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[unshadowing]

WHO: Carver and whoever wants to bug him
WHAT: Junior's back in Kirkwall
WHEN: Today through the rest of the month
WHERE: Various locations through the city
NOTES: He's got an old mabari in tow

[Kirkwall never really became home for Carver. Not in the way it had for his oldest sibling, who made her name here. Rather, it was a brief phase of his life before fate took him elsewhere, far away from the city that he had only visited a handful of times since then.

Still, despite his outward scowl, there's a part of him that's relieved to still see the city standing and, apparently, recovering well enough. A long mission near the Anderfels kept him completely out of the loop for months. Coming back to the surface, and to reality, left him feeling adrift briefly until he finally decided to say "screw you" to Weisshaupt and do what the cool Wardens are doing and up and went to join the Inquisition in some sort of capacity. Imagine his surprise when he learned the Inquisition moved to Kirkwall.

Of course, coming back here was for more than just to join up. He hadn't spoken to either of his sisters for months, and when he heard the oldest was still missing, he knew he needed to find Bethany and see what needed to be done. (And yes, he's worried about big sis. A lot. Where does she get off on disappearing without a word anyway?) So, despite his checkered history with Kirkwall, he knew he'd be coming back to stay for awhile.

When he arrives, he's not sure where to start. Inquisition people pointed him to the Gallows, but the thought made his skin crawl. He can't imagine Beth - or any of the others - staying there anyway, not after what happened. So, he takes off into the city, in search of those he knows.

In Hightown, he sticks out like a sore thumb, in his very dirty Warden armor and equally dirty mabari. Dog's older now, gray around the muzzle and slower than he used to be, but he keeps up well enough as Carver looks around. They stop outside the old Amell estate. Locked and boarded up, as they discover. There's something close to regret in the way Carver looks up at it.

In Lowtown, he feels strangely more comfortable. Still out of place but at least not so inconspicuous. Here he's more prone to browse the stalls, taking in the sights he's more familiar with, though they seem a distant memory now. In fact, one might even be lucky enough to find him in the Hanged Man, getting a drink for old times' sake.

And he can be found nearly anywhere else save the Gallows and Darktown. He might even visit that new magic tree that's sprung up oh so mysteriously, although it'll be mostly to side-eye the hell out of it.]

Comments

[unshadowing]

At first, he's not really surprised when someone joins his table without invitation and recognizes him. It happens a lot, especially now that he's back in Kirkwall, at the heart of where his "fame" originates. He sighs, and prepares to rebuke the person.

Then they go off in a direction that he totally did not anticipate. Like, at all.

He catches the bit about Bethany and "deals", but honestly his brain kind of shuts down when she says "wedding". And he really, really hopes she's kidding and this is some kind of joke, but... What even. Kaisa gets a blank stare for her efforts as his brain tries to reboot. It takes a moment.

"Usually people at least try to ply me with more than a beer before trying to marry me." He says, as if this has actually happened before. "What's this about Bethany making deals? And who even are you?"

[unbrokenoath]

There's some temptation to try to keep a straight face, but Kaisa's never been much good at that, and at the look of utter bafflement on Carver's face, she breaks into a fit of giggles. It takes a few seconds for her to calm down long enough to stop, though a grin still dances across her lips.

"Well, you know Fenris, of course. I thought he was pretty cute, so I asked Bethany to introduce us. But Bethany was like 'Oh nooo Kaisa you can't hit on Fenris' and I was like 'Oh come on, I'm perfectly nice and sweet and also really pretty' and she's like 'Nooo, but you can have Carver instead.'" Once she gets to the part where Carver comes in, she glances over to the man in question, to make sure he's following along with all of this.

"So, that's how that all worked out. I was kinda afraid that Bethany was so willing to foist you off on me because you were actually butt-ugly or something, but." She gives him another charming smile. "I can see that's not an issue." Then, she remembers something else she forgot to explain, and holds out her hand. "I'm Senior Warden Kaisa Daesun, by the way. Weddings and silly stuff aside, it's nice t' see more Wardens around here."

