#《 ♘ 》 a song of ice and fire ( ASOIAF )

[arysoakheart]

even though arys has always dreamed of being a kingsguard, he learns with time that he doesn't really... like it. under robert's reign, it's not all that bad. he certainly doesn't agree with all of robert's decisions or commands, but it's not all that hard to follow him, comparatively.

but when robert dies & joffrey becomes king, everything goes south. having watched joffrey grow up for almost a decade, arys has seen how spoiled & cruel he is. with each passing day, he finds it harder & harder to follow the king's orders. after all, he became a kingsguard to be a protector, not a sword under a vengeful child's command.

so when tyrion chooses him to be myrcella's sworn shield & go with her to dorne, he is extremely grateful.

& even aside from the kings he serves, his fellow kingsguards are not people he would want to befriend. except, perhaps, for barristan selmy. his other shield brothers are oathbreakers, for certain, but more than that, he thinks they are unkind people.

so when he's alone, arys spends a lot of time thinking about why he became a kingsguard & why he chooses to stay. but he thinks it's not so much a choice as a lack of an option to leave. he swore an oath & he would not break it. but even if he did decide to give up being a kingsguard, none in history have ever done so. he imagines the consequences would be like that of desertion. but sometimes, he wonders if death would be better than being a weapon for cruelty.

[arysoakheart]

@ofperzys said: ‘ don’t get in my way. ’ ( meme | accepting! )

" my apologies, my lord. " arys takes a step to the side. he was trying to stay out of everyone's way, but it's proven a bit difficult in this narrow corridor with this somewhat oversized kingsguard armor. his own armor was to be forged, but in the meantime, he wore a spare set loaned to him by another. it didn't quite fit, so he was having a hard time judging the space around him.

fortunately, he had been tasked with guarding the king's brother, stannis baratheon, for the time being. there was no imminent threat, but it was thought that this assignment could help arys acclimate. it had been only a month since king robert had chosen him for the kingsguard, & his shield brothers had warned him there would be a bit of a learning curve. he got by well for the most part, but there were still some small things to be learned.

[arysoakheart]

@dracharenae said: “I, um… might have… had something to, uh… do with that…” ( meme | accepting! )

the knight raises his brow at the admission, & he tilts his head curiously. " oh? "

though he'd been in dorne as myrcella's sworn shield for some time now, he'd had little interaction with anyone aside from the little princess, prince doran, & the other guards. ( he doesn't count all the teasing of the sand snakes, or the advances made by arianne. )

but he knows of ADARA SAND, of course, as she is one of the bastard daughters of prince oberyn. he's seen her & her sisters passing their time together on occasion while some of the younger girls played with myrcella.

obara, nymeria, tyene, adara, sarella, elia, obella, dorea, and loreza. he had learned their names & faces — all except sarella, who was not in dorne — even before arianne had jokingly suggested that outsiders often had trouble remembering which girl was which.

as a sworn shield & a kingsguard, he had spent much of the last decade observing those around him, always watching & assessing for potential THREATS. so he'd learned to match names with faces quickly, & the sand snakes were no exception.

however, he had not seen them often enough to know what each & every one of them is like. he knows obara is a bit brusque & quick to anger while tyene is gentler yet equally clever & sly. but beyond these observations, he knows little about any of them.

so as adara stands before him now, he wonders what she is like. perhaps her explanation of her participation in this scene will provide him with some insight.

" just what might you have had to do with it? hypothetically speaking, of course. "

[arysoakheart]

tag drop.