deercountry | you're not my homeland anymore

[sansa is walking home from her evening lessons when she hears her name. the voice is--well, it's changed, which in and of itself is surprising. it's one thing to look at a window to the past, but quite another to see an unmistakably older bran, tall and gangly even sitting down, on what looked like a sort of chair formed out of the roots of a giant...weirwood tree? in a...cave? he calls her name again. his eyes are white.

"Sansa, I'm so glad to see you. I wanted to see you, but I never could before. You got Lady back! How did you do that?"

sansa blinks back tears.]

Bran, you can't--you're not supposed to be--

[bran fidgets, a little. his own wolf lopes into view, settles at his feet.

"Theon killed the miller's boys. We hid in the crypts like Bran the Daughterless's daughter and the King-Beyond-the-Wall. Rickon went with Osha and I went with the Reeds. And Hodor."

Sansa laughs a little. she can't keep the tears from spilling down her cheeks. if this is an illusion, it's very cruel. and if it isn't...]

The stableboy? Which Reeds? I don't know who any of these people are.

[Bran smiles faintly.

"Meera and Jojen. Hodor is my friend. He helped carry me, before. Do you have wolf dreams now? We all can, you know. I know Arya does, even though I can't see her, because the wolves know, too."

now sansa can't keep her jaw from dropping, or her eyes from going wide with surprise.]

Arya's alive?

[bran nods.

"She left, I don't know where. I think she was in the Riverlands for a while. It's harder to see, in the South. When Jon went beyond the Wall I could even talk to him, a little."

sansa laughs, because jon going beyond the wall is so much more believable than anything else. she's not sure why that's funny.]

How do you know about my dreams? What do you mean, we all have them?

[bran's eyebrows furrow.

"I had the wolf dreams first. I'm training to be a Greenseer, the first in a hundred years. A new one, I mean. Bloodraven's been teaching me. You could be one too, though. If you came here."

his head tilts.

"You seem different."

sansa's eyebrows shoot up.]

From the Blackfyre rebellion?

[bran shrugs.

"He was hand of the king, and lord commander after that. Then he came here. He's the Three-eyed Raven. Something's changed about you. Not just that you're older and taller. And...not like we all changed, when they died."

that wrenches sansa's heart. she never had to think about what any of her siblings felt, when their parents died. she hadn't thought that any of them had survived their mother. except for jon. jon, who didn't have a mother to mourn. but thinking about jon without robb was unimaginable. she hesitates for a moment, not sure where to begin.]

It's the city where I am, now. Coming here changes you. Your blood, mostly. It gives you powers. I thought--

[but a strange voice comes booming from elsewhere in the cave. she can make out small, humanoid shapes in the background, brown and grey like bark and covered in moss and leaves. she gasps, but she doesn't get a chance to talk to them.

"What you see is not of this world. Your sister has gone beyond the power of the old gods. It is not for you to concern yourself with other lands, and other seasons."

a pale shadow in the roots of the cave wall seems to come into focus, like an old man's face with a weirwood branch growing through one eye, and perhaps another, redder shadow stretching across his face, against the light. a gleam like an eye seems to fix itself on sansa.

"Mind how you fly, Pale Raven."

and then it's gone. the whole cave is gone. sansa stands with tearstained cheeks, unable to look away.

again, if you don’t have established neutral-to-positive cr with sansa, please check with me before tagging her sibling prompts!!!! thanks!!!]

Edited 2022-04-09 21:10 (UTC)

[L is passing on his way when he sees a familiar head of red hair, peering through one of the windows to a different world and seeming to converse with someone inside of it.

He's at once concerned that it could be dangerous, as was his own brush with another reality... but she seems glad to see the one inside the circle, even relieved.

He also can't help but listen to what's being said, to... Bran, apparently.]

Alayne?

[Sansa, he had heard, but he knows better than anyone that a name known is hardly the same as a name used.]

[oh her...other name. she turns towards him, tearstained.]

How much did you hear?

[she attempts a small watery smile.]

