I've done my sentence but committed no crime

[wolfehawke]

Who: Adalwolfe Hawke and you!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: On the Iskaulit
When: Nowish

Broadcast

[The video pops up with Adalwolfe's face centered in the camera, but with the background moving behind him, clearly showing the familiar corridors of the Iskaulit. He's making his way to his new job at Málum as bartender.]

So I noticed on the list of scheduled lectures posted a bit ago that there are several on magic, not to mention several people I've spoken with having positive or relaxed reactions to its use. It's incredibly strange to me that everyone is so open and accepting of this, considering the doctrine regarding magic in my home of Thedas, so it begs the following question and I hope at least someone from outside of Thedas will indulge me:

What is magic like on your world? Is it regulated? Does everyone have the ability to use it, or only a small number of people? Are there prejudices that go along with that.

Ah, well, I suppose that's more than one question. Still, if you're willing to talk about it, please feel free to respond to this post and I'll get back to you when I'm finished with work. Thank you!

[The video clicks off.]


Action

It's only a short walk from the hanger to the bar, but Adalwolfe takes his time since he can't watch where he's going very well as he's recording on his device. Which could lead to all kinds of problems. He seems to be avoiding walls okay, but if a person, say, came out of a corridor nearby or happened to step in front of him at just the right time before he put down the little screen, he might just bowl right into them, or walk right past without noticing a mischievous foot out for him to trip over. Honestly, he's an open target. Or at least seems like it...

Comments

action; i lied you're getting a tag

[bryces_pup]

[You know, Riona's had a rough few months. Ever since she arrived here, to be honest. A lot of that is of her own doing and she will absolutely be the first to admit that. Furthermore, she hasn't really handled her mounting issues terribly well, what with her getting smashed and making an idiot of herself on the network, and then deciding after that to not speak about her problems to almost anyone. So that's a few months worth of bottled up issues that have been stewing and churning.

Unfortunately, Adalwolfe may have finally just tipped her over the edge.

Her fist lashes out before she barely realizes what she's doing. It goes straight for his jaw, a short right hook aiming right at it.]

Insult my husband again and I will do worse.

[She seethes. Punching him had never been her intention, but like his words, she can't take it back now.]

What do you want me to say? Am I supposed to be just fine with the fact that my husband dies? That I should accept that my king died in the stead of another? What did you honestly expect?

[And the urge to punch him rises. But this time she has the foresight to take a step back before she does it again.]

You talk of him like he's still a Warden, still a templar. That is your mistake. That was your damn Inquisitor's mistake. Alistair is no longer these things. He is a king, Hawke. One I am sworn to protect. As a Cousland, I was always taught to uphold my duty above all else. From my point of view, I'm hearing about some person who sacrificed a king to some demon in the Fade when he should not have. Alistair may have insisted - and Maker I can't imagine why - but it should not have been him.

[It should have been you. But she leaves the words unspoken, for now. They're cruel words.]

No, it doesn't make a damn lick of sense why he was there to begin with. The court would not have let him go. My brother would have personally dragged him back to Ferelden. Leliana would have told me and I would have marched there myself. But these are all things in the future and I can't account for any of it! So don't stand there expecting me to understand!

[She sniffs, and she's surprised to feel tears leaking out.]

You don't tell someone that their rock - their home - dies when he did not have to, and expect them to be rational about it.

action; well you're getting one back so there!

[wolfehawke]

[Her fist flies and he actively pushes back the urge to raise his rock armor and let her hit that instead. He leaves himself open because he deserves it for his words, and he knows she needs this. He'd needed to punch someone after Anders had done the unthinkable too, but he'd had legions of Templars to take his ire out on, and Anders had lived. Riona only has empty space, a dead husband, and Hawke's jaw.

So he takes it and he stumbles back from the blow.

She hits like the soldier she is, like the seasoned campaigner he'd heard stories of, and he's gratified to touch his face and come back with blood on his fingers. Not much, but enough to hopefully be satisfying.

When Hawke speaks again, it's with a jarringly quiet tone against Riona's yelling. Gentle and low with no barbs, just a helpless search for understanding.]

He was all of those things, just as you're still a Warden, the Hero, an Arlessa, and a Queen. Just as I'm still an apostate and the Champion. We don't escape the old roles even if we take on new ones.

[He leans against the wall, eyes to the ceiling for a moment as he rubs the blossoming bruise at his jaw.]

It should have been me.

[He echoes her unsaid words, showing a spark of just how cruel he is to himself even when she will not cross that line.]

I know it should have been, before it even got that far. I should have dispatched Corypheus at Vimmark and then he still would be... So many people would still be alive. What Alistair did, it was a noble thing, but if I had been at all what people believed of me, it would not have been necessary.

