faderift | [open] Grace is just weakness or so I've been told

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[open] Grace is just weakness or so I've been told

WHO: Kylo Ren and YOU
WHAT: Day to day stuff, reading in the library, trying to figure out how to raise his new Mabari, etc.
WHEN: Throughout Bloomingtide
WHERE: Gallows Library, training courtyard, around Kirkwall...?
NOTES: Nothing of note but I will update if that changes, including a prompt once we start doing Tourney things

Who doesn't want a Mabari?

[The cool air and the rain that had come about with it wasn't entirely unpleasant, but still Kylo was growing tired of constantly training when he risked getting soaked through at any minute by rain. Today he finds himself wandering by the kennel master's stables. The sound of excited, barking, puppies filled his ears as he stops to approach. He recognized them as being the same as Padawan, though smaller with stubby legs and scrunched eyes.

One of them in particular had already grown attached to him and the snacks he had in one fist, barking shrilly for more any time he tried to deny it. When he tried moving on, the pup had decided to follow him before he could get away, it's little legs bounding after him and black fur sticking up as he tripped and fell on his face more than a few times.]

Go back.

[The pup didn't move, head tilting in confusion at the command. Instead he moved closer, sniffing Kylo's boots and running his feet up his leg while crying to be picked up. Take me with you, it seemed the creature wanted to say, as if he could talk. The pup wasn't taking no for an answer even as he stopped every so often to shoo him back to the kennel master. He looks around, as if asking someone else to take the little dog away.]

Burning the midnight oil

[Later in the day, as the rain continued to beat against the windows, Kylo can be found in the library, A book on the table before him and a squirming Mabari in his lap, a little snout peeking up from beneath the table every so often to look for treats. Kylo absently scratched the top of his head while turning patches every so often.]

'Of all the dog breeds that the Fereldans have produced, none are so highly regarded or so widely famed as the Mabari. Justly renowned, the Mabari are intelligent war hounds fully capable of understanding speech and interpreting complex commands.' Hmm.

[He looks down at the dog in his lap, staring up at him out of curiosity.]

Closed to Rey

[The two of them were spending a moment together in meditation, eyes closed and legs crossed, as he tries to focus on the Force moving in and out of the residents of the Gallows. Caedus - as his new Mabari companion was now called - was having trouble getting the memo, shoving his nose under Kylo's arm in an attempt to get attention and moving on to Rey to whine at her when that didn't work.]

Knew I should have asked the kennel master to take him back.

[He mumbles, answered by a disgruntled bark from the pup who shoved himself against Rey more firmly. Sadly, Kylo was stuck with him. As much as he knew that and as impatient as the dog's need for attention made him, he still found him strangely comforting.]

Wildcard
[ooc: hit me up if you want your own prompt]

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Turning the corner with an armful of scrolls currently being balanced precariously on a couple of books, Nari is mildly surprised to see Kylo absorbed in the text of a book laid flat on the table. Although he was often quiet and absorbed in thought, it's just a little incongruous to see the imposing fellow bent over a table in the library rather than destroying her training dummies in the yard or flattening metal in the smithy. She's not intending to bother him, but then there's a little whimper, and she catches the energetic wiggle of a tiny tail just below the table.

He's got a puppy? That's the kind of perfect that both changes her plans and makes her unable to prevent a grin from spreading across her face.

"A new friend?" Nari queries, resting the load of paper she's carrying on the table across from him.

"What?" His head snaps up immediately from his reading, his usual stern expression firmly in place. Once he realizes who it is, his gaze softens. Rolling his shoulders, he nods and scoops up the pup squirming in his lap. He could fit right in the bend of his arm like a child.

"He chose me, apparently. Thedas has some weird concepts of ownership." He didn't ask for this and yet he was taking it in stride. The pup seemed happy enough with his new master.

"What's all that?" He gestures to the scrolls and books sitting on her side of the table. It looked like a lot to carry but he wouldn't tell her what to do.

Edited 2018-05-05 01:32 (UTC)

The juxtaposition between Kylo's large frame and the tiny pup is thoroughly endearing.

"A mabari, isn't it?" Nari asks, although by now she's seen enough of the Fereldan war dogs to know the answer. "As far as I've seen, you can own other dogs here, but with a mabari, you belong to each other. Or sometimes they own you first," she grins as the little thing wiggles and noses its way around in his arms. "You'll have some new trust from anyone who knows the breed, I think. They don't choose wrong." And perhaps a little unconditional love and loyalty would do the man good.

"As to these," Nari indicates the scrolls with a quick nod, "just some light research on the development of siege weaponry and how the building of defensive structures have changed in response. Rey's work on the small-scale obstacle course trebuchets has me thinking."

Now that she's just casually dropped Rey into the conversation, back to the puppy: "What's their name?"

"Ah. His name is Caedus, I think. At least he's been answering to it." As if on cue the pup seemed to stand to attention, mid scrabble trying to get up to his master's shoulder. He looked up at Kylo with intense brown eyes, as if waiting for a command. He was a smart pup, if a bit enthusiastic. With little training he might become as reliable as any other seasoned mabari.

