Fear cuts deeper than swords

Winter is coming, and I am ready. I'm Arya. I'm a Stark of Winterfell. I'm the daughter of Ned Stark and Catelyn Tully... I'm nobody. -x- Affiliated with Citta Alveare. Apt. W-4 Weapon: Wooden sword

[iironclad-archived]

Gajeel snorted. “Assumin’ you got a family. What, is your name Redwolf?”

But he paused at the comment on dragons, heavily pierced brow furrowing at the suggestion of their extinction. "… How do you know they’re all dead?" he muttered tersely. Then, after a moment’s thought, grinned again. “Well, you’re wrong, runty. Dragon’s ain’t all dead. I even met one here."

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

Arya frowned. "No. My name's..." she paused. "Something else. But I'm still a wolf. A direwolf."

"They're all dead because my father and mother and maester and... well, everyone says so." She frowned. She didn't like the thought of everyone she knew being wrong. But the thought of a real dragon was exciting! "You met a dragon here? Like a real one?"

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

Lone Wolf (but not by choice) - Open/Intro

[thebrokenlittlebird]

-

For a brief moment, Sansa seemed confused by what she heard from Arya, but she soon realized the logic of that thought. They would find her. If there was any news running the court, Arya would have been caught. It seemed terribly wise Arya have remained herself in the shadows, though absurdly cruel, too. After all, for a long time Sansa thought she was dead, an image that always troubled when she gathered in her chambers. But I should have trusted her. Arya has always been strong, she would not let herself die. Listening to her, Sansa felt her heart speed up for a moment. It was strange how memories seemed all back, as she tried to imagine the chronology of what her sister had spoken. And the words, even though fast, made her eye-popping. Arya had crossed the Narrow Sea and gone to the greatest of the Free Cities. That was incredible. Maybe not exactly in a good way, and definitely well out of her plans, but it was something amazing. And the Hound. She met with him. This also surprised Sansa. It would have been after that night, when he had stolen me a song…? Sansa could have sworn it did. It had to. So he is still alive… She did not know what to think about it - do not know what to think about many things. And in the end, we were to meet in the place far away from home… Sansa could not help but see some irony in this.

“I… I did not marry King Joffrey, but a wedding actually happened" - after listening Arya, Sansa knew she could not avoid this issue, despite wanting to do so. I can not pretend that nothing happened. Still, put the truth in words make it seem even more unchanging, and it made Sansa’s throat tighten. “Tyrion Lannister is my husband" - she spoke, her voice betraying her, making clear that it did not please her. “They had promised me Willas Tyrell, but… That did not work so well." Gently biting her lower lip, Sansa seemed to shrink. He is the least of my problems, I need to be brave. “It was so horrible, Arya… I was alone and could not trust anyone, and Joffrey— Our father… I wanted it all to be nothing more than a bad dream."

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

          Arya was relieved beyond belief when she heard Sansa had not been forced to marry Joffrey. She might not always get along with her sister, she might love to fight with her sister, she might sometimes hate the annoying things her sister does, but she would never wish for anything bad to happen to Sansa.

And marrying Joffrey would definitely, definitely be something bad. Sansa deserved a gallant knight like in the songs, or at least a man who would take care of her and defend her honour and all those things that a husband was supposed to do. Sansa was a proper, noble, lady and most importantly, she was Arya's sister and so Arya felt she deserved the best husband possible.

"Good, that's go--" she started to say but stopped herself as Sansa went on. So she'd married the Imp? That wasn't much better. Sure he wasn't Joffrey but--but he was the Imp!

"I'm sorry." She said because she didn't know what else to say. She deserved better. Sansa always did.

"I wanted it to be a bad dream, too. I used to pray it was a dream. And then when that didn't work, I prayed for the deaths of those responsible, and some others. And when that didn't work I stopped praying. Or I mostly did."

[iironclad-archived]

"It’s just a name. I ain’t ever had nothin’ to do with foxes."  Gajeel folded his arms and leaned forward, but a rough smirk crossed his lips at the mention of ‘better’ animals, and one pierced brow arched questioningly. “Oh yeah? Like what?" A gruff chuckle. “Gihi… dragons‘ve always been my style."

