re: episode four (spoilers! for a clash of kings / game of thrones)

[etiquettes]

In front of the entire court .. humiliated, beaten .. bared.. [ Sansa's voice is quiet and obviously upset, though for once her eyes are dry. The tattered remains of what used to be a beautiful gown cling to her shoulders.]

Joffrey ... Good King Joffrey. If the Imp -- that is, the Hand.. hadn't showed up when he had..

[Shuddder.]

I'm frightened. And I want to go home.

[ ooc: Through the wonders of Mun-Muse communication, Sansa will know what else is going on in the realm (ie: the episode) without having been told, except for the whereabouts of Arya. :) Just for funsies! !!Attention!! There will be spoilers in the comments, I believe!]

Comments

[master_of_tricks]

Escape is an option?

[i_am_a_maenad]

Sounds like you need to work on making some allies.

I'm...sorry but not? ;A;

[mydaddyissues]

[ he hears all this. don't think he doesn't. and don't think he does not take it for what it is - a slight against his wonderful hospitality and mercy, a complaint - against a punishment well earned in his eyes. and while part of joffrey revels in the fear she has of him (terror? that's even better) another part is displeased she's not forcing a smile. ]

[ so he's stern, angry but in that dangerously quiet way. ]

King's Landing is your home.

Cat will share Sansa's magical knowledge because I say so

[wintercat]

[Oh, Sansa. Both her mother's cloak and her arms are being wrapped around her before any words are even spoken.]

Oh, my darling girl.

[etiquettes]

No. There are too many guards. I'll never...

[She'll never make it. They'll kill her.]

omg the monster D: this is -wonderful-

[etiquettes]

[ He caught her. He caught her saying something against him, even here in this strange place, the place he thought she was safe. And she was terrified, eyes widening and hands fluttering helplessly in her lap. W-What could she say?!]

Y-Yes, Your Grace. I only meant...

[She knew what she meant. He knew what she meant.]

The godswood, at Winterfell. I miss it sometimes.

[A feeble excuse, she knows it.]

sob all of the feeels about this.

[etiquettes]

[She knows that smell, she knows those arms. It's not possible that Catelyn Stark could be here - but she was and Sansa was too busy burying her head in her mother's neck like a child to really question it. It felt like home.]

M-Mother...

[Ladies don't cry. But this lady wants nothing more than to sob out the humiliation. She settles for a strangled sob.].

I'm sorry, I tried. I'm trying..

[etiquettes]

Allies? In this place..?

[The Hand had been kind to her .. but he was still a Lannister. The Queen, Joffrey, Lord Baelish.. She didn't think there was a single person who'd risk their neck to get her home.]

;_;

[wintercat]

[Even Catelyn, who has made such an effort to keep her weeping from the eyes of others, will not begrudge Sansa her tears. She doesn't cry herself; she couldn't- Sansa needed a rock of strength right now. Instead, she contents herself with resting her face against Sansa's hair, taking as much comfort in the closeness as her daughter was.]

Shush, Sansa. You have done nothing wrong.

;___;

[etiquettes]

[She feels like a kid again. What is she supposed to say? That she didn't know things would turn out the way they would? That they promised her that Father would be all right, if she only begged? Nothing seemed adequate. Especially considering .. she lost Arya. Not on purpose, but she hadn't even considered...

In all the excitement, she'd forgotten about her younger sister. What kind of person does that?]

B-But... What are we g-going to do?

[All the hugs are going on right here.]

[wintercat]

[And all of that (rightly or wrongly) Catelyn places at the feet of the Lannisters. In many ways, she still sees Sansa as a child- a child surrounded by lions. She has done what she must to survive.]

We will get you back. We will find Arya. We will be together again.

[She pulls back, placing a hand on Sansa's face and looking into her eyes before repeating what she had said to Robb.]

And then we will kill them all. [It's dark, but she can hardly help that. Even these tender moments, moments of love and comfort, are followed so swiftly by anger, grief, and bitterness. She's not the same woman Sansa left at Winterfell. These events have changed her, as they have changed all of their family. Hardened her, given her a sharper edge, like a sword forged in flame.]

[etiquettes]

[One day, things will have to be explained. One day, Sansa will have to tell her mother how she confessed to Cersei everything, all the plans that Father had made to keep them safe. How this was her fault and if she had only been good, none of it would have ever happened. How she was a bad girl.

For now, she was just too busy trying to hold back tears. They'd be together. Robb would find Arya. Things would be all right.]

Y-Yes, Mother...

[But the last thing Sansa really wants is more people to die. Even Joffrey. After what he did to her today, though .. she definitely wants to be on the other side of the continent from him.]

Y-You won't let me marry him? I won't have to..?

[wintercat]

[In that respect, Sansa is healthier than Catelyn. Justice, vengeance- they blur together in her mind and even she's not sure which one she wants anymore.]

He will never touch you again, if I have my way. [And this she means with all her heart. Whatever her faults may be, Catelyn loves her children; she would gladly lay down her life for any of them. The thought of Sansa marrying that monster is enough to make her ill.]

