driftfleet | everything cycles

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everything cycles

Who: Sansa Stark
Broadcast: Fleet-wide
Action: Marsiva
When: 26 October

( Sansa feels as if she's been asleep for quite a long time. She doesn't remember dreaming, necessarily, and she doesn't know precisely why she's on the Marsiva instead of in her own quarters on the Huntress. None of it feels quite right, or natural, but after taking a few moments to get her bearings she guesses the best way to find out what is happening is simply to address the Fleet. )

Have any of you ever gone to bed on one ship and woken up again on the Marsiva? I've never had this happen to me before and while sleepwalking isn't foreign, sleepwalking and taking a shuttle is something else entirely.

( Sansa supposes she might have left the Fleet and come back, somehow, but if she has, she has no memory of the intervening time. She has nothing to account for having left and returned to Westeros and come back to the deck of the Marsiva and it's a bit concerning; gaps in her memory cannot mean anything good. Has she been ill? Poisoned? Who knows what the Lords of Atroma might have done for ratings? )

If I haven't walked in my sleep, I guess I might have disappeared but I have no memory of doing that either. I know this is a strange question to posit to the Fleet entirely but I simply cannot let it rest until I know something more than I do now.

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[It's someone she might have seen around, though for the most part it would have been a very long time ago. A very maroon-skinned individual, though his voice is cultured.]

Yes, I have. Though in my case, several years passed at home between the vanishing and reappearing, and time passed here as well.

( Sansa doesn't recognize him as such but that doesn't mean he hadn't been in the Fleet during her time here. She imagines there were a great many people she didn't get a chance to meet, before, and she welcomes meeting someone new even if she herself isn't entirely new. )

Several years? I don't remember returning home at all. Honestly, I feel like I got a rather long and blank night of sleep. It's been a long time since I haven't dreamt at all; I've always been something of a restless sleeper.

[It's been easy to miss people here and there, especially when all the ships were full to capacity. Things have downsized a bit since then, though.]

Hmm. Thor was recently missing for a month, but he reappeared on his own ship, and I gather it was something of a nap. Ah, and Eugene was gone for some time and reawoke on the Marsiva. Which reminds me, two of the ships recently fused into one. The Wonderduck and the Starstruck are no more, with the Starduck taking its place.

[Missing a prime opportunity to be called the "Wonderstruck", in his opinion.]

( Sansa cannot help but let out a bit of a laugh at the name Starduck. It's utterly ridiculous and while most of the ships in the Fleet have strange names, they'd been no stranger, really, than ships in Westeros. Until now, anyway. )

Starduck, truly? That is not how I would have combined those two words, I must confess. Every time I think I understand our captors, they surprise me anew with their...taste.

[Right? It's just so...silly. he smiles a bit]

Nor would I have. Though if they were attempting to impress us with the gravitas of the names, would we have had the Wonderduck in the first place?

I suppose we wouldn't have. Where I come from, a ship is named for something powerful .- it sends a message about the person or people who own it.

( Sansa tips her head a bit, curious. )

So what does Starduck say about the Lords of Atroma?

[He narrows his eyes, thinking.]

Hmm. I would say that it means they have a distinctly different cultural norm than many of us. In many ways it reminds me of a neural network -I don't suppose you're familiar with those? It's something that sees a group of things and then tries to create new things for the group, but lacking the appropriate context often generates nonsense.

My only familiarity with such things is from my last time here in the Fleet. Where I come from, we have no way of communicating like this over long distance. We have to write letters and send them by courier or raven.

( Sansa is grateful she has her previous experience to fall back upon, at least, and she's not as lost as she was when she first came here to the Fleet all those moons ago. )

I think I can understand what you mean, though. It's as if it's trying to learn the dialect of one kingdom and trying to apply it to another, yes?

Raven? I've not heard of that one, though homing pigeons were once widely used in our own history. I'd imagine a raven could carry much heavier loads.

Yes, that's very much like it. Or how someone who's learned a tongue from a book might use entirely the wrong words in conversation when meeting a native speaker.

A raven is much more clever than a pigeon. They can fly quite quickly, even over long distances, and some can even learn to talk a bit. Not much, mind, but a little.

( Sansa grins a bit. She's never heard of birds being used anywhere other than Westeros. )

This is the first I've heard of birds being used in other places, though. I thought it was just a strange Westerosi thing.

Ravens are among the most intelligent birds we know of, though I believe in my world they weren't known for their homing instinct, and so did not have that particular job. Do you know if the ones you use are specially bred for the task, or if any raven can serve as a messenger? Provided they have a nest in the appropriate area, naturally.

It may just be that so many Earth residents here come from a time when technology had outpaced most of the older methods of communication. The history of carrier pigeons goes back several thousand years. They've been used in times of war even up to the modern day - a transmitted radio signal can be hacked, but intercepting a physical message from a common bird is much more difficult. And for small islands with little technology at all, it's far more efficient than running a boat out there twice a day.

Oh, ravens are bred to carry scrolls. The common ones don't come back the way the trained ones do.

( Sansa isn't an expert on these things but she does know that the Citadel spends a lot of time breeding and training ravens to carry messages. )

They can be shot down or intercepted, yes, but at least they won't read what you wrote.

