and I miss you

[dohaeris]

Who: sansa etc.
What: catchall winter log...
When: december to february probably
Where: all over!!!

Content Warnings: will be in the headers, character warnings in app


[starters in the comments including OPEN PROMPTS for SMALLER SANSA (mid-book two, almost fourteen be nice)]

Comments

you're on your own, kid | around january 20th | housemates

[dohaeris]

[sansa delivers the mushrooms to the red and is roundly hailed for her part in the mission, graciously and tiredly returns everyone's thanks (for looking after madame generosity) and goes home to bed; she doesn't even remember to forget to moisturize (she barely manages to get her stays off).

she wakes up in a strange bed next to a silvery and translucent statue (??) of herself as a woman grown, in a long-sleeved shift too big around the...chest and shoulders. there's a scratching at the door and she peeks out of the curtain just in time to see lady open it. she blinks back tears.]

Lady?

[but lady was never this big. it must be a dream, but the carpeted floor is solid beneath sansa's feet, and lady is warm as she presses herself against sansa. sansa glances around...the room is dim and comfortable; the clear glass windows have snow in the corners and show a massive grey sky dotted with ravens. she moves towards one to peer out at the strange city, its dark stone buildings and strange bright lights, but she's caught by pictures of her family, small and yet startlingly true to life, and she blinks back tears. they sting when they hit her still-scraped eye.

this isn't the red keep. it must be a dream. but sansa's never had a dream like this. a snow-white raven flutters in through the open door after lady, followed by a...little black cat with wings?

"Oh, it's the shedding ceremony," says the raven, in a voice that could have been any of sansa's brothers', but wasn't. "Don't be frightened, little bird. You're safe now."

numbly sansa picks up a silver-grey robe on the back of the chair by her vanity (it has her father's doll and her mother's brooch, an old rose from the castle garden..?) and ties it tightly, though it bunches awkwardly and hangs out over her shoulders.

she finds she must address the raven. a lady's courtesy is her armor. she bobs a little curtsey.]

Forgive me, I seem to have found myself in a strange place. I should be very grateful if you might tell me where I am.

[the raven settles on her vanity (and the cat lands neatly on her bed).

"Oh, that's easy," he says. "You're in the City of Trench on the Pthumerian ocean, far beyond the reach of the Iron Throne. This is the Rookery, and I am Winterfell.

Welcome home, little bird."

the door remains open.]

[fistprize]

[in strolls this kid, with an arm full of oversized embroidered tunics with violets on them, chewing the remains of a cookie, and a small box of them in her hands. there's a bag slung over her shoulder, too. she found so much stuff. what she didn't count on finding was ...someone else. someones else. because those are two voices. but whatever, she peers in anyway, first her head and then the rest of her.]

The Rookery, huh? Good to have a name to a place. [but what about a name to a face? she doesn't have one for this girl - but that's ...the norm for her. she doesn't really know anyone here.]

Woah, what a cool cat!

[and then:]

Oh, shit!

[she quickly steps in front of sansa if she can, hissing out (and dropping her box):] Wolf! [before taking a real look at lady and starting to realize that's ...probably not an unfriendly wolf.]

[dohaeris]

[meanwhile sansa barely manages to take in this strange girl with strange hair (tyroshi?) and trousers before she's lunging in the direction of lady. of course sansa shouts, panicking.]

Don't hurt her!

[she squares her shoulders and looks the girl in the eye.]

That's Lady. She's mine, and she's good. She never hurt anyone.

[sansa reaches out a hand to rest gently on the ruff of lady's neck, then twists her fingers in it. she lets out a little breath.]

I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted.

[it's only that they killed her. sansa has no idea how she reached her full growth, but she knows it's lady.

she regards the girl and her box of biscuits, now spilling across the floor. an even less likely handmaiden than shae. a little spaniel comes scuttling in the room and sniffs at the crumbs.]

Do you...[she bites back the word 'work.' it seems most polite to overshoot, like calling someone 'lord' even if they aren't.] live here?

[if the girl works here, and is meant to be sansa's guard or handmaiden, she'd likely tell her, and she'd live here anyway.]

[fistprize]

How was I supposed to know she was yours? And I wouldn't punch a wolf, just try and scare 'em off---

[the shouting doesn't faze her, but the apology for shouting? yeah, that gets her. she offers a little shrug. it's almost like she didn't really think the shouting was rude.]

---shout all you want, I'm not gonna tell you to what to do.

