[ OPEN ] Heart's on fire

[ombranera]

WHO: Character(s)
WHAT: Zevran Aranai's School for Rogues Who Can't Sneak Good and Want to Do Other Stuff Good Too.
WHEN: Wintermarch, all month
WHERE: Skyhold: Courtyard, Stables, Rookery, Battlements, etc
NOTES: Sass, Stealth, and Violence

He had mulled over the notion for a few weeks now; watching the soldiers take themselves to task, the warriors practicing as best they could; the mages training in their spells and thought- aside from combat (and even then there were tricks soldiers did not always think to teach) how was a rascal, a scoundrel, a rogue to learn more tricks? A well trained operation of any sort had well trained members of all sorts; the bruisers, the wizards, the rogues. Perhaps it was high time someone did something for the sneakier sorts.


[ Courtyard ]

Every lesson starts the same- a quick lap around the courtyard as fast as possible, vaulting over people and structures, running along the wall, making use of all the same skills that kept him alive all those years in Antiva City. For those that did not know them? The tricks came as a brief primer after the lap was finished- even a brief demonstration is offered. Afterward he runs them through a few training locks set into empty chests, some of the them wound with ringing alarms for the sake of practice. Trip the wrong tumbler? Off goes the alarm. After that it's stealth and pickpocketing. Sneaking about through a field of tripwires connected to more ringing bells and powder packets, a veritable labyrinth. Any bells go off, any powder on your person? You go through again. One of the training dummies has been re-purposed with bells and pouches on it- each pouch has a bell attached. They're timed and told to get as many as possible without ringing any bells. Ring a bell? Run a lap.


[ Stables ]

Here there is room enough for him to demonstrate proper trap production and dismantling. Every wound spring, every steel mechanism. They start with the basic bladed traps- though none of the blades are sharpened and none of the powder explosions hold more than dye. Once they've made traps that are...decent or satisfactory, Zevran walks them through detection and dismantling. Some of the practice traps have trick springs and triggers- if set off they'll be dusted with powder instead of losing their fingers. Later he goes through a list of common poisons and venoms to create and how to build up a tolerance for them. He does not provide them with samples this early on.


[ Battlements ]

Rappelling and dueling and improvisational combat and you! Here Zevran shows them how to climb, how to fall, how to make their own ropes when they've none of their own, how to throw a rappel to make it stay, how to haul it down, and how to dual wield on uneven ground. Demonstrations with Isabela and sparring with whoever wishes to take their turn happens throughout the day as requested; Zevran also covers grappling, breaking holds, and how to fight dirty. An honorable rogue is a dead rogue after all.


[ Wildcard ]

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Comments

[the_effect_she_has]

She gives him a dry look, before carrying over a cup of water to him. "You're an awful person and you're lucky I like you so damned much. Here, drink."

[ombranera]

"And now you have finally noticed that which everyone knows to be true." He takes the water as given, lifting it in a lazy salute before sipping. "How nice of you to join us."

[the_effect_she_has]

She lifted an eyebrow at him, her mouth pressing into a thin line, before she balled up her fist and punched him in the arm. "How do you get people to sleep with you again?"

[ombranera]

"By being charming and ridiculously sexy of course." He took the hit with a low crackle of laughter. "Some things I might teach you, but this? You will have to learn on your own."

[the_effect_she_has]

"Ugh. Two things I am never going to be good at." She paused, then smirked faintly, "... Okay one thing I am not going to be good at."

[ombranera]

"Two." Zevran corrects, reacing over to pull a twig from Katniss' hair. "Honestly. Do none of you know how to condition?"

[the_effect_she_has]

"No, because I could never afford fancy things for my hair." Is Katniss's straight-forward reply. "Food is usually higher on my priority list on how to spend my money, Zevran."

[ombranera]

"And this is why I work for myself. I always have coin enough for what I need, and for what I want." It's a marvelous change of pace from the bulk of his life leading up to the blight.

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss paused, before she gave Zevran an amused look. "Well I'm sorry, but the coin on assassinating bears is considerably lower than nobility."

She picked up her plait, and looked at it thoughtfully. "Christine said I should try oil. Does it cost much?"

[ombranera]

"The basic oil for softening hair? No. Custom blends? Yes." He reached out to rub the tips of her hair between his fingers, frowning. "You won't need a custom blend to start."

[the_effect_she_has]

She eyed the tips he was rubbing, before she gave him a wry smile. "It's always clean, Zev. Just not as soft and silky as yours. But if basic oil doesn't cost that much, I am sure I can afford it on my scout's pay. Now, what else should I look at ... tweaking?"

[ombranera]

"Did I say it was dirty?" Seriously, Katniss. "What, may I ask, has you so eager to change?"

[the_effect_she_has]

And there it is ... that pause, before she bit her lip and looked away. "I just thought -- I don't know. Maybe if I looked less Hinterlands and more ... I don't know, Denerim. people would stop saying nasty things about Cullen wanting to be with me." A shrug, as she continued to avoid his gaze, "Then I'd be less angry, and not ... want to hit people in the face. A lot."

[ombranera]

"Why care? Words are words. Words do not matter- wait you and Cullen actually are seeing one another? Seriously?" That-

How did he miss that. Clearly he is not paying enough mind, preoccupied by this training of rogues and not dying business.

