TEST DRIVE #6

[fairyfoes]

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping to EACHDRAIDH? Why not give the setting a test run here! OPTIONAL SCENARIOS 01. ARRIVING IN THE DRABWURLD. The Seelie and Unseelie courts welcome you with mirthful revelry and hearty food. After you have been briefed on your purpose here, you will find an endless feast and a night filled with entertainment to placate your concerns. Mingle with new arrivals, sneak down the castle halls and make sure your eyes are always on your glass; fairies and imps have no bias when it comes to tricks! 02. THE STATION. Looking for a little slice of home? The Station gives you all that and more. Take advantage of the wifi, have a cup of fairy-brewed coffee (the one they didn't spit in) or sit back and relax on the patio. You can even move your things into one of the available rooms! 03. WILDCARD. Your own scenario! Explore the Drabwurld or simply take advantage of your Locket!

Comments

[impathy]

[Ah. Perhaps that was too unkind. He would want nothing to do with his sister either and he imagines she has managed to torment Sansa just as much as she did him before she was sent off to be wed. Even so...]

You know? I think I will. I much prefer living on top of rocks and not under them. It's a large enough world out there, so I'm certain I'll find a place in it.

[steeledskin]

[ her next few words are careful. respectful, almost -- not because she cares at all for him but because she wants to keep him in a mood where he might even answer her. ]

In Glaschu? O-or in Dorchadas?

[ sansa stark speaks these names as easily as she does any name in the seven kingdoms. ]

[impathy]

You'll forgive me if I have not the slightest idea where either of those are.

[steeledskin]

[ a mumble. an apology, maybe -- a small word of humble regret that she should even pretend at knowledge that he doesn't yet have. she's over-reached herself (or else her lord husband's presumed vision of her) and that is a problem.

dully: ] Caer Glaem or Caer Scima? You know these two -- don't you?

[impathy]

I know one, at least. That would be the first. It's full of fairies and food, as it so happens. Have you been?

[He understands more than he lets on, at least. There are two sides to be on and even if they are asked along, they aren't necessarily able to pick the side they want to be on. He wonders if Sansa is meant to be ally or foe.]

[steeledskin]

I have, my lord. And passed some time there before I...before the Cothromach became my home. [ so they are both claimed by the same court. this is -- troubling. but less troubling than had it been any other lannister, she decides.

perhaps he ought to be told of what the queen has offered. after all, she thinks he is about as unhappy with the marriage as she has been.

so in a wholly different voice: ] You would appreciate its libraries. They are a horror to keep in order but -- beautiful. [ she never truly read much while in those halls and stacks. but she loved the smell and sight and security of kneeling by a shelf and focusing all her attention upon one simple task. lord tyrion, she knew well enough, would love the libraries more for their intended purpose than she ever could. ]

[impathy]

I do like a good book. Though now enough to take me from King's Landing, I think. But I've myself to blame that. It's not often a man is asked to follow fairies. If I had refused, well... I imagine I would have been terribly disappointed the next day.

Do you hate me, Lady Sansa? You need not lie about it. You are safe in your city and I have nothing now but my small amount of wit, so I'm not like to do anything about it. But I would like to know than not.

[steeledskin]

I --

[ hmm. she snaps her mouth closed. there is a certain amount of weight to his argument. what does he have here? and yet she arrived with so little and in time gained so much. what's to stop him from doing much the same? neither of them amount to very much as leaders of men, she thinks. and so if something as wild and ludicrous as her own ascension could take place, she's certain his luck might also change.

therefore she must not offend him. one honest answer might be to tell him she cannot help but hate a lion. another might be to explain how her feelings are less hate and more guilt. ]

If I did -- [ hate you ] -- I never would have warned you 'gainst the Cothromach.

[ she would have simply let him come and let her brothers dispense with the problem. either way, her answer still isn't given straight. ]

[impathy]

Cleverly spoken, to be sure. But true enough as well. I'll take you at your word. Though if we're to live so far apart, I think it wise we not make much of our marriage. If I'm not to step foot into your city, you will surely not begrudge me finding pleasures elsewhere.

[Crude, he knows. He had even begun to start to practice a kind of chaste respect for their marriage bed, even with Shae still around. He had not been vigilant at it, but he'd tried not to disrespect her. But in this situation, where they would not cross paths at all? Well, he'd just as soon pretend they were unwed and carry on as he always had.]

[steeledskin]

[ her insides twist and wring with the oddest combination of sensations. weighty relief, for one: relief that he would be the one to suggest how little they allow what is true back in westeros to appear as truth in these lands. oh there are enough people who know about that it might cause both of them some manner of trouble. and she could (perhaps) tell him immediately how the high queen has dissolved their union. her mouth opens; she is about to do exactly this. but...

but he reminds her that he is crude. awfully mannered. ill-tongued. and although the two are barely related, his poor behaviour urged her instead to keep that absolution pocketed. for once (for a first) sansa begins to wonder how she might in future play this one tied thread to her advantage. lord tyrion is not as awful as others are; if he does find success here in the drabwurld, he may yet be brought to bear upon other matters. she will not give up what little influence she may have on him so easily. ]

Wise, indeed. [ she praises him. empty hollow praise for an advised silence on the matter that she's already long since kept of her own accord. ] As you say. It's a very clever idea not to breath a word of it to anyone. Thank you.

[ sweet words with no weight and no feeling hitched behind them. ]

[impathy]

[Empty words, as ever. It does sadden him to know that he'll never get a speck of honesty with Sansa, even though he's been nothing but honest to her in turn. Well, honest in the matters of importance. There were things he did not tell her, but she would not have been glad to know if he had. All the same, this leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. He did not want to be wed to her, though he certainly would have loved her had she let him. Or if I had let myself.]

