(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

[oursavinggrace]

Don't. It doesn't work like that for us. All that makes me is a particularly tough demigod and everyone's first choice for every quest that comes up.

[and "your grace" would just sound like yet another terrible pun on his last name. let's not.]

[steeledskin]

--Of course. No. I won't. You'll stay Jason, of course. Or perhaps Ser Jason -- if you'd like?

[ here is the tricky catch: sansa concedes to what he wants immediately, but mostly because she has half-an-inkling to fear him. no. not him. but his power. his placement. he sounds at times like a warrior, and so she wonders if he might settle to be referred to as a knight. ]

[oursavinggrace]

Just Jason. Please.

[steeledskin]

Jason. [ ... ] I'm sorry. I fear our lands are far more different than I first thought.

[oursavinggrace]

It's okay. I'm just...I'd rather not be treated like something I'm not, that's all. I'm nothing special.

[godly powers aside, anyway.]

[steeledskin]

And yet you're sent upon quests? So someone must think something of you.

[oursavinggrace]

We all are, though. It's just what we do. I bet any of the others would have some good quest stories, if you asked.

[gods know clarisse would probably love an audience to brag to.]

[steeledskin]

[ but she doesn't know the others! much easier to pester the strangers who are a little less strange: ] Have you a favourite questing memory, perhaps?

[ like how knights have favourite battles. jousters have favourite lists. ]

[oursavinggrace]

Maybe. Depends on what you mean by "favorite". I'm a pretty big fan of the ones that were less lethal, but in hindsight some of the really dangerous ones were kind of ridiculous.

[steeledskin]

...Ridiculous?

[oursavinggrace]

Funny. Like...a few months back, my friend Leo was building a ship for us -- his dad is god of craftsmen and the forge, he can make pretty much anything given a bit of time and some scrap metal -- and he had put an important part in the drawer of a table he'd made named Buford. And for some reason he thought it was a good idea if this table could walk around and stuff. And I guess he accidentally upset Buford because he cleaned it with the wrong stuff or something? So Buford ran off with this really important engine part that had to be installed within the hour or everything would explode, and we were stuck hunting down a runaway table.

[and then almost killed by partying nymphs. whoops. in hindsight, very few quests actually ever sound cool once they're over.]

[steeledskin]

Jason. [ ...she hesitates through her disbelief. ] Tables cannot walk. Certainly, they cannot run.

[oursavinggrace]

I know that. It was just this one that could. It's a machine -- no idea why Leo decided he needed to build a table that could move around on its own, but I don't get why Leo does half the things he does.

[steeledskin]

I suppose...I suppose he may have wanted a table that could come to him.

[ like a loyal hound. ]

[oursavinggrace]

Maybe? I mean, I could totally see him putting a ton of effort into something that'll let him be lazy, backwards as that sounds. But I feel like half the things he makes are just to see if he can do it or because he's bored. I've seen him making wind-up toys without paying attention just so he'd have something to do with his hands.

whoops how did i miss this!

[steeledskin]

He said he had a forge. Is he a smith -- [ like ser gendry? ]

np

[oursavinggrace]

More or less. He pretty much runs the whole range of blacksmith, engineer, repair boy, mechanic...basically whatever lets him build things or take stuff apart.

[steeledskin]

And he is particularly skilled at these things?

[oursavinggrace]

Well, yeah. His dad is Hephaestus, god of fire and the forge. Demigods generally have some special talents and abilities because of their godly parents.

[steeledskin]

Generally?

[ what do you have, then? ]

[oursavinggrace]

Yeah? I mean, not always, but that's more because of the godly parent. I don't know if Clarisse has any special abilities beyond the normal demigod stuff -- faster reflexes and all that -- but her dad is the god of war, so I guess it's just all about being good at fighting for her, and she doesn't really need anything more than a spear and practice for that.

[yeah he continues to be unfortunately externally-focused and always thinking of everyone else first, whoops.]

[steeledskin]

But what of you, Jason?

[ she equally focusses on everyone else, but less out of kindness and more out of a continued desire to deflect from herself. ]

[oursavinggrace]

Oh.

[his expression here is the strangest mix of reluctance and pride. he's certainly not ashamed of what he can do, and he'd always been proud to be stronger than anyone else he knew, but even talking about it feels dangerously close to bragging, and it's a lot harder to feel that old pride for his lineage these days after what nico told him about his father.]

Jupiter -- my dad -- is the god of the sky. I can fly, and summon bolts of lightning...that sort of thing.

[steeledskin]

[ fly. jason can fly.

beg pardon, ser demigod jason your grace. but sansa needs a moment of silence to digest this information. and she hasn't even yet gotten to the lightning. ]

[oursavinggrace]

[he knows it sounds crazy. take your time.]