faderift | (no subject)

WHO: Kain and OPEN!
WHAT: Riding, training, generalized brooding
WHEN: Now-ish, give or take? Or at least consider this taking place some while after he returned from the Erimond mission!
WHERE: Stables, Training Grounds, Library, Battlements... take your pick
NOTES: N/A

Stables and... Around (can be approached at any point!)

Seriously, though. Why horses? He's tried to tell himself they're no different than what he knows, but there are still differences from the chocobos that he's used to. Kain isn't entirely at ease around them just yet. So he's taken it in mind that he needs some riding practice.

He spends a little time thoughtfully eyeing the dracolisks that are there, he definitely has a curiosity about them given their appearance.

But for now, it's a standard horse. His style of riding was all learned on a bird so it's evident he doesn't quite know what he's doing as he rides a bit wildly around Skyhold.

Training Grounds

Pushing himself to get stronger is the only answer after what happened out the Western Approach. They'd met their main objective... but even still, Kain is beyond frustrated with himself, feeling a great deal of guilt over what happened. So, training. He gets to the grounds anyway, but even after he starts in with a jump, he lands and grimaces... Ugh, no, while it's improved for regular activity, his leg really isn't ready for anything like that. Whoops.

Library

Even after a good couple months here, Kain has realized he... still has a lot to learn about this world. Now is as good a time as any. So he's busy glancing through various books that catch his interest. Of course, it's noticeable that most of the titles in his stack are about dragons.

Tower/Battlements

By now, Kain has a usual spot he likes going to up along the battlements, a place with a great view of the mountains surrounding Skyhold. He often comes here to just think or get some solitude. At the moment, he's seated, staring off into the surroundings, a dragon scale in hand.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I will prefer to take your word on it. People if I must, walking corpses, demons, wild beasts, Red Templars? I can kill those but I have no plans to go join in killing dragons." (Little does she know what a Vashoth romance sidequest is like.) Besides, her own blades are suited for a very different form of fighting that finds gaps in the armour, the small devastating places to land a good blow and sink deep. Dragons are made of harder stuff than that for certain, and she skims her fingertips over it, scooting closer for a better look. "People would probably pay a fortune for something liks this."

Thief and fence, you can't turn that off.

"I can honestly say I don't know what I'd expect from a dragon, any stories I have they're all in the sea and they don't come out of it entirely, even then not easily." Also the most common sorts are just things that look like floating pieces of seaweed but moving swiftly on! "It was a group of four for each, yes? But they looked so very large, you surely all could have walked beneath their bellies without having to duck your heads!"

"They would earn quite the coin... but I plan to hold onto anything I salvaged. It's... something of a mark of honor, to me, as a dragoon." But Kain understands well the value of such things, all the same. It's the very thing she's said actually... not everyone is willing to face a dragon. But of course, getting one's hands on something as incredible as a dragon scale, or other such item... well... he can understand the appeal.

He looks thoughtfully at the scale for a moment. "The stories about them hardly do it justice, their size and power is unlike anything imaginable... Which is why we certainly needed the entire group on hand for each. Yes, there were four of us battling each dragon, and we really did need all of our strength... Many among us had fought dragons, but there were even some who hadn't yet faced such a thing." He smirks. "Now they know what it's truly like."

"I remember you telling me of the connection between dragoons and dragons when we met in the Mire, I just find it strange that killing them would be involved." After all, her people love whales and will hunt down those who kill them unless it's a time of famine with nothing left to eat, following them and protecting their nursery grounds.

There's less killing in general where she comes from, she never thought it would be such a luxury until she came to Thedas.

"But we had so many people in Emprise du Lion, I couldn't understand why they would send just four for each one when they were so large. When they could breathe ice, and I am sure one breathed flames, if the stories I heard were correct. How did you bring them down?"

“I know it may seem confusing on the surface, but… even if we must approach as enemies sometimes, we still approach one another with great respect, even then.” Kain is all about the respectful rivalry, something that’s an undercurrent in his entire friendship with Cecil. “Sometimes, it’s just not possible to forge that alliance with them, and their threat is far too great. Dragons, like people, have the capacity for good or evil. This is why we train in both working together as well as fighting.” To him it’s no different than the fact that some people simply must be fought and killed on the battlefield, while others are potential allies. His is a warrior’s mentality through and through.

