[Open] I don't think you're ready for this jelly

[justice_is_blond]

WHO: Alistair and Anders and YOU
WHAT: Alistair tightropes. In a dress. While singing.
WHEN: Kingsway 21st
WHERE: Camp Shady Fucker
NOTES: There will probably be some awful sap because this is Nate's birthday, you've been warned. Otherwise, no warnings anticipated.

It's not publicized, but word has a habit of getting out.

Zevran has publicized matters, and now it's time for some morale boosting. There's a low tightrope stretched between two trees with a great many chairs, stumps, and logs set up as seating options. Today is the day for someone to earn himself new boots, shirts, and a shield, and it promises to be a show.

Come on up, pull up a seat, and enjoy the entertainment.

Comments

Pre-Show and/or Mingling

[onlyhymns]

This seems wrong, and Cade is very discomforted by it, but... other people are different, and he shouldn't assume Alistair is being forced. But he's not going to be able to settle down if he doesn't at least come and offer moral support in his friend's... is it an hour of need? Something like that. He'll help him escape, if it comes down to it.

He sits off to one side, awkward and gloomy as always. Though he nods and possibly waves a greeting to Zevran if their eyes meet, he doesn't approach, since being a bother and a fun-ruiner is the last thing he wants. Still, he's anxious, on Alistair's behalf.

[ombranera]

Zevran weighs his options for a short while before gathering a bag of the candied chestnuts from one of his Kestrels and making his way over. Treats in one hand, child in the other. Perhaps Lucci being a little bear would make him less threatening to Cade.

Perhaps not. Who knows?

"Cade. You are looking well." Ish. Sort of? Alive and not completely miserable, which is a step in the right direction.

[onlyhymns]

A little bear does wonders for making someone less threatening. Cade is still not comfortable around children, but one would have to be a literal monster to not melt a little at the sight of the baby. He even smiles slightly, but straightens up when Zevran addresses him.
"Thanks," he says, low and quiet, "um... you too."

[ombranera]

There are things he could say ranging from the cruel to the tactless- but he settles for something relatively neutral. "It has been...an adventure, adapting. At least he is no longer teething."

Lucci waves a fat paw, making little 'rawr' noises. "Though I expect he will be talking soon and that will be a whole new adventure."

[onlyhymns]

Cade assumes that's a good thing. He nods as though he knows. Shyly he glances at the growling Lucci, but doesn't coo or dote over him, instead just offering an awkward smile and hunching his shoulders a little. Don't notice him, little one.

"I imagine it will," he says, at a bit of a loss. There are things he feels like he should say: hey sorry I bailed on you, hey I stole a bottle of wine and spent a night gearing up to kill myself, hey I'm still a problem on the whole, but he doesn't. If Zevran doesn't know, perhaps it's for the best.

"...so um..." he begins, and clears his throat, gesturing to the whole... everything. "...why...?"

[ombranera]

"You've been well?" Asked at the same time Cade asks 'why' and, well. It'd be impolite not to answer. "Ah, this? Anders made some manner of wager with Alistair over the price of new boots and a shirt. So Alistair plays the fool, I charge admission, the coin goes to feeding the wardens."

It's not cheap, doing that.

"And some set aside for future 'raising this child' expenses. Children like to eat, apparently." It's a joke, one further emphasized by his offering Lucci a bit of sweet pastry to gnaw upon.

[onlyhymns]

Perhaps 'well' is an overstatement, but Cade nods, deciding not to look the gift horse in the mouth. In this case, the gift horse of not having to explain too much.
After all, he's here to defend Alistair's honor, or at least to watch helplessly as Alistair destroys it. He looks a bit morose at Zevran's explanation, but as with all things Alistair, for as long as he's known him, Cade is powerless in the face of his wanton self-degradation.

"Oh," he says, with a small sigh.

[ombranera]

"I take it he pulled similarly foolish things when he was a boy?" He had heard things, small stories now and then. A few from Cade in fact but- this seems familiar to Alistair in ways he can't quite place. "Honestly? I am not surprised, but I do wish he might find a way to earn gold to buy himself things without needing to be quite so much the clown. I think he might be happier."

[onlyhymns]

"Not quite this foolish," Cade says gloomily, glancing over at the tightrope in all its lonely anticipation. "...it's who he is, being the clown. But I think..." He chews on the thought for a moment. "...he'll... make himself the joke before anyone else can do it to him." In that, they adapted in opposite directions: Cade does his best to evade attention entirely. "If someone's laughing at him, he wants to laugh too. Even if it's at his expense."

