Her smile is matched by Fever's own, who's perked up immediately upon seeing her - no masks, just a normal gladness to know she's in. This was meant to be spontaneous, after all.
"I can be?" She looks to Okie for confirmation. "I'm nearly done with this month's ledgers, but I think that can wait until tomorrow morning. What do you need?"
Well, that's either a genuine invitation to just spend time with a friend, or something sufficiently important and secret to need to be disguised as such. Either way, Cassandra isn't about to turn it down.
"That's a lovely idea. Let me get my wrap and I'll join you."
Patiently, Fever will wait by the door, looking like nothing so much as a dog that was promised a walk when Cass reappears, opening the door for her and leading the way.
...And it seems that the tea shop will be her genuine destination, for all of Cassandra's wondering at the real purpose of this.
It's nice to think the real purpose might be just to have tea together, for no reason at all but pleasant company. Of course, it's also nice to think the real purpose might be something important for which she's considered trustworthy ... but if she's being honest with herself, being wanted for something wholly unimportant is sometimes nicer.
"So how have you been keeping?" she asks, as they settle at one of the tea shop's little tables.
"Better than I thought I would be when I would have been happy to stay the same, if that makes any sense. When I consider how I felt last year at this same time, and now...definite improvement in circumstances."
It feels like it's been far more than a year, and yet no time at all. The idea of being able to see all of this again for a second time, to no longer have it be brand new - it's rather dizzying, when she considers how much she can say she remembers now.
"Yes," she replies, sipping at her tea. "But after the Commander and I remembered you."
She hasn't spoken about the young woman in months, but Fever has that name written down with the others, the ones whose portraits she will never be able to ask for. Still, she can record a name.
"We missed you too. Everyone in our little team - but hearing that you went home, it makes me hope that the others found the way to their own. Where they can be happiest."
It was some kind of relief, at least. Rita might be back where she wants to be. Tayrey might be soaring among the stars.
"Not really a detour," she says thoughtfully, "so much as ... a chance to travel. I don't recall if we ever discussed it, but I'd lived my whole life in Whitestone before the Serena Eterna. I don't think I'd ever want to leave there for good, but getting to see new places? I find I enjoy that."
A pause. "Though more, I grant you, when they're places I intended to visit."
"And not ones you find yourself transported to like someone messed up a dimension door and flung you across time and space."
She laughs, though they know how serious it is.
"When this barrier comes down, I hope there's a way for you to visit the mainland before you return to your own home. A trip you can take entirely of your own volition."
"That would be nice," she says, almost wistfully, and sips her tea. "If I'm wishing, I'd wish for a way to go home and come back. And take others with me."
"There are definitely a few who'd be happy to take a vacation in a realm like yours. It'd be...absolutely incredible if it was possible."
The pause there isn't for a falsehood, but rather Fever truly considering the scope of what that would mean. Going and coming back. It's almost too hopeful to bear, considering her own resolutions.
"...this place is far closer to the idea of a home than the place I came from, Cass. If we had the opportunity to go and return, I'd be obligated to go and deal with some unfinished business, but it's not as though I remember enough places to recommend a tour."
Still, even as she says it, she can feel a few things tugging at her. Companions who she might finally be able to save an image of. Getting to stop by the colony in the Underdark. Actually walking the streets of the Gate - provided that the impending threat could be dismantled. Which, if she were to rally her friends to her cause...they might be able to turn the tide far sooner than anyone would anticipate.
"Well." Slowly. "If you do need to deal with unfinished business, and you should need assistance ... I understand that's frequently how adventuring parties get together."
It's enough to make her chuckle, picking up her tea again.
"True enough. There are some I can reunite with, when it's all said and done, and we make up a party, but...frankly, I'd prefer the odds with more allies at my side than less. And what a picture it'd make, me tumbling back into the Sword Coast with any others who volunteer to go with me."
"I can imagine," says Cassandra, a little more lightly. "Largest party ever seen. The introductions alone could take days." A beat. "We might have to wear name tags."
"I may need to desperately insist you work not in the front lines but behind them, for reasons I will explain in full. Not as an insult to your capacity, but because I wouldn't dare put you at risk for a fate worse than outright death."
An eyebrow raised, not a challenge but a measurement of Cassandra's commitment to it.
"I don't necessarily object to a position of greater safety," Cassandra says cautiously, "but regardless, should this become a genuine possibility, I would want to know more details."
A pause. "Or sooner, should you be minded to share them."
