002 || video + action

[nedstarksbastard]

Who: Two literal five-year-olds. (aka: Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy [reek])
Broadcast: fleetwide! whoops.
Action: Three Twins. sorry gang.
When: now!

[Here’s the setting: the engine room of the Three Twins, and Jon is nowhere to be found. Judging from the sounds of the engines humming coming just off-screen, though, he sounds like he’s actually working on something. Or just trying to familiarize himself with how his new equipment and the ship works--he’s learned from the last disaster he’s had, thankfully off the ship.

Apparently, however, he still hasn’t learned from the last time he was unknowingly filmed, but this time it’s a different culprit.

The culprit isn't a particularly good cameraman. The video is shaky, and the occasional thumb makes an appearance over the lens, but somehow with a little quiet maneuvering, the mystery man manages to get Jon into frame. ]

They're actually letting you work down here? Did they miss your previous attempt?

[ The voice is sharp, it's smug, and there's a note of laughter in every word. Surprise, it's everyone's favorite mess, Theon Greyjoy. ]

Well, I suspect they won't miss it this time. Do your crew a favor and try to keep the fire down this time, Snow.

[Jon makes a noise and whips around. It sounds vaguely like a particularly sulfurous curse that, had Jon Snow known a mother, he wouldn’t even dream of spitting out at his worst enemy. But as things stand, Theon’s getting very, very close to that rank, and Jon never knew his mother anyway.

Note that he has a wrench in his hand. That’ll come in handy later.

His eyes narrow when he sees Theon. This won’t go too well, clearly.]

What are you doing here? [And--wait. Is that--he points his wrench at the communicator.] And turn that off, Greyjoy.

[ Theon only laughs and takes a step closer to bring Jon (and the wrench) further into view. He truly believes Jon is about to set this entire engine room on fire, and proof of it on video would be nothing less than delicious. ]

Simple enough. I sensed your stupidity and had to come see it take shape again. [ You don't need to see Theon's face to know he's grinning a cheshire grin. His smile is totally audible. ] I thought everyone else would like to see as well. I'm sure they're willing to wait.

[This is the face of a man who is most definitely a hair’s breadth from just throwing something at Theon’s head. What is it about Greyjoy that brings out Jon’s inner five-year-old, really?]

You’ve wasted their time then. [Do you see any fires here?] Turn that off and leave, Greyjoy. [Or else, is the underlying threat here. And judging from how tense he is he’s very likely to carry out the unspoken threat.]

[ Another laugh from Theon. He's never humored Snow before, so why should he start now? The shakiness of the camera subsides a bit, as if Theon's leaned back against a wall to wait for the real show to begin. ]

Give it a moment, then we'll decide if I've wasted their time.

[Well. He warned him, and Jon’s angry enough now that he decides, fine. He might not have a sword or any kind of viable weapon with him, but he has a wrench and it’s heavy and it should do the job just fine.

Said wrench is not in Jon’s hand anymore, it’s just been thrown straight at Theon’s head, and Jon himself is probably (read: definitely, whether Theon gets hit or not) going to follow that up with making an attempted grab for the communicator so he can turn it off, which won’t turn out all that well.]

[ Theon tries, he tries so hard to duck the wrench because Jon is predictable and was obviously going to make use of what he had. He nearly makes it, but judging by the loud swear he lets out, he clearly wasn't quick enough. ]

Seven hells, you ass... [ The video is shaking something awful now as two medieval five year olds wrestle with one another to stop it from recording. ] Stop--get away from me, Snow! You're doing it wrong.

Then give it--[wait. Shit.

Wrong button.]

((black is Jon, gold is Theon!))

Comments

[passingthrough]

Still making friends I see. [That part is for Theon, not that she specifies. Probably not too hard to guess.]

You know it wasn't even very good baiting, Jon.

[nedstarksbastard]

[A long sigh.]

I gave him a chance to get out. He didn't. [A pause, then, somewhat remorsefully:] Though I was the one responsible for posting it.

[passingthrough]

You pressed a button. Things happen. Nothing exploded.

Is all this because he's a general charmer [she saw him calling out his captain publicly] or did you know him before life in space?

[nedstarksbastard]

Then I suppose I'm getting better at being an engineer, if nothing exploded.

[Since the last time--but we're just not going to talk about that.]

I knew him all too well before I came here. We grew up together--he was my father's ward. [Hostage, actually, and fellow outsider, even if it hasn't stopped either of them from annoying each other.]

[passingthrough]

I guess the augments only do so much then. [She hadn't really been sure. After all, she'd flown aircraft within earth's atmosphere before. So, she'd already expected piloting to come fairly naturally even if she hadn't been augmented with it. But she could remember Jon asking about a blacksmith. She could only guess his previous experience was a little limited in that area.]

Not someone you'd call brother though?

[nedstarksbastard]

I know what things are and how they work, at least. It's just that I've none of the experience needed.

[And that's something he means to correct as soon as possible. No more mini-explosions, that's his goal for the year.]

Gods, no. [They might have shared a few moments of solidarity over being outsiders, but said moments probably add up to like. Ten seconds, total.] He was an ass then and he's still one now, as well as a turncloak now too.

[passingthrough]

I guess that makes sense. [She idly wonders how her skills would fare against his. Her augment doesn't help with engineering except in a few systems related to the piloting, but she'd has plenty of experience and aptitude for it. Or at least for the technologies she'd run into at home and in the prison. Probably not the best timing to ask if he'd experiment with her. Might be a dangerous thing for a ship too.]

