5TH BATTLE ; VIDEO

[robb]

[ the feed clicks open and there is robb, looking a tad worn and disgruntled. he's just come back from being gray and colour - colour is a shot of relief -- like the feeling of sweet summerwine down your throat. he barely remembers anything. only the war, and arya disappearing and then nothing.

he's always figured it was part of some promise to return them. that the next time he would open his eyes - he'd be on the battlefield, or the eyrie or winterfell. somewhere familiar - but he isn't. he's still here.

his voice is perhaps, hoarser then. the after effect of not having spoken for what feels like a near month. he's glad the bracelet is with him again, as is grey wind. ]

I had thought the gods kind enough to deliver me out of their service. It seems they place me back.

[ a beat. ]

Is S- Alayne Stone still of this realm?

Comments

[starktomboy]

[Her brothers would shudder to know the bloodshed she'd be willing to cause if a single Lannister so much as blinked in their sister's direction, or any of them really. She still said Cersei's name in her nightly prayer.

So far Daenerys had been kind to her, though a bit cold but not unlike herself. Arya kept her distance from her and from her two other siblings, though she did find herself outside of Heimdall or Freya on occasion, hoping to catch them. Half of her still nagged at her that this was all a farce and that she should stay hidden - pretending to be Nan - but was there really a point to it here? Robb himself knew she'd come and gone from this place, though she had no memories of it.]

No, I can't imagine so, when you inhabit a place where there is a God walking around with your face.

[She smirks at that a little. Sorry Robb, she quite likes the god of her house. He made her laugh, something she hadn't done for a long time.]

I do not remember, no, but I am told frequently of it when passerby recognize me on the streets.

[robb]

[ robb doesn't understand it to their level. doesn't understand living a life anything less than a stark. doesn't like the idea of being nameless because robb would rather bloody the stark colors then wear another persons. he's never known anything else outside of what it is to be a stark and he's defined himself and his actions by that. once upon a time, a lady in asgard had called that crippling. told him he was so much more than his name and robb never believed her. then the gods had forgotten her and robb had tried to.

but arya is a new person - and so he'll treat her as such. give her a different warmth because the last thing arya should have remembered was a war, and before that death and before that a plague.

so perhaps - some part of him is glad that these are things left to be forgotten. ]

His name is Thor and he lays his claim to my face as well as naming himself the god of strength. [ a beat - because this is the only way he's understood it. ] We know him as the Warrior, I should think.

Then perhaps I should welcome you to Asgard. Do you still stay in the House of Thor?

[starktomboy]

[Arya can still feel herself hesitate. She tries to keep a smile on her face, to keep her thoughts from straying to more saddening things such as the fact that they would not be able to talk like this were they back home. It was a harrowing thought. She should take advantage of things, yes?

The worries of not remembering her time here before are far off, compared to the copious amounts of joy she feels that he is here with her. Arya can't help but laugh a little as he speaks of Thor, because he'd said that Robb was not happy that he had his face. She found nothing insulting about it in the least. 'The Warrior' suited her brother too, she thought.]

I like him well enough. He's funny and he doesn't seem to be serious or stuffy. Maybe he's good with a sword.

[A beat.]

Yes, I do. [A question nags at her though.] Are we not allowed to stay together? I know Sa- Alayne is from our world and Jon is here too, maybe we could find a place for all of us? She must be lonely...

[He probably knows Alayne is their sister, in disguise. She struggled with calling her by a different name, but did so out of respect and understanding.]

[robb]

He seems to be in our favour, for now. [ robb doesn't trust his own face, not really ]

[ it is. and perhaps - that's part of the quiet pockets of relief he has with this arya. arya and robb had grown a certain fondness for each other over their months together and robb was constantly trying to fill in for jon's absence.

( the warrior suits her just the same )

but robb's fought alongside him. the war their fighting is a long one and robb's never going to let himself be complacent about it. especially now more than ever - there are things in the realm he has to protect. he who gives the sentence, wields the sword after all.

and at her suggestion, he smiles. ]

I should want that. We should find a house and we can all stay together.

[ a beat. ]

Let me go to where you are.

[starktomboy]

I don't trust him, either. [She just wants to go home and the gods are keeping her from that. Despite how funny he is or how happy she is to see her siblings, she hasn't forgotten her main goal.]

Yes, I would like that.

[She nods, trying not to look nearly as sad as she feels. Surely he doesn't know what comes to pass at the Twins, so she can at least greet him with a smile and a hug, right?]

If you know where it is, I can wait outside?

[robb]

I shall find my way.

[ and although wars and robb are no strangers to each other -- he'd much rather be on grounds he's familiar with. but there's an incentive to stay in asgard. he's used to the small slices of a life he's missed.

( he doesn't deserve it, any of it. to be in alayne's good graces or to see john and arya again. he's chosen his battles over theirs. admitted that his crown was worth his sister's lives and he was too caught up to storm winterfell to save bran and rickon himself. robb does not think of himself as great as a man - the stories they will sing will shape him up to be but he's trying to fix that. asgard is his second chance. )

so he shuts off the feed. takes grey wind with him and makes his way towards where she is. he can hardly recognize her. ( he hardly recognized sansa as well ). she's grown much and even if robb can remember the last arya vividly - this one seems as if she's known a longer time in hardship. so he doesn't hesitate. he pulls his little sister into a tight hug. ]

[starktomboy]

[Arya held her breath, pacing when she didn't crouch and stare at the ground. She couldn't be still for more than a few seconds. She felt like her heart might beat right out of her chest with how nervous she felt. She didn't know how she might react to seeing him in person, to being able to hold him again or be held by him. All she could think about was the dream in which she was her lost direwolf, pulling their mother out of the river and seeing her body ravaged by water and slaughter when she'd been alive.

In her minds eye she could see the scratches along her cheeks, the long slash that opened her throat. She wondered what had become of her brother, but at the same time she didn't want to know and didn't want to think about it when she saw him. She only wanted to think of home where the snows were impossibly white and of times when she would climb as high as she would dare - Bran was the climber, not her - and throw snowballs at him and Jon and Sansa, memories of their father's laughter and their mother's impossibly beautiful smile and red hair.

She's pulled from her thoughts when, by some sixth sense, she realizes that Robb and Grey Wind aren't more than a few feet from her. Robb closes the distance first before she can speak, standing and staring at him in disbelief instead. Suddenly his arms were around her and she reached back to him, hugging as tight as her small skinny arms would allow. She was small enough she still had to jump up some to wrap her arms around his neck, like she had done with Jon so long ago when he'd left for the Wall.

No, you won't cry. He'll ask why you're crying... but she wanted to cry. It had been two whole years since she'd seen him and she'd been so close. She'd been just outside the Twins and then he was lost to her, like all the rest of their siblings. Daring herself to speak, she chokes out a laugh into his ear, whispering what she could form of words.]

Gods be good, I missed you... and mother and-!! [She stops herself there, choking on words and trying not to cry. She doesn't even realize her cheeks are already wet with tears.]