faderift | it takes strength to live this way

Entry tags:

it takes strength to live this way

WHO: Iron Bull and OPEN
WHAT: General summary of events during the end of the month. Drinking, fighting, more drinking, maybe a little flirting.
WHEN: Mid-to-late Wintermarch
WHERE: All over the damn place. Mostly the tavern and sparring ring, though.
NOTES: n/a

He was starting to feel a little restless. By now, the boss would have taken them all out on some exploit or another, and even if he was glad to be at Skyhold again? Sitting idle could grate on the nerves a bit.

The best way to counter that seemed to be throwing down in the training ring just outside the tavern, taking on all comers as well as training those that seemed of a mind to ask. Cullen had most of his people following their own regime, but if they wanted a swing at something else? He wouldn’t refuse them. Not everyone fought like a templar.

The rest of the time, Bull made himself easy to find. Easy to avoid, too, if that was the preference of some. And he knew it was, from the glimpsed he’d gotten of the Vashoth inside the keep. But it was no hardship holding court inside the comfort of the tavern, indulging heavily in drinks and working his way down the menu of available meals and snacks.

It was business as usual, for the most part. Even if he did feel a little more restless than usual. Had to find a way to get out, hit something that really had it coming.

Or find someone to pass the evening with. That might help.

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"Well, you're not an animal," she said, shrugging up one shoulder to her ear. "So I'll stick with the prowess, if it's all the same to you. The other just seems so...rude."

And if Ariadne was anything, it was polite. Even when she picked someone's pocket, she did it with a sweet smile and a kind word.

No reason not to be nice.

"And you could certainly give the knights of my homeland a good work-out," she added. "I doubt even the captain of the guard himself could last long against you."

"That's why they pay me. I'm good at hitting things."

It's a little flippant, but it's true for the most part. He'd come here under precarious circumstances, but him and his boys were too good to turn away now that the boss was gone. Besides, he wasn't about to leave that hole in the sky to just work itself out.

Even if that did mean eventually dealing with demons.

"And it's not rude if I picked the name on purpose. I know what people think when they hear it. If it bothered me, I'd have picked another name." He shrugged, massive shoulders rolling.

What he said spoke volumes to her about how the Qunari were viewed in the world. And, in some ways, undermined her assumptions. After all, anyone who had body parts beyond the basic two arms, two legs, and one head of a humanoid back home was automatically a demonoid and, therefore, a second-class citizen.

Perhaps there was some enlightenment to Thedas after all.

...not that she was about to reveal all her secrets. But it was a nice thought, anyway.

She smiled. "I think it makes sense, actually. To be able to name yourself. How are your parents supposed to know what you're going to grow up to be like? If I were a queen, I'd have everyone given temporary names until they turned...oh...sixteen. And then they could decide for themselves."

"Not a thing most Qunari do, to tell the truth. I'm kind of an exception to the rule. Figured if I was living down South, I'd pick a name that suited."

Bull shrugged, scratching his chin thoughtfully. Kind of weird, as naming systems went, but he'd heard stranger, he supposed.

"Back home, we don't have names. More like...job descriptions. Your role defines who you are. So your name would change according to what you did, where you fit in society."

That was an interesting way of doing things. But Ariadne's forehead crumpled up in thought, after a moment. "But what happens if your town has two...ranchers? Or hunters? Or blacksmiths? Do they all go by the same name, then? Or can you only have one of each. And if you can only have one of each, what happens if you run out of duties that need to be attended? Or if someone needs help with a specific duty?"

She cut herself off, although a thousand more questions were eager to bubble up. Life had always been complicated in a litter of twenty. She couldn't imagine adding that sort of practice to the mix.

"You can have more than one. The titles get pretty specific, but we've also got numbers. Just so everyone's on the same page."

Bull chuckled, folding his arms over his chest. Curious little thing. Well, there were worse things than curiosity. Few things more dangerous, but she's a Rifter. It's all new to her.

"Besides, most kids are the result of the Tamassrans deciding we need new workers for one task or another. So running out of jobs isn't usually an issue."

She absorbed it all with a little nod, pleased that he didn't seem put off by her questions. It was always an adventure, learning how a new group of people lived. Especially when they were humanoid.

Fewer stodgy conventions, in her opinion.

"I'm sorry," she said, not sounding terribly apologetic. "But what's a Tamassran?"

"Heh. They're a lot of things. Hard to summarize all of what they do." One hand waved absently. "Technically they're a part of the priesthood. They look after the young, raise them, teach them what they need to know, and pick the roles they're best suited for. They also serve as guides and mentors for those who need them. That's not all of it, but you get the idea."

They also served as re-educators, and relieved certain sorts of stress when a Qunari got pent up. But he didn't figure that was necessarily what Airy was looking for in her answer. Little more relevant this way.

Priests who dictated reproduction? That felt funny, somehow. Not that Ariadne knew anything about reproduction, other than the fact of her own birth. But still, most of the humanoid races she'd encountered preferred to have their children for sentimental reasons, rather that economic ones.

It was a difficult reality to process.

She nodded nevertheless. "I see," she said. "So they're...leaders, more or less?"

