[Closed] We gonna rock this house until we knock it down

[the_effect_she_has]

WHO: Katniss Everdeen, Pel Ashara, Cullen Rutherford, Jim the Messenger (NPC), The Harding Scouts (NPC)
WHAT: Dueling. Fereldan style.
WHEN: 14th of Wintersmarch
WHERE: Skyhold.
NOTES: Violence. Racial slurs against elves.

For all the training, there was still a lot of building to work. Even though were plenty of willing volunteers out of the refugees, sometimes even they needed help. So that was how Katniss dragged the other scouts into helping out some of the refugees to work on what the surgeons wanted to make the formal infirmary. Jim the Scout showed up with a message, and yes, that's pretty much how he got dragged in as well.

Hours later, sweaty and with their hair mussed, hungry as bears (Katniss was never going to get away from bears, sigh), Katniss took the lot of them to the Tavern for dinner on her. She knew Lace would appreciate it if she fed the 'kids' before sending them off for the night, and the Creators only knew when Jim ate. He only seemed to take meals when Cullen did, after all.

So our scene, a table in the tavern with the Scouts - Atisha, Feran, John and Celise , Jim, and Katniss. The Scouts and Jim were of course, chattering away happily to one another and poking questions at Katniss, which she batted away with a roll of her eyes, as she dug into her stew.

" -- No, I am not going to tell you if I've ever seen Harding leaving Bruce's tent and NO, I am not going to tell you who is seen leaving my hut. Maker, what are all of you, twelve?" She snorted, before she held up a finger. "No wait, I can confirm one person - Buttercup. Buttercup leaves the hut as often as he wants."

Jim shuddered slightly, "I... can confirm that. He once sat on me for an hour and wouldn't let me leave until I fed him something. Scout Everdeen, your cat is terrifying."

"I keep telling Harding we should use him as a secret weapon -- but she says we can't take cats into battle." A heavy dramatic sigh, before she pointed a finger at one of the Scouts as she opened her mouth, "No."

"You don't even know what I was going to ask!" Celise protested.

"I know it has to be a different variation on whether or not Lace and Bruce are bedding one another, and I have told you -- " She frowned, as a shadow fell over the table and they all looked up to see a tall blonde woman with fancily braided hair stood over them, looking all too intently at Katniss. Her armor was fancy gilt, the kind where her breasts were clearly defined with the appropriate, ah, holders. Katniss lifted an eyebrow, " - can I help you, serah?"

The woman smiled, and it was not a nice smile. She spoke with , "You are Scout Katniss Everdeen."

"Yes, I am." Katniss said slowly, one eyebrow staying up, "And you are?"

"I'm Sergeant Alyshia Rettly, of the Fifth Platoon." The woman tilted her head, "Heard about you."

Katniss looked from the other scouts, to Jim, who looked as baffled as she felt, "Ah, well, that's ... nice?"

"Yeah, my boys and me - " and she nodded to a group of soldiers who looked like they had been dragged through the Fallow Mire, face first, "We just wanted to know - how does it feel to get a cushy job like Scout?

The two tables by them went silent. A fork dropped, as everyone turned to watch this unfold.

Then Jim tittered, and the Scouts burst into laughter. Katniss clicked her tongue against the top of her mouth, looking down at her bowl so she wouldn't laugh either, before she rose to her feet slowly, "Look, Alyshia - "

"Sergeant Alyshia." The woman huffed, flushing red at the peals of laughter that were still rolling from her pronouncement.

"Right. Sergeant Alyshia." Katniss resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "You're ... probably new around here? So you probably don't know that Commander Rutherford really doesn't give out cushy assignments. Certainly not to scouts."

"Especially not to scouts." John piped in, popping a grape into his mouth, with a smirk. Celise, Atisha and Feran just shook their heads. Anyone who thought being a scout was something 'grand' clearly hadn't slept in a tent by themselves while they were trying to figure out the positions of bigger, badder things not much more than a farmer's field away in the darkness.

"Yeah, right. Everyone knows the scouts always get the easiest jobs, while us foot soldiers are left trudging through the muck." Alyshia sniffed again, looking down her nose at Katniss. "But I guess Lace Harding's soft on her little chicklets -- and the Commander's soft on rabbit whores."

