WHO: Athessa, Madi, and YOU WHAT: post-Dream catch-all WHEN: after part 2 of dream time WHERE: The Gallows/Kirkwall NOTES: tags will be slow, brain still bad
"That seems sensible." Sidony hums, leaning close in return. "I can imagine all kinds of favours can be gathered in return for some coffee and a distraction."
She quirks a brow. Her expression is one of muted surprise, as if she hadn't realized that yeah, actually, she could be bribing people for favors. But.
"Sure, I mean. Of course. Favors. Or, ya know, you can give someone coffee for nothing but the reward of making them happy." Which is usually what she's doing, honestly. Her attempts at bribery are never so smooth.
"I suppose you and I grew up in worlds far different when it comes to favours." Sidony sighs, tilting her head to look forward and where they're walking.
Nothing came for free in Nevarra, but... She is doing her best to learn.
The trek down stairs is nothing remarkable; The Gallows may be cold but they're not prone to developing ice in any of the interior spaces, so Athessa and Sidony don't even have to unlink arms to descend to the level below. As they do, Athessa contemplates this recurring theme of transactional favors.
"It's not so much a difference in how we grew up, I think," Athessa says as they enter the kitchens and she sets about retrieving the various bits and bobs she needs to make coffee. Grinder, carafe, kettle.
"Obviously we grew up different, but—well, the world is how it is, and even Dalish use favors as currency, ya know?" Cups, coffee beans. "I guess it's just a matter of what you want. Cream and sugar?"
"I think it must be a little different from what I know," Sidony says gently, letting herself be lead and guided. "Nothing was done without favour or desire for some kind of promise in the future. I couldn't even breathe without someone keeping watch and demanding something of me. Even my mother was more like that than anything else."
Even her first relationship here - with Byerly - had been a transactional one. It's hard for her to slip out of that mindset, even as a doctor developing her craft.
"I do wish I had been broader in my studies, however," she hums, settling down. "But, yes. Cream and sugar both, please, just a little of each."
Athessa nods as she listens, paying attention to every little detail Sidony is willing to share about herself as if they're clues to a larger picture. More than anything else, Athessa trends more towards not needing to know much about someone's past to care for them; people are who they are now and if she likes who they are now, the details of how they became that seem less important. It's a viewpoint that suits people like Bastien well, but grates against Byerly's idea of what caring about someone else should look like.
"I just mean it's more a conscious decision than anything else," she says, fetching a small pot of cream and the little dish of sugar and placing them both on the heavy wooden table in the center of the kitchen. "I don't like debt to be intrinsic to my relationships."
"I'm not sure I ever did either," Sidony admits, voice quiet. "It was something so natural in Nevarra that I simply did not question it. Why would I, when I so often got whatever I wanted? People wished to please me and that meant I had power. It worked for me, as stifling as it was."
But she doesn't sound particularly happy about it. Her face scrunches, just a moment, before she sighs.
"Coming here made it better. I had always wished to learn about medicine for my own sake, to sate my curiosity. But speaking to others here, learning about it... I realised the benefit of it. To help, rather than just study, no matter how calloused my fingers get."
"Wait," Athessa pauses as she's measuring out coffee beans into the grinder, and looks over at Sidony with a curious expression. Halfway between a frown and a skeptical smile.
"You started wanting to help people after you started studying medicine?"
"Yes." She says it as though it's completely normal before she hesitates. Talking about these things isn't easy for her, but she tries to find some means of steeling her voice and not letting herself get lost in the feeling of it.
"When I was very young I wished to be a Mortalitasi. I was deadly curious about the body, about what they do, their magic, all of it. As I grew older it became apparent I was not blessed with magic, but... My brother was. So he became a Mortalitasi and I studied medicine under my sheets, hiding my learning from a mother who sought a political union above all else."
She sniffs, crossing her arms.
"It was only when I was permitted to practice my craft that I realised the benefit."
"What does being a Mortalitasi entail? Other than the ability to do magic," she asks. The coffee grinder isn't particularly loud, but it's a consistent scrape-scraping as she turns the crank. It accompanies her interested (and somewhat confused, still) expression as if the grinding is actually the sound of little cogs and gears in her mind turning over.
"Could you do what the Mortalitasi do without magic?"
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"Sure, I mean. Of course. Favors. Or, ya know, you can give someone coffee for nothing but the reward of making them happy." Which is usually what she's doing, honestly. Her attempts at bribery are never so smooth.
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Nothing came for free in Nevarra, but... She is doing her best to learn.
"Perhaps that is something I can learn."
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"It's not so much a difference in how we grew up, I think," Athessa says as they enter the kitchens and she sets about retrieving the various bits and bobs she needs to make coffee. Grinder, carafe, kettle.
"Obviously we grew up different, but—well, the world is how it is, and even Dalish use favors as currency, ya know?" Cups, coffee beans. "I guess it's just a matter of what you want. Cream and sugar?"
no subject
Even her first relationship here - with Byerly - had been a transactional one. It's hard for her to slip out of that mindset, even as a doctor developing her craft.
"I do wish I had been broader in my studies, however," she hums, settling down. "But, yes. Cream and sugar both, please, just a little of each."
no subject
"I just mean it's more a conscious decision than anything else," she says, fetching a small pot of cream and the little dish of sugar and placing them both on the heavy wooden table in the center of the kitchen. "I don't like debt to be intrinsic to my relationships."
no subject
But she doesn't sound particularly happy about it. Her face scrunches, just a moment, before she sighs.
"Coming here made it better. I had always wished to learn about medicine for my own sake, to sate my curiosity. But speaking to others here, learning about it... I realised the benefit of it. To help, rather than just study, no matter how calloused my fingers get."
no subject
"You started wanting to help people after you started studying medicine?"
no subject
"When I was very young I wished to be a Mortalitasi. I was deadly curious about the body, about what they do, their magic, all of it. As I grew older it became apparent I was not blessed with magic, but... My brother was. So he became a Mortalitasi and I studied medicine under my sheets, hiding my learning from a mother who sought a political union above all else."
She sniffs, crossing her arms.
"It was only when I was permitted to practice my craft that I realised the benefit."
no subject
"Could you do what the Mortalitasi do without magic?"