[Open] Toy debates

[wardeneructate]

WHO: Oghren and whoever
WHAT: Oghren is looking for toys or games for kids. For reasons.
WHEN: Various points during the month
WHERE: Market
NOTES: Oghren. Really he's the main warning you need in this.

When one was thinking about a very drunk dwarf who was rough around the edges and more than a little gross and perverted, one did not usually expect to find said dwarf in the market looking around at different toys and games for children. Yet this was where Oghren was for most of this month, studying the different things there and grumbling to himself as he debated whether one was better than another. Would this be fun? Would anyone want something like this one here?

Crossing his arms, he stared at one stand, looking back and forth between a board game and what looked like a wooden puzzle that made a duck. One of those brain teaser things that he obviously he would never be able to solve.

"Felsi's better at this than I am," he mumbled before noticing someone watching him. "Looking at a free show here?"

Okay maybe he was a little moody because he hated being so bad at this. Don't mind him.

[ooc: Oghren is looking for toys/games to send to his kid! Don't mind him being moody though. He's just having issues with the fact that he feels like a failure of a dad for not knowing how to toy shop.]

Comments

[arcaneadvisor]

Despite having little intention of staying in the Gallows longer than is strictly necessary until other arrangements can be made for herself and for Kieran, they still have needs that send Morrigan out into the city more often than she'd like because of all the cities she's been? Kirkwall rankles. Perhaps it's the history. Perhaps it's having to live in what was once a Circle when she had been an apostate all her life. Perhaps it's what happened when she came to help retrieve an eluvian from here. Perhaps it's the shadow of her mother's last sighting.

So many possibilities or just that Kirkwall is a deeply unpleasant place with little protection afforded to it unlike Skyhold. Oghren is...not exactly a welcome sight because it's Oghren, but Oghren is familiar, a reminder of a long time ago, something enduring and constant unlike so many other things at this very moment which is why she stops and smiles, drawing close to his side.

"Oghren," half-chiding, half-amused, much the same as ever, "have a care or the merchant will believe the tales of the appetites of berserkers." She leans past him, picks up the duck and prods at the parts. "Kieran has a thing like this, a dragon, all moving parts."

[wardeneructate]

"Not like those tales aren't mostly true." He grumbled that but obviously he wasn't that serious. Huffing, he sort of leaned over to her to look at the duck that she'd picked up. The kid had one of those, huh? A dragon but still one of those puzzle toys.

"He like that dragon of his?"

Maybe if he could figure out what toys and games that weird kid liked he could get an idea of things that his own kid would like. His wasn't all that odd like the witch's was but they were both still children in the end. That had to count for something in his mind.

[arcaneadvisor]

Morrigan smiles at said merchant, he takes a half-step back to leave this strange pair to it. A dark mutter about these ingrates and freaks coming to Kirkwall, wasn't it bad enough they had all them refugees and the Qunari, now this lot? Can't a man make a living?

"Adores it." Nothing guarded in her voice when she talks about Kieran, only fondness and warmth, offering the duck to him after she's done examining the mechanism herself. "He has many soldiers of all shapes and sizes, an ogre or two. Now he has a dragon to sweep in to attack his armies when he re-enacts some ancient tale or for his brave Wardens to slay when it must play the role of Archdemon."

Don't all little boys like to play soldiers? Even little mage boys raised by witches adore it too. It's probably one of the most normal things about him.

"Sometimes the dragon has slain even I," she adds in a low tone, the air of confession in it for his ears only.

[wardeneructate]

"Weird one yours is. Then again, mine is too. Has all these smarts to him. If I didn't know Felsi better I'd say he wasn't even mine at all. Too good looking, too smart."

Normally he wouldn't talk about that so easily but there was something about Morrigan having a kid of her own that made it easier to confess this stuff. Probably because she got it better than any of the others did. Better than the elf too. Oghren scratched his chin for a second or so then gave a little laugh.

"Bet he'd like some ruddy puzzle."

Okay. Real talk time.

"...Might have lied to you about what his name really is. I don't want people getting it in their heads I've got soft spots or anything but you'd know better." He looked up at her. "Named him after the Warden."

