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[ The market is a busy, bustling place, and it's not uncommon to be jostled. Still, the petite young woman with the bow who runs into Hawke's back might catch his attention simply because she's wearing something he probably wouldn't expect to run into here:

Grey Warden armor. ]

Oh! Sorry, my fault!

[ He's about to wave this off, partially because as a person he's just not fussed by such things and partially because although he is not quite the Templar-benchpressing-brick of a person some portrayals suggest, she's still ...about the size of one of his legs and thus not exactly staggering, when, yes, he notices the armor.

Possibly no face has ever achieved such an elegant descent into total long-suffering resignation before, particularly because despite only lasting like, the uh, normal time it takes for a person's face to change expression, it seems to go on for days. D a y s. ]

Do they actually have Blights here, or are you just a charming addition to the scenery?

[ This will make or break his day, apparently. Alternately: he generates drama like body heat. ]

[ That response startles Steffa more than a little, and her head snaps up (way up wow why is everyone so tall?) and she looks hard at him.

...nope, doesn't recognize him. Which means there's another Thedosian on the fleet, it would seem. ]

Ah... No. I'm visiting. From Ferelden, technically.

[ They grow 'em big in Lothering. ]

Really!
[ That's ...sort of comforting, even if the Warden thing distinctly isn't. ]

Somewhere west, right? You'd think I'dve known you from a local, but if I may say in my own defense it's been a bugger of a week.

[ His own accent meanwhile probably has strong notes of Ferelden left and then fainter Freemarcher, but mostly he sounds like he's from everywhere. ]

[ The ridiculousness of the town's name has not been lost on Steffa, and she smirks a little, and it's probably an unsettlingly familiar expression if he can place it - it looks more than a little like Bethany's playful smirk. ]

No no, I think you're thinking of Kerelden. Ferelden's a bit further off than that.

[ She has laughter twinkling around her eyes, but she can at least be considerate to someone who's clearly new. ]

You're new, huh? Welcome to the fleet. I'm Stephanie Amell, let me know if I can help at all, yeah?

[ The Lego pieces snapping into place are almost visible over his head, and he's like, never even heard of Legos. Deductive reasoning of some kind is definitely happening, however, Hawke's upper torso bending back a little at the waist as he crosses his arms low on his chest; the posture projects a kind of gravitational interest rather than the staunch enclosure of personal space. Basically his entire being becomes a giant interrobang. ]

The Warden Amell. The one with a string of titles longer than my arm.

[ You'd think she's fibbing. Most people would, if they'd heard the stories and then met this small girl outside of an official context, in the same armor your average everyday Warden would wear.

Except most people who would be fibbing about that probably wouldn't make the face she just pulled, which says (as clearly as Hawke's legos) that she was kind of hoping not to get that reaction. ]

[ muttered ] I need to stop giving my full name.

[ and then she smiles as non-grimacingly as she can ] Yes, that would be me. Former Warden-Commander Stephanie Amell, at your service. I hope that recognition wasn't negative, that would be just what I don't need, if I'm being honest.

[ Nah, even after dealing with demons and Meredith and an actualfax legit ancient Magister, Aveline is still the scariest person Hawke knows. Something something terrible size doesn't count joke we would make if we were threading with like, not Hawke's baby cousin. Speaking of which!

One eyebrow casually ascends his forehead. ]

Does that happen often? 'Thanks for the whole archdemon thing, get stuffed'?

[ Geez, Ferelden. What kind of manners are those!

He's ...easing into the whole cousin thing. ]

[ You'd know, your manners are still horribly provincial, serah. ]

No, but you never can tell, and after Loghain made at least one attempt to have me killed I always feel like there's the possibility someone else might try.

It's probably paranoia.

[ Well, you can take the boy out of Lothering ... ]

Speaking from experience after the sixth or seventh attempt it almost starts feeling personal! And not a little insulting, I might add. I mean surely if you really want to kill a person you hire better assassins than that.

[ At this point he's so animated even his hair is springing around in an absolute frenzy of drama--no, just kidding. Can a person be entirely composed of excessive mannerism and yet at the same time deadpan enough to kill all the pans seven pan-generations down? No? Hawke begs to differ. ]

Off the subject of untimely death there's every possibility we're related, by the way.

[ He just drops that at the end. Like a mic. Which is to say uh ....anachronistically? ]

Edited 2015-03-20 16:11 (UTC)

[ Stephanie chuckles a little at his deadpanning over assassins, and is about to respond with something that was probably witty when he drops that mic and whatever bit of wit she had flies out of her head

She just blinks at him for a moment, kind of... stunned, really. ]

I--

Wh--

I beg your pardon?

[ Look, it's one thing to know abstractly that you have a cousin in Kirkwall, it's another entirely for that cousin to be standing in front of you and a completely different gender than you were first informed of. ~~Dammit, Varric.~~ ]

[ It's just like Varric to incite all this kerfuffle and then be unconscious when it comes time for the fallout.

All right it's ...really not, but go with it. Hawke, meanwhile, appears relatively composed; whether or not he actually is can be considered up for debate. ]

My mother's an Amell.

[ Or uh, was. Slip-ups like that still happen; he doesn't linger on it. ]

She's the one with the brother I imagine the family tries to forget; Maker knows I certainly do.

[ Mother's an Amell, which she knows now is Kirkwall nobility, or sort of, or used to be? She's not quite clear on that front. But he sounds Ferelden... mostly. Maybe like he's been away for a long time.

Like, say, a decade. ]

You're Hawke, aren't you?

[ Sure he could be some other random Amell, but she's noticed how people tend to be connected if they're from the same world. And then the next words just kind of... spill out, more or less. ]

But Varric said you were a woman!

