01 ❄ winter is coming

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

[ Standing in the middle of a red stone room stands a young girl; within her hand is a wooden sword and here is a look of fear across her face. While she is in the room alone,there is blood all over. Pooled on the floor and even on the walls. She glances around her, turning in a circle and the moment she looks back at her sword it has been replaced with a thin blade. One that she knows well and grips in her left hand.

Outside the room come the rustling of bodies moving and the clanking of armor hitting against armor. A voice with a heavy accent is heard, dislocated from its body. ]

And what do we say to the God of Death?

Not today.

Go.

[ With those words, she runs into the hall behind her, grabbing a torch as she does. She's now running down the darkened hall. The light of the torch lighting the walls and elongating the shadows. The sound of a person falling behind her makes her run faster. Her legs are screaming, but she pushes on. She seems to be running an endless loop. A paradox. The same length of hall over and over again until suddenly she stops and quickly turns around. Her sword drawn up, the torch falling to the ground, and she's ready to attack. ]

Stay back.

Comments

IA!Eleven, fufuufu.

[thatoldthatkind.livejournal.com]

[ The Doctor raises his hands slowly at the sight of the girl and her sword. He has been trying to find his way out of the dream loop for what is a few hours for him. He should have known better, because it isn't his dream. Of course he wouldn't be able to manipulate it. ]

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

Who are you? [ She takes a step closer to him. ] Did the Queen send you?

[thatoldthatkind.livejournal.com]

Queen? No. I haven't met a queen. Should I have?

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

Everybody knows the queen. [ Arya rolls her eyes. ]

[thatoldthatkind.livejournal.com]

Yes. Everyone except me.

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

You are better off not knowing her.

[thatoldthatkind.livejournal.com]

Really? What makes her so horrible?

non-timeskip for sake of relevance XD

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[She's used to breaking through; her purpose right now is to end a stalemate and move on. But at first, she doesn't notice the tell-tale signs of the loop herself - at first.

She does notice her situation, and to be ready, Ami transforms before letting anyone see her. It's Mercury who finally runs down the darkened hall and Mercury whose own sword rises when Anya's is pointed at her.]

I didn't come here to take your life, but if you raise that sword against me, I'll defeat you. Understood?

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

[ Arya didn't lower her sword. ]

You could be saying that! The Queen's words to get me to lower my guard so you can kill me, just like she had everyone else in my father's family killed! I'm going to defend myself.

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about a queen [aside from one who's very, very dead] but it's just as you said: I'm going to defend myself. Feel free to attack! - if you don't value your life.

[Until then, Mercury does not attack either.]

While you decide, just what is this place?

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

Are you stupid or something?

[ She lowers her sword slightly, but keeps it in her hand incase she does need it. ]

You're in the Red Keep.

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[She doesn't even bother getting mad at the insult. Her sword lowers the same miniscule amount as Anya's.]

Rather than that, consider me a foreigner. [Very foreign. Unless she's stumbled into a world more parallel to her own than she'd like to think, and the 'queen' turns out to be Beryl after all.]

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

Are you from across the Narrow Sea?

[ She reaches down to pick the torch up again and gets a better look at the woman. ] You are dressed funny and your hair is blue.

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

Maybe even further than that.

[She doesn't glance down at herself; she knows her uniform well enough: the frustrating resemblance to the uniform of her former loyalty, the black tulle and markings always mindful of Metalia's darkness, the charm on the chain at her waist and bracer on her arm.]

This place seemed like I should be ready to fight, so I came ready for battle. [Yes, this is considered a battle uniform.]

[fightnow.livejournal.com]

[ a bandaged hand darts out and grips the sword. Babydoll doesn't look like she belongs at all: her blue clothes bare her midriff and most of her legs, although stockings come up to her thigh. her blonde ponytails are long and drape over, the ends of them brushing against her ribcage. ]

Stop running. I'm not here to fight you.

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

What are you doing here then?

[fightnow.livejournal.com]

Helping you.

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

I don't even know you. Why do I need your help?

[fightnow.livejournal.com]

You don't need my help to fight. I don't want to help you fight. I just want to help you with whatever you need to succeed.

couldn't resist - hope this is okay

[findmyownreason.livejournal.com]

[he's dressed strangely. The clothing is still black but it's... more. More cloth, more leather, fur lining on a cloak he's kept because it serves as much as armor as warmth. Everything feels almost rougher in its fabric. His great sword is still a reassuring weight across his back though and the wolf emblem is still proud and only slightly bloodied on his shoulder. There's been fighting - and there will be more fighting still - his gloves are coated with blood but he can't remember if it was from one or many. He just knows that his job is to find and protect. He wipes at the blood dripping down over his eyelashes and smears it, the cut it comes from superficial above his eyebrow but head wounds always bleed more.

where is she?

And then there's the sound of soft feet and harsh breathing and he's spinning, hand going to the hilt of his sword. But - no. He knows without knowing. This one is the one he's been looking for. She's his duty.]

It would be better instead to keep moving.

CLOUD

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

[ Arya whirls around and Needle is drawn again. Raised like she was taught, but her grip on the torch isn't as tight as it should be. She's too focused on keeping her grip right on the hilt. ]

Keep moving so you can push me into a trap?

:D

[findmyownreason.livejournal.com]

[he steps forward into the light and his gloved hands are open in front of him, fingers spread to reveal he's carrying nothing in them. In the shifting light, his eyes glint unnatural blue before the firelight shifts them to a more normal color. But he's wearing the silver wolf in snarling metal on his shoulder and incongruous with the house symbol is dressed in all black. Don't ask him. He can't explain what he is himself. But he knows he's been called and he knows it's for her alone.]

No one is trapping today. They're killing. My duty is to make sure they fail when it comes to you.

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

[ She lowers her sword upon seeing the house symbol and her eyebrows furrow together. ]

Who sent you?

[findmyownreason.livejournal.com]

[it's the smart and logical question. Unfortunately - Cloud can't answer it. It only calls up the need inside him, not any reason for that need to have been planted there and he raises a hand to rub it against the back of his head, only to have himself flinching, his hand coming away blood coated.

A blow to the back of the head? Did that explain why he couldn't remember... so much?

But then why did it feel as if there was nothing to remember in the first place...?

A shoulder moves, a vague rise and fall and somewhere distant but still too close there's the echo of voices. He doesn't even know enough to lie. He just knows what his drive is. There's still a flicker of vulnerability in his fire reflective eyes as he admits:]

I don't know.

[ofwinterfell.livejournal.com]

[ He seems harmless enough, but Arya isn't going to let her guard down completely. She raises the torch once more and looks down the hall where he came from and starts down the one she was heading down before. ]

How do you get your hair like that?