Let's get down to business to defeat the Hu... uh, demons.

[issala]

WHO: Kas & OPEN
WHAT: Kas returns to Skyhold with a scout team.
WHEN: Today
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Proud teen cockiness all over the place.

1.

He may have mud in places he didn't even know he had, but the qunari teen holds his head high when he passes the massive gates to Skyhold with the rest of his team, easily picked out by the bumps in his hood where his horns were. New, still shiny knives on his back and a well-cared bow and quiver joining them as well made him look even more official. (He might be muddy, but those weapons were flawless.)

He had made it; he had survived, and he had carried out his mission... and he was so utterly proud of it. Kas felt like he had made a difference, no matter how small, and it gave him more determination to continue. He was worth something. He wasn't just a pickpocket and rogue on the streets, desperate to live.

It wasn't a surprise, then, how the boy walked cockily off to the barracks like he was king of the castle. Never mind that he slipped in the stairs. Nobody saw that, right?

"Mud fucking sucks," he mutters, brushing off the leathers with a sigh.

Qunari

One of the first things he had to do when he returned was to check on the other qunari and make sure they were all alive and not murdered by Ben-Hassrath or fallen out in that swamp... mire... thing.

"Gorse...? Korrin?"

2.

Later that day, the teen is out of his scout uniform and back in the somewhat over-sized clothing, carefully mended and cleaned. Hanging out by the stables, he was drinking hot tea and just enjoying life without shame and guilt - maybe for the first time in his life since he left the kith.

It hadn't been easy, but he had already seen a lot of bad things in his life. This was not so different.

One of the horses in the stables snorted near one of his pointed ears, and Kas reaches up to pet the soft muzzle. "I made it," he confesses softly to the animal with an unguarded smile on his face. "They won't kick me out now, right?"

Comments

[issala]

The paw in his was pretty impressive, and Kas reaches to pet the little furball and thinking that he should probably make sure he wasn't bitten in his bow hand.

Her words make him scoff a bit, trying to look unbothered and proud. "It's not like I won the place, so don't bother. I just like the calm around here... and doing some archery training outside." He was hitting the target pretty well these days, but moving enemies were still really hard to take down for a novice.

That bandit had only been a lucky shot, to be honest.

[foxsays]

Because Lux is absolutely shameless (as one raised in a brothel tends to be), his eyes close and he presses his head up higher into the hand, making pleased little chuffing sounds the whole time. All his experiences with tall horned people thus far are that they’re great at this petting thing.

“No but I know that somewhere so busy means you need a little time in a place where you won’t be disturbed, it’s not so different to a ship in that respect.” Yes you could leave Skyhold but it was such a trek down then back up the mountain that there seemed to be very little point unless you wanted a very arduous stroll that left you with frozen toes. “Ah, you are an archer then? I’ve been meaning to find trainers for it since the fade rift was oh so kind in leaving my favourite pistols behind.”

She’s still mad about that.

[issala]

He still looks a little suspicious while the fox presses its head against him, but... it's soft. Kind of cute, too.

"I guess," he mumbles, looking at the fox rather than the girl. "Doesn't matter, though. It's fine." The place was big, and he was good at hiding if he really needed to be alone. It was just... hard, to socialize.

Especially girls, apparently.

"I'm... uh... I'm a scout. I just recently started learning archery because of that, so I'm not that g-" Then she mentions the fade rift, and whatever 'pistols' were. His eyes widen a bit and he lest go of the fox like it burned him.

"Y-you're one of the demons?!"

[foxsays]

"I suppose you could always join in the lessons, if you happened to be around, I'm always happy to introduce people to something fun." He's certainly taller than her and until now, the only Tal-Vashoth she's met are Korrin and Gorse, both tall but equally difficult to age and she's not so rude as to ask.

Anything else she might say is forgotten because that word still feels like a slap after the initial accusation upon their mass arrival in Skyhold. Lux flattens his ears, darting back to Araceli's side, fur fluffed up to make him seem bigger as she breathes carefully, trying not to let the shock sharpen her tongue.

"I am not a demon." Her voice is low and quiet, eyes on the floor as she sighs. She's still frightened of them, and the image of a despair demon shrieking as ice crawled up the length of her blade towards her hand is one that still sticks with her. "I am not a demon, I come from another world where I am a human woman, daughter of a captain and a courtesan, where I was a thief."

[issala]

The teen frowns at her, backing off a bit closer to the wall. His expression is torn between fear and confusion, not sure what to make of this. She had acted just like any other human, so far. Not doing any weird demonic things, as far as he knew. (Which was very little.)

Besides, he couldn't get possessed, right? He wasn't a mage, and he had his shivs...

"You fell out of the same place demons come from, so of course you gotta be a demon!" Yes, Kas. That's exactly how that works.

[foxsays]

“I come from a place almost like Antiva, if Antiva had true romance and wonder about it, where the ports are never quiet and we have more waterways than streets.” What is this going to prove? Probably nothing unless the longing in her voice can somehow sway him. “I was returning home, leaping across the barge poles and then suddenly there was a flash of green and I remember shouting. I woke in the snow in Haven, with only what I had on me at the time but minus my poor pistols. Besides, didn’t your Herald go in and out of that very same place?”

