Reaching towards adulthood?

[issala]

WHO: Kas & You!
WHAT: Catch-all for the month
WHEN: All through Justinian
WHERE: Skyhold (mostly)
NOTES: Feel free to hit me up on draiol for any specific starters!

I. Healer Tents

Since the trip to the Fade, the strange headache had returned. Now it was always there, nagging him, but at times it grew to something less tolerable and more 'knife in his brain'. Kas tried to ignore it, but eventually he had to drag himself to a healer again to get a potion or something until it calmed down.

Opening the healing tent flap after a little knock to a pole, he makes a grumbling sound as a greeting, not sure if it was a healer or another patient in the room.

II. Archery Range

The archery training was going well for the teen, and he found himself always feeling better after he had gone through his training for the day. It cleared his head better than any other things he had attempted, and came with the added bonus of actually improving something. With the hip quiver making pulling out an arrow much easier and less entangled, he was also increasing his speed.

After nailing another shot at the dummy, Kas takes a quick break to grab his water skin and wipe some sweat from his forehead. Concentrating was heavy work.

III. Herald's Rest

Better days meant better ways to entertain himself, and Kas often found himself at the Tavern playing games with other patrons. Wicked Grace, Diamondback, Checkers. Other times, he just liked listening to people talk (and maybe shyly look at girls). He didn't drink, though, which annoyed the staff a bit.

(Good thing the cook thought he was cute.)

Writing letters to his old kith had been sparse lately, the more he realized how bad it had really been there compared to the families he heard about from people like Gorse and Korrin. Still, he felt obligated to let them know he was alive now and then, and could be found scribbling on paper in the tavern when not losing his money to cards.

...it usually ended with him doodling instead.

IV. Wildcard!

Comments

[ombranera]

It takes some adjusting, this is true. But Lucci is being relatively quiet, at least for the moment, and that ought to make it easier on Kas for this particular test. He takes the lock one handed, turning it about a few times to make certain of the weight- and then holding it away from Lucci's grasping, curious hands.

"This is not for you, Bambino, this is for Kas-" Lucci sniffles faintly and Zevran, aware of false tears by now, shakes his head and leans down to blow a raspberry onto the boy's forehead. It distracts him long enough for Zevran to secure the lock and hand the apparatus back to Kas. "Whenever you are ready."

[issala]

"So I guess he's why you haven't been doing as much rogue training as before." Kas says with a shrug as Zevran goes over the lock. It seemed like a good reason, if anything.

Then the takes the lock back and readies his picks. A deep breath, and then he's in with the pick, lifting tumblers and turning the pick with a much, much steadier hand than before.

[ombranera]

"That is exactly it." Zevran tugs Lucci back into his lap from where he leaned to follow the toy, the lock, tickling him to try to distract him once more from Kas' work. All the same his eyes follow, calculating and counting and listening even past the pleased babble of the child.

Quick and quiet. He cannot quite hide the smile on his face to see how far his student has come.

[issala]

Concentrating fully even with a giggling baby, he gets a bit stuck on the last part, lock-pick twisting a bit until he finds the right angle and unlocks the lock with a 'click'. Grinning, he looks over at Zevran, triumphantly holding the defeated lock, opened just at the bragged time limit.

"How's that?" Kas is beaming, carefully gathering his tools and putting them in the pack. No traces, no forgotten picks. "Can I start on the hard ones yet?"

[ombranera]

"Excellent work, Kas!" There is real warmth, real pride in Zevran's voice. As strange as some small details about the boy are- he has skill. He is trainable. And he is eager. "Look how well he did, Lucci. Not a tumbler out of place, no sign he was ever there."

Lucci applauds, chubby little hands clapping as Zevran reaches behind him to pull one of the more solid, more complicated locks off the table. "This one has a randomized trap. Every time you lock it? The tumbler it is attached to changes. It does nothing to you right now as it is not loaded but if you trip it? you will feel a puff of air."

[issala]

Kas sucks in that praise like a drowning man desperate for air, and you could almost see him grow in confidence from each word. The teen is eager to go to the next level. Smiling brightly, he gives the new lock a curious look, a little wrinkle of concentration between his dark brows.

"What would it be filled with if it was live? Darts? Poison? Acid?" He looks through his thief's tools to see which pick would be best for such a delicate job. Random tumblers, and a trap... it was exciting, really!

[ombranera]

"Any of those, truly, but most often they are filled with poison or acid. Something that would kill on contact. Of course that leaves a body at the lock whenever you return but most find that a worthwhile price." Zevran himself prefers slow acting poisons so they die elsewhere, but that is just him.

He watches Kas pick through his kit, not offering any pointers on what would work best. The boy seems to have the right of it thusfar- he would manage. "I know I have been absent for some time- you've been well?"

[issala]

"Huh," Kas says with a bit of a shrug. "Must be some seriously priceless stuff in things locked with a lock like this." The annoyance of having to deal with bodies and all that... plus they probably needed to be refilled after the trap was sprung.

"...and yeah. I've been okay, I guess." Lies. "I manage."

Looking at his tools again and then back at the lock, he finally goes for one of the picks. Concentrating, he first looks over the outside of the lock before he starts sticking the pick in and feeling for the tumblers.

[ombranera]

"Normally these are saved for the bedchambers of the particularly paranoid, treasure chests, and weapons lockers. You are the first of the rogues I have taken on in Skyhold to step up to these locks, truly. They are fairly rare outside of Antiva." If Kas felt along for the catch as he was trained there'd be resistance a bit early- the trigger to the air trap.

"But I am confident you will learn and learn well." As Kas has been nothing if not a model student.

"...Are you certain? I heard a number of you were pulled to the Fade."

