eachdraidh | (third lemon cake) voice ✧ open to both courts

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(third lemon cake) voice ✧ open to both courts

( VOICE: OPEN TO BOTH COURTS )

Fellow [ ... ] shardholders. Seven blessings upon you all.

[ sansa is back in caer glaem, but there is no visual recording to accompany this address. (perhaps foolishly) she believes she may be somewhat protected from joffrey's attention. she would avoid an address altogether, but she feels there are those in the opposing court who ought to be quietly warned against the evil presence in their midst. trouble is, she doesn't know their names. and so here is a quiet attempt to draw out some of those people she'd spoken with at the very outset of using these lockets. ]

These lands are impressive. I have spent the larger part of two turns of this moon travelling them. Their roads are hard, perhaps, but I find myself oddly...pleased that I made any progress at all. [ there is a quiet (and honest) reverence in her voice. improvement and daring is not a thing she expects of herself, and so the mere understanding that she can now build a fire or ride a horse for days? it kindles something in her heart. a spark of pride. ] Seelie. Unseelie. Both territories boast beautiful landscapes -- I should like to see them painted, perhaps. Are there any artists in either court? Painters? Sculptors? [ ... ] Have we any musicians? These kingdoms must have their own songs. I would fain learn them.

From what played at the first feast, I imagine fairy music must always be a delight.

[ a protracted conversations, perhaps. but she hopes to catch the ear of wary allies and would-be friends. and as for her public behaviour? ah, well. she will be alayne stone a little longer. she is not ready to reclaim herself in one headlong rush. small steps and little leaps must be made. ]

(ooc: this post comes on the evening of june 27th. if your character is in caer glaem and is more apt to find here somewhere around the castle, go ahead and hit me with an action thread instead. i'm good with it. )

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Yes. Jon Snow. He's a Snow like I'm a Stone and--

[ her heart (thudding like wingbeats in her chest) might not survive so much: the heady conversation about her brother or the revelation that jon had been singing. all at once, she wishes she might hear him do so. and she is about to open her mouth and assure stiles that she'd known none of these people before arriving here but...

i wish he'd just die. ] Who? [ her tone grows a little strained. she stands still. ] Who is in the other court?

[ for a half-moment, she's seized by their common burden. ]

Peter. Peter Hale. He's this--

[Drama queen of an ex alpha werewolf with a huge personality problem that wasn't limited to the fact that he was a homicidal dickbag and might have an issue with Stiles having deflowered his daughter that neither of them was aware existed in that capacity beforehand... oops?]

He's a bad person and I keep wishing I'll see his name vanish off the locket list, but no dice so far.

What about you? You said there were people in the other court? I guess they're not good either, huh?

[ some lies are kindly said. but sansa (knowing what kind of danger the lannisters could pose) thinks that it would not be kind to lie to stiles now -- not after he's expressed so much concern for her and her pieces and the suitability of her knight-upon-the-road. and so, though she may not be prepared to go alone with him to his workshop, she's ready to...do something.

although it's treason: ] There is a young king in the Unseelie Court, Stiles. And the tales they tell of him would shock you.

[ her head tilts. she watches him -- closely, but even she isn't certain why. or even what she hopes to read in his face. upon such close inspection, it's a pleasant face. clear and fine-featured. healthy. were he from a land with lords, sansa would be convinced he was of noble blood. ] Like your...Peter Hale -- King Joffrey and his uncle are both bad people. And both amid the Unseelie.

Well, good. Then they can stay there and partake of a giant suckfest. Maybe they'll kill each other and we won't have to worry about it? In a perfect world, right?

[He grinned, bright and quick at the thought of Peter dying -- and staying dead. Goddamn Hales.

But, let's change the subject to something nicer.]

So, are you happy to be back or do you miss being on the road? I know some people prefer to travel, but unless it's in my jeep, I'd really rather be home.

[ yes! something nicer. because in her mind's eye all she can see is joffrey's face turning more and more purple-- ]

Very happy. [ she says in earnest. happy to be with her family. happy to have a bed every night. happy to meet those she's come to know only at a distance. and with this sudden smooth transition into a better topic, she steps onto the gravel path and waits for stiles to join her. a walk through the bailey might not be a modern boy's idea of a thrilling afternoon -- but this feels very bold to a girl like sansa. ] This world is a pretty one...but I prefer my chambers. I've never lived so -- rough. I was scared I'd never get the smell of campfire smoke off my skin.

[ ...and somehow she manages not to ask what a jeep is. ]

Edited 2014-06-28 04:22 (UTC)

[She can ask another time. He doesn't mind talking. He's a rambler and it's kind of nice to have someone that seems to want to listen to him instead of telling him to shut up or just waiting for him to finish.]