Katniss arched an eyebrow again, before she looked over at Jim, speaking tartly, "Jim, you're Commander Rutherford's personal messenger. Just how small and fluffy mammal prostitutes has the Commander had in his office lately that he needs to be freed from?"

The others snickered again, while Jim pretended to think about it "Ah ... going to go with a goose-egg there, Scout Everdeen." He held his finger and his thumb in a circle. "Zero. In fact only person in there is you and since you are a Scout, and his girlfriend? That sort of means you can't be a rabbit. Or a whore, for that matter."

Katniss turned back to the other woman, and lifted her hands up, "So as you can see, you are barking up the wrong tree in more ways than one. I will be happy to tell Commander Rutherford that you feel like you've gotten a raw deal by being a racist bully. I'm sure he'll be sympathetic to your horrendous plight."

Ohhhh, she could bet what his thoughts on the matter would be. Make even gold on it too -

That thought was cut off, when Alysha's armed gauntlet slammed into her face, making her see stars, then black, then red as she opened her gaze. It was hard enough to knock her backwards, but not off her feet. She stared at the blood gushing out of ... where? Her nose, and her mouth, as Lady Alyshia hissed at her, "The gall of a blunt-eared whore like you to speak to me this way! The Commander may have shamed himself with you, you half-blooded bitch, but as soon as he's tired of playing around with animals, he'll be looking for a real woman and - "

Sergeant Alysha looked around, because it had gone silent again, and all eyes were turned, but not on her. They were all locked on Katniss, a mixture of dread and anticipation. One Scout wet her lips, "Katniss -- Katniss remember, you can't kill her."

"I'm ... not going to kill her." Katniss rasped, as she looked up, her hand coated in her own blood, her nose unbroken but still bleeding, her cut lip, and her too-cold grey eyes. Sergeant Alysha's own brown eyes widened. "I'm going to show her just how soft a half-blooded bitch Scout is."

"...Oh." Was Jim's quiet, strangled reply. "That's, ah, that's better?"

Sergeant Alysha was so transfixed by the words sliding out of Katniss's blood-covered mouth, that she did not see the blood-coated fist swinging back to slam her right into her jaw, sending her tripping backwards over one of the smaller tables -- and unfortunately putting her right against the window. She let out a choked scream as Katniss came running up to her, grabbed the wooden rafter and swung forward. Kicked out with both booted feet, right into the middle of that nice open space between her armored breasts, to send her flying through the window.

The scouts and Jim watched, silently, as Katniss turned to look at Alyshia's soldiers. They all looked someplace else, abruptly. Katniss glared for a second longer, before she followed Alyshia out the window. They all then heard Alyshia yelping, "No - wait - not my -!" And the solid clang of someone getting kicked again, right in the breastplate.

Jim clicked his tongue against the top of his mouth, before he slid his chair back. "... So - I'm going to go get the Commander." And with that? He headed out in a flat run towards the door.

Atisha looked at the window, and then at her fellow scouts. "I'm gonna go get Lead Scout Harding." And with that, she was off like a shot.

"I ... think I'll go find Lady Rutherford." John scooted out in Atisha's wake.

Feran and Celise looked at one another, and said at the same time, "Mistress Pel" before they too, left in a great hurry.

Leaving behind a very quiet tavern, outside of the bartender who was looking out his window and sighing, yelling out to Katniss from where she was hunting Alyshia down across the courtyard, "You owe me a window, Everdeen!"

Comments

[mythalenaste]

"Katniss--KATNISS!"

Feran and Celise found her, and she's running full speed towards the scene.

"Katniss, STOP!"

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss had made a promise to the scouts, and Jim, that she wouldn't kill Alyshia -- and she wasn't going to. However, she had absolutely no intentions whatsoever to letting the bigger woman hit her in the face again, so yes, she was absolutely using every trick to keep the woman on the ground.

And right now, she just happened to have her knees in Alyshia's shoulder-blades, pinning her to the ground while she bent one arm backwards. Her grey eyes were still cold, cold as a winter's day, but at least the blood had started to slow into drips.

The moment that she heard Pel's voice though, telling her to stop? She released the other woman's arm and pushed herself up.

