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[Open] Carve Your Name On Hearts

WHO: Bethany Hawke-Darton and You
WHAT: Bethany does what Bethany does - charity, kindness, teaching, research and a whole lot of knitting.
WHEN: The month of
WHERE: Kirkwall Proper, the Gallows
NOTES: I warn you of sap. That is all

Charity For The Wardens - Hightown

There is an advantage to being famous (and being related to the famous), and that is that is a great deal easier to talk to the merchants. Being married to Aleron, beyond being a wonder on it's own, let her speak to the nobility -- but sometimes the nobility only had two silvers to rub together on a good day. Merchants, though, knew that she was close with Varric and were more willing to talk to her than just any other nobleman's wife about her charity.

Which of course, was the Grey Wardens.

You can find her talking to a group of merchants, telling probably for the hundredth time, the story of how Marian Hawke took on the ogre, and adding in, "You see how necessary it is to have the Grey Wardens! Imagine a creature like that, tearing through Kirkwall? It could do the damage of half the Qunari forces in half the time ..."

Charity For The Wardens - and a few other people

Bethany has been gifted with a very rich and along with that, a very doting set of in-laws. Her dear 'Maman' and sister Ravonild had a tendency to ... compete in that area, and that meant that Bethany was usually drowning in every colored silk gown and every piece of large jewelry they could find. She kept one or two dresses, made sure anything that was family in origin got put into their safe -- and the rest she carted off to sell. Usually to the Hightown merchants, because they could get her a better price, but she did go to Lowtown as well.

The money was divided with a heavy sum towards the Wardens, but she always kept some gold and silver on the side to give to the poor. Large donations in small coins, because a piece of gold could get you stabbed in Darktown. You could probably see her right outside Anders's clinic, making sure families got some coin, some food, and of course knitted blankets.

Knitting Hours

Bethany usually kept at least one to two hours of her day open to sit in front of Sina's Forest, as she had taken to calling it. She would have her balls of yarn, her knitting needles, and a table set up for charity to the poor -- but now she included items for sale - shawls knitted from fine Orlesian silk yarn, finely stitched cloaks, and the like. All going towards the Warden, as a helpfully painted sign pointed out. As it was colder, she usually bundled up in her own new cloak, but she would put it down immediately to help anyone who came up to her. Sometimes you might see children, gathered up around her seat as she pulled out a book and read to them, having them sound out the words with her.

Library Hours

Yet she couldn't spend her entire day doing good works - there was research to be done, so most afternoons found her in the Gallows Library, either knitting in her lap as she turned pages, or she was so engrossed that she leaned her dark head against her hand, absentmindedly chewing on the end of her quill.

In those moments of intellectual fugue, it is altogether too easy to sneak up on her, if you would like.

Insert Random Scenario

(Just want to talk to Bethy? Hang out with her at the Hanged Man? Let me know!)

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"It's something. Next time, though, we're borrowing a bloody cart to carry all this around." More lighthearted, not all that serious complaining, although his arms are cramping a little bit, if he's being honest. Still, he manages a smile as some of the children quietly thank them for the blankets, their little faces burrowing into the soft material.

"For all the hard work a Warden is, I don't miss those days of running around, hoping for some job just to get a bit of coin."

"You know I usually remember to bring the cart ... but I thought my big muscley brother could handle it." She dimpled again, dark eyes flashing mischief, but that smile softens as the child thanks her brother. She can see you, Carver Hawke. Giant marshmellow.

"Neither do I. And now we have the chance to give back." She smiles as she puts a hat and a scarf on a thin elvish woman, pressing a few coins into her hand for her baby.

"Big, muscly brother gets achey arms and back just like everyone else after awhile. Especially under two tons of blankets and clothing." Seriously, Beth, how much of this stuff did you make??

For a brief moment, he sharply misses Marian. It's strange, where and when those moments hit him. He feels like he should be here, too, making stupid jokes and charming - or infuriating - the locals. He shakes it off; it does no good to dwell on it. "You, mostly, Lady Darton. I'm still just a poor Warden."

"Oh it is not two tons. If it was two tons of blankets I would have used all the yarn in Thedas." She stated, giving him a smirk. She made a Lot.

She sees that moment of a shadow cross his face, and she gently bumps against him again. A questioning look on her face disappeared before she laughs softly, "Oh yes, all that money I can't really hold onto it, because I am a Warden."

"Who's to say you didn't? Pretty sure there's rioting in the streets right now because of the yarn shortage." For someone who hated being in Marian's shadow, he did pick up on a lot of her humor.

