03 ❆ Her sister had known all the songs, and she could even play a little, and sing so sweetly.

[needlebearer]

Who: Arya and OPEN
Where: Around the mansion
When: June 1
Rating: PG for now?
Summary: Arya finds out Sansa is gone, and doesn't take it well
The Story:

a) Sansa's (former) room
She was reluctantly beginning to accept that she'd been avoiding Sansa far too much. Arya had got the bare bones of what had befallen her in Westeros since that fateful day at Baelor's Sept, but she hadn't prodded her with further questions, partly because she knew the memories would be painful for her sister; partly - and it took a lot for her to admit this to herself - because her own image of Sansa having a grand old time sipping tea and nibbling on lemon cakes with the Queen had long become a sort of shield for her, made her able to pity her own situation in a way she couldn't otherwise allow herself to do. But they were here now, both of them together, and they were going to have to get along. Maybe Dipper was right and Sansa had grown up. Maybe she had too. There was only one way to find out.

She heads over to Sansa's room unannounced, the balls of wool she'd retrieved as her prize in the Deep Roads tucked under one arm, thinking how deft her sister was with the other sort of needle and wondering if she might like to make something with the brightly coloured yarn. She knocks, but there's no answer. Gingerly pushing the door open, Arya finds the room deserted, as though Sansa's never been there at all. The yarn tumbles from her grasp and rolls away down the corridor, unravelling colours that seem far too bright now.

Her sister is gone.


b) Around the mansion and grounds
Perhaps she's just decided to move rooms, Arya thinks. She could be anywhere. She'll likely turn the next corner and see her standing there, that familiar look of consternation crossing her features as she regards Arya's dishevelled appearance and her boyish hair and the axe that hangs at her side. She searches high and low, resolving to leave no stone unturned, poking her head into people's bedrooms and even beginning to look in closets and under tables in her desperation. This had to be some sort of sick joke. They wouldn't reunite her with Sansa just to take her away again, would they?


c) Training room
The reality has begun to sink in now. Arya is stuck here, alone again, and Sansa has returned to Westeros to -- to what? Live out her days pretending to be Littlefinger's bastard? The thought made her burn with an impotent rage, knowing how debased Sansa would feel, knowing there's nothing she can do about it.

She shows no mercy to the training dummy she's attacking, the look on her face positively vicious as she channels her anger into whacking away at it, both with the axe and her bare fists. There's no technique in her movements at all, she's not really concentrating on training at all, she just needs to get some of the anger out of her system. Every time she strikes true she recites a name, something she's fallen out of practice of doing since she got here, but now once again the names are all that's left to her.

"Joffrey. Cersei. Walder Frey. Meryn Trant. Tywin Lannister. The Red Woman. Beric Dondarrion. Thoros of Myr. Ilyn Payne. Polliver. The Mountain. The Hound." And another name, tacked on the end and said with even more venom. "The Queen of Hearts."

Comments

c.

[determinedest]

Frisk has deviated from their usual routine of lying in bed and feeling like garbage, largely because lying in bed in their room has made them too accessible. They don't want to impose their presence on Chara or Toriel. It just feels wrong. So they wander about the mansion, looking for an empty room to curl up in and maybe cry for a bit, like they've been doing. Like the pathetic little crybaby they are.

They chanced the training room even if the likelihood of it being empty was rather slim, and are subsequently startled to discover a familiar someone, exercising mass amounts of brute force on a helpless dummy and chanting a litany of names.

Reason would encourage them to withdraw and let Arya be. But against their better judgment, Frisk advances hesitantly, wanting nothing more than to escape their own problems by diving into someone else's.

"Are you naming the dummy?"

It's a bad joke, like Name the fallen child. Arya's more likely to not even get it, and explaining it would just make it less funny. They probably look terrible. Sunken eyes, a smile that's too weak and obviously tacked-on. Maybe Arya will be too angry to notice. That's the hope.

[needlebearer]

Arya hasn't noticed Frisk's presence until they speak, and she's a little irritated at herself for not keeping more of an eye on her surroundings, right up until she turns and sees who it is, and then her annoyance shifts to them as she remembers their last conversation.

"Of course not. What good would that do?"

[determinedest]

"...never mind. It was just - it was a bad joke." They fold their arms around their chest, looking away. Maybe this wasn't the best idea.

Too late to go back on it now. So they forge ahead instead. "Are you okay?"

[needlebearer]

She turns back to the dummy, slashing her axe at its torso again a few more times, taking some comfort in the dull, rhythmic sounds it produces as it hits home. "No, I'm not all right. I'm the opposite of all right."

[determinedest]

It's very likely that Frisk is the last person Arya wants to see, particularly given how their last conversation went. Frisk wouldn't really blame her for that. They'd been acting kind of...squirrelly at the time.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

c

[krmvgivv]

[Dipper doesn't really expect to find Sansa in the training room, but honestly, he's been here long enough that he's not really expecting to find her anywhere. He stopped by her room earlier, only to find it open and empty.

He knows what that means. He wishes he doesn't.]

Arya?

[The level of anger in her motions makes him keep his distance, but also confirms what he already suspected.]

Are you... [She's not okay. He just trails off, waiting for her to finish.]

[needlebearer]

[Arya looks hopeful for just a fleeting second when she sees Dipper, but it's gone as soon as it appears as she realises that he must have been looking for Sansa with no success too.]

She's gone, isn't she?

[krmvgivv]

[Dipper sighs and nods, rubbing his arm.] I was kinda... hoping I'd be wrong, but I know the signs. It never turns out the person just moved without telling anyone and broken their phone.

