❈ | 033 | Video

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[Jesse is gone. Her pack is abandoning her again, and though she knows her first pack, her first family are dead and gone, she knows just as well that time and death mean nothing to the Admiral. He can show her them. He can show her all of them.

Maybe he can show her Jesse, too.]

If you know someone named Nan, or Nymeria, or Weasel or Salty or Cat or Beth or Underfoot or Arry or even Arya Stark--

[She chews on her lip, knows she's doing it and doesn't care enough to make herself stop.]

I'm here. Who can hear me?

Comments

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

You shut up! You shut up about him! [Him, and Winterfell, and everything that she holds dear.]

[therearenomenlikeme]

[Miraculously, the Kingslayer does indeed shut up. If he were more emotional there might have been sadness or pity in his eyes.

But he's a closed book, and simply waits for Arya to calm herself down]


Truth, you will learn, is a far sharper weapon than a sword.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[She'd be angrier if she saw pity from him, so maybe it's for the best. As it is, she's not screaming any longer - but that fury is still there.]

Fear is even sharper.

[And by the only god that matters, she will make them fear her.]

[therearenomenlikeme]

Try as you might, someone has already beaten you towards wringing every last bit of fear I had left in me.

Not that I think you'll be leaving this ship soon enough to do it.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

You don't know anything. I'm going to leave, and you won't even realize I'd been gone.

And I'll find new ways to make you scared.

[therearenomenlikeme]

If you'll permit me a word of advice.

Don't go around telling someone you're going to skewer them and hang their heads on a pike or ram a poker up their arse. It takes away from the anticipation of the moment. Real killers do, and let their reputations speak for themselves.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

If you'll permit me.

When you tell someone to expect one thing, they don't see another when it comes.

[therearenomenlikeme]

But you've just told me that.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

But am I a girl who tells the truth, or a girl who lies?

[therearenomenlikeme]

You are Arya Stark, who wouldn't know truth if it smacked her around the ear.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

I'm Arya Stark. I walked out of the Red Keep when your men were killing our guards left and right. I saw the trap you set for me, with the ship that was supposed to take me home. I left King's Landing with Yoren of the Night's Watch.

I know truth.

[therearenomenlikeme]

Ooh. Very good. You've got the lip curl just precisely there to indicate pure loathing.

Really commendable for a girl your age.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Did they cut off your hand because you wouldn't shut up?

[therearenomenlikeme]

They cut off my hand to send a message to my father.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

They should have fed it to you.

[therearenomenlikeme]

You've got a vicious streak in you to rival the Mad King. How is it that you and Joffrey are not the closest of friends?

Oh, right. I'd forgotten.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

I'm not mad. I don't go around swinging my sword at innocent butcher boys!

[This is not the strictest of truth so of course she is more adamant.]

[therearenomenlikeme]

Who do you go around swinging your sword at these days?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Lannisters.

I killed your bother, once. [Still unsure if proud.]

[therearenomenlikeme]

And exactly how many times has he needed to die?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[DON'T GIVE HER THAT FACE]

The dead don't stay dead, here. Don't you know that? [h u f f]

[therearenomenlikeme]

No wonder you're so obsessed with only maiming me.

How is my brother?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Gone. He left a while ago.

I suppose he didn't like dying.

[therearenomenlikeme]

Now, if I were a good sort of brother, I should probably take the opportunity to avenge his name.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

But you're not a good brother. You're not a good anything.