faderift | pew pew MAYHEM

Entry tags:

pew pew MAYHEM

WHO: Kas & Open
WHAT: Someone suggested archery.
WHEN: Today, mid- to afternoon
WHERE: To the left by the stables.
NOTES: Brackets or prose is okay!

Alayre was the one to blame for the idea to pick up archery, although it was a sound idea. Most scouts were proficient in it, and Kas' skills with daggers left a lot to desire - so it wasn't strange that the teen had borrowed a bow and quiver from another scout, setting up a dummy in the open area by the stables and attempting to hit it.

It... wasn't easy. Drawing the bow was a bit of a struggle for a youngster with little muscle to his body, and his aiming was way off. The walls of the fortress saw a lot more arrows than the dummy, but the boy didn't give up. Stubborn as a dwarf, he pulled another arrow, trying to not knock it on his little nubs again. His hand was bleeding a little, sliced on the fletching by holding the grip wrong, but it didn't seem to dissuade him, either.

It wasn't until he had emptied the quiver that the teen sat down where he had stood and sighed dramatically. "This is stupid."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sam stills for a moment, his eyes widening a bit, half expecting the knife to be thrown at him - wouldn't be the first time. Once it is obvious that he isn't going to be a target, Sam relaxes. At the swear - he thinks it's a swear, he doesn't know the language - Sam moves a bit closer to get a better look at the setup.

"Maybe we should ask someone who does know how to use them in a fight?" her offers hopefully being helpful in that regard. "My expertise isn't in sharp pointy objects."

"I dunno... people are really busy and I don't wanna be..." He pauses, straightening up a bit. "I can do it on my own!"

He wanted to be valuable, to be worth something, and what use would he be if people had to help him with everything? he'd just be another useless brat, and Kas refused to be one. Not again.

Not when he had some value, for once.

"You a warrior or something?"

Ah, so that's what this was about. Wanting to be useful, but not getting in the way. He could respect that. Very different from his own thinking and personality, he didn't have issues with asking for help. Each their own though.

Sam chuckles at being asked if he is a warrior. He isn't, but with the way Krem keeps throwing him around he could probably be pretty decent if he tried. "Or something is about right."

"Well..." Kas shrugs a bit, not sure how to deal with this. The man was a 'something'. Great. Maybe a rogue, then, or just a worker or something. Probably really useful, unlike him.

Dammit.

"I can do this," he continues, stubbornly glaring at the dummy again. "I'll be really good at it, you'll see." The teen stomps off to collect some of the nearby arrows with gritted teeth before returning and sliding them back in his quiver.

The kid had moxy, that was for sure. "I don't doubt it." He wishes he was more useful, but daggers and bows were not his thing. At this point it just seemed like a good idea to sit idly and watch, make sure he didn't end up hurting himself.

Which he seemed to already have done judging by the smears of red along the sides of his hand. "I don't think hurting yourself is the way to go about it."

"I'm not..." He pauses and looks at his hand with a sigh. "It's just a scratch!"

Angry, he grabs an arrow from the quiver, grunts in pain as it knocks into his tiny horns (he'll be so much happier when he hears about waist quivers) and then pulls back the bowstring.

Aiming. Letting go.

...and the arrow hits the wall again. The frustrated groan that leaves the teen is quite impressive. "Vashedan."

It was obvious that the more the young Qunari pushed himself the worse it was getting. Hurt hand, smacking himself in the hear with an arrow, and more frustration. Even if Sam was a bit wary, he had seen enough that he couldn't just stand back any more.

He makes sure to make plenty of noise as he walks over, not wanting an arrow or a knife in the side for sneaking up on him. "Maybe taking a break will help. I can look at your hand, even if it's a scratch, and maybe look into getting you some proper gear."

Kas frowns at that, giving Sam a distrustful look as the man comes over. Some of it made a bit of sense, however, and maybe a break sounded good. He was getting so frustrated that he might end up breaking the bow, and he really didn't want that to happen.