Yeah, I'm not really the roughing it sort either. I used to get teased for bringing an air mattress camping. Oh [Realizing she wouldn't really know what that was], it's an inflatable pallet. You blow into it to fill it with air and you can sleep on it or float on the water on it. Made camping a bit easier.

[ she pulls a (small) face at the notion of sleeping on air. but only because it's difficult to imagine. ]

I don't know why you'd be teased for making yourself comfortable -- [ she reasons. and yet there had been some moments when she'd complain about this or that lacking amenity and ser gendry had gotten a look on his face like he might have teased her if he wasn't being so awkwardly gallant about it all. ]

Because boys are supposed to be tough. Part of that whole guy code thing I was talking about before. Guys 'make due' and if you don't then you're a wuss or something bleep-worthy and you get picked on.

[He shrugged.]

It wasn't too bad and I slept better because of it, so their loss for toughing it out, I guess.

[ she eyes him with a certain shrewdness. a gentle lady she may be, but she'd shared company with enough brothers and knights to know that the bravado could, indeed, grow to ridiculous levels. boys (it seems to her) like to boast. but here was stiles, gladly boasting a different strength: a wit and a cleverness that tossed aside pride and enshrined survival. oh, so she did not know that modern camping with modern mattresses is a far cry from travelling in wild lands -- but the core premise is still the same: stiles shunned the expectations of his strange guy code in favour of comfort and a good night's sleep. he'd risk bullying for it.

how brave. sansa has no other word for it; she can only imagine cowering in the shadow of someone else's expectations. not defying them openly. ]

...They sound like fools. And as though they deserved the lumpy ground upon which they slept. [ ... ] Or, perhaps, did not sleep.

[He'd probably laugh if she called him brave, especially over something like that, but Stiles had gotten used to being picked on from a young age, though it never really got past the pointless picking that kids do because kids don't realize that they can be cruel. And he had Scott, which is more than he can say for most kids, so really, what was there that others could throw at him that he couldn't handle?]

Yeah, that pretty much describes every kid ever, especially boys. We're pretty dumb in the first place. But we're big and stupid to make up for girls being smarter and growing up more quickly. Or, maturing, I guess, instead of actually growing up faster.

[He looked over at her with a grin.]

Bet you and Gendry could have used a couple of them while you were on your way back here. Air mattresses, that is. Not stupid boys.

[ she nods. ] Perhaps. Most likely. But I can't imagine our horses carrying mattresses. [ because she doesn't quite bend her mind around the notion of one being inflatable.

stiles's grin is a little contagious. she lets it feed her own small smile. ] But I do wonder which sort of boy Ser Gendry is. Would he, like you, take the offered comfort? Or is he the stupid sort, keen to prove his worth by sleeping on uneven earth?

[ there is no answer, of course. or none that she will give aloud. sansa thinks she knows which would be most accurate -- but for all stiles's talk of girls being smarter, she'll take her time to play the dull-wit. ]

Hah, no, not like... do you know what a balloon is? Wait, like... um... a water skin.

[Hah, he knew she'd know what that was.]

Picture one as big as a mattress, but with nothing in it and rolled up. I mean, we can get them smaller than what that would probably be, but then you unroll it and just inflate it. And there you go. Tiny little thing that you can sleep on later.

[He shrugs at the question, even though he's pretty sure he knows.]

Gendry seems like the kind of guy that's used to going without and I... I think he'd be pretty suspicious of anything that someone offered for comfort's sake,

[Ooh, look, someone was being smart. Stop it, Stiles.]

[ the wine skin analogy does help. but as for gendry... ]

I imagine he's had a difficult time of it. His upbringing -- and the news he received here upon his arrival. [ a careful glance; she wonders if stiles knows. ser gendry's made no secret about it. nor has anyone else, really.

quietly, and as if she's very shy about owning an opinion of her own: ] He's very proud. And very stubborn. It's as if he downplays his noble blood to celebrate his humble origins. But I think it only makes him seem angry. [ a frown. ] I'm certain he's happy to be back in Caer Glaem and not forced to keep company with some...

[ oh. but she's not meant to be a proper lady when she's alayne stone. and so: ] Not forced to keep constant company with one of a gentler birth.

[No, Stiles doesn't know, but that's because he and Gendry haven't exactly sat down and had a guy's night or anything.

But hearing that he has 'noble blood' has him wondering about the guy. Sure didn't seem like a prince or lordling to Stiles, but what did he know about that?

That last bit of hers had him scoffing, thumping the butt of his staff on the ground as they walked.]

That's just stupid, Alayne. I'll bet he enjoyed it more than he let on. It's not like you're a gabby girl, so I doubt you rambled his ear off. I wouldn't be surprised if he liked the company. I certainly do and I'm no noble born anything.

