makinglies | Respite

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faerun

Respite

The lake is dark and calm with a small breeze by the time they arrive at its shores. The stars above reflect perfectly in the still waters before them, and a small copse of trees lines one side, starting on their side of the river and jumping along the other side.

Chris takes a moment to re-prepare the spell he hadn't been able to cast in five years and gestures vaguely to the area around them as a suggestion for what the others can do. Gathering in the forest, sitting on a nearby over-turned log, it didn't matter to him. What he needed was an hour without interruption.

He settles down on the ground and presses his hands together as he closes his eyes to focus on the image in his mind. Within minutes, the white, shimmering outline of a large building forms in thin air. The gentle glow of its light barely spreads from the growing structure.

As promised, it takes the full hour before the slowly filling-in form is complete and finishes with a jaunty, echoing click.

Chris takes a breath, now sitting in front of the stoop that looks annoyingly like the one he'd passed earlier in the night, and gets back onto stiff legs as the glow fades away, leaving smooth, but otherwise unremarkable, white stone behind.

"Here we are. Home for the next however long we need. I'll start working on food and water next." Once they're inside, anyway, which is why he takes back his things from where he'd left them and leads them into the temple, marked only with the carving of ravens on the black wood of the double doors.

Inside is something just shy of opulence. The same polished white stone makes the walls, though black and gold veins course through the marble. The floor is the inverse, a black stone with white, shimmering speckles like a night sky if looked at for long enough. A single window faced East high up on the wall. The temple was alight with sconces at regular intervals along the walls, illuminating an open area that held all the offerings of comfort Chris could think of.

A large hot-springs-like bath, complete with a miniature waterfall, took up the left side of the room and ran into a smaller, similar bath at dog-height. Next to it, covered by a retractable screen, was a shower. Along the back wall, a raven's head emblazoned the white wall in black and watched out over a set of tables, chairs, and a couple of sofas. The majority of the center was clear for walking, but the right edge and right side of the room held a deeply inset pit of pillows, cushions, and blankets in various soft (black and purple) fabrics.

Finally, in the middle of the right-hand wall, there were two closed doors that, when inspected, revealed one room with a large, soft chair and rug, while the other room was made of nothing but stone with jars, pitchers, and plates on shelves along two walls and a cork wall perfect for catching daggers on the other side.

"I hope it works for everyone. I didn't...I didn't make separate bedrooms this time. I didn't figure we would need them tonight."

♥

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Jon continues to squint at Wolfe as his suspicion eats at the back of his mind. Anything related to Duplicity must be bad... except what they can take and twist to their own purposes without the city or its eldritch master's influence. He takes a deep breath and relents. "A game. I have been thinking about that. Our lack of fluency. Maybe... If we're already asking to be woven into the Weave, we could try to make a deal so that we learn Common as part of it? Not any other languages, just Common. Even being able to understand and speak it would be something. We'd have to learn at writing and reading it still, but we could communicate at the very least."

This is still an important exercise, particularly as it pertains to reading, but he needs to share the idea with someone. If this is a place where deals with gods are viable... why not try for a little more to ease their way? Fluency in a language takes months, and he doesn't want to be wholly reliant on Chris and Amelia in that time. He loves his partner and... tolerates the fourth member of their party. Only having a broken understanding of what's being said around them or a translated version that could be amended or altered to avoid telling them things is terrifying. He needs to be able to understand at least one language.

"That's... I suppose its not a bad idea..." But he doesn't sound convinced as he rummages for paper. "I'm wary asking Gods for much beyond what we cannot do ourselves, though. I'd worry they'd think we were being greedy or ungrateful asking for too much."

He's done a lot of thinking about Gods ever since Chris pledged to bring them here. Wolfe was never a man of faith in higher powers but he did always recognize that asking a higher power - even a mortal one - for anything was a tricky proposition. At the very least they need to be careful of how they ask.

"I'd much rather just have the language plopped into my head, I'm not against that, I just want to make sure we don't offend any deity's sensibilities. They're real here, and could make our lives utterly miserable." Finding paper, he sets it out and pauses to comb his fingers through his beard. Its becoming a bit more full now; he should shave. "We can talk to Chris about it, see what he thinks?"

