[video]

[wolfdreamer]

[The video feed is shaky when it starts, held by hands unused to recording anything. The chaos of the recording is only compounded by the sounds of it: a wolf howling, long and lonely, and a fire crackling, and the heavy sound of someone breathing, almost panicked. The fire is the focus of the video. Whatever fuels it has nearly burned up, but in the center of the fire, there is something that might be just discernible as one of the masks.

But it is not Bran's mask that is burning, because when he turns the video around, he's wearing it. It's an ugly mask, made of thin leather (skin?) and crude stitches.]

There was a girl, and now she's gone. [The mask makes his breathing clumsy; sadness and anger do the rest to flatten and twist his voice.] That was her mask. I found it. And I looked for her, I have been looking and looking for days, and my brothers have looked, but she's gone. I know it. I feel it. And Betty Ross--she was a great friend to me--

This ship takes people from us, and it isn't fair. You should not be brought somewhere if you are only going to be taken away again. You should not-- If we are here, aboard this ship, then we are here for a purpose. We were brought here, we didn't come here by any accident or mistake. I don't want to go home-- [The wolf howls louder, a stabbing sound, and Bran's voice twists--part lie and part truth. If you're paying close attention to the video, you might see the face of his mask shift, just a little, to something less boy and more wolf, white teeth gleaming with slaver--and then back again, only a boy's face of stitched skin.] I want to know the reason.

It isn't any captain that brings us here. It must be something else. And once I dreamed the ship was alive-- [The mask shifts again, as if something moves beneath the skin, and Bran's voice twists and flattens once more.] --but I can't find it. I want to know the reason, and I will find the reason, and I will not forget the girl that is gone. She was pack--

[The howling of the wolf is louder now, and Bran's voice seems almost to join it on that last word, somehow, as if it is a howl and not a word at all. He drops his device upon the ground, but it stays on for a few moments longer, focused up on the nearest tree, upon which someone has crudely carved a face. Eventually, the video times out.]

Comments

text

[mutelunatic]

can come back.

text

[wolfdreamer]

she will not.

[text]

[jurisimpudent]

Against whom would you seek retribution?

[text]

[wolfdreamer]

I seek answers. Not retribution. I want to know what happens when people disappear. And I want to know the reason we are here. And I will find it.

voice;

[mansuetus]

Lord Stark.

[ she is silent for a moment; it's hard here, unbearable at times, without her mother, Cesare, Giulia. But she thinks that if they were to come and disappear it would be harder, more cruel, as if the ship is mocking them (can't it? he said he dreamed the ship was alive) and their agony. ]

There is no justice to be found aboard this ship and no one to seek it from but if you will seek for it then allow us, allow me to help.

voice;

[wolfdreamer]

[He does not answer right away. He lets the fire burn out, and Summer eventually stops his howling, but there is yet pain in Bran's voice when he makes his answer, running just beneath the surface, muted only by his mask.]

If there is no justice to seek, then how would you help?

action

[theshabbiestofmen]

[Remus doesn't bother to reply; instead he heads directly to Bran's room. His mask is on, of course, but both his wolfish side and his mutilated face are twisted into a sympathetic grimace as he knocks at his door.]

Bran? Bran! It's Remus, it's Remus Lupin-- please let me in, Bran--

action

[wolfdreamer]

[There is a long silence that greets his summons. It is not so great a distance from the Gardens to his rooms, but Bran is still tired. Something makes him more tired--whether it's sadness or something else, he could not say, but he is tired.

Behind the door, Summer paces fretfully, whining. And eventually, Bran rises and opens the door to Remus Lupin.

When he sees his mask, he feels something twist in his own. Something like a snarl, something like a mouse moving under rushes on the floor--and maybe his own mask goes wolfish for a second.]

Remus Lupin.

perma-text;

[mostsuitable]

Hey, Bran.
Is that one of those masks that the anonymous dudes mentioned in the details of the incidents that have taken place here?
I missed out on that one, but I think you really shouldn't put any of those masks on unless you actually know what they're for.

[ Dirk is totally worried and might head on over to his room to check up on him. But I see that Remus is already there. ^^;;; ]

[wolfdreamer]

I know what it is for. A mask is for wearing, Dirk Strider. I do not trust this ship, but I know what mask this is.

[YES but I am okay with timebending or having him drop by later or w/e! 8) ]

voice;

[northerner]

[ there's only snarls at very first, just low, vicious snarls and it's not easy to tell without voice if that's robb or if that's grey wind until it slows, and robb's voice comes over the line. ]

Bran.

voice;

[wolfdreamer]

[Something of the anger in his belly rises at that snarling, an answer, yes--and then quiets, like a wolf with a muzzle fitted to its jaws. Not now, wait, not now, but still, his voice is raw when he answers Robb:]

She's gone. She's gone--

[And he wants to say more, but he doesn't trust himself, weak and stupid and childish as he is.]

video

[littleduck]

[Everything about this alarms Prim, to the point of almost being unable to respond. Her hands are shaky as she holds her device, but she tries her best to not look afraid for her new friend.]

Bran? [Her voice is shaking, and she swallows the lump that's forming in her throat.]

Sometimes the reasons things happen are hard to find.

video

[wolfdreamer]

I know.

[His snarl is part angry and part wounded, the way an animal might answer a word of comfort, and if there is a prickle of regret at speaking to Primrose Everdeen in this way (because he likes her, because she was kind and Summer liked her, too), it is drowned out by the feeling clawing at his chest.]

I know--but there are reasons here. There are answers to find. It isn't like everything else, it is a ship, and someone controls it.

permavid & text.

[culver]

bran
bran are you okay
where are you

permavid

[wolfdreamer]

[He means for it to be a voice reply, but his fingers feel clumsy and stiff, and so he answers by off-center video instead--mostly blank grey wall, with only the right eye of his mask. And even now, later, after the mask has been burned, his breath still comes unsteadily.]

You do not want to to go home--do you, Nill?

[thatsaflaregun]

[WAY TO HIT HIM RIGHT IN THE DADDY FEELS, BRAN.

except you also hit him in the purpose feels and that's less awesome. Still, he's very gentle, if a bit vocally strained.]

Aye. I don't think many of us could disagree with that, but in my experience, the reasons are rarely good ones.

[wolfdreamer]

[OH HEY DES welcome to being stuck somewhere else. And that isn't exactly the answer he wants; he wants good answers that there are good reasons.]

We were brought so far. There must be a good reason, even if not one that we want to hear. There will at least be a reason to tell.

video;

[the_vishual]

Good. It's time you got angry.

video;

[wolfinthesnow]

Leave him be.

video;

[wolfdreamer]

Why?

[But even as he asks, he agrees.]

[wolfinthesnow]

Bran.

I don't think-

Please take the mask off.

[wolfdreamer]

[He shakes his head, but otherwise, he does not answer that.]

She is gone, Jon--I looked, but I knew. I would know why. I would know where, and why-- why it happens. [The rawness in his voice grows worse as he goes on.]

video, locked;

[tumbleweeds]

Which one? Arya or Sansa?

[ It hurts, it hurts no matter what, but she needs to know. ]

video, locked;

[wolfdreamer]

[The snarl might be Summer's, somewhere off-camera, or it might be Bran, beneath the mask--]

Don't say her name. She never used her name-- [She made me swear--] --so you mustn't, either.

video for once

[rickon]

Your face is horrible!

[wolfdreamer]

[It is. But he touches his fingertips to the cheek of the mask, and a defensiveness rises in him.]

It's a mask, Rickon.