[another shrug as she bends to retrieve the box, petting the spaniel and smiling up at sansa.] Ha-ha. Funny. Me? Live in a place like this? No way. I'm just uh, passing through, I guess.

[her face screws up in thought as she reaches in for a broken cookie. how would she know where she lived? what if there's really a her that lives here, and she just doesn't remember it. the violets on the tunic are funny, but ...nah. that's too weird to imagine. she holds the container out to sansa, though. there's probably a lemon cookie in there! just maybe not in one piece. or maybe there's already a bit out of it.]

Do you live here?

[dohaeris]

[sansa can't help blurting out:]

She has a collar.

[which is...also strange, because it's not the sort of thing she used to make for lady, with tooled black leather and a big, opalescent gemstone shimmering of its own accord. lady is also slightly damp with seawater. sansa forces herself to focus on the matter at hand.]

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say you were the sort of person who hurts animals, it's only that it has happened before.

[she takes a breath.]

The raven Winterfell said this was my home, and [she glances at the pictures on the shelf, her gaze lingering a moment on a black and white picture, with red bits and weirwood leaves, of all her family and their wolves...she doesn't remember posing for anything like that, and the wolves all look bigger than the last she saw them.] that's my family, but I don't remember ever coming here. I was in King's Landing.

[she glances down at the biscuits. it seems bread and salt has already happened. she affixes a breathy smile to her face.]

If it is my home, you're welcome to stay. And if it isn't––

[she takes a biscuit.]

We can be guests together.

[she takes a delicate bite––it is chocolate, and her eyes widen. give her a moment...

"Anyway, you both live here," says winter diffidently.]

[fistprize]

[see? that might make sense if vi had recognized that as a collar, but she had barely stopped to look before reacting. now that she looks: it's impressive.]

Not a big deal. Wait, what? Someone tried to hurt your wolf? Here? If they try it again I'll punch their lights out. [a glance at lady, and a rhetorical question:] Right?

[sure, he could be lying, but no one's said omens do that, and hers doesn't even talk, so she follows sansa's gaze to the picture, a little lump in her throat she swallows away.]

Are they Kings? Your family, I mean. They look like it. Does that make you a Princess?
Leave it to me to run into the fanciest person in this place! [it starts as a scoff, a complaint, but sansa has smiled and taken a cookie and. well, this is not what she expects from fancy people.] You seem nice, though.

So far. [a bit of a mischievous smirk.] You could have something up your sleeve. Your sleeves are pretty big.

[she gathers up the tunics, inspecting the embroidery again and nodding at sansa's invitation before she can truly process it - but winter helps with that by adding that bit of crucial information. to the omen:]

You sure you're not pulling my leg?

you can face this | late january | open

[dohaeris]

i. everything you lose is a step you take

[it's sansa stark. there's no way to mistake this for anyone but sansa stark. but she seems younger, wispier, her eyes wider behind a fading bruise that wasn't there before. she wears a familiar blue0grey wool dress, but it doesn't fit quite right, tied too tightly and too big in the shoulders and sleeves. she has left off her needle necklace, and her hair is braided loosely to one side. she seems a little nervous, one hand clenched tightly in lady's fur. her white raven omen rests on her shoulder, looking as protective as a raven possibly can. her hellhound vhagar presses at her other side, swishing her shadow-black tail against sansa's legs.

she is loitering near the entrance of the sanctuary, hoping to catch the eye of someone friendly enough, at which point she will stubbornly hold their gaze.]

My raven said they could help me here.

[on her shoulder, winter has the grace to look a little sheepish.

"She doesn't remember any of it," he says.]

ii. you found something they can't take away

[there's snow in the sanctuary godswood––it feels like a godswood––and sansa can't help the smile that blooms on her face like the sun in winter. she darts a glance back and forth before striding eagerly across it, towards the strange little heart tree. her furs and woolen clothes keep the cold out as she settles down to build. lady curls around the little heart tree like she's done it a hundred times, and winter helps her with careful nudges of his beak.

a small crowd of curious onlookers gathers to watch sansa and her omen carve winterfell out of the snow.]

iii. wildcard!!

[maybe you saw smaller sansa elsewhere at the sanctuary or scuttling around cellar door with a cluster of dogs?? maybe you found her in the rookery kitchens or save her from the unsnakely?? whatever you want!! you can find me at bitterends for plotting!!!]

ii

[wolfhunted]

[Robyn's never actually visited the sanctuary before, nor did she know that it has a godswood. She's familiar with forests, sure, but something about this place feels different--a little like Mebh and her mother's home deep in the woods outside Kilkenny.

