(first gallop) | accidental video + action

[wolfwild]

...Benjen? [ when lyanna stark pushes herself into a sitting position a few twists and turns away from the maze's centre, her instinct is to call for one of her brothers: the youngest, first, and with a lilt of concern. with a groan, she brushes detritus off her palms and straightens her skirts (simple; in the northern style). and she tries to figure out why she might have been preparing her palfrey to ride in one moment, and sitting in dirt the next.

not that she minded the dirt -- not really. but she did mind the conspicuous absence of her kin. panic mounts: ] Brandon? Ned?

[ she scrambles to her feet and finds the strange small brick only a few feet away. lyanna picks it up and can now be seen peering suspiciously at its every angle. ] You're a funny thing. [ she mutters, tapping it gently and fingering (but not pressing) the buttons. but then she holds it loosely in her fist and raises her voice. ] By all the named gods and the unnamed gods -- Brandon Stark! If this is some trick or a mummer's game, I will have your hide. And without it, you can hardly hope to woo any pretty --

[ she stops abruptly because the brick chirrups like some odd precise bird. surprise catches the breath in her throat and she's forced to ask -- staring straight at the device: ] ...Are you alive, little brick?

[ grab her attention on the funny little brick-bird or else find her wandering the maze and the gardens. ]

Comments

[anomaliiiiies]

Stark? Um, I know of someone here by that name, but his name is Anthony Stark.

[wolfwild]

[ oh, gods. it's talking to her -- the little brick-bird speaks! she huffs a sigh and resists the urge to fling it from her fingers. ]

Beg pardon? Who's speaking? [ she rattles the device by her ear, treating jane to a shaky-cam scene worthy of the blair witch and low-rate film pirates.

as for who in seven hells anthony stark is...? well. some mysteries are more pressing. ]

[anomaliiiiies]

Oh, it's your device. Welcome to Wonderland and all that. My name is Jane Foster. Also, please don't shake it, it's making my eyes cross looking at the picture.

[Video]

[exceedinglybright]

Not alive, and not quite magic -- at least, not entirely -- but maybe close enough to the latter that it might be easier to just say that it is.

[Lily is quick to respond to the video feed, one that appears to have been wholly unintentional. She had adapted to using the devices rather quickly, herself, though she much preferred face-to-face -- but if she could help someone who was confused by them by insisting they weren't wasting their breath, than she was more than happy to speak up.]

I think there is someone by the name of Stark here, but Ned and Brandon don't sound familiar. I'm sorry.

[Video]

[wolfwild]

Magic.

[ lyanna frowns, forgetting every ounce of her manners in the face of this...weirdness. she puffs out a sigh and settles her shoulders against the prickly branches of the hedge maze. ] I thought magic was a thing gone away so very long ago.

[Video]

[exceedinglybright]

[Lily has to keep herself from letting a bit of a smile slip out as she realizes where Lyanna is -- she, too, had arrived in the hedge maze, which had been an interesting sort of awakening, considering she'd had to find her own way out.]

Yes, magic.

[Hard to believe for anyone not previously acquainted with it, she knows.]

Maybe in some lands, but not all. There are places where magic is very much alive.

( video )

[alayne]

[ her heart stops.

they have said wonderland calls upon any soul from any realm and alayne had guessed the riddle, had feared that those of her realm will walk through the doors and call for her hands, led be a beautiful ( terrible ) queen in silks of crimson and golden hair. she had feared queen cersei and her men. but the girl who speaks has lord eddard stark's colors and had called in names that were terribly familiar. it struck at her heart, something cold and tight around her throat.

you are calling to ghosts, she wanted to say; a ghost among its kin.

she thinks that if lord eddard stark would walk among them once more, she would certainly fall at his feet and weep and beg for his forgiveness. for his daughter sansa who came before her and her childish dreams that made blind to all else.

but even in a realm where ghosts walk among the living, lord stark is no where to be found and alayne thinks she ought to cry but cannot find the tears.

she will not know me; she thinks. she never knew sansa. sansa stark is not yet alive to her and is dead to all others.

lady stark is not accompanied by a direwolf as the stark children alayne has heard of but she is of the north. ]

With your pardon, Lady Stark.

[ I will tell her naught, she thinks. if she attempts to explain to her all that is to come, she would think her mad, she would be heartbroken. let her think we are the same. ]

They are not to be found, my Lady. You are the first to speak of your house within these borders.

( video )

[wolfwild]

[ by now, she has had the (dis)pleasure of speaking with a few strangers. they've told her tales she doesn't quite believe -- but she at least understands that the brick is not a malevolent force; it allows her to speak with others. how ingenious! how exciting! how...curious, really. but not half so curious as this new conversational slant. ]

And yet you've heard of it, haven't you? My noble house. [ perhaps lyanna does not share ned stark's contemplative soul, but some simple truths are evident: this strange girl (at whom she peers at through the device, not wholly aware that she is watched in turn) would not have spoken just so if she doesn't at least know of the starks. ] You speak its name as though you do.

( video )

[alayne]

I do, Lady Stark.

[ it is not as odd to speak thus. alayne stone would name her 'lady stark' for what else would she be called? sansa stark would have perhaps named her 'aunt lyanna' if she had the chance of meeting her. but lyanna was gone and now, so was sansa. ]

I am naught but a baseborn girl from the Vale; but I have heard of your house. I fear the ones you seek have yet to arrive.

[ she inclines her head, lowers it in place of a curtsy. ]

I am Alayne, My Lady, Alayne Stone, if it pleases you.

