[ Batty Batkins chitters happily about the scritches, and Athessa let's out a soft scoff. ]
Hardly. Best I can figure is someone used magic to make him like this, and then he got loose. The type of bat he is seems to be a relative of the tent making bats they have in Rivain, [ She returns to the pillow she was sitting on before and approximates the size of the Rivaini bats with two fingers. Barely bigger than a coin. ] Which are about this big and brown with stripes.
[ Dick half-listens as he stifles another bout of burning coughs into his drink, joint pinched aside for her to reclaim at will. ]
Any kind of permanent physical transformation is very difficult to achieve where I’m from.
[ He’s distracted, as he says so. Behind his eyes, gears and axles are starting to slow out of their locomotive chug. He lifts his drink, lowers it again. Lifts it. ]
A very powerful, very well-educated mage, [ says Richard, who successfully remembers to sip his drink before setting it aside on a flat stretch of floor. ] In lieu of that, there are pacts with devils, divine interventions, certain rites fueled by ritual sacrifice.
Naturally any of the latter might have unforeseen consequences.
[ He pauses again. Buffering. Then he chuckles, low in his throat.
It’s too self-deprecating to be wholly sinister. ]
No, of course not, [ Richard lies, his mirth snuffed at once to better support this discussion with the gravity it deserves. Transmutation can have grim implications. Brow hooded seriously, he breathes in to elaborate, and snorts at himself instead. ]
[ He asks more genuinely than he asked about the bat.
Slowly but surely, the habitual tension coiled behind his shoulders and up the back of his neck is unwinding. There’s no real urgency to him opening his left hand out to request another puff. ]
[ Good because he has to wait until she takes another before she hands it over. ]
Well, there'd be no point in leaving, would there? It's not like abandoning the war effort would make it go away, and I don't have any family to return to.
[ That's not about to change when the war is over, but better to save the world and be lonely later than be lonely now and watch the world burn. Or something. ]
[ He’s learned quickly. Breathe in, hold, breathe out, smoke spent in a lazy furl towards the fire -- which is, by the way, much more interesting to him now than it was when he first sat down, if the way he’s staring into it is any indication. Athessa’s sentiment is a familiar one, anyway. ]
[ Fire is so interesting, isn't it? The way it dances and warms and burns. It's like...a living thing. ]
Deceased. Coming up on...eighteen years, now?
[ She scoots down to lay more or less horizontal, propped up by her cushion and staring hazily up at the ceiling. It's all very casual, matter-of-fact. ]
I'm the last of my clan. Other Dalish treat me like a child because I didn't get my rites, and city elves hate me, so actually... both deceased and estranged.
The fire, and an individual caught between the norms of two (three?) distinct cultures. Richard takes another (shorter) hit, baking in the bake to last, and offers the joint back, if she still wants it while she’s lying down. ]
I’m sorry to hear that, [ is a thing people say. ]
[ Sure she'll take the last hit, prone, before flicking the roach into the fire. She tries again to blow rings and some of them kind of almost look good! Wow. ]
[ What should be an easy I don’t manifests as a scoff through his teeth, half a grin tell-tale before he can iron it into a grimace behind the scrub of his left hand. ]
Not as such, [ he says, turning to slant a brow at her in her recline. ]
Probably not at all anymore, if I’m honest. [ You know -- in that unlikely circumstance. Was that a ring? ]
Rites of passage. When Dalish elves come of age, we get a symbol of the god that represents our values tattooed on our face. Going through it without making a sound is kind of proof that you're ready for adulthood.
[ The more she thinks about it, the more she has to wonder how different she might've been if she'd been able to earn that rite. Would she be happier? ]
Are you sad about not having much-or-as-such a family? [ Just to gauge how sad she should be for him. ]
[ Specifically the absence of them, in her case. But more broadly beyond that as well -- his contact with anyone even remotely Dalish has been limited. Obviously. ]
A little bit, [ he’s willing to admit, in exchange. ] I’m not sad about much of anything.
