[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]

[ 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.

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

[bloodandsand]

[???????? ]

Of course. How else would I be a reaver?

[sulahnan]

[ She makes the ever so articulate "Iunno" sound and shrugs her unbruised shoulder. How should she know?! ]

How should I know?

[bloodandsand]

I suppose the Dalish don't have reavers.

[ That makes sense, since Dalish don't serve High Dragons. ]

Well, now you know! Obviously one must serve a High Dragon if one wishes to be a reaver.

[sulahnan]

We don't even have warriors, really. Just hunters. So what is a reaver? The only other person I've met who gets the...I dunno, bloodlust? Like you is Deimos, and he's no reaver.

[bloodandsand]

[ She scrunches her face slightly, her nose wrinkling cutely. ]

Oh dear, that's the sort of question one ought to ask an Elder. I haven't a clue who to send you to as all mine are quite dead. [ She doesn't seem especially upset about that. ]

I suppose you could say that the reavers are those who seek to be as close as we may hope to be to our Most High Elders? We drink the elixir to see the visions she would grant us, to hold her power in ourselves. Something like that.

[sulahnan]

Uhhhh...huh.

[ There are so many questions she needs to ask to understand any of this that she can't decide which to ask first and forgets to ask anything, simply staring off at the ground and blinking, brows knit together and mouth slightly ajar. ]

[bloodandsand]

I'm told it can be rather difficult for outsiders to process it.

[ She almost sounds sympathetic. Not very much, because obviously she's a reaver and not a recruiter, so they are well outside of her wheelhouse. ]

[sulahnan]

Yyyyeah I think I'll just...accept that it's not something I need to know right now. But thanks for trying to explain it to me.