ataraxion | 002 ♕ video

[ The camera comes on and here is Alayne Stone (yes, the same Alayne Stone that supposedly bled all over her bedroom floor when demons still ran amok on the Tranquility). To her credit, she's looking much better (much more healthy than she probably has any right to be). But that's the beside the point.

The camera comes on and here is Alayne Stone and she dips, giving the same perfunctory bow that she is known to give upon greeting. Though an effort has made to make herself look tidy, her brow is pinched with worry. Her words are quick and, often, she looks off camera at something out of sight. ]

My good Tranquility, [ she says in greeting, her clip not terse per say, but approaching it. ] I am looking for a man. I— I do not know his name, but should he see my face he will remember our acquaintance.

Twice now he has come to my aid. [ He avenged my death. He gave me a terrible knife. ] And— and I find myself in need of his aid once again. [ A pause and then, squaring her shoulders, she looks into the camera and says simply (as if it were directly to the man in question). ] It is a matter of wolves. Please— [ She is about to entreat him, but thinks better of it. (He does not seem the type to be swayed by begging.) ] —do not remain silent. I know you watch and listen.

I will eagerly await your word. [ A pause and then Alayne dips again, more awkwardly this time (she wishes she could say more). ] —thank you.

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[ She's panting now, hair hanging down in her face, slick with sweat -- but she knows this girl and she knows her wolf, and she pulls herself together enough (it's not safe, can't stay human, have to keep moving, avoid the thread, kill the threat) to reply. ]

Lady?

Jaye—

[ The word escapes her before she has thought enough to silence it, but the sight of her startles Alayne, stuns her to momentary silence as she wonders, what is happening elsewhere on the ship. She knows nothing but what the devices tell her and even then, the messages are garbled and confused. First Lady, then Robb, and now Bran lies sleeping and unable to be woken.

Dumbly she nods. ] And Robb, with Grey Wind.

[ The sound of her name shakes her out of it a little bit, and she visibly shudders before one hand runs through her hair, pulling some of it out of her face. Jaye. Coyote's master minder. That's her. Not the bear, not the wolf, not the tiger, and not the horse -- no matter how much she takes their forms. Right.

She just has to remember that. ]

Robb? [ She doesn't know a Robb, but that seems less important right now -- only important because Alayne said it, really. Jaye swallows, hand still in her hair, as if it's forgotten to move elsewhere. ] You should... stay where you are, if you can.

He went to fetch her for me. She ran off in the night, she was so very frightened. Or— or angry, and I don't understand. She's never angry, never, not even when—

[ The words come quick, in a great hurried rush, but Alayne stops herself and holds her tongue. (—not even when my father came to cut her throat.) That memory is Sansa's not Alayne's and so Alayne cannot speak it. ] —you must help me find them. You can do that, Jaye, can't you? You said you knew animals, and you've wolves hung from your ears.

If something has happened to her or to Robb or Grey Wind, I'll— [ I'll never forgive myself. What will I tell Bran? ]

Please say you'll help. Please, please.

There's something in the ship. In the air-- I can smell it. Taste it.

[ It probably doesn't make sense to anyone else, but it makes sense to her, and it seems important to say it -- something in the air, something bad, something that makes her hackles raise. ]

I'll look. [ Just as she's looked for years, looking but never seeing, searching but never finding. Scott is as lost to her as Lady is to Alayne right now; more so, a wraith upon the wind, someone who won't answer his master's call because Scott has no master, just a sister who's been left behind. ] I'll try.

Does she get along with other wolves?

Something in the air? [ It baffles Alayne, sends another part of her into clutching panic, but when she glances off-camera again, at Bran who lay sleeping in his impenetrable wolfsleep, she remembers that she cannot know fear, she must be brave until Robb return, until Bran wake, until her father is once again by her side, until— ]

Yes, [ she says quickly. ] I think. I have only ever seen her with her pack but a wolf is a wolf. And wolves know their own.

I don't know what. [ It's not a comfort, she knows that. But at least it's a warning. ] If you're not-- if you haven't been breathing it, then there isn't enough where you are. [ Probably. ] So stay there.

[ Stay there, stay safe, let her protect you the way she couldn't protect her brother. ]

Then I shouldn't have a problem. I'll look for them.

Please, Jaye, you must be careful. [ Alayne entreats this as earnestly as she had asked for help just moments earlier. The woman is brave and claims to know animals, but a direwolf in the throes of anger is more terrible than any beast of the woods and is fiercer than any monster from stories. ] Lady is still small compared to the others. Grey Wind— he is large and unafraid and a warrior, proven in battle many times over. If he is touched, you must not face him.

He will have your throat, 'fore you know it.

I will be. I won't face him the way I am now. [ Human. She knows the speed of the cheetah and the stealth of the tiger and the strength of the bear. She knows what it's like to fly on her own wings and she knows what it's like to swim to depths few people have ever seen. The human body has its own marvels but it is weak, compared to what she could be. ]

Robb -- what does he look like, in case he and his wolf have been separated?

[ He looks like me. For I am his sister. (No, those are words that will never be spoken.) Alayne's lips press together as she struggles to find different words. A bottle of dye isn't enough to erase the echoes between her features and Robb's, her features and Bran's; dulling the Tully fire of her hair did nothing but extinguish the brightest burning torch, but there are other beacons, smaller and more subtle, that can just as easily light the way for an attentive eye. ]

Auburn curls and eyes, a piercing blue. He has not a beard, but scruff enough to scrape, and— [ It tickles when he kisses me on the forehead, but again that is a secret and will not help Jaye in any case. ] —and he has a nose, much like mine.

[ It's a dangerous clue to share. Much like mine. But better to have him be found than left to whatever treachery lies in the bowels of the ship. ]

[ Were she less panicked, she might think more on it. For now, she doesn't, simply nods and shifts to move. ]

I'll look for him. Stay where you are. Stay safe.

[ As she goes to click her device off, Alayne might notice that her eyes are going from blue to the golden brown of the wolf. ]

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