[ ....erm. Hawke blinks rapidly, one eyebrow zipping upwards like a marionette limb. Which is no mean feat to get him to do these days, so congratulations, Steffa? ]

Can't say I've ever gotten that one before.

[ ...what does he ...do with this... ]

Did he at least say I was a pretty woman?

[ Because I mean. ]

[ Steffa gapes for a moment, until a little laugh bubbles out of her ]

You know, he didn't say. Or if he did, I missed it being baffled why someone would rather live in Kirkwall than Ferelden.

[ Her tone is cautiously teasing - she's obviously very fond of her home, but she understands the reasons he'd stay where he was. He'd made a home there, and there was nowhere for him to go back to.

She could understand part of that feeling, if nothing else. ]

Welllllll, to get back I'd have had to take another ship, and in comparison to sea travel Kirkwall seems positively homey.

[ Naturally he is deflecting. A lot. When he'd first come to the city he'd thought once they had the money they'd probably go back, but--it didn't exactly work out that way. The obstinacy and adherence to moral code that makes no sense to outsides will mark him as Ferelden forever, but although he doesn't consider himself a Marcher, by the time he'd had to leave it Kirkwall was home. ]

So! Do I pass muster? Even not being a woman and everything.

Ah, yes. I've avoided sea travel thus far, aside from a small rowboat across a lake. I rather think I'd prefer to keep it to a minimum as well.

[ Nah, she understands. She'd initially planned on seeing if she could return to the Circle, if she survived the Blight. That obviously didn't end up happening for a number of reasons, but not least among them was the fact that it... wasn't home anymore.

Not that she herself has a home at this point, but the Circle certainly wasn't it. ]

Well, you seem like an unrespectable sort, but you're not Orlesian, so I suppose you'll do. Pleasure to meet you, cousin.

Edited 2015-03-25 02:55 (UTC)

[ Hawke's laugh is whole-bodied and totally untempered, so Steffa can mark tallies on some scoreboard somewhere. The one of 'cousin points' she is totally keeping, right? ]

No need to worry on that account. Last time I checked both I and any known associations were banned from Her lace-trimmed borders entirely.

[ Because of that whole Tallis thing. ]

Would you believe this isn't the first time I've had a Mystery Cousin materialize before me? She'd be your cousin too, come to think of it.

[ She's totally keeping a tally, sure. It's titled "times Garrett Hawke has been ridiculous either in my presence or in a way that affects me".

♥ ]

A great loss for them and you, I'm sure, though I have to admit I'm curious what you did to get yourself banned from an entire country.

[ See, if someone had told her about Charade before she met Hawke, she'd have been a bit disbelieving. Meeting him in person though... Yes, he definitely seems the sort to have multiple instances of unexpected cousins. ]

Really? How many people can say that, I wonder? Outside of our family apparently.

[ She half-stumbles over "our family", but doesn't linger on it. It's just so odd to say, she feels like she shouldn't be allowed to say it. ]

Not much loss for me! I'd already tried all the cheeses worth having. Besides it's really quite a dull tale, just a rogue Qunari assassin absolutely terrible at her job, a killer wyvern, and dozens of silly accents.

[ Maybe they are getting to the part of the conversation where they should sit down, on that note. He makes a little beckoning gesture and inclines his head; obviously they can continue familying at one another while they walk. He will uh, modulate all fifteen yards of stride for her. ]

Not too many, I suspect. I wonder if it just starts to happen after they slap a title on you.

Oh, yes, quite dull-sounding indeed. I'll have you recite it if ever I can't sleep.

[ Okay so maybe a ridiculous sense of humor runs in the family. Steffa just doesn't break hers out very often, but it's there. Waiting. Snarking.

She follows, and her tiny stature aside, she seems to be pretty good at keeping up with long-legged behemoths like her cousin. ]

That seems to be true of a lot of things. Mystery cousins, assassination attempts, people assuming you have any idea what you're doing... Get a title slapped on after your name and it's all fair game.

Oh, that's nothing. If you really want to fall over where you stand I should tell you about the time I single-handedly fought off a pirate invasion. At midnight, on the sacred ground of the Chantry.

[ He's just checking to see if Varric has told that one, and if it's received any embellishments since. Such as that he foiled said invasion while blindfolded. ]

Tell me about it. I once let my friends in circles around the Wounded Coast for three hours, and not one of them questioned it.

[ ...okay that one. That actually happened. Merrill thought he was taking the scenic route. ]

[And up Steffa's eyebrows go. Seems safe to say she hasn't heard that one yet. ]

What in the world were pirates doing in the Chantry?

[ There's another laugh, more a soft snicker than anything. ]

Let me guess: you got lost or couldn't find what you were looking for and didn't say anything? That happened to me in the Brecilian Forest, it was the better part of two hours before Natalia said anything, and I think she was the only one who'd figured it out.

I don't know. Stealing shiny things? The Chantry has plenty. Can't swing your arms without hitting a gold statue of the Maker's second favorite sacred nug or something.

[ Here is a suitable bench for them to hang out on, by the way! It's in the sun and they can peoplewatch the market. Very important. ]

To be honest I'm not sure I had any idea what we were looking for in the first place. We ended up calling it a day and going swimming, as I recall.

[ For a second he looks far away, not sad, Maker forbid, just remote. Kirkwall wasn't 100% bad 100% fo the time. Sometimes it had days like that. ]

[ Sitting on a bench people-watching with her cousin. What is her life, this is fantastic. ]

That sounds wonderful. [ she looks a little wistful ] We never really had the chance to do that. Just stop and... have fun. It was always "we have to stop the Blight, we don't have time to stop".

Though we did go swimming in Lake Calenhad while we were waiting for the army to finish arriving in Redcliffe. That was right... right before we had to march to Denerim so I think we all wanted to have a little fun before our likely untimely deaths.