001

[openhands]

Who: Cassandra Pentaghast & YOU!!
Broadcast: Fleet-wide
Action: SS Marsiva
When: week of April 12-18

[When Cassandra wakes, she goes from sound asleep to alert in just a matter of a couple of seconds. She's out of bed immediately with a reflexive reach for weapons that aren't there. Naturally, this merits a frustrated growl, but no matter. She doesn't need a sword or shield to do some damage if she must to get out of...wherever this place is.]

[She scans the room with a little more scrutiny with a scowl before she notices the communicator and picks it up. Enjoy your new view of the ceiling, network, while she looks the device over in her hands because she doesn't understand why she has some vague sense of familiarity with it without ever having seen it before in her life. It's at least something to take her mind off the fact she has absolutely no idea how she got here in the first place.]

What is this?

[Answer her before books start getting stabbed, you guys.]

Comments

[openhands]

[Cassandra only nods once, respecting Jove's decision not to know. It's not as though she cannot change her mind in the future, should she wish, but Cassandra can more than understand her decision not to know. Especially after the ordeal in Redcliffe. In fact, probably especially because of what she experienced in Redcliffe after a brush with a future they managed to prevent.]

And yet you have earned the title all the same, have you not?

[It's both a matter of respect and a means of keeping a careful distance between them. Cassandra cannot say that she will fall in line behind Jove as readily as Jove might hope and expect, but she can still afford her the respect she deserves if nothing else. And until Cassandra can truly gauge the sort of woman Jove is based on her own merits, titles are safer. Easier. Cassandra is a woman of rules and structure. It's where she's most comfortable and knows how to navigate. Without them, she feels more at a loss than she'd ever care to admit.]

[dawnwillcome]

[Sure, she earned it by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, making an impulsive decision based on the desire to help a human she didn't even know, and then had the blind lucky to survive what was thrown at her by Corypheus, the Venatori, and a mountain until they reached Skyhold.

Yes, she certainly earned that title of hers. That title that Cassandra wanted to give two people before her. Still, Jove just smiles.]

I did, at that. It's one that's come to mean a great deal to me, but I didn't want to presume.

[openhands]

[Cassandra, of course, is not referring to how coincidence and circumstance brought Jove to where she is. The title was given to her, but she also still had to earn it. She was likely making decisions before she became Inquisitor if she were truly at all similar to the Inquisitor Cassandra knew. Even after taking the position, she had to embody all that the Inquisition would stand for. ]

[That does not simply just happen.]

Even if it were mine to take, I wouldn't take it from you.

[dawnwillcome]

Well, that's a relief. I'd have to fight you for it and I don't expect it would go at all well for me.

[She's trying to take a page from Dorian's book here, make it a joke and pretend this isn't as bad as it is for the sake of appearances, but whether it works or not is entirely up in the air.

In truth, she's going to need quite a lot of drinks to make this feel less horrible.]

[openhands]

[There's a brief moment of confusion before oh right, that's a joke. Because this is awkward and uncomfortable for both of them. Whoever the hell is getting entertainment out of any of this had best hope they never cross paths with Cassandra.]

Most likely not.

[Cassandra is not as good at making a joke to smooth over awkward social situations and so her tone is not exactly light without really intending to be. Basically, Cassandra can't read Dorian's books or vice versa, but what else can you do?]

I would like to speak with you another time, Inquisitor.