A Princess, a Knight, and an Assassin Walk Into a Tavern...

Clarity

Clarity could recognize a woman on a mission when she saw one. She had seen the tension and indignation rising in Tollie from the moment they sat down. Tollie had put up a valiant fight, trying to contain herself as much as possible, but Clarity knew it was only a matter of time before she snapped. A woman can only take so much, and she respected that.
She had seen the way the two flirted on the ship, and she could see that it was nothing but genuine, especially on Tollie's part, but this was a different situation entirely. And if she had feelings like Tollie had for Capt. West, and had to see him flamboyantly flirt and touch his way across a room –though Clarity could see he was being more restrained than usual, which was good for Tollie but bad for their mission – Clarity knew she would stab him. She realized in a distant part of her brain that maybe that was an over reaction to the situation, but she had her training, and the man would know what kind of woman he was dealing with, so she would most definitely stab him. Whether it was a killing blow or not would depend on the behavior and the man.
So when the princess had finally stood to deal with the situation, Clarity could do nothing but approve. It was rash, and would get them in big trouble, and could possibly get them all killed or worse, but it was the right move; and you couldn't stop a woman on a mission like that. Not to mention she just liked the way this woman thought, felt, and acted.
After getting Hawke to sit back down, another thought struck her: would Hawke ever receive a greeting like this? So far she had only seen him out of his element, but that didn't mean he wasn't a man – an attractive, capable man at that – and that didn't mean he hadn't lived in the world. He was also "The Hero of Port Town" and surely that carried some weight with the women around him. She shook her head. She was on a mission, this was no time to think like that. But the thought was aggressively there anyway.
Then Tollie had kissed West. She had made a good show of it too. Clarity admired this girl who knew what she wanted and went for it.
At first Clarity's favorite part of the show was Hawke's reaction. When Tollie had grabbed West, his eyes had gotten huge. When she had kissed West, his jaw went slack. When Tollie continued to kiss the Captain, he had grinned, the wide thing that Clarity was used to. But when the wolf whistling was dying down, and Tollie was glaring down every female in the room, his eyes had gotten sad and tight, his mouth a thin line of a smile. That's when Clarity stopped enjoying the show.
After the couple had sat down to a game of...something Clarity didn't care about, Hawke was very out of sorts. It was true she'd only known him two days, but she had never seen him like this. He was...pouting, maybe? But in a very manly way? His eyes kept flicking to the Captain and the princess, and he was drinking his drink – water, Clarity remebered because she had teased him – very aggressively. He would stare down at the table, and then search the room half heartedly before his eyes would fall on the Captian and Tollie again, and his eyes would get tight. She even heard him sigh. Was he...jealous?
Jealousy is the only emotion that seemed to explain what was going on. He was jealous of the Captain and...the princess. Tollie. That must be it. She felt her chest tighten as the thought sunk into her head. She remembered the once over he had given the princess when she entered the cabin last night, and the many congenial conversations they'd had since then. They seemed to get on well enough...and the thought made Clarity's knuckles go white around her drink. It was obvious that the girl only had eyes for the Captain, that was plain enough for Hawke to see, but that didn't stop the girl from being pretty, incredibly smart, personable, and able to express what she was feeling and thinking. A thought which was different from Clarity in every conceivable way.
She felt Hawke's eyes on her from time to time, after he would look at West and the Princess, and since she had decided the way she thought he felt, she would simply not turn towards him. She began scanning the room with a vengeance. She saw the busty girl that had been sitting on the Captain's lap shove something up her sleeve, and then move towards the couple. She got Hawke's attention, and then pointed out the girl, wanting to give him something other than brooding to do. As he grabbed the girl's wrist and pulled out a thin dagger, it was Clarity's turn to drink aggressively.
At first the girl had fought Hawke, but she gave him an up and down look, obviously liked what she saw, and stopped fighting. She seemed to think that Hawke's intense gaze and equally intense questioning were downright dashing. The woman ran her fingers along the big hand that gripped her wrist, and smiled suggestively up at him. /Ruddy whore/ is all Clarity thought, as she took another forceful drink of the swill in her cup.