#arish0k

when will they learn to stay behind? as enchanted as they are by the canals and markets, they’re less enchanted by the crows. rarely comfortable, seemingly always tormented.

“ you’d like that, wouldn’t you ? ” it wasn’t meant to leave their thoughts, but there it is. a moment passes and they remember to breathe, which is followed by the reminder that one step back will give much needed distance. “ do you usually beg for a stranger’s kiss ? ”

half of a step is taken. 

YOU'RE EATING AN ORANGE     [ACCEPTING]     FEAT.     @arish0k's ILLARIO

it’s a mindless game, isn’t it? to see what it takes to get beneath their skin, to torment them for entertainment – or they’re digging too deep and giving into the discomfort that latched onto them the moment they set foot in the diamond.

no matter the truth, the result is the same. their posture straightens, chin tips in challenge, and mouth opens before their nerve is lost. “ really ? are you sure you want to know ? i might bite back. ”

florence’s stare – true stare, eye to eye – lasts a moment too long. she doesn’t like it.

They're so close to it, now. Ellas can practically feel the Archdemon breathing down her neck; every time she sleeps, these days, she dreams of the thing, like it's looking at her through the Fade and daring her to come after it.

Well, she will. And soon.

For now, Ellas folds herself down next to the campfire and thinks about when she might be able to eventually go home. And if she wants to go home — even if home is all the way in the Free Marches, now — then she can only imagine.

a few steps more and they would be gone. one more would have them within arm’s reach of the door and when they can take the steps two at a time, they would be back in their room in the blink of an eye. but lucanis says stay, and florence thinks how can i refuse?

and why not stay? sleep evades them, and they’ve grown tired of the chase. 

"Are you saying that because no one is on yours?"

The clipped tone might come off as insulting but Cosima doesn't truly mean it, she'd say worse if she did. Mostly, she's thinking of when she and Viago screamed each other hoarse before he all but kicked her from the country. It's lucky she had Varric, she's not actually sure what she would have done if she hadn't. Probably flounder the same way it seems like Illario currently is while neither Lucanis nor Caterina seem to care for his particular opinions at the moment.

"I'm not on Lucanis' side, he's a pretentious fuck," Her nose scrunches, it's a terribly unflattering expression and she makes no gesture to hide it. Illario's face is always tempered, she hasn't spent much time around him but she's flit around in similar circles enough to get the gist of him. More Teia than Viago, that Teia likes him is enough credit for her to at least be her version of civil.

and the crow torments the rook. embarrassment and – no, not the right words, but something causes the creeping heat. up their neck and to their face, and they wish the ground would pull them under.

“ non ! ” too sharp, too fast. “ i do not come here for pleasure, illario. i haven’t the time for it. ” 

he’s stayed behind in last light inn, as the others made their way further into the shadow cursed lands, to give a chance for him to heal. the winged horrors had gotten their claws in him quite literally. their poison had left him paralysed, and prone to more of their wretched attacks. but it had not mattered as isobel walked unscathed and continued to provide the protection for the entire inn.

his ribs still feel tender, though shadowheart had taken great care of his wounds. and then, halsin had once again given his attention at dawn right before they left to find a way to rid the lands of the shadow curse. but the words find a way to cut his breath shorter than his injury did. that raw attention and worry for his wellbeing is almost foreign to him. but he manages to slip back into the persona he keeps at his arsenal all these years. “ i assure you, i’ve had worse injuries in my time as the blade. ” wyll says as he takes his seat next to tove, only slightly wincing as he does so. and back then, he had to rely upon stumbling into healers and keeping a stash of potions for dire times.