Think nothing of it, sweet Sansa. But while we're speaking so kindly to one another, might I trouble you to know who else I would find here from our seven kingdoms?

[steeledskin]

[ ah. will telling him this much be safe? allowed? or will it do her conscience well enough to warn him who walks these lands with him, thereby saving him the surprise. thereby perhaps absolving herself of having let him take such a long long fall for a crime that was somehow more hers than it ever was his.

and so it's guilt and not misplaced affection that brings names to her lips: ]Currently? I have brothers, my lord. Three of them, missing only the youngest. And my sister. Two bannermen from the North, as well. Lord Renly and his sweet Lady Margaery -- [ she let him make of that what he will. sansa will keep that secret, certainly. ] And you must know Ser Loras.

[ but she saves the most strategic for last. partially because tyrion is a lannister. partially because she needs her lord husband to know that she has more than just brothers protecting her. more than brothers and walls. ] And a lesser known knight. Ser Gendry Waters.

[ she does not normally introduce him by his bastard name. today, she does it because it suits her purposes. ]

[impathy]

[Three brothers? He realized she must have been counting the bastard as well. Though he imagined that Jon Snow would have no love for him now, even if they had clasped hands in friendship. A proper friend who had wanted nothing for him. It brought a sudden weight of gloom to think that he no longer had even that now.

But it's a queer thought to know that Robb Stark and Renly Baratheon were here and alive. He did not think her a liar on that matter. But what did it mean if these past foes were alive and well? He wondered who else might come from the dead in the meantime.

If the gods had any mercy, it would be Robert. A fool he was, but he kept us from clawing at one another.]

I cannot claim to know the last, but I do know the others. No doubt my nephew would be terribly disappointed to know his queen is with a lord instead. [She does not call him King.] As well as one of his Kingsguard gone astray. Do they all dwell with you in your cave or have you left some here in Caer Glaem as company for me?

[steeledskin]

[ perhaps she ought not to feel so much victory to think that she had gathered so many under her mountain roofs. but it's hard not to -- sansa has spent so long in abject isolation and fear that to have gathered any friends around her becomes a great joy. ]

Some split their time between Caer Glaem and the Cothromach. Many of us return, at times, for feasts and celebrations. [ hmm. ] It isn't a difficult task.

[ he ought to know that it will never be a challenge for those who take her side to sally forth and do her business. ]

[impathy]

You paint a very lonesome picture for me, my lady. It seems I'll have to seek out new friends.

[Not that Renly or Loras or any of them had ever been friends to him. No one in King's Landing had ever been friends to him. At best, he had those like Podrick and Shae and Bronn. Sometimes he liked to think of Varys as a friend, but he knew better than to believe that. But the truth of it was, he was no more alone her than he was anywhere else he had in his life. Only now he lacked the wealth and prestige of the Lannisters.

Damn these fairies.]

[steeledskin]

[ if she possesses an ounce of warmth for him, then it resides in these next words: ] You will not seek for long.

[ it's not a comment on him -- she would not claim he was a man easy to befriend. certainly, she felt no desire to befriend him. but her words reflect more upon the population around them. so many of their fellow shardbearers offered much more friendship than they ever should. they aimed to make such solid ties as sansa feared. ]

[impathy]

You are kind to say so, but I fear that the qualities that make me so well loved are in short supply here.

[Gold, chiefly. He has not an ounce of it. And what is a Lannister without their wealth?]

[steeledskin]

It will not matter. [ an exceptional bluntness finds its way to her tongue. ] They will forgive you it.

[ they. not her -- not her family, neither, she hopes. but the others. she speaks from a wry experience. if so many could forgive her so many lies and so much brokenness, they cold forgive him for being himself. of that she is certain. ]

[impathy]

Oh, it's not forgiveness I desire. Never that. If that's all I can expect to find, then I would greatly prefer to go find this cave of dwarves.

[He did not want pity. He did not want charity. It was respect he wanted. And love even more than that.]

[steeledskin]

[ her mouth opens. she is primed to apologize for speaking out of turn -- for misunderstanding his desires -- and for being such a terrible wife by these failures. it would have been the easy thing to say. the simple solution to an awkward conversation. but... ]

You will find kindness you cannot believe. And honesty you do not deserve. And care you would not understand. There are such terribly good people in these lands, my lord.

[ and neither of us deserve any of them. ]

[impathy]

Seven hells. I've come to a land filled with septons. I think I might hate them all already.

[And they would hate him in turn because he did not play at being anything other than he was.]

[steeledskin]

Mayhaps they dropped you in the wrong court. [ ah. yes. this topic. ] It's...strange that you arrived in Caer Glaem when others of your kin passed through the other castle instead.

[ she knows that isn't how it works. but perhaps she wants to pretend so regardless. ]

[impathy]

Did they now? And which one of my family was it? My sister, perhaps?

[Unseelie would suit her, he thought.]

[steeledskin]

Your brother. And his...

[ it might be that her small verbal lapse is intentional. she hides it well. ] And your nephew, Lord Tyrion.

[impathy]

[She knows, he realizes. But it is no great surprise. The rumor had certain circulated thanks to the letters Stannis sent out. He pities her to know that she suffered so much from a boy who had no right to any thrones, either by parentage or his own virtue.]

I would believe it of Joffrey, to be sure. But my brother? No, this court seems built for a man like him. I cannot imagine him anywhere but here. [And oh that he were. Tyrion would greatly benefit at having his brother by his side.]