[Closed] Got A Light?

[sulahnan]

WHO: Athessa, Leander, Colin?, Benedict??
WHAT: Walking the parapet aka trying to get that cigarette case
WHEN: the days before Satinalia
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: following this plan, loosely

Despite all the planning, plotting, scheming that's been happening, when Athessa comes across Leander on the ramparts of the Gallows, it actually is by happenstance alone and not because she was looking for him.

The unfortunate part of this is that it means she's not as prepared as she'd like to be, but maybe that's a blessing in disguise. Maybe that's the elfroot talking. If elfroot could talk, what would it say?

"See any red birds?" She asks, the game they played while traveling a while back well remembered.

Comments

[sulahnan]

"What? Oh, fuck no, I'm not apologizing to him," particular emphasis on him, like she's spitting the word out because it tastes bad. "I just don't think we should tell Benedict just yet. He's not exactly in a position to keep secrets right now, so..."

She shrugs and gestures vaguely. "It's...better for him if he doesn't know, because then if he's questioned, he doesn't have to lie."

[keenly]

"Then we won't." She's right about that. He'd imagined a Satinalia miracle and now it's anything but. He looks away. "But he does know I wanted to get it for him. So does Leander. And the last thing I want to come of this is you getting arrested for petty theft. Or me, for that matter."

[sulahnan]

That, she laughs at. "Wouldn't be the first time I've been arrested," And it won't be the last is the obvious end to that statement.

"If anyone gets arrested for theft it'll be me, which is fine. Honestly fine. Worse things could happen and at least then you'll be able to tell Benedict without having to worry about plausible deniability."

Or she'll be able to tell him herself from a neighboring cell in the dungeon.

[keenly]

He looks slightly alarmed when she mentions being arrested before, but the rest of her words seem to talk him down. If being arrested isn't as bad as he's been imagining, and she's okay with it? What is he so worried about?

He gives her a little smile. "I guess this definitely means we're friends. You and I." He leans back in his chair and folds his arms. "Though no one can prove you stole anything, you know. You threw it, and either it was lost at sea or it was destroyed or both. The box will be safe here, and they're not about to raid a noblewoman's house over a two-bit cigarette box. I'm extremely good at hiding things."

[sulahnan]

"Nice to meet you, Extremely Good At Hiding Things, I'm Extremely Bad At Lying," she chuckles and dismisses her own words with a wave. Yeah, so the chances of getting caught are pretty good, but-- "At least it'll be arrest via Riftwatch and not the city guard."

Even though they had just posited the question of whether or not they can trust their organization, when they'd stoop to such measures to bring in someone who is clearly more fool than felon, Athessa can't bring herself to look on Riftwatch through the same veil she sees Kirkwall's officials. If Riftwatch were corrupt, then they'd have something to worry about. As it is, one of the Division heads is...an elf, of sorts. And mages are treated fairly, as far as she can tell. The Gallows isn't Kirkwall, and Riftwatch isn't the group of enforcers whose hands delivered her into such lasting pain.

That storm cloud passes over her as soon as it appears, and her voice rises to just shy of her very fictional impression of nobility once again. "I'm shocked, nay, wounded that our friendship wasn't cemented the moment you called me Lady Moneyface, dear Hugh."

[keenly]

A grin splits his face open. "Well, it was. But you realize it's not a true friendship until we can implicate one another and don't, and that happened before I called you Lady Moneyface."

[sulahnan]

"Aha, so we've been friends this whole time! And it took you this long to realize it? Tsk tsk, Colin, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one."

Clearly the smart one isn't her. See: chucking their prize off the battlements. She's gonna kick herself over that for a good long while, in the back of her mind.

[keenly]

"If we've got into this mess together, there is no smart one." He bites down on a smile. "And yet, I am the smart one. But you're the brave one."

[sulahnan]

Her self satisfied smile betrays just how much of a compliment that is, even as she's trying to downplay it by saying, "I can live with that."