gentlearcher: (Walk On)
Susan Pevensie ([personal profile] gentlearcher) wrote in [community profile] eachdraidh2014-08-15 06:28 pm

.001 Action | Video [ Open to All ]

[ ACTION ]

[It was a long walk to Caer Glaem. Fortunately, Susan was close enough that that the road to it was fairly safe. She would feel better about this whole thing if her brothers and sister were here, or if she had her bow, or even her horn. Instead she was wearing her school clothes, and they were none too clean at this point. Still, Susan was hoping for a better explanation, and from what the friendly fairies and townspeople had to say the castle was the place to get it.

She was hungry. Fruit trees and handouts didn't do much in the way of assuaging hunger when one was walking all day. She hoped there would at least be food in the castle; it was looming large in her vision now and she hoped to get there within the end of the day. It was a good thing, too. She'd bathed in a stream that morning, but--

"Lawkamercyme!" cried a high pitched voice, and Susan turned her head just in time to see a small, green-tinted fairy fall into a faint. A dark shadow globbed its way towards the fairy, Susan was sure it had foul intent. Dark shadows with gleam of teeth almost always did. She wished for her bow more than ever, but didn't hesitate to pick up a large stone at her feet. She was frightened - how did one fight a shadow? Oh, she hated to fight - but she wasn't about to just stand there and watch. She shouted, "You! There! Get away from that fairy!"

The shadow did not seem much impressed. And so Susan threw the stone with impressive aim, clipping the beast right in the mouth. It hissed and abandoned the fairy, heading towards her instead. She bent to pick up another rock.]

[ VIDEO ]

[For a long moment, the locket shows a beautiful face with a furrowed brow, staring intently at its own reflection. Susan has never seen anything like this before. She is at the castle now, clean and clothed and fed, so her image doesn't look quite as dire as it had earlier that day, and her dark hair is swept back neatly in a braid.]
Ah - so it does work! At least, I assume it does, and this is a message going out all over the lockets and not just some sort of fancy mirror.

[In either case, she's beginning to feel a little self-conscious. She reaches for easily remembered dignity.] I don't mean to intrude, but I have heard that this is something which happens often. And I wonder, is there anyone from England here? [She misses her family; two weeks of walking among strangers in a strange land was more than enough alone time for now, thanks.] Or even [marked hesitation] Narnia?
bullhorned: (Default)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-23 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
High Queen at that. Gendry's expression had changed to something more suspicious. She was doing little to object to the title. In any case, it was one thing to be an accidental son of a king. But a queen was a queen, no matter how one looked at it. She was high born. She didn't seem it now, but a little mud would do that to anyone.

He leveled a steely gaze at the servant. "I told you I ain't no prince. Call me Ser if you like, but you can bugger off about princes."

The servant exhaled loudly and did little to disguise his rolling eyes. "Yes yes, of course, Ser Gendry. I don't suppose you'll find time to want a bath drawn, hm?"

Gendry snorted derisively. "Draw one for her Grace over there. I had one last week already."
Edited 2014-08-23 03:24 (UTC)
bullhorned: (Freakin' Highborns)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-23 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
The steward was nothing if not obedient. He sniffed and stepped far enough away to be out of earshot, but not so far away that he could not be called on when needed. He managed a perfect exterior of patient impatience.

Gendry instead looked unhappy and did nothing to look patient at all. Fortunately he didn't seem particularly humiliated either. He was now simply in his natural state of being where he seemed particularly displeased with the world at large. The hound, oblivious, began to sniff at Reginald's feet while the servant, unwilling to truly react, began to quietly hiss and try to shoo the dog away.

"So, High Queen of Narnia, eh? Is that in England or the other way 'round?"
bullhorned: (My Sensitive Side)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-23 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
He could make no sense of what she was describing. Or at least, he could not quite grasp how she could claim to be of two worlds and now even in a third. It made no sense to him that one could go from being a queen to being a nothing. But it made just as little sense to go from nothing to being a prince.

"I'm not a prince," He muttered. "My mother was a tavern girl. My father was a king, but I never met him. He fu--" He paused and censored his language, a courtesy offered to a highborn lady. "He had his way with my mother and that was it. He never knew I existed, nor would he have been like to care. Bastards ain't princes, just bastards. The fairies here just have the wrong of it."
bullhorned: (Let's have a look see...)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-23 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
The apology somehow made it worse, because he had never liked to be pitied. But then, he was ever stubborn about what he was and how it was so often used to define him. His uncle and Lady Lucrezia used his father as a means to elevate his station. Others pitied him for simply being born on the wrong side of the sheets. Only a few were altogether indifferent.

