faderift | (no subject)

WHO: Fenris and OPEN
WHAT: Catch-all post! Reading, drinking, stalking slavers, shopping unsuccessfully
WHEN: July/Solace
WHERE: Around Kirkwall
NOTES: No warnings

Reading Practice: Library

It’s at least nice and quiet at the library. Though he’s still not exactly the most comfortable in this place, it has that going for it. Fenris paces around uneasily, until he finds a good spot to settle. Once there, he opens the book he has with him, sighing heavily as he gets back to the page where he’d left off.

Slowly, he traces a finger along the page, mouthing each word one by one. It’s a laborious process for someone who’s still getting down the basics. He’d gone over this section together with Bethany, and while it had seemed fine at the time, it’s always a little more challenging on his own. But at least he's made some progress.

He also has a piece of paper and quill and ink with him. Every so often he - just as deliberately- copies down a word he finds interesting, to work on those writing skills as well. Some of it makes sense. Some words are also just outright baffling, not at all how one would assume them to look. So far, the paper reads, in very scribbly handwriting:

foul

mine

drink

sla ug hte r (??)

evade

open

distress

an d ras t a e andraste Andraste (?)

"Who invented this?" he murmurs grumpily. It's as if they wanted to make it as deliberately inconsistent as possible.

Hanged Man

Fenris quietly sips drink after drink, hanging back for a while as people come and go. Finally, he turns to whoever’s near him at the bar, cards in hand.

“Why don’t we have an exchange? I’ll teach you a game I know, if you’ll do likewise for me.”

He’s never thought to find out what sort of card games rifters play, or possibly games from lands here that he knows little about. With a few drinks in him, he’s certainly interested in finding out. It’s a question he’ll have to pose to more people, later, he thinks.

Slaver Hunting: Kirkwall Alley, Night

Taking down slavers is still something Fenris does on the side… he just can’t help it, when he catches wind of something going on, he needs to do something about it. Such as right now. It’s late and dark, as he makes his way quietly from the docks, slowly stalking the one who he’s been keeping track of lately. But as he creeps along, he’s getting the distinct feeling of being followed or watched…

Soon enough, he heads down an alley, turning to confront whoever else is out there. With his blade drawn, he steadily advances on the person.

“What brings you out here?” And why are you interrupting his important business, damn it!

Armor Shopping: Lowtown

The merchants in Lowtown tend to have the best deals, so that’s where Fenris is now, strolling through the area, eyeing what’s for sale. He’s considering picking up something new, potentially, if he can find something that’ll suit his preferences.

“Is it true? Do you really cast a spell that can rip out a man’s heart?”

Oh, no, here it goes. Fenris turns to the merchant who’d spoken and glares. “Do I look like a mage to you?”

The merchant looks uneasy, but soon enough, they’re interrupted by a woman selling flowers. She comes along, and upon seeing Fenris, promptly places a crown of pretty pink flowers on his head, quicker than he can react. The woman giggles. “It suits you! Consider it a token of appreciation. You’re that friend of the Champion’s, aren’t you?”

“And he magicked the heart clean out of the Arishok, I heard it, it’s true,” the merchant chimes in.

“I heard it was the whole Qunari compound that he fought, single-handedly!” another flower girl emerges out of nowhere, and suddenly there’s a pretty yellow and blue flower both being added to his hair.

The last thing he wants is a scene, not here among the merchants. Sigh. He's just going to start backing away, now, ok. It's clear he won't be able to talk sense into any of these people. The pretty flowers in his hair are largely forgotten as he works to step away.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I guess the names of things can be deceptive. This place was either named for literal hanging or an expression for being drunk, after all... who knows the full truth of the matter?" He thinks back to what the others had told him, wondering how much of that was just something they'd heard themselves, some explanation passed on over the years.

"And sailors always seem to come up with the best games... it must relieve the boredom." From what Isabela has told him, it sounds like there's plenty of down time, time in which to drink or gamble or any other odd amusement to keep themselves occupied. "How do we play?"

"Someone, somewhere; information is often worth its weight in gold to another someone in yet another somewhere." Fenris you're talking to a thief right now as much as a pirate and a courtesan's daughter, of course that's where Araceli's mind goes as her nose wrinkles because Thedas has to fat itself on violence.

Araceli lifts one shoulder in a shrug, who can say, she's never spent months at sea or long night watches exactly, her own were more involved in memorising their patrols or how to get past them. "You learn a lot about a person in how they play a game, no? Everyone has their little tells that they take away from the table into the world and bring back to the table with them. They can't look you in the eye when they lie, they take a sip of their drink before they tell you a thing they're very smug about, sailors need to know a lot of things but my people have sailed as long as there have been waves." There was always a lesson when it came to Araceli's turn at the table though and now she can't stop herself from noticing things as easy as breathing. "First the deck must be split so we have a half each and then the cards in the deck become two types of card. There are ordinary cards and pay cards. We can say that the very highest of each Wicked Grace card is a pay card unless you use my deck where it would be kings, queens, jacks, and aces as pay cards.