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

"No such thing as just a name. Families get family names for a reason," she said, matter-of-factly. "And like wolves. They're...a lot better. And dragons don't really count because they can burn down whole castles, and they're all dead."

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

Lone Wolf (but not by choice) - Open/Intro

[verenjakel-deactivated20141101]

"And that’s the beauty of things, wolf girl. Regardless of whether or not you choose to believe me, I will continue to exist and the world will continue to spin. Life will go on, unhindered to anyone but yourself."

"Death is a good thing to believe in," he smiled. “He can be a devil, or he can be a saint, depending on how you look at things. But he will always exist, so long as mortality continues to exist. Death is certainly a more logical creature to believe in than most of the imagined gods humans create."

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

          "That's true." It was, even though it was weird to think of it like that. Things that are real continue to be so no matter what happens. And people who choose not to believe that don't make it less so.

Huh.

"Death's the only thing I believe in now. If there are any other gods, they're deaf and blind and no amount of praying to trees will help my family." She didn't sound bothered, or bitter, she sounded just like she was stating facts.

[mrballofsunshine-deactivated201]

Back on the Streets {Arya}

[mrballofsunshine-deactivated201]

-

"While I’m like this? Yeah, probably." He had to admit that, at least, however begrudgingly. He grinned. “Bet a noble lady couldn’t fight better than me though." He had to boast about something he could do well, he didn’t want to seem like some sort of incompetent loser after all. Of course, there were some girls he knew who could fight better than him, but they weren’t here, or rather, he hadn’t seen them. And who even knew what the other residents here were like?

On top of that, it seemed he had lost Dynato when he arrived here, meaning he lacked a decent weapon to fight with. The wooden replica he had been given wouldn’t do much good against something more heavy duty. Losing the sword also meant he lost the ability to talk to Caerus and ask him what the hell was going on. The spirit would probably find some other way to contact him, but until then he was in the dark about all of this.

"An apartment, huh? Man, guess you’re one of the lucky ones then!" From what he could tell, there were several other people who ended up in box homes much like he had. There were little communities of them set up around the city. “Wait, you don’t know what that is?"

Even though many buildings were destroyed after the war, most of them were rebuilt to resemble the original. He had never heard of anyone who didn’t know what an apartment was.

"It’s a big building where a bunch of people live together, like a hotel, but more long term. Where do you come from that they don’t have apartments?" Maybe it was one of those isolated civilizations he’d heard a few things about.

"Yeah, we’ll be really good friends!" He remembered saying that to someone once before. That seemed like centuries ago now.

"Arya, huh? That’s a nice name. The way you said it, it makes you sound like a princess! I met a prince once before, you know." Okay not really. But to Claus he was like a prince.

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

        Arya laughed. "That's probably true. I don't know any noble ladies that fight very well. 'Cept me, but I don't count anymore. As a noble lady, I mean." She wasn't sure if she'd consider that a good thing or a bad thing. It meant she didn't have to worry about being ransomed anymore, but it also meant she wasn't really part of her noble family. Good and bad.

Always some of both. She'd learned (had to learn) to make the best of any situations she found herself in and for the most part she wasn't bad at it. Complaining hadn't done her any good yet and wasn't overlikely to in the future.

She listened to his explanation of an apartment. It made some sense, and she doubted it would be an unfamiliar concept to her. Lots of people lived together in Winterfell's castle, and in the Red Keep. And then there were the inns on the road and the kitchens and the temple and...

So an apartment was just a specific kind of place to live. Okay. She could make sense of that.

"Um... I come from Winterfell. In Westeros," she explained, hoping (even though it was unlikely) that he knew where that was. "I lived in the castle, not a 'partment."

She couldn't help but smile a little. It had been a long time since she'd had a proper friend. He could be like a big brother, because she was unlikely to ever see hers actual brothers again...

"I was a sort of a princess for a little while, when my brother Robb made himself King in the North. I wouldn've been a real princess if I was back home at the time." It was nice to think of herself as a princess, if only for a minute. Her sister Sansa would like it better. She was the lady.

