open | text + action

[steeledskin]

Who: Sansa Stark + YOU
Broadcast: Text, fleetwide.
Action: Blue Fish
When: This morning.

Jon Snow and Bran Stark have left the Fleet. Condolences to those who may have befriended them while they were here; Gods-willing, we shall see them again.

[ sansa's message is short -- abrupt, and almost stripped of its emotion. she avoids broadcasting anything but simple text because she does not trust herself to maintain her mask, so to speak. as it is, she's cried too much. losing bran and jon feels like opening old wounds packed with grief. it makes her feel like a little girl again: weak, and mewling.

but she does add: ] I dread leaving, as they have left. Do others in the Fleet want to stay?

[ later, she can be found sitting on the floor of her personnel office. she has taken the furs from her bunk and has spread them across the ground, and she's allowed jon's direwolf pups free rein of the cozy and comfortable area. sansa's eyes are red-rimmed, and they betray every lie she tells when she insists she's as well as can be expected. but at least her spirits lift, a little, when she's playing tug-of-war with the pups.

they bring her a bittersweet joy. ]

Comments

[resnipstance]

[ A nod. ]

I'm sorry about your family leaving. [ Another absent pat to the direwolf pup beside her. ] But at least these little guys are still here, right? Or-- not so little, really. [ Even as puppies, they're not exactly tiny, are they? ]

... Do they have names?

[steeledskin]

The girl-pup is Luna. She was Arya's before she was Jon's. [ and now she's freshly inherited. sansa almost frowns. ] The boy, [ she ruffles his fur. ] He is Ghost, named for Jon's wolf back home.

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka raises an eyebrow as the two pups' ears twitch at the mention of their names.]

Well. They certainly know when we're talking about them.

I can't really say I'm familiar with this species of wolf, though. I don't think we have them, back home. Are they very different?

[steeledskin]

They grow big and they grow fierce. In truth, they were rarely seen south of the Wall. [ these pups are precious. rarities, in a way, that would be odd even back home. ] It was fate that my family found their direwolves before we were broken apart. And it's a miracle that we should find more, again, while so far from Westeros.

[ ... ] People are afraid of them, back home, but I never was.

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka's not looking directly at Sansa, but rather, looking at Luna, when she says--]

Well, that's because you're brave.

[Stated simply, casually. Like it's an immutable fact that she doesn't even have to really think about before it's out of her mouth.]

[steeledskin]

[ brave? sansa doesn't like the implication. it puts a burden of braveness upon her, she feels, when sansa has found a kind of cold comfort in her cravenness. she leans forward and gives ghost a stalwart little kiss on his snout -- there's no doubt in her love for the creatures. ]

Not brave, [ she argues. ] But I'm a Stark. And the blood of the First Men flows through my veins.

[resnipstance]

[It had just been a throwaway remark for Ahsoka, but Sansa's disagreement makes Ahsoka look up at her with curiosity.]

... What makes you say that? That you're not brave.

[steeledskin]

I have always made the craven choice -- [ she confesses, fingers caught up in ghost's fur. as though holding onto the pup allows her just enough boldness to speak her mind. ] Even with my brothers, I chose to tell them lies instead of the truth. I couldn't bear what they'd think of me if they'd known it.