(no subject)

[ungentle]

King's Landing had not truly suited Daenerys when she was half-welcome there, and it suited her even less in the time that had followed Ned Stark's execution.  He had been her only protector (and perhaps a grudging one at that) and his guardianship of her the only thing keeping her from being turned fully into the pawn she so dreaded being.  It wasn't, she supposed, quite so horrible as the situation poor Sansa found herself in: she had gone through as many horrible things as balanced out the lovely ones she'd been promised when her family was still in the Baratheons' and Lannisters' good graces.  She had never been in anyone's good graces, she had been in part a prisoner from the start, now the keys had just been given to a different, admittedly crueler, jailer.

It had always been hers to be polite and demure and apologetic, prove that her blood did not define her loyalty.  It had always been hers to pretend where that loyalty did lie (and she had never truly been bothered by the Starks, they had always been, if not warm, then decent to her, but the withering glances she got at court -- to say nothing of the wild-eyed lustful ones -- were not a surprise either, and were not so hard to deflect).  She had always been treated with suspicion, she had always been moved around.  The talk nowadays was of marrying her off to a lord of the Lannisters' choosing, someone true to them who would temper any mild rebellious instincts that may appear (Lord Eddard had always been wary of allowing this, but now he could not stop it).

Until she was played, though, she stayed at court with the others.  She wasn't often allowed to be properly alone, and she wasn't often allowed to keep private company with Sansa (who knew what they, daughters of a traitor and a madman, would dream up if unsupervised).  She wasn't pampered (she was never pampered) but she wasn't kept uncomfortably.  She also wasn't ignorant, though she was good at playing that up.  As such, she knew it was only a matter of time before she received an invitation to be entertained by the new queen-to-be, the lithe and beautiful Rose of Highgarden.

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[highgardenqueen]

Margaery Tyrell was not an idiot, and she knew what needed to be done. She had been speaking with Sansa Stark to glean what knowledge she could regarding their new "king" and sadly, it was everything she'd feared it to be. A "monster", she'd said.

Her husband was dead, and it did not hurt Margaery much except for the rumours going about that they had never bedded due to Renly's proclivities. At the very least, her brother wasn't subject to much of it, to which she was thankful.

Now she knew what game had to be done next. She needed to marry the little monster, which would secure her position and make Sansa quite happy, but she also needed to meet with the other outcast that the Lannisters had kept at King's Landing.

Daenerys Targaryen was of the old blood, and the old blood needed to be welcomed into the world. Not ignored and pushed aside. This was where the Lannisters were incorrect in their treatment of people. Make them love you, and all will be fine.

Yet, Margaery had never expected to find that Daenerys would be such a lovely woman. "Hello," she said with a broad smile on her face, arms outstretched for a welcoming embrace.