❆ | 041 | Video

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[When the video comes on, it's not focused on her face. Instead, the picture shows snow, snow everywhere, and in the distance there is blurry movement, a direwolf running through the banks. From the angle, she's up high, sitting in a tree.]

Last year, when this happened, I spoke to my lady mother. And my lord father. Just for a moment. [She pauses, swallows hard and continues.] There was my brother, and my sister too.

[She's claiming them, making them hers again. She has been, she's taken back her name, but never like this. Never where anyone can hear.]

I spoke to a Dothraki Khal, the last time this happened. I've spoken to a lot of people I've never met. [And more Lannisters than she ever wanted to. When she turns the camera around to her face, she's chewing on her lip. Her hair has grown plenty since she arrived, bald-headed. It's past her chin now, brushing just above her shoulders. She looks like a girl again, though maybe that's because she grew when she last was home. She's only twelve or thirteen, physically, but she feels so much older than that. She's been here for years. Years and years, away from everything she knows. She stops chewing her lip.]

I'm Arya, of Winterfell. Arya of House Stark.

[There. It feels like a weight off her shoulders. She's said it before, she's meant it before. But every time this glitch has happened, Jaime Lannister has come to remind her of her name. Now she can remind him.

She even smiles, a little, at the corners of her mouth.]

I had other names too, for a while. When I had to hide to be safe. Arry, and Weasel, and Nan. Salty and Nymeria and Cat and Beth and Mercy, even. I don't know if anyone who knew those girls will hear me. But I miss some of you, and if you want to talk, then so do I. That goes for anyone. I like meeting new people.

Comments

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

That's because I don't like you.

[Dead pan. Straight forward. You're the worst Jaime.]

Why do you always come?

[therearenomenlikeme]

Don't look to me for that answer. From my perspective, you're the one who's called me.

Still stuck in the same place I left you last, I see.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

For now.

[Because for the first time in a long time, she wants to go back. And she thinks she'll do whatever she has to to make that happen.]

And I wouldn't call on you.

[therearenomenlikeme]

Is that any way to treat your family? Although I'd be hard-pressed to think of a situation where a Stark would call on a Lannister for help.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

You are not my family!

[therearenomenlikeme]

As I understand it, your sister's married my brother.

Now, what does that make us, I wonder?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

They made her marry him. That makes us nothing.

[therearenomenlikeme]

Do you truly think hers is the first coerced marriage in history? Whether or not she was made to do so, our families are irreversibly linked.

So I should be a little kinder when addressing your brother-in-law. Else I might not be so inclined to help you escape.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

You can't help me escape, stupid.

[But this is like, her gut reaction response, because what. What This is the face of bewilderment.]

[therearenomenlikeme]

Perhaps not directly.

[And a slight quirk at stupid, because really, Arya? Who's the trapped party?]

Where do you stand? In terms of all these words about 'graduation'?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[Look no one ever accused her of being logical.]

I--

[She wants to ask him why he should care, why she should tell him, why why why. But that's not an answer, and she thinks she knows it.]

I don't know.

[She doesn't owe him the truth, though. Even if it's close.]

[therearenomenlikeme]

...I didn't get on with your father. I thought he was a bit of an idiot, to be honest.

But I do have to wonder if you were living closer to his naive principles, you'd be out of there by now.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

You shut up. My father had honor.

[Which does sort of imply she has none, and she knows that. It kept her alive. But Tyrion told her so much the same. Her father would disapprove of so much of what she's done. She wishes she could talk to him again, really talk to him, instead of dancing around everything important.

But she can't, and she knows she won't stay here to change anything. Not with Jon still at the Wall, and Sansa hiding...somewhere, with brown hair and another name. She needs to remember her real name, same as Arya did.]

Why would you want to help me, anyway?

[therearenomenlikeme]

He did. And he's dead, and you're dead. So there must be some sort of balance between having honor and being clever that you have not yet reached.

[Never a nice person, was Jaime]

I made a promise to your mother. I'll admit, I did like her sense of justice far better.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

I'm not dead. I just came close enough.

[Always a dick, was Jaime, but ironically, if his last name was different, Arya would appreciate him. He's blunt, he says what needs to be said, and she often does the same. But he's a Lannister, so she wants to disagree. Even when she doesn't.

For now, she scowls. Because he mentioned her mother, and Arya's heart still throbs painfully when she thinks of how close she got. She doesn't worry that her mother wouldn't want her anymore, not really. That feels like a child's concern, now.]

Do you know the balance?

[therearenomenlikeme]

Better than you, although I'll not claim to be an expert.

[Jaime sits back, holding the hilt of his sword as he considers Arya in front of him. He won't be able to do much for her while she's on the ship, unreachable. Best to help her along]

Do you know how all the best swordsmen beat their opponents?

They study their movements, and absorb everything they see as a lesson. Their predecessors guide their way.

If you want to graduate, look to those who did it themselves, and find out where you're lacking.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[It's very, very difficult to hate him and agree with him at the same time. She tries to remind herself that he promised her mother, that ought to be enough. But it doesn't make it easy.]

I already have.

[She practically drags the words out.] And I think I - I think I already know.

[therearenomenlikeme]

Then, Arya Stark, what the fuck are you waiting for?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[She laughs. Which is fucking strange. At least it's a short, surprised laugh.]

It's been a long time since I was in Westeros.

[She will not say she's scared, but. She's a little scared.]

[therearenomenlikeme]

That's a piss-poor excuse.

[What? It is.]

Not scared, are you?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

No. [Yes. Shut up!!!] It's a long way to the Wall. [And she'll be traveling alone again. She managed it all right, but she knows now most of that journey, short as it was, was luck.]

[therearenomenlikeme]

Haven't you learned anything useful in your time here?

Your allies are likely closer than you think, anyway.

[He's thinking primarily of Brienne]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

I've learned some things. [Like how not to brag.]

Something even you probably don't know.

[Sort of. She wrinkles her nose.]

You're not the ally I'd pick.

[therearenomenlikeme]

Is it useful in getting your arse off your prison ship? Otherwise, I don't honestly care.

It's not me. And if you put half your stubbornness into reaching the Wall as you do with insulting Lannisters, you'll be there in no time.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Maybe if you put yours into fighting, you wouldn't have been captured.

[She does not want to like him. This is very unfair.] I'll get there before anyone even realizes Arya Stark isn't dead.