[etiquettes]

[That makes two of them. The fact that Sansa had loved him, had placed him above her duty and love for her family - that made her ill and frequently reminded her how wrong she'd been. Always protesting that this and that wasn't fair, when she never took a moment to pause and think that maybe they'd been trying to protect her.]

Lord Tyrion .. The Hand... he said I didn't have to marry him.

[It sounds feeble, especially knowing that her mother has the Kingslayer currently locked in a dungeon somewhere. But .. kindness was so hard to come by in King's Landing for Sansa, surrounded by "knights" who would strike her at a moment's command.

What the Imp had done meant a lot to her.]

wonderful? oh then i'm /definitely/ not sorry. :3

[mydaddyissues]

[ it was easy to catch her slipping. the fact remained that the lady sansa stark was a woman, and they were weak creatures, subject to their emotions and tearful when unhappy. a small part of him with satisfied with that, with the knowledge he made her cry and miserable and reinforced the idea that she is just a weak woman. ]

[ but a larger part is entertained when she uses her pretty words and high birth to cover them. the larger part wins out, too, and he laughs. ]

Oh, is that it?

[ that feigned kindess has made a reappearance. he most often dons it with subjects, persons he's already decided will lose an eye or a limb. ]

Wasn't it a dreary place? We have a godswood here. I'm sure you'd find it suitable for your prayers.

[ though the lady sansa stark is standing to lose much more. ]

Tell me, who do you pray for?

ARYA IS SOMEWHERE

[thelonewolf]

Sansa!?

HOMG LITTLE SISTER WHO I ABANDONED

[etiquettes]

Arya?!

[ her queenly composure is lost for a moment. ]

Did you make it to the ship? Are you safe at Winterfell?!

IT'S OKAY YOU WERE TOO BUSY SWOONING

[thelonewolf]

[Ummmm...]

No. I had to be a boy and Yoren said he would take me home but...but then they killed him.

...Your gown. It's all ripped.

SWOONING and betraying her family :x

[etiquettes]

Where are you, then?

[Yoren? Killed him? .. A boy? A-Ah.. her gown. Could Arya see the bruises on her arms? Ladies didn't curse, but if they did .. now would be a good time for it. Sansa is just going to tug the Hound's cloak tighter around her.]

I .. had an accident.

[The kind you have when you run into someone's fist. Repeatedly.]

i've never seen a joffrey before! :33

[etiquettes]

[ It was hard to keep this act going all the time. She'd thought here, of all places, she was safe. She'd been able to speak to her family here, to people across the realm who she'd never even met. But Joffrey followed her here, too.

He was watching her, even here.]

Y-Yes, Your Grace.

[ That was it. She just had to be steady with the lie. He wouldn't call her out for it, not without his knights here - though if he wanted to beat her, she would stand and take it. He was the king, after all. ]

I .. have not been given Your Grace's permission to visit the godswood here. I'd like to visit, if .. Your Grace would be so kind..

[ See? That wasn't even a lie! His kindness is frightening her. He's only ever kind when he's going to do something horrid. Like when he killed her father. At his question, she smoothed her gown, masking her face with calm.]

I pray for you, Your Grace, and the Queen. For our marriage.

='(

[thelonewolf]

Harranhal. They say its haunted.

And you're lying! I can tell! It's Joffrey, isn't it? Or the Queen? Or the Hound. Why don't you do something? You could--run away! Not here...but...somewhere.

[wintercat]

[When she thinks of Tyrion, her first thought is of that dagger- of capturing him on the King's Road. But her next is of Ned's remains returned to her. And now this small amount of kindness shown to her daughter. He was a Lannister, but it's possible that he was the best of the bunch, for however much that was worth.]

Take what friends are offered you, but trust no one. [One kind gesture does not ensure that he will not betray her later on. A lesson the whole family has learned by now.]

sob :(

[etiquettes]

[B-But that was.. Wasn't that where Tywin Lannister was?! Surely Arya couldn't be there!]

Arya, you have to get away. You have to run, to Mother and Robb. They'll take care of you!

[This isn't fair. Her sister, with the lions! At least one of them should make it back home safe. Still, she shook her head. How did Arya always know when she was lying!?]

It's not .. It's not important! There are always guards around.. It's not that easy..

[thelonewolf]

I can't. [But the thought of her mother, and Robb... She swallows.] Not yet. I still have-- [Two more. She is the Ghost of Harranhal.] Nevermind.

You need to get away from that stupid little coward. From all of them. You can't be afraid. They'll kill you. They'll kill you like they did Father.

[That last one's harder to say, and it's a little less fierce, but it's out there.]

[etiquettes]

[Kindness was so unexpected and absent in King's Landing that Sansa noticed every bit of it that was paid to her - the Hound giving up his cloak, Lord Tyrion rescuing her from Joffrey and his "knights". They were no men of fairy tales, none of the brave and gentle heroes from stories but.. They were all she had.]

Y-Yes, Mother. Father would have said -- [She swallows, hard, transported momentarily to that horrible day in front of the Sept.]

The Lannisters.. they make me say awful things about you and Robb..