GIRL LOOK AT THAT BODY | closed

[limier]

WHO: Alexandrie, Audra, Loki, Thor, Norrington, Benedict, Coupe + Iorveth, Jang, Kitty, Kylo, Resa, Silas, Six, Yseult + Corpse
WHAT: Rescue.
WHEN: Live in the moment, man.
WHERE: The Tevinter Imperium. Like, about half of it.
NOTES: Plotting post.

I'll edit in headers in a moment. Feel free to make your own, I'm not your mom.

Comments

[rathercommon]

[ She does relax a bit at the gesture. The fear ebbs. But there's something about that prickles old memories, knocks against a nerve so that she kicks out with a defensive: ]

I'm not a snitch.

[ Which...she knows that's not really what Yseult is asking, exactly. Kitty doesn't have any of her people to report on. There's no one to betray. And the Inquisition isn't the Night Police, nor the regular police. Honestly, they're people whose interests are aligned with her own. But even so. It sounds far too much like an offer she's received before; she'd stonewalled it then, and she can't help but stonewall it now.

But. But her eyes dart to Yseult's face a moment after, curious how she reacts to being rebuffed. ]

[hassaran]

[ Her head tilts slightly, the faintest furrow of her brows. Not anger, consternation. But not much of it, anyway, at least that shows through. ]

'Snitch' implies you'd be informing on your friends, does it not? Are you friends with the Venatori?

[rathercommon]

Of course not.

[ Definitely not. And Kitty mentally notes never to say anything that would imply that ever again. But, speaking more plainly, less guardedly: ]

But someone like me - if you're thinking of recruiting a commoner girl like me, it's 'cause of the sort of people I'd fit in with, isn't it. I'm not going to pass as a Venatori. I'm going to pass as a commoner. I could inform pretty much only on commoners. And I haven't got any interest in ratting out people who are just trying to make it through this war.

[hassaran]

[ Yseult laughs at that. Not meanly, nothing in it suggesting mockery so much as that Kitty has said something extraordinary. ]

And what do you think I am?

[ Who knows--her accent, her poise can be misleading, but then that's half the point, isn't it. She doesn't wait for an answer. ]

First, you can learn to seem as if you're any sort of person you like, if you try and you've the skill for it. It's not as if you've got 'commoner' tattooed on your forehead. Second, who serves the Venatori their wine? At a tavern, or at home? Who cleans their offices? Drives their carriages? Delivers their messages? There is no one in this world powerful people are so likely to overlook and underestimate as a young commoner girl.

[rathercommon]

[ She's not wrong. Kitty had relied on that fact back home. It seems...strange, and unlikely, that Yseult would look at her and see someone who could handle that - but, well, Mr Pennyfeather had looked at her and seen a rebel. And she's harder and more capable and stronger since then. But...

Kitty searches Yseult's face. What is she? She doesn't seem like a commoner, exactly. She doesn't seem like anything, exactly. Is it because Kitty doesn't know the signifiers in this world of what and who Yseult is? Or is it more deliberate?

She lifts her chin. ]

So what are you, then?

[hassaran]

I'm a spy. [ She says it like confirmation, not revelation. Not some tada curtain-pull shock moment, but cementing something Kitty has surely guessed by now. She's all but said it. ] An agent, is the preferred term. But people understand spy.

[ But that's not quite what Kitty's asking, or at least not all she's likely wondering. ]

And I'm no one, not really. A commoner girl, once, but with decades of training and experience. I saw you with Flint, in the tavern. I was there to find out about him, but I saw you go snooping around his room, and manage to talk your way back out somehow. I think you could do this work, if you're willing to learn. It's dangerous, but it could be the difference in this war.

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty shakes her head. ]

It's not like Flint would have hurt me or anything.

[ Which is disingenuous. Anyone can hurt anyone. And she'd been fairly certain he was going to do just that, until he saw who she was.

