revivalproject | practice makes perfect

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practice makes perfect

WHO: Sansa Stark, Lady & You
WHERE: The Noth Pole, naturally.
WHAT: The Ice Castle, wrangling any children you'd like wrangled, general holiday cheerfulness.
WHEN: The entire Us Make For They event
WARNINGS: lmao rated A for Adorable?

001. ice castle

Sansa has never seen something so beautiful as the ice castle and she's immediately drawn to it, being a child of winter as she is. When she steps foot into it, she has an indescribable urge to sing in the way she hasn't for years and years and she lets the song rise up within her, high soprano notes amplifying beautifully within the space and against the crystal walls. Lady, too, seems a bit awed and doesn't make any noise at all, merely looking at her mistress and how happy she is - how long it has been since she's been truly this happy. It's as if everything is perfect in this one moment and Sansa wants to freeze it for all eternity.

She reluctantly leaves after a few songs and when she exits, she realizes others will have been able to hear her. Her cheeks are colored a bit but she hopes this can be chalked up to the cold as she is a Queen and shouldn't be embarrassed that people have heard her sing.

002. children

It's been a long while since Sansa has been around children. Many have died in Westeros to war and cold and famine and there were no children in the Fleet. She still carries the child in her belly, though, and it's begun to show. Rather than hide it the way she might in the North, she only lets out her clothing a little and it's evident to anyone that she's pregnant and rather happy about it.

She'd thought herself a proper little mother to Rickon when he'd been born, having been just old enough to care after him similar to the way her Lady Mother and Old Nan had. There seem to be an inordinate amount of children here, though, and some of them look awfully familiar to her - are they children of her traveling companions? Is that possible? One runs headlong at her in the way children are won't to do and she carefully catches them by the shoulders, kneeling slightly so she might look in their eyes.

"Careful, sweetling. You'll hurt yourself if you keep running like this. Come with me and we'll find somewhere to play properly, all right?"

003. snow queen

There's plenty of snow here and while Sansa isn't capable enough of making snow maidens on her back just now as she had as a child, she can build a snow castle the way she'd done as a little girl and, later, at the Eyrie. She knows every nook and cranny of Winterfell and she kneels in the snow to make it, using a bit of wood to help shape the delicate crenellations at the tops of the towers. She only has a branch to make the heart tree, which makes her sad, but it's still there all the same.

She's working on the bailey when she sees a shadow fall across her castle and she cries out in fear. "No, don't step on it! Please don't, I've been working for ages."

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"Having brothers and sisters must be fun, though. I don't have any, but..."

He looked uncertain, perhaps a bit frightened, though it was quick to pass. He wasn't there any more, and he's had it explained to him that this isn't where he's from. So it was okay, probably, and he didn't have to worry so much.

He shook his head, deciding to say nothing else. Sansa seemed happy, and he didn't want to ruin her mood. He was perceptive enough to know that his fear would bring her mood down.

He smiled then, and tilted his head, "Are you cold though, Miss Sansa? Humans turn pink when they're cold... I think? I'm always this color," He patted his own cheeks, pinched them and pulled slightly, before releasing them- trying to make her laugh, perhaps. His cheeks were purple though, compared to the rest of his skin that was a pale blue, "But I know humans are different from my people."

Sansa cannot help but smile at the little boy's purple cheeks and she laughs a bit and kneels down as best she can so he can touch her own. They are pink, after all, but she isn't terribly cold. Nothing that wouldn't warm up quickly indoors.

"Check for yourself," she says, tapping her right cheek. "If I'm too cold, we're going to have to go get some hot chocolate, I think."

Hot chocolate. By the flicker of excitement alone, it was safe to say that going inside to get some hot chocolate was more of a tempting idea than staying outside to play in the snow some more.

Altair reached up to touch her cheeks, making a very serious and thoughtful expression.

"I think you're very very cold, Miss Sansa, and that we should go inside and get some hot chocolate."

He removed his hands, and crossed his arms, giving a sage nod, "It's for the best."

Sansa makes a point of not laughing as this child is very, very serious and she remembers being serious as a child sometimes as well; children aren't fond of being made light of and she hardly wants to start off on the wrong foot.

"I do believe you are right. Come, then, and we'll see about warming me up. I wouldn't want to catch a chill."

Altair nodded his head, still excited at the idea of getting to drink hot chocolate- for someone like him, that is a luxury after all, not something he's gotten to indulge in before. In the settlement on Ziost, there was barely enough food to go around and he always had to fight for his, and when it came to things to drink, water and cheap instant caf was all that was available. Something like hot chocolate?

Definitely not.

So he was near jumping with excitement- though knew to match Sansa's pace. She was pregnant, after all, and he's old enough to know that pregnant women were to be handled with care. He could sense her child too, through the Force, though said nothing of the sort. Being Force-sensitive was something he'd rather keep to himself.

He held his hand out so she could take it, so they could walk hand in hand.

"Let's be careful on the way back. It's easy to slip if there's ice beneath the snow."

Sansa takes his hand and squeezes it a bit, charmed by his care for her. She leads them to a little shop where they can get hot chocolate and gets two of them; she's only ever discovered chocolate through her travels with the Fleet and with the Agrii but she's developed a taste for it.

She carries both mugs carefully to a table and sets them down before taking one of the seats for herself. "Thank you for reminding me of the ice. I might have forgotten and very well slipped."

The amount of color in this place was something different to be sure, and Altair couldn't help but look at everything inside the little shop, so unlike what he was used to. Still, rather than run around the place exploring, he stayed by Sansa's side, only taking a seat once she did, opposite the table from her.

