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#sisters stark
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I don’t get people who love the “you may be as different as the sun and the moon, but you need her as she needs you” line but also like the idea of Arya just sailing off. Like ignoring the fact that foreshadowing for Arya leaving stops once she...you know...leaves and goes to braavos (seriously, someone point me to the foreshadowing in Braavos other than she hang out by ships), how does that work with the idea of the Starks working together? 
I could see how Arya leaving benefits Sansa. Arya can send back her findings. She learned languages at the House of Black and White and is good with numbers so she could negotiate trades. She can send back things the North may need to rebuild. She can find new trade routes. But how does Sansa factor in to that? Beyond the possibility of Arya needing a ship, so I guess Sansa could finance it. 
That just seems so...weak of a message. Why not have them actually team up. The HoBaW is basically training Arya to be a spy. Arya is the one with the languages and the poisons and the information gathering skills (not that Sansa doesn’t have the information skills, the way they go about getting information is just different). Sansa would be great at helping to figure out what to do with the information once they have it. 
Arya isn’t dumb, she can figure things out, but she tends to be more emotional than Sansa (they got a real heart and head thing going on). Sansa would be good at analyzing the information without brining personal feelings into it as well providing context. The girl basically has an encyclopedic knowledge of heraldry and history. I think they skills they are learning right now are really complementary. It feels like a waste just to basically separate them again when one of their big lessons is working with each other. 
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winterprince601 · 7 months
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i don't know how else to say it: jon snow comes from two long lines of reckless magical bullshit and is basically a melting pot of feral royal blood but that's less important than the fact that he was raised by ned stark.
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ser-zoras · 18 days
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i honestly don't understand how anyone thinks the stark sisters hate each other or were evil to each other or whatever. like they're literally just normal siblings being nine and eleven and therefore threats to themselves and others, but its asoiaf so the stakes are unnecessarily high
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knightingale · 2 months
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The "Sansa reminds Sandor of his sister" motive that some people try to hitch to his character really just flies in the face of his actual attachments to her, doesn't it? Sansa reminds Sandor of himself. He sees the little boy who used to love knights in this girl who's been swept up by the same romanticism. He sees his abuser in her abusers, the much larger knight(s) beating on the helpless child. He sees how she is betrayed by every level of authority that should have saved her and remembers his father's neglect and Tywin and Robert's apathy for Gregor's crimes. He's protective of Sansa because he was Sansa.
And GRRM's design, that one of the strongest warriors in the series, a fearsome and cynical 6'8" guy who's "muscled like a bull" and has the face of death itself, sees himself in this soft and effeminate teen girl, and empathizes with her because he was an abuse victim too, is INFINITELY more compelling than "Oh yeah I bet she just reminds him of his sister," who he's never mentioned and who we know literally nothing about. Way to unnecessarily water down a character, you couldn't have ignored the black and white text more efficiently if you tried.
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bardsansa · 4 months
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like the moon and the sun
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eimear99 · 3 months
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The Stark sisters
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azi-muthal · 8 months
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Asgardian AU Part 2: First Meeting
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circuslollipop · 27 days
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queens in the north, aka me playing around with older sansa and arya designs, especially their hair (it's not shown but i imagine arya's hairstyle ending in triple foxtails in the back). i have sooo many costume designs for the characters, especially these two, sketched up and i want to draw them all eventually!!
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faeporcelain · 6 months
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The Stark sisters
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atopvisenyashill · 7 months
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catelyn and edmure constantly at odds…catelyn being unable to let go of the fact that SHE was the heir presumptive for half her childhood, edmure unable to understand why cat resents his status over her bc she’s a woman of course she didn’t inherit…catelyn is outwardly disrespectful and even hostile to him at several points and knows it but can’t help herself, can’t help her anger & helplessness at the war and her losses lashing out at her baby brother, and edmure lets it happen bc he’s head of the family and even tho he’s the baby he can take the anger and the pain from his sister that’s his job….catelyn reaches for his hand at their father’s funeral, desperate for someone who loved hoster in the same way but edmure is far away, drowning his grief alone because that’s how a man must act, he can be emotionally in front of his wife but never a sister…and when he asks her if hoster mentioned him as he died, cat can’t bare to tell him that hoster and edmure were much the same, spending their days drowning in grief and guilt after a lifetime of being the Lord and staying emotionally distant from the people who need them most, so she lies to spare her baby brother’s feelings and says yes, he thought of his son, when all along hoster’s thoughts were on the daughter he failed….always this distance of a boy meaning more between catelyn and edmure
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The Spiders Sister - Chapter 3
Summary: Reader meets the team.
