we've been down that road before

[ulfur]

Who: Ned Stark and fam; OTA!
When: November 1st
What: reunions, meetings at the inn
Where: the road to Gazin, the inn, etc.
Warning(s): news of character/loved one death, will update as needed



Waking up alone and on a strange road; the former normal for young Eddard Stark, the latter a new experience. He frowns at the sign. Gazin, Lothalian, Caerlias. None of the names mean anything to him. He wonders if he has somehow been drugged and shipped off across the Narrow Sea by . He is not as well-versed in the cities of Essos as he is in every corner of Westeros, as a newly minted knight should be.

Grief hangs heavy upon him as he walks, the news of his father's and brother's deaths still fresh from King's Landing. This makes him Lord of Winterfell. It is a cup he'd never thought would pass to him. As the second son, second heir, he'd known he would be a knight, and lord of his own holdfast, perhaps able to marry the woman he loved...

And in the blink of an eye, it all changed. Rickard and Brandon Stark, tortured and brutally killed, and all of the North now resting on his shoulders. That duty was one he must bear, and yet, that last night with Ashara, he had dared to dream of a different future. One where he need not take this cup and all that it brought. A lifetime bowed beneath that mantle. A marriage to a woman he'd never met and who had been pledged to his brother for nearly half his life. And the knowledge that so much of his family was gone forever. Mother, father, brother. Lyanna, too, perhaps, if they could not get her back.

He'd wished for a place free from those sorrows, where he might love whomever he wished, and live a life free of that weight.

And now...he knew he had to get back. Whatever road led there. If he had to sail a ship to return, or secure a horse, or...whatever way he could find. He would take it. He could not let Benjen bear this all alone.


[OOC: starters below or snag him at the inn/around town the day of arrival]

Comments

Lyanna

[ulfur]

Seeing anybody on this road is something. Ned hurries to catch up with the figure, to ask them whatever questions he may, and learn something of this land he finds himself in. But the closer he gets, the more he narrows his eyes, trying to tell himself it could not be who it thought it was. That walk, her height, her hair, her frame, every detail as he remembered it.

Biting his lip, he picks up his pace until he is sprinting, knowing she would be able to hear the pounding of footsteps behind her. And when she glances back...

"Lyanna?" The incredulous voice of her brother, just recently heard the news that she has been kidnapped by Rhaegar Targaryen. And even more recently, knowing the price their father and brother have paid to try to demand her back.

She and Ben are his only family left.

He closes the distance. Reaches to catch her in his arms, to fold them around her and embrace her tightly. "Lya," Ned murmurs. "Thank the gods." Where they were didn't matter, for one beautiful moment. She was safe. She was free.

Jon

[ulfur]

The large fire in the common area of the inn is a welcome thing after the rain that has pelted their arrival today. Ned shakes off his sodden cloak and spreads it to dry by one corner of the hearth. He brushes damp strands of hair out of his eyes and steps close to his chosen corner to warm first front and then back, trying to dry at least a bit of the chill from his clothes.

He notices a man of about his age looking at him rather intently. It is strange, seeing this stranger and being reminded suddenly of Brandon and himself both standing before a reflective pool. He can even see Lyanna in him. But it must be a trick of the light, or of his own mind after finding her today.

Ned meets the other's gaze head on with his own steady grey eyes. "Can I help you?" he asks in the rolling tones of the North, somehow both brusque and generous all at once.

inn/tavern time?

[fangoffenharel]

Aella ducks into the inn, shaking rainwater from her dark hair. Shit, so much for going anywhere. Looks like she’s in until the storm passes. Her continued search for griffons will have to wait. So she heads over to the tavern for a few drinks. The bartender looks up and gives her a wave when he sees her, and she grins back.

Her attention is pulled by a couple new faces; she’s been here long enough to be able to tell when people are more than just ‘new in town’. They have the look of people new to this WORLD. A man and a woman; siblings, from the features they share. The woman is off chatting with someone, while her brother sits and drinks.

Fuck it. Why not? She grabs a couple of the bartender’s finest ales, and carries them over to his table, setting one down in front of him. “You look like you could use a refill,” she says with a smile. “Welcome to Gazin.”

She’s a slight woman, is Aella Tabris, with dark eyes, and dark hair with pink, purplish ends worn up. (She’s worn her hair up since her almost-wedding. Braids, buns, she never wears it loose around other people. Not anymore.) Tattoos of wings on her shoulders. But her most striking feature is her delicately pointed ears. Not unusual for anyone from Thedas. But certainly not something that everyone is used to seeing.