OPEN | Too Much Sunshine

[nadasharillen]

WHO: Nari, Lexie, Myr, Korrin, Kylo, You!
WHAT: Catchall for my gals (hmu if you want a prompt)
WHEN: Pre-Tevinter Solace
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: on a scale from Lexie to Nari, what's your work ethic?

Nari

I. Working (Gallows)

Despite the hot, sticky, relentless weather, there's still work to be done, and Nari is doing it. Sometimes in a loose light cotton tunic and sometimes stripped to a breastband and shorter leggings (she'd added the breastband after the casual habitual strip of her shirt she'd employed at home seemed to be vaguely distracting), but whether in the oppressive closeness, but shade, of the workshop or out under the blaze of the sun when it manages to peek through the haze, she's out in the Gallows at the constant repair tasks as well as light deconstruction on the finished pieces of the obstacle course to prepare for their move to the Wounded Coast.

Currently swearing and trying unsuccessfully at one of the boards securing the latter—her team had perhaps been too effective—it looks like she could use either help or a break.


II. The Beach Episode (Korrin, OTA, let's all go together)

Okay, maybe some time for leisure. As devoted as she is to working herself into a tired stupor on a daily basis, spending time with Korrin is always something that will make her take a pause. That, and it's a rare nice day. So, off they go to the beaches outside of town with some blankets to spread across the sand, some food, and the intention to heap sand on top of sand and purposefully cover themselves entirely in water that isn't falling from the sky in sheets.

It's gonna be a good day.


III. Wildcard!

She's around~



Lexie

I. It's Hot Up Here, A Lot up Here

Each day of unfavorable weather—which is to say, most of them—finds Alexandrie lounging out on the balcony of the apartments that faces the Waking Sea in dresses with fewer layers, lighter weight fabrics, and less corseting than she would wear out in society. Her hair is up more simply than usual and she looks alternately vexed and content depending on whether or not the breezes are currently blowing past her off the water.

All things considered, it is not a poor place to spend the afternoon. Do come play cards, or read, or chat about current events, or drink, or watch the late afternoon storms roll by in their brief cacophonies.

(Or be smugly used to the heat, you Tevene savages.)

[ impromptu group activities welcome :3 ]


II. Wildcard

Catch her outside painting on the two non-garbage days this month. Sit in the Memorial Garden. Something else!

Comments

Lexie I

[altusimperius]

Smug? Benedict? Such a fiendish accusation, he would n-- okay yeah he doesn't mind the heat much at all, except that he can't wear some of his more intricately embroidered jackets because they're too heavy. The world is truly unfair.

He's been out on a walk to get some things tailored for their sojourn up north, but at the sight of a familiar tendril of reddish hair at an equally familiar house, he pauses beneath the balcony and calls up.
"Have you melted?"

[coquettish_trees]

In response there is a loud disaffected sigh. So, yes.

"Do come upstairs Lord Artemaeus," follows a reply with actual words in it, "I would so like to see your face but am exceptionally disinclined to move."

dead

[altusimperius]

"It would be my pleasure," Bene replies, and takes the detour into the shade of the twins' foyer as he makes his way upstairs to join Lexie.

Once up on the balcony, he makes an impressed sound at the view of the sea before stepping forward to take Lexie's hand and kiss it in poised greeting. "You look wretched." Ever a gentleman.

[hwaaaitsme]

"Practicing our manners for the trip home, are we, Bene?"

Loki's voice preceeds him by a few steps. He has been a bit further in the apartments, not quite as bothered by the warmth of the indoors as much as Lexie. She is clad for staying in and, as a perfect gentleman, he has dressed down to match her.

This is not, of course, to say that he is dressed poorly. His black shirt and trousers are perfectly pressed and tailored. They are respectable in form and quality save, perhaps, for the way the front of his shirt is a bit unlaced. To nearly his navel. It hangs mostly closed. Mostly.

