revivalproject | bright lights, big city

WHO: Sansa Stark + baby James
WHERE: Coruscant - surface levels; a diner + a network post
WHAT: shock, awe, annoyance
WHEN: 24 March
WARNINGS: TBD

Sansa has been to a few planets in her time both in the Fleet and on Agra 10 but this one has to be the busiest one she's ever seen. She feels like she's in the midst of everything and no one can hear her at all over the noise of speeders and the crush of other beings. She holds James close, not wanting his curiosity to have him touching anything he shouldn't, and calls out for someone she might know.

"If the Agra are doing this, you ought to give me a direction. I cannot help you with whatever task you have if I don't know where you are or where I am," Sansa shouts. A few aliens look her way and shrug and the overall feeling she gets is one of indifference. Seems she isn't the only lost person around here.

Thinking inside would be better than outside, she ducks into what turns out to be a restaurant and settles in one of the booths. The menus are in runes she cannot read and she ends up pointing to what she wants; the staff at least speaks common. While she waits on her food, she jiggles James a bit to try and quiet him.

"We're going to find out where this is," she says, sing-songing. "Mother has to help the Agra again, she thinks, and you're a big enough boy to help too."

***

( Somehow, the communicator had ended up in her pocket without her noticing and Sansa thinks she ought to have tried this first. Of course, she has it now so there's no use in beating herself up over it. )

Fleet! It is Sansa Stark and I have no idea where we are right now. I don't know this planet but I hope some of you still know me. I can send coordinates?

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"Sansa Stark, Queen in the North," she says, taking his offered hand and shaking it. If they're using titles, she's happy to use her own even if it means little to nothing here in this place where they're all equals.

She looks at James and laughs again. "He's plotting as to what thing he can put in his mouth next. That's been the latest. New thing? In the mouth. Favorite thing? In the mouth. Mummy's hair? Certainly in the mouth."

"Woah. A queen. That's... I mean, should I bow or something? Curtsey? I might fall but I can try it."

James is still looking precious and happy. Richie knows the age. His own sister had a few kids that he visited on and off. He glances around and grabs a cloth napkin and some ice. Wrapping it up, he hands it to Sansa.

"Here. I don't know if he's teething or whatever but usually that kept my nieces and nephews happy and busy. Soothes the gums too if they're bothering him. Just an idea to maybe save that hair."

"No, a mother and Sansa. I really cannot be a queen when I am not among my people or in my castle. Wouldn't it be ridiculous of me to run about and try to rule a group of free people? No need to show me obeisance. I'd rather just be the same as everyone else."

When Richie gives James something to gnaw at that gets him out of her hair, she looks at him in great relief. "I should have thought of that myself. He has two teeth at the moment but I think a third is starting up. It's why he fusses so much."

"First time moms can't think of everything. That's why fun uncles exist." He ruffles James' hair and pokes him on the nose. He likes babies well enough considering he never really wanted one.

"So. I couldn't help overhearing. Agra prisoner club. Woo. This is your second time around?"

"Plenty of uncles, in my case. I'm grateful for it. It is my first time doing it and every day it seems like I run into something different."

Sansa smiles when he plays with James' hair and when he mentions the Agra, she nods. "Yes, second time I was here. I was in the original Fleet, too, with the ships? I know my way around space, as silly as that sounds."

"Doesn't sound silly at all. Right now it seems silly for me to say I don't."

He pokes James' nose again and then finally gives Sansa all of his attention.

"So. Any advice for a newbie? I'm pretty fresh out of the fountain. Arrived, got a drink, came here. Haven't even had the grand tour yet."

"Well, when you're on Temba, you should probably find yourself somewhere permanent to live. There's some houses - or what counts for them. I had one before I went back to Winterfell," Sansa explains.

"We travel a lot but having that place to call home made me feel more secure."

Went back...

Richie frowns a little and looks between Sansa and James. His lips purse in thought. "So. When...When you went back... Did James come with you? Like. Did the things you had here come with you? Or were you able to...change things back at home?"

"I showed up back at my own castle with nothing but the two of us. My world isn't like this one or the worlds of those I've met," Sansa explains.

"So an unmarried queen with a baby isn't possible. I had to lie and say I found him and hide him with a nanny. I still saw him as much as I could, though, he's still my son. I was protecting him, not giving him away. Anyway, five moons pass and I take him on one of our private walks and I wound up here. Every time I've wound up in space, I have to start over except that I know people and they remember me from before."

That isn't what Richie had wanted to hear. His heart sinks at the idea that going back to his universe possibly means Eddie vanishing again. Or maybe he wouldn't, like James. But it wasn't a guarantee one way or another. Which means, of course, that there is a risk of losing him all over again. For the fucking third time in his life.

He wouldn't survive it.

"Well. At least the baby got to stick around. Cutie. And here we don't care what your marital status is so boom! Another plus!"

"Yes, me being married is of absolutely no importance here," Sansa agrees.

"And that is relieving to me in ways I cannot truly express. I suppose it makes me a bad queen but I don't like leaving here. I like being the person I am here and being able to mother my son and not have to worry about anything else. It's selfish. I know it's selfish. But I can't find it in myself to care."

Richie has no idea what it's like to be a queen. Well, not a royal one, anyway. But he still feels like he can understand the weight of a responsibility and job opposing something you want more. He nods and offers a smile.

"You know what they don't tell you all that often when you're a kid?" He looks to James as though to impart the lesson on him, first. "You're allowed to be selfish. Sometimes being selfish is the only way you get anything you actually want and if you don't speak for yourself then no one else is gonna."

"They absolutely don't tell you that. In fact, they tell you the opposite if they're anything like my lady mother," Sansa says, remembering all the arguments she and Arya had when they were small.

"But you're right. If you don't ask for things all to your own, you'll never get them. I've had to learn that as an adult."

bright lights, big city

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