ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡɪɴᴅᴏᴡ, sᴡᴇᴇᴛ ɪs ᴛʜᴇ ɴɪɢʜᴛ-ᴀɪʀ ( ᴏᴘᴇɴ )

[partialities]

Who: Margaery Tyrell, Cisco Ramon & Steve Rogers
Broadcast: nope
Action: yes, all over the planet and on the Windrose, Blameless & Starstruck
When: catch-all log for the duration of June & July, starters can be found in the comments! feel free to add one of your own or ask me for one/contact me at ladylike

also: cw for gif-use at the comments! all of them are sfw, however :>

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[steeledskin]

...Is the water warm?

[ sansa asks from a healthy few feet scarce of its edge. with fistfuls of skirt bunched in her hands, she holds her hems just shy of the sand. she still wears her slippers, clearing harbouring no intention to wander into the water as margaery has done.

and yet she's curious. ]

[partialities]

I do not know, Lady Sansa, I cannot quite tell.

[ says the girl running barefoot in the water, minding very little that her gown is already soaked at the ends, she makes a face at her. she is so very careful, this one, Margaery knows and understands. Life taught Sansa Stark caution and restraint and Margaery, she does try to undo those little knots, one at a time with love and care and laughter and silliness. ]

I do reckon I might need a second opinion. Mayhaps if you try you could tell me.

[ there is a smile there that's entirely impish. ]

[steeledskin]

[ impish, indeed. sansa can see the winding path of margaery's persuasion -- and how the good lady courts her second opinion with her smile. to her credit, there is a deep-seated desire to follow in margaery's bare footsteps. but something stops her directly at the water's edge -- sansa's gone so far as to abandon one slipper. she's caught up in her hesitation.

what would her brothers think if they walked by and saw her horsing around in the water? ]

It looks enjoyable, [ she announces. a little too loudly. there's a hungry curiousity on the edge of her voice. ]

[partialities]

It is. The water is warm and clear, I can see my feet and the sand beneath it. You must not fear it - it is new to me too. It is all very strange is it not?

[ she walks towards her, silks floating behind her in the water and stops just in front of her. ]

I think I can see a fish!

[ and she bends down to look - seemingly to peer closer -

but rises up quickly with a definitive, playful, warm and wet splash and there is water, water on her arms and legs and now, they catch sansa too.

there is a second of silence and Margaery is laughing, downright giggling, moving for another ]

Well come on!

[steeledskin]

[ at first, she's charmed -- watching margaery dance between the little waves that lap around her skirt's sodden hem. like some merman's princess. but sansa sees the oncoming splash far too late, and she lets out a shrill shriek: horror, surprise, and a raw edge of delight as she shakes herself and her sleeves. ]

Margaery! [ sansa exclaims, as vexed in her tone as she might be when chastising her own sister. sputtering, she rubs water from her eyes and proceeds on pure instinct -- running four steps forward and stooping low to scoop water into her cupped palms so she might get in the second splash before margaery does. ]

[partialities]

[ she is all giggles, all bright laughter that doesn't cease when she is hit by water, taking a step back to lure her forward and suddenly they are not lady sansa stark nor queen margaery tyrell, only two girls in play, splashing water at one another in a small battle of smiles and laughter ]

Well - is the water warm?

[ she teases, bright and happy, reaches for a her hand to tug her closer so they are standing together, watching the waves ]

[steeledskin]

Warmer than I thought. [ she scoops up another handful and flings it into the air -- not at margaery, exactly, but more towards the sun. and so she watches it spark and twinkle off the droplets as they come crashing back down to the ebbing sea.

and afterwards, sansa takes margaery's hand and stands shoulder-to-shoulder. wet silk and heaving breathes. smiles, too. ] I've not done anything like this since I was a child.

[ and even then, it wasn't an ocean -- but the pool in the godswood. ]

[partialities]

[ she looks up, the way the light reflects itself in the small drops before they splash around their ankles. a pretty sight, one to put to memory in darker days to come.

it's sansa's smile that softens her and she squeezes her hand in her own ]

Mayhaps we are allowed to be a little childish here. A small measure of peace.

[steeledskin]

[ when they stand side by side and look out at the ocean, their backs to the world, sansa feels almost safe. like the sea before them will swallow up all their secrets and gossip.

peace, hmm? ] Did you hear what happened to the man with the metal arm?

