Memory Share: Sansa Stark (3)

[toivory]

 CW: none.
No, seriously.
None.

It's beautiful in King's Landing. Outside, the warm sun shines Summer's light. Inside, Sansa sits, working on her embroidery. She's younger, only thirteen-years-old, her eyes still bright and innocent. She hasn't seen bloodshed or the evils that men do.When heavy boots clack on the stone floor, she looks up. Immediately recognizing the figure, she stands, setting her work aside. Her heart is in her throat as Prince Joffrey struts into her chambers. He needs not knock, nor announce himself, and in retrospect Sansa knows this was to show his power. To remind everyone who was truly in charge.

"My Prince," Septa Mordane, an old woman and Sansa's nanny said as she rose to her feet, and then into a curtsey. Sansa echoes the movement, trying to hide the butterflies in her stomach she squeaks out an additional: "My Prince."

Joffrey inclinces his head. "My Lady." He looks down, stepping toward her. There's perhaps a foot of space between the teenagers, and Sansa wishes he would close it. They hadn't spoken much, since her arrival in King's Landing, him furious with her sister. Though Sansa hated her sister more than ever, he extended his frustration toward her. "I fear I've behaved monstrously these past few weeks." He didn't need to apologize- he was the Prince, she was his betrothed and she would forgive him for nearly anything she was sure, but the fact that he did had her heart soaring. 

He looks down nervously, to an object he held in his hands. Raising it slightly, he offers it to her, "With your permission?"

She wastes no time, turning around so that Joffrey can fasten his gift around her neck. He liked her! He truly liked her, if he was gifting her necklaces and apologizing. She'd always wanted to be a good Queen, with a husband that loved her as her father loved her lady mother. And she would get it! If she didn't love him before, as he slowly did the chain, and she looks down at the charm- a Lannister lion, the same one that adorned the Queen's neck, but this one was in silver- then she certainly did now. 

"It's beautiful," she says, and turns back to face the future king. "Like the one your mother wears." 

He looks at her like she's the only girl in the world. "You'll be queen some day. It's only fitting you should look the part." It was all she'd ever wanted, raised isolated with only stories and songs for entertainment. She'd been raised to be a lady, and now, here, she was confirmed to be the ultimate lady in time. The Queen. What little girl would say no to that opportunity, at the hand of a handsome king.

He looks down, bashful. "Will you forgive me? For my rudeness."

"There's nothing to forgive." Forgotten, just like that. He'd won her heart completely with his simple actions, a gift, a genuine apology. 

"You're my lady," he says, knowing the weight of his words. "One day we'll be married in the throne room, lords and ladies from all over the Seven Kingdoms will come. From the Last Hearth in the North to the South Shore in the South. And you will be Queen of all them." She could see it now, the beautiful gown she would wear, the food piled miles high in front of them. The wedding would be all anyone could speak of for years. And she would be Queen.

Still, he continues on, tying her young girl's fantasy in a pretty bow: "I'll never disrespect you again. I'll never be cruel to you again. Do you understand me?" It was a threat but she hadn't understood it. All she saw was the Prince stepping closer to her, his eyes flickering to her lips as he takes her face gently in his hands. "You're my lady now. From today. Until my last day."
 He was her handsome prince, speaking words right out of a story, straight into her heart. The necklace he'd placed around her neck would soon become a collar as she went from guest to hostage in a gilded cage. But when he leaned in to kiss her, pressing his soft lips against hers- her first kiss!- she loved him more than anything in the world. And she believed everything he said.

Comments

audio

[king_inthenorth]

If only any of us had had any idea.

[Not that some of them could have done anything about it.]

How did it all end up in the seven hells?

[toivory]

If only I'd listened when father said we should go home. I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay so badly.

[She wanted to be queen so badly.]

He wanted to show everyone that he answered to no one and that he was the King. He was a stupid boy with no thoughts for others, who thrived on fear.

[king_inthenorth]

Westeros doesn't have to worry about him anymore.

We all trust people we shouldn't.

[toivory]

No, it doesn't.

[His death, especially after humiliating her as much as he could, was particularly gratifying. She wasn't even mad to be blamed for it.]

I know. But I see that memory and I can't help but remember how good to me he was, until the Sept. I truly thought he loved me.

[king_inthenorth]

Some men are good at pretending.

[And some never bother.]

video

[song_of_fire]

[She had never seen the Usurper's son, but it's fairly obvious where they are and who this is. She had been told of Sansa's relationship to Jon, her current status, but her relationship to the Lannisters was startling...

...and honestly a little disconcerting.]

You were to wed Joffrey Baratheon?

Re: video

[toivory]

No. [her voice is cold, not to Dany but at the idea of Joffrey and what he had put her through.]

I was betrothed to him.

He had my father murdered as a traitor and abandoned me for another bride. I was wed to Tyrion Lannister, in his stead.

[song_of_fire]

[She didn't really know Tyrion Lannister, only that he was Tywin's son and Tywin was a monster. So she cannot imagine it being any better for Sansa.]

He looks different than I imagined. Older than I heard.

He must take after his Lannister family.

[toivory]

[sansa laughs shortly, not out of cruelty but at the irony of her words.]

He takes after his mother and father both.

[song_of_fire]

Have I missed a jest?

audio - un; Angel

[unknownmoirai]

He seem's sweet.

Audio; un: littlebird

[toivory]

Yes, I thought so too.
I thought I loved Joffrey. Right until he had my father beheaded.

Audio;

[unknownmoirai]

He... [Her voice breaks as if this new information is truly breaking her heart.] I'm so sorry Sansa.

I hadn't known.

Re: Audio;

[toivory]

Thank you.

Joffrey got his comeuppance. He was an awful king.

Audio;

[unknownmoirai]

Are you alright? Seeing him again like that?

Audio

[ragnarsson]

Honeyed words, but that one has the eyes of a viper.

[He remarks. Ivar's good at reading people, but in this case, it more has to do with taking one to know one when he sees it. It was just easier to see in Ivar's case because his people expected him to be something of a horrible monster given his status being a cripple. His mother had made a prophecy it would be so, and unfortunately, he'd lived up to it all too well.]

Re: Audio

[toivory]

As I learned too late.

[ragnarsson]

Sometimes it takes time to see beyond a pretty face. But I have never had such trouble.

[He was always observant, even as a small child, and quickly learned to smell out bullshit from the people around him. There was precious few he'd ever learned to fully trust.]

[toivory]

I have learned since then.

[She does not trust easily, certainly not men with bright eyes and clever tongues.]

audio: marshes

[gristle]

If he ever shows up here, I'm going to kick him in the crotch and step on his neck.

[toivory]

[She bursts out laughing]

There would be a line! But I do not doubt this.

Private Audio

[11calls]

Are you okay, Sansa?

Private Audio

[toivory]

As far as memories go, this is one of my happier ones.

He thought he was so smart and so clever.

Private Audio

[11calls]

In my experience, people like him always do.

[toivory]

[She sighs]

He was poisoned at his own wedding.