"Alcohol is, unfortunately, relatively low on the priority list when we still have holes in the ceiling- and a great deal of what is good is squirreled away by Josephine to be saved for visiting dignitaries and nobles." She says, as a noble herself. "I receive the odd crate of wine and brandy from my family but most of that goes to the other healers."
There's a faint mew from under the table- and Adelaide will use that as her reason for going pink, not how casually and closely Red is leaning. It's the kitten that is not her kitten but she is minding it for a moment demanding attention. With one hand she continues to list off what Red says, the other scoops up a soft, white kitten and sets him on the table for a moment. "Limes and Rum would have to be imported but I think Varric may have connections to help there- if he does not? I can ask my sisters. Blending- if you can explain how we might sort out the means."
Whimsical as it may be- she treats it with all due seriousness. Or. As much as she can while gently tugging the kitten away from batting at the papers and pens littering the desk. "Morale is important. That is why we have a Tavern and why it is stocked- but more over...this is not your world. What would bring you comfort, what would soothe you in your home- you do not have those things here. If this work can bring one familiar thing to you and those in similar worlds? If it can give that comfort- then it is more than worthwhile- it is Vital. We work to better our standing, the Council, but you...have no one to speak for you or work for your interests. I'll not assume that authority, I do not have that right. But I will help how I can. And I truly think this will help, Red."
Red hums, the kind of hum that is thoughtful and understanding and of course all bundled together in a single note.
"Clearly the answer is for everyone to become healers," she replies, masterfully deadpan for all of a second before it gives way to a smile.
"Varric or Isabela," by way of agreement, as she leans towards the cat curiously, though holding herself back a little. Canines and she tended to have a better relationship than she and felines. Cats were, perhaps understandably, a little skittish of larger predators. Eventually they could warm up to her, though. At least... she hoped so. In theory?
She has no idea. Instead she opts to help Adelaide's efforts by undoing one of the string bracelets and absent minedly dangling and dancing it just out of the kitten's reach. That's helpful, right?
Red smiles, wry. "Honestly, I don't know that I have a world that call home. The Enchanted Forest and Storybrooke-- I never fit, you know? Bits and pieces were good, but I don't know how much they felt like home." A glance from the kitten to Adelaide, then. "Sorry. Irrelevant. Um, morale boosting sounds good. And daiquiris sound good, and... probably some others. At the very least the names could scandalise some of the more delicate Inquisition members." A beat passes, before she adds, gaze dropping again, "thank you."
"Clearly." Adelaide's lips hook faintly in a smile, something that is there and gone before her eyes flick back to the sketch. It isn't a complicated set up, what she'd used. Whatever Ruby needs might be larger or more complex- but they've the tools and the means.
Remi's attention snaps immediately to the string, tailtip and ears twitching as he hunkers down for a pounce. There is the barest wiggle of his haunches, an unsteady thing for something so small before he leaps forward- paws outstretched for the capture.
Adelaide is, understandably, distracted by this adorable interplay. The tip of her pen slows in it's idle sketching and a slower, sweeter curl of a smile blooms into being. The work is important. Morale has it's place. But it is the little things that matter. A kitten, a daiquiri...a friend. Research assistant. A person. "Perhaps-"
It's a bit much, this, but she looks from Remi at play with the string to Red, a little of that warmth lingering. Pen set aside she reaches out to brush her hand against Red's. "Perhaps you might find a place for yourself here. That you fit. For however long you remain- we do not yet have daiquiris or these other scandalous drinks but- we are building something."
Aha. Not today, sucker. The string is whipped away, out of reach again and creating a path across the desk that is, hopefully, not over anything essential.
Adelaide's hand against her own makes the cat teasing stop, string stilling and leaving it open to finally be captured, and for a second she's so surprised that she has the look of someone who might be about to be chastised, lostness mixed in with it.
"I'd like that," Red start, and her voice sounds a little dry and rough, so she drops her gaze and clears her throat before looking back to Adelaide again. With less embarrassing emotion: "Sounds good to me."
And, with a quiet laugh. "Just wait. A Slow Comfortable Screw Against the Wall is not to be sniffed at." And then a moment of oh dear. "Or to be ordered in front of a Chantry sister, probably." Yay working for religious organisation sort of things.
Remi mews plaintively and gives chase, batting at the string, skittering over blank pages and old notes. So. Nothing important. He continues sliding and hop pouncing at the string up until it goes still, whereupon he flops over onto one side to start gnawing upon it vigorously while purring. The great hunter has Captured His Prey. Tremble in terror.
