faderift | [OPEN] Align my heart, my body, my mind

WHO: Corvo and you!
WHAT: Corvo is starting to settle into Skyhold, and goes to a job interview.
WHEN: Early Harvestmire
WHERE: Around Skyhold
NOTES: Probably gonna be talk about death, killing, etc.

Library

Corvo would not necessarily consider himself a bookish man, but he acknowledges the well of information that can be found within them, and he detests ignorance--in himself, most of all. Slowly, he has begun accepting that whatever drew him to this world does not intend for him to leave any time soon, and thus it would befit him to try to understand more of this Thedas. It's been slow going, at first, because Thedas is so utterly alien to him, completely different from anything he's known before. But he perseveres.

He can be found sitting in the library, hunched over in a corner of the room, a book on his lap, and a piece of parchment next to him. As he reads, he occasionally pauses to jot down a quick note on the paper--questions, phrases, things that he doesn't understand yet, that he will have to find out more about later on.

Feel free to approach him, or if you're close enough and don't look too unwelcoming, he might ask you about one of the things that he doesn't understand.

Training yard

He doesn't just spend his time reading, however. He spends plenty of time in the training area, practicing with his sword and crossbow. While this place is unusual, there's one perk about it--he has a chance to practice his magic without worrying about anyone seeing. Having had several people confirm that no one will be tossing him on a pyre for using his mark, he feels comfortable enough to do it in the open.

While practicing on a dummy with his sword, he holds his hand out, and then there's a sudden blur, and he's behind the dummy, and promptly sticks his sword right in its cloth neck. Practicing with his crossbow, he takes a potato out of a stack of them he had acquired, and throws it in the air. Then he raises his hand up, and a great gust of wind blows up past him, hurtling the potato far into the air. Once the target is an appropriate distance away, he raises his crossbow and sends a bolt into the unfortunate potato.

He doesn't quite smile, but he does look rather satisfied.

Kestrel House

And now, he feels rather nervous. He's never exactly had a good relationship with other assassins, people who killed as a job more than because some people simply had to be killed.

But at the end of the day, killing people was one of his greater skills. The ability to do it quietly, slipping in and out without being seen. The job that he had spent most of his life doing, guarding another's life with steadfast dedication--no. There was a little girl he had already promised to serve. He would not take that job here, not in this strange land with strange people. So assassin, it was. Everyone needs to have a job, after all.

And so it was that he lurked outside of the Kestrel house, hands stiffly held behind his back, as he waited for the man in charge of the guild.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was basically impossible to miss him as he approached given his size but he didn't even bother to try. Instead, he just walked right on up to where the man was with a smile on his face, watching that final move with the potato. Letting out a laugh, he went to fetch their poor fallen vegetable companion so he could pull the bolt free from it and give it back to the man who'd performed the feat.

"Impressive! You have the makings of a talented Assassin if you are not one already, my friend." He'd seen plenty of them in his time and knew how the class operated. Be fast. Get behind the target when possible. Quick and clean kills to avoid less attention.

"You are a rifter as well, yes?" Iskandar asked, noting the glow on his hand.

To overlook Iskandar would be akin to failing to notice a mountain suddenly strolling up to you and reclaiming your bolt. Corvo has never quite felt so dwarfed by a man before, and it takes a moment to adjust, silently taking back his bolt and, after checking to make sure it wasn't blunted, filing it away. He coughs, a little, at the mention of being a talented assassin--it's not the first time people have spoken about the profession so bluntly here, and he has to restrain the reflex to assure his visitor that he would never stoop to such a thing.

"Thank you," Is what he says instead. "I hope that enough training will pull me out of simply possessing the makings of one." That's a little joke, right there. He nods at the question, glancing at his hand, now bearing the anchor shard, as well as the mark of the Outsider. "Yes. It's all...very surprising, is it not? I don't think I could imagine this, not ever."

"Well with the level you have I imagine you might be one already." He laughed a bit then rested one hand on his hip as the other tossed the potato up and down. "But you are right. It is rather a surprise. I certainly was not expecting to ride toward the end of one battle and crawl out of the waters into the mouth of another."

