faderift | Five, four, three, two, where the ones go?

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Five, four, three, two, where the ones go?

WHO: Erik & Athessa
WHAT: Fighting bandits, bantering, etcetera
WHEN: Early Wintermarch, pre-dream times
WHERE: Ghislain?
NOTES: Violence, cursing, bonding over it. Good times.

To be honest? Erik was just glad to be doing something, something away from Kirkwall for a bit. Time to see more of the world while kicking ass and not taking names, as the case turned out to be.

Ghislain was just the place to do it. There were still the occasional bandit raiding party making trouble for the locals, and Erik and Athessa were dispatched to deal with as many of them as they could.

Athessa's horse riding lessons were possibly the most helpful thing he'd managed to learn, here; he'd have been on his ass more than once if not for her help, but for these bandits in particular they're on foot. He has a short sword on him and is thoroughly enjoying himself, thanks very much. He fights loudly, full of exclaimations and grunts; his fighting style is less on the flashy side and more about getting the brutal mess done and quickly.

They're almost back to back in this moment and Erik flashes Athessa a grin. "Sure know how to show a guy a good time." He's not even joking a little bit, he's thrilled right now.

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"Glad to know I haven't lost my touch," she laughs, knocking an incoming arrow out of the air before it can hit its target.

In contrast to N'Jadaka's no-nonsense efficiency, Athessa's fighting style is flashy by design; distraction and misdirection built in to give her the advantage since she's almost always smaller than her opponents. Those acrobatics? Mostly unnecessary, but helpful for building momentum and very eye-catching.

"You oughta come with me to a barfight in the city sometime. We could have music to fight to."

"Definitely not. Ain't had this much fun on the books in a bit."

The flash of her style is a good counter to his own; their opponents tend to be so busy watching her spin that they either don't see the edge of her blade until it's too late or they lose track of him entirely. A mistake, either way. He thinks next time he'll either go for a slower, heavier weapon or use a shield with the sword he's got because this arrows from a distance shit ain't the business.

At the mention of a barfight he chuckles. "Fuck yes. Sign me the fuck up. Been a hot minute since I was in a barfight." The military usually frowned on that sort of thing, and afterward, he was trying to keep a relatively low profile.

The bandits seem a little confused by the pair's bantering, though their attacks don't stop on that account.

"On your right!" Athessa warns N'Jadaka, dodging back out of the way of a bandit's sword. On the ridge over the skirmish, the archer nocks another arrow.

"Get the rabbit, Aldrich!" One of the bandits yells, and the archer — Aldrich, apparently — takes aim.

"Th' fuck d'ya think I'm tryin' t'do?!" He hollers back. The arrow flies true, but just as before, Athessa cuts it out of the air with her blade. She catches half of the broken projectile — the pointy half, of course — and throws it at the bandit who called her a rabbit.

It doesn't do much damage, but it lodges itself in his forearm when he tries to block it.

"Agh! Fuck!" He keens.

Erik does not dodge, but he does manage to parry, the man on his right. This is good because otherwise, that sword would've made contact with his face. As it is, it's entirely too close a call.

He needs to be paying better attention.

(What he needs to do is figure out a way to get that bowman down from where he's at before his arrows find one of them, really.)

He yells wordlessly, smashing his fist (and the pommel of his sword) into the man's face who just tried to cut him down. The man was expecting a slash, not a punch, and staggers.

It's not always the best idea to throw weapons in the middle of a fight, because then there's the matter of getting them back to contend with. If you leave them until the end of the battle, you're stuck bringing fists to a knife fight, but if you go to fetch them, you're running the risk of leaving yourself open to attack in the meantime.

Then again, sometimes you need to do something really cool.

Athessa sprints at the man she'd just injured with the arrowhead, leaping and doing that thing that all the Marvel ladies who fight do. The leg neck thing. And she uses the momentum from that to fling one of her daggers through the air to crack into the archer's bow, splintering it in his hands.

She doesn't land quite as gracefully as a super-hero, but she laughs it off and hops back to her feet in time to knock another bandit off his.

"Shit!" he says.

"Why don't you bellends give up?!" Athessa shouts.

For a second it seems like they consider it.

