002; action;

[theirinurpants]

Who: Alistair and anyone who wants to get shitfaced.
Broadcast: Nope.
Action: Varric's bar on the Iskaulit.
When: Tonight. All night. PONY UP.
WARNING: Depending on how conversations go, drunk!Alistair may make vague references to child neglect/abuse, or possibly dubiously consensual sex. Other topics might include violence and extreme daddy issues. Let me know if you want me to specifically avoid any of that!

[ For all intents and purposes, Alistair feels utterly alone. Sure, there are several people in the fleet who know him, but he doesn't seem to know any of them, and so it's weird. And if he's being honest with himself, he was feeling pretty lonely well before he got here. All of the friends he made during the Blight, when they were all on the road together, pretty much left after it ended, after his coronation. Even Amell ran off somewhere with Leliana, leaving him to the tender mercies of his uncle, his late brother's widow, and the rest of the Fereldan nobility.

He's been keeping up a cheerful face - he doesn't really know how to do anything else - but what with being here, learning about things he probably shouldn't have learned about, and having a little bit of money from - somewhere, he's finally just. Showed up to the bar. Varric's is the closest thing to familiar he can find, so he's drinking whatever ale his money can buy. And he's not stopping until the money runs out or he is insensible on the floor. ]

Another. Please.

Comments

[theirinurpants]

I mean, I know of the Couslands. Everyone in Ferelden does, they're older even than the royal line. Never met one personally though, until I showed up here.

[namisan]

Does she actually know you, or just know you're the king?

[theirinurpants]

Yes, she knows me. She says we're friends in her world, that she's also a Grey Warden.

[namisan]

But that's news to you. [Weird.] What's a Grey Warden?

[theirinurpants]

Grey Wardens are warriors who fight darkspawn and protect the lands of Thedas from the Blight. Darkspawn are a sort of evil creature - they destroy everything they touch. The Grey Wardens exist to protect people from them.

[namisan]

Sounds like a fun place. [...ahaha. Not. Does sound kind of familiar, though.] So are the Grey Wardens well known, or are they a more secretive kind of order?

[theirinurpants]

Very well-known. Legendary, even. I doubt we'd get many recruits if people didn't know about them.

[namisan]

Well, even their secretive orders get their recruits from somewhere, even if they just scout them out one by one. But I'm glad something like that exists in your world. Do they get involved in politics at all?

[theirinurpants]

Oh, I'm not saying the Grey Warden's aren't secretive. We have lots of secrets! Just not about our very existence.

[namisan]

And so you're a Grey Warden and a king. I wouldn't have thought that was allowed, risking your neck like that.

[theirinurpants]

Well I'm probably not going to do the Grey Wardening much anymore. The Blight is over, anyway, and there's a country to rebuild.

I mean, it's true that I've never heard of anyone just... quitting the Grey Wardens. It's a bit complicated.

[namisan]

Exit rituals? [Wild guess.] Even for a king. Or something else? Or should I stop asking?

[Dryly, because she figures this goes from casual curiosity to prying at some point.]

[theirinurpants]

No, you just - don't stop being a Grey Warden. I mean, I'm king now, so I won't be fighting darkspawn anymore, but there are... I mean, you - it's hard to explain. We become what we are.

[namisan]

[Hard to explain. She doesn't really get it either; maybe it's akin to Sam and his hunting of monsters, but it sounds like everyone knows the monsters are there in this world. She frowns thoughtfully.]

You get... changed, somehow? [It's the only option left. She just doesn't see how.]

[theirinurpants]

Yes. We get changed. We become immune to the darkspawn taint, and we have some other abilities too. Those just don't go away.

[namisan]

[Oh they taint things. Better and better.]

You make it sound like not all of it's good. [Not if it's complicated. She'd have thought abilities just made things easier. Of course, the Devil Fruits in her world have a massive downside, too, and that never goes away.] Price to pay?

[theirinurpants]

Everything has a cost. It's just the way things are.

[namisan]

Yeah. That holds true in most places.

[To divert the whole third degree a bit, she switches tack.] In my world, there's a magical kind of fruit you can eat that will also give you power. But if you eat it, you're stuck with them for life... and you're rejected by the sea. If you fall in, you'll just sink like a stone.

Kind of a drawback in a world that runs on marines and piracy.

[theirinurpants]

Huh. Ours are a little less... ironic. We just die sooner.

[namisan]

[Huh. That's... ah.]

...that's one hell of a drawback. How much sooner?

[theirinurpants]

Well, from what I hear, you get about thirty years after your Joining, give or take.

[namisan]

I guess it could be worse. It's a longer life expectancy than most pirates. [She grins a little ruefully.] And I guess in that line of work you might not live that long anyway. But pretty steep price to pay regardless. Is that the only one?

[theirinurpants]

Well, there's the nightmares, I suppose. The appetite increase, maybe.

[namisan]

Okay no, that's worse. Define nightmares.

[theirinurpants]

Welllllllll, you dream about darkspawn, sometimes. During a Blight, it's worse.