Tw: mentions of sickness, teasing
Words: 2.8K
A/n: Thanks for all the support this series has been getting :) If anyone has any suggestions for things that could happen in this series lemme know and I’ll see what I think. No smut though I don’t write that here.
The next day you woke to knocking on the bedroom door. Sitting up in bed you quietly called for whoever it was to enter.
A moment later Wanda poked her head through the door. Seeing you awake or at least semi-awake she slipped through the small space she had created.
“Good morning.” She smiled coming to sit beside you on the bed. “Did you sleep well?” She asked pressed her hand to your forehead.
“Mmm.” You hummed still half asleep.
“You don’t feel warm anymore.” She smiled at this achievement as if she was proud of you. “How are you feeling today?” She asked moving her hands to rest in her lap again.
“Tired, but that’s probably because I just woke up.” You smiled.
“Nat sent me to wake you up. She wanted to know if your well enough to meet the others today.” Wanda explained looking slightly guilty.
“I mean, I’m game if you are. Where’s Nat?” You asked coving a yawn.
“Nat’s training with steve. And not so fast, I want to know more about how you're feeling. No more headache? Cough? Wheezing? Give me something.” She grinned.
“My headaches gone, no more cough, maybe a slight wheeze I’m not too sure.” You begun and Wanda’s brow furrowed slightly at the mention of your wheezing. “I’m like ninety-nine percent sure my fever is gone, and I feel pretty good all things aside.” You finished.
“That’s good. Maybe keep your inhaler on you today just in case. And after the meeting I’ll see if I can get Bruce to give us a few spares, just in case.” Wanda said softly.
“You really don’t have to.” You said shyly toying with a loose thread on the sheets.
“Its no problem. I would make me feel better. Breathing is important.” Wanda teased easing your concerns.
“So, when’s the meeting?” You asked.
“Well, I think Nat wanted to do it as soon as possible. Like straight after training and then I’m going to make you some pancakes for brunch.” Wanda said poking your side. “But for now, hop up, get dressed and I’ll be back soon to show you where the meeting room is.” Wanda said, standing up and heading for the door.
Once wanda had left, probably to go and find Nat to call the meeting, you crawled out of bed. Rifling through your backpack you changed out your sleepshirt and shorts for a pair of black track pants and a pale-yellow t-shirt. Throwing on some goofy socks and lacing up your black converse high tops you braided your hair sat in front of the mirror and threw on some deodorant.
Once you were ready and had been to the bathroom to wash your face and go through your morning routine, you sat at peters desk.
Picking up your backpack you went through it until finding what you were looking for.
Pulling out the black sketchbook you opened it to a fresh page and began mindlessly doodling things you could see around peters room and the cityscape beyond the open curtains.
Just as you were getting into the details of the New York skyline you heard a knock on the door.
Lowering your pencil, you sat a little straighter.
“Come in.” You called your voice sounding better than it had in days. And surprisingly good for someone who had spent hours coughing and wheezing for days on end.
Wanda opened the door and smiled seeing you up and about for the first time.
“You look much better.” She commented coming to stand by your shoulder. “Wow, you’re an amazing artist.” She smiled looking at your drawings.
“Oh, um … thanks.” You smiled still a little awkward when it came to compliments. “So, what’s the news?” You asked.
“Hmm? Oh, yes.” Wanda said looking up from where she had been inspecting your sketchbook. “Nat called Fury. He’s kinda the boss. He’s given the go ahead if steve and tony sign off on it. Nat then called a meeting and I’m going to bring you to the room where you're going to meet the team.” She explained.
“I have two questions.” You said.
“Shoot.” Wanda said pulling you up and gesturing to follow her out the door.
“One, is peter going to be at this meeting?” You asked as Wanda lead you down some seemingly endless corridors.
“Yes.” Wanda nodded, pressing the button to call the lift.
“And two, this Fury guy said yes? Just like that?” You asked sounding slightly confused.
