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[stabsbooks]

WHO: Cassandra Pentaghast and you
WHAT: Cassandra, in and around Skyhold
WHEN: First half of Drakonis, before the ball
WHERE: Various
NOTES: Does your character want to yell at Cassandra about Anders? About Galadriel? About her choices in general? Alternatively, do they want to celebrate her on a job well done and thank her for her vigilance in keeping Skyhold safe? Maybe try to finally get a straight answer about exactly what is going on? This is the place!

For timeline purposes: post-Anders announcement; before/in the midst of/after rifter interrogations; either pre-Galadriel's imprisonment or while she still languishes in the cells.

She might be found swinging angrily at the dummies in the yard, assisting Cullen in training what recruits they have, or nursing a large ale at the Herald's Rest. More than likely, she's dodging Vivienne and her endless preparations, instructions, and reminders for the ball. Wherever she is, Cassandra is likely not in the best of moods, and there is a certain righteous fire in her gaze whenever she is challenged. Leliana's words and the way she had looked at Cassandra still sting, but she does not regret what she has done.

Still, no one can possibly be angry all the time, right? Maybe you'll catch her on a good day...

Comments

[arsebiscuit]

"A bit. A bit of a tit. A tit-bit. Oh, that's a good one."

She is going to save it for later use that only Cassandra will understand, isn't that nice?

"You're a Seeker and a dragon killer. Don't be stupid. The scary's one of your fifty names, yeah? Just try...spreading the word a bit. 'Bout why what's what."

[stabsbooks]

Cassandra rolls her eyes hugely, with a shake of her head and a disgusted noise. Incorrigible. If anyone else but Sera had dared to call her that...

But it is Sera, and she merely casts the elf a dry look, a slight frown on her face.

"It is not that simple." The frown deepens. "I do not have to justify myself to anyone."

[arsebiscuit]

"Because that's not a thing scary people say."

Don't make her dress you in disguise and spend time among the little people, Cass. She will do it. If it takes her a thousand gallons of wine to make it happen.

[stabsbooks]

"Ugh."

No, even Cassandra can recognize how dangerous that sounds. She huffs out a frustrated sigh, shaking her head.

"I only meant that I do not have to justify myself to them." No, that's not right either. She frowns. "That I do not appreciate being questioned and my actions judged by all of Skyhold. How am I to protect them, if I cannot act? If I have to continually...report myself?" She eyes Sera. "It is my duty to identify threats to the Inquisition and deal with them. If people do not trust me to fulfil that duty, to do what must be done to keep them safe, then why are they here?"

[arsebiscuit]

"There's no bloody place else to go, is there? They came for the Herald. Herald's..."

Sera glanced away, frown forming. Months away and she'd almost...she'd thought maybe the Herald would manage another miracle. Be back by the time she returned. But no. Still dead.

"Herald's gone. Still, this's all's left fighting Cory-face, innit? But you're no sparkly chosen one. Don't get faith just for being you. So time to earn it, Lady Seeker Bits. Then they'll stay because the want. Not 'cause there's no choice in it."

[stabsbooks]

Oh.

Cassandra casts her eyes away in turn, staring unseeing into the distance. She has not spoken much of Evelyn, and when she had...it hadn't gone well. Slapping Varric had been involved, and unshed tears.

The tears do not appear now, but she is silent, staring with a frown into the valley below.

"I do not claim to be," she says quietly, but firmly. "I do not want to be." She risks a glance at Sera. "Is faith, is being chosen, required for people to trust in their leaders? There are things I cannot just tell everyone."

[arsebiscuit]

"Dunno. Can't tell people how to be people, can't tell what they need to feel right."

She's not a touchy feeling lady. Oh, with a lovely girl, sure. But lovely as Cass maybe, she's not up for Sera's kinda touchy. So she doesn't turn for a hand on the shoulder of any of that mess. But she does turn enough so they're closer in personal space. In friend space.

"But you can figure it. Just takes a some give and take from both sides, don't it? They'll bitch up sometimes, but don't mean you have to punch down."

[stabsbooks]

Cassandra looks down at the elf for a long moment, and then nods.

She is...she does not understand all the nuances of the situation. Could not understand, not with the information she has, and Cassandra cannot tell her.

But she is right, perhaps. About some things.

"Thank you, Sera," she says quietly. "I will...consider what you have said." It's all she can promise.

[arsebiscuit]

"Good enough. Now. How 'bout we go make some nobles shit themselves, huh? Elf and Divine's own hand walking 'bout the place arm in arm."

Side by side, more like. But that image was the more entertaining one, the pair of them skipping through Josie's precious grand hall.