( thranduil, whose jaw might have tightened several moment ago if the glamor did not keep him looking as placid and unreadable as an orlesian mask, still flinches when the door slams. and then he stands, and wets his own napkin in the pitcher of water, before coming to kneel beside kitty.
he’s dealt with crying before. )
Wipe your face, and breathe. She will not speak to us, but whatever she says to him might have him storming in here, and you cannot be crying when he is.
( he’d offer to hide it for her, but— )
All will be well, ( he says, but he says it with a specific sort of grimness. )
[ She struggles to get control, hiccuping desperately a moment, then grabbing for the napkin like it's a gnarled root and she caught in a river's vicious current. A deep breath, another, into the wet cloth, and then -
She looks up, misery arrested for a moment with fear. ]
Him - Do you mean Flint? Why? What do you think she'll tell him?
[ Is she three times the fool, now, for trusting? Putting her faith in Benedict, then Flint, and now Gwen? Is she going to betray her? ]
I, ( he starts, and then he stops. gwenaëlle has gone off to fix this, as she thinks it will be fixed, and thranduil— is not sure.
she is good, better than she was, but there were so many miscommunications while they were still courting, and she knows no other way to be other than how she is.
he realizes he is furious with her. it is something he has not felt in a while.
instead, he touches kitty’s cheek, still kneeling. )
I do not know. She may just yell.
( and— he doesn’t know flint. he doesn’t know any of the other division heads, when before he’d been among those he could confidently guess the behavior of, and now he is alone and outnumbered by humans he does not trust. )
[ It's weird, that touch on the cheek. She doesn't like it, not really - the intimacy of it makes her want to squirm - but she doesn't exactly want to pull away from it, either. What she definitely wants to do is cry more, though, which she definitely cannot do, and so she draws in a shaky breath and swallows and swallows again and sits back. You can't be seen crying. You can't. ]
( he stands and takes his hand away, refilling her glass (though he is of a heavier hand with the water than the wine). )
Because she is cruel, sometimes, and particular, and desires her audience to understand her point without always understanding their emotions-
( -and thranduil is also all these things. )
She may apologize, and she may not, but it will likely not be to the degree that you desire. For my part, I am sorry. If I had any idea how she would react...
( and here he falls off again. he goes and locks the door instead. he had expected her to be a comfort to kitty. to be witty and acerbic and enlightening during kitty's time of need, not to reduce the girl to tears. )
[ She shouldn't have what? Something. There was some step in there where she went wrong. I don't know where that little girl went, all that's left is this surly vixen -
She shakes her head to rid herself of the echo of her father's voice. No. Enough trouble here without falling into the trap of memory. ]
I'm sorry. For getting you in trouble. For not... [ Saying anything. ]
It is. he ( corrects, and firmly. ) And it is not your fault, Kitty. If I am 'in trouble' ( and this he doubts, but who knows, ) then I will handle it.
[ She winces. Had she really said his name? God, how much had she blathered on in the height of passion? How stupid. ]
I shouldn't have said anything. It doesn't matter.
[ But Thranduil's a Rifter, too, no less than she is. It's a little easy to forget sometimes, with all his confidence, with his authority, with his connections, but he is a Rifter. So he's been told a hundred times, just like her, that his home is fake and everything's made up and none of it matters. She remembers that, and so she takes a breath and says - before she loses her courage - ]
Back home, I had been a member of a revolutionary cell that was resisting the government and trying to take down the magicians, because magicians were in charge of our government, like Tevinter, and Mr Pennyfeather was the leader of the cell. It was me and ten others, and most of us were kids - [ And it's taken her this war to realize how truly dreadful that fact was - ] But he wasn't - he was an old man, who'd lost his wife to a magician, and so he hated them. Much as any of us. More, probably. And so he sent us out. And we died. And there came a point where I saw that none of it was for anything good, none of it was for freedom, that at some point he'd lost sight of everything and just turned it into collecting artefacts, to hoarding power that came from things, and that's what we were dying for. That's what all of us died for.
[ It comes out in a rather breathless flow. Soon as it's done, she flushes, because she's never told anyone that full story before, and it's painful and ridiculous and foolish. But it's said, and so she ducks her head and starts gathering up plates. ]
( he goes and unlocks the door, and listens to her speak while he picks the remains of food off the plates and onto one single one, which he places on the floor. leviathan comes out from under the bed and tucks into the leftovers, his little hands resting on the rim of the plate. it's adorable.
but it gives thranduil something to do while he listens, to give kitty the peace of getting to say it without having to look at him. )
I am sorry you were ill-used, Kitty. You burn so brightly- it is a horror that anyone would seek to turn that to their own ends.
