faderift | The secrets in the snow

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The secrets in the snow

WHO: Araceli Bonavenuta, Morrigan, Yngvi; open
WHAT: Catch-all for Wintermarch
WHEN: During Wintermarch
WHERE: In and around Skyhold
NOTES: Yngvi threads might have discussion of previous character death. Starting in third person but action spam welcome! If you want a closed starter, let me know on plurk or discord!

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"Isn't that almost cannibalism?" Not that Yngvi is opposed necessarily but he maybe thought Korrin would be when she was the way she was about him asking his questions about dogs and doglords. "They look like weird overgrown boars someone shaved that had an unfortunate incident with a wall to account for the face." But who doesn't love bacon? Maybe Mal wouldn't after that, maybe he'd be traumatised and it'd serve him right so Yngvi would have a great letter to write to the oldest bear in the known world.

Look, as for that, it is what it is. And it really really is. "We're going to start a campaign," no guesses as to the use of 'we', Yngvi tends to only use we without a qualification when he means the Carta, "to trademark that. No one is looking out for dwarven interests in such times, it's a fucking scandal and a disgrace." Just because such things don't do matter to them like dreams and magic and Fade-y stuff doesn't mean they don't deserve to have vested interests. "You know they're the only ones that properly remember any of that. Elves forgot everything, Chantry shoved what they didn't like into the corner and beat it 'til it swore it forgot anything the Chantry didn't want it to know, have mercy Maker and Andraste, and the dwarves down under are all dying because they're ruled by fat lazy idiots that are so mired in the past they don't mind huffing Darkspawn stink all damned day and night, then they wonder why none of them are having babies." (It does not take a genius to look at Wardens having few or zero babies, and Orzammar dwarves having few or zero babies, then to look at surface dwarves especially ones that have never had Orzammar touch them getting big in the belly plenty. But Yngvi doesn't really mention that he notices that because it'd be worth more than his life to mention it, because Wardens are all suspicious bastards, no one wonder Orzammar loves them.)

"And Tevinter was built on everything awful that it wanted to be true, s'pose it tried really hard and made it true plenty of places. Them what deny that are deluding themselves, don't know that they're walking on bones and blood just because they can't smell it anymore." He grinds his teeth, looking away before he takes another swallow of his drink. That's the Kirkwall in him coming out something fierce tonight.

"But they have majestic horns, and that's what matters." Seriously, they could be extraordinarily hideous and Korrin would still love them because the curve of their horns nearly matches her own. That's something no other mount has given her, though their general build and sturdiness has them high in her favor as well. Smaller races can keep horses or whatever. Qunari ought to have something to match their needs.

Korrin's faint smirk vanishes as Yngvi rants on, nodding in grim agreement with much of it. "Vints ruin everything, as usual. There aren't enough good apples to make up for the spoiled bunch, not yet. And I doubt there will be, given that they probably make examples of anyone who speaks up." That or quietly shut them out of power, where they can make no real lasting change. Her mind shifts to the dwarves and she shrugs. "They know why they're dwindling, but it doesn't change things. They'd rather keep their precious traditions than admit they're failing. That way, they get to the the martyrs that hold back the darkspawn, right? Nevermind that there are always more. All too many assholes in Thedas need a punch in the face and a reminder that traditions that strangle us instead of help us are fucking pointless. Think that ought to be a new Canticle? 'Stop following stupid traditions blindly, they're fucking stupid and will fuck you up'?"

"Anyone could stick something they cut off a druffalo to the head of something and call it a day. Isn't there a thing running around with a sword shoved through it? Up it? Nasir was unclear on the location of the sword so I picture it wherever the fuck it's funniest." And you really, really don't want to imagine what Yngvi imagines sometimes regarding that supposed horse when he's having to deal with people he hates because you'd probably ship him off somewhere in a barrel Korrin.

Tossing the flask up in the air he chews on his lip, huffing out through his nose when the cold catches him because this is kind of a bad plan until he just moves round a bit...bit more, a little-- there. Windbreak. The few good things about tall folk. "I know dwarves get on well with them in Tevinter, Orzammar probably has shit going on they'd never let folk know about because you know they're not going to want to let themselves miss out on something like that. D'you know right-- the whole thing about castes and stuff? I never know how much you actually know about it. Because people don't think I know about it. Humans usually, but lots of other dwarves think I don't either. They get all Dalish about things." But he's getting off his point here, loosened up by too many things and he does want to know because the best and worst thing about Asher is he took him out of Kirkwall and away from the Carta.

Got him thinking, got him seeing, told him that it was okay. Bit of a dangerous thing that, only he's really starting to find it out now when there's no Asher around anymore to talk about it with.

"Oh, Maker, the Bog Unicorn." Korrin huffs, her warm breath clashing with the cool air. "It's shoved through the head, that's how it earned the name. Creepy thing is fucking creepy, though as far as I know it's not actually hurt anyone.

...if I get you drunk enough, think I can dare you to ride it?" Sure, he might be crazy enough to do it anyway, but incentive never hurts. And they're severely lacking for entertainment, lately.

