ᴛᴡᴏ ʙᴜᴛᴛᴇʀғʟɪᴇs ᴡᴇɴᴛ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴀᴛ ɴᴏᴏɴ ( ᴏᴘᴇɴ )

[alayne]

Who: sansa stark + you.
Where: all over the mansion + gardens/stables, who knows.
When: throughout february
Rating: pg-13 at most
Summary: random meetings with medieval princess

The Story:



[ the weeks that have passed have proven to be a challenge. though healed from the jabberwock's attack and though she had certainly shined during the dance ball, sansa remained as shy in step and timid in nature as always.

the memory of the jabberwock is another in a long line of terrible memories which would oft send her to the gardens, sitting and gazing towards the woods while working on her needlework.

at other times, she would be found socializing in the tea rooms, sharing cake and tea and stories with her company.

find her anywhere and join her, she will be courteous no matter her mood. ]

Comments

gardens to start

[unsullies]

[ Dany has also not been exempt of the disturbances in Wonderland. Though she's grown more used to the strange atmosphere, happenings, and people, the arrival of Margaery Tyrell only has served to make her uneasy. It reminds her of where she should be and how she's left her people and advisers alone; even if time hasn't moved since her disappearance, she considers it a failure every moment she isn't able to return to them.

It's on one such day that she ventures into the gardens, Aeryn on her shoulder, trying to think. To clear her head with a mantra she had recently adopted after a quick edit: If I do not look forward, I am lost.

By chance, or fate, she comes upon Sansa Stark. Daenerys pauses, wondering if she should, but... Sansa is one of her closest confidantes in the mansion and has been nothing if not supportive. ]

I was never taught needlepoint. [ She comments lightly, expression kindly and curious. ] There always was a greater use for my time, at least, according to my brother.

[alayne]

Your grace.

[ sansa rises to her feet to curtsy, low and humble. there are two queens of westeros present now, one dragon and the other rose and sansa thinks them both beautiful, both stronger and wiser than herself. she looks down at her work ]

I was taught by Septa Mordane at Winterfell; she said,

[ she pauses, tries to expel the memory of the septa's head and the crows and joffrey's smile ]

she said my work was second to none. she was very kind, I was only a girl but I find that it gives me peace.

[ she shows her blue cloth with a silver mockingbird. alayne's more than sansa's but they are always one and the same. ]

[unsullies]

She was right; it's very beautiful.

[ Dany's would look a lot more like Arya's, in truth, given her lack of experience and training. ]

Anything to bring you peace in this place must be practiced. I-- [ She pauses suddenly, almost afraid to admit it aloud for fear of sounding like a child, but... ] ... I once hoped to ride through the grounds with your Lady Aunt, until she left.

[ That's one thing Dany misses very much and hasn't done, since her silver isn't in Wonderland and she hasn't heard that there are, in fact, horses to be borrowed. ]

[alayne]

My Lady Aunt was much fond of riding.

[ said with a tinge of regret. sansa have never told the truth to lyanna stark, had remained the kind and humble alayne stone to her out of fear. it was a lie she had meant to end ( sometime, someday ) but wonderland had taken lyanna before she could have spoken the truth of her name.

now she is the last stark remaining in wonderland, should she not hold true to her lady aunt's plans and wishes? ]

I am hardly as gifted as her, I fear; but I would ride at your side.

[unsullies]

I would not ask it, Lady Sansa; I know that time is precious, here.

[ For many. Maybe not as much as the young Targaryen, who wants only to return home, to... Mereen, at least, so she can continue her work. ]

Gardens

[thekittenqueen]

[Seeing Sansa again had been a relief. Since her disappearance, she wondered and worried at night what had become of her. But to be reunited in this land, it was disheartening. Sansa belonged in the sunshine and somewhere safe, far away from any further pain and uncertainty. It had been what Margaery wished for her.

Yet it seemed they would always be fated to meet in a chaotic place. Finding her in the gardens, Margaery was reminded of better times in Kingslanding. If it could be called better times.]

Sansa. How are you today?

[alayne]

Your Grace.

[ she rises to curtsy. better times, perhaps not but times she thinks about, yes. margaery has been the one thing that kept her grounded into a distinct feeling of hope and happiness in the twisted world that was king's landing. staying here as long as she did, sansa never once missed king's landing.

she has missed margaery, with her pretty smiles and sweet words and impish nature. ]

I am well, you are so king for asking. I hope - has this day found you well?

[thekittenqueen]

[She shakes her head, linking her arm to Sansa's as she used to do in the gardens.] I am not queen here. Not while there is a Targaryen wandering about. Joffery's death has put my claim into dispute as it is.

But you, dear one. Tell me of what you have been doing here.

[alayne]

[ sansa tenses at her side as she speaks of joffrey. his death - ]

I know the Queen blames me for it. I swear, I did not kill him. I would not kill anybody. Please -

[ her voice breaks a little around the words. ]

Please, believe me. I do not want any soul here to think me a murderer. I did not kill Joffrey.

