InsaneJournal

Isabela may have been settling into life on this ship a bit more, but that still didn’t do much to ease her claustrophobia. Especially when she was in her own room trying to sleep. One could argue why she’d spend her life on a ship when she was in her captain’s quarters, but she countered that with it had windows that she could open and let in the air and such. This ship didn’t have windows that could be opened.

So today she was simply roaming, looking for something interesting to do. She had lately been wondering if she could teach others to play Wicked Grace. Varric knew how to play, but he also knew exactly how she played. So playing him one-on-one was not that fun. But if she got a couple other people into it? That could certainly work.

However, those thoughts went from her mind when she caught sight of Lara, who seemed like she was deeply engrossed in whatever she was reading. Intrigued, Isabela strode over to her, wearing the new black corset that Kitty had helped her out with. “You look like you found something interesting to read. Is it something naughty?” She asked. Of course it probably wasn’t, but she asked it anyway. Mostly for the reaction.

Isabela still owed Varric for the last three times they’d played. But that was fair, he owed her for the two before that so it kind of evened out.

Lara had an actual book. Not a PADD, but something that seemed to be weathered with age. She’d been given permission to access it, and had taken up a spot on the observation deck where she could read in relative peace but still be near people. Despite that latter desire, she’d become completely engrossed in it, only taking her attention from it to compare something on the page with something on her PADD or to take notes in a notebook. She stuck the pen back into her mouth and kept reading.

Her hair had been pulled into a ponytail that had mostly come undone and she nearly didn’t hear Isabela. When she finally looked up, she got an eyeful and nearly inhaled the pen.

When Lara looked up and nearly inhaled the pen, Isabela smirked a bit. “That must be quite the book to keep your attention like that. What’s it about?” She had to wonder what it took to get Lara’s attention, but it seemed one needed to be a book or really intelligent. Isabela was definitely not a book, and her intelligence was limited to things that Lara probably didn’t find fascinating.

Or they simply made her turn red.

“It’s uhm…” Lara took the pen from between her lips, trying to keep her eyes on Isabela’s eyes. “It’s an old Klingon text. It was captured during a war a decade ago. I presume it’ll be returned eventually, but I’m studying it for now. It’s a story. A myth or legend of a man named Kahless.”

Almost as if she was reading Lara’s mind, Isabela leaned over to get a better look at the book. But, of course, happened to give Lara more than an eyeful of cleavage while at it. “What kind of tale is it? One of a brave hero? Or is it something else?”

"The Klingons are a warrior people. He was the first Emperor, and from him came all their laws and their honor code. His stories are passed down from generation to generation and remind the Klingons of who they are." Lara stared for a moment, then flipped a page and pointed to one story, and enthusiastically read. "Long ago, a storm was heading for the city of Quin'lat. Everyone took protection within the walls except one man who remained outside. Kahless went to him and asked what he was doing. 'I am not afraid,' the man said. 'I will not hide my face behind stone and mortar. I will stand before the wind and make it respect me.' Kahless honored his choice and went back inside. The next day, the storm came, and the man was killed. Kahless replied, 'The wind does not respect a fool.'"

Isabela listened to the story, turning it over in her head. She likened it to what she knew of her own world of Thedas. “Sounds about right. The wind is a force to be reckoned with.” Which was something Isabela knew first-hand from all the sailing she’d done in her life. “So what, is Kahless some sort of prophet that his people look up to?” It sounded like a mix of the Qunari and the Dalish to her.

“There are some prophecies, but I don’t think he was a prophet. For one, he actually seems to have existed. Humans think he was some sort of tyrant, Klingons view him as a messiah-like figure. Some of the other stories are more mythical, such as fighting his brother for 12 days and nights.” Lara closed the book, smiling at Isabela before scooting over and offering her a seat and ignoring some unexpected urges. She blamed the blood-thirsty Klingon stories.

“So more like warrior-philosopher, then?” She asked. It was easy to see that research was one of Lara’s passions. When Lara scooted over, Isabela took the offered seat. “I take it that means the Klingons are more militaristic?” It seemed a fair assumption given how they were a warrior people. No doubt it also brought a lot of trouble to other peoples that encountered the Klingons.

“I’d have to say so,” Lara replied. “I’m not the expert, that would be Lt. Dax, but they’re very heavily militaristic. Sometimes they’ll kill the officer ahead of them for a promotion, or if the officer is weak. They long to die in battle.”

