the champion's rogue heart

[wittyskepticism]

WHO: Astrid Hawke
WHERE: Fountain, Inn
WHEN: April 26th and 27th
OPEN TO: ALL
WARNINGS: TBD
STATUS: OPEN

---

April 26th - Fountain, Midday

Hawke is fairly certain that the Nightmare Demon she was fighting didn't have the ability to make her drown. Then again, she was in the Fade last she checked and the Fade is malleable enough to manage that. Still, the demon knows she hates spiders most of all. Why it would try to drown her is beyond her comprehension at the moment.

Not that she minds not staring at giant arachnids at the moment, but it is confusing.

Those thoughts flit across her mind as she struggles to push herself to the surface of the water. She can see it glinting above her like Isabela's ship, like a priceless personal goal that's just out of reach. Just a little further. She reaches, her hand breaks through, and then she's sucking in deep lungfuls of air as she pushes herself up and out, nearly falling over the edge and onto the ground below. For a few seconds, she just lies there, catching her breath and looking around for any sign of the Nightmare Demon.

Nothing. Groaning to herself about the way her life has gone, she finally rolls over and pushes herself to her feet. "That's two apologies the Chantry owes me," she complains with her usual dry humor. "This doesn't look like the Maker's bosom, either."

April 27th - Inn

Hawke takes up a room at the Inn at the first opportunity and her first day is spent just trying to cope. Of course, Hawke's version of coping is hardly the same as everyone else's, so mostly she stays away and tries to figure out what she can. She gets the main idea of the place and that's enough. No one has heard of Thedas. It's enough to make a girl crazy.

So the next day, she hangs out in the Inn proper and not in her room. It almost reminds her of the Hanged Man and that realization brings with it a squeeze of pain. She misses her companions, even if it was her choice to leave Kirkwall. She wonders vaguely how Bethany is doing, if Isabela has managed to find herself a new ship, if Fenris ever cleaned his estate, what Merrill is doing now, and if Aveline and Donnic have decided to try for children. They would make good parents, she thinks. Her mind wanders to Varric and she finds herself smiling into her cup of tea as she sits by the fire. She misses him most of all and she knows he probably misses her, too. He and Aveline were her best friends and she really misses their counsel. And Varric's very broad sense of humor and storytelling.

She keeps her mind pointedly away from Anders. That is a subject she would rather avoid.

Once she has drained her cup, with or without company, she sets about asking for work, trying to see if anyone needs any kind of help. Anyone nearby may find her walking up to start a conversation with a quick, "Mind if I ask you something?" If they say no, she'll start asking and hopefully not badgering, but if they say no, she'll politely leave them alone. Or as politely as possible.

Comments

[tooktheblack]

Jon had only just come to the Inn to drop off what he'd managed to kill hunting this morning but at the question, he took pause and turned to the woman sitting there. She appeared new, at least to his eyes, and he nodded once to indicate she could go on asking her question.

"Aye, you can ask me anything you'd like. I can't guarantee a good answer, though. This place has a lot of things I can't explain."

It was a continual source of frustration for him, yes, but that was something he didn't want to express to someone he didn't know just yet.

[wittyskepticism]

"Just like Thedas," Hawke comments dryly. "At least that's familiar enough." Frustrating, as well, but nothing to do about it. All the same, she hopes it doesn't have Thedas' tendency to kill everyone. Not that it matters to Hawke. She's pretty sure she's supposed to be dead anyway. That was the idea. Sacrifice herself, save her companions, maybe help save Thedas and make up for basically everything.

"I was wondering what people do around here," she says finally, turning more to face him. "What sorts of jobs do people need help with? There's no Chantry board and hardly anything written. I figured word of mouth might be the next best thing."

[tooktheblack]

"I usually hunt in the mornings," Jon explained. "There are only a few bows, we have to share them, but if you can wield one, it would help. Hunting and fishing are the only ways to get food around here, unless you know how to farm."

Jon was no farmer, unfortunately, so he was one of the hunters. "I am Jon Snow. I'm afraid I don't know of Thedas, though. I hail from Westeros."