"Then the cards go face down and we turn them over one after the other until someone puts down a pay card. The person who didn't play a card has to play pay cards until they've paid for it. We can haggle over that bit next if we're doing Wicked Grace but my cards are four for aces down to one for a jack. Then once the card has been paid, that first player takes all the cards laid down to put them to the bottom of their own pile. If we have a pay card versus pay card situation, that bridge can be crossed then." She pauses because that's a lot to explain even if she's done it by rote, the same way she did with others in Thedas, with friends and strangers at home, as her father did with her. "The other other name of this game is Taxes."

For obvious reasons.

Fenris nods to that, thinking about the many games he'd played with his companions during his time here in Kirkwall. It really was amazing what could be learned from them, about them... at times all one had to do was observe. He can see well how it could well be more than a mere 'game', but a way to get to know your crewmates on a ship, or other potential allies for that matter.

"I'll have to make it a point to bring a deck along while traveling to any sort of Inqusition business." That'd be a good way to get to know new allies, he thinks. Especially before they get to somewhere where they'll have to fight or negotiate or who knows what else? Knowing who you're with is important.

He listens intently as she explains the rules, nodding with a serious expression as she explains. "What a well-chosen name." He's even a bit amused in his way, as he says that. "It sounds straightforward enough, I think I've got a good enough handle on the basics as you describe them." Of course, all games have their little quirks that can only be appreciated while playing, but he feels confident enough that he has enough of a general handle on the game to at least start.

There's also the reason that it gives you a good reason to be hanging out at the tavern more often than not to hear as much as possible, to build the reputation so people want to come try their luck but seeing as Araceli needs that? Well she can say enough and leave off that she still reports back when she can though the schedule isn't what it was in Skyhold. Kirkwall is too large, she has a job. Life moves on.

"My cards made it through the rift. So did my father's dice that have passed through other hands to me. It's good to have hobbies, travel by sea is good and interesting, I know how to pay my own passage working on a ship but the camps?" A scoff that says a girl grows bored because when you get under the feet of everyone who knows how to do it better, when your main skill is cooking? It's dull. She doesn't ride enough to have a comfortable seat either so her bones inevitably feel rattled apart after every day.

Better named than Wicked Grace unless Orlesians actually named it and were aiming for something seemingly dark and mysterious when they came up with it. "I don't think I got your name," Araceli says as she shuffles the deck and splits out the cards, deciding that there's little enough of an audience to get away with some mermaids and such with her own. Wicked Grace numbering would be difficult enough and she hasn't ever had time to work it out as she hands Fenris his pile.

"Cards and dice are a welcome change, compared to what normally comes through rifts." Seriously, if they could have more harmless items instead of demons, the world would be a much better place. Even the rifters, on the whole, haven't been such a bad addition, thus far. There's always that concern that someone horrible could make it through, but for now... for now it's working out well enough.

He watches how she deals out the cards, wanting to get a sense for how it's done for this game. Ah, right... introductions. He'd forgotten about that entirely. "I'm Fenris." Yes, that one from those tales, he thinks in that grudging manner, although there's a welcome change when it comes to rifters. They won't have read Varric's book, or are less likely to have, anyway. "And yourself?"

"Some of us have had interesting things come through," Araceli begins carefully, "I had some papers from home, Alistair received a box of ladies undergarments in all colours and sizes he shared out very generously with those who wished to receive some, and when we were in the Western Approach a box of spectacles were found. Again very odd. Dark lenses that only shaded the eyes. Some of the frames were-- outlandish?" Dad shades, Fenris, a box of dad shades showed up and Araceli absolutely snagged herself a pair so her swag levels are off the charts because of course.

Turning over one of her cards, an eight with little pufferfish decorating it, she nods. The Tale of the Champion was read for context and because everyone talked about it, then again after much of her other reading when she wanted to read through it and between as many lines as possible. So yes, that's recognition in her eyes. "Araceli Bonaventura y Castell, at your service." Her full name for a change. Because she wants to try giving it again now she's got a job, because someone here reminds her so much of Leandra.

“Ah, right… I’d heard of the undergarments. The rest of that sounds very peculiar.” A shame, a very very deep shame that Isabela isn’t around to have snagged a pair. That would have been so up her alley. “Strange how these items coming through are relatively harmless so far, though. These rifts are even more mysterious than we’d ever have guessed.” Demons and underwear. What a combination.

He watches her, getting some idea of what must be done, before his turn to make a play. Yes, he does catch the bit of recognition, but he’ll try to downplay that as much as he can. Thanks to Varric, that sort of thing really has become unavoidable. “Good to meet you, Araceli. Have you been here… in Thedas very long?” Something about her seems so much more comfortable, in a way, than some other rifters he’d have met. It would even be easy to mistake her for a native.