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video; un: lady

[sansa is sewing inhumanly fast thanks to a dark bloodstone sort of glove bracelet that fits neatly over her right hand; it matches the semblance of a stole at her shoulders constructed entirely out of bloodstone stitched to linen with bits of cotton padding as needed. it attaches to leather straps that criss-cross her grey linen dress sewn with beaded-amethyst leaves and join up with her wide leather belt, to which her elaborate chatelaine containing various sewing tools, mystic objects, and small weapons has been clipped. her steel hoop from madam generosity rests neatly beneath the meeting of the straps, and her needle charm shines against the charms and notions at her hip. lady sits at her side in a padded collar sewn with pale bloodstone scales to match sansa's stole, with a large cold bloodstone in the shape of the stark sigil dangling from it.

behind them, of course, is sansa's direwolf tapestry; in front of them the table is piled high with fabric and trays of beads. there is a carafe of sweet tea and a pretty molded glass, half drunk and notably absent of lemon. sansa smiles faintly at the camera without pausing her stitches.]

Hallo, this is Sansa Stark. I was only wondering if anybody had heard anything of any cursed fruits, like we had this time last year. I would especially like to know if the lemons are safe to eat.

[she pauses, although her sewing doesn't, allowing her mouth to tug to one side in a bit of a self-deprecating smile.]

Anyway, I thought I might remind everyone that I should be very glad to make them clothes and leather armor, or bloodstone––I have learned to make cold bloodstone charms that cool the air around them.

[she finally sets her sewing down and gracefully picks up a small bundle of cold bloodstone pendants in the shape of various leaves, flowers, acorns, and similar natural motifs strung on ribbons.]

They're very good for wolves and hounds. This heat can trouble them, although I don't know that the hellhounds feel it.

[she sets the bundle down and resumes her sewing.]

If there's anything particularly special to you that you'd like made, I'd be very glad to do it––or if you had something you wanted to be for Mariana's festival, you might show me a picture; it's very interesting to make clothes like that, and I think I've learned very much about their construction since last time.

[a raven flutters in with a shiny stone in its beak, which it deposits on the table. sansa smiles at it and sets her sewing down again.]

Oh, thank you––

[she picks up a piece of richly embroidered ribbon; the raven hops onto her leg and she fastens it around its neck in an elegant bow. the raven repeats 'thank you' back to her in her own voice.]

You look very handsome.

[the bird repeats its 'thank you' and flies off. sansa turns back to the camera with a rueful smile.]

And––if there's anything you'd like to do at the Wellness Center, I should very much like to know, especially if you'd like to teach lessons there, or do any sort of work, we should be very glad to have you. Of course, everyone is welcome to come visit the hot pools, or have tea, or whatever they like. I want very much for it to be a nice place, and a help to everyone.

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I'm not sure about the cursed fruit, but I'll keep an eye out to see if anybody else says something. ( Peter gives a little smile, fully understanding the concern with that. In this place, one can never be too careful. Ah, but lemons, he remembers Sansa being fond of them, and it happens to be his favourite too, albeit not of actual fruit, just as A Flavour....

There's a pause, and then a question, though he thinks he already would know the answer..... )

Have you ever had.... Lemonheads, before? Like the candy?

( P-probably not, Peter.

There are other things he wants to ask, serious things about the Wellness Center — not that Lemon Business isn't important in itself — but he'll come back to that. )

[ She's at her kitchen table, omni propped up. There's flour on her hands and cheeks and dusting the front of her dark apron. She's been baking. ] What is it the lemons did last year? [ She picks up a lemon off the nearby counter and tosses it up in the air and catches it. ] I'd be happy to test them out for you.

[ When Blake flicks on her video, she's in her room at the Clockhouse -- a cozy, well-windowed area that looks out onto the verandah and beyond. Despite her comfy surroundings, Blake looks... hunched in on herself. More closed off than when she'd met Sansa the previous month, though it's subtle.

Her voice is wistful when she greets Sansa with: ]

Hot pools and tea sounds like my idea of a perfect afternoon. I might have to take you up on that offer.

[ She pauses, and then seems to droop, feline ears folding back. ]

Um, I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that, when I was feeding Seasmoke the other day, I was using Darkblood telekinesis to practice tossing the food to him, since he likes being able to catch it, and... something kind of glitched, and my time manipulation must have activated.

The good news is: he's not grumpy about it.

[ She raises her hands into view, holding what's very much of a baby version of Seasmoke, chirping as he sleeps. ]

I'm working on practicing with my time manipulation so I can change him back, but, um, that might take a couple of months. I'm not very good with that part yet.