[ Gravity has fully taken hold of his shoulders, and the set of his elbows over his knees, slouching them forward. His breathing has slowed; there’s an arch absence to his consideration of the question -- self-aware. Lying down is tempting.
[ Athessa gestures noncommitally at roughly the speed you'd expect from someone neck deep in treacle. ]
Not unless another clan wants to take pity on me, but I'm not even sure I'd want it, anyway.
[ She turns her head to regard him, her expression of awe muted by the elfroot haze and the languid relaxation it brings. The structural integrity of a Beanie Baby™. ]
I wish I could be not sad about stuff. Is that on purpose?
[ Dick hikes his brows, as mild in acceptance of her ambivalence as he is in most things. That’s fair.
Her next question isn’t necessarily more difficult to answer, but it is more complicated, and potentially more unsettling. His guard hasn’t entirely evaporated with his posture. ]
[ She could explain that it's their pity she wouldn't want, but she's too busy marveling at what, to her, seems like a stroke of good luck. ]
I'm the opposite. I feel too much all the time, whether I want to or not. Hence all the-- [ The paraphernalia is taken in with a sweeping gesture. Look, look at all this weed. ] --kinda makes it less...overwhelming.
[ A log shifts in the fire, stirring sparks through the smoke, and Richard watches embers glowing crisp at a freshly exposed edge. He’s quiet for a long time, peripherally aware of her sweeping gesture and the paraphernalia it encompasses. ]
Is that a Dalish predisposition or something unique to you?
[ He finally looks back over to her when he asks, manners coasting on backup power. ]
Oh, I'm not usually stoned in the field. I mean, I've gotten stoned in fields but not.
[ Squint. ]
Not when I'm working, I mean. If I'm stoned while working? Something's wrong.
[ She's used smoke to keep injured people comfortable and disinclined to move around and hurt themselves before the healer arrives, so it stands to reason that she'd have to be in a similar strait. ]
...Being emotional, [ Richard clarifies, helpfully, after a beat that might be strange if he wasn’t committed to being strange all of the time. His posture hasn’t changed. ]
I haven’t seen any evidence of your being emotional hindering your ability to complete an objective.
[ The alternate denial is a curious one. He is clearly making a Mental Note -- prying interest briefly transparent in the furrow of his brow. ]
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no subject
Date: 2020-03-18 03:44 pm (UTC)Hardly. Best I can figure is someone used magic to make him like this, and then he got loose. The type of bat he is seems to be a relative of the tent making bats they have in Rivain, [ She returns to the pillow she was sitting on before and approximates the size of the Rivaini bats with two fingers. Barely bigger than a coin. ] Which are about this big and brown with stripes.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-18 06:39 pm (UTC)Any kind of permanent physical transformation is very difficult to achieve where I’m from.
[ He’s distracted, as he says so. Behind his eyes, gears and axles are starting to slow out of their locomotive chug. He lifts his drink, lowers it again. Lifts it. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-03-18 10:27 pm (UTC)I think it's probably difficult here, too, but I don't know how it's done at all. What does it take in your world?
[ That's a funny way to not drink a drink, Richard, what on earth? ]
no subject
Date: 2020-03-18 11:34 pm (UTC)Naturally any of the latter might have unforeseen consequences.
[ He pauses again. Buffering. Then he chuckles, low in his throat.
It’s too self-deprecating to be wholly sinister. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-03-18 11:48 pm (UTC)Sounds pre-tty similar to me. You have much experience with that kinda stuff?
no subject
Date: 2020-03-19 04:41 am (UTC)This would be dangerous in an interrogation.
[ Hypothetically speaking. ]
Are you the only Dalish elf with the watch?
no subject
Date: 2020-03-19 06:50 am (UTC)I think... I am, yeah. There've been a few others but they've all gone now.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-19 07:38 am (UTC)[ He asks more genuinely than he asked about the bat.
