faderift | (no subject)

WHO: Bethany Darton nee Hawke, Fenris, Jim Kirk, Inessa Serra, Velenna, Hermione Granger, and whomever else wants to go exploring
WHAT: Book nerds!
WHEN: Last week of Justinian
WHERE: The Kirkwall Library
NOTES: You cannot handle this much nerd.

Bethany was waiting for her little group in front of the Viscount's Palace, and if they happen to get there early they can see her pensive expression as she looks off to the crater where the Chantry once stood. She was, after all, a Fereldan dog who called Kirkwall her home, so every wound here is personal.

Yet as soon as the others appear, her cheer returns, as she excitedly leads them to the Library of Kirkwall, in the lower levels of the Palace. Scholars wander between the tall shelves, but Bethany has an old brass key, and she leads them further down, down, down into the cellars of the library, where crates of books await them. Some are moldy, some are old and falling apart, and some of them are just useless ... but keep looking, you don't know what you might find ...be

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She looks over at him, giving him an even look. "Because, your chosen family is here, and we'd rather like it if you stuck around."

"Is that what you are?" Fenris looks at her curiously, thoughtful and grim as he considers this. He doesn't know his birth parents, barely has a recollection of his mother's face. His only blood relative he's met in memory, his sister... isn't such a great person. In most of the time he remembers, he was never surrounded by family or friends. They were masters. Owners.

He didn't realize at the time, as much as he ought to have. But Hawke and all the rest... being around them was out of necessity at first, sure, then habit, then choice. They made him happy to be around (with a couple exceptions).

"Yes... you're right. We've become family, over the course of these years."

"Well, I like to think so." She states, looking up at him with a wry fondness, one that softens with a warmer smile as she squeezes his arm again. "And I think we are all better for it - every last one of us."

She sighs, softly, "And like all families, we bicker and fight and disagree ... but I think we would come together, if one of us was in danger."

To think, he'd spent a long time trying to find where he might belong... and he'd had it all along, with Hawke and the others.

"You're right, about being better for it." He thinks about the place he was in before he'd run across them, and the place he's ended up in now. It's not quite what he'd have expected, of course. "There are some of these 'family members' I could do without, but... I guess that's true, even then. We would come together."

Bethany is pleased to have blown your mind, Fenris. She doesn't honestly get to do it very often to anyone so there you have it.

"Oh Fenris, honestly... " She gave him a wry smile, and a slight elbow, but nothing more than that. Because they both knew those particular people had the same problems - but would still come for him. Eventually. After Anders had finished laughing.

It's one of those rare occasions, for sure, something worth celebrating since it almost never happens.

"I'm only speaking the truth. But I guess that's what makes family what it is... you never have a choice in choosing who's among them." Friends are chosen, right? Whereas family... they sort of happen to you, regardless of blood relation. Fenris would never consider Anders a friend but... ugh, yeah, maybe the other thing. Maybe. Either of them would probably suck it up and deal if they had to help one another. In the most grudging way.

Bethany just shook her head, before she gave him a quiet smile. "Well, at least I will know that you two will never change. A constant in the universe -- that is more comforting than I imagined it to be."

"At least someone can see the good side of it all." Really, count on Bethany to find a positive about that sort of thing. But if anyone could... she'd be the one to manage it.