Adelaide, meanwhile...waits out that flicker of emotion, a note or two of her own ringing in the hollow spaces between the compartments where she holds each part of her until it is needed. She starts to say- well. Something that might be inspiring or sentimental or wry- something, but is caught off guard by what is indeed a highly scandalous drink name. Her eyes narrow slightly, lips forming the words with great consideration before she murmurs. "I've found most screws against the wall to be uncomfortable- but I suppose it depends upon the wall."
Red's eyes widen, and she almost bursts out laughing but has the mercy? Discretion? Whatever happens she coughs it more than actually laughs it, covering her mouth with her hand before giving Adelaide a look.
"You nobles and your walls, ruining the dream for the rest of us. Us common folk have to deal with barns and forests."
What happened to this conversation, how do yhey salvage this?
"I am more mage than noble, Red." She snorts faintly, settling back in her chair. "We're locked, more or less, in a tower and told to mind ourselves like good little Andrastians. As more than a quarter of us did come from noble stock and another third were elven- that is a great deal of attractive people told to work and live in close quarters while being chaste."
She'll...let Ruby draw her own conclusions from there.
"...I suppose that was not terribly fair of me. I've met some truly hideous nobles and rather breathtaking commoners." Present company included. But that-
Is not something she is going to say.
Ever.
"Alcoves are better, there is less room in some respects- but you've more opportunities for leverage-" No, no, she can't do this, her skin goes pink and she buries her face in her hands, lost in helpless laughter. Point 1 to Red.
"Thank God, or I was just going to write myself off on the spot." Although, actually, she cants her head and there's something-- not wry, not self-mocking, but on the fringes of both. "Truth be told, when you work in a diner or a tavern or wherever, you get very tired of being called beautiful. It starts to make you sound like something nice people want to use to decorate their house."
Or their bed. Or a wall, maybe, if they're a fancy noble.
Red's laugh is quiet, gentle, and she reaches over to console Adelaide with a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. Barns have leverage too, but there's animals. It's terrible."
"That is not the first word that comes to mind when I think of you." She manages, through her laughter. Eyes bright, a portion of that weary tension gone for the moment, Adelaide combs a loose strand of hair back in place. "Strong, would be the word."
There is a courage in determination. In moving forward.
Remi mews, demanding attention- or declaring his intent before he makes a tackling dive for the bangles on Ruby's wrist. One or the other. "But what do you do about the smell?"
"That sounds like a euphemism for 'ugly'." No, it doesn't. It definitely doesn't and that is obvious from the way Red's eyebrows hitch up and the corners of her mouth stay curled in a smile that just isn't going anywhere, despite her half-hearted effort to look stern. (It's an exceptionall half-hearted effort. Quarter-hearted, maybe, tops.)
Strong is actually nice. It's-- different. It's good.
With a little sound of surprise and also ever so slight pain as kitty claws find her wrist, Red finds herself in a bear trap cat maw. Go figure. She lets him play, undisturbed by the sensation once it's not a surprise.
"Actually the wolf thing means everything is always kind of intense, smell-wise." Red shrugs a little. "I can tune it out, or I can go tracking or I can appreciate the scenery, so to speak. Sounds, though. Sounds are the worst. Cows are the worst."
"Remi! Ne soyez pas si vilain." Adelaide sidesteps the....halfhearted, quarterhearted, whichever it might be in favor of attempting to chastise the kitten. Which, again, is the only reason for the pink on her cheeks. Nothing more. This is...nice, in a way. Friendly. Easy, she might thing, but that is what surviving trauma does. It makes associations afterward easy.
"Mm. I shall make a point not to work around any of the particularly overpowering poultices should we've a meeting scheduled." Able to tune it out or no, that is common courtesy. And it would be cruel to be so noble as to forget common courtesy. "I...can almost imagine."
"Don't imagine." Gently mortified, that, and now it's Red who has her hand over her forehead and slowly drags it down her face. "Now next time you're having a moment you'll think of cows! It'll ruin the moment and then you'll blame me." Except this line of conversation does seem in danger of inviting certain thoughts, ans Red just rests her elbows on the table and presses her face into her hands, despite potential feline retaliation. "This is terrible."
Mumbled, still through her hands, "thanks about the poultices."
"I fear it is too late." Adelaide murmurs with all due seriousness, gaze in the middle distance as she does, in fact, imagine attempting an intimate interlude with someone and their interruption by cows lowing. "...It would not be the strangest thing to kill the mood."