Edited (italix) 2021-02-04 03:10 (UTC)

Erik would pause and applaud her, but seeing as how they're fighting that's not the best idea. Either way, there's just one guy left standing with a weapon and he's taking a swing at Erik after that little pause.

He's the only one who isn't standing there still debating or has the breath to say anything, by the looks of it, but Erik has no intentions of allowing the dude to get very far without giving up or being forced to. He cuts the man across the chest, advancing still. "You should listen to her!"

The man that Athessa got in the throat waves his hand. A definite 'I give up' sort of gesture, there.

There's something really satisfying about having someone shout that people should listen to what Athessa says, even in the present context. Does it hold much bearing outside of this fight, right now, where the bandits have witnessed first-hand the reasons for them to comply? Maybe not, but it gives the elf a bit of a boost nonetheless.

"Fucking thank you," she says, loudly. The parts of that thank you that ring sarcastic are for the bandits. Any sincerity therein is for N'jadaka.

"Okay, everybody up, c'mon—Really?!"

One of the bandits had thrown something; a boot, maybe. A rock. Clod of mud. Athessa didn't see it, but heard it land a few steps away where the bandit's aim faltered. She splays her hands in an incredulous gesture, and one of the bandits behind her wheezes:

"Fuck off, Terry, 'fore she decides to kill us all!"

"Y'all ain't fuckin' bright, man."

How they've been managing to so thoroughly menace the countryside out here is almost a legitimate question, given how dumb a few of them appear to be. Erik's got his sword pointed at the idiot whose chest he slashed earlier and gestures with his chin that he should join his friends over by Athessa.

"Out here tryin'ta get yourselves killed, looks like. Move it, dickweed. Go stand next'a the rest of your friends. You too, Terry, fuckin' dumbass."

"Yeah, Terry!"

Comedically, as Terry slinks over to the other with his proverbial tail between his legs, a couple of the others smack him upside the head the way one might a little brother who just swore in front of his parents.

It doesn't take very long for Athessa and N'jadaka to tie up the idiot brigade, and pretty soon they're standing over them as they sit with their backs to a great big tree, disarmed and thoroughly cowed.

"Alright, assholes," Athessa is saying with her hands planted firmly on her hips. No-nonsense from the Nonsense Queen. "Which one of y'all—" Thanks, N'jadaka, King of Code Switching. "—Is gonna be smart and give up the location of your hideout? We know you have a leader, and that you're all just doing what they tell you to. Is it really worth all of this?"

There's some shifty eye movement between the group tied up to the tree and Erik rolls his eyes a little. "C'mon now, we ain't got all fuckin' day here. Tell the lady what she wants to know so we can get on with our lives, huh?" They do, in fact, have all day (or at the very least, what's left of it) but Erik's not trying to stand around while these guys get their brains together. All this fighting has worked up quite the hunger.

It's Aldrich who speaks up, though most of the group is looking at Erik a little askance for calling an elf a lady, of all things. Don't mind him, he's just put it together and raised his chin in a 'what you gonna do about it?' sort of gesture.

"Cave east of here. Red cloth at the entrance. We meet there. You'll probably have to fight your way in."

"Oh noo," Athessa says, tone flattened by sarcasm. "Not fighting, what-ever will we do?"

She rolls her eyes and takes a step closer to Aldrich to speak to him directly. "How many of you are there, total?"

"No more'n twenty, on a good day."

"Plan for thirty, then," Athessa says in an aside to Erik, looking unimpressed. Back to Aldrich: "How far east?"

"Half a day's walk, less on horseback. Veer off th' road at th' marker past that old orchard. It's hard t'miss." Aldrich lets out a sigh of relief and slumps back against the tree when he sees Athessa nod, deeming his information sufficient. One of his cohort, blessedly not Terry, mutters something about giving directions to a rabbit, but Athessa ignores him.

There's someone far more worth her attentions here, anyway. She tips her head towards the road.

"Shall we?"

Erik jerks in the direction of the idiot still bitching about giving Athessa directions; there's no real threat in it but it's intended to make the man flinch, and flinch he does, plus shutting up, so. Bonus.

He returns his attention towards Athessa. "Plan for thirty, less than half a day on horseback." A nod; he's been paying attention. "I'm good, let's go."

