fearcutsdeeperthanswords | ❈ | 031

[With all these people graduating lately and all her wardens gone off, Arya has been doing a lot of thinking. She's wormed her way into the CES - she always seems to find a way - and is sitting against Nymeria, using the direwolf as a pillow. She's wearing a modern looking zipper hoodie over her usual threadbare attire; the zipper is open, but the hood is up, and on its top are two fuzzy, gray wolf ears. There's dirt on her face when she clicks the feed on, in a swoop from her cheek to her jaw; on the other side she's managed to accumulate a couple scratches. She doesn't seem to notice either.]

There's no one left from Westeros, besides me. Tyrion's gone. Viserys used to be here; I don't think there are a lot who remember him. Jon Snow was here, too. But he left.

[They all left is what she doesn't say out loud. She scratches at her jaw, somehow missing the dirt.]

I've been here a long time, though. I checked - it's two years, now. [She doesn't pause; she's already let that sink in.] Your worlds are all different from mine. You treat people like babies till they're old; you call them kids until they're eighteen, twenty. In Westeros, and Essos, and all over in my world - a girl is grown when she's flowered. [She makes a face, because it's a dumb euphemism, but it's ingrained.] My brother was a king when he was fifteen. He wasn't a boy, he had a beard and led men and killed his enemies. [And he died.

She pauses for a moment, looking up as a shadow passes over her, presumably a cloud.]

When I was littler, I wanted to know if I could build castles, or be a High Septon, or be a councilor to a king. He said I could marry a king, and my sons could be Septons and builders and knights and lords. Well I'm not getting married, and I'm not having sons, not ever.

Is that what it's like in your worlds, too? I don't mean, do they say no and you do it anyway, that's not any different. Are girls allowed to be rulers and builders and fighters where you all are from?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

....Do you have fake ones? [What is a fake castle, Kevin.

She shrugs at his question, though, and frowns, trying to work it out.] They teach people about the Seven. They're the new gods. There are Septas, too, but there's no High Septa.

You know, toy ones. For toy knights and shit.

The Seven? New gods? How can there be new gods? Like the old ones had kids? Why isn't there a High Septa if there's a High Septon?

[She shrugs.] There just are. The old gods in the north, and the new gods in the south. And there's just the High Septon, and the Septas do what he say, too.

So what are they like, then? What are gods for, anyway?

I don't know.

There's only one god that matters, anyway.

Why all the others of they don't matter, then? [This makes no sense, Arya.]

Because they matter to stupid people.

But you said you wanted to be a Septon.

I don't want to, I just want to be able to.

Isn't there anywhere you could be if you wanted?

I don't know. No one else even has Septons. And everyone's saying different things.

What about other countries in your world? They're all really different, right?

Yeah, but it's all the same. I can be a sailor, or a killer, or a merchant, but it's not normal.

That's stupid. Killing's not normal for anyone but the others... Girls do that all the time.

Killing's the most normal thing in the world.

Not where I come from. They'll kill you for it.

Sometimes they'll kill you for it in Westeros. But it's a part of life. Valar morghulis.

Dying, maybe. Killing people isn't. [He definitely knows that much.]

How do you think people die?

Mostly, they get sick or there's an accident. Killing isn't that great, anyway.

Making someone sick is easy. So is setting up an accident. I've done both.

And I've burned a house down with people still inside. That doesn't make it normal. [He doesn't say it was an accident and that he was one of the people still inside.] And it doesn't mean that everyone's murdered. [His real mom wasn't. Sometimes, things just happen.]

[He's right, so she doesn't argue further.] Why did you burn it?

It was an accident. I didn't know I was doing it and then I didn't know how to stop it.

You don't know how to use your magic?

video

fire_punk - 2013-09-08 03:28 (UTC) - Expand

fearcutsdeeperthanswords - 2013-09-09 14:35 (UTC) - Expand

Re: video

fire_punk - 2013-09-12 04:01 (UTC) - Expand

fearcutsdeeperthanswords - 2013-09-12 14:25 (UTC) - Expand

fire_punk - 2013-09-13 00:34 (UTC) - Expand

fearcutsdeeperthanswords - 2013-09-18 17:07 (UTC) - Expand

fire_punk - 2013-09-18 22:51 (UTC) - Expand

fearcutsdeeperthanswords - 2013-09-18 23:59 (UTC) - Expand

fire_punk - 2013-09-19 00:45 (UTC) - Expand

fearcutsdeeperthanswords - 2013-09-19 01:30 (UTC) - Expand

fire_punk - 2013-09-19 01:39 (UTC) - Expand

fearcutsdeeperthanswords - 2013-09-23 03:50 (UTC) - Expand