[Open] Carve Your Name On Hearts

[sunshinethroughgrey]

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!)

Comments

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"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."

[unshadowing]

"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?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

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.'"

[unshadowing]

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."