get your mingle on

[curiositykilledthecats]

Who: SS Huntress and visitors
Broadcast: N
Action: Ship mingle!
When: Time is an illusion

[So, we've been returned to our ships, and they're all different now! Having lower ceilings must suck for those of you who are actually not tiny.]

Comments

[steeledskin]

[ oh, she responds to flattery -- even when (and she can tell) it's being used to chase her off the scent of another inquiry's path. sansa's smile is hidden in the firm line of her lips, but she can't hide how much she likes to hear a nice thing said. her whole person craves compliments like a fine flower's roots crave water. ]

It's a family name. [ ... ] Northern daughters have carried the name before me.

[sinuosity]

[ Something subtle in Nyssa's expression gives way to warmth. ]

And what of the name Stark? What can I expect of the family of Warden of the North?

[steeledskin]

[ it shouldn't be a difficult question. and yet, it is. its complexity creeps like a shadow over her face. house stark stands for things she'd abandoned all too willingly, and things she'd come to embrace once again in pain. ] Winter is coming, [ she breathes. ] Those are the words of our house. Even in the long summers, we are supposed to remember that winter always returns.

[ something she hasn't been so successful at recalling -- cavorting in the south, and enjoying the sun while she could. ] Stark is an old name. And it belonged to kings, once upon a time.

[sinuosity]

[ If Nyssa believed in such things, she could easily see Sansa a queen. The girl has never shifted once, nor faltered. Yes, Sara would like her. ]

I like it much better than the Lannister boast, I think. There is no better lesson than winter, and little that is older.

[ ... ]

It can be a harsh one, but necessary things often are.

[steeledskin]

[ her curiousity gets the best of her: ] H-has Lord Tyrion told you much of Westeros, Nyssa?

[ how much, she wonders. and on what subjects. ]

[sinuosity]

I know of Casterly Rock and a little of his family. They are Warden of the West, and the richest house in Westeros. I understand that his sister is currently the queen. Little else, I would rather hear of others with their own words.

[steeledskin]

She's not, you know. Queen -- not truly, except perhaps by virtue of regency. [ there is a sharp conviction behind her words -- sharper, still, than anything she's expressed thus far. ] Her sons have been kings thereafter, you see.

[ and such sorrow has been visited upon the kingdoms. ]

[sinuosity]

[ Evenly, ]

What of her sons, Sansa Stark? Has the apple fallen far from the tree?

[steeledskin]

Tommen is king, now. Her youngest. Last I saw of him, he was still a kind-hearted boy.

[ she will not speak of the other son. not even to this fine creature. ]

[sinuosity]

[ Which means the others are dead, or removed, somehow. She doesn't ask. ]

Do you miss it? The court?

[steeledskin]

[ the gentle (and expected) answer is to tell nyssa that she misses it very much -- the glamour and the intrigue and the attention. it would be the better lie, and so she tells it: ]

Certainly. [ her expression is ever-so-slightly strained. ] It's hard to put the royal court's glory into words. Nothing compares.

[ and everything is preferred. ]

[sinuosity]

If it were possible, [ she says, very deliberately, voice calm and steady, ] I would have you at my home in Nanda Parbat, when I take my father's place. Then you can speak plainly, and tell me how it compares.

[steeledskin]

[ it's a challenge to not feel somehow earmarked by nyssa's interests -- by her passing charity, or else her pinning gaze. why, sansa wonders, would this brave thing want to see her transported elsewhere? and why, she also wonders, would she want to hear the truths about a kingdom that doesn't concern her? ]

What's it like? Your...Nanda Parbat. [ she's careful to say the name exactly as nyssa did. note for note. ]

[sinuosity]

It's a castle in the mountains, carved into the rock. A place only the very determined or the very lost come to. We hunt in the valleys and trade with those in the villages. There is news of the outside world, sometimes, but very little other than what we seek out. It's peaceful in a world that has forgotten peace.

I have no siblings that I know of and no subjects to speak of, but kin in those who come to serve my father.

[steeledskin]

[ it sounds...lonely, in sansa's opinion. lonely, but idyllic. oh, what she wouldn't trade away to enjoy such loneliness and be removed from the grand fusses of the world.

she likes to listen to someone else say lovely things about their home, however. and so: ] I'm sorry you were taken from it.

[sinuosity]

Father would say this is all a test, and it is not fitting that we should fail it.

[ She shrugs. ]

What would your father say?

[steeledskin]

[ her chin drops -- and sansa works at it, because she's painfully aware that her instincts drive her towards alayne's father and his wisdom. petyr baelish would see this as an opportunity: such kind people, whose motivations are written so clearly on their faces.

(but not nyssa's. nyssa would be a nut to crack, and that sudden realization makes her dread baelish's inevitable arrival. because he's always right there behind her -- isn't he?)

sansa puffs her cheeks and thinks about ned stark, instead. honourable ned stark. ]

I think -- I think he would try his very best to remind me that I am his daughter no matter where I was. [ even in the vale, she is his blood. ] And he would want me to be kind to the people caught here with me. They need as much help as I do.

[ a rosy picture of a dead man -- she bites her bottom lip, and draws a dramatic differential line between ned stark and littlefinger. ]

[sinuosity]

[ Nut to crack or a stone to wear down, but Nyssa is metal, sinuous in movement as a blade, straightforward in purpose. Rock can be broken. All she must do under pressure is melt and be reforged. ]

Do you think you can be kind?

[steeledskin]

[ the question -- so incisive -- merits a sharpish look. more fear than any other emotion pressed outward. ] Yes, [ she answers quickly. but her guts scream no. ]

Only it's difficult, isn't it? When you know so few people. [ a short breath. she confesses: ] But my brother is here, Nyssa. And I want to be kind to his friends.

[ but sansa doesn't know his friends, and she wonders how she can begin to trust them. ]

[sinuosity]

[ She smiles again, soft and disarming. It's bizarre, she doesn't think she's entertained such open sentiment around someone not Sara or Laurel. Laurel. Laurel would want to be kind to Sansa, but that's not why Nyssa likes her. ]

I'm afraid I know little of kindness given, only that received.

[ A beat. ]

A shared meal would not be amiss. This is a well-equipped kitchen, and I am certain the library aboard the Bishop or the Iskaulit would be helpful.

[steeledskin]

[ some of the ugliness beneath sansa's fair and graceful behaviour surfaces when, at the suggestion, her nose crinkles. ] A proper lady does not cook meals.

[ regardless of who for. ]

[sinuosity]

Then a proper lady will starve.

[ It's delivered evenly. An ultimatum. ]

I've no doubt your crewmates will be helpful, but would you really rather depend on someone else?

[steeledskin]

[ for as long as she can remember, she's had servants -- cooks and handmaids alike. someone to prepare her food and someone else to help her don her dresses in the mornings. perhaps she should be ashamed of how difficult every day is, now that she must manage these simple tasks on her own. ]

Are there no servants in Nanda Parbat?

[sinuosity]

No. We train and keep warriors, no one else.

[steeledskin]

Even knights require squires and grooms and -- and all sorts. [ ... ] Who stokes the fires? Who lights the candles?