abraxaslogs | Open Log - I feel like I should be cackling

Chris definitely caught that and was putting the pieces together of Sansa's life a little faster now. He makes an effort to keep his hand beneath hers relaxed. His coffee cup though? That exploded.

He was going to find whoever touched Sansa, and make them pay. How was he going to find him? The details there were a little bit sketchy. He hadn't exactly mastered time portals much less going to other worlds but. He had a mission now. Orb the testicles and penis of the guy who touched Sansa into the nearest volcano. That was a plan.

"Shit, are you okay?" Great job Chris, great job. Sansa opens up to you, you explode the cup that could have hurt her. Bang up job you're doing there.

He took a deep breath, trying to salvage the situation. "You deserve so much better Sansa. No one deserves to be treated like that. You deserve to be able to make your own choices and be treated with kindness and respect." He was going to kill him. Every single person who looked at her wrong.

Sansa gasps a little when the cup explodes and pulls away for a moment. It's a shock, to be certain, but people have different magic than she does and perhaps this is what Chris is good at besides appearing out of nowhere and making potions.

"Sorry, I think I'm all right. Just a bit shocked, is all. Arranged marriages are...common where I come from and especially when you have a particularly important claim of land such as I have. I know that isn't the case in other places where people have love matches."

She looks at the shards of the cup. "I wouldn't suppose you can repair that, no? I can only make ice."

Sansa thought that was bad, she should see what Piper did when she got upset. Okay, the important thing was that she only pulled back for a moment. She hasn't run away screaming.

Still, he arched an eyebrow as she continued talking. Arranged marriages? Bullshit. So, he was going to kill everyone later. "Sorry, I usually have better control than that. But that's...no that's not normal." In any sense of the word Sansa. Were they going to have to have a talk about consent? He took a deep, deep breath and then took another one, trying not to see red.

"The cup. Right. Actually....yeah I can fix it." He gave her a smile. "Maybe then you can fill it with ice." It took him a minute to come up with a spell, but a moment later the cup's pieces rematerialized together, complete and whole. Was fixing a cup to impress a girl really bad personal gain?

"It sounds like you haven't been treated with respect and love. Or with even the smallest amount of consent. Where I'm from? That's not right. And for the record, there's a difference between arranged marriages and being treated like an object."

Edited (english) 2024-09-29 01:57 (UTC)

"I have always been a pretty object, Chris. I am a little bird meant to sing on command, a perfect bride. It is only now that I am able to live freely. I know this isn't how things are where you come from or where many people come from but it is the way of the world for me. What I have achieved, I have done through...well, I suppose it matters little. I am a queen now and in charge of my own destiny. Which...Jon does not know. It is a grave secret I trust you with," she says.

"To know his future is to know pain I would protect him from. He is my brother. I will not see him suffer for something that has not come to pass for him. I think I ruined this, however."

Sansa reaches over and waves her hand over the cup, filling it with snow.

"Perhaps that is a better topic of conversation. All the magic I have learned involves ice. Ice for an ice queen?"

"I won't tell your brother, you have my word." Chris also noticed how easily Sansa switched personalities. Survival mechanism? He had done the same thing, over and over. It was just really creepy to see played out right in front of him. "The important thing is you're here now. You're not subject to the same rules, right? No one here can make you do anything."

He did not want to change the conversation topic. He wanted a detailed list of everyone in her life who had ever made her do anything. Everyone who had ever hurt her. Because it seemed to him like she was okay with it.

"Ice because your homeland is so cold or ice because you think you're a pretty ice sculpture?" He stopped, trying to let his anger dissipate. "You don't ruin anything Sana."

"Ice because Winterfell is full of ice, I imagine, but I am also cold as well," Sansa says. "We talked of thawing, bit by bit. I think the gods of this place find themselves amusing giving me only ice when most of the people I know, including Jon, can control fire instead. Ice is not quite as useful except, perhaps, to freeze a person in their steps."

Sansa tentatively reaches out to touch his hand again.

"I did ruin this by talking about my past. I should have kept it secret. I usually keep it secret, actually, but you are surprisingly easy to talk to. None of the things I have shared with you must be shared with anyone else. They are weaknesses of mine and show that I am fragile as birds' wings."

"You haven't ruined anything," Chris repeats. She doesn't seem to get that it's not her fault. And Chris? Chris is mad that she's not more angry. But he's used to the Halliwells who seem to run a fair bit hotter. He completes the movement and reaches out for her hand as well, letting their skin touch again.

"Please don't feel you need to keep secrets from me. You don't. I wont tell anyone." That was one thing he learned at least. Whitelighter-Charge confidentiality. "I just, you deserve so much more Sansa. I want you to want more. You're not weak." He remembered how his own mother thought she was weak, how she grew from a scarred girl into a confident woman, to one of the most powerful witches in the world.

But, that did give him an idea. Probably not a great one but...."Have you tried freezing people? I mean. With ice. I mean, people have a hard time moving with hypothermia."

