[that must have been when they crowned robb––had there been a cat? sansa doesn't want to think about ser dontos––she frowns in concentration.]
Did they tear your dress?
[it had been the blue one she'd made with the dragonflies, the one she'd liked best. they'd had new dresses made to replace it and the other one, they wouldn't let her fix it herself––she looks back at vi, confused.]
I thought that had been in the Throne Room...
[but no, it was the lower bailey, and there was a cat. and ser lancel had said a lot of nonsense about wargs...she had been in the throne room when she pleaded for her father's life. it disturbs her that she's misremembered this. when she speaks it's with a certain anger, almost spiteful.]
No, we were in the Lower Bailey when they tore my dress, after the Whispering Wood. Ser Dontos was there, with his little horse. He hit me with some fruit so Sandor wouldn't have to do it, but then Joffrey just made Ser Boros and Ser Meryn beat me anyway.
I'd forgotten there was a cat.
[arya used to chase them. it had probably been a friend of hers. she irrationally hopes the big black one that had always evaded her managed to evade joffrey too.]
---w-was it blue? No, I just started yelling before anyone had a chance to do much of anything. I think "the king" [hear the air quotes] meant to say more.
Wait, what? So if I hadn't fucked him up, if I had knelt (??) and tried to say the right things? The things you'd say, the things you talked about saying ...he would have made those men with swords beat you?? For what?
[any leftover feelings she had about dying are just gone - her anger that this is true, that this is what would have happened to her, and did happen to sansa - her anger is rising and there's nowhere to put it in this moment.]
[now there's a lump in vi's throat. it's watching sansa give that thousand yard stare - her bloodless face - that bitter, angry tone.]
I'm glad someone made them stop. I hope he cut off their heads.
[she doubts it. she wishes now she'd gone for them instead of joffrey, but she thinks there would have been even less success in that.]
What a fucking stupid thing to say unless the Riverlands is right there. I hope you gave them him screams at all. These assholes aren't worth your breath. Not worth spitting on.
[why do these people - this fucking king - silco - littlefinger too from what she's heard - why do they like to talk so much and so big - usually to send other people to do the shit they can't even back up with their too many words.
leave her face?
what the---
---as in ...sure, beat her but not her face? because??? vi blinks at this - and she slips the sword from two hands to one, lowering it and moving forward as if to lay a gentle, free hand on sansa's. she expects her to flinch, and she's okay with that.]
[sansa doesn't flinch; she's too well-trained for that. she smiles sadly at vi. she remembers thinking the same thing about janos slynt and ser ilyn.]
Joffrey's dead, now. Margaery will find a way to be rid of Ser Boros and Ser Meryn. They were Cersei's before they were Joffrey's. I don't think I screamed very much. They hit me a lot, but never cut me.
[she looks down at the ground.]
I would have screamed if it helped Robb and my mother. I would have done anything Joffrey wanted if it would have helped them win the war. But I couldn't do anything, then. I could never do anything before I came here, except try to survive.
Whoever Margaery is I hope she flings them off a high wall. I know you told me things before, and I always believed you, I never thought you were lying or even exaggerating, but...
...I never thought it would be like that.
[they hit me a lot but never cut me - as if it were a benchmark. she supposes it is, but fuck that bench, fuck its mark, fuck those people, and fuck the book, too. she shoots a glare at that book before looking back at sansa.]
I'm sorry I ended up in your head. In your ...private stuff. And for making you talk about it. And messing it up and getting myself killed. I ...wouldn't have known what to say.
[she doesn't know what to say now, except:]
Except survive? You say it like it's---
---try? You didn't just try, you did it. You survived. That hardly falls under not being able to do anything, Sansa. It's a huge something. I couldn't even survive five minutes. I doubt I would have lasted fifteen even if I'd kept my mouth shut and my hands folded neatly in my lap.
[sansa sighs and smiles wearily. she gently squeeze's vi's hand.]