Isabela was suddenly a little too close and Lara was a little too observant of her presence.

“They sound like an angry bunch,” Isabela commented. Anyone who was more military and war-oriented seemed to be rough around the edges. And definitely not people that Isabela liked to be around. People like that weren’t fun. “So are you studying all the different races here?” She asked as she leaned in slightly, trying to catch a glimpse of the notes Lara was taking.

“They seem like it. You should ask Dax more. I’m just interested in their stories. She seems to think they’re a lot of fun. Apparently the Klingons really like to get drunk and party. I imagine there’s probably a lot of fights.”

Lara turned her notes to Isabela, unsure if she could even read them, “Understanding the people here will make my eventual job easier.”

“The getting drunk and partying I could definitely like. I could probably even like the fighting resulting from them. Gotta love a good bar brawl now and then. But the militaristic mentality? Not so much.” Lara’s notes definitely didn’t make any sense to Isabela. It looked like chicken scratch to her, even though Lara probably had very neat handwriting. As such, she didn’t read over the notes that much.

“Your eventual job? You looking to get some sort of research job here?” She asked, settling back into her seat. She crossed her legs and looked at Lara.

Lara couldn’t blame her, while she liked some of the discipline, Klingons seemed to lack that. “I’m hoping so. I want to discover the history of any world we come across. And Earth, too, of course. If I had a chance, I’d probably want to dig into ruins of yours, too.”

There was a lot she wanted to dig into about Isabela, but she didn’t say that part out loud.

“That definitely would suit you, and no doubt keep you both busy and fulfilled in your work.” Isabela said. “As for the ruins of my world, just be careful which ones you dig into. You could unleash an Archdemon and start another Blight. Or worse. Though I don’t know what qualifies as worse than a Blight. Maybe a plague of prostitute cross-dressing dwarves?” Isabela snorted.

“I think a blight would be worse,” Lara commented. “I used to commute through London.”

As if London was more surprising than cross-dressing dwarves. “Blight doesn’t sound particularly like a good thing.”

“I don’t know, I slept with a cross-dressing dwarf once. I don’t recommend that.” It was something she could say she’d done, but that was about the extent of it. She shrugged it off. “A Blight is what the Chantry teaches us that is the consequence for the hubris of men. About a thousand years ago, maybe more, I don’t know, it was said that a group of Magisters wanted to enter the Maker’s house. He lived in the Golden City. It is said that when these Magisters arrived in the Golden City, it turned black and they became the first Darkspawn. An Archdemon is supposedly a dragon that carries the soul of an old god within it, and it leads a horde of Darkspawn that kill anything in their path. There have been Five Blights in total. Two of them in the Anderfels, which has left that land poisoned and mostly barren. The last happened just a couple years ago. I was docked in Denerim, the capital of Ferelden where the Blight was centered.”

Isabela took a breath and brushed some hair from her face. “If you ask me, the reason for Blights existing is just another tool the Chantry uses to subjugate mages and make the public fear and hate them. I know Darkspawn exist, I’ve fought more than my share of them, but I don’t believe they are the result of humans breaching the home of the Maker.”

Lara scribbled all that down as Isabela spoke, though her eyes remained on Bela’s face. Her very pretty face. Aesthetically pleasing, at any rate. At least Bela wasn’t hitting on her, which was a relief. Right? Yes. A relief.

“There’s likely some truth in that. The details are going to be obscured by time and by people changing them, but the kernal is there. In my own world, the hubris of men once almost destroyed us. We built weapons, attempted to control something called the atom, which is the very structure of the universe. I could take you to the lab right now, and show you the atoms that you’re made of. Once, long ago, they were made in the stars. But stars die, and their materials get seeded into the planets, and eventually into us. We thought we could control that. They made a weapon. A single weapon that could destroy an entire city in one blow. And then we made tens of thousands of them,, enough to kill every living thing on earth in a blink of an eye a thousand times over, and pointed them at each other, and waited for the other side to blink first.”

Lara rested her hands in her lap, “Though to be fair, I would probably try to step foot into a forbidden city too. I’ve already kind of done that once.”

“Perhaps, hard to know for certain since it involved magic stuff and physically entering the Fade, which isn’t supposed to be a thing that can happen. The Fade is the realm of dreams, and only mages are aware of being in the Fade. The rest of us just call it dreams. Or something. I don’t know, you’d have to ask a mage.” Isabela waved her hand dismissively at that. “And, uh, no thanks. I’m not really interested in seeing what I’m made of. I’ve been injured enough times to know I bleed red and what color muscle and bone are and that’s more than enough for me.”