[sansa listens and sews, smiling gently, until a baby dragon is produced. then she gasps and actually drops her sewing, surprised and delighted.]

Oh, he's so sweet! You must show Allen; that's my sworn brother, who rides Grey Ghost––oh, I must ask him to show you the books I made him for Christmas, about the dragons from my world. We've both been so busy––now that I have the Wellness Center, I hardly ever have time to go to the Sanctuary in Crenshaw anymore, and that's where he is. The Maesters and Septon Barth do seem to agree it takes them years to grow, and it's said that they never stop growing.

[her smile turns rueful.]

I admit, it's all very exciting to me; I never thought I'd get to see a baby dragon. I'm very sorry, if you were hoping to fly him soon. I'm sure at the least it will be much easier to feed him this way. It's a good thing he and Grey Ghost both like to fish; I imagine it'd be much harder to feed Balerion the Black Dread, if he showed up. Still, I can always get you mutton, or bigger fish, out of my tin from Madam Generosity, if ever you need it.

Edited 2023-06-08 03:49 (UTC)

[sansa looks up in alarm, frowning deeply.]

They made you crave things to the point of madness. [not entirely accurate, but that's how sansa thinks of it!!] It isn't worth it, Sharon.

That's very kind of you, Peter. Thank you.

[sansa smiles.]

I'm afraid I haven't tried very many candies, outside of chocolate. We didn't have them very much at Winterfell or in the Vale, so I never think to go looking for them in the shops. I think I would like lemon candies. Are they shaped like little heads?

[foods shaped like other things are much more common in westeros...]

Oh, come on. It couldn't have been that bad. [ Already she's slicing the lemon into thin discs. ] How long did it take to wear off, do you remember? [ She's gonna do it now. Sorry, Sansa. You know how she can get. ]

[this seems...worse than usual. sansa frowns harder.]

I don't remember, because all I could think of was getting more lemoncakes, and lemonsweet, and lemon pies and things, until I became sick to my stomach the whole night long. I think Remina's festival was over by the time I felt well enough to apologize for stealing from everyone.

[ Sharon pops a slice into her mouth, chews it up, and swallows, her face twisting at the sour punch of it. ] I can't believe a little lemon turned you into such a fiend.

[ Thus far, though, she feels nothing. No fresh urges. No desire to steal or get hot and heavy in a coffin. Then again, it could take it some time before it affects her. ]

[now sansa rolls her eyes and sighs dramatically; sharon may recall her responding very similarly to some of arya's antics in the vision of her future she was given by bausphomette.]

I'm sure a very big lemon would have had the same effect.

[she lifts her eyebrows and stares into the omni camera, unimpressed.]

If you make yourself sick and find can't bring yourself to eat anything but soup and salad for a week, do let me know and I'll bring some to you.

[it was only really a couple of days, but sansa can be a little dramatic sometimes!!]

I would've made myself sick for you, Sansa. [ A grin. She likes it when Sansa is like this. ] I'd say bringing me soups and salads for the week is the least you could do.

[ She's just teasing, though, already popping another slice of lemon in her mouth. ] So far, so good.

[sansa's mouth twists to one side fondly, in an an expression sharon may have seen on several starks (and snows, and possibly a targaryen...)]

I would never ask you to do that.

[unless it would save sharon's life somehow, or the city...but that's not really the message she's trying to get across. she lifts her eyebrows again.]

You might put a little sugar on them, at the least––though I suppose that would only hasten a bellyache.

Exactly why I took it upon myself. [ she made the executive decision to figure it out for the younger girl. ]

Oh, Sansa, I'm made to process all the sugar. I'm American. I lived off of poptarts and energy drinks before I came here. [ Another piece of lemon goes in her mouth and she's not puckering anymore. ] Iron belly.

[sansa leans forward with laughter in her eyes.]

I had a giant lemoncake made for me before I came here, in the shape of a mountain! We had plenty of sugar. You should have seen what we had to eat at court, in King's Landing.

[she may have read about it in never mind's book...of course, not everyone in king's landing could afford cake.]

My mother always said I would get a bellyache from eating sweets, but I never did until the lemon curse––and I haven't had one since. It was very powerful.

[it might have been a bit of a snowball effect, in sansa's case...]

Edited 2023-06-09 02:44 (UTC)

Good news, so far I'm all good. No sudden craving for lemon desserts or tea or lemon pepper chicken. [ ...actually the chicken sounds good but not because of the curse. Still, she feels the same as she did before she ate the slices. ]

Okay, to wind back the conversation a moment: why was the cake shaped like a mountain?