"I don't think 'let me move through this society I'm asking you to make me a part of rather than just existing in' is much of an ask beyond the basics. And if you want to be able to actually use magic instead of being some sort of fighter, we're going to need the language for it. Maybe that will be easier for whatever the... verbal components of things are, but still. It's related. And if she cares about magic and us sharing knowledge about what we know of it, we'll need the language for it, as well." This is, he knows, something of a stretch. She could be the sort of goddess who would tell them to learn it on their own. They have brains and won't die or go catatonic, now they can apply themselves.

It's a sentiment Jon might ordinarily agree with were it for just learning magic, itself. But to be reduced to a toddler's level of communication for god only knows how long... His pride, again, struggles with the idea of it.

"But fine, we can ask Chris about it. Be careful with the paper and whatever you write, by the by. With things like that costing an arm and a leg, we'll need to be more precious about it than we were in Duplicity. We'll need to be more precious about most things... We can play your game, but if I miss something, I'm not doing push-ups or sit-ups. I'll..." He glances off to the side, trying to think of something else. "I'll think up a compliment for Amelia."

"Maybe not, but it is something we could do for ourselves, unlike being woven in," Wolfe counters, gently but needing to state the difference. "And I get the feeling Mystra - and most other Gods for that matter - aren't interested in specific mortals or how we get on in the world. Save for maybe Chris' Matron, who has those corvid tendencies of collecting interesting or 'shiny' things."

He shrugs, then looks down at the paper and smiles a bit. "I think this is some of the conjured stuff so we'll have to remake it later. Being precious about paper is something we'll both have to get used to though, they're not nearly as scarce in Thedas, though certainly more difficult to get than in Duplicity.

"...Though I am curious why that's the thing you'd jump to as a penalty. Do you dislike her so much? I always thought she was being hyperbolic when she said how much you don't get on."

"We're unknown 'magic,' Wolfe, something Mystra's never seen. For a goddess of magic, I have to imagine that will make us interesting. Maybe not for long." Maybe she's some mercurial thing who won't care to entertain them past a single meeting, but he has to imagine she'll entertain them at least once. "But long enough we can try to add that to our bargain. If she's not asking us to, I don't know, slay a dragon to start with. Whatever quest we're going to have to do for her to gain the favor, we can potentially add more onto it. You can do the talking, if you want. You're the one who's good at diplomacy. Just as long as Chris can tell you what not to say to piss her off. Or, really, her own clerics or priests."

Jon sighs again, softer this time. Wolfe's question makes him look away. "It's not... much hyperbole. We're like oil and water. I don't- She's violent and unpredictable. Like Daisy before she... before terrible things happened to her, and she decided she wanted to try to be better. My friend Daisy. I can work with her, but I can't deal with her turning every bloody molehill into a mountain." He would certainly never do such a thing! "I- In any case, I should think of nicer things to say about her. Clearly."

"Yes, I know, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. It's up to her whether she gives us anything extra, I just don't want to lose our base needs by overreaching," he huffs, feeling a bit like they've switched roles. "I'll try, that's all I can say."

Settling down, Wolfe takes up a pen and starts writing some words they would probably use. 'Hello', 'Magic', 'Cat', 'Dog', and so forth. He remembers what Jon said about Daisy, how she was incredibly violent and in the clutches of the Hunt, but tried to be better. It's not unlike Amelia, though there's no Entity clouding her thoughts. She does enough of that on her own. "I know, that's part of Chris' problem too. It makes her difficult to talk to, let alone rely on. She's trying to be better, though, even though she doesn't think she's worth the effort. She'll find a way. It's in her, I can see it, but it will take practice."

A thought occurs to him and Wolfe grins in amusement. "I do think it'd be helpful of you to think on her good points. Just don't be surprised that if you do compliment her, she may be confused and think you're hitting on her."