Isabela arched an eyebrow at Lara. “Oh really? You enjoy picking the forbidden fruit do you?” Yes, that had more than one connotation to it. “Or do you just prefer to push boundaries?”

There was no mage to ask, so Lara let it drop. “It’s really fascinating, really. If you think about it, it’s something that makes everyone a little similar. We’re all made of stardust.”

Her throat bobbed, but she didn’t let herself be phased. “And yes, I suppose I do like exploring forbidden places and pushing boundaries.”

“I suppose. I just don’t think in that way.” Not at the atomic level, anyway. She more judged behavior and such as connecting factors like that. “I’m not a sciencey person.”

Isabela smirked a bit. “I can certainly appreciate that. I do enjoy someone who likes forbidden places and pushing boundaries.” And as if to accentuate that statement, Isabela leaned closer into Lara’s personal space.

Lara immediately forgot how to breathe. It was the strangest combination of her own issues, the warmth of Isabela’s body so close, the exposed skin, and something else she couldn’t place. Very carefully, she set aside the tome, very obviously avoiding looking at Isabela in the process. “I don’t know what I expected, I left myself open to that.”

Her initial reaction was not to close herself off, like it usually was. She wanted to get closer, and Lara realized, suddenly, just how lonely she was without Sam or the others.

But what she’d want from Isabela would be more than a single night of passion, and she felt suddenly just a little bit emotional.

“Yes, yes you did. And me being me, I took the opening. I will always happily walk through such open doors.” So long as strings weren’t attached, of course. Isabela didn’t do strings. She ran away from them. And she knew Lara was someone that strings could form with if she wasn’t careful.

“You seem to be somewhat fearless in the pursuit of knowledge. Are you as fearless in other areas of life?” Isabela knew that Lara was a virgin, so she knew it wouldn’t be fair to specifically phrase the question about sex. So she left it open to interpretation to see what Lara felt like responding with.

And she remained leaning close to Lara.

“There are few things I’m afraid of, if that’s what you mean,” Lara said. Sex was probably one of those things. “I used to throw blokes twice my size out of the bar, after all. And I like to rock climb, and cliff dive.”

“Good to know. I bet the looks on those guys’ face were priceless as you threw them out. You probably also impressed a few guys, and perhaps girls as well, with such displays.” Isabela did like physical strength as a characteristic in others.

“I did get like three date offers. I turned them all down because I wasn’t all that interested in that sort of thing, no matter how handsome they were. Or gorgeous that blonde was…I’m not sure blondes are my type but there are one or two exceptions. Not that I have a type.” Lara coughed.

Now that was another thing Isabela could run with. “It sounds to me like you do have a type. No blondes does suggest there are things you prefer in another. And is it just women you’re attracted to?” Isabela had a thought that it was just women, but it never hurt to ask.

“I’m not…” Lara frowned, looking down, and into herself. “I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about blokes before. Or women for that matter. It just occasionally happened that one might make me … think things. It just doesn’t happen often.”

“Do I make you think things?” Isabela wasn’t so certain she was ready for an answer to that question, whether it was positive or negative. But she was nothing if not direct about this sort of thing, so she decided to just ask it. After all, it’d need to be asked sooner or later.

Lara didn’t answer immediately, which was probably enough of an answer in and of itself when combined with the burning of her ears. “I… yes.”

A no would’ve been a blow to Isabela’s ego, and made her wonder if she lost her mojo. But the yes? That she didn’t completely know what to do with, aside from continuing with the flirting. “Ah, now we’re getting somewhere!” Isabela declared with a smile. “I’m going to guess that you don’t want to admit how often I make you think things, yes?”

“Use your imagination, Isabela.” That was probably a mistake. She’d have to live with it.

Another smirk, paired with a gleam in her eyes, crossed her face at that response. “I do have quite the imagination. Sounds like I’m on your mind quite often, which is a place that I like to be.”

“Is it such a place? If you don’t get a peek into my head, you’ll never get a chance to see what’s really inside there.” Lara flashed a smile at Isabela, hoping she got a chance to tease her back for once.

“Ohh, shivery,” Isabela responded. And, well, her mind was going places. “I like getting a peek into your head. But just how raunchy do you get? Are we talking hot and heavy, or is it more wondering what my lips feel like?”

