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

ii. love a pun

[raas]

Raas takes a moment to process being approached, and then nods, all economy of action and movement. No, they haven't met, but that's not usual; she keeps to herself by design.

"I am not occupied."

She is not free, precisely, as her time is not assigned to any particular tasks. She has no tasks.

[sulahnan]

"Cool, thanks," Athessa nods and takes a step closer. Somehow she expected that the height difference between Raas and Deimos might make her less intimidating, but the elf can already feel her face warming. Maybe it's the horns. It's probably the horns.

"I was wondering if you could translate this for me. I wanna know if it's anything weird or whatever." She produces a missive from her trouser pocket, neatly folded exactly the way she found it. Not that Raas would know, but every time Athessa looks at it, it's immediately noticeable how tidy it is.

The exterior of the parchment has no markings, but the interior bears an insignia and a concise message in qunlat.

"Brother,

Your absence these months has been missed. None shall ever question your efficacy. Your skill is needed, North and East. Once your blade has been quenched in the blood of our enemies, report to Chrysis directly.

Remember that nothing escapes her notice.

- K."

[raas]

Raas' loyalties were an odd beast, a bird with clipped wings. She was here because she had a shard, and it was to be used. That, she could understand. But to weigh Riftwatch against the Qun produces nothing but a horribly sensation of tearing.

If only she were a saarebas. That would have given her an easy path.

She read the letter, read it again, noted Athessa's reaction with the easy, off-hand observational skills trained into the tamassrans, and held it still unfolded between her fingers.

"Where did you find this?" Blunt. The answer will place many things into appropriate context.

[sulahnan]

"In uh, in Sten's room. I also found this dagger but that's just a dagger, innit?" She pulls the dagger, in its scabbard, off of her belt and lifts it. See? Just a dagger. A Qunari one, sure, but still just a blade with a handle and a smooth round pommel. Immaculately cared for.

Athessa's eyebrows lift and she glances from Raas' very attractive face to the letter and back again. "Why? Is it bad?"

[raas]

"He should not have left that," important, but the smaller issue. The sten had not struck her as particularly odd, perhaps off-balance, but in a way that she had ascribed to separation from his kind for too long.

"This is not Qunari," she said, and hoped the girl was intelligent enough to grasp the notion without needing Raas to spell it out for her. "He was not Tal Vashoth, but this is not Qunari."

She did not flatter herself by assuming she was privy to all the necessary quiet workings of the tamassrans, but this could not be a quiet secret thing. The defilement of the house of tides alone. She chewed at her lip, an unbecoming nervous habit.

[sulahnan]

She frowns.

"Whaddya mean it's not Qunari? It's got the house of tides right there," Athessa points to it, the fancy diamond-shaped braid with the dragon eye in the center. "And the Qunlat words for North and...South? No. I don't remember, I'm still working on reading Trade but I recognize the symbols from old maps in Kont-aar."

[raas]

"Anyone may speak Qunlat," she dismissed, and eyed the ground at their feet. The Gallows did not have dirt she could draw in, and she did not have writing utensils on her person. "It does not make them Qunari."

Instead, she reached for Athessa's hand, turning her arm over so that the back of her hand was visible to both of them. With the sharp point of her talon, she traced out the actual symbol for the house of tides, easily rendering the triumvirate in raised lines on Athessa's skin. She did not draw blood, only irritation.

Sometimes, tracing letters for the children helped them grasp them better.

"That is the house of tides."

[sulahnan]

"I mean sure they may but around here it'd be pretty weird."

It's impossible to suppress her full-body shiver at being scratched. It may not draw blood, but it's like the teasing she herself does to her partners. Good to know that it's as nice as she imagines, but whoo, not the time. Athessa clears her throat.

"Ahem. Alright, so if that's the house of tides, then what's that one?" They do look similar...

Something Like Dance Lessons (Closed to Sonia)

[sulahnan]

Perhaps a week after their triumphant return, Athessa calls up Sonia on her crystal.

"Hey Soni, you free to break a sweat?" She's just finished up with a light sparring session with Bastien, trying to get back into their old routine, but she's far from tired.

Toucan Sam Says Follow Your Nose (Closed to Laura for now?)

[sulahnan]

For some reason, Athessa has decided to track down Laura in person instead of just messaging her via crystal. When she does, she falls in stride beside the younger woman and glances around, cloak-and-dagger-like, before speaking.

"I got a job for that super-sniffer of yours if you wanna solve a crime."

III. Previously on Dragon Ball Z...

[sulahnan]

Athessa stands before Yseult, conflicted.

How does she say what needs to be said? Deimos should be here, but she didn't even let Bastien's cautioning sit long enough for her to give the Qunari benefit of the doubt. She decided that she'd tell Yseult herself. Why? Because it's the right thing to do? Because she's personally responsible despite her ignorance? Or because she wants to prove that she's trustworthy to her superior, perhaps.

"I'm...guessing you already know that Devigny's dead?"