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

iironclad replied to your post: ✧

"… My last name /is/ Redfox."

"...Oh. That explains that. Or it sort of does. Sorry I said 'fox' like it's not any good. I don't really think that, I just think there are better animals."

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

✧

Arya stared at the man for a good long moment before speaking. His appearance was so unusual to her that she didn't know what she noticed first.

"With your hair like that, you look like some kind of fox." There's some inflection on the last word, making it sound sort of like 'fox' is some sort of vaguely insulting word. "Tougher, though."

[theshirohebi-blog]

Send me a ✧ and my muse will tell yours the first thing they notice when they look at them

[truequeenofwesteros-deactivated]

{ fire cannot kill a dragon - soirée event}

[truequeenofwesteros-deactivated]

Her mind was still struggling with the thought of having a young wolf on her hands, one that was saved exactly by her. But more than her brother’s and father’s pasts, Daenerys had her own – she was sold, used, abused, a homeless and a beggar. This lady seemed to be on a very similar situation.

 “Fire is indeed dangerous, Lady Stark. Please try to stay away from it as much as you can.”

Fire is no place for a lost wolf. “Are you feeling better?”

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

          Arya had calmed, mostly. She was no longer shaking like a leaf for fear of the fire (the Starks were made to weather the cold, after all, not the heat and especially not extreme heat). She'd stopped shaking completely, actually.

"I...yeah, I'm feeling better. I didn't mean to get caught up in that fire like that. It was everywhere before I knew it was happening."

[ihatesour-blog]

░ What the.. (CA OPENER)

[ihatesour-blog]

One of his eyebrows perked once she had started firing questions towards his choice of weapon. Yeahhh, not too many would choose a musical instrument to slam against ones skull but hey, it got the job done. It was describing how he obtained the object that would be the hard part; because who in their right mind would believe him if he said it was pulled out of his forehead? No one. 

〈 "A guitar, it’s not used much for music - more of a smash into someones face kinda thing." 〉 His eyes blinked a few times in preparation for the girls expression. Actually, there had been a rather sore red mark dead center on his forehead - in which always meant there was a medical mechanica about to protrude from his skeleton. 

Great, he gets to stick out like a sore thumb and be the human unicorn boy for the next week. How embarrassing. 

Quickly covering his skin with his hand, the boy made a bit of a concerned look on his face. 〈 "You know, swing and hit. Kinda like baseball." 〉

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

           "I can tell by how you're swingin' it around. Weird choice of weapon. Why don't you use something better? Swords or hammers or real weapons?" She didn't really realize that insulting someone's choice of weapon could be rude. She rarely realized when she was being rude at all. Such was her way.

And what was wrong with his head? This guy was weird. Probably not the weirdest person Arya's ever met but still pretty weird! "Is your head okay?" She asked, wide-eyed at the sight of the strange condition.

"Oh, one more thing. What's baseball? Is it a game? Sounds kind of like a game, but I don't think I've ever heard of it."

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

Lone Wolf (but not by choice) - Open/Intro

[verenjakel-deactivated20141101]

"All men must be fed to the wolves." He retorted with a lopsided grin. “And all wolves must be loyal to the men. Quite the vicious circle you’re in, girl."

"Humans do have a knack for story telling, but I assure you that my brother is quite real. If this place hadn’t drained me of my powers, I’d prove it to you… because anything he can do, I can do better. But it seems the only thing those people didn’t take is my strength." He crossed his arms over his chest, tilting his head to one side.

"As for being a devil, it simply means I am the opposite of a god. Where he creates, I destroy. Where he coddles, I torture. I am blamed for all the bad things that happen, yet I’m seldom ever the cause. He is light, and I am dark; we share all the same powers, but simply use them differently."

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

         "Wolves only have to be loyal if the men treat them well. Otherwise they'll bite the men's hands off." Her voice shook a little but she wouldn't sound afraid. Not if she could help it. It was half a threat, even if she wasn't directing it at anyone in particular, and a girl has to be strong when making a threat.

