(Untitled)

[practiced]

DATE: December 6th.
CHARACTER(S): Everyone!
SUMMARY: Shoot, scavenge, survive. It's going to be a long week.
LOCATION: The Fort of Dead Shambly Merchants.
WARNINGS: Zombies and appropriate zombie-type violence likely.
FORMAT: Action, prose: commenter's choice. Go crazy!

Comments

OPEN!

[danceswithwater]

Stay safe, Arya. Don't be foolish, Arya. Be more like your sister, Arya- Well, maybe none of her brothers had said that, but it felt enough like being a child in Winterfell again, the wild daughter not living up to Sansa's example, that she could almost her it anyway. Why was it so strange to want to see the Others? She'd heard of them all her life. Jon had seen them and lived. It wasn't as though she wished to fight them. She just wanted to see. They moved so slowly, such creatures would never be able to catch a cat, let alone her.

So in the pre-dawn hours, Arya, as quiet as a shadow and swift as a deer, stirred from her wagon to try and slip away, just for long enough to catch sight of the strange Others they were, for the moment, trapped with in the settlement.

[[OOC: Feel free to catch her trying to leave the wagon, on her way out of the circle, in the town, whatever!]]

[whatistheremore]

"Lad!"

Horatio Hornblower raised his voice at seeing the young figure a few feet away from the fort. Trousers, hair, even just being out. Everything suggested, to him, that it was a boy he was calling to.

"What the Devil are you doing?" A few long, quick sides brought him up to 'his' side, and the Navy captain looked down. "At least tell me you're armed."

He... certainly was. Three pistols in his belt-- piratical, he felt, but necessary--, a rifle on his back, and a sword with a gold hilt at his side.

[danceswithwater]

"Of course I'm armed. I'm not stupid."

The voice that came from that little male body may be a familiar one, but in either case is clearly that of a young girl. There's more than a slight trace of defensiveness in it- she really isn't that foolish, after all- but Arya's accepted the gender confusion long ago. Really, she almost preferred being seen as a boy. People tended to bother her less when that was so.

To prove the point she tugged back the edge of her cloak, revealing the pair of long hunting knives sheathed on either side. They were no 'guns,' but the would suit in a pinch.

[whatistheremore]

"You're the one who asked about learning to use a gun."

He recognizes the voice, though he's served with enough boys whose voices had not yet changed that, really, her voice does not strike him as distinctly feminine. Not when coupled with her appearance. And he feels immediately chastised for having assumed such a thing. He should know by now that young boys could sound like girls, especially when unseen.

[danceswithwater]

"I am."

Arya bit her lip as she continued to look up at the man, not quite sure whether he would try to order her back or let her be. She could run, sure. She was positive she'd escape, as well, but she would have to come back eventually. While whatever trouble she may get in with him was nothing, it would certainly all be back to her brothers.

[whatistheremore]

He looks at the 'boy,' thinking fast. Considering the atmosphere around here...

"Did Lieutenant Pullings teach you?"

[danceswithwater]

"Some. But I'm a fast learner."

Which meant the lessons hadn't been that many, and none of her siblings knew of them yet. But if the options were gun or no gun, Arya knew exactly the options she'd pick.

[whatistheremore]

"Know the difference between half and full cock, lad?"

And, despite saying he's not patient enough for teaching, he's taken one of the three pistols from his belt. "This is half-cock." He taps the hammer. "Pull it back until it clicks-- full-cock. Or just cocked. Then pull the trigger. But do not put it into full-cock until you are ready to fire. Understand?"

[wolfinthesnow]

It is like a prickling in the blood, the sensation of knowing Arya is missing - spiky and terrifying. But what Jon finds is that it's also not unpredictable. He leaves the wolves; they're circling the wheelhouse with their usual intent, unsurprisingly intelligent, and takes off to find her, sword in hand.

He's worried, but what he isn't is angry. Whatever possessed her is nothing that Jon is angry with, but rather slightly amused at, pleased by. The urges that drive his little sister make him smile. She is so much like him.

