008 [AUDIO]

[testgasm]

[And now, a public service announcement from your resident lord and master of gross exaggeration, poster child of pointless overreaction, supreme champion of the ninety-mile-an-hour whinge--]

There's a cow in the oxygen garden.

[He doesn't even bother to hide the undercurrent of disgust in the audio feed, an edge to his voice that makes it clear he's most likely had a recent run-in with the aforementioned cow and/or a cow by-product.]

There's a cow in the oxygen garden why is there a cow in the oxygen garden on what strange, bizarro planet did any of you think this was a good idea?

Agh, it's--nevermind, I'm absolutely positive that at least some of you come from strange, bizarro planets where this sort of thing is acceptable. I mean, the cats and the dogs and--I heard there's a horse, too--are bad enough, now we've got livestock.

And don't even--don't even get me started on the bloody birds. Filthy. Eugh.

I know we're probably still hung up on certain unnamed parties forgetting how to swim, and yes, fair enough, it's tragic, but I think we could all use a, ah. Friendly reminder. This is, in fact, a spaceship. Not a zoo. How is that--What's the point, anyway? It's all--it's all great that the ship packed up your giant killer wolf and dumped it in your locker just for you, but maybe the rest of us are not entirely comfortable with the idea of cows and horses and giant killer wolves out! Anyone think of that?

You can't walk five feet around here without running into someone's pet. We have got to start talking about what to do with all these animals. Honestly.

Comments

[ voice | private ]

[wont]

[ He sounds like a child, but Alayne doesn't mind at all. Let him be a child, she thinks, she hopes. Bran has had that luxury taken from him too many times already. There will be plenty of opportunity for him to be a lord again later. ]

Then tell the telling, [ she says, her voice mockingbird sweet. ] Show them the error of their ways. Have them admit to themselves that they were ignorant and wrong without you saying so. Your victory will be much sweeter and long-lasting.

They call them pets for pet means obedience. And obedience is necessary to ease their hearts, or else be plagued by fear. People are frightened by that which they do not understand. They would fear the wolves more openly if they did not think of them as pets.

[ voice | private ]

[wolfdreamer]

[She makes far too much sense, which is also not fair. Sometimes it is too easy to become defensive, to hear small insults like this and think of the Walders, and how they hated Winterfell and the North.

But Alayne is right (as she almost always is; she is wiser than Bran remembers Sansa, but of course she is Sansa and yet not Sansa), and so he sighs.]

I can show them that. But then--we should call them pets, too? That won't help with showing them. They should know that the direwolves are ours, but not owned.

[ voice | private ]

[wont]

[ That sigh gets Alayne to smile if only because she recognizes it as some conceit to her argument. She has no intentions of weening Bran from his bright willfulness, his stubborn boyishness, but it is a good feeling to be in agreement with one of her brothers. (The argument with Jon Snow continues to leave an ashen taste in her mouth. You were not a poor sister. You were no sister at all. Even now, the words sting.) ]

No. Never should we call them pets, for pets are not what they are and in calling them so, we do them a great disservice. Always do I point out the error. But it is important to understand where the habit comes from, if only to argue better against it.

Do you understand, Bran?

[ voice | private ]

[wolfdreamer]

[Again, he sighs, but it's softer still.]

I understand. I will show everyone, and I will try not to argue. I suppose it is more lordly to make explanation instead of insult. Though I think-- Rickon might not be so quick to agree to explain.

[ video | private ]

[wont]

[ Where once she would feel nothing but endless pride to hear Bran speak of lordly bearing, it also makes Alayne profoundly sad. She flicks on the video so that he may see her face and when he does, she finds him smiling softly at him — mouth happy but eyes sad. ]

Rickon is his own mountain, in need of climbing. Perhaps together we may attempt to scale him. [ A pause and then Alayne's eyes grow guilty, a little regretful. Cheer up, little one, they seem to say. ] Come, do not have such a long face. I rather preferred him having earned it, and not me.

[ video | private ]

[wolfdreamer]

[He grants her request with a small smile. How could he not smile for Alayne? And if she speaks of together, then she speaks as one of the Starks, and that cheers him more than anything else. Sansa Stark would help with Rickon, no matter the cloak she wore.]

It isn't so long. If Summer were able to, his face would be longer than mine at this. But he would smile for you, too. No one loves the Starks so well as the direwolves do. And the same in reverse, too, no matter what lessons we try to teach the others here.