“Ah, right… what we had seemed to be enough, though, between us. We were all skilled in different ways, different styles of fighting. That ended up being what we needed to bring the dragon down, the combined force of all of our strengths.” They perhaps could have gone with more, but at some point more people may not have been much use.

"Maybe tell that to the dragons before they attack our camp next time?" That's just teasing because she's knows that's impossible, that it's just proof of what Korrin told her about dragons; they really can be anywhere, and it was simply that the ruined crossing had proven an obstacle to the Inquisition, certainly not the dragons. "I wonder if that's like how their history is here, I've read about the Old Gods that Tevinter had and how they seem to be something more but it's difficult to say if that's simply a belief or not." Or had those dragons been appeased somehow? Asking will likely get her nowhere but it's something to consider.

“Did you have a mage with you? Every time that I've seen them fighting, it's something else. I know how good I am with my own blades but they're pulling their magic from elsewhere, not just inside themselves. One spell can do the same amount of damage as a cannon."

"I wish I could have. I was nearly tempted to go off on my own and speak to them, but... wild dragons aren't like the ones that have been raised around humans. Especially here," Kain knows when and how to deal with dragons, though, and usually they're a hundred times more stubborn than even he's ever been capable of. "When I'd observed them early on, I could tell it would come to a battle... I just wish we'd dealt with them sooner." Now, that's something he means to study more, himself. "Yes, I've come across that too, about those old gods... now that I have some time on hand, I intend to read more about the connection."

"We did. He wasn't a mage of this world, but another rifter. A mage, a dragoon, a berserker and an archer." All in all a good mix, with enough hard hitting warriors balanced between ranged weapons and magic. "I've always admired that about mages as well... their power is incredible. Which is frightening in the hands of corrupt mages, but there are enough good ones to balance that out."

"Most wild things are that way, some just have more patience and tolerance than others. Usually the larger things are better than smaller ones because they know they can hurt you, that you aren't much of a threat though there are times they'll see you only as food. No one has spoken to me as to the intelligence of dragons here." Whales are smart, dolphins too, she's seen that for herself in her life, watching whales feed older members of a pod, how they know the routes to their hunting grounds that they pass on for generations and generations. "Judicael's Crossing had to be rebuilt and creatures have a right to live. Sharks kill people swimming, men that fall overboard, people hunting for clams or pearls or other things, we don't just slaughter them all. And this is the Dragon Age. There are tainted dragons in the Deep Roads, one of the Wardens told me about them."

More notes for her fellow rifters, she'll have to try to see if she can organise a meeting. It shouldn't always be up to Marcel after all.

"Now there are more of us, I feel it's harder to keep track until you bump into someone. Corruption exists in every place, on every level; the damage a corrupt politician or noble can do might not be so severe as a mage in the short term but in the long term they can cause far more devastation, believe me."

“Yes… I’ve heard that as well, about dragons becoming tainted… also that Corypheus himself has a tainted dragon fighting for him.” Really, he’d like to test his strength against the likes of that, but that’s hardly something to just on a whim go off and try to fight. They’d need a whole strategy to deal with it, for sure. Kain nods. “I’d like to look further into the dragons here, myself, study their lore and writings to see what else can be learned about them.” It’s another thing to give him a purpose, he knew dragons back home after all, and some of that knowledge can be applied here, as in the battle. Dragons are his thing, and he’s sure there’s a lot yet to uncover.

Kain nods agreement. “All too true… I’ve seen a corrupt ruler firsthand and the damage he ultimately caused by impersonating the former one. It’s why I’ll never completely understand this world and how it deals with mages… Any corrupt ones will find a way to work evil regardless of the precautions in place, their Circles surely cannot do much to stop that.” As far as he’s seen, it seems like there are enough sane, rational and educated mages out there, they can surely handle their own just fine without all of this repression.