[the_effect_she_has]

"Words are words -- and I don't care about them until they start getting nasty and -- " Now she is the one who stopped, to arch an eyebrow at him. "Uhm, yes." Another pause, and a wry, "The surprise on your face kind of makes me want to hit you again." She flicked him with the end of her braid. "I am pretty amazing, you know."

[ombranera]

"Is he not your commander?" Zevran, honestly, does not care. But Cullen seemed the sort to take such things into consideration- or at least the Cullen he'd known before. "I did not see that coming. Well. Words are words. Even if they are nasty- they are but words. Why does it matter to you what they think or say of you?"

[the_effect_she_has]

"Technically, he's everyone's Commander -- but I report to Harding, who reports directly to the Spymaster." She shrugged slightly, "And trust me -- I don't get any special treatment from either one of them. Just take a look at my workload schedule. I've never cleaned so many pots in my life."

It hurt though, that Zevran would have not seen that coming. She wonders, with some wryness, how clearly she's broadcasting that. "Because ... of the nature of it." She looks uncomfortable again, and angry, "Because I'm no one's 'pet rabbit', and I'm not a 'half-blood whore'."

[ombranera]

"He is not mine." The days he takes orders from a human, any human, that does not have his loyalty or respect? Have come and gone. No longer. Cullen is not so bad but Zevran sees himself more as a contractor than a member of the Inquisition properly. Though the odd dregs of hurt he's picking up from her makes him wonder what exactly he's said and, oh. "Katniss, I knew you were attracted to him, infatuated. Many are. I didn't think anything would come of it. More often than not, such infestations come to nothing."

Which makes that it is happening a sign of the end times. Cullen isn't prudish by any means, but he is so terribly uptight. Who knew?

"So what?" Seriously, Katniss. "They are words. They matter little. You do not even have the ears for a rabbit, nor the temperament for a whore. Though your offense at being called such is a little offensive to me. There is nothing wrong with being a whore."

[the_effect_she_has]

"Yeah, sort of figured that one out ... " Zevran was his own man, one hundred percent. She could never see him taking a knee to anyone. Fiercely loyal? She could believe that. She'd seen him with Alistair, after all. She looks back at him, her gaze softening a little, "... Well, then you shouldn't have given me such good advice. Nothing would have if you hadn't."

She pressed her lips together again, but this time it was concern, "What? No, I don't have a problem with whores - augh, I'm saying this all wrong." As ... usual. "I don't want them thinking he only wants me for sex."

...and she just said that. Out-loud. She buried her face in her hands for a moment, breathing deeply, before looking back at him, "I know they're just words. I know it shouldn't bother me - shouldn't make me angry as a dragon with his tail in a trap. But it does. And I'm trying to stop but ... I don't know how."

[ombranera]

"And if that is the case?" It may be, it may not be- but as swift as this thing has come into fruition, with Cullen as he is and Katniss as she is- that could very well be what is happening. And if so? Better she be aware of it and choose it as that and enjoy it. If not? Then not. "If he is only interested to lay with you and little more, would you still pursue this?"

Stranger things have happened, honestly. Nor was this particular thing all that uncommon. Considered unsavory by some, yes, but not uncommon. Zevran himself cares little so long as everyone involved understands that to be the case- and no one is surprised by the truth come the morning.

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss arched her eyebrows at that question, opened her mouth and then firmly shut it. She knew there was more to this, to them, and she had it with the level of trust Cullen had put in her. So her response was a quiet, "If that was all he wanted, then it would be once, and no more."

She could admit that. Everyone knew how she felt about him. "I won't lie, I couldn't say no -- Maker, I'm not dead. But ... more than that? No. I couldn't be in that situation. It would hurt to know I cared more about him than he cared about me. He could move onto the next fling, and I could ...find someone who did care that much."

[ombranera]

"So long as you are prepared for whatever the truth may be, as long as you go in with both eyes open, as you stand by your integrity. What does it matter what other people say? Words are words. They cannot cut you, they cannot kill you." He waves the matter off. "Caring so much- it is dangerous. If you are angry, you are vulnerable. You can be led into a trap or taken off your guard, can be manipulated. IF you are not in control of yourself? You have already lost. So pay no mind to the words. Swallow the anger. Use it somewhere else."

[the_effect_she_has]

Her gaze sharpened at that, because the point that Zevran was trying to make had sunk in, finally. Words were words - you knew where you stood in this world and that was all that truly mattered. The caring too much - that also struck a cord. It would do no good to say 'I don't know how', because he was giving her the how. So she asked a different question.

"Where do you put your anger?" She couldn't put it in the same bucket, but she might be able to find another one.

[ombranera]

"My knives." He smiled then- and it was not a kind thing. None of the honey, all of the razor- something sharp and positively vicious; for he was no soft thing preaching forgiveness. He was no repentant soul that made it out and made good and swore off killing. He was the blade they'd made him into- and choosing to cut back against the hand that forged him? Was viscerally satisfying.

They made him. That, more than anything, was why they feared him.

"I save it for the hunt and the kill. I use it when there is somewhere it might be used productively." Other than that- what more could he do?

[the_effect_she_has]

She hesitates - because for her the kill so often has just been animals, and she doesn't want to loose her anger on them. They deserved the quick kills, one shut and done. However, in the war? To survive -- yes. She could tap into it then. Every jeering voice, every sideways glance. She could use that.

She would ... use that.

"So you ... what do you do when someone makes you angry? Just walk away then and bottle it up for later?" That sharp smile - how many people had seen that before Zevran had walked away.