ataraxion | 005 -- video;

[ ah, robb returns to video posts. there's a marked difference in the set of his face. he looks older, more solmen if such a thing were possible, more like his father, than he did in those very first few times he'd addressed the ship. grey wind is at his elbows, eyes gleaming as his great jaws part in a disinterested yawn. the display of teeth though, that sure is something to see. robb sinks a hand into the fur at the scruff of grey wind's neck, and the action is almost a boy reaching for something familiar, something to anchor himself to. ]

I wish to request a favor of this ship.

[ kings don't make requests, they give orders. that is what robb learned from his namesake but in his time spent aboard this ship he's also learned that a displaced king gets himself more by requesting rather than trying to command. ( like the beggar king, and if his stomach turns at that he ignores it. ) ]

My youngest brother Rickon has come aboard this vessel. I don't seek to curb his curiosity, but only to ask that discretion is used when answering his questions and granting him knowledge.

[ there's a pause. grey wind huffs a breath, impatient, and robb's hand twists in the fur. ]

And perhaps not encourage his fondness for knives.

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He is not Jon.

[ A telling statement, perhaps, of her relations with the Lord Commander. ]

Meet him with the respect a king deserves,
and he will listen to reason.

[ Reason being the operative word. Robb could be given over to frustration, same as any other man. But Robb is bore of duty and honor. So long as the girl held her temper, Alayne thinks he will as well. ]

Though he may question your skill.
He may ask after how you learned.

[She thinks of a sword named Needle, hidden away in the dark of her locker. She wants to tell Alayne - and Robb - that it was given her by their brother, that she learned to dance with it in lessons and then in a fight, that she has proven her merit as well as her brothers.

But she will not. Alayne already knows too much of that.]

A girl can be reasonable. And respectful. She knows something of courtesies. She will tell them of the bravos across the Narrow Sea, and the dancing she learned. She has many stories.

Then see to it that he is given the best courtesies you can afford.
A girl may see to her allies, but a woman is always mindful of her king.

[ It is not meant to be harsh, though the words command. After Aunt Lysa had died, Alayne was given to seeing to the daily needs of the Eyrie — a task that she had shirked at first and only risen to after. In that way, a lady may be strong without sacrificing her politesse. ]

You would give Rickon dancing lessons?

[ She knows it is not courtly dancing, but still she asks incredulously. ]

A girl will remember. [While Alayne tended to a keep, Arya tended to the dead; but she remembers a dead girl's lessons, and knows the etiquette she learned in the House. She knows how to serve. And what else could a girl do but serve a king?]

It is a dangerous kind of dancing. A girl thinks he would like that.

[She remembers Sansa sniffing at her dancing lessons, but she is certain a dead girl's sister never realized what kind of dancing she did. It's more than a bit entertaining, imagining that incredulity.]

[ A girl will remember. Dangerous words, for the two of them know how much better (how much safer) it often was to forget. Would a girl remember Arya's lessons, Alayne wonders. She'd taken so poorly to them at the time. ]

All manner of dancing require discipline.
The feral wolf has none.

Does a woman think a girl did, when first she asked to learn? A girl knew nothing, and she learned. A boy will listen if he wants to learn.

[Or she'll smack him. Best teacher.]

Or he would find himself a different teacher.
One who will indulge his unruliness.

Then a girl will watch. It is very hard to teach one who won't listen. He will have trouble, she thinks.

Trouble to learn, perhaps, but no trouble warranting help.
They look at him and see a child.
And children are to be indulged here.

Does a woman not WANT a girl to teach him?

[She doesn't understand why they argue, but then, she likes to argue.]

[ It is a natural thing. A thing that sisters do. Though Alayne does not dare think of it thus. ]

I share Robb's concerns.
But Rickon remains a stranger to me,
so I cannot speak with certainty.

Talk to him, and he will be less a stranger.

[Hypocritical, maybe; Rickon is a stranger to her, too, and she has spoken with him only a little.]

I do not think he favors me.

[ She has tried, albeit modestly. ]

A girl thinks he favors only his wolf.

He favors wild things.

Do you think yourself wild?

Sometimes.

[At night, in her wolf dreams, she was very wild. During the day, it was different. Maybe wild in another way.]

Sing him a wild song, then, to lull him close.
Discipline him after.

[ True mockingbird advice. ]

I, myself, will never be wild.
And so cannot sing to charm him.

A girl can sing for a woman.

005 -- video;

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