It's all right. No one understands me when I try to explain. It's all caught up in the politics of my realm. I'm glad you know a little of it. And I'm glad you got to read about my family. I'm glad someone else cares enough about Robb to defend him.
I'd like to understand, if I can. Even if it's only a little. [she will likely never get the finer points of politicking, and that's fine - she just wants to be able to help her friend, to be a better listener. she squeezes that hand back.] I'd like to hear more about them, but from you and stuff you want me to hear.
I wish I could have met them, all of them. But especially Robb and Arya.
[she looks at the sword in her hand, is silent a moment.]
What are the words they say where you're from? To officially swear ...loyalty?
[a vow sworn by the doorway is literally unbreakable, but sansa wouldn't ask that of vi, in this. she glances down at the sword, and back up at vi with a crooked smile.]
I've never doubted your loyalty. Swear to me you'll learn to use that sword.
I swear to you, by the old gods and the new, and by the black sand on the beach, that I will learn to use this sword. And that I'll protect you if not with it, then with whatever else I've got handy.
[she huffs a little - she hadn't meant to make that pun.]
And should they show up, I'll protect King Robb, and all of House Stark and its banner people. Like Nymeria and Visenya, I will protect and defend the people I care about. I swear.
[she probably botched it - but this is what happens when she has to make up her own oath and she is trying not to use swears (except for the 'i swear' kind), slang, or sound too casual.]
[sansa's eyes are soft and shining with gentle tears, her smile is warm and holds no trace of self-deprecation or irony.]
I swear to you, by the old gods and the new, and my Lady Amaterasu's heart trees, that you shall always have a place in my home and at my table, and I will ask nothing of you that you would not do willingly, except perhaps to hold your punches when it's in your best interest. I will free you from basements and make you clothes and little cakes, and I will protect your own family with tooth and wing, even when they make it very difficult. I swear it by the old gods and the new...Lady Violet Hammerfist.
[she feels ...good about this. more of the ill-feeling in her fading. she has heard a little about amaterasu, but the little she has heard has been so good (made an impact on johnny of all people, enough to name outright in tribute!) she wishes she could have known her, too.
she has learned a little about holding her punches - and her tongue. it hasn't all been sansa, but a lot of it, more than a lot of it has.
even when they make it difficult had gotten a knowing smile, a wincing shake of her head. yeah.]
Lady Violet Hammerfist, huh?
[sansa's great at reading people: it takes no effort to see how pleased vi is with this name.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Did they tear your dress?
[it had been the blue one she'd made with the dragonflies, the one she'd liked best. they'd had new dresses made to replace it and the other one, they wouldn't let her fix it herself––she looks back at vi, confused.]
I thought that had been in the Throne Room...
[but no, it was the lower bailey, and there was a cat. and ser lancel had said a lot of nonsense about wargs...she had been in the throne room when she pleaded for her father's life. it disturbs her that she's misremembered this. when she speaks it's with a certain anger, almost spiteful.]
No, we were in the Lower Bailey when they tore my dress, after the Whispering Wood. Ser Dontos was there, with his little horse. He hit me with some fruit so Sandor wouldn't have to do it, but then Joffrey just made Ser Boros and Ser Meryn beat me anyway.
I'd forgotten there was a cat.
[arya used to chase them. it had probably been a friend of hers. she irrationally hopes the big black one that had always evaded her managed to evade joffrey too.]
no subject
---w-was it blue? No, I just started yelling before anyone had a chance to do much of anything. I think "the king" [hear the air quotes] meant to say more.
Wait, what? So if I hadn't fucked him up, if I had knelt (??) and tried to say the right things? The things you'd say, the things you talked about saying ...he would have made those men with swords beat you?? For what?
[any leftover feelings she had about dying are just gone - her anger that this is true, that this is what would have happened to her, and did happen to sansa - her anger is rising and there's nowhere to put it in this moment.]
What do you mean they tore your dress?
no subject
Yes, it had dragonflies. I didn't get to fix it. Lord Tyrion came and made them stop, and Sandor gave me his cloak.
[she looks somewhere to the right of vi's head.]