"If you can't prove it, I don't have to believe you. But...I guess I don't not believe you. I've seen and heard about a lot of things that were hard to believe, that didn't make them any less real." She shrugged.

She nodded. The 'devil' concept made sense when put like that. "My mother had seven gods. My father had a bunch of old ones, don't know how many. I learned once that there was just one: death. I don't know where any devils fit into any of that."

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

Lone Wolf (but not by choice) - Open/Intro

[thebrokenlittlebird]

That word made her heart accelerate again. Worried. Arya was worried about me. It was a little funny to think of her little sister that way, since both had mumbled plagues of death to themselves several times. But the truth is that Sansa felt in the same way. She really really miss her sister, in a way she never thought possible. She is blood of my blood, even if so different… And I love her. Even if it sound weird aloud, Arya was a common person in her prayers.

Mirroring these thoughts, a new smile appeared on Sansa’s face. She wanted to talk about many things, there was so much to say! But Sansa heard what Arya spoke patiently, and the conclusion of that phrase would have made her laugh if, in the same second, her heart had not been tight and lower. "Shh, I was very, very worried too. But now we are together and I promise you, I’ll never let anyone… Any monster separate our family again." Somehow, Sansa tried to find strength in her own words. "But not … I did not marry Joffrey. You do not need to address me as “Your Grace". Now Sansa let out a smile more fun, remembering one of the many discussions she had fought, formerly, with Arya. Gods, it seems that was in another life… And maybe actually had been. We both changed. "You have to tell me everything…! The news about you… I… never heard anything. I thought— I… Oh, it was awful"- Sansa preferred curb the words to be able to hold the tears back. Her arms close around Arya again, in way undeniably protective.

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

              Relief washed over Arya then. Sansa hadn't married Joffrey, and she was still alive, and she looked different, and not just different but grown, stronger. She was...stronger. Arya was unsure of whether to feel proud of her sister or worried, because she had never really thought of Sansa as weak, just...she knew Sansa never really needed to be strong before.

But then again, neither had Arya herself until recently.

"Good." She whispered in response to Sansa. Any past arguments were a thing of a past, fought between two girls who didn't exist anymore. None of that mattered. What mattered was Sansa was okay and Arya was still alive and most of all, they were together again. She hugged her again.

"I'm glad you didn't hear." She said, honestly. "I'm sorry it worried you but it's good because if you'd heard something, it would have meant Joffrey and Queen Cersei heard something, and then...."

She didn't finish that thought. She felt it spoke for itself. "I ran. A man from the Night's Watch told me I was an orphan boy and I pretended to be heading to the Wall, but really he was going to take me to Winterfell. That didn't...work. I ended up in Harrenhal for a while and..." She almost brought up Jaqen H'ghar, but decided not to. "Ended up with the Hound for a little while, he wanted to ransom me. It...didn't work out. Then Braavos where I learned secrets and pretended to be a street rat, and then...then I was here."

Of course she left a great many things out. She didn't want to talk about a lot of it, especially the killing. Not to her sweet sister Sansa. That could wait until later at least.

[ihatesour-blog]

░ What the.. (CA OPENER)

[ihatesour-blog]

Did she.. really just say that?

With his hat turned back and with the cock of his head his eyes peered at the girl whom was a few inches shorter than he. 〈 ”Look who’s talking." 〉 But really look at her, had she just walked out of a medieval fair or something? Just another girl to add to his list of freaky things he’s seen in his life. Whatever. 

How. Annoying. Was. It. To. Keep. BUMPING. SHOULDERS. The boy screamed at the while flailing around his guitar in which he pulled out of his forehead not too long ago. A weird place to keep something like that but, it works anyway.

〈 ”Could of said Hi." 〉 He would let go of her comment within a few short seconds, the heat never did last long in his universal sized brain. Or was it hollow. Damn aliens. 

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

            Arya watched as this boy (or whatever, he said he wasn't a kid but he sure looked like one!) flailed around with his...instrument (she supposed that's what it was, it sort of looked like a lute, but it wasn't quite that). She was a little confused but really she'd seen stranger things and people.