"And that's the difference between animals, and someone who is actually humane." She spat down at Alyshia's back. "I know when to stop when I've gone too far."

[mythalenaste]

"No, you do not." Pel storms through and grabs Katniss by the arm. "Get her to the surgeon," she orders one of the bystanders. "Now."

Now she starts dragging Katniss away from the scene, if she will let her, clearly fuming.

[the_effect_she_has]

"I do too!" Was Katniss's ever so mature reply, "I stopped hitting her and just then I was making sure she stayed on the ground and wouldn't hit me when I wasn't looking! That's growth, Pel."

She does, however, let the older woman pull her away, as she finally brought her hand up to her mouth again, and with her free hand started to dig out her handkerchief to stuff against her face. "I don't know why you're mad at me. She started it. I just finished it."

John was already hauling up Alyshia, none too gently, to get her over to the surgeon. Man was stronger than he looked, Katniss thought to herself, before she frowned and turned her gaze to where Pel was dragging her.

"Where in the name of the Creators are you dragging me?"

[mythalenaste]

"Away," Pel says sternly. "Where you'll cool off. You didn't finish it. I finished it. Or didn't you hear me telling you to stop?"

[perseverances]

Scout Jim had gotten the Commander as he had promised to do so, and when the scout had explained to Cullen exactly what had happened and was happening, Cullen took leave of his office and ran down the stairs and into the courtyard, hauling himself up toward the Tavern where everyone had gathered.

He pushed through the crowd that had been gathering to watch the spectacle, raising his voice to tell the entire group to disperse before they find themselves with extra duties. He had to shout at a few others who seemed to be more hard of hearing than everyone else. Today was already shaping up to be such a lovely day.

"Blessed Andraste, what in the world is going on here?!" Someone was going to get in trouble for this.

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss sighed around her cloth. Right, now she was going to get lectured.

Which was now compacted that now she was going to get lectured by the Commander, as well.

"Pel ... you'd best just drag me over there." Katniss sighed, as she took her handkerchief away from her face. Might as well get hit by both catapults at once.

[mythalenaste]

"You're going to the surgeon. Commander, if you don't mind following." Pel didn't see much, but she saw enough. She's not about to throw Katniss under the bus in front of the Commander, but Katniss isn't getting off scot-free either.

[perseverances]

He motions for Pel to lead on, because right now he's not even sure how to react. Stupid squabbles like this shouldn't be happening when there were more important things to worry about.

...also he might not have the best picture of the story yet. Jim didn't say too much.

Katniss and Pel

[the_effect_she_has]

Fixing the windows with scraped hands isn't pleasant - but Katniss gets it. They're only going to get worse from any possible accidents she might have putting the window in. Besides, as object lessons go, it's not a bad one. Katniss gives up to Cullen and Pel for insight - she has to be careful, putting in the window. It takes time. Patience. Strength.

So as she is carefully fitting the frame in, her grey eyes narrowed with focus, she asks. "I really scared you, didn't I?"

[mythalenaste]

Pel is no spirit healer, but she knows a basic healing spell. Magical first aid, in a sense. She can't erase hurts, but she can shrink them and help the pain. She reaches out to stop Katniss briefly so she can repair her hands a little.

"Yes." She's not going to berate Katniss, not now. Not that she thinks Katniss did well, but she can't punish her for an outburst long in coming. What will really serve Katniss is some time to heal, not lecturing about something she already knows.

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss lets the other woman take her hands, lets her do her healing spell, and she sighs. "I shouldn't have let her get to me. It's the same trigger, every time. Half-blood bitch, half-blood whore. Like being on both sides of the human elven line means that I automatically turn into a prostitute."

She looks at her hands, as the wounds heal up slightly, on Pel's pale hands. Both of their hands, soft over the calluses from use, strong and capable. "Zevran calls me out on the same thing - too much fire. Too little caution." She flexes her fingers. "I can't turn the fire off, Pel. All I can do is direct it. I promise, I'll work on pointing it towards our true enemies."

Corpheyeus. The Red Templars. The Chantry and their vaults of lies on elven history.

