Cassandra Pentaghast (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stabsbooks) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
faderift2016-03-16 07:39 pm
stabsbooks) wrote in faderift2016-03-16 07:39 pm
open; with or without your approval
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.
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...
well this got long, i apologise;
"I saw the prisoner, Galadriel. I admit, I was angry; one of us gets arrested could reflect on us all." Had reflected on them all but she can't really feel smug or vindicated when she remembers how it went. "I might have...argued. A little. I wanted to know what she'd done, and then she---
"She said that what she 'may have done' would be the least of my concerns when her patience was at an end. That she did not forget those who disparaged her honour, as if it is only her honour, as if we do not all share some stake in it." Her hand is set on the table, soft green light that doesn't match the anger creeping into her tone now that she's had time and distance away from the prison. "She threatened me. She said I was so eager to spill my own blood - I wanted to know what she'd done, the guards heard that part though...it was like time stopped. The bars tried to move away from her, I know how that sounds, it sounds ridiculous even as I say it now. The shadows and sounds were off, like they weren't there. The fire made no sound or movement in the brazier. I'd said to her that whatever echoes a man or woman hears in a cell, that they are only hollow echoes and that the walls have ears, her reply was this: the threats I make echo at my behest, as near or far as I desire. The cage that keeps me is of little consequence."
It sounds more ridiculous now that she's said it, and she's belatedly aware that maybe she should have said something during her interrogation but she'd needed more time to try to get over the strangeness of what had happened, how frightened she'd been at the time, and how it had even happened, as if time had stood still with nothing but them and the bars separating them existing.
"I had hoped we would all feel a solidarity with one another, since we came through the rifts and that experience, this mark that we carry now? It still makes a part of us the same with an experience no one else here can claim that they share, not even the natives marked so. I realise that was a mistake." A bad one but she's twenty and full of bravado at times, she would like to think the best of people, mutual cooperation and all those things that look so good on paper. "And that it was something that should be brought to your attention."
no subject
"You went to see her." She had not outright barred the prisoner from having visitors - but truthfully, she had not thought much of it at all, or expected that anyone would care to go and talk to the rifter. Much less Araceli. She laughs, bitterly. "And she threatened you." It is hardly a surprise. It is what the elf had been imprisoned for in the first place, after all. She shakes her head, watching Araceli keenly. "You went to the prisoner in her cell, you antagonized her, and now you come to me upset that she responded in kind? What would you have me do? I cannot imprison her further."
She frowns, suddenly suspicious. "Why did you visit her at all? What sort of solidarity were you hoping to achieve? You were angry at her for being arrested?" Not for what she had done, no - for being caught, for how it might reflect on others. She moves closer, eyes narrowing. "What is she to you? What do you know of her?"
no subject
This isn't Leliana, who knows her secret, that Araceli guards a queen when she's at home but right now her word might mean even less to Cassandra than it did in the interrogation chamber. It has her shaking her head, roughly pushing her hair behind her ears for something to do with her hands so they don't curl into fists on the table. She has tried not to rock the boat, she has tried to behave and keep her nose clean so that one of them at least can always say they have a spotless record, to beg for a chance should it be needed, and she won't have some woman who thinks herself above them all ruining that. She has tried not to let anyone see how miserable she is whenever she thinks of home or how frightened she is of her mark, what it means that she's changed so that no one can point a finger at her in accusation. She has done her very best to be helpful, taking whatever assignments are given, to pitch in to help the Inquisition. All that information she's gathered too, so people can understand the world they're in now. Understanding is always key.
"This is what I didn't want happening!" Once her voice climbs enough for people to glance at them, she drops it again, forcing herself to take a deep breath and calm herself. If she misses Leandra's gentle hand on her arm or at her cheek, then no one is here to know and she drops her head so Cassandra can't see any grief in her eyes, because it isn't hers to see. "I didn't want the actions of one of to reflect on all of us. That is why I went to her, that is why I am upset!"
Not angry, but upset. She is worried and it's eating a hole in her; when hasn't this been simmering in the back of her mind, how many times has she bit her tongue until she could almost taste the blood in her mouth. Is it any wonder now that she demanded an explanation from Galadriel? Is it any wonder now that she worries even more about their reputations, when a threat escalated so quickly into something so vicious?
no subject
"You are a foolish girl," she says, her voice low, but sharp. "Galadriel's actions reflected on no one but herself. No one else was held accountable. I questioned you, and when you proved yourself not to be a threat, I let you go. What more were you afraid of?"
She's not really expecting an answer, nor does she want one. She stands, her drink forgotten on the table. The atmosphere of the room is suddenly oppressive. She needs to get out, into the open air.
"You do yourself no favors by attempting to ally with her. Do not approach her again." Cassandra frowns down at the girl, forbidding. A warning. "I will not judge you for having something in common with her that you cannot help. But be careful of the company you keep."