video; forward dated to 3/28

[starfortress]

[ apparently the star wars kids don't know how to hold onto their devices quite well. but unlike rey, paige drops her device and it turns on once it hits the ground. the camera is crooked but you can see her come in and out of frame, wearing her rebel-issued blue cobalt squadron jumpsuit, soaked to the bone.

she isn't pacing or running, she's dancing. or rather, twirling in the rain. one hand clutches something hanging around her neck, a necklace as she simply laughs and spins in the rain, free arm spread out.

eventually, her smile fades into something more solemn, sad and she sort of just... plops onto the ground, her expression turning pained. her hand tightens its grip on her necklace.

she's not crying now. it's just raining on her face. and as the video finally times out, she buries her face in her hands.]

Comments

[northerndragon]

I'm afraid so.

You were crying in the rain. Of course --

[He looks up and to the side, as if towards the sky --]

There's a lot of rain to cry in.

[starfortress]

[ well, that's humiliating. she makes a slight face, mouth twisting awkwardly.]

I never got to see rain growing up. [ That wasn't why she was crying, of course.] It's amazing, isn't?

[northerndragon]

Amazing.

[That makes him crack a smile, but there's nothing in it to suggest that he's making fun of her.]

At least it's not snow. Where did you grow up?

[starfortress]

[ She laughs some.]

That's true. I think I'll be happy if I never see snow or ice again. [ That isn't true. But just the thought of it makes her ache for a home that doesn't exist anymore.] Where I'm from, Hays Minor, it was nothing but ice and twilight.

[northerndragon]

We had grass where I was from, but if you rode north for more than a few days, it was nothing but ice and snow, even in summer.

[And it's true: it's pleasant to move around in warmer weather, to feel the sun on his face sometimes, to feel days that are considered chilly but seem fair enough to him, but sometimes he misses the crisp sweet air at the edge of the Haunted Forest and how good it is to eat a bowl of hot stew after hours of training in the cold.]

You didn't see the sun at Hays Minor?

[starfortress]

I never saw grass or anything actually green until I had to leave my planet. [ there were artificial plants, of course. but they are nothing compared to what she's seen since. At his question, she shakes her head.]

No. Our planet was in perpetual twilight. After we had to leave it, my sister and I had to wear protective goggles until our eyes adjusted to actual sunlight.

Was it always snowy up north?

[northerndragon]

If you went much further north, they called it The Land of Always Winter. Still, there were surprises sometimes. A meadow full of flowers high in the mountains, or hot pools where everything around them was cold.

There were several hot pools around my home, too, hot water in the walls, so it was warmer there than in most other places. That's important when the winter snows come.

You have only one sister?

[starfortress]

That sounds incredible. Everything was frozen on my planet, but we had special buildings built to help us survive the rough environment. We didn't have anything natural like that.

[ At his question, her expression falters and she nods.]

Yes, her name is Rose. And you? Did you have family in the place that was close to The Land of Always Winter?

jon pulls out a quill pen and begins to write the first page of his novel about the starks

[northerndragon]

Winterfell was built thousands of years ago to help people survive the winters in the North -- well, that, and as the home of the king. Not everyone in the North was so lucky as to have the hot pools... people come to live in the Winter Town outside the gates before the weather makes travel too hard.

I had two sisters and three brothers. Not all of them are living now. And I was -- well, they're my half-sisters and brothers, but no less my family for that.

:D

[starfortress]

Is that where you're from? Winterfell? Or Winter Town. [ Not the most creative names but...]

Oh. [ Her expression shifts into concern.] I am sorry to hear that, about your siblings. I... I died back home so my sister will be without me for the first time in her whole life.

[northerndragon]

Winterfell is my home. No one lives in the Winter Town in the summer.

[The second part of what she says gets more of a reaction from him: a little surprised, then thoughtful, then a quizzical look.]

You died, but you found yourself here? Will your sister be alone in the world?

