gentle is thy touch (july questing)

[theladyofwinterfell]

Who: Sansa Stark, any other questers
When: July
Where: Thorne stables
What: taming horses, talking with those who have rounded them up
Warnings: n/a



In the upheaval of Thorne, a great many things had happened and there are few of them that Sansa can affect on her own. What she can do, however, is help the people of Thorne and Nott and when there is need of people to tame horses in the stables, she decides that she will do so. She knows very little of the taming and gentling of horses. She had always been a highborn girl and the only thing she'd done with horses was ride them (ill at ease, to speak of that) but she doesn't think she can do much harm if she helps someone who does have the experience.

She dresses in simple clothes of her own making - sturdy but unadorned - and goes to the stables to meet with the stableboys in charge of receiving the horses that have been brought in from the wilds. The stableboy she meets with is called Eric and it feels like such a Northern name that it brings pangs of homesickness that hit her in waves.

She focuses herself, steadies, and busies herself with speaking sweet words to the horses as they come in while letting the saddles sit upon their backs and then, after a time, strapping them.

Comments

[stations]

You happen to like yourself, he thinks wryly, right. Sure, that's... definitely a concept that may or may not be true. He honestly isn't sure — does he like himself? He doesn't hate himself anymore, at least not most of the time. There are worse people, more annoying people, people with shittier habits or morals or opinions. There are also definitely better people, who are less annoying, less crazy, less occasionally brain-dead.

Ultimately, he decides with a small amount of pleasant surprise, he's pretty okay. Totally average. He likes himself well enough that he's totally cool being alone with himself, and that's a pretty nice thing to learn today.

"I think you're probably right, although I think... putting on a show or not, most people are just kind of exhausting in general." And then he realizes the possibly insulting implication of this, and quickly backpedals, "I mean, you seem alright so far. Not all that exhausting. Mostly kind of nice. Just- for the record. Although I could be wrong, you could turn out to be, like, a serial killer that wears people's skin or something, but- you don't seem like one yet. So that's... cool."

[theladyofwinterfell]

Sansa arches a brow in amusement when he implies she might be a serial killer who wears the skin of others and she shakes her head. "No, I might have been married to a Bolton but I have not taken up the habit of flaying people. Anyone who has been killed on my account has earned it through their own foul deeds."

Sansa thinks that is perhaps not terribly comforting so she pauses for a moment and tries to decide how best to explain herself.

"I am a queen. When one is a ruler, and in war, deaths occur at your hand whether directly or indirectly. I have never wanted to kill someone for the joy of it. I like to think of myself as a decent person for the most part but that is in the eye of the beholder. I did not take your words as insult."