Perhaps if I drag Josephine along. She is very good at persuading people that they want the exact opposite of what they originally desired. ( But, allow her this: ) Are you saying that my 'delusions' and 'weak mind' are useful? Are you acknowledging that you actually paid them some mind?
( This is basically the best, and it is... there is a reason why she feels better in the presence of Alistair and Zevran and Morrigan than she does with most any others. She feels like she is a person who can have ideals and believe and make a difference. They did not always (read: hardly ever) see eye to eye when they travelled together, but... but this feels better than she has for a long while. Even the ongoing mockery of Alistair has a comfortable familiarity. ) I named one of my nugs after him, ( she idly comments, and then frowns, thinking. If she's made that admission, then she should probably come clean. ) Actually, there's one named after you, as well. Always making Nugistair run away, poor thing.
( But: ) Do you really want Alistair able to play pranks on you as well as I could? ( Not that she has (yet) ... still, there is a mix of humour and genuine concern when she says, ) I will not see Skyhold fall from your mutual vendetta. No, some skills are better kept in certain hands.
( Very old, almost lost. 'A sense of decency?" Leliana might ask, were she in one of her more vicious moods, and whether the barb would be set against a particular person or just Thedas in general would be a mystery. 'Gentleness?' might be the joke better suited for teasing Morrigan, though whether that teasing would be playful or run closer to goading would be another question again, and Leliana is not sure she wants to lean to either, in this subject.Instead she thinks, and she considers how Morrigan has seemed from a distance, from the words Zevran spoke that encouraged her to soften her own words, somewhat. )
Is it to protect Kieran? ( The question comes more softly and more carefully, the way one might carefully lay a reassuring hand on the back of a particularly unhappy feline, with the mixed hopes of bringing it comfort and not being instantly drawn into its maw. A little more-- straight, serious, more Nightingale and less Leliana, but with far too much of the latter's influence, ) Such a place will be secured. A time will come when I must speak of it to the advisors, I suspect, if it is so powerful, but until that time your secret will remain with me. Will it require guards?
( Supervision that might be for the sake of Cassandra and Cullen and Josephine, as much as for Morrigan's peace for mind. Cassandra and Cullen would not think highly of her friend - strained friendship that it was, if ever such a dynamic as theirs in those days could be even called 'friendship' and not 'discordant acquaintance' - for myriad reasons, all of which pale to Leliana's loyalty to those she wandered with, for one who has fought so desperately for her own freedom, and who fights now for her son's. Josephine is always a diplomat, but... she can well imagine that she, too, would be uncomfortable with Morrigan's presence, with her gaining influence here as she has in the Winter Palace.
Onto easier topics, there is a moment of rare and surprising indignation, and she is more the girl from the Blight in that moment than she has been in months. ) I never lectured!
And I never spoke of taffeta, ( A little prim, although it gives way to something of an amused quirk of the mouth. ) And I suspect I was naive in my assessment. Silk would be very becoming, though velvet would likely be better for the pressing social engagements of Skyhold.
( And, for the record: ) Morrigan, your status at Celene's side and your status as an apostate who adventured with the Hero of Ferelden is likely to scandalise them quite enough, without a low cut. ( A pause, and then, very dryly, ) That simply works with one of your more redeeming qualities.
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( This is basically the best, and it is... there is a reason why she feels better in the presence of Alistair and Zevran and Morrigan than she does with most any others. She feels like she is a person who can have ideals and believe and make a difference. They did not always (read: hardly ever) see eye to eye when they travelled together, but... but this feels better than she has for a long while. Even the ongoing mockery of Alistair has a comfortable familiarity. ) I named one of my nugs after him, ( she idly comments, and then frowns, thinking. If she's made that admission, then she should probably come clean. ) Actually, there's one named after you, as well. Always making Nugistair run away, poor thing.
( But: ) Do you really want Alistair able to play pranks on you as well as I could?
( Not that she has (yet) ... still, there is a mix of humour and genuine concern when she says, ) I will not see Skyhold fall from your mutual vendetta. No, some skills are better kept in certain hands.
( Very old, almost lost. 'A sense of decency?" Leliana might ask, were she in one of her more vicious moods, and whether the barb would be set against a particular person or just Thedas in general would be a mystery. 'Gentleness?' might be the joke better suited for teasing Morrigan, though whether that teasing would be playful or run closer to goading would be another question again, and Leliana is not sure she wants to lean to either, in this subject.Instead she thinks, and she considers how Morrigan has seemed from a distance, from the words Zevran spoke that encouraged her to soften her own words, somewhat. )
Is it to protect Kieran? ( The question comes more softly and more carefully, the way one might carefully lay a reassuring hand on the back of a particularly unhappy feline, with the mixed hopes of bringing it comfort and not being instantly drawn into its maw. A little more-- straight, serious, more Nightingale and less Leliana, but with far too much of the latter's influence, ) Such a place will be secured. A time will come when I must speak of it to the advisors, I suspect, if it is so powerful, but until that time your secret will remain with me. Will it require guards?
( Supervision that might be for the sake of Cassandra and Cullen and Josephine, as much as for Morrigan's peace for mind. Cassandra and Cullen would not think highly of her friend - strained friendship that it was, if ever such a dynamic as theirs in those days could be even called 'friendship' and not 'discordant acquaintance' - for myriad reasons, all of which pale to Leliana's loyalty to those she wandered with, for one who has fought so desperately for her own freedom, and who fights now for her son's. Josephine is always a diplomat, but... she can well imagine that she, too, would be uncomfortable with Morrigan's presence, with her gaining influence here as she has in the Winter Palace.
Onto easier topics, there is a moment of rare and surprising indignation, and she is more the girl from the Blight in that moment than she has been in months. ) I never lectured!
And I never spoke of taffeta, ( A little prim, although it gives way to something of an amused quirk of the mouth. ) And I suspect I was naive in my assessment. Silk would be very becoming, though velvet would likely be better for the pressing social engagements of Skyhold.
( And, for the record: ) Morrigan, your status at Celene's side and your status as an apostate who adventured with the Hero of Ferelden is likely to scandalise them quite enough, without a low cut. ( A pause, and then, very dryly, ) That simply works with one of your more redeeming qualities.