WHO: Athessa, Madi, Lucien, Skull, and YOU!! WHAT: catch-all WHEN: mostly Satinalia and later WHERE: Kirkwall and The Gallows NOTES: post-murderhaus h/c is gonna go here
While he's taking a breather, Athessa looks down at the floor, conveys a shrug with a brief wave of her hand.
"You'll get the details in the report seemed kinder than we were tortured by a madman for no apparent reason. You can guess how well he took that information."
And now she has to anticipate how Bastien takes that information. It's harder to hide the subtleties of body language when two bodies are pressed together like this, so as much as Bastien can probably detect her discomfort and trepidation, she'll be able to tell if anything transmits through his shoulders or back to suggest...anything.
It's subtle. The mildest form of the sort of muscle-clench around the lungs that might accompany jumping into cold water, or trying to control breathing after a hard run, or preparing to take a hit in the gut. Most of it is in his stomach, but some of it is in his back.
Then he relaxes. Willpower and habit.
"Ouais, that does not sound like the sort of thing he would take well." Lightly. Bastien takes everything well, see. "Is he handled? The madman?"
It's subtle enough that Athessa nearly misses it, or passes it off as a side effect of the climb. But then he relaxes and that confirms it. She pats his shoulder, reassuring.
"Handled and axed and burned along with the inn he owned."
“Good,” Bastien says, with more relief than vengefulness.
He’s not still a danger. Athessa still has all her major pieces. If anyone else had died he would have already heard about it right now. It’s very possible he would have pressed for the full story anyway, if she hadn’t just told him how little she wanted to talk about it, but since she has—he nods, and gives her knee a friendly one-two squeeze where he’s holding it to help keep her on his back.
“Do you think there was anything you could have done to stop it?”
There are many ways the man could have been stopped, over the years. Because it was years, based on the extensive work put into that inn, that he was doing this undeterred.
He could have been caught. He could have kidnapped the wrong elf. He could have let one escape. He could have kidnapped a band of rough sorts far earlier. He could have taken ill and died. There could have been rumors about elves disappearing — but not in any circles they have ears in. Any one of their number could have caught wise before the sleeping gas filled the rooms. Or gotten up to take a piss, or wandered aimlessly in the throes of insomnia.
Athessa has given it plenty of thought, and her conversation with Isaac just confirms the conclusion.
"No," she says. "We were lucky, and more skilled than he planned for, I think. Not his usual fare."
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"You'll get the details in the report seemed kinder than we were tortured by a madman for no apparent reason. You can guess how well he took that information."
And now she has to anticipate how Bastien takes that information. It's harder to hide the subtleties of body language when two bodies are pressed together like this, so as much as Bastien can probably detect her discomfort and trepidation, she'll be able to tell if anything transmits through his shoulders or back to suggest...anything.
no subject
Then he relaxes. Willpower and habit.
"Ouais, that does not sound like the sort of thing he would take well." Lightly. Bastien takes everything well, see. "Is he handled? The madman?"
He starts up the next flight.
no subject
"Handled and axed and burned along with the inn he owned."
no subject
He’s not still a danger. Athessa still has all her major pieces. If anyone else had died he would have already heard about it right now. It’s very possible he would have pressed for the full story anyway, if she hadn’t just told him how little she wanted to talk about it, but since she has—he nods, and gives her knee a friendly one-two squeeze where he’s holding it to help keep her on his back.
“Do you think there was anything you could have done to stop it?”
no subject
He could have been caught. He could have kidnapped the wrong elf. He could have let one escape. He could have kidnapped a band of rough sorts far earlier. He could have taken ill and died. There could have been rumors about elves disappearing — but not in any circles they have ears in. Any one of their number could have caught wise before the sleeping gas filled the rooms. Or gotten up to take a piss, or wandered aimlessly in the throes of insomnia.
Athessa has given it plenty of thought, and her conversation with Isaac just confirms the conclusion.
"No," she says. "We were lucky, and more skilled than he planned for, I think. Not his usual fare."