"I was trying to learn more about him." He holds up the book he'd been reading, to show her the title, before setting it down. It had a myriad of other entries about various animals in Thedas, but mabari had been the specific topic of his interest.

"You're still working with Rey on the obstacle course?" He'd, of course, been helping Nari as well when she needed someone to do heavy lifting. On occasions when Rey joined in he couldn't help but watch her work, having to force his interest back to his own when he caught himself staring for too long.

While they had agreed to be open about their relationship, he still felt a sense of guarded trepidation at the idea of being so open about it. It hadn't mattered to him before, as he lacked any friends to even talk to about it, but now he wondered what the girl knew - if she had noticed anything at all.

She peers at the book briefly as he lifts it and nods; a bestiary, as he said. Not one she'd read, but Nari is a woman of fairly singular interests and doesn't read much outside them.

"I am," she replies to his query with another nod. "It should be ready quite soon. In time to be used as training for the tourney, perhaps, although I didn't consider the need to practice horseback maneuvers while designing it." The elf's eyes dance with amusement, thinking about trying to run the thing on horseback. Good luck getting up the wall. "There'll be else than jousting there though, I suspect. Were you planning on joining in at all?"

"Me. Join the tourney? Doing what?" He scoffs, finding the idea ludicrous. The last thing he wanted was to draw attention to himself. He certainly didn't like the idea of parading himself around at all.

"Are you joining?" Let him turn the tables on her, see if she's even interested in it herself.

Nari spreads her hands and shrugs with a half smile, "Showcasing your battle prowess I imagine. I know as little about the tournaments here as you. As for me? No." She shakes her head and leans against the table. "Whatever skill I have on the field generally relies on my opponents being surprised by it."

"No. You strike me as someone who'd rather show her work by creating things. Like the obstacle course." It reminded him a bit of Rey. He certainly didn't hate that about either of them. He liked building things too, or taking it apart - finding out how something worked.

"Not that I doubt your competence as a fighter."

Nari looks amused at the observation. "Sharp of you. If I could have only done the work of creation I think I would have," she says, then gently lifts her shoulders. "Circumstances didn't allow for that, though, and now that I have more of a chance to focus on the work I care for... well. I hate to let a skillset go rusty and unused when there's a need for it."

She eyes him curiously; him and the pup both. "And you? Do you only fight because you've had to?"

"Considering I never see you in the training yard, unless it's because I've broken another dummy of yours - I wouldn't say it's that sharp." He shrugs, clearly not bothered that he just regularly destroys the practice markers. He does try to fix them after - it just also doesn't help that he gets carried away.

"I like fighting. It's one of the few things I'm good at. It kept me alive." Until Rey had very nearly called that into question, bisecting his face. "The thrill of it - whether or not my opponent or I will live or die. I don't hate that feeling."

"Fair enough," she says brightly. Why let anyone see you train, learn how you move, maybe how to counter it? Nari considers that it's generally distrustful of her to work to avoid as many eyes as she could, but so very many of them are human. Old habits die hard.

"Driving yourself to your fullest extent and testing it against someone else who's doing the same..." she muses, "There's something in that for a certainty. Do you plan to train the pup to join you?"

"I don't know. That's what they're bred for, isn't it? According to the books I've been reading, anyway." He looks down at the pup in his lap. He wondered how fast he might grow, how strong he might get. If he was anything like Padawan, he knew he didn't have to worry about him being able to defend himself. It was still strange that he worried at all.

"He's still young." Yet the idea that this dog would be his companion in and out of battle, was a comforting thought. Padawan took care of Rey just the same.

"Have you ever had any experience with them?"

"It is," Nari says with a nod about the breeding. She gestures at the tome, "You may know as much or more of them than I do, though. As far as experience, I've only ever met Padawan and Inessa's Garahel; Rey will be a much better source of experience than I-- you talk often, don't you?"

That's twice now Rey has come up and twice he finds himself curious how much she knows. Obviously enough to know that they talk. He can't help but look suspicious about it.

"Did she tell you we talk?" He had a feeling. Rey was friends with her, something he didn't have. He and Rey seemed to have vaulted over 'friends' and straight into 'lovers'. He presses his lips together, sizing Nari up.

"We do spend time together, if that's what you're wondering about." He cant help but feel like everyone had a motive, that Nari had a motive for bringing it up.

"I'd assumed; after all, I've not seen Rifters from the same world do aught but gather together, no matter if-- or how-- they'd known each other before," Nari replies. It only makes sense. If she found herself in a strange unknown land, she would no doubt be pleased to see even the most foppish noble from Orlais, if only for the familiarity.

Probably.

She thinks about being evasive, but decides that being straightforward would serve her better with someone who has only the barest sliver of reasons to trust her. "She's become a friend, so I admit to having curiosity about the history the two of you share," the elf says with a lift of her shoulders, "especially since it seemed a bit... fraught? But things seem to have resolved, and it's none of my business or place to pry. So, instead, perhaps I might ask your opinion on a potential project?" Nari taps one of the books with her fingers and tilts her head.

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[open] Grace is just weakness or so I've been told

library~ ♪

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