009: There must be a place under the sun where hearts of olden glory grow young

[payingfordeliverance]

Who: Xerxes Break + CR
What: Endgame catchall
When: Summertime
Where: Around and about

Content warnings: To be determined; will update as necessary

Comments

Early June: Pan's Labyrinth: Open to anyone he's met!

[payingfordeliverance]

Prompt taken from Deerington!

[This is actually not the first time a random deer statue has turned up in Break's house. (Thanks, Paimon.) Because of that, in an incredible lapse of judgement, he does not think twice about picking this new one up to get a better look at it. Bam, into a labyrinth he falls, and it doesn't even have the good grace to be musical and glittery. He'd just been settling in to do up a batch of pizza dough, too, so now even if he gets out of here by dinner it won't be risen at all and he'll have to sort out other plans.

He violently takes out his frustrations on some of the goblins, which mollifies him somewhat.

Running across someone he knows in the midst of all this is both a blessing and a curse. Given Trench and its nonsense, it means that now he likely has a means to actually find his way out of here -- but it also means they are probably going to have to do something embarrassing in order to accomplish this. Sure enough, they run across the Faun and his talk of unlocking inner doors, and Break feels his hopes of salvaging the day die off completely as the Faun hands over the knife.]

Why is it this place can never bear to let us go through the pains of self-discovery without an audience?

[The last time a metaphorical door in his heart unlocked, what lay behind it was a deep desire to live, and he died a minute or two later. No matter how he goes about it, he's sure whatever else is still in there is going to be equally rude. Otherwise he wouldn't be bottling it up and ignoring it in the first place.]

[dohaeris]

[if lady were here, sansa would make a wry remark about preferring the company here to her own world, where she was often forced to witness terrible things with an unsympathetic audience, but she's alone, and vulnerable, and terribly on edge. her body is one straight line of tension, which abates somewhat when she sees break; in fact she seems to be looking for a traveling companion and looks relieved to find someone who should serve as an adequate protector.]

This isn't Trench.

[she glances around, though there's nothing she hasn't seen already, and raises her left arm, allowing the gently billowing bell sleeve to fall down to her elbow, and draws a thin cut on her forearm.

suddenly she is dressed for a wedding, complete with her strangler jewelry. she notes absently that the gown is a little different, more like one of her favorites from king's landing. a mourning dove lands on her shoulder, for which she's absurdly grateful. the room, too, takes on some of the trappings of king's landing, although much more opulent. she meant to clip the knife to her chatelaine, but her chatelaine is gone. she has none of her tools, or her bloodstone, or even her wolf––only a little bird, and poison. she holds the knife with a careful ease at her side.

sansa looks around sharply; there are doors with names on them, including hers. she considers the patron behind this journey, the words of the faun. when she speaks it is low and careful.]

It was Remina who sent us here. I don't know her very well, but I think she must want us to learn each other's history.

[remina seems to understand the concept of privacy even less than the other patrons, and perhaps may even disdain it; she's made herself an all-seeing eye. a voice very like sansa's omen whispers a thousand eyes and one in the back of her head; she ignores it. remina gave sansa's her parents' memories, and it stands to reason she'd like her to see break's. this is a bit less direct––perhaps the faun and his ritual are from history, too, and remina wants them to witness it.

sansa knew very little privacy in king's landing and the vale, though she very often felt alone. she doubts there's anything important break could see of her life that hasn't already been seen by someone she liked less. she glances back at him.]

We can do my door first, if you like.