( and she'd gone willingly, hadn't she, with no other way to fight back. children made poor soldiers, unless they were fodder. he would comfort her- a hand on her back, a kinder word, but he already offered her a large measure of that, and she might be overflowing from it already.
best to leave it be. )
Thank you for telling me. Whenever you wish it, I will tell you anything at all you would like to know about me or my past.
No, I - didn't get used. I wasn't tricked or anything. I - wanted it.
[ Even though she knows distantly that the Kitty of five years ago, that angry trusting twelve-year-old girl, didn't understand what it meant to fight. And even though she knows distantly that no kid really understands what it is to fight.
And yet you have to do it anyway. If she could do it all over again - She would. Because even if you're a kid, and even if life would be so much better if you didn't know what it was to hurt another person, you've still got to stand up to injustice. There is no peace in an unjust world.
But enough of that. She shakes her head and confesses - ]
I don't know anything about you. I don't even know where I'd start to ask.
( he nods. the last of the cornbread is tied in to a napkin and set at the corner of the table. )
You know many things about me, as only one who follows on another's heels could. My handwriting, my reading habits, my working hours. What else is there- where I was born; Doriath, how I met my wife; in Skyhold, on the parapets, my favorite tree; the rowan.
( he catches her eye while she works, and smiles. it's little- he isn't a full-toothed grinner unless it's nearer to a sneer. this is more like a secret they're sharing, conspiratorial. )
It was beautiful. ( and mm, that's definitely longing and a glance towards the window. ) The trees grew tall and dense, and our city was within a thousand carved caves on the banks of the Esgalduin. All was fair to behold, and all water sweet to drink.
( he doesn't get more elfy than this. )
It is a protective tree. It wards off ill. And I enjoy the taste of the fruit.
I'm with you, believe me. Factories were a place where weapons got made using people as their raw parts. I don't even know how many of my neighbors had lost fingers or arms to places like that.
Had you been outside a city before you came to Thedas?
( the nug finishes with the food on the plate, and then lifts his little hands to inefficiently lick them. thranduil turns away from her to take it off the floor. )
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2019-10-17 10:56 pm (UTC)he’s dealt with crying before. )
Wipe your face, and breathe. She will not speak to us, but whatever she says to him might have him storming in here, and you cannot be crying when he is.
( he’d offer to hide it for her, but— )
All will be well, ( he says, but he says it with a specific sort of grimness. )
no subject
Date: 2019-10-17 11:11 pm (UTC)She looks up, misery arrested for a moment with fear. ]
Him - Do you mean Flint? Why? What do you think she'll tell him?
[ Is she three times the fool, now, for trusting? Putting her faith in Benedict, then Flint, and now Gwen? Is she going to betray her? ]
no subject
Date: 2019-10-17 11:44 pm (UTC)she is good, better than she was, but there were so many miscommunications while they were still courting, and she knows no other way to be other than how she is.
he realizes he is furious with her. it is something he has not felt in a while.
instead, he touches kitty’s cheek, still kneeling. )
I do not know. She may just yell.
( and— he doesn’t know flint. he doesn’t know any of the other division heads, when before he’d been among those he could confidently guess the behavior of, and now he is alone and outnumbered by humans he does not trust. )
Whatever it is, I will be here.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 12:04 am (UTC)Why did she - ? [ Do that. Say that. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 12:39 am (UTC)Because she is cruel, sometimes, and particular, and desires her audience to understand her point without always understanding their emotions-
( -and thranduil is also all these things. )
She may apologize, and she may not, but it will likely not be to the degree that you desire. For my part, I am sorry. If I had any idea how she would react...
( and here he falls off again. he goes and locks the door instead. he had expected her to be a comfort to kitty. to be witty and acerbic and enlightening during kitty's time of need, not to reduce the girl to tears. )
I had thought having her here would help.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 12:44 am (UTC)It's not your fault. I - I oughtn't -
[ She shouldn't have what? Something. There was some step in there where she went wrong. I don't know where that little girl went, all that's left is this surly vixen -
She shakes her head to rid herself of the echo of her father's voice. No. Enough trouble here without falling into the trap of memory. ]
I'm sorry. For getting you in trouble. For not... [ Saying anything. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 01:00 am (UTC)All will be well. I told you so.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 01:18 am (UTC)[ A sniff, and a physical adjustment of her shoulders, and then a much firmer - ]
Is there work to be done?