[needlebearer]

[Her face tightens and she gives the dummy another few good whacks, to turn the helplessness she feels into anger rather than the tears she won't allow herself to shed.]

Why? Why her? She was safe here, she was happy.

[krmvgivv]

I don't know. [Dipper shakes his head, leaning against the wall and looking away.] I keep trying to find the pattern but I don't know. It all seems so random.

b!

[goeth]

When Arya enters the gardens, she'll find Bonnie sitting among a bed of flowers, legs crossed and eyes closed. Bonnie's hands lift, as if she's reaching out before her.

She whispers quietly, and the flowers around her begin to visibly bloom. Their petals open, leaves folding downward to make room for little bursts of purple. The blossoms slow to open, and Bonnie breathes deeply before ceasing her chanting.

Her eyes open and land on Arya, who she's seen in the halls before-- you don't miss a girl like Arya.

Bonnie smiles, warm and open. "Hi."

[needlebearer]

At first Arya walks straight past Bonnie, peering in the bushes and behind the topiary in her desperation to prove that Sansa is still here somewhere.

"Hello," she replies, blinking a couple of times as she realises the flowers have opened wide compared to just a moment ago, but her sister is the most pressing thing on her mind. "Have you seen a girl come through here? She's taller and older than me, with orange hair."

[goeth]

"Oh-- uhh," Bonnie starts and her eyes dart around the immediate area in a kneejerk reaction. "No, I've been here for about an hour and no one's passed through but-- maybe I just didn't notice?"

She moves to get to her feet, brushing the dirt from her hands onto her pants. "Did you try calling or texting her?"

[needlebearer]

It's such an obvious solution that Arya's annoyed at herself for not thinking of it, although texting hadn't become second nature to her yet. She pulls the phone out of her pocket, covered in lint and scuffed from being dropped repeatedly.

its arya. are you all right?

"I don't think she'll answer. It looks like she's not here at all any more."

[goeth]

"I can help you look, if you want." Though it seems that Bonnie's intent on helping, considering she's scooping her things up and depositing them into her bag.

"You said she's got red hair? How old is she?"

A!

[ladysunshines]

Bethany is on her way down the halls, wandering as she's prone to when she's lost in her own thoughts, when she stumbles -- quite literally, and rather ungracefully -- upon the bright tangles of yarn that have rolled out into the hallway.

Rather than pick up the strands (who knows what they were made from, or what they were attached to?), she follows them to the source and finds herself facing a young child who appears to have dropped the bundle on the ground. It isn't nice to assume, she thinks, but perhaps the girl was startled by something.

She clears her throat.

"Um," she starts, trying to put herself into a non-threatening position, "would you like some help with that?"

[needlebearer]

Arya has still been staring into Sansa's empty room, not realising that she's created such a trip hazard in the corridor until Bethany draws her attention to it. She frowns down at the wool, then stoops to pick it up. "Yes please. You can have it if you want, if you'll use it."

[ladysunshines]

To be perfectly fair, Bethany should really spend less time daydreaming in a place who layout she isn't very familiar with. She glances down to the wool thoughtfully (now that she knows it's harmless), moving to help Arya collect it with a slight, fleeting smile.

"I'm afraid I'm not much good at knitting, but I suppose 'Ver might like to play with it. Kittens do that, don't they?"

[needlebearer]

She bunches the wool altogether in her hand, knowing that any attempt she makes at rolling it back into a ball will just look untidy. "I think so. I just know they chase mice."

[ladysunshines]

"Well, fortunately he hasn't caught any mice here. I can't imagine what sort of strangeness they might have to them." They'd probably curse him with a tail that chased him around or something ridiculous like that.

"So this will surely distract him. Are you sure you haven't a use for it any longer?"

{Please pretend she called that kitten Hector before, because I'm a tool who is terrible at continuity.}

b.

[assembles]

Steve is still freshly arrived from his trip home, having only reappeared back in Wonderland's hedge maze this morning. Still, he's made the necessary announcement and caught up with plenty of people. The amount of interactions and difficult conversations would be enough to exhaust anyone, even a super-soldier.

So he's finally on his way back to his room, planning to wind down and then maybe try to get some sleep, when spots a young girl walking the opposite direction.

It only takes a few seconds for it to register. Her age and features, the axe at her side -- Sansa had mentioned a sword, but it's close enough, isn't it? This might be Arya. It had been months ago that Steve and Sansa had that conversation, so there's a moment of guilt when he realizes he hadn't really kept to his promise the way he should have.

He comes to a stop, looking her over once more before he asks, "Sorry, but... are you Arya, by any chance?" He doesn't realize how loaded of a question that is.

[needlebearer]

Arya's been working her way down the corridor peering into every room that isn't locked, looking for any sign of her sister. She hesitates when Steve addresses her, eyes narrowing suspiciously when he seems to know who she is.

"Why do you want to know?"

[assembles]

It's fair for her to be a little weirded out that some random person knows of her by name, although her response more or less confirms that Steve's right. Good, now he has a face to put to the name.

"Sansa is a friend of mine. She told me a little about you when you first got here." And asked him to watch over her, but Steve doesn't mention that part. He knows how much kids hate feeling like they need to be taken care of.

[needlebearer]

Her ears prick up at the mention of Sansa's name and she looks at him a little more intensely, fleetingly hopeful. "Have you seen her? Is she all right?"

[assembles]

That's not the expected reaction, particularly since Sansa had told Steve that Arya hadn't been the most accepting of her at first. She definitely looks concerned for her now.

"What do you mean?" Steve asks with a frown. "Did something happen?"