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[Having been here a couple of weeks now, Arya looks very different from the first time she addressed the network. She's cleaned up considerably from when she arrived, covered in the mud and blood of Harrenhal, an urchin shivering in a forgotten gray alleyway. She has gained a few bruises since then, particularly on her arms and legs, most of them brown and fading now, but there's one purpling welt on her forearm that she can't help poking at. She doesn't seem too bothered by the bruises, though. While she's arranged her hair in a slightly more feminine way, she's still wearing boys clothes; looser, more comfortable, easier to fight and tumble around in.]

Action

[Those of you passing through the Thor district may chance upon Arya sometime in the morning, looking a little dissatisfied and disappointed in herself. Maya's set her a task, but she's finding it a very difficult one to complete.]

No good. Maybe I just haven't found the right place yet, but...

Video

[It's late afternoon when she addresses the network. Her face still looks troubled.]

What sort of place do you go to, when you need to be alone and think?

[A pause. She's not sure whether to say the next part or not. The truth is, there's a lot that's happened to her over the last few months, ever since they left Winterfell, really. And she's just had to keep going through it all. To have to stop and examine herself now, to meditate and find the inner Arya, would mean facing it all, rather than just adding names to a list of people she'll one day give their retribution. It would mean grieving for Ned, something she's not had the space to do yet. And the idea is scaring her. Maybe not being able to find a place to follow Maya's instruction to her successfully is just a front for that.

She takes a deep breath, but the words won't come. She's just eleven years old, after all, how does she even try and process all of this?]

Robb, can you come and see me, please? I...

[She feels herself blinking back tears and, embarrassed, quickly shuts off the feed.]

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[She looked at Arya for a moment and then turned away, unable to actually look at the girl directly. She kept her voice even, though it was a struggle. Her fingers clutched her jeans and though she was calm as she spoke, she had lost a lot of volume.]

I have been tortured, seen people tortured... [If she asked, she would admit that she had also done the torturing, but she didn't want to volunteer it.] I... am more familiar with torture than I ever wanted to be, Arya.

Did they torture you, or were you forced to witness it?

They didn't torture me. [She replies quickly, not wanting to linger on this any more than was absolutely necessary.] They would have, though. And not because they knew it was me, I was hiding, it was just ... awful. Random, innocent people, who didn't know anything.

[A small smile here.] I got even with them. But it still won't go away from my mind.

[She smiled at that. It was one of the first legitimate smiles that Arya had probably seen from her, though it wasn't a kind smile. It was cruel, with a bit of a twisted smirk. She was remembering getting even once or twice.]

I won't ask how. That's for you to share if you want. Torture, even if it doesn't happen to you, lingers. It takes a certain level of depravity to be able to do that sort of thing, even if you 'need' the information.

It can be really hard to get those images out of your head once they're there.

[Arya turns the coin Jaqen had given her over and over in her hands. She doesn't even realize she's doing it at first, it's just become sort of an automatic ritual; something that makes her feel connected to the world she came from, and reminds her that she is in control of what happens to her.

Minutes pass. Arya continues to pass the small silver coin between her fingers, looking absently off over the lake, lost in thought.]

It has made me stronger. I know that whatever the gods here throw at me, it can't be as bad as that place. But it's still hard.

There's not much that I think they can throw at us that's worse than some of the horrors you and I might have seen at some point. They can try, but in the end, it's almost good for a laugh, Arya. You can focus on that, when they do things to us. There's nothing they can do that we can't fight against... however hard.

I don't ever want to hear you give up, ok? If it's the only thing we can take from those things, it's something.

I won't. It is hard, but I have to keep on fighting, we all do. I won't stop fighting until I'm back home with my family.

I'm here to help wherever I can. I'm not the best of allies, but I'm here all the same. You won't have to go this alone, Arya. But... I think that's enough unpleasant topics at least for the moment, unless you have something else you want to ask. Otherwise, do you want to talk about something else?

[Usually, she would have welcomed the chance to talk to Samantha about anything and everything; she was thrilled to be able to spend time with her, despite the circumstances. But right now, she felt drained.] I can't think of anything. Is there something you want to talk about?

[She looked at her sympathetically. She didn't want to push that much longer, but it felt like a good time to ask a little about her family.]

You know... I'd like to know about your family a little. What's your brother like? Do you have any others? I think, maybe sharing a bit about our families might be good.

Edited 2012-08-02 17:32 (UTC)

I have four-- [She catches herself here and starts again, her voice much duller than it had been just a second ago.] ...I had four brothers. I ... have two now. And a sister. [But Sansa was an afterthought in Arya's mind, as she so often had been. She just felt awful now, for forgetting what Robb had told her, of Bran and Rickon's murders, by the hand of someone she'd trusted. And of course, she didn't even think to mention that Jon was a bastard half brother; he was much closer to her than any of the others had ever been.]

[She sighed and her hand hesitantly reached forward. It moved to place itself over Arya's hand and pat at it. There was something about her body language that said this was as close as she easily came to physical contact in general. Hugs, close physical contact, were not comfortable to her. She could do it, but even here it wasn't natural to her, though her gaze was definitely one of sympathy.]

I am sorry to hear that, Arya. It seems we've both lost family recently. There really isn't much I can say to help there, though I am glad for you that your brother is at least here with you. Perhaps... though, we should trade stories about them when it is not quite so fresh a wound.