I know they said the end is near

[dohaeris]

Who: sansa, various
What: april catchall
When: throughout april
Where: around....

Content Warnings: in the comment headers, character warnings in app.

[starters in the comments! hit me up on plurk at bitterends if you want one!!]

Comments

hot springs meeting at the wellness center!!! 4/10

[dohaeris]

[the wellness center is a little changed since sasuke and sakura left; sansa has moved the banner advertising ninjutsu lessons to a place of honor in the dojo, and hung up the tapestry she made for the rinne festival, the uchiha sigil on a sakura tree, behind the front desk. there are sakura branches outlined everywhere on the walls, and some have already been painted in.

sansa has hired a former ship's cook for the kitchens, a bold scarred woman named amyriah who despite her sardonic manner is delighted with the opportunity to flex her skills. she's brought along a few former crewmates to help with the cooking and cleaning, and for this meeting they have prepared a variety of onigiri in honor of sasuke, although the fillings contain some decidedly trench ingredients, and some surprisingly delicate cakes and biscuits (lemon features strongly in these).

they have been set out on a table along with pots of matcha in the hot springs room, which has been painted with a mural of a weirwood heart tree. a few night walkers in various elaborate bathing suits can be spotted chatting or lounging around. there's a basket of neatly folded waterproof sleeper robes for anyone who might have forgotten theirs. sansa won't say anything if anyone chooses to bathe nude, but she would prefer it if they didn't! there's also a basket of fluffy towels, and soft bathrobes can be found hanging in a nearby closet.

two black batcats and their six-week-old kittens have made the journey with sansa from the sanctuary in crenshaw. both parents wear collars with pale bloodstone tags; the mother's says 'quromae' (sansa's attempt at rendering mob's name for her, more commonly written kuromai) and the father's says 'dragonglass.' the kittens are up for adoption, though not yet done nursing; anyone interested will be able to take them home in two weeks.]

sansa stark

[dohaeris]

i.

[sansa wears her own sleeper robes, which have been neatly tailored and decorated with a few bits of embroidered leaves, and lady wears her 'fishing collar' of braided black treated leather and pale bloodstone. lady is already in the hot pools, huffing contentedly. s'mores stands around diligently in case anyone needs rescuing, or assistance getting in or out of the hot pools, but the other dogs are gathered around the sanctuary tree, playing and napping.

sansa is a little nervous, but not overly so. this is the sort of thing that she's been trained to do.

she draws a breath.]

First, I should like to thank everyone for coming here today. Sasuke and Sakura did important work here, and our friendship meant very much to me; I'm sure many of you feel the same way. I know we can't replace them, or Lady Ammako, or anyone who went back to the sea. I'll always miss them and wish them well; perhaps someday they'll return here with their children. In the meantime, it's up to us to keep their legacy and good works alive in Trench. I have learned very much from them, as I'm sure have many of you, and from helping Allen with the Sanctuary in Crenshaw. Of course we won't be hunting Beasts here, and anyone suffering Beasthood should still be brought to the Sanctuary in Crenshaw, but with any luck we'll be able to keep the Wellness Center a valuable resource for treating corruption here in Darcmouth.

[she smiles, practiced.]

Thank you, again. We also hope to offer lessons in qi cultivation and other things similar to ninjutsu at the dojo soon. If you have any ideas or questions about this or anything to do with the Wellness Center, I would very much like to hear them.

ii.

[sansa sits in the hot pool with lady, a small, wistful smile on her face. she wonders if this is the closest she'll get to the godswood of winterfell while she's awake, and how she feels about that. it occurs to her that she's no older than robb was when he became lord of winterfell, but at least he had their lady mother with him, and even their uncle blackfish for guidance. sansa can't help but feel that everyone she relies upon for guidance seems to be going back to the sea. lady whines and noses her cheek.]

iii.

[wildcard??]

i

[payingfordeliverance]

[Because this place does not have enough dogs in it, a certain dark noodle with spectral glowing eyes is sitting in the pool next to Lady. Given that half of these canines are magical or otherworldly in some way, it would be easy to assume that this dog -- very weird horse...? Borzoi -- is also simply strange, and leave it at that.

Baltus is not a real dog. Baltus is an unsupervised omen, and he has zero qualms whatsoever about speaking up to the entire party at the notion of "ideas".]

My person, Xerxes, is not ready to bring this up as of yet. However, during the first winter he spent in this place, there was a person who held a "tea ceremony", and it has crossed his mind that such a pleasant calming ritual might have a place here. He has not mentioned it because he is certain if he does he'll be encouraged to be the host, and he would not be able to help but make it weird. Probably it would be better to locate someone else familiar with the custom in its proper form.

[Having thoroughly snitched on Break, the omen pauses. Then, by way of explanation, he adds:]

Xerxes is not here because he is shy.

[Baltus does what he wants.]

toplevels can go here!!

[dohaeris]

[or someplace else if you want idk]

OTA

[payingfordeliverance]

[You could not pay Xerxes Break to sit in hot springs with a pile of relative strangers, even if everyone involved is clothed. This is much more the sort of thing he might like to do with his lover, alone, unbadgered by things like "the existence of other sentient beings" and "having some sort of job to do". Given the pleasant intimacy of that notion -- and the fact that it hasn't escaped his attention that a great many of the people involved here are half his age at best -- actually attending the meeting properly is right out.

So, while his traitorous omen sits in on his behalf, Break skulks around until he finds the kitchen and is delighted to find a bunch of sailors in it.

After having a grand old time earning his place among them by showing off his knife skills, winning a few arm-wrestling matches, and drinking one of them under the table, Break continues to wander until he finds himself back in the entryway where the sakura murals are taking form. There is a lot going on in here, but it still feels like something is missing, he thinks. Even with the murals unfinished. It's not his place to rearrange, and it would be horribly disrespectful to mess with someone else's artwork without permission. Ah, what to do, what to do...

By the time the meeting lets out Break can be found flat on his back on the entryway floor, smiling slyly up at the ceiling and being very easy to trip over. Where once there was nothing but flat white, there is now a pleasantly blue sky with fluffy clouds, something almost never seen in Trench -- and the clouds are moving, drifting around as though blown by a gentle wind, easing themselves into a variety of amusing shapes. Sometimes you are a darkblood and it crosses your mind to see if you can do a thing, and so you give it a go rather than bothering to ask permission.]