Inbox - Fade Rift

[nonvenomous]

Book/crystal/correspondence/action/whatever you desire.

Comments

[charmoffensive]

Go dancing.

[ The nights are getting a little cooler, but are not yet cold. Likewise, he's had enough to drink to stay warm, but is not yet drunk. So, he can afford to sit out here by the water before he hunts for somewhere to bed down for the night.

There are odder sights anyway than a skinny qunari talking to his necklace, especially where Riftwatch is concerned. ]

[nonvenomous]

What would lead you think I know how to dance?

[ A small fire burns in the fireplace here, because Richard likes things warm, and he knew the boat would be gone. ]

[charmoffensive]

Whatever would lead me to assume you could not? You know a great many things.

*lead you to think

[nonvenomous]

It's true.

[ Richard drops his book aside into the bedding with him, narrowly missing the bootlace wriggle of a grass snake skirting towards the sound of his voice. ]

I am very knowledgeable.

[ He swirls his wine while he waits. What do you want. ]

immortalised

[charmoffensive]

[ Even through a little crystal speaking at him from beneath his shirt, Loxley can sense the waiting. Gamely-- ]

Not to worry, [ he says, procuring a small flash from his pocket, twisting it open. ] I'll teach you something simple.

this is bullying

[nonvenomous]

Ever the gentleman.

i am a bully

[charmoffensive]

I try.

[ Good night, Richard, or, see you in the morning. Instead; ]

What if I'd said yes, that one time? [ His voice comes out damper, thanks to a swig of alcohol. So he isn't forcing Richard to ask what the fuck he's talking about; ] That I was in love with Athessa.

[nonvenomous]

[ God why. The breath he takes in to steel himself and the sigh that follows are kept to himself, but the beat itself is telling. ]

Why would you have done that?

[charmoffensive]

Due to, in this hypothetical, [ dry ] I am in love with Athessa.

[nonvenomous]

In that case, I suppose you would have nothing to worry about, past realizing you'd miscalculated your affection, changing your mind or returning to the fade without warning to leave her in a shamble.

[charmoffensive]

And you'd have said 'oh, never mind, congratulations'.

[nonvenomous]

Just prior to throwing my crystal into the sea and moving to the other tower, yes.

[charmoffensive]

[ A scoff-- ] A little dramatic. Surely a floor or two down would suffice.

[ A beat, then; ]

I don't know what you think of me and her, exactly, but she is very probably one of the first people I've met willing to give a damn about either of us. And it never struck me as a bad thing, that.

[nonvenomous]

She is deeply unstable, and demands total devotion with a knife held to her own throat. She has work to do.

Until then she is dangerous.

[ Richard sets his glass back aside, empty. ]

Don't mistake coddling her bad behavior for chivalry.

[charmoffensive]

I'm not attempting to be chivalrous.

[ --that frustration rising again, on behalf of himself, a little bit on behalf of Athessa as well. ]

You were wrong, that time. I'm not some ridiculous-- whatever it was you said, being torn from a romance cover, all that. I don't believe she views me that way, at the very least.

[nonvenomous]

Athessa defines her sense of worth by the depth and purity of a partner’s affection, escalates the stakes by falling wildly in love with them, and comes unglued when they aren’t prepared to reciprocate.

I believe that you may love her, Loxley, but not in a way that is going to break this cycle.

[charmoffensive]

[ A pensive silence follows. If he had more to say, it's given up on for now. Maybe the opposite thing, which he doesn't put to words very often: that it is nice for the whole tiefling thing not to matter. The qunari thing, in this instance.

At least it sounds a little like Richard is being listened to. Loxley asks; ]

And it has nothing to do with us being Rifters.

[nonvenomous]

Being a Rifter is certainly a complication.

[charmoffensive]

And I doubt the solution to mitigating broken hearts [ a return of light sarcasm ] is to never touch any.

I'm not only talking of Athessa.

[nonvenomous]

Did you call to ask for my insight or to give me yours?

[charmoffensive]

Must it be one or the other?

[nonvenomous]

No, of course. You're right.

[ Richard reaches to wind down the wick of his lamp, damping light down to the low glow of the fire. ]

Tell me more.

[charmoffensive]

[ Easy to imagine Richard turning in for the night, while Loxley sits out here on the docks and watches the water and opines about hearts and such. There is a pause, the searching kind, suspecting a joke at his own expense.

No easy read, there. ]

Anyone can vanish at any time, is really all. Not just us.

[nonvenomous]

Are you referring to death?

[charmoffensive]

That's part of it. Certainly the most permanent.

[ A pause, before he seems to shake off his own elusive approach and just says— ]

Would you stop yourself from falling in love with someone, here?