They can leave these sorry pieces of shit exactly where they are, and if they survive the night intact, it'll be some kind of miracle.

As they get further out of earshot of the asshole bandits, Athessa looks sidelong at N'jadaka and smiles crookedly.

"Ya know what? You're a good fighter. I mean I knew you would be, but it's nice to be right."

"Yeah?" He grins, obviously pleased with himself. "You're pretty fuckin' badass yourself, Miss Thang. Flashy and shit, I couldn't stop starin' at ya."

"That's the point, innit? Keep 'em staring so hard they forget to actually see anything."

She doesn't know what Miss Thang means, but it sounds positive so she'll take it.

"I got a question for ya, though."

"Fair enough," he replies, nodding. Miss Thang is definitely a positive.

At her mention of a question she gets his undivided attention. "What's up?"

She makes a valiant effort to try and hide her mischievous grin and replace it with a studious expression; brow furrowed, lips pursed thoughtfully. It's pretty easy to tell that she's either about to set up a joke, or say something downright cheeky.

"Have you ever fucked in an orchard?" Wink wonk.

He raises an eyebrow at her facial expression and outright laughs at the question.

"Nah. You down to broaden my horizons today?"

"Maybe," she says, grinning, and shrugs. "Could be a new experience for the both of us."

If, and it's a mighty big if, any of the trees are comfortable enough to get pushed up against. But no matter the size of the if, the mere concept is exciting enough to have her walking a little faster.

"Well, I'm all for new experiences."

He winks at her. "Especially with you."

"Well come on, then," she says, breaking into a run.

"Race ya there!"

Erik laughs, loud and hard, before he also breaks out into a run, chasing after her. "What do I get if I win?!"

"Use your imagination!" Athessa calls back, looking over her shoulder to see how far back he is. He's fast! She doesn't even try to stifle her eep! of thrill and surprise before picking up the pace.

What she does stifle is the actual fear that spikes at being chased, stamping it down with what should be overwhelming reassurance that she initiated this, it's fun, he's her friend, he's not hunting her.

"I know what I get if I win!"

She 'eeps' and he laughs, picking up the pace a little, just to stumble over a loose rock and almost go down. Instead he puts his hands out in front of him and manages to keep on his feet, but she's gained some distance in the interim. "Fuck!"

He's tempted to just let her win at that point, because he's pretty sure she'd be down for just about whatever he can think up if he wins anyway, but figures she might take offense if he doesn't at least try so he's up and running again after a brief moment.

Ultimately, the orchard is too far away still to run the whole way — half a day on horseback isn't the same thing as half a day on foot, and even if it were, who wants to run anywhere close to six hours straight? So around the time that Athessa starts flagging, she decides they should probably stop for a rest.

"That was...I admit...kinda dumb," she pants, bracing her hands against her knees and trying to catch her breath between laughing. "We should maybe wait to race...until we can actually like...see the orchard. Just maybe."

Erik tries to laugh between gasping breaths, which really just creates the strangest sound to ever escape his throat at all. He holds up a finger between him and Athessa as he attempts to remember how to breathe normally.

"Just maybe... she says. Maybe." Pant, pant. "I dun'wanna... be so tired from running... that we don't get to fuck, just sayin'." So his vote, clearly, is they opt out of running.

Athessa laughs harder, staggering a step and then using that step as an excuse to give Erik's shoulder a playful shove.

"Yeah maybe," she paces slowly in a little circle, stacking her palms atop her head and puffing out her cheeks with the next big breath. "Man. I bet we could stop the war with that kinda logic."

His body rocks back with her push, and he grins madly at her.

"Stop fuckin' fightin' when you'd rather be fuckin' anyway? Sounds great, let's put it on a poster in big letters, send it via griffon to Tevinter." He shakes his legs out, nerves buzzing after all that running.

"Make it rain pamphlets, we done that before," she agrees, and shoves some of her hair back out of her face where it came loose from the tie.

"Could at least tell it to those arsefaces back there. Why is it that bandits gotta be dicks in the middle of a war? Like, isn't there enough shite going on without adding to it? Fuck's sake."