[partialities]

He has hurt one of my crew most terribly. I am assigned to the medbay, we have tended to her for hours. Her injuries were -- severe and yet when she opened her eyes she searched for him, said the fault was not his.

[ it is a worry, certainly. Such power. ]

Poor man. Such a heavy burden to carry.

[steeledskin]

[ she fears him. and to think, once she ran into him with a pile of snowballs in her arms. he had seemed more wary than worrisome, then. big and frightening in his stature but he did not hurt her. knowing what she knows now, however. ]

Will she recover?

[partialities]

She will, everyone said so, it shall take time but she will. He must be grieving; I would, if I were to harm a friend.

[ she turns to her ]

I pity him. Would that finds comfort here. Do not trouble yourself with such fears. I know of someone much stronger than him and she is a friend. She will keep us safe if I ask.

[steeledskin]

[ her reluctance is easily read. champions must be chosen with care -- although she doesn't doubt margaery's faith in her own. it is in moments like these that she misses nyssa most, and her troubled thoughts lead her to fumble with the golden bangle on her wrist. she is rarely in public without it -- or without the equally golden pins in her hair.

gifts, from her once-champion. ]

Who is she?

[partialities]

Her name is Kara, a beautiful girl from Winn's realm and his oldest friend. Have I told you of him? A shy, clever man who is good with a needle.

[ she chuckles. He would be her champion as well. He cannot fight for her but he is as devoted to her happiness as a brother would be for a sister ]

She flies, Sansa, can you believe it? She soars like a hawk on the wind.

[steeledskin]

[ a man! good with a needle? sansa does not hide her incredulity, and it seeps through her skin and past her fingertips and communicates itself to margaery. somehow, the thought of a man being handy with a needle is harder to believe than a woman who flies. ]

What, with wings?

[partialities]

Odd, I know; but he makes beautiful gowns, he is very gifted.

[ she comments almost as if sansa had voiced her thoughts to her out loud. ]

No wings. One moment she is on the ground and the next, she flies - she lifted me once, held my hand and pulled me a little above the ground.

[steeledskin]

You flew! [ incredulous, she seizes upon margaery's hand -- as though holding it might let her believe better. ] You're fibbing.

[partialities]

I'm not!

[ she giggles, pulls a bit on that hand until their shoulders bump ]

Not flying - I floated. A little above the ground, kara was not feeling well away from the sun but now being here, she feels so much better that I am almost tempted to ask her. Imagine it - flying above the ground, it must be so lovely.

[ ... ]

I could toss fruit down on the heads of those who dare irk us.

[steeledskin]

[ the memories that wend through their fingers and bridge the gap between them are (it seems) common memories. of hawking in the woods in the shadow of the red keep; of sitting idly by while margaery's cousins practiced their clumsy kissing in the bower; of iced milk and honey under a waning sun. each was a little oasis in the wretched emotional wasteland of capital city. ]

She must feel so free. Like no tower could keep her. [ ... ] Do you think she tosses fruit?

[partialities]

[ King's Landing is rarely kind to anyone, smallfolk or nobility. Margaery had wished her arrival to bring something fresh with her, kindness and cheer. Those memories are a sweetness, each and every one of them. ]

I suspect so. She has a mischievous side to her, I am certain.

[steeledskin]

I suppose she can afford to be so mischievous, if she is so special.

[partialities]

She is very kind. Winn told me she spends her day helping her realm, saving its people from those who would wish harm on them.

[ a hum ]

I always through the most impressive knight in the world might have to be a woman.

[ ... ]

Most impressive after Loras, of course.

[steeledskin]

After Loras, [ she indulges her friend. it's easy, really, because she'd had tremendous respect for the knight of flowers -- even after so many other knights had failed her. even now, a quiet crush lingers in her heart. ] Of course.

But -- she isn't truly a knight, is she?

[partialities]

No, not by our own laws, it is different in her own world, Winn explained to me.

[ she thinks of what he said, how he explained it. it's a little bit difficult for her to understand, too ]

They call people like her heroes, like in the tales of old. They have no title of their own, no lands and whatever glory they have is tricky.

[ that, kara had explained ]

She told me none can know who she is, in truth. She gave herself a different name and so she lives her days as an ordinary girl but in secret, she is quite the hero. No one knows she is one, except for Winn and her sister, I trust.

[ she smiles ]

Does it not show that she is truly wonderful? doing all of those deeds with nothing in return? Think of it, to save an entire city and then return to a simple life. It is quite lovely.