happiness is a warm gun; open & closed.

[clothed]

Who: Sansa, others.
What: Wolftimes, Aurora Feat shenanigans, Sansa freaking out about electricity, others to be added.
When: Throughout July-August.
Where: Milton, especially around the community hall.

Content Warnings: Please see individual prompts for warnings!

[ Sansa's catch-all log for July through August, covering the events of the month/s and the aftermath of the previous ones. General and closed prompts in the comments; please hit me up on plurk (weirwood) if you'd like to plot something out! ]

Comments

[meadqueen]

Ah, my apologies.

[It's hard not to smile, the way she sounds is so familiar. One would think Sýnin Eivor’s sister, the way she speaks of her.]

It must be helpful to have such a protector here.

[clothed]

Truly. And a friend, one so missed.

[ sansa smiles, though it softens as she remembers why she lost lady in the first place. ]

A petty and stupid prince took her from me. He and his vicious queen mother.

[meadqueen]

[That's an almost shockingly frank way for a common girl to speak of royalty to a lady, but considering the context perhaps Randvi shouldn't be shocked. No wonder she had been so afraid on arrival if she had refused a prince and already suffered for it.]

You were right before to call it a gift.

[clothed]

[ anger makes her forget herself. Rage, purified fury that only comes from a great wrong witnessed so young. Ned Stark’s head on a pike, the mockery of Robb’s death at Joffrey’s wedding. Ramsay, all of him. In that moment, Sansa is alight.

She is made stone, iron, forged steel. ]

I would not have her taken from me again, if I have the power to prevent it here. I’ve met little kindness since being taken from—

[ Too close. ]

I forget myself, my lady. Forgive me.

[meadqueen]

I hope that you know that we would not allow harm to come to either of you here if it is possible to prevent it.

[Though that steely look in the young woman’s eyes implies that she might not require the external protection. It reminds Randvi of her father’s descriptions of her own wildling spirit.]

No one will take you anywhere you do not choose to go while I live, and I'm sure others feel similarly.

[clothed]

I believe you, my lady. It's the fear — I cannot seem to be rid of it, no matter how hard I try.

[ she shames herself for the thought; her fear had kept alive, why want to be rid of it now? she wants to be brave like her father, like robb, even her mother. she wants to be strong enough to not need fear anymore. ]

What do you do? When you have so much fear it chokes you?

[meadqueen]

I wish that I knew.

[It's not fear that climbs with its clawed fingers up Randvi’s throat until she's sick with it, but a useless and occasionally cruel anger. In the end, though, she feels like it's the same. What can they do except endure it?]

The heart and the head do not always align. There are things to fear here, but all we can do is try to shield one another from them.

[clothed]

That requires a lot of trust in a great number of people. Not so great as with a kingdom, to be true, but— I do not have the measure of many of the people here. Not the way I would have liked.

Is that cruel of me to think? Am I– Do I judge too harshly?

[ how damaged has she become that she can only trust so few? ]

[meadqueen]

You're a young girl alone in a strange land, it is difficult to judge you too harshly for that.

[Randvi had tested all of her food for poison for months after her marriage.]

I would hope that in this place, people would recognize that all of us are needed for survival. And if they do not, your companion has grown quite large.

[clothed]

But there are those who would judge.

[ she says it with no heat to her words. it's a statement plain; men especially might not treat her with kindness or even civility, having taken to their hardened hearts and minds as a mark of their betterment. for such people, softness has no place in either court or wilderness.

sansa knows well to be wary of them. she also knows now the advantage of playing to such expectations. ]

Lady will grow even larger, if she keeps apace. She will protect you too, Lady Randvi. I know she would.

[ i promise. ]

[meadqueen]

It is you who will have to live with the consequences if you're wrong, not them, so their opinions have little value in this matter.

[Especially for a girl without a powerful name to fall back on. Now that she's grown, Randvi recognizes how many bad situations she's avoided solely by belonging to the right man.

She doesn't have that in this place, but even here people treat her differently based on the quality of her clothing and the disclosure of her status in the Raven Clan.]

Thank you. I'm certain we already have one of the most secure homes in Milton thanks to her.

[clothed]

[ it's a wonderful thing to consider. their house would be like the eyrie, or the maiden's tower - impregnable and safe. sansa finds herself smiling at the thought. ]

What name does our keep bear, my lady? It is only right that it should have a name.

[meadqueen]

To be honest, I haven't given it much thought. This home used to belong to a man named Edward Kenway. A few weeks after I’d arrived here he saved my life, and we discovered that we share a common ally despite the gulf in time between us. He left the home to me when he left Milton, searching for a way out.

[clothed]

A way out? [ had the man found his way, then? could it be— ] But he hasn't come to find you...?

I suppose he wouldn't want to come back here if it's only been trouble for him. [ she will be charitable. she doesn't know this edward kenway, after all; the lady randvi will have a better measure of his character. perhaps she wishes for him to never find milton again, or perhaps— ] If I might ask, were you fond of him?

[meadqueen]

Very much, but I did not ever expect him to return.

[Randvi still wears the bracer he gave her, if Sansa has noticed the huge variation in quality between the one on the left and the one on the right.]

He was dying when he arrived here, I think, and expected to join his family in the afterlife if he escaped successfully.

[clothed]

Ah. That's... I understand it, I think. When we have family that we dearly miss, and has passed on.

[ she thinks of her father. her mother. robb and bran and rickon, and arya wherever she might be, however she might be. if she could be with them again — if it meant embracing the stranger's call, she might do it.

and if the bracer on lady randvi's arm is an indication, perhaps she has someone she thinks of fondly, too. ]

I only have my brother now. I haven't seen him in years, I wonder — what if he doesn't remember what I look like anymore?

[meadqueen]

I'm sorry. It's a terrible thing, to miss your family.

I have not seen my sister Thora in five years, but at least I know that she and her children are safe.

[clothed]

[ children? nieces or nephews? ]

How old are they? Your sister's children. Are any named after you, do you know?

[meadqueen]

The eldest is… [Randvi laughs, a bit melancholy.] Gods, she’s already seen eighteen winters, she’ll have her own household soon enough. I still picture them the way they looked when I last saw them.

The second girl is fifteen, my nephew is ten, and the youngest girl is five.

None of them bear my name - my brother-in-law is not so fond of me, I think. I was just a girl when Thora married, and I gave him a hard time for taking away my sister.

[clothed]

A girl of eight and ten — she's as old as I am. And born in winter, too. We're almost at the cusp of a new name day yet.

[ she's the only one who gets to celebrate name days, now. no more name days for robb. no more of them for rickon or bran, likely arya. if jon still lives—— do they celebrate name days on the wall? ]

If you were just a girl when your sister married, then it is your goodbrother's folly for holding it against you. Respectfully, my lady.

[meadqueen]

It might be difficult to imagine now, but I was a little beast when I was young. I tormented that man.

Thora was your age when she married - young for my people, but not scandalously so - and I was just entering my tenth year. She was in many ways a mother to me.

[clothed]

[ like my sister arya, sansa thinks. how is she now, her sister? does she still remember her, if she yet lives? ]

Eight years between you — that's quite a gap. And your mother, she yet lived at the time? —No, I'm sorry, that was indelicate of me to ask.

[ her own mother married fairly young, and gave birth not long after. father took to his duty with—— perhaps not enthusiasm, but with willingness. ]

[meadqueen]

[Randvi looks down, subdued. This is something that has been haunting her anew since she’d found out that she was to be married.]

Two daughters to a king is of course not sufficient. My younger brother was born dead, and he took my mother with him. I was too young to remember it.