Fade Rift: Inbox

[keenly]

you know what to do

Comments

[sulahnan]

[ She nudges him slightly to get him to side-step a puddle of something before continuing the conversation. ]

You could throw a party, or you could I dunno...go to the theater. Go out drinking with colleagues. Bribe a sea captain to give Waking Sea Tours to visiting dignitaries with too much coin and not enough sense and cut you in for 40%. Have a picnic.

[keenly]

[A moment's pause.]

The sea tours thing was something you did, wasn't it?

[sulahnan]

No, but it's something I've always thought about doing. Someday.

[ Historic Ghost Tours of the City of Chains, on the other hand...That, she did do. ]

[keenly]

See, that's a you thing. You're fun and interesting and have the confidence to pull it off. I'm more the...sensitive, quiet, artistic type who loves to cook but is terrible at small talk.

[sulahnan]

Nobody likes small talk anyway, that's why it's called small talk.

[keenly]

I'd rather listen while someone else talks. That's more comfortable. To be a host for whatever plans you've made, you've got to be able to talk.

[sulahnan]

Maybe you should cook for Wysteria, then. Get her talking about something she's passionate about and you'll never get a word in edgeways.

[keenly]

But I'd have to make friends with her first.

[sulahnan]

Yeah. She's a force of nature, Col. All you gotta do is be interested and she'll do the rest.

[ She shrugs. If he wants to lock himself away in another lonely tower... ]

But you don't have to, 'course. Don't have to do anything.

[keenly]

[A soft sigh.]

If only everyone else would do the work for me so I could be a coward in peace, [he says petulantly, complete with a deliberate pout.]

[sulahnan]

[ Athessa huffs out a soft laugh and hooks her arm through his. ]

Someday you're gonna have to stop hiding. Someday.

[keenly]

It's safe to hide, [Colin whines softly as his arm provides a little tension to keep Athessa's hooked around it.] Honestly, you're right. The worst that can happen is still better than being alone all the time.

[sulahnan]

[ To make the arm-hook even more casual, but also harder to escape, Athessa keeps her hands in her pockets. Really, that's all she wants to be able to provide for her friends: the means to not be alone. (If she's destined for that, she can save them from it.) ]

And you've spent long enough in towers.

[keenly]

[Well, putting it that way feels rather like a punch in the gut. Colin goes quiet, and if she looks at him, she will see tears in his eyes. He nods with a little smile.]

You're right. Walls, too. Maybe I've just got into the habit.

[His free hand reaches to swipe the tears away.]

[sulahnan]

[ She doesn't have to look to guess that it's what she'll see. It's contained in his silence. So she spares him being seen and keeps looking ahead, her own fond smile lingering. ]

Ya know, [ she laughs, softly. ] I'm kinda nervous.

[keenly]

You’re the toughest person I know. [a gentle nudge with his elbow.] You never told me what you’re getting.

[sulahnan]

Oh, right.

[ The pain isn't what she's nervous about. But she pulls a folded paper from her pocket and unfurls it, holding it out for him to see. It's a chain of forget-me-nots and their leaves. ]

It's gonna go around my wrist here. Something to focus on when I need to come back to myself. [ Whoever that is. ]

[keenly]

That’s going to be beautiful. [he admires the drawing.] I love how elegant it is.

[sulahnan]

I copied it out of a book Isaac gave me*.

[ It's heartwarming to hear that it's going to be beautiful and elegant, things Athessa would not necessarily consider herself. (Loxley called her beautiful, once. It was nice.) ]

They seemed fitting, 'cos ya know. Forget-me-nots.



*Can't remember if he gave it to her or she found it and showed it to him pfff

[keenly]

For your clan?

[sulahnan]

That's part of it. Mostly it's just so I remember where I came from, where I've been, who I am, [ who she was, ] where I am now.

[keenly]

[He leans in to plant a kiss on the side of her head.]

That's perfect. And it's right where you can look when you need it. I should do that.

[sulahnan]

[ It's a sign that they're getting closer to Lowtown when that chaste little kiss gets a holler from some random passer-by in the street. Athessa, of course, hollers back and flashes a rude gesture their way, as is customary. ]

You should. Matty gave me the idea; he used to have these bracelets he wore, but they got burned up in the dining hall that day. [ Neither of them needs elaboration on which day she means. ] So I made him some new ones, just to ya know...replace something he lost. And he said Derrica'd given the first ones to him to remind him...

[ She shrugs the shoulder opposite the arm linked with Colin's. He can fill in the blanks for the reminder the bracelets served, since it's more or less the same as Athessa's reasoning. ]

But uh. It's hard to misplace a tattoo, so.

[keenly]

[Colin nods.]

Same day, Sawbones suggested getting a little quartz cluster for it. But you're right, you can't misplace a tattoo. [He glances at his own wrist.] I want to get one on my thigh but that's not something you can just look at except when...yes.

[A thought occurs to him, and he frowns slightly.]

Though having a mark that's easy to spot might be dangerous whenever I have to run from the Chantry.

[sulahnan]

Will you have to? Even with your phylactery gone?

[ She had thought, briefly, if a tattoo would be worse than the scar on her face as far as her bard training is concerned, but it's easier to hide things with gloves and sleeves than hide her face all the time. ]