I thought that I've been hurt before.

[quietblade]

WHO: Taas + Open
WHAT: Catch-all for February
WHEN: After his return from the Crow event and the rest of the month.
WHERE: Mostly Skyhold, Herald's Rest
NOTES: CR for new and old characters alike!

Tavern

It was usually early in the evening when Taashath lumbered towards the tavern. He usually had an ale or two, maybe something to eat and chatting with friends and newcomers alike. After the rescue of Zevran in Antiva, however, he was drinking more, eating less and rarely talking to people.

He had lost control, forgotten his name, tried to kill a member of the Inquisition, no matter how loaded the issue of a Ben-Hassrath was. He wasn't safe when his rage took over like that... and the possibility of hurting someone he cared about was eating him up inside.

Was he squandering everything Yshae taught him by trying to be a hero?

It was easier to just drink and forget.

Courtyard

Taas was a common sight in the courtyard, talking with people, maintaining his weapons somewhere in the rare sunlight or even chopping a training dummy to pieces now and then. He had stopped offering to spar with people, however, just smiling and shaking his head each time someone asked for a hand or when he saw someone struggling with their guard.

Instead he spent a lot of time going over breathing techniques and different means of relaxing, loosening himself from all the madness etched into his bones. He was Taashath.

It became like a mantra to him. He could push through this.

Wildcard

Hit me!

Comments

[quietblade]

He laughs, warm and heartily as Asher jokes and and talks about his company. Some of the best people he knew here were mercenaries, and it seemed that working together with close-knit people that was like a family was something he had really missed out on.

Leaving the only one he had been briefly part of hadn't been the best of ideas... but it brought him here, didn't it?

"It's a good idea, really. One man for each height and skill, right?" There's another chuckle from the large qunari, and he rubs his neck with a large hand. This was a good meeting, really. Just talking, maybe a little flirting. Shit that didn't make him angry or the blood pumping.

"What's your preferred weapon? You look like a two-hander sort of guy."

[hlif]

The Boneflayers are a far better family than Asher’s flesh and blood one; much more acceptance of Asher being what he is and no one throwing him out. Which they could if they wanted to, they could pick up another hulking man easier than say replacing an ex-Coterie thief with all the connections she still brings to the table as well as her business sense. He misses them here, but it’s better they’re apart, some of them still doing the usual work. Just one man and his dog though, he can manage that.

“And better people to leave the business and making nice to Orlesians and nobility part to. I mean I’m charming as they come obviously but some folk don’t know how to appreciate that.” Well in fairness they do, maybe Taas himself because usually Asher still bothers to keep something of his guard up around anyone that could end him without even trying.

“Good eye, usually an axe over a sword, suits how I fight better but I’ve got a shield and smaller sword just as a back-up. You know how it is though, sometimes it’s whatever you have to hand in the moment.”

[quietblade]

He snorts at that. yeah, he wasn't exactly high-class diplomat material to say the least, and this guy didn't seem to be, either. It was something definitely better to leave in the hands of the Ambassador and the likes of Thevenet. Sharp minds and sharp tongues instead of sharp steel and rather rough edges.

"I prefer an axe as well!" Oh no, boys with their toys. "Can't say I've ever really gotten the hang of the sword-and-shield deal aside form my very first training. I like swinging big things."

There's another hearty laugh from the large man and he's grinning at Asher. "Once beat a man to death with his own arm, so yeah. Whatever works in the moment!"

[hlif]

Big guys always throw too much shade for the nobles to handle it anyway, probably looks like an eclipse when it happens.

"I took a few years to fill out, I could lift the axe but well, usually involved someone bellowing 'timber' because I had the height but not much of the muscle at first." Height and temper were enough to see him winning every fight with village boys and even unsuspecting Templar recruits that hadn't taken their vows operating out of the local Chantry. "The first company I was in liked you having more than one option to hand, it's a practice I've kept up when I started on my own, never know what'll be thrown at you. Or if you're going to have to throw someone at the enemy. Or yourself."

