People being the same no matter where they are is the one thing he recognized about this place, which while unfortunate at least means that there was something familiar to hold on to while getting used to somewhere new.

"I don't know." He hadn't given it much thought before his father and sisters had prepared to leave for King's Landing and he'd needed to choose a path for himself. He'd always known that he could only stay as long as Ned was around, but he hadn't expected to have to make that choice as soon as he had.

"I was in a kind of in-between position. Son of one of the great Houses but with no prospects for titles or holdings of my own. If things had turned out differently, I might still have taken the black, or I'd have become one of Robb's men."

Or the king of the seven kingdoms. He can't forget that option.