"Fine," the teen mutters and takes off the quiver again. "I got scout gear, I just... didn't wanna get recognized as one and make them look bad." Awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, Kas then holds out his hand.

"See? Just a scratch."

Seeing the offered hand as permission, Sam comes closer to inspect the injury. He's slow and careful as he brings his hands up to help look at it better, ready to pull back if the Qunari doesn't seem to like the touching.

"The scouts had to start off somewhere as well, as did everyone else. If anyone wants to judge you for learning and taking up an important position as Scout then they can go suck on a fireball." He's not being serious about that, but honestly people could be jerks and needed to learn some respect.

"It is just a scratch, but it's right on your hand. It's going to affect your aim. Want me to take of it?" He smiles, tilting his head. "Name's Samouel by the way."

"You always gotta fight harder when you're different. There are no qunari scouts, so if I look bad I make all qunari look bad. 'Cuz I'm the only one they know." He is bright, behind those blue eyes and all the layers of defense. He knew quite well just how different could mean life or death on the streets, and what a reputation did to your chances to change.

He didn't need to be the 'qunari kid who couldn't shoot straight', because everyone would know who he was. Say that with 'elf' or 'human' or even 'dwarf', and it could be anyone.

"Y'got a bandage, Sam?" He finally adds when the man offers to take care of his wound, slightly wry. "I'm Kas."

Sam smiles sadly at that. He knows, not exactly how Kas feels - he's not a Qunari after all - but he knows what it is like to be different and judged. "You're right. That's definitely something to be aware of. But if you don't take care of yourself you're not going to show them how amazing a Qunari scout can be either."

Did he have a bandage? Ah, right. He's so used to being around Korrin that he had almost forgotten that little big about Qunari and magic. "Not quite. How are your feelings about healing spells?"

He sighs at that. The man was right, he supposed... but that didn't make it any better. What good would he do if he kept failing like this? It left a bitter taste in his mouth, and he tries hard to keep away the despair.

Then Sam explains that he can use magic, and Kas' eyes widen. "Really? You don't look like a mage at all! S-sure, you can fix it that way! That's great!" Someone grew up with Tal-Vashoth mages, so he had no problem with magic... unlike some of his peers.

That has Sam giving a bark of laughter. It isn't the first time he's heard 'you don't look like a mage', but it's the first time he's heard it quite like that. "I did say something else or other didn't I?"

Sam takes a moment to get his laughing under control, at least until there's only a small shake of his shoulders. "No issues with magic, huh?" A bit of conversation as he places his hand over Kas', a soft green light appearing between their palms.

"You did. That's kinda sneaky." Kas approves of sneaky when it's wordplay like that. The laughing is a little odd at first as he tries to see of the guy is laughing at him or something, but then he accepts it as a nice thing and chuckles as well.

"Nah, I've got no problems. Magic healing is great." He's even excitedly watching as that green light appears and the small cut stops bleeding. How many times had he wanted a mage to help the kids he ran with? But no, they were all locked up back then.

This was better, wasn't it?

"That's me, sneaky mage, Sam." It was fun not fitting into the "image" that people had of mages; the look of shock was always fun. He never lies about it, but from time to time he is cautious about being up front about it. Qunari especially. Though obviously Kas doesn't mind it at all. "I take it you know Korrin then. If not you should probably meet her."

It isn't long before the cut is healed up, but the dried blood still remained. "Any more injuries while I'm at it?"

The boy takes his hand back and runs a thumb where the cut had been, scraping off some dried blood with an almost fascinated look. How cool wasn't that? Here one moment and then just... fixed.

"Yeah, I know Korrin. She's pretty okay." He liked her well enough, even in there was something about her that made him feel weird, like his stomach hurt.

At the last question, Kas shakes his head. "Nah, m'good. Knocked my horns a little, but that's just aching."

