WHO: Ellis + OTA WHAT: Homecoming WHEN: Guardian WHERE: Kirkwall NOTES: Thread collection. Closed and open starters in the comments. Holler if you want something bespoke or drop in a wildcard, I'll roll with it.
Answering silence stands in for obvious doubt. But there’s cruelty in specificity and in looking down at his arms he’s seen a vest button he’d missed in his haste to evade Ruadh. The button takes priority.
“Well,” once he’s fastened up and refolded, stranded now for several seconds in the no man’s land between desk and table in his own quarters, “thank you for returning my familiar.”
She’s stretched her goblin paws up over her head, whatever instinct to rabbit kick at Ruadh’s snout lost between forms or never there to begin with.
A reprieve. Surely Silas has something else to say. But Ellis rises from the table rather than prompt him.
"I kept her too long."
To the tune of I'm in your debt.
Not just for the additional months. Thot had been a comfort. Silas hadn't given her over to him with that intention, but it had become true all the same as the days and weeks passed within the walls of that fort.
"I'm very grateful," is genuine, even as Ellis lowers himself to his haunches beside the pair. Thot doesn't need any assistance extricating herself, so it's more an offering of his hand for those batting paws. "I know where she would have rather been."
Dick watches him sink down, a sharp-eyed shade against the compact slab of his desk, cluttered with papers and books and a pickled dragon’s eyeball. It’s sturdy enough to withstand his weight settled back into it, not quite a sit while Thot the cat tests her teeth and claws comb light around Ellis’ knuckles.
He’s quiet again, acknowledgement of genuine sentiment in all the right notes at the pit of his throat. Courteous.
In much the way he knows his own use, he knows hers.
Thot is permitted. The light prickle of tooth and claw is a welcome thing, even as Ruadh rumbles in grumpy warning.
She has been of service. More so than Ellis thinks Silas might realize, and more than Ellis is capable of explaining. (He's already said too much aloud to Silas, and there are things not meant for him to carry.) So there is quiet, Ellis' attention turned down to Thot while awareness of Silas' scrutiny hums at the periphery of his thoughts.
"Let me know when you're ready," Ellis says finally. The matter Silas has raised doesn't feel exactly settled, but Ellis can see no other way forward in this conversation. "I'd like to speak to the Scoutmaster together."
Unsurprisingly, Ellis is out of his depth when it comes to spywork. Hopefully Silas will be able to close that gap, present a cohesive idea for them to act upon, to Yseult.
Making a list, submitting it to the Scoutmaster for criticism within days of remarking upon the carelessness with which they use Eluvians to cast Rifters down the throat of the Tevinter Imperium. Why wouldn’t this be well received.
Now Ellis and Ruadh the mabari are in his quarters and he must wait for them to leave, pushed back to his desk by their joined presence now as he’d been pressed to the hearth earlier. Thot is less bothered, still using the dog to anchor herself in spite of his grumbling. She does recede, teeth put away with a last rasping lick, her wide eyes yellowed in the firelight.
Silas isn't made to wait long. Ellis understands they've reached a conclusion.
Ruadh teeth nip after Thot, one last little expression of affection before heaving to his feet with a deep rumble of complaint as Ellis says, "You know where to find me when you've finished."
And with a single, soft whistle, Ellis makes for the door with Ruadh trotting along behind him.
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no subject
“Well,” once he’s fastened up and refolded, stranded now for several seconds in the no man’s land between desk and table in his own quarters, “thank you for returning my familiar.”
She’s stretched her goblin paws up over her head, whatever instinct to rabbit kick at Ruadh’s snout lost between forms or never there to begin with.
no subject
"I kept her too long."
To the tune of I'm in your debt.
Not just for the additional months. Thot had been a comfort. Silas hadn't given her over to him with that intention, but it had become true all the same as the days and weeks passed within the walls of that fort.
"I'm very grateful," is genuine, even as Ellis lowers himself to his haunches beside the pair. Thot doesn't need any assistance extricating herself, so it's more an offering of his hand for those batting paws. "I know where she would have rather been."
no subject
He’s quiet again, acknowledgement of genuine sentiment in all the right notes at the pit of his throat. Courteous.
In much the way he knows his own use, he knows hers.
“She’s pleased to have been of service.”
no subject
She has been of service. More so than Ellis thinks Silas might realize, and more than Ellis is capable of explaining. (He's already said too much aloud to Silas, and there are things not meant for him to carry.) So there is quiet, Ellis' attention turned down to Thot while awareness of Silas' scrutiny hums at the periphery of his thoughts.
"Let me know when you're ready," Ellis says finally. The matter Silas has raised doesn't feel exactly settled, but Ellis can see no other way forward in this conversation. "I'd like to speak to the Scoutmaster together."
Unsurprisingly, Ellis is out of his depth when it comes to spywork. Hopefully Silas will be able to close that gap, present a cohesive idea for them to act upon, to Yseult.
no subject
Making a list, submitting it to the Scoutmaster for criticism within days of remarking upon the carelessness with which they use Eluvians to cast Rifters down the throat of the Tevinter Imperium. Why wouldn’t this be well received.
Now Ellis and Ruadh the mabari are in his quarters and he must wait for them to leave, pushed back to his desk by their joined presence now as he’d been pressed to the hearth earlier. Thot is less bothered, still using the dog to anchor herself in spite of his grumbling. She does recede, teeth put away with a last rasping lick, her wide eyes yellowed in the firelight.
a long delayed bow to slap on this thread
Ruadh teeth nip after Thot, one last little expression of affection before heaving to his feet with a deep rumble of complaint as Ellis says, "You know where to find me when you've finished."
And with a single, soft whistle, Ellis makes for the door with Ruadh trotting along behind him.