"I said I'd think of compliments, not that I'd start handing them out. That can be my actual penalty. Three wrong and I have to give her one of the compliments." Jon waves vaguely, then scoffs. "I struggle to imagine her taking any sort of overtures from me as something romantic, though. I told her she should domme me if it would get whatever is going on out of her system. I can assure you, she didn't take it as flirting."

He looks at what Wolfe is writing and takes another page to start on his own list. 'Please' and 'Thank You' go first. His grandmother taught him manners, if nothing else, and it's polite. His eyes catch on some of the web motifs around the room and he adds 'Spider' to his list.

"You- Jon, you would hate that. Hwy would you offer that? Unless there's something I should know?" Wolfe looks up and squints at Jon, unsure why he would have suggested it in the first place. "Besides, she doesn't domme to feel important, she dommes to offer service. You and I both know a proper Dom doesn't carry the power in a real D/s relationship. We've had enough bad examples to have learned that."

He pinches the bridge of his nose, shakes his head, then flips through the dictionary. He adds a few words in pairs; 'bad' and 'good', 'wrong' and 'right', 'yes' and 'no'.

"For being able to hear her fears, you could at least use the knowledge to try and understand her."

"Because I knew she'd say no," he grumbles. "And on the off-chance she said yes, that would tell me a significant amount about her state of mind." Nothing he'd want to know, but it would be more information, certainly. "And you and I know a proper Dom carries the power a proper Sub is willing to give them." Jon glances sideways at his friend, expression maybe just a little bit haughty as he looks at Wolfe over his glasses.

His list adds in 'moth' and 'raven,' then 'hand' and 'book' as his attention wanders the room for ideas.

"I can hear her fears, and that just tells me what's wrong while she's spiraling. They're not reasonable fears. Not- They're nothing I can do anything about, anyway." He trails off as he realizes it's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black there, but his unreasonable fears are different. At least he's already had his existential crisis. "They're things she needs to figure out answers for herself. She's not going to listen to me if I tell her I've been there. She doesn't like me enough for that."

"Did you try and she spurned you?" Wolfe hazards a guess as to what their fight may have entailed. Jon is very prickly about being dismissed, especially when its something he's experienced directly. "I love her to bits but she can be thick sometimes; I doubt she knew you were attempting to commiserate. She thinks you hate her and you think she hates you so you both assume the other is trying to intentionally get under your skin."

With a sigh, Wolfe starts shredding his list into papers with one word on them each. "I know you're trying, but she is too, no matter how much it might seem to each of you that the other isn't. I do appreciate your abilities to still be civil with each other, at least."

He finishes up and rummages around for some sort of container to hold the papers. He manages to come up with some kind of decorative bowl that has a spiderweb motif fitted with raven skulls at intervals. "How... unique."

"I literally told her I was trying to be her ally and I had some of the same fears she did. I don't know how much more explicit I could possibly be. I just... might have been a bit sharp about her crisis." To start, anyway. Then he'd gotten mean, but that's still something he needs to talk to Amelia about before he talks to Wolfe or Chris. "Anyway, I need to talk to her after they're done." He motions briefly to the door. "About that. Apologize. I am trying to make an effort."

His eyes light on the bowl that Wolfe finds, and Jon can't help frowning. "I really don't care for the motifs he's got in the temple today. I keep thinking we're going to see spiders hiding up in the corners of the room. There's a spider god here, as well, that I read about in one of those books. Lolth."

"I believe you're both trying," there just might be a bit of a dubious 'but' in that response. Wolfe cuts himself off, though. The last thing he should suggest is that he sit there with them while they try to hash things out. He learned his lesson from trying to do that with Chris and Amelia.

It doesn't escape his notice that there is one common denominator here, though. He's glad when Jon changes the subject.

"I don't care for them either, but that's what we get for distracting him while he casts. I doubt any other god has power here, though. It is meant to be a temple to the Raven Queen, even if we're using it as a sort of... hotel," he winces a bit at that, glancing around as if the Matron is going to come out of somewhere and scold them. That would be ridiculous. She clearly knows what they've been doing, she sent Topher.

"All I know about Lolth is she's the Spider Queen and evil. Do you think she lords over manipulation, like your Web?"

