ataraxion | [video]

[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.]

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can come back.

Against whom would you seek retribution?

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.

she will not.

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.

And then what?

[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?

If I know the reason, I will know, too, who it is that brings us. And I will set everything right.

dead?

[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--

If the ship kills people then she is dead. If people are returned home then she will choose not to return and I will not see her if I return home. Or she will return and she will not remember.

no choice.

i came back. i remembered.

[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.

Good. Your friends are happy. But there are many who do not remember. She will make herself forget. Or she will choose to forget. Or she will pretend.

I want her back.

Edited 2012-11-12 19:30 (UTC)

[But to Remus and the wolf both, Bran is very nearly pack. There's no aggression in response to that muted snarl, nothing like Remus experienced with Derek or Sirius-- instead there's only sympathy, and Remus kneels in front of the boy. Without thinking he reaches forward, one hand smoothing down his hair.]

I'm sorry.

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. ^^;;; ]

[ 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.

[CHELL DOESN'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS BRAN......]

better at home.

[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.

bran
bran are you okay
where are you

If it is lost to me, that does not mean that we cannot find it together. Two can search better than just one, certainly.

[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.

[There is too much at war in him, but he does not shy away from Remus Lupin's hand--he knows him, Remus Lupin is a help, he has always helped, even when he didn't know what he was helping with, he tried--and though there is something in Bran that fights at everything, clawing at his chest (and he thinks of Remus' confession, when he is a wolf sometimes he bites himself, and he knows that pain now), he stays steady, staring up at Remus Lupin through the eyes of his mask.

Summer is more restless, pacing behind Bran, his whines piercing and worried.]

I have to find what happened to her.

I don't think there's anything to find out, Bran. She's simply gone.

[He rubs at Bran's cheek with his thumb, ignoring his own rising disgust at the mask's rough texture (as if yours is any better, he reminds himself).]

[NO WAY everyone has a friend...]

Not all homes are good.

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