faderift | The Horned Heroes Return

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The Horned Heroes Return

WHO: Kas, Taashath + Open
WHAT: Kas and Taas return from their mission in Orlais after two months.
WHEN: Today and forward
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Kas and Taas will be under different top comments to avoid playercesting.

Seeing the bridge to Skyhold was such a huge relief that neither qunari had expected, and the accompanying group of scouts seemed just as eager to get back. Mounts were spurred a bit more, hurrying over the last stretch before they all stopped in the courtyard.

Taas slid off his horse and brushed back his brown hair from his face. It was a bit messy and not put up in the usual array of braids - and he had a need of a razor, of the beginning of a scruffy beard was anything to go by. He's wearing his usual leather and armor, although his chest is covered by a shirt for once.

He doesn't look worse for wear, aside from his nose being extra crooked. (He might need to get that fixed later.)

Giving the mount a pat on the neck, he leaves it with a stablehand and takes a look at the state of Skyhold. At least it was in once piece... and hopefully the tavern was as well.

---

Kas isn't as graceful in his dismounting, but the teen does seem a little less horrible at riding than he used to be. Rubbing his butt a bit, he sighs and scratches his head slightly before looking around. The scout uniform is a little ripped in places and the bow he got from Metaari is missing, but he's unharmed and even seems to have gained a bit of weight. It makes him appear a little bit less like a scrawny child and rather the young man he really is, so it's a good look for him.

Maker bless Orlaisian tiny cakes and hard work.

There's even a little smile on his lips as he looks around, eager to see Korrin, friends and maybe even meet new people.

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Of course it is. Letting him move her hands, Korrin grins wide as she takes notice of that slight bump. "Badass! I can't wait to see them. You've been missed, Kas. I'm glad you finally got around to rejoining us."

There's no doubt at all in her voice that she would, but still. It's been too long. For her part, there are some updates to her forearms; one has a nasty set of scars in the shape of a bitemark, the other a honey badger tattoo. "Let's get you stuffed at the kitchen and swap stories, alright?"

He gives her the brightest grin, and then gives her another hug, just for good measure. Looks like he's not that far from crushing hugs, himself - he definitely grew some more muscle.

Letting go again, he gives her a once-over. New battle scar and a tattoo? Damn, he wants to hear this story. "Food? Damn, I haven't had real food in forever. It's just been rations or the little weird dishes the Orlaisians like. Did you know they eat snails???"

Kas, never have Dalish cuisine.

Kas's hug is appreciated, and Korrin definitely notes the added muscle. It almost makes her sad, realizing how much she's missed, but on the other hand he's back and that's enough to keep her spirits high. "Oh yeah, I remember. Their desserts are good, but everything else is really hit-or-miss. And not enough spices. That reminds me, I have a care package for you. Tama's pretty sure you never get enough, even with those Tal-Vashoth chefs that we have here now. So, there's even more waiting for you after that."

Maybe it's Tama's diabolical plan to keep him stuffed and unable to head off for months at a time again? If so, Korrin's not complaining. She starts them off, starting to crave Burly's macarons.

He is beaming so much, and his stomach makes a happy little flop at the mention of a care package from Korrin's Tama... and spicy food in general. "I can't wait, come on!" He pulls her hand a bit for her to hurry of as they head for the kitchens.

"How's Araceli? Are there any new rifters?" Kas asks as he opens the door, looking at Korrin curiously. "We've had little to no news from here, messaging has been shit."

Asking about Araceli is appreciated, though there's a sad tinge to Korrin's smile. "Araceli is...recovering. She's still wounded from when the Venatori staged a kidnapping of some shardbearers, to experiment on them. As soon as I found out, I was off with others to find them and bring them back. It was a nasty mess, and that's where I got the scars." She holds out her forearm with the nasty bitemark scars. "Shit like this doesn't heal by magic, at least not much. They got into their heads, overdosed them with lyrium. Withdrawal hasn't been fun, but at least it's over now."

Kas' eyes widen at that and he looks horrified. "What? Is she... that's sick!" Experiments? Lyrium shit? Fucking Tevinter bullshit, he wouldn't be surprised if there was blood magic, too.

They did stuff like that to Araceli, who was sweet and beautiful and fed him spicy food? The teen would like to stab something now.

"They're dead, right? Really, really fucking dead?"