That’s what she was told and she doubts Korrin would lie to her about something like that but she doesn’t want to be on bad terms with someone she’s just met, especially when she regularly invades his spot.

“Calma, calma, I’m not even a mage.”

[issala]

He looks at her like she's about to explode at any moment, biting his lip slightly. She sounded like a normal girl and he could totally believe that she was Antivan, the way she spoke. He was, after all, Riviani himself. Border neighbors and all that.

If she hadn't said anything, he's be none the wiser. As it was...

"She did, but she was from this place first! You just talk about other places and there's no 'other' place, just the Fade! Everyone knows there's nothing but demons in the Fade, and they're all out to kill you or possess you."

His eyes narrow and he glares at Araceli. "What are 'pistols', anyway?"

[foxsays]

Next time she'll know better because not everyone is going to treat her the way she's been treated thus far, with the benefit of the doubt about her story but then many of them were briefed before any sort of announcements were made. But she can't pretend to be something she's not, even when it might come back to bite her in the ass.

Or whatever the outcome of this will lead to because seriously, he's got enough height on her to have a very good advantage should this go south unless she legs it.

"That's not what I've heard about it from the mages, not entirely at any rate." Of course the mages will put their own spin of it and she's quite aware of demons but it's not all that. It's...okay it's confusing to someone who doesn't really understand magic exactly but there's more than just bad things in there.

"Ah, pistols are weapons, firearms. They come in many shapes and sizes but there's a long part called the barrel and the shot comes out of it, a little round ball that-" she mimics the sound, pointing a finger away from them and into the distance. "It goes very far and it hurts if you get hit. But a very useful weapon, less cumbersome than bows and arrows everywhere."

[issala]

'Legging it' is pretty much Kas' thought at this moment, giving the open doorway from the stables a nervous look, only to glance back at Araceli again.

Don't take your eyes of demons, right?

Yet she kept talking normally. Like a human girl. No 'muahahaha I'll make you my slave' or anything. Swallowing, the young qunari just finds himself staring at her as she talks about those pistol-weapons.

"Round... balls?" The rest of it sounded a bit like Varric's Bianca, but not the ball part. Why would balls hurt? Where they the hard kind made of dried sheep's bladder?

[foxsays]

"Mmm, about so big," she produces a coin from her pocket, holding it up before it vanishes between her fingers. "You need a spark so in the pistol is flint and steel and place for the sparks to touch the gunpowder, also very important. They come in so many shapes and sizes, little ones even I could hide in my hand."

But she does hold up both, just to be safe, her very tiny hands that have nothing suspicious beyond a chunk of magic.

"The little ones can be nasty, you never know if someone is hiding one to shoot you and any shot? Like being struck with a brand, it knocks the breath from you and if it doesn't come out?" It's never a fun time when you have to fumble around or pay someone else to go fishing around in a bleeding wound to get the thing out before it did more damage over time.

[issala]

"Shit. That's so weird." He's still frowning, looking at her as if she's about to blow up on him... but there's also curiosity there that he can't deny.

Demons were smart, baiting him this way.

[foxsays]

"To me, any sort of magic that isn't plucking a coin from behind an ear or making something else disappear is very weird. A weapon is still a thing people make, if there are cannons, it is very much the same principle but small. Unless you have a big blunderbuss but the kick on such a thing would honestly put me through a wall."

Look, she's having a dinner date with Korrin, she really needs this to not go terribly Kas, she's way too nice to ever be a demon unless it's over a game of cards.

[issala]

It's okay, Korrin will set him straight later. Yay for first impressions!

Right now, though, Kas is still frowning and watching the girl like she's going to bite him. Or the fox. (In all honestly, the fox might be more likely to bite him.)

"You're really weird," he growls, but it sounds more like if he's trying to remind himself of that fact than anything else. "Just... just leave me alone, demon."

[foxsays]

With a sigh, she shakes her head, mutters something deeply uncomplimentary in her native tongue and then jerks her head at the same time she gives Lux a nudge. The fox trots off grumpily and reluctantly but he does go as Araceli puts on her best smile, straightening her coat as if nothing has happened.

"If you call me, or any of us unlucky enough to be pulled through the rifts demons again, I won't be so gracious as I am now. Good day to you Kas."

It's best to leave before she makes it worse because while she wouldn't usually hit someone so young, a good smack might make her feel better immediately and that's really not going to help this situation at all. Step back, breathe, let the tension bleed out, that's the better plan and away she goes though the fox does stare several moments after she heads up the nearest wall before he scampers up the steps after her.

[issala]

He can't quite stop himself from making a childish face after her before he's grumpily brushing off his knees from where he had touched the fox. Stupid weird demon people!

Still, part of him feels bad and he's not sure why. It's worrying him a bit. Maybe they were affecting his mind or something?

"Fuck," the teen mutters, and goes to do some target practice to get rid of the creepy feeling of guilt.