"Here you are, Lady de la Fontaine," Loki says as he steps alongside the chaise, two perspiring glasses of something sweet and likely alcoholic in hand. He extends one for her, on the side that Bene is kissing, and regards the other man with an arched brow.

"My apologies." He doesnt look even slightly sorry. "You shall have to ring for your own, my friend."

[coquettish_trees]

With her hand still in Bene's for the moment Lexie leans back over her shoulder to watch Loki's return with the kind of smile that suggests she may be responsible for the state of his shirt. Once offered the glass, she lightly squeezes Bene's hand with an accompanying look before extricating it to accept the drink.

"Why, the two of you are causing me to feel almost compelled to take my own turn at being so very welcoming," she says lightly, pressing the glass to her temple and closing her eyes for a few blissful moments. "But I am too warm to be clever, so instead you must play nicely." She lifts herself from her prone position on the chaise so that there's room for Loki again, should he desire to rejoin her.

[altusimperius]

"I'm always nice," Bene replies flippantly, tossing his head as he raises it from Lexie's hand and sends a similarly wry smile back at Loki. "Though I appreciate your hospitality, I won't be staying long."
Taking a few steps back, he leans against the balcony railing, resting his elbows behind him with feline languidness. "I assume you'll be joining us for the journey home?"

[hwaaaitsme]

"The Lady de la Fontaine shall be accompanying us to Minrathous, if that was what you were asking," Loki drawled as he draped himself into the space Alexandrie had made for him. His arms immediately sling over the back of the chaise. When a light breeze blows through it sets his hair just slightly askew and billows his shirt.

He could not have staged it better.

How dare this upstart kiss her hand in his presence.

"Excited to show her the Alma Mater, or just to revel in her company? Or perhaps mine?"

[coquettish_trees]

She'd intended to place herself where she had been before Loki had gotten up to refresh their drinks, her head resting in the hollow of his shoulder, but that was before she'd had access to this. Contrary to her earlier admonition, Lexie is more than happy to settle her back against the other side of the lounge, drape her legs— crossed at the ankles— over Loki's lap, and settle down with the drink she'd been brought to watch the two of them at each other with thinly veiled delight.

[altusimperius]

"Mm," Benedict intones, folding his arms over his chest with a look decidedly more like a sneer than a smile as he watches Loki prowl over to lie next to Alexandrie, shirt open like a common troubadour. It's not jealousy he feels, he reasons; he and Loki are expected to take up with tarts.
But one of them is firstborn, and one of them, as it so obviously shows, isn't.
"Would that we could all be so cavalier with flaunting the company we keep," he replies loftily, with a look at Lexie that's downright warm, followed by a wink. He's not insulting anyone, of course-- if they're seeing it that way, clearly they've a guilty conscience.

[hwaaaitsme]

"Oh, are you keeping company? I hadn't heard," Loki replies offhand as he takes a sip of his drink. He counters the sheer with an idle sort of smirk.

"You must be very discreet, indeed. I am impressed," he adds, almost lightly and arches a brow. "Speaking of discretion, how dare your lessons? Teaching Southerners what to expect in the homeland and how to avoid stabbings is quite a task."

[coquettish_trees]

The look and wink are met with the very slightest shrug of Lexie’s pale shoulders and an ‘apologetic’ pout that soon thereafter spreads to a warm self-satisfied smile.

Bene said he wouldn’t stay long, but she's so very amused by the proceedings that perhaps he can be enticed to linger a bit. To this end she raises her glass slightly so it can be seen over the back of the chaise and gestures at it with her closed fan before snapping the lace and ivory open again to provide a little breeze for herself as she returns her gaze to the younger man with great interest.

“Yes, do tell!” She exclaims. “Are we enthusiastic and eager students under your tutelage?”

Someone will be by soon with a drink for him.

