Open Log - Fireworks

[prongs_jamesp]

DATE: November 30th, after it gets fully dark.
CHARACTER(S): Everyone
SUMMARY: Someone has found a good use for gun powder.
LOCATION: Camp.
WARNINGS: None
FORMAT: Whatever you fancy!

Comments

( open )

[practiced]

[ With much of the earlier chaos having died down, Sansa has taken to walking between the circled camps of wagons. People are hurt and though she can do nothing for them, there are those not of her wagon whom she worries after. Robb would not have her venture out alone, not so soon after such disquiet, and so she walks with Grey Wind beside her. Twice the size of a normal wolf and clearly attentive to his master's sister, he pads just shy of Sansa's side, occasionally doubling back to do a small circuit around her, to keep unwanted strangers at bay.

When the bang crack of fireworks peel through the night air, she startles, afraid that it is gunfire again, but only moments later sees the sky erupt in a dazzling display of sparks. It's both frightening and lovely and so she stands transfixed for a moment, light rippling across her face as Grey Wind gives a disgruntled huff at her feet. ]

[empireofmymind]

[Ken's a bit the worse for wear after the previous night: while he's managed to avoid illness thus far and had stayed near his wagon when the gunfire started, a large cloud of bees had decided he shouldn't emerge from the night unscathed. As such, he's not particularly keen on being seen during the day...

But the sight of fireworks at night is enough to lure him out of the wagon. He'd been slowly approaching the scene, a tiny smile on his face, when he sees someone being undoubtedly - guarded - by an animal companion.

That's enough to make his smile widen, though he also makes a little sound as he sighs. Not too loud, over the booming fireworks, but perhaps enough to be noticed.]

[practiced]

[ Over the sound of the fireworks bursting to life overhead and the thrill of her own excitement and trepidation, It is not Sansa who notices their distant observer but Grey Wind. The great beast sits up off of his haunches and growls at the stranger, his teeth flashing in the darkness and his ears pinning back to the slope of his head. The Stark direwolves may attend the children as faithfully as any well-trained hound might, but one can never forget that they are animals of the wild - and savagely protective of their own.

Before allowing her to roam from the wagon, Robb had charged Grey Wind with protecting Sansa. And so this stranger, however well-meaning, is considered suspect.

The rolling growl in Grey Wind's throat is enough to break Sansa free of her reveries. She starts and immediately looks to the stranger, her eyes growing wide as she stays Grey Wind with a hand. ]

Grey Wind, [ she admonishes quietly. The direwolf gives his head a fitful back and forth and then snaps at the air with his snout before dropping back

[empireofmymind]

[Ken bows too, trying to stay out of the light as much as possible. The swelling from the stings has started to go down, but the marks on his face are still flushed and itchy.]

Ah - it's all right. Sorry for startling you...and him.

[He eyes Grey Wind nervously, but tries to offer him a smile (and not seem too nervous or skittery). If he's going to be traveling with this group of people, he needs to reach out himself this time.]

It's a...pretty display, isn't it?

[practiced]

[ It is impolite to stare and rude besides so if there is something amiss with the stranger's face, Sansa makes sure that her gaze does not linger too long on the shadows and swelling that obscure his features. Grey Wind returns the smile with another inhospitable snuff, but quickly Sansa kneels down beside him and gives his chin a placating scratch. ]

There is much need for wariness, [ she says, still bent low by Grey Wind's side. She pauses just long enough for another display of fireworks to light the sky - this time blue and red. Tully colors. Sansa smiles up at it briefly, her hand still lazily scritching along the crown of Grey Wind's skull. ]

Never have I see something like it. I would think it terrifying, were it not so beautiful. The sound is dreadful, but the colors-

[empireofmymind]

Ah. I've - seen them before, but never like this. Never really appreciated them.

[He'll take a very slow step forward, hoping not to upset your guardian. It's good to see some people apparently arrived with companions alongside them. The skin on his face does look blotchy, but he's been trying not to scratch.

He's also even younger than you are, Sansa.]

It's nice, though. Even though upsetting things have happened, a beautiful night will always follow.

[practiced]

[ Grey Wind is a direwolf of House Stark, though he serves as Robb's companion, not Sansa's. Sansa herself is without a wolf, her own - Lady - having been felled on command of the king. But Robb would not see her without company in the dark, not with so many strange occurrences and mishaps befalling the others.