[wittyskepticism]

Hawke's interest level immediately rises, her eyebrows arching with it. Bows. She misses her bow and all of her other supplies. Mostly her bow, though. If she could find one for herself, she would be really happy, but for now she might be able to settle for sharing. It would mean actually being able to do something she understands. Something she's done for most of her life.

"I've been shooting a bow since before I could walk," she replies jokingly. "Does anyone else go hunting with you?" If not, maybe he would be a good person to help show her around. She could use a friendly face anyway.

"Never heard of Westeros, either. I guess we're mutually lacking in knowledge." She does pause as she realizes she might actually have to tell him her name. That would never happen in Thedas. Or very rarely anyway. Most people know her, if not on sight then definitely by name. "Call me Hawke. Everyone else does."

[tooktheblack]

"I normally take to the woods alone just before dawn but if you'd like to accompany me, I would be happy to show you where the good game is," Jon said. He gave her a brief smile, just a flash of teeth in an otherwise dour face.

"Jon Snow. Well met, Hawke. How did you come by such a name? Are you that keen an eye? I might be replaced on the bow if that's the case."

[wittyskepticism]

"Good game?" Hawke asks, her humor shining through as usual. "Oh do the animals know how to play Wicked Grace? I could really go for a hand at that."

She pauses, realizing that her joke has probably fallen flat, and then chooses to ignore it and push on.

"It's my family name, on my father's side," she explains. "For some reason everyone started calling me that when we moved to Kirkwall and it just stuck." She doesn't mind, though if Carver had lived that might have been another wedge between them. "We'll have to find out who has the bird's eye view, won't we?"

If she knew the turn of phrase involving eagles, she might have made a play on that instead. Oh well.

[tooktheblack]

Jon laughed a bit and shook his head. He didn't know what Wicked Grace was but he could tell a joke when he heard one and it was slightly at his expense, yes, but it wasn't unkind.

"Well, I meant where they tend to populate, is all, which I imagine you could extract from that. If you're as good a sight as your family name indicates, we'll be glad to have you here. We can always use more good shots."

[wittyskepticism]

Hawke considers for another few minutes, letting her gaze wander back to the fire. The flames flickering up and down give her a sense of comfort, small though it is. The sight reminds her of home and if she focuses enough on it, she can almost convince herself that she's staring into a fireplace at the estate. Except that it's much cleaner here. Hilariously.

She misses Bodahn and Sandal. They were constants at the estate, constants in her life. She misses a lot of the way things were.

"I can imagine so," she says rather than get into any of that. Best to push that aside. "It doesn't look like food is overflowing here." It hadn't really been in Kirkwall, either, but the situation there was much better than what she can see here so far. "If you have time to show me tomorrow morning, I'd like to learn."

[tooktheblack]

"We eat well enough but if more people come, it will be scarce," Jon said, nodding quickly. "So I would be happy to show you where I typically hunt in the morning. I could use the help. We all could."

He smiled just a bit, trying to be welcoming. "Tell me more about this Thedas, if you would?"

[wittyskepticism]

That makes sense. It's something to keep in mind, but at the same time they can't afford to ration too much.

"I'm always happy to help," she says honestly. Although his question about Thedas has one of her eyebrows rising. That's a difficult question to answer. "Anything in particular you want to know or shall I start with prejudice, darkspawn, demons, and how everyone wants to kill each other?"

INN

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana was focused on her task, running a thick rock over what looked like fabric. She hadn’t noticed that a new person was drinking tea or that there was much else going on around her. It wasn’t until her question that she snapped her attention up.

A nervous smile tugged at her lips. "Oh, yeah." She hadn’t realized she’d lost focus on the things around her.

She pushed her work to the side, letting it sit untouched. "What is it? Are you knew?" She really should have been paying more attention. Moana was a little excited about the fabric that she was making, hoping to remake her dress before the warmer weather.

[wittyskepticism]

Hawke's attention is immediately drawn to what the girl is doing and for a few seconds she forgets what she was going to ask. Or, rather, she puts it on hold.

"Very new. So new you might still be able to see the water from sailing over," she jokes. Although given that they apparently rise out of the fountain in the middle of town, her words work both for her journey to Kirkwall and her arrival here. "I was going to ask what people do around here, but I think I can see the answer you would give. What is that?"

