007 -- voice;

[northerner]

[ there's the sound of a direwolf howling, unapologetic in his grief, and even the soft hushing murmur that comes after doesn't quite temper it, only reduces it to a low keening whine. there's a pause that stretches, and robb clears his throat more than once, trying to find the words. when he does speak he sounds tired, anger burning slow and hot under exhaustion but finally, finally, he speaks. ]

The lady Sansa Stark, who many called Alayne Stone, has gone.

[ there's a breath, as if robb means to say more, but instead he simply cuts the feed. ]

Comments

video » auggie locked

[unparental]

...Oh, Robb.

[ because that's a hell of a confession, and a worse loss. ]

What can I do?

video » auggie locked

[northerner]

[ oh jenna. robb looks gutted, but he tries for lighthearted, even as he clutches grey wind's fur, like a little boy with a big dog. he looks too young. he knows he looks too young, not a king at all, and he shouldn't be seen like this but.

but it's jenna. ]

Unless you can bring her back, I fear there is nothing.

video »

[ripstides]

No. [ no, he doesn't accept that. no, he doesn't know what to say. just no. ] When?

voice »

[northerner]

Today, I think. I went to her rooms and she was not there, and Grey Wind could not find her, nor Lady.

video;

[nock]

Your sister?

[ she just got prim back, so losing her again ... she's not sure what she'd do if that happened. what does she live for, if not for her sister? she doesn't know robb, and normally, she wouldn't respond to a post like this (it doesn't concern her, other people's friends and family leaving) but something about it makes her reconsider. ]

voice;

[northerner]

Aye, my sister.

[ and he's not said that often, aboard this ship, but what does it matter now? all their deceptions and lies and she is still gone. ]

I cannot find her.

[mostsuitable]

[ It's been nearly two months since Dirk was here last. But he's returned, along with both of his bro, and has discovered that Jake's still here as well. He can't imagine what he'd feel like if any of them were missing.

The lady Sansa Stark, who many called Alayne Stone, has gone.

This makes something suddenly click in his head. Not everything, no, because Dirk recalls that Alayne's father was a certain Petyr Baelish. But now he understands why Robb and Bran had been so fiercely protective of the girl--she was actually a Stark, actually related to them.

Dirk could relate to the pain that Robb feels and tries not to show. He knows that he doesn't want it to happen to him. ]

You mean, no one has seen her since the last jump?

[northerner]

[ there's a breath. there's the sound of grey wind's great jaws snapping together. robb's voice must be steady, it must, it must. ]

I mean that there is no hint of her aboard this vessel.

[wolfinthesnow]

[Jon arrives, quiet, his arm bandaged where Summer bit him, and he looks exhausted. He hasn't slept in days, and this just adds another to burst of sadness to him]

Robb.

[northerner]

[ they're both exhausted. the men of the stark house, the king in the north and the lord commander. they've pushed themselves to the limit and there's so little left to give. ( is this what being old feels like? ) ]

Jon Snow.

text;

[puppydogeyes]

Checked her comms?

text;

[northerner]

Yes. I have.
But I confess, I've little knowledge of technology. I may have made a mistake.

[voice]

[bibliophilism]

...oh.

I'm...very sorry. Is there anything I can do?

[northerner]

Your offer is kind, but I fear there's little to be done. If she has gone, there's nothing that could return her.

video.

[mansuetus]

[ Sansa Stark; but of course she was her. She thought of it at times but did not ask. Sansa or Alayne she kept Lucrezia smiling and happy, held her hand and soothed away her fears. And no, she cannot be gone. The ship cannot steal her kindred spirit away.

But Robb Stark would not lie - and that was his sister. God lend us your grace, how cruel this ship is. ]

Sansa or Alayne I love her well and true. I would love her under a hundred different names.

[ a beat. She will not cry. She will not. Her face is calm. ]

Are you with your family, my Lord?

[ family above all, her father always said. ]

video.

[northerner]

[ alayne and lucrezia had huddled close in the cold, whispering secrets as girls are often known to do. they'd been friends, close as sansa and jeyne poole had once been. if they'd been in westeros...

but they weren't. they had been here, and now sansa was here no longer. ]

And surely, if she recalls anything of this, shall love you as well. You were a dear friend to her.