Pretty okay. He chuckles at that. He rather likes Korrin, but he supposes everyone has their own opinions.

Sam tilts his head at the comment about the horns. "Ache from getting hit some? I take it that they're sensitive while they grow out?" He points up to his own head with a smile, indicating his lack of horns. "I'm just curious. You don't have to answer if you don't want."

Kas hasn't had the chance to get to know Korrin that well yet, but there was a good chance that she would end up an older sister-type to him eventually. She already reminded him a bit of his mom, after all.

At the question about the horns, he rubs one a little bit. "When you're little and they haven't broken through the skin yet, it's really tender. Afterwards, you can mostly just feel them at the bases, and when you get hit by things that make them push against your skull." Like arrow heads knocking them.

That sounded rough, but the horns were rather cool. Even if Kas' weren't that big yet - they're growing - they're still pretty fascinating to Sam. "Your horns can grow out into a number of different shapes right? Is there a certain way you'd want them to grow?"

Humans were kind of weird like that, but Sam's fascination didn't feel like he was labeling him as some weird research project. Still, he frowns a bit when the man asks about horn shapes. "I don't know. Mine haven't grown in years and I'm almost an adult. This might be it."

Kas fidgets a bit, not quite sure else what to say. "...I would like the curling type. Makes it easy to sleep."

There's a definite shift in the conversation with how Kas frowns and begins to fidget. Oh. This must have been a sore subject for him. The answer about the horns keeps Sam smiling, but he's trying to tone it down a bit.

"Could be getting a late growth spurt. I didn't get much bigger when I first went into the Circle at 15. I was almost 20 when I finally got to be this tall." Kas was still pretty young and he was already almost as tall as Sam at whatever age he was at. "You said your horns are still sensitive, right? The bone probably hasn't fused yet so it's still expecting to grow out."

A late growth spurt? He hadn't really thought about that, and he reaches up to touch his the small horns before he looks back at Sam. Maybe it could be true? The fused bone thing sounded kind of like it would make sense, but he was no healer.

"Maybe... maybe they could get a little longer, at least." Just enough to not be nubs but short, practical horns. Hornless qunari were considered full of potential, but nubbly ones just made him look young.

Kas didn't want to look like a kid forever.

"Thanks. I hope so."

It still looked like the whole thing bothered Kas still - he couldn't blame him - but he looked better after all that. It was an honest observation, but something the Qunari needed to hear.

"I believe they will. If they don't you're more than welcome to come looking for me and give me a good punch," he chuckles lightly at that. "Sorry for interrupting your practice, but I'm glad we got to talk."

Grinning, Sam holds out a hand for Kas to shake. Come to think of it did Qunari do handshakes? It was something he generally did with most people he met. "If you ever need some minor patching up, feel free to hit me up; I'm generally at the forges or at the garden. Or if you just need to talk."

He smiles a little, and actually reaches out to take his hand for a little shake. "I'll remember that, so be careful." Kas grins a little, feeling a lot more confident and maybe just a little hopeful, too. He could imagine himself with real horns, like Gorse or the big warrior guy.

As for patching things up... well, he's doing a lot of different training and he'll probably end up scuffed in all kinds of ways. Knowing that there was a nice guy to help him actually felt pretty good.

Sam gives an amused snort at Kas agreeing to the terms. He was confident in thinking that his horns would grow out, but still... he'd have to keep an eye out for an older Kas chasing him down if for some reason it didn't happen.

Honestly, any of the healers would be more than willing to help Kas with any injuries, but based off this interaction Sam guessed the Qunari did not seem like the type to openly look for help. Even if Kas never took him up on the offer at least he knew that there were people out there who were willing to help.

"Well I'll leave you to your practice. Do me a favor though. At least put on some gloves or whatever those special leather pieces are for archery." Taking his hand back, Sam gives a small wave before heading back into the stables to gather up that hay he had originally came to get.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

pew pew MAYHEM

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject