative, who remained stoic. ''Follow me.'' Condor I put his fingers up as if they were a pistol and walked Baby Dragon through the garden. ''Uhm..brother, what have you done to the guards ?'' Asked Baby Dragon with a confused tone ''They are having sweet dreams, Baby Dragon.'' VIP Frowned ''Daeron, why are you calling me that ?'' The operative continued moving forward, checking for potential threats with his hand pistol. ''It is your codename.''

''What ?'' Baby Dragon asked with even more confusion. Operative began to put mud over his body , to conceal his temperature from potential predator drones. Operative also began to crawl around. ''Get down.'' Operative hissed.

''Daeron ?! What is wrong with you ?!'' Baby Dragon said ''Wh...what is that big red thing you are using on your forehead ?!''

''Everything.'' Condor I replies with an angry bitter tone. ''I haven´t been the same since Nam, those dirty money-grubbing politicians send me out to hell. I saw my friends falling apart, their guts spilling out despite their best efforts to keep it in. I ate cockroaches to survive and other things that would make a mountain goat puke. I see the Vietcongs in my dreams Baby Dragon. And there I kill them every night.''

''Daeron.'' Baby Dragon says. Get out of that mud. Stop crawling and please stop acting like this, You are making me scared for your sake!'' Condor I sighs at Baby Dragon´s naivety and lack of operational tact and experience. Yet her psychological well-being is necessary in order to successfully claim a dragon. Condor I gets up from the mud and takes Baby Dragon´s hand. Baby Dragon complains about getting dirty but is otherwise silent.

Condor I successfully takes them to the ponies. He mounts Smiley, Baby Dragon mounts Kovalski. ''Good.'' Operative mutters to himself ''Baby Dragon is extracted. Now , we must secure Mama Dragon.''
Baby Dragon rolls her eyes.
...
Dragons are creatures that create nests and lairs in caves , and sleep in those nests at night. Finding which one Meraxes was located in had been child´s play, neutralizing the Dragonkeepers had also been easy. Lysandro Saan´s drugs had them in a whole nother world in a question of minutes.

Baby Dragon entered the cave with the greatest smile of delight that the Operative has ever seen. She hugged him. '' Thank you Daeron! Thank you so much for helping me with this! Oh, we will love flying together !'' Baby Dragon´s expression turned mischievous and a smirk was plastered on her lips ''Now, let me deal with Meraxes...'' Condor I remained impassive and stoic.

Mama Dragon was a large dragon similar in size to Shrykos. Gender assumed female , though data on this topic is inconclusive. She has silver scales that shine in the moonlight. An animal of some beauty, though Operative will insist that Shrykos is more beautiful with the golden color.

Baby Dragon approached confidently , feeling no fear of the dragon, a whip in her hand. The dragon made her displeasure known by smashing the ground with the tail , but Baby Dragon laughed ''Oh are you angry Meraxes? Don´t be, I will make it all better for you if you give me the chance !''
Mama Dragon looked at VIP with suspicion. The small feeble human dropped the whip and raised her hands up as a sign of surrender ''See ? There is no hurt coming with me , none at all...just stay calm.''

The big Lizard harrumphed and growled but otherwise remained immobile and calm. Baby Dragon touched the animal´s nose and ''booped'' it. Laughing with delight at the now embarrassed creature. She touched Mama Dragon gently once more.''Now Meraxes, all i want with you is to fly. Don´t you want that too? We would be in the skies all the time, you would be with your dragon kin as I would be with my own kin. It will be nice, just trust me!''
After this, Mama Dragon remained completely still for some time before lowering her back so Baby Dragon could climb, The VIP had some tears of joy on her face and shook with delight, laughing.
Mission successful.
Operative Rank : S

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

''I am in Arkham Asylum'', for most people that would be a disaster. The difference is that I am not like most people, this might be a madhouse, but I´m the Joker.
Okay, I might have exaggerated things a bit. I am actually in Baby Drag-I mean *Rhaenys´* Room. When my dad found out that another one of his children had somehow sneaked past the guards and claimed a dragon, he had slumped in the big throne that sat in Dragonstone Hall and gave out a Hitler downfall speech about how guards in his castle can´t keep track of an 11-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother. Valaena had also been concerned. But Rhaenys had been completely unrepentant , she didn´t even try emotional manipulation like i did when i claimed Shrykos. Nope, she said she wanted a dragon and now that she had one everything had been worth it. That had left my father *quite* wroth with her, and me by extension. So he´s essentially put the both of us into confinement for a week.

Well Aerion, locking me in a room isn´t that much of a punishment. I mostly sit here, drinking tea and reading some books. Rhaenys on the other hand is psychologically collapsing. She keeps running from one side of the room to the other like a rat in a cage. Extroverts when they can´t spend all their time outside moment. Oh well , at least she´s doing better than Aegon. When I saw him in the hall while Aerion scolded Rhaenys and me, he looked like he was dead inside. Visenya just looked at us with disapproval and frustration, she probably was furious over her own failure in being Big Brother as described by George Orwell. Cry me a river.

Oh well, two weeks from now i can go to Oldtown. Probably one of the less shitty places in Westeros. All I can hope for is that i don´t accidentally trigger the dance a hundred years early by meddling with the Hightowers. But then again, the Dance only happened because Aemond was a psychopath and murdered Lucerys, Viserys was an idiot who didn´t just name Aegon heir upon his birth (Saving so much trouble for all involved), Or at least properly secure Rhaenyra´s position (Not hard at *all*), Daemon was a chaotic freak (Do love him for it, except Blood and cheese.), Otto a snake, saying that Aegon was not the sharpest tool in the shed wouldn´t be correct either, he was a blunt object. Really, only the Lads, Ormund, Jace, and Daeron showed competence in the Dance. Well, maybe Cregan Stark too if you consider waiting until the last moment to actually do something smart, or Dalton Red Kraken for the great intelligence of 1-not attacking before the negotiation phase (Take notes Balon) and 2-being good at being a monster.