[altusimperius]

The look Loki receives is sharp, but Bene hasn't taken the bait, not yet. He tucks a strand of shiny black hair behind his ear, a distant, pleasant expression on his face. "A task worth taking on," he replies, "when one is trying to be of use, and work toward something greater." In contrast, one might say, to lying around with trollops and stealing from nobles.
"If you like, my lady," he adds in response to Lexie, his smile taking on a charming air once again, and all at once it's like Loki was never here. "Many want to learn Tevinter's ways, but one of your particular standing should be taught privately."

[hwaaaitsme]

Oh, what a bold little gamble. Loki's stare turns a bit withering but he says nothing as he takes a drink from his glass. The fact that Alexandrie was already under his tutelage regarding the machinations of Tevene politics was neither here nor there. Let him have his fun...and let her learn what incompetence looks like.

Best to get that example out of the way early, yes?

[coquettish_trees]

"Such a thoughtful offer!" Lexie replies, perfectly happy to be the shuttlecock in this particular game of badminton. Her eyes sparkle with twinned amusement and mischief. "It is my long held opinion that opportunities to improve oneself should never be turned down, and I shall always have time in my schedule for you."

Nevermind that she already speaks fluent Tevene, has made a study of the Houses and the available knowledge on their interplay, and is up to her hips in Loki's planning, she'll take Benedict's offers hand over fist if it puts that look on her lover's face.

She takes a delicate drink from her glass and gleefully anticipates being slammed into something later.

[altusimperius]

"Then the pleasure shall be entirely mine, my lady," Bene replies with a grin, betraying no surprise when a servant arrives to hand him a drink after all. Of course they would. Don't they know who he is?
Taking a sip from the drink, he darts a glance at Loki, but that's the only attention he gives him at the moment.

[hwaaaitsme]

"What a good idea," Loki muses, flipping his glower into a smile as easily as anything. He regards Bene with a tepid sort of look and sips from his drink.

"Why it would be unfortunate if Lady de la Fontaine were unprepared for the Fatherland, wouldn't it? And you are very clever at navigating the upper echelons."

He drums his fingers against the back of the chaise.

"Speaking of which, will your lovely mother be in attendance? I do know how she takes an interest in you."

[coquettish_trees]

Ah. Just like that, the game's changed. With that particular dig, Alexandrie's theories about Bene's childhood and family are confirmed (and as a side note, the possibility that Loki has had both mother and son raised, which, thoroughly entertaining), and as that's likely to be a sore spot, Loki has begun to inch off his gloves.

While the possibility of witnessing him in full form is desperately enticing, Lexie has unfortunately found herself unable to absolve herself of the most cardinal sin of the Game. Buried as deeply as she could, she still has a heart. And Bene is terribly outmatched.

Thus, just in case she can catch the end of herself as the object being bandied about before it changes to something she's no control over, she uncrosses her ankles and rotates herself on the couch so that she's lounging across Loki's lap instead.

"Ah, yes! And will I be given the chance to meet your Lady Mother, lune de mon ciels?" She flicks her wrist to close her fan and brings it up beneath the tip of his chin, pulling lightly with the intent to turn his face if he'll let her. "I ask merely because it is ever so civilized to thank those who have brought you gifts."

[hwaaaitsme]

And just so swiftly Loki is caught wrongfooted. He doesn't quite reel but its a near thing and his expression wears a brief flicker of honest surprise as his attention is drawn off Bene and to the woman now nearly in his lap.

There is an unfortunate moment during this transition where his expression actually softens before he catches himself.

His head is summarily turned and he regards Alexandrie with just a touch of confusion.

"My mother is not a magister," he explains, as though that answers anything. Freya's presence is not announced, she is not important in any political way, surely Alexandrie was confused. The analog for Calpurnia Artemeus is Odin Asgard, not his mother. Unless she wants to meet his mother, truly, which--is a bit panic inducing if he is honest...and how he loathes being honest.

"My mother is rarely in Minrathous, but I do not know. She may be traveling. I shall...inquire."

[altusimperius]

"I expect she will," Benedict replies evenly, a bit perplexed by the question-- of course she'll be there, she's important??-- but his answer is cut short by the next development. Rather than jab at the obvious weak point in Loki's resolve, he simply smiles at him, drinking in his discomfort. Lexie's not so bad after all.