"What do you mean 'look who's talking' I know I'm only one and ten!" Admittedly she sounded rather indignant but she didn't really notice or care at that precise moment. And even after everything, she was still a young girl and could still be very petty.

It happens.

Ignoring his second statement (she didn't feel like saying hi, and she didn't do things she didn't feel like unless she had to), she asked a question.

"What's that thing you've got there?" she asked, gesturing to his guitar. "Looks like a big lute. Do you play music with it? Are you some kind of singer?"

She didn't normally care about singers, that was more her sister Sansa's thing, but she was curious.

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

Lone Wolf (but not by choice) - Open/Intro

[verenjakel-deactivated20141101]

He quirked an eyebrow at the bite in her words. With a smile, he knelt down, closer to her level; his vermillion eyes studying her own. “All names have their truth, but the whole of those seem a bit underwhelming. You’re rather like a fox, to me. You have sharp wit, and an even sharper tongue… though I suspect you’d take the red from someone’s throat, the moment they doubted you. You’ve killed before, and you’d do it again without a second thought."

"But yes, my brother is a god." He straightened himself back up, making a rather bitter face as he gave their surroundings a lazy sweep of his eyes. “Creates the human race, covets them more than his own blood children, but condemns the mayflies if they commit any temporal act that he wouldn’t. He receives praise and adoration for this backwards logic, while I’m left to tend with all the rejected souls."

He flashed her a noxious smile, unable to keep the airy laugh from his words, “So I suppose that makes me the devil. Thus, my name."

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

          She looked him right in the eyes. There was refusal to look away and even to blink as she half-glared at him and half-studied him intently. "They're supposed to be underwhelming. Underwhelming means safe. A poor orphan boy or beggar girl won't draw any attention, don't you know? And I'm not a fox, I'm a wolf. But being a cat or a weasel is safer."

She flinched when he pointed out that she'd killed. She wasn't ashamed of it (and he was right, she would again if she had to, no thought required) but she wasn't aware that it was so obvious. "All men must die." She said in response however.

Her half-glare faded as she screwed up her face in confusion. "You can't mean that. There aren't really any gods. They're stories to make people feel better..." She wasn't sure if she believed that, but she was certain that whatever this guy was talking about, it wasn't any god she'd ever heard of, and she'd heard of many, especially during her time across the sea.

"What's 'the devil'?"

[ihatesour-blog]

░ What the.. (CA OPENER)

       〈 ”WHAT?!" 〉

Out of all of the freaky things that had happened to him in the past few years, this was the first time a group of science nerds had kidnapped him from his little home. Huffing and puffing and dragging along his guitar, he tried to hide his large bandage across his forehead by pulling down on what little scruffy hair he had.

Had Mamimi and Haruka been here? Or even Canti? It seemed he was all on his own, FINALLY. No crazy woman running him over with her vespa or being shot at for laughs. 

Walking over to a near by beverage vending machine, Naota’s cerulean eyes examined each drink. 〈 ”Ugh, I hate sour, WHAT IS WITH EVERYONE MAKING EVERYTHING SOUR?!" 〉 Slinking away from the machine in utter defeat, he scanned the area to make way to where his new home would be. 

Naota was short, and confused to be a child even though he was a late teenager. Moving through crowds was a challenge, everyone would bump into him and scowl for the kid to go away. 

        〈 ”I’m not a kid." 〉 

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

            Arya was ducking and weaving through the crowd as if she were in a great hurry. She wasn't. She actually had nowhere to be at all and in fact was just used to being in a hurry everywhere. And, okay, she did want to test out how good she was at creeping through crowds. Still a master.

Just saying.

She'd barely even been jostled by the people of the city, even though she was going against the crowd. And, okay, she was sort of proud of that. Lost in such a hard-to-understand city one had to take pleasure in the little things in order to not be afraid so that was what she was doing!

As she half-ran, she heard a voice and turned to face the direction it had come from. Smirking with amusement she couldn't help but make a comment here. "You sure look like a kid to me."

