The only 'wonder' of Thedas is how everything got to be so very brown.

[dwarfing]

WHO: Shale & Open
WHAT: Catch-all for all your grumpy golem needs.
WHEN: April
WHERE: Courtyard/Warden Camp
NOTES: Grumpy statues and probably bird harm

Courtyard

When not out murdering bears with scouts or anything in general with Zevran, the large golem could be found in the Skyhold Courtyard, right by the stairs to the upper area with the entrance to the main keep and the sparring ring. Nothing else seemed to hold for the weight of them, so Shale was forced to stay put and watch people. Something they had quite enough of in Honnleath, thank you very much.

A golem isn't quite what you'd expect to see in Skyhold, however - at least not one without a control rod - and by now Shale really wished they had a sign to say that they were a free and thinking being, considering how many asked. Their patience was thinner than the Veil by a Rift right now, and it showed.

(They're still not sorry for the man they slapped across the yard for trying to snap off one of their precious crystals. At least he didn't die, and rumors not to piss the golem off had spread quickly.)

Unfortunately that also meant that Shale was very alone and endlessly bored. The Blight had been a lot more interesting than just waiting around all the time for people to get their asses in gear and go punch an evil Magister.

Come bother them?

Warden Camp

At other times, they made their way over to the Warden Camp to bother the people there... or to just snark at Alistair, who knows. Generally not the most sociable of creatures, Shale still felt the most at ease with the old companions from the Blight, and that also meant meeting more crazy people that knew Jonas.

...and them meeting Shale.

Wildcard

Fight them? Compliment them? Flirt? Sarcasm contest?

Comments

shortest tag but I'M HERE

[byblow]

"Shale," Alistair asks one night in the Warden camp, sitting on the ground next to the golem, who—can golems sit? Is that a thing golems do? Has he ever seen Shale sit? If they did sit, would they be able to get back up?

Sitting. Next to Shale. That's the point. And his tone is one that anyone who knows him for more than a few weeks and understands vocal tones will learn to recognize: not quite joking, but aware that he's probably going to be annoying or get into trouble and embracing it.

"Are you going to live forever?"

short is good! <3

[dwarfing]

Alistair honey, Shale is not going to sit. The golem can hang with you in your loser club, but they're not going to chill. (Because honestly, it's uncertain if they could get back up.)

Turning their head, the golem looks down at the blonde with a frown. The question is something they've thought about now and then, but in all honesty they preferred to ignore it and stuff it down in that place with memories and pieces of Shayle.

The golem lets him worry about that 'being annoying' part for a while as they go over the question in their head. "It's possible. If nobody shatters me, I am built to last." Maybe ages. Maybe hundreds of ages. Time did not kill a golem.

[byblow]

"And last and last," Alistair agrees. If Shale weren't Shale, his tone would be well-paired with a pat on the leg, that's my golem, etc. But Shale is Shale and Alistair likes his bones where they are. He keeps his hands to himself. "But will you forget things, like you did before?" Perhaps they can see where this is going. "Are you going to forget us?"

[dwarfing]

Alistair has grown wiser in his older years, it seemed. Or at least less suicidal.

His last words makes the golem pause, however, and they turn their head a bit to look up at the sky and the scar there. Would they forget everything again? Or had that only been a side-effect of being deactivated for so long?

A thousand years from now, would they still know the name Alistair?

Shale has a definite itch to kick the human, but that wouldn't help the phantom pain in their chest.

"It would be too hard to forget it. Nobody grates me like it does, so it does not need to worry."

[byblow]

"Are you sure?" That's a stupid question. There's probably no way for Shale to be sure. There's probably no way for anyone to ever be sure of anything—or that's the general sense of despair over the Wardens and the torn sky talking. Anyway, it's a stupid question and not one Alistair expects an answer to. His point is actually: "I could be more grating."

He really could.

"I could ask you for shoulder rides."

[dwarfing]

It was a stupid question, but it put a little seed of something inside the golem's chest that made them want to punch something really hard. There was no certainty of anything, was there?

Especially not right now.

...Alistair's next words are almost soothing in their stupidity.

"If it wishes to keep its genitals attached to its body, it will not even think of that."

[byblow]

"Maker, Shale, you can't tell me not to think of it. That will only make me think about it more. It's as if you don't know me at all."

But he does like his genitals and their current attachment to the rest of him, and so on—evidenced by an uncomfortable shift in his posture—so he will do his best to think of it silently. He can do that.

"If you do remember me, will you make sure to tell people I was grating?" he asks. This is selfish, probably. To think of Shale still standing in a thousand years, hopefully not alone but certainly some kind of lonely, making sure things are remembered a certain way when it might be better if they could just forget and not miss anyone or anything—but he's asking anyway. The whispering in his head is louder every week. If he's going to die, he wants people to remember him as an obnoxious bastard. "And that Zevran was funny and Leliana liked to sing," he adds, "and Morrigan—I don't know. Something nice about Morrigan."

[dwarfing]

The golem falls quiet as Alistair prattles on, watching the man thoughtfully. They're not quite certain where he's going with this, but it's...strange to think about. Almost uncomfortable. They knew they would stand around far longer than any of the others, after all. It was quite different to hear someone asking them to remember their lives.

They do not know of the Calling in Alistair's head. They don't want to.

"The Painted Elf is a pervert, the Sister is gullible, the Swamp Witch is rude, and it is very annoying. That will not change." Not in a thousand years.