deep in December, it's nice to remember

[pacificator]

Who: Wynonna Earp, Benton Fraser (& others)

What: embracing the holiday spirit and other December things

When: December

Where: Milton & Lakeside

 

without a hurt the heart is hollow

 

Comments

[maintiensledroit]

Your father sounds like a good man, who taught you well.

[ A year ago, he'd been in Chicago, asking another father about the kind of legacy and lesson he wanted to leave his son. How is Del doing, a year later? Have they made their amends, started planning again for the future?

But this story of a long night has him looking grim, his lips pressing together. In the year he's been here, the world has acquiesced to the usual order of darkness and daylight, but there has sometimes seemed to be a.... reluctance to it. And he has no doubt that the Darkwalker would prefer to keep them all in a smothering darkness for as long as possible. ]

That's a lot of responsibility to take on.

[ Especially for one as young as Jon still looks to be. ]

Do you mind if I ask what put you in that position? Something other than knighthood, it seems.

[northerndragon]

He was the best man I ever knew.

[But at the last question, Jon frowns, shakes his head. It's not a refusal to answer, more of a dismissal of the importance of what he's about to say.]

I was Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, then King in the North.

Being a king, it doesn't matter here. Not without my people. King in the North isn't in the North right now. Well -- [he gives a wry glance at the cold darkness around them] -- not my North, anyway. But I will try to help everyone as well as I can.

What made you decide to join the Police?

[maintiensledroit]

[ It's as automatic as breathing; when he realizes he's speaking to someone on par with his own monarch, Fraser lifts his hand to remove his Stetson, holding it politely at his side. ]

I suspect many other kings wouldn't feel the same way, even dragged from their homes and deposited in a place like this. But as it happens, I agree: no matter where we came from or what we did, we're here now, and we have to be able to count on each other.

[ After all, he's held onto his own rank, and he's not the only one... but Jon Snow, who introduced himself with no title and no requirement for any particular deference, may simply not link his own identity with his rise to a throne. Was he born to it? Did he assume it? Did he lead a rebellion and take it? It's impossible to say, and, perhaps, he's right: it may not matter here at all.

The younger man's question is a good distraction: the answer is both perfectly simple and painfully complicated. ]

My father was a Mountie. That's what they often call us, Mounties.

[ He pauses, thinking, his gaze turned inward for a moment before he shakes his head. ]

He was a difficult man to really know... but a good one. And dedicated to his calling. I grew up idolizing him and the other members of the RCMP I knew. I never wanted to do anything else.

[ He gestures with his hat at Jon, the package of food, the open door. ]

I apologize, I never meant to make you stand out here in the cold, talking. But I'd be interested to hear more about your time in the North and this long night you mentioned.