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❅ Nine (Video)
(Sansa's Tully blood has surfaced enthusiastically thanks to their new environment, taking her somewhat by surprise. She is dressed in a white shift and she is barefoot, standing on a rock near the sea. Her auburn hair is plaited neatly down her back and she is smiling at the rolling waves below.)
I don't believe I have ever learned how to properly swim. I need lessons; can anyone provide?
(Or there's just the "jump in the water and figure it out" method. She would rather not go about it so crudely.)
The water looks refreshing. Is it cold? The sun must warm the uppermost layer, but the depths have to be freezing.
I don't believe I have ever learned how to properly swim. I need lessons; can anyone provide?
(Or there's just the "jump in the water and figure it out" method. She would rather not go about it so crudely.)
The water looks refreshing. Is it cold? The sun must warm the uppermost layer, but the depths have to be freezing.
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The last time I was in water was when I fled Ramsay. It was freezing and I was wearing a full dress.
[video]
That doesn't count as swimming, but you did well enough. You made it to safety.
[She was wearing wool when she came to him at Castle Black, wasn't she? Anything else and she might not have arrived at all.]
We boys learned young, but there was little danger in the water. No depth or current, and never too cold.
You haven't put a foot in that water yet.
[Might be an observation, might be a question.]
[video]
(She knows the dangers of freezing water. That's why she had been so frightened to attempt the path Theon had chosen.)
No, I haven't. (But she is drawn to it, thinking it might feel nice - current or no current.) I won't without someone with me.
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I wonder if anyone has thought to ask these gods for a safe place to teach people. [He's visibly thinking this idea over.] But it might be that it wouldn't be safe, not with so much chop in the real waters.
You understand that you'll never be able to swim to one of the other islands.
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I think we should be grateful that we are alive. The gods only show care when it suits them. (Though she has to thank them for bringing them to safety, at least.)
I had never thought myself capable of that. (She shakes her head, marveling over the idea.) I only worried if I should fall in accidentally. I should like to keep my head above water.
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[Well, that's some luck.]
But I'm not dressed to teach you to swim. Don't have anything dry to wear.
[Because, though he may have stripped down to his smallclothes to swim back before the city moved, in the few days when he didn't remember why he keeps his chest well and truly covered, he's not going to do it again. People here may have lived and died and lived again, but how many of them bear the marks of so many knives? And questions about it make him think of it again, what it felt like to die alone in the cold, what it feels like now to wonder why he's alive at all.
It's better to be getting on with things than lingering on those questions any more than he has to.]
The first thing you'll need to learn is treading water. Where on the island are you?
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(Her shift doesn't quite disguise the scars on the backs of her legs, however, while she is still a vain creature, she isn't as determined to hide her past. His scars tell a sadder story and they must remind him of death every time he sees them. Sansa will encourage him to not be ashamed of them, but she understands hiding them from the world.)
I am on the eastern edge. (She frowns pensively.) Is treading water tiring?
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[He's now walking with purpose.]
If you flail too much, you won't keep your head above water. Promise me one thing before you start this. If you begin to drown, make a racket, try to keep your head and your arms out of the water, but once someone reaches you, don't fight them.
Did you ever learn to fish?
[He thinks not. Not a very ladylike pursuit to begin with -- and Sansa was very much a lady as a young girl -- but apart from that, it can be smelly, and he isn't sure that she would know what to do with a fish once it's caught.]
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(Flailing in front of Joffrey just enticed him to do worse.)
You know I can be loud if I wish. If I am drowning, you will hear me on all the islands, I promise.
(Fishing... Hardly a lady-like pursuit. She shakes her head slowly.)
I learned how to hunt with a bow in Ruby City, but I was never very good. There was a river close to my forest home and there were fish in it. The Elves saw to the fishing, however. I can cook the fish and I learned how to descale them. I do not care for the smell, but -
(Considering their surroundings...)
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[he says, and it's a mark of how much more they're siblings now -- instead of rather trying to pretend that they're not, as they used to -- that he doesn't say "better than I expected."]
What else did you learn there? Hunting with a bow, that takes time and practice and training. I can do it, but I was raised to it. You'll pick it up where you can.
