"Can’t even concentrate with you around." If you're up for it! Just write for 30 minutes and post whatever you come up with.
"Shoo." Rook makes a flapping motion with her hand as she settles into the chair. "Go browse the bookshelves or something. I'm sure there's something that can hold your attention there, even if it's derogatory. You can bitch about it to me later."
Varric holds a hand to his chest in mock offense.
"Sorry, is my presence disturbing you? What are you so preoccupied with these days anyway? Surely saving the world can't come with that much paperwork."
He eyes the pile she's currently adding to the desk. She flips through it a bit to see if anything catches her eye, then adds it to one of the stacks.
"That's just the mail. Turns out there's a lot of letter writing you have to do if you actually want funding for your save the world business."
The funding is actually coming mostly from selling things they get off dead bodies, Lucanis, and some generous donations that are largely mediated by Josephine, but she doesn't want to get into specifics at the moment.
Varric reclines dramatically.
"And you need me gone to do that? What, do I ruin the atmosphere or something?"
They're both grinning. Playful ribbing can be a nice break from the actual fighting sometimes.
She barely spares him a glance, pen already in hand.
"I can't even concentrate when someone else is around, you know that. Now get. If you can make it to the kitchen maybe Lucanis will make you something."
He heaves himself up with a lot more effort than she thinks he should be exerting at this point, and she shakes her head. Varric and his storyteller's flair. Engaging around the campfire, somewhat less when he applies it to arguing with you specifically.
She looks a bit more directly this time.
Varric's done being dramatic, though, and he waves her off.
"It's fine. I should stretch my legs anyway. Tell Ruffles hi for me, would ya?"
Her grin returns, fears mostly allayed.
There's something niggling at the back of her mind. Something off about this. He should be writing the letters. Why isn't he writing...?
She moves to follow him out of the room, but at that moment Lace enters. When she sees the open inkwell and scattered papers, she stops abruptly.
"Oh, Rook! I didn't know you were in here. Sorry, I'll just.. we'll talk later."
Rook doesn't even get a chance to speak before she's gone again.
She looks between the door and the desk, and then back again in slight confusion. What was it she was about to do, again? It's there, on the edge of her consciousness, but it escapes her.
Oh, well. If it's important, it'll come up again later.
She picks up the quill and gets back to work.
Idk what time increments are I simply waited until I had a suitable idea and seized it.
Feedback welcome on whether or not they're actually in character and whether or not I need to pad things out. I avoided a lot of description because I thought I could make it flow between dialogue and action sequences and my brain feels wooden.
Yayyyy warmups. I'm going to bed.
Thank you!! I should do this more often.