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 01:23 am (UTC)( he is- proud of her, but he knew that already. )
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 01:52 am (UTC)[ She winces. Had she really said his name? God, how much had she blathered on in the height of passion? How stupid. ]
I shouldn't have said anything. It doesn't matter.
[ But Thranduil's a Rifter, too, no less than she is. It's a little easy to forget sometimes, with all his confidence, with his authority, with his connections, but he is a Rifter. So he's been told a hundred times, just like her, that his home is fake and everything's made up and none of it matters. She remembers that, and so she takes a breath and says - before she loses her courage - ]
Back home, I had been a member of a revolutionary cell that was resisting the government and trying to take down the magicians, because magicians were in charge of our government, like Tevinter, and Mr Pennyfeather was the leader of the cell. It was me and ten others, and most of us were kids - [ And it's taken her this war to realize how truly dreadful that fact was - ] But he wasn't - he was an old man, who'd lost his wife to a magician, and so he hated them. Much as any of us. More, probably. And so he sent us out. And we died. And there came a point where I saw that none of it was for anything good, none of it was for freedom, that at some point he'd lost sight of everything and just turned it into collecting artefacts, to hoarding power that came from things, and that's what we were dying for. That's what all of us died for.
[ It comes out in a rather breathless flow. Soon as it's done, she flushes, because she's never told anyone that full story before, and it's painful and ridiculous and foolish. But it's said, and so she ducks her head and starts gathering up plates. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 02:04 am (UTC)but it gives thranduil something to do while he listens, to give kitty the peace of getting to say it without having to look at him. )
I am sorry you were ill-used, Kitty. You burn so brightly- it is a horror that anyone would seek to turn that to their own ends.
( and she'd gone willingly, hadn't she, with no other way to fight back. children made poor soldiers, unless they were fodder. he would comfort her- a hand on her back, a kinder word, but he already offered her a large measure of that, and she might be overflowing from it already.
best to leave it be. )
Thank you for telling me. Whenever you wish it, I will tell you anything at all you would like to know about me or my past.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 02:11 am (UTC)[ Even though she knows distantly that the Kitty of five years ago, that angry trusting twelve-year-old girl, didn't understand what it meant to fight. And even though she knows distantly that no kid really understands what it is to fight.
And yet you have to do it anyway. If she could do it all over again - She would. Because even if you're a kid, and even if life would be so much better if you didn't know what it was to hurt another person, you've still got to stand up to injustice. There is no peace in an unjust world.
But enough of that. She shakes her head and confesses - ]
I don't know anything about you. I don't even know where I'd start to ask.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 02:19 am (UTC)You know many things about me, as only one who follows on another's heels could. My handwriting, my reading habits, my working hours. What else is there- where I was born; Doriath, how I met my wife; in Skyhold, on the parapets, my favorite tree; the rowan.
( he catches her eye while she works, and smiles. it's little- he isn't a full-toothed grinner unless it's nearer to a sneer. this is more like a secret they're sharing, conspiratorial. )
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 02:23 am (UTC)[ And, with a little more curiosity: ]
And why rowan? 'Cause it wards off magic?
peanuts adults talking noise
Date: 2019-10-18 02:29 am (UTC)( he doesn't get more elfy than this. )
It is a protective tree. It wards off ill. And I enjoy the taste of the fruit.
elf gonna elf
Date: 2019-10-18 02:32 am (UTC)Just caves? Did you have any sort of improvements? Like - did you have sewage systems? Were there kitchens built into 'em?
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 02:37 am (UTC)They were- carved. Purposeful. Decorated.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 02:49 am (UTC)( it just sounds like a big river by the name. )
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 02:52 am (UTC)No. There was...industry, though.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 02:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 03:02 am (UTC)I'm with you, believe me. Factories were a place where weapons got made using people as their raw parts. I don't even know how many of my neighbors had lost fingers or arms to places like that.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 03:16 am (UTC)( the nug finishes with the food on the plate, and then lifts his little hands to inefficiently lick them. thranduil turns away from her to take it off the floor. )
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 03:20 am (UTC)Kitty shakes her head no. ]