three. voice & private & spam. glory & gore go hand in hand.

[indispensible]

If there were people who wanted to learn to dance, I know . . . other kinds.

I don't know how to cha-cha. Mark can teach that one once he wakes up. [:|]

[Also, Nathan, you don't get a choice.]

private } stark

[You probably don't get a choice either.]

What are you doing.

private } kelsier

I need to.

We should talk.

spam } marsh

[Vin is currently playing a stimulating game of 'acclimatize myself to Marsh's presence', which manifests in following him around for five-minute bursts at random times of day, whenever he emerges from his sad cocoon. She's not making a particular effort to conceal herself in any way at all. She just knows he won't do it.]

private } arya

I don't know your warden. How is she?

spam } polly

[Now Vin is playing a rousing game of 'follow Polly around to figure out her habits and possibly weaknesses'. Still not making a tremendous effort to hide her presence.]

private } morgana

I saw you in the breach. You smiled more, then. [Slightly bemused by this.]

spam } open

[She probably didn't realize the extent to which she felt trapped, before now. But while she isn't precisely happy, her step is a little lighter, especially with her wolfhound at her side.]

[She spends hours in the CES, once she catches an iteration of it with brightest skies and most sharply defined white clouds. Almost no time on the ground, though - she practices with coins, pleased not to be able to rely on metal in the deck for jumps. It's the work of precision and angles that pleases her.]

[After a few hours of this, she rests at the top of a smallish pine tree, examining its sap, while Clifford sits at the root and whines at her to get down occasionally.]

Comments

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

How ugly are yours?

[Private]

[indispensible]

They're very ugly.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Good. So are mine.

[Private]

[indispensible]

I know. It's part of what makes us the same.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

You think we're the same?

[She may be excited by this prospect.]

[Private]

[indispensible]

I think we're very close to the same. Insubstantial as shadows, acquainted with death. I think we both had to grow quickly, and it hurt.

We're both very, very strong. But there are still things that make us weak.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

I'm not weak.

[Private]

[indispensible]

I said parts. Not you at the heart of you.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

What parts? [So defensive.]

[Private]

[indispensible]

The parts that don't want to let anyone close.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

How's that weak?

[Private]

[indispensible]

Because it keeps you alone, Arya. Through the long winter.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[She chews on her lip for a long moment, silent.]

I was learning to be no one. Before here.

[Private]

[indispensible]

Are you still no one? Is that what you want to be?

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

No. I'm Arya, of Winterfell. I think I always was.

[But she pauses, again, still frowning.]

But I want to be no one, too.

[Private]

[indispensible]

It's possible to be two things at once. I am two things. Do you know what they are?

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

A warrior? [She's reaching, not sure but always willing to try.] And a woman.

[Private]

[indispensible]

A warrior and a woman.

An empress and a weapon.

You're strong enough to be two things, you know. Even if it's not those two things, or things even close to that.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

An empress.

[No Vin, you are not a queen, you are nothing like Cersei or Sansa. Does not compute. Cannot be. Look at that wrinkle in her brow.]

[Private]

[indispensible]

[She sees the wrinkle, and does not smile. It was hard for her to understand, too. Maybe she can explain, maybe she can't. But she can try.]

The only empress there has ever been, in my world.

What do you think it means, to be empress?

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

It's the same as being a queen.

[Wearing dresses. Singing songs. Dealing with stupid people and attending stupid court. A thousand and one things Arya doesn't like - but things she'd hover on the edges of, learning.]

[Private]

[indispensible]

I don't know what it means to be a queen. We only had the Lord Ruler, and all he did was kill people.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

How'd you get to be empress?

[Private]

[indispensible]

We killed the Lord Ruler.

[A beat. It felt like we, but when it came right down to it, to the hand that dealt the killing blow . . .]

I killed the Lord Ruler. And someone had to protect this people. Elend understood the politics. I understood what had to be done when politics didn't work.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[She likes the way that sounds - understanding, when politics don't work. They don't always work. There's an itch at the back of her neck, a reminder that she's not supposed to decide who dies, He of Many Faces is.

She wants to decide anyway.]

And you took his place? You and Elend?