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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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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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[He thinks she might have mentioned that before, but he doesn't know much about it - certainly not enough to be of any help. Or does he? Sometimes it's more about instinct, intuition, than it is about facts and knowledge, especially when magic is involved. Adam might be able to help in some way, or he could if he weren't trapped underground.]
How does it work? Do you dream yourself there?
[Dreams are Ronan's area, but Adam knows a few things.]
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[ She knows she mentioned the wolf-dreams to Ronan, and that Ronan called her crazy and mentioned something about an "Internet forum." But his response was too quick, too sharp even for him, and Arya suspects there's something Ronan isn't telling her. That's fine. There's a lot she doesn't tell him, either. ]
Sometimes. In Westeros, Arya Stark used to have a direwolf, named Nymeria, after the story. Nymeria and Arya were separated, but she -- I -- was able to enter her mind in dreams. While the girl slept, the wolf lived.
[ It's easier to talk about Arya like she was someone else, because that's who she's supposed to be. ]
I've done it when I am awake, but that happens less often. When the Kindly Man took my sight, I eventually learned to see with the eyes of the city cats.
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[He's quiet for a moment, thinking about it. It's not quite like anything at home, he thinks, but it's not totally different, either. When Adam scrys, he leaves his body, and maybe this is something similar. Leaving her own body, slipping into someone else's.]
Is it dangerous? Maybe you could try it while you're here. Practice. Maybe it's something you could learn how to use.
[Not if it's dangerous, though. Not if she might lose herself, the way Adam has sometimes come close to losing himself.]
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[ And as time goes on, there's a part of her body or mind that misses it more and more. Sometimes Arya swears she needs to slip into something else, because either her mind can't take being in her body or her body wants a rest from her mind. ]
I don't know. I have no idea how it works, or what the limits are. I can barely control it. It's probably dangerous, but I don't know what the danger is, exactly.
[ She thinks for a moment. ]
I know that I keep the memories from the wolf dreams, and sometimes I feel as though I'm keeping more than that. The longer I stay in an animal, I think, the more animal-like my mind becomes, and the harder it is to leave.
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[But usually it's worth it, or at least it's important enough to be a little risky. Adam is not the overprotective type - of course he doesn't want Arya to come to any harm, and he'll dislike anyone who causes it, but if it's her own choice and done with care, he doesn't think there's necessarily anything wrong with that.
But there's no way to tell how dangerous that sort of thing could really be, if she could really lose herself like that and become an animal. Adam is quiet for a moment before he carefully offers:]
If you'd like to try, I might be able to help you. I can't promise anything, but I've done... not similar things, but things that are a tiny bit like that. But it might be too dangerous.
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[ Arya admits, but that doesn't mean she's giving up. Help or no help, she knows she needs a wolf-dream, or a bird-dream or something. Like her revenge quest, the dreams are a coping mechanism, a means of escape when the human world is too much. Wolves don't have the same kinds of problems. ]
I just don't know which animal I'd become. Entering the mind of one of the monsters seems risky and unnecessarily scary, but there aren't any other animals I'm familiar with here.
[ Except Chainsaw, but she doubts Ronan wants her inside his bird. ]
And I know another person would not want to share minds.
[ And she doesn't really want to share hers. ]
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[He can't imagine that a fish's mind is anything like a wolf's or a cat's. Certainly nothing like a human. And the monsters - no, that's definitely too dangerous, especially if Arya could lose herself there.
Adam doesn't even consider Chainsaw. She's not just a bird, she's Ronan's bird, part of him. Adam would never be willing to do that.]
I think a few people here have dogs, too, but... I don't know. I guess right now there isn't much to be done.
[Not anything safe, anyway. Not as if it would be safe regardless of what she used, but - Adam thinks they could make it safer, if they tried, but there isn't really a way to do that right now.]
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[ If the mind is too small, will inhabiting it be like a cage? Arya doesn't want to test that. She can barely handle this coffin, and it's big enough for her entire body. ]
Sharing a mind with someone's dog may be too...intimate.
[ She doesn't trust any of the dog owners enough. ]
I will find a way. Perhaps the Door will bring in an animal instead of a human or a monster. It's possible.
[ Not likely, but better safe than sorry. ]
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