Game of Thrones: The Storm

S3E2 - Dark Wings, Dark Words

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When you awoke the next morning with drool pooling out of your mouth, your hair a mess even though it was in a braid, and an aching pain in your forehead, you already knew it was going to be a piss pore day.

Your new maid had already done the liberty of removing the barrel of wine that you had finished that night, and began moving stuff around in preparation for the dressmakers that Varys had arranged to come get you fitted for new clothes.

Working swiftly, noticing that you had woken up, she brought you a shawl to throw over your shoulders in case you were cold, but you shook your head in polite decline.

"The dressmakers should be here any minute. As an early name day gift, Lord Varys has already paid for three dresses, the seamstress just has to take your measurements and make them," the handmaiden explained. She was an older woman and more likable than the last maid you had by a long shot.

"Thank you..."

"Malora," she turned to you with a soft smile before going back to cleaning.

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Standing for the dressmakers to get measurements wasn't the part you hated about fittings. The part of fittings you hated was when they opened their trunks of fabrics and leathers and showed you what would make a good dress and what wouldn't.

Half the time when you just decided on a dress with a single fabric for a dress with a plain design, the dressmakers would share unsure looks before suggesting something different.

Varys had supposedly already chosen the fabrics for the three dresses he was paying for, so you were in the dark about them. The fabrics that the dressmakers showed you were all either to bright or had too much pattern for your taste.

"I'm not the King; I don't need to look like I'm dressed in wallpaper every day," you sighed as the dressmaker put a swirl pattern orange and red fabric on your shoulder.

"The Hand of the King and the Master of Whispers both requested the colors red, orange, gold, and black for the house colors of Lannister and Baratheon," one of the dressmakers tried to explain as you had denied almost all of the fabrics they had in one of their trunks.

"Blacks, blues, golds, and greys. Those are the colors I want. I'm a Baratheon, not a Lannister."

"Naturalized Baratheon," the other dressmaker huffed under his breath as he opened a different trunk to get fabrics in the colors you requested.

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The next day, the dressmakers sent you two of the dresses that they had finished. A black dress with sleeves and no pattern, and a stormy blue dress with puffier sleeves and a little bit of a pattern.

When Malora brought them into your room and laid them on your bed, there were three accessories laid across them. Silver heirlooms. An antler hair pin, mini stag head belt, and an antler necklace almost as big as your hand.

"I'm glad I was reassigned to you after you were ordered to stop wearing your leathers and armor," Malora commented as she finished tying your dress in the back. Your hair was already brushed out and laying in their usual loose curls as you looked at yourself in the little mirror on your desk.

"Why's that?"

"My husband was a soldier during the rebellion. He would come home on the odd occasion, and I would always have to help him with all the buckles and straps. Then afterwards I'd get to clean all the dirt and blood off of the leathers and chainmail. Took hours. I wanted to work as a handmaiden because I knew I wouldn't have to do that anymore," she explained before retrieving your new silver antler necklace.