"I am powerful in a way that is not useful to me here," Sansa says. "My name means nothing in Thorne and I wear no crown. I am no one, for once, and it is somewhat freeing. It feels as if people can actually know me for who I am and not want me for a castle and a swath of land."

Sansa gives him a soft smile.

"I have not had cause to freeze anyone here so I have not used it as a weapon. I have only ever practiced with it. I wouldn't imagine you would want me to freeze you for the sheer thrill of it."

He was going to convince this woman she wasn't a beautiful object if it was the last thing he freaking did. Still, he knew what she meant. "I may not have a crown but I do kind of know what you mean. My last name doesn't mean a hell of a lot here, no one wants me for who I'm related to or what I can do. And for the record, you are more than happy to try and freeze me. I'm hardier than I look. Besides, no one's tried to kill me in over a month and I think I'm out of practice."

Was he joking? No, no he wasn't joking, he was truly happy for her to try and freeze him. Especially if it means she gets practice defending herself. Chris moved his fingers against hers, enjoying feeling the skin and warmth.

"An entire moon's turn? Unheard of," Sansa says, laughing at that. "Can you believe I have been here for nine entire months and no one has attacked me, not even once? That is the longest I've gone since I was a young girl. I've been someone's pawn since I was thirteen, I think, and now I am not. This place seems to be good for us."

Sansa draws her fingers along his palm. "I've never done this before, either. This is not the way of things where I come from, to be able to know someone like this."

Chris was still putting the pieces that shaped Sansa's life together before she came here, but the picture he was slowly seeing? He really, really didn't like. And if he kept getting the same response that he had been? Well, it was going to be a long time till she saw otherwise. But he was going to make that happen if it was the last thing he freaking did. Slowly but surely.

" How does it work in your world?" He was 100% sure he already knew the answer, but he was also sure that if he said it out loud it would turn into another fight and he would not come across as polite and nice. So instead, he said "How else are you supposed to get to know someone?" Again, he knew the answer. And he hated it. "I'm glad you're here then. It sounds like you are a great deal safer here."

"Oh, you are simply betrothed to someone, often before meeting them. Marriages are made for alliances. Love matches are a luxury of the lowborn, I'm afraid, because someone like me was always going to get married off to the highest bidder. My lord father would not have let it be someone cruel, though, and I think that is the difference," she says.

"My parents did not know one another when they married but they grew to love one another. I always wanted that for myself. I wanted to marry someone brave and handsome and strong and my father assured me that this man existed. I am not so certain about that any longer but I certainly believed it once. I was fond of the romantic songs and tales when I was a girl."

Chris looked at her for a few moments, slowly digesting the information and trying not to completely hurl. "I'm sorry, did you just compare marriage to an auction? Like....human barbie dolls?" No wonder she thought she was an object. She'd been raised to think of herself as a very expensive barbie doll.

"I know you're probably not going to believe me, but you are more than just your body parts, or your land, or what you can give someone. Good and decent people do exist, I promise. It's probably a lot harder to figure it out though when everyone is treated as nothing more than the sum of their parts."

Chris was still stuck on the fact that he was having a date with someone who basically believed she was a walking vagina. He could imagine the types of guys she was used too. Gross, super gross.

"I know it must be difficult for you to understand that I was raised to learn how to keep a house, to be a wife, to bear children. That is how it is in Westeros. It is not that way here which is unusual for me but I think, in many ways, it is nicer."

Sansa frowns a bit, embarrassed she's even talking about all of this.

"It was not a role I was ashamed of until certain events came to pass. I would have loved to have been the wife to someone kind and handsome. Unfortunately, other than you, I have not met many handsome men who are also kind."

Chris reached over to try and take her other hand as well. She deserved so much more than she thought she did, or had been given, and it pained him that she didn't realize it.

"I don't want you to feel embarrassed or ashamed of your life, or who you are. But you do deserve to be treated with kindness and respect and it just sucks that you haven't been. And that most of the men you've met don't see how special you really are. And I mean that as more than just the fact that your a woman who may or may not have land or whatever."

It only occurred to after him his little rant that she called him handsome. It was his turn to blush. "Wait, you think I'm cute?" He was almost loathe to tell her she was beautiful herself, because she already thought of herself as an irreplaceable beautiful doll. "I want you to be happy Sansa. If being someone's wife makes you happy, that's okay. I just want you to be sure that's what you want. You. Not someone else."

Edited (words that make sense now) 2024-09-29 18:59 (UTC)

"One would have to be blind to think you are not handsome," Sansa says, simply stating the fact. She blushes a little and squeezes his hands. It is not something she's ever done before with someone and it feels quite nice, actually.

"I think I have had enough of husbands for now," she says. "Provided that does not offend you? I would like to be free of another man's name for the time being."

"Um, thanks," Chris wasn't used to getting complimented. "That's actually just what I wanted to hear." He wanted to her to have time to be Sansa. To discover who she was and what she liked, without being trapped by another person, or another name. "Although, in my family, the women are the ones who keep their names. Not that I'm proposing to you." He added in a hurry, because her world and culture was weird and he didn't want anything he said to be taken wrong.