[ I must try and keep her safe, she thinks, for Sansa. ]

[dashingdignity]

[Pretty women usually catch his attention.]

Ah, My Lady, I fear you find yourself in a realm far removed from the one to which you are accustomed.

Perhaps I can be of assistance?

[wolfwild]

What sort of assistance?

[ she should be sweeter. she ought to be more grateful. and yet she isn't -- for all she wants is to find her brothers. ]

[video]

[disassembles]

[Well he'll be damned.

Bucky is struck first by the uncanny resemblance, but as the video goes on, everything else is completely wrong. She's talking gibberish, for the most part, and she's not the Peggy he knows; squared shoulders and red lips, and eyes only for Steve.

He gets up and locks the door between his room and Steve's. If this isn't Peggy, he doesn't want Steve to hear her voice, at least not right away. He has enough on his plate as-is.

But if it is her, and this is some kind of Wonderland junk messing with her head...

Bucky touches a button to respond, tilting the phone so she can see him clearly.]

Carter?

[video]

[wolfwild]

...Beg pardon?

[ she squints at the brick. did someone speak? a male someone, this time. and she can see him there -- on the flat surface. lyanna (ever curious) touches its slick edge and wonders how it works. ]

[video] Yaaas, I have been waiting for this.

[sexandoutrage]

[He doesn't cut on the feed immediately, instead wanting to hold out and watch Medieval Times a minute before throwing anything out there.

He doesn't know a Brandon, that's one thing that's for sure.

But finally the feed cuts on, where he's down in his workshop. He's been tweaking a few arrows for Barton, when Panicked Villager Two showed up.]

I'm Tony Stark. [Which should clear up what Jane's said.] I don't know a Brandon, and as far as I know, I'm the only Stark.

[video] excellent.

[wolfwild]

[ ah. the other stark. the one who must be so far down some unknown cadet house that even his name is a mystery to her. ]

I've been a Stark since the day I was born a-crying, my lord. [ because whoever the hell he is he's still a stark. and she won't disrespect one of those. ]

[Video]

[widows_kiss]

[It's the Stark that catches her attention - as it no doubt will anyone even remotely familiar with Tony - but while the woman is vaguely familiar, Natasha can't immediately place her. And her way of speech is different enough to suspect they're not thinking of the same thing.]

There's someone that goes by Stark here, but I've never heard of any by those names, so he's probably different than whoever you're looking for. I'm afraid this isn't a game at all. You're in a place called Wonderland. We've all been brought here from our homes. Although I'm afraid I can't explain the how for you; I don't entirely understand it myself.

And it's not a brick, it's called a phone. It's a means of communication.

[Video]

[wolfwild]

It's a phone. [ she repeats the word with wonderment. and apprehension. lyanna peers at the face she can see on the device. she holds it arms length -- stiffly. ] It's damnably strange, is what it is.

[Video]

[psalmed]

[Lia waits a while. Because it is so difficult getting adjusted and there's a strange device and really she is woefully inadequate at explaining things. So she wants to be certain all of that is out of the way beforehand and then she contacts her, a smile on her face.]

Mademoiselle? How are you settling in?

[Video]

[wolfwild]

[ lyanna is perched on the mansion's flat roof -- sitting there, soaking in the view, and watching for riders from the horizons. my brothers will come for me. fortunately for her, she has yet to have the very fabric of her reality undone by the arrival of one lord robert baratheon.

and so she smiles. ] Uneasily! I settle uneasily. [ partially because she doesn't know what a mademoiselle is. lyanna cradles the phone in her lap. ]

[video] HELLO FRIEND

[thestormcomes]

I thought the same thing upon my arrival here,

[comes a vaguely amused voice, echoing tinnily out of the little brick she holds. It almost serves as a relief to Athos to know that there are others who find the contraptions utterly unrecognizable - kindred spirits from times without newfangled talking-boxes are always welcome in Wonderland, in his humble opinion.

They tend to be much more polite anyway.]

But this place is no trick - at the very least, not one a single man could conjure up to befuddle a maiden.

[video] wonderful c:

[wolfwild]

If not a trick -- [ she almost barks at the brick, having spoken already to at least one other and so understands at the brick must therefore be addressed ] -- then what else?

[video]

[handing]

[Like many, Pepper's attention is caught both by the woman's clear confusion and her calling for someone with the last name 'Stark.' There have been a number of replies by that point, however, including from people who come from the same world. So instead of pointing out the only Stark present isn't one of the ones she's looking for, Pepper decides to let the woman take the lead.]

I know this is probably all very confusing for you. If there are any questions you still have, I'd be willing to help however I can. My name is Pepper Potts.

[video]

[wolfwild]

[ if the name is considered odd, lyanna doesn't say. potts, though. it's not a name she knows. but it's a family name all the same, and so: ] My lady.

Gratefully, I've found my way out of the maze. An unfortunate place to find myself at first. But I don't understand who rules here.

video;

[bigbad]

[He look, there's a picture of a guy on the brick!]

Never seen a phone before, pet? This'll be an adventure for you.

video;

[wolfwild]

[ pet. ugh. she'd be downright cross with the informality except that when she squints at the so-called phone, she catches a glimpse of something that looks...oddly familiar. light bright blond-near-silver hair. oh, the man looked nothing else like prince rhaegar -- but that hair seems unmistakeable. and with glimpsing it, she's transported back to that moment when the prince had bestowed upon her a crown of blue roses. ]

Adventures are all well and good. [ ... ] I only wished someone had warned me I was going on one.