So it actually is unlikely I will start the Dance early. Which is good. Though I will admit to having been team green in life. You could ask yourself why. But the answer is simple. I just like Sunfyre and the Aegon banner. That´s it. Rights of succession and birth can kiss my ass, get Sunfyred, Rhaenyra. Literally, nothing else in Team Green is cool for me. It really is just Goatfyre, but I don´t need more than that. That is why I am very grateful that Shrykos is golden, it means she is related to the GOAT.

Staying so long in one chill place has made me think about Westeros. More specifically, if Aegon is to give me a Kingdom to rule over in his name, which one would i want?

The Stormlands can be cool, a bunch of testosterone-fueled madmen with more brawls than brains could be a fun crowd to hand around...but then i would be taking something from Orys, and he´s a homie. Homies don´t hurt homies.

The North is a no because Torrhen Stark is a little bitch who will surrender without a fight, so I can´t have his kingdom. Coward. FIGHT ME!!!

Dorne: No. I do not want to get poisoned.

The Vale is also not something i want to deal with, fuck the Eyrie, what type of bitch castle is that? The architecture does not even make sense ?!!


Westerlands: Would be down, it would mean I have successfully eliminated the Lannisters from this world, a very good thing, that will preemptively wipe Tywin off the face of the earth and would also give me *money* , a cozy castle and relative stability and internal cohesion when compared to the other regions of Westeros.

The Reach is boring. I don´t like the Tyrells, Gardners, Redwynes, or High(Targ)Towers at all. I also hate fruits and veggies and that´s all the reach has to offer. It´s also full of double-faced plotters and schemers, liars, and religious fanatics who believe in the weakest religion of Planetos. On the other hand, since the reach is the wealthies region of Westeros, setting it on fire could be fun...though i doubt that´s what Aegon would like. But then again, do I care about what he likes or not? Probably a bit, though not too much.

The Iron Islands ?... On one hand, I was a fan of the Greyjoys in my first life, they were awful, but they were entertaining with the best outlook in life in my opinion. ''Yes, the path that we are currently going down is not effective for the continued growth of our society, also we just gonna do what we wanna do man''. Admirably chaotic, stubborn and single-minded. As far as characters went down, Victarion´s stupidity was heartwarming, Theon´s arc was heart-wrenching, Euron and Aeron were quite interesting to me , and the psychopathy of Dalton Greyjoy was something i thought made for great entertainment when i read it the first time. But there is a massive downside in ruling the Iron Islands, *LIVING THERE*. That is an overwhelmingly negative point. Unless Aegon just hands me the Isles and the Riverlands at the same time, which he could, and speaking of...

The Riverlands are probably the best bet for me. Whenever a conflict starts, they spontaneously combust due to Geography placing them in the middle of all the Kingdoms. And i would be right there, in the middle of all the fun....

Oh, but I do not want to actually rule, why? BECAUSE I DO NOT COUNT COPPERS! I will find someone to rule in my name...this is actually a point towards the Reach, I can essentially just let the Steward Tyrells rule Highgarden and the Reach for me while I cosplay as Bobby B. The West is quite stable so i don´t think it would take a lot from me, but the Iron Islands and the Riverlands certainly would, that is a point against them. Though it makes me wonder, if i end up in charge of the Ironborn, would I try and reform them or just use them as attack dogs?
Decisions....Decisions....

I am snapped back to reality by the sound of Rhaenys banging her head against the wall. I sighed, sipped my tea like the classy gentleman that I am, and closed the book I was reading.

''Rhaenys, sit still. You´ll get dizzy if you don´t.''

''B..but Daeron, how am I supposed to do that !" She whined ''I finally have my own dragon and father just keeps me here like a caged bird! It is so unfair! There is a whole world out there

for me to explore!'' She kicked the door ''Father! Can you hear me ?! Let me out! Pleaseeeeeee''

*sip*

''Rhaenys. He is not here, do you think he is sitting there on the other side of that door all day long just to hear you? Besides, what Father has done to us is perfectly fair. We broke the rules and he is punishing us for it. Really, he´s been quite lenient.''

Rhaenys pouted ''Lenient? He is being unspeakably harsh with me ! Did you forget how he scolded me in front of everyone at court !''

*sip*

''I didn´t listen to the exact words, after a while our father started to ramble and I stopped paying attention. But I did understand the general idea of it, yes.'' I snickered a bit ''I was more focused on our brother´s face Rhaenys. Did you get a good look at him ?''

Rhaenys had a mischievous look now ''Oh that is because father will have him wed to Visenya a week from now.''

Aegon is 13. Visenya is 14. A week from now, these two kids will be husband and wife. Forget the incest, I think this is a major concern.

''If you can get it up, you can get laid.''-Aerion Targaryen to his children.

''A week from now ? I thought they would wed only after we came back from Oldtown ?'' Rhaenys looked smug ''You would know father changed the date of their wedding if you paid more attention to your family Daeron! When it is our turn, I don´t want you missing the day to the wedding, even if I have to drag you by the hair.''

Fair enough. I discount most of what people around me say as just idle gossip. So i do end up missing quite a good chunk of information. *sips*. ''I guess that is why he went to talk with me a couple of days ago.'' Rhaenys looked curious, she was adamant in gossiping. I hate gossip.''About what ? Tell me ! You can´t leave me hanging like this!''

''Oh , he wanted to swap the betrothals, You for him and Visenya for me. I denied him on the spot of course.'' Rhaenys seemed surprised ''He did ? Well...it is nice of you to want me instead of Senya, but if i am being honest, i wouldn´t mind being with Aegon instead of you. He is not Dragonless either.'' She crossed her arms with pettiness and put her nose up like a brat, even closing her eyes to look the part of a bratty privileged girl. Rhaenys, girl, you aren´t smart enough to trick me. I see through the attitude, you are just trying to get back at me for saying i didn´t want you before. I still don´t want you as a wife.

I hate when girls do this, I remember so many of them trying to look all scary with their ''Wednesday personality''. Bitch, I could swallow the real Wednesday Addams whole, do you people have any idea whom you´re dealing with? I would have her on the ground, *Begging* for mercy.

''Good for you Rhaenys.'' i sipped my tea and went right back to reading. Leaving a very befuddled Rhaenys.


''Y...you don´t care? ...B...but why did you reject Senya then ?''