[ and that friendship had brought his sister joy, something she'd not had much of since she'd been left to the lion's jaws. ]

For the moment, but I--

[ there's a pause, and then robb encrypts this feed. ]

But I would see you.

video for once

[rickon]

That isn't fair!

[northerner]

Aye, it isn't. But the ship cares little for that, I think.

Rickon, where are you?

[bruxisms]

You are certain?

[northerner]

Beyond doubt.

[andblockbuster]

[Topher's a little choked up when he speaks. He hasn't been this overwhelmed with grief about a departure since Kenzi left ages ago and Alayne knew him- one of the few who did, actually.

And now Tony's missing and he can't.]

I don't... I don't know how this all works. It was sort of an accident I even got involved at all, but... Whatever I was to Alayne. Just... [He's not exactly good at anything in an official capacity.] If you or the other Starks need me, you can call me.

She would've wanted me to.

[northerner]

[ topher is a good man. topher is a good man who had loved his sister well, that is what robb knows. topher had given her his banner, had knelt at her side, stained his hands with her blood. robb is quiet for a long moment, thinking of how his sister had chosen and chosen well, before saying. ]

You offer your banner to me in her place? To hold until she...

[ robb's voice dies over the words until she returns for who knows if she shall ever come back? ]

[wolfdreamer]

[There was always Sansa, no matter what name she called herself, and now she is gone. It is as clean a leaving as her first: when Bran woke in his bed, a cripple, and everyone had left Winterfell, left it empty to him and to Rickon and to Robb. This leaving is still more painful; this leaving is harder to bear, and somewhere Grey Wind howls, and Summer howls too, and Bran feels that howl deep within himself, more than an echo.

He goes to look for Robb then, though he still feels weak. He gives Summer the lead, and follows the sound of Grey Wind's howling, his steps only sometimes faltering. He must be a lord again. He must. When Grey Wind's howling comes closer, when he knows that he is near, Bran lifts his head. He will greet Robb with clear eyes. They will survive this, too.]

Robb.

[northerner]

[ it had always been sansa. she had ever been first in robb's heart, the first of his siblings, the first person whose safety he had been charged with. they had been the eldest, the ones who understood the weights upon their shoulders. and here she had understood as well, the crwn that had pressed down hard on tully curls.

and now she was gone.

he senses his brother's coming, feels it in the way grey wind comes to attention, sniffing at the ear, pacing forward to greet summer, regal as the king robb tries to be. ]

I'm sorry, Bran.

[ sorry for so many things. for not preventing her leaving, for not being able to keep them all together. ]

permatext.

[culver]

I am sorry

[northerner]

As are we all, Nill.
I appreciate that.

video;

[touchie]

[ Oh.

Things like that can happen, he's forgotten. The blur of things, in their visit of horrors and masks, he admits to have 'forgotten' Alayne. Not really forgotten forgotten, no, but she has been passed as a friend quietly passed to the side—away from his mess of worries and personal troubles, boiling furiously at this point due to a mask and a secret ( a secret among secrets ).

But she knew about secrets. She knew about his, and he trusted her on that. There wasn't a moment of doubt when she rose from the dead, not a moment of regret when he acted like God just the moment before.

Both Sansa Stark and Alayne Stone deserved to live and she indeed, lived.

Just another passing chapter of the Pie Maker's life, a face to be re-tucked at the back of his mind, a memory that will return now and then, but now, there is only that sting of hurt and loss.

( 'I am glad to meet you, Ned. My name is Alayne.' )

So, staring back at the screen with much uncertainty, he finally says: ]

Hey, Robb.

video;

[northerner]

[ ned the piemaker, the man to whom robb owes a great and terrible debt. does that debt still hold now, after alayne has come and gone? maybe not, maybe not, but for robb it is still somethat that must be paid, though there is nothing in the world to equal the gift of his sister's life. ]

Hello, Ned.

