EVENT: SPACE PIRATES ▒ OXYGEN GARDENS

[ataraxites]

CHARACTERS: Ensemble production!
LOCATION: Oxygen Gardens
WARNINGS: Camping.
SUMMARY: Hanging out in camp, discussing pirates, etc.
NOTES: Open to all!

Camping may not be an expected activity on a spaceship, but the gardens are large and have clear, grassy areas for people to gather together. You can help set up tents, inventory supplies or guard the perimeter — just keep an eye out for any strange faces trying to sneak in...

Comments

[skindeep]

Edgar. His name is Edgar.

[Noah sits down where he is, leaving a little distance between them just to be on the safe side. The cat finally wiggles free, slinking along the grass at first but then making a run for the nearest tree. He scales it to the lowest branch and settles there for an afternoon of napping and grooming.]

That had nothing to do with you, Summer. I'm the one he really wanted to escape.

[He offers a halfhearted smile at that.]

He's actually gotten quite used to other animals here. Before he only caught glimpses of the neighbor's bulldog through a window. I imagine he was rather bored most days.

[wolfdreamer]

[Summer tenses, just as if he might go after Edgar. Anything that runs, anything with sudden quick movements--these are things that his direwolf might run in pursuit of, save for the press of Bran's hand on his shoulder. Summer doesn't relax, but sniffs at the air again, his eyes fixed on the cat in the tree, in case he should move again.]

Does he like the other animals? There are so many--more than I would think there would be. [He looks over toward where the cows and chickens are kept. They would be too great a temptation for Summer, but Bran has been over to see them a few times, just out of interest. They remind him of Westeros.]

Some would say better to be bored and safe. [Not Bran. Or would he? Sometimes he would, and sometimes he wouldn't, and his uncertainty might show a little on his face.]

[skindeep]

He doesn't care much for other cats, but he's learning to be civil. Maybe he'll have buried the hatchet by our anniversary on board and we can have a great big animal party. If we make it that long.

[The words sound more ominous than he intended, and Noah means to amend it. But then he's struck by Bran's, the maturity in them and the doubt in his expression.]

I would be one of those people.

[Noah takes a deep breath and drapes his arms over his knees.]

But then I see how happy these little trips make him and I'm not so sure.

[wolfdreamer]

[An animal party is a silly idea, and Bran smiles at the thought. It would not end well, he knows that--not with predators like the direwolves forced to keep company with the quieter animals. Perhaps there would be two parties. The question of danger and freedom, boredom and safety--that sort of relates, doesn't it?]

Animals can be kept safe in cages, but they become unhappy. People are the same. If people want to stay safe, they should--but if they want to go out, they should be allowed to do that, too, even if there is danger.

[He looks down at the gleaming metal of his robotic legs, with a little frown.]

I wish there were more places to go aboard this ship. Everything is the same.

[skindeep]

You still have your dreams. You can go anywhere in them.

[A poor substitute for most people, not even worth mentioning. But maybe reality has invaded and faded them yet, even if he sounds beyond his years.]

[wolfdreamer]

[Bran looks up at that, sharply, and for a moment surprise is writ plain across his face. Dreams. He should be more careful, he should have more control of himself, that's so, but--]

What do you mean?

[skindeep]

[Noah wasn't expecting that reaction, the sudden zeroing in on his words. It takes him a moment to recover, to explain a deeper meaning to something that most people take at face value.]

Well, there are no limits to dreams. You could add anything you wanted to the ship - or leave it entirely. You could go home again, if only for a few hours.

[wolfdreamer]

[That's so. Bran knows all about those sorts of dreams. And even those dreams can be different: there can be a boy's dreams of Winterfell, and there can be dreams of a very different Winterfell. But there are still other dreams, too.]

I've dreamed those dreams. Everyone aboard this ship likely has, since everyone wants to return home. But-- [He hesitates, for a beat.] Do you think that there are dreams that might come true?

[skindeep]

I believe that anything's possible where dreams are concerned.

[Noah tilts his head, encouraging.]

Have you had a dream like that?

[wolfdreamer]

[There are secrets that you can tell to some people, and there are secrets which you must keep to yourself, forever. But this man's openness about dreams gives Bran pause. No one but Jojen speaks of dreams like that. They are only dreams, Maester Luwin had told Bran, but Jojen had green dreams. Jojen would know. But who aboard this ship can Bran trust like he trusts Jojen?]

My friend, Jojen Reed, has greensight. When he has green dreams, they always come true. [He hesitates still more, looking down at his knees.] I'm not like Jojen, but I think-- I could know things.

And it's not fancy. It's real. [He is quick to defend his claim, even if he doesn't look up.]

[skindeep]

I believe you.

[Noah's quick to tell him that, and not because he's trying to humour a young boy. He hadn't known at his age that his dreams weren't just dreams. But he can imagine trying to tell someone, his parents, as open-minded as they were. It would've been dismissed as the imaginings of a child.]

These things that you know, are they about your home or the Tranquility?

[wolfdreamer]

[At that, Bran does look up. There are few who would believe him in Westeros. But here--there are so many types of magic here. It is not so hard for people to believe.]

About my home. I wonder if it would work here. I can-- [He hesitates, and knits his fingers through the thick ruff of fur at Summer's neck. He should guard his tongue, mind his words, but these are all things he has been thinking of without the chance to say.] There are other things I can do, here. But if there were some way I could know things that would happen--or even things that had happened, before-- that would help, wouldn't it?

But I think the ship would want to keep those things from us.