[coquettish_trees]

She'd really only meant to bring up the Lady of House Asgard as a distraction, but Lexie hasn't gotten to where she has by turning down possibilities that are offered her—

—wait, shit. She'd meant to be watching Bene's reaction in her periphery, but the quick-changing ripple of expression across Loki's face had not only caught her full attention but had held it as he let her turn his head, the minute confusion and ever-so-slightly halting thought that followed making her look far too fondly amused before she notices. She releases her fan to open it again, chides herself, and turns her head to look at Bene again with a re-regulated sunny smile.

"Opportunities abound! Speaking of which, what are your thoughts on the Inquisition's talks with the Archon?

"Or, more importantly, reputable tailors I might contract. I haven't anything in the correct colours or silhouette."

[hwaaaitsme]

This was better tread territory--the Archon and upper political spheres of Tevinter were, after all, Loki's forte. He shakes off his brief confusion and replies before Bene can interject with something truly foolish.

"Nothing will come of talks with the Archon, not unless they stroke his ego quite determinedly," Loki proclaims and turns his gaze back on Bene.

"I expect they might have a better chance endearing individual houses to their cause, but that's another goal entirely. Have you been bothered about your House connections?"

As for her question about tailors, well, Loki will see that her maid is furnished with some names and addresses.

[altusimperius]

"I intend to do my best," Bene loftily replies from behind his glass, "my parents are known to the Archon, and I'm sure I can be instrumental in the talks with him." Listening to him, one would think Benedict and the Archon are bosom buddies.
"Now that I'm in the Inquisition's good graces I would hope the exchange will be quite beneficial."

[coquettish_trees]

Lexie raises her eyebrows. "Talks shall be so difficult even though the Archon made the overtures for them?" A shrug, and she continues to fan both herself, and, by virtue of her placement, Loki. "I suppose an invitation is merely that. I admit a bit of surprise at the size of the delegation he is allowing for. What purpose so many? To perhaps allow us to properly court the Houses rather than the Archon himself, as you suggest?"

[hwaaaitsme]

"No, I expect he rather just wants proper bowing and scraping before he will deign to acknowledge the lot of them, and that does require a crowd of some number," Loki replies and then glances sidelong at Lexie.

"Consider...the monarchy in Orlais is insufferable because they have the right to be ruler by birth, yes?" Loki begins. "Now imagine if their pedigree went hand in hand with the divine gift of magic, granted unto man to serve him?

"How much more haughty and insufferable do you expect the monarchy would become?" He asks and takes a sip of his drink. "Then, of course, give him the skill and intelligence to avoid being murdered because there is a system to quickly and efficiently replace him should he fall?

"We, my dear, would not mourn the Archon's death. Nor would we mourn the death of the magister who was quick enough to assume his rank before the others could. It is politics."

Loki swirls his drink with one hand and looks to Bene for confirmation.

"He expects we shall publicly fellate him with much enthusiasm; it is what he feels he deserves, and...given the circumstances, I expect we shall. No, the cleverer move would be to appeal to Houses, but I do not expect the Inquisition will begin with such things. The interplay of Houses in Tevinter is a lifetime education in and of itself and selecting who to ally and who to snub will be...tricky. There tends to be a cascade effect."

[altusimperius]

The conversation's turn is so quick that Benedict almost doesn't realize where it's gone until it has, and then he looks decidedly uneasy, hiding it by staring into his glass while Loki goes on.

"We are wise to know where we stand," he says, a little more quietly than he might like, going for incisive and not quite getting there. If anyone has designs on the Archon's seat, his mother is likely among them; it's times like these he realizes how frightening politics can be. Why he feels the need to hire a body double before setting foot back in Minrathous, after allying with the Inquisition.

"Perhaps you should leave the machinations to the Magisters," he adds, more quietly, but with more venom. Which is to say: you'll never have to deal with it, so butt out.