first dream. video -> text. | unlocked

[climbed]

[ the video is at first, accidental--simply because bran was repeating what the fairies had told him when the locket was placed in his hands. what eachdraidh is presented with is not the face of a boy, but the snout and eyes of a very large wolf, looking into the locket as if he could see straight through it. ]

That isn't--Summer, to me-- [ the video jostles for a moment, just long enough to show a blurry, shaky image, as if the locket was being carried by someone and left to dangle. the image is of a boy, maybe eight or nine years old, with curly brown hair and piercing blue eyes. he looks surprised to see his own face in the locket, and when he lunges forward, it's only with his hands, as if he couldn't move otherwise from where he seemed to be seated against a pillar.

(he couldn't.)

the feed cuts off for a moment, before it's replaced with the text function. if it wasn't for the dictation of the lockets, bran wouldn't be able to speak with this, surely, but he watches it move with fascination as he speaks into it. ]

I seek someone who could carry a boy great distances.
My companion might have wandered off
But he only speaks his name, and is very large.
else, I would ask for help, with only kindnesses to spare in return.
I am at the castle the fairy called Caer Glaem, and I would like to move to the room they have granted me.

Thank you

[ bran doesn't like asking for help. he's never liked it, but losing his legs forced the young wolf to learn to trust people, even when he didn't want to. all he could do was hope that meera or jojen or hodor had simply wandered off, and that once he was moved to somewhere safe, he could search the castle through summer's eyes, instead.

if reached before response, bran can be found sitting up against a pillar. summer is a fair distance away, but not so far--the moment someone approaches, the large wolf steps protectively in front of the boy, ears pinned back, nose ready to curl up in a snarl. ]

Comments

text;

[firith]

[ Someone else is much the same, regarding the text-dictation function. If not for the flash of video he wouldn't have responded, but the young boy reminds him (in all his manners) of his own son, and the Elvenking is more soft-hearted than many know. ]

Tell me the name of your companion and I shall send word if I find them whilst away from Caer Glaem on business.

text;

[climbed]

He is called Hodor.
He's...very hard to miss.

[ which is undoubtedly true. bran's already a little uncomfortable with sharing names, but perhaps hodor isn't as recognizable as he might be, as a lost prince. still, he adds on, politely: ]

You are very kind, my lord

text;

[firith]

I shall inform all those in my service to be on the look-out at their posts.

[ Or he'll tell Legolas's company to do that, because they won't disobey him anyway. ]

Elvenking, not lord. Thranduil of Eryn Lasgalen, father of Legolas. I shall also inform the dwarf-lords of your search for this person.
What is your name, young one?

private text »

[steeledskin]

[ she thinks she knows that face! gods -- it is still young, but older still than she remembers. and though she sits busy and fretting in troichean beinn (so so far from caer glaem) she feels as if her heart is there with a brother thought dead before lady meera came and brought hope to her family.

sansa watches as the feed ends -- her gut wrenches to see him disappear off the locket -- but then words follow. and she responds: ]

I saw you. [ frantic. almost careless in its construct. ] Please -- please -- tell me your name.

[ let it be stark! ]

private text »

[climbed]

[ bran's initial worry with the video was just that--that someone might have seen him. they've been in the north for so long that he rarely has to worry about his name, or about finding someone that might recognize him as the dead prince living, but here in this place, the drabuwurld, it could be different. there weren't many crippled young boys with giants and wolves for companions, after all--it'd be easy for someone who wanted him dead as they assumed he was to find him, especially here, where he waits, alone, with only summer to protect himself. ]

I, um--

[ the text catches his hesitance. does he lie? does he not speak at all? he fidgets with the thing for some time before he opens his mouth again, with somewhat of a lame answer. ]

...Brandon.

[ bran is a terrible liar. but surely there are many brandons in the world. there are fewer brans, and only one bran stark. ]

private text »

[steeledskin]

Brandon!

[ yes or no. she is not a gambling girl and cannot imagine for certain that this boy is her brandon. sansa's brandon. but she clings to the locket a little harder. she has introduced herself to the drabwurld as sansa stark only two days prior and she could by all rights introduce herself again right now. but fear runs deep. and paranoia is hard to shake.

she responds without voice once more: ] Brandon is a handsome name.

text;

[boutant]

I know a woman named Meera who was looking for some boys herself, when she first arrived.

[ She doesn't ask if this boy could be one of them -- it's implied, certainly, but she will not ask outright. Not with what Meera has told her of her world, of the enemies that look for her and hers. ]

Maybe she knows who you're looking for.

text;

[climbed]

[ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bran is so relieved he nearly turns on the video function by sheer accident--meera's here! if meera is in this place, everything would be alright. bran could only assume that they'd simply agreed with the fairies as well, but gone to a different place. surely, if meera was here, then jojen and hodor would not be far behind. ]

Meera of House Reed?
She's one of my companions, and a true friend
Could I speak with her? Where is she?

text;

[boutant]

[ OH GOOD. Ariadne is rather relieved herself, even if it's been months since Meera arrived. She had been so worried about the boys she was with, after all. ]

Yes, that's her! Last I knew she was in Cothromach, to the east of Caer Glaem. She has a locket as well; I'm sure she'll see you asking for your mutual companion and reply.

I would help you or take you to her myself, but I'm across the map.

[locket video]

[all7seas]

[This is really the weirdest request Jack has ever seen over the lockets. And he's a pretty weird guy to begin with.]

