First little lie ♰ Keep me breathing as the water rises up again

[beingdifferent]

[The first image the camera captures is a pair of large brown eyes, blinking sleepily before widening. They dart back and forth as their owner pulls the communicator back, showing a small pale face framed by dark curls, mouth curled into a frown. Zoom back a little more and the starry expanse from the deck is visible in the background.

The girl in the foreground bites at her bottom lip, licks it, looks around again before frowning at the communicator. She pulls it up closer, staring at the screen, and speaks one word with a distinct note of fear in her voice.]

...Mommy?

Comments

[beingdifferent]

What are you talking about, dead? I think it's clear that I'm not! Is this another orphanage?

Mommy will come and bring me home. Stop trying to scare me.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

It's not an orphanage, it's the Barge. Don't be stupid. You're here because you did something. All the inmates are.

[beingdifferent]

I don't know what the Barge is.

What kind of something? What did you do?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

I killed a boy. And then I killed some men.

[And she's not exactly proud, but she certainly doesn't regret it. And she knows a bit about making yourself fierce in the face of strangers.]

The Barge is where they try to make you better. Then you get a second chance. Or you stay here forever. Or you disappear.

[beingdifferent]

[For the first time since she arrived, Esther looks uncomfortable. Not scared, exactly, just wary, the way you would be in the presence of a mental patient.]

Is there someone else I can talk to?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[Arya shrugs, nonchalant. Her ego isn't that easily bruised.]

There's near a hundred people here. You can talk to whoever wants to talk to you.

[beingdifferent]

And who are you? [So I can be sure to avoid you for now?]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[She's spent too long hiding to be comfortable with introductions.]

The girl who doesn't need to cry for her mother.

[beingdifferent]

Then who do you cry for?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

I don't cry.

[beingdifferent]

You're a liar.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

So are you.

[beingdifferent]

That's what you think.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

You don't get here unless you've done something.

Maybe you poisoned someone. That's a woman's weapon. [She says it with a scoff. Gender identity and roles are super great in Westeros. B(]

[beingdifferent]

Do I look like a woman to you?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

You don't look like a man.

[beingdifferent]

Neither do you.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Now we know you're not blind.

[beingdifferent]

And we know you're not very clever with words.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

I'm cleverer than you.

[beingdifferent]

Of course.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Clever enough to spot a liar.

[beingdifferent]

I didn't poison anyone.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Then you hurt someone.

[beingdifferent]

That wasn't my fault!