Memory Share - The King in the North Rises

[kingnamedstark]

[OOC: The Red Wedding]

[There was little time to register what was happening as the blade was being plunged repeatedly into Jeyne's belly. He could hear her scream, but it sounded distant to him, as had his mother's cry for him. All at once, the room was a battlefield...but that implied there was a chance to fight back. Instead, this was a slaughter, a massacre. His men, still drunk and cheerful, were being fired on by the men Robb assumed were musicians. Knives and swords appeared, cutting open his bannermen indiscriminately. He barely had time to look before a bolt was in his shoulder and knocked him to the ground.

The cries ran together and the smell of blood was thick in the air. Was their laughter? It sounded as if there might be, but it could have been an invention of his mind. Walder Frey certainly seemed capable of it, given the bright grin on his face as he watched this massacre before him. Not far from Robb's body was Jeyne, pale and drained from the attack. She was holding her belly, blood oozing from her. Robb struggled to get to his feet, slipping under his injury and weight. 'The King in the North rises', he heard as the room fell silent.

His mother was screaming behind him, still attempting to make a deal with Walder Frey. 'Let him go,' she urged the Late Lord, the turncoat. 'Let it end'. Robb wasn't listening, his eyes focused on his wife's prone form, her eyes staring up at the sky as her breathing slowed and finally stilled.

Robb clutched her neck, lifting her up, looking for that love and warmth that he had seen moments ago. Little Eddard was under her hand, snuffed out as quickly and forcefully as she had been. His hand rested over hers, his palm suddenly damp from blood. There were still negotiations, his mother telling him to get up and go, that they wouldn't seek retribution on her word as a Tully.

Slowly, Robb got back to his feet, slowly turning towards her.]

Mother...

[What did it matter? How could he go forward from here? He lost everything, the ones he loved, his brothers, his father, his home. There was resignation on his face and in his voice. This was his goodbye to her, his acceptance for what was to come.

Roose was next to him at once, a knife suddenly piercing his heart.]

'The Lannisters send their regards...'

[Everything fades away at that, as he sinks to the floor and falls beside his wife's body. The end didn't take long to find him.]

Comments

action.

[jondrette]

[There are tears in her eyes when she lets herself into Robb's room. She clutches a bottle of some dark liquid in her hand. She doesn't precisely know what to say, but when has that ever stopped a girl like her?]

She was beautiful. And- and your mother. Your sister looks much like her. [She offers a weak smile, though it does not reach her eyes. She holds out the bottle for him, the top already twisted off. There is no need for glasses, when you mourn.]

Would it help- no, it will not help, but I will try all the same- to know that she was not afraid, because you were with her? [Her own death was similar, bleeding out amidst shouts and war, only to feel the warmth of the man you loved as you drifted to sleep.] You eased her passing, and she could think for a moment that you had grown old and were fading together in your marriage bed.

[It doesn't occur to her that perhaps he doesn't want her here. That she's the last person in the world he wants near him. She's here to support her lover, to provide what comfort she can.]

[kingnamedstark]

[He had been sitting in the dark room, trying to block out the sounds of his memory and push away the sight of Jeyne on the floor. His mother's scream was the last thing he heard and it still seemed to echo in his ears...

Eponine, as always, was a welcome distraction, pulling him from the reaching shadows. He took the bottle, swallowing half of it in nearly one gulp.] You can't know that. [How could she not be afraid? The moment she was stabbed, what else could she have felt?] If she thought anything, it must have been "why?" Or thoughts of our son.

[His voice broke at the mention of the child. He buried his face in his hands, shuddering as he sobbed.]

[jondrette]

[She wastes no time in wrapping her arms around him, holding the grown man to her tightly. It was such a thing to see men cry, such a strange thing indeed- she was sure she had seen one at the barricade, and perhaps Marius had gotten misty-eyed. There had been a lot of rain.]

She was not afraid because she had you. [She rubbed his back, as perhaps she would for her brother, or even Azelma, trying to soothe him.]

[kingnamedstark]

[He doesn't hold back with her, as he might have if anyone else were here. The pain, the sorrow, the aching, it needed to be released and he had yet to cry for his losses. In Eponine's arms, he was safe to do so.]

I should have protected her better.

[jondrette]

How could you have? You didn't know of this betrayal.