Korrin nods firmly, both to Kas' assessment and to confirm the kills. "Oh, we destroyed the shit out of them. At least those in that specific area." Venatori Team Rocket doesn't count, but she's pretty sure they've gotten themselves killed by now, anyway. "I'm not going to lie, though, they might have done this before or elsewhere. They want shardbearers and I doubt taking out one group is going to get them to stop. We'll have to hustle to put them all in the ground, but they fucking deserve it, every last one."

She takes a deep breath, trying to retain some of her calm. It's been a touchy past few weeks and she doesn't want to work through that all over again. "Araceli will be glad to see you. Just don't let her have her way about climbing; she's not anywhere ready for that again and will probably injure herself if she tries. Which she might. She's as bad a patient as I ever was."

"Good." Good that they were dead. Less good that it might happen again, or was happening to other people. He hoped the Inquisition was on top of that - who else would shut the rifts if the rifters were all suffering or turned against them? Still, he can see it upsets Korrin to think about it, too - so he decides to change the subject for now.

"I'll make sure she won't climb anywhere. That's gotta suck, though." He was pretty sure he would crawl out of his skin if he had to stay still and take it easy for long.

"Oh, yeah. She makes sure everyone knows it, too, not that I blame her. I'd be just as pissed off if it were me. As long as she does her complaining on the ground, though, then she can stick to that as much as she wants. The more you can distract her, the better. She'll definitely want to hear about where you've been."

Certain that Kas can manage that without further advice, she leads them up the stairs to the main hall on the way to the kitchen. There isn't a significant shift in the usual assortment of people; visiting dignitaries, laborers, Inquisition agents heading to and fro with messages. And they all subconsciously part the way for the larger folk, which is always nice.

Kas follows along with a little grin, mouth already watering at the thought of food. Hearth cakes. Something substantial, hot and not super sweet. He was so over that after the first month, to be honest.

Things looked like it had been shaping up, at least. For good and bad, according to him. "Oh, they fixed that hole? Damn, now I can't use it to climb to the second floor." There's a little frown, but he shrugs. He'd find another way.

"I've crawled through a lot of tiny and disgusting places lately, so as soon as Araceli is better we should get up on the wall and look over the mountains."

"Yeah, Araceli complained about that too. Not that she has any business climbing for now, but I'm sure you two will figure something out." Korrin will stick to not climbing unless she must, figuring that's best for all involved. She turns to head down the stairs.

"She'd love that, I'm sure. Anything with a view that's different from healing tents will do her a world of good. Not that I'm ungrateful to the healers, but as someone who spent a lot of time there earlier, it's boring as hell. Once everyone's healed up, I'd love for us to tackle a mission together. It's been a while since we've kicked ass on the same team, and I want to see you in action."

And maybe show off a little herself, since she's learned a few things since he's been away.

He follows along behind her now, smiling a little to himself. It was weird, how much had had grown to see Korrin as a friend. He had really missed her when he was gone - she was someone he could trust completely and that he always looked forward to see. Wanted to impress. All that stuff you did with family.

It meant Araceli was kind of family too, and he wanted her to be happy as well. Climbing a tower together to watch the mountains would be great.

The mention of a mission together has him perk up even more, and he grins widely. "Fuck yes, I'd love that! We'd make a good team... magic and daggers and arrows!" Kas makes swooshing motions like he's swinging a staff, followed by stabbing. Just because. "I'm pretty good with a bow now. Even moving targets."

"I'm not surprised; arms like that show it off even before you pick up a bow. You don't become an archer and not gain some serious upper strength for it." She pokes said arm just because, still not quite able to process that his diminishing scrawniness, but she's getting there.

As they reach the kitchen door, she opens it and gestures for him to enter first. "Watch out, kitchen staff. Kas has returned to liberate your hearth cakes!" At least that grumpier cook isn't around to scowl and attempt to chase them off, which is just as well. Korrin's not about to tolerate any attitude leveled at Kas.

"Exactly! I mean, have you seen Metaari?" He's measuring everything against his male role model, okay. Even if he doesn't know the other qunari that well, he's everything Kas wants to be.

As Korrin announces his arrival, the teen swaggers into the kitchen with a grin. It's really nice to hear cheers rather than a really cranky woman chasing him out with a broom. It meant more food for him, too.

In fact, someone is already handing him a piece of hearth cake. Kas feels like a damn king.

Edited 2016-10-13 17:54 (UTC)

"It's impossible not to see Metaari. Merrick's a lucky guy." The cheers have her grinning and she goes to get them some cups, preferring to get things for herself rather than wait for other people to reach the upper shelves.