He grimaced as he looked at her hand. "Not with a lady. Or queen. Anyway, there ain't no need to apologize. I know what I am."
bullhorned: (Praying on your worst fears!!)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-23 04:36 am (UTC)(link)
Few were ever as stubborn as Gendry, but it did not take much to make him relent on this matter. He grasped her hand, but only briefly and only lightly. His were working hands that were thick and calloused from a lifetime of labor and dirty from a few day's hard work. Just as quickly, he pulled his hand back and buried it as he crossed his arms.

"Why not? Were you exiled?" His father was a usurper who had done just that to the Targaryen. He'd known a Targaryen queen who could not return to Westeros because of his father's deeds.
bullhorned: (My Sensitive Side)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-23 04:45 am (UTC)(link)
"Not meaning it to be harsh don't change what it is." Things like going between worlds or even boarding schools wasn't within his experience. But having your home taken from you was only too familiar. Just because it had been for his own good, it hadn't made it any easier to forgive his old master and teacher for sending him off to the Watch and be an exile to everything he ever knew. "But how is it you can be a queen in one world and not in another?"
bullhorned: (And that's how mom died)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-23 02:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Gendry did not make his business to find out other people's stories, especially the ones that seemed especially complicated. More than that, he felt no particular reason to get to know this stranger more than he needed to. He weighed going back to patrol or simply going back to his forge. But he was hungry.

"I'll take you to the dining hall. It's not like to be full at this hour." It would not be private, but he preferred to be in a more familiar setting. In a queen's chamber, he would eat cake and drink wine, but in a dining hall he could have a tankard of ale and a plate of sausages instead. He'd much prefer the latter.
bullhorned: (Actually making water now)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-24 02:48 am (UTC)(link)
Gendry nodded and waited as he watched with a frown. When the hound bounded back to him, he crouched to scratch behind its ears and watch Susan's exchange with the servant.

"Queen Susan," Reginald announced deferentially. He intently did all he could to ignore the hound and its master. "How may I be of service?"
bullhorned: (Me in Profile)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-24 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
Gendry was relieved when they were left alone. Through the exchange, he had watched with a keen interest. It had become clear that Susan, in spite of her ragged appearance, was no stranger to dealing with people of this sort. Whilst Gendry had no issue handling people like this either, he did so gruffly and with insult. She had dealt with the servant just as swiftly, but without insult. There was perhaps something to this method, though he had no keen interest in learning it.

"You got rid of him in a hurry," he said with a grudging hint of praise.
bullhorned: (True wealth)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-24 03:48 am (UTC)(link)
"Suits me." Still relieved to be freed of extra company, he took to leading them again. The dog followed, even though it probably had no business being at the dining hall. It was just as well, because Reginald probably thought the same of Gendry. But his thoughts of food was mingled with this notion of how he should be treating her. Which meant, unfortunately, an apology. "I should have minded my tongue before, with me going on saying all those words I did."
bullhorned: (Praying on your worst fears!!)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-24 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
"You're a queen, your grace. I'm not so stupid that I can't change the words I use." It was an effort, certainly, because he lacked any real courtly graces. But he knew what was appropriate and what wasn't, regardless of spending a lifetime living one other way. But highborn ladies always expected men to be better than they really were. And so Gendry intended to do just that.
bullhorned: (Dirty rotten bastard)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-25 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
He snorted and made a valiant effort to not grin. A sense of humor changed nothing. His uncle seemed to have an endless supply of clever quips and easy smiles. But it did not change his uncle being a king as well. Even if Gendry did regularly tell his uncle exactly what he thought of him.

But they were inside the castle now and out of the sun and all the usual bustle of castle life carried on around them as he took them down the corridor to the dining hall. "I'd expect you'd want something finer than water. Some red wine, mayhaps."
bullhorned: (Arya I swear to gods)

[personal profile] bullhorned 2014-08-25 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
The dining hall was vast as they entered it and meant to hold a great number of people in audience. But for now, it was largely empty and only one of the long tables was presently set up to be sat at for eating. A group of natives occupied one end of it, so Gendry chose the opposite end for the both of them. He steadied his scabbard as he sat, then gave the dog a pat along the head as it came up beside him. He paid no mind as it licked at his fingers.

"It'll be ale and sausage for me. But they'll make whatever it is you like. There's no end to what sort of foods they make."

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