I won't be angry, if you heard all of it.

[which is to say, there's no reason to lie to her about it.]

Edited 2022-04-10 16:42 (UTC)

[He watches her with a careful and measured gaze, as if determining how much of a threat she would be it she was angry.]

If not all of it, then I heard most of it.

[And for better or worse, it takes something serious for L to forget. He has to either dismiss it as unimportant and replace it with other things in his short-term bank (which is still extensive), or get brained in the head pretty hard with a large stone.]

It explains some things... some I already knew or suspected. I've seen a wolf dream... along with what I could only take to be Bloodraven.

[she remembers about the wolf dream, mostly, but bloodraven confuses her. her brow furrows.]

Bloodraven was the man in the shadows. He lived a hundred years ago. If these visions are true, he still lives and he's training my little brother in ancient magics.

[and then she raises them, because she remembers who he spoke to.]

My omen is a white raven. He's called Winter.

[but lazarus might as well be hanging out with brynden rivers targaryen in dreams, it really isn't that much more unlikely than anything else she's just witnessed.]

Edited 2022-04-11 04:41 (UTC)

[He nods; the jumble of a strange world is one he's working out in threads and pieces, but every new breakthrough is one spared from the tangled mash of unfamiliar names, places, and jargon.]

If Bran is your brother, then Arya is your sister, isn't she? You must be relieved to know that she's alive, especially if you thought otherwise.

[sansa nods, tears spilling from her eyes once more.]

Rickon, too. Rickon is my brother. He was only just seven--

[he would be nine, now. she pauses, draws a breath.]

Do you know if these visions are true? Might they be illusions?

[her eyes are pleading, but there's something about the set of her lips that suggests she is prepared to hear the worst.]

They might be illusions.

[He doesn't sugar-coat it. He's not the expert on this.]

That being said. I've seen nothing that I can confirm as false. And the monsters coming through seem real enough, along with the artifacts some have reported pulling through.

[she clasps her hands together tightly in front of her chest. her response is a little too quick.]

Could you find out? The way you find out...other things.

[sansa's not sure, exactly, what he managed to find in the study, but he was the one that found a way in. she pulls her hands apart to clutch the needle-end of her necklace in one.]

I could pay you. And I can help you. And I'll tell you everything I know about my world.

Edited 2022-04-13 06:06 (UTC)

[He pauses, canting his head and considering the offer.]

That... is what I do, yes. I could ask around and do some digging in the Archives for more information, to confirm to you that the conversation was real. That's what you're asking for, right?

[she nods again, clutching her necklace.]

Yes. Only...perhaps you might not mention this conversation, exactly.

[she thinks he understands that this information is sensitive, or he wouldn't have called her alayne. but it's worth confirming with him, just as he had her confirm her request.]

Edited 2022-04-17 05:12 (UTC)

Discretion is also something I'm known for.

[He says so a little pointedly. How much, after all, does Sansa know about him, whether or not she's asked around?]

Where can I find you once I've discovered more?

[a small smile.]

I gathered that.

[mostly just from the name he used to address her. she really hasn't looked into him very much because she has been too busy getting her own affairs in order, and asking everyone she knows how they feel about necromancy.]

You might ask the lantern imps for the Rookery. It's the building in Cellar Door with the weirwood trees.

[she pauses.]

You might come by some other time, if you like. For cake.

[and perhaps new clothes....

she has not, actually, discovered any pertinent information relating to him and cake. lady may have caught a whiff of cake about him, and sansa really can't bake much else.]

Edited 2022-04-18 04:23 (UTC)

I'll certainly remember as much.

["The Rookery" is fairly unforgettable, even without the very convenient reference and association with ravens he possesses.]

Do you bake? Typically it's my habit to buy some donuts in the morning and eat them throughout the day, but... I much prefer homemade cake.

[sansa laughs, albeit damply.]

I buy biscuits. [.......and she eats them for breakfast.] Or the little cakes...muffins? But I've learned cake, and some other things. Pie is much harder.

