OPEN

[sulahnan]

WHO: Athessa and YOU!
WHAT: Catch-all because I need to stop exclusively inboxing
WHEN: Whenever but mostly now-ish, post-dream meme
WHERE: Around, Kirkwall and the Gallows, maybe in the field who knows
NOTES: NSFW threads will be marked and/or moved to my NSFW inbox, CW as needed, blah blah blah

Specific starters in the comments!

Comments

[cozen]

“You do not have to learn an instrument,” Bastien says, “but the lute is easy enough to pick up if you would like to. As for crowds—you will have to get over that. Not because you have to perform for crowds, as a rule, but because you are not allowed to be terrible in front of anyone, unless being terrible is useful—ah, here.”

He peels sideways toward a bakery window.

“What do you like? It is on me.”

[sulahnan]

She looks at the baked goods in the window, the hunger that had been making itself known for the past hour now gone and replaced with a familiar sinking feeling. So she shrugs and shakes her head.

"I'm not picky."

[cozen]

In lieu of saying anything, Bastien leans sideways, one foot lifting off the ground, to tip over against her with his shoulder, like a buoy. A prompting buoy that wants a better answer.

[sulahnan]

Athessa leans a little with his nudge, but manages to keep her feet enough to lever him back upright. The gesture brings a soft huff of a laugh out into the chill air and a small smile to her face.

"That one," she supplies, pointing at the turtle bread with the craquelin shell.

[cozen]

“Merveilleux,” Bastien says, and shortly afterwards they both have one and he’s trying to decide whether to eat its little legs first or make it quick by biting off the head.

He’s also watching Athessa, intermittently, in his peripheral vision.

“Are you all right?”

[sulahnan]

She looks up from tapping her fingers on the flat underside of the bread and forces a smile.

"Yeah, fine," The turtle's head is the first bit broken off and bitten into. "How can I get better about being in front of crowds?"

[cozen]

Bastien hums. Stage fright (sans stage) was never a problem for him, or for any of the bards in his cell who were raised to be watched, but it isn’t an entirely alien concept or anything. Just one that he doesn’t know off the top of his head how to train out of someone. “Honestly, I don’t know. I suppose that might depend on what happens when you are in front of one, and why.”

[sulahnan]

"Oh," That makes sense, but it doesn't make it any better, because that means she has to tell a third person about something she'd really rather forget. She lets out a huff of a laugh. "I'm too sober to get into that right now."

Even thinking about it would be overwhelming without that comfortable haze to dampen the sharp edges of her feelings.

[cozen]

For a moment he’s quiet. Pushing might be the right thing to do. It’s what Réjane would have done with him—and Ines afterwards, despite clear establishment of the fact that she was not the boss of him. Drag things out into the light, label them, learn how to use them or how to break through them.

But, “D’accord,” is what he says, after that pause. “Perhaps another time. You did, ah—those fights that Eshal organized, ouais? Were those all right?”

[sulahnan]

She'd prefer never over another time, but that seems unlikely.

"I did one, yeah. Mostly I just watched because kicking wasn't allowed and--well you've seen me fight. But fighting in front of a crowd is different," It comes with an understanding that the fight is the focus, not the overall worth of a physical form. The onlookers are only interested in placing and winning bets, not placing bids. And the only reason anyone would inspect her teeth during the fight is if they were bloodied.