faderift | My friends say, are you gonna be sad?

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My friends say, are you gonna be sad?

WHO: Character(s) Maxwell Trevean and You
WHAT: Kingsway Catchall
WHEN: Over Kingsway
WHERE: Around Skyhold
NOTES: Mention of death (Kain's)

He'd warned Gavin. He'd given the elf a key. So now it was time to actually get on with installing an official lock on the cubbiehole Maxwell called a bedroom.

On his knees on the floor, he worked behind the door, tools tapping and scrapping, humming softly to himself as he set the lock. Hopefully, anyone stopping to see him would knock first, lest he catch it opening with his face....

~.~

Maxwell could have delegated the job of checking and refilling the bird feeder he'd installed to someone else, but he found he enjoyed the simple task. It wasn't just a favor to Kain (and then, later, in honor of his memory) - other birds had come to flock about it too - it was an easy excuse to get out and into the sunshine whenever the keep's walls started to feel a little too dark and heavy.

Besides, it was in sight off both the halla and griffon pens, so he could watch either without actually getting too close. And if he decided to plop down and do some sketching, well, at least he'd gotten something productive done.

~.~

It snuck up on him.

It wasn't until he was dating an official missive, that he realized how deep they were into Kingsway. How close it actually was to his birthday. How it would be his first birthday alone.

Away from home. Away from his parents.

It wasn't that it ever been an outrageously grand affair - family, perhaps some friends of said, all the appropriate movers and shakers - but privately there had always been a spectacle.

A lot of sighing. A lot of passive-aggression. A new ultimatum every year as his gift.

For a long moment he sat silently, blinking ahead, processing what it would mean to be at Skyhold (or anywhere with the Inquisition as opposed to home) on the 25th. Then he smiled. Small, and then wider, grinning brightly down at the letter and re-dipping his quill in the well with a happy little clink.

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Observing Maxwell in silence for a moment, Korrin just shakes her head as he refills that bird feeder. "I don't suppose you've seen an extremely foul-mouthed parrot flying around, have you? Because the Chantry sisters seem strangely unharassed."

She tries to smile, but the recent news is still fresh in her mind and dampening her spirits somewhat. Damn Kain, it shouldn't have ended like that.

Maxwell could hear the attempt at humor in Korrin's voice, but he found it hard to return it. Shaking his head, he shook seeds to the feeder with a sigh.

"Not since Kain." He glanced upward. "...I can't believe I wish the damned thing would curse at me."

Heading over, Korrin rests a hand on his shoulder and echoes the sigh. It's fortunate in a way that she doesn't know the whole truth, since at least for now it's merely tragic and not nightmare fuel. "You're not the only one. Seeing Kain fall to demons...no wonder it lost its shit. Did you know him well?"

"Not very, to be fair," Maxwell admitted. He rattled a last layer of seed into the feeder and then lowered the bag, reaching with one hand to smooth the feed out as he shrugged. "I met the bird first. Then, when he was injured, Kain was asking after it on the crystals. I offered to help."

Turning, he leaned against the feeder.

"He seemed like a good man. And to loose anyone like that...."

"I'm not sure I did, either. Still, though." Getting to know someone on their side, working with them, and then realizing they won't be around anymore is a heavy blow, no matter what.

"Reckless and obsessed with dragons, but that didn't stop him from joining a cause when he could have just kicked back and enjoyed the free food. I saw him fight Red Templars with no hesitation. Hell, he on one of the teams that took down a high dragon in Emprise du Lion. That's not nothing."

"He was part of the Inquisition. He might have been brought here against his will, but he was one of us as much by his choice as anyone born to Thedas," Maxwell nodded. "He'll be missed."

Folding his arms, he sighed a soft breath.

"...I wonder if he left anyone behind. If they'll ever know..."

"There was one person here from his world. Rydia, I think? They weren't close, but it can't be easy on her, losing the one familiar person from the past." Korrin will make a mental note to seek her out later.

"...he mentioned a couple of friends back home. It's a bitch that we can't even let them know what happened."

"What are you drawing?"

It feels like an inane question, a sloppy opening salvo - or maybe it was just fine. Kirk still felt like he was half in a fog some days, ever since he had come back from the caves with their red lyrium and the child, and then the sudden rush of memories. He was trying to get himself properly sorted, so his walks had become more meandering and wide ranging. When he'd caught sight of Maxwell, he'd naturally adjusted course and come to see his friend and teacher.

"At least he has someone who can carry the news," Maxwell said quietly. "When they figure out how to get the Rifters back to their homes."

If, they figured out how to get them home.

"The rest..." He glanced away, toward the Tavern, to the great Keep itself. "How many aren't so lucky? How many will never know what happened to their loved ones? Even if they survive this war, if there's no way for them to go home..."

