open & not.

[spellshatter]

WHO: Alistair, Jehan, Kostos, Silas, you?????
WHAT: Open post for Silas, catch-all for everyone else.
WHEN: Throughout Cloudreach 9:44
WHERE: Mostly the Gallows probably
NOTES: If you want to do something feel free to either hit me up (via pm or discord or plurk) or just throw something down here without warning and I'll tag it.

Comments

[byblow]

Alistair's chattering smile fades quickly as soon as she says my father hadn't died.

"I've never liked the word should," he says, which isn't true. Or it's of limited truth, anyway. It's a fine word most of the time. In this sort of situation, though—nah. He ducks under the water again, but only to push toward the shore, so he can pull himself up onto the rocks beside her. "You don't owe him caring, if you don't care."

[arlathvhen]

Ah, he’s finally out. Beleth pulls off her scarf, and absently dabs at his hair with it, while she muses on his words. “It’s hard to care about someone who didn’t seem to care about me. After he was gone, people kept asking me if I was okay, if I was holding up. They all expected me to be feeling a certain way, but it’s more complicated than that. A child’s relationship with their father can be...incredibly complicated.”

And here, she turns fully towards Alistair, still attempting to help dry him somewhat. She doesn’t push him towards the connection quite yet, until she knows if he’s particularly interested in making that leap. “Do you have a towel? Do you need one?”

[byblow]

Alistair shakes his head no—no, he doesn't have a towel, no, he doesn't need one—and then shakes it again, faster this time, like a dog. It makes his hair stick out at weird angles, but it's short enough to barely matter. One rake of his hand back through it nearly puts it back to normal.

"If I freeze here," he says, which he isn't going to actually do even if he's still trembling a little and covered in goose bumps, "you can have one of the mages preserve me, and you won't have to waste any expense on the memorial."

Really, he just needs a minute. The sun is out.

"How old were you?" he asks. He's not an idiot, but even if he's going to talk about Maric eventually, this is still news, that her father ran off. She'd never said.

[arlathvhen]

A little sigh follows his assurance of not needing a towel, and Beleth drops her scarf over his head. Close enough. Then she scoots next to Alistair, leaning against him. She’s not a Ferelden Furnace™, but she’s warmer than the water.

“That’s very thrifty of you, I’ll be sure to make a note. At least you wouldn’t have to worry about a statue getting your nose wrong.” A smirk follows that, and a gentle elbowing. The smirk quickly fades, however, as she thinks about his question. It’s not something she thinks about, let alone talks about, very often.

“Fifteen or sixteen, I think. There had been an attack from bandits on one of the traveling groups. The Keeper said that she saw him fall while fighting.” She gives a shrug, expression blank. The memory wasn’t painful, even then. More than anything, there was guilt at the lack of grief. “She said it would’ve been hard on us if we knew, and embarrassing to the family—having a martyr for a father looks better. I suspect she told us the truth because Arlathvhen is approaching.”

[byblow]

Alistair loops the scarf around his head until he looks like a peasant woman, because why not, and braces his arms to lean back at a slight angle and support both of their weight. The elbow only briefly jeopardizes that balancing.

"What's that?" he asks.

Is he supposed to know? Probably not. If the Dalish wanted him to know what words meant they would probably publish helpful pamphlets or something.

[arlathvhen]

“You look ridiculous,” She informs him, fairly sure he's already aware of that, but quite willing to tell him, anyway.

“Oh, sorry—" She might have not bothered if it weren't Alistair, but as it was, in fact, Alistair, she goes on. “Arlathvhen is a gathering of all the clans, that takes place every ten years. It's incredibly important to the Dalish, it's how we keep up to date on our knowledge, check our lore against others to make sure they haven't strayed from the the original. It’s also just a good time to see people from other clans, thus my father.”

She waves a hand vaguely. “I certainly have no intention of wasting my time there looking for him, though. Dealing with my mother trying to set me up will be more than enough family drama, I’m sure.”

[byblow]

"Family," Alistair says, with sage scorn, like he is very wise and thus very qualified to think something is stupid. The scarf probably helps. Definitely helps. He definitely looks wiser in this scarf, and he doesn't care what Beleth thinks. "Have you considered not having one?"

[arlathvhen]

"No." It’s said with a quiet certainty. "As much as they drive me crazy, they’re my family. I need them, and they need me. And what would I have—what would I be without them?" She sighs, and offers up a shrug.

"It’s the same with the clan as a whole. Leaving them seems like it would be...so lonely. And I’d loose a part of who I am." She’s Dalish. She’s an Ashara. They are two major parts of her identity, and many of her desires and plans revolve around them. What would be left, were it to be stripped away?

"...My father doesn’t count as a part of any of that, though. He’s gone."