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

[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.