Fade Rift: Inbox

[keenly]

you know what to do

Comments

[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.

[sulahnan]

[ Oh, well that's a relief. ]

Ohhhh, okay. So it's more about being pitied, then?

[keenly]

Yeah. That, and it’s hard to talk to someone when they never talk about themself and you never talk about yourself. Usually people love talking about themselves.

[sulahnan]

[ She nods, sagely. ]

Right, right. I can let you in on the secret to getting Bastien to talk about himself, if that makes anything easier.

[keenly]

...Sure.

[sulahnan]

Ask him.

[ She grins. An overly simple answer, naturally. ]

[keenly]

[he deflates.]

Right. Of course.

[but talking is harrrrrrd.]

Maybe we need those spirits to come back. The ones that took us all to those awful dreams last winter. It was terrible, but it got some conversations out of the way.

[sulahnan]

[ A short bark of a laugh. ]

No thanks. I would still rather punch whatever spirits are responsible for all that.

[ Not only for the dreams that she shared with Colin, but with Bastien, and Deimos. She shakes her head. ]

It's easier to just talk to people.

[keenly]

For you.