[Console] (Video) ❅ The Fourth

[stonebird]

(Despite using the console in the Hotel's lobby, Alayne has made herself as comfortable as she would be in her room. She is sitting at a table with pieces of paper placed around her. Three drawings are easily visible: one is a large wolf, another is an equally large hound with a deformed (or injured) face and the last is a bird in a cage. She moves her pencil over the sketch of the bird, adding shadows.)

Choose an animal for yourself. Then think of the animal others would choose for you.

Are they the same?

(She switches to the sketch of the wolf, adding shading there - particularly around its neck.)

If not, why?

(Also, thanks to her lacking her hair dye, the whole of Tu Shanshu can now see that her hair is auburn.)

Comments

Audio

[redlightgreenlight]

Yes, they are the same.

Audio

[stonebird]

What would your animal be? Am I supposed to guess?

Audio

[redlightgreenlight]

A wolf.

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[stonebird]

(Wolves. A pack. Winterfell.)

That doesn't surprise me.

[gathersnomoss]

I don't know what sort of animal people would choose for me. Or what I'd choose for myself, for that matter.

[stonebird]

It is interesting to think about considering we are on the back of a turtle.

[gathersnomoss]

And I gather that nobles use animals in heraldry. For that matter, the groups here have their own symbolism, like the Snakes.

[stonebird]

They do. (The Snakes are not her favorite group.) A fitting representation of them.

[confirmationbias]

A wild predator, a domestic predator, or a caged bird? That doesn't seem like a good representative selection.

Certainly there are birds that aren't caged? I'm partial to the crow, for instance. Very smart birds. A cage wouldn't hold them for long. They are also frequently underestimated.

[stonebird]

The pictures have naught to do with the question. You can choose any animal to represent yourself.

[confirmationbias]

Oh, I just assumed- sorry.

[stonebird]

It was my mistake, I apologize. Would you like to choose another animal?

Audio;

[michaeljangelo]

Choose from the animals you've got? Or just like...any animal?

Audio;

[stonebird]

Any animal. What qualities do you have that match an animal?

Audio;

[michaeljangelo]

Any...well, that just opens things right up, doesn't it?
Um...well let's see, my brothers used to say I had the attention span of a gnat, or that I was lacking the brains that god gave geese.

Probably not what you're really looking for though, is it?

Audio;

[stonebird]

(Surprised laughter follows and she tries to muffle it. She mustn't be rude, but goodness!)

I think they are very much mistaken! (Funny though.)

[video]

[theideaguy]

Okay, I'll bite.

I would probably choose a wolf for myself, since that's one of the symbols the warriors of my tribe like to personify ourselves as.

But all my friends from my world would probably call me a winged lemur... probably because sometimes our pet winged lemur was the only one that would understand me.

[Sokka makes a cute pouting face, but he's not really pouting. Not at all.]

What about you?

[video]

[stonebird]

A wolf...? (She is a little startled before smiling softly.) You are loyal to your pack, fiercely protective... It is fitting.

(The comment about a winged lemur makes her laugh.)

I understand you. Does that make me a winged lemur too? (What even is that...?)

Me? (Here is the difficulty. But she knows the answer. Sansa and Alayne share their animal - no matter how many times a certain knight called her "little bird".) A wolf.

[video]

[theideaguy]

[Sokka smiles very happily. I mean, it's like one of those things that mean a lot despite it being a silly thing to have in common.]

Well, I'm glad you approve of the animal. It means a lot to me. And hey, you're the same animal as me!

Though you? A winged lemur? Nah, I think they're probably a little too silly for someone like you. You'd be something like a cat owl way before a winged lemur.

[Welcome to the Wide Wide Avatar World of Animals, Sansa.]

But a wolf could work too! I just haven't seen the vicious side of you yet.

[video]

[stonebird]

Perhaps that is why we understand one another so well? Two wolves would surely have something in common.

(Cat owl? The image that surfaces from that name is...comical. And cute.)

What do cat owls sound like?

(Her vicious side, hm? Arya has a vicious side and so do her brothers. Alayne knows she has one too - as Sansa.)

I pray you don't.

[solo_patria]

[They spoke once before, Enjolras thinks, recognizing Alayne's face, though the hair is now different, and suits her all the better, he decides, though he is much more interested in the question, really.]

I am not so sure anymore. I suspect my animal may have changed after some time, and new perspectives, here.

[stonebird]

(Tu Shanshu is a much safer environment than the one she left behind. She panicked when she knew her hair was changing back, but now... It's almost like Sansa and Alayne have fused. She's no longer running and hiding, though she doubts she will ever lose her wariness.)

Even your core self has changed? (There are parts that don't - can't - change.)

[solo_patria]

A little, I think. There are parts of me that have...

[What HAVE they done, exactly? Enjolras is pausing to consider.]

They've been re-shaped, perhaps. Changed. I hope for the better, now

[stonebird]

So it is a good shift? (There is some relief in that.) Do you believe someone can be changed for the worse? Without hope for redemption?

video;

[wrathfulkhan]

I'm not sure if they're the same. I'm not sure if I'd even choose the same creature now that I once would.

Though I'm curious. Would you say a leopard can change his spots - or, rather, a dragon his scales?