Video - Seelie/Unseelie

[teenyoda]

[The image that comes onto the lockets is an almost peaceful one. The blue sky and white fluffy clouds that bob a little from the POV of the locket. A little movement shows that that's because the transmission is clearly coming from a boat. The locket, with a little more jostling, is shown to be resting in fabric on what appears to be the deck of the boat. One might be curious as to why a transmission was coming suddenly from seemingly nowhere on a boat, but the answer shows itself soon enough in the form of one suckered tentacle flipping the locket around. If it was ever possible for an octopus to look both pissed off and surprised out of its mind, this one was doing a very good job. One of its many arms clutched at a small feather, the other limbs flopping around and smacking at the deck as the thing clearly tried to actually go somewhere. It couldn't walk to save its life and wound up rolling out of the pile of clothes, taking the locket with it.

Heavy stomps could be heard as boots came closer across the deck to the cephalopod, a shadow coming between the sun and the locket as a large man loomed over it. "Well then. What's this? How's you get aboard, ye slippery little thing. Back to the sea with you."

A hand bent down to try to pick up the octopus and there was a flurry of lashing arms as it latched onto the man and refused to let go. Curses were spat and the man called out for a fellow sailor, but before the other man could come closer with the knife it held to free his shipmate, a third voice joined. One others might find a bit familiar. A naked seventeen year old was clutching the man's arm and looking up at him with fear and horror. It took Stiles about five second to remember about the locket and he dropped to the deck, scrambling for both his clothes and to turn the locket off.]

~*~

[It was about twenty minutes later when a red-faced Stiles showed himself on the network.]

Um, about that...

Sorry? I... have no idea what happened. One minute I was standing looking over the rails and the next... um... aha. Let's just pretend that didn't happen, okay? Okay. But, if anyone can tell me what just happened, that would be really, really helpful. Especially in making sure it doesn't happen again.

Comments

[teenyoda]

[Unfortunately not, Jon. It was just the solo mamasita. Who he borrowed. Rarely. Sort of.]

Yeah, well... different places, man. But Scott and I grew up together and, you know. We just... clicked. We have each other's backs.

Not counting this place.

[baseborne]

What's he like, then? Scott. [What an odd name tbh.]

[teenyoda]

[Said the equivalent of Jon Smith. =|]

Scott? He's a good guy. Always tries to do the right thing. Tries to make sure no one gets hurt. He's a sort of... guardian type. Only with puppy eyes and this weird innocently naive streak that I keep waiting for him to lose.

[baseborne]

Does that bother you so much? [His - Scott's - innocence and naivete. Maester Aemon had once told Jon kill the boy, and let the man be born, and he had followed that advice until he hated himself. He'd even tried to do the same for Sam, so he might survive the coming war, though it had been no easy thing. But he can't picture Stiles wanting such for anyone: he's the only one who treats Jon like there's still a boy inside him, or that if there was it wouldn't be something shameful.]

[teenyoda]

Yes and no. I mean, I really kind of don't want him to lose it since it's what makes him, him. But the world we live in has changed a lot in the last year and I don't want it to be the reason he gets killed. I don't want to have to try to move on past his death. I just don't want it to happen.

[baseborne]

[Welp. Jon knows dem feels. It's just... a little more hardcore than he expected from Stiles "everyone lives to 65" Stilinski.] What happened in the last year that your world became so different?

[teenyoda]

Werewolves.

[No lie, Jon.]

And hunters and kanimas and darachs and evil fox spirits. We haven't all walked away and I just don't want Scott to be one of the casualties.

[baseborne]

[There it is again, werewolves. Jon couldn't even begin to guess what kanimas and darachs are meant to be, but it's not like he's not known an evil fox spirit here (lookin at you Reynard.)]

Aye. It's no easy thing to lose a brother.

[teenyoda]

[He winced, remembering Jon telling him about Robb.]

Sorry.

[But at least Jon knew what he meant.]

What was he like? You don't have to tell me if you don't want, but... I'm curious.

[baseborne]

[Jon frowns, trying to recall which brother he'd mentioned to Stiles. He doesn't talk about such things very often - there was no sympathy to be had at the Wall - so it's hard.]

Which one?

[teenyoda]

[Ah, to have multiple siblings. It's a gift, Jon.]

Whichever one you want to talk about.

[baseborne]

[Except when they all get murdered or married off to monsters tbh.

Jon hesitates, not sure if he can bring himself to speak of Robb now without getting more emotional than he's entirely comfortable with so--]

--Bran, he was one of my little brothers. He'd have been ten now, if he hadn't- [You know, had his head chopped off by Theon Turncloak and his corpse hung from the walls of Winterfell.] He always wanted to be a knight out of the songs, it was all he'd talk about. He wanted on the Kingsguard, in truth, but there's only seven men in all of Westeros that get to hold that title at a time. [For the seven southron gods or the seven kingdoms, Jon isn't sure, because he'd never truly been interested in anything but the Night's Watch.] He liked the sort of scary stories that Old Nan used to tell, he'd have been beside himself if he heard I'd killed a wight and gave a giant guest right. [Jon actually smiles, just a little bit, then.] He could climb anything. Straight up stone walls, sometimes, I don't know how he did it. There were days you'd look up to see the sky and he'd just be standing atop the highest tower waving down. It drove his lady mother mad with worry.

[Jon's smile fades, then.] I suppose it ought to have. One day he fell, and he could never walk again after that.

[teenyoda]

[It was nice to hear Jon talking without that hint of sadness -- until it all came crashing back in again and Stiles shook his head.]

Jesus. Can't your family catch a break? Is one of your gods the god of luck? Did he piss on you guys at birth or something?

[Way to ruin the burgeoning warm fuzzies, Jon.]

[baseborne]

[What was it that Lord Tyrion had said? If a man is going to be a cripple, it's better to be a rich cripple?. But money can hardly be said to make death any sweeter.]

It's men who are cruel, not gods. [He frowns, looking at Stiles for a moment.] I'm sorry. You wanted something more cheerful. [That much is plain.]

[teenyoda]

No, no. This isn't about me, bro. Just... I don't know. I would have hoped you'd have some good memories about your family. It's the good memories you're supposed to cling to, not the crappy ones.

[baseborne]

[You don't understand Stiles, if Jon doesn't make himself miserable, who will?]

I have got good memories. It's only-- I don't know how to forget what happened after.

[teenyoda]

It's not a matter of forgetting the bad. That's... kind of impossible. But just try not to let your mind skip to it when you're thinking of the good things.

[Gee, Jon. I don't know. Life?]

[baseborne]

Is that what you do? [He remembers the video dream, and Stiles as a boy with his mother. He has somehow managed to come off as fairly well adjusted, if completely and utterly strange, unlike Jon "sadsack" Snow...]

[teenyoda]

It's what I try to do. Not like I don't have funks of remembering all the bad stuff, but sometimes I just sit there and try to think of all the good. Like Christmases or birthdays or just quiet family moments that you don't realize are amazing until you can't have them anymore. Those times you take it for granted, you know? You just think about all those and it... it dulls it a bit. I mean, it never goes away, but... you can dull it.

[baseborne]

What is Christmas? [Sansa had the snowing tree, and it had some relation, as far as Jon could tell...]

[teenyoda]

Remember that sort of dream thing that got thrown out on the network of when I was a kid? The tree and the presents and all that? That's Christmas. It's a holiday.