Very much unlike a normal child who would probably grab at the hot chocolate immediately, he didn't, even if he obviously wanted to.

Being thanked made that purple blush of his spread, and he ducked his head somewhat shyly, "The ladies at the settlement have always taught me to be gentle with women who're pregnant. I didn't want you and the baby getting hurt..."

"You did very well," Sansa says. "No one could have been gentler. It is the first time I am having a child so I suppose I'm extra careful with it."

If anything happens to this child, Sansa thinks she might weep herself until she cannot weep any longer. It's been going well, though, and she likes that people know about it now.

"Do you like your hot chocolate, Altair?"

Altair was glad it sounded like Sansa was looking forward to having this child. He wondered if his own mother had been like that, before having him. Nothing he needed to say though, when she looked so happy.

"Is it gonna be a girl? Or a boy? Do you know?"

He could probably find out on his own, if he used the Force, but he'd been very careful to just appear as a normal child here.

When she asked if he liked his hot chocolate, he reached to grab his mug to take a sip- taking it as being allowed, and he smiled, and nodded his head. It was delicious.

"Yeah! It's good!"

"I do not know if it is a boy or girl yet but I think it might be a boy. Boys are very important where I come from," Sansa explains. "And a boy would eventually be king of my kingdom someday. I would very much like that. I would love a child regardless, though."

When he says the hot chocolate is good, Sansa cannot help but smile. "We don't have this where I come from," she confides. "I've only had it since I left my home and came to be with the Fleet and now here with the Agrii. It's one of my favorite things to drink."

"Why? Aren't girls just as important?" Altair asked, tilting his head to the side with a puzzled expression, "Girls can be Queens or Empresses, too."

He didn't know much, but he knew there had to be places ruled by women in the galaxy. But maybe Sansa was originally from a place where they hadn't left their own planet yet, a place stuck in a certain way of thinking? Altair was sure there had to be places like that, too.

The fact that Sansa's home didn't have hot chocolate probably did mean that her home wasn't too far along, had not yet reached a point where they traveled through space and dealt with many other worlds- though it sounded like she's visited many places other than her own planet. Maybe much like they are now- just being somewhere else without knowing how or why.

"Where I'm from, I think there are drinks like this. But in the settlement I'm from, we only get water or cheap instant-caf. But kids aren't supposed to drink caf, I think."

"I am a queen but only because my living brother is King in the South and I am the eldest now. I want a boy because people are more willing to follow a king than a queen. It's just the way things are where I'm from."

She gives Altair a sweet smile. "And perhaps he'll be a good, sweet boy like you are. It's my most sincere hope, anyway, and I hope I'll be a good mother."

"That's weird. In the settlement I'm from, the ladies do most of the leading. Guys just sort of... I dunno. Work. Swear a lot. Drink a lot. Fight. It's kinda stupid and scary sometimes."

Maybe men were better leaders elsewhere. After all, so far as he knew, the Empire had the Emperor at the top. But Altair knew little of the Emperor as a leader. The women he knew were better at getting stuff done, and even he followed their directions.

Being called a sweet boy made him blush though, and he immediately shook his head, "I'm not good or sweet. I'm just me."

That aside, "I think you'll be a good mother! I think so long as you love the baby no matter who or what they turn out to be, that's good."

"Well, I think you're a good boy and if you think I'm a good mother, then I must be right," Sansa says, grinning at him. "No way to argue yourself out of that one, sweetling."

Sansa wonders what this child is like as a person grown. She knows they must be among those with the Agrii, changed in some way through the magic of this place. Would this person be a friend to her?

He pouted just a little, but was well aware that trying to argue was a useless venture. Plus it would be rude of him to argue with a woman who had been so nice to him, anyway, and while his family had not been the ones to teach him manners, someone had taken the time to teach him the difference between right and wrong.

He sipped at his hot chocolate again, and looked out a nearby window, the slowly falling snow. It was pretty.

Looking to Sansa again, he tilted his head, "A credit for your thoughts?"

She seemed to be thinking about something and he was curious.

"I was just wondering what sort of person you might be when you grow up. I had one idea of myself when I was girl - the kind of lady I'd be, who I'd marry. You're so different than I am. I wonder how you'll be when you grow up, when you have fully become what you're meant to be."

It's an interesting thought, nonetheless, and Sansa makes a note to reach out to Altair once things are back to normal so she can get to know him properly.

Altair looked thoughtful, "I dunno. I wanna be... I want to open my own shop, I think. And start a family. I want to work on my art... I um. I like to embroider, so it would be nice if my shop had something to do with art, I think."

He crossed his arms, and gave a thoughtful him, "I also wanna be a nice person, I think. A nice person with a lot of friends!"

"You embroider? I love to embroider," Sansa says, her eyes lighting up. "I've made most of my own clothes and I'm making everything for the baby. I would love to embroider with you, Altair."

Another sewer pleases her so much and certainly cements her decision to meet this man when everything is back to normal.

"I like art as well. I like to draw."

"Yeah! I'm not very good yet, but I love embroidering and sewing and even knitting. I want to try crocheting some day, too!"

Honestly Altair just enjoyed working with textiles, liked keeping his hands occupied and his mind focused. And if the outcome of the time he spent was pretty, even better.

"It's fun doing stuff like that. I like to draw, too! I love drawing and embroidering flowers, especially. There aren't really any where I'm from..."

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practice makes perfect

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