Fidgeting more to keep warm than because she's just that restless, the Vashoth woman stares off, thoughtful. "I know you can't change castes, right? No matter what, you're born into a caste and stuck with it unless you get banished or something." And no, she doesn't sound like she cares for the idea. It seems almost Qunari to her, already deciding people's fates for them. "Which must really suck for those at the bottom. No wonder so many leave."

Why they didn't all just leave with their middle fingers raised at the paragons, Korrin doesn't know. Maybe all those ancestral ties, something she's never had, really do make a difference somehow. Or maybe it's as she said and stupid traditions are stupid and have people in a rut.

"That's more boring than what I had in mind, but I might borrow it." You heard nothing if he borrows it, this conversation never happened if he borrows it, you got that Korrin. "Unless I was with you the whole time, you and your lady feeding me candied whatevers, you make that bit up, you know fancy foods better than me."

Yngvi knows food. Doesn't really care about it unless it gets to go in his mouth or he has to care for a job so there's that. Unless it's Orzammar stuff because he'll reject that on principle.

Making a face, he leans back against her since he's wrapped in furs so he's a warm short lump, and she's more than strong enough to deal with him being too tired to properly stand up right now. "You can rise up if you do it right. Someone gets named a paragon then all their household is suddenly raised up but how often do paragons happen? And look what they name? Paragon the off-her-tits? Easier way is noble-hunting. Because Orzammar is hurting for babies, and people want better for themselves, and caste follows parentage. So casteless girls try to find a noble patron, get a child with them and hope it'll be a boy. If it's a boy? Gets his caste, she gets raised up, everyone else in her household would go with so imagine all the shady lot that'd go too but say a woman higher up had a boy to someone lower. People get tossed out, lose their caste. Met folk on the surface who got out because it was starve, abandon the child to die, or go to the Deep Roads. That type of shit. But people care, I don't know, s'pose your family is family, I mean if something happened to Gunnar I'd give a rat's arse."

How many times did one of them get into trouble for the other, get a sound thrashing for it, or sneak half their measly dinner to the other when one was supposed to miss it for something they did wrong?

After a while when he realises he's lost in his own head, he gives himself a shake, tipping himself back so he can peer up at her even when his head swims. "Asher kept going home y'know. Like all that time. Didn't you and Mal go to the Holdings sometimes? He got kicked out but he still went back to that house that he hated for other people he cared about who didn't care 'bout him much, well all but Aura. S'not like it's rational."

"...and if they have a girl, it's another casteless and future noble-hunter? What a fucked-up system.

I've seen that whole irrational thing, for all I don't get it. My parents used to look across the sea to where Par Vollen was. They didn't want to go back, they made that clear, but Tama said it was still hard to cut yourself off from the past completely." Korrin shrugs, still not certain if she'll ever understand when her 'home' was always the road and the company her parents were part of. Home as a set place, let alone as one that people would be obligated to remain no matter how unpleasant, is foreign to her. "...yeah, we did sometimes. If I'd known as much about Asher's mom then as I do now, I don't think I would've had it in me to be civil. He must've known that." As for Mal's manners, she's sure those would have been sorely tested as well.

Her jaw clenches for a moment, but she tries to hold back those darker thoughts since it'll do her no good to give into them. "Okay, hotshot, what did you have in mind, then? Do I at least get warning?"

"Well if she has a baby in enough time. D'you think rich noble girls are the only ones getting all the right lessons to snare rich men?" The snort is too soft, too sad. At least he's known the ones that managed to join the Carta instead of ending up worse places or dead, though they tend to say that dead is better than some places and Yngvi goes with them because he's not really in a place to disagree on that account is he now?

"I never had that. I was always Kirkwall. Me and Gunnar, we were definitely always Kirkwall, not a bit of us knew a bit of shine from Orzammar unless we were taking it out of there to put it to better use for ourselves or we were doing a job. Oldtimers knew it, lot of them, but you know how many mothers and fathers I've got since I'm pedigreed. I'm a Tamassran's wet dream." A Tamassran's worst nightmare but don't ruin that for him, he wants to hold onto one day presenting his mess of a life to a proper one and watching her crumble just so he can solve the Qunari invasion. This is his dream. "Asher was smart."

That remark he allows to hang there for a minute or two. Fond and aching and awful.

"Asher didn't like folk knowing he was smart, bad for business for them to know he was smart. He was slower picking that one up than any of the rest of us but he had a cushier life at first than the rest of the strays he got." And that's not some cheap shot at Asher because he'd have been the first one to admit it compared to his little band so Yngvi doesn't know why he feels bad when it comes out.

So anyway, circling back around, all mock-innocence because what do you think he's easy? "Excuse me? Did I miss something or are you confusing me with another dwarf because that's hurtful, and you should know better, what were we literally just discussing?"

Korrin nods with sad fondness at mention of Asher, a small wry smile forming on her lips. "Mal and I knew, to some extent. Every so often, usually when there wasn't anyone to show off in front of, he would say something that showed he was a lot sharper than he let on. But I'm used to that kind of thing, since humans tend to assume qunari are near-mindless brutes. It pays to be underestimated, but it sucks at the same time. I bet Tama would have liked him. You, I dunno."