Mages. They run into interesting situations.
The conversation, at least, cant be abandoned in favor of cooing over Remi, who twists around on his back to bat at Ruby's hair where it falls around her hands.
The combination of a kitten at risk of getting entangled in her hair (eternally in inexplicably perfect waves because maybe she is actually sorcerer, who knows) and Adelaide's comment makes her look up from her hands, although they stay held in place, fingers a shell that curl towards her palm rather than forming a little barricade.
"I probably shouldn't want to ask." And yet. Sheepishly, in the hopes of regaining the shreds of her tattered dignity, Red clears her throat. "And speak of probablies, I should maybe let you get back to work and stop being a bad influence, huh?"
For a long moment something hangs in the air between them. Something playful, something easy, something with which she has no idea what it is she is meant to do- and yet finds herself somewhat eager to explore. Until there is a mew and the moment ends, until she must reach over to fish Remi out from Red's hair.
"You are hardly a poor influence, but if you wish to be productive and require incentive..." Adelaide rests her cheek on her hand, considering Red, her lips curled in a small smile. "Make a list of everything we would need to make the Gin you remember, daiquiris, and this 'slow comfortable screw against the wall', and I shall tell you what the strangest thing was when you are finished."
This is very comfortable and very strange and she has exactly zero clue about what one does when you feel comfortable with relative strangers. In her experience you either form an improvised girl gang and live in a forest escaping evil queens and murderwolves, or you go and work for them and end your day with discovering a heart in a box.
Red's dynamic with the Charmings is a special one, that's for sure. Hopefully with Adelaide there'll be less unexpected murder.
"That's the kind of bargain I can live with." Expectant and entirely tentative, Red holds out her hand for a pen - a quill? a charcoal stub? whatever - even as she glances down at the cat and gently blows a breath of air at him, smiling as she does so. "And I can definitely be a bad influence, believe me."
Pen and a small, hand bound journal with the first few pages torn out- easily pocketable. The cover is stained with tea and ink but it should suffice for whatever Red needs. "Shall I consider this some manner of challenge in resisting your influence?"
That- did not sound half as flirtatious in her head. Saved by the kitten mewing, Adelaide scoops him back into her lap where he might resume dozing as all good kittens do.
"Definitely not. I'm also too charming to resist, it'd be a waste of your time." Rich with her mockery of herself, as always, but Red is vaguely aware of the slight sway in her shoulders and the way she lets her tongue press against the back of her teeth and smile that feels slow, somehow, and equally feels like she should just. Stop. Because oh my God.
Inhale; exhale. Try to survive a sentence without innuendo or inadvertent flirtation.
"Oh, uh. Tell me three flavours you like, too. Or smells. I'll see if I can figure out some other cocktails I should work on."
"I think you can recall well exactly how stubborn I can be." Enough to demand a woman to live, to insist that this was the wiser course. It'd been an intense moment for so many reasons and this is...no less. For very different reasons that she does not entirely mind. Carefully she settles back in her chair, the distance giving her room to breathe and perhaps find her head again.
Fight down this constant warmth in her cheeks.
She is a Councilor, honestly. "Strawberries, I think goes without saying. Honey and...apples."
She has always been terribly fond of apple brandy.
"You? Stubborn? No way." Gentler, now, and she breathes a little easier with Adelaide leaning back, grabbing up the journal and pen properly and leaning back, as well, spinning the pen between her fingers as she does so.
"Apples, huh?" It'll probably make no sense, but she huffs out a breath of laughter. She exists in a place of conflict where Ruby Lucas loved apple pie and appletinis, and Red remembers finding Snow White under a sleeping curse, and apple rolled away from her grasp, where Henry was under a sleeping curse. Apples were warmth and comfort and they were also a kneejerk no. "I'm on it. One ultra mega cocktail will be on its way to you eventually."
"Mhmm. We are just about coming into season for them as well, I think." The crisper, sweeter apples they would get in the Spire would be ripe for the picking, or something close to it. She never truly kept track but now? She thinks it might have been better to do so.
"Take your time. This is a research project with no deadline save the one you give yourself- and." She fishes in her belt pouch for a moment before coming up with a gold coin, sliding it across the table. "We have been back for some time, consider this back pay."
Time for foraging. Or for begging favours from Varric, either or. Fruit acquisition is serious business, and she nods, making a mental note.
