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clothed) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
singillatim2024-05-06 01:27 am
OPEN; how could anything bad ever happen to you?
What: test drive catch-all and may event threads
When: throughout may for the event
Where: all over!
Content Warnings: Will add as things progress!
We all have a hunger.
It's easy to fall back into rhythm with Lady. The direwolf is a miracle, even though Sansa's stopped believing in things like miracles; she knows it is her, and Lady remembers her. During her first few nights in Milton Sansa slept with the wolf curled against her body, the two of them nested together like they used to do back in Winterfell.
Warmth, especially body warmth, can spell the difference between life or death during winter.
These days Sansa finds herself in something of a routine: she wakes early, lets Lady out to do her business and stretch her legs, and then says a quiet prayer to both the Old Gods and the Seven. For her father, and her mother, and her brothers and sister and everyone else who have died.
Then she goes through what reading material is available at the community center. She'll run out eventually; it's a lot like studying, only without a septa or a maester guiding her, but she'll make do.
Sansa's easy to find like this: either walking with Lady as the direwolf maps out the town, sitting by a window and reading, or trying to help with something. Anything.
Just try not to come up from behind when approaching her; she always has her knife with her.
no subject
"Men themselves are animals," Sansa answers carefully, letting her gaze drift away momentarily. An animal can be trained, and can be taught to kneel and sit and play dead; an animal won't torture you or torment you for its entertainment.
In many respects, men can be worse than animals. Ramsay certainly is.
"Wolves keep to their packs, from what I know," she continues. "And wolves are loyal. Always dangerous, yes, but so are men. Anything can be dangerous if you give it the chance to be. I'm sorry you were forced to change." It's a sincere apology, even as Sansa accepts she has no true understanding of his world. "You shouldn't have had to."
She's a Stark, and the direwolf is the sigil of her house - it's high time she embraced what that meant.
Still, curiosity gets the better of her. "You can tell me if it's foolish to ask, but can you speak to wolves?"
no subject
Something about his voice is a little warmer now. Sure, there's still some of that natural gruff quality to it, but it's like something is definitely softening about the man the longer he's talking to Sansa. It's the way she seems so intelligent about all the right things, really. Even though Bigby has met a lot of relatively kind people in this place, and even though he's been treated better by many than he usually is back home, it's not often that people bring up these facts. The lack of a real difference between man and animals. The good traits wolves have.
An apology, even. Even though she's so new, and has barely gotten out of the cold herself.
Bigby is definitely adding Sansa right up there on his list of people he can't allow a single thing to happen to in this very moment.
"I can. Not as well as I could back home, but-- I can still generally understand them." He frowns a little again, and then adds: "It's difficult in this place for a variety of reasons. The wolves here are.. strange. All of nature here is not the way it usually is in any other place, if that makes sense. Something is tainting it."
There's a slight pause, and his gaze drifts down to Lady for a moment before he looks back at Sansa.
"Or were you asking that for her sake?"
me realizing they haven't actually introduced each other yet
Sansa knows better than to take it for granted, now. She's taken for granted so much, and lost them so quickly that she hasn't even begun to grieve any of them. She's cried over the dead, certainly, but even now she still finds herself turning to a window or a door, hoping for someone to come and rescue her.
She's still a naive, stupid girl at heart.
Enough of that, she thinks to herself, shaking her head just once. "For her," she agrees at the man's guess, "but not yet. I have a lot to make up for, first."
"But she likes you already. Don't tell me what she talks about, if she does." She says this half in jest. "Every lady deserves her secrets. —Oh, I'm Lyanna Snow, and my companion is Lady. We've only just arrived, though I suppose you've figured as much."
introductions are for normal social people tbh!! not these two!!
"Bigby Wolf," he offers in return, realising that his name might sound even more ironic to Sansa in this moment, already having learned of Bigby's true nature, much more quickly than most others have in the past. "It's nice to meet you, Lyanna."
Bigby doesn't do niceties. But that's exactly why he's saying this. It's not a nicety when he genuinely is glad to meet her. Even if he knows it's not good for anyone to be stuck here, Bigby still finds himself a little selfishly glad to have such a good kid showing up.
"I imagine there's a lot you're gonna run into in this place, especially being so new." Even Bigby had an adjustment period at first, and this place truly isn't all that different from the lands he grew up in as a young wolf. He can only imagine how much harder it must be for others. "But if you run into any kind of trouble, then you can go ahead and come look for me, alright? I'm sure little Lady can track me down no matter where I am."
Which doesn't bother him. Bigby is always glad to receive canine company of any kind. And there's something about Sansa and her innate understanding of wolves that makes a weirdly protective instinct bloom within him. Enough for the man to offer up that help relatively quickly.
no pressure to tag this back!
The truth of it rests light on her tongue; truly she doesn't know head nor tail about many of the things she sees here, but that's a problem for another time. Now, she is warm and in good company, and such things are rare enough in the past years that she's willing to compromise with herself. To be just a little more vulnerable in front of strangers.
No, wolves aren't strangers. Bigby Wolf is not a stranger.
"Where I'm from, names carry a great power within." With names come identity, and for the highborn, it brings with it some claim to loyalty. "I thank you for offering me yours. I promise not to bear it poorly."
And maybe one day, she can tell him the truth about hers.
no worries! thank for you getting back to the thread! c:
It doesn't make him regret giving her his, though. Sansa seems like an ordinary girl, not some sort of supernatural being. He could be wrong about that, with his senses dulled in this place, but it's still his instinct when he looks at her.
"Yeah, well-- Don't wear it out then," he says, though judging by the casual shrug he makes after those words, he's probably just joking about that.
He glances around them, and then looks back at her.
".. you gonna be alright? I should probably get going, but I got some time in case you need any more help."