[ombranera]

"...That does ring true with what I know of him." Perhaps he owes Alistair an apology-

No. There is no perhaps about it. Zevran considers the weight of coin in his pocket, what they've earned, and adds it on the scale against Alistair's pride. His dignity. His desire to not be the center of attention. "I am going to have to apologize to him."

[onlyhymns]

Though Cade shouldn't be, he's surprised by Zevran's realization. And, perhaps, just the tiniest bit amused-- it's not that he knows Zevran well enough to make any real judgments about his character, but he has also never caused anyone to change their mind before, and he finds it startling that cool and experienced Zevran would be the first.
Cade smiles, just a little. "It's harder than it looks," he advises.

[ombranera]

"He waves things off too easily. Even when they hurt- especially if they hurt." And this is something known best to those that know him well. Most would take the shrugged off flippancy at face value. Cade and Zevran? Know better.

"I will have to employ Lucci. He listens better when the child is involved."

[arlathvhen]

Cade attracts her attention, if just because he appears to have similar feelings about this entire thing as she does. Of course, he always kind of looks a little nervous and unhappy, maybe that's just how his face is? But it's good enough to encourage Beleth to make her way over to another anxious person to connect and commiserate with. And anyways, even if Cade doesn't share her point of view, it's not like he's going to argue with her, or go and tell someone that she's the No Fun captain of the Brooding Brigade.

"I don't like it," Beleth greets him, without nary a 'hello' or 'how do you do'. She stops close enough that she can whisper to him, arms crossed as she surveys the crowd around them. "People just here to laugh at him. Make fun of him. It's...unseemly. Gauche. I know he's playing along, but...I don't like it."

[onlyhymns]

That kind of is just his face. But at least Beleth has picked up on the exact cause of it this time.

"I don't either," he answers in a tired whisper, "it's..." He hesitates, then sighs through his nose, exasperated and mildly distressed. "...I wish I could've had a chance to talk him out of it."

[arlathvhen]

Though she is also pretty displeased with the situation, Cade seems to be taking it hard--but again, that's just. Kind of. How Cade is. Either way, she absent-mindedly reaches out to pat his arm, a reflexive move to offer comfort from someone in a very touchy feely culture.

"I tried to, earlier, but he wasn't having any of it. Too late at this point. Rest assured, I will be having Words with Anders." Several words, and none of them complimentary. It takes about five seconds for Beleth to recall where Cade had been previously stationed and about five more for her to conclude that Cade is probably not a member of the Anders fanclub, and realizes that bringing him up is probably not the best plan.

Her attempt to change the subject is about as graceful as Alistair is on the tightrope.

"What do you call a fake noodle?"

[onlyhymns]

If Cade didn't take things hard, it would probably mean something's wrong with him. So there's that.

He frowns when Beleth agrees, but seems to be burning low on the displeasure meter until she says That Name. She tries to divert the conversation, but it's too late.

"Anders," he says quietly, a different kind of quiet than usual: normally it's shy, but now there's a building emotion that could very well turn into anger. "...what does Anders have to do with it."

[arlathvhen]

"...You call it an impasta."

Beleth continues on blithely, as though she didn't even notice that Cade had ignored her set up. She's certainly noticed the change in attitude, though. There's a tension in her that wasn't there before, and her eyes nervously flick out to the crowd, checking for Zevran or Alistair or--anyone, really, that she can trust to keep her safe. That anger isn't focused on her, but it's impossible to separate from that anger that she had seen building in Emprise du Lion, that anger that had exploded into an incident that she still has nightmares about.

"Because pasta. And imposter. Impasta."

[onlyhymns]

He doesn't hear the punchline. All Cade can hear is a roaring in his ears that feels like it's overwhelming his entire consciousness. In the meantime all he's really doing is staring into the middle distance, but his shoulders are tense as a bowstring and his eyes are hard and cold as stone.
His gaze flits over the crowd, seeking out a person he probably wouldn't even recognize if he saw him, but on whom his mind is now completely fixated.

[arlathvhen]

She fucked up. She fucked up. She fucked up shefuckedupshefuckedupshefuckedup--It repeats with the pounding of a battering ram against her skull, and she takes a step away from Cade, eyes locked on the ground as she tries to think, but the acrid bile of panic is rising in her throat. He's going to hurt Anders, he's going to hurt her, he's going to hit her again--

"I'm sorry," She mutters, more to the ground than to Cade, voice cracking. "I'm sorry, please--" Please what? She needs to think, but it's hard. She wants to hide behind someone, let them deal with this. Let them yell at Cade and make him be normal again.

