( application )( abaxrpg )
I AM ALAYNE, FATHER.
player information.
name: tussah
are you over 18?: Most certainly.
personal lj: bombyx
email/msn/aim/plurk/etc: thebiographgirl (at) gmail | tullied (at) AIM | practiced (at) plurk
characters in abax: NIGEL COLBIE | implemented | Like Minds
in character information.
series: A Song of Ice and Fire
name: "Alayne Stone" (Sansa Lannister Stark in disguise)
sex: F
age: In book canon Sansa is 13, though Alayne claims to be 14. Due to the nature of abaxrpg and some of the uncomfortable themes in Sansa/Alayne's backstory (in particular abuse, rape and sexual coercion), I would like to request that Sansa be show canon age instead, which would be two years older (15 years old, claiming to be 16).
race: Human
height: 5'6"
weight: 120 lbs.
canon point: After Petyr's reveal that she will be married to Harry the Heir and her true bloodline revealed at her wedding.
previous cr: N/A
history: Sansa Stark's wiki page. For a more comprehensive understanding of the history of Westeros, please see the following summaries of the various books: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows. The character of 'Alayne Stone', Sansa's alter ego, does not emerge until A Storm of Swords; it is not until A Feast for Crows that the persona of Alayne begins to overwhelm that of Sansa in the narrative and Sansa no longer refers to herself by her given name.
personality:
There are two hearts that beat within Alayne Stone - that of her noble birth as Sansa Stark, daughter of Winterfell and that of Alayne Stone, Lord Petyr Baelish's lowborn bastard. Sansa's progression as a character throughout A Song of Ice and Fire marks how she transforms from a young girl with a head full of songs and a heart full of fairy-tale longing to Alayne, the cleverly concealed protegé of one of the game of thrones' greatest players.Frog-faced Lord Slynt sat at the end of the council table wearing a black velvet doublet and a shiny cloth-of-gold cape, nodding with approval every time the king pronounced a sentence. Sansa stared hard at his ugly face, remembering how he had thrown down her father for Ser Ilyn to behead, wishing she could hurt him, wishing that some hero would throw him down and cut off his head. But a voice inside her whispered, There are no heroes, and she remembered what Lord Petyr had said to her, here in this very hall. “Life is not a song, sweetling,” he’d told her. “You may learn that one day to your sorrow.” In life, the monsters win, she told herself, and now it was the Hound’s voice she heard, a cold rasp, metal on stone. “Save yourself some pain, girl, and give him what he wants.” ( A Game of Thrones )
Sansa Stark is a girl raised on stories of courtliness and romance who, at the end of the day, places more trust in them than she does in the realities of the world around her. Raised in the 'backwater' North (the Starks' ways are the old ways, and their existence is harder and more bare-boned than in other kingdoms of Westeros), Sansa dreams of a life in the more metropolitan south, married to a stately lord worthy of her high-birth. These fantasies eventually find a foothold in Joffrey Baratheon and his mother, the queen, Cersei Lannister; willfully, she projects all of her deepest-held desires onto them: a beautiful and strong young man to marry her, a stately and gracious queen to aspire to. Even when faced with the ugliness of Joffrey's true personality, Sansa goes to long and painful lengths to justify his actions, finding excuses and blaming others like her sister so that his veneer of princeliness can last for a little while longer. It is with an almost desperate delusionment that she chooses to trust the Lannisters throughout Game of Thrones, going so far as to entreat the queen when her father plans to return her and Arya to Winterfell (an act that ultimately facilitates his imprisonment). Unwilling to face the possibility that her dreams will not one day come true and that acts of heroism and knightly deeds no longer happen, Sansa clings to whatever spare hopes and falsities are offered to her and, as a result, becomes a pawn for other players to move mercilessly across the table.
It is not until Joffrey issues his pronouncement and her father looses his head that Sansa realizes just how blind she has been and how foolish it was to trust the Lannisters, who now reveal themselves to her to be cruel and faithless lairs. Disillusioned and distrustful, Sansa now finds herself held captive by a court that executed her father as a traitor and, unwilling to meet a similar fate and convinced that is only a matter of time before her brother Robb rescues her, she has no choice but to learn how to maneuver herself in order to avoid a similar fate. This manifests mostly by lying, both through words and in action. Realizing that her betrothal to Joffrey is one of the few things keeping her from Ser Ilyn's sword, she swallows down her anger and bitterness to adopt the role of courtly fiancee, reciting the lines her septa taught her of lady-like politesse, quick to decry her brother as a traitor (while secretly praying for the day that Robb serves her Joffrey's head).
