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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.

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Most warrior disciplines involve much more than tempering the mind. Rogues have specialisations that require a great deal from them but it doesn't change them as much in their blood as it does for a warrior or a mage. Assassins and bards can twist and snarl up their whole lives, scouts and rangers are hypervigilant in Asher's experience but mages change themselves and so do so many warriors, Reavers more than most.

A Templar can give up lyrium, but a Reaver? A Reaver can't undo what they've done. Not that Asher would but it's something plenty of folk have never realised over the years.

"Look, blood magic is usually using your own blood or someone else's to do weird fucked up shit like mind control or sending the angry and ravenous dead at people, which is different to necromancy, do not fuck with necromancers, especially the Nevarran ones. It's an art there and even I can respect that." And he can even restrain himself from asking about people getting freaky with their possessed corpses. "I suppose some people see this as blood magic because it does involve blood. And it's your own blood in the end because it comes from within you; it's your own life that you can command and the ability to be brutal above and beyond others, channeling it, some people say you steal the life from your enemies."

Asher will however never actually answer that question.

"You drink dragon's blood. There's a way to prepare it so that's why people think of it as blood magic, and dragons are always going to be associated with Tevinter and Old Gods, and both those things are always going to be associated with blood magic because that's how history went. You still have to survive drinking it."

Kain listens intently to every word, after all he needs to be absolutely certain this is something he wants. The words blood magic had admittedly given him a slight bit of pause, but that's mainly because of what he knows of it so far. The whole controlling others thing, which is far too much like Golbez and Zemus for his taste. But Asher's explanation alleviates the concern entirely, especially as it seems to be something he does want, and want very much.

"My own life. I can accept that responsibility. Channeling it, destroying my enemies' lives... all of that sounds worth it." There are, after all, attacks and magic in his world that does just that, steal from the enemy's strength and add it to your own. That's not anything too unusual to him, nor does he find it a problem. On the contrary, it's a very useful sort of power to have.

He looks astonished at the mention of dragon's blood... "You mean... with this power... I'd have the blood of dragons inside me, coursing through me, driving my abilities?" He's excited and filled with longing all of a sudden. His entire life has been spent in emulating the dragons, trying to be more like them, to become more of a dragon in his heart and soul. It's what being a dragoon is. If he had their blood in him in this way... he'd be even more one of theirs. He'd finally reach his goal of surpassing his father, by enhancing his skills in a way no dragoon ever has. "Then I must drink this blood. You've no idea how much it would mean to me... to have the strength of dragons in me..." Dragons are his thing and to hell with the negative associations. They're dragons.

For all that Asher doesn't give a shit about mage politics, it's the ex-Circle mages he's wary of. The ones that didn't get any freedom until they finally escaped, so many of them utterly paranoid from looking over their shoulders that they turn to blood magic and demons. At least with his own people and the Dalish the mages are in the community, and whatever hangups he has are from fifteen years of being dragged up with the Chantry. Besides, drinking blood is still different. It's the blood of a dead creature that then changes your own.

"Don't know how it'd work if you're not from our world though, or with that mark in your hand." Maybe he can bother Korrin about it before they get started or get her to bother someone else, maybe even find a few Nevarrans who'd know dragon stuff a bit better. Asher doesn't want to lose out on money because a rifter drank dragon's blood and exploded or burst open one hell of a rift.

Simmer down son, simmer down. "Not how you're putting it, you're not going to be like a dragon, you're drinking it and it changes you but it's more of your blood that's doing it." Bronson's on his feet in response to Kain, butting his head against Asher's leg until the man drops down to press his head to the hound's, grabbing handfuls of loose skin to rub at him, mumbling nonsense, Kain perhaps recognising his name amongst it until the dog seems settled. "Look, this isn't going to the tavern for a pint and just necking it. You have no idea what it's like. My whole crew thought I was dead for three days and that they were going to have to figure out how to get me to a hold for a sky burial. There's more you'll need to do and we'll actually need to find another dragon or dragonlings, or maybe a wyvern. Means asking the Inquisition for permission to go do something like that or at least with you it does with your hand, I'm not throwing my arse in the fire when I'll still have to live here when all is said and done."

Hmmph, stupid shard. Kain holds it up and glares at it hatefully, because he really doesn’t want this thing to ruin his chances here. He waves it dismissively, determined not to let that be a setback. He’s hated the shard from the moment it appeared and gave him so much pain. He didn’t ask for it. He didn’t ask to come here, either, but after dying who knew where he’d have ended up, otherwise. The traveling to other worlds thing is actually something he doesn’t mind. But, ugh, this shard…

“I wouldn’t be too concerned about the shard, no magic or other power seems to have any effect on it, after all. Besides… I understand the risks of this venture, and they’re something I’m willing to take. I’ve nothing left to lose, whatever may happen.” Being in the war made him extremely reckless, and he has no clue where he might end up if he dies here. Probably yet some other world, at this rate. “It’s my decision and I accept the responsibility of whatever may happen.” For real, though, Kain is no stranger to doing serious and potentially life-threatening things like this. He is nothing but fully serious and stern and grim about everything and it shows in his tone. “No matter how it works, to earn such a skill from the dragons in any way is still… important to me.” And how it could combine with his dragooning, who knows? But the point is, they’re his kind and he’ll feel closer to them in some sense. It’s Kain, these symbolic things mean a lot to him. “What else can you tell me of the techniques?”