''Rhaenys , the problem is not you. Though i will admit Visenya *Is* a problem. The main problem is just that incest is wrong. Aegon can have you both and i wouldn´t mind.''

She looked horrified ''Being a secondary wife !? You would condemn me to something like that Daeron? Do you not see how shameful that would be for me? Even in the Old Valyria that Senya and Father speak so much about it was rare for a man to take more than one woman. I would only ever think of something like that if I had no other choice.''

Hypocrite. Dirty , Dirty Hypocrite.

''What are you smirking at '' She said with narrowed eyes. ''This is all very serious and important !''

I smirked more

''Stop that!''


I grinned

''IT IS NOT FUNNY !''

I sipped from my tea.

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

Rome was built atop a Hill. Likewise, my bunker was built atop Rhaenys´bed. I used some Blankets to serve as the ''Roof''. The Bunker has one singular, extremely important function. Telling Rhaenys scary stories until she sleeps. Very important business, of the highest degree of importance of course, I can only achieve inner peace when that girl is asleep. Normally this is the type of thing done at a campfire, with a flashlight. But we are grounded, and we don´t have flashlights. So blankets and candles will have to do.

Rhaenys is so *cute*. I kinda wanna hold her like a teddy bear and pinch her nose and play peekaboo as if she were a little baby. She was in her medieval pajamas with a face full of expectation,

just waiting for me to tell her something scary. Awww my heart melted a bit at the sight of eagerness that shone in her eyes. So *CUTE*.


How exactly did this child turn into a monstrous war criminal that started a war with an unprovoked attack on a city full of women and children, but devoid of any soldiers again? (Planky town)...although to be fair, she did a shitty job at it. I would have firstly burned down the escape routes and let the city population choke on the smoke for a bit, forcing them to seek shelter, and then burned up said shelter. Rhaenys has the spirit of a war criminal, just not the *finesse*.

''Come on Daeron, start the story up already !'' She said giggling.

I cleared my throat, trying my hardest to sound like the ''Wise mentor with a big beard who lives in a small village for some reason and does exposition for the MC'' Stereotype.

Unfortunately, I do not have a beard and my voice isn´t exactly deep considering i have not even entered puberty. Where is my manliness when i need it? *sighs*
''Are you sure Rhaenys? It will be so scary it will give you nightmares...'' Rhaenys scoffed and pouted. ''Nothing can scare me! Papa and Balerion will never let anyone hurt me. And if it comes down to it, Meraxes will eat whoever tries !''

Oh really? Tell that to the Uller guy with a Scorpion bolt and aimbot, just itching to shoot you down after you burned down his home and killed his family. He´d love to see you say that shit to his face. Wow, I am actually growing attached to this child. The thought of her death makes me sad. Even if it is *completely* deserved retribution for her monstrous actions in Dorne. I do not care about morals anyway. I ain´t letting her die. The Dornish can cry me the whole Rhoynar river. Rhaenys is living. But also, no incest bro. I´m not into that shit. Let me have a wholesome relationship with my sister. Even professional war criminals can have positive social relations

''Really ?'' I said with a sarcastic tone ''Is that why you woke up screaming in the middle of the night yesterday when I told you about Lord Dracula yesterday ?'' She looked away with embarrassment ''That was different little brother, what you told me happened to Lady Lucy was awful !''
''Then maybe i shouldn´t tell you any stories anymore, you just can´t handle them'' Rhaenys narrowed her eyes ''I can ! Tell me the story , I´m not afraid !''

I shrugged ''This story was collected by a very famous essosi man who came to Westeros and studied in the Citadel. He was named Matthew of the noble house Patrick. Though his friends named him Matpat.''

Rhaenys nodded ''Yes, yes get on with it!'' Stop being a Zoomer and have some patience Rhaenys. ''It starts in a Braavosi Inn made especially for families. It was famous for having entertainers wear these huge metal armor that looked like animals. There was armor for a fox, a bunny, a bear, and a chicken. These entertainers would then go on singing for kids like us.''
Rhaenys giggled ''I´d like to see this place! It seems nice !'' I made my voice super serious for dramatic effect. ''One day, one of the owners of the Inn. A noble named William of the House Afton. Lured five children away from their parents and had them killed. Afterwards, he stuffed their bodies on the metal armors.''
Rhaenys gasped ''That is awful! Was he caught !''

I shook my head. ''He was not, and he continued his murder sprees...the souls of the children he killed, however, continued to chase him down for years. Eventually, they managed to corner him.'' Rhaenys smirked ''They killed him right ?''

I laughed bitterly. If only

'Well yes, but actually no.''

Rhaenys frowned. ''That doesn´t make sense.''

''Just know this Rhaenys, he always comes back. And he is hunting down children to this day....'' I smirked ''Maybe he´s coming after you next ?''

She scoffed ''No He´s not ...'' She looked at me in the eyes ''He´s not right ?''

I tried looking smug ''Who knows? Anyway, do you want another story ?''

She looked around for a bit, especially at the window and the door. ''Sureeee...just one more.''

''Well , it begins with a guy named Victor Frankenstein....''

I rambled for over an hour the entire plot of Frankenstein. But Rhaenys fell asleep while I was telling the story. Scamp. I blew the candle, put a pillow beneath her head and quiet slipped off the bed. See , i am capable of being nice every once in a while.

I mostly sat there in the dark having my own internal monologues with the voices in my head. No , i am not deranged or schizofrenic. Violent Daeron and Jerk/Selfish Daeron were bored , and they are the two dominant aspects of my personality. Horny Daeron has gone MIA ever since i was reborn. The only time I can remember getting horny is for that Dornish woman in the stepstones , and that was only because she was Hot AF. That is strange, I remember being a horny teen before death. Either the incest on the back of my mind has completely burned out my sex drive even for women who aren´t my siblings, or i just need to get into the teenage years before horny levels go up.

We all know it´s the second, let´s be honest. I am a Targ, i will look good once i grow up , you can bet your ass I´m clapping cheeks.

But between Women and war crimes? War crimes. Always. Girls are temporary, they age and die.

War crimes are eternally remembered in history.

...
Rhaenys and i were woken up by the sound of the door being opened. My father entered with a harsh expression. ''Rhaenys. Daeron.'' He said drily.