However, given how unpracticed Sansa is in the art of lying beyond the parrotting of lines here or there, many around her are quick to see through her ungraceful deceptions. Some, such as Queen Cersei and her brother Tyrion Lannister and Joffrey's guard, the Hound, go as so far as to chastise her for them, though none of them find Sansa threatening enough to punish her beyond that. True punishment comes at the hands of Joffrey, who takes every opportunity to humiliate and abuse her, going so far as to one order his Kingsguard to strip her naked in front of court. This both hardens and embitters Sansa and feeds what she refers to as 'the madness' inside of her - fits of hot-bloodedness and anger that sieze her from time to time and inspire her to do impulsive things (the most notable of which occurs when Sansa is tempted to push Joffrey off a castle wall to avenge the death of her father). This is what Ned himself calls the Wolf's Blood - a temperament specific to the Starks that he claims both his older brother Brandon and his sister Lyanna had. It is a personality trait readily applied to Sansa's younger sister Arya and that is almost never attributed to Sansa, though flashes of her inner rage and almost maddening desire for revenge indicate otherwise. Unlike Arya, however, all of Sansa's training to be a high-born lady ultimately overrides her willingness to act on those wrathful tendencies. She is, in a way, emotionally compartmentalized to control her impulses and, as a result, secretly harbors rash and unlady-like thoughts that never see the light of day.
He saved Alayne, his daughter, a voice within her whispered. But she was Sansa too...and sometimes it seemed to her the Lord Protector was two people as well. He was Petyr, her protector, warm and funny and gentle...but he was also Littlefinger, the lord she'd known at King's Landing, smiling slyly and stroking his beard as he whispered in the Queen's ear. And Littlefinger was no friend of hers. When Joff had her beaten, the Imp defended her, not Littlefinger. When the mob had sought to rape her, the Hound had carried her to safety, not Littlefinger. When the Lannisters wed her to Tyrion against her will, Ser Garlan the Gallant gave her comfort, not Littlefinger. Littlefinger never lifted so much as his little finger for her.
Except to get me out. He did that for me. I thought it was Ser Dontos, my poor old drunken Florian, but it was Petyr all the while. Littlefinger was only a mask he had to wear. ( A Feast for Crows )
For all that Sansa Stark is an unpracticed liar, Alayne Stone is quickly becoming consumate. Having been placed in a desperate situation by the events surrounding Joffrey's assassination during his wedding, Sansa flees the capital only to find herself within the care of the once-Master of Coin, Petyr Baelish. Baelish, whose machinations run far and wide across all of the Seven Kingdoms with little birds across the Narrow Sea, devises a plan to hide Sansa in plain site. They die her hair and strip her of any evidence of her life as Sansa Stark and instead transform her into Alayne Stone - Petyr Baelish's natural daughter, bastard-born. This is a highly risky sleight of hand, given that Baelish plans to travel to the Eyrie and marry Sansa's aunt, Lysa Arryn. But under Baelish' tutelage Sansa slowly transforms from 'the worst liar in King's Landing' (something once attributed to her by the Hound) to a liar skilled enough to deceive men who have passingly known Sansa in the past. Through Baelish (whose house sigil is a mockingbird - a creature best known for its ability to mimic the songs of other birds), Alayne begins to learn the nuances to the game of thrones, taking to heart one of his greatest lessons: that a man can either move or be moved and in knowing what it takes to move another person, great power is gained. By making herself seem nonthreatening - a technique used by Baelish, being a lord in title but not wealth - Alayne finds herself often overlooked and is given the freedom to watch other people freely in order to learn their motivations. Alayne soon proves herself uncannily astute in her observations, most notably of Baelish himself; she begins to use these conclusions to manipulate the people around her, though Alayne goes to great pains to justify her actions to herself.
Eventually Alayne's lies become so complete that she begins to fool even herself. The name 'Sansa' disappears from her narrative in the middle of A Feast for Crows, only to surface upon reflection as someone other than Alayne Stone. It's with a mix of hardened bitterness and sullen nostalgia that Alayne considers Sansa Stark; more often than not, she thinks of her as a silly, stupid little girl who had a head full of uselessness that served no one. The language surrounding Sansa is almost as if she were a girl deceased and several times in her chapters Alayne is found actively distancing herself from Sansa and denying herself ties to her former identity. Littlefinger becomes sometimes-Petyr - a naming device which Sansa uses to differentiate between the cold-hearted schemer and the gentle man who rescued her; Alayne gets rid of this distinction completely, instead opting to refer to him as simply 'father'. Unlike Sansa, who chose to model herself after her lady mother Catelyn Stark, Alayne looks to her 'father' (Baelish) instead, noting his boldness several times and motivating herself with thoughts of what he would want her - his daughter - to do. At first, Sansa goes about convincing herself that her lies are a necessity and kindly meant and - therefore - no harm. By the time Alayne emerges, her internal motivations are somewhat different and although she is far from the Machiavellian manipulator her father is, she can be found subscribing to the us vs. them survivor mentality that Baelish had once gone to great pains to impress upon Sansa.
