Caspian X | at the stables, in the bar

[the_seafarer]

It has been some time since his last sojourn here at the end of the Universe, but when Caspian enters from his cabin on the Princess Royal, the place looks quite the same as ever. 

A few new faces, and the lack of some old ones, but that same warm feeling is as present as he recalls.

And it's spring – better still. Moments after he arrives, he makes his way to the stables, where he spends a good deal of time cosseting his old friends. Who is managing the place now, he's not certain, but the horses and creatures seem well cared for. It gives him a pang to see Susan Allgood's once bustling stables so quiet and still, though, and he makes himself a promise that he'll come back more frequently to care for them as they deserve.

The horses he turns out, letting them stretch their legs in the warm spring sun as they frolic around the paddocks. Once they're set, he turns his attention to the problem of the Hope, waiting patiently in the stall where he'd set her to winter. The little boat needs plenty of work, but it'll be hard work to move it out into the fresh air by himself. He draws open the stable doors as wide as they can go, then begins setting wooden rollers on the ground.

Later, towards the evening, he may be found at the bar proper, a cup of tea at hand as he pens a letter.

... it is passing strange, to look about this place and not see those I expect. It feels rather as though they are simply just out of the corner of my eye, waiting for me to look at them so they can tease me for my long absence. And, of course, it is not the same without my raven girl, wind in her hair and the spring sun shining down upon her. The wildflowers are blooming, Marian. I wish you were here to see them.

Do come say hello.

Comments

[the_seafarer]

"I beg your pardon," Caspian says, taken aback.

"Did you say 'chocolate'?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"I did." In contrast, Bucky sounds dour, although he doesn't seem upset. "Guessing you missed the Slenderman ruckus a while back? I don't remember seeing you around then. Did you hear anything about it?"

[the_seafarer]

Caspian shakes his head, looking more wryly resigned than truly surprised.

(He is perhaps recalling multiple instances of non-consensual glittering, dyeing, and other Bar-related shenanigans.)

"Nay, not a thing." He nods to the boat. "Here, help me turn her keel-up. And by all means, regale me."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky shifts so that he can take the majority of the boat's weight as they move it, leaving Caspian to guide it into place how he wants it.

"It - he? He," he decides, "was some kind of old dark forest god, I guess." Bucky turns a flat stare on a particular area of the woods, just for a moment, beyond where lies a hidden cave. "Got his kicks feeding on pain and fear, and set out to get as much of that as he could from people before he was stopped."

He shakes his head, bracing the boat. "I got taken out of it right before the end. Turns out he'd managed to get a kind of influence over the bar's cleaning crew. There were five of them, I think; they hit me with some kind of dart. I woke up, if you can call it that, frozen inside a giant bar of chocolate."

[the_seafarer]

Horrifying – and deeply odd. "Dear me," Caspian says, blankly. "That's rather unsporting. How on earth did you get free?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"My best friend got me out," Bucky says, with simple, deep affection. "He put a team together and they came after me, while a few other teams were going after other strategic points to weaken the enemy. Finally another tree god summoned the 'Wild Hunt' and drove him out, and that was that for him."

He makes a face and shifts the boat a little. "They broke off pieces of the chocolate bar until they could get me out of it, once it was all over."

[the_seafarer]

"Good lad," Caspian says, approvingly. "Still, that's a bit dull for you, isn't it?"

He reaches down for the scraper, then pauses and gestures for Bucky to take it instead, pointing with his free hand to the rounded bottom of the boat's hull as he does. "Do you see the crack there? Go on and scrape the paint off from around it."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Took me years to be able to tolerate the taste of chocolate," Bucky confides. "And it was issued with every ration back during the war. Every one."

He takes the scraper and studies the crack, then starts peeling the paint away a bit at a time.

[the_seafarer]

"I imagine so," Caspian agrees. "I fell a bit of chocolate myself, for a while, after a strange interlude here involving some candy."

He pauses, then winces in memory. "And if the Bar ever offers you something with tofu or soy which you didn't order... I strongly recommend not eating or drinking it."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I'll remember that," Bucky promises. "Do I want to know why?"

It's as polite a way as he can think of to offer Caspian the out if he doesn't want to explain.

[the_seafarer]

"It changed people," Caspian recalls, carefully running a length of line through his fingers and checking for any weaknesses. "Turned them into strange versions of themselves. It wore off after a few days, but it was an odd week, I must say."

[nerves_of_ice]

An entire plank's worth of paint peels off all at once from the force he applies. Bucky lifts the scraper and checks carefully to make sure he's not caused any harm, not looking up.

"Sounds like it."

[the_seafarer]

Caspian glances over, but Bucky hasn't hurt himself and he can't hurt the Hope, not in any way that can't be repaired, and so Caspian turns back to his own task.

"But then, the good here far outweighs the bad," he observes. "I, for instance, had given up on the dream of seeing other worlds before I came here." He looks back up at Bucky. "Have you visited others, as well? Or kept to your own?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"True," he says, looking up again. One corner of his mouth quirks up in a smile. "I have. A couple, anyway. Don't suppose you've ever heard of a place called Thedas?"

[the_seafarer]

"Never," Caspian says, shaking his head. "What is it like?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"I liked it," Bucky says, honestly. "Lots less tech than where I'm from--"
Especially now.

"--but that never mattered much. Dragons and castles and wyverns and the Deep Roads and magic and mystery and more. Spent pretty much all the time I was there in a kingdom called Ferelden."

[the_seafarer]

"It sounds a grand place," Caspian says, though he looks somewhat wry at the mention of dragons. "I imagine that was how the Pevensies felt when they first came to Narnia."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I could see it," he agrees, over the scraping sounds of paint removal. "At least I'd been here first, so even though it was different, it was ... familiar somehow."

He shrugs. "And mercenaries are the same everywhere, I guess."

[the_seafarer]

"I expect so," Caspian agrees, and leans to direct Bucky to another crack. "Though I have had few enough dealings with them to be able to say."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Lucky you," Bucky drawls, going to work on the new spot. "But I figure most people don't."

[the_seafarer]

"I should hope not," Caspian agrees, easily.

"Were there giants in this Thedas?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"We didn't run across any while I was there, but yeah," he confirms. "I think they were mostly to the north of where we were."

[the_seafarer]

"They were to the north in Narnia, too," Caspian muses. "I wonder if giants simply prefer the cold."

He has yet to run into any in Ambergeldar's world, but he is by no means convinced none inhabit it.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Maybe. It might be some weird metabolism thing," says the super-soldier who's become all too familiar with various 'weird metabolism things' that affect one's reaction to cold.

"You talk about them like you ran into them once or twice."

[the_seafarer]

"I have, aye," Caspian tells him. "They would keep pressing at our Northern borders, and so had to be pushed firmly back. We hadn't any trouble with them after that for a long while."

But thoughts of battle vanish for a moment and he laughs at a memory. "And of course there was the Giant Wimbleweather; not a very bright chap, but a loyal one."