It's quiet when he spots her, a little wolf on cat feet, her back to him. He doesn't yell her name, because he does not want to draw anyone else to attention, and carefully approaches. Close enough, then, he whispers, "Have you satisfied your curiosity, or shall I put you on my shoulders and we'll go find one to kill?"

[danceswithwater]

The grin that lights up Arya's face at Jon's words leave no doubt about her answer- not that her brother was likely to have any doubt to start. As it had always been, he could have just as easily finished the sentence along with her rather than wait for her reply. She could have hugged him at the moment, if the point was not be warriors facing down the Others. Not a game, of course. Not as it would have been at Winterfell when they played at Old Nan's stories, here the dangers were far too real. Yet the same feeling as those days welled up as she nodded her agreement. Hunting with Jon.

"At least the one. They say there's so many of them."

[wolfinthesnow]

He hands her his torch, giving him an extra hand and giving her the best of weapons. "Just the one, then," he says. "You musn't tell Sansa, or even Robb." Because while Robb might understand, there is a good chance he might not. "It will be our secret

[danceswithwater]

"I promise."

Arya didn't take the threat to heart, but she knew without any doubt that she would obey regardless. Even if it were not for the fact it was Jon asking such of her, she had given her word, and no child of Ned Stark would be called forsworn. No matter how funny the idea of Jon being forced to, in all mock seriousness, turn her in to Robb for breaking an oath over something such as this.

She tightened her grip on the torch, heart beating a little faster now that she had the final bit of the battle in her hand. She'd heard enough of there creatures to know fire would be the only true end they could provide, and Jon had trusted it to her.

"Are they just as the Others beyond the Wall, Jon?"

[wolfinthesnow]

Jon steps just a touch closer as they begin to wander; his eyes fixed out on the world outside but his entire being focused on his sister. Ghost is already ranging a bit more, wolfy tongue dangling.

"Not quite," Jon says. "These speak - the ones beyond the Wall don't. These die easier. They are not so difficult to slay - but they are still dangerous," he adds after a moment's pause. "Of course, they are not as ours. I do not think they are beyond this fortress." Jon wonders, for a moment, when they will be able to leave. He hopes it is soon, for Bran and Sansa's sake. He worries, less, for Robb, and Arya; she is his blood, the kind of blood that quickens in a fight.

[danceswithwater]

She fell into step quickly enough, small feet making hardly more noise than Ghost as she went along. Arya was a ghost herself, though Jon didn't know it. Couldn't know it ever, if she had her way. But though the reasons may stay unspoken, the skills gained were a thing of some pride as she walked with her brother, a hunter among hunters.

"You think we may find what it is that makes them like this here? Within these walls?"

It seemed fitting to Arya, that creatures beyond the Wall should be so much more terrible than the ones here. The Wall was the very end of the world, after all. This was simply some settlement of no importance in the middle of an odd world.

[wolfinthesnow]

Jon doesn't know, but he does notice the step, softer and smoother, a water dancers step. He doesn't know what brought this change on his little sister, and he almost doesn't want to know, as much as he does. Whatever it was, it's new to Jon, and it's unsettling. He had been there her entire life, every day. What is this, something in his sister, a part of her he's not intimately familiar with?

"We may yet," he says. If they find out, maybe it will give him insight on the ones that are on the Wall, the ones that have found their way into the fortress of ice that Jon now considers his home.

[danceswithwater]

Arya glances up to give him one last smile- one that weakens for a brief, fleeting moment in the face of...something. Something that seemed to be bothering Jon, but which was nothing Arya could think of. Perhaps some memory of the Wall, of the horrors he had faced there. On his own. Oh, not fully alone. He had the brothers Black, but not his real family. Not with her or father or Robb. A mystery.

But this, now, was the opposite of that, and that thought brings the smile back before she returns her attention to the hunt. A secret between the two of them. Just like it should be, just like it had always been her whole life. Her eyes dart around as they reach the first building, and she moves to instinctively press one shoulder to the building side as she listens for their prey. Still as the mountain, silent as the shadow.