"In a sense. Not the only ones we have. It's a little more complicated than that. They're part of the Ariqun, along with the Ben-Hassrath. They make up the priesthood...hm."

This might be getting too technical for a bas, especially one new to their world. Brow knotting, Bull gestures to himself.

"Alright. Put it this way. If you consider the Qunari a body, the Ariqun would be its soul. Is your soul in charge? Or is it your heart? Or your head? They all work together for the good of the whole. Make sense?"

Ariadne nodded, appreciating the metaphor. Which wasn't to say she couldn't follow complex politics. She was a spy for a rebel force, after all. Led by an outlaw and a princess together.

But the poetry. That she enjoyed quite a lot.

Still... "I suppose it would depend on who you asked. My auntie often tells me that I let my heart take control too much."

"There's some lesson to be learned there, I'm guessing. Keeping everything in balance, working in harmony. That's what the Qun is meant to be for. None of the dick-waving political crap you get down here. Everyone's working towards the good of the whole, instead of worrying about getting themselves ahead of the game."

Not that the Qun was perfect, or never faltered. Wasn't even that he liked everything he did for it. But it was better, so far as he could see, from every other alternative out there.

Certainly better than being Tal-Vashoth.

While she understood the basic meaning of what he said, her ears perked up at a slang saying she wasn't familiar with.

Ariadne had always been terrible with figures of speech, especially ones from the humanoid races. But even non-humanoids could allude her from time to time. And she was ever-so-eager to learn.

"What's a dick?" she asked. "And why would you wave it? Is it like a flag?"

At that, Bull let out a groan, one hand coming up to rub the bridge of his nose. Hopefully it was the terminology that had confused it. Too many kids running around this place as it was.

"Term for a guy's junk. You know. Erm. 'Manhood', I guess. And it's a posturing thing guys tend to do. 'Mine's bigger than yours', and so on."

He waved a hand dismissively.

"Be glad you don't have to deal with it."

Her frown deepened for a second. And then vanished entirely.

"Oh!" she said, suddenly feeling much smarter. "You mean a penis!"

She was familiar with humanoid anatomy. In many ways, it wasn't all that different from Alastrian. And she had grown up with ten brothers, not to mention many other men within the pack.

Of course, she didn't quite understand waving one around. But she supposed she understood the basic intent.

"Picked up on that quick."

It was like talking to the kid, all over again. Well. Less of the weird, cryptic, demon shit. But same sort of innocence, almost. Girl was really out of here element here.

And of course the first thing he does is give her a crash course in the Qun and things to call your penis. That...well, kind of figured. No one was going to be surprised, that was for damn sure.

"Point is, there's a lot of posturing that doesn't need to happen."

"I understand."

She did. In her way. She knew how animals behaved. And if, sometimes, men behaved the same way, well. Men were just a different type of animal.

Alastrian males were the worst.

"Eh."

And he waved another hand.

"It's all crap you'll get to leave behind once they figure out how to get you back where you belong. Probably got enough problems of your own, wherever it is you're from."

She shrugged up one shoulder. "Just a war."

Absently, she ran her fingers over the hills and valleys of her braid. The probabilities for defeating the Red Dragon, as things were, didn't look great. But Ariadne had the sense that something big was coming, some glimmer of hope that might turn things around. She just didn't know what it was yet.

"A warlord's been conquering all of the kingdoms of the realm," she sighed.

"Tends to be what warlords do, they get big and bad enough."

He was not unsympathetic, however. After a moment he leaned against the wooden posts at the perimeter of the ring, cocking his head in a way that meant she could elaborate, if she so chose.

Ariadne frowned thoughtfully. "I suppose it's all there in the name, isn't it? Although he wasn't always a warlord. He was once a king. Until he stopped being happy ruling just his ancestral home."

No one actually knew what, exactly, had made the Red Dragon snap. Although Ariadne was pretty sure that Lysia and Princess Amanda had their theories. Theories which were probably as close to the truth as anyone could ever get.

"We may stop him yet." The probabilities weren't pretty, but they were there. Forever shifting and changing.

"Problem with power is people usually aren't content with what they have. They always want more. Sometimes they even think it's for the right reasons. People'd just be better off if they listened to them, that sort of thing."

Bull shakes his head. "This is why I stay out of politics. Just give me something heavy and something to hit with it and I'm good."

She nodded slightly. "I don't like politics all that much either." For one thing, it involved too much understanding humanoid figures of speech and mannerisms. For another, it frequently involved lying. And Ariadne hated it when people lied to her face. "I leave it to other people. Like Princess Amanda. I was serving her before I was brought here."

In truth, though, her loyalty belonged to Lysia.

Fortunately, the two of them rarely disagreed.

"Yeah. So, not necessarily a subject we need to delve any further into."

Stretching, Bull pried himself away from the post he'd been leaning against, rolling his shoulders with a faint 'pop'. "Think I'm gonna stretch my legs for a bit. Doesn't look like anyone else is coming for a while. You're welcome to come along, if you want."

"I would hope you stretched your legs before you exercised," she said, unfamiliar with the figure of speech. Nevertheless, it pleased her to be invited and she nodded up at him with a smile.

For...whatever he'd just invited her to do.

She assumed it wasn't anything too strenuous.

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