Kind of, but I think they're supposed to also look like little lemons....? Maybe. ( Peter squints and tips his head lightly to the side, thinking. He's never thought too hard about it, just put them in his mouth..... )

I still have some in my stash — I'm kind of a sour candy fiend. I'll send a box over to you with Susurrus.

( He gives a dumb grin; a snake slithering over to someone's house with a box of hard candies in its clutches probably isn't even the weirdest thing to be seen in this place.... But then his smile's turning a little bit shy. )

You're still working at the Wellness Center? What exactly do you uh, do there, if you don't mind me asking?

He does seem to favor fish over any other kind of meat -- and he's definitely easier to feed like this.

[ Blake laughs quietly, but it fades into a more contemplative look.

Seasmoke continues slumbering peacefully, his little wings fluttering with his breathes. Blake can't resist petting his tiny head. ]

I don't mind not being able to fly with him just yet. He seemed... a little resistant to forming any kind of emotional bond, actually. He seemed kind of sad. You said that he was riderless at the point in time the portal was open to, do you know why? Did his rider die, or leave, or...?

[sansa doesn't look entirely convinced; she's pretty sure she only craved lemons because she already liked them so much. still, it would be rude not to answer the question.]

Oh, it was the mountain where the Eyrie is, and Sweetrobin was lord of that castle. It was a tourney to find him some sworn swords, so the Eyrie would become their home too. But everyone knew I had done everything to put the tourney together, so the kitchens made me a lemoncake for it––even though Alayne wasn't truly their lady.

[a shadow briefly crosses her face as she recalls how it felt when harry hardyng called her littlefinger's bastard, but it passes as she recalls his apology. something else occurs to her, and she pauses thoughtfully.]

I'm sure I could get someone to make a cake tin shaped like Winterfell, if I showed them the bloodstone I made of it. It would be nice if I could make cakes shaped like Winterfell for my family when they come here, even if Arya likes tarts better.

[she leans forward a little, the little half-smile back on her face.]

What are your favorite foods, anyway? I don't know that you ever told me. You had your nameday when we were all very busy with the plague curse, didn't you Perhaps we should have a party now, like we did for Ochako.

[she's not sure what a 'pop' tart is, but she's sure she can make any kind of tart now...it was the first thing she learned, after cakes.]

Edited 2023-06-13 02:56 (UTC)

[sansa's brow furrows minutely, but it's difficult to frown at a sleeping baby dragon. she lowers her voice, in case he could be listening...]

Yes, his first rider was killed. It was very strange––nobody knows what happened, exactly, only that his body was found burned in a hearth. Ser Laenor Velaryon had Seasmoke ever since he was born; it was some seven or eight years before he took a rider again, and that was Ser Laenor's half brother Ser Addam. I suppose I thought Seasmoke must have come from closer to Ser Addam's time than Ser Laenor's, because Grey Ghost did, but it could have been much sooner for him. I don't think he would have come here if Ser Addam had ridden him already, though, and I'm sure he wouldn't be sleeping in your lap.

[she smiles down at him, despite the matter at hand. but then she returns her gaze to blake, a bit apologetically. when she speaks, her voice is back to its usual volume.]

Truth be told, I wasn't sure that a Darkblood could form a bond with a dragon. Very many people died trying to claim the dragons on Dragonstone, when Prince Jacaerys offered them the knightship. I think I could teach a Paleblood to form a bond with an animal, if they have any talent for it. But...it is much easier to form any kind of bond with an animal when they're little. I do think that by the time you work out how to turn him back, he'll likely let you ride him. All the same, you might like to practice moving his fire around, though none of the dragonriders ever seemed to get burned by their dragons, that I've read about. It would be good to know anyway, with a dragon in the city. I could make you cold bloodstone to help, if you like. I use it to move fire around whenever there's a need.

Edited 2023-06-11 06:10 (UTC)

[sansa's beloved patron is most often a snake, and as a sometimes-scaly creature she can appreciate susurrus's shimmering scales. regardless, she likes meeting people's omens. she smiles.]

I can send him back with more from my tin from Madame Generosity, once I know what they're like.

[sansa's sewing doesn't really slow or stop, but she briefly looks away from peter as she considers her role at the wellness center.]