I'm all out of long-distance boy-carriers at the mo, lad, but you've got lots of beneficient, strong-backed people in this place.
[How helpful.]

[locket video]

[climbed]

[ what a strange looking man. bran blinks, a little, trying to take all that in. is he a seafarer of braavos, like the ones in old nan's stories? ]

Thank you for your kindness-- [ politely, but he really has to ask. ] Are you from Braavos?

[locket video]

[all7seas]

No. Braavos. Is that near Malta?

[Because that ALMOST sounds like a place he's heard of...]

video;

[playmakings]

I lifted a piano once--maybe I could help you? [ Not really. Granted, he's about 8 or nine and she's 18, but she flashes a bit of an awkward smile. She could get Ryan to help, though, Ryan can definitely carry enough of that weight, and the poor guy with-- ]

--Oh, your dog is really cute. But I can help look for your friend and put you where you want if you need something?

video;

[climbed]

He's not a dog, he's a direwolf. [ pretty much immediately--there's a big difference, okay. bran does not warg into a dog, he wargs into a wolf.

but, he ducks his head at her offer, cheeks flushing faintly, maybe trying to remember his lordly courtesies that seem so long ago. ] That would be very kind of you, my lady.

video;

[playmakings]

Direwolf. [ If she repeats it, she'll remember, right? ]

Oh, and I'm not a lady. I mean I'm a girl, so--uuuh, just call me Kelsi or Kels. I'll get Ryan and we'll be over there super-soon, okay?

private video »

[baseborne]

[Jon doesn't dance around the point like his sister, he cuts to the chase, because he's Jon and she's Sansa and that's just what they do. The glimpse he got of Bran's face was enough to start his chest to tightening, but Summer and a large boy that speaks only his name... well. It's a bit of a giveaway if one looks for hope around every corner as Jon did for so long.

But of course the first time he does not rush back for the feast to search the tables and halls in vain would be the time that his brother comes: the one without legs to carry him to the safety of his own room, at that. Still, when Jon turns his locket on himself to reply his cheeks are flushed with an excitement that he barely keeps off the rest of his long, sullen face.]

Bran-- [Gods, Bran, let this not be some cruel trick. Some imagined sight. (He pinches himself on the leg to be sure, like the fool boy from before the Wall and all the rest that he suddenly feels like again.)] Oh, Bran. We aren't at the castle - Sansa and Arya and I - but I'll... We can return. I'll return. There's safer places than that, and we'll go to them. [Like father had wanted.]

private video »

[climbed]

Jon! [ the happiness is literally impossible to hide this time--bran lights up at the sight of his elder brother, shocked and thrilled and happy all at once. the last time bran saw jon it was through the eyes of summer, and it would have been so easy to turn back and go to castle black, to stay with him as samwell tarly had suggested, but they had to soldier on. it was the smart thing to do, the right thing to do--the three eyed crow may not have meant safety, but it meant his legs. his destiny, as jojen referred it to be. ]

You're with Sansa and Arya as well? [ have i died and moved off to a paradise? ] I'll wait, as long as you need. [ he tries to tamp down on his smile, but he pretty much fails. ] Have you found Rickon and mother and father as well?

private video »

[baseborne]

[Oh... well, that wipes the almost-smile back off Jon's face. He hesitates: how to explain their father's brief return to life before death took him again? In person, he decides. Not over these cold lockets.

What Jon wouldn't give to be with Bran now, to touch his face as he hadn't done since he'd been in his sickbed, unmoving and barely breathing. He smiles and his voice sounds near as sweet as Jon remembers it, and it makes him curl his fingers tight around his locket.]

It's only Sansa, Arya and I. [He wants Robb. Robb and their lord father and baby Rickon too. He wants his family back, from King's Landing and the monsters of House Lannister that stole them all from him.] But we'll come for you. We'll leave in the morning and we may still speak, with these, along the way. [As he'd done with Sansa every night the sun dipped beneath the horizon on her own journey when he'd arrived.]

private text »

[aliased]

I'm coming with you.

text.

[aliased]

[ that was bran, it had to be bran. like their lord father before him, he'd been brought back to this place alive. and that's summer, that's definitely summer. that probably explains nymeria's restlessness.]

Bran?

text.

[climbed]

[ the name on the message is almost shocking, even though sansa and jon had said it was true, but-- ]

Arya?

video

[walkingarsenal]

[It's not the wolf talking, that much is clear, and that's confirmed soon enough. The boy's odd movement, even glimpsed so fleetingly, catches Fíli's attention.]

Have you made it to your room?

video

[climbed]

A kind lady and her companion are coming to assist me. [ bran ducks his head, but he can't help staring--he's met many a man who look like fili before, but never one so short. ] Thank you for your kindness, my lord.

video (i hope you don't mind late tags! apparently my tabs never sent)

[demonstrations]

[ Well, at least this young girl doesn't look that much older then him. And she's smiling softly when she turns it on. She's had enough sense to look at the other things being said and leans back on her feet. ]

If you need someone to assist you again later I can try to help.

video; not at all! ♥

[climbed]

[ bran's by now submitted to allowing his face to be shown on the locket--he cups it in both hands so the view is a little low, but his face appears none the less. the girl on the other end looks to be his age, maybe closer to arya, but young none the less. ]

Thank you. [ firstly, politely. but he wonders... ] Have you a knight or someone to do so?

[ you're young and also a girl. ]