With the acceptance of Alayne's persona also come feelings of filial duty and obligation towards Petyr Baelish, her supposed father. Though his behavior towards her is less than fatherly in private (he coerces several kisses from her, often claiming more when her own kisses prove too daughterly or dutiful), Sansa's desperate dependency on Baelish has developed into something that closely resembles Stockholm Syndrome. She goes to great lengths to justify both of their actions and, by the end of A Feast for Crows, considers herself in alignment with her father rather than a hanger-on simply trailing in his wake. Although Alayne is in no way Baelish's peer, their conversations in private hold a certain air of complicity, as if all of his machinations are suddenly hers as well by inheritance. "With my wits and Cat's beauty, the world will be yours, sweetling," he tells her, though it is important to note that Alayne's personal desires never extend to chaos and conquering the way that her father's do. Instead, she simply looks to survive and to assist her father in whatever ways that she can. Near the end of the narrative, Alayne often notes the ways in which she realizes Baelish is manipulating her, but rather than fight it, she accepts it, giving him the benefit of the doubt in both her head and her heart.
abilities/powers:
WARG. Alayne has no clear superhuman powers or special abilities. It is implied that all of the Stark children are able to 'warg' - which is a supernatural ability that allows them to "shapechange" by entering the minds of animals and control them. This power manifests most clearly through the mental and emotional connections the Stark children exhibit to their direwolves (of the Stark children Bran is the most skilled at this ability and is a greenseer as well). Sansa's direwolf Lady, however, is killed early on the series, leaving Alayne's own abilities untapped and unexplored. In theory, Alayne should still be able to develop this power; Lady simply facilitated the manifestation of the ability and was not the seat of it. Alayne, however, remains ignorant of this knowledge; this power cannot be accessed without guidance or external insight of some kind.
LADY. Talent-wise, Alayne is well-versed and well-trained in the arts of court and courtesy, the most notable of which are singing and needlepoint. She is also proven able to commit large amounts of family history (names/faces/genealogies) to memory, which she uses to then to identify various members of court. She is well-spoken, well-read, and understands the ins and outs of her world's rules of politesse.
BASTARD. Since the 'disappearance' of Sansa Stark in her personality, Alayne has learned how to conceal herself in plain sight of those who would possibly otherwise recognize her. This is managed through a combination of both lying and deflection. Her bright red hair has been dyed dark brown, but Alayne has also learned how to adopt the ways and presentation of a lower-born bastard child. She is not a fool-proof liar but she has learned the ways in which to maneuver herself to avoid unwanted attention. Although Alayne is sometimes fearful that her lies will be seen through, she has proven herself more than capable in this respect. Alayne's lies are so complete that she is capable of convincing herself of their necessity or truthfulness.
first person sample:
Post sample at dear_mun (Alayne Stone).
Post sample at theoregontrail (Sansa Stark).
third person sample:
On the third day she found a silvered looking glass, not unlike the one that used to belong to her Aunt Lysa.
No, not aunt, Alayne caught herself thinking as she dipped low to pluck it from the cluttered surface of a much-disturbed table. Lysa Arryn was Sansa Stark's aunt, not mine. I have no family, save father. Remember.
There was no need to take the thing, the city was spired high with buildings whose faces were nothing but silvered glass, but Alayne liked the familiarity of it, the weight of it in her hand. Unlike Lady Lysa's, this mirror had a handle of cast metal and rosettes in relief upon its back; in that way it was prettier than the one left in the Eyrie and ill-suited for a bastard like Alayne, but no one here seemed to understand that and for that she was glad. So she took it, tucking it into the satchel she had inherited the day before from a kindly stranger with straw-colored hair and a mouth shaped to a permanent moue. It was not until much later, carefully hidden in the confines of the room she had claimed, that Alayne took it out again to study her reflection in its surface, her bright blue eyes lingering longest on the color of her hair. She had seen to it being newly dyed before her descent down the mountain on muleback and so its color was still dark and deep, like the color of river mud.
It would not stay; she knew. Eventually the color would bleed and her hair would begin to halo russet and then auburn in the sun; the roots would grow out and reveal their natural color and Alayne's lie would be revealed for all to see. She wondered, absently, what would happen then. Whether she would suddenly find herself naked, the name Alayne Stone shed like an animal's winter fur, her body painted red and blue once again - Tully colors - her soul, no longer able to conceal itself, stripped down to winter white.
No, Alayne thought again. She often thought 'no' in this place. I must be Alayne always, even in my heart of hearts. Even when no one is looking. They will have no choice but to believe the lie if I'm convinced of its truth. That was what her father told her once and Alayne knew that this, too, was true. For her father was not only Lord Protector of the Vale, but her lord protector as well, and he had given her the gift of survival with her nut-brown hair and low-born name.
Courtesy was a lady's armor, or so Septa Mordane had once taught Sansa Stark. But Sansa Stark was gone now, left to wither and fade like a dying memory buried underneathing deepening snow. Only Alayne remained; and Alayne, though many things, was no lady.
She had no choice but bastards rarely did, she reminded herself. Alayne would fashion new armor, stronger than her last. A coat of lies with which to cover herself and conceal that which remained in plain sight. Alayne Stone, red of hair. Petyr Baelish's natural and most clever daughter. None would be the wiser; only she alone would know.
With a hand, Alayne reached up and smoothed a stray wisp down against her temple. Were her father here to witness her predicament, she knew it was what he would do in this moment, the lie kindly-meant he would tell her.
It's what he would have wanted, she told herself.
And so, with a thought, the lie set true and it became what Alayne wanted as well.
case no: No preference here!