Ah, so a particular subset of them, then. I'd love to see such a thing in person. [Look, he might be a super-advanced android, but between the cleverness in a large-scale bird-mail society and the cooperation necessary between humans and animals to make it work, it's exactly the kind of thing he loves.]

Thank you for the impromptu history lesson, in any case.

( Sansa gives him a bit of a smile and dips her head, glad to have offered the knowledge even if it's something of little use here in the Fleet. )

The ways of my world are antiquated and inefficient compared to how we communicate here. I just don't even know how I'd reproduce this sort of thing. We don't have the structure to do it.

You mustn't take that as a bad thing; nearly all of us come from worlds with technology far outpaced by what we have here.

[He taps his fingers on his chin, thinking.]

Though if you were truly curious, I could outline a few ways that wouldn't be terribly arduous to set up over a large area. The trick would be remembering it when you get home.

Yes, I don't know that I would recall anything from here if I ever made it back to Westeros. I think the real issue is that we don't...there are no wires or electricity where I am from.

( Sansa thinks that will make reproducing the conditions of the Fleet nigh upon impossible. )

Not even the maesters have invented them.

Electricity can be made with running water or wind, on much the same principles as a mill. I'm certain your people will figure it out before too long if you have those already.

[Okay, yes, it's somewhat more complicated than that, but the base premise is still the same. Also, he has faith in humanity's boundless capacity for innovation.]

We do have mills, yes. I don't know much about how a mill works but I can take your word for it.

( The idea of technology back in Westeros is a strange thing but Sansa is not opposed to it. Anything that might help in the wars to come. )

I think you may be entirely too clever for me, though. I wouldn't have thought to apply such a thing to a mill.

[That gets a fond smile, because he's not the clever one at all - it's generations of perfectly normal humans, making the most out of what they have.]

All it takes is a person asking the right question at the right time. Why do flint and obsidian shatter in similar patterns, yet one produces a spark when struck with steel and one does not? Why does short hair stand on end if you walk on a plush carpet with wool socks? For that matter, what is lightning?

The force of water or wind can move a large millstone. What else might it be able to do, if you knew the answers to the first questions?

Humanity will never stop asking questions. It's a large part of what makes them special.

You would have been a maester in Westeros, I think. Anyone with that sort of curiosity would have wound up at the Citadel for certain.

( Sansa laughs a bit, self-deprecating. This is not her strong suit, she's afraid, and matters of science and medicine and the wonders of the natural world are things she's never pursued. )

Do you know my husband, Tyrion Lannister? He used to be in the Fleet. I'm not sure if he is any longer.

If that is the kind of person that likes to discover things and help people, I cannot disagree with you.

[He looks thoughtful for a moment.] I believe I've seen him on the network, but we don't know one another. I've not seen anyone announcing his departure, however, so it's likely he's still here. I hope so.

I hope so too. He's the only person from home that's here - or was, anyway.

( Sansa thinks she needs someone from home now more than ever. Her departure seems to have set her back to the beginning - she has nothing to call her own here. )

I hope I'll see more of you, too?

I'd like that. I hope to see you around, then.

[Trepidation fills him. From the bottom of his heart all the way down to his toes. He has no idea who he might be talkigng - or rather which Sansa. It will all depend on her answer to him now. He cautiously hits the reply.]

I was gone for only two weeks, and woke up suddenly on the Marvisa.

( When Sansa sees Tyrion's face over the video feed, she smiles a bit both in happiness and utter relief. If anyone is going to know what is going on, it's him, and she can trust his counsel on the matter. )

I think I remember when that happened - you were missing from the Fleet for a while and then you turned up again just as if nothing had happened in the interim.

( She gives him a curious look, assessing him. )

Nothing has happened in the time I've been asleep, has it?

[Something Tyrion's chest loosens, and he can feel himself breath as he hasn't been able to in some time.]

- Yes. Precisely. Besides me mourning your absence, and a few good friends heading their way home ... oh and we visited a few interesting planets? Not much.

[Too much. He missed her terribly.]

( Sansa hates that he had to mourn her. They've both lost too many people over the years and causing Tyrion pain, even inadvertently, isn't something she ever wants to do. She hates that she's on this accursed ship, too, because she cannot leave to see him just yet. )

I had no intentions of leaving. I am quite sorry that you had to mourn me but hopefully I won't be going anywhere for a while.

[He gives her a crooked, saddened smile, but it is still a smile that is for her. He clenches his hand a few times, before he nodded.]

May I see you, once you are free of the Marvisa?

I thought I might come to you, considering I don't know which ship they'll assign me to this time around.

( Sansa colors a bit and tucks her hair behind one ear while she lets out a small laugh. It had taken her a while to remember how to laugh, truly, but she's glad nothing happened while she was removed from the Fleet to erase that progress. )

Which is, to say, yes. You may.

Well, that would certainly not be a hardship in my book. You are welcome whenever you wish to visit.

[He smiled warmly, before his lips curved up wryly.] Trust me, you shall be a breath of fresh air for one and all.

Well, I shall look forward to seeing you. I think we have quite a lot to catch up on, considering I've seemed to miss a few moons.

( Before this, Sansa had been exploring the possibility of being a proper wife to Tyrion and she doesn't know if he's still interested in that, considering she'd disappeared from the Fleet. She's unsure of how to broach the subject, really. )

Should we have tea?

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