For a second she just looks at the coin, faintly thrown as she looks at Adelaide. "But I haven't even done anything yet. Back pay only applies to when you've been, y'know. Working."
Also Adelaide kind of saved her life, so there is a level where accepting money feels... weird.
"As your Boss I ought to have reached out with instructions, the fault is mine. But if you insist- call it an allowance for gathering ingredients." If she needed more- well. She likely could manage it on her own. "Your beginning budget, yes?"
There. That was safer. That was less...whatever made this strange.
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There's a faint mew from under the table- and Adelaide will use that as her reason for going pink, not how casually and closely Red is leaning. It's the kitten that is not her kitten but she is minding it for a moment demanding attention. With one hand she continues to list off what Red says, the other scoops up a soft, white kitten and sets him on the table for a moment. "Limes and Rum would have to be imported but I think Varric may have connections to help there- if he does not? I can ask my sisters. Blending- if you can explain how we might sort out the means."
Whimsical as it may be- she treats it with all due seriousness. Or. As much as she can while gently tugging the kitten away from batting at the papers and pens littering the desk. "Morale is important. That is why we have a Tavern and why it is stocked- but more over...this is not your world. What would bring you comfort, what would soothe you in your home- you do not have those things here. If this work can bring one familiar thing to you and those in similar worlds? If it can give that comfort- then it is more than worthwhile- it is Vital. We work to better our standing, the Council, but you...have no one to speak for you or work for your interests. I'll not assume that authority, I do not have that right. But I will help how I can. And I truly think this will help, Red."
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"Clearly the answer is for everyone to become healers," she replies, masterfully deadpan for all of a second before it gives way to a smile.
"Varric or Isabela," by way of agreement, as she leans towards the cat curiously, though holding herself back a little. Canines and she tended to have a better relationship than she and felines. Cats were, perhaps understandably, a little skittish of larger predators. Eventually they could warm up to her, though. At least... she hoped so. In theory?
She has no idea. Instead she opts to help Adelaide's efforts by undoing one of the string bracelets and absent minedly dangling and dancing it just out of the kitten's reach. That's helpful, right?
Red smiles, wry. "Honestly, I don't know that I have a world that call home. The Enchanted Forest and Storybrooke-- I never fit, you know? Bits and pieces were good, but I don't know how much they felt like home." A glance from the kitten to Adelaide, then. "Sorry. Irrelevant. Um, morale boosting sounds good. And daiquiris sound good, and... probably some others. At the very least the names could scandalise some of the more delicate Inquisition members." A beat passes, before she adds, gaze dropping again, "thank you."
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Remi's attention snaps immediately to the string, tailtip and ears twitching as he hunkers down for a pounce. There is the barest wiggle of his haunches, an unsteady thing for something so small before he leaps forward- paws outstretched for the capture.
Adelaide is, understandably, distracted by this adorable interplay. The tip of her pen slows in it's idle sketching and a slower, sweeter curl of a smile blooms into being. The work is important. Morale has it's place. But it is the little things that matter. A kitten, a daiquiri...a friend. Research assistant. A person. "Perhaps-"
It's a bit much, this, but she looks from Remi at play with the string to Red, a little of that warmth lingering. Pen set aside she reaches out to brush her hand against Red's. "Perhaps you might find a place for yourself here. That you fit. For however long you remain- we do not yet have daiquiris or these other scandalous drinks but- we are building something."
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Adelaide's hand against her own makes the cat teasing stop, string stilling and leaving it open to finally be captured, and for a second she's so surprised that she has the look of someone who might be about to be chastised, lostness mixed in with it.
"I'd like that," Red start, and her voice sounds a little dry and rough, so she drops her gaze and clears her throat before looking back to Adelaide again. With less embarrassing emotion: "Sounds good to me."
And, with a quiet laugh. "Just wait. A Slow Comfortable Screw Against the Wall is not to be sniffed at." And then a moment of oh dear. "Or to be ordered in front of a Chantry sister, probably." Yay working for religious organisation sort of things.
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Adelaide, meanwhile...waits out that flicker of emotion, a note or two of her own ringing in the hollow spaces between the compartments where she holds each part of her until it is needed. She starts to say- well. Something that might be inspiring or sentimental or wry- something, but is caught off guard by what is indeed a highly scandalous drink name. Her eyes narrow slightly, lips forming the words with great consideration before she murmurs. "I've found most screws against the wall to be uncomfortable- but I suppose it depends upon the wall."
