July Arrivals

[sixthiteration]

WHO: Arrivals
WHERE: The fountain park
WHEN: July 1, 12:00 PM
OPEN TO: ALL
WARNINGS: N/A
STATUS: CLOSED

---

In the snug circle of an old park, a fountain sits burbling beneath a broad, midday sky.

Once-neat paving stones have buckled and cracked from the slow nudge of wayward roots. Benches stand covered in lichen and rust. Three paths push into the underbrush like the spokes on a wheel, the encroaching forest creating lush tunnels through the dark.

But the fountain stands singular and pristine, brightly splashing in open rebellion of the deep, muffled sounds of a place long ago gone to seed. A vibration hums through the ground, there and quickly gone, and the water in the fountain trembles, lapping against the high walls of its cool, pale reservoir.

It is the first of July.

It is precisely twelve o'clock in the afternoon.

Comments

[tooktheblack]

There were no niceties in how he was addressed but Jon didn't need them. He was confused by this place and felt bedraggled and out of sorts. His own temper was short, as it was, and a blunt question was much easier to address than an attempt to be kind. He struggled to raise his voice over the sound of the howling wind, not wanting to have to speak twice just to get his point across.

"Westeros," he said, as blunt as the question had been posed to him. "From the North, from Winterfell." It was very obvious that this place was as far removed from Winterfell as it could be, considering, but that still didn't tell Jon where he was. The howling wind only proved that something was coming and, honestly, that this something might not be pleasant.

He wished he had a weapon. He wished he had Ghost. He had neither.

"And you?"

[andrend]

Ren searched for a planet he could claim without having to tell too many lies or avoid too many questions. Westeros and Winterfell were unfamiliar names, but there were many cities, moons and planets in the galaxy, and several had already claimed not to even know travel between planets was possible. Any name would have theoretically done, but-

"Birren," He responded with an unpleasant taste in his mouth. It was good enough. It would suffice. "The Inner Rim." His voice was raised as well, smooth and heavy with his words. Jon was not the only one wishing he had a weapon. Ren had relinquished his makeshift one at the urging of a stranger and he still regretted it. But the man had been right to caution riling a group of world-torn and unarmed strangers.

"This place is neither." It was a guess, but he claimed it as fact all the same. No one knew where they were. Even with his connection to the force hampered, with so many people feeling the same emotions he could sense the general emotional state of their unwilling comrades. Confusion, frustration, anger. Any other time and he might have enjoyed the feel of those emotions coursing through him. Now he was conflicted. Trapped.

"My name is Kylo Ren." He had told enough people so far, none had recognized the name or shown any indication of emotional response to it. "Master of the Knights of Ren." If anything, perhaps he could find some level of respect from these people and use it to his advantage in getting them to work with him in whatever corner of galactic trash system this planet or moon was located.

[tooktheblack]

"Ser Kylo, then," Jon said, giving respect where it was due. He had not heard of the Knights of Ren before but anyone who had been knighted was owed that style and the courtesies that came along with it, especially from a bastard like Jon.

Perhaps he was the commander of the Stark armies now and perhaps he had risen very high in the Night's Watch but the dishonor and shame of his birth would still follow him no matter where he went. It was in his name, in those four letters that meant nothing and everything at once. Snow. As ubiquitous as his namesake, bastards were hardly rare occurrences. Still, being Ned Stark's bastard was something singular; the man had not so much as ever looked at another woman aside from his wife. It was a mystery to everyone who might have turned his head to lead him to father Jon.

"Jon Snow," he offered in exchange. "It's an honor."

[andrend]

Respect was a welcome change to the previous interactions Ren had been met with, and it started him on a good footing with the stranger. Jon Snow. Ren committed the name to memory and offered the man a nod in acknowledgement. At least a few individuals among the group had potential to be more than useless pieces he didn't know what to do with yet.

He kept his voice even but raised to counter the wind.

"For the moment it seems we have no choice but to remain here." Sam had suggested allies would be good to have, and the man had not been wrong. This man, Ren could tolerate. He spoke with respect and without excess flourish and rambling. Ren appreciated that.

"If you are capable of holding your own we might both benefit from an extra set of hands and eyes while we're here." Which was something he only said because Jon looked like he might actually be capable.

[tooktheblack]

"I've had some experience fighting," Jon said. He thought it might be modest, considering he'd just come off the biggest victory of his career, but that had only come with aid from the Vale. He hadn't done that alone. He might have been made a king by the lords of the North but he wasn't born a king and the mantle set heavy on his shoulders.

Here, his title meant nothing. His name meant nothing. It would be the skill of his hands and the strength of his back that would carry him through here and he hoped that he would use them well and aid those around him. This man was tall and looked capable enough; he would make a fine ally.

"Not afraid to do that if I need to. I hope it doesn't come to it, though, since we've all just shown up. Hopefully whoever brought us here isn't looking to start a fight but if they are, I'm not afraid to finish it."

[andrend]

"Good. That is the kind of thinking that I like to see." Ren studied Jon as he spoke. If the man was a skilled enough fighter, and with the temperament he seemed to carry himself with, Ren was certain he could find uses for Jon. There were plenty of reasons to want to keep a fighter around and more or less on his side. Perhaps he could do with a few temporary allies.

Longer, if they did not disappoint or betray him.

"If they were looking for us to be fighting one another, they would have left us with weapons. I think the motives behind this are a bit different than that." He still believed they were captives of slavers.

"Did you have many enemies in Westeros?"

[tooktheblack]

"A fair few," Jon said, thinking back to the betrayal on the Wall. He was King in the North now, yes, but that didn't mean his enemies were less. On the contrary, he probably had more enemies now than he'd ever had. A bastard did not normally rise so high in the world, not even Ned Stark's bastard.

"Enough that I wouldn't want them to follow me through to this place but if they do, I'll find a way to deal with it. I'm not afraid."

[andrend]

They shared that in common. The commonality was almost reassuring to Ren. There was something to link them, however small, and that was a start. Whether Jon knew it or not they appeared to share a common enemy.

"There is a chance that one of our enemies is the cause for this relocation. Whether that is the case or not, I have no fight with you." Not yet, at least. But anyone who did not recognize the names he had mentioned seemed unlikely to know him or the missions he had for the future of the galaxy. Jon was not his enemy until he gave Ren a reason to view him as one.

"If your enemies do happen to emerge, you will not have to face them alone." It wasn't a selfless offer. He expected the same from Jon. The man seemed to understand a code of some sorts, and Ren had no fear of fighting. The unknown was just a different kind of challenge.

"What weapons are you familiar with?" He didn't sense any other force users, but it was hard to tell just how much of his own use of the force had been limited by what was holding him back.

[tooktheblack]

"The bow and the sword, mostly," Jon said, confident in that response. He would use either to defend someone against their enemies until he had cause to rise against them so for now, he was considering Ren an ally. They had the common enemy of this place, after all, and Jon wanted all the help he could get in defending himself.

"I have some knowledge of knives and siege craft, too, but that's for a big battle. Up close, it's better to use fists and smaller weapons. Who cares if you have a trebuchet if someone's in your face? What about you? Sword, I assume?"