Or a frying pan but well, that's in the blood given it's his mother's weapon of choice. He gives a good long laugh at Taas' response, shaking his head as he goes to lean on a post because laughing that much still kind of hurts thanks to the dragon. "Shit, did you really? I've never done that, once the red mist descends things get blurry, what was his face like?"

[quietblade]

Very true.

Taas can't help laughing at the image of tiny Asher and a big weapon with people yelling 'timber' when he tries to lift it. It was pretty similar to his own first year in the army. He'd pushed through, and grown big and strong for throwing around big weapons. Or maybe a tree.

It's nice to hear about mercenary companies being so flexible and accepting, too. Maybe it would mean that he could join one after this Breach thing came to end. Korrin's had seemed really nice.

Damn, he really liked the way this guy laughs. "I sure as fuck did. He looked absolutely horrified and probably soiled himself before I cracked his skull. with his own hand." There's a small shrug. "Red mist, though... you a berserker?"

[hlif]

There was a very long painful year where Asher looked like a particularly wet and limp noodle, he even had a face that looked an awful lot like a peach. Thankfully only one person remembers those years and she's not in Skyhold to speak of them.

"I need to try that one day, just to say I did." Maybe before he goes home so he's got the most appropriate stories to tell his teenage sister. This is going to be one of them because she'll be enchanted enough that he can maybe steal her up for a visit, she's only ever clapped eyes on Korrin. Might even help her decide if she wants to be a farmer all her life or if she wants at least a few months or years experience out in the world seeing what it's really like.

He shakes his head though but it's a fair guess, he's definitely got the temper for it. "Reaver actually, you know how it is when you stop in a tavern in Nevarra - you get drinking with a guy, he gives you something, you wake up three days later and find out that you drank dragon's blood and made it." Stunning life choices, the Asher Hardie story.

[quietblade]

"You accidentally drank dragon blood? Now that is a story!" Taas laughs again, looking both impressed and a little bit concerned underneath that. Who roofies a guy with dragon blood?

"How does that feel? Is it similar to berserking?" The qunari taps himself on the chest. "That's my thing, you see." Which was not something he should be proud of and the damn reason he was sitting out here in the first place, but Asher had him enjoying the good parts.

For now.

[hlif]

"Drinking games in Nevarra are apparently potentially lethal as par for the course. He was just some unassuming bloke too. We'd finished a job and had enough lined up we decided to have a really good night on the town, then at some point he challenged me to try whatever he'd brought and then it just went black." There are probably parts he's missing, but he's got a very healthy respect from Nevarrans that now involves watching them eat and drink something first before if they offer anything to him.

"It might be - it's anger for berserkers, isn't it? For me it's pain. The harder I'm hit, the better I fight, or I just hit harder. The anger creeps in there with me but I've always had a temper but...but it all comes out, the bloodier, the better. It's when I get hit that I get angry instead of anything else." Berserkers have always sounded more disciplined in their own way to Asher who can plan a battle smartly but still charges in to draw as much of the hurt as he possibly can, axe swinging. There's a good reason he's covered in scars that has little to do with sloppiness or lack of technique.

[quietblade]

"Shit, that's some weird origin story right there. I'm both impressed and kind of amused." He laughs a little bit, wondering if dragon blood was more or less preferable over getting served piss or something else like that during a Nevarran drinking challenge.

Could be corpse juice. (Taas makes a mental note not to take this challenge. Ever.)

Asher's description of Reaver rage sounds almost identical to berserking. getting hit made him even more angry, and it was a vicious cycle right there. There was nothing disciplined about it at all. Just frothing madness.

"...yeah, it's anger. The kind that makes your blood boil and you lose track of anything other than taking down everything around you." He sighs slightly, rubbing the back of his head. "My commanding officer was a dumbass to encourage that shit. We qunari are already vicious and need discipline to keep in control of ourselves. Be it the Qun or something else. Fuck up a big guy like me and you have a loose cannon."