It isn't long before she notices the crowd of onlookers gathering to watch something, and she manages to get through to the front where she finds Sansa.]

What are you makin'? [There's something familiar about this girl, but she can't quite put her finger on it yet.]

[dohaeris]

[when she lifts her head it becomes obvious that very little has changed in sansa's face over the past four years, except for the fading black eye. sansa beams to see a friendly girl about her own age. perhaps they can have a snowball fight once she's finished.]

It's my home, Winterfell. This is the first snow I've seen since we left it. Here––

[she pats the great keep into place.]

That's where my family lives.

[she sets about adding towers to it.]

I'm Sansa Stark. Might I ask your name?

[wolfhunted]

Er...Robyn. Robyn Goodfellowe.

[Yeah, this definitely looks like that older girl she talked to on her Omni not long after she first arrived here. But she looks...younger, somehow? That's odd.]

Do you get lots of snow where you're from, then? [With a name like Winterfell, it sounds like they do. And the sculpture looks fairly sizable...her family must be well-off.]

[dohaeris]

[sansa smiles brightly.]

Yes, in the North we would get little summer snows, they were very good for snowball fights––

[snowball fights with arya. even if ser dontos brings her back to winterfell, she'll never have snowball fights with arya again...she breaks off abruptly, her eyes filling unbidden with tears. she angrily brushes them away, which strikes her as childish and ill-mannered...she sniffs and goes back to patting buildings into place.]

I'm sorry. I was just homesick. This is the Great Hall, where we'd feast you if you ever came to visit.

[she smiles at robyn damply.]

Do you know the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros?

[wolfhunted]

Summer snows? So you get snow in the summer where you're from?

[Snow in the summer would be nice sometimes, with how hot it can get, but it's still hard to Robyn to imagine.

Of course, she doesn't fail to notice Sansa tearing up at the very thought of it. She doesn't think it that childish--after all, she shed quite a few tears herself not long before coming here.]

...it's alright. I get homesick too, sometimes. I miss the woods a lot. [She pauses.] I don't know any Seven Kingdoms, but I used to live in just one. Though I suppose it's not really a kingdom now.

[Not since the previous king was killed and the Lord Protector took over. Though in her opinion, he wasn't much of a Lord Protector or a king.]

i

[fogsong]

[ Sharon visits the Sanctuary only on rare occasions. It's never felt like a place for her to linger, at least not without meaning, but she does come every now and again, often to look at the trees.

She spots Sansa upon her approach to the entrance and smiles. That smile fades as she draws closer. Her gaze lingers on the bruise as the younger girl speaks and she doesn't quite register what's said until Winter talks. ]

She's shed. [ Sharon says it breathlessly, her expression twisted with concern and lined with sorrow, as she pulls her gaze from Winter and returns it to the younger girl. She softens her expression and warms it with a pinched smile. ] What is it you need help with?

[ She's afraid to say her name, afraid to frighten her. She'll take it one step at a time. ]

[dohaeris]

[sansa can't tell if it's nerves or if this girl looks like she knows her. 'she's shed' barely registers, and sansa doesn't even know where to begin.]

I don't know! I'm not supposed to be on my own like this; I've never even been in a city manse before, and now I'm supposed to look after one by myself––!

[she draws a breath before she can say something stupid, like how she wanted to marry the prince and got stuck with joffrey, and then she wanted to be free of the red keep and she ended up here on her own.

a manse isn't very different than a castle, and her lady mother taught her how to manage a castle. plus, she has a magic tin of food.]

I would like to hire someone to help me clean things, and someone to launder my clothes. I have jewels I could use to pay them, or I could sell the jewels and pay them out of that. And I can feed them out of my magic tin, so they could have anything they like to eat. I don't have a servant's hall, but there are very nice rooms they could stay in, with fresh linen and magic lamps.

[fogsong]

[ This version of Sansa is so clearly overwhelmed and Sharon's expression becomes sympathetic. ]

It's a lot to handle, isn't it? [ She says gently as she moves to close the distance between them, her hands stuffed into the pockets of her long jacket. She can't tell if this Sansa is just younger or an entirely different girl altogether. The shed can change everything about a person. ] I'm sure we can find someone you can hire but... until then I can come over and help? You wouldn't even have to pay me.