[starfortress]

Because it's so cold?

[ At his first question, she nods, at his second question, she shakes her head.] She won't have any family but... she has friends. [ Poe and Finn are her friends now. That makes her feel better to know. ]

She won't be alone.

[northerndragon]

No, because they only need to live there in the winter. That's when it's cold -- that's why they call it Winter Town. It's not much of a town in the summer. They come together because the winter snows... well, our old nurse used to tell us they could get forty feet deep in a bad season. You can't travel or hunt or farm in that kind of snow. If it's a hard winter and it goes on for more than a couple of years, you wouldn't want to be trapped on a holdfast and running out of food.

Your sister's friends... you think you can trust them?

[Because Sansa's friends certainly can't be trusted to look after her.]

[starfortress]

We were trapped by ice all the time, so I know what you mean by that. And the First Order starved out my plant's sister planet and destroyed mine.

Yes, I trust them with my own life and hers.

[northerndragon]

They're good friends, then.

The First Order... who are they? [Aside from a threat.] Why would they starve out a planet -- a seige, a blockade?

[starfortress]

An evil regime that was hungry for power. My sister and I were a part of a rebel group trying to take them down, stop them from hurting more people. Some of its key officers are here. In this place.

[ She tries her best not to scowl at the memory of it.] Both, as a show of power.

[northerndragon]

[He doesn't like this, and it shows on his face.]

What did they hope to achieve? Apart from inciting a rebellion.

Where I'm from, we've had bad kings, good kings, kings you wouldn't much remember, but a seige or a blockade wouldn't be a show of power, it would be... an attempt to change things, somehow, for better or worse. But the smallfolk always suffer nonetheless.

I can't imagine what it would be like for an entire world to be gone.

[starfortress]

They were gathering resources, stealing our children to make their soldiers, forcing us to mine for ore. They want absolute power over the galaxy, like they had before.

[ She doesn't have to imagine it, she's seen it. Or rather, she heard about it. Over and over. ] We defeated them once, we'll do it again.

[northerndragon]

[It's good to have that faith, but it doesn't sound like her death is much like his own was -- there's been no indication that she's coming back from it anywhere but Riverview.

So it won't be her who defeats the First Order.]

Your rebel group... does it have the men? Does it have the allies it needs?

There's nothing much I can do, but I'd help you if I could. My people have an enemy... not the same as your First Order, but an enemy that destroys every living creature in his path.

[starfortress]

[ At his question, she wavers.] We don't have as many as we used to. Men or women. The First Order wiped them out. [ They killed so many, destroyed planets full of allies.] Their Starkiller Base destroyed half a dozen planets, full of our allies. [ And then, according to Poe, they proceeded to wipe out the major of the Rebel fleet.]

What kind of enemy can do that?

[northerndragon]

What kind of enemy can destroy half a dozen worlds? I know some of you travel between them. We don't -- that's unimaginable. Even being on a moon like we are here is unimaginable.

The enemy is the Night King. I don't know what he is, only that he started north of the Wall, and that the Wall keeps him out. I know that he's trying to find a way past it. He commands an army of White Walkers -- they're generals, a little like him -- and walking dead men. Anyone they kill, any person, any beast... they become part of his army. Their eyes glow cold blue; they march without eating or sleeping.

[All of this is extremely troubling to him: he sees those eyes in his dreams, or sometimes, the arc of an icy spear in the air.]

He and the White Walkers all look a little like men made of ice.

[starfortress]

Technology. More advanced than these devices. That's how it's possible. It was a giant weapon. [ And it murdered countless people.] The Rebellion destroyed it. The people who are responsible for destroying it are here. But so are the people who were responsible for building it, captaining it.

[ What he says next has her straightening up, there's a strike of fear in her heart.] Is that a figure of speech? 'Walking dead men'? Looking like they are made of ice? How is that possible? [ Not even zombies are a thing where she is from.] Not even the Force can bring dead men back. [ As far as she knows.]