“Yes and no.” Wanda begun, stepping onto the lift with you beside her. “Nat asked Jarvis, Tony’s AI assistant to pull up all CCTV footage of spider-man and separate footage based on bio-signatures. So, she could differentiate between when it was peter and when it was you in the suit. She sent Fury the files and after he reviewed them, he approved you a place on the team. If you want it and the others agree.” Wanda explained.
“Okay.” You said slowly. “Seems like a good plan.” You smiled.
And the lift dinged softly as it slowed to a stop.
“This is us.” Wanda said and you followed her out of the open doors. Walking beside her down a hallway she stopped in front of a door and paused to look at you. “You ready?” She asked, her hand on the door handle.
“Yep.” You nodded swollowing down your nerves. “Ready as I’ll even be.”
“You’ll be great. Just be yourself and they’ll love you.” Wanda said and pushed the door open.
Nat was stood at the head of the table, a screen behind her queued up with spider-man videos. She smiled at you and wanda as the rest of the people turned to face you.
Seeing the people you had only ever seen on Tv in real life was a little overwhelming at first but wanda squeezed your hand and lead you into the room to stand at the front with her and Nat.
Peter smiled at you from where he was sat beside Tony. Looking proud of you just for standing in front of the avengers.
You stood there silent for a second simply making eye contact with your shoes before Natasha spoke up.
“This is Y/n.” Nat begun, and you gave a small half wave with an awkward smile. Tony was staring you down with an unreadable expression. He looked like he was analysing your face mentally. Most likely already having connected you to Peter.
“Hi I’m Y/n Parker.” You said lifting your eyes to meet a few smiling faces around the room a fair few of them sporting shocked looks.
“Parker?” Tony echoed sounding smaller than you had ever heard from his times on Tv.
“Y/n Parker is Peters sister.” Wanda explained.
“Kid?” Tony looked hurt. “Why didn’t you tell me there were two of you?” He asked looking sad.
Peter looked slightly sick at the open disappointment his mentor was showing right now and so you stepped in before peter had a panic attack.
“Mr Stark, Sir, it was my decision to keep myself out of the spotlight. And to do that I needed to maintain a low profile. Which is harder to do when the avengers know of your existence. No offence.” You explained. And the team exchanged a few glances as they noted how you had come to Peter’s aid almost immediately.
“That’s alright, I’m sure Pete will open up now you’re here.” Tony said with a grin as he ruffled Peters hair, “Won’t-cha kiddo?” He asked with his usual charismatic charm and Peter gave a small nod and smile while he ducked his head not liking the attention.
“So, anyone have anymore questions?” You asked drawing the attention off of Peter once more much to your brothers' relief.
Looking away from the small smile he sent you as thanks you laughed, seeing every hand in the room up with a question for you, bar Nat, Peter and Wanda of course.
You looked to your left and nodded to Steve.
“Hi, nice to meet you kid.” Steve said. “I have a question though, if Peter’s identity is secret, why did you need to stay away from us?” He asked looking confused, and his statement drew a few nods around the room.
“If Tony scares you honey, I can assure you that the man would forget his own shoes without me.” Someone you recognised as Pepper Potts said with a smile causing Tony to grumble to himself. How Nat had managed to wrangle the CEO of Stark industries into this meeting you didn’t know.
Little did you know that all it took was ‘There’s something you should know, it has to do with Peter’ and she was on her way.
“Actually,” Wanda said drawing the gaze of the room to her, “This should explain it. Jarvis play the video.” She said and the lights dimmed as the Tv showed a compilation of some of your best moves in the spider-suit.
When the video ended the lights retuned to their normal brightness and everyone still looked confused.
“How exactly does a compilation of Peter doing tricks explain that?” Bruce asked.
“Um…” You said looking slightly nervous. “That was me.” You said in a small voice and the room was silent for a second.
“Sick moves kid. Peter your sister’s awesome.” Sam said and a few people laughed at his perfect comedic timing.
“Prove it.” Tony said and you paled slightly.
“Tony.” Pepper said placing her hand on his arm and shooting him a look.
“No, its ok pepper.” Nat said. “Jarvis?” Nat called to the ceiling. “Was that peter in the suit for those videos?” She asked.
