sixthiterationlogs | the champion's rogue heart

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.

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Moana nodded her head. "That's fine. I'm usually around the inn in the evenings." It's still a little too cold to go out at night and Moana didn't like the chance of running into something unpleasant in the darkness.

"I don't think the ocean is supposed to be calm." She pointed out with a bit of a smile. "Why is it waking exactly?" She has fallen asleep on some pretty turbulent waters in the past but then, Moana might just be able to sleep through anything. "I've heard that real way-finders never have to sleep." She spoke a little dreamily when she mentioned way-finders.

They were a part of Moana's history and legends and she wanted nothing more than to be like them.

"True," Hawke agrees thoughtfully. "But I don't think most are full of violent waves. There's the Wounded Coast in the Free Marches outside Kirkwall, where a lot of people get shipwrecked from the storms and the terrible waves, and on the Ferelden side you've got the Storm Coast. Which is, apparently, full of storms."

Thedas apparently doesn't have particularly creative names at times. At least there's usually very little confusion.

"The Waking Sea tosses your ship around like a toy. That was one of the least pleasant journeys of my life." And that is saying something, honestly. She's had several unpleasant journeys by now. "The only thing that could have made it worse was if we'd picked up a bunch of giant spiders."

It was a ship, so it had seen rats and little spiders, but if there had been giant ones, they'd've been killed right off. Hawke would not stand for those.

"What's a way-finder?"

Moana felt a shiver crawl down her spine at the woman's description. She didn't want to meet giant spiders, let alone on the sea. The good news was that the ocean was just as unforgiving to humans as it was to spiders.

"Those who find their way across the sea." She spoke plainly and simply. "My ancestors were way-finders."

It wasn't something that Moana knew a lot about. She knew stories but her father had done well to erase bits and pieces of that lineage.

The description doesn't make much sense to Hawke, but her world is clearly much larger than Moana's. Or whatever it really is. One of her eyebrows arches as she tries to find a way to ask a question that won't completely offend Moana.

"What do they find on the other side?"

That's... a start. Hopefully.

Moana shook her head. "I don't know, I've never left my island until recently." She couldn't say what was beyond the horizon, only that she wanted to see it.

She wasn't offended or worried about Hawke's reply. It was freedom that she craved, it called to her. That call wasn't something that Moana would ever be able to explain. She'd tried once, to explain it to her father but she'd failed.

Hawke might not understand everything about being a way-finder or sailing the ocean Moana knows. What she does know is that goals and dreams are important. At least as long as they don't hurt innocents in the process. Her expression softens.

"I hope one day you find out," she says softly. "Goals and dreams are important."

Edited 2017-05-07 20:30 (UTC)

Moana nodded her head. "I will." She agreed with Hawke though it didn't seem like she explained herself very well. It was bound to happen with so many people from so many places.

"Why not take a look around? When you want to learn about fishing you can come find me."

Things one knows well from home are hard to explain to someone with no frame of reference. Hawke is discovering this as well. With time, they'll get better at it.

Hawke nods in response. "I will. Thank you for your help." It means a lot to her.

But for now, she turns and heads around to another part of the Inn. Or maybe outside again. She's tired of being cooped up.

the champion's rogue heart

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