''Father !'' Rhaenys said giggling, she jumped on Aerion and hugged him. It took her precisely three seconds to make my father smile instead of scowl.

''I should be cross with you Rhaenys...'' He said trying to be angry at her, but she just smiled cutely at him and Aerion sighed ''Oh daughter. I had hoped you and your brother had learned your lesson. But it seems that the fire in your dragon-blood runs too hot to be tempered.'' He ruffled Rhaenys´s hair gently. Aerion was almost in another universe playing with his daughter.

''Father,'' I said snapping him out of his mood. ''Why are you here? Is our punishment done ?''


Aerion grinned ''Why? Well, to witness your elder siblings´ wedding of course! Some day you and Rhaenys will have one just like it my little dragon.''

Oh.

This is good.

I get to laugh at Aegon.

...
The wedding was a private affair. Visenya and Aerion insisted on a Valyrian ceremony, whilst Valaena insisted on an Andal one. A compromise was struck , double ceremony , first Valyrian , and then an Andal one in front of all the Targaryen Vassals after our trip to Oldtown.
Aerion and Valaena stood next to one another, while I stood right beside Rhaenys. Our parents both looked overjoyed. Even Valaena , who despite hating incest can´t exactly help but feel something good in the wedding of her son and daughter. It is a milestone in their lives after all.
You know who did not look anywhere near as pleased? The groom and the bride.
Aegon wore a robe that was colored purple with some dragon embroidery. He looked bored and annoyed. He even gave me a resentful glance or two but said nothing as he walked towards the Altar where a chalice was full of wine.
Yeah bro , i am not feeling bad for not being the one that steps on that bear trap. Not my problem or responsibility, deal with it Aegon.
Visenya came in from the other side of the room. She looked grim and serious, looking Aegon straight in the eyes as if he were an enemy that needed to be defeated. For his credit, Aegon did not look intimidated. His look was that of someone who is tired of dealing with crap. Visenya wore a dress, a very rare sight for her, and that weird thing on her head that Rhaenyra also wore on her marriage to Daemon. I´m sure there´s a name for it , but i ain´t no fashion or marriage expert, so I don´t know it.
''When it´s our turn'' Rhaenys whispered in my ear ''I want you to come more willing then...this...or at least fake it. For me ?''
''No'' I whispered back. Rhaenys impulsively stepped on my toe as petty revenge. If I had less pain resistance, I could have made a scene here and ruined the entire wedding even more. But I held it in. Rhaenys thinks she can attack me without consequences? Bah, I will repay this treacherous attack one thousand times over.
Aegon and Visenya Held hands and spoke in unison the words. ''You are mine and i am yours.'' They drank from the wine cup ''Now we are united by blood , fire and love.''

Their voices were as monotone as that of an AI and as dry as the sahara desert. Really feeling the love.

They then did the briefest most awkward kiss i´ve seen in my life and walked off to the bedchambers where the consumation is supposed to happen. The level of just rushing through things that is happening here cannot be understated, they are treating this as if it were a checklist. It´s hilarious.

''Have fun Aegon,'' I whispered when he passed by me.

Aegon looked back at me and muttered ''Ass.''

Visenya and Aegon shut the door to the bedchambers so hard I thought it was going to break.

I wasn´t in Aegon´s head , so i can´t say if he had fun. But i can say he had an all-out brawl instead of sex. Bite marks and scratch marks the whole deal. I am quite sure i saw the mark of just a punch as well on his face the following day. They were also...loud. But not in *that* way , no , they were loud in their whinings at each other. These Westerosi 13-year-olds do be acting up.

Oh well , i am sure that will be a very prosperous and compatible marriage and that House Targaryen will be in good hands under the future command of Maegor since he will be the firstborn. Although Aegon might also give him attention this time , might pan out to be a different person when his only influence isn´t just Visenya.

To Oldtown we go now ! I am sure Aegon will see all the shiny things that the mainland of Westeros has and decide: ''Wouldn´t it be nice if they were mine?'' And i am totally cool with helping him on the smash-and-grab that is the conquest. I cannot *wait* for it. So many war crimes that I can taste them...

They taste like chocolate!

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

News flash: I am not a good long-term planner, nor any sort of intelligent mastermind.

Quite the opposite in fact, I am extremely impulsive and I'd consider about in the middle of the intelligence road. I am not retarted, but I am not Einstein come again to bring the theory of relativity into the Asoiaf world. The only thing i am seriously providing here is fire, blood, and war crimes. With a smidge of basic hygiene of course. Wash your hands kids, it´s of the utmost importance to be clean at all times.

These traits of mine meant I was never really a big fan of chess despite being somewhat nerdy in my first life. I was the type of guy to sacrifice the queen to kill a pawn by accident. Look, if it is not meant to be killed, then why is it so exposed? I know it´s a trap....but I *need* it! My best plays in chess were near-suicidal gambits that worked because the opponent just wasn´t ready for it, i would continue attacking even if my defenses were collapsing. Tunnel vision is a bitch.

Though I will admit, the most fun parts of chess were when i stumbled into a good play , i would have the whole smug ''All according to plan'' attitude in order to make my opponent mad, despite it really not being planned at all.

Why do i mention this you might ask? Simple. These are my mental excuses, created in order to protect my pride , for getting absolutely destroyed by Aegon in Cyvasse. I might have the body of an 8-year-old, but my mind is almost that of a young adult, I should not be getting clapped this hard by a child. I even have Rhaenys for moral support.

We are on a ship that my father hired to take us to Oldtown. It is *big*. Each of us has a cabin to sleep in and there is also a table where we can eat together. Rhaenys had been devastated when informed that, no, we cannot simply get on our dragons and fly our way there. For the obvious reason that other houses and cities aren´t exactly equipped to deal with them, might piss them off, and then Vhagar might decide that this place smells too Dornish for her taste and needs to get roasted like chicken. On the upside, no one in my family dealt with seasickness. The Velaryon genes are strong.

Unfortunately, there just isn´t a whole lot to do here besides playing Cyvasse. Rhaenys and I thought that if we jumped Aegon together, we´d stand a chance.