"God only knows." A pause. "Or 'gods,' in this case." Jon highly doubts he'll fall out of his old cursing habits, but that one might be easier to alter than 'Christ,' at least. "I hope not, but it's a spider. Manipulation, stringing its prey along. I wouldn't be surprised if she is. I'm not particularly keen to meet her or any of her followers. They're probably weirdos." Annabelle had been from the Statements he'd had of her.

He finishes ripping up his strips and drops them into the bowl. "All right. There are the ones I have for you. How are we going to do this? Alternate picking from the bowl and just... go from there?"

Jon changing his epithet gets a small smile of sympathy from Wolfe. He's trying to change his ingrained habit there as well, and has at least gotten to 'Matron' from 'Maker'. It feels better on his tongue, which helps. He knows the Matron isn't absentee, not like the God he grew up with in doctrine. As for the comments on Lolth's followers, he just nods. Anyone who would follow a spider god of manipulation intentionally probably has something wrong with them.

"I suppose? I hadn't really thought that far." Seeing as most of the words are ones they'd gone over earlier in the day, Wolfe just adds his to the bowl and settles back onto a sofa. "You can pull one for me first, if you like. Better mix them around a bit though."

Jon huffs. "You didn't think very far ahead on any of this." But he does as he's bid, mixing the words around. "Now, let's see here..."

[Intelligence Checks Jon:
21 - 21 - 8

Intelligence Checks Wolfe:
11 - 1 - 20]

Jon's far better in the early part of the game as he has a run of luck with words he'd chosen himself. Wolfe, by contrast... struggles. There's one point where he misses 3 in a row, and the Archivist takes some amount of pleasure in positioning himself on the mage's back as he does a few push-ups as his punishment. "We really need you exercising your mind more than your body."

His haughty teasing is rewarded by immediately tripping over two different words and narrowly missing making it a third. "I- Well... Amelia. She's... she has nice hair? And... she's a competent teacher for knives."

"Right, it should be you down here turning those matchsticks of yours into arms," Wolfe puffs between noises of exertion. They hadn't really let him do any calisthenics while he was imprisoned, other than sex. It messed with the monitors.

He does try not to be smug when he manages to remember a few words Jon doesn't. He's gracious in a very obvious way, though, needling passively without saying anything about it at all.

"Really? Nice hair and competent teacher? Is that the best you can do? Though I guess from you being a competent teacher is a high enough compliment. Try again for the first."

Jon makes a face. "Saying your girlfriend is pretty isn't enough? I do have eyes, you know. More of them than average, actually." He smirks at that. Clearly, he's hilarious. "I don't know. She does her own embroidery, right? It's- she's very skilled at that? It looks nice." There, complimenting something she's honed is better than a quality she has no control over like how shapely she is, the color of her hair... how full her lips are.

None of that is particularly important, though, and they've reached the end of the bowl. "In any case, they've had more than enough time to talk. Or fight. Or do whatever they're going to do. I think it's safe to step out again. I really do need to talk to Amelia." He gives Wolfe a look. "And I'm not complimenting her. I didn't miss three in a row."

"Anyone can see she's gorgeous, but aesthetics have never been what's important to you. A compliment should be something either you value about the person receiving it, or that they value about themselves." A little social maneuvering 101 from professor Hawke. "Otherwise its just empty flattery."

Stretching, Wolfe hauls himself up from the floor where he'd ended up, not nothing to get up again after the last time he'd missed a word. "Doesn't it mean more to you if I tell you earnestly you're an intelligent man with a distinguished eye for details instead of that your voice is pleasantly deep? Even if both things are true. The thing about the embroidery is good though, she's put effort into that."

With a nod to the rest of it, Wolfe heads for the door. "There was no yelling or thunking of knives into walls so I have to assume it went well. Just approach her with grace, alright? She's trying her best but this has hit her very hard. Other than in Duplicity, I don't think she's had to rethink her entire identity or life before now. Not like we have."

Edited (acknowledgement) 2025-11-27 18:11 (UTC)

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Respite

cw: paranoia

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