learned_to_die: ([look] reverent)
Eddard Stark ([personal profile] learned_to_die) wrote in [community profile] sixthiterationlogs2017-11-16 12:02 pm

[the dire wolf collects his due while the boys sing 'round the fire]

WHO: Eddard Stark
WHERE: Around the village
WHEN: November 16, the beginning of the ice storm
OPEN TO: OTA!
WARNINGS: Will update as needed


The steadily dropping temperatures has filled Ned with a certain vigor, one he has not felt for quite some time. He has yet to experience a winter within the village, and while he has come to expect short and fleeting seasons here, unlike the seasons of Westeros, he cannot deny anticipating the frigid temperatures with which he's so intimately familiar. He will therefore enjoy the impending winter as deeply as he is able, for long as he is able.

It is in the early morning hours, when the village is still cloaked in darkness, that Ned is stirred awake by the sounds of rain pelting the roof of the cabin. No, it must be something harder than rain, given the noise and percussion of the sound; perhaps ice? He thinks to check on the others but, as he always is, he is concerned with being too overbearing and too meddling with their lives. None of them are children any longer, and though he does not anticipate having his usefulness wear out with them, he does not need to treat them as though they were still the children running around the yard at Winterfell.

He attempts to find slumber again but finds it impossible with the noise. He goes to the window to glance outside and, indeed, it seems as though ice is falling and crashing against all that lay on the earth. He busies himself until first light, donning the Westerosi outfit he'd received as a gift some time ago, as well as the heavier of the two fur-lined cloaks he'd also received as gifts. Quietly, he slips out of the house and out into what feels like a transformed world.

The village he knew as of the night prior has been turned into a wintry, sparkling land reminiscent of the North - the trees cocooned in layers of ice, the rain and ice falling from above. There is a particular smell in the air that always follows these colder, more frigid conditions, and if he closes his eyes and inhales deeply through his nostrils, he can almost convince himself that he's been transported back to the Godswood.

The thought of it reminds him of the small Weirwood sapling just south of the cabin and, after checking on it, he decides that perhaps he should build some sort of shelter for it, to protect it from the dagger-like ice.

He can be seen wandering about the village, checking the inventory at the Inn, trying to figure out a way to shield the small, white-barked tree from nature's harsher elements.
chirrutsluck: (skeptical)

[personal profile] chirrutsluck 2017-11-16 10:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Baze has finally broken out the coat that came in his backpack, and the overalls as well, packed in now with several layers as he trudges out into the frozen village first thing in the morning. Ice everywhere like this is not particularly familiar to him, but the cold is-- his moon may be a desert, but it's a desert just on the edge of habitable distance from its star. So he's dressed as appropriately as he can with the supplies he's been given.

And he's walking very carefully, using Chirrut's staff both for support and to dig into the ice where it's the most slippery to break it up and make sure it won't crack on its own under his weight.

He spots Ned at the small tree and crunches his way over there. "A young tree?" he says, a little skeptical about what is keeping the man's attention so about it. It's just a tree.
chirrutsluck: (lookaside)

[personal profile] chirrutsluck 2017-11-27 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
That explains that. Baze huffs a sigh, supposing if some flowering desert plant from Jedha showed up here he'd be equally protective of it, and moves to help, pulling a frozen branch that fell from another nearby tree to act as a support for the windbreak. "Bodhi has also received gifts from our home," he comments. "I have yet to receive anything. I almost dread the idea of it." Anything from Jedha would just remind him of what he's lost, he's sure.
chirrutsluck: (Default)

[personal profile] chirrutsluck 2017-12-08 06:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"We come from the same moon, and we died in the same battle, working for the same cause," Baze says with a shrug, still working. "Our home has been destroyed, so anything that comes from there must be fake." And would hurt to see, since he'd know it had to be re-created, probably from his and Bodhi's own memories. Besides, what could he possibly get? Most of his belongings were weapons and armor.
rangerbecket: (Default)

[personal profile] rangerbecket 2017-11-16 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Raleigh's thought about the weirwood too, if only because he knows it's important to Sansa. He has one of the ubiquitous snuggies from the Inn and when he sees Ned there, he offers it over. The ice is just beginning to pelt them and he thinks if they can get it wrapped now, it'll be safe.

"Best to try and wrap it up, right? It might not be perfect but it'll keep the worst of the ice off."
rangerbecket: (Default)

[personal profile] rangerbecket 2017-11-27 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's a...really bad cloak," Raleigh says. "I have a better one that Sansa gave me last year but this got left behind by someone else. Apparently it's called a snuggie, but we don't have them where I'm from either."

He looks at the weirwood, so small in the ice that's rapidly piling up around it. It looked fragile and he didn't want it to bend and break; who knew if they could get another one here?

