Fade Rift: Inbox

[keenly]

you know what to do

Comments

[sulahnan]

I might not be the best person to ask, [ she says, finding some bread and slicing off a piece. ] I've never really done anything for birthdays.

[ What to put on this bread? She's kind of bored of meat and cheese, so maybe just some butter and honey. ]

Did you have any ideas? Like a dinner party or somethin'?

[keenly]

[Colin takes a basket of various preserves off of one shelf and offers it.]

Smaller. Maybe just the three of us, and anyone else Ben wants to invite.

[He peers at her as she hunts for food. Has she not eaten dinner?]

What've you been up to tonight?

[sulahnan]

Oh, you know. Trying to make up with Byerly, starting a bar brawl, arranging for a Guard to get promoted in exchange for him informing on his squadmates, fighting with Byerly, bypassing curfew. Normal stuff.

[ Oooh, black currant preserves. She plucks that one from the basket and plops down at the table, using a spoon to put the jelly on the bread. ]

Just hanging out with friends sounds like a good birthday option to me, if that's what you wanna do. [ Then, teasing: ] You haven't been trying to think of something since you got off work, have you?

[keenly]

[Colin looks faintly embarrassed before circling back.]

I don't know if Byerly makes up with anyone. He just. Gives up at the first bump in the road.

[sulahnan]

[ Oh nooo, Colin you're so CUTE. ]

He's got some self-worth issues, [ she explains, shrugging. ] Which is definitely his problem, not ours, but I'm too stubborn to let that fly. He tried to give up on me once already and I threw anything I could grab from his desk until he relented and told me what was wrong.

[keenly]

You can't have issues over something you don't have at all. [Colin shrugs, clearly at a low-simmering anger rather than a sharp hurt.] I can't do what you did. Not about this. It's up to him.

[And that's the end of that.]

Anything you need to make yourself comfortable tonight? I know you've got a clean nightshirt here.

[sulahnan]

[ She shakes her head that no, she doesn't need anything. But also, she did say she's stubborn, didn't she? ]

You're right, it is up to him. I told him as much tonight.

[keenly]

[A sympathetic sigh, and he moves in to wrap his arms around her.]

You're perfect. You know that?

[sulahnan]

Oof, I hope not. [ She holds the bread slice at arm's length so as not to smear him with jam. ] Seems like a lot of responsibility.

[ But she hooks her free arm around him and gives him a reassuring pat on the back. ]

You okay?

[keenly]

I'm fine. [It's not that dismissive excuse it often is, a way of brushing past her concern. He's actually fine.]

I talked to Bastien. He's got me painting the dining hall with Ben now. He...asks a lot of questions.

[sulahnan]

Yeaaah, he finds people really interesting. What kinda stuff did he ask?

[keenly]

Things about my life. Who my first patient was, how I got into healing, what my life at sea was like. Why I have a flat outside the Gallows. Things like that.

[sulahnan]

[ She nods and takes another bite of bread. ]

What was your life at sea like? [ A little cheeky, because she is being trained by Baz, after all. ] Mine was brief and spent either chumming the waters or drunk below.

[keenly]

[Really? Again?

Colin sighs.]

Spending four years doing ciphering in a floating barrel I can't get off of.

[sulahnan]

I'm kidding, Colin. [ She laughs, pleased with that reaction. ] He's training me, so I gotta turn his tricks around on him all the time.

[keenly]

Do you have to turn his tricks around on me, though?

[sulahnan]

[ Properly chastened, though not fully regretful: ] Sorry. You can tell me to fuck off, ya know.

Do you wanna hang out on the balcony tonight? You can say no. I wanna do what you wanna do. Even if that's just...sitting quietly or turning in.

[keenly]

It's all right.

[He thinks about it for a bit, before letting out a breath.]

Let's sit outside.

[sulahnan]

Sounds good.

[ It doesn't take long for Athessa to gobble up her slice of bread and migrate out onto the balcony, where they take up their usual spots on the chairs with wine or tea and the option of elfroot balanced on a decorative plate.

Athessa lays as she does on the deck chair, upside down with her hands folded behind her head, and gazes at the stars. A shooting star leaves a trail across the darkness. ]

Pretty...

[keenly]

[It's a beautiful sight, probably only visible because of the direction of the wind. Colin sighs out elfroot smoke, feeling somewhat more invincible than usual.]

What was it like, tearing up Devigny's house?

[sulahnan]

Scary, at first. [ She puffs out a few smoke rings, watching them drift up, up, and away. ] When I was scouting it out, and when we hadn't gone inside yet. Once we walked in, you could feel how empty it was. You know how sometimes you can walk into an old place and just...get a sense of...something?

[keenly]

Yes.

[sulahnan]

Well, his place didn't have that. No sense of anything, no presence, no...life. It was just empty rooms and empty chairs at empty tables, and a blood stain on his bed.

And wrecking his shit felt good. Felt right.

[ And it made her wonder: what would killing him herself have felt like? ]

Do you ever think about going after Lutair, now that he's not protected?

[keenly]

[he hesitates.]

I did think about it. Julius pointed out if anything happened to him, the Chantry would blame me, so... And I don’t have a place I can tear apart. Kinloch Hold didn’t fall down during Uldred’s rebellion, I sure can’t bring it down. Hasn’t stopped me thinking what might make me feel something like it, though.

[sulahnan]

[ she thought about maybe trying to track him down herself, but with how robbed she felt, she wouldn't want to deny Colin his own retribution. ]

There's plenty more to smash at Devigny's, if you wanna let loose sometime. Nobody's moved in, or seems to care, really.