...Wait is that too much information?
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"You nobles and your walls, ruining the dream for the rest of us. Us common folk have to deal with barns and forests."
What happened to this conversation, how do yhey salvage this?
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She'll...let Ruby draw her own conclusions from there.
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Good thing Ruby is never contrary, or anything. And she's definitely never ridiculous.
"Just as well I've never had the pleasure of walls," and it'd be impressively dry if not for the, you know, trying not to laugh.
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Is not something she is going to say.
Ever.
"Alcoves are better, there is less room in some respects- but you've more opportunities for leverage-" No, no, she can't do this, her skin goes pink and she buries her face in her hands, lost in helpless laughter. Point 1 to Red.
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Or their bed. Or a wall, maybe, if they're a fancy noble.
Red's laugh is quiet, gentle, and she reaches over to console Adelaide with a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. Barns have leverage too, but there's animals. It's terrible."
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There is a courage in determination. In moving forward.
Remi mews, demanding attention- or declaring his intent before he makes a tackling dive for the bangles on Ruby's wrist. One or the other. "But what do you do about the smell?"
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Strong is actually nice. It's-- different. It's good.
With a little sound of surprise and also ever so slight pain as kitty claws find her wrist, Red finds herself in a bear trap cat maw. Go figure. She lets him play, undisturbed by the sensation once it's not a surprise.
"Actually the wolf thing means everything is always kind of intense, smell-wise." Red shrugs a little. "I can tune it out, or I can go tracking or I can appreciate the scenery, so to speak. Sounds, though. Sounds are the worst. Cows are the worst."
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"Mm. I shall make a point not to work around any of the particularly overpowering poultices should we've a meeting scheduled." Able to tune it out or no, that is common courtesy. And it would be cruel to be so noble as to forget common courtesy. "I...can almost imagine."
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Mumbled, still through her hands, "thanks about the poultices."
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Mages. They run into interesting situations.
The conversation, at least, cant be abandoned in favor of cooing over Remi, who twists around on his back to bat at Ruby's hair where it falls around her hands.
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"I probably shouldn't want to ask." And yet. Sheepishly, in the hopes of regaining the shreds of her tattered dignity, Red clears her throat. "And speak of probablies, I should maybe let you get back to work and stop being a bad influence, huh?"
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"You are hardly a poor influence, but if you wish to be productive and require incentive..." Adelaide rests her cheek on her hand, considering Red, her lips curled in a small smile. "Make a list of everything we would need to make the Gin you remember, daiquiris, and this 'slow comfortable screw against the wall', and I shall tell you what the strangest thing was when you are finished."
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Red's dynamic with the Charmings is a special one, that's for sure. Hopefully with Adelaide there'll be less unexpected murder.
"That's the kind of bargain I can live with." Expectant and entirely tentative, Red holds out her hand for a pen - a quill? a charcoal stub? whatever - even as she glances down at the cat and gently blows a breath of air at him, smiling as she does so. "And I can definitely be a bad influence, believe me."
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That- did not sound half as flirtatious in her head. Saved by the kitten mewing, Adelaide scoops him back into her lap where he might resume dozing as all good kittens do.
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Inhale; exhale. Try to survive a sentence without innuendo or inadvertent flirtation.
"Oh, uh. Tell me three flavours you like, too. Or smells. I'll see if I can figure out some other cocktails I should work on."
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Fight down this constant warmth in her cheeks.
She is a Councilor, honestly. "Strawberries, I think goes without saying. Honey and...apples."
She has always been terribly fond of apple brandy.
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"Apples, huh?" It'll probably make no sense, but she huffs out a breath of laughter. She exists in a place of conflict where Ruby Lucas loved apple pie and appletinis, and Red remembers finding Snow White under a sleeping curse, and apple rolled away from her grasp, where Henry was under a sleeping curse. Apples were warmth and comfort and they were also a kneejerk no. "I'm on it. One ultra mega cocktail will be on its way to you eventually."
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"Take your time. This is a research project with no deadline save the one you give yourself- and." She fishes in her belt pouch for a moment before coming up with a gold coin, sliding it across the table. "We have been back for some time, consider this back pay."
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For a second she just looks at the coin, faintly thrown as she looks at Adelaide. "But I haven't even done anything yet. Back pay only applies to when you've been, y'know. Working."
Also Adelaide kind of saved her life, so there is a level where accepting money feels... weird.
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There. That was safer. That was less...whatever made this strange.
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