video; un: lady

[dohaeris]

[sansa, in front of her direwolf sigil tapestry as usual, has her face painted like a raven for the black parade's ongoing festivities, black feathers around her eyes and painted on her cheeks. someone has also given her black lipstick. it doesn't seem to be causing any ill effects. she has black feathers braided into her hair and sewn on to her dress, which is charcoal linen embroidered with glossy black ravens. lady sits with her in a matching collar of black feathers and gemstone chips. she looks somewhat nervous.]

Hallo, this is Sansa Stark. I wanted to say that the people in the strange wasp's nests are only the Zealots that were attacking and kidnapping Sleepers last year, and no one should risk themselves to save them. The Zealots can be recognized by their scars; some of their skin looks half-flayed open. If anybody knows anything else about the Zealots, it would be well if they could share it.

[sansa straightens and draws a breath. she flicks at her omni.]

[locked from user names leavegodalone, 1ststrike, and dabi. that is, in fact, it. she thinks that probably john gaius will be able to see this anyway but doesn't know what else she can do.]

Anyway, as near as I can tell it's my nameday on the seventeenth of this month, and as I've been unable to celebrate my past three namedays I thought I might well have a small feast at the Sanctuary to mark the occasion. Since that day is a Monday I thought perhaps it might be easier for everyone to have it on the Saturday before, which is the fifteenth. We'll be in the larger dining hall. I should be very glad if any of you choose to attend.

Comments

video, un: GoldenFlowers

[the_obedient_servant]

[The video opens to a child in a lab, in the background there are vials and beakers of blood, brewing and boiling. It's impossible to tell what they're working on, but it's surely something, and probably something that isn't good.]

Have you tried asking the Zealots? They're surprisingly very upfront about information once they've stopped trying to kill you. The one I saved even told me how to get to their Sleeper Farm and gave me several pointers in blood magic.

I was told by Sleepers that they can't even talk, so I was very surprised.

[They made a new friend, apparently.]

[dohaeris]

[sansa smiles a little wryly.]

I'm afraid I'm ill-suited for that sort of fighting, but I should be very interested to hear whatever you learned.

[the_obedient_servant]

Why not?

[They don't understand "gender roles." Everyone should learn how to fight in a kill or be killed world. Frisk doesn't have to if they don't want to, but that's because Frisk has them.]

They're Sleepers, but they've been here for a lot longer and have long since succumbed to the corruption of this place. Still, they're deeply ruthless and malicious but despite the nickname, they're not actually crazy.

They want to sacrifice Sleepers to the tower to keep Trench running. I vote we toss Johnny Lawrence in. They're masters of Blood Magic and are open to teaching you. [Pause.] Do you have any specific questions for her?

[Video] un: QueenCobra (nameday filter)

[abornfighter]

Do you have any requests for the celebration?

[parks herself here and lurks]

[faceblocks]

[because no of course she is not going to try and turn this into something huge and possibly something match-maky if she can.]

[dohaeris]

[sansa's mouth quirks to one side, a little confused.]

I was going to ask the kitchens to make lemoncakes, but I hadn't decided on the rest of the food.

[abornfighter]

Oh, I meant for party activities. If you haven't celebrated it for three years, we need to do something special to make up for the past three years of zero celebrations.

video; un: clarke (filtered)

[romancekiller]

Name day? [she hasn't heard that term but based on the message she can easily make a guess] That means your birthday, right? It seems like we share the same day.

[dohaeris]

[sansa nods gracefully.]

Yes, some people say 'birthday' here.

[like.....all of them??? she gives a small, ironic smile.]

The months here are different to where I come from, and often longer. My nameday is the seventeenth day of our tenth month, but I don't know that it's the same. I suppose I could have counted, but I thought it would feel stranger if it were something else entirely. But I wanted to see my friends and have lemoncakes, since I couldn't before. If I didn't mark it at all, it would feel just the same as when I was a hostage.

Video: Un: Naegi11037

[cloversandcranes]

Wasp nests?! There are things like that here?!

[Makoto's horrified face soon shows on the video, as he tries not to panic.]

W-Where are they?! We have to help them!

[As someone who has helped people who hated him and wanted him dead, he doesn't understand why someone wouldn't save them. Especially from such a horrible fate like that.]

[dohaeris]

[sansa frowns. does he come from a world where wasps don't have nests? she does admire this sort of boundless compassion, but she has little time for naivety (and for people who don't seem to listen to her very carefully).]

They have very many things here, including old Sleepers gone very corrupt, who are intent on kidnapping and hurting us, and have done it before. Those are the Zealots. They don't want to be helped, not truly. That would mean treating the corruption within them. Perhaps one day we may be strong enough to do it for them, but not if they get ahold of us first. They will try to hurt you if they see you. That much I do know.

And I know they torture people. The Zealots hung Sleepers up by their skin, the last time. Those are the people we need to help, the people that they're after, and those people could be any of us.

