❅ Fifteen (Video)

[stonebird]

(Her eyes are red rimmed and she looks like she has been forgoing sleep. There is a bunch of bound paper, neatly tied with pieces of leather, before her and she is using a quill to write. Yet the tip on the writing utensil has broken and so she is having to make another, sharpening it with a small knife.)

If it isn't asking for too much, will you please tell me your best memories? You needn't go into detail; you can even change some details if you wish. All I want to hear are good stories; stories that end with happiness.

(Some warmth to drive out the chill of Winter and loss.)

Comments

[stonebird]

(Sansa knows how to be cruel. She may not be as sly as a Lannister, but she understands their tactics. She wants to be better than that.)

So you fell for a commoner. (Somehow that is even more romantic.) Your family might not approve, but I think love is worthwhile.

(As long as it's true.)

[unphase]

[she knows how to be cruel, too, thanks to the absurdly high standards her mother held for her, but she chooses to be kind instead]

Worse than a commoner. Rimbor started as a penal colony. People from there are looked down on by almost everyone. [she thought it was. her mother disagreed] I think so, too. Jo's much better than people give him credit for.

[she thinks it is? even if they moved too fast, in retrospect]

[stonebird]

But he didn't choose to be there nor was he placed there because he committed some crime. It seems unfair to judge him for that.

(It's hard not to move too fast. Love is intoxicating and dangerous when it is one-sided.)

[unphase]

It is unfair. But that's the way of it sometimes. [somewhat bitterly] Everyone wants someone to look down on.

[and even more so when it's reciprocated. they'd both fallen hard and fast]

[stonebird]

I wouldn't say that applies to everyone, thankfully. (Just the worst of people.) I find those that are insecure are most likely to want to lord over others.

[unphase]

Insecure. . . or too secure. We were attacked on a date once by a group of people who believed themselves to be superior to us, just because they were born Terran and we weren't.

[stonebird]

No one came to your aid? (It's disgusting; Sansa had been raised to have morals.) Every man - and woman - deserves a chance. Bullying is a crime.

[unphase]

The police came after Jo and I had already taken care of the problem ourselves. [the United Planets and the Science Police were supposed to have laws in place against discrimination, but they were often too slow to act on those laws] This group--the White Triangle--nobody but us took them seriously until it was too late and they'd slaughtered an entire planet. 7 billion dead. Even then, the United Planets didn't take action until Earth was attacked directly. They sent us.

...I came here halfway through the battle. I have no idea if we won.

[stonebird]

The United Planets sound like the rulers in the South. I don't think they would move a muscle if the entire North was killed. (Cold, selfish people shouldn't rule or dictate such matters.) Seven billion dead...?

(Sansa is imagining all of them coming back to life. No planet would stand a chance.)

Your United Planets will reap what they sow. I hope you win, but I'm sorry any of it happened.

[unphase]

[a slightly bitter tone of voice] The thing is, the United Planets was formed to stop conflicts and wars. But when there's a real, direct threat against them, they sit on their hands.

[fortunately, they don't have to worry about something like that]

I hope we win, too. I don't know what will happen if we don't.

[stonebird]

You are safer here. (That is a reason to be glad - even if Hadriel hardly seems a gift most of the time.) I am too. We will face our wars when our time here is done. All we can do is our best.

[unphase]

Even with all of the monsters? [which she fights on a regular basis as a junior member of the Guard] I guess you're right. Much as I wish you weren't. This place will let us go home when it feels like it. Not before.