o1 ♔ voice

[meant]

( Alayne fiddles with the bracelet around her wrist for a moment before speaking - she's hesitant about addressing the whole of a city that she cannot see. After all, it's dangerous to be Sansa Stark these days, now that she's a traitor accused of regicide. But amongst the midst of all these voices, it's unlikely that hers will be recognized ( or so she thinks, as she does not know details of the network yet ). She is Alayne now, not Sansa. They will not know her. Lies and arbor gold, Alayne thinks. No one takes notice of a bastard girl. )

Gods of Asgard, I wanted to thank you for choosing me for such an important task. This is an honour that I did not expect. But I must think of my lord father - he worries so, and I wouldn't want him to fret. I'm only a young girl - surely someone more gallant should be chosen for a deed like this.

If it please you, I would ask that you send me back to him.

( but alayne doesn't expect much: no one gets what they want without a price. all she can do is ask. )

Comments

action

[needlebearer]

[Arya just looks hurt and confused.]

Nothing's the same any more. But you're still Sansa. You're still my sister.

[Even if they fought like cat and dog, even if they'd never really understood each other. Arya could understand using a false identity, being careful, but looking at her now, it was as though she'd rejected being a Stark on the inside, too. She didn't understand, couldn't understand.]

[voice]

[eisenrache]

[at first he almost asks why she is so wary to accept his offering, why she is so guarded. most girls her age are much more trusting, he thought, unless their past has raised them otherwise. instead his curiosity grows.]

It pains me to think that there are people who can grow up and not know the world, for all its pains and glories. [pains. yes, pains. mostly pains and heartbreak and war.]

VIDEO -> ACTION

[robb]

I'll head there. [ he closes the feed.

he does not get to where he is by being subservient. robb has the stubbornness of a stark, welded so indelicately into his bones. but he doesn't hesitate, he feels a pounding in his chest as his legs move faster than ever before.

he wants this more than anything, to be with his sisters, jon and bran and rickon again. he dreams of this. if he could, if he had his way - he would have marched up there to kings landing himself. killed every soldier who'd sworn oath to the lion and take off lord tywin's head and place it upon a spike. he would make cersei know how it was to lose a father and he would let jamie know what it is to lose a sister.

this is a second chance for him, so he doesn't hesitate. and in a few moments, he's there. in front of the House of Freya looking for her. ]

[meant]

( the sigil of the mockingbird is heavy at her throat. it is a handsome thing, the clasp of her cloak that might have once borne a silver direwolf. she fiddles with it and considers removing it before entering into robb's presence, but she needs the cloak to keep her warm. the symbol that she had once taken gratefully ( that petyr baelish would take her in as one of his own ) now feels like a betrayal.

alayne waits for him like a lady. standing outside of the house of freya with her back straight and her hands clasped; she considers running, hiding so that he will not see her shame - but those are not the stark ways, no. she is braver than that.

what will he do, when he knows what a liar she is? a memory comes to her now, of a different time, when robb had taken them all down to the crypts underneath winterfell. there had been a ghost, and sansa had run shrieking for the exist, but it was only jon covered in flour. robb had hugged her afterward, had laughed about it, and at that time he was a child and not a king. her brother and not her lord.

she yearns for that time once again. yet now, faced with this as an actual possibility, alayne is frozen. he is standing right there in front of her, and her voice is caught in her throat. it feels unreal, like a mirage or a dream, like all of this will disappear before her very eyes. like robb will be gone, and she will be back in king's landing with joffrey to replace him.

alayne takes a tentative step forward. and then another. should she curtsy? should she embrace him? she makes no move to do either. instead, she bows her head, the rest of her usual composure nearly gone. but alayne keeps a tight grip on it, for she has no other choice. )

Robb. Please let me explain.

action

[meant]

( alayne can't remember the exact moment when she stopped thinking of herself as a stark of winterfell; the change had been so gradual that she had only realized it after the fact. she used to protest it so vehemently; there was a proud aspect of her that was revolted about the prospect of being a bastard - the starks were a noble family. or they used to be, when they were still a family. but back in westeros, she' d had nobody left at all.

but arya wouldn't understand. arya was stubborn, and alayne knew it. arya would have charged at the queen, sword in hand before bowing and scraping. sansa was always constantly exasperated with her bull-headed ways. but perhaps arya would have died, as well. perhaps she is already dead, from the time that alayne comes from. as sansa, she had almost accepted this as fact, even without anyone having to tell her. )

...Yes.

( she can lie one more time, can't she? alayne knows she can't go back, but she can pretend. for the sakes of arya and robb, she can lie again. she can lie to herself, too. gods know she's been doing it a lot lately. )

Nobody knew where you were. Everyone... everyone thought you were dead. I didn't have a choice. I couldn't be Sansa any more. It was too dangerous.

[voice]

[meant]

( sansa had grown up with no knowledge of the world. sheltered and secluded from the rest of westeros by the high walls of winterfell, she never knew what it was like to want for anything. never saw a man die until she left home. guarded is the right word, but what alayne hopes to convey is caution, prudence. the past always shines through, however hard one attempts to hide it. )

I should like to know about the worlds beyond this, though I fear I have very little to pay in kind.

( and a pause - sansa always remembered her courtesies; alayne does the same. )

Would you tell me your name? I am Alayne Stone, of a land called Westeros.

[biifurcatiion]

[It's just her luck that they probably don't get much stranger than him. Unless they're one of the fish trolls. He's not even trying to be actively menacing and he's pretty much defenseless, but nobody would ever know from looking.]

Really? 'Cauthe you thure ath hell talk like one. And if it talkth like a thtuck up royal it probably ith a thtuck up royal prithhy pantth, or, you know, I guethh maybe an actor or thomething.

[voice]

[eisenrache]

I have little interest in the material, Miss Stone. Consider it an act of kindness.

[or debt, as Erik sees it. It never hurts to have favors, to have people owe him. Not that he especially wants her in his debt.]

Erik Lensherr.