We do not, and my pride is hurting.

''Move the catapult Daeron!'' Rhaenys whispered on my ear ''We´ll get his elephant !''

I looked at the board and sighed ''But then his crossbowmen will have the catapult surrounded.''
She blinked and saw it on the board. ''Oh.''

I narrowed my eyes at Aegon, who, despite his efforts at being stone-faced, had a small smirk creeping up on his face. This must be his revenge for the small mocking of him I did during his wedding.

Fair game man.

Still irks me.

''Rhaenys.'' I said with a slightly deranged tone ''Have faith in the plan.''

She frowned ''Plan? We have a plan ?''

I moved my rabble and crossbowmen right to a spot where they would get completely slaughtered by Aegon´s elephant. He looked for only a second before looking me in the eye, shaking his head and snickering. He moved the elephant and killed the pieces I moved
''What are you doing Daeron ?'' Rhaenys said to me with a confused tone ''You just gave him a third of our pieces !''

I put a finger on her lips ''Have some *faith* Rhaenys.''-Daeron plan der Linde

Now that my rabble and crossbowmen had been killed, I had an open path for my dragon that had been, tragically, stuck in the backline. I had him swallow the elephant whole. Rhaenys giggled with wicked delight and had a cocky smirk on her face ''Yes!'' she said looking straight at Aegon, who could not look more unbothered. But then again, that is just kind of his average facial expression.

Aegon moved some pieces, trying to make some form of a defensive position , but my dragon stomped all over his pieces, it didn´t matter what it was , taking down a Dragon in Cyvasse can only be done by surrounding it completely, by another Dragon or by catapults.

Rhaenys puffed her chest, full of pride. ''You of all people should know that a Dragon always wins Aegon !'' Aegon laughed and smiled with happiness. It is rare for him to do that, he´s not depressed or anything, he´s just kinda quiet all the time. Rhaenys is one of the few people who can break his moods, Orys being the other.

''Always ?'' He asked mockingly

''Yes,'' She replied ''Always, isn´t that right Daeron ?''
''
No. I heard they can get killed if an iron bolt hits them in the eye.''

''Please'' Rhaenys waved dismissively ''What are the odds of that happening ?''

Oh poor poor Rhaenys. Does your question account for dornish plot armor or not? It´s what defines whether you are allowed to be intelligent, or just a jobber the second you step foot on Dorne.

Aegon shrugged ''I am not sure what the odds of a dragon getting shot in the eye are. But I *am* sure that *your* dragon is dead.'' He moved his catapult. That´s ok i´ll just move ba-

I´m surrounded.

F in the chat. How did I not see it coming again? It´s a really obvious trap now that I see it sprung.

Tunnel vision

Is a bitch.

''Oh.'' I managed to mutter out. While Rhaenys crossed her arms and huffed ''This game is boring. A real Dragon would never get shot down by a measly catapult. NOT FAIR. Daeron and I always Lose !''
Aegon chuckled a bit ''Keep practicing then. And do remember that not even dragons are invincible. Have you forgotten about Garin the Great? He killed three of them using Rhoynar water magic.''

Rhaenys muttered angrily ''I am not stupid, I know about Garin. But Rhoynar magic is long gone and there is nothing in this world that can take down a Dragon!''
Oh, the irony. It is enough to make a theatrical play off of it. Where is Aeschylus when you need him? I could use a playwriter right about now. Aegon looked a bit more serious now ''No Rhaenys. Dragons are not answers to everything, just as I disagree with Senya saying we are above all others, I cannot agree with you that Dragons solve all problems. It is part of why i wanted to go Oldtown in the first place.''

Aegon continued with a bit more passion now ''I love our Dragonstone more as much as father. But it is no great prize let us not lie to ourselves. It is dreary and poor. If we are as superior as Visenya says, why do these Andals rule Kingdoms that are larger, wealthier, and more fertile than our little island? And do not get me started on Essos and Valyria. The freehold is dead. And when it was alive it took hundreds of dragons, all larger than ours, to be forged. I will tell you what Dragonstone and Valyria are, they are prisons. Prisons that keep us from trying something *new*. Our dragons might not solve all issues, but they are an advantage that we hold over all other houses. I say we *use* them. I do not want to be forgotten after my death. I want to do something great. I might not know clearly what that thing will be, but I will find it. And that is why I wanted to go to Oldtown Rhaenys, it is the heart of Westeros. And if these Westerosi kingdoms are as wealthy as they are, they must be doing *something* right. The free cities drown themselves in blood, slavery, and intrigues, hardly something to appreciate.''

Rhaenys blinked. Not really expecting Aegon to drop a speech as a response to a single sentence about Dragons being invincible. ''I...uhm...I will always try and help you brother...even if i don´t really understand what you mean.'' Aegon smiled and put a hand in her shoulder ''Thank you Rhaenys.''

''Aegon , brother.'' I said cheerfully ''You are completely right !''

He seemed surprised ''Y-you think so ?''
''Yes , totally , completely , i think we should do exactly what you say.''

He seemed pleased.''Thank you Daeron. It is quite ...reassuring that you and Rhaenys aren´t against my ideas...i am a bit....unsure of them .... but i also feel as if i am right. Something tells me that i am right. When i am Lord of Dragonstone, the four remembered forever.'' He laughed ''Forever! The maesters will have to write down about *us* haha.''

That is one of the great perks of the conquest.

Besides the war crimes (main perk of course) I get to become a historical figure in Westeros. So i get to become a school (Maester) subject...oh yes, it would be wonderful. So many children having nightmares about their tests on the subject of Daeron the glorious, or Daeron the conqueror, or whatever title they give me by the end of this.

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

I have the weirdest dreams man, I listen to all these damned eldritch abominations in them. Maybe it´s some form of entity, trying to contact me and warn me of the incoming long night. But I wouldn´t stress too much about it, Arya Stark will hit the night king once and he´ll crumble faster than Megamind 2´s ratings. If I am living in Book Canon, the others are a fucking joke. Euron Greyjoy showed up on book 4 and in his first and only appearance Sent Asha to the north where she is captured by Stannis and meets up with Theon, Sends Victarion to Dany, and redirects the Ironborn to the Reach. The others have been getting built up for 20 years and 5 books and they have...killed Waymar Royce. And even then, Royce dunked on them with his ''Dance with me then'' line. The others are a Joke and i am not scared of them, dumbass ice elves can catch some hands if they try anything funny.

