THE AMBASSADOR'S OFFICE

[theproperglove]

WHO: Josephine Montilyet and YOU
WHAT: Open post for Justinian
WHEN: Covering the first three weeks of the month!
WHERE: Josephine's office; various.
NOTES: Hit me up either via PM or @ziskandra if you'd like an individualised starter!

In a way, very little has changed since Josephine first joined the Inquisition. She spends most of her days in her office, poring over the organisation's correspondence, doing her small part in influencing the world.

Yet, everything has changed, also, and those close to the Ambassador, or just particularly observant, might notice that her work and lack of sleep have been weighing even more heavily on her of late. Although she wears it in the bags of her eyes and the slight slump of her shoulders, Josephine does not allow her exhaustion to reach her smile.

Anyone who enters the office, for any reason at all, will be met with a graceful tilt of the head and a question along the lines of, "What can I do for you today?"

Comments

[fightingale]

War Table Mission: Deliver Sandwiches.
Secrets: send agents to ensure sandwiches arrive, when no one expects them.

Leliana walks from the War Room, inexplicably, and without knocking.

"Is this a bad time?" Look at those convenient sandwiches.

[theproperglove]

Josephine is indeed looking at the sandwiches when Leliana enters the room. Although the other woman does not announce her presence, there is little doubt in Josephine's mind to who it might be. She finds herself unable to resist a jest. Without looking up, she answers, "Would you leave if I said yes?"

But as soon as the response leaves her lips she lays down her quill and turns her head to smile at Leliana: an implicit invitation to stay.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

[fightingale]

Don't judge the sandwiches, Josie. They are all Antiva inspired, for the sake of mild emotional bribery. It's not their fault they are flaw free and delicious.

Leliana, despite the jest, actually considers the question. "No." A jest of her own, mind - she would, unless the reason for her intrusion involved assassins and attempts made on Josie's life.

"Can't I simply want to visit one of my oldest friends?"

[theproperglove]

"You can," Josephine answers with a tilt of the head, now regarding the sandwiches again. "You must know that you are always welcome. Which does make one wonder why you have come bearing gifts. Not that I am complaining, mind you, but..."

She trails off, looking at Leliana once more now, the smile gone and replace with a look of intense scrutiny. "You have something to tell me."

[fightingale]

She laughs, at that. More than the quiet breaths of amusement that she usually offers, in recent days. It is not near so relaxed or so free as she has been in years past, but it is a little less constricted. Leliana shrugs, then, palms upwards in the universal symbol of who, me?, which is less than convincing. She does not really intend it to be persuasive.

"Would I be so heavy handed in acquiring your attention?"

[theproperglove]

Josephine does not waste a breath before answering in the affirmative. "Yes, which exactly why I'm asking."

She leans over desk in a conspiratorial manner, hands folded over the top of each other."So what is it? Do you come bearing gossip as well as sandwiches or is your information of a more personal nature?"

[fightingale]

More than once she has considered how to deliver this news, and she still isn't entirely settled on it. Leliana allows her mouth to quirk is an amused kind of smile, though whether it is mirthful or her own dangerous brand of sarcasm and something else is not entirely transparent.

"Oh, well. Morrigan and I are involved." Light, edging on flippancy, in part to gauge Josephine's reaction, to see if it is taken as the joke that it is offered as, or if she will dissect it. Josephine, of anyone, is more likely to be charitable, a bar by which to judge all others.

[theproperglove]

Whatever news Josephine was expecting, she wasn't sure it was that, and to say that she is astonished would be an understatement. Nonetheless, her surprise hardly registers on her face beyond the slight lift of her brow. "Involved? Involved how, precisely? I know that you were once acquainted during the Blight but I wasn't aware of any further association between the two of you. Has she been helping you sneaking sandwiches from the kitchens?"

Josephine knows, at her heart, what Leliana is referring to, but she still she needs time to process it, so teasing will have to do for now.

[fightingale]

"Of course. Shapeshifting is critical to culinary espionage."

