Sundermount Shenanigans?

[avisionofhawke]

Things were going just fine right up until the revenant showed up.

Hawke had just been minding her own business, looking for reagents with Anders, Fenris and Sebastian (and wondering what had possessed her to bring that particular trio on this trip). It had been going quite well, she thought. They had found lots of elfroot, at least.

And then the revenant happened, and Hawke had pulled a rookie move. She had leapt without surreptitiously testing the ground she was going to land on first. The last she'd seen of her companions was their horrified expressions as she fell through that thrice-blighted hole.

Needless to say, she wasn't pleased with where she'd ended up.

Ten minutes out of that cavern and she already had no clue where she actually was, other than that she was still on Sundermount. She couldn't even find the cavern entrance again.

Damn it.

Damn it to the Void.

Comments

[cattymage]

"You sure weren't complaining about my lack of pants earlier," he shot back, and picked up his pace more now that Aisling seemed actually reachable.

He finally was able to reach an acceptable walking-near-behind distance, and dropped his robes back down, smoothing them out. He gave a small huff, catching his breath.

Damn.

He thought he was over this 'easily tired due to sitting on his ass a bloody year' business, but no, apparently not.

"You set a mean pace, M'lady Hawke.

[avisionofhawke]

"Robes really are nice for that purpose, I'll admit," she said coyly, trying to finish calming the fuck down. "Though they're really not practical for leaping over things."

The rogue looked back over her shoulder to see if he was alright.

"I suppose I do sometimes. Let me know if it bothers you, Ser Anders~"

[cattymage]

"That's the real reason we wear them," he purrs. "Just ask anyone."

The emphasis on the word Ser, meant by Hawke as a joking affectation sets his head turning to meerkat-scan all around him, with not a single thought from Anders himself - hear the word 'Ser,' make sure you know what all's going around you, right away - and he tries to play it off, very poorly.

"--oh, you mean me? Thought there'd been some other dashing Anderfels man gone galloping by. Wanted to get an eyeful."

Extending a metaphorical hand to help him off his ass

[avisionofhawke]

"You're the most dazzling one for miles. You should be proud of yourself," Hawke replied, catching what had just happened and mentally cursing. This Anders was way more jumpy than hers...

Then again, he'd been out for a much shorter period of time.

She would just help him smooth it over like he seemed to want to do.

and he is THANKFUL AS HECKA for that

[cattymage]

"It's the earring, isn't it?" he said, grabbing gladly onto the chance to direct away from his slip with buffed-up vanity. He toyed with said earring pointedly, making the gold gleam a bit as it moved. "I've thought about getting more piercings, you know, but such glory might set the whole world blind."

[avisionofhawke]

"Oh, but what a delight it would be in those moments before the world went black," Hawke shot back with a smirk. She turned and began walking backward, hands on her hips. "I, for one, would relish the sight while I had it."

[cattymage]

Well, this is amusing, face to face while walking and he doesn't even have to crane his head around. Anders Approves.

"Between you and Isabela, I swear, I'll be looking like a walking jeweler's shop display."

If that's not an invitation to asking for storytime... well, Anders is used to incorrigible tower and tavern gossip. Maybe Aisling's not so much into that.

[avisionofhawke]

"Oh, this is a story I have to hear. It's not fair to keep me completely in the dark," she said with an incorrigible grin.

And skillfully stepped over a rock on the path that she'd taken note of a minute ago. When you were a rogue, you needed a good sense of your own body and where it was in the environment since there was a lot of whirling and leaping involved.

so i came outside and there was a dude blazin it & i asked him for a cig b4 i saw it was a blunt

[cattymage]

"My, and I'd think you and - well, I'd think you'd have done enough exploring to have an idea, at least." He runs his hand down the chest of his robe rather suggestively, coming to curl his fingers a little in the material above his... sweet Maker, I don't have a better word for this. Bosom. Pillowy man-bosom, as Krem would say.

"So, Isabela would go on about expecting a little more rugged Anderfels barbarian out of me, and I, of course, being an entrepreneuring enough individual to make any dwarf proud, ask her for suggestions..."

[avisionofhawke]

"There's a difference between knowing something's there and knowing how it got there," she said teasingly without giving away too much. Really, the more she said about Anders as she knew him, the less this one seemed to want to know.

"Oh, we aren't even three sentences in and it's already getting good."

[cattymage]

The interjection is taken gracefully, with a particularly wicked grin and a pointed arching of his eyebrows as acknowledgement.

"...so she brings out this lovely book, you really should ask her if she still has it around somewhere, called, damn, what was it, exactly... On the Regional Gourmands Around the Southern Merdaine. I'll give you a minute."

[avisionofhawke]

Aisling smiled almost immediately, knowing the drill. Anders used this occasionally to convey things in notes - those rare times when they were apart long enough to need to send notes to each other.

"Oh, I hear she shows that book to a lot of people."

