Fade Rift: Inbox

[keenly]

you know what to do

Comments

[keenly]

...That's not her hair?

[sulahnan]

Is it?? I thought it was one of those head cloths.

[keenly]

I thought it was her hair because she had no reason to wear one of those head cloths.

Well either way, not covering my hair. I have very nice hair. They said so when they shaved it off at the Circle.

[sulahnan]

Rude of them to shave it off if they thought it was so pretty.

[keenly]

They did it to a lot of apprentices who came in from poor families in case they had lice.

[sulahnan]

Ugh.

[ She looks at him, quite serious despite her stupor. ]

You do have beautiful hair, Colin. It's too powerful, they had to suppress it.

[ Aaand she's laughing again. ]

[keenly]

[And so is he, to the point of having little snorts as he inhales.]

The true source of my magic, [he giggles as he flips it luxuriously.]

[sulahnan]

[ In her giggles, she fumbles for her wine — which she foolishly set on the railing of the balcony — and spills some onto the street below and, by the sounds of it, narrowly missing a passer-by below. ]

Shit— SORRY! [ she calls down, then retreats to sit back in her chair again, giving Colin a yikes face past some more tittering into her glass. ] Whoops.

[ And the next thing that disrupts her drinking is sitting on the journal in her pocket, so she has to shift to take it out and prop it on the arm rest — but it falls to the floor anyway. ]

[keenly]

[It leads Colin to pick it up and hand it to her with a grin.]

[sulahnan]

[ Which in turn reminds her what she's been scribbling down in that journal. She taps it on her forehead like that might impart something from her brain to the pages. ]

I've been trying to remember all the stuff I gotta do when we go bury my clan. Putting it in here. [ This time when she puts it on the arm rest, it stays balanced. ] I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff.

[keenly]

[Colin’s grin diminishes into an uncertain little smile—grinning like a fool isn’t very sensitive when discussing a funeral.]

It seems like I heard there’s an ancient elven burial site on Sundermount. They say you don’t burn your dead.

[sulahnan]

Oh, they say, do they? [ She, at least, isn't uncertain, and perfectly willing to joke around the subject, but not about it. ] Yeah honestly the pyres kinda scare me.

[ Squint. It takes some effort to think back to Eshal's drinking party, because she was wasted for it. ]

I think I told Bastien as much at Eshal's drinking contest last year. For obvious reasons it's kinda fuzzy.

[keenly]

[Colin shifts uncomfortably at Bastien’s name.]

He’s coming, right?

[sulahnan]

Mmhm. [ She nods, and looks over to see his discomfort. Athessa props her chin up in her hand, leaning on the arm rest to look at him. ]

Okay, spill it. I know that look.

[keenly]

It’s nothing.

[sulahnan]

[ For a second she doesn't look convinced, but then she says alright and holds out her hand. ]

Lemme see your hand.

[keenly]

[weird, but all right.]

[sulahnan]

[ She peers at it studiously, as if reading his fortune...

then blows a raspberry on his palm. ]

[keenly]

[it works. he laughs.]

Another Dalish tradition?

[sulahnan]

Sure is.

[ She wipes his palm off with the fabric of her shirt and keeps one of his fingers hooked with one of hers, letting their limbs dangle like a bridge between their chairs. ]

If you don't talk to me about it, I'm gonna have to take drastic measures.

[keenly]

[a pause, then a huff of surrender.]

It’s just. Awkward. Because all he knows about me is pretty much just what he learned from reading the letter the Chantry sent to complain about me taking Lutair to trial. So besides the basics—I’m Fereldan, I’m a healer—he really just knows about the most painful, degrading and humiliating thing that ever happened to me. Sort of an awkward place to try to start a conversation from.

[sulahnan]

[ Athessa blows out a breath that puffs her cheeks. Yeah, she can see how that'd be awkward. ]

Yeah. If I didn't know Bastien I definitely would feel like that if all he knew about me was what happened with Devigny.

[ Which he does know, as Colin knows, but that isn't all he knows. She swings their hands back and forth a little. ]

So what's your worst case scenario, there? I can say with confidence that he's not likely to try and open with So, Colin, let's talk about the worst time of your life.

[keenly]

You’re, um. Wrong about that one.

[sulahnan]

Oh, shit, really?

[keenly]

Well, it was more, asking if I needed to talk about it. Same thing after I got captured, too. Seems like every time we talk, it’s because he feels sorry for me.