faderift | The Blood of the Dalish

WHO: Cyril Ashara, Merrick Ashara, Pel, Samouel Haines Gareth, Taashath, Galadriel, Kallian Endris, Bruce Banner, Eirlys Ancarrow, Anders, James Norrington, Beleth Ashara, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Iskandar
WHAT: Summary of content
WHEN: Sometime near the start of Umbralis
WHERE: From Skyhold to along the Serpentine River.
NOTES: OOC post for this plot is here.

The Inquisition has been here before. They visited to ease the tensions between Clan Frandruil and the human village Kaladoun. As they left, peace had seemed to be reached. The Clan's Keeper, Shoshanna, has not kept up her part of the treaty. The Clan was meant to leave and give the village space, but it seems there's always a good reason to stay in place. The Clan's First, Janna, has put aside her pride to reach out to the Inquisition for help. As she has been regularly communicating with the Dalish liaison for the Inquisition, Cyril has agreed to put together a team and help the clan vacate.

While they are there they will break into two groups, one will help the Clan pack up and the other will go into the village and ease tensions there. Once the Clan is ready, all members of the Inquisition who came will reunite and help the Clan move to a new location and settle, to help them get back into the spirit of the nomadic lifestyle.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"This seems pleasant." It's a nice enough walk, at least, the weather isn't too bad, Pel's doing all right, and he's caught Cyril at what seems to be a decent moment.

"How are you doing?" Leading a group can be... a lot of pressure. He's wondering how Cyril is taking it.

Cyril smiles at Anders as he comes closer. "Oh, I'm fine," he says. Then, after a second of thought. "Do you mind taking a walk with me? We can get wood for a fire and have a conversation."

He does have something he needs to ask Anders and he doesn't want to do it in front of people because he isn't sure how Anders will feel about it and doesn't want to embarrass him in front of everyone.

"Of course I don't mind." He smiles back and looks out to the side before tilting his head. He'd seen a fallen tree that way, and it could be dried enough to be useful.

"This way?" Idly he wonders what Cyril wants to speak with him about, but he's not nervous about it the way he would be with some people. Cyril's a friend.

Cyril nods and they walk a bit to start getting the wood. He focuses on the task at first to make sure they can't just be idly overheard. "I was hoping we would have a chance to speak," he admitted once he was comfortable. His voice is calm because he doesn't want to make Anders nervous at all.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go under a pseudonym while we were with the Clan and village." Especially the village, really, but he doesn't say that part.

The question should make it clear why he wanted to pull Anders away before speaking with him. He trusted everyone who had come along, but it still wasn't his place to bring up Anders' past actions in front of everyone, even if it was just to hint at them vaguely.

He blinks at the question and stills. "Oh. Right." The good mood fades a little. It's not Cyril's fault, it's entirely Anders' fault that he lives with that hanging over his head, and his own fault that he'd let it slip from mind.

"Yes. I should, I likely should. Ah." Picking one isn't easy. His last pick had gotten mocked pretty heavily. "I don't... I suppose I should use a Fereldan name. That isn't everywhere. Or known to be associated with the Inquisition."

So no Nate, or Alistair, or really anything he's heard lately. "I don't suppose you've any ideas?"

Cyril comes closer and puts a hand carefully on Anders' arm to prove that he doesn't judge Anders. He just wants to make sure he doesn't have to deal with people attacking or hating him.

"Me? A Dalish elf? Name a human?" His brow raises a bit. He'll ignore the fact that he himself has a human name, but that had been on his mother's head, not his. "I suppose Hugh Mann is off the table?"

Edited 2016-11-11 06:55 (UTC)

He reaches up and rests his hand over Cyril's for a moment. The suggestion gets a tiny hint of smile back on his face.

"As I know you've been with qunari I'm not going to injure my own pride and ask where the huge comes into play." His delivery isn't quite on target, but he's trying. "Hugh isn't bad. Hughes might be a decent family name, even. Garrett Hughes? That might suffice?"

Cyril nods at that. "That's a good idea. Garrett is a nice, strong name." He squeezes Anders lightly and then after a moment, he pulls away and focuses on getting the wood.

"Did you want me to spread the word to the rest of the group or would you like to do it?" Again, he wants to give Anders control of when and how people are reminded of the reasons why he'd need to go by another name.

Garrett is a strong name. And when he gets back to Skyhold Anders can joke around with Nate about how he'd been a Hugh and Nate was a Howe and now they just needed a few more to form the whole Hwat, Hwen, and Hwy party. It's a nice thought for the future, and one he'll hold on to as he glances back toward the party.

"I'll... I'll go back and get it over with, once we've the wood. They should, I think everyone knows the why of it." Most probably won't look at him with judgment in their eyes, at least. That makes it easier. "I would have forgotten. Thank you."

Cyril nods a bit at that. "I was worried that it might cause some problems for you," he explains. "So I wanted to make sure we addressed it before we got there."

He offers Anders a small smile then. "At least Garrett Hughes is still a rather attractive man," he teases a bit, because light flirting is how he deals with most emotional issues.

"I've some difficulty with plans and details." Which should have told him ages ago that he needed other people, but he's always had some difficulty with pride getting in his way. Pride, stubbornness, fear, a whole mess of emotions.

But there's a small smile curling up the corner of his lips. "I'm glad to know, though, that this difficulty doesn't diminish Garrett's attractiveness. That's rather important to a man like him." He's a little vain about his looks, but he feels he has cause to be. And need to be. Considering his past, his looks are one of the few things he has going for him.

Anders bends over and scoops up more of the branches until he has a good armload. "There, that should do, I believe."

Cyril nodded, agreeing with Anders's assessment of the amount of wood they have. "Looks good," he says. As they start to head back to the camp. "If anyone does give you any trouble, let those of us here know. I support you, you know."

He looks back at Cyril with a smile that's a little open, a little tinged by sadness as well as hope. The times when he'd been without anyone are still stark in his mind. These last many months have been such a departure that every now and then he wonders if he'd been having a fever dream, but it's gone on much too long for that.

"Thank you. I appreciate the support more than I'll ever be able to say. Your friendship too, Cyril."

"Well, that is yours for as long as we know each other," Cyril promises as they head back to the camp.

The Blood of the Dalish

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