faithlikeaseed | [IC/OOC] Fade Rift Inbox & Contact

[He can't pretend that relief isn't a little gratifying, even if he isn't trying to make Myr fret. It is nice, at times, to be an object of concern.]

Who told you about the hostile wildlife? You'd be surprised at that, actually. I didn't know hostile wildlife could be so cute. I've been bitten by a fennec before, so that counts in its way, but it's nothing on the jungle cats.

I wish it would rain. I've got the worst sunburn.

Word got back about the sea serpents and the--what were they calling the giant squid monster? Hadn't heard about the cats yet, I don't think. ...When did you get bitten by a fennec? And are the cats really cuter?

[Quiet tsk.] You're looking after it, I hope. And-- [He interdicts himself before he can get too far into his mother hen routine.] --I'll see if the Maker's not disposed to send some of what we're getting your way.

How is Rivain? What's it like out there? Anything interesting on the island with you? Other than the cats.

Edited 2017-09-28 02:07 (UTC)

They called it a kraken. [There's no accompanying joke, no flip dismissal. There are massive, malevolent beasts made of red lyrium, and they'd killed a man before his very eyes. There are some things that simply merit quiet, straightforward respect. And a merciful change of subject.]

There are fennecs everywhere in the Hinterlands. Common as city mice. They'll leave you alone mostly, but they bite like hell if you're trying to catch one for dinner. As they should. Nobody's tried to catch a jungle kitten for eating, but I admit I'd probably try to pet one if the mamas weren't so territorial.

Other than the cats, there are some ruins that might be interesting if I wanted to slog through the jungle to get to them, and some qunari that I think got shipwrecked too. They've been helpful enough, but they're not scintillating conversationalists.

[He tucks that name away for later research on his own. Much as his preferred method of learning anything is asking questions about it direct, he recognizes the seriousness of Van's tone and knows not to press.]

You were going to eat a fennec? [He's between mock-scandalized and curious, though it's a wary curiosity indeed--asking too much about Van's time in the Hinterlands verges close to things they might be better off not talking about.] And it's just as well no one's tried to eat a kitten; how could I ever stay with the Inquisition if they countenanced kitten-eaters among their ranks.

They haven't tried to convert anyone, have they? Though I suppose they're a more practical lot than to evangelize in the middle of being marooned. [Eagerly, then,] Someone is exploring the ruins though, right? D'you know what sort of ruins they might be?

Truly, kitten-eating would be the worst crime anyone affiliated with the Inquisition has ever committed. [His silence on the matter of the fennec suggests that Myr's wariness is not misplaced. He shouldn't have brought it up; this isn't the time to talk about his own crimes. But there's almost never a wrong moment to deflect with dry sarcasm.]

The qunari barely speak Trade at all, so far as I've heard. They've just been trying to warn us about the angry cats. I haven't been up to see the ruins, but there are people looking into them--I think they're Andrastian, or at least some of them are. More than that I couldn't say.

Kind of a shame. If they were elven, it would be interesting...but maybe there's a mix.

[Right. Drop that line of conversation, quick.] Absolutely monstrous. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if the Qunari were trying to warn you about the cats because they're off eating kittens and the mothers have gone into a vengeful rage.

Maybe see if they've got recipes; bet you could use anything meant for kitten on nug instead.

[A small sigh.] Ah, damn. Wish I could be there for that. [Though it would be better, of course, if he could see them.]

Maybe. That would be really interesting, if one was built atop the other; moreso if they were contemporary.

... ... You're all right, other than the sunburn? [He'd been trying to replace his worry with enthusiasm; that failed.]

Really, now. There's no reason to think the Qun says anything about eating kittens. And of course if it doesn't, they wouldn't. [His objections to the Qun come from an entirely different angle than Myr's do, but they can meet in the middle and enjoy the condemnation together.]

You'd really want to see Andrastian monuments built overtop of elven ones? [It's dangerous territory to venture into, especially on what was meant to be a lighthearted call just to chat, but that's never stopped Vandelin from saying anything he pleased before.

But he does feel guilty about it, in the face of his cousin's solicitousness. He regroups, silently contrite.] Never mind. I'm fine, I promise. Plenty of fresh water and fruit to eat and all of that.

[That question stops him cold. He's got to take a deep breath in and let it back out again before the sick feeling of guilt ebbs enough he can speak; hadn't he taken Ser Ashlock to task over how awful that sort of erasure was, not more than a month ago?

And here he is, prattling on--] In the sense it's part of the historical record now, I'm interested in learning about it. In the sense it's part of the Chantry's erasing who our people once were--no, I'm not happy about that. It shouldn't have happened.

And when I'd said otherwise in the past, I--was wrong.

[He can't leave it at never mind when it cuts him to the quick like that. The words are maybe a little defensive, but Van's got the right of it. Myr will admit as much.]

Good. I'll not have you eaten by a giant squid or nibbled to death by kittens now that I've found you again. [...That was...more than he'd meant to say but it's true and there's not any taking it back.]

["I was wrong" are three of the sweetest words in the entire Trade language to Vandelin, second only to "you were right," and both of those preferable to "I love you." That last is not something he and Myr are in the habit of saying to each other in any case, not explicitly, and certainly not recently--not in the past three years, obviously, and not in the tense months leading to the uprising, and that's far enough back that Van can't remember any specific examples before it.

But he knows when Myr means it, recognizes it instantly when he hears it, and even if Myr had meant to keep it closer to the vest--as Van would have advised him to, as Van wants to do even now--he's moved enough by it to be stricken briefly silent. There's not a word of that lost on him, and the implication that Myr had wanted to find him again--had been willing to seek him out, had thought of him as lost rather than willfully abandoning his family, had thought of him at all, overcomes him with emotion. It isn't that he hadn't done the same, missing Myr and worrying for him and hoping against helpless secular hope that he was alive and safe, but for some reason, he hadn't known for sure it would be reciprocated.]

...yeah, well. I've been the brains of this setup for twenty-five years. You need me. I wouldn't leave you in the lurch. [Not again, his unfamiliar guilty conscience whispers.]

You stay safe, and I will too. I'll be back before you know it.

[It's true, for all Myr still hasn't worked out how to forgive Van for what happened. And like any truth there's a vulnerability in it; he knows it, knows how Van would advise him here--if, apparently, the admission hadn't shut his cousin down completely.

He's not sure if that's a good sign; sits twisting his sending crystal between his fingers as he considers what he's just confessed to and awaits a response.

That it slots so comfortably into their old disrupted patterns gets a huff of a laugh out of him.]

Yeah, yeah. Don't know how I got on without you for the last three years. [He struggles to keep the words light and dry and teasing; the pain still stains them like blood on cloth. It's several moments' work to swallow it before it can blossom into an accusation.] Besides I ought to know better--you'd be too much for even a squid to stomach. You'd hex its guts right out of it for having the gall.

But I won't be making any trips to Darktown while you're out, promise; I'll stick to the chapel instead and beseech the Maker for fair winds and safe travel for you. Just--don't be so safe you can't have an adventure out there, too. [Because that's what freedom means, doesn't it?]

[IC/OOC] Fade Rift Inbox & Contact

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