We're Back! A Gallows Tale

[sulahnan]

WHO: Athessa and YOU!
WHAT: Oh, you know. Getting back from the jungle and getting way too into her work.
WHEN: Now, Post-Jungle
WHERE: The Gallows & Kirkwall in general
NOTES: shrug.

I. Back on her Bullshit...or...not.

Athessa is quite possibly the best rested of the whole group that returns from the jungle, having found sleeping rough a lot easier than sleeping in a bed here. Weird. But in the few days that follow, she once again gets back to her habit of not sleeping well and prowling around in a cloud of root-smoke. She also has a small dagger strapped to her hip instead of going unarmed or strapping on her dual-wield blades, and an unusually heightened work ethic during daylight hours. Minimal antics, maximum...something else. Something like responsibility? Weird.

II. Can I Raas you a Question? (Closed to Raas, if that wasn't clear)

They don't know each other. They've never even interacted, at least as far as Athessa can recall. But where else is Athessa supposed to turn, when she doesn't know anyone else who speaks qunlat and doesn't want to snoop around unnecessarily before handing over what she found to the boss?

"'Scuse me..." She isn't timid, just a little awkward. It's not typical for her to introduce herself to someone just to ask a favor. "Do you have a minute?"

III. A New Kind of Office Visit (closed to Yseult)

Athessa knocks before entering, same as usual. But this isn't one of their scheduled check-ins or typical scout work that either of them expect from one another. They're barely settled after getting back from the jungle when Athessa is reporting to Yseult with a missive in one hand, and a qunari dagger in the other. Both are set on Yseult's desk.

"I...figured I should report this to you. I dunno if it even really matters, but I found these in De--in Sten's room."

IV. Wildcard

[ you know the drill ]

Comments

[altusimperius]

"While we live, let us live," Benedict clarifies, in his best lofty aristocrat voice, then taps his biscuit against Colin's and Athessa's before crunching into it and resting his head back down.

"Colin, don't curse us."

[keenly]

"We hadn't already toasted?" Crunch.

[sulahnan]

"That was a close one," she bites down on hers finally. "Maybe we should toast again, just to be safe? Dum vim vum vam vimmer?"

[altusimperius]

Bene opens his mouth to correct her, then closes it again with a small sigh. He raises another biscuit.
"Dum vim vum vam vimmer."

[keenly]

"Dum vim vum vam vimmer!" Colin agrees cheerily with his replacement biscuit. He doesn't bite into it until the others bite into theirs.

"You know," he says around his mouthful, "we should look around for all those...you know. That mages find in every tower. Hidden spaces. Find one and make it our own."

[sulahnan]

"No, what's the real one!" She laughs as they cheers and chomp, but as long as they're having fun, right?

"Ooooh, secret tunnelssss."

[altusimperius]

Bene grins sleepily, shifting his entire body so he's lying more on his side now, but his head is still pillowed on Colin's knee.

"Doom VEE-vee-moose VEE-vah-moose. It's Old Tevene." He munches idly on the next biscuit, with no concept that he might be full of them soon.

"Like servants' passages?"

[keenly]

"Like, but not." Colin is propped up by one hand behind him while the other keeps petting Bene's hair. "This was built as a place to keep slaves. After that, it was a Circle tower. It won't have as many little places as somewhere like Kinloch Hold did, but they still had escapes all the time, so they must've found somewhere to go."

[sulahnan]

Athessa echoes the old Tevene, properly this time, and maybe she'll actually remember it when she's sober! But far more interesting right now is the prospect of hidden pathways all around them.

"I bet we can find them. How would you hide something like that? Behind bookcases or... candlesticks?"

[altusimperius]

"Behind tapestries and paintings," Bene muses, "or like... loose bricks in the wall can trigger mechanisms, things like that." One doesn't grow up in a spooky old palace without some knowledge of these things.

[keenly]

"And not telling Flint," Colin adds. "Or...anyone probably. It would be so much easier if I didn't live so far away."

[sulahnan]

“Unless,” she amends, her current need to prove herself to Yseult bleeding through. “We’re under attack and knowing about these spaces is paramount to the survival of everyone in Riftwatch.”

[altusimperius]

Pulling from the hookah, Benedict frowns, allowing the time it takes to blow the smoke out to collect his thoughts.

"...I don't want anyone doubting my intentions."

[keenly]

"Ugh." Bene is right. Flint would just get on his case about his bleeding heart being corrupted by that no-good traitor again. "Then I guess we just pick an empty room that might get filled at any time. Why did we have to have our base in a former Circle? The worst former Circle? ...What's this stain?"

He's looking at his sleeve. There is a small stain.

[sulahnan]

“That’s like asking why the Orlesians built a city where a bunch of elves were killed. It was convenient and useful, and somebody profited from it.”

[altusimperius]

This is all veering very close to Things You Should Feel Bad About territory, and it's beginning to kill Bene's buzz. He opts to space out again, nestling his cheek against Colin's knee and staring at the hookah.

It's so pretty. He's glad it exists.

[keenly]

"Blackcurrant?" Colin mutters at his sleeve. He scratches at it a bit before reaching for the hose again. "We should do this at least after every time I have clinic."

[sulahnan]

“What’s it smell like? I could lick it and see if I know the flavor.” Then she thinks about that for more than a second and changes her mind. “Never mind, what if it’s gross?”

[altusimperius]

"You shouldn't lick people's clothes," spoken dramatically to the hookah, eyes half-lidded and arms draped over Colin like he's a fashionable chaise lounge.

"...well unless you're like. Into that."

[keenly]

"...Who's into that?"

[sulahnan]

“Dogs.”

[altusimperius]

A long, contemplative pause. Then:

"...dogs."

[keenly]

That causes a brief fit of giggling. Eventually Colin manages to wiggle onto his back without totally dislodging his occupant, head resting on a pillow.

"We could play a game," he suggests tentatively.

[sulahnan]

"Like what? I didn't bring playing cards." Athessa dreads the seemingly inevitable suggestion of truth or dare, or two truths one lie. And she knows they won't want to play the knife game.

[altusimperius]

"Spin the bottle," Bene suggests, and then laughs at what was apparently his own joke.
It's funny to imagine though, in the right light.