make me make me impressed

[deshabille]

Who: CAPRINE CREW ASSEMBLE
Broadcast: None!
Action: Caprine & visitors!
When: After this shuffle!

[Well, all things considered, the Caprine isn't the biggest shitshow of a ship in the Fleet. Right now. At this particular moment. There are worse places to end up!]

[At least that's what the crew will tell you, Varric. Except possibly Nightingale, who tries to keep it real.]

[IT'S A MINGLE, EVERYBODY INSIDE.]

Comments

[merchantprince]

[Varric rubs at the back of his head and looks around. He's expecting something to have hit him, not... air?]

What the hell?

[He sees Nightingale and squints.]

Don't get all bent out of shape, kid. I'm not trying to hurt it, I'm just smacking it around a little until it gets unjammed. Right now it doesn't want to give out tea.

[experiencepoints]

First of all, I'm not a kid, second of all, don't smack it around. If you break it, we might not get another one. Who are you, anyway?

[merchantprince]

Whatever, all you humans look the same to me. [He sighs in exasperation and jams a knife up the spout.] I'm not going to break it, I know what I'm doing. Bet I've been here longer than you have.

[He holds the cup under the dispenser. This time, the tea trickles out all nice and hot like it ought to be.]

See? I'm a professional.

[That doesn't answer her question though, and he knows it. But he takes his sweet time, making his tea and all of that. He lost all his ale when he disappeared the first time around and it's the only thing that keeps him sane sometimes.]

I guess you missed the confetti. [Sip.] Varric Tethras. Rogue, storyteller, and retired adventurer.

[experiencepoints]

[As much as she tries to make the kitchen work, she's actually spitefully mad when the beverage machine does work. She had wanted it to fail to prove her right.]

Oh, don't give me that shit. Whatever you are, you don't look so different from humans that you can't tell.

... "Retired", huh?

[merchantprince]

That's almost insulting. I'm easily identifiable as a dwarf, messere. Or did my lack of a forest-sized beard completely throw you off? I definitely have enough hair to make up for it in other places.

[He's cool as can be. Sorry he's not into tsunderes.]

That's right. Put up with enough shit for ten years and anyone will quit entirely.

[experiencepoints]

Dwarves don't-

[She stops herself, catching herself as she's about to finish saying something stupid. (And that's okay, she's not into men at all.)]

... Okay, not used to being on this side of this conversation, wow.

I'm Nightingale. Adventurer on... I guess you could call it a temporary hiatus.

[merchantprince]

[Varric raises his eyebrows at that sentence. Lucky for her, she doesn't finish it.]

Nightingale. [He'd consider that name belonging to a redheaded bard lady, not... some smart-assed blonde girl.] Let me guess: it's some kind of code name?

[experiencepoints]

... It's the name my team gave me. As far as I'm concerned, it's my real name. Gray Nightingale, of Takshaka.

[The full name doesn't make it sound any less fake, but it's important to her, and her tone makes it very plain that that is not up for discussion.]

[merchantprince]

[He doesn't push it. He's curious about what her story is-- he's a storyteller, after all-- but she's made it pretty clear from the start that she's a little prickly in places. He'll just have to needle her without getting needled himself.]

Huh. You look more yellow and purple to me.

[experiencepoints]

Team color was purple. I never really asked why the color names, that tradition was in place when I got there.

[merchantprince]

At least you look good in it.

[He sips his tea again, considering. He approaches this next bit very calmly.]

By the way... what did you hit me with? Some kind of spell?

[experiencepoints]

Uh, thanks.

Yeah, Wind. I'm a mage.

[merchantprince]

Okay. Since I'm supposed to be living with you or whatever for an indeterminable amount of time, I'm gonna be up front about this.

Magic isn't a toy. Healing is one thing, but throwing spells around will get people hurt. Plus it makes you look shadier than a man behind a bar handing out miracle medicine. There are people here who will kill you for abusing it and I really, really don't want to clean up another murder.

[He might be short, but his look says this is not something he's gonna budge on.]

Are we clear?

[experiencepoints]

... Uh. No. I've been using magic since I was like six, and the spell I used was Wind. It's a utility spell- It's literally incapable of doing damage.

[She looks equally unmoving, despite her size. She's so tired of people telling her about the right way to use magic, while having no clue where she's from or what her magic is really like. Magic is the only thing she has that she can think of as her own accomplishments, the only thing she can say she really enjoys. So yet another person- this time, a dwarf!- telling her to stop that, use her magic the way he says, grinds on her last nerve.]

The magic I use, and the magic from wherever you're from, are completely different things. I think most people here understand that. I don't know what's crawled up your ass about it, but you can dig it right back out, because I'm pretty sure I've used Wind almost every day since I learned it. And if someone wants to kill me for using magic so I can get shit off the high shelves, then they sound like they could use an introduction to Fire 3.

[merchantprince]

You think some random guy is gonna care when they toss you out the airlock? Magic on my world isn't the same as yours-- sure-- but not everyone is here to make friends. Not everyone has the patience or the ability to understand. Don't be naive. Naive gets you hurt.

[He takes his tea and heads toward the door.]

By the way, the last mage I knew who refused to control his magic? He ended up killing hundreds of people. I'm not being unreasonable by asking you to exercise a little caution around the people who saw it happen.

[experiencepoints]

We're stuck on the ship together. We're going to have to understand each other.

It's wind. It's under my control- Where I'm from, there's no such thing as casting magic you don't control. My magic is for fighting monsters, and protecting my friends- It was my entire purpose. I'm not giving that up on the off-chance someone decides to go insane at me over it.

[merchantprince]

[He pauses.]

I'm not telling you to give up magic. I'm suggesting that you don't go around tossing spells at people like they're candy-- especially if it's only for protecting people.

[Fenris can and will murder people. In fact, he murdered someone before. It's not hard to understand-- and Varric really just doesn't want her to become a pretty splat on the floor like Robin did.

But if she doesn't want to be responsible with it, that's fine. He's just... not going to tolerate it. That's one thing he really can't do. After Anders... Nope.

Varric Greatly Disapproves sry friend he's old and cranky.]

[experiencepoints]

I don't use anything that would actually hurt people, unless they've done something to need it.

[Well, and to beat the shit out of her best friend, but in her defense, that friend was a vampire who was currently kicking her ass in their sparring match. And she still lost.]

I figured it would be gentler that way than trying to pull you off of that machine.