faderift | ( open ) one shitlord arrives

WHO: Antonio Stark and you
WHAT: Arrival in Skyhold
WHEN: 16 Harvestmere
WHERE: Around Skyhold
NOTES: n/a

Gates
Most people of a certain level of wealth and/or nobility would have sent word ahead of their arrival to make sure the Inquisition would have been suitably prepared for someone of their standing. Antonio did no such thing, he found it much more amusing to watch people scramble. Instead he and his retinue rode up to the gates with no fanfare other than the spectacle he naturally was. Dressed in the finest and latest of Antivan styles he instantly stands out from his well-equipped, but far more modestly dressed guards.

"I thought this place would be bigger."

He climbs off his horse and walks away leaving the care of the horse to his retinue. He's got bigger things to do like waving over the first person he sees.

"Hey you. Come here!"

Tavern
While he had someone off securing accommodations and other little details he didn't care to know of, Antonio decided to pass the time with a bit of alcohol. His guards watch unobtrusively from the sides while he stands to his full-not-so-impressive height with a small crowd around him. Approaching makes it clear why he's attracted a crowd.

"Five gold coins to the person with the best story! Come on, who thinks they'll get lucky today."

Although it was even odds that everyone walked away with heavier pockets or he changed his mind and decides he's not interested any more.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...Shit. He's a reader. A lot of people here aren't, which can sometimes make Anders' life easier. But when someone is not just a reader, they're a reader of Varric's work, that means a conversation tends to be about to crash down.

Anders' expression gets a lot more guarded and he leans back in his seat, bracing for what might be to come.

"Swords and Shields didn't exist yet. It wound up being based on her." Blond mage who knew Aveline with the Grey Warden sigil on his leather bracers and a few cat hairs on his robe? It might not be hard to make a fairly obvious guess.

Luckily for Anders, Antonio has is probably one of the few that has read Swords and Shields, but not Tales of the Champion. Swords and Shields was for a laugh so his knowledge on Hawke tended to be in broadstrokes and he certainly didn't know any of her companions other than the name of the fool who blew up the Chantry.

"It's based on her? How much? There was so much that was just plain stupid so if someone actually did all that it would explain a lot."

He relaxes where he's sitting. All right. He can work with this, unlike with many reactions. It's even nice, almost. The almost is because it feels a little deceptive to simply move on... but it's not like he's asked this guy's name.

"Aveline's not stupid." It's one of the good things he can say about her. Actually, there are a few things. He simply doesn't focus on them often. "But she sees the world in a certain, specific way, and takes some time to wrap her head around it being other ways. She thinks of specific things as romantic, and doesn't understand why combining them wouldn't be. Or even separate on their own. When you're focused on your point of view..."

Anders trails off and shrugs, spreading his hands out. "And then there were authorial stretches, for the sake of selling more copies of his story. It's apparently how they do. Truth is strange enough, but he wanted to make it more ridiculous. I'd say the book was about 50% her, 50% Varric making things up."

So if half of it was still her... that was already a far too high percentage no matter what this man said about her not being stupid. If he ever meets her he'll say it to her face and get punched in the face for his own idiocy.

"Being set in your ways makes you stupid, but let's say she's not addled so we can skip the argument on whether or not your friend is a moron or not. Because she is."

He swills his mug absent-mindedly, much like how someone might with a glass of expensive wine.

"Anyway if he was going to change names, he might as well have gone the whole way since no one would have known it's based on a real person."

"Much of Thedas is set in traditional ways. You yourself didn't want any mage stories." It's said with dry amusement; he agrees. Those who are set and can't open their mind to new things, they're the primary reason for Thedas' chaos and suffering in his opinion.

"Truth be told, I'm not sure if Varric's written anything that wasn't based on people. By this point, everyone might know that all of his stories have at least a baseline of real person underneath them, despite the exaggerations and elaborations he makes to craft what he considers a good story." He finds Varric's writing entertaining and skilled, but he can't claim the Dwarf is the most original author ever.

"Sometimes I find myself wondering if there are any authors with a wholly original story anymore. Do you know of any?"

( open ) one shitlord arrives

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