I try to do as much as I can of what Lady Sakura did at the Wellness Center, but I'm not a master shinobu. I treat corruption and look after things and see that everyone's paid, of course. Most of what I do is similar to what I have done at the Sanctuary––it is part of the Sanctuary in its own way, and I still look after Allen's records in Crenshaw and see that the deliveries are being made––and of course Smores takes the hounds around there and the Painted Turtle Clinic. Ezra helps me very much, and he's much better with meditation and things than I am. Ezra calls much of what we do compassionate listening, or active listening––it's when we listen to people's problems, and try to help them to come to a solution on their own. Some other people teach different classes, in things people can do to help with corruption, and I want to use the dojo for lessons in qi cultivation when I can. We offer space for Night Walkers who talk to people for therapy or help them make art, especially if they're any good with children. It's useful to have very many places, I think, where people know to go if they need help, even if they don't know what kind exactly. Lady Sakura wanted the Wellness Center to be a place like that, and I know the Sanctuary was always meant to be one, so I suppose I made it more like the Sanctuary, because I can't do everything with ninjutsu and therapy like she did. I should like to think it gives our Hunters more space in Crenshaw for training and working with Beasts, if people come here for more ordinary things. I brought some of the little batcats, too, in case the people in Darcmouth might like to have them. They did very well last month, with all the bugs.

[she smiles wistfully.]

We have nice food, and tea, and music. I showed Lady Amyriah [do not call her lady] some of the recipes I learned from Lady Sakura, and I put in a harp for me to play. Lord Lan Xichen was going to teach me to do qi spells with it to treat corruption and other things, but I'm not even a master harpist, and these things are difficult to learn. Still, it's nice to have a reason to play sometimes, and nobody seems to mind.

Edited 2023-06-14 04:19 (UTC)

[ Sharon grins softly at the mention of Alayne. It was sweet the kitchen recognized her hard work. ]

You could always have a fancy tart made just for Arya. Bet she'd appreciate that. [ It'd make the girl feel special in any case.

But then Sansa leans in towards the camera. Sharon has to raise a brow at the shift and then her face pinches at the topic. ]

Okay, first off, don't want a party. That's just... [ She screws up her face as if the whole idea was off-putting and shakes her head. When she was younger, she dreamed of a birthday party with a bunch of friends and balloons and pizza. That dream died at 15. ] And I don't have a favorite food. I do have a favorite flavor, though: strawberry. [ Sansa is a lemon fiend but Sharon is all about the strawberry. ]

[sansa beams.]

I learned to make tarts last year to surprise her; no one would ever expect any of us to do any baking.

[at least not without working their way up in the kitchens––a strange thing for a stark to do, even in hiding.]

I could use the weirwood leaf tin Raleigh made me for the bake off.

[she's a bit somber there, but then she perks back up.]

I could make you a strawberry tart, too, if you wanted––unless you'd rather have strawberry cake. I made everything strawberry last year when the lemons were cursed. I like strawberries very much, only lemons were much harder to come by, so I suppose I looked forward more to lemoncakes, when we didn't have them.

[they didn't grow as steadily as the blueberry and blackberry bushes in the glass gardens, but during the long summer strawberry harvests were frequent enough!]

[ Raleigh. She'd known him only briefly but he'd been such a help to her in a moment of worry. They've lost so many in the last year. ]

I'd love a strawberry tart, Sansa. [ It's not like she gets to have them often. ] I'll bring you some blueberry lemon poptarts in return.

Wait — really? ( Peter perks up at that. She's a hero for this..... ) That'd be dope..... thanks, Sansa!

( He's falling quiet to listen to the girl speak, paying sincere attention to the details. It... has been on his mind, off and on (and off again) over the years. Things like this. And some of it he's dipped into — it's why he'd taken up meditative karate, and some other things.

But the intentional.... parts, the words, the framing. The term "therapy" itself.... he's shied away from it, flinched back as though it hurts. He knows he needs help. He's known for a long time that he needed help. Even way back before.... before it all tipped and everything crumbled and broke in ways that could never be repaired.

Peter hesitates, nervous to voice his own thoughts in response, but feeling safe to, around Sansa. )

I've never been there. To the Wellness Center. But it sounds like.... a lot of people have pitched in to offer really helpful things there. Bet a lot of people around here could use it.

( A soft sound that's almost a laugh — not something born out of amusement, necessarily. It's all... sad. )

....My dad did things like that for people. Um. Helping them, therapy. He was a psychiatrist. ( Even now, it's strange to speak about his father, even if now he can. There was so long he couldn't. )

I've found some of the books he used, in the Archives. I remember them. ( A soft pause, a fingerpad pressed against a bruise within him. ) Maybe I could bring them by there. For people to look through — some of the stuff in there could help.

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