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hadriel2016-01-16 06:27 pm
unknowable) wrote in hadriel2016-01-16 06:27 pm
one ❀ voice
[There's no video, because it's too dark in the coffin to show anything anyway. Adam's voice is carefully steady, as if he's keeping himself under control through sheer power of will.]
I saw that Fear said our air supply will be refreshed. I don't know if that's true - I don't know if we can trust him - but I thought people ought to know anyway.
[Not that he necessarily believes anything any of the gods say, but - well. Who knows.]
Talking is a little less impersonal than text. It might help to hear a familiar voice, if any of your friends are buried. There also isn't much to do down here but panic, so if anyone wants to talk - I wouldn't mind.
I saw that Fear said our air supply will be refreshed. I don't know if that's true - I don't know if we can trust him - but I thought people ought to know anyway.
[Not that he necessarily believes anything any of the gods say, but - well. Who knows.]
Talking is a little less impersonal than text. It might help to hear a familiar voice, if any of your friends are buried. There also isn't much to do down here but panic, so if anyone wants to talk - I wouldn't mind.
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This is divine punishment, after all, and Arya blames herself for inciting it. ]
Do you want to hear a story?
[ Her voice is a whisper, small and raspy and far away. She wants to apologize, desperately, but she knows it's too late for that now. All she can do is try to make Adam's death comfortable. She owes him that much. ]
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Yes. Please tell me a story.
[His voice is quiet too, not quite defeated but not particularly hopeful, either.]
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[ She's admitted to the lie already, why not tell him the truth of that name? ]
Nymeria ruled in Ny Sar, where she had a palace. Then the Valyrians came, with their dragons, and Nymeria and her people had to flee to Abulu, in the Summer Islands. They lived there for a time, but it was not enough. There was little food, little to provide for a strong people.
So she trained her women for conquest. Nymeria became queen of a host of women-warriors, stronger than any man. They slicked themselves with oil and gold and grew their hair long, but their spears were longer. They prepared for battle under the hot sun and harsh rock, and Nymeria trained with them. She was their mother, their queen, their general.
[ She pauses. There's a couple of hitched breaths, as if she's about to cry. She reminds herself that Nymeria would not cry. Arya has to be brave. She has to tell the story. ]
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It's a fitting name, then.
[He doesn't want to interrupt the story. He only wants to give her time to catch her breath, to hold on to herself. It's never easy, especially not right now.]
Did they find another land to conquer?
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[ Arya collects herself, because this is her favorite part of the story, and she doesn't want to ruin it. ]
They built ten thousand ships over ten years, under the watch of the gods of the sun. And on the tenth moon of the tenth year, Nymeria and her women-warriors set sail in an armada that the world had never seen before, and never would again.
They crossed the Narrow Sea to Dorne, the southernmost tip of the Sunset Lands. It was a sight to behold, and when the Dornish King saw Nymeria emerge from the head of the fleet, he bent the knee, for her beauty and power was more than any man could surpass.
And so Nymeria, her betrothal, and her army conquered the sands of Dorne, beating back the Rhoynars. And when they were finished, Nymeria and her warriors set fire to the Rhoynar fleet. The fires were so large, the flames touched the sky, and sparks still remain today, as stars.
[ Arya imagines the stars, the sky. It hadn't bothered her before that she couldn't see them in this cave, but now, she'd give anything to see the traces of the flames of Nymeria's warrior-women. ]
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[Because it could be true in Arya's world. Adam doesn't know, but it sounds like the sort of thing that could be. It also sounds like exactly the sort of thing that would inspire Arya, would make her want to dream.
He likes it. It helps him forget where he is, for a little while.]
Did they find a home there, and live peacefully? At least for awhile?
[Adam's really feeling happy endings right now. Depressing ones can wait for a day he's not slowly being asphyxiated by a capricious fear god.]
