faderift | Semi-Open

Ruby getting out of the dungeon is definitely worth celebrating, in Cosima's opinion. It's been a bumpy month for all of them, as Cosima heals and Avery heals more slowly and all of them have been very carefully not talking about unpleasant topics any more than they can help.

But.

Cosima has decided they need a proper girl's night in with alcohol and treats and a little unwinding. And while Cosima may seem the softest of the three of them on the outside she is Very. Determined. She even decorated the room a little bit, with some ribbon and dried gourds. Not an Alison-worthy effort, maybe, but a gesture. Gestures, she feels, are important.

Wine is also important.

After seeing Jaime more or less by chance, Cosima thinks it's important to go check in on Lexa. Not that Lexa doesn't give the impression of being 110% able to take care of herself - she definitely does - but Cosima wants to say hi, and also thank you. As she told Jaime, she knows she was dead weight, and she wouldn't have blamed them trying to get out without her and send back help. The fact the escape didn't work doesn't mean she's not grateful.

She even managed to talk Avery to donating a small basket of currant rolls to the cause. At home, she'd bring over a fancy craft beer six-pack, but these will do.

Herian's been busy, and so has Cosima. Granted, Cosima's "being busy" was mostly involuntary, but still the fact remains they haven't been in touch for a while. And Cosima hasn't been avoiding her, exactly, but she still feels a little sheepish. It seems like every time Herian looks away, Cosima ends up in the healers tents, one way or another.

Even so. It's been too long.

Everyone's got to eat. Well, Cosima mentally corrects, everyone she knows of. Maybe there's someone at Skyhold who photosynthesizes or something; she's heard weirder. But most people have to eat, and running into a friend around the kitchens is better than, say, the healers' tents.

She's not entirely sure if Raylan considers them friends, but Cosima's relatively sure they're at least friendly. His work is interesting, and he seems to mean well beneath a gruff-ish exterior and, maybe a little contrarily, Cosima likes him. So when she recognizes him from behind, she speeds up a little to catch up to him. "Hey, stranger."

This time when they cross paths, Herian is a little worse for wear as well. Her wounds were healed with magic, but that does not spare her lingering maladies, things that fester more in mind and spirit than anything else. That said, there is a noticeable change: her left ear has been hacked at, cut from lobe to the outer shell, and then across the top to carve it into a crude point. A favour from the Dalish, and though her hair falls over it oftentimes, her hair is partly covers it, it is not so very hard to notice.

She moves in light armour, sword at her side and no staff to be seen as she bows, small satchel under one arm. "Lady Cosima," she starts, and if it's possible her voice sounds more calm and even than usual - or perhaps it's just flat. "How do you fare?"

Raylan turned when she called out, and greeted her with no words, but a kind of up-nod and a pleased raise of the eyebrows. He let her catch up before turning to resume his progress. He was being noticeably quiet and taciturn, but that wasn't necessarily out of the ordinary for him. Raylan generally wasn't behaving all that out of the ordinary, just enough for those who knew him well to notice, despite the turmoil inside him.

"How you been?" he asked, apparently unwilling to waste words.

"Don't tell me you made these."

Yes, she is inspecting one of the gourds suspiciously after that conversation they had. Isn't she just the most pleasant roommate and the best at making people feel appreciated for the effort they put into things? It's probably why she has so much knowledge and experience with this custom called "girl's night" and is absolutely not mildly to moderately uncomfortable right now and more than a little afraid of what is to come.

For her part, Ruby is smiling a little at the gourds. Oh, sure it's not the bright, easy smile of months times past, but it's still as smile as her fingers trace over the outline. "Seems like a gourd idea to me," she says softly, before glancing at Cosima with a conspiratorial raising of her brow. "Too bad we can't put on The Golden Girls and paint each other's nails."

She's seen stains, but it's just not the same as pinks and purples and greens, all vibrant and shiny.

"It's seriously awesome, Cosima."

His demeanor is... himself, only a bit moreso, and she wonders about it, but doesn't push right away. Instead, she answers his question: "I'm alright, mostly. The healers told me pretty sternly that I should avoid Venatori kidnappings in the future, but otherwise sent me off with a clean bill of health last week."

She glances up at him, since he has a good six inches on her once they're side by side. "What've you been up to recently?"

Cosima's eyes widen, slightly - she doesn't look shocked or horrified, but she definitely notices, and it gives her pause. "Hey - um. I'm okay. Alright. I meant to come find you when you got back, but I was less okay recently and then..."

She bites her lower lip, then just asks frankly: "How are you?" It's a loaded question when it isn't a pleasantry.

"We'll throw out anything organic after tonight, I promise we won't get ants," she says to Avery. Then she turns to Ruby and smiles. If someone in this room were to suggest Cosima's good cheer is, at least somewhat, conjured for the benefit of her roommates, well... she'd say they didn't know what they were talking about.

(And it really is good to have Ruby back where, in Cosima's opinion, she firmly belongs. She doesn't need to fake being happy about that.)

"Yeah, DVDs were impossible and spa supplies weren't exactly easy to come by, but I figured refreshments we could do, at least. Welcome back. And," she adds, moving to grab them, "I managed to get us a deck of cards, if we want either games or fake fortune telling, so."

