Return of Titus Pullo and Arya Stark (AKA Vegas and a cheap buttery alternative to therapy. Open!)

[runaway-stark.livejournal.com]

She was safe, she was warm, and the whole situation was very much like being asleep. And then with an abrupt pop!, Arya Stark was salty and buttery and very much wide awake.

She was disoriented for several seconds, trying to mesh two distinct memories of where she had just been. The first set was of Braavos, and the House of Black and White, and going to sleep after drinking a cup of bitter milk. The other was of this place, this castle... Hogwarts, she thought, and faces flashed in her mind, at once familiar and alien. Memories of most of her family here, though they were more impressions than images. And memories of some time before, coming back into the school to check in with her temporary guardian Kal, only to find his name on the plaque. It had been the last in a chain of... something... and she had stopped fighting and gone to sleep.

"Welcome back," said a man's voice from somewhere above her. She wiped greasy butter out of her eyes and looked up, seeing a large, burly man in a garishly-colored button-up shirt left open over a white undershirt, a pair of short trousers cut right around the knee, and a pair of worn-looking leather sandals in a style that she'd never seen, not even in Braavos where travelers from all over came. "Nice little pigsticker you've got there, eh, girl?"

Arya looked around her and found a sword--her sword, Needle--next to her and covered in as much butter as she was. She grabbed for it and started to try and wipe it off on the leg of her own cut-off trousers, but it did absolutely no good. The man chuckled. "Here," he said, reaching into a bag that he carried slung over one shoulder and pulling out another brightly-colored shirt. "Good girl," he said approvingly. "You've a good sense of priorities. You know how to properly care for a sword."

"Of course I do," she said irritably, more at the situation than at the man. The shirt was getting soaked with grease, but Needle looked slightly better than before. "I'm going to be a water dancer."

"Is that so?" the man said with the genial blandness of someone who didn't know what she was talking about. "Good for you, then. Name's Titus Pullo."

Arya looked at him warily, considered that she was holding a sword and he wasn't, and remembered vaguely that she was safe at Hogwarts. "Arya Stark."

((Both Arya and Pullo are available in here. Come on in and say hi!))

Comments

[pullo-xiii.livejournal.com]

"I've been out," Pullo said, shouldering his bag again. "I needed to stretch my legs, see the world. Have you ever heard of a place called 'Las Vegas'?"

Still sitting on the floor, Arya shook her head. "I'd rather you didn't," she said stiffly. It was one thing for a dumb animal to lick food off your arm, and it was another for one that talked to offer to do the same. It was wrong, somehow. "Who are you?"

[woocha.livejournal.com]

Uh...yes! I read that it was a very bright place full of gambling. Awww, but I like butter. Wishbone sat down in between them. I'm Wishbone!

[runaway-stark.livejournal.com]

"And you've heard it exactly right." Pullo grinned down at Wishbone. "Gambling, women, and all the wine I could drink. Ah, what a place." He looked faraway for a moment, but shook himself back to the here and now. "But it's good to be back, strange a place as this is."

Arya kept a wary eye on the talking dog. "Well, you can't have it from me. Can't you get any from the house elves? It's got to be better than licking it off people."

Pullo opened his mouth to speak, regarded the girl and how very young she looked, and closed it.

[woocha.livejournal.com]

It's not as fun, though. And it helps you get a little bit clean. But mostly the fun. And I like answering people's questions when I do it, cause most everyone doesn't remember this place.

[runaway-stark.livejournal.com]

"I don't like being touched, and I don't mind being dirty," she said, hoping that the dog would drop it. "And I remember this place just fine." The defiant display faltered only a little as she added, "Mostly."

[woocha.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhhhhh, sorry. I didn't know that! Wishbone trotted a little bit away. There, now I can't accidentally touch you.

[runaway-stark.livejournal.com]

She grunted and continued to clean Needle with Pullo's shirt. It only helped a little, but it was better than allowing the steel to be fouled with butter. "Are you a warg?" she asked the talking dog, not taking her eye off of what she was doing. A slip in attention could mean missing fingers, if she wasn't careful. Needle was very sharp.

[woocha.livejournal.com]

Wishbone laughed. Noooooo, I'm a dog! What IS a warg? he asked, scratching his ear.

[runaway-stark.livejournal.com]

Arya had never heard a dog laugh before. Her posture was still stiff and guarded, but it loosened slightly at the sound. "You know, a beastling? Someone who goes into animals. Old Nan used to tell us--used to tell me stories." Thinking of her family, her brothers and even her sister, was still painful. Not as much as it could have been, somehow.

[woocha.livejournal.com]

Nope! Been a dog since I was born. I can turn into a cat, but that's cause of magic. I've been a dog all my life.

[runaway-stark.livejournal.com]

"Oh." She held up Needle to the light, squinting at it critically. The grip was still greasy, and the blade needed more than just a simple wiping, but the worst of it was off. She nodded to herself and reached out with one leg to kick at Pullo.

He looked down at her. "What?"

"Thank you," she said, holding his buttery shirt up at him.

He looked down, thought it over, and looked at Wishbone. "Hey, pup, you want a buttery shirt?"

[woocha.livejournal.com]

That's harder to clean than human skin. But okay! Butter was still butter, after all. And hey, maybe Wishbone would get it on himself, and THAT'S easier to clean.