01 ❆

[needlebearer]

Who: Arya and YOU
Where: Around Gravity Falls
When: February 8-9th
Rating: G, though will update if this changes
Summary: Arya realises she's not in Westeros any more
The Story:

a) Forest
One minute she'd been on horseback, clinging to Sandor Clegane to stay mounted as they plodded toward the Eyrie. The next she found herself quite alone, in the middle of thick woodland. To say Arya was confused was an understatement, but she'd put that to one side for now as the relief and wariness of being on her own warred in her - she wasn't exactly sorry to be away from the Hound, but she couldn't be sure what was lurking in the trees. As if on cue a twig snaps loudly a little way away, and Arya missed having Needle at her side more than ever.

She makes her way over cautiously, expecting at worst a gang of raiders and at best a small animal she can kill and eat, and is bewildered instead to find a blond teen with the whitest teeth she's ever seen, frolicking about the forest floor like an oversized rabbit. She stares for a long moment, unsure if she's hallucinating, but then the boy locks eyes with her and gives a relaxed, friendly smile before calling to what Arya can only assume are the other members of his pack.

Soon Arya's storming through the trees at quite a speed, looking thoroughly irritated and casting looks over her shoulder to the boy band that's singing and clicking and bopping in time.

"I said stop following me!"


b) Gift Shop
When she comes across the oversized Mystery Shack, Arya darts inside and slams the door behind her, leaning back against the wall while she tries to get her breath back. As she does so, she glances around and takes in the assortment of oddities on display. A jar of eyes stare unblinkingly at her, and it takes her a moment to break her gaze from them, feeling a little unnerved. When she turns away she distracts herself with some of the other curios, turning over plastic tchotchkes in her hands, giggling as she pokes at a bobblehead and watches it wiggle about, staring in confusion at a fish nailed to the wall dressed in bright, odd clothes.

When she hears footsteps she jumps, throwing everything back on the shelf quickly, afraid she'll be accused of trying to steal them.

Comments

A!

[deadlystar]

A few things have happened since Gamora arrived here, but this is by far the most obnoxious thing yet. The world has lost all sense! Any sense it even had to begin with has been cast aside for chaos and ridiculous behavior on the part of the locals.

Mostly, she's trying to lay low and wait for Wonderland to go back to, what is considered to be relatively normal for it. But by the GODS, she is not sure how much more of this she can take.

She was in the forest, making her way back to the mansion, when she heard the singing and bopping and what-is-that-is-it-even-music?? And since she has to feel sorry for anyone who encounters the traveling troupe of singers, Gamora steps out of the shadows after Arya passes by to come between her and her pursuers.

"ENOUGH! No one wants to hear your singing. Be gone!" Don't make her stab you, Hanson!

[needlebearer]

So much of her attention was taken up with trying to escape the following she'd managed to gather that Arya doesn't notice Gamora until she's stepped right out behind her, and she's annoyed with herself for not keeping more of an eye on her surroundings, thinking herself lucky that this newcomer seems to be on her side, as she's definitely far more intimidating than anything she's seen here so far.

"You heard her," she says firmly, peering out from behind Gamora and glowering as threateningly as she can at the boyband.

[deadlystar]

The boy band is momentarily stopped, since they have to consider what Gamora said. No one wants to hear their singing? That's absurd! And to prove it, the band starts to jam again and begin bopping around Gamora and Arya in a circle.

Gamora warned them. She has had enough. She grabs the retracted blade at her side and unhooks it from her belt, then extends the blade so to full length. When the next band member bops past her, she swings the blade for his head... and gives him a slice that cuts off section of his glorious hair.

That stops the music fast. The band member wails in despair, falling to his knees. NOOOO! NOT HIS BEAUTIFUL BLONDE LOCKS!

[needlebearer]

Arya's torn between feeling that Gamora's reaction was a little too much, given that they were just being a nuisance and not trying to hurt them, and a sheer incredulity that the boy reacts so badly to having a little bit of hair chopped off. The situation is too absurd that all she can do is laugh. "Get out of here, before we shave it all off!"

b

[krmvgivv]

Dipper has been spending most of his time outside, since he's pretty sure if he's not careful Grunkle Stan will push him into working again. But between needing to eat and sleep sometimes and the fact that he actually missed the Mystery Shack in all its falling apart glory, he has been in and out. He's walking through the gift shop when the sound of giggling catches his attention. He peers around a rack of shirts and sees a kid his age who... he definitely hasn't seen before. Huh. It's definitely not unheard of for people to show up during events, but it still is always a little odd. Barely enough time to get used to one setting before they're hurled back into Wonderland's weirdness. Still, there are worse places to end up than Gravity Falls.

He walks over and offers her a grin, snagging one of the bobbleheads and straightening it. "Hey, don't worry about it. I can shelve those. I work here. Sort of."

