Most challenges are anticipated and addressed as coordinated missions or assignments. Oftentimes additional complications are discovered and contended with upon our arrival.
[ Should she be taking notes? Probably not. Dick seems to think this is all very routine -- the sort of information that could just as easily be disseminated by a pamphlet. He pulls his cup in closer, and raises it to drink after a pause to consider the state of his stomach contents. ]
It’s rare for a threat to find us in the Gallows. Last year, an abomination made its way inside our walls. And we remain vulnerable to outside influence within the Fade.
[ There is a pamphlet, as far as Adrasteia knows, but it was geared towards Rifters and so she'd merely glanced at it. Though that's neither here nor there, as she finds his way of disseminating the information helpful and fascinating both.
She folds her hands underneath her chin as he continues to speak, nodding along. A few moments after he stops, while she's considering her response, the proprietor has returned with eggs, toast, and a side of spicy-smelling sausage set on the table between them. ]
It's fortunate that nothing has seen fit to come to Kirkwall's shores, [ she settles on, but there's an obvious thread of worry in her words. At some point, it'll be worse than just an abomination crashing through the walls, of that she's certain. She wonders what sort of siege capabilities the Gallows has to itself.
Something to look into actually. ]
Anyone and anything with even the most tenuous connection to the Fade remains vulnerable to outside influence within it, [ she points out, but there's no heat in her statement, just an issue of fact as she understands it. ] Especially when whatever is doing the influencing is native to the Fade.
You should know that I don’t hold any rank or authority.
[ There have been more pressing threats in years past. Before Riftwatch or after it. Their food has arrived, and he is briefly distant as the scent turns his stomach. ]
I only know what I see, and what I’m told.
[ He’s more tired in saying so than he was upon his arrival, his fork turned and lifted. ]
It’s nothing more terrible than anything you’ve already contended with, I’m sure.
[ Adrasteia shakes her head. ] Rank and authority don't always mean that someone has seen what's happening around them, and a lack thereof doesn't mean you don't have points that are solid.
[ There's a little headtilt, but she doesn't say anything more about it. Instead she smiles. ]
I can think of several things I've seen in the Deep Roads that I hope never reach the light of the Gallows dawn.
[ She pulls the plate of sausage closer to herself and picks up one of the forks from the center of the table. ]
What sort of things do you think I should be worried about, in Ellis' absence?
Morale, [ is Richard’s first and only answer, half-hearted over the click of him forking into scrambled eggs. ] Hardly his area of expertise but rarely at the forefront of local minds until recently. As far as I know.
[ He measures the clot of egg white on his fork before putting it into his mouth, reluctant to look up to her from his plate now that their food has arrived and the conversation has narrowed. ]
Anything more immediately deadly will necessitate improvisation.
[ Adrasteia chuckles a little, breaking up her sausage with a fork and popping it into her mouth immediately after. Morale, he says. It's almost a joke at her expense, isn't it?
Well. She did sign up for the job.
Chewing, and then swallowing, she gestures with the fork. ]
Improvisation is a useful skill, but you'll forgive me if I hope we won't need it.
[ No, Richard Dickerson does not have any suggestions for how to improve morale, one brow kicked up at his eggs after he’s taken a moment to think about it. There are multiple reasons he never sought the position she’s taken on, the total absence of any practical hope rated chief among them. Even in their dreams, this was just the beginning of the end.
He chews a while and swallows before looking up again, bleak even for someone in his state and condition, with his name. ]
Perhaps if the crystals we’re issued were only to be used for official, scripted communications.
[ She almost chuckles again at both his answer and his suggestion, shaking her head a little bit. ]
I doubt I'd be able to convince most anyone of that, unfortunately? [ She does lift the end of that statement to make it into a question. ] I'm not nearly high enough in the rankings to make that decision and have it stick, not after so long of people using the crystals for anything that catches their attention.
Edited (too much chuckling, needed editing) Date: 2021-03-22 04:54 am (UTC)
[ It's a good question, isn't it? Adrasteia takes a moment to mentally compose her answer. ] The Inquisition feels too large for my voice to do more than add to the cacophony. Riftwatch is small enough, focused enough, that it may do some good. Besides, I heard there were Wardens here, and I was wondering what the others were up to. Where they had focused their attention in the war effort.