Avery has turned from the gourd now to just... look back and forth between the two of them blankly.

"Right," she says slowly. "Well, I understood half of that at least."

"We could start making things up just to see if you'd notice," Ruby starts, smile bordering apologetic - but only just, "except I think you might just judge us to an early grave."

Ruby, for her part, turns to claim a place on her bed, drawing her feet up to rest on the edge. "Oh, fortune telling? That's bold. Do any of us actually know how to read fortunes from cards?"

Cosima laughs a little. "If either of you secretly do, I guess speak now, but it's not like that ever stopped someone from trying at a girls night before." She leaves the deck on Ruby's bed, and moves to start on the drinks. "And I solemnly promise, Avery, I may be shit at explaining our culture, but I see no need to make anything about it up. There's too much real weird stuff to pick from."

How is she?

"I am very well," Herian replies, and it's technically true. Physically she has made a fine recovery, wounds healed and the tangible wounds healed. There were others that remained more elusive, but... There is a faint flicker of a smile, a brief little burst of flame before it is easily extinguished. "These few weeks past have had their trials."

That much she can acknowledge easily, brow creasing a little. "Although I'd wager your own has been far more trying than mine."

"I don't think it's a contest," Cosima says, mildly, "but I'm sorry it's close enough to be a question. Did you hear what happened, or... I know you were busy." She doesn't want to assume that Herian's had either the chance or the inclination to go digging for details.

(She misses the internet. Or even old-school mass media news.)

Enjoy this doubtful look and quiet hmm sound.

It's all those particular comments are earning either of them before she just says, "The only fortune-telling I've ever learnt is that if someone has convinced you they can see your future in a deck of cards, there's a good chance you're about to be swindled."

"No contest." That is said quickly, but with no less of her usual evenness. "I simply have no wish of inflicting further wounds through focus upon mine own lamentations. I heard enough of what transpired that I—"

A pause, and she frowns a little, weighing her words and trying to wrangle a reply that seemed determined to remain elusive. Sabine and Adelaide had said different things, but both of them fall into the rare category of people whose words she trusts with no question.

"Any one part of the horrors described to me would have been cause for sorrow. That you endured so much is— beyond words. I am very sorry."

"Hey, look," Cosima said. "You don't have to talk about anything you don't want to talk about. But I care about what you've been through for the same reason you're sorry about what happened to me, okay?"

It's called having a friend, Herian.

"I do want to say, for the record, that I don't purposely end up in the healers tents every time you turn your back on me, though." It's quiet, but it is a joke.

frɛnd/ Friend. Frriiiiieeennd.
Sounds fake, but okay.

Cosima does, at least, coax a small smile out of her. "That is a relief. I had begun to suspect you were resorting to most dire means to secure my time." The smile is small and a little wry, but it's definitely there.

And she nods, even, gaze dropping for a bare moment. "I— have a history with the Dalish that renders me poorly suited to impartial discussion, and they appear well-liked by a good many within the Inquisition. I hold silence to spare inflicting offence upon those who would take such from my words." Vaguely, she gestures to her ear. "This is not the first I have been marked from them. 'Tis but the most easily sighted."

"Jesus," she says, quietly, as she gets a better look at the damage. "Look, I'm still catching up; I'm not even sure I've got all the countries' names down yet. But anyone who'd do that to you, even without anything else... I can see why you'd hold a grudge."

She's met some Dalish, here, and has liked the individuals well enough. But that doesn't undo what's been done to Herian - visible and otherwise. It's clearly complicated.

Cosima hesitates, then says, "I do like your company enough to take drastic measures, but if I were doing it on purpose, I'd definitely just like... fall out of a tree, not get kidnapped by Venatori."

She holds her silence for long moments, though she does tilt her head, turns just a little to allow Cosima a better look and make it apparent she doesn't mind, for all her seeming rigidity.

"I feel as though I've acted with no sense or reason since," she admits, rather quietly. "Undermining responsibilities laid upon me, being less than honourable or... what a knight should be. And that failure falls entirely upon myself, no the Dalish or any other. If shame might be cut away so easily as flesh-- it would be a relief, I think."

A breath, and a little shake of her head, dismissing her own words apologetically.

"Hopefully not a noxious one," she replies, managing a breath of amusment. "I've even heard rumours of trees possessed. A less risky venture might be preferrable even to that, fo both our sakes."

Cosima shakes her head - possessed trees, seriously - but says, "So. Do knights drink? Because it sounds like you could use one."

"A knight is meant to practice temperance," she starts, "although we are also meant never to cause wanton offense, and to some the denial of hospitality could be considered such. Rules bent to the wills of those that long for convenience over discipline."

The smile? Self-deprecating. "At present, I could allow nyself the indulgence. Do you desire of a drink?"

"What I'd really love is to get us both good and stoned," she says, wry and frank, "but I'll settle for a well-deserved round of drinks. You pick where, though, I don't want to accidentally choose a place that's cursed or something."

Cosima knows she's capable, but she also knows she's over her head in this world. (Knows it better now than she did the last time she saw Herian.) She can manage some light self-deprication too.

Semi-Open

For Ruby and Avery

For Lexa

For Herian

For Raylan

heads up: reference to a torture thing from a recent plot

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slides in ten years late with pumpkin spice lattes

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