➴ o p e n

[mezzanotte]

OPEN POST REDUX ① How this lot usually works. Leave me a prompt. An image, a quote, a sound - a scene and if it clicks we'll play it out, do a sort of really relaxed mini-verse/psl or whatever you wanna call it. Anything goes. If this is something gen, crack, crossovers, aus, something shippy or a kink - go right on. If we like it enough, we could make it a verse or smthng. ② Usual disclaimer of i am a turtle forever and ever ( feel free to nudge me about our thread if I am taking too long ) ③ My whole muselist is up for grabs. If you're looking for someone in specific leave it in the subject line. Less active muses may take longer to reply to; also see muse strength. OCs are also up for grabs.

Comments

NO OMG LEAVE ME HERE TO DIEEE. I AM PUTTING ON SOME SNOW PATROL JSYK

[robb]

[ lord eddard is a second father to me, i do so swear. robb remembers the words clearly. they dance against his memory and they cut sharp. sharper than the sword they're preparing for him in the other room. robb has marched his troops back to winterfell. he knows - the fact burns on the back of his throat, acerbic - that the starks are not entirely innocent for what had happened in king robert's rebellion. robb knows that theon was as much of a hostage as he was a ward but he cannot find the line where he had stepped to make theon hate them. the seize on king's landing could wait - how would he return arya and sansa home if there was nothing left for them?

( robb was all the north had left. )

we've taken him, your grace - his bannermen had said with hushed voices. we've captured theon greyjoy. robb was waiting for the man's arrival. he was pacing. trying to find the words to say. reciting a script in his head. he wanted blood. justice. a reason. a dozen things that only theon could provide. robb makes arrangements. a tent in the camp instead of a cage. he should hate theon as much as jamie lannister, he should give him worse - but there's something about old ties that make the king wish for privacy. he does not wear his crown to the execution.

theon is restrained, in shackles and chains that hang above his head. two of his bannermen sit outside the tent. robb stands before him. expression cold and mouth drawn into a thin line. ]

I told them to spare you, Greyjoy. That I would have your head myself.

cackles

[seamonster]

[ theon greyjoy is no kingslayer, but in many ways, he's much worse.

once, he swore an oath to eddard stark, and then to his eldest son, to robb stark, his brother-in-arms, his lord, his king. his friend. once, he called him brother and knelt at his feet and promised him his sword, his loyalty. once, he said i love you and meant it, and even now when he's brought to robb in chains, the memory of those words burn through his chest and heart and threaten to seep from the gaps in his ribs. i love you, i'm sorry, i'm not sorry, i'm. i'm —

if the gods are good (or cruel), one day he'll look back and realize that he never hated robb. he never hated the starks.

what he hated most of all was knowing that he never belonged.

( not with the starks, not with the greyjoys. )

and now he's left alone to face his fate, bruised and bloodied and on his knees, his head hanging low. robb speaks to him as if he's a stranger, a trespasser, and theon doesn't know whether that's worse or better than he was expecting. what was he expecting? a warm welcome? a quick death? most men wouldn't allow a vile traitor like theon to speak his mind, to explain why he did what he did, because what does it matter, in the end, when the knife is in his hand and he's marked for what he is. a turncloak. a betrayer. a coward. but then — robb's not most men. of course he'd ask why, of course he'd demand answers. theon's not sure if he wants to laugh or weep.

he tongues the blood from his cracked lips, from his teeth, swallows around the hard knot in his throat. cowardice is what drove him to rip winterfell from the hands of his former friend, and courage is what drives him now to lift his head and look him in the eye. ( gods, robb deserves that much, doesn't he? ) ] I'm not sure you have the brass for it, Stark.

NO HI I LOVE YOUUUU oh my god this thread is hurting my heart.

[robb]

[ robb had thought he had theon pegged down. that he knew every inch of him. his capacities, his thoughts and the extent of what he was willing to do. how could I have been so blind -- robb wonders. he had placed so much faith in the young lord. he had skipped out on his mother's warnings and put so much in theon's grasps. it had never factored in that perhaps theon wouldn't come back to him.

theon was always older, and robb had always treated him with respect. with adoration. the brother he never had, someone else to look up too outside of his lord father. but the tables now are turned. it is theon who has restored his family and it is robb who has nothing left. it is robb who will come home to empty castles and ashen lands. theon may be the one in chains, but it is robb that knows who is the real captive.

robb is lord eddard's son. forged in his likeness and with the same steel. a leader who will not kill until the full scenario is painted. that is how he is. how he has been taught. to try to find redemption in the men who seemingly have none, but to never forget what had transpired.

the north remembers, after all.

if robb speaks to theon like he's a stranger, it is theon who replies like he is an enemy. like robb himself had stripped him from the falling towers of the iron islands. like every sin against him is robb's fault. ]

You do not think I will?

[ the tone in his voice is worn. you can only be so confident around the man who you openly give talks of fear too. ]

I've killed over a dozen Lannister men. You are no different.

[ lies. ]

i know weeps they'll be the death of me

[seamonster]

[ robb has always been an innocent, in many ways; theon does not blame him for his father's actions. after all, when theon was torn from his home and sent to the hard north as old ned's ward, robb had been little more than a child, little more than a baby. and it was robb who approached him first, robb who smiled at him with all the slowly fading sweetness of a little northern lordling, the first to trust him, the first to truly welcome him to his home.

winterfell was never supposed to burn, but it did. balon greyjoy was never supposed to cast his only living son to the wolves, but he did.

theon was never supposed to love the north, the wolves, the starks, robb, but —

but. ( but he did, and how could he not? )

theon speaks with knives and daggers, with cutting words meant to push robb from him. in the end, robb will do what he must to please his people, to please his conscience, and theon is only an anchor designed to drag him down, down, down. there is nothing left for robb here, just as there is nothing left for theon to say. ]

Aye, maybe so. [ looking robb in the face is worse than death, theon's sure. he sounds more confident than he feels, but — tired, too, the metallic clanking of his shackles mostly masking his acerbic tone. ] You could end this now, then.

crying tears of manpain.

[robb]

[ robb will never say it to his face. they've gone through far too much together for robb to consider him anything other than a brother. ( although, bran would disagree - bran, if he were alive would tell robb that robb always paid theon more attention than any of his brothers ). theon is always something else. any words that robb will say, it will all boil down to what theon is. important. when the greyjoy's had left him to the starks - never bothering until theon came at the castle doors like a prodigal child - robb is different. when theon had left it is robb who wished for him to come back. he has to go back, he remembers pleading.

but war was different. fealties chained and it was the only window people had to change their banners.

( we fought with wooden swords a year ago, robb thinks as he fixes his eyes intently on theon. there are memories of winterfell, fond and warm memories that feel like a patch of sunshine on a cool day. they shatter when he remembers that there in front of him is the reason why he'll never have these things again. )

robb will do what he must because theon has pushed him to do just that.

was it not you who said I aught to take throne? ]

You will not try to save yourself, Greyjoy?

[ he doesn't take a knee. stands firm in his place. ]