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[holyposition]

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t.laughlin

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[holyposition]

I've never heard of a monarchy that demands the one to succeed has to be the last one standing after a massacre.

I'm not trying to downplay the seriousness of the situation, but the more likely it is that violence breaks out, the more likely that your mother or someone else I care about gets caught in it. I don't want that to happen.

He's not naked. The sensitive areas are covered.

cw: all sorts of hateful language

[provoke]

I promised my peace. I am not so dishonourable that I would kill so wantonly, even if my whore of a half-sister and her child-murdering husband would wish me to. I have ever hewn to my duty loyally as a prince of the realm and they have spat at decency at every turn with bastards and lies.

[ incendiary language time! ]

House Targaryen cannot be split, because our dragons are ever loyal to us until death. The only way you free a dragon of its bond is if its rider dies, Tim. All siblings mine each have our own. And I ride the largest and most powerful of them all.

Do you understand?

[ there is only one way he'll be allowed to live. ]

His wounds needs not be exposed, either. It's grotesque.

[holyposition]

[ Yikes! A thousand times yikes... ]

What I'm hearing is mutually assured destruction.

It's a reminder of the sacrifice He made for us. It's meant to be.

[provoke]

Quite, doesn't it?

[ another thing to thank their father for, the weak-willed man that he is. ]

So he was martyred and glorified in death. And in life?

[holyposition]

He was a carpenter turned prophet, born to a virgin.

[provoke]

[ this keeps getting worse! ]

His mother was a witch?

[holyposition]

No. God is all-powerful, he put a child in her without her needing to become impure.

[provoke]

But she is unmarried. That makes your Jesus Christ a bastard true. Impurity is not in the piercing of the maidenhead but in the bearing of the sin.

[holyposition]

She was married. They were chosen to bear the son of God.

[provoke]

So her husband had lain with her. She is no maiden. The get of another is still the get of another, divine or otherwise.

[holyposition]

She was when she gave birth to the savior.

[provoke]

And there were witnesses to the deed? Attestations to her virginity beyond her own claim?

[ ...why does she sound like rhaenyra. ]

[holyposition]

The angel visited them both. What are you actually asking me?

[provoke]

Your faith has, seemingly, made god of a man. Why is it not questioned so?

[holyposition]

It's questioned plenty. But these events were two thousand years ago, the only surviving evidence is the word of God. He sent His son to die for us out of love, and we know that it's true because we feel that love still.

[provoke]

Word of God. What records prove their power? We have dragons that prove the existence of the Fourteen Flames of Old Valyria. Mine own dragon, Vhagar, has been alive for centuries. Had helped conquer Westeros along with my forebears.

Where is the proof of him, your Jesus Christ? Have you seen his words?

[holyposition]

The word of God IS the record. It was recorded, written down.

[provoke]

I could take my dragon to flight and the smallfolk will know for true that our gods have lived among men. The priest witches of R'llhor could kiss corpses and bring men and women alike back from the dead, become living as they were, and the Essosi will know for true that the Lord of Light had once walked among mortals. Even the followers of the gods of old in the North can shape-change and dream prophecy, and their men and women know their old wives' tales of wargs and greenseers for true.

Do your god's words carry the same power? What powers are bestowed upon his priests, his followers?

[ he demands answers that, like the septas and septons he's asked, could never be gained fairly. in this, his mother's faith and tim's are aligned. ]

[holyposition]

There are entire books of His miracles and power, but He stays in Heaven where he waits for us. Hence the son raised by mortals to spread His word, who was killed and rose again.

Do you know what faith is, Aemond?

[provoke]

And what does he wait for? Your surrender to death? Does he fear mortality?

I know what faith is. It has never given me any kindness.

[ it kept his mother on her knees for a husband who loved her no better than a passing mistress. faith is a luxury of the adored. ]

I do not understand it, Tim. You are the only one making any sacrifice. What does he give you beyond a promise?

[holyposition]

Fear mortality? I don't know what you're talking about.

If you know what it is, then you know it can't be quantified or proven irrefutably. It isn't science, it's belief. It's a feeling in your soul that can't be argued with.

He gave us everything. The world and all that's in it.

[provoke]

He will not make himself known to you. What else would you call it if not fear? That he hides from his people?

I do not question your faith in him, do not mistake me. But I do question its foundations. I do not understand your god, but perhaps that's for the best.

[holyposition]

Maybe He's not so insecure that He needs to remind everyone constantly, and His followers are not so fickle that we will forget without it. His creation speaks for itself.

[provoke]

You cannot know until you meet him, and he will not meet you on common ground. What you see created around you may well be another's gift, or his own enemy's.

Faith unfounded, unanchored by any truth you can hold — that can be dangerous to yourself. That is all I mean to say.

[holyposition]

He doesn't need to.

Your opinion has been noted. You're not the first to try to dissuade me, you know. Matters of faith don't require concrete evidence, and I am at peace with that.