[chosenbytheocean]

"Oh," She looked back at the fabric like substance and rock, pulling it back so that the woman could see it better. "This is just a side project I'm doing." She didn't explain it more because it was just something to ease her mind and heart.

It reminded her of traditions from home.

Moana looked up at her and considered her original inquiry. "People do all sorts of things around here. Most try and help out so we have food and firewood." There have been some experimental escapes but none have gone particularly well.

[wittyskepticism]

It looks lovely, though Hawke barely knows how to say that, either. The more she watches and talks with this girl, the more she reminds Hawke of Merrill. It's enough to drive a small wedge of sorrow into her heart. One more person she likely won't be seeing again. No, not likely. Definitely.

"That's noble," she admits instead. Food and firewood. Well, she can hunt if she can get her hands on a bow, or she could chop wood. "I've been trying to decide what to do with myself. Can't sit in a chair by the fire and drink tea all day."

Well, she could, but her life has never really let her do that and she doesn't expect it to change now.

[chosenbytheocean]

A light smile touched Moana's lips while understanding reflected in the deep brown hue of her irises. "I understand. I started by making fishing nets. Through the winter there wasn't much in the woods but there were fish. I think someone is going to organizing planting soon and there are materials that you can borrow in the back of the in." She was pretty sure there as a bow among other things there to be borrowed. Moana assumed it was fine as long as people didn't walk off with them.

"I understand wanting something to do. That's why I spend the evenings making things." Mostly when it was too dark to go out and someone else was already cooking.

"What do you like to do? We can think of something." It wasn't that she was comfortable in the world, far from it, but Moana already had a failed escape attempt as well as the shock of suddenly arriving back here. She was trying to think, instead of acting foolishly to escape.

[wittyskepticism]

"I don't think I'm much of a farmer," Hawke admits, thinking back to Lothering and the whole poisoned trap issue. No thanks. "Tell me they don't use traps here. I've had enough of getting my leg stuck." She hasn't seen any yet, but admittedly this is her second day here and she's not entirely familiar with anything other than the Inn and the fountain she so gracefully climbed out of. Or gracelessly, depending on who gets asked about it.

She's a rogue, though. She should be able to pick out traps. Just apparently not the farm variety.

It takes remembering the last time she made the terrible joke not to say, "Helping people and killing people are what I do best," but it's a close thing. That would probably go about as well as it had the last time and she would really rather not deal with accidentally insulting one of the first people to talk to her this soon. Instead, she actually gives that question thought.

"I can disarm traps like a professional, shoot a bow. Explore." Maker's breath, what else did she do? "Gather herbs for the herbalists. Fight dragons. Kill demons. Get my heart broken."

Okay so that last one might not be something she likes doing, but dammit, Anders.

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "I don't know. I don't think so. Maybe they will when the weather warms." She wondered if this girl really had that much trouble with traps. Moana thought of fish traps and wondered how Hawke would get stuck in one of those.

"Killing?" She didn't mean to sound worried but Moana grew up on a peaceful island. She hadn't been able to conceptualize someone killing a person on purpose.

"Um... there are a lot of people who need help." Moana really had no idea what to make of this woman. She felt bad for her but also a little wary of her.

[wittyskepticism]

Moana would probably not like Thedas. Then again a lot of Thedosians don't like Thedas. It isn't exactly a friendly place. And that doesn't even get into Tevinter's slavery or Orlais and the Game or the Blight. Demons, though... how does she explain that?

"Demons are difficult to explain," she begins carefully. "They're not like actual people. They're... spirits that were twisted to become something bad. Rage, greed, pride, vengeance. That sort of thing. If given the chance, they'll use you and then kill you."

Feeling bad and wary of Hawke is about right on first meeting these days. Hawke wouldn't blame her at all. Once upon a time she was a much nicer person. Diplomatic more than anything. But then Kirkwall had happened, Anders had happened, and she had changed. A part of that person still exists, but she's buried it underneath layers of not coping.

[chosenbytheocean]

"I know what demons and monsters are." She'd been to the realm of monsters and it had been horribly unpleasant. She'd made it out alive but that was also partially due to luck.

This wasn't something she wanted to talk about. It felt like they were speaking two different languages. This woman wasn't very clear in what she said.