[ robb's voice is very soft, strained and soaked through with sorrow and he's a king and he shouldn't but there are those who know him well, who knew alayne well, and it is harder to keep his pain from them. ]

[voice]

[yardbird]

[Murphy never knew Sansa, but he knew Alayne. Hard to say he knows anyone who you never technically "knew".

[What Murphy knows is that he is not unfamiliar with loss. He's lost everything. People have left him before, people have died before -- so it's funny to him, and it's normal, and kind of painfully morose.]

You didn't... find her, did you? [Because there are various ways a person can be "gone" in this place. There are various ways a person can disappear in any place.]

[voice]

[northerner]

[ there's a hitch in robb's breath at that, at the sudden terror that maybe something had taken her, and simply not given her body back yet. but that couldn't be possible. ]

No. We searched everywhere, my wolf and I, but we found no trace.

audio;

[tumbleweeds]

[ There is nothing from her comm for a long moment until, finally, she speaks. Instead of anger it's anguish, sharp like a knife and just as painful. ]

Fuck.

audio;

[northerner]

Aye.

[ robb's tone is flat, too exhausted for anything else. ]

She held your banner, not I. Your tie to my house is broken.

voice;

[ringbearer]

[ so she had been the lady sansa. there's something tight in his chest at that, for them, and for the dear girl he'd shared a tale with. he hasn't spoken to this king in some time, but it's with respect and sadness. there's little to offer but, ]

I'm so very sorry, King Robb. Such sadness you and your family do not deserve.

voice;

[northerner]

No one deserves the loss of their family. But she has gone, and we must grow used to it.

[ they must bear it, like they bear everything else. there's no way around it. ]

voice;

[theshabbiestofmen]

I see.

[Remus' voice is thick with grief, though he struggles to keep it under control.]

Thank you for-- for letting us know.

voice;

[northerner]

She would not wish you to mourn her, Remus.

[ that is important to say, somehow, though robb wonders just how much he knows about his sister's wishes. ]

You were a dear friend to her.

[text]

[jurisimpudent]

[Oh. Well...Oh.]

As of when?

[northerner]

I found her missing last night, and we have searched through the night and found nothing.

[not here]

[sweetmotherofgod]

[ She doesn't reply, because she doesn't know Robb. Can't imagine condolences from someone who he's never spoken to would be any comfort.

But if he passes by Alayne's - Sansa's - room, he'll see the the flowers Heather has picked and laid outside her door. ]

[northerner]

[ he goes later, later in a vain hope that she will be there once again. but she isn't and the flowers are, and it's a small gesture, but one that alayne would have liked.

he lays the flowers upon her bed before he leaves. ]

video »

[backbiter]

[He knows that voice. It sounded a lot like the guy he's spoken to on the network through the walkie talkie setting.]

I only spoke to her once but... I'm sorry she's gone.

[northerner]

I thank you for your sympathies. She will be sorely missed, it seems.

voice;

[hearme]

[Cersei's been lying low for a while, keeping to herself and waiting for things to blow over. She isn't typically the type to hide, though there's a time for everything and she's been biding hers. Such a statement regarding Sansa, however, cannot be resisted and so Cersei replies, her voice fairly void of any true emotion.]

Shame.

[Does she mean it? Perhaps. The girl was a little endearing, even if she was on the wrong side. Hardly anything to cry about though. Cersei is quietly pleased that Robb seems so affected.]

DISCONNECT.

[northerner]

[ there is a limit to what he can bear. there is a limit and robb knows his well enough. and so instead of hazarding a reply, he simply cuts the connection, rather than risk a shouting match. ]

voice; encryption 100%

[hejhej]

So she was a part of your family.

voice; encryption 100%

[northerner]

Aye. My sister, though she had only recently begun speaking of herself as such.

( text )

[abrahamic]

i'm sorry.

[ she was kind to me. ]

[northerner]

Thank you. She would appreciate the sentiment.

voice;

[therainbowking]

[When Renly finally replies, his voice is quiet and sorrowful. He has met Sansa, if only in passing, at home, and perhaps spoken once or twice here, though he did not know it.]

I am sorry, my lord.

[northerner]

Thank you, my lord. My family appreciates such sentiment.