mingle ye blue fishes

[summerschild]

Who: The crew of the Blue Fish, and visitors
Broadcast: Nah
Action: Aboard the Fish of Blue
When: 11/25 and onward

[We're baaaack! Whether or not you enjoyed your time aboard the Marsiva, there's really no place like space home. With a couple of new features to explore, it's time to mingle the hell out of this ship, comrades.]

Comments

[summerschild]

[His tiny hands immediately grasp at her shoulders, and a single sob slips out before he realizes he's even crying. Before long he's quivering in his sister's arms, gasping shallowly against the overwhelming heartache. It swells in his chest, choking him with cold fingers.

Sansa isn't warm and soothing like Catelyn, not after what horrors she must have been through in King's Landing. She doesn't smell like a fire in the hearth and sweet summer herbs, but he clings to her like a lifeline, and as he presses his wet cheek against her shoulder he strives to imagine himself home, before everyone left him. Everyone left him and none of them came back, and perhaps they never will. Robb won't. The thought won't stop repeating in his head.

Robb's dead. Robb's dead. Robb was killed, just like Father. I will never see Robb again.

Then, another awful thought creeps in, sharp as a needle. It takes the wind out of him, and as he lifts his head from Sansa's shoulder he can only whisper.]

Mother...?

[He feels as though he already knows the answer.]

[steeledskin]

[ her trembling fingers catch on the long waves in her brother's hair. she wants to kiss his forehead and soundly put to rest all his worries, but here is one lie she cannot tell. if she isn't honest with him now, then someone else will be honest later. lord tyrion, most likely, and then bran will hate her for having hidden the truth from him.

even though a lie would be kinder. ]

Mother stood beside Robb always in the war, I think. She went where he went, and sure enough she was at the Twins alongside him. [ her lower lip trembles. she tries very hard to be the grown-up proper lady she needs to be in this second. ] They murdered her. And they murdered Robb.

[ whispers and tears. ]

[summerschild]

[The dam breaks, and with a whimper into her shoulder Bran begins to sob in full. He clings to his sister as though he'll drown if they let go, and he cries long and hard until his tiny chest shudders and his head pounds. He cries for Mother and Father and Robb, and for Arya, and Jon Snow. He cries for Maester Luwin and Old Nan, for Rodrick Cassel and his daughter Beth, for every other man and woman and child he couldn't protect. He cries for Lady and Grey Wind, deep in the part of his mind where Summer's memories sleep. And when he feels like he has no tears left, he lifts his eyes gently from Sansa's shoulder and looks out at the stars.]

... She left before I woke up. [The words are bitter, but his voice is hollow.] You all did.

[steeledskin]

[ she adopts the sort of softness she's learned to provide to sweetrobin -- firm, but careful embraces. but with bran it's less a falsehood and more a raw expression of her love for him. ] I've come to regret leaving, Bran. I've come to regret it deeply.

[ she sniffles. there is an ache in her rib-cage. ] Before the end, I think even Father regretted leaving Winterfell.

[ it brought nothing but ruin. ]

[summerschild]

[Bran nods against her shoulder. He knows - he knows they regret the choice they made, but it doesn't quite quell the bitterness that's grown up between his ribs over the past two years. He doesn't blame Sansa, or Father, but some part of him is still blindly reaching for blame, for someone who can apologize to him for the hell that Winterfell became.

It isn't fair, though. He can't push that on Sansa. Just one look into her eyes can tell him that she has seen and suffered enough.]

... Stay here. Please.

[It's barely a whisper, as his fists loosen just slightly against her back.]

Can you stay on the Blue Fish?

[steeledskin]

[ her fingers catch in his curls once again. and then, with one bold step backwards, she puts space between herself and her brother. she moves to hold his hands again and -- with a firm nod -- pledges herself: ] Nothing here could make me happier.

[ she lies. not because his invitation doesn't please her (because it absolutely does lift her spirits and make her heart soar) but because she can think of things that would make the pair of them much happier. ]

But will your...fellows on this crew -- will they allow it?

[summerschild]

[He wipes one sleeve across his face, humming a yes.]

I already asked Allen and Captain Sokka, in case you wanted to.

[steeledskin]

How thoughtful! [ she can't smile -- not now. but warmth blooms in her heart, and gently touches her cheeks with a light flush. ] And what was their answer, Bran?

[summerschild]

They said that you can, as soon as the ship makes itself larger.

[steeledskin]

Don't be silly. [ she looks...befuddled. ] A ship can't make herself larger.

[summerschild]

Ours can! [He pulls away from her embrace, suddenly a bit excited.] Sometimes we wake up and whole rooms have been added to them. I think it must be magic.

[steeledskin]

[ her eyes stay narrowed. and perhaps it's the vestigial grief still surrounding her, but she shakes her head and seems unwilling to accept bran's explanation. ]

Tricks. Chicanery. It's not possible.

[summerschild]

[He looks at her intently, his head tilting just a bit.]

A lot more is possible than Maester Luwin ever taught us. I know that, now.

[steeledskin]

Mayhaps it's what these Atroma lords would have you believe -- to think impossible things are well within their scope.

[ she's been burned too badly to be anything but a skeptic. ]

[summerschild]

[He shakes his head vigorously.]

No, not here. At home.

[steeledskin]

[ oh, she frowns. ]

What are you talking about?

[summerschild]

[He pulls his arms close, watching the discomfort on her face.]

Did you ever... When you had Lady, did you ever dream through her eyes?

[steeledskin]

No. [ a pause. because (at least) she doesn't think she ever did. but talk of lady brings her spirits lower still, and sansa is quick to set her brother's question straight. and move on. ] Never.