[doneisdone]

One such person watching him with a healthy portion of bafflement is Teren, but when he calls her out on staring, she wrinkles her nose and looks away. She's at the fabric stall next door, waiting for some bolts to be measured out, and it's impossible not to notice a certain ginger flatulence demon whenever he's nearby.

[wardeneructate]

"No point in staring unless you know anything about games or toys." He gave her a snort that said he doubted that. She didn't seem to have a motherly instinct in her so far as he could tell. Well aside from probably being a nag. That wasn't necessarily motherly though. Just a whole bucket of sodding trouble.

[doneisdone]

"Games or toys?" she repeats, a touch suspiciously. "What business have you got with those?" She's genuinely curious, but less in the 'what nice secrets does oghren have' way than the 'what bullshit is he trying to pull now' way.

[wardeneructate]

"Kids like things like that. Game and toys." He gave her this look like he wasn't sure how she wasn't familiar with that concept. You know, since he was standing here looking at things that were for children.

[limier]

Children make Wren fundamentally uncomfortable.

They're alright, before the age of six or so, if far too breakable for any particular ease. And after twelve, they're more or less small, impulsive adults —

— She still prefers not to deal with them, when possible. Too few the pleasant contexts, too many the chances to muck it up. She loves the ones in her life as she loves many things (a good storm, the shifting colours of wyvernhide): From a distance.

Alas, paperwork doesn't really give a damn for distance, and neither do salesmen. Forget the errand she's meant to be running here, itself a shoddy excuse for a walk outside fortress walls, she's been trapped between an enthusiastic merchant enquiring after grandchildren and another talking up the virtues of teaching children strong Andrastian values through a little wooden prophet you can really set on fire,

(She's not wearing her armor. Clearly a mistake; no one assumes templars have money unless they're selling things that really aren't meant for children —)

"Warden," She seizes upon an escape route, ignore the faint air of desperation in her voice: "What a fine duck."

Nailed it.

[wardeneructate]

"Looks like it is. Just can't figure out if a little nugget would like something like it."

Well, less a little nugget and more his little nugget. That was the major difference but he didn't bother to correct himself. Not when he was lifting it up and turning it around a few times before setting it down again. It was supposed to come apart somehow but he couldn't for the life of him figure out how to even start that.

Blast it but he knew he couldn't write to Felsi and ask what the kid would like. She'd lecture him for sure about not knowing what he liked and all that. As if he wasn't a terrible enough father already.

[limier]

"Ten, was it?"

She turns over a pewter catapult, on rolling little wheels (throws an elbow out, terribly accidental, into the path of the oncoming salesmen).

Maker, if she remembers having anything so elabourate as this. Some other child would only have conspired to nick it — would have gotten his eyes blacked for the trouble. Wren sets it down again with a touch of reluctance.

"What did you enjoy at such an age?"

She's never heard much of Orzammar's children, but surely there are some constants.

[wardeneructate]

What did he enjoy at that age? Well, he remembered one thing but it sure wouldn't make him seem all that spectacular. Probably make him look soft. So he didn't answer right away, obviously mulling it over a lot before he finally figured he might as well just say the sodding thing.

Actually no. He had to cover his backside first.

"You better not going around telling anyone what I played with when I was a nugget myself." Alright. All good to go.

"Had me this little carved bit of stone. Shaped like a bronto. Heh, I'd play with that thing more than all the other toys I had before I got an axe handed to me. Course it broke at some point. Fell a distance and that was that. Never got another one like it."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Oghren wasn't the only one looking at children's toys - Bethany did look a touch wistful as she went through the stands but she had a number of purchases in her basket. Presents, for all her new nieces and nephews out there, through Aleron. Without even realizing it she had inherited a family and she was perfectly all right with that.

The thought that Oghren, of all people, might have one too made her stop and stare for a moment, before she flushed bright red.

"No, of course not. It's just. I ... didn't realize you ... had children of your own?" Take the safest bet here - Oghren probably didn't have contact with his family in Orzammar.

[wardeneructate]

"Course I do. Got me a boy named Bartab." That...was not actually his name. It just was the name he went around telling everyone about so they wouldn't think he was a softy when it came to what he's actually named his child.