[cattymage]

"No, really! This was a real book! About exactly what you think, but also exactly what it sounds like. Appetites."

Pause for breath, and to fruitlessly sweep an errant lock behind his ear. It's short enough it doesn't even stay for a second.

"Now, circumstances under which we met: I'm working at the Pearl, in Denerim, in more ways than the obvious route -- healing, Aisling, only I get to make looks that saucy. And you're witty enough not to wonder why Isabela was there." Seeing her face move made his storytelling much more dynamic, so he spared another moment to be thankful for her skill at the backwards-stride. "So we pour over this tome together for hours, with occasional breaks for me to do my actual job -- healing, again, and not eyebrow waggling healing, Aisling -- discussing the matter indepth, naturally. And there's this one picture."

He starts to snicker, eyes lighting up as he recalls the picture.

"It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. For one thing, no part of human genitalia is supposed to resemble a nug, but the artist made an admirable attempt. We're almost at the end of the book, by this point, so we're grasping at straws for things that might actually be useful to me, being a spry but displaced Anders man lamentably located in Ferelden, far from many of the ingredients of all these various delicacies. She suggests the hat. The helmet, I point out, is a historically inaccurate design and that I am deeply, deeply offended by the notion. Also, it would ruin my hair."

[avisionofhawke]

"Oh, do go on," she chuckled, responding to his story with looks varying from intrigued to downright indecent. Her eyes lit up as he continued, sparkling with mirth.

[cattymage]

"That's the part when you lament the tiniest notion that something so terrible could dare to happen to hair like this, you know."

He's on a roll, now, there's no way of stopping him.

"And then," he says, "then I stop, lean real close to the picture, and ask Isabela to look, too - she, taking this opportunity to squish, as the lovely woman does, over my back to perch her chin on my shoulder to see. And I ask, are those supposed to be his nipples, or are those actually rings?"

He holds his free hand up, making a large 'O' with his thumb and forefinger. "This big. Isabela says they're more like door knockers, and if that I really want a pair of knockers, I ought to -- well, you know Isabela."

He clutches his hand into a fist, raising it. "But I am inspired! Truly, these mighty door knockers are the very symbol of the withstanding virility of the Anderfels. But they also look damn heavy. I'd fall flat on my face if I ever leaned too far forward."

[avisionofhawke]

Hawke actually had to stop walking because she was laughing so hard at that image. She clapped both hands over her mouth like a child who didn't want to be caught after pulling a prank.

[cattymage]

"Remember to breathe, Aisling," he purrs, fully aware that he's just making her situation worse.

[avisionofhawke]

She couldn't help it - she doubled over with tears in her eyes.

"Anders, please- Hahaha! I'm- I'm trying to-"

And there, Aisling gave up on speech and just laughed.

[cattymage]

He waited, oh-so politely, while she finished losing and re-collecting her shit. The look on his face is just... well, it's something else. Uninhibited and satisfied and happy, feeding off of her amusement like a plant in the rain.

[avisionofhawke]

Aisling took it in when she wiped her eyes, thinking she would have to prod her Anders into telling amusing stories, too. Maybe she could get him to give her the same look...

"Well? What happened then?" she prompted a little bit breathlessly.

[cattymage]

"Isabela intimated that I was not shapely, that is what happened," he fake-sulks. "She agreed that the door knockers were not proper or practical, and that if I was going to go for it, I ought to get something more proportionate. I played salty at her for a bit, she laughed in my face, and I gave up the act to ask if she knew any good piercers in Denerim, and she rolls her eyes and shoulders all 'save me from pretty, unworldly apostate boys' and, well, that's how I got my nipples pierced by an elf from Antiva."

[avisionofhawke]

And whether it was appropriate or not, Aisling nearly lost it again, because that sounded exactly like Isabela. And she'd probably worn that look herself now and then, as well - Maker knew she'd thought it.

Then she remembered the most likely reason those particular rings were no longer worn and thanked the Maker for Justice (just this once).

[cattymage]

He's just gonna bask, for a bit, and also because his throat's REALLY dry now, wow. Soon enough his basking grin is interrupted with a little coughing, and he rubs his throat until it calms down.

"--hey, Aisling, want me to show you the apostate instant-fresh-water trick, or do you already know how that one goes?"

[avisionofhawke]

"Actually, I think I know that one. Saved our lives in the Deep Roads as a matter of fact. But water would be magnificent right about now," she commented.

I would say she commented drily, but that would be too obvious a pun and it wouldn't fit anyway

[cattymage]

"Useful, isn't it?"

And then he turns sheepish.

"Uh... I'm hoping you've some kind of handy container that will stand up to a little heat. Unless --ahuh!" Talking makes your dry throat cough worse, Anders, you should know this. "Unless you want to stop for half an hour while I fiddle around with what's available like a blundering, _(ahuh!) fool."