Better to give the other man time to think about it; Asher didn't, Asher drank and he burned, he lay stiff and still as a corpse. He's never even contemplated teaching this until now, but then his team have always had their own specialities because that's how it works, all of them just knowing their places and how to effortlessly cover for each other.

"You are a bleak sounding bastard, you know that right?" At least Asher says it lightly enough but nothing left to lose has always sounded depressing to Asher's ear, because there are times when it can apply to him; he has the crew, his own life, that's pretty much it though, and there are people with far more who've said those same words to him. "In terms of the battlefield, there's a way to mark it as yours, sounds stranger than it is but when you do that, enemies that come into that space seem to hurt more, not physically, more their spirit. Eventually you can work enough so that it surrounds you instead, so that no matter where you are on the field, the enemy has to go through that. There's something like a blood frenzy. People expect you to get weaker when you get hurt but Reavers? Reavers don't. When they die near you, it spurs you on too. There's other stuff too but those are more what you'll expect to start picking up at the start, it takes time to hone the others and some people are more naturally inclined towards them than others."

That had been the excuse of the one who'd made Asher, when he'd tracked them down. Something of Asher had always called for it, so the Nevarran had said, his bloody way of life even down to the company name had hungered for it, so he had given Asher the tools. And sure eough, Asher never had a formal trainer in it but he's a damned good Reaver, virtually unstoppable until he's bled out all over the place.

Nor would Kain have ever considered learning any new techniques before this. What he has is always more than enough for him, being a dragoon is his life, engrained deeply into his very identity. But he'd seen the way Asher fought. He's felt the pain of injury far too often. This whole thing can only enhance what he's capable of... add to his skills...

"I've been told that before." Usually around a campfire, they'd all be laughing and lightheartedly talking, then there'd be Kain with some dire pronouncement of doom. Jecht used to make fun of him for it all the time. "It doesn't make what I've said any less true, though." He listens with fascination. "You really do thrive on pain... the pain of your enemies, and your own... I've always been one to put all of my strength into a fight, and this notion of a blood frenzy suits me well." He loves it. Sure, right, he knows he won't be invincible. No one is. But to gain strength the more it hurts...

"I understand. I'm one to push beyond my limits. I'm one to keep fighting no matter the odds, and no matter how weary I've become... I've always said, as long as I can stand, I can fight. I never hold back." If only he'd had any kind of blood powers to gain strength from enemies' deaths in the gods' war... it would have given him even more of an edge. "If you could show me, tell me more of what I must know... I would be more than willing to learn. To prepare. I know this is no easy path, but I'm ready for that."

Life is for living so that's what Asher does each day; he goes out, he lives, and he lives well. Not to the standards of others or to their expectations but he does as he pleases and he's never gone to bed with regrets, not once, which is exactly how a man should live. He's never really understood why you'd brood on something unless you lost someone close to you, though he doesn't like to think about the last time he experienced that up close and personal, and it wasn't even his own then.

"You know that my life is more than that, it doesn't define you entirely. More of me is because I'm part-Avvar, believing in my grandfather's gods, because I've gone most everywhere a man can go in Thedas that isn't Tevinter, Seheron, or Par Vollen. I have people I love that love me back." If the message is getting through, he can't be sure because it came so naturally to him after he recovered from the blood that there must have been some potential just sitting there, waiting to be unleashed. But he needs to be sure that Kain really gets it because Asher is enough of a blood knight thanks to his temper and he'd rather not get in too deep with someone who might not be suited because not everyone is. "I fight, but then the rest of the time what you see is what you get.

"ButI don't think I'm going to dissuade you, and it's not that I'm trying, it's just that you will be different. We'll need to go elsewhere for it though, and that's before drinking the blood, there are too many folk in Skyhold proper or around the camps for me to show you what needs to be done. The last thing I need is some lad or lass trying it out and hurting themselves or someone else."

Kain has plenty of things to brood on, but he definitely won't get into great detail about them. He desperately needs to prove himself, though, to work past his failures. To say he's obsessed with the past is definitely putting it mildly.

"And I have no one. My blood family are gone, so is the one that raised me." Well, he's become the Eidolon Odin, but long story. "My friends back home have each other, and I know they'll move on. They'll be fine, whether or not I ever return someday. And I have no one here." Not to the extent he does back home or even in the gods' war. And even then... even then, back home they all had each other, Rosa had Cecil and he would forever be the third man out in that trio. Sure, he may care deeply about his friends and allies, moreso than he lets on, but when it comes down to it, he knows his life is the most expendable out of everyone's. It's just how it is. He's accepted it. "Anyway, I know that life is more than fighting, but to me, it's the only part that's ever been worth anything, the only way I can hope to prove myself... and move beyond the mistakes of my past. I need this."

Kain nods sternly. "I wouldn't be asking about it if I thought it was an easy or even pleasant path to walk. I'm prepared for it to change me." For the better, he thinks, although at the same time he knows it may feel awful at times before he truly masters it. He would never approach something like this without the utmost seriousness, it's something he'll continue to put thought into, to consider and ponder over. He doesn't make his choices lightly. "I understand it's not to be taken lightly... so leaving the area and maintaining secrecy is fine with me." Really, you can't go wrong entrusting Kain to keep a matter under wraps. He certainly wouldn't share the method with random people either.

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