keenly | Fade Rift: Inbox

Yeah maybe... I can do plenty of stuff as well as I gotta, but there's nothing I'm really...passionate about that I can do well.

[ Well. ]

Besides sex. Or singing. But I don't think sex counts.

The way you talk about sex, it's definitely a sort of art for you. It just isn't an art you show to everyone.

[ She shrugs again, this time a little self-conscious. ]

I guess so. I just like to know I'm making people I like feel good.

I...don't think I've heard you sing.

[He doesn't want to pressure her.]

Any requests?

[ No bashfulness about singing, then. Just about the softer side of sex stuff. ]

Sulahnan means the land of song, after all.

Your pick. Anything that means something to you.

[ Another slow drag on the joint is all the time she needs before deciding on one song she remembers from Rivain. ]

[By the end, Colin is practically boneless and watching her in rapture. When it ends, he gives a blissful sigh as if he'd been holding his breath the whole time.]

That's...wow. Wow.

[ She pantomimes a performer's bow and smiles, seeking out her wine for another sip. ]

First song I heard when I went to Rivain.

Your voice. [Another sigh.] How do you do that?

[???]

I just...sing. Whaddya mean how do I do it?

I just cook, and you ask me all the time how I do it.

Yeah, that's true, but...I dunno, cooking has clear steps and rules. It'd be really hard to explain how to make your voice rise and fall.

Not as clear rules as you might think. A lot of it depends on the weather, how hot or cold, whether it's raining, things like that. You just have to play it by ear, so to speak. I don't know the rules for singing, but I'm sure they exist, or it wouldn't be so hard for some of us. You just happen to know them naturally, somehow.

[ Well, when you put it like that. Athessa gives it some serious thought, possibly more than is truly warranted, but she's high and not really thinking about whether or not her singing is an art comparable to his.

But she gets an idea. ]

Would you wanna do a trade?

Teach you how to cook? Absolutely.

Just one thing, really. One recipe, for one song.

[His eyes light up.]

Of course! You're family, so you need to learn our paella recipe.

Maybe two recipes, then, for two songs. [ She laughs, charmed at his excitement. ] Do you know how to make spice cake? The kind that tastes like those biscuits you made.

There are a lot of spice cakes from all over Thedas, and most of them have star anise. Got a specific one?

It's one they sell in the markets in Rivain. Up around Kont-Aar they have one with vanilla, but further south they use more cinnamon and ginger. Cardamom, too.

[A soft little gasp.]

Oh, I've had those! In...I think it was Afsaana. I'll have to do a bit of research and experimentation but I'm sure I can come up with something good. We'll just have to visit Rivain one day to refine the recipe.

[ Now it's Athessa's turn to have her eyes light up (probably literally, too). ]

Even just getting close enough would be good, but I definitely want to go back someday. I'll have to, anyway. Baz says I need to get some seeds for trees there.

[ Even if Bastien had been saying things only to make her feel better, it was a good idea. ]

What for?

Oh, I was — [ She waves dismissively, because why she was upset is less important than what Bastien said. ] — ya know, being a mess again, and he told me I'd be alright, so I asked when?

He said, first we'll go lay my clan to rest, and while we're there we'll find some acorns or seeds. Then we'll go to Rivain and get seeds from there, and from one other place where I was happy. And we'll find somewhere nice and pretty and calm to plant them, and when the trees have grown and birds nest in the branches, I can ask them if I'm alright, and they'll say that I am.

[ It's silly, perhaps, such a story. But it feels like the sort of thing her hahren would say. ]

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keenly - 2020-09-06 07:11 (UTC) - Expand

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sulahnan - 2020-09-06 07:24 (UTC) - Expand