[issala]

Kas' chest almost hurts with pride when he hears those words from the elf, and he almost loses his concentration from sheer joy. The first of the rogues to try this. Him.

It doesn't mean it's easy for him, though, and he gets the pick jammed and the lock springs the 'trap'. Narrowing his eyes, he wiggles the pick free and tries to come up with a different solution to the puzzle. Maybe if he did it the opposite way?

...the concentration is broken when Zevran mentions the Fade, and he sighs. "...yeah. I did. It sucked."

[ombranera]

Lucci quiets, somewhat, distracted by playing with the laces on Zevran's vest while Zevran's eyes narrow slightly. "That sounds like an understatement."

He considers this a moment- the Fade, the boy, his child- and opts to share something of his past. A sliver- one most knew of anyway. "Ten years ago during the blight we had to liberate Kinloch Hold from demons and abominations. While in there, the Wardens and I, a sloth demon took us unawares. We were still physically within the tower- but our minds? Were in the Fade. I was made to relive a trying time from my past, echos of demons taking the faces and forms of Crows I knew. Crows that tested me, trained me. It sucked as well."

[issala]

He stops and turns to listen to Zevran, putting the lock and the tools down for a moment. The elf's story is something he had heard before, but not told like this. Not from the actual point of view.

"That's... it was nothing like that. Just shitty mind games." Kas runs a hand through his hair. "There was a graveyard... almost everyone had a stone on it. Mine said 'worthless'."

He looks away again, almost as if he's ashamed. "There were demons, too... and the Iron Bull."

[ombranera]

"...Demons are a pain in the ass on a good day, when you are on the right side of the veil." Zevran extends a hand to Kas, motioning him closer. That word. That one word sticks with him though-

and it is something he himself has wrestled with for the whole of his life.

"The Bull is dependable in so much that as long as you know where his axe will be swinging and you know to stand clear? He is not terrible to have on your side. But more than that...who determines your worth, Kas?"

[issala]

He hesitates for a moment before he moves closer to Zevran, keeping out of Lucci's way just in case he spit on him or something. Babies were weird.

The elf's words makes Kas frown a little bit and he crosses his arms. It's slightly standoffish, as if he's trying to protect himself from... well, who knows. Hearing that Zevran seemed to trusts the Bull makes it harder for him to be honest, but he was his trainer. Maybe even Master one day.

"He's Qunari. Loyal to the Qun and all that. It's... weird for Vashoth an' him to be close like this. It's even worse that he's Ben-Hassrath. They hunt and kill us, Zevran. It's their thing aside from spy stuff." He bites his lip slightly, tensing more.

"People like him killed almost my entire kith back home. My mom. Everyone I grew up with. It's not easy to have someone like that here, and it's not just me. Korrin and that Taas guy doesn't like him either, and probably no other Vashoth here. He just needs one order from his people and he'll murder us all."

Kas bites his lip, forcing dow the anger and the twinge of fear in his chest. It didn't matter that the man had saved him in the Fade. Not after everything he'd seen them do.

Or believed he did.

"My worth... it's even more complicated."

[ombranera]

"I have seen no hunting or killing since I arrived, nor have I heard of such things of him and his crew since they've been in Orlais. I would think word of that would get out, wouldn't you? Terribly strange for him not to be doing his job, isn't it?" And it is just that. Terribly strange. Worth noting, worth watching. "To me- and I say this as someone in a similar position years ago- he seems a man with a choice that needs to be made. For me it was simple. For him? I think it may be a great deal more difficult. I watch him to see which way that particular axe will fall."

Zevran reaches out, squeezing Kas' shoulder. "But he knows that I know this- and he knows too that should it fall in a place I find unfavorable? He will not live long enough to bring others to harm. Should that order come? He dies. You have my word."

Not something easily given nor easily kept but this? This he means. This he holds himself to. "And your worth is not complicated at all. You determine it. Not me. Not your friends or companions, not a demon in the Fade, not the Bull."

His hand shifts to poke Kas in the chest, right over his heart. "Only you. It has taken me years to learn this thing, and I know down to the last coin what was paid for me every way imaginable. I know my cost in copper and silver and gold. And I know none of that truly measures my worth. Where you are from, what you have done? Does not measure such a thing."

[issala]

"I..." He's not sure what to say to that, really. Kas honestly doesn't know where to put the Bull, but he trusts Zevran. Knowing that a former Antivan Crow will keep an eye on the Ben-Hassrath is a bit comforting, though. "...I see."

Not the best reply, but it's hard for him to express himself when he's not even sure what to feel.

The other topic? It's simpler to know his emotions there. Shame. "It's easy to say, but it's not... it's not easy to believe." Every strike of the whip and the guard had called him 'worthless'. Over and over until he believed it, until his life became a struggle to show he wasn't.

[ombranera]

"I could tell you that it becomes easier with time- but that is a lie. There are days when I remember the coin paid for me and think, perhaps, it was too much. There are days when I laugh at the number. It varies." Sometimes it is simple.

Sometimes it is a struggle to look past what made him what he was and see anything else. "I do not know your life well enough to understand what has made you think so. Nor do I know an easy answer or a trick to help you find a way to know this to be true. I do know that measuring your worth by the validation of others is a temporary fix at best and one that will leave you ever wanting. The only one that might determine your value is you. And that...will take you time to measure."

[issala]

Kas remains quiet for a moment, letting Zevran's words sink in. It takes him a moment, and then he gives a small nod. "I think I understand what you mean. It's... gonna take time. Working with the Inquisition really helps."

He made a difference here, no matter how little.

"You got a good dad," he says to the baby, before he ruffles the kid's hair. It was easier to show his gratitude to a kid than his idol, for some reason.

"I'll break that lock."