Apparently he was rolling with it though. Which was just his way of living life. Iskandar had lived his life embracing new ideas and such, even going so far as to change his name to match the new lands he'd conquered. The very armor he wore now came from there as well. It would only make sense that he would embrace this new life as well like it was just taking another breath.

"There are some changes I'm still adjusting too but as a whole it's not the worst I suppose."

"I suppose I might," Corvo replied, a small smile tugging at his lips. Not a particularly emotive person by nature, it was nevertheless hard not to be amused. Maybe it was because Iskandar was simply so much, as outgoing as Corvo was taciturn, that it was hard not to have some of that effect him in turn. "I won't make any claims to skill until I know where I compare with those of this world."

He certainly had to admire Iskandar's cheerful attitude about all of this. Corvo's no stranger to his world being upended, but this time he can't help but feel like he's floundering. There's always been a path, however difficult, even impossible-sounding. Go here, kill this person, kidnap that one, save Emily, a set list that if accomplished, can return his life to some normalcy. There's no path, here. No one knows how to get home.

"It could be worse," He agrees, because if he knows anything, it's that it could always be worse. "I wouldn't mind as much, but--" And he hesitates, because he hasn't said much about this to anyone who didn't already know. "--It's not me that I'm worried about. I have...family, back home." He rubs his shoulder, frowning down at the ground. "Family I'm supposed to be protecting. Who will protect her, if I'm not there?"

"That is a fair question." He nodded slowly when the man asked about who would protect his family. In all honesty he was noticing rifters had been pulled from moments that they could go back to. Moments they would probably live through. Iskandar didn't mind that when he returned it would likely mean continuing to ride to his own death for that was the path that he had chosen. However, he could understand the feelings of others in different positions than his own.

"Does she really have no one but you to protect her when you are not there?"

That was really what he wanted to know. What sort of situation was this poor girl or woman in that there was literally only one who could save her? "I'm not sure what the state of time is in the places we are pulled from honestly whatever the case is. I do like to think it would politely wait for our return though. That would be good of it, yes?"

That last comment was followed by a warm smile.

Corvo doesn't hesitate, when he's asked if there's no one he trusts to protect her. He shakes his head, a worried look coming over his face. "No, no one." He's trusted before, trusted various people, and had been betrayed in return. Callista had proven her loyalty, but she hadn't the ability to protect her from any real threat.

"She's only ten..." He muttered, rubbing his shoulder. But there was little he could do right now, other than fret.

"That would be nice," He admits, though from his own experience, his life rarely tended towards what was nice. But it was a cheerful thought, one made in an effort to keep him from being too dour, and Corvo gives the other man a small smile in return. "I suppose all that I can do is hope."

Iskandar nodded and listened a bit. He didn't know the situation of the man's world but if she was unable to be safe then there was certainly trouble. There was little he could do but pray to the gods that they would keep her safe and yet he'd already decided he would do that for this man.

Every person was a friend of his until they proved otherwise. That was his way of going through life.

"Hope might not be the easiest thing but if you hope with others you'll find it less of a burden." He smiled at him then. "So I will hope with you for that is what I can do to help you get to her soon in this exact moment."

Corvo leans more on the opposite side of things--people can't be trusted until they prove otherwise, and even then. They might just try to kill you anyway. But...despite his usual paranoia, it was impressively difficult to not feel some manner of goodwill for the other man. Perhaps it was just because Iskandar acted with such natural camaraderie?

He can't help but give a quiet laugh, glancing sidelong at Iskandar with an amused look. "Are you so optimistic about everything? Still--I thank you. I've had to work with nothing but hope before. It'll be good to not do it alone."

"Someone needs to be optimistic! I've taken it upon myself to be that man." He listened to that laugh before he nodded to what he'd been doing before. It was impressive to say the least but he couldn't help but to be curious about it. It was not often one got to see an assassin train.

"Might I watch you? Or I suppose I could spar with you. I'm not assassin but I am rather good in a fight."

[OPEN] Align my heart, my body, my mind

training yard

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