“The height and weight as well as body stature and proportions do not match Master Parker.” Jarvis said.
“Ok,” Nat continued, “Who do those body descriptors match in this room?” She asked.
“The person in the suit does match the body of Miss Parker.” Jarvis said and Tony frowned.
“Do the sticky thing.” Bucky called drawing a few smiles. You rolled your eyes and put a hand up, splaying your fingers before jumping in the air and touching the ceiling where you stayed stuck.
“Crawl around.” Sam said and you glared at his heckling.
“No.” You said and you saw Peter doing his puppy eyes at you. “Fine.” You sighed.
Jumping up you did a flip and stuck your legs out, now standing on the ceiling upside down and making eye contact with Sam before looking to Bucky.
“Better?” You asked sarcastically.
“Much.” Sam grinned and you rolled your eyes again.
“Ok. Get down Y/n.” Nat said sounding part annoyed part amused at the display.
“Yes ma’am.” You said before detaching from the roof and doing a flip to landing back where you were before.
“Show off.” Peter murmured under his breath and you huffed a small laugh as his ears went red, not having expected you to hear him. Dumb super-hearing.
“Well, now we’re done with the party tricks. What are we thinking?” You asked brushing off invisible dirt from your clothes.
“Well…” Tony said. “I think its time you got your own suit.” He grinned and you smiled back. “What colours do you want kiddo?” He asked.
“Um… maybe something like purple, white and red?” You said and he nodded already sketching down ideas on a pad of paper pepper had brought with her from a meeting.
“You’re also getting an AI.” Tony added and you looked a peter who simply smiled proudly of you.
“Well, if that’s everything Y/n’s also gonna need a room.” Wanda said and Tony nodded.
“There’s a spare room on Natasha and Wanda’s floor if you want to move in with the girls. Do I need to send some movers to grab your things?” Tony asked and you looked at your shoes and shook your head.
“Not much to move.” You mumbled.
“Y/n’s apartment was taken out in the last battle. She’s been hiding out in Peter’s room for now. That’s how we met actually.” Natasha said shooting you a reassuring smile.
“Well, it sounds like I’m going to be funding yet another shopping trip.” Tony sighed and Wanda grinned at you mischievously.
“We’ll make it a girl's day.” Wanda said shooting a look at pepper.
“I’d love to.” Pepper agreed and Nat clapped her hands together.
“Alright then.” The assassin said. “I should probably tell Fury we have another spider on the team.” Nat grinned and you smiled at her.
“Great, now we have three spiders.” Tony said rolling his eyes and ducking as Pepper aimed a pretty good swing to the back of his head.
“Knock it off Tony, don’t act like you're not secretly overjoyed to have another Parker around.” Pepper said.
“Just wondering,” Bruce said looking mildly nervous as the room turned to look at him.
“Yes?” You prompted him to continue.
“Are you…” He begun before pausing, “I guess theres no real nice way to put it.” Bruce said and Tony jumped in.
“I think Brucie-bear wants to know if you come with the Parker Brain Package.” Tony said and Pepper glared at him.
“Tony.” She warned, glaring at him while you cleared your throat.
“If you’re asking about how smart I am, let’s just say I designed the original prototype for the web-shooters and chemical makeup of the fluid.” You said and Tony nodded seemingly satisfied with that small tidbit of information for now.
“Well, if nobody had anything else to say, Wanda and I are going to take Y/n for a tour of the compound.” Nat said before turning to look at Clint. “And you, have to make dinner. You lost our bet.” Nat said and then dragged you and Wanda out of the room by your sleeves.
After a very long and very comprehensive tour by Natasha and Wanda, you were shown back to the communal kitchen where most of the team ate together when they weren’t on missions.
You walked into the dining room attached to the kitchen to be hit with the smell of burnt food pungent in the air.
You looked at Nat confused, and she grinned as she heard cursing coming from the kitchen. Wanda looked like she was itching to go help but sad she pulled away Nat grabbed her sleeve at the very last second to hold her back.
“Can someone explain whats going on for me?” You asked.
“Well, Clint and Natasha can’t cook if their lives depended on it.” Wanda begun, only to shush Nat when she went to speak up. “So naturally they made a bet, loser had to cook the team dinner, naturally Clint lost so Nat is enjoying his public humiliation. And I normally cook if we aren’t getting takeout so it's causing me pain to hear whats going on in there.”