"It's important to your family and important to Sansa. I'm going to do anything I can to keep it safe. I have a tree, too. It's called a sakura, it comes from a place called Japan. It's got little white blossoms in the spring and it means something to me. It isn't as strange to me as you might think to want to keep it safe."
rangerbecket: (Default)

[personal profile] rangerbecket 2017-12-02 07:00 am (UTC)(link)
"No, but having the tree helps us remember what it means, keeps it up in the front of our minds," Raleigh says. He likes Ned a lot, actually, and thinks he would even if he wasn't dating Sansa. As it is, he is dating Sansa and so the fact that he likes Ned is a very good thing. He just hopes it's mutual.

"Do you think it will be okay in all the ice? Sansa says it gets cold where you're from but this is a pretty young tree so..."
rangerbecket: (Default)

[personal profile] rangerbecket 2018-01-09 08:56 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'll do what I can. I don't want you guys to lose what's important to you. From what I understand from Sansa, you guys have lost enough. You don't need to go and lose something that reminds you of home."

He thinks he'll be coming out to check on this tree as often as he can and if it looks like its floundering a little, he'll go see Mark and see what he thinks about making it survive the winter - even if it means taking it up and potting it like Raleigh has his sakura.
iron_beneath_beauty: ([Lyanna] Oh God)

[personal profile] iron_beneath_beauty 2017-11-18 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
She was at the inn, assembling one of the multiple gifts she received, putting together what looked like a harp. It was similar in build and design to what Rhaegar had once played, though it would never compare to his silver harp with dragons engraved across it. This was simply wooden and plain, but perhaps that was for the best? She had no skill and would likely make the instrument suffer in the attempt.

Ned was distracted, rushing between the inn and outside. It didn't take much to gather what was on his mind. The ice storm was a threat to the Weirwood sapling, still so small and fragile. She had seen larger branches broken under the weight of the ice. What that could do to the weirwood sapling was no small thing.

"Did you find something to shield it?" She asked during one of his return trips to the inn.
iron_beneath_beauty: ([Lyanna] Sly)

[personal profile] iron_beneath_beauty 2017-12-01 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
The strings were the most difficult to assemble, needing to be taught and tuned. She shifted, struggling to have the instrument sit right on her lap as she tried to hold it close to her, winding the string around a knob. Rhaegar made it look so simple. If he broke a string, it didn't take much for him to reattach it. It was almost like a gentle weave of an embroidery needle. Threaded through once and he was done. All Lyanna could do was bite her lower lip and fight her impatience as she tried to recreate his movements.

"I have some burlap too, but you can't have that." She smirked up at him playfully. "I'll be using that to make targets for hunters and warriors. We need something to train against." But he had the right idea to protect the Weirwood sapling. "It will survive the winter, Ned. It was born in snow and thrives in the cold."

She wasn't sure if it was the most interesting news, but she lifted up the harp for him to see. "It's a harp! I have to put it together myself, but it should play nicely."
iron_beneath_beauty: ([Lyanna] Grins)

[personal profile] iron_beneath_beauty 2017-12-31 11:23 am (UTC)(link)
"What do you know about stringing a harp?" She asked him slyly. "I don't recall you ever playing an instrument. If I give it to you, how do I know that you're not going to break it? You don't exactly have delicate fingers." Still, she grinned at him and offered out the harp, curious to see if he could do any better than her. The sad fact was that they fell short of the dexterous dragon prince.

"Why should I help you? What do I get out of it?" He was teasing her, she knew that in the same way she knew that he would understand she was teasing him back. "We are, but that doesn't mean the tree won't be able to grow and thrive here. Weirwoods are the eyes of the Old Gods. I don't doubt they can find us here. It's cold enough for the sapling to thrive." This winter had already matched the chilled winds and frozen ground that they knew in the North.

She gave him a smack on the arm. "Just for that, you are going to have to listen to my first attempt!"
iron_beneath_beauty: ([Lyanna] Smiles (Hidden))

[personal profile] iron_beneath_beauty 2018-01-10 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
She hesitates, clutching the arms of her chair as she watched her brother string the harp. Each time it seemed like he would pull it too taut or missed the knob, she held her breath. It was difficult to describe how much that harp meant to her. It wasn't Rhaegar's, it wasn't anything like his beloved instrument, but it was a link to him and a reminder. It was all she would have in this world that would ever connect her to her dead lover. She needed it, if only to ease her heart.

She knew enough about the instrument to at least be able to tell if it was in tune or not. When they had been in the Tower, she had watched and listened to Rhaegar tune his harp. Once, he had even taught her to do it herself. She hadn't thought much of it at the time, only a bit of a game like when she would wear his clothes. Now, it would at least let her learn how to play the gift from the Observers.

"That's no satisfaction at all. You could at least try to bribe me." But she intended to give him what he wanted, if he really did want the burlap.

She shakes him off, trying to push away his hand as he pinched her. Lyanna gave him a sour look. "Fine, then I'll steal yours when you aren't looking. That will teach you to be cruel to your sister." But she accepted the harp with a thankful look, running her fingers over the strings.