[she prefers savory things in pie form. she thinks the mushrooms would be quite good in a pie with onions, but the whole process is frankly terrifying.]

And I can't seem to do any bread.

[at least...other people seem to find this hard, also.]

Muffins essentially are cake... just without frosting. Don't let anyone claim otherwise.

[L certainly doesn't. He has no shame about the sweetness of his diet, makes no excuses for the nutrient value or lack thereof that he ingests. He's just very devoted to the truth, for such a seasoned liar, and won't insult anyone present (or cake) by pretending something false is not.]

I've never made anything of the sort in my life. Bread takes patience... I'm sure I'd resign myself to that and then promptly forget all about it while it was rising. Are you like that too, or would you be impatient and try to bake it before it was ready?

[sansa giggles again, at the muffins, and then considers her breadmaking processes.]

Well, at first I didn't think it could be very hard, so I just put in water and flour and yeast. It took me ages to clean out the pan, after. Then I looked up recipes on my omni crystal, and I tried to follow the instructions, but it didn't rise at all.

[kneading....did not come naturally to her, and she didn't really understand about the yeast. it is, somehow, soothing to talk about things like making bread and cake, after what she's just experienced.]

I've heard that cooking is an art, but baking is a science. The measurements are to be very precise to work out as they're meant to... and some are highly variable. You know that flour can be packed loose or dense, I'm sure, and that's just the beginning of it.

[He shrugs.]

I like it when someone bakes for me, but the ingredients are better not wasted when either of us take a crack at it, sounds like.

[He finds it soothing too, no doubt. It's so normal, in the way that Sansa, for all that her world is strange to him, seems normal, or at least like she started out that way before life had its way with her.]

I suppose you'd like me to get started as soon as possible... on where my efforts would not be wasted.

[sansa smiles wetly and nods.]

I think I should learn a little more of science, to get by in this world. But I would like you to start your efforts as soon as you can. And...I'm better at making clothes than bread, if you ever have need of any.

[speaking of where efforts wouldn't be wasted.]

You could manage just as well with learning magic... but like everyone, I start with the perspective of the world I came from. There, we only had science to contextualize what we had and lived through. Here, there's more to it; anyone can see that.

[He blinks at the offer, because... tatty and shabby as he is, and more so now after most of his clothes were ruined by nearly a body's worth of blood, clothes are something he absolutely needs.]

I could be paid in clothes, and not complain.

[sansa's smile twists up at the corner.]

I mean to learn all I can. The perspective of the world I come from isn't much use to anyone.

[she would dress him for free, or at least cheaper than this. if it is true, there aren't riches enough in the world--and if it isn't, she'll know what she's up against.]

Come by the Rookery for cake, and I'll take your measurements before you go.

There's a lot I thought would be useless here that's turned out to be indispensable. Don't sell your knowledge and histories too short. If nothing else, they interest me.

[He nods, rising to leave. He's scrawny, so painfully thin; he knows that things generally will fit him, in the sense that they will fasten and not fall off, but it's always been a ball park. Baggy things, loose things that flap with more empty space than flesh and bone. The notion of clothes tailored, to measurements, is sort of a novelty.]

I'll do so at the earliest opportunity, and have more to tell you then.

[Lexi didn't hear all of it. but she did hear the part about the Blackfyre Rebellion, whatever that was. though, she didn't want to interrupt. for one thing, interruption was rude. for another, it seemed like Alayne was getting a whole lot of information all at once and if Lexi interrupted, it might stop.

so she stood a respectful distance away, sort of heming and hawing about whether or not she should approach the other young women. they were friends, Lexi thought. or at least friendly?

she'd take friendly. she was used to not having any friends other than the friends of her sister and sometimes Rue when she was being herself. so she'd settle for friendly? it was probably the best she could hope to have.

so after the conversation was over, she wasn't sure what to do. but she did have a packet of tissues in her backpack?]

...um. I have Kleenex. If you want one?

you're not my homeland anymore

EVENT: the pack survives, pt. 1 [late april]

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