[ she was hardly sad that he died but killing, no. she does not tell her of the stones, doesn't tell her of littlefinger's words. she tells what she can, the truth that she knows to be certain. ]

Not much, Your Grace.

[ and sansa would give the title both to her and daenerys. to be safe. ]

I've made some friends and they have kept me safe.

[thekittenqueen]

[She shushed Sansa gently, placing her hand on her shoulder.]

I know you didn't. Hush, child. You have nothing to fear from me. You have done nothing wrong. I know who was truly behind it.

[She stroked her hair lightly, trying to offer a mothering gesture to the young girl. Her fear always inducing a protective need inside of her.]

Have they? I am glad. How long have you been here?

[undealt]

[Now that Pan's gone, the woods bear Gold no ill and can, instead, be a reminder of a world lost to him long ago when he traded it for another. Still, he knows well the sort of frights a dark forest can instill in a young maiden and he's careful when he approaches Sansa from behind, coming to rest beside the bench she's seated on as he follows her gaze.]

They used to warn children to stay far away from the dark forest when I was a boy. It's full of enchantments, they'd say. Enchantments and things no mere mortal can face alone.

[alayne]

[ at times, sansa stark does think of peter pan. of his words of a faraway land where joffrey would have been nothing for kings lose all honor and titles there. joffrey is long dead but a small part of her would have wished for the queen to step foot in a land where they despise adults and crowns.

foolish thoughts of a girl who is certainly more loss than not. ]

I thought all magic to be dead in my world. They said it died thousands of years ago with the dragons.


[ but they knew so little, all of them. ]

Yet there is one here who would claim the throne of my world and she has dragon, just as the stories told.

[ she smiles a bit, it is a pretty smile but dipped in something that is perhaps too bitter for a girl of three-and-ten ]

I have very little fondness for those anymore.

[undealt]

So you and Daenerys are from the same realm, then.

[It's not a question. He hums, slightly. That's an interesting revelation. One he'll probably put to good use one day. It seems Westeros boasts many an interesting lady that catches Gold's eye.]

Don't despair of stories, my dear. Every tale has some truth to it. The trick is sorting what's real from what isn't. I believe you're clever enough for that.

[alayne]

Her family is said to be gone. All killed in the rebellion.

[ and their friendship is an odd things. wolves and dragons have gone against one another and as the dragon queen had reminded sansa, it was her own lord father who brought upon the fall of her house. but my lord father was good, sansa had wanted to argue but didn't. at the end of this madness, they were two young women and daenerys has never frightened her as the lannister lioness.

perhaps I ought to be afraid of them all, she thinks. but there is so much to be scared of in the world and so little to put trust at. it's a tiring ordeal. ]

They all lie.

[ and she was foolish enough to believe them. should have listened to litterfinger when he first spoken to her of her songs and stories and valiant knights and sweet queens. ]

Only children would believe them and even they shall have to see the truth.

[ sooner or later. ]

they are filled with goodness and sweetness and gallant knights and sweet kings who banish evil. in truth, kings can be evil and knights can be craven and monsters can triumph.

[undealt]

[Gold nods at her bitter and jaded surmise of stories- it's true and she's right to feel that way. Being from a storybook world where he's come to learn that villains never get happy endings and heroes always win, he has reason to wish to believe her more real perception of how things are, because it means there's a chance that even a bitter sorcerer who lusts for power and loses everything he's ever loved can have happiness.

But maybe it's too much to hope. They're both on wrong ends of different stories. A princess who will never be rescued from her tower and a villain who has tried to be a hero.]

Indeed. So why do we keep telling them to our children? [he stares out across the way, looking into a forest that's far older and more dangerous than Wonderland's.] We tell them, because we want our children to strive to make those words theirs, but we fail to warn them that its up to them to live those stories, rather than expect everything to fall into place. So they fall to bitterness and despair and the world becomes a place so far removed from what the stories tell that no one can truly believe those words ever rang true. But we fall back on those stories again and again, telling them over and over, hoping one day the world will be like that again.

And so it goes, generation after generation making the same mistakes their fathers and mothers did.

[Gardens]

[nascensibility]

[While Evelyn does not put much stock in the New Testament, some of the moral and philosophical writings of the Tanakh appeal to her tremendously, and she takes solace in each and every thing having its own time and season. It is not necessarily reassuring that good things will end, but a reminder that bad things will pass and the world follows a cycle, the order of which is predictable, neat, and organised.

Even in its disorder Wonderland has patterns of its own, marked by events and holidays and the ebb and flow of its changing populace. Some people remain where they are, weathered stones with the edges of their indignation worn smooth after years in captivity.

