[Open] in the merry summer months

[okayimin]

WHO: Sawbones, Jenny Lou, Poesia and YOU
WHAT: a catch all
WHEN: throughout Solace, into whatever the next month is
WHERE: All over
NOTES: light cw for animal dissection for medical purposes in one of Sawbones' prompts, additional nsfw headers in Poesia's threads. gimme that action spam. if u want a closed starter hmu!

Comments

[sulahnan]

[ She shrugs, looking like she knows full well what a ridiculous question that is. The elf might consider Poesia a person but she also recognizes the similarities between the Reaver's bloodlust and Deimos'. ]

No reason. Just in case. Do you have a way you-- [ A vague gesture, meant to take the place of "recalibrate" because Athessa can't find a suitable word. ] --come back? From that?

[bloodandsand]

[ An even more mystifying question, but Poesia has accepted that this will simply be that sort of encounter. She roles back over on to her stomach, pillowing her chin in her hands and kicking her feet in the air like a schoolgirl. ]

Not particularly. It isn't as if I go anywhere, after all. I simply wait until I am called to be something else.

[sulahnan]

Hmm.

[ She thinks about that for a long, quiet moment. Her mind goes back to that night when she shared Deimos' nightmare, when she went to him after waking and he almost strangled her in his disoriented haze. Come back to me, she'd said to him, and cupped his face in her hands. ]

I don't think I understand, but I'm glad you were there with us.

[bloodandsand]

You are terribly sweet to trouble yourself, dear Athessa, but really, you needn't.

[ Her smile is affectionate. ]

It is what I was made for, after all.

[sulahnan]

Made for?

[bloodandsand]

Killing, of course.

[sulahnan]

Sorry, I should've said: "Made for?"

[ Emphasis, what a concept. ]

Who made you for that?

[bloodandsand]

Ah, I see! Well, let me think...

[ She frowns slightly. ]

Goodness, it is hard to say. I suppose my tutors and the Elders, of course. The older Reavers I learned under. Of course, my Beloved was most instrumental in shaping the direction my making would take. I was hers after all.

[sulahnan]

[ There's that word again. Beloved Stuck in her head periodically like an echo that has to travel a great distance to reach her.

Athessa scoots a little nearer. ]

What happened to her? [ She picked up on the past tense. ] Your beloved?

[bloodandsand]

She was killed.

[ Her gaze goes a little vacant at that. ]

I can hardly say how long ago anymore. A year or two perhaps.

[sulahnan]

Oh. I'm...sorry.

[ Not that she expected any different. ]

Would you rather not talk about her? We can talk about somethin' else or I can just fuck off if you want.

[bloodandsand]

[ She smiles at Athessa, apparently fully returned to herself and waves off her concern. ]

You really are terribly sweet, but you needn't concern yourself so. I carry her with me, after all. And she drives me forward even now.

[ She laughs softly. ] Though I admit, I have grown rather lazy without her. I imagine she would have had me rending down Coryhpeus' doors by now.

[sulahnan]

[ Her own laugh is partly for the idea that Poesia could ever be considered lazy, and partly because she reminds her of Eshal. She also called Athessa "sweet." ]

I bet the keeper of my clan would say the same thing about me. Well...she'd probably have other things to say first, actually.

[bloodandsand]

You are... What is the word... Dalish? I'm afraid I'm not at all familiar with the customs.

[ Her early studies had been primarily about the Elder Ones and the more pressing heresies of the Chantry, after all. ]

[sulahnan]

[ She shouldn't be so pleased to hear Poesia guess Dalish over Alienage when Athessa just said "clan." But she brightens a bit nonetheless. ]

Dalish, yep! Not many people are familiar, as a rule Dalish clans keep to themselves.

[bloodandsand]

[ Poesia nods. ]

That makes sense, I think. My Elders were very similar. Rightly so, I imagine. Is your clan still alive?

[ She does not ask that with the same care Athessa used earlier. Indeed, it didn't even occur to her to try. ]

[sulahnan]

[ Honestly, that makes Athessa feel better equipped to talk about this. She's more at peace about her clan than she was when she came to Riftwatch, but it'll never be a happy story. ]

No. I lost them when I was a kid. Never figured out if it was slavers or bandits or what. That's why I don't have the blood-writing-- [ She gestures to her face and lack of vallaslin. ]

It's a rite of passage thing.

[bloodandsand]

That is a pity.

[ And that does have some genuine feeling to it. ]

Dragon hunters found mine. Happily, it was long after I had completed my proving, but it is still quite miserable to lose one's clan.

[ Not that their collective had ever used so formal a word. They had been of the High Lady and that had been the only thing that mattered. ]

[sulahnan]

Dragon hunters?!

[bloodandsand]

Oh, yes. That's who they send in Nevarra to kill high dragons, you see. Most unpleasant individuals.

[ This is a normal sentence that is obviously connected to all the other sentences she's said previously. ]

[sulahnan]

[ Is she missing something? ]

Then why would they kill your people?

[bloodandsand]

Why, because we served our High Lady of Flame and Blood, of course. They would not have reached her nest if they did not first storm our home.

[sulahnan]

[ She blinks. Blinks again. And a third time. ]

What.

[bloodandsand]

[ She blinks back and tips her head, puzzled. ]

What?

[sulahnan]

You...served a dragon.

[ ???????????? ]