Turncloak? Oh, like a turncoat? A traitor?

[nedstarksbastard]

Aye. It's a long story, and I was at the Wall when all of it happened. What I know of it, I heard from others. [A shrug.] It'd be best to ask Bran or Robb about it. They can tell it better than I could.

[passingthrough]

Haven't met a Bran or a Robb, but I'll keep that in mind. [She doesn't really need a full story.]

What's the Wall? [She knows what a wall is, but that sounded like a specific thing of more importance.]

[nedstarksbastard]

[Oh, yeah--that.]

Further North of Winterfell, where I grew up, stands the Wall. It's a wall of ice, about--seven hundred feet high, and my uncle always said the top was wide enough for about a dozen armored knights on horseback, riding abreast. [And when you look at it--well, someone once called it one of the nine wonders made by man, for a reason.] The stories say it was built a long time ago, thousands of years before Aegon Targaryen and his dragons ever came to Westeros, after the Long Night, to keep out the Others--things that hated all life, that might've come with the Long Night or might've cause it themselves, that could bring back the dead as their servants.

[The way Jon talks about it, it's clear he's had more than enough personal experience with, if not the Others, than their servants to speak so firmly on it, even if he's just couching it in the form of a story.]

The Night's Watch was formed to hold the Wall, to serve the realm as a defense against those who would threaten it from beyond the Wall [ie wildlings, and now the Others]. When we take the black--when we join the Night's Watch--we join for life, and we swear not to take part in any conflict within the realm itself, or to leave our posts. It's why I can't speak as to Greyjoy turning his cloak--when it happened, I was too far away to even hear news of it quickly, and I couldn't have done anything even if I wasn't. All I know of it are the things I heard about it from others, and I think we both know how reliable that can be.

[His vows didn't stop Jon from wanting to ride to Winterfell to get Arya back, later on, but. Well. He's here right now and not currently at Winterfell or at the Wall, which probably says a lot about how successful he was there.

He's also leaving out some important details about where he was, exactly--beyond the Wall himself, with much of the Night's Watch, but this is already more than she probably wanted to know about the Wall.]

[passingthrough]

Actual dragons? [Okay, so that wasn't the point of the story at all or what's clearly important to him, but come on...dragons! Plus, this idea isn't all that strange to her. There was a dragon god in the prison for awhile. But he looked like a guy, not a dragon. Thus, "actual dragons?"] Like wings and claws and tails and big teeth?

[She is curious about the wall too. How did they build a wall of ice without someone like Bobby. Or maybe they have someone like Bobby. They might have dragons. The part about the oath sounds hard too. She's devoted herself to a cause before, but everyone she cared about was right there. She didn't have to worry about someone far away she couldn't protect. Well, until coming here. Her world may be beyond saving, but she had friends in the prison.]

[nedstarksbastard]

[A pause. Well--okay?]

Yes. [That's pretty blunt, but he continues on:] They've been dead for centuries, though, and the Targaryens were driven out from Westeros more than fifteen years ago. [Seventeen years ago, actually. Jon would know, he was born around that same time.] All I know of dragons, I heard from stories. Why do you ask?

[passingthrough]

[She smiles softly.] Sorry. Just...dragons, you know? [Okay, you probably don't.] I'm used to a lot of strange and dragons have kind of being a part of that strange already, but they still seem like something on another level. [Some fantasy for her sci-fi life.]

They're really just stories at home too. Though not so much in a way that they were ever anything else. [She has dinosaurs for that.] Not really the important part of your story. Big commitment taking an oath like that. I've dedicated myself to causes before, but there's always still a way out even when you don't take it.

[reek]

I know him. We've never been friends.

[ Because Theon takes jealousy out like...well, like this. ]

[passingthrough]

I can't imagine why. [She can. She's pretty sure it's you, Theon.]

[reek]

[ To be fair, they were both outcasts in the Stark household. But yeah, it's mostly Theon. ]

Live with Snow for ten years and it will be easier to imagine.

[passingthrough]

You never know, I might get that chance. The Atroma didn't exactly put a clock on this adventure.

We'll meet back here in ten years and compare notes? [Joking of course.]

[reek]

I'll leave him to you, then. I do not foresee myself suffering him for ten years more.

[ But it might be better to stay here if given the choice. At least he isn't like to be beheaded here. ]

[passingthrough]

So why provoke him instead of just keeping your distance? [She may be judging, but she is also trying to coax him toward some possibly better life choices while she's at it.]

[reek]

His reaction is entertaining.

[ And that's actually the truth, mostly. ]

As it always has been.

[passingthrough]

You like being hit with wrenches? Kinky.

[reek]

Rather, I like seeing him get upset over small things.

[passingthrough]

So your a sadist because you enjoy someone else's pain. But also a masochist because it just gets you hit with wrenches.

Seriously, isn't life hard enough without making it worse on purpose?

[reek]

[ Well, his life is. So he makes life worse for other people to feel better about his own. ]

You can't just take my answer for what it is, can you? I've done him a favor. If he's angry, he's doing something other than moping.

[passingthrough]

You did this for his good? Because you wanted to distract him from being sad with anger? [God help her that makes a certain amount of sense to her way of thinking. Being angry is easier. Not that she's sure there was anything noble in this attempt.]