Evelyn never thought she would see the day when she became to others what Mark Meltzer was to her - but then, nine years ago she assumed she would become a spinster and live out the rest of her life surrounded by books and cats.]

Hello.

[Her greeting is gentle, although her delight at seeing Alayne - as she still knows her - in the gardens is unparalleled. The chilly weather has forced her into trousers and a capelet, but the crisp, fresh air has done wonders for her mood this afternoon.]

I didn't expect to see anyone else out here with the skies so grey.

[A little too much like London, if one were to ask her.]

[alayne]

you are well met, lady evelyn.

[ sansa speaks and perhaps she sounds different today, a bit older and very young and very tired. still, she smiles, inclines her head. she looks towards the woods and then up to the sky; the skies are grey, indeed. she remembers the pale grey stretching above winterfell, arya running through the corridors and lady stark with her hair done in a braid - ]

I found indoors to be too crowded. I find more solace outside. I hope this day finds you well, despite its colors.

[nascensibility]

It does, thank you.

[Evelyn prefers blue skies and gold sand to the damp, grey atmosphere of southern England - God, what wouldn't she give for a temple around here? - but heat and Egypt are in her blood and chilly weather is something of a death sentence.]

I meant to ask, but the party itself was so distracting - did you enjoy the ball?

[alayne]

-- I did.

[ it was a sweet escape. she had loathed the southorn dance balls once she has heard the truth of the people who held her. it was an odd thing, to choose to attend one, to choose who to go with and what to wear.

choices are no longer something sansa stark takes for granted. ]

It was a sweet moment.

[ but those somehow never last, do they? ]

and yourself?

[nascensibility]

I did, yes. It reminded me of my girlhood - I attended such parties then, quite frequently.

[At the time she had loathed them because it meant being dressed in frocks she hated, forced to socialise with those she would rather avoid, but Evelyn sees the merit in an upbringing that allows for etiquette and politesse even in the company of those one despises.

Now that she is older, of course, she can associate with whomever she pleases whenever she wants.]

I do hope Will behaved himself.

11th | HERE, HAVE SOME LOSERS

[halfwinchester]

<sub>[Medieval princess, meet hound!

With the event over, Adam and his mastiff are free to go in and out of the entrance hall without that nest egg getting in the way. For his part, Cooper is often in a great mood when able to be outside running and playing, in contrast to his owner. In contrast to a lot of people. There's something to be said for having the mind of a dog; they don't have to worry about events, or Jabberwocks, or people, or any of the soul-sucking stuff that makes it seem pointless to get out of bed in the morning.

Adam had seen the girl when she'd been injured, but Cooper hasn't gotten a pet from her since long before that. That doesn't stop the dog from leaving Adam behind to bound across the snowy grounds to her after some mid-morning exercise in the field.

He's looking particularly handsome in a layer of snow and drool today, his pants making hot, wet clouds.

Never fear, a mess on four legs is here! Hide your hand-wash only stuff.]</sub>

LOSERS WHAT LOSERS

[alayne]

I know you, do I not?

[ spoken to the dog. the grey and white of the world remind sansa of winterfell and whatever time she can, she spends outside, thinking ( wishing, longing ) for home. but the mastiff runs to her and brings a small smile to her lips. she runs her fingers through his hair and looks aside, to where she knows she will find his companion. ]

How do you do, Adam.

THE MOST LOSERISH OF LOSERS

[halfwinchester]

<sub>[Yes, she does! And even if she didn't, the dog would be happy to introduce himself for the first time. He barks as if answering her, bumps into her leg, then dances back a step before bouncing forward again, all the while panting happily at the attention.

Adam, being used to this, seems in no particular hurry to chase him down.]</sub>

Quit running off, would you? God, you'd think you had a steak hanging off a stick.

_{[Once he steps off the grass and onto the garden path, he stamps snow off of his boots before approaching. The girl qualifies as a casual acquaintance, if nothing else. (With so few people he trusts, he's been tempted to remove friendly acquaintance from his vocabulary.)]}

Hey. Good to see you're looking better.

BUT MUTTS

[alayne]

My wound has healed as they said it would.

[ she manages to smile around the words, to feel relief instead of remembering the jabberwock and fearing its return. she has known adam since she had first stepped foot in wonderland. when she was still brown haired alayne and not auburn haired sansa. ]

and yourself. the last few weeks have been hard, you are well met today. I am glad to see you are well.

okay, the mutt can stay, Cooper can leave

[halfwinchester]

<sub>[Cooper hovers around her knees like a puppy. Unless he gets too rough or the girl cries uncle, Adam doesn't call him back.

Sniffing, he and slides his hands into his pockets where it's warm. The dog kicking snow on him had given him a chill.]</sub>

You can say that again. I'm guessing the hospital visit isn't what's sticking with you.

_{[The physical stuff is easy, it heals. What goes on beneath the skin... it doesn't heal so easily.]}

Same old, same old. You keeping it together?