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

and now starkpain JULI YOU'RE RED WEDDING-ing my HEART

[robb]

[ it takes him a breath, a moment to consider what's transpired. why would she have lied to him? what had happened that she thought this was a far kinder tale to tell. his head is bowed down, his shoulders fall to a slump.

these are not stark ways, sansa - and he wants to scold her and ask her how he's wronged and a dozen other questions that grace through his thoughts, fleeting and untouchable. his last memory of speaking about her was when he revoked her right to winterfell and he gave his kingdom to jon instead. was that perhaps a choice she held against him?

why and how was lord baelish involved?

she's changed - blossomed into a bastard, someone who is no longer stark nor tully. and robb can barely the see the girl who once told of stories and sang songs of princes and castles. she was sansa no longer.

then another base relief washes over him. because alayne, or sansa - she's alive and perhaps the details can wait. ]

Where are you?

NO THIS IS YOUR FAULT JULYA

[meant]

( she knows nothing about the fact that robb had signed over winterfell; if lord baelish had known, he had made no word of it to her. she knows only of the plan, the wheels being set in motion. her marriage to harry the heir, using the vale's armies to reclaim winterfell in her name. the thought should scare her a little more, but she feels nothing at all about it.

but this - the idea of facing robb, this is what scares her the most. his anger, his disappointment. petyr had told her that there was no shame in feeling fear, only showing it. but it is written clear on her face at the moment no matter how hard she tries to stop that, like a flimsy mask easily crumpled in one hand.

they were not the stark ways, no. but alayne had stopped thinking of herself as a stark a long time ago. )

The house of Freya. Robb, I --

( and without thinking ( you stupid girl, foolish and stupid and ruining everything ), alayne slips up. she hadn't meant to. one slip in the vale would mean her head. she had been so careful -

alayne swallows and looks away from the camera. )

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.