[ All of which is true. What she doesn't say includes I never made it back to Weisshaupt after Adamant and I felt like I wasn't doing enough, or the right things, and I wanted the comfort of the familiar in unfamiliar times.]
Edited (formatting, my nemesis) Date: 2021-03-28 07:43 pm (UTC)
The notion of a focused effort may have been exaggerated, [ Dickerson is all too willing to hedge that expectation, invisible sheers nosed in through the optimism, snip snip, ] but the people here are mostly kind and unified in their willingness to risk life and limb for whatever disparate task is most recently deemed essential to the war effort.
[ He pauses to sigh once he’s said it, and goes back to forking at his toast under curds of cooling egg. ]
Warden Ellis has saved my life on at least two occasions.
[ One of them while dreaming, but far be it from him to canonize dirty deeds only. ]
[ That's the way of Ellis. It's also the way of Adrasteia, to insist someone is a good person even if they themselves would disagree with that evaluation.
She has no regrets in that direction. ]
I knew of him, before Adamant. We were never close, before. Why?
[ This feels at least slightly more normal and polite than professing to be a curious human. ]
And it’s by his grace that we’re spending this time together.
[ He pushes the last of the bread in past his teeth in a lump, and effectively excuses himself from any kind of immediate answer with the time it’ll take him to chew it down. ]
[ Adrasteia nods at that. They're both curious people, clearly, or none of this would be happening. ]
Running water seeks its own level. Something my father used to say.
I'm glad that Ellis has people in his corner. [ She'd worried, upon her arrival to Kirkwall and learning he was here, that he didn't. That he had no one and was just existing, surviving as part of a group but functionally separate. It's nice to know that isn't entirely true.
She waits for him to finish chewing before asking: ] Do you miss your home terribly?
[ His saying so is more calculated and considered than the sentiment should call for. It’s an easy observation to make, word choice and framing the only complications. He makes it sound as though Ellis has started a farm, and seems to know it, staying further elaboration with a drink of water. ]
I miss pieces of it that were important to me. [ Easy, reasonable, dry at a glance. He misses his cat and his god.
Otherwise there’s no love lost between him and the snakehole he crawled out of. ]
[ Adrasteia smiles to herself. She's very glad to hear that Ellis has done well, made friends, a lasting impression on several it would seem.
Also, who wouldn't miss the pieces of home that were important to them? But it's interesting, that his answer isn't just 'yes'. She has the impression that Richard is very particular about the things he says.
She's just not sure what that says about him. ]
I grew up near Amaranthine, do you know anything about it?
[ Doubtless he’s read or overheard something in the year and a half he’s been here, even if the overall focus of his study has been directed towards the Fade and its spirits. His curiosity is too low key to suggest any immediate association between the name and anything the Darkspawn might’ve gotten up to there in decades past.
He’s only interested because she’s asked -- but he is interested. Breakfast has fueled some life back into him, worn down as he is. ]
It's a trading port and a place that is very proud of being where and what it is. It's also the Warden's arling in Ferelden. There's a route that runs between Amaranthine and Denerim, called the Pilgrim's Path. Anyway. It's off the Amaranthine Sea, southeast of here, along Ferelden's eastern coastline.
Wardens are very important there. The Hero of Ferelden saved the city from a darkspawn attack that happened just months after the Blight ended.
[ She opens her hands on the table in front of her, wondering if any of that information was even of any particular use towards answering his question.
Adrasteia takes a drink of her ale before she continues. ]
I've been a Warden since I was seventeen. I got as far from Amaranthine as I could; ended up in Orlais, in the Blasted Hills. I've never been back.
It's a lovely city, don't get me wrong. But there's nothing left there for me to miss.
[ He’s quiet while he does the math, cool eyes locked on across the table, steady, measuring connection at odds with his earlier slither in and out of eye contact. In any other month, at any other time, he might say I’m sorry that happened to you or that must have been very difficult.
I was fifteen and living with cousins outside of town, in the wake of the blight and my parents' deaths as a result. The area was overrun almost immediately; there were Wardens around, fighting. I did what I could to protect my cousins, which was mostly setting any creature on fire that came too close.