Of course, Arya herself was no more than eleven years old. But that didn't really matter to her at the moment.

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

Lone Wolf (but not by choice) - Open/Intro

[verenjakel-deactivated20141101]

“I’m a very old creature,” he said with a smile.

“Everyone has different ideas and theories as to what I might be… it’s all rather entertaining. I’ve been called thousands of different names over the centuries; though Verenjäkel was used the most frequently, during the dark ages. It’s stuck with me, ever since.”

“There is another creature of my shape, as old as I am. He and I existed long before life as you know it… so I suppose you would call him my brother. He created the universe, and everything in it.”

Veren narrowed his eyes, staring down his nose in a thoughtful manner. He found the near-constant scowl on the girl’s face to be quite amusing. She was also smart, more than she should be for her age.

“And what about you, girl… what do they call you?”

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

     Arya wasn't sure whether or not to believe him. It sounded like horseshit to her but she'd seen a lot of strange things thus far in a very short period of time. Strange people. A lot she didn't know could exist. So what's another?

     And even if she didn't believe him she wasn't just going to say that. Just in case. "Verenjäkel," she repeated, slowly, trying to imitate the sound. It wasn't exactly a common Westerosi name, that was for sure.

     "So your brother's, what? Some kinda god?" She didn't believe it but she wanted to clarify what he was saying.

     And then he asked what she was called. Which was different from asking her name, per se. So it wasn't a lie when she said, "Depends who you ask. Arry, Weasel, Nan. I've been Horseface and Underfoot and Cat of the Canals. Call me whatever you want."

[mrballofsunshine-deactivated201]

Back on the Streets {Arya}

[mrballofsunshine-deactivated201]

  Ouch. That was pretty harsh coming from a kid. This girl was a kid, wasn’t she? Well, that was more reason to give back everything he took; he didn’t steal from kids. He wasn’t exactly able to get a look at her face before he ran off so he hadn’t noticed earlier.

Claus stood up and brushed himself off.

"Hey hey, no insults, ‘right? My skills are a bit rusty, I haven’t had to rely on thievery to make a living in a while."

He would need a bit of practice to get back in shape, it seemed. However, even with that skill on his side it would be tough to get by on his own. He wasn’t forced to rely entirely on what he could gather himself before, and in his opinion the task was much easier with a second person to assist. The only problem with that was finding someone who was willing to help. Unless…

"You didn’t have much money on you from what I could tell. That means we must be in a similar situation, right? You got pulled from your home and they gave you a box to live in and all that."

He was hoping she would listen to him, but honestly he couldn’t blame her if she didn’t. Not like they’d had the best first meeting.

"Look, I know we got off to a bad start, but maybe we could be friends and help each other out a little?" He held out his hand to her. “Name’s Claus Fisker. What about you?"

[aryashewolfstark-blog]

     "Well, you have to admit that a noble lady could steal better than you," she said, smiling a little. She wasn't trying to be rude, not really, this was just how she acted when she didn't specifically have to be polite. Her way of being friendly, even.

    Looking down at the meager amount of cash in her hands, Arya shifted a little. It was true she didn't have a lot of money, and what she did have was acquired through begging, which was a hit to her pride at the least. It had been a fair while since she'd been a noble girl but even so, begging still felt somehow shameful. "Yeah, I guess I don't have much..."

     "Sorta the same situation, then. I did get pulled from my... home, but I didn't get put in a box. They gave me a 'partment. Whatever that is." In Winterfell, she'd lived in a castle, and she knew those who didn't live in the castle lived in small houses or at inns, but she'd never heard of an apartment before. It was a concept she just wasn't familiar with.

     At his words she couldn't help but smile a little. This guy seemed nice enough, and she hadn't really had a friend in a while. "We can be friends," she said, shaking his hand. "Nice t'meet you, Claus. I'm..."

     She stopped as she tried to decide whether to give her name or not. But so far, she hadn't run into anyone who recognised it, let alone Queen Cersei or Lord Tywin or someone who could use it against her. "I'm Arya of House Stark," she said after just a short pause.