→ ｔｈｅ ｓｅｒｐｅｎｔ ｏｆ ｎｅｖａｒｒａ

[ungovernable]

WHO: Benevenuta Thevenet, Dorian Pavus, Zevran Arainai, Nerva Lecuyer, Taashath, Rafael Viteri AND THE OTHER ONE. I don't know how to spell that and I already looked up Rafa's name.
WHAT: Pretty much what it says on the tin. And by tin I mean subject line.
WHEN: Covering a span of several weeks, after puppies and before showing up late to Emprise du Lion.
WHERE: Nevarra, mostly.
NOTES: Plotting post; original sign up post. Get at me at matriarchal or via PM if you have needs.

Having taken Ayse's information to the Inquisition leaders, Benevenuta is dispatched with a small group to handle the matter in Nevarra. Feel free to do individual closed threads within the subheaders of anything you want to achieve in Nevarra, and we can work out amongst ourselves how best to do plot elements! We will try to spread out plot contributions so that we don't get bogged down in a ten thousand person thread for any one part.

Comments

[ungovernable]

Benevenuta isn't quite preoccupied with her thoughts of work to fail to appreciate Zevran's talents (or how scrupulously he maintains the facade, which she approves of), but the ... witticism garners him a fleeting smile, letting the door swing shut behind her, twitching her skirts free of its path with her free hand.

"He made a joke," she says, smile lingering as she sits down. "Also a habit of his. But I think it might have some merit, if we want to be...very discreet. So we might make this Venatori unwell. Not too quick. Let everything run through him, if you follow me, until he cannot sustain himself any longer."

Her fingers tap thoughtfully against the edge of her seat. "But not too slow. Either."

[ombranera]

"He is a terribly witty man, this is true." Oh how charming, oh how handsome. In all seriousness, oh how handsome. There is a tree Zevran would wish to climb if only to see if he is in fact as pretty as he pretends to be all over. Knowing what he does of Magisters and their bloodlines? His money is on yes.

Zevran comes about behind Benevenuta, finishing the business of unpinning her hair. Should any enter, well. She is being attended to by one of her handmaidens. Nothing new. "Truly? Mmm. I know of a few ways to see this thing done."

He absolutely follows her meaning. The question is how long they wish it to take. "We are looking at days, then? Perhaps over the course of a week?"

[ungovernable]

Nothing new. She drops her hands with a sigh to allow him the task, her faint frown fixed on nothing in particular as she works through the possibilities and specifics in her mind. And - out loud, as there's a reason she pinned down Zevran for this and didn't just force Dorian to sit through an hour of the best possible ways to make a man excrete himself to death.

"A week, a little less," she agrees, tilting her head slightly to give him a better angle on the pins, the tight curls and discreet jewels. It's rather more elaborate than anything she wears in Skyhold; there were a few pairs of hands involved in putting together what she'd started taking down by herself.

Her lips purse - "I don't want to give him too much more free reign in my home, but I do think we'll be well-served by a delayed release, as well."

[ombranera]

"Mmm. Something added to the mix that might cause internal distress before the death? Make him feel unwell enough to keep to his chambers but not so much as to rouse suspicion. He has a fondness for undercooked pork; it provides excuse enough." How it has not yet killed him, Zevran has not quite sorted out. "Or perhaps the beginnings of a fever."

Those laid men and nobles out well enough they wasted to nothing in their beds. Funny thing to discuss while plucking out pins and releasing curls with a gentle, deft hand; lining them up in a neat row on the end table. "Something ingested for the start and topical for the continued reaction would likely work best. I've something that might do the trick."

[ungovernable]

"I have a few, as well," she says, tension in her shoulders releasing in increments as her coiffure comes down; a lady's armor undone. (A man's as well, perhaps, in Orlais.) "It's my preference to work uniquely; I expect between your collection and my own, it won't be a great challenge to craft."

It's both a matter of professional pride (Benevenuta is a very good poisoner) and practicality (Benevenuta is pragmatic to a fault); it's much harder to identify a poison that's been handcrafted to its purpose, delicate and precise quantities in combination to work together to whatever most efficient end suits her goal.

She hadn't, previously, indicated quite this level of familiarity - but it seems unlikely Zevran is going to be terribly shocked. Perhaps that she gets her own hands dirty.

[ombranera]

"You know what always makes me smile when someone has been skulking about where they shouldn't? Delirium. Most sicknesses that come from eating undercooked pork do have a fever that causes it's own mild delirium." If they are going to have a man shit himself to death- why not have a little fun with it? After all he is an interloper in this fine lady's home- how better to treat him?

That she, herself, is well versed in poisons? Is something of a vague surprised. That she knows of them? Not surprising. That she herself uses or crafts them? Intriguing.

"My dear lady, I come to like you more and more the better I come to know you." Another line of curls and pins- though he does pause to massage the nape of her neck gently to ease that tension.

[ungovernable]

"It is often said," - so demurely. Too demurely, the little minx. Benevenuta knows at least a great deal of what's said about her, and little of it is that she grows more charming on acquaintance; she starts well, making often excellent first impressions. People who grow to know her better in truth tend to find her more alarming than not. Dorian, for instance, she thinks most of all inclined to protect other people from her than be moved to act as guardian for his small friend.

(Socially and politically, yes. But she might be surprised.)

Her laugh is warm and unvirtuous. She says, "What is the saying? I'll show you mine...?"

She only wants him for his poisons.

(Well, mostly for his poisons.)

[ombranera]

"I should never. Such things are sacred among the guild and would have my mentors rolling in their graves." A beat. "Which, of course, means that I should."

Spite is a marvelous motivator and taking every stride available to him to spite the Crows, especially to share the tricks he knows with a woman that will make excellent use of them? Warms the nettled place where his heart might lie. "You must promise to only use them for those that are truly worth such gruesome deaths, however. But I do trust your judgement."