A win for normal conversations. Gwenaëlle lets the rest of it pass without any colour commentary — Stephen will probably get to hear that version when she recounts this, later, along with the withering self-awareness of how fucking miraculous it is that she hasn’t herself been backhanded more frequently in her life — and tips her head, mouth quirking. To business, then, and she considers their options as she leans back on her hands.
It’s an honest attempt to workshop a strategy where this just works with the two of them, but realistically—
“We’ll need more hands,” she says, finally, “regardless. They’re what you’d be protecting me from, and I can’t realistically keep them off you in any meaningful way.” Her strengths lie in dipping in and out of combat, working as much from a distance as she can, and being brutally efficient when she gets in close. It’s not crowd control and it’s not going to provide enough cover that Calpernia wouldn’t be exposed.
But she doesn’t stop there, considering what she does have, Calpernia’s staff, who she knows is near enough to join them—
“What’s the landscape around the rift like? Tree cover, flat, an incredibly convenient cliff—”
Belatedly, as her mind rushes ahead to how they could make best use, it occurs to her that Livia introduced herself and she hasn’t, focused on that rift this entire conversation. “I’m being rude,” she says, which is what she says when she means and not on purpose, “Gwenaëlle Baudin. Captain of the Gallows Watch.”
It costs her nothing to offer the courtesy, though it would’ve, once. She offers a hand.
no subject
It’s an honest attempt to workshop a strategy where this just works with the two of them, but realistically—
“We’ll need more hands,” she says, finally, “regardless. They’re what you’d be protecting me from, and I can’t realistically keep them off you in any meaningful way.” Her strengths lie in dipping in and out of combat, working as much from a distance as she can, and being brutally efficient when she gets in close. It’s not crowd control and it’s not going to provide enough cover that Calpernia wouldn’t be exposed.
But she doesn’t stop there, considering what she does have, Calpernia’s staff, who she knows is near enough to join them—
“What’s the landscape around the rift like? Tree cover, flat, an incredibly convenient cliff—”
Belatedly, as her mind rushes ahead to how they could make best use, it occurs to her that Livia introduced herself and she hasn’t, focused on that rift this entire conversation. “I’m being rude,” she says, which is what she says when she means and not on purpose, “Gwenaëlle Baudin. Captain of the Gallows Watch.”
It costs her nothing to offer the courtesy, though it would’ve, once. She offers a hand.