Tama usually likes people who eat and appreciate her cooking, and who can handle themselves. On the other hand, Yngvi can annoy anyone with enough exposure. And even at Tama's age, that's not the smartest thing to do given that she still has one hell of a throwing arm.

She smirks a little as that mock-innocence is ripe for teasing. "Confuse you for another dwarf? Not possible. For better or worse, you'll always stand out...probably in a way that has Asher groaning all the way from the afterlife."

"She'd fucking love me, don't be so rude, old ladies love me. Look how skinny I am, they always want to go feeding up poor waifs and that's what I am under these furs." He's just not going to go stripping off up here because he's very attached to his nipples thanks very much. "We don't go to Rivain unless it's really urgent, respect to Nasir because he has to go scouting about alone. Same as your lot wouldn't be going off to Seheron. Or other bits of Rivain, bits of Rivain are all Qunari now too. Makes trading hard for the family."

He means the Carta when he says that, sometimes it gets muddled when he can be referring to three separate families at any given moment (Aura and the hold, the Boneflayers, the Carta) for anyone that isn't him and used to the juggling.

There's a punch aimed at her. Not very hard because Korrin would probably go for him back just as hard and he's not really in the mood for it right now but he can't not. "Nah, y'know when there's a foul wind? Not that kind of foul wind? Just a normal one, like when there's a weird lingering fog that makes everything smell odd and stuff? That's Asher. Honestly, read a book." He learned this shit Korrin, disgraceful, listen to him tutting at you like some old Chantry biddy.

Of course Korrin just stands there and takes the punch because she's a solid brick wall like that and snickers. That she's wrapped up in furs and such only means she has extra padding to absorb the blow. "You'd rather think of as a smelly fog? ...though his namesake has that covered, sometimes. I'll have to pass that on to Mal, bet he'd love it. I'm more partial to the 'groaning old man' kind of wind for him, myself. Every time you hear it, you know he thinks you're being a little shit."

She straightens as though expecting to hear a judgmental wind at that very moment. The battlements aren't lacking for wind anyway, but it's louder than the sort she has in mind. "You're not wrong about her wanting to fatten you up, she'd be shaking her head and getting read to make some spicy meal big enough to feed an army. Maybe one day I can get her to the Free Marches to see my parents, but I wouldn't expect her in the south. She says it's too damn cold for her old bones. Hell, it's too cold for mine." Southerners are too tolerant of terrible climates, and not enough nearly heat-tolerant enough. They're so weird like that.

"I mean a foul wind that doesn't come from your arse, that's what Asher is. Dark and stormy night things, come screaming through the tent threatening to take what bits of roof Skyhold's still got. That's Asher. Weird shit like that. Still think you're trying to outdo my brood, you trying to say something with that overgrown lump?"

He doesn't really understand the appeal of them if he's honest but they didn't even ride horses unless they had to in the Boneflayers so mounts aren't a part of his life.

Snorting, he shakes his head. "Thought she was a Qunari once? We have old ladies where I come from, down in the undercity and they don't whinge about the cold in their joints."

Korrin kicks at him with slightly less strength than he used to punch her, well-aware of her own and that she has to watch herself when dealing with smaller folk. "She was, a long-ass time ago. And it's not like they have weather down in that undercity, do they? Doesn't count. Besides, it's not healthy to mess with people strong enough to break away from the Qun and survive outside it. I should know."

She shudders, remembering Tama's ire when she was being an idiot, or directed at others who dared to think they could pull anything over her.

"Maker, is everything a competition with you? Maybe I wanted to name him after Asher just because I could. Unless I stole it from some child you managed to spawn when I wasn't looking, you're the whinging one now.

...fine, I can live with an Asher-wind like that. Thinking it's him being his usual asshole self will make those more bearable, anyway."

Rude to be honest. You're lucky he's wearing less traps than usual. "Yes they do." Korrin his eyes are going to roll right out of his skull and down the mountain then who'll have to go fetch them? Not him because he won't have eyes to go fetch them, do you see the issue here? "The wind comes howling right in with the wind and the rain and the sleet and the thunder, it's exposed. Used to be mines. I've never lived in Orzammar and even I know you need ventilation. Who'd pay to fix it anyway? Viscount got his head cut off, Meredith got herself a big sword, and well look what got declared Champion. A fucking dog. No, a dog would've been better. Would've been less stupid."

Kirkwall you disgraced yourself naming a doglord the Champion of Kirkwall. The hint is in the fucking name. Asher took him out at the right time.

"I ate my siblings." Chomp chomp, down they went. Of course it was a competition, what isn't? You don't shrug off a childhood like Yngvi's because you aren't a child anymore. Someone is always watching him. He knows that. Can't trust a single fucking dwarf he sees. "Here's the thing: Nug Wellington. Rump Roast. Truffles. Stroganugg. I can threaten to eat them if they upset me. Asher ain't around anymore to rip off his shirt and wrestle yours which is sad because I'd pay to watch that. Wouldn't even try to cheat either of you."

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The secrets in the snow

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