Slowly but surely, the habitual tension coiled behind his shoulders and up the back of his neck is unwinding. There’s no real urgency to him opening his left hand out to request another puff. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-03-19 05:32 pm (UTC)Well, there'd be no point in leaving, would there? It's not like abandoning the war effort would make it go away, and I don't have any family to return to.
[ That's not about to change when the war is over, but better to save the world and be lonely later than be lonely now and watch the world burn. Or something. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-03-19 06:27 pm (UTC)Deceased or estranged?
no subject
Date: 2020-03-19 06:42 pm (UTC)Deceased. Coming up on...eighteen years, now?
[ She scoots down to lay more or less horizontal, propped up by her cushion and staring hazily up at the ceiling. It's all very casual, matter-of-fact. ]
I'm the last of my clan. Other Dalish treat me like a child because I didn't get my rites, and city elves hate me, so actually... both deceased and estranged.
[ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 02:38 am (UTC)The fire, and an individual caught between the norms of two (three?) distinct cultures. Richard takes another (shorter) hit, baking in the bake to last, and offers the joint back, if she still wants it while she’s lying down. ]
I’m sorry to hear that, [ is a thing people say. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 02:52 am (UTC)Do you have family back home?
[ Sure she'll take the last hit, prone, before flicking the roach into the fire. She tries again to blow rings and some of them kind of almost look good! Wow. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 04:59 am (UTC)Not as such, [ he says, turning to slant a brow at her in her recline. ]
Probably not at all anymore, if I’m honest. [ You know -- in that unlikely circumstance. Was that a ring? ]
What rites weren’t you given?
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 05:51 am (UTC)[ The more she thinks about it, the more she has to wonder how different she might've been if she'd been able to earn that rite. Would she be happier? ]
Are you sad about not having much-or-as-such a family? [ Just to gauge how sad she should be for him. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 06:16 am (UTC)[ Specifically the absence of them, in her case. But more broadly beyond that as well -- his contact with anyone even remotely Dalish has been limited. Obviously. ]
A little bit, [ he’s willing to admit, in exchange. ] I’m not sad about much of anything.
[ Gravity has fully taken hold of his shoulders, and the set of his elbows over his knees, slouching them forward. His breathing has slowed; there’s an arch absence to his consideration of the question -- self-aware. Lying down is tempting.
He stays seated. ]
Could you still have it done?
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 06:58 am (UTC)Not unless another clan wants to take pity on me, but I'm not even sure I'd want it, anyway.
[ She turns her head to regard him, her expression of awe muted by the elfroot haze and the languid relaxation it brings. The structural integrity of a Beanie Baby™. ]
I wish I could be not sad about stuff. Is that on purpose?
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 09:36 pm (UTC)Her next question isn’t necessarily more difficult to answer, but it is more complicated, and potentially more unsettling. His guard hasn’t entirely evaporated with his posture. ]
It’s the way that I am.
[ He woke up like this. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 09:54 pm (UTC)I'm the opposite. I feel too much all the time, whether I want to or not. Hence all the-- [ The paraphernalia is taken in with a sweeping gesture. Look, look at all this weed. ] --kinda makes it less...overwhelming.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-06 07:39 am (UTC)Is that a Dalish predisposition or something unique to you?
[ He finally looks back over to her when he asks, manners coasting on backup power. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-04-06 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-06 05:39 pm (UTC)There are ways to center the mind away from extremes in situations where getting stoned may not be practical.
[ He pauses to reflect: ]
Not that I’ve seen any evidence of it hindering your performance in the field.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-08 04:17 am (UTC)[ Squint. ]
Not when I'm working, I mean. If I'm stoned while working? Something's wrong.
[ She's used smoke to keep injured people comfortable and disinclined to move around and hurt themselves before the healer arrives, so it stands to reason that she'd have to be in a similar strait. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-04-10 07:51 am (UTC)I haven’t seen any evidence of your being emotional hindering your ability to complete an objective.
[ The alternate denial is a curious one. He is clearly making a Mental Note -- prying interest briefly transparent in the furrow of his brow. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-04-10 11:45 pm (UTC)Maybe it's because I have an objective to focus on.