Well. Kitty's quiet a moment. Then she looks back at Yseult, and asks more firmly: ]

Why are you working for the Inquisition? It's dangerous work. I know that. So why do you do it?

[hassaran]

[ Yseult just tilts her head, at the statement that Flint wouldn't have hurt her. She could--would--contest that. But it's not what this conversation is about, so she registers her disagreement with a look, the fix of her gaze coupled with that cant, and otherwise lets it go.

Why do this? is certainly a question she's become used to answering lately. ]

Because I believe in what they're doing here. Stopping Corypheus. Ending this war. Bringing peace and stability to Thedas. This sort of chaos only spreads, and the people who suffer most are those who don't have the resources to protect themselves.

[rathercommon]

[ That answer is...generic. It's the sort of answer Kitty would be giving if someone asked her. Doesn't say much. Sounds rehearsed. So she pushes: ]

And that's what matters to you? Helping people who can't protect themselves?

[hassaran]

[ Yseult's not expecting to be disbelieved. Not because of her awesome spy skills, but because it's an honest answer, and because perhaps nowhere outside of the Inquisition would it be considered the obvious default answer. She blinks once, and lets her eyes narrow slightly at Kitty, more careful emphasis when she says: ]

Yes. Nothing matters to me more than that. Is that a problem?

[rathercommon]

Why's it matter to you?

[ She pushes her hair from her face. ]

'Cause you were a commoner?

[hassaran]

I am one still.

[ Yseult's head tilts, eyes even narrower. ]

That is quite a chip on your shoulder about that, isn't it. What does 'commoner' mean in your world, exactly?

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty hesitates a moment, debating deflecting the question and asking one of her own. But - only fair, right? You don't get anywhere peppering someone with questions and giving nothing back yourself. So. ]

Not a magician. [ A breath. ] Where I'm from, my home's like Tevinter, but...more. More so. People like me, people without magic, we're nothing to them. [ But. ] So that's what I mean when I use the word here. Commoners, meaning people who - they get looked at, and all anyone sees is someone to shove into a soldier's uniform and die on the battlefield. Someone to farm the fields, who'll probably die come winter, and oh-well-who-cares.

[hassaran]

[ Yseult nods. That makes sense given Kitty's prickly responses to various questions so far. Not that she's not sympathetic, but they're not in Kitty's world, are they. ] I assume you've learned that's not really what it means here. [ Not exactly. The people Kitty describes still exist, but it's not just because they're common, it's because they're poor. ]

The vast majority of people in the Inquisition and the world are common, rich and poor. Hightown is populated by well-off commoners as much as nobles. Antiva is run by commoners. You'll need to adjust your wording and expectations if you want to pass as a native.

[rathercommon]

[ She purses her lips in frustration. ]

Then what is the word for it? All the people who are stepped on and discarded.

[hassaran]

The poor.

[ Yseult's shoulders shift in the suggestion of a shrug. ]

You can say 'the common people', it just may not mean everything you're used to. Plenty of people without noble blood can read; few of the poorest can. I would be careful devising a cover story that relies too much on pushing political buttons until you've had more time here.

[rathercommon]

[ That draws a look from Kitty. ]

I'm not stupid. I know to keep my head down.

[ Which - if it'd been anyone else she was talking to, she'd probably have just nodded and thanked her for the advice, because admitting she has experience in building and maintaining a cover story is revealing rather a lot by itself. But, well, it's clear that Yseult can see right through her in just about every way. So what's the point of secrecy? Of pretending?

It's a sort of relief, honestly. Talking to her. She can be more honest than she has been otherwise. ]

[hassaran]

[ Yseult doesn't contest that. (Perhaps she could, since Kitty just now put so little effort into the cover she offered her, a stranger. But a stranger on her own team, and maybe that is a fair reason for laziness, at least now.) She merely lifts a brow, expression remaining otherwise placid. ]

I wouldn't have offered if I thought you were stupid. Think on it.

[ She steps away then without pause for response, moving back to have a word with someone else in the party. ]