"Do you remember when Rhaegar played at the tourney of Harrenhall?"
iron_beneath_beauty: ([Lyanna] Thoughtful (Upset))

[personal profile] iron_beneath_beauty 2018-01-15 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
She shushed him gently as she twisted the knobs of her harp, plucking at the strings as she listened for it to be in tune. It took a few minutes, but finally it sounded like Rhaegar's harp, as melodic and sweet sounding as when she last heard him play. She cradled the harp against her, holding it as though he were here, as if it could connect her to her long dead lover.

It was hard to miss the look in his eyes. Lyanna frowned at him in disapproval. While she knew Ned's reservations and the reason he was apprehensive about Rhaegar, she didn't want to see her favorite brother expressing disapproval about someone so important to her.

"I will need to talk about him sometimes and you are the only one here who knew him." She murmured to him, letting her fingers run over the strings, a whisper of music following her movements. "He was a good man, Ned and I think you know that. Whatever was said of him, he never hurt anyone intentionally or used people for his own gains."
iron_beneath_beauty: ([Lyanna] Pleads)

[personal profile] iron_beneath_beauty 2018-01-20 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)
She would master the harp, so long as she had the patience to learn. For now, her desire to have something to remind her of Rhaegar trumped her restless energy. It was a bit different to learn how to play an instrument rather than how to swing a sword. Those were easy skills for her to learn, but these more gentle talents had always been a bit beyond her.

He is trying for her sake and she recognizes that, offering a thankful smile.

"It's my fault that you believed it." She said, toying with a few of the strings. "I should have written you, sent a raven or something. I didn't think, I was too swept up in everything. By the time we reached the Tower, it was already too late. I suppose I hoped that you would know I wouldn't be kidnapped." She would die first.
king_in_the_north: (066)

[personal profile] king_in_the_north 2017-11-29 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
For days now, Robb's irritation had been like a living thing, twisting around in his belly and souring his thoughts even while he'd managed to hold his tongue. It had taken Jon's revelation to make him realize that he'd been holding a deep, secret anger against his father for a very long time — Perhaps, even, since Ned had left Winterfell, leaving Robb to console a grieving mother and shoulder alone the burden of the entire North. He had borne up, of course — It was what he was raised to do. But now he could understand the simmering resentment that had underpinned it all, and why, when he had learned of his father's death, his sorrow and rage had been mixed with a shameful, hot-burning anger toward not the people who had cut down Ned Stark, but the man himself.

He's older now, of course, and ostensibly some degree wiser, but the anger has bubbled up again, tasting like iron in his mouth. He cannot stop thinking about how different things might have been if only his father had trusted Jon enough to not doom him to a life of hard-scrabble servitude at the Wall.

He's using a broomstick to knock iciscicles free from the eaves of the house when he hears the crunch of footsteps up the walk. His stomach twists, gloved fingers clutching tighter against the stick as he lowers it and looks to his father.

"Jon told me," Robb says, the words coming out in opaque puffs in the chilled air. This is likely not the time nor place for this particular conversation, but between Jon and Margaery, he thinks if he holds in his feelings much longer, he may burst.
king_in_the_north: <user name="seethesoldiers" site="insanejournal.com"> (011)

[personal profile] king_in_the_north 2017-12-03 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Would he have rather Jon not told him? If Robb was truthful, it was hard to say. Living in oblivion would certainly have been easier, however much he had felt briefly betrayed being left in the dark. In the end, he wouldn't have Jon carry that burden alone, but there was an undeniable comfort in the status quo.

"Why did you let him go to the Wall?" Robb finally asked, seeing no method or sense in being delicate about it. Likely it would only frustrate them both to dance around what he really wanted to know. "He was old enough to be a Ranger, to fight Wildlings and gods only knows what else, but he wasn't old enough to know something that might have changed his mind about it?"
king_in_the_north: (062)

[personal profile] king_in_the_north 2018-01-12 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
"No," Robb replied after a beat. "It was his." And that, bitterly, was perhaps all there was to say about it. His father couldn't have changed his decision anymore than he could have made the days wind back. But for Robb, this ran much deeper than any single deed.

"I'm tired, Father," he admitted after a moment, cutting Ned a look brimming with weary resignation. "I'm tired of secrets and holding to vows that do no one any good, simply for the sake of it. I'm tired of trying to justify holding to them when it's clear to anyone that all of our lives would have been a great deal less bloody without them."
king_in_the_north: <user name="seethesoldiers" site="insanejournal.com"> (075)

[personal profile] king_in_the_north 2018-01-20 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
"It made little enough sense to adhere to many of them back home," Robb pointed out. All of the Starks all might be alive yet were it not for the folly of their Northern honor. "I only wish I'd been wise enough to see that at the time." He certainly wouldn't have called himself wise now, but death had been a swift and ruthless teacher, that much was for certain.

"I don't want to be cross with you—" he began again, and then stopped. "I'm not, really. But there are a great many things I think we all might change had we the opportunity to live them again."