faderift | I'm Not The Moon (Open)

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cosima niehaus

I'm Not The Moon (Open)

WHO: Cosima, Avery AND YOU
WHAT: Open log of goodbye to ~~all that~~ Skyhold; in which Avery may or may not try to help get Cosima a quality one-night stand and in which there will definitely be drinking
WHEN: Backdated to before the move (forgive my hiatus)
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: No warnings to start, but Cosima is fresh off TTT, so if you want a less shiny happy thread, those are also on the table.

Behind closed doors, Cosima had said very evenly that she needed to hug Avery once, and to please just let it happen. She was, in some ways, less shaken up than she'd been after getting captured by the Venatori; the things that had happened to her, specifically, hadn't been as bad by pretty much any measure. But seeing a future-that-might-be ... it had been enough to shake her up.

But that had been in private, and before they left Skyhold behind, Cosima was determined to enjoy herself a little. ("What would Ruby do?" she'd enthusiastically pointed out to her roommate when attempting to sell the idea of a night out.) Cosima had officially thrown her lot in with the Inquisition, was committed to making sure the future she saw didn't come to pass. But the world wasn't going to go to shit in one night -- probably -- and she wanted to dance and drink and flirt with someone.

(She wanted to look over and see Avery, right there and fine and looking mildly annoyed but not leaving her either.)

So a trip to the tavern seems well in order. Cosima's going to be enthusiastically greeting her friends from the start. She might be enthusiastically greeting glancing acquaintances later too, depending on how the drinking goes.

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"Well, I could do that too, but I meant more like..."

Avery shifts back in her seat and drums her fingers on the table, thinking about how to explain this. She's never really had to before.

"I heard of this game from an old Rivaini in a pub once, see. I think it's meant for more than two, but it still works. Basically, I tell you a story about a warrior traveling through a strange land ruled by strange gods, and you, and however many others there are, get to be the gods trying to kill the warrior before she can reach journey's end. Like, say, I mention the warrior hears a strange sound in the forest and ask what it is, then the crowd shout out whatever, argue a bit, and I pick one and that's the next part of the story. And again and again until the warrior dies or I reach the end and win."

"Oh my god, it's Rivaini Dungeons and Dragons," Cosima says before she can help herself, with a wide grin. "We should totally give it a try. If you like?" But Cosima is obviously keen.

Again, Cosima is getting just the most confused look in response (Avery said nothing about dungeons or dragons!), before she shrugs it off with a shake of her head. "I guess. If I can remember how it bloody starts..."

"Dungeons and Dragons is a game from my world. Similar idea, except you use dice to help decide how things play out. So if you said, say, 'My guy attempts to cross the river,' then the person playing the god would be like 'OK, roll higher than a 3.'" Simplified, sure, but not inaccurate.

"Yeah," Avery responds slowly, trying to remember the details of her version. "I think there's a coin flip in this one sometimes but not a lot of them. Mostly it's just the talking."

She sits up a little and clears her throat, before beginning, "I think it opens like, uh, I am a traveler in a strange land ruled by strange gods, blah blah blah. I am..." And here she pauses to think of some of the details she's supposed to fill in. "...a soldier, heading home from war. My family waits for me in a city by the sea, but I have many days travel before I'll see them again. There are safer routes, surely, but I mean to stop at an old temple to my own god first."

She flounders there for a moment, awkwardly, before suddenly remembering this bit and going, "Oh, right, and I have three boons to aid me. The first, er... my father's trusty sword. The second a horse, the strongest in my land and a gift from the king for being all hero-like and everything. And the third... Remind me again, strange gods." A look is shot Cosima's way. "What's the third boon I have to get me through your deadly land?"

Cosima looks theatrically thoughtful for a moment. "The third is a rare potion, which will grant you reprieve from one injury, no matter how dire." Possibly too much, but she doesn't know how harrowing the quests are going to get; it seems fair to her.

"So. You're heading first to the temple?"

She snorts quietly and has a smaller sip of her drink this time. "How kind of the gods. Maybe it's a prize I found on an enemy who thought to drink it for himself, but my father's blade was just too quick." Whether it's too much is as debatable as whether 'too much' is even a concept here.

In any case, Avery nods and answers, "That's right. I think... this land used to be ruled by my god, before you lot took it over, and there's rumor of a single remaining temple half-through the wastes. I'm a day or so in when I notice the first sign of trouble. What is it that warns me danger's coming?"

This is trickier than it would be at home, but not as hard as it might have been a few months earlier. At least there are certainly enough options for 'danger' in Thedas.

"You hear voices, up ahead," Cosima offers, after thinking for a moment. "You're not close enough to hear words, yet, but it sounds like an argument. At least one of them is pretty pissed off."

"Well, a lesser person might slow, try to move stealthy or something, but I'm a conquering hero, remember? Honored and blessed. I move over the nearest dune confidently, toward the sound."

She's smiling slightly now. Talking has never really been in Avery's comfort zone, but this is easier somehow, at least a little. She's just playing a game, telling a story, not being herself. And so, just to keep Cosima on her toes, instead of asking the obvious question about what she sees, Avery says, "But as I get closer, one of the voices starts to sound familiar. Am I mistaken, or do I know this person somehow?"

