driftfleet | pathstone mingle!!

Entry tags:

pathstone mingle!!

Who: The Pathstone + anyone!
Broadcast: nah
Action: yah!
When: lets not go asking questions okay

[Do you know what's weird and probably a sign of things to come for the entire fleet?

The Pathstone isn't the most useless ship anymore. It's actually good at stuff. It's got upgrades! It's got a pilot and two people to shoot guns at things. And two captains.

It's not just Captain Tek. There's two.

It's still a pretty big mess who are we even kidding. Come see for yourself!!]

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[his smirk turns a little more toward a quiet, snaky grin, but he at least tries to reign in his self-satisfaction a little bit. he doesn't want to seem too smug over the fact that she hasn't left yet.

and he goes slinking closer--much like he usually does, but... yeah, it is a little bit different in a bed.]

Oh, I have faith in your abilities.

[It is her room, so this really isn't much of a victory for him in her opinion. She's looking at him as though he's a patient still, someone here for help, and now that he's spent all that time purring and coming very close to snuggling her like an affectionate pet, it's difficult to take those grins seriously.]

I think that's the first time you've ever said anything like that to me.

[it's some kind of victory in his mind, and that's all that matters.]

Is it? ...Well, my thoughts on it would be obvious, I'd think.

[When he puts it like that, it's difficult not to think about the reasons why. And that, of course, leads her to thinking about the last time he was feeling unwell again.]

How often does this happen to you?

[ah, well. his smile fades, somewhat.

or it's at least not quite as open of an expression as it was.]

...Well, that depends. I'm not supposed to spend as much time like this as I do. So, every few months... I start to pay for it.

[That won't do. She reaches out to him, slips her fingers into his hair to brush it gently back from his face.]

Would it help to... [There's a pause there, because she's trying to find a less blunt way to say turn the fuck into a goddamn dragon.] To not use that form more often? There must be some way to release the tension that builds from staying in this form.

[she's touching him again, and she asks the wrong question. though, at least the smirk comes back.

he shifts over, rolling up onto his elbows a bit, so that he's looking at her from a better angle.]

I've told you once some of the things that can help.

[She can't help it, that gets a quick grin from her as she moves her fingers to right behind the ear that's augment free. Skritch skritch skritch.]

Did you think that would work now when it didn't before?

[he grins back, with sharp little teeth--which is lucky, maybe, with how something like this could have gone any other time. as it is right now, he seems more or less undaunted.

he settles even closer as he tilts his head to one side, so she can scratch more at his neck.]

You asked.

[She'll just slide her fingertips along the side of his neck, then, since that's apparently where he wants her hand.]

I thought you might have something more productive to say.

[he really, really likes her playing over the sensitive skin of his neck. it's distracting--he lets his eyes fall closed for the span of a breath--and it's really not helping convince him to stay on the topic she wants to talk about.]

...Like how I've been giving it more thought? Oh, I have plenty to say on that.

[just as intent, but more rational this time. that fever is still quietly burning, but it isn't making him feel nearly as desperate as she'd seen him before.]

I might have picked up on that.

[Because he has his moments, like today, when he is the exact opposite of subtle.]

[sliding one eye open, he gives her an amused glance.]

Does that bother you?

It might if I thought it was going to become a problem, but I don't think it will.

Oh? And how's that?

[because he could interpret that several ways.]

Well, Dalish elves tend to bond for life. Could you stay with me your entire life?

[She's guessing no.]

My lifetime-- don't be silly.

[that was maybe not quite the right question.]

[Nope, it was exactly the right question.]

Then there's your answer.

[his nice composed little mask cracks a little, as he laughs sharply--pointed teeth showing for a moment.]

--Do you have any idea how old I am?

[Hey now no teeth bro.]

Dragons in my world tend to have long lifespans, but I wouldn't be surprised if you outmatch them. You must be hundreds of years old at least.

At least. [he confirms.]

So, how can you expect my lifetime to enter into this at all?

[She smiles at that, equal parts amused and pleased with the chance this gives her to answer him with a story.]

My world was torn by war, when I became Inquisitor. The fighting had made a valley too dangerous for most because both sides were driven to their actions by fear. A simple farmer working in his fields could be called a mage because his hoe looked like a staff and he would be cut down where he stood with no mercy. It was terrible, and many of the refuges from this war had fled to a safe town.

While I was visiting I met an elderly elven man and stopped to speak with him. Only Dalish elves have tattoos like mine, so it was easy to see he had no real place in that village filled with shemlen. He told me that he was there waiting for the war to end so that he could take flowers to his wife's grave.

Devotion doesn't end at death, lethallin. It endures, and I would expect any man who would lay with me to acknowledge that.

[His augment, if it's not too busy slowly frying his brain, will tell him that elven word is close to friend, but carries with it a deeper meaning. The closest Common translation would be blood kin, and it's a word she would use for someone in her clan, someone she would consider herself connected to down to her very soul.]

[there's a pause... before he laughs.

it's a soft sound, and not actually flavored much with mocking or malice, but it's still a little abrupt.]

How long do you think we're going to be here, lehess?

[she doesn't have any helpful translation via her augment though, so she'll have to use her imagination.]

I'm only a few months short of being here for a year and so far I've seen no signs that I'll be sent away.

[Not that there are ever any signs, but that's a pretty long stretch. She's seen friends and people she never even knew from her own world come and go, and it's starting to feel like it won't be too terribly long until she's the only one left. Varric's return had lifted her spirits, though, and there's still a small group of people from Thedas. It could be much worse.]

Like it or not, you're probably stuck with me. And now you'll have to tell me what that word meant.

[Because fuck imagination she would prefer just straight up knowledge.]

One year.

[as if that unit of time means anything when you've lived almost nine centuries full of them.]

And while that notion is lovely for the mortal races, our lifespans are too long even for us.

When you really understand how big the world actually is, how much even in the indelible things change over scores of time, you naturally see things very differently.

[whether she's still doting on him or not, he shifts himself up until he's propped on one elbow--closer, looking down at her with a more plain eye-contact than he tends to bother with in his superficial, day-to-day interactions. he's not only harassing her, in this case.]

What we do, is we take mates. Some choose to only have one at a time, some choose to have many, but it is always understood that--at some point--something will change. Maybe death will interrupt it, maybe the world itself will change. But... you acknowledge this fact, and it is accepted... and until that happens, you pretend that the entire world is for the pair of you, and that it will always be that way.

It isn't a shallow thing, ameerai. [another word for him not to explain, and one said with more intent.] If anything, the knowledge that it will end someday makes it more consuming.

pathstone mingle!!

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