It's not a new gripe. It's not even a particularly volitive or convictive one; it holds about as much matter as commenting on the weather.

"There was a war on where you came from, right? Was it anything like this one?"

"Yeah? What'd they say?" Erik feels like he shouldn't be that surprised there's been a propaganda effort already, and yet. "Do you think they worked at all?"

He sucks his teeth, putting his hands on his hips. "They just trying to get over on somebody, don't really care who or why. It's fucked, but it's common.

Back home there was always some conflict on. The country I grew up in had a military industrial complex that meant having too many foreign bases but not allowing any foreign power to do the same to them. It's pretty fucked up there too, actually."

Still that doesn't exactly answer her question, does it. "Stakes were lower. Complete rule over everyone with destruction on the level Corypheus wants to bring about? Kinda unheard of. Mostly it's businessmen who wanna rule the world back there. They wanna make money and have power that way, exploiting people to do it. So it's a slower war, really."

Edited 2021-04-28 22:20 (UTC)

The pamphlet question gets a dismissive wave and a very eloquent I dunno sound to accompany it. All she remembers about that mission was nearly falling off a griffon because Edgard slung a mudball at her, hit himself in the face with it, startled the griffon he and Colin were riding, and then the heavens opened to unleash a fucking storm.

Fun times.

"Sounds like business as usual around here when there isn't a war on. I guess by your standards that means...we're never not at war." Grim, but it certainly seems true. The memories she holds of what life was like before the war against Corypheus seem a little farther away when she thinks about it.

That sounds very much like Edgard, honestly.

At her evaluation Erik makes a face; he doesn't disagree, exactly, but he knows that can't be a comfortable realization when you're already in the midst of a seemingly unending conflict that threatens everything you know. "It's more a war of capitalism; it exploits people so... you end up with shit like this, because everybody ain't got enough. And some people, probably, would do this anyway even if they did have enough."

"Capitalism," she echoes, trying out the unfamiliar word on a light scoff. "Military industrial complex? Sometimes stuff you say goes right over my head."

It's mostly a cover; trying to preserve the light tone of their earlier moments with humor rather than let the contemplation show plain on her face. Her thoughts stray back to her clan, and how it was likely people with more than enough that took them from her. She thinks about that farmer in Ghislain that called her rabbit and barked orders at her during Riftwatch's stint offering relief there.

"Sorry," he says, but he rolls his eyes a little. "Lotta nonsense words for the same shit. People who have shit want to keep having shit at the cost of those who don't. It sucks."

He notices that she's considering something and reaches out to touch her cheek. "Hey. Let's talk about something else. Like fucking in orchards."

She looks over at him when he touches her cheek, then down and away as she laughs sofy. Self-consciously.

"Or how we should'a taken their horses to get there quicker?" Her grin turns cheeky with her next thought, and she just keeps walking.

"Fuckin' ay." Erik sighs and then chuckles, putting his hands behind his head as they walk together. "How the hell did I not think of that shit?"

"I dunno, how the hell didn't ya?" She teases.

"Too busy bein' impressed with myself, I guess." He rolls his eyes and sticks his tongue out at her. "It was pretty badass though, fightin' those guys. You're real good."

She can't blame him, she's pretty impressed with him, too. She watches him as they walk a few steps further. Admires the shape of him, his hair, the shape of his nose and his mouth.

Without preamble, she grabs him and kisses him. Her lips still curve with a smile through it, and she's almost laughing by the time she breaks away to keep walking ahead of him — still teasing. Always teasing.

"Thanks for noticing."

The kiss surprises him but it's easy to relax into it, let it happen for as long as she wants to. He bites her bottom lip as she pulls away but otherwise does nothing to stretch out the length of their kiss, pleased with himself (clearly) as she walks ahead of him.

And if he stares at her ass, well, he's only a man after all.

"I'll always notice you." Just in case she was worried that he wouldn't, or something. "You're very noticeable."

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Five, four, three, two, where the ones go?

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I'm so bad at writing fight scenes view my shame

shh don't worry about it

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god she's a dumbass where does she even get this energy

it's great and I love it and Erik loves it too

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i full out lost the notif for this wtg

<3

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I can't remember if they've already talked about this ffs

I don't think so? We're good lol

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