(Untitled)

[practiced]

DATE: November 4th, midday.
CHARACTER(S): Sansa Stark and anyone who happens across her | OPEN
SUMMARY: Question: how does a medieval princess adapt to life on the prairie? Answer: not very well.
LOCATION: Independence, Missouri.
WARNINGS: Curtseying. Lots of curtseying.
FORMAT: Paragraph to start. Responders get to pick their poison!

Comments

[yokoonomuch]

[ It's stupid, but she's still really worried about her biology quiz. In the realm of "Things that Should be the Priority Right Now," biology quizzes probably don't even make the top ten anymore, but it's still something there in the back of her mind, a buzzing insistence that she doesn't actually have time to wander around because she has studying to do.

But Annie wanders anyway, if only because even a few hours hasn't turned the wagon area into less of a mess of people trying to figure out what's going on. She's halfway waiting for the moment when she wanders off the movie set and everyone yells "Surprise!" (not that suddenly waking up on a movie set is actually any less disturbing).

Annie's thinking so hard that she almost literally bumps into the girl outside the bakery. Only a short stop and a quick step backwards prevents the collision. ]

Oh, sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going. [ For the first time, it occurs to her that maybe she should not be doing that if she doesn't want to get lost. Embarrassed, she tucks hair

[yokoonomuch]

That's a nice way of putting it, [ Annie observes. Most people Annie's known haven't phrased it anywhere near as nicely. With her arm around Sansa's, settled in its place now, she feels a little more grounded in place then she did when she woke up this morning. The details may be strange, but it's familiar anyway. ]

I think I used to be a little bird, maybe, but I've never been good at settling.

[practiced]

I have always been a little bird, [ Sansa admits quietly, perhaps even sulkily. They think me a simple and stupid girl and, perhaps, they are right.

Lifting her shoulders, she lets them drop again with a gusty sigh. ] Not a wolf, as my father and my brothers and sister. But, for a long while, I thought it to be necessary. Perhaps I think it still. There is as much place for finery and courtesy in the world as there is for sword and steel, is there not?

[yokoonomuch]

Sure, [ says Annie easily. Even if sometimes she wishes people were a bit more like she is, she can accept that the world needs all kind of different people. If the last two years have taught her anything, it's that.

She gives Sansa's arm a little supportive pat with the tips of her fingers. ] But I also don't think you have to be one or the other. You can be the courtesty and the steel, you know? Nice and someone who fights hard for important things.

[practiced]

[ It's a nice thought. More than nice, Sansa thinks, and just the consideration of it makes her face warm in a satisfying way, as if the sun had only just now begun to shine upon it. Overhead, the black shape of a bird darted across the sky, cutting a sharp line against the bright blue backdrop and Sansa lifted her face to watch it go. ]

Perhaps one day you will teach me, then, Annie of the Green Vale. For I fear I will never learn on my own, and I will remain the bird I was born.

[yokoonomuch]

[ Annie, meanwhile, raised a hand to shade her face from the sun. It was hot in the direct, mid-afternoon sunlight, and there wasn't much shade around really, and Annie was still dressed as she had been earlier: for the spectacularly well-air conditioned environs of the Greendale library. ]

We can make a deal, okay? I have a feeling you're going to be a lot better at talking to some of the people around here than I am. Stick with me, and maybe I can... tutor you a bit. [ She could make lesson plans. It would be great. ]

[practiced]

[ When Annie lifts her hand, Sansa takes it upon herself to steer them to the opposite side of the street where the shadows are longest and deepest. It takes some maneuvering to accomplish - the road is thick with traffic in places and more often than not the oxen that pull the carts and buggies along are sluggish and dimwitted. Still, they manage it, and when they are in the cool of the shade, Sansa smiles at Annie in earnest, moving to clasp both of her hands in her own. ]

I was told by my septa that I was brightest amongst all the young ladies she ever reared and that I took to my lessons as easily as a trout to water. I promise that I will try to learn all that you teach me, and not just learn it, but learn it well. [ She nods, then leans in close, her voice lowering again into hushed, gossiping tones. ] But let us not be just student and teacher. You remind me very much of a young lady who is as near to me as a sister and it is my wish, my very large hope, that you and I become just close, during whatever time we are given

[yokoonomuch]

[ Annie knows that Sansa is a few year younger than her, though with all of her manners and ladylike-bearing, it's hard to guess how many exactly. The last year of her life has been about trying to be mature, trying to fit in with a group of adults and make sure they don't look at her like a kid, but there's a part of her that still feels like there's a void where ages 13 to 18 were supposed to be. Annie never had a close girlfriend in high school, despite all her efforts, and now she has Britta -- who hates all things girly -- and Shirley -- who is a married mother of two -- and she loves them both, but a lot of the time it's not like having a girlfriend.

That's why she smiles so brightly at Sansa's question and squeezes her hands back. ]

Yes! This whole thing, being here, is pretty insane but if we stay together and if we're friend, it'll maybe be just a little bit easier, don't you think? Everyone needs someone to tell secrets to and cheer up when they're feeling down. [ Not that Annie has ever experienced that firsthand, but she

[practiced]

[ Sansa flushes at Annie's acceptance, flushes so brightly and fully that she seems a bit sick - giddiness and nervousness, mixed with gnawing hunger, churning away in her stomach. Hope was as much blade as it was honey and Annie Edison's smile offered both to Sansa, though she was no longer wary enough to refuse them. No, instead, she fell upon it voraciously, and returned Anne's earnest squeeze once again. ]

Let lies never come between us, then. And may our hardships do nothing but bind us more closely together. Once, I did not know the importance of such things, I cared only for court and courtesy. But I assure you, Annie Edison, in the name of my house which is House Stark and of our lands which are the North, I will care for you now.

[ There, she tells herself. It is done. A sworn oath. The first I have felt brave enough to swear aloud in such a very long time. ]

[yokoonomuch]

[ It's such a sweet thing to say that Annie beams at her again. It takes her a moment to realize that swearing things, based on her brief experience with stories about princesss and knights and stuff, is something probably something quite serious to Sansa and not just something people do for emphasis and that maybe that meant that Annie ought to swear it back. ]

I promise too, [ she says. ] In the name of. [ An embarrassed giggle escapes. ] Well, I don't have any lands except the apartment I rent, and you really don't want me swearing on that. [ She suppresses a shudder. If there's one advantage to being here and not there now... ] In the name of my GPA, okay? It's an important thing where I come from.