all_inclusive | (no subject)

The door to Westeros was unassuming and like every other door in the hotel but Jon found that he always knew where it was and how to get it to open so it wasn't a broom closet and it was a way back home. He had been tempted a few times but had never ventured more than a few steps, just satisfying himself with the crunch of his boots against fresh-fallen snow. Today, though, he meant to go further.

Ghost was restless with having been cooped up in the hotel for weeks and while neither of them had liked the heat of the island, there had at least been the jungle to explore and hunt. The places the hotel led were stranger still and none of them that he had found so far had the kind of place he felt comfortable letting Ghost roam in, except one: Westeros. The North had always been his home and after Winterfell, the Wall and Castle Black had become as much a home as a bastard boy would ever have. It was dangerous to go back there considering his own men had tried to kill him but he thought he might journey to one of the other castles, one long abandoned due to simply not having enough men to garrison it.

Rimegate and Sable Hall were far enough away from the manned castles to be safe enough and would provide shelter should the snows grow too deep. Jon wasn't in fear of that. He was well-acquainted with how to survive in the North and knew how best to keep himself safe and warm should a storm come up. It was here that he felt more comfortable than anywhere else - be that the hotel, the island or somewhere in between. It was here that his purpose lay.

"Come, Ghost. Let's go home for a little while and see if anything has changed."

[Find Jon at the open door that leads back to Westeros, which is very snowy and cold at the moment.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"So he is absolutely not your husband?" Jon asked, smirking just a bit. It seemed this had embarrassed her and being so often the butt of jokes himself, Jon enjoyed being on the other side of it for once.

"Are you certain?"

Simmons doesn't think it's a very kind thing to tease to this degree and she sets her chin firmly downwards, flustered yet but trying not to think about it. "He's not my husband," she says, hoping that makes it quite clear. After all, it's not as if she hasn't though about how well they'd work like that, but they're not even approaching any kind of romance. "I just don't really know how to live my life without him at my side."

"A good friend, then," Jon said softly. He hadn't meant to upset her, exactly, and it seemed that he'd taken his teasing too far.

"You are very lucky to have someone so dear to you close by. I miss my family more than I could possibly ever explain."

"He's a very dear friend," she says, the relief practically rushing forward, infused in every single word that she gets out. "The very best friend I've got. He and I are roughly on par as far as intelligence goes, though I'm perhaps a bit more advanced than him, solely because I like homework better than he does. When you're young and isolated, it's nice to have someone," she says, fondly.

"I think that's true in any situation." Jon could not claim to be highly educated but he did have a moderate amount of learning for his time and his practical skills were above average. He found a kinship in Leah, who was also very physical, and he was grateful every day she came here to the hotel with him from the island.

"We should all come through to Westeros some time. You could do more...testing or whatever it is."

Would it be possible for small beakers to appear in her eyes, they would at the prospect of getting to inspect an alien world such as this. Fitz might not enjoy it quite as much unless he was able to apply an eye to the physics and engineering aspects of the world, but she would still drag him along and he would enjoy it. "That would be lovely, it really would," she says gratefully.

"And perhaps you can come back to our world?"

"Perhaps," Jon conceded. "Provided you do not do too much of this testing on me." He did not know what it would entail and he liked her but he did not wish to be confined in a laboratory. He had learned about those while on the island and they were less than appealing.

"It wouldn't be on you," Simmons quickly assures, smiling as brazenly as she can. "It would only be on the particles of your clothing, maybe a sample of your hair. We're not brutes," she laughs, even though what she's saying might not entirely sound so kind. "And maybe you could breathe into a tube or something."

"And, what, exactly, would that tell you?" Science seemed like magic in many ways and Jon did not trust anything remotely resembling that which Melisandre did on a regular basis. Red Priestesses were not to be trusted.

"It would give me a faint idea about the composition of your world's crust and terrain, potentially even a peek into the ecology and the biology and their workings," she says, her eyes practically sparkling with possibilities. Oh, she really does truly love the science behind new worlds and this is the closest she's ever come to one.

None of that made much sense to Jon but he nodded along all the same.

"I will make plans to return then and allow for your research, though I do not know when I will be able to. The doors are sometimes fickle for me."

Simmons is practically bouncing on her heels, wandering closer to him until she's side by side again. "You're my very favourite person," she informs him, grateful beyond measure at the potential and the possibilities. "I promise, I won't get into any trouble if I can help it."