closed | i'm crooked, but upright

[wythersake]

WHO: Isaac, Coupe, Casimir, Jenin + Others
WHAT: Catchall for the month
WHEN: Waves my hands
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Addddding starters to the comments as I go. If you want a prompt hmu.

Comments

[wythersake]

He makes a pretense of consideration, separates the joint of a leg.

"A party's right out," The empty beds, the general unsuitability of a sick ward. "And I'm perilously short of medals. How about a game?"

She wouldn't be mistaken to imagine he's one in mind.

[indissection]

This already feels a little bit like a game, like something has been unfurling in his mind and he's been waiting for the chance. She frowns, watching him for a long moment.

"What sort of game did you have in mind?"

It's clear that he has her curiosity now.

[wythersake]

Some people focus by frowning; else purse their lips, or scowl when they ought to smile. It matters less whether they've chosen to fake it (a glass half-empty), than which.

It's a bit foreign, that need to look more serious — but sex and station alter one's options, and if the paramount goal is to disguise inexperience,

"Two truths and a lie." A light shrug. "Or two lies and a truth. We can guess the composition as we go."

[indissection]

Her eyes don't seem to flick too far from his face; she trusts Anders, and she finds most of the people in the infirmary agreeable, but she doesn't extend Isaac the same amount of faith that she might the people she has spoken to a little longer. Still, her smile seems nice enough and she nods.

"It's like we're children, Isaac." A tease, if anything else. Her fingers smooth against her dress again, an idle, comforting motion, before she speaks once more.

"Two truths, then. Will you go first?"

[wythersake]

"If you'd have me so crass," Faux-scandalized: Ladies first, and all. "I suppose I must oblige."

"I read Tevene," He'd be a lot more useful if that were true. "I've a surname I don't use, and I am deathly afraid of heights."

[indissection]

"There's nothing wrong with being a little crass sometimes." Her smile is soft and careful. There's no hesitation as she watches him carefully, considering for a moment as she tries to decide what to pick, lips twitching.

"Do I have to guess, or would you like mine first?"

[wythersake]

"The Inquisition is full of rakes," The distinction between 'rake', and 'thug', and 'roving two-legged disaster' doesn't bear close examination. "Perhaps I intend to stand from the crowd."

"So let's approach it from an even footing, trade for trade. Name your own nebulous falsehoods first."

[indissection]

"Every place has its fair share of rakes. I imagine the Inquisition has somewhat of a balance of both rakish and romantic." A shrug of her shoulder. She hasn't come into too much contact - but she is close friends with Byerly, so perhaps there is that.

"Hm. Some falsehoods." A flex of her fingers before she speaks. "I have been proposed to, I am well studied and I have a sister."

[wythersake]

"If I didn't know better," He does. There's an education, and then there's experience. "I might think you were fishing for a compliment."

Of course she's educated, and beautiful, and etcetera.

"But I'll venture that you don't have a sister."

[indissection]

"I don't need to fish for compliments, Isaac." Her lips curl into a smile. Hers seem a little more obvious than his, but she's not got all that much to lie about that might be safe enough to put forward.

Leaning back, she crosses her arms, head tilting.

"You might not be wrong. I've never heard someone give you a surname, you know, so I would imagine that to be true. Now I must consider if you are afraid of heights or pretending to be more worldly."

[wythersake]

"Is the Imperium truly a part of the world?" A show of consideration. "I suppose if you end the rest of it."

He's lied twice, of course.

[indissection]

"Your distaste would make me think that you cannot read Tevene, then. Consider that my choice."

She can read a little, of course. She is an educated woman.

[wythersake]

"Stupid as an owl for language," Cheerfully, and in Orlesian, because he is being a bit facetious — "Or so Enchanter Rigal always said."

[indissection]

A small smirk.

"Your lie was reading, not speaking, dear Isaac."

[wythersake]

"That ought to make the next round easy. Whose hearts have you broken, then?"

The proposals.

[indissection]

"My own, of course. I doubt many were truly devastated to have been rejected - but my mother has the control of those. I am at her mercy, so to speak."

No need to discuss anything to do with the specifics; that might be incriminating.

[wythersake]

If his heart doesn't exactly bleed for the plight of lovelorn nobility, he's perfectly capable of pretending sympathy —

"Do so few pass her muster?"

[indissection]

"Very few indeed. She is a hard woman to please, I'm afraid."

All the more reason for Sidony to have run away to the dangers of the Inquisition, at least as far as she's concerned.

[wythersake]

"And what pleases the younger Lady Venaras?"

Truths, lies, and otherwise.

[indissection]

"Oh, many things. Reading, my studies, flowers, wine. I am easily won, I think."

Her smile is coy, soft, fond.