005 -- video;

[northerner]

[ ah, robb returns to video posts. there's a marked difference in the set of his face. he looks older, more solmen if such a thing were possible, more like his father, than he did in those very first few times he'd addressed the ship. grey wind is at his elbows, eyes gleaming as his great jaws part in a disinterested yawn. the display of teeth though, that sure is something to see. robb sinks a hand into the fur at the scruff of grey wind's neck, and the action is almost a boy reaching for something familiar, something to anchor himself to. ]

I wish to request a favor of this ship.

[ kings don't make requests, they give orders. that is what robb learned from his namesake but in his time spent aboard this ship he's also learned that a displaced king gets himself more by requesting rather than trying to command. ( like the beggar king, and if his stomach turns at that he ignores it. ) ]

My youngest brother Rickon has come aboard this vessel. I don't seek to curb his curiosity, but only to ask that discretion is used when answering his questions and granting him knowledge.

[ there's a pause. grey wind huffs a breath, impatient, and robb's hand twists in the fur. ]

And perhaps not encourage his fondness for knives.

Comments

[wolfinthesnow]

No, Robb.

I won't do it. I'll tell him to seek you out.

[northerner]

I'll not drag our youngest brother into this. If he asks, oblige him.

[ it comes out like a command, like robb hiding behind his crown and maybe he is. ]

He scarce asks us for anything anymore.

[wolfinthesnow]

Into what? Into our fight over my lost honor?

[northerner]

[ ah, there's grey wind's input, the snarl that robb's holding back coming from his direwolf and robb still doesn't understand what that means. ]

He's been through enough. He need not be party to it.

[wolfinthesnow]

I would not ask him to take sides! I would not speak of it to him, what do you think?

[Ghost suddenly looks up from where he had been napping, his red eyes staring at his brother through the video]

[northerner]

That isn't what I meant.

[ that's more hurt than anger, robb's fingers twisting into fur as his anger rumbles out of his wolf. ]

They don't need to know we've quarrelled. We're splintered enough as it is, you've said so yourself.

[wolfinthesnow]

I don't want to have any quarrel with you!

[northerner]

[ alkgjafsdakl ]

It's a bit late for that, isn't it?

[wolfinthesnow]

[YOU STARTED IT B|]

And what do you mean to do about it? Your duty?

[northerner]

[ and robb's stomach turns, and he looks away, grey wind whining. kings aren't meant to grow pale at the thought of beheadings, of doing what must be done, but robb has never swung the sword for anyone and he'd always thought, i have years yet but then eddard stark had lost his own head and robb...

the first judgement he passes, it could never be for jon. ]

Would you have me take your head? No. You're Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Jon Snow and this matter is not to be set before the King of the North. Deserters fall to the mercy of Winterfell. What you have done...

[ and robb trails off, grows quiet for a moment. ]

The Watch would have passed judgement for it, had you ever spoken of it to them. It is not for me to say.

[wolfinthesnow]

Stannis would. He would have my head for this.

[There's a pause]

He offered me Winterfell, you know. He offered to make me legitimate, if I bent the knee, and gave him soldiers at his back.

[northerner]

[ if the derailing is intentional, then it's genuis. robb is well and truly distracted, anger redirected. ]

Winterfell is not his to give.

[ and that's one of those casually cruel comments that robb makes without realizing it. winterfell is his and it shall never be jon's, robb learnt that at his mother's knee.

the cold rage in his tone is all for stannis, for the man who offers what is not his. ]

None of that is his to offer. What right has he to make such promises?

[wolfinthesnow]

He is a King, and he thinks you have no claim.

[Jon is more than used to it, a barb in a place long scabbed over, the same place that Lady Catelyn used to look at and wonder when Jon was just a touch faster, when his sums and reading just a touch better.]

And no matter, because I didn't take it. I refused him when he offered me the name Stark.

[Do you understand, Robb? He offered me something you never did, something I always wanted, and my honor stood firm where it mattered.]

[northerner]

[ there is a long, terrible pause where robb simply does not know what to say. he's furious and it's the kind of childish, impotent anger that has no real outlet. so he huffs a breath, more wolfish than king, and looks away from the screen. ]

He overreaches himself.

[wolfinthesnow]

[Fantastic.]

Not in his eyes.

[northerner]

I care not for the failings of his vision.

[wolfinthesnow]

Then tell him that, not me.

[STOP BEING MAD AT ME.]

[northerner]

Perhaps I shall.

[ NO HE WILL BE MAD AT EVERYONE TRY AND STOP HIM. ]