[ a quiet look. stiles's words are encouraging but she retains her misgivings. so much so that she seriously considers voicing them: ] Might I confess one thing to you?

[ a little thing, really. a fleeting thing. but it's been on her mind. and stiles is so knowledgeable in the way of young men! she would dredge his experience for some guidance on this matter. ]

[She's so hesitant about it he wants to laugh, like she's got this big secret and he might gasp and run away, fleeing in terror over it. Girls. No, old fashioned girls. He couldn't imagine having to live in a time where he'd have to watch all of his words so carefully, especially when his mouth preferred to move before his brain caught up with it.]

Hmm? Yeah, sure. Lay it on me.

[ lay it on me: wit and brains alone navigated that sentence. when she susses it out, she nods a gentle nod and turns her head and lets her thumbs fidget together where her fingers are folded against her stomach. ]

We travelled so far. Days. Weeks. I've travelled before -- but never so far from comfort. And we were in the enemy's lands! [ a soft sigh. ] I fear I've been cruel. I feigned ignorance that Ser Gendry was taking the nightly watch all to himself. [ oh, her sister's direwolf had stalked their camps and likely kept the worst away. but... ]

We were met with some men from Westeros when we neared Caer Glaem and they began to share the watches after the sun set. And it occurred to me...I should have offered. On the road, I should have at least offered to take a watch or two. Only now do I realize how little he must have slept the whole journey.

[ it's a small confession. negligible, at best. but it clearly tries her conscience and troubles her soul. she wants stiles to tell her it's okay. and, perhaps, that a young man's pride would have had it no other way. ]

[Silly, silly girl. At least she'd noticed. Some people he knew wouldn't have. But he didn't want to give her a throwaway answer since it seemed to genuinely be bugging her.]

Well, Gendry's a big boy. If he thought he needed a break, he would have said something, right? I mean, if he was so worn out that he couldn't take care of himself or you, he would have said something. Or fallen off his horse.

[He shrugged. It was in the past and Sansa couldn't go back and undo it, but if she'd noticed it and there were future travel times, she could do something about it next time. That was a start.]

Have you ever kept watch before? Was it something you would have thought about offering to do?

I have before been sleepless. [ but that is not the same as taking watches. worse yet, she knows how many nights she'd rested by their fire with her eyes shut and no sleep in her brain. she knows how many nights she could have been watching, because she wasn't sleeping regardless. but-- ]

But -- no [ she confesses. ] I would not have wanted to do it. [ she is a lady, whatever her supposed birth. and just as she had asked gendry to move a wooden chair for her at their final inn, she would have expected him to take the stag's share of any watching. ]

Lots of people are sleepless. Doesn't mean they should be watching for danger all night. Look, Alayne, you can't beat yourself up over things like this. We're all... adjusting. This is new territory and we have to figure out how to work it properly. You can't just become this super forest goddess in a matter of weeks because you want to.

[ her laughter is hollow. ] I would never be so ambitious. No, Stiles. I will settle happily enough for never giving someone cause to resent me.

[ as she fears ser gendry must, in some corner of his heart. he had been kind enough -- eventually. and he'd refused her offer of glittering rewards. and he'd promised her a silver trinket for all her trouble. but the old fear settles easily on her shoulders: i am a disappointment. ]

Hey, if anyone resents you for not being a jungle commando on your first trip out, they can kiss my ba-- bleep. Repeatedly. Kind of hard to resent you, Alayne. You're not exactly a top offender.

[ oh, she thinks it easy enough to resent her. but she isn't so stupid as to say it aloud. she likes it better this way; she likes how stiles seems to think so well of her. ]

You sound so certain! [ she dares a small and calculated smile. ] And yet you've only truly met me today.

I happen to have a good radar for picking up on evil or jerky people. And it's not even twitching around you. I'd say it's safe to say you're off the list of baddies to watch out for.

[Another smile and, oh, hey, a bench up near a little rock pool.]

Feel like sitting over there? Half sun, half shade, looks pretty perfect. Then I can have a minute to convince you that you seem like a pretty good person without worrying about tripping over anything.

[ valiantly, she resists the urge to make some light jape about water parks and gardens and pools. instead, she bobs her head and decides that -- barring stiles's strange manners -- this time with him is as comfortable as the rare moments she'd spent with loras tyrell. a kind of odd gentle conversation -- filled with a side of life she's never known, and an absence of threat. of course, she's not ready to go to his workshop. or even leave the bailey with him.

but the bench? the bench will do just fine. ] Gladly. [ another smile. ] If you would sit, I would sit as well.

[ and then she waits: either for him to walk first or else to offer his arm. who knows. ]

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