I don't want to be the first one folding

[arlathvhen]

WHO: Beleth and others.
WHAT: A series of various prompts in which Beleth meets up with people and chats and maybe makes friends. Or enemies. Who knows.
WHEN: Vaguely around Wintersmarch
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: There's some minor burns in one section??

Made ya look.

Comments

[arlathvhen]

Beleth looks up as she's addressed by the person who came through the course after her. She recognizes the girl as someone else who's been attending these classes, but can't recall any names attached to the face. She blinks as she listens to the question, and wonders how to gently tell the other woman that she'd been paying more attention to her own clothes than what Katniss had been doing.

Beleth gives her an assuring smile, shaking her head. "Absolutely not. You looked at him pretty neutrally, I would say."

It'd always been easier to lie.

[the_effect_she_has]

Relief flooded Katniss's expression, before she nodded her head once. "Good ... neutral is better than murder. I'm getting better." She shook her head a little, "I'm absolutely crap at lying to people with my face. How does anyone do it?"

She paused, because she recalled this woman seemed to have it down pat, "You're really good at it. You know. The charm thing. And every time you take the obstacle course, you grab everything with a smile. How do you do it?"

The powder, yes, Katniss saw it. But she's doing better than some of the younger rogues by far, who look like they got out of a flour mill.

[arlathvhen]

Beleth hesitates at that, not because she's reluctant to share her tricks with Katniss, but because she has never thought much about how she does it. Beleth smiles when she doesn't want to as naturally as she holds her breath underwater. It's a habit formed out of years trying to make sure that she was as approachable and pleasant as possible. Emotions being naturally suppressed while she decided what one would be best for the situation.

"You have to take your emotions and put them aside," She says slowly. "Just kind of. Think of it like your emotions are knick-knacks, and when you feel them, you have to look at them, and decide how pretty they are. And if they're ugly, you put them where no one else can see them. If you examine them and it looks like something someone would want to see, then you put it out on display." It feels so incredibly odd, too personal, trying to explain this. But she was one of Zevran's other students. He'd want her to help.

"You need to learn not to just put your emotions out as soon as you feel them. You can't control them like that. Suppress them and study them, and you can control them. Just like trying to tame a wild animal, you know?"

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss pressed her lips together at that, folding her arms over her chest as she thought on that. So, take your emotions. Look at them, decide which ones were pretty and she wanted to put out. Take the ugly ones, put them and lock them up. Only show people the ones they would feel comfortable with.

Supress. Study. Control. She looked up, before she nodded her head slowly, "...I have to grab ahold of my emotions. Then use the ones that are going to be useful for the situation."

[arlathvhen]

"Yes. Sometimes you'll have to make yourself look like you're feeling things that you're not...that can be tricky. I'd recommend getting a mirror or a friend, and think of things that make you feel that emotion. Like...with smiling, you think of something that makes you happy." She explained, started to move further to the side and sinking onto a nearby bench. She's a little bit nervous about trying to explain this--She's never done it before, what if she messes up? She'll ask Zevran later.

"When you feel happy, focus on how your face feels. What it feels like to look happy. Then practice making your face look like that naturally." She shrugged, rubbing the back of her neck. "That's what the friend is for. I think the hardest part is making yourself looking like those things when you feel the opposite. Smile when you're angry. Calm when you're scared. I still struggle with that."

[the_effect_she_has]

"I struggle with it all the time. Mostly, if I feel scared, or angry, or even happy ... I go to this." And then Katniss put on her impassive face, completely empty of emotions. As if nothing that was being said was affecting her one way or another.

She sighed, tugging on her braid once, as she frowned on the field, "And I've seen that face - it's my mother's face when she told us things she knew we wouldn't like." That she was leaving. Why they couldn't go with her and be a family. "Sometimes I wonder if I've managed to lock everything down with that face - and I don't know how to look happy when I'm actually thinking I am happy."

[arlathvhen]

Holy shit. Beleth smiles sympathetically, nodding as Katniss speaks, but...this was pretty personal stuff. She's not sure what the right answer to Katiss is, what would make things work for her. But Beleth is, at least, not entirely unfamiliar with people dumping their troubles on her. That's what happens when you are a constant sympathetic ear for anyone who wants to listen.

And she's pretty good at saying things that are comforting.

So Beleth just reaches out, patting Katniss' arm, still smiling warmly. "Hey, don't worry. Emotions work different for everyone. I'm sure it'll come to you one day, when you aren't expecting it. You'll just be sitting there, with someone you enjoy, doing something you enjoy, and it'll just occur to you that you're happy, and you're smiling. The secret is not over thinking it." That was what Zevran had told her, and it was something that she still struggled with. But it sounded good.

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss paused at that gesture -- she had to get used to that, people reaching out and touching her. Especially since it kept on happening. In turn though, she gave Beleth a quick, quiet smile. Not fake, persay, but real for a short amount of time before her expression switched back to neutral.

"Thank you. Since you're something of an expert ... it means a lot to hear you say that." Seriously, Beleth was good. If Katniss was half the shot that Beleth was with expressing herself with real, or fake warmth? Shed be the best shot in the Inquisition.