It is only upon noting the youth of his face that Sansa stands again, her hands moving to smooth her skirt. ]

Your words are hopeful in the face of trying times.

[empireofmymind]

[Ken blinks back another smile at that, taking in her clothing. All sorts of people have come along for this adventure, it seems. He'll have to tell the others back home - once he gets home, which he surely will - that there really are a variety of worlds out there.

But...does she really think he's hopeful? Him? He's made progress...]

I've just realized...people forget, sometimes, to look for beauty. There's so much goodness we never see.

--Ah, I'm Ichijouji Ken. [He hurriedly bows again. Listen to him, musing away to a total stranger. But it's just - this night. He wonders how many fireworks displays he's missed before.]

( open )

[wolfinthesnow]

[Ghost is making equally large circles and Jon is following, his hand on his sword. It's loud and it's unpleasant and he's not sure the colors make up for the fear.

But he sees Sansa and he stands, a bit transfixed for a moment. This is what Lady Catelyn must have looked like young, and part of Jon remembers that, her face, displeased always, and he doesn't move forward. He watches.]

[practiced]

[ Sansa is mindful now of Jon Snow in a way she had never been before, much in the same way she has grown mindful of Arya and for ends other than to frown at her dirty face or express distaste for her clothes. It is only in losing things that she has learned their dearness and though Sansa is no closer to either her bastard half-brother or her sister, she at least knows that she does not wish to be without them.

Although he makes no motion to join her, she realizes quickly that he is near. Grey Wind trots off to greet his littermate and Sansa smiles at the yips that follow. Her face still upturned, she says: ]

Surely, not all the magic here is dark.

[wolfinthesnow]

[The words make him start - they are not scolding, this is not Lady Catelyn, this is Sansa. His half-sister. Jon knows how she sees him, even though he is sleek in black leather, having no other clothes yet other than his heavy furs.]

I've never seen such magic. Do they have it in the South?

[He moves slowly, as if she is a bird and not a wolf, as if she might fly away if he moves too quickly.]

[practiced]

[ Sansa flickers an odd sort of smile in the darkness that comes between one explosion and the next. It is not a wholly nice smile, it resembling something of a grimace at its corners. When another shower of light blossoms across the sky, it is gone - smoothed back to its normal pleasantness. ]

Nothing of the South is magic, [ she tells him. Sansa had been foolish to ever thing otherwise.

She considers Jon Snow as he approaches and then, carefully, extends a hand to him. ] The view is better here- [ For a moment, Sansa almost calls him 'brother', but catches the word before it slips from her mouth. ]

[wolfinthesnow]

[He reaches, carefully, taking her hand in his own callused one and draws closer.]

I can see that, now.

[practiced]

[ She takes his hand and places hers neatly inside it, taking his elbow with the other as if he were a knightly escort. Once, she had been loathe to touch such rough hands, even their father's, but now Sansa knows better than to turn away warmth that is offered, however coarsely hewn. ]

It is a bit frightful, isn't it? And beautiful.

[wolfinthesnow]

[He holds her hand so gently, so unlike anyone else he touches. He's almost afraid, like this moment will dissolve. She is the untouchable sister, the one who was never his, and it always hurt a little, that barb. He knows his manners; he tries to be a gentleman for her.]

They're like odd flowers, aren't they? Made of stars and light.

[practiced]

[ Sansa has always been too much her mother's daughter to ever be kindly to Jon Snow. That disdain that showed so sharply in their mother's eyes whenever she looked at her husband's bastard son never truly took root in Sansa's gaze, though there was an echo of it - inherited as readily as Sansa's blue eyes and red hair. He would inherit no land, bear no name, and - as was proper - he would never hold Sansa's full love, the kind she held only for her true brothers and sisters.

But that had been the ways of the girl who'd left for King's Landing a year ago. The young lady who stands beside him now has changed, in some ways subtle and in other ways undeniable. That they can stand together as they do now is proof of that.

She smiles at his description. ]

But look how they melt, like snow. [ A pause and then she turns to look at Jon, the light dancing across her face. ] I've missed the snows terribly, you know.

[ The snow, the cold. Winterfell. Her mother, her siblings. Jon Snow himself. ]