[ video | private ]

[wont]

[ Oh, how his little smile wins her heart. How it gives her the reassurance that yes she is a good sister — a good person — and that through her deeds and hopeful words there is some margin of hope towards worth. She has looked to make amends to all of her brothers, in actions and thoughts and the singing of mockingbird songs. Strange as though the sentiment may be, equal parts deceiving and loving, there are few tools Alayne has to forge a more perfect gift for them. ]

Could I, I would have none of you bear a face so long. It is unbearable for me to know one would think ill of you or them. [ You being her brothers. Them being the direwolves. She puts aside Alayne Stone and embraces Sansa instead. ] I learned my lesson with Lady well, I will not allow a similar fate to befall us again. [ Again, a smile, both bright and earnest. ] I love you all too dearly. Far, far too much.

[ video | private ]

[wolfdreamer]

[It is now less sad to hear of Lady's fate, for the direwolf has been restored to them in a way Bran never would have thought possible. And so still he smiles--and he smiles because Alayne smiles at him, because it is a Sansa smile that she wears. It would be better if she always wore it, if she was always so quick to tell of her love for them--brothers, she does not call him brother but he knows that she must think it, to smile as she does.]

We will show them not to. There is not so much to provoke any of the direwolves here aboard this ship, so in time, people will learn to be less afraid. [And he is too old to say such things, too close to being a man grown, but because she is Sansa so rarely he must say it now:] We love you too. I do, and Summer does--and all the rest. This ship has been very good to us.

[ video | private ]

[wont]

[ It's a reassuring thing to hear — to know that one of Sansa's brothers feels as Alayne does. It was a blessing in her estimation, to have been brought aboard, though not many shared her opinion. Given how poorly things have gone with Jon recently, it makes Alayne's heart glad and thankful. ]

I am glad to find myself unalone in such estimation. Robb, I know, wishes to return to his duties. As well as Jon. [ She looks briefly sullen, but pushes that away quickly, unwilling to dampen the sunshine on her brother's face. ] I've little to return to myself, save the snows of the Vale.

In truth, I like I much better here.

[ video | private ]

[wolfdreamer]

[It surely rankles on Robb and Jon, to shirk their duty--even though they cannot control their presence aboard the ship. And Bran thinks a moment to tell Alayne more of his own duty--of the three-eyed crow, and the journey beyond the Wall. The three-eyed crow has sent him here, a path that has diverged in ways Bran never would have thought. Perhaps this is but one divergence of all of their paths.

But he holds his tongue on that, for now. He smiles at his sister.]

They might wish to return. But we can all find a little happiness here, at least. We are all together. It seemed impossible but it has happened, thanks to this ship--even if it is only for a short time. [We were meant to be a pack, he thinks, and though she is more Sansa than Alayne right now, he is yet wary to name her a wolf. It might frighten her off.] And perhaps we will even find snow here, someday.

[ video | private ]

[wont]

Snow. [ Alayne says the word softly, as if it were the name of some distantly remembered friend. There had been snow in Robb's hair the day Sansa had left Winterfell and her little brothers had cried at her leave-taking. Sansa at the time had been to excited to weep, though the opportunity had come many times after — regret and remorse for the things she had lost, for the sentiment she did not think to have at the time. ] The snows were deep when last I was in Westeros. At the foot of a great mountain, the Eyrie towering above. [ Snow, too, when Petyr had first kissed her in the garden. Snow melting on the ends of Sansa's lashes when Lady Lysa had tried to thrust her out the Moon Door.

Alayne's expression darkens for a moment. ] I believe I would like to see such a thing as well.

[ She lapses into silence. Snow. The North. The Wall. Her thoughts move from one thing to the next, until finally: ] I do not think Jon is happy here.

[ Alayne no longer calls him Jon Snow. ]

[ video | private ]

[wolfdreamer]

[He mislikes the way her face quiets and darkens. Do not have such a long face, she told him, and here her face is just as long--but in a different way, in an inwards way, as if she is looking within and seeing things she does not like. Would snow truly make her happy, or would it shadow her face still more?

And then she speaks of Jon, who sometimes shares that inwards looking. Bran frowns a little, and rakes his fingers gently through Summer's fur a moment before he makes his reply.]

He is--changed, sometimes, in his way. [He is older; he is Lord Commander of the Watch.] But he is still our brother. Why do you think him unhappy?