Game of Thrones - the Remix!

Kieron in the Game

Tyrion

If the image of Steffana wasn't startling enough, the huge blue giant she had summoned, out of nowhere, left them all speechless. He was the largest man Tyrion had ever seen, definitely part giant, but blue. His hair was white, or actually...his hair was light. His voice boomed so loud it seemed as if it shook the entire room.

"What are these reals doing here Steffana? And in my command center!"

"They are not reals. They are virts...and...they're from the Game...Game of Thrones, don't you recognize them?"

He looked around and surely, he did seem to recognize them. All of them. He chuckled softly, before saying,

"Indeed I do."

He looked around at the screens, Steffana had been studying and remarked,

"This programming has a virus."

"I know. Would you remove it for me?"

He looked at the screens, that had so disturbed Steffana, and began, changing them so rapidly, Tyrion could not  even follow his movements, visually. It was all just a blur.  He reported  to Steffana,

"This is amateur hour. It traces back to a codex. You gave a codex to Varys?"

"Well...he's the master of whispers. Who else would I give a codex to?"

"Not any player who is not completely under your control. That's warfare 101 Steff. The first is the Tao,  and with the Tao, the players will  live with you, die with you and deceive you not. But you don't have the Tao, because you  haven't spent enough time in their world to cultivate it. None of them trust you- and why should  they? Ten satsecs in, and you've destroyed an entire city, a critical one at that."

 Besides,  Varys is naturally deceptive, and you gave him a codex?"

And now everyone in the room was attuned to Varys, who was clearly horrified at all the attention.

"I...well I needed a spy in Kings Landing-"

The blue man interupted her and replied dismissively,

"If this is how you intend to play, you should quit now. "

"No! I am not going to quit. Just remove the virus. I'll take it from there."

"I already did. It was a very simple virus. A child could have written it. A child probably did. Who are you playing against?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Well,  I want to know."

"It's Julian."

"I'm going to need you to stop this, now."

It was a very stern command, issued by someone who, was accustomed to delivering commands and had them followed without question. In fact, this blueman reminded Tyrion of Tywin...and oh...it was all becoming clear to him now, this man was her husband. Which only made the conflict between them so much more interesting.

"I won't. I am here to study war."

Though the command had been issued, she was defiant. Tyrion sensed that this...well this was Steffana's battle. And this was, what they  had in common, just as he had overthrown Tywin's plans with the trial by combat, she was attempting her own private coup.

"This is a very complex VR Steffana, designed to train some of the finest military minds that have ever lived and died. If you think that you can just come in here, without any formal study of the military arts-"

"I'm going to play it my way. I'm doing things differently."

The blue man looked around at the command center, and everyone in it, and even seemed to politely acknowledge each and every one of them. Next he replied,

"Well...this is different.  But also dangerous, especially for you- you're going to get lost, in here. And when you do-"

"It is what it is."

Her husband looked at her, angrily but also sadly, so sadly. Tyrion sensed that whatever was  something between them, that was deep and tragic. It was the cause of the deep sorrow that he had seen in Steffana in the Kingswood. Her husband called out,

"Saty reveal all codes for the opponent Julian."

Thousands of screens appeared, and he quickly reviewed and made adjustments to  many of  of them. Then he turned to Steffana,

"I've got some anti-virus software installed for you, as well as firewalls around all of the places you're likely to be:  Mereen, the Wall, Winterfell, Dorne...even Casterly Rock, if you should so choose. Activated doors will allow you to move quicker than the use of an aviaut."

"I'm well aware. That's how we got here."

If you really get into trouble, there are incremental reset commands, but if you spend to much time full immersion, you will forget those features."

He sighed and said sorrowfully.

"I hope you come back, Steffana."

And she replied,

"I will. After I win."