[slayerskiss]

What the fuck is a nameday? Like the day you were named after??

[She's connected the dots. She's done it. She's connecting more, hold on.]

I guess Sansa kind of sounds like sunday.

[dohaeris]

It's the day you were named on. Does everyone say birthday?

[probably yes]

video | un: graham crackers

[possessum]

( Peter appears, as always, looking a bit nervous and nauseated. But the subject of the Zealots is.... definitely A Thing. )

I don't know too much about them. After Luna and me escaped from them last year, I tried not to think about them again. ( There's a shudder that he doesn't manage to suppress or conceal. Of course, Peter's tactic is to try to ignore the scary thing for as long as he can.

...The trouble is, the scary thing might come back again this year to do the same thing. And apparently, they're around, in wasps' nests...? Great! )

Do you know... why they're in those nests? Maybe they're trying to bait people to help them?

( He'll come back around to the second part of this message in a moment! Just.. got to get through the scary part first. )

[dohaeris]

[sansa gives a sympathetic half-smile. she does understand the impulse not to think about it––alayne stone had done a lot of not-thinking, but sansa stark can't afford to.]

I'm very sorry that happened to the both of you. What I've heard has been horrible. If there's anything at all we can do to spare any one of us, we ought to try.

[there's not much she can say in the way of comfort. she frowns, considering.]

Nobody can tell anything about the wasps. It does seem like something a corrupted mind might resort to, but I haven't seen anything to suggest that any of the Zealots survived their ordeal.

voice: un: vi

[faceblocks]

So a small feast in the large hall? Any word back from the kitchens on those lemony cakes?

[just checking in about that.]

Don't know much about the zealots, but now I know about those nests. It's like a two for one deal, if you count the swarm as one.

[dohaeris]

[sansa flashes vi a quick smile, then settles into a thoughtful frown.]

Vi, the wasp creatures seem to only go after our enemies. I don't think we can afford to go around killing them.

[the ravens don't know anything about them, except to avoid them. sansa can't help wondering if some pthumerian could be sending them the way mariana sent creatures at the city, except to help them this time (much as the tower helped them keep the creatures away...). it isn't nice or pleasant, but nature very often isn't, and likely a pthumerian wouldn't understand exactly why this method of execution might be distasteful. regardless or perhaps even because of this they would make a safer ally than enemy.]

audio | un: sds | nameday filter

[fogsong]

[ sharon appreciates the heads up about the wasps nests and the zealots. she's never been too into heroics but she's also not the kind of person to let anyone suffer like that——unless they deserve it and the zealots definitely do.

but she's more interested in the second part of her message ]

So, have you given any thought to what you'd like as a present? Or maybe something special you'd like to do?

audio;

[dohaeris]

[sansa laughs gently.]

I'm sure I should treasure anything my friends might give me.

[it's so tempting to make a joke about tongues, but peter is right there, being retraumatized. anyway the only person here who might take this as a challenge is jinx and caveats would probably just encourage her.]

I trust them in matters of taste.

[this is more positive reinforcement than truth.]

un: enpawnsant

[hearthebell]

If it's alright for me to stop by for a moment, I received payment for a recent case in the form of a crate of clover honey. There are probably sixty jars, and forty-seven of them, at least, have been verified not-poisoned.

text;

[dohaeris]

[lazarus what...is she supposed to do with this information. is this relevant to either the party or the wasps. is this a lesson of some kind]

Sixty jars of honey?

I suppose they could be small jars.

Did you solve a case for a beekeeper? I should be very interested to hear about it.

video | un: 🐟 wanda

[explosion]

How do you celebrate a nameday back home?

[ consider this wanda's rsvp. ]

[dohaeris]

[sansa beams! she would love for wanda to meet more of her friends. lady makes a friendly wolf noise.]

Well, back home in Winterfell, we'd have a feast. Some of our bannermen would visit, and all kinds of singers and musicians would come and perform. The king or queen might have a tourney, though, and some of the larger southern houses.

[she smiles.]

How do they celebrate a nameday in your home?

video | un: sharpshooter

[azurestar]

Other than they're super powerful and will drag you to their farm to torture you and harvest your blood, there's not much else to say about those freaks.

[There's more, of course. But should they really talk about the rest because it's nightmare inducing to think that they could all end up like that eventually? Not to mention the implications about sleeper lifespans. Lance says no thank you to that. Then in the nameday filter:]

Oh sweet, is your nameday like a birthday? Cuz if it is, I gotta get you the raddest gift… uh, what do sworn swords usually give noble ladies where you're from? …Also, I'm still not totally sure what a sworn sword is.

[dohaeris]

[it sounds like they need to have a discussion about knowing your enemies another day. sansa rolls her eyes to acknowledge she's heard the first part, and then gives him a weary smile.]

It's just a different word for it. I never had sworn protectors before I got here; my brothers mostly gave me lemoncakes they stole from the kitchens before dinner.

What did you get your friends for their birthdays?