“Why would I tell you that, when I can leave you guessing?” Lara leaned back, folding her arms under her chest and grinning at Bela.

“Now you’re getting the hang of it,” Isabela grinned. “Then again, you have already seen me naked, so I don’t blame you for any thoughts you may or may not have.”

“I assure you seeing you naked has not affected me in the slightest,” Lara lied.

“Nice try, sweet thing, but I know it was clearly affecting you when we were in the pool.” She winked at Lara. Isabela stretched her back a bit and shifted in her seat. “Should be fodder for some really good wet dreams for you.” Isabela brushed her fingers against Lara’s arm.

Nearly choking on her own tongue, Lara didn’t dare dignify the busty pirate with a remark on that. In immediate hindsight that probably only confirmed it. She’d had some very lewd dreams, something she hadn’t really experienced since living with Sam.

“Let me ask you a question. Is there anything you’d give up sex for?”

Now it was Isabela’s turn to nearly choke. She looked at Lara, somewhere between horrified and shocked. She opened her mouth, then closed it again. While she didn’t speak never-gets-sex-again, Isabela would seriously trade a sex life for her ship to be back in her hands.

“My ship, and my crew.” Isabela belonged on the open water, not stuck on dry land or stuck in a ship like this.

“They must be very important to you, then,” Lara observed. It was clear how much freedom of her body Isabela valued, so for her ship and crew to rate higher? It said a lot. “I wish I could give you that again. For real, this time.”

“They are. But my crew is dead and my ship is sitting in ruins on the rocks just off the coast of Kirkwall. Nothing can bring those back.” Isabela sobered up, turning her gaze away to try to hide the actual emotion that was bubbling up. “Thanks. It’s the thought that counts.”

This wasn't the usual course of action for Lara, but she put her arm around Isabela anyway. The contact was a bit like a shock, but she didn’t pull away. Isabela thought she could hide her emotions, but they were there. “Next planet with an ocean, we’ll see about a boat for a few hours. How does that sound?”

She hadn’t expected the comforting arm around her, but Isabela didn’t shrug it off. Though she did try to shrug the emotions off. She leaned into Lara a bit. “I’ll hold you to that. Providing I survive long enough.” Did people die from claustrophobia? Isabela felt she certainly could at times here.

“Is there nothing I can do to help?” Lara leaned her head against Isabela’s. She got that, to an extent. She needed to keep moving and there was only so much gym and holodeck she could do. So she’d retreated with her mind and her pursuit of knowledge.

That didn’t stop her foot from bouncing, though.

Isabela closed her eyes when Lara leaned her head against her own. “Help focus my mind on something else for a while?” It was a broad topic, but it was left broad for a reason. There was only so much physical activity one could do before it got repetitive without anything else being interjected with it.

“Maybe you could teach me to read whatever language you made your notes in? Though I don’t promise to be the best student ever,” she added with a soft chuckle.

“God help me if you figure out what a schoolgirl outfit is,” Lara muttered, before raising her voice. “I’d be more than happy to teach you to read English. It’s one of the more prevalent languages on Earth. Granted, that’s because of conquest and colonization.”

“English, good to know. Each country in Thedas has its own language, but there’s a common tongue many of us speak so that we are able to communicate with each other.” It was entirely possible that Isabela was fluent in multiple languages. There was her native language, and the so-called common tongue. But given her travels, she probably could speak a few others as well. Though reading and writing tended to be limited to her native language and the common tongue.

“Maybe you could teach me your language in return,” Lara suggested. “A tit for tat.” She immediately regretted her choice of words, and quickly added, “An exchange, that is.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Isabela said with a smile. It was at least something else to do with her time and distract her mind now and then in a different way than just physical activity. Physical activity including sex, of course.

At least Isabela hadn’t heard what Lara had said earlier, but that didn’t stop her thinking of Isabela dressed certain ways and her cheeks colored. She’d have to get ahold of that. She didn’t want to lead Bela on. “When do you want to start?”

Of course, Isabela noticed the color on Lara’s cheeks. “You’re blushing. Why are you blushing? Is it something I said?” She asked, partly teasing and partly from curiosity. “As for when to start, whenever you wish to.”

“Nothing you said,” Lara assured her, which only made her blush more. “Does right now sound good to you?”

“Then it must be something you’re thinking about,” she responded with a smirk. But she left it at that for the moment. “Right now sounds just fine with me.”