"Figured he'd like one of these things. I'm just no good at any of this stuff. Wasn't made for it."

He grumbled again and poked his finger at the duck then frowned at it. Like it would somehow fall apart and show him how it was actually a puzzle.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Bartab. I see." She did see, and she gave him a wry eyebrow but a warm smile all the same, "I'm glad for you, and envious."

She looked over at the toys, her brown eyes narrowing in thought for a moment, before she asked casually, "How old is Bartab?"

He gave her the name, she was just going to go with it.

[wardeneructate]

"Around eleven. He's growing up well. Got his looks from his ma and all that."

He grinned wide beneath that beard of his. He was more than a little proud of what had become of his son. What was going to become of his.

"Smart like her too."

[universal_charm]

Truth be told he had not spent a lot of time around Oghren (though did one need to spend to much time around him to get the proper measure of him?), but if there was definitely one thing he had never thought Oghren would go shopping for it would have been things for children. Not that he thought he was planning anything untoward with them, but it was a bit like watching a duck swimming on oil.

"No, just - ah... not the sort of thing I imagine you shopping for, Oghren."

He has questions, Oghren. So many questions. Why are you swimming in oil, duckie?

[wardeneructate]

"Well Felsi would carve me a new one if I gave the nugget any of the stuff I like."

...This one here was young. He'd seen some things not that long ago. Maybe he had a better idea about what children liked up on the surface. After all, it had been ten years since he'd had this kid and he still was clueless so any help would be amazing at this point.

"Know anything about what children like to play with?"

[universal_charm]

He had no idea who Felsi was, but he was doing to guess it was a woman given what he knew of Oghren's tastes from their past conversations, and the nugget was obviously a child. So he was... buying for a child. His child? A niece or nephew? Possible it was a cousin, but he doubted that. Potentially a god parent, but he wasn't even sure if they had that practice in Thedas, so likely not that either. A younger sibling, perhaps, but also unlikely he felt.

"I guess it depends on how old the kid is," he said slowly, still a bit baffled by the whole scene before him, much less Oghren even asking that question.

[el_tybs]

Going to market was something Sam did on a regular basis, and as such he had seen the dwarf perusing a particular stall on different days. It was enough of a mystery that one day, seeing Oghren staring and debating with himself, that the mage made his way over to see just what was going on.

The snap of words has Sam frowning slightly, but nevertheless doesn't deter him in his curiosity. "I wasn't aware you were giving a show. You've been coming to this stall for days now, but never leave with anything. Looking for something?"

[wardeneructate]

Oghren gave a little shift that might have been regret over snapping. But he didn't say as much as he just grumbled over being too obvious about things and how that made him look stupid. Still, he was getting some help offered to him so maybe...

"...know anything about what kinds of toys children enjoy? Games too." Pause. "When they're around ten or eleven."

[el_tybs]

The grumbling has the mage tilting his head, only catching every other word, guessing that the dwarf was... embarrassed? He's definitely not expecting the question that follows. Supposed he should have guessed that was the case considering this stall was filled with children's toys, but it still comes at a surprise - probably because he only knows Oghren for drinking and running head on towards a dragon.

"Girl or boy?" he asks, perhaps just a bit of amusement in his voice, not towards the dwarf but merely that he had seemed to be going at it like it was some sort of battle.

[samahl]

Cyril sold puzzles and handmade trinkets to sell along with traps and arrows while they were in Skyhold and might be sizing up this place to see how he might do if he tries to do the same here. He notices Oghren and recognizes him as a Warden with the Inquisition. They've never spoken before but he can figure how what Oghren is looking for.

"Trying to find a gift?" he asks.

[wardeneructate]

He noticed the elf and...how he was just as pretty as the rest of them. That had to be an elf thing. All pretty and just sort of looking like girls and boys at the same time. It was a little weird but eh whatever. He had some good elf friends now so what did he care?

"Yeah. Got any ideas for something a boy would like?"

[samahl]

"What sorts of things does the boy like? He is a puzzle sort? Or more of a toy sword sort?" he asked, seeking clarification. "Or perhaps something else?" One shouldn't assume after all.