As though recalled to their surroundings, Cassandra glances around the teashop, from the spring sunlight filtering through the curtains to the scented steam wafting up from their cups, and gives a small sigh.
"This is pleasant. I don't do this kind of thing nearly often enough."
"Take a bit of time off, or go out to be utterly frivolous with friends?"
The sparkle in her gaze says she's guessing both. Despite the difference in their ages (something Fever can only theorize about) Cassandra sometimes feels older than her for how she takes on the world.
"Both, honestly." She smiles, picking up her teacup. "As you might have guessed. I think the last time I did anything truly frivolous was going shopping with Okie at the casino last autumn."
Cassandra laughs. "Well, there was the dance in spring, but -- I don't know, that sort of thing doesn't feel frivolous exactly. It's an important social responsibility."
A pause. "At least it would be at home. I suppose it doesn't matter that much here."
"It matters some, but not as much. If there wasn't responsibility attached, I wouldn't have gone to that dance myself. But no one would have taken it as a blight on my reputation."
The only person who had really forced her to go, thinking about the Court and how an absence would ruin the procession, was herself.
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not_the_last) wrote2025-01-01 12:51 am
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Her smile is matched by Fever's own, who's perked up immediately upon seeing her - no masks, just a normal gladness to know she's in. This was meant to be spontaneous, after all.
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She doesn't get to burst into where Cassandra lives and sprawl on her furnishings to inflict her presence, so she has to find other ways to hang out.
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"That's a lovely idea. Let me get my wrap and I'll join you."
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...And it seems that the tea shop will be her genuine destination, for all of Cassandra's wondering at the real purpose of this.
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"So how have you been keeping?" she asks, as they settle at one of the tea shop's little tables.
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It feels like it's been far more than a year, and yet no time at all. The idea of being able to see all of this again for a second time, to no longer have it be brand new - it's rather dizzying, when she considers how much she can say she remembers now.
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"Last year at this time," she says, "that would have been before I arrived."
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She hasn't spoken about the young woman in months, but Fever has that name written down with the others, the ones whose portraits she will never be able to ask for. Still, she can record a name.
"It was a true relief to see you again."
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"I'd missed you both. And so many others."
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It was some kind of relief, at least. Rita might be back where she wants to be. Tayrey might be soaring among the stars.
"I mean, you're taking a bit of a detour, but..."
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A pause. "Though more, I grant you, when they're places I intended to visit."
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She laughs, though they know how serious it is.
"When this barrier comes down, I hope there's a way for you to visit the mainland before you return to your own home. A trip you can take entirely of your own volition."
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The pause there isn't for a falsehood, but rather Fever truly considering the scope of what that would mean. Going and coming back. It's almost too hopeful to bear, considering her own resolutions.
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And it's her turn to pause, looking at Fever, and not asking the next obvious question.
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Still, even as she says it, she can feel a few things tugging at her. Companions who she might finally be able to save an image of. Getting to stop by the colony in the Underdark. Actually walking the streets of the Gate - provided that the impending threat could be dismantled. Which, if she were to rally her friends to her cause...they might be able to turn the tide far sooner than anyone would anticipate.
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"True enough. There are some I can reunite with, when it's all said and done, and we make up a party, but...frankly, I'd prefer the odds with more allies at my side than less. And what a picture it'd make, me tumbling back into the Sword Coast with any others who volunteer to go with me."
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Of all the people she expected to agree to this, Cass wasn't on the list. She's grateful, but...
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An eyebrow raised, not a challenge but a measurement of Cassandra's commitment to it.
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A pause. "Or sooner, should you be minded to share them."
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She shrugs her shoulders - it's Cass's choice in the end, but it's not a good story no matter how many details she cuts out.
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As though recalled to their surroundings, Cassandra glances around the teashop, from the spring sunlight filtering through the curtains to the scented steam wafting up from their cups, and gives a small sigh.
"This is pleasant. I don't do this kind of thing nearly often enough."
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The sparkle in her gaze says she's guessing both. Despite the difference in their ages (something Fever can only theorize about) Cassandra sometimes feels older than her for how she takes on the world.
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Forget work for an afternoon, they're going to have a bit of fun, for a change of Cassandra's pace.
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A pause. "At least it would be at home. I suppose it doesn't matter that much here."
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The only person who had really forced her to go, thinking about the Court and how an absence would ruin the procession, was herself.
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And adds almost as an afterthought: "It was fun, though, wasn't it?"