Edited 2016-09-14 11:59 (UTC)

Maxwell looked up, quill posing mid-shading of dark, ruffled feathers, and offered Kirk a smile when he saw him.

"I've never seen in a griffon in person," he said, turning his sketchbook to let the man see - a half-finished sketch of one of the babies, mid-preen, a long feather curving through its hooked beak. "I didn't think I ever would. They were supposed to be extinct."

Korrin's eyes darken at the thought of getting the rifters back to their homes, rather conflicted on that topic. So many needed it, deserved it. But....

So she follows his gaze, giving herself something else to focus on. "I know. It absolutely sucks. We can't do anything about the places we can't reach, but...maybe there can be a memorial wall or whatever. Something where people here can acknowledge them, have it known that they aren't forgotten."

Maxwell noticed the shift, the little tightening around the woman's eyes, and wondered if he'd said something wrong... and remembered then how often he'd seen the Qunari in passing with another woman. He didn't know her personally, but the glow did tend to give the Rifters away.

He immediately felt bad. (And he thought it was difficult between him and Gavin, a human and an elf. At least one of them hadn't been pulled across the Fade from some great unknown.)

He couldn't reach her shoulder without stretching, so he touched her elbow lightly instead.

"That sounds like a good idea to me." Then after a squeeze, he withdrew politely. "And who knows, maybe if they figure it out, they'll learn how to send other things - raven's maybe. Something that could carry a message."

That touch snaps her out of any further painful thoughts on the subject of rifters going home, and she gives a small but genuine smile in response. No hard feelings on her end, honest.

"An interesting idea. We've had items get spewed out by rifts before, with or without people. If there's a way to reverse it and chuck something back...I have no idea how the hell that would work, but it'd definitely be something."

"Looks like we have something in common," he chuckled, moving to sit down beside him and consider the sketchbook, impressed with the other's skill. It wasn't something he had expected of Maxwell.

"Though in my case they never existed at all on my planet."

"If anyone can figure it out, it's the Inquisition," Maxwell replied, sounding as confident as one could be in the abilities of others - especially when it came to something as unknown as the Fade. "We do have Thedas' leading expert on the matter, or so his reputation tells me."

Maxwell returned his quill to the page, adding shade to the Griffon's feathers, trying to replicate the dynamic pattern.

"You're from one without all this, yes?" he asked. He gestured with his free hand not just to the griffons and the halla, but in a wide move meant to include everything. "Mages. Magic."

"Yeah, I've been meaning to speak with Solas. I've been trying to learn rift magic when not working on knight-enchanter training. He's not my regular trainer, but it'd help to get his input on things. The advisors must be pestering him enough, so I've tried not to do the same. Still, though...."

"Yeah, that's right. Though, science is its own form of magic, I suppose," he gave a slight rise of his shoulder in a shrug. "But nothing like this. No dragons, no gryphons. We're almost boring in comparison, I'm sure."

"Lucky, I might say, so far as the magic goes," he mused, quill scratching lightly, ink shining in its wake. "For as amazing as it is, it's certainly cause it's far share of trouble...."

He glanced up.

"But if there's one thing I've seen as a constant in all rifter stories, it's that we don't need any one reason to fight with each other. We'll find one regardless."

"Maybe it'll be you, then," he said, jostling her elbow lightly with his own, teasing gently. "Korrin, Hero of our Age."

That gets a snort and an eyeroll from her, as she nudges him back lightly in turn. "Yeah, and maybe they'll want me as their new Divine, too. I have a feeling that if anyone's going to count for that, it'll be the people with those shards in their hands. I'm just a mage, but closing a rift? Well. That's something only a very few can manage."

"I wouldn't necessarily say that. Any tool can cause trouble, it's just the people that use it," he reasoned. "Advancements in technology came with the same sort of thing - many wanted to use for good, but some used it for bad. At the end of the day, it's all about who's the one using it."

That was his thought at least. He might not like magic, but it wasn't because he thought it dangerous - more because it made him squint at the way it bent rules of logic and physics among other things. He'd always seen it as a tool and nothing more.

"And yeah, my world had plenty of reasons for fighting each other, but we got over that thankfully," he smiled as the chick stretched its wings. Such a beautiful creature - a pity they didn't exist on Earth. "Took a damn long time though."

"Ah ah," he teased, wagging a finger. "If you get to be Hero, I call Divine. Fair's fair."

He struck a pose, hefting the seed bag to serve as a hat.

"I could pull it off."

That surprised him. His quill came to halt again, head coming up, his eyebrows jumping.

"Are you saying... there's no war at all where you're from? Everyone just, gets along?"

He couldn't begin to imagine....

Okay, that gets her to laugh. "A male Divine, down south? Now that would be scandalous. You cut a pretty regal pose, though, I'll give you that."

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My friends say, are you gonna be sad?

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