What else would I mean, her tone seems to suggest, though she leans back in the chair as she claims it, one leg crossed over the other, and raises an eyebrow in turn.

After a quiet meoment, "Should I anticipate a lecture?"

[theproperglove]

"Only if it is what you came here for, if these sandwiches are indeed an invitation for beratement." She sighs, settling back into her chair. The issue, as she she sees it, is twofold: is Leliana asking for her opinion as her role of the Ambassador of the Inquisition, or as Josephine Montilyet, her old friend?

"In truth, I have no desire to meddle in your personal affairs than you do to interfere with mine." She looks at Leliana pointedly, then, hoping that the other woman will ascertain the true meaning of her words. Josephine may be charming, but she is not naive. She knows Leliana has always been oddly protective of her.

"If you are happy with her, then what can I say, truly? I trust you know what you're doing, and you must know I'm here for you if you need me."

She means what she says she truly does, but it's still such a surprise that she cannot help but also ask, "Who else knows?"

They both know that there are people out there who would glance askance at a relationship between the Left Hand of the Divine and an apostate, no matter how tolerated by the nobility she may be.

[fightingale]

Josie, please. Leliana doesn't meddle - she simply stages concerned inventions in the best interests of those dear to her heart. That is nothing to be apologetic for, surely? Holding out her hands so they are palm up and open, Leliana quirks her brow in a silent me? sort of gesture.

She would never meddle, let's never speak of this terrible accusation again.

Her hands return to her lap, folded, and Leliana is silent for a few moments in response to all Josie has said. Does she know what she's doing? Part of her genuinely wonders.

"I have only told yourself and Zevran, though he does not know that anything has happened. Only that I was..." Her nose wrinkles, distasteful, "Mired."

Feelings, the most terrible of things to be mired in. Terrible. "Alistair jokes about it." And now, there is a sly smile. "He will be horrified."

[theproperglove]

Josephine cannot completely disguise the relief that settles through her shoulders when Leliana tells her that only one other person knows. "Mired," she echoes, her voice taking on a teasing lilt. "And what exactly is it that has appened between the two of you?"

She leans forward, over her desk and plucks one of the sandwiches between her fingers. "I need details."

[fightingale]

"Mired, yes." It is very difficult to adapt from the consideration that desire was dangerous - Leliana had become the Left Hand, after all, after meeting Dorothea when she was struggling to retrieve papers Marjolaine had stolen during a seduction. Love was an ideal, and not one Leliana had been party to since Marjolaine. Lust and desire could not be indulged when they bought such risks. And now...?

Josephine Montilyet. The Lady Ambassador is rewarded with the sharp upward tick of an eyebrow, Leliana's head tilting just slightly to the side. "That information is highly classified," comes the dry reply.

[theproperglove]

"Hm," Josephine hums unhappily as she settles back into her chair. "You do know the more you withhold, the more people will desire to fill in the details." By 'people' she mostly means herself, and she only refrains from threatening to gossip about such details due to Leliana's position in the Inquisition. This is not the time to be destabilising their cause.

Finally, she takes a bite of her sandwich.

[fightingale]

She decides to throw Josie a bone. Leaning forward, conspiratorial in a way that better suited them when they were younger and more carefree and inciting chaos in Val Royeaux,

"A desk may have been involved."

Far more innocently than she is letting it sound, it is worth adding, but Leliana smiles enigmatically when she plucks a sandwich of her own from the plate.

[theproperglove]

It is good to see Leliana joking like this, and even though Josephine knows that so much has changed, it still reminds herself of happier times. So she shallows her mouthful, and likewise leans towards Leliana. Dropping her head as though about to confess a secret, she whispers, "Oh, only a desk?"

She laughs as she straightens up, a smile curving on her face as she adds, "My, how proper we've grown in our old age."

[fightingale]

"Only a desk, and only talking. I'm ashamed of myself."

Leliana tears the edge off the sandwich, and keeps tearing pieces off it in a slow, spiralling pattern, in a solid ribbon of bread. A habit of years ago, one rarely seen any more. "I feel ridiculous even talking about it."