(closed) make like a tree and wreak havoc on unsuspecting villagers for generations

[exequy]

WHO: Pietro, Solas, Kostos
WHAT: Investigating rumors of elven burial grounds cursing villagers in the Dales
WHEN: Sometime pre-Tevinter
WHERE: Orlais
NOTES: For this assignment!

Comments

[supersonic]

Pietro has not weathered today's rebuffs with Solas's grace, but then, he rarely weathers so much as an ill-timed cough without a rude retort; the fact that he's kept his mouth shut and his commentary restricted to elaborate eyebrow movements says something for the measure of respect he holds for their mission, and for whatever piece of the past may be at its heart. At least until Kostos breaks ranks.

"I would bet something elven could make it worse." ...Him, he means him. Just offering, in case escalation is starting to sound like a more satisfying plan to anyone else. Having scuffed to a stop in the dirt, Pietro lets his head fall back into a stretch, directing the rest to the sky. "Perhaps if we camped out on one of their doorsteps until they answered our questions, or chased us away with pitchforks and torches."

"Even if there is something here—" sliding an eye to his companions; look, it's not his sensitivity anyone's relying on here; "How are we meant to find it if we do not even know for certain what it's doing?"

[exequy]

Kostos' first instinct is a helpful shrug, while his mouth is otherwise occupied by the wine. He's doing them all a favor, honestly, or making an attempt—alcohol takes the edge off his temper a long time before it makes him unsteady or careless—but he's not generous enough to offer to share.

When he lowers the skin, he says, "Something is here," and gestures ahead, where the little houses grow closer together and mix with a few public establishments. Perhaps there, perhaps beyond the village altogether, perhaps somewhere in the woods they carved it out of. Definitely in that direction, however. "Whether it is worth the trouble is another question."

The rumors are—what? Illnesses, stillbirths? Nothing they would want to keep in the Gallows, and planting it among the enemy would be both difficult and cruel.

[dirth]

"They would not be so desperate to keep their secrets if it was not a dangerous one to share," Solas comments, stepping away for a moment to look around the houses. It's clear that there is something unspoken here, something that they're unwilling to share nor discuss, and his instinct is to get to the bottom of it with an awkward, fiery rage that's tucked below his stern demeanour. He isn't one for violent outbursts, exactly, but neither is he willing to keep silent on this if the People are being harmed.

Even if it might be ashes, or artefacts, or - whatever these people have deemed necessary to do to the life that had died over the centuries. He is not going to allow it to continue, whatever the risk it might put on himself. Rushing straight in to a fight is not on his list of decisions either, however, and so he relents, turning back to his companions with a small frown, trying to play as though he is not so frustrated.

"We might be asking both the wrong people and the wrong questions." And he is willing to admit that, perhaps, his guise is not beneficial to his mission. "It might be more... Understandable if you had an elven ally rather than an elven apostate." It wouldn't be the first time he had played that game. Ally, servant, slave... Solas is not comfortable, but he is willing, at least for now.

[supersonic]

Pietro's eyes do a sort of slow pan over to Solas, not missing the implication. Solas may be willing, but Pietro isn't quite so accommodating. At least, not without being reasonably certain they'd get anything out of it, and, well. "Even if we do make Kostos play fancy rich human, he's still got the wrong accent for this lot."

That last closed door hadn't been over the shape of anyone's ears, after all. But whatever their shortcomings as a team, or in Pietro's opinion the shortcomings of the residents of this town, it's not as if they've got anything else to work with. Just perhaps not quite like that.

"Come on," he says to Kostos, with a nod in the direction he indicated. "The least you can do is play compass. Dangerous to them may not necessarily mean useful to us, but if it is elven, I am certainly not just letting them keep it."