(third lemon cake) voice ✧ open to both courts

[steeledskin]

( 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. )

Comments

[caditquaestio]

I sit with the Unseelie. [ A beat. ] Is that what you yearned to hear?

[steeledskin]

Yes. [ soft. simple. her intention is found out, but there is too much distance between them to merit a back-treading apology. ] Thank you.

[caditquaestio]

I shall take it you are not beside me. I think... you would have spoken of the scenery. It does not spare the eye.

Shall I tell you when I mean to visit your court?

[steeledskin]

Please do. So I might prepare.

[ and gather her sword shields. ]

[caditquaestio]

Yes. Yes, so you might prepare.

[ Laughter, slightly wry. ]

And you will want flowers, yes? Or tokens? What is the custom where you're from? Gold?

[steeledskin]

[ lemon cakes. ]

Do you possess tokens, Valentino? Do you possess gold?

[caditquaestio]

Would that please you better?

[steeledskin]

Yes. Buckets and buckets of the thing -- [ she thinks perhaps she may dissuade him with her greed. ]

[caditquaestio]

Buckets... and buckets... well. Well, well, well. I'll have to make do. As a man, it's only my duty.

[steeledskin]

I would invest in a second horse. Travelling from one castle to another with only one to carry your gold? A deeply difficult trek indeed.

[caditquaestio]

Is it custom in your lands? Suitors making the long journey with gifts of courtship in tow?

[steeledskin]

Yes! He must. [ she will tell him anything she thinks might make the effort seem too gargantuan, now. ] And he must come with songs prepared to serenade her. I trust you play an instrument, Valentino?

[caditquaestio]

...I'll learn a song.

[steeledskin]

A pretty one. He must learn a pretty one or how else with she judge the depth of his devotion?

[ so careful! she uses distant abstract pronouns. she does not speak of herself. ]

[caditquaestio]

I'd have thought, by his deeds.

[ Or his political sway. Whichever threatens first. ]

Well, at least you're a plain girl and a bastard, so demands won't run as high.

[steeledskin]

[ her answer is quick. somehow, the lies and the subterfuge come easier to her when there is a distance between sansa and her subject. she feels less fear, and therefore feels free to play her game in earnest. ] You would not be wrong. I have no right to demand anything -- at least, not much. But these lands are strange. New. Any pauper or minor lord's natural-born daughter can ask her High Queen and High King for a barrel of jewels.

[caditquaestio]

...yes, yes. Jewels, song, a horse - what else? A castle? An army? A keep?

[steeledskin]

[ careful, ser bastard. you are giving her ideas... ]

It would be a comfort to know a prospective husband was capable of defending his family.

[caditquaestio]

A prospective husband had best know how to protect his family and against it. But as you say, donna.

You're a woman - what do you need protecting of? Men? There isn't a man who hasn't sworn violence and hardship against you the day he was born. You know that fight. Other women? You bear the same weapons. Kings and courts? They think you weak and fools and leverage, and they do not expect the knife or the poison. History? Your name will not be written. Your children?Few do not love their mothers well.

There are no monsters a woman hasn't battled. What use is my protection to you? Be fair. You ask only to have it said that you have asked.

[steeledskin]

[ he carves her open. he flenses the truth from the bones of her words and seems to sup on the implications hidden there. it leaves her feeling raw and revealed: i know that fight. but knowing of it did not mean she knew how to fight it, and the clumsy nature of this very conversation proves so much.

there are little prickles of protest, rising like gooseflesh as he names her vulnerabilities and her callouses too well. she has been wary up until this point -- toying with a distant spark and testing out its limits. but now, having been read like the vellum sheet, she feels ice cold fear flood her veins.

she grows thrifty with her words: ] I ask because it is important. [ she falls heavily upon the tradition; the expectation; the simple-minded desires of alayne stone. ] These lands are as new to me as they are to you; who can what use yours or any other man's protection might yet be?

[ she thinks on the road. she thinks on ser gendry. and she thinks upon the hard-won return to caer glaem. sansa is glad for its walls. ]

[caditquaestio]

[ Softer, then - almost timid, if carefully articulated; even. ]

...I hadn't realised what it was like to be desperate. It hadn't - occurred to me.

[steeledskin]

Have you never been desperate, ser?

[caditquaestio]

[ Slightly confused - ]

Why... would have I? It's hardly the normal state of affairs.

[steeledskin]

Has it not been your experience that desperation is a common state for those of...our fellowship?

[ his word, after all. ]

[caditquaestio]

Has it been yours?