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!))

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[nerdsexgoddess.livejournal.com]

Amaranth, too, had been wandering the castle in search of someone who wasn't a house elf to help her keep her fields fertile. As she neared the popcorn room, she noticed Brienne running full tilt into the room. Curiosity piqued, she followed at a more sedate pace.

Brienne's focus appeared to be on a little girl carrying a sword, and obviously covered in butter, but Amaranth had noticed the room's other occupant. Really, she didn't understand how a person could just ignore such a fine specimen of manhood as if they weren't even there at all.

So Amaranth strode over to Pullo, a friendly smile on her face, and wearing her usual ensemble, which consisted of an S.P.E.W. badge pinned to her breast and very little else.

"Hi!" she said brightly. "I take it you just got back? I don't recognize you. I'm Amaranth, by the way."

[pullo-xiii.livejournal.com]

Why hello there!

"Hi yourself," he said, turning up the charm to eleven. "Are you the welcoming committee, then? If you are, I'll have to go away and come back more often."

[nerdsexgoddess.livejournal.com]

Amaranth grinned. "I can be the welcoming committee for you anytime you want," she said. "But in the meantime I can think of several interesting ways to pass the time so you won't get bored and feel the need to take off so quickly." Gods, but Amaranth loved it when they were eager, and not horribly repressed!

[pullo-xiii.livejournal.com]

Now why couldn't he get this welcome everywhere he went? Naked beautiful women were truly gifts from the gods, and one that he was glad to appreciate.

"My dove, nothing would make this old soldier happier than to be welcomed by you in any way you wish."

[nerdsexgoddess.livejournal.com]

Normally, Amaranth's welcome would have involved just... having at it right there in the popcorn room, but PEOPLE AT Hogwarts were so particular about protecting the children from her. And, sadly, there was an impressionable child right there in the popcorn room.

"My room's in Hufflepuff," she said with a coquettish grin. "I'll be glad to welcome you properly once we're there."

[pullo-xiii.livejournal.com]

She couldn't have held his attention any more if she'd grabbed him by the balls and dragged him off. He glanced down at the girl. "Hey, girl. You going to be okay?"

Even if the naked woman hadn't been standing just a few feet away, Arya would have recognized the look on the man's face. She'd seen it enough in her time on the run, though never directed at her. (Rorge hadn't counted. He had threatened, but there had been no lust in his look, only rage.) She nodded absently. "Sure."

"Excellent!" Pullo said, clapping his hands. He turned to look at the naked woman, all tall and beautiful and naked. He liked that part the best. "Well, my honey," he said, extending his arm in as courtly a gesture as he was capable of. "Shall we be off, then?"

[nerdsexgoddess.livejournal.com]

And so Amaranth led him off to her garden of earthly delights--or at least her room in Hufflepuff, where the window was open to let in the fresh breeze, and showed him just how welcome he was back at Hogwarts. As with any encounter with Amaranth, her nymphliness made it a sublime experience, and everyone would be immensely satisfied with the results.