"We'll pick up after ourselves, honest. I just can't promise there'll be a lot left." With a growing qunari boy around, that's never a safe promise to make.

"He's with Merrick? Huh." There's a small shrug at that. He's not sure how the heck that even worked, but in all honestly he didn't want to think about it, either.

Kind of weird how all the qunari here had elf or human lovers, though.

Kas nods with Korrin's words about picking up after themselves, and then he's digging through some of the barrels and whatnot for bread and butter and some salted pork. Fereldan stuff.

He had kind of missed that, too.

Then he's offered curry by one of the tal-vashoth cooks, and he grins widely. Yup, he was a king of the kitchen.

At least they're not dwarven lovers? That's a size difference Korrin herself has no interest in dealing with, though she can't speak for the others. Snagging a jug of cider to go with it, she sets it down with the rest, darting a grin as Kas is offered curry. He more than deserves it, in her opinion.

"Have at before you waste away, right? Don't let me stop you there. Now that you're back, we have plenty of time to catch you up."

Yeaah that's true... but at least they're sturdier than elves?

Kas is quick to start wolfing down the food, but he's less stressed about it and doesn't act as if he's going to bite off anyone's hand for getting close to his food any more. He chews and enjoys it - every little piece.

"So what have you been up to?" He asks between bites.

As it should be. Tama did her best to encourage Kas to savor his food, by giving him food worth savoring. Korrin's just glad that the care package arrived relatively recently, so nothing has had the chance to get stale.

"Besides a roaring rampage of revenge? Well, an Avvar friend of mine died. That's what the honey badger tattoo is for, since that's his hold beast. We went to his hold and did a proper sky burial and everything. I plan to go back, too. His people were welcoming and pretty damn awesome. They're almost as big and tough as our kind, believe it or not. And they've seen nuggalopes. Some friends I made there said they'd contact me when they see the herd again. Imagine if we could gain those for the Inquisition." And herself, because NUGGALOPE.

Between Tama and the fact that he wasn't a starving little kid any more, it made him just eat with the healthy appetite of a teenage boy rather than desperately. He's definitely savoring that curry, happily dipping a bit of bread in the sauce.

Korrin's reply makes him a little saddened, though, and he puts down his food for a moment to look at her. "I'm sorry. It's a pretty badass tattoo, though." He scratches the back of his neck, looking a little thoughtful. "I don't think I've met any Avvar, myself... what is a sky burial? Or a nuggalope?"

Korrin breaks her bread into pieces, washing it down with cider. She smiles a little and angles her forearm to better show off the honey badger. "A sky burial's when the Avvar dismember their dead and offer them to the Lady of the Skies, who's also the goddess of the dead. The body is laid out, and prayers given. When the birds come, they carry the soul to their goddess. It's what Asher would have wanted, so I'm glad he got that much."

The other question is far more fun to answer, of course. "You haven't heard of nuggalopes? They're huge versions of nugs, think as big as a horse. They have long, curving horns similar to mine, too. I never thought a nug could be badass, but I bet these ones qualify."

He can't help it - he makes a disgusted face at the bird eating burial thing. "Ew. They just... cut their dead apart and let birds fly off with pieces?" Okay about the soul thing flying on birds, but he doesn't want his eyes pecked out and eaten after death, thank you.

(Kas honey you'd be dead.)

The nug thing is definitely a cooler subject, even if he looks suspicious - as if Korrin was fucking with him. "That's the weirdest shit I've heard, Korrin." But if it was true, he wanted to see one.

Korrin shrugs, more or less expecting both responses. "It's their way, and it's not like it hurts anyone. I'll still take a flaming pyre instead, though." That might be cultural leanings talking, somewhat, but Korrin always thought that was for the best anyway. Demons can't possess what's been burned to ash.

"And stop looking at me like that, I'm not fucking with you. I'll bring them back just to prove it. If you decide you want one, it's yours.

"I.... guess that's true." Still. Really gross. Who could cut their family member into pieces and watch birds eat them? He preferred the pyre, too. Everything felt so much more... finished after that.

Either way, he's still giving Korrin a look. "Riiiight."

She gently shoves him for that, before taking another swig from her cup. "The Avvar have seen them and that's good enough for me. Besides, if nothing else, the search will be a nice break from here and all the deadly serious stuff. We need a breather every now and then, you know."

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issala - 2016-10-22 19:39 (UTC) - Expand

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