So, Cthulhu or whoever the fuck it is: SHUT UP AND LET ME SLEEP, MAN! Do you think it´s easy to remain in Peak war criminal performance at all times?...oh good lord i just admitted to myself that I have *voices* in my head...I am perfectly stable and my brain functions are in the right place. Aerys just didn´t know how to properly micromanage the voices in his head...ANYWAY. Eldritch abominations that haunt my dreams, don´t make me go down to whichever abyss it is you guys are hiding in, or else you will *fucking regret it*. Are we clear? We best be. I´m the guy that slaps the sleep paralysis Demon when he pops up, do not test me.

I seriously need some fooking sleep man...my little child body requires it...i shifted in my bed , determined to sleep through the whole morning and afternoon if possible.
Our ship went at a fast pace and we made no stops at all. Though I will admit that seeing the stepstones again (It was on the path from Dragonstone to Oldtown) was bizarrely amusing. I saw Lysandro Saan´s ships in the docks, even if I didn´t see the Stoner himself. I still have some of his drugs here with me...I haven´t smoked them at all, and I hope I never do. Being a war criminal is right and fair for a Targaryen and a half-Serb, but being a Stoner is a recipe for ending up as Aerion Brightflame, and I do not intend to burn alive. I hope to die either in the back of Shrykos, burning innocent cities, or in bed with a gallon of alcohol and a *hot* woman by my side. Either one of these works. Although I must admit that Horny Daeron needs to up his game, I have barely felt his existence in the last few years.

Now that I think about it, my entire bloodline was made up of war criminals from the Start. I had a Mom born in soviet Russia and a Serbian Dad, now I am reborn as a Targaryen. So in both cases, I can boast that ''My father was a war criminal.''

I´m just keeping the tradition alive fellas, it would be cultural erasure to hamper me or to put obstacles in my path of absolute destruction. I was quite literally born for this, every cell and gene in my body is one of War criminals, I will reach the top of the hill, the hill of atrocities, I will climb through bodies and blood and ash, to claim my rightful spot as lord of all War crimes, and make my father proud.

I sensed a disturbance in the force. The opening of my door. A red spy is in the base. I must pretend to be asleep until this demonic creature goes away. I slow down my breathing and stay as still as possible. Hoping that I have achieved a Varys level mummery, that will deceive this cowardly and treacherous attacker.

I hear the enemy´s footsteps. He is tiptoeing, and doing a piss poor job at it. He has approached me. I feel gentle and smooth hands touch my face, in a failed attempt at making me budge.

''Dae , Dae wake up.'' The voice is a whisper, Rhaenys. I am immediately infuriated that she dares to address me as ''Dae.'' When she knows I do not like it. In fact, she is the only one who tries and use ''Nicknames.'' Visenya does not like it, and neither does Aegon. Only Rhaenys. Her attempts at cramming it down on the rest of our family have been successfully repelled many times over , but she is nothing but persistent and continues her attacks. The proper way to address me is as ''Daeron, the magnificent, the mighty, the terrible, the stupendous, the greatest of calamities and god emperor of all War criminals.''

Anything else is just flat out disrespectful to me and my entire culture , with death serving as a suitable and proportionate punishment for the offender.

I hear her sigh of annoyance ''I know you are awake Daeron.''
I remain unmoved.

She growled ''Don´t make me force you to move.''

I remain unmoved.

''You asked for this !'' She says with vicious glee.

Rhaenys tickled me.

What a horrible Violation of my human rights.

''STOOOOPPPPPP'' I Cry out while trying my hardest to catch my breath and protect myself from her tickling. In my desperate movements and squirming , i fall down from the bed and hit the ground hard while clutching my blankets. Rhaenys gasped. ''Oh, I am sorry I didn´t mean to hurt you brother!'' I am so fucking dizzy.

I hate you Rhaenys.

I see her cute concerned expression for me.

I don´t hate you anymore Rhaenys. You are just too damn *CUTE* and i kinda wanna hug you.

In a normal sibling way of course. No Targcest.

''Well Rhaenys'' I say with bitter resentment ''You dragged me from my sleep. What is it you want from me exactly ?'' She takes my hand and helps me get up. ''Mother told me to wake you up, Oldtown is in sight brother! Everyone is at the deck, looking at it.''

Oh... i guess that makes sense.

''fine...'' I whine before following her.
Aegon was putting his feet in the prow and crossing his arms as if he were a statue of Cristopher Colombus or some shit. Visenya didn´t really seem very interested, my dad seemed happy enough and Valaena seemed thrilled. ''Sweetling !'' She said while looking at me ''Look! It´s the Hightower! Isn´t it beautiful ?!''

Oldtown is actually built on a river. This means you can reasonably sail to a good chunk of the city , there are also a bunch of islands here. On one of them is the citadel, or another the Starry sept and there is also the Lord´s castle. Oldtown is different from everywhere else because well... it´s a functional city to begin with, and it´s built in Stone. Big difference.

The middlemost of these Islands holds the Hightower itself. I´d just like to point out the lack of orginality here. House Hightower and Hightower with the Tower as their Banner. Really? Couldn´t have done better then that ? The tower itself is cool i guess. It´s flame is light up green when Oldtown goes to war. But i also just don´t find architecture particularly interesting unless it´s the Dragon stuff we have at home, or if it´s getting burned by Shrykos.

''We should have a banner,'' Aegon said while Staring at the Hightower. Visenya scoffed ''Why? Why do you want to be like these Andals so much brother? What would it even look like? We have no need of some cloth piece. Our Banners are Balerion, Vhagar , Meraxes and Shrykos. Men look at them and know who they are fighting for or against.''

Aegon Bristled. ''Visenya. It is not so simple...i would want our banner to be a four-headed Dragon! For the four of us.''

''That´s stupid,'' Rhaenys said. ''Dragons only have one head.'' Aerion chuckled ''I am sorry child, but it is quite unusual...''