[ Adrasteia takes another sip of ale and shakes her head. ]
I was very lucky that no one was paying much attention, or I could have been shipped off to a Circle immediately.
[ Thedosians don’t fuck around with their origin stories, do they? Unsure what he expected, Richard nods on a distinct delay to allow for imagination to play itself out. ]
That is fortunate, [ he agrees, presumably on the subject of avoiding Circles and not her dead parents. ] I’m sorry about your family.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2021-03-10 09:25 am (UTC)[ Should she be taking notes? Probably not. Dick seems to think this is all very routine -- the sort of information that could just as easily be disseminated by a pamphlet. He pulls his cup in closer, and raises it to drink after a pause to consider the state of his stomach contents. ]
It’s rare for a threat to find us in the Gallows. Last year, an abomination made its way inside our walls. And we remain vulnerable to outside influence within the Fade.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-11 01:12 am (UTC)She folds her hands underneath her chin as he continues to speak, nodding along. A few moments after he stops, while she's considering her response, the proprietor has returned with eggs, toast, and a side of spicy-smelling sausage set on the table between them. ]
It's fortunate that nothing has seen fit to come to Kirkwall's shores, [ she settles on, but there's an obvious thread of worry in her words. At some point, it'll be worse than just an abomination crashing through the walls, of that she's certain. She wonders what sort of siege capabilities the Gallows has to itself.
Something to look into actually. ]
Anyone and anything with even the most tenuous connection to the Fade remains vulnerable to outside influence within it, [ she points out, but there's no heat in her statement, just an issue of fact as she understands it. ] Especially when whatever is doing the influencing is native to the Fade.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-11 04:28 am (UTC)[ There have been more pressing threats in years past. Before Riftwatch or after it. Their food has arrived, and he is briefly distant as the scent turns his stomach. ]
I only know what I see, and what I’m told.
[ He’s more tired in saying so than he was upon his arrival, his fork turned and lifted. ]
It’s nothing more terrible than anything you’ve already contended with, I’m sure.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-11 07:58 am (UTC)[ There's a little headtilt, but she doesn't say anything more about it. Instead she smiles. ]
I can think of several things I've seen in the Deep Roads that I hope never reach the light of the Gallows dawn.
[ She pulls the plate of sausage closer to herself and picks up one of the forks from the center of the table. ]
What sort of things do you think I should be worried about, in Ellis' absence?
no subject
Date: 2021-03-13 06:14 am (UTC)[ He measures the clot of egg white on his fork before putting it into his mouth, reluctant to look up to her from his plate now that their food has arrived and the conversation has narrowed. ]
Anything more immediately deadly will necessitate improvisation.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-15 10:08 pm (UTC)Well. She did sign up for the job.
Chewing, and then swallowing, she gestures with the fork. ]
Improvisation is a useful skill, but you'll forgive me if I hope we won't need it.
What about morale? Do you have any suggestions?
no subject
Date: 2021-03-20 06:31 am (UTC)[ No, Richard Dickerson does not have any suggestions for how to improve morale, one brow kicked up at his eggs after he’s taken a moment to think about it. There are multiple reasons he never sought the position she’s taken on, the total absence of any practical hope rated chief among them. Even in their dreams, this was just the beginning of the end.
He chews a while and swallows before looking up again, bleak even for someone in his state and condition, with his name. ]
Perhaps if the crystals we’re issued were only to be used for official, scripted communications.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-22 04:53 am (UTC)I doubt I'd be able to convince most anyone of that, unfortunately? [ She does lift the end of that statement to make it into a question. ] I'm not nearly high enough in the rankings to make that decision and have it stick, not after so long of people using the crystals for anything that catches their attention.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-27 05:51 am (UTC)[ One would think free breakfast would be a start, but Richard is as dry now as he was when he first answered her call. ]
May I ask why you decided to join Riftwatch?
no subject
Date: 2021-03-28 07:42 pm (UTC)[ All of which is true. What she doesn't say includes I never made it back to Weisshaupt after Adamant and I felt like I wasn't doing enough, or the right things, and I wanted the comfort of the familiar in unfamiliar times. ]
no subject
Date: 2021-03-31 06:17 am (UTC)[ He pauses to sigh once he’s said it, and goes back to forking at his toast under curds of cooling egg. ]
Warden Ellis has saved my life on at least two occasions.
