No One Wept Except The Willow [closed]

[northerndragon]

Who: Jon Snow and Mat Cauthon
When: September
Where: Nott
What: Questing beasts!
Warnings: None. Maybe language, maybe some injury descriptions? They're visiting hospitalized people; this is bound to be pretty tame.

Comments

[northerndragon]

The children take to the treats and the show well enough, and Jon tries to think of every child as Arya or Bran -- which touches him with a brief passing melancholy. His siblings are dead, but these children are not. And he ought to learn to visit the sick and wounded: it's a part of his duties at home, but not a part he's performed much, excepting after his battle against Bolton. His leg had been injured then, too, and he had not yet been a king, only a grateful general and half a fool.

The fact is that it's more a queen's duty to visit children who are healing, and one day, if he can ever find his way home, and if they all survive, he will have to find a queen.

That thought compounds the melancholy, but only briefly. My sad face doesn't help these children, he thinks. If any of them notice, it will rather take away from the effect Mat is working hard to create. So he tries not to think of any of the other things, and tries to remember to be happy that they've all been lucky enough to survive.

The smile doesn't reach his eyes, but it is a smile, and when Mat finishes a song, he claps as hard as anyone, and calls out, "Another!"

[a_better_man]

"Another?" Mat laughs, pretending to hem and haw as if it's some great burden. He exaggerates it, though, obviously putting on a show for humor's sake.

"Well...I think maybe I could manage another..." He just needs to think of another that's appropriate for wee ears. A large number of Mat's catalogue is bawdy songs and love ballads, which are always popular at taverns. Not so much in children's wards.

"But how about something a little different? I'm a many trick pony, as it happens!" He sets the harp aside and reaches for his clubs instead. He can tell Jon's trying to get into the spirit here. He can also tell it's not exactly something that comes easily to him. Time to give him something to focus on.

"Jon, come here, grab the little hand drum out my bag. You can drum a beat for me."

[northerndragon]

He looks at Mat, looks at the bag, looks at the children with a half-smile and a sheepish shrug. He is a little more into the spirit of the thing now.

"I thought we were here to entertain them," he says, in a way that is part of the entertainment, which gets a laugh out of some of the boys and girls.

But he gets the drum out and looks to Mat for further guidance. He's picked up on a few of the same songs, but what you sing in a tavern is not what you sing for sick children. And at the Wall, not much of what was said or sung was soft enough for ears this tender. He can't imagine singing "The Dornishman's Wife" to this lot.

"The one about the little dog?"

[a_better_man]

Jon is taking to it well. Mat thought he might.

"Perfect." Simple, very basic beat, and it encourages the wee ones to sing along. And it's easy to juggle to. That's a trick he's found with juggling, it's much easier if one is singing and keeping to a beat. The toss and catch just becomes part of that rhythm. No wonder so many gleeman sing while they juggle.

"Alright you lot, sing along the chorus with us, we'll go through once so you can hear it, and then you join in. And we speed up just a bit each time."

Until he intentionally goes faster than he can juggle, because it always makes the little ones laugh when he drops everything in a creatively controlled scramble. When it comes to children, it's not always about being good. It's about entertaining them, amusing them. Playing the buffoon sometimes.

He's very good at playing the buffoon.

[northerndragon]

Jon knows that Mat can juggle perfectly well -- that this is part of his act. It puts him in mind of Pyp a little, the way he would act the fool now and then to make his friends laugh. Pyp and Mat would have liked each other. Might be they'll have a chance to see one day.

So he shrugs and says to the children, "I can't juggle at all. Neither can my wolf, back at home. Give Mat a hand."

At the mention of the wolf, a few of the children look confused, but it's forgotten when they begin to applaud delightedly.

He leans over to Mat and mutters, "Time for the flutes?"

[a_better_man]

Mat's all grins as he gathers his clubs. The little ones are having a good time, and that's all he cares about. He's been a hurt child, and a child with not much to look forward to in a day. Little things can go a long way, and a bit of joy can carry well into the night. He thinks they've given them that. A bit of joy they can hold onto in the dark and quiet.

And now is the time. He turns to Jon with a resigned nod.

"Time for the flutes."

[northerndragon]

The cacaphony that arises once Jon has passed out the flutes and Mat has finished packing his things is truly impressive, and perhaps not the best thing for a place of rest... but at least the children are merry, now.

Thirty steps away from the place, they can still be heard.

[/end quest.]