(open) for all we know it's just a lie

[byblow]

WHO: Alistair + You
WHAT: Sleep deprivation and a long ride.
WHEN: Both vaguely before and vaguely after today.
WHERE: Skyhold (before today), the road to the Fallow Mire (after after).
NOTES: Vague starterish things because I don't like doing the same thing multiple times! If they're too vague and you want something more specific you can leave me a blank comment or something, it's cool.

I. AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF PLACES ALISTAIR FALLS ASLEEP IN SKYHOLD

1. In the stables with the dogs, usually. He only sleeps for three or four hours at a stretch, lightly and fitfully, but he never wakes up screaming. At worst he wakes up gasping and sweating, with concerned, wet muzzles nudging at his face. More often he times things well enough that he's woken in the still-dark hours of the morning by heavy boots or banging wooden doors, instead, and is already on his feet before anyone can reach him.

2. Draped over a table in the tavern still holding the handle of a tankard. He might look like a drunkard from a distance, but really, it's still three-quarters full.

3. Draped over a table in the kitchens with his arm curled protectively around a bowl of porridge or stew or whatever else the kitchen servants were willing to give him at the given hour.

4. Draped over a table in the dusty, cobwebby cellar library, with his arms folded on top of a book he couldn't force himself to stay awake for for very long even if the fate of the Grey Wardens and/or possibly all of Thedas is hanging in the balance.

5. Standing up and leaning against the back of a horse that doesn't belong to him, brush still in hand, until it steps away to search for something more interesting or edible and he falls right over.


II. AN EVEN LESS COMPLETE LIST OF THINGS HE FINDS ON THE WAY TO THE MIRE

1. Money. That's one good thing about wars and demons: there's more coin on the bodies than when roadside homicides are mostly the work of highway robbers. Alistair is a practiced looter, but a gentle, respectful one, too. If it were possible to close their eyes once they'd gone this stiff, he would.

2. A set of Ferelden figurines, mostly soldiers, half trampled by horses. He doesn't pocket them; he's not a child. But he takes the time to move the ones that aren't broken yet to the side of the road for someone else to find.

3. A temporary Inquisition camp full of travelers headed in the opposite direction. He doesn't consider himself one of them--he's a Warden, he's only visiting--but he hasn't found so much money on corpses that he won't borrow their fire or eat their spare food, if someone offers.

4. A Grey Warden, and not any of the Grey Wardens he was on his way to find. He recognizes the armor at a distance on the road, even in the cloudy half-dark. The sight makes his heart stop in the curious, still, emptied-out way it always does in the seconds before a fight begins. But the moment passes, and he keeps moving forward. Maybe he won't be recognizable, he thinks, now he's traded his griffon-and-blue armor for something simpler from Inquisition stores--

Or maybe it will be someone he's met before. Never mind. He raises a hand instead of his sword. The wave is a little sheepish.

Comments

[gatheringstorm]

"Sorry? But I'm twenty-five, you can't be that much older. At least if my 'guessing human ages' talent hasn't gone to shit." Which is possible, though not that likely. Korrin's gotten used to spending time with humans, so while she' might not be excessively accurate, she's rarely that far off the mark either.

[byblow]

"I'm thirty-one," Alistair says, which feels very old to him. "But all right. I'll take it as a compliment instead." He digs back into his bowl and is only barely polite enough to swallow before he adds, "That's a weird coincidence, that you know her. How did you wind up here?"

[gatheringstorm]

Distracted from teasing him about his age, Korrin takes a moment to finish off her hearth cake as she gathers her thoughts. It's not a secret, so she might as well get it out of the way. "Some of my company were doing security at the Conclave. I was nearby, in case they needed backup. I never got close before...well, you know. I couldn't just turn around and leave, not after that. It seemed fitting to remain and see this through."

[byblow]

"Oh," Alistair says around a mouthful of soup, covers his mouth belatedly, and swallows before he goes on, only briefly too surprised for his very basic table manners. "So you're a hero." People who see explosions and stick around, and get closer to chaos instead of further away--Alistair likes them. Not because they're like him, but because he tries to be like them. "Did you know her?"

[gatheringstorm]

Upon being called a hero, Korrin raises her eyebrows, clearly not seeing that way or expecting to hear it from someone else. "I'm just avenging my friends, and on the side of the world not blowing up. And...a little."

She picks at another hearth cake, saddened upon recalling the Herald. "I didn't travel with her, but I saw her around Haven. Maybe she really was the Herald of Andraste, maybe not, but she seemed to actually care about people. I'll miss her for that."