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[ Nymeria did exist -- the maesters have books on her and everything. But Arya doubts that they were able to scorch the sky. Otherwise, wouldn't it have been easy to defeat the dragons in the first place. ]
Her people still live in Dorne. That's the south of Westeros, and the Dornish are the only one out of the seven kingdoms that allow women to inherit a kingship.
[ The last she heard, Arianne Martell was first in line to rule. That was so long ago, though. Things might be different now. She has no way of knowing, but she likes to think Dorne will have a queen soon. ]
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[Adam knows, of course, that that wasn't the case back when his own world had kings and castles, so it's no surprise that it's the case in Arya's world. And not so long ago, he might not have thought about it at all, but it's impossible now to hear something like that and not think of how spitting mad Blue would be at the unfairness of it.]
Thank you for the story. I don't think I have anything that could match it. Most of the stories I know about warrior queens end badly.
[History is never very kind.]
Have you ever been to Dorne?
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It isn't. [ She sighs. ] But maybe it's safer that way. The game of thrones kills.
[ That's how Ned Stark was killed, charged for nothing except trying to bring justice to a court. The thought still stings, even if she's stopped being Arya Stark.
She'll get revenge, one day. ]
I haven't. I know that the sky is bigger in Dorne, though, and there are sand dunes as far as the eye can see.
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It sounds like something that'd be nice to see.
[He sighs, quiet.]
But you've traveled some, right? What was it like? I never got to travel anywhere before I was brought here, and I don't think that really counts.
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[ Arya thinks she probably shouldn't mention that the moment she left home was when things started to fall apart. That was when the Hound killed Mychah, when she had to run away and live on nothing but acorn paste for weeks, when they made her watch the interrogations, when she decided to not kill the Hound after all --
She combs through her memories for good stories about travel, ones that Adam might actually want to hear. ]
I travelled with an outlaw band once. The Brotherhood Without Banners, they were called. I think you would have liked them.
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[He knows enough to know that it surely wasn't just for fun, that it wasn't done to see the world or to expand her horizons or any of the reasons people at home give for traveling. But even so, Adam hopes she can see some parts of it as good. But maybe that's only his bias talking, when he's wanted to get away for so long.]
What were they like? In stories, outlaws are usually either awful people or roguish heroes, taking from the rich to give to the poor.
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[ Arya says, firmly. The outlaws were hard to describe, but they definitely weren't like the ones in the stories, although they weren't as terrible as most royalty made them out to be. They were people, like other people, but they often felt bigger, louder, more real. ]
They were close like brothers. Some of them were terrifying, and would kill you as soon as look at you. Others were rather funny, I guess -- there was Tom O'Sevens, who didn't do a lot of fighting, but he could sing. He sang all the time, and sometimes, he was able to find some coin for the company.
[ She smiles to herself. ]
Or Lem Lemoncloak, who was so angry all the time, but he was truly sweet underneath. Or Anguy the archer, the youngest of all of them, who just wanted a girl, I think.
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[Adam is pleased, at least, that not all of Arya's wanderings were awful, that she's had some nice experiences, some decent people to meet.]
Or at least interesting sorts of people to watch. Did you join them, or were you just there for a little while?
[He genuinely is interested - with some people, Adam listens simply to have something to listen to, to have a reminder that he's not totally alone down here in the dirt, even if it feels like that most of the time. He doesn't so much care what they say. But Arya is different, because Adam cares for her in his own cautious way. He wants to know what her life was like, what sort of things she's seen and done. He wants to offer what little comfort he can, even if all he can do right now is listen.]
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[ They'd wanted to ransom her, after all. Carry her around for a while and sell her to the highest bidder. She'd liked the outlaws, more or less, but she was always very aware that they'd never be friends. Not when she was a commodity, a means to an end. But Adam doesn't need to know that, not when he's trapped in crushing darkness and solitude.
She skips over her time with the Hound, too, because that's too painful to talk about at all. ]
After we...parted ways, I sailed to Braavos. On a ship. The sailors there called me Salty, and when we entered Braavos, we sailed straight through the Titan -- a statue almost as big as a castle's tower.