Is there anything the Scoutmaster doesn't know?

[hassaran]

Plenty, but it's not something she advertises.

This she knows, of course. Her nod is shallow in acknowledgment of the fact that they both know the answer's an obvious one. She lifts a brow at Athessa, hands folding atop her desk, the blotter neatly cleared before her.

"Would you care to tell me how that happened?"

[sulahnan]

"Deimos--I mean Sten. He killed him," She shuffles a little, guessing at the follow-up question Yseult might have and opting to answer unprompted. "And I'm pretty sure he did it for me, 'cos it happened after I told him about what kinda shit Devigny did."

[raas]

Raas shrugged rather than explain further; it's not worth the effort to distill her thoughts and work them into common, alongside translating from the Qunari mindset. She had not had many conversations, as a result.

Carefully, she chewed over her options, cycling through her vocabulary.

"Profane," she said. Children drew it poorly all the time. Adults would not do so. She squinted down at the symbol, trying to determine what, exactly, the addition was.

"Who said this was the house of tides?"

[sulahnan]

"Sten and the other Qunari I worked with in Rivain. Or...I guess if they're not Qunari, they're Tal-Vashoth, but saying they're Qunari?" Confusing. Athessa's brow knits and she shakes her head. Maybe it's only confusing in Trade, but she doesn't speak qunlat. Obviously.

So she just has to be confused.

"Profane like...desecrated?"

[raas]

"This is not Qunari." Firmly, with no room for disagreement. The Qun could adapt, but she would have known about anything as vast as changing the house of tides. It was more likely they would replace it entirely. "If it is Tal-Vashoth, maybe it is a... joke, an insult."

Another shrug, but there's sadisfaction in her smile when Athessa asks her next question. She did enjoy teaching.

"Yes. Like keeping livestock in your Chantry. No," upon further thought, "Too small. Like livestock for your Divine."

[sulahnan]

"'Kay...I wasn't Chantry raised but I guess I understand."

Something doesn't sit right about the thought of someone like Deimos using an insignia as a joke. Maybe she doesn't know him as well as she thought. Athessa frowns.

"Can I-- Would you mind...telling me more about the Qun? And like...what it's like to grow up and live like that? You said you were unoccupied but I don't wanna bother you or nothin'."

[raas]

Raas was not trained to teach converts, nor could she exactly present Athessa to anyone who could, but there could not be harm in answering questions that could not be used to undermine any of the Qunari.

"I will answer your questions," she decided. She was a tamassran. It was her surroundings that were at fault, made her unable to fit.

[sulahnan]

She chews on her lip, thinking back to the nightmare she and Deimos shared. The cruelty dealt at the hands of the Tamassaran called Chrysis. To the things Deimos said about how he was raised, or the surprise and suspicion on his face when she tended his wounds with elfroot. He'd expected to be in pain the entire time, like it was what he deserved for letting the enemy strike first.

"So...you're assigned roles, yeah? Like Sten was Beresaad, and the teachers are Tamassaran? When does that like, happen? When do the soldiers become soldiers and start training to fight and stuff?"

[hassaran]

Yseult gestures to the chairs before her desk, inviting Athessa to sit.

"The papers you and Bastien delivered from Devigny's house suggest he may have had some connection to the qunari. Could that have been a factor?"

[sulahnan]

Athessa sits, considering.

"I...It could, but...I don't think so." It's possible. It's also possible that he was unaware of the connection and it's all some weird coincidence. Or that he knew, and didn't care, or maybe he was meant to kill him all along...

"I guess if Devigny’s connection to the Qun hinged on secrecy, being found out would make him kinda expendable," Which makes sense until she factors in the look on Deimos' face when she told him why she was so affected by a simple mission. "I dunno."

[hassaran]

Yseult listens as Athessa thinks it through, and nods once, slowly.

"The Devigny matter has always been personal for you, hasn't it?"

[sulahnan]

There's no point in denying it, when she puts it like that. Athessa nods.

"Thats why I was staking out his estate in the first place." I, not we. Yseult already knows that Colin was there, too, but the responsibility for what ensued should land on Athessa's shoulders alone.

slides in here finally

[vorbratta]

Sonia is significantly less athletically inclined, instead rehabilitating herself by lounging for long hours on her bed in between what more or less passes as work. Athessa's call catches her during one such lounge, her bare feet up on the wall as her head hangs off the bed, like she's in an episode of Clarissa Explains It All or something, a glaring anachronism that nonetheless completely applies.

"Athessa," she chirps back almost musically, and if this were indeed a 90s teen sitcom she would be twirling the phone cord around one finger, because Sonia at 29 is still essentially a teenager. "Is that a proposition? Because if so, I am as free as you want me to be."

[hassaran]

"To what end? Not in anticipation of what you found, given your reactions." She's thinking out loud for a change, or at least appears to be. Her head tilts, considering Athessa from a different angle. "Revenge?"