dorothy's slippers.

[highf]

So here's what you missed on Glee:

Puck and Santana have been stranded on an island that kind of reminds them of Lost, except without the cool polar bears and the smoke monster, and both of them are missing home and feeling way out of their league, even if neither will admit to it. ( "Not your type of party, is it?" "If I say no, you're going to

Comments

[tooktheblack]

Jon tried to avoid the Compound for the most part as he and Ghost were much more comfortable outdoors but he had developed a taste for coffee in the few weeks he'd been here and, considering he couldn't get it anywhere else but the Compound, he braved it a few times a week for a cup or two. He had just gotten a cup and thought to go to the bookshelves when he heard the singing and stood to listen for a moment, appreciative.

He was no bard and never would be but this boy (man...he looked of an age with Jon, anyway) seemed to be well-trained even without a high harp or a lute.

"You have a fine voice," Jon said during a break in the music, not wanting to interrupt.

[tooktheblack]

Jon let out a sharp, low laugh and shook his head. How many times had he dreamed, even if it wasn't right to do so, that he might be a trueborn son of Ned Stark and set to rule Winterfell along with Robb someday? Too many and 'Lord Snow' still stung, even if it was accurate now.

"No. It's Jon Snow, not Jon Stark. Snow's a bastard name in the North," he explained. "I'll never inherit anything, which is why I joined the Watch. I was elected as Lord Commander."

[highf]

"...oh," Kurt replied, a small noise of surprise that he immediately regretted, a light tinge of pink rising to his cheeks. He couldn't imagine that having a child out of wedlock was a very uncommon occurrence, especially in an age that sounded old enough that protection probably wasn't wholly an option, but to hear them called bastard was something which jarred at his sensibilities. Yes, it was scandalous that Quinn Fabray and Noah Puckerman had conceived a child together, but the child itself wasn't to blame and shouldn't have been forced to carry that weight around.

Hard as it was to believe, he supposed, and with as many injustices as the world still contained, it was once so much worse.

"Well, at least you were able to break into democracy," Kurt offered, hoping that it was some measure of comfort, wanting to smooth over that low laugh that had hit him square in the chest. "Honestly, it means a whole lot more for people to trust you given a choice, rather than simply because your father handed down a title."

[tooktheblack]

It was a perspective Jon hadn't really considered before and he turned it over in his mind before nodding. Maybe it was a good thing, to have been trusted with command of the Wall because of his skill and not because of his surname. He managed a smile, at least, and shook his head to clear the last of those thoughts.

"Perhaps it is...I'm sorry, your name? I'm terrible and didn't even think to ask."

[highf]

"Oh no," Kurt breathed, looking down bashfully, his expression apologetic. He'd forgotten himself, clearly, and lost himself in the very idea of another world, one so unlike his own. There were so many details that he disliked about his own world (or at least, that roped in by Ohio's borders) that even conceiving of another was a pleasure in of itself. It'd been how he tended to view New York for a long while now, as some distant world all its own that would save him from such persecution, that would allow him to perform to his heart's content and be recognized for it.

"No, my fault for not introducing myself earlier, when you did," he replied primly, before holding out a hand- and hoping, as soon as he'd extended it, that the other man knew what a handshake was. (Did they bow back then?) "Kurt Hummel."

[tooktheblack]

Handshakes were something known in Jon's world but not the way they were offered on the island where only the hand was offered. In Westeros, a man took another man's hand and tugged him close, clapping the other on the shoulder. Jon didn't think that would go well here, though and merely shook Kurt's offered hand.

"Well met, Kurt Hummel. I'm Jon, as I said, and this is Ghost," Jon added, nodding toward the ever-present direwolf.

[highf]

As far as first meetings went, Kurt felt fairly secure that he hadn't left too poor of an impression. For this, he was glad- with such barriers in time and culture, the last thing that he'd expected was to hit it off with some illegitimate son of a high lord, one clearly hardened by some physical labor, and who kept a very large wolf as a pet. Kind though he'd found the other man to be, just by physical descriptions alone, Kurt didn't doubt that he himeslf was the exact opposite of Jon Snow.

"Well met indeed," he echoed, raising a shoulder in amusement, echoing the other man's language. His gaze brushed over Ghost once more. "How does, ah, Ghost feel about strangers?"

[tooktheblack]

"Wary and suspicious," Jon said, glancing at the direwolf. He seemed calm at the moment, though, and if Jon had anything to fear from Kurt, he felt like the wolf would have warned him. Ghost seemed content just to lay nearby, a silent shadow.

"He's even more of a surly bastard than I am, most days, but he seems to like you well enough. Time will tell."

[highf]

"You don't strike me as very surly," Kurt admitted first, deliberately avoiding the other word, not sure if using it so plainly was an act that would bother Jon to any meaningful degree. Either way, he didn't want to chance it. Bastard was, after all, far from a mere insult when it came to Jon, instead something which was meant to describe the young man's background and alluded to the many hardships on his shoulders, many rights which would be denied him. Regardless of all of that, however, surly was the last qualifier Kurt would have used. "Unless in your world, the norm is very forthcoming and open, in which case... sign me up." He laughed lightly, voice nervous in his chest.

"He's beautiful though, Snow. I guess he can probably tell that I'm not much of a threat. I've been told that I punch like a girl."

[tooktheblack]

"Ghost is beautiful," Jon agreed, ruffling his hand through the fur at the scruff of his neck for a moment. "I didn't think he would live at first and he probably wouldn't have, if we'd left them in the forest. He's mute and albino. Normally they die out much quicker than the others, even with food and shelter."

But Ghost had proved that wrong, at least, and Jon couldn't help but admire that.

"He's a good partner for patrols as well, on the Wall."

[highf]

"Ah, you take him on patrols?" Kurt asked with interest, lips parting slightly in awe. There were plenty of people in Lima who owned pets, dogs and cats being far too much in abundance, but even in a town as slow and quaint as theirs, Kurt felt that most people didn't pay their pets nearly enough mind. Certainly, he couldn't have imagined anyone being able to work with their pets in such a capacity. (Outside of, perhaps, trained canines working with the police, those occasionally brought to the school for screenings.)

"He's certainly large enough to take on the role of a guard dog, I'm guessing," he breathed, smile widening, even as he kept his hands carefully to himself, out of respect and a tiny vein of fear. (He'd never really had such a pet of his own.)