[ One of them while dreaming, but far be it from him to canonize dirty deeds only. ]
no subject
Date: 2021-04-01 11:37 pm (UTC)The other admission, however, has her raising her eyebrows but smiling. ]
Warden Ellis is a good Warden, a good man. I can't say that I'm surprised.
[ Just gonna finish off her sausage here, thanks. ]
no subject
Date: 2021-04-05 08:12 am (UTC)[ Just a casual observation, brief and to the point as Richard gives up on his fork and folds the toast up in his fingers to finish it off that way. ]
How well do you know him?
no subject
Date: 2021-04-12 07:26 am (UTC)[ That's the way of Ellis. It's also the way of Adrasteia, to insist someone is a good person even if they themselves would disagree with that evaluation.
She has no regrets in that direction. ]
I knew of him, before Adamant. We were never close, before. Why?
no subject
Date: 2021-04-14 05:15 am (UTC)[ This feels at least slightly more normal and polite than professing to be a curious human. ]
And it’s by his grace that we’re spending this time together.
[ He pushes the last of the bread in past his teeth in a lump, and effectively excuses himself from any kind of immediate answer with the time it’ll take him to chew it down. ]
no subject
Date: 2021-04-14 08:54 pm (UTC)Running water seeks its own level. Something my father used to say.
I'm glad that Ellis has people in his corner. [ She'd worried, upon her arrival to Kirkwall and learning he was here, that he didn't. That he had no one and was just existing, surviving as part of a group but functionally separate. It's nice to know that isn't entirely true.
She waits for him to finish chewing before asking: ] Do you miss your home terribly?
no subject
Date: 2021-04-17 08:09 am (UTC)[ His saying so is more calculated and considered than the sentiment should call for. It’s an easy observation to make, word choice and framing the only complications. He makes it sound as though Ellis has started a farm, and seems to know it, staying further elaboration with a drink of water. ]
I miss pieces of it that were important to me. [ Easy, reasonable, dry at a glance. He misses his cat and his god.
Otherwise there’s no love lost between him and the snakehole he crawled out of. ]
What about you?
no subject
Date: 2021-04-19 12:37 am (UTC)[ Adrasteia smiles to herself. She's very glad to hear that Ellis has done well, made friends, a lasting impression on several it would seem.
Also, who wouldn't miss the pieces of home that were important to them? But it's interesting, that his answer isn't just 'yes'. She has the impression that Richard is very particular about the things he says.
She's just not sure what that says about him. ]
I grew up near Amaranthine, do you know anything about it?
no subject
Date: 2021-04-19 04:49 am (UTC)[ Doubtless he’s read or overheard something in the year and a half he’s been here, even if the overall focus of his study has been directed towards the Fade and its spirits. His curiosity is too low key to suggest any immediate association between the name and anything the Darkspawn might’ve gotten up to there in decades past.
He’s only interested because she’s asked -- but he is interested. Breakfast has fueled some life back into him, worn down as he is. ]
no subject
Date: 2021-04-20 08:19 am (UTC)Wardens are very important there. The Hero of Ferelden saved the city from a darkspawn attack that happened just months after the Blight ended.
[ She opens her hands on the table in front of her, wondering if any of that information was even of any particular use towards answering his question.
Adrasteia takes a drink of her ale before she continues. ]
I've been a Warden since I was seventeen. I got as far from Amaranthine as I could; ended up in Orlais, in the Blasted Hills. I've never been back.
It's a lovely city, don't get me wrong. But there's nothing left there for me to miss.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-24 11:16 pm (UTC)Here and now, scruffy and ill-rested, he asks: ]
How did you survive?
no subject
Date: 2021-04-25 02:39 am (UTC)[ Adrasteia takes another sip of ale and shakes her head. ]
I was very lucky that no one was paying much attention, or I could have been shipped off to a Circle immediately.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-25 06:28 pm (UTC)That is fortunate, [ he agrees, presumably on the subject of avoiding Circles and not her dead parents. ] I’m sorry about your family.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-26 11:18 pm (UTC)[ Most of them have dead family. ]
But thank you.