He shakes his head at her questioning look; it was a passing moment, and nothing more. They come more frequently, being back in the city Marian made her name in, but he'll learn to deal with them. "What's his is yours and vice versa, right? Still pretty sure it makes you a lady and still gives you access to the coin."

She smirked at that, her brown eyes brightening, "Well that sounds about right - a Hawke creating equal measure of insanity. and the horrible luck of someone causing major disasters without intending to."

He looks tired, but his gaze is more focused now, "Pretty much - but I cannot really spend anything on my own unless it comes out of my meagar salary."

"Ha. Even with taking a new surname, you haven't rid yourself of the Hawke curse." Clearly it's in the blood, then.

'Meager' doesn't even cover it, but that's hardly the point. "Well, true enough. Luckily it seems like your in-laws buy you enough that you don't have to worry about spending anything." He's seen the packages. Good flipping Maker.

"The Hawke curse will follow me forever more, my dear twin." She dimpled at him, "Have plenty of money, have to spend it on everything else so are left in relative poverty. Well, all right, except now we live in the same sort of house that Marian owns but still."

She let out a laugh again, "We really don't! Honestly they are just too generous - I think they like spending all this money so Aleron can't complain when it's 'buying for me'. But I am our mother's daughter - I just turn around and sell it and give it to charity. Meaning the Wardens ... and a few other places."

The yarn had to be paid for somehow, you know.

"Wonder if it rubs off. Your man better hope not, bloody thing's rather annoying." All the same, it's probably a good thing he and Marian aren't likely to get married and pass it along. "But no, the house isn't bad. Beats the barracks we'd probably be sleeping in elsewhere." He almost said the Gallows, but honestly, he can't see himself nor Bethany deliberately living in those. Way too many bad memories and associations.

He really hopes Nate and Alistair appreciate how much Beth's been giving. Granted, it's not much skin off their back, but given how precarious their position was, they needed every copper they could get. "What a concept. Just wanting to spend money and not having to worry about it." Bizarre. "You're not afraid if they come by and ask about all the dresses and whatnot they've sent you?"

"I certainly hope so. I would prefer we keep the Darton family luck. The Hawke one is sort of iffy on the best of days." She dimpled at him, but it is rather true. Neither one of them would want to go the Gallows. Not after ... not after everything they had seen there.

She dimpled again, "Oh, I thank them and let them know that some colors do not do anything for my skin. I do keep one or two - they are gifts and I need them for nobility ..." She waved her hand, her gaze narrowing, "Things? Nobles do a lot of little parties for no reason."

"Iffy is a rather generous term." Though admittedly, they had managed to survive. The luck seemed to kick in at the last possible moment. He and Bethany would have been dead had they not been "lucky" enough to be able to reach the Wardens in time.

The world of nobility remains a foreign, strange place to him. Perhaps he really was a bumpkin at heart. "Nothing else better to do with their time, I'm guessing." If more were like Aleron and Bethany, well, there'd be fewer parties and more shit getting done.

"Well better iffy that not at all. I've seen the worst of it, honestly." She sighed softly, her gaze twisting into something quiet and pensive.

"Yes, I suppose so. Good thing we've never been proper nobility, hm?" She gave him a wry and warm smile. She looked out to the city once more, her brown eyes narrowing with thought. "So ... I suppose we shall have to do more not less."

"I think we both have." In their own ways, both separate and together. One day it might let up... or just plain run out. Of course, there's the Calling that'll come for them both, but that's not luck. Just the inevitable. And not something he wants to be thinking about right now.

He raises a brow at her, almost smiling. "We? You and Marian, no. I've never been nobility, period." Beth married into it, and Marian rolled into it thanks to the Deep Roads expedition and their mother's persistence. "I'm the bumpkin, remember?"

She leans into him again, giving him a knowing look. They were twins, and as opposite as they were .... well. Some things only a twin can guess right away. Just like how worried they both are that their own luck might run out.

At that, she let out a laugh, "Oh, Mother is going to come back and haunt you for that one. 'Carver, my sweet baby boy, how could you think you were anything less than nobility? We should get you married right away.'"

Of course she knows. Not just as a fellow Warden, but as his twin. For all their differences, she still knows him well, and he her. The worry looms over them both, a future concern that's as hard to tell the distance as the horizon.

He shoots her a look. "You already tried that, remember? Kaisa, Merrill, some other woman..." Teasing, really, but he'll never let her live that one down. "But you're right. She'd have a fit if she heard me say that. Doesn't make it any less true, though. I was never cut out for it."

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[Open] Carve Your Name On Hearts

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