So, he just held her hands, squeezing back gently, threading his fingers through her own. It felt nice, and calm and warm. "I really do enjoy spending time with you though," Chris settled on saying that instead of 'I really do like you,' so she didn't flee out the nearest window.

"I also enjoy spending time with you," Sansa says. She does not take her hand away, which surprises her, because she does not normally engage in so much physical touch. It feels nice, though, and she realizes that she's been quite lonely for a long time. Perhaps spending time with someone is not a frightening prospect after all.

"I did not take it as a proposal, just so you know. It is not your culture to propose upon first meeting someone and I would imagine you would do that after a long courtship. I just never have had the luxury of being courted."

"There aren't as many rules where I come from. It's more when ever people feel is the right time. Not that it matters here." It was probably a good thing they were in a public place with a table in front of them. It kept him from reaching over and touching other than just her hands. He'd only known her for a short time, and what he'd learned, well, he didn't want to startle her. Sansa deserved better than that, she'd been treated horribly, and was only starting to trust him. He didn't want to betray that trust.

"Being kind to someone regardless of courtship or dating is the least anyone should do. I hope you let me show you how should be treated." As far as she could tell, her dreams of romance and kindness and having a relationship that even bordered on civil had been crushed. Beyond crushed. Crushed, bombed and set on fire.

"What do you like doing? What do you usually do in Thorne?" He was fishing. Slowly, fishing. He couldn't get her gifts if he didn't know what she liked.

"Quite a bit of sewing, which you may have gathered," Sansa says, laughing softly. "I also ride horses every once in a while. I suppose that makes me very boring. It isn't such a bad life, though, to not have quite so much excitement."

Sansa thinks for a moment. "I spend time practicing what little magic I have learned as well. I think it is a useful skill in this place and Thorne encourages the Summoned to do so. Magic is thought of very highly there."

Sansa realizes suddenly that she has become something of an insular person now, someone who draws close to those she trusts, and that is something she would like to change one day. Not everyone is terrible.

Chris had a brief moment of recall, and smiled. "I don't think it makes you boring at all. I can't ride a horse at all. But I do remember my mom sewing, and being pissed she wasn't better at it because she spent all her time fighting instead of doing regular mom stuff. Do you think you could teach me? The sewing."

That's right Sansa, you found a man who wanted to learn to sew. Sure, he wanted to learn to sew so he could create poppets and such to use magic with, but it was still sewing. Also he couldn't keep using magic to fix buttons and stuff without some serious backlash eventually.

"Do you want another drink?"

"I could teach you to sew. I've never taught a man to sew before but there is a first time for everything," Sansa says. He asks her if she wants another drink and she finds that she nods quickly, unable and unwilling to end this particular evening. It is nice to just talk to someone for once and not be on guard.

"I would like what you had," she says. "To try something new? I think it would be nice to have something new for once and to stop being so dependent upon the things that I know."

Chris doesn't fight the smile building and orders them another round of cappuccinos. He can feel her relaxing in the back of his mind, although he doesn't need his powers to tell that. She's gone from wary to outright holding his hand. Hands, plural, and not to eager to let go. He wondered when the last time someone showed her basic human decency was, considering how affection starved she was. What her life must have been like. And was like, if she's been holding onto that fear for the nine months she was here.

He was quite sure he was the first man Sansa had ever had to teach to sew, the caliber of the men from her world did not seem stellar. She wanted something new? Alright, he was going to get her something new every time he saw her. Which, really shouldn't be that hard considering what a force of habit she seemed to be. That she felt she had to be.

"No man has ever asked you how to sew before?" Shocked, yeah he was shocked. The men in your world, suck Sansa. "What happens when something needs to be fixed?"

Sansa arches a brow and laughs lightly. "A man would get a woman to sew it for him. That's what we're meant to do, after all. Of course, as a highborn girl I often spent my time embroidering tapestries or making my own gowns but there are servants who repair clothing all the time. There is man's work and women's work."

It is different from here where the sexes seem to do as they please but not in Westeros.

"Women cook and keep the house. Men hunt or work a trade or rule their lands. I was taught to be a lady of a castle and manage everything about how it works to make my husband's life easier. Of course, women also bear children."

There was so much wrong with the words that just came out of Sansa's mouth that Chris actually gagged. His eyebrows shot up to the top of his forehead. He knew her world was whacked but this was. Well. Really whacked. "Okay, see, my grandfather just told me to get a new shirt. You've obviously figured out it's a little different where I from. Men and women aren't separated like that."

He sighed, trying to let it go. It was her world--and her life, if she chose it. "Does it make you happy? Does sewing and having children and embroidering tapestries make your heart skip?" And if so, did it make her happy because that's what she was taught to do, or because that was what she actually wanted? "I was always taught that whoever your partner is, you're a team. No one exists to make another's life easier. You tackle problems together."

Open Log - I feel like I should be cackling

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