“Oh, calm down. Clints not blowing anything up.” Nat said rolling her eyes as Wanda shot her a look. “Ok that was one time.” Nat amended.
Not twenty minutes later you were sat at a table with the avengers with a plate of very burnt stake and watery mash potatoes.
“What is it?” Tony asked poking his steak.
Clint grinned. “A masterpiece.” He said.
“More like a mistake.” Nat muttered judging her steak while poking it with her knife as if she was expecting it to start moving of its own accord.
“I say we have newbie try it.” Tony posed and you rolled your eyes.
Cutting off a piece of the very tough steak with your knife you raised it to your lips and put it in your mouth.
It was tough and kind of disgusting. But you smiled anyway.
Finding the meat tougher than you had been expecting, you made the switch as you called you fangs up. Your canines sharpened as you chewed managing to decimate the meat. Swallowing you looked at Clint.
“Not the worst thing I’ve every eaten.” You said with a smirk and Tony who had been watching you closely squeaked.
“Jeez kid you didn’t tell me your sister was a vampire.” Tony said turning to Peter.
By this point most of they eyes were on you, so you hid your teeth and retracted the fangs out of embarrassment.
“She’s not. It’s a spider thing she got.” Peter said coming yo your defence.
“Either way her new name is fangs.” Tony said with a grin.
This time you glared at him.
“For the record i think they’re awesome.” Wanda said sensing your embarrassment.
“Seconded.” Nat said her spy training honing in on your body language to see you were insecure about it.
“I gotta admit it’s a cool trick doll.” Bucky said.
“Pretty neat.” Steve agreed with a smile.
“Badass.” Sam nodded flicking a still frozen pea at Bucky. “Alright, now that y/n probably has food poisoning, who wants pizza?” Nat asked with a grin. Cheers came from all sides of the table as Clint slumped dejectedly in his seat.
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damn-stark · 9 months
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Sugar
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Geto Suguru x Gojo!fem-reader & Choso x Gojo!fem-reader
Summary- Love is a fickle thing isn’t it? Life isn’t so sweet. People are meant to love, lose, and love again; sorcerers like you more than most. You endure pains that non-sorcerers will never experience a speck of in their lifetimes. So much is expected of you not only because you’re a Gojo; a sorcerer from one of the prestigious sorcerer families, but because you were lucky or unlucky to be born special grade as well. All your life you were taught to be one way and follow a path, but remember that pain you get to experience in order to protect the lives of non-sorcerers? Well, that pain gets to you and deviates you down a dark path with Suguru Geto, a man you love, your hope, and the one who stays. Yet that path is dark and twisty, full of surprises that bring life, and loss most of all. When will enough be enough, and will you be able to find that light in a lifetime of darkness you so crave? Will you change your ways after years of defection and thinking you’re right? Do you believe in second chances after what you’ve done?
Moodboard, fighting outfits concepts
Suguru geto x y/n Gojo moodboard, Satoru Gojo x y/n Gojo moodboard, Kento Nanami x y/n Gojo, Choso x Y/N
Chapter 1 Angelfish
Chapter 2 Just a girl
Chapter 3 The first one
Chapter 4 Live for the hope of it all
Chapter 5 Appeasing
Season 2 (Hidden inventory arc)
Chapter 6 Where you are
Chapter 7 The Ballad of Jujutsu sorcerer
Chapter 8 The world’s a little blurry
Chapter 9 Hearing damage
Chapter 10 I’ll know, I’ll know
Jjk 0 Movie
Chapter 11 It almost worked
Chapter 12 Fallen Angel
Chapter 13 It’s over isn’t it?
Chapter 14 Lost in the darkness
Season 2 (Shibuya Arc)
Chapter 15 The start of something new
Chapter 16 The last supper
Chapter 17 Kill of the night
Chapter 18 Happy birthday, by the way
Chapter 19 I’m sorry for your loss
Chapter 20 Intergalactic
Itadori Execution Arc
Chapter 21 But then I found you
Chapter 22 What never was
Tengen arc
Chapter 23 You’re an angel, I’m a dog
Chapter 24 By saying something stupid like…
Chapter 25 Blood, dragons, curses and black holes
Sukuna v Satoru
Chapter 26 Sweet Gojo
Chapter 27 The sun will shine on us again
Chapter 28 A song for us
Chapter 29 Birthday surprises
Chapter 30 Two can be as bad as one
Chapter 31 All through the night
Chapter 32 Our last goodbye
Chapter 33 Haven’t I given enough?
