(second lemon cake) video ✧ locked to seelie

[steeledskin]

Dear fellows and members of the Seelie court -- [ the voice which addresses the locket is composed and clear and perfectly conscientious. but the girl whose image accompanies the voice looks a little less than all those things. her dark-dyed hair is fastened in an uncommonly simple braid...and if one looks very closely, she can be seen to have a haggard look about her. she's somewhere outside and all her caution is bent at hiding a panic she doesn't want to share with strangers. nor with those few genuinely waiting on her return. ]

I don't want to alarm any of you. Indeed, I speak to the very opposite of that effect. It's -- [ her gaze flickers 'off-screen' for a moment ] -- it's Alayne Stone. Those of you who are acquaintances [ not friends ] ought to know that I've found myself...left behind. I'm sorry. It should not have happened. But I suspect I won't make Caer Glaem again for some time. [ the fault of the matter is a little trickier than that, but she knows better than to play with implications. so after a steadying breath, she presses onwards. ] Or we won’t -- because I'm not alone. [ i have nymeria, she thinks but doesn’t dare to say. just like how sansa wants to speak directly to those who know her for who she really is -- but instead: ] I have a knight with me.

Don't I, Ser Gendry? [ and she twists her locket, letting it capture the surly blacksmith who stands a few paces away from her with an irritated expression. his armour is dented and blooded and the man sags with an obvious exhaustion. ser gendry is a man who looks and feels beaten, but it does not stop him from standing tall. he is a talisman of sorts: a warning, to any sansa fears might prey upon what would otherwise be a journey fraught with vulnerability. ser gendry is here; she is protected, albeit not happily so. he at last looks towards her and her locket and grumbles an unhappy agreement to her statement, which is accompanied by a nod. ]

A lady needn’t despair when she’s so well accompanied. Instead, my thoughts are with the returned; I pray the High Queen’s desired prize was taken without steep costs or losses. [ following this, there is no formal farewell. no official sign-off. her attention lingers, perhaps waiting for one or two responses in particular. ]

( ooc; sansa and gendry are now officially stranded and making their long way back to caer glaem -- and it’ll take them at least two months, though they’ll be reachable by locket at their respective ic inboxes. but for now, responses to this post will receive replies from one or the other or both!)

Comments

[steeledskin]

In that case, I can only imagine it must be an expectation you're eager to get back to meeting. Am I right?

[ or perhaps he would be happy to run from it. hard to say. ]

[oursavinggrace]

Well, I'd certainly like to get back home. [though with all the time that's passed here already, there might not even be a home to go back to. this is the problem with snatching away the heroes of the world when there's an evil goddess on the rise and a limited timeframe in which to stop her.] Not much we can do about that, though, besides staying alive and exploring more.

[steeledskin]

Once I am returned...someone else may go and do the exploring. It isn't my strength.

[oursavinggrace]

It's alright, I think the rest of us have that covered.

[with a bit of a grin, remembering their last conversation and the way he'd accidentally unsettled her with his joking. whoops.]

[steeledskin]

The rest of you are so brave.

[oursavinggrace]

Not really. I mean, yeah, I wouldn't call any of us cowards, but that's not what bravery is. Being brave is about being afraid and doing what has to be done anyway. We're all used to traveling around like this, it's nothing special. Honestly, I'd say you're being a lot braver than us right now.

[steeledskin]

I don't feel very brave.

[ i very rarely have. ]

[oursavinggrace]

No one ever does. That'd kind of make the whole "being afraid" part moot, right?

[steeledskin]

It seems an unhelpful criteria. To be brave, one must first not feel brave.

[oursavinggrace]

I'm pretty sure anyone that'd actually call themselves brave is actually just being cocky.

[steeledskin]

I do believe that some warriors earn it for themselves. They might call themselves brave once they have proven it.

[oursavinggrace]

Why, because they've won some fights? It seems weird to me that it's okay for people like that to talk themselves up, but you think you have to be humble about everything.

[steeledskin]

Such boasting is a natural part of knighthood: the tourneys; the lists; the battles. It comes easily to them.

[ and less so to the idealized ladies -- or so she has decided, modelling her behaviour on utter courtesy and humility. westerosi culture is certainly one of double standards. ]

[oursavinggrace]

[yeah, he's beginning to get that.]

Just because it happens all the time doesn't make it "natural", or right.

[steeledskin]

[ right has no place in her world -- this is a conclusion she has long since resigned herself to accepting. but as for what is natural... ]

Natural or not, it isn't my place to argue. [ because the cocky ones have swords. and even the flat of their blades are painful when whacked against the back of her legs. she couldn't walk well for days after that punishment. ]

[oursavinggrace]

Why not? You're the one who has to live with it.

[this, of course, coming from the son of the king of gods, and a person who's gone his entire life treated as a respected hero. he's not unsympathetic, but it wouldn't exactly be fair to say he understands feeling powerless. that's never been his issue.]

[steeledskin]

[ and the one whose life is forfeit if i complain... ]

I am convinced there must me worse states than my own. After all, I at least can call myself a Stone.

[oursavinggrace]

Sure, there's always someone somewhere that's got it worse. But that doesn't mean everyone has to just suck it up and accept their own situation.

[big talk, coming from someone who's never been able to say no to anyone, but that doesn't really feel comparable.]

And, uh..."stone"?

[steeledskin]

My father and my other never married, Ser Jason. [ she pushes herself to be extra polite, now that she is explaining this little quirk of westerosi society. ] And so I am not owed his family name. I must be Alayne Stone instead.

[oursavinggrace]

[oh god don't call him " ser", he is way too big a loser to be called that.]

Oh. Me too, I guess.

[not that the gods have last names to give to their kids, but it's otherwise the same idea.]

wow. mother* i can type.

[steeledskin]

...You're a bastard as well?

i wouldn't have even noticed if you didn't point it out whoops

[oursavinggrace]

[he frowns, not really in love with that definition of it, but eventually just shrugs.]

Technically? We don't really use that word like that anymore where I'm from, but yeah, I guess. "Grace" is my mother's last name. My dad is married to someone other than my mom.

[steeledskin]

[ wait wait wait hold the raven. ]

What word do you use? Natural-born?

[oursavinggrace]

I think the phrase is "born out of wedlock" or something if someone's actually looking to describe it, but I don't think many people care much about that these days. There are lots of kids born before their parents got married or with single parents or whatever, and I guess there are people in the older generation that look down on that kind of thing, but they usually judge the parents, not the kid. You can't choose how you're born, y'know?

And besides all that, it's pretty standard for...people like me. All my friends here from home are the same.

[well, except rachel, but she's not a demigod so she doesn't really count.]

[steeledskin]

[ a whole cabal of bastard children? she had not realized. and she imagined alayne stone might want to befriend them more than sansa would. not that she could ever hold it against another person -- not now, not after... ]

In Westeros, you know a noble ba--[ bastard. ] You know a noble child born...out of wedlock by their name. In the Vale, we are called Stone. In the Riverlands, it's Rivers. In the Crownlands, it's Waters. The children of the Reach get to be called Flowers. I always thought that a little prettier than Stone.

[ but she will not say which one she finds prettiest: snow. ]