"It's fine, nothing happened--You're going to get in trouble. Please." This is as close to a rational argument as she can get, and her only other solution she can think of is breaking into sobbing, which might happen soon anyway.

[onlyhymns]

Cade is aware that Beleth is speaking to him, pleading with him, but his adrenaline has ramped up and it's not going back down in a hurry. He lurches to his feet and steps away from her, balling his twitching fists and grinding his teeth. He forces himself into cognizance, and begins to turn towards Beleth when it hits him: the crackle of a magical explosion in the air, the smell of blood and rot and the unnatural sound of stone moving of its own volition, the sick and penetrating aura of red lyrium emanating from his commanding officer. He is about to be killed.
Rooted to the spot, Cade's muscle memory tells him to lift his left arm and shield himself, but when he does so, it's more of a defensive curl, his forearm pressing over his face and his hand knotting in his hair. The other at his side fidgets as though looking for a swordbelt that isn't there, and he breathes heavily, temporarily contained but likely to become undone if anyone should try to touch him.

[ombranera]

Well that isn't the sign of trouble brewing or anything. For what won't be the last time Zevran wonders and and quietly despairs over Beleth's continued association with the human that nearly beat her to death. Especially when it means moments like this are likely to occur and someone sensible and responsible (when that became him he has no idea, part of him resents the implication and the rest simply wants this to pass without incident or blood) ought to sweep in and tidy up the mess.

Sweep in he does, passing Lucci into Beleth's arms before the tears and wailing start in earnest , hands up, voice low and commanding as it had been in that tower. "Cade."

No contact, no touching- the trials and difficulties of not being able to ground someone physically. "You are safe, yes? No one here is to harm you, no one here is in danger. Look at me."

As if they hadn't been more or less avoiding one another and the issue for...months. To be fair, Zev suddenly had a son and Cade had a startling moment of awareness over how few fucks Zev had to give on a regular basis. Most don't catch on. Clever man.

[onlyhymns]

Cade goes still at the sound of his name in that tone, but is still clearly lacking most of his wits. He shakes his head to the question, his shoulders trembling with the still-accruing nervous energy.
He does as he's told, however, and looks at Zevran like a kicked dog looks at a person holding food.
Zevran will want an explanation, but Cade can't make sense of his own thoughts enough to give him one. Everyone is going to die. Beleth is going to die, and so is the baby, and--

"Alistair," he whimpers, remembering his concern but unable to place how it relates. He lowers his voice to murmur "he's going to kill Alistair," in a tone so full of fear that it's almost childlike-- on top of that, it's almost a question, because surely Zevran will know if it's true or not. Cade is pretty sure it is, but even in his current state he acknowledges that he's often mistaken.

[ombranera]

"No one is going to kill Alistair here." Specifics matter. Laugh and mock? Yes. Kill? No killing shall be done unless Cade loses control of himself. Then it is less a matter of murder and more of putting down a wild dog-

But that Cade has enough sense to try to ask, to try to claw his way back to the present? Eases some of the tension in Zevran's shoulders. "No one is killing anyone here. It is a bit of fun, a joke. A few tricks on the rope and a little music. No danger."

He takes a careful step forward, hands still up where Cade can see them. "You are safe. Alistair is safe."

--> Beleth

[colecomfort]

Had Cole been farther away, he might have been too late. Even with all his abilities, he still needs to move through space as a human does. But there's no question he would have sensed the explosive ripples of Cade's distress from across Skyhold. It came on so quickly this time, hard and fast and echoing with old traumas.

He appears an instant after Zevran steps in -- the Shadow, cool and steady and already engaging with Cade. So he turns to Beleth instead, resting a gentle hand on her shoulder. She's affected by this, too.

"Look." He raises his free hand, one slender finger brushing against Lucci's cheek. "He needs you."

[arlathvhen]

When Cade turns towads her, she takes a step back, panic and fear flooding her mind. But then there's a rude interruption into that fog, and she's suddenly holding a small child dressed as a bear.

It is remarkably hard to have a meltdown when you unexpectedly find yourself responsible for an adorable baby, and gives her pause for long enough for Cole to arrive. Cradling Lucci gently, she glances up at him, that bile of fear still there, but--Cole is safe. He's kind, he won't hurt her. Clutching Lucci against herself, Beleth reaches out for Cole, leaning against him. Just as it's her instinct to comfort others with little touches, so does she get comfort from them in turn.

"I'm sorry," She whispers it to Cole, absently patting Lucci's head. He needs her, after all. "I didn't mean to. It was an accident."