[She's crying and he wants to reach out, but instead it's just words that tumble. Things he's been keeping to himself for so very long because his companions would never deign to hear them. They'd say he's too hard on himself, that he's done the best he could. But had he? From his talks with others here, it's proof that's not the case.]

You, you saved the world from the Blight. All I did was put it in peril again. So no, I don't think I should have stopped Alistair from doing what he felt he had to in order to protect his people, in order to protect his country; his queen and lady wife. But I do believe entirely that I should have been long dead before it ever even came to that.

[He tastes salt with the copper of his broken lip and slows his words, any fight still left in him gone out entirely.]

You're right. You don't have to be rational. None of this is rational.

[bryces_pup]

[His admittance surprises her. It leaves her dumbfounded for just a moment, her momentum thrown. She looks down at the ground, chewing over what she wants to say.]

...yes, it should have been you. [Her voice is quiet.] I don't say that lightly. I don't say it because you deserve it, or because I want you dead. I hate saying it, but there it is. [She gestures helplessly.] And I only say it because you don't have an entire kingdom riding on your shoulders. Frankly, I don't know what's going to happen to Ferelden. I may not be enough to keep it from falling into another civil war. What I'll - or that Riona in your world - will suffer... there aren't words enough for it, but that isn't what scares me the most.

[And she realizes that she hasn't exactly articulated what she's feeling terribly well, aside from just anger and grief.] Yes, I saved the world - but I did it for Ferelden. My putting Alistair on the throne was for Ferelden's sake. Everything I did, I did it for Ferelden. [A sigh.] At least, what I thought was best. The good of the kingdom must come first. [Duty above all else. Her father's words, often echoed by her mother and at times her brother.] What Alistair did... what this Inquisitor chose, what he allowed, it'll completely unravel what I've done.

[That she has little doubt about. And it angers her, because there was another way, another choice. And Alistair should have known better. This Inquisitor should have known better. Yes, stopping the evil terrible demon thing was important, but his kingdom needed him.]

And perhaps what frightens me the most is that, despite what Alistair did - and his reasons why - they may have been for nothing. Sure, the world is safer without that thing, but what of Ferelden? If it tears itself apart...

[wolfehawke]

It won't.

[He rubs at his chin, more in an absent soothing motion than to cover any lasting damage.]

That's quite literally what the Inquisitor intends to do, is keep all of Southern Thedas in one piece. I don't know how, exactly, but with the way the Inquisition has grown, he may well be able to do it. That, and Ferelden has you as Queen. You sell yourself and your abilities too short. Not that it eases the loss, I know, but for whatever it's worth.

[This is easier to talk about somehow, for how much he loathes politics. It's still better than another punch in the face though.]

[bryces_pup]

Easy for you to say. [Flippant, but a part of her is tired of having to be the one that keeps the pieces from flying apart. The one who shoulders the burdens, the one who has to be all right and be strong. She ended one civil conflict. Is she truly destined to have to stop another?] You don't know the court like I do. [It's not to the degree of danger that lurks in the Orlesian court and its Great Game, but it's still treacherous.] Plenty supported deposing Anora as she had no actual claim to the throne once Cailan died. And what lovely irony it would be if that was my fate.

[She smiles bitterly at the thought, but she made the decision to depose Anora. She put Alistair on the throne. The responsibility and fault is hers, and she'll accept it, however hard it will be to swallow.]

[wolfehawke]

Anything's easy to say.

[He touches his lip again, coming away with no blood this time.]

All I can offer is my condolences, Your Majesty. I do understand court intricacies and I do not envy your position, but unless you can change his mind when or if you return to Thedas, I have no solution to offer you. What I do have is faith in your ability. If Alistair left the country to you, he must have had complete faith that you could retain and rule it, and it would be a disservice to his memory not to share that. He was a good man, and believed in you entirely.

[That and no one has a claim to the throne with Alistair's death, last of the Theirin line as he was. He shakes his head, deciding that he should best be getting off to work soon. He could do with a drink anyway.]

I'm sorry, but there are only so many times I can say that before it loses meaning.

[bryces_pup]

[Clearly Adalwolfe's said his piece. They could go back and forth for quite a long time on this, but in the end, it won't accomplish anything. He's holding fast to his opinions, and Riona knows a losing battle when she sees it.

She nods curtly.]

Of course. I think I've taken up enough of your time anyway.

[Another nod of departure before she turns to leave. However, a few steps away and she stops.]

Ah, I almost forgot. [She looks back over her shoulder at him.] It's not common knowledge I'm a queen, so I would appreciate if you said nothing of it to anyone.

[wolfehawke]

I'm fairly certain the only people who would care already know, but I will keep your secret.

[He folds his arms, pointedly not bowing. That would be giving it away after all.]

Another time, Lady Riona.

[He watches her leave, not heading into work until she's out of sight.]