it takes strength to live this way

[qunari]

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.

Comments

[qunari]

"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."

[demonicbeauty]

"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.

[qunari]

"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."

[demonicbeauty]

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.

[qunari]

"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.

[demonicbeauty]

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.

[qunari]

"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."

[demonicbeauty]

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.

[qunari]

"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."

[demonicbeauty]

"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.

[qunari]

A sigh slipped free before he could stop it. "Colloquialism. Means go for a walk. Around the keep."

Gonna have to remember to keep things literal around this one. He'd spent too much time traveling, learning the lingo and how to fit in, and it came naturally enough to just sling figures of speech around. Poor girl didn't need to be made to feel like she knew any less than she already did.

[demonicbeauty]

It was actually always fun to learn a new bit of colloquialism. She nodded eagerly once again, committing it to memory.

"The best place to walk is up on the wall," she said. "I should know. I've walked just about everywhere." And climbed each and every single tree she'd caught sight of.

What she was looking for, she didn't know...