Aegon shrinks and muttered ''I think it would look nice...and it conveys a nice message...''

''Well Brother , i agree! Make the dragon red and put it in a Black field! It would look simply fantastic !''
Aegon smiled cautiously and then looked at me ''Well uhm...Thank you Daeron...'' He then turned away and muttered ''Daeron agrees with me...but everyone else does not...is that a good sign or a bad sign...?''

Jerk. Do you think i can´t listen?

Anyways. We are at the Oldtown now, sweet.

I wanna burn down the Citadel. No , i don´t believe in the Maester conspiracy , i just really don´t like Maesters and want them fed to my dragon.

 

[Aegonthebeardless]

I will make my way through the gates of hell, against the enemy lines of education and tutoring.

My weapons? Stupidity, narrow-mindedness, laziness, and old grudges, resentments and prejudices that support my campaign against schools, for every fact a reply of ''That´s worthless for real life'' for every exercise a ''I would just google it'' and for every new theory or position that contradicts my own I shall deploy my misinformation and gaslighting to avoid the actual topic of conversation at hand and propel easily repeatable half-truths that make sense out of context or using shower level logic to obfuscate, contest and eventually remove from public sight, the truth. That and crying wolf at every turn, making public debate impossible and instead transforming it into some form of shouting competition between children where vague and undefined terms get thrown around despite having nothing to do with the topic of hand and bringing nothing to the conversation besides tribalism.

Unfortunately, the conclave of teachers and educators have managed to slip by these methods of suppression by using their natural habitats, Schools, and libraries. This cannot be tolerated. The oppressive nature of forced learning with its lackeys, textbooks, and tests, captures the time of students with annoying factoids that I could not care less about and simply can´t be bothered to remember after the exams.

Thankfully, we have a solution for that

Fire.

Look. I might have enjoyed (Still do) reading and learning. But only when i read and learn by my own volition in my own time about the subjects that i have chosen. Not about the subjects that the schools chose for me. Being forced to do something Low-key makes me want to do it less, even if it is an activity that i originally wanted to do and actively enjoy under normal circumstances.

Also, the way schools teach subjects like math and History is downright awful. History gets taught from the perspective of faceless nobodies and third person narrators that the student has no attachment to. If you teach History like a *story* with the people living at the time as it´s characters, it actually becomes interesting and makes people want to know more about it. Likewise, Math is a sort of game, learn the rules and play. Practice to get better, not whatever abomination and monstrosity that is taught.
This all culminates to me entering the cavern and lair of some of my greatest Westerosi enemies: The maesters of the Citadel. I do not believe they have any conspiracy against the Targaryen rule, or that they hold any sway over the death of magic. No. I think Maesters are just idiots with a stick up their ass and a massive pride-fueled superiority complex despite having no achievements to back it up. For fuck´s sake, the Citadel is supposedly millennia old and these motherfuckers haven´t figured out that washing your hands helps against illness? oh yeah Maester, a woman having septic shock during childbirth is clearly just hysteria , ain´t got nothing to do with the filth you´re introducing in her body

Are you telling me these cretins supposedly have a massive century-long conspiracy and compact that influences every aspect of Westerosi life? These guys? I could put a hundred maesters in a room and they´d fail to remove a lightbulb even if I gave them a hundred years to learn it. ''MaGiC IS dEaD'' Yeah jackass, tell that to Thoros of Myr literally holding his flaming sword right in front of you, tell that to the summer islanders who live off of brothels and fucking and yet catch no STDs.
In other words. I am coming to the Citadel, with the sole intention of starting a fire here out of pettiness and revenge. I hate maesters, I hate their classes, and i want to hit them in the balls, right where it hurts. Unfortunately... I am a little kid, so my options are quite...limited. But I will think of something

Thankfully for my plans, Aegon was also quite interested in coming to the Citadel. He also wants to speak with fellow noble heirs and to see lord Hightower hold court like the boring nerd he is. Rhaenys is more interested in an upcoming Tourney and ball that is coming, while Visenya simply does not want to be here. Though, amusingly, my mother will force her to go to the Starry sept. What an adequate place for my Valyrian supremacist sister. I wonder how that will go, certainly not worse than her marriage with Aegon, they have slept together zero times after the wedding night.

The entrance to the Citadel is a very...odd place. The gates are flanked by a pair of green sphinxes with the wings of a bird, the body of a Lion, and the tail of a scorpion. One of the Sphinxes has the face of a man and the other of a woman.

Aegon and i came ''Alone'' (As in no family members, we have an escort to protect us as Highborns. They aren´t allowed inside the Citadel as weapons are forbidden, but they will pretty much wait here in these gates until Aegon and i decide we want to go to the apartment my father has found for us. Inside the Citadel we are safe, it´s essentially a public library in some spots. Not exactly dangerous.) No other member of the family showed any interest in coming here. At all.

''Why do they put these things anyway ?'' I asked Aegon , who shrugged before replying

''How am i to know? '' He then looked at me with slight exasperation ''Why are you coming here with me Daeron? What book are you even looking for?''

Ass. Don´t worry Aegon, my goals are beyond your comprehension.
'
'I am here to read about...The Ironborn.'' They are the only group in Westeros that does destruction for destruction´s sake, so I think it fits my real objective
He seemed surprised ''The Ironborn ?..... i suppose it could be interesting...I will study law brother. Laws of the reach and other Kingdoms. We had a few books in Dragonstone about them, but Father threw it all away to make space for his Valyrian scrolls...i am very curious about how these realms organize themselves...The Ironborn are a part of Westeros and they must have done something right to wield as much power as they do despite coming from a pile of rocks....'' He thought for a bit ''Yes...yes share it all with me afterward.''
Greedy cunt. Also nerdy cunt. Still feel mild affection for him though, Aegon cares more about people than he lets on. Rhaenys is the best one of us when it comes to making him happy, but that´s hardly a surprise. Her competition is: Me (Deranged), Visenya (Visenya), and Orys (An extremely chill guy and Aegon´s best friend, also he isn´t cute like Rhaenys.)