Chapter 34 Two birds on a wire…
Chapter 35 …One says c’mon and the other says I’m tired
Chapter 36 Be the One Fallen from Grace, be Death
Side stories
Wedding bells (takes place in between chapter 10) takes place in 2008 & 2009
Colors of the wind (takes place in between chapter 10) takes place in 2012
Fun trend not so great (before season 2 starts)
The soul (takes place in ch.17)
Satori info page
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sare11aa11eras · 21 days
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Idk this is how I also bonded (bothered) my older sibling when I was eight
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daffyfozzieginger · 11 months
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Meet the new recruits!
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Sansa
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Arya
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They're not sisters, but two orphans raised together as bottle babies! They will be available for adoption in late July or early August!
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catofoldstones · 4 months
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Reading agot chapters of the stark sisters and coming to the conclusion that they hate each other in isolation from their parents’ understanding of them and society’s rigid expectations on them is idiotic as fuck. They are both classic products of their environments, both familial and social, and their feelings of each are heavily informed by these two things. Please take your Sansa and Arya hate each other because they’re antagonists, and are going to come head to head thematically in the later books, and dump it in the trash where it belongs.
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leupagus · 2 months
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Am I writing this largely because I enjoy the idea of Sansa and Stannis constantly hissing at each other like two belligerent cats? Listen,
x
By the first week of the siege, Sansa was forced to admit — if only to herself —that warfare was far less exciting than she'd imagined. When she had been told of Robb's victories in the Riverlands she had always pictured him triumphant upon a fearsome destrier, sword held high as he cut down his enemies before him. Then he'd been killed and she had lived through the Battle of the Blackwater, waiting either rescue or slaughter by the very man who was now her ally. That had not been exciting, precisely, but it had not been this dull and plodding affair. A far cry from the valiant knights and noble battles she'd read when she was a girl; but she'd had precious little turn out the way she'd been taught.
She slept at the camps near the front lines, in the same soldier's tent she and Brienne and Podrick had shared for the past four months. Stannis had made all sorts of ridiculous protests about "ladies" and "danger" until she'd had to remind him, once again, that her eight thousand men gave her the freedom to dictate her own movements.
"All very well while we're waiting out here, my lady," he'd growled in response, after his requisite glare at her flawless logic, "But when battle joins, you'll be nothing more than a nuisance."
"In which case, I'll be quickly killed and you can have Rickon installed as Lord of Winterfell instead," she'd replied, "as you were hoping to do in the first place." That had shut him up, at least, and he'd gone back to scowling at Winterfell's walls.
Every night when she returned to the camp, she stopped at Stannis's tent and joined the conference with their commanders and lieutenants. It was then that she learned about the waging of war: how men were best deployed, how training was maintained even in the midst of a siege, how sickness was kept at bay so that it did not kill more soldiers than did the battles. Stannis disliked her presence there, too, but she was rapidly coming to understand that he would only be truly happy when she was out of his life for good. Possibly not even then. He did not seem a man much given to smiles.
The men did not share Stannis's view, at least; as she walked through the lines each morning and night they stood to bow to her, and press the back of her hand to their foreheads as she remembered they had done to Mother so long ago.
"They say that the old gods have brought you back to us," Lord Reed told her one day, as he accompanied her on her daily walk to the winter town. "That they were angered when the Starks were driven from Winterfell, and that they're drawing you all back here one by one. They say that Robb Stark may come back from the dead, such is the rage of the gods, and avenge all who wronged your house."
Joffrey had been diligent in recounting every detail of what had happened to Robb's body after Roose Bolton had killed him. She repressed a shudder to think of it and held more tightly to Reed's arm, grateful for the warmth of him at her side. "I hope they are not disappointed if all they get is me and Rickon."
Reed chuckled. "They're well-satisfied, my lady," he said. They walked into the winter town just as the sun broke over the mountains. "You're a sight prettier than the Young Wolf ever was, that's certain."