I think he said he wanted my brother to hear me scream in the Riverlands. I know he told them to leave my face.
no subject
I'm glad someone made them stop. I hope he cut off their heads.
[she doubts it. she wishes now she'd gone for them instead of joffrey, but she thinks there would have been even less success in that.]
What a fucking stupid thing to say unless the Riverlands is right there. I hope you gave them him screams at all. These assholes aren't worth your breath. Not worth spitting on.
[why do these people - this fucking king - silco - littlefinger too from what she's heard - why do they like to talk so much and so big - usually to send other people to do the shit they can't even back up with their too many words.
leave her face?
what the---
---as in ...sure, beat her but not her face? because??? vi blinks at this - and she slips the sword from two hands to one, lowering it and moving forward as if to lay a gentle, free hand on sansa's. she expects her to flinch, and she's okay with that.]
no subject
Joffrey's dead, now. Margaery will find a way to be rid of Ser Boros and Ser Meryn. They were Cersei's before they were Joffrey's. I don't think I screamed very much. They hit me a lot, but never cut me.
[she looks down at the ground.]
I would have screamed if it helped Robb and my mother. I would have done anything Joffrey wanted if it would have helped them win the war. But I couldn't do anything, then. I could never do anything before I came here, except try to survive.
no subject
...I never thought it would be like that.
[they hit me a lot but never cut me - as if it were a benchmark. she supposes it is, but fuck that bench, fuck its mark, fuck those people, and fuck the book, too. she shoots a glare at that book before looking back at sansa.]
I'm sorry I ended up in your head. In your ...private stuff. And for making you talk about it. And messing it up and getting myself killed. I ...wouldn't have known what to say.
[she doesn't know what to say now, except:]
Except survive? You say it like it's---
---try? You didn't just try, you did it. You survived. That hardly falls under not being able to do anything, Sansa. It's a huge something. I couldn't even survive five minutes. I doubt I would have lasted fifteen even if I'd kept my mouth shut and my hands folded neatly in my lap.
no subject
It's all right. No one understands me when I try to explain. It's all caught up in the politics of my realm. I'm glad you know a little of it.
And I'm glad you got to read about my family. I'm glad someone else cares enough about Robb to defend him.
no subject
I wish I could have met them, all of them. But especially Robb and Arya.
[she looks at the sword in her hand, is silent a moment.]
What are the words they say where you're from? To officially swear ...loyalty?
no subject
They swear it on the old gods and the new.
[a vow sworn by the doorway is literally unbreakable, but sansa wouldn't ask that of vi, in this. she glances down at the sword, and back up at vi with a crooked smile.]
I've never doubted your loyalty. Swear to me you'll learn to use that sword.
no subject
[she huffs a little - she hadn't meant to make that pun.]
And should they show up, I'll protect King Robb, and all of House Stark and its banner people. Like Nymeria and Visenya, I will protect and defend the people I care about. I swear.
[she probably botched it - but this is what happens when she has to make up her own oath and she is trying not to use swears (except for the 'i swear' kind), slang, or sound too casual.]
no subject
I swear to you, by the old gods and the new, and my Lady Amaterasu's heart trees, that you shall always have a place in my home and at my table, and I will ask nothing of you that you would not do willingly, except perhaps to hold your punches when it's in your best interest. I will free you from basements and make you clothes and little cakes, and I will protect your own family with tooth and wing, even when they make it very difficult. I swear it by the old gods and the new...Lady Violet Hammerfist.
no subject
[she feels ...good about this. more of the ill-feeling in her fading. she has heard a little about amaterasu, but the little she has heard has been so good (made an impact on johnny of all people, enough to name outright in tribute!) she wishes she could have known her, too.
she has learned a little about holding her punches - and her tongue. it hasn't all been sansa, but a lot of it, more than a lot of it has.
even when they make it difficult had gotten a knowing smile, a wincing shake of her head. yeah.]
Lady Violet Hammerfist, huh?
[sansa's great at reading people: it takes no effort to see how pleased vi is with this name.]