[needlebearer]

Arya still looks a little uneasy as Dipper approaches, although she's more confused to see a child her age than anything else. She realises she's still holding a plastic knick knack of some sort and throws it onto the nearest shelf.

"I was only looking at them."

[krmvgivv]

"Ooookay," Dipper raises an eyebrow. "You know it actually looks more suspicious when you declare your innocence before anyone actually accuses you of anything, right? I mean, I don't actually care that much, but my uncle might get mad." He shrugs a shoulder. "You're new around here, aren't you? Has anyone... told you what's going on?"

[needlebearer]

She'd been trying to stay out of trouble for so long, hiding her very identity, that it had become second nature to her to distance herself from anything potentially incriminating, even if the worst they could do here is kick her out of the store, not having seen any guards around.

Arya nods at Dipper's question, feeling vulnerable at conceding how new here she is, as it's sure to paint a target on her back a mile wide. "I haven't really come across anyone to tell me what's going on yet." Which means she's really hoping he has some explanation.

A

[fulllifeconsequences]

Humans. A human being followed by a human. Who cares. Chara, devoid of altruism as they are, has no intention of sticking their neck out for some stranger. Their hiding place up in a tree is secure enough that they're sure nobody would find them, especially if they didn't bother yelling out at the sort of weirdo who goes traipsing aimlessly around a forest.

But. On the other hand. They could really use the target practice.

From up in their tree, they pull a rock out of their pocket. It hits one of the crooning boy band members in the arm, puts a nasty hiccup in their perfectly synchronized singing and bopping. Chara had been aiming for the head, but they'll take that. It's close enough to still be satisfying.

"Talking won't work. The only thing these brutes will understand is force."

[needlebearer]

The boys scatter as they try to avoid the rock, the one who was hit looking more bewildered than angry as it bounces off him. If anything it's Arya who seems angry, glancing around for whoever had thrown it before fixing her gaze on Chara, up in the tree.

"You didn't need to hurt them, they were harmless!"

[fulllifeconsequences]

"I solved your problem, didn't I?" Chara responds, confident in their position. They're still way out of reach in that tree. They're still the one with rocks. They're pretty sure this person's older than them, but if she doesn't feel like being very grateful, Chara's already sizing up the ways they could win.

"He's fine, anyway. I bet it won't even bruise. That one was only a warning shot, really."

Not true. Chara had aimed to hurt. But Chara also isn't above telling lies, and who's going to know the difference?

[needlebearer]

"That doesn't make it all right to just throw things at people who aren't going to fight back." It was cowardly, and she was tempted to say just that, only that she didn't want to get into an argument with the first person she's come across who's actually tried to hold a conversation rather than just decide to follow her around. She shrugs indifferently. "At least they're gone now." That's the closest to a 'thank you' that they are going to get.

( a )

[alayne]

[ the one who finds her first is the direwolf.

a familiar view, more less odd that the assortment of singing men, the pair of golden eyes that stare at her from the trees. a closer inspection would reveal that the creature is graceful and not as large as direwolf can go with a mane of silver fur.

the ribbons of grey silk around its neck might be telling and as if it feels that this girl here might interest her companion, she begins walking back towards the mystery mansion in hopes that she will follow ]

[needlebearer]

[Arya freezes in her tracks as she sees the golden eyes set into the silver fur, blinking at her from between the trees. It was a sight she'd seen when she closed her eyes at night for too long -- Nymeria wandering the Riverlands alone, unable to understand why she'd been chased away; Grey Wind's desperate yelps as the bolts fired by Walder Frey's men pierced that thick fur and the light went out of his eyes. It's the first thing she's seen here that looks even remotely familiar, but she finds herself even more confused. It's definitely a direwolf, but not one of theirs. As it turns it looks back over its shoulder, to see whether Arya is following, and she decides that following the one hint of familiarity she's found here was better than wandering aimlessly, even if her boyband groupies change course to follow them too.]

[alayne]

[ lyanne had left at dawn.

any other day, sansa would not be terribly worried. the direwolf favors the forest where she can roam and chase her game. yet as the mansion changed, so did the forest, filled with odd animals and beasts and monsters. yet as dipper insisted they oft mean no harm, sansa worried that her direwolf preying upon them might coax violence and ruin the little peace they had.

it surprises her, then, as she stands near one of the windows, to see lyanne returning followed by smaller figure. another one and she drops the goblet she was holding.

arya.

for certainly, it was arya. she looked a dread, the same as she did many moons ago when she met a baseborn girl named alayne stone who had reminded her of a sister she once knew in winterfell.

sansa had lied and lied and then arya was gone, taken away -

and yet there she was and sansa's hair was no longer dyed brown and her name was no longer alayne and she would not lie to arya a second time. she collects herself, steps out of the manor, the direwolf hurrying to their side. ]

I know your face.

[ tentatively. ]

are you well?