[ By Westerosi standards, that's pretty big, and Arya tells the story with a hint of awe in her voice. ]
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[Certainly there are structures like that, and even bigger, in Adam's world, but he hasn't seen them. He's never left Virginia, never gone further than Washington. Of course he wants to someday, but it's always been less of a desire to see incredible things and more of a need to get away. But he thinks, listening to Arya, that maybe the two things can go hand in hand.]
I've never been on a ship, either. Or a plane, but I guess you probably don't have planes where you're from. They're, ah - vehicles that fly through the sky from place to place.
[It sounds pretty fantastical when he says it like that.]
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[ There's genuine wonder in Arya's voice now, to the point where all her fear is almost completely pushed away. She'd heard stories of people riding the dragons of old, but those were just stories. Adam has known of people who have flown. ]
What's it like? How does it work? Can anybody fly, or do you have to be a trained plane-rider? What's a vehicle?
[ Arya's a thousand questions, a little bundle of curiosity. ]
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[He's studied it some in school, but it's been awhile and this isn't the best environment for remembering old science classes. But it lifts his spirits to hear her so interested.]
You have to be trained to fly planes, like a sailor, I guess. But if you're just a passenger, you don't need to know anything, you just need enough money to buy a place on a plane. And a vehicle is anything that carries people and isn't living, I guess - maybe a cart or carriage for you, or a car or plane for me
[Adam smiles to himself, just a little.]
You can only own a plane if you're very rich. My friend owns a helicopter, though. That's smaller, and it flies too.
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So it's like a ship, but in the air.
[ Arya pictures a flying sailboat, and smiles to herself. It's a rather absurd image. ]
So the lords of your world own planes. [ She says, sagely. That's different from sailors, who definitely aren't lords, but maybe it's because it's so hard to make a flying boat. ]
What's the difference between a plane and a helicopter? Besides being smaller.
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[The basic concept, at least, if not the shape.]
Helicopters work a little differently, they can hover and they go for shorter distances. I guess they're cheaper, too, although when you're that rich I kind of doubt it makes much of a difference.
[Adam would, after all, not be surprised to learn that the Ganseys also had a plane. He knows for a fact that some of the parents of other Aglionby students certainly do.]
Either way, they aren't anything that a normal person could buy.
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That was the life of another girl, she realizes, House of Black and White or no. ]
Can you see your forest in here?
[ Flying is interesting, but also so strange. The forest she can relate to more, understand better. She doesn't have to ask as many questions. ]
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But then, his own world has gotten pretty different in an entirely stranger way.]
Yeah. I can see it anywhere, it's sort of - always there.
[And it is comforting to have that, it's something to fall back on. But it can't get him out of here. Cabeswater or not, he'll die just as easily as anyone else when the air runs out.]
I think it knows when I'm upset.
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[ Especially people like Adam, Arya thinks. Guarded people. She knows she used to wear her feelings plain on her face, but she doesn't know if she does that anymore. She hasn't seen her face in a long time. The worst dream is the one where even she does not recognize herself. ]
How large are the trees?
[ The larger the better. Arya likes thick-trucked trees, old and comforting and powerful. ]
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[He thinks about it, and it would be so easy to just let Cabeswater surround him. It knows he's upset, and it's always there, at the corners of his mind. It's safe, and it's not a dark, cramped coffin in the ground, and he could pretend to be somewhere else for a little while.
But he's talking to Arya, and so he stays.]
Do you have forests like that at home?
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Perhaps. We have old forests, and large ones. They may be magic, but I don't have the same connection with the trees as you do. I know more about the animals. The wolves, the cats, things like that.
[ She thinks of her pack, of the wolf-dreams. She hasn't had a wolf dream in months, and right now she misses them so much it hurts. Those dreams were an escape, and now she realizes that escape may have kept her sane.
She has no such escape now, but at least she has Adam, and their stories. ]
I used to see with their eyes.
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