Video - Seelie/Unseelie (Partially Accidental) | Action for those in Troichean Beinn

[teenyoda]

[The image comes on of a room, an unfamiliar room to all but a small handful in Troichean Beinn. The picture rises and falls rapidly, a panting sound coming before there's a sharp cry and the visual changes to the wall as the body wearing the locket rises.

Sorry, folks, but it seems like Stiles turned the locket on while he was having his nightmare or vision or whatever the hell it was, reaching for something to help him get out of it and flicking on the video. Oops? He'd be embarrassed if he wasn't so confused.]

Scott? Malia...?

[He blinks, eying the stone walls in front of him and groaning as it all comes back in a rush. Drabwurld. Fairies. Crap.

It's a moment after that that he realizes the locket's on and he looks tired as he turns it to peer into it, seeing it unlocked to both courts. Great.]

Um... I guess I left? But I'm back now. Though... I'm not at Caer Glaem. Am I still at Troichean Beinn? Gendry? Jon? Sansa? I thought I would have shown up back at court, but hey, look, they don't entirely suck.

[Nope. Someone didn't know they'd been sleeping. He thought he'd left and gone for months and came back. Who wants to break the news? Shut up, Peter.]

Comments

[steeledskin]

Stiles--! That question is mine to ask of you.

[teenyoda]

Oh, I'm sorry. Did you suddenly become the owner of all the questions in the universe?

[There was a wry grin to go along with that to show he was teasing.]

[steeledskin]

I am Keeper of a city. Perhaps I ought to keep questions as well. [ ... ] Are you feeling well?

[teenyoda]

No shi-- Ah, I mean, really? When did that happen?

[Waved off hand motion.]

I'm fine. Just a little fuzzy on stuff.

[steeledskin]

My Lord Father held title in Cothromach -- and now...

[ they don't need to talk about it. she shakes her head. ] I'll come to you. Soon.

[teenyoda]

Really? What about Jo-- oh, right.

[The bastard thing. Such a stupid thing, in his opinion.]

Hey, come whenever you want. I'm just going to be doing a few stretches. Apparently I was out for a few days?

[steeledskin]

[ a few days. she wants to discuss them with him but --

it can wait. she says her soft farewells and shuts the locket. otherwise it is a mere stroll to where his sleeping form had been left -- and sansa walks there alone. perhaps it isn't proper for a diplomatic envoy to travel alone in the city, but she understands that her movements are watched by the dwarven people regardless.

in pale blue silk and with her direwolf pin prominently displayed above her heart, she knocked gently on stiles's door and waits to be called in. she'd been inside while he was asleep, but now she must wait for his permission. ]

[teenyoda]

[He rolls his eyes at the fact that she didn't just walk in. If it had been Lydia or Malia, they would have steam rolled in and demanded he tell them everything. It was such a contrast to Sansa and he had to take a moment to realign himself with the time and place he was in as opposed to the one he'd just left. Or felt like he'd left.]

Come in.

[steeledskin]

[ when she steps inside -- door swinging open with a gentle-handed push -- she is all smiles. not the sweet honest smiles of before, but a kind of fixed expression. pinned there by the understanding that if she gives in to her grief she may never recover. and stiles! stiles, she guesses, will want her happy. supportive. curious. today he does not need her sorrow.

she gives a shallow curtsy. her hair is braided and styled and piled atop her head in the southern westerosi fashion. indeed, she's overdressed for a casual friendly conversation.

she starts with: ] I pray your dreams were pleasant. [ hers had been. ]

[teenyoda]

[She's reminding him more of when he first met her as 'Alayne' than how they'd been before he took his snooze. He frowns, moving over to sit in one of the chairs in the room, deciding she'd be more comfortable sitting there than on the bed.]

They didn't feel like dreams. And unless one of you's been getting a little too close, my hair and ah, beard are... well, gone.

[His crappy man-beard that he'd grown to get Jon and Gendry off his back was gone and his hair was shorter than five months without a barber before.]

[steeledskin]

O-oh. I thought--

[ look. stiles. she thought you'd actually remembered good grooming habits after waking up. her eyes narrow. ] You woke up like this?

[ she's not complaining. honestly. it's just weird that he should be so changed by the same sleep that left her unaltered.

but at least she did take a seat. she smoothed the creases out of her dress before choosing a chair. ]

[teenyoda]

Woke up about what, twenty minutes ago? Yeah, no time for a shower. Do they even have showers here?

[They had a rudimentary system at Caer Glaem. He wasn't looking forward to trying to sit in a bowl of Stiles-soup.

But she looked chagrined over something and he couldn't help but tease.]

You thought what?

[steeledskin]

I thought perhaps you'd given up that silly wildling look-- [ her eyes wander to the window. it isn't a pretty thing to say. or even to think. that she might hold some preference for one appearance over another.

she moves topics like sure feet on ice: ] How did it happen if you did not cause it?

[teenyoda]

[Okay, he laughs. Has a good chuckle over that.]

Yeah, it didn't look that good, did it. I guess I'm not really the beard type. Not like I knew that before. That was sort of my first, ah, attempt. We'll call that a failure.

[He shrugged.]

No idea. It's why I thought I'd gone home. I feel... like I did back there.

[steeledskin]

[ it hadn't been terrible. it had (perhaps) lacked for precise grooming. but she liked better to see the shape of his jaw and cheeks. ]

Home? [ she chirps. ] You're certain--?

[teenyoda]

[Fess up, it was terrible. But now he knew what it looked like and could maybe try again. With grooming.]

I think so. I mean, it felt like it. And things happened that fall in line with just how messed up my home life was.

[steeledskin]

...Do you want to discuss them?

[ these things. ] We don't have to. We can talk about whatever you like.

[teenyoda]

God, I don't even know where to start. Dead people who apparently don't stay dead and weird steroid berserkers and hunters and people getting kidnapped and things other than the weird things we already knew about and a deadpool and...

[He sighed, giving her a sympathetic smile.]

It's really just a big huge mass of confusion.

[steeledskin]

[ that is quite a list. but she sits quietly throughout -- keeping careful reign over her shock. she does not want to seem too provincial. too horrified.

and to that end, she strives to downplay its significance: ] Dreams, surely. Only dreams.

[teenyoda]

I... don't think so. It didn't feel like a dream. I've been punched in the face before and that face punch felt exactly like getting hit. Same with... well, everything else.

[Stiles was a vivid dreamer and tended to remember most of the ones he had each night. This had felt so very different from a dream.]

[steeledskin]

[ and so the only alternative is that he has lived as renly has lived -- growing older by some degree in his slumber. she's not certain she can believe it. ]

S-someone hit you? [ she frowns still. ]

[teenyoda]

It happens.

[Usually when he stuck his human nose in non-human business. So like, all the time.]

[steeledskin]

It ought not to.

[ she speaks with the clear and present wariness of someone who knows the displeasure of being hit. there is a slight wince in her shoulders when she imagines his fine face below someone's metal-bound fist. ] I'd rather it didn't. Not to you.

[ stiles, she thinks, is too sweet to be hit. but maybe he opened his mouth too far; maybe he frustrated the wrong person. like she-- ]

[teenyoda]

Yeah, well, a lot of things ought not to, but life doesn't really care about wants in the long run.

[If it had, his mom would still be alive. So would Allison and Erica and Boyd and... yeah. Life sucked.]

I'd rather not get punched in the face either, but the bad guys are bad guys for a reason. They like being punchy. But hey, I'm all fine now. See? Not even a bruise.

[steeledskin]

Who did it?

[ she doesn't mean to ask. she shouldn't ask. she knows she should hold more discretion. but she wants to know who dared it. ]