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

[letoldthingsdie]

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]

Comments

[letoldthingsdie]

"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."

[nadasharillen]

"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?"

[letoldthingsdie]

"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?"

[nadasharillen]

"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?"

[letoldthingsdie]

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.

[nadasharillen]

"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.