[He doesn't say that Father taught him -- but Father taught him. And Robb.]
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I was there for several years. Lord Maedhros instructed me in the sword and the bow while Lord Maglor gave me music lessons.
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[And he did not. He liked stories of heroes, of young conquerors, of the Young Dragon and the Dragonknight, all those Targaryen worthies of old. Now there are songs that haunt him -- "The Dornishman's Wife", "The Last of the Giants" -- in a way he would never have expected that they one day might. But if no one mentions them, he tries not to think of them.]
What instruments did you learn to play?
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(Her tastes aren't as silly as they once were, thankfully. Songs can be a nice escape from reality, but she enjoys pieces that portray reality too. Not just fanciful knights and ladies who hardly ever encounter actual problems.)
He tutored me on the high harp and with my voice.
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Is that you I see down by the shore?
[He's some distance away, still, but he can see a white shift, some red hair, tiny in the distance. He lifts a hand.]
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(He can't avoid her songs now.)
Maybe? (She turns and looks into the distance. Upon spotting him, she waves, rising onto her tiptoes.) I think I see you!
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[His wave is less tentative, and then he lowers his arm and makes his way towards her more resolutely.]
Others might want to hear them, too.
[... Sure, Jon.]
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(Songs and Starks before betrayal and Lannisters. She reaches out for him when he is close enough, squeezing his arms gently.)
How kind of you to spread the joy.
(Oh Jon.)
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Some of the stories Old Nan used to tell might count as the worst. Now I wonder if all of them are true.
[They can't possibly all be true, but the fact that even a few of them have turned out to be gives him pause.]
Are you sure it's safe to swim in these waters?
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I have no idea. (She laughs softly.) I assume not safe at all. Fighting against the currents might prove impossible. I thought about tying a rope to my waist.
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I miss everything. I never expected to live at Winterfell again, and when I missed it, I thought of it as it was then, not as it is now.
[He's not sure that Sansa knows how much he missed it, from time to time -- what a place it occupied in his stifled longings and imaginations. He hadn't felt that he'd belonged there as a boy, and once he left it, it was more that he had to keep reminding himself that he didn't, that his place was guarding the Wall and that he would live and die there. Did Uncle Benjen ever feel that way? Benjen Stark had been able to return to it, from time to time; Jon hadn't had the luxury of that assumption for very long after he joined the Watch.]
Tying a rope around your waist might not be amiss, as long as we can keep it clear of the rocks. Don't want anything to drag you under and hold you there.
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(She berates herself for being so stupid as to want to leave it. The snowy walls of Winterfell had protected all of them better than she could have ever known as a child. Sansa had a feeling their father and mother had known, but even they could not have predicted how horrible life would become for all of them.)
If the rope is tied onto something on shore, that won't be as much of a worry, will it?
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[He reminds himself that, as much concern as he may have for his remaining family, he'd still left Sansa to rule the North. But he'd left her with a bodyguard devoted enough to her that she'd helped Sansa escape from the clutches of an important lord, consequences be damned... on the other hand, there are people looking out for her here, too.
She probably won't drown.]
Are your arms strong? The training you've been given with the sword should strengthen them.
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You can test me. (She brightens at the idea, bending down to pick up her sword. She usually carries it with her - a constant companion forged by Maedhros.)
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But an ordinary winter is not what's upon them at home, and the greater part of him will fight until he can't fight anymore. In the meantime, there's this place -- he can't decide whether it's a distraction or a respite or a bit of both. It would have been neither when the Null were attacking: he knows that much.]
Carry a little dagger strapped somewhere. But aye, I'll test you.
[It would be better not to test her with an edged weapon, particularly one that can slice through flesh as if it were air, but he can use Longclaw well enough now that he thinks he's unlikely to hurt her. He draws it as she picks her sword up from the ground.]
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But sitting in front of a roaring fire with a nice cup of mead sounds like a far more pleasant option.)
I was training daily before I came here. Now I do not bother the Elves as much for lessons.
(She grips her sword and shows him that the aforementioned Elves have not taught her offensive moves so much as evasion and defensive moves. Sansa is naturally graceful and that works in her favor as she forgoes her usual perfect - if somewhat stiff - posture and evades his sword on nimble feet.)
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