The winter town was where her real work was done each day. It was the custom every winter for the smallfolk of the North to leave their hides holdfasts and journey here, bringing what they could cart or carry. The winter town would eventually house nearly one in three of every soul living in the North, seeking shelter together to endure the cold.
The Boltons had not bothered to do their duty, laying in no provisions and building no new housing. Up until now it had mattered little; even as the winds had begun to blow, few smallfolk had dared to come take shelter under the banners of the flayed man. The town itself had been all but abandoned, until word of the Starks' return had begun to spread throughout the North.
Now the winter town seemed to double in size with each passing day despite the ongoing siege of the Keep. Sansa had her hands full in directing builders, organizing kitchens, allocating what resources they had to feed and shelter everyone. In this she was aided by any number of friends and allies: those servants and household members who had first escaped during Winterfell's seizure by the Ironborn, or who had endured that but had fled the Boltons' brutal takeover; the households of her lords who had come to support the siege; even Lady Umber and her formidable staff lent a hand before she returned to Last Hearth. Her most steadfast assistants were Rickon and Shireen, who at first had joined her out of boredom but were now her little lieutenants, breathlessly updating her on all events of the previous night as she joined them for breakfast each morning. She received aid also from her men in the armies, assigning their builders to fortify the town in much the same way they were fortifying the siege camp.
Her lords approved of this; Stannis, of course, did not.
"You seek another threescore soldiers?" he demanded one evening.
The siege had now dragged on near a month. Bolton's men showed signs of distress, Lord Flint reported with no small satisfaction; they would not last much longer. But this had brought a fresh concern, and Sansa had broached it during their evening conference.
"We need to build up the palisades along the eastern side of the winter town," Sansa insisted, pointing at the map spread out along the table, with the various pieces representing the various companies all arrayed neatly atop. Stannis's wooden flaming hearts were outnumbered by Sansa's wolf heads two to one, though many of hers appeared hastily-carved from whatever spare wood was at hand. She reached for a flaming heart on the far side of the Keep, well away from the siege. "It need only be for—"
"Give me that," Stannis snapped, snatching it back. "Those men are covering the huntsman's gate, should any of Bolton's forces be cowardly enough to attempt escape rather than stand and fight."
"And you anticipate that happening in the next day?" she demanded, resisting the urge to lunge for the piece the way she used to with Robb when he had teasingly stolen her embroidery, holding it just out of reach. "There must be fifty or sixty men out of twelve thousand that can be spared."
"Why are the palisades in need of building up in the first place?" Stannis demanded, as Lord Glover opened and then shut his mouth to reply to her. "This winter town of yours is folly — you cannot grant entry to every farmer and tinker who pleads for shelter."
Sansa gaped at him in outrage, though even as she did so she was heartened to hear the murmur of her lords at such a comment. "That is precisely what is done, and has been for every winter since before Bran the Builder set stones to build Winterfell!" She glared at him. "This is a refuge, Your Grace."
"This is a siege, my lady," he retorted, looming over her. She thought longingly of the beautiful heeled shoes Margaery wore; she needed only a few inches to match Stannis's height, and see what good his looming did him then. "The smallfolk congregate here at their own risk!"
"My people congregate here because they believe I will keep them safe, and I will do so. With or without Your Grace's help!"
"Without, if it pleases my lady!"
Half-ready to club him over the head with the nearest chair, Sansa grabbed the flaming heart out of his hands and waved it in his face. "What are these men supposed to do, if Bolton and his soldiers escape out this way?"
Stannis looked too near a fit of apoplexy to reply, so it was Lord Cerwyn who cleared his throat and answered, "They are charged to report back, my lady, with some following at a safe distance to see where they go."
"It's perfectly obvious where they'll go," Sansa snapped. "Lord Bolton will make for the Dreadfort."
"Of course he will," said Stannis, finding his voice at last, though he did not try for the wolf's-head piece again. "That doesn't mean—"
"I know three dozen local boys who could hide along the route from the huntsman's gate to the eastern road and bring back reports, without clomping about the forests in full armor," Sansa said, slamming the piece down at the winter town. "And they might be able to bring back some food, while they're at it. Unlike your soldiers, they know how to hunt in the Wolfswood without frightening off half the game."
A few days later, she had her men.
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