[unshadowing]

Oh boy is Bethany going to get an earful when he sees her next. Carver's not truly angry, oh no, but well, she's his sister and he sure as hell is not going to let her off the hook for bloody arranging marriages for him - jokingly or not.

"How the blazes did she think I was a better idea? Like Fenris can't hold his own." Why did the elf need protecting from flirtatious females anyway? Maybe it would help lighten him up, too.

He relaxes a little when Kaisa introduces herself. Somehow, it's not quite so bad coming from another Warden. He shakes her hand. "I heard there were a fair number of us around. Even good-looking ones, as it were." Is that confirming what she said about him, or he complimenting her? That's for Kaisa to decide.

[unbrokenoath]

Kaisa spreads her hands out and shrugs, though she looks too amused to totally pull off the innocent and unknowing bystander look. "You'll have to ask her for her motivation. Maybe she thought Fenris and I wouldn't get along. Maybe she thought you just needed a hug or two." Or maybe more than a hug.

"You're right about the Wardens, though. There's a decent number of us, and we're all good looking." A grin and an eyebrow waggle are inserted here. Kaisa's decided on both compliment and confirmation. "It's truly incredible. You're just lucky that you came here, instead of when they had us stashed in some half-assed camp half an hour away from Skyhold. There were some perks--I guess the Dalish liked the idea of being away from everyone, so there were a ton of cute elf girls hanging out. But man, it was damned cold."

[unshadowing]

He squints his eyes a bit at her. He's not buying that act for a minute, even if she could pull it off without looking like she's about to bust out laughing. "Well, he's bitterness wrapped up into an elf, so that's a good an explanation as any." Though he's not entirely unconvinced Bethany didn't do it just to needle him.

"I wouldn't say all. I know of one or two I think I'd rather gag myself than call attractive." Sorry Anders. "But wait, they shoved a bunch of us into a camp, away from the main fort?" Well that's just several levels of shitty. "Don't suppose it has something to do with what happened with Weisshaupt, or with Clarel?" He says that as if he doesn't already strongly suspect the answer.

[unbrokenoath]

"We've only talked a few times, so I guess I wouldn't know?" He seemed nice enough, but all of their conversations had been fairly...tame, all considered. Certainly, she hadn't tried to bring up a good marriage date.

That might have gone poorly.

"No, surprisingly. I mean--Weisshaupt may have contributed to it, but we didn't get officially booted until after Anders showed up." She offers Carver a shrug along with it. Surprise, it's all Anders' fault. Except that probably isn't surprising, either. It was kinda bullshit, but also understandable. Anders was, after. Anders.

"We told the Inquisition that Anders was ours, and they couldn't go throwing him to an angry mob. They agreed, but I guess that made us outstay our welcome at the fortress. Honestly--It sucked, but it might've been a good thing, in the long run. There was a lot of vitriol in the air after that, and it was nice to have a place where no one was giving us shifty looks all the time."

Pause. "Wish they'd picked a warmer spot, though."

[unshadowing]

Oh, she'll know in time, if she keeps talking to him. Carver will let her learn all about Fenris on her own. Though who knows, maybe the elf will find her a little more pleasant. To be fair, he's gotten better about his attitude from when Carver first met him.

Carver makes a face when Anders is mentioned. Oh, of course it was because of Anders. And he's not sure if he should be annoyed with the mage, or with the Inquisition. Fuck it, he'll be pissed at them both. Because yes, it's Anders and he did a shit thing and deserves to be smacked over the head. A lot. But that was also years ago and the Inquisition is openly letting mages assist and even run things, so what in Thedas were they so pissy about? "More like a punishment for taking in Thedas's most wanted. While I don't condone anything about what he did, Wardens are known to take in criminals and fugitives. What did they expect?" There's a darkspawn magister running amok. The Wardens weren't going to turn away a spirit healer. Or anyone, for that matter.