[She's happy to hold him, rocking slightly. It's a sign that he trusts her, likes her. She won't squander it.]

It wasn't even a fair fight. It was a slaughter.

[kingnamedstark]

She shouldn't have been there. I should have suspected they'd see it as an insult.

[So many things he should have known or seen, but didn't. Now, it was only regretting hindsight.

He held tightly to her, grasped her as he waded deep into his heartbreak, afraid to let go and drown in it.]

It was pointless, all of it. All I did was get my men and family killed.

I was such an idiot.

audio; un: littlebird

[toivory]

I deeply regret I was never able to meet her.

[She'd heard what happened in King's Landing. Tyrion had told her, and to his credit he had been kind and soft when he did so. He had let her mourn, let her cry when he very well could have turned and told his sister just how much she still cared for her brother. The same one she'd renounced, in the name of survival.]

House Frey no longer stands.

[kingnamedstark]

I thought you would be angry with me for wedding her instead of the Frey Girl.

[It was the reason that he had failed in getting to Sansa, it was what lead to this massacre. It lifted his heart to think about them meeting and how they might have got on. There was enough in common that they might have been friends.]

I wish I could feel satisfaction at that. I wish their end could bring her back.

[toivory]

Yes, but you love her. And who would I be to scold you for following your heart?

[kingnamedstark]

I lost half of my army for her.

[toivory]

Robb, I'm not mother. I'm not here to scold you.

[king_inthenorth]

[He'd heard about if, of course. Who in the North hadn't heard about what happened to Robb Stark? But it's a different thing entirely to see it happen, especially when he has memories of his own death, and what is there to say about this that Robb doesn't already know?]

I wanted to join you, when you rode against the Lannisters. Maester Aemon convinced me to stay. I was a sworn brother of Night's Watch by then, and leaving would have been desertion.

[And every son of Ned Stark knows what deserting the Night's Watch means.]

[kingnamedstark]

It's better you weren't there. [Though a part of him wondered if things might have been different. Jon would have warned him as well not to trust Theon. He might have seen through Roose as well; his brother had always seen others more clearly than he did.] My men might have insisted that I punish you for abandoning your vows.

If things went the way they did, I wouldn't want you killed at my side.

[Either by his hands or Roose's.]

[king_inthenorth]

I know. It was hard though, to abandon family.

[Because that's what he had done, by any definition of the term.]

[kingnamedstark]

You had Uncle Benjen. The Wall is supposed to be your family, isn't it?

[He's trying to be funny, even if it's not really touching his heart.]

[king_inthenorth]

Uncle Benjen disappeared north of the Wall. He hasn't been seen in years.

[No one wants to say it, but he knows that everyone assumes he's dead. They've just never found anything to prove it conclusively.]

My own men betrayed me, Robb. Family doesn't do that.

[11calls]

[Alex has known of the Red Wedding since Sansa told her about it, and seeing it is something that is going to figure into her nightmares for a while. Her voice is soft and compassionate and it's very clear that she means what she says:]

I'm sorry. And I'm sorry that the network chose to show it.

[kingnamedstark]

Does it do this often?

[He didn't know what would be laid bare, the traumas that haunted him and likely the secrets of his heart. It seemed there were others that had this happen as well...but why?]

How can this be?

[11calls]

Every few months or so. It's not always this bad though. I don't know why these particulars are being shown now.

And I have a theory, that it has to do with how connected we all are thanks to the communication devices in our head. Unfortunately there's nothing that we can do about it.

I know you don't know me, but I'm Alex. Can I do anything for you?

[kingnamedstark]

It seems like it's own form of torture or punishment.

[She means well and he smiles softly, a bit ironically, given all she has just witnessed.]

Do you have the answer to nightmares and sleepless nights?

[11calls]

Unfortunately not a really good reliable one, but I've got some that have worked for me. At least some of the time. Not sleeping is kind of a thing for me.

audio - un: whiteroad

[whiteroadrunning]

[Alec's... trying to figure out how he can phrase this as delicately as possible.]

Was this the moment of your death?

[kingnamedstark]

It was. [What was there to be delicate about? It was the truth.]

[whiteroadrunning]

I can't imagine it's easy to see again.

[kingnamedstark]

It's always with me. Only now others can see it.