But still, Aegon my boy. You are too young to like studying *law*. I liked history at age 13, don´t get me wrong, Caesar was my fav for his atrocities in Gaul and generally Baddass lines. I mean, shit like ''I came, I saw, I conquered'', ''The enemy would have won today were they commanded by a winner'' and ''The die is cast'' hit hard as fuck even without proper context. I also understand that Westerosi kids age faster then our modern children, Robb fought a war and was a decent king at age 14 , Dany´s entire storyline takes place when she is 13 (Aegon´s age now) and my brother is already wedded and bedded.

That does not make it less Jarring to hear a child say ''I want to study laws and understand how the Kingdoms are structured.''

Weirdo.

Right after the Gates , we saw the scribe´s hearth. It´s a weird place thing...it´s hard to describe. In essence, the denizens of Oldtown come here to hire Scribes to read or write papers for them. Each scribe sets up their own ''tent'' and the customers choose which one they want. It is sort of like a university side gig for the acolytes and students of the citadel, simply an easy way to earn cash on the side without it being overwhelming for their studies.
Aegon and I are highborn , we have a proper education and we know how to read and write, so these guys are completely worthless for us. Aegon didn´t even turn to look at them. My guy just pretended they were not there.

Next came what was probably the most entertaining part of the citadel though Aegon, again, just ignored it and kept going. The seneschal´s court. Now, the titular ''Seneschal'' is sorta like a president. He is elected by the folk from around here and he administrates the more practical aspects of the Citadel. That´s the not cool part , the cool part is that he also administrates punishments to the Acolytes who commit petty crimes like stealing books. What makes it cool is the *aesthetic* the Seneschal has this almost comically generic mask that he wears. It´s the type of thing you see in cartoons when they have rich people dance. I got lucky and managed to catch a glimpse of a trial, and the Seneschal sitting on a big throne while also being as fat as Wyman Manderly almost made me snort. Thankfully, the Acolyte was punished with a month of forced labor for his thievery. So he can go fuck himself. I don´t care.

Finally, we reached the library, and holy shit this place is big.

Martin does not understand how proportions work or anything like that, so for him, the Wall being as tall as the Eiffel Tower (Yet somehow the Wildlings still hit it with Arrows, gigachad Tormund) is somehow completely fine. Or Pyke´s towers existing despite all the Erosion, the Eyrie is peak fantasy , and Winterfell is fucking enormous yet somehow only has a garrison of 100 hundred and is subdued by Theon Greyjoy, who shouldn´t even be able to throw his ropes high enough to climb the walls considering how absurdly tall they are.

There are so many rows and rows of Bookshelves, all extremely tall , there is only one Window (Very big one however) with a mosaic in the form of the symbol of the faith. It was a labyrinth. And I do not mean it figuratively, it was large with multiple paths that mostly looked the same. The only saving grace is that the Bookshelves were organized in alphabetical order, meaning that you could use that information to locate yourself in the endless turns and tomes of this blasted place.

There were also some tables to sit down and read.
Now, to borrow books we´d need to speak with the Acolyte that runs this library. Aegon however is fine to only read stuff here, no need for communications. He picked something boring about the Reach while i picked up something about the pirate folk. I am not really that interested in reading...i just need a time skip for my plot to come to fruition... you shall see.

We sat down at a table alongside some other people reading. Most were Maesters , Acolytes or students/Novices. Though a very small amount of them were noblemen and i saw a couple of Lowborns, likely wealthy merchants, reading as well.
''This is interesting...'' Aegon said in a low voice ''Most of the Kingdoms simply use the andal laws as they are recorded here in Oldtown...Every form of precedent and every written law is recorded here and only here....except the North, Dorne, and the Iron Islands...'' His face scrunched up in annoyance ''I do not like how much power each lord has over their own lands. Each lord has their own currency here in the reach...can you believe it Daeron? Imagine if Uncle Daemon had his own coin. I think a Kingdom should be more united than that... wouldn´t it be better for everyone ?''
I had to suppress my snickering. Really my guy? this early on and you already think that way? At least he hasn´t plotted the conquest yet. Not that i am against it in any way, go for it Aegon. I´m with ya.

''The lords themselves would not enjoy losing power would they ?''

He sighed ''True...but...should that stand in the way of prosperity ?''

I shrugged ''I don´t know. The pirates i´ve been reading about certainly don´t agree with you. Every captain does what he wants and they want to loot and sack. The Ironborn used to elect

their own leaders until someone named Urron Redhand killed all the other candidates and proclaimed himself king.''

''Electing their own king ?'' Aegon frowned ''That is quite interesting. But I do not like it. Not one bit.''


I wonder why Aegon, i really do wonder why. Power hungry fella.

He looked at the book again ''Each kingdom has something the other needs... what would happen if all of them were united ?'' He said it in the most casual tone i have ever heard. Just shooting some ideas at a friend.

''The Riverlands would burn. It is what they always do. Besides that, someone would need to take all seven. Who would be willing to do that ?''


I saw some ambition flicker in his eyes and i could almost feel the greed coming out from Aegon. ''Yes...who ?'' he said it softly with narrowed eyes. Before turning his gaze back to his book.

We stayed there all afternoon and into the night. At some point , we were provided with some candles to continue reading...Most of the other people reading had also left at this point.
Alright.
Time to strike.

''I just wanna burn this place down'' - Osama bin Daeron.

''Aegon'' I said while getting up, holding the candle in one hand and the book in another ''I think i am going to put this back in it´s place allright ?''
''Hmm'' was the only sound he made. Too focused on his own reading to pay attention to me. Nerdy cunt....but his cuntiness will be good right about now.

I walked through the Labyrinth that is this library. I made sure to count my steps and all that , i will need to make my way out as soon as i get done with this funny business.
I eventually found a secluded part of it...no one is looking at me...

Absolutely perfect !

I approach one of the bookshelves and put the candle´s flame on one of the books...for long enough that the fire will grow instead of die but not so long that I will be implicated. I want this fire to spread when I am far away from here.

I do start burning a few other books as well , just to make sure. Insurance is good and all.

Afterwards i run back to where Aegon is reading and very kindly force him to move his ass and to not put his book back in it´s shelve ,just saying that someone else will take care of it.

Oh man. I doubt the fire will spread very far...but that doesn´t mean a man can´t dream.