[mythalenaste]

"I'm not going to scold you, Katniss. You'll get plenty of that from Cullen. Anyway, you know what you did wrong. I'll not patronize you."

She gives Katniss a bit of an eye.

"From what I understand, whores are as much a business as anyone. I don't know why it's an insult. Let it go. And don't sell yourself short--you have just as much capacity for self-control as anyone. Don't make excuses."

And here she said she wasn't going to scold.

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss arched an eyebrow in turn, as her hands were healed, before she pressed her lips together. She bit back the remark, 'Yes Keeper', so how was that for a mark in the self control channel?

Still, Pel's words clearly made an impact, because she felt silent after that, mulling them over. "... I didn't mean to offend whores."

[mythalenaste]

"I don't think you have, yet." There's a beat, then she moves forward and wraps her arms around Katniss tightly.

"Are you all right?"

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss bit her bottom lip, and then wrapped her arms tightly around the other woman.

"I'm fine, Pel. If it's a fight, you know I can handle myself." She squeezed, before she spoke wryly, "It's everything I clearly need to work on."

[mythalenaste]

"I didn't mean the fight. Are you all right?"

Cullen and Katniss

[the_effect_she_has]

It's a few hours later when Katniss is finished with the window, and her talk with Pel. Her hands are bandaged and her expression pensive, as she passes by Jim to his door. The messenger gives her a sympathetic look, and a little firm nod.

One corner of her mouth lifts, as she pats Jim gently on the shoulder. Well, she knows Jim's still in her corner.

She raps three times on the door and waits.

[perseverances]

His head throbs. He aches and today has been far too long of a day and for once he wishes he were asleep right now. But there are still things to do and reports to read and he just wishes people would stop knocking on the bloody door-

He stops himself from shouting to just open the blasted thing. He takes a breath in slowly, composing himself. "Enter."

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss slips inside, pausing to take a bead on Cullen's mood. She's not sure if she's going to get a (well-deserved, yes she'll admit it) lecture from the Commander, or a concerned and angry Cullen for her face. She's sorry she's upset him, but she isn't going to be sorry for standing up for herself, oh no -

Yet when she looks at him, there's something ... wrong. She frowns, as she steps further into the room. "I'm here, as requested."

[perseverances]

"Sit, please." It comes out a bit more curt than he wishes it, but he's still a bit angry at the entire situation. He knows that Katniss had every right to defend herself from the fight, and ugh. This is just way too complicated for him to think about right now.

"This can not happen again."

[the_effect_she_has]

Right, he is currently her Commander. So she does as he bids, sitting and folding her hands tightly in her lap. Her body as as tight as her bowstring, upright and she meets his gaze.

"I will not let people say things like that. It cheapens the entire Inquisition. Everything you and the Spymaster and the Seeker and the Ambassador are trying to build." She states firmly, and she warned him from the first day and he knows it - she hates bullies. However... she sighs, closing her eyes for a moment, before looking at him more solemnly.

"You are right though. 'This' cannot happen again. I need to mind my ... level of temper." Now here she looks down at her hands, "I am sorry I dishonored you."

[perseverances]

"You have every right to defend yourself against something like that. And you didn't dishonor me." He pauses, softening his done. "This... I want this to work, between us. Fights will only strengthen rumors, and the Inquisition cannot handle that."

He rubs the side of his head, closing his eyes as he does so. "I do not find fault in what you did. Just... control your temper, please."

[the_effect_she_has]

She breaths in deeply, but he's right. Rumors were just as bad as slander, and harder to disprove. If they thought she was unstable - no. The Inquistion couldn't be hung on her temper. This couldn't be how she honored Prim's memory. It couldn't be how she lost him - death would be easier.

She nods her head, still looking down at her her hands, before she looks up at him, determination tilting her chin. "I will. I promise."

... He's still rubbing the side of his head. She frowned again, but waited. That was a concern of the woman, not the scout. Well, both honestly, but scout couldn't ask him.

[perseverances]

"That's all I can ask."

He knows that frown. Mia gives him that same frown when he tries to push himself through his own suffering. He hates it when people worry about him; something so insignificant as a headache shouldn't cause people to do this.

He has to explain it to her. "Forgive me. It's just a headache."