[ It would be a good way to figure who this version of Sansa is. ]

[dohaeris]

[sansa's eyebrows knit together immediately.]

You would?

[but she catches herself, and her face smoothes itself back out. even if this is a trap, it wouldn't help her at all to seem skeptical.]

That's very kind of you.

[she looks at lady. lady blinks placidly back at her. she seems very comfortable with this new girl. of course lady wasn't bothered by joffrey, either...]

Might I know your name?

i.

[ezra_of_lothal]

[Ezra goes still when he spots her.]

I'm a part timer, but - that is what we try to do here, yes.

I'm Ezra.

You are Sansa, yes?

[dohaeris]

[oh, that's a boy about robb's age, callingat first. and he's the only one her calls her just sansa anymore.]

Yes, I'm Sansa Stark.

[a lady's courtesy is her armor. she takes a breath.]

I should like very much to offer my greetings, my lord, but I'm afraid I haven't been given your name.

[ezra_of_lothal]

[Ezra pauses.

He is in the robe's of a Jedi, tabards and all. It probably looks very formal to some people.

But formality is not his default. At her cue, however, he visibly gathers himself and gives her a bow.]

I'm Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger, Lady Stark.

That is- [He makes some guesses based on what he's observed about her, here and there.]

Something like a Squire. Sworn to the general peace, not a particular lord.

[dohaeris]

[his robes look like a maester's, and he's the right age to be an acolyte, though a boy of his age and bearing would have likely been made a knight by now, especially if it wasn't just up to some lord.

the idea of being sworn to the general peace is very interesting, but sansa had said she would like to offer her greetings, so she curtseys with the hand that isn't holding lady.]

It's good to meet you, Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger.

[strange that he should call her lady stark now, when he hadn't before.]

I should very much like to hear how you serve the general peace.

[she is being polite, but general peace is very much in her best interest.]

Is it very peaceful, here?

iii!

[centile]

[funnily enough it's sansa he's looking for at sanctuary. he comes by sometimes now, to see her and the batcats, always making sure to at least say hi to both if they're there. this time he has some intent, namely a gift he wanted to give sansa, one he saw in one of the shops that made him think of her.

a little cat face pillow with batwings, about the size of his hand that stays in his pocket at the moment. he hopes she likes it, he thought it was really cute and she's good at sewing and stuff like that. it's the kind of practiced skill that impresses him far more than magic or anything like that.

so moving through sanctuary he pauses when he notices a familiar reddish hair, sitting a bit away. as he moves closer he gets confused- it looks like lady sansa but changed, younger. oh, like how sensei turned into a teen. okay, that made sense.]

Lady Sansa? [he asks quietly as he approaches.]

[dohaeris]

[sansa glances up: a boy, around her own age. he doesn't look or sound like he's from the north, or any other part of westeros, but that only means he's probably not sworn to anyone angry with her house.]

Oh!

[she scrambles to her feet and curtsies, somewhat automatically. her smile, too, is automatic, but there's nothing forced about it. it's always nice to meet someone who has no reason to hate her.]

Yes, I'm Sansa Stark. It's very good to meet you; might I know your name?

[centile]

[oh, no one has ever curtsied to him before. he bows back out of some polite instinct, before he processes the rest. she doesn't remember either, like sensei. like him when he was an adult for a while, which was also so weird.]

I'm Kageyama Shigeo. You can call me Mob though. [deja vu. he considers a moment before he says,] I guess you turned younger too. It's happening a lot.

[infact she looks about his age, which is probably better than really tiny like some of the people he saw. deku, for example.]

[dohaeris]

[sansa laughs nervously, because what else do you do with that information.]

Yes, I've heard that I was older. I suppose it's no stranger than anything else here.

[it's not like sansa's life made much sense in king's landing, anyway...]

Have you changed ages, too?

[what counts as small talk in this situation...]

ii

[survivalthroughhate]

[There was a small alien, short and thin in that way a teenage boy who hasn't quite had puberty catch up with him yet looked, who was up in the tree itself. He was dressed in a warm cloak with fur around the hood, though he lacked any gloves or mittens and his shoes didn't look like they were meant for the cold weather.

He sat there, silent and contemplative, watching the people come and go. When he saw Sansa, her red hair striking to a Zabrak boy whose experience with human beings was limited he grew curious and crept down through the branches in near silence until he was on a strong branch above her head. He watched as she built something like a building out of the snow. He remained quiet but the minute Sansa looked up she'd see the red-and-black face.]