[ 6 ] [ video ] less derring-do than quiet care

[zooms]

[ The really interesting thing about this video broadcast is the fact that it's not actually coming from inside the Tranquility. Hotspur's in the pilot seat of the first shuttle - the one he affectionately named Faith all those months ago back when they all first arrived. His face is lit by the soft glow of the avionic displays in front of him and he sits back from the controls, slack-handed and staring with thick pre-occupation out of the shuttle windows instead.

His comms device - propped up on the co-pilots seat beside him - offers a profile view of Hotspur's features... and beyond him, a bit of the outer hull of the Tranquility suspended against the backdrop of deep space.

Red-eyed, ashen-faced... Hotspur's clearly hasn't been sleeping very well. Being the robust, brick-outhouse sort of fellow that isn't prone to negativity it usually takes a hell of a lot to make him feel less than 100% of his usual awesomeness but here we are. His expression is pained and with one hand he absently fidgets with the loose-hanging metal dogtags that fall around his neck. He doesn't speak up immediately but when he does it's a distant murmur. ]

...Full of them. Even the bad ones.

[ It's an off-hand comment more to himself than the video feed running live beside him. But then, as if only just remembering that it was recording, he seems to pull himself together and turn his head to address the comms device directly. ]

Look, I know not everyone out here's got much time for talk about the Gods and religion and all that but for those folk that do...

[ He pauses and exhales a brief sigh; this little crisis of faith is turning out to be pretty damn painful and he briefly struggles to hunt down the right words to express what he wants to ask. ]

Well. I'm kind of strugglin' to see how this whole... adventure fits in with whatever it is the Gods have got in store for me. For us all. I mean, it's not that I don't have faith that They know what's best, I... I just --

[ He pauses again and his gaze travels wildly around the cockpit until it fixates on the massive hull of the Tranquility beyond the shuttle's screen. ]

I'm not really sure if demons and possessions and all that is just a really really effective test of faith or that maybe we're all just a little bit too far away for the Gods to help us.

Comments

video.

[cloy]

[ Truth be told, the conversation's all a bit deep for her. Ros is paid to lay on her back and spread her legs, not indulge in conversation beyond the usual hmming and hawing that's required whenever a lord wants to gripe about his troubles. So it takes her a moment longer to respond this time, her hand touching the thick braid of her hair idly. ]

Not so sure I call it anything. We've got plenty of gods where I'm from. We've got gods coming right out our ears. But I've never prayed to 'em and they've never come calling. Though— [ She smiles, cheeky. ] —I wouldn't say no if one came knocking. Might be a low girl, but I'm not stupid.

video.

[zooms]

[ Any euphemisms on Ros's part are, for the most of it, lost on Hotspur. His gaze is heavy and solemn and watches her movements carefully as she toys with her hair. There's nothing about her that seems particularly low, Hotspur thinks, but then he was hardly experienced in the ways of spotting medieval whores transplanted on to a space ship. ]

Where are you from?

video.

[cloy]

[ Perhaps if the set of his face were less serious, perhaps if the light were better and Ros were paying better attention, she'd recognize those features as ones she's seen many times in the past. The Kingslayer is a handsome man and — according to Littlefinger — among the passengers of the ship. But Ser Jaime Lannister is a man after Ros' own heart — a character of dark mirth, all laughing eyes and words amuse at the sake of someone else's benefit. Not this man, with the unfamiliar accent and the words about faith and about God. ]

Probably never heard of it before, [ she says, a little tediously despite her smile. ] According to others there aren't many of us here — the Westerosi, that is. [ A pause and then, her enunciation sharping like she's a school marm asked to repeat her question: ] The Seven Kingdoms, dear. [ She waits a beat for recognition then adds: ] Westeros.

video.

[zooms]

Seven Kingdoms?

[ No, he's never heard of them. The only kingdom that he can remember from the accounts of Old Earth is a United one... but certainly not seven. He shakes his head briefly; Ros was right, and no recognition would be coming from Hotspur any time soon. ]

From what planet?

video.

[cloy]

That's right. Seven. Though at this rate, who can tell how many there'll be by the end of the month. [ The War of Kings, they call it and no title could be more appropriate. New titles and crowns seemed to spring up daily, talk if it seeping through the brothel walls. Ros doesn't bother to keep the kings straight, the only one that matters to her is King Joffrey — and that's only because he ruled the cess that Ros lived in.

She shrugs carelessly, her attention drifting elsewhere as she asks (curious in only the vaguest of ways) ] That depends on what a planet is, doesn't it?

video.

[zooms]

A planet. Like... [ He trails off, brows creasing with earnest confusion. The very fact of having to explain probably meant that there was no real answer that she could offer him - but what with them being suspended in space he thought it was one of those kinds of things that just needed to be explained. It was like living in an orchard with no concept of apples.

Tugging at a strap in his pilot's seat to earn himself some slack, he leans forward and cranes his head to check the windows again. There had been no planet to be seen earlier, not by his reckoning, but he angles the camera feed to focus on one of the more prominent stars. ]

See that? That star. It'll more than likely have a planet or several orbiting it. A planet's, like -- like the ground, I guess. Most reckon they're from Earth but there's a couple of us from Earthrise here - that's the second human planet. [ A pause. ] I haven't ever heard of the Seven Kingdoms being on Old Earth, though.