Cosima takes a sip of her wine. (She has the brief thought that the improv shows she was dragged to in undergrad might have been better with more wine and fewer 20-year-old bros.)

"You're pretty sure you recognize him as you start to get closer -- it takes you a minute, though, because it's someone you haven't seen a long time. Not before you left home to start adventuring. When you come over the hill, though, you can recognize him for sure." She pauses, trying to gauge whether she should make the choice more definite, or leave the door open for Avery to keep improvising.

"Who is he then?" she asks simply, answering Cosima's unspoken question. "I must approach and see, so tell me, gods."

"It's the baker's son, though now he's not dressed as a baker. Mercenary might be a better guess, or at least someone who routinely wears armor that's gotten some use. Back before you left home, you got the sense he had a crush on you, but neither of you ever said anything about it. The other guy looks like a merchant; no one you recognize." She tilts her chair back, slightly, relaxing as they get into the rhythm of the game.

The baker part earns Cosima a raised eyebrow, and the crush another tick higher. Is there a hidden message in this somewhere??

Eventually, she shrugs it off for the most part and comments flatly, "How strange. They been fighting though, you said. With words, or has it come to blows as well?"

It could be flirting, or it could be a Freudian slip; either way, Cosima doesn't linger over it.

"Words for now. Since the merchant is a skinny older man who isn't visibly armed, it'll probably go the worse for him if it comes to blows, but the guy you know is definitely angry enough it might. Jordan, you remember, that's his name."

Jordan is probably not a very realistic name for anyone in Thedas, it occurs to Cosima a moment later, but whatever. At least Avery shouldn't have problems pronounce it.

Or maybe Cosima just thinks Avery needs to get laid too? It's a real mystery, but Avery is already thinking about her next response, fingers drumming idly on the tabletop.

"Well," she mutters after a moment, "if one angry boy with an ego run wild is the worst these deadly wastes have to throw at me, this trip will be over in no time. I urge my horse forward, looking down on the two of them from its back, and I order them to stop and explain themselves. I have somewhere to be, and they'd best not slow me down. Do they listen?"

"The merchant looks totally relieved. Jordan, though, seems annoyed, and says it's none of your business. In a very rude way. He doesn't seem like he recognizes you, though he could have just become a complete asshole in the intervening years."

As entitled boys so often do, in Cosima's experience.

She's not wrong!

Avery snorts, "Prick. I've no time or patience for this, so I draw my sword and tell him I'm making it my business. Does he flee, as any sane man should in front of such an experienced blade?"

"The merchant totally cuts and runs, but Jordan draws his swords. They look like they've gotten some use, though he's obviously not that smart if he doesn't recognize your skill." Cosima grins. "So you've got that going for you."

"Fine," Avery answers, adding a slightly haughty affectation to her tone. "If he really wants to be humiliated, I will... oblige. So tell me, gods, do I succeed? Do I fail? Or is the fight a close one? Will luck decide if it goes my way?"

She pulls out a coin and lays it on the table.

"I suspect the gods are really into games of chance. Heads you beat him easily, tails he gets the better of you," Cosima suggests.

Avery scoffs, "Fine. If I have to," then flips the coin with her thumb and handily catches it out of the air and slams it down on the table again.

There's a moment of pause for drama's sake, before she slides her hand away and looks down. "Shit. This is not on me. I am too skilled to be beaten by someone like this. Surely, it's the work of you damned gods that has turned the tide against me. But I refuse to be beaten, even by you. He has me bested for now, but what must I do to strike him down? Whatever it is, I will do it."

"There is a folk saying in my world: Fate's a bitch." ...that is not a folk saying, Cosima.

"Unfortunately for him, he's a gloater. He thinks his disarmed you, but that mainly meant taking your sword and gloating about how foolish you were to think you were his match. If you've got another weapon hidden somewhere, he wasn't very thorough, so you could probably go for it. On the other hand, he still doesn't seem to have placed you, so he doesn't know you have any way to know anything about him; you could try to freak him out that way."

"Oh, I'm sure I have a knife in my boot, for emergencies," she says, after a brief consideration. "It's not much, but it can do. Especially since I've also a well-trained warhorse with me. Once I give the signal for my loyal friend to create a distraction, I strike again while his back is turned. There's a time and a place for honor, and a time and place for survival. And if this poor sod bleeds out in the desert, there's no one to say I don't have both well in hand."

At that, she levels a slightly challenging look Cosima's way. "Does it work?"

Cosima pauses for dramatic emphasis. "Your cleverness takes the day. And he totally deserved it." She leans back in her chair. "So, what now? The merchant left his cart, but otherwise there's nothing of note around."

"I search both," she answers easily, after giving a confident nod to her foregone victory. "Maybe I'll find out what this was about, but even if not, I'll definitely find something useful for getting across this desert alive, I'm sure. What is it exactly?"

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there is an actual cointoss happening over here right now, i hope you know

excellent

i hoped youd be proud of me for that

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