"You should ask Kate or Mark. Kate oversees the inn." At least as far as Moana knew. "Mark is organizing the planting and farming. They'll know what the inn needs. There are rooms upstairs. If it's empty then it's free I think." Even if she was unsure of this woman's character Moana was helpful and as pleasant as she could be. This was all too confusing.

April 27

[pretendtoneedme]

Normally Clint doesn't spend all that much time at the inn since he, Wanda, and Sam are all pretty good about fending for themselves, but when he's working on the mill it's easier to get food from the communal lunches at the main building than trying to scrape something up at the house. And thanks to the Obscurus attack a few days before, he has enough angry energy to put a good few days' hard labor into it, because who knew what the hell was going on now and the people who did know something about that didn't exactly want to share that knowledge.

So he's at one of the tables eating when she walks up and starts speaking. He takes a moment to swallow and then nods with a little shrug. "Sure, if you want. Just get here?" He doesn't know everyone in the village yet, but he's been around long enough to have a visual familiarity with pretty much everyone, and he's never seen her before.

[wittyskepticism]

"Yesterday," Hawke responds, figuring that by now everyone's figured out how to tell the newcomers from the people who have lived here a while. Her habit of walking up to ask them things probably doesn't help her fit in, but she's never exactly been the type not to stand out.

"I've been trying to figure out what there is to do around here," she continues, her voice taking on the tone of a child who's bored with her life. "It's not like people need someone to solve all of their problems here."

[pretendtoneedme]

Mostly it's easy to tell a person is new; the village isn't really big enough for faces to slip under the radar, even if you don't talk to a person. He hasn't seen her around anywhere, therefore she must be new. No more than a few days, at least.

Still, her declaration takes Clint by surprise a little. Not a lot, and it doesn't show except for a blink and a quick 'huh' sort of expression on his face, but then he shrugs. "Survive, mostly." It's true; there's just not a lot of other things they can do before seeing to food, shelter, and safety for everyone here. "If you're any good with farming, Mark can definitely use your help. Or if you can fix stuff, there's a lot of buildings around here that need some work, and other projects we've been wanting to get started but haven't been able to 'cause we don't have the people who know how to do it or the materials. Miss Kate's in charge of most of the cooking here in the inn and she can always use another pair of hands, and if you don't mind hunting the game's starting to come back after the winter and we could use some more meat."

[wittyskepticism]

"Ohh," Hawke says with something in between dry humor and sarcastic humor. "Oh so it's a survival game here, too. Just like Thedas." On the plus side this means she won't be too far out of her element. She can survive with the best of them, always had in Thedas. As long as there aren't any crazy shards of red lyrium or a darkspawn Tevinter magister around, Hawke thinks she can deal with anything this place has to offer.

Farming and cooking she could probably do, but they wouldn't be her first choices. Neither would fixing things, but really Hawke has done worse in the name of earning coin before. Not that there seems to be coin exactly here.

"Tell me they have bows here? I'm not picking up a sword and charging a bear. That's something Aveline would do."

No, really. Aveline is part of the guard. That's what they do. And her motto was always, "Protect what matters with everything you have or you'll have nothing and deserve it." Hawke misses her, too. Deeply.

[pretendtoneedme]

At least this girl's not panicking about being somewhere without electricity. He's adjusted, but it'd been a shock for him at first, and he could easily guess that other people had had a much ruder awakening when they realized what exactly this village was like. But it's the second thing she says that interests him, because - well, duh.

"There's a few, but they're not all that great. You shoot?" Clint's analysis of the weapons is partially biased, but also not all that off. Some of them are old and worn, but a couple are sturdy enough. None of them have the draw weight he's used to, though, and for that reason alone he'll never consider them 'good enough.' They always feel like a child's bow to him, the arrows almost like feathers.

[wittyskepticism]

Electricity is a foreign concept to Hawke. If it existed here, she would likely spend forever accusing people of harnessing mage powers for it. How else would it work? Luckily, she doesn't have an adjustment there. So far, a lot of it has been just like Thedas and she can deal with that.

"I do. It's the only thing I like to use." She knows the basics of knife-fighting, but she's never been good at it the way Isabela is. Give her a sword of any kind and she's likely to chop someone's ear off. "What's wrong with the ones here? Do they not perform well?"