"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.
"Sure thing, Captain." It was funnier than boss, so shoot her.
Red accepts the coin, idly rubbing her thumb over it before she slips it into a pouch on her belt. Beginning budgets she could deal with. Thinking about budgets so shortly after Not Flirting is strange, though, and makes her feel ever so slightly guilty for-- teasing, really.
"Red." She snorts, softly. It is, she supposes, within the spirit of their agreement. She chooses one at a time. It's certainly better than Captain Chief Boss Lady and she'll take it happily.
"And I'll return to my kitten wrangling and note taking." Remi mews once more from where he's curled in her lap. He is not her kitten. Not at all. Just as Red is not a complication. Not at all.
Hey, now, Red holds up her hands. "You didn't say I couldn't use all of them separately."
But, uh. Yeah. She stands, taking her notebook and gold coin and pen with her. She feels very official.
"I'm heading out... nowish, I guess, so I'll take the crystal in case you need to send any requests or orders my way." Her smile is crooked, head ducked slightly, and she can't quite pin down why she isn't already walking. "See you when I see you."
"Technicalities." And she cannot be anything but slightly pleased that Red is taking advantage of the semantics of their agreement. She'll have to be more specific in the future.
"Check in with me when you arrive? The roads are safer now that the Inquisition has settled in that area properly but- people would go missing often, in the Mire. Be careful." She would hate to lose her assistant so quickly. "And ask the quartermaster for a few bottles of Antivan fire. The undead burn well."
"Well, when you work for a physian I hear it's important to thrive on technicalities." And she's back to mischievous, grinning for just a moment. Great. Terrible? Terrible, probably.
Nodding along, Red pauses to actually write that one down. Antivan fire, go. "Got it. Extra crispy barbecue corpse." That'll smell great, but she doesn't make a face or scrunch up her nose or comment, because she's not a complete brat or particularly squeamish.
"I will. Try to keep out of trouble while I'm gone." #professionalism
Adelaide arches a brow in response, meeting mischief with wry exasperation that is, somehow, tinted with a measure of fondness. How she could be so ready to trust yet again- she does not think about it.
She simply does.
"The Mire itself has an...odor that ranges from mildly unpleasant to excruciatingly putrid- something I found to help ease the discomfort was to keep a scarf with a sachet of dried herbs pressed near my nose and mouth." A beat. "I should say the same to you. Don't poke the bears."
"I'll keep it in mind." She might not be able to take full advantage of it while trying to track someone, but she can definitely keep it in mind. "And I'll resist the bears only because you asked."
Moving should happen, though, and so finally she takes a step backward, and then another. "Have a good day, Adelaide."
And with that and a nod, she sways her way into a turn.
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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."
no subject
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."
no subject
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."
no subject
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."
no subject
"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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Red accepts the coin, idly rubbing her thumb over it before she slips it into a pouch on her belt. Beginning budgets she could deal with. Thinking about budgets so shortly after Not Flirting is strange, though, and makes her feel ever so slightly guilty for-- teasing, really.
"I'll, um. Get right to work."
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"And I'll return to my kitten wrangling and note taking." Remi mews once more from where he's curled in her lap. He is not her kitten. Not at all. Just as Red is not a complication. Not at all.
Except yes.
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But, uh. Yeah. She stands, taking her notebook and gold coin and pen with her. She feels very official.
"I'm heading out... nowish, I guess, so I'll take the crystal in case you need to send any requests or orders my way." Her smile is crooked, head ducked slightly, and she can't quite pin down why she isn't already walking. "See you when I see you."
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"Check in with me when you arrive? The roads are safer now that the Inquisition has settled in that area properly but- people would go missing often, in the Mire. Be careful." She would hate to lose her assistant so quickly. "And ask the quartermaster for a few bottles of Antivan fire. The undead burn well."
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Nodding along, Red pauses to actually write that one down. Antivan fire, go. "Got it. Extra crispy barbecue corpse." That'll smell great, but she doesn't make a face or scrunch up her nose or comment, because she's not a complete brat or particularly squeamish.
"I will. Try to keep out of trouble while I'm gone." #professionalism
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She simply does.
"The Mire itself has an...odor that ranges from mildly unpleasant to excruciatingly putrid- something I found to help ease the discomfort was to keep a scarf with a sachet of dried herbs pressed near my nose and mouth." A beat. "I should say the same to you. Don't poke the bears."
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Moving should happen, though, and so finally she takes a step backward, and then another. "Have a good day, Adelaide."
And with that and a nod, she sways her way into a turn.