[needlebearer]

[Now she's certain she's seeing things. Sansa was thousands of miles away at King's Landing, in her fine dresses fawning over Joffrey while the rest of the family were slaughtered one by one. Arya's growing realisation that she's not in Westeros at all any more doesn't make it any less jarring to suddenly find her sister standing in front of her; instead it just makes the entire situation she's found herself in more difficult to accept, as though the added element of the intensely familiar was too much when added to the otherwise completely foreign place surrounding them.

She's not sure what she feels, when she sees her. Far too many feelings all at once for someone so young to be able to process them all. She's relieved, of course, glad to see her sister alive and well. Jealous, as it's clear to her that Sansa is no stranger to this place, and though she knows it's petty she doesn't like that her sister potentially has an advantage over her in the lay of the land and the people here, and that she may have to rely on her of all people for the vital information of how to survive here, when she's been treading water on her own for so long while Sansa surrendered herself to Arya's enemies. Confused, by the way Sansa addresses her as though she's practically a stranger, not with her old irritation at finding her little sister here unwashed and dressed as a boy. And hurt - more than anything, hurt - remembering the last time she'd seen her, stood up there with Joffrey and Cersei at Baelor's Sept, before Yoren had turned her forcefully away and her whole world had ended.

It takes everything in her not to cry. But she refuses to allow herself that weakness. She'd strong in the face of so much that she cannot let herself crumple now.]

Of course I'm not. How can you just say that, like you're asking over my health over tea and lemon cakes? Do you even have any idea what I've been through? You-- how are you here?

B

[naughty_nurse]

"W-welcome to the Mystery Shack!"

That's the welcome Arya gets from behind the register. She tries to smile at the newest guest, wanting to make a good sale. But why was Arya acting so jittery?

"D-did you... find something you like?"

[needlebearer]

It's not until Mikan asks that question that Arya realises that this is a shop rather than her having walked into someone's collection of oddities. She thinks that you'd have to be very rich indeed to spend money on these sort of things, which seemed to have no practical use whatsoever. She hurriedly replaces the bobblehead she's still holding, shaking her head. "I didn't realise they were for sale."

[naughty_nurse]

"Everything here is for sale!" Mikan gestured around the two of them, trying to keep up a shaky smile. Truth be told, she was very nervous serving 'customers', as this was a job she'd never done before. She was even afraid to come out from behind the counter.

"You can buy anything you see here."

B)

[villainously]

Emma had tried to warn him about the bizarre nature of Wonderland, yet nothing was quite as revealing as actually experiencing it. Hook has traversed many worlds in his time, so popping into a new one isn't as disorienting as it could have been... he just finds it bizarre that somehow they can all twist and travel through realities and all end up back in Wonderland. What kind of magic is powering all this?

He's found his way to the gift shop and lingered simply in hopes of finding a face he knows. The bits on sale seem rather bizarre to say the least. Much of this place seems bizarre to him. He doesn't mean to disturb anyone wandering around, but the way the girl scrabbles to put down the strange figurine that just nods agreeably to be put back seems to hint he's managed it anyway.

"Didn't mean to startle you," he notes, a frown pulling at his features. There's something in her eyes that he recognizes, and it's uncomfortable no matter how many times it happens.

[needlebearer]

"I wasn't startled," Arya insists, realising she probably sounds pretty unconvincing but resenting being caught unawares when she'd had to live so long by her wits. "I was just ... surprised, that's all. I didn't know there was anyone else in here."

[villainously]

"Startled and surprised are very much the same, I find," he notes, an eyebrow climbing at her demeanor. "Shops tend to have customers, but I agree, this one doesn't exactly pull people in." He makes a face at a snowglobe that seems to have a green plastic monster inside of it.

After a patient pause, he adds, "I don't think you're up to anything, so relax. Even if you were, I'd not be the one to stop you."

a

[monosaccharide]

"Fascinating." There's a pink woman with pink hair and a pink dress--though it's covered by a labcoat--writing on a clipboard. She steps out of Arya's way, but her attention is more on the boy band anyway. "They look human, but they act feral, except that most feral creatures don't harmonize. I wonder if it's some sort of mating ritual, or if this is how they hunt."

She glances at Arya. "Have they tried to eat you?"

[needlebearer]

That thought hadn't even crossed Arya's mind and she looks back at the boys, alarmed. They definitely seem benign enough, but it could all be some clever ruse to lure her into a false sense of security. Then she remembered the way the lead had hopped into view like a rabbit and decides she's really giving them way too much credit.

"No. At least, I don't think so. I think they're just idiots."

[monosaccharide]

"That's promising. They do seem to have all the same teeth as humans which would allow them to be omnivorous. I can't really know how deep the human similarities go unless I dissect one."

A beat. She glances at the other girl.

"...not that I would, unless I found one that had died of natural causes, of course. That would be cruel."