[ 008 ] [ Audio | Commentlog ]

[gotyourwallet]

[When Vie speaks, her voice is quiet, words more to herself than anyone else. In the background a man's voice, or rather that of a pumpkin, pleads with her to kill him.]

You look the part, but you are not him.

[It's been a long time since Vie's let herself cry, and be damned if she does so now. To the pumpkin she continues:]

In asking for death, you dishonor him. I'll not have his blood on my hands a second time.

[That's right Vie. You tell that pumpkin. :|b

She stands, breathes a sigh and this time, directly addresses those in the Keep.]

How is it that they know who matters? Perhaps this is a punishment. The past dragged forward to remind us of what we've lost or where we've failed.

[A beat. Vie starts her way away from the pumpkin, choosing to turn away from the carved face of her fallen master rather than give in to it's plea.]

Stay out of my head, Deior.

[The book snaps shut, thus putting an end to her entry.]

Comments

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

[It's a pumpkin. How can you get blood on your hands?]

If it is it isn't particularly creative. My family has been whining at me for years. He'll have to try better than that.

[There's a pause.]

Where are you?

[It would be kind of pointless to ask if she's okay.]

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

[Blood. Pulp. Close enough. It's a gooey center all the same.]

Heh. Perhaps.

[Vie can't decide if she wants to cry, scream or do nothing at all. For the moment she's wandering away from the pumpkin, away from the Keep itself and off toward the lake.]

Out by the lake.

[She won't be hard to miss.]

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

What do you know, I'm right near there.

[Alright he's not but he is jogging there right now to check on her with a certain furball plodding after him.]

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

Alright.

[She's walking, tracing the edge of the lake without getting too close to the water. That she's upset goes without saying.]

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

[Sure enough Hawke arrives and spots her. At least she's staying out of the water. After his last encounter with this place he'd rather not go splashing around in there.

He quickly catches up to her with the puppy following right behind him. It's not even chewing on his pants this time either!]

Now I'm no mind reader, but I think you're upset.

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

[She's got no intention of getting too close to the water. Worry not, Hawke.]

It's an interesting thing when you think the past is done and dealt with, and then it pops up in your face all over again.

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

[Good because the fight with that thing did not go in his favor that last time.]

Interesting? I'd call it more a massive pain in the ass.

good job hitting post, xhan :|

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

That's one way of putting it.

[She slows her pace and folds her arms.]

I was born a slave. The face on the pumpkin back there was that of my master. It's been fifteen years since he died, Garrett.

[Her tone should be a fair hint of

I thought I was done with this.

/gives a cookie

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

[And suddenly it's like talking to Fenris, only she doesn't seem nearly as bitter about the whole thing...at the moment anyway.]

That's the worst thing about the past isn't it? You can't run away from it. It keeps dogging you like, well, a dog.

[He looks down at his feet where Carver is sitting and wagging his tail happily. Someone likes attention.]

/gnaws on cookie-- /realizes i didn't finish that last tag. GJ XHAN

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

[She glances down at the puppy, more sad than anything.]

His ownership was more a means of protection. Shad had rank, I did not. We were... friends.

[Vie would have died for him and him for her.]

When he was killed, his duty passed on to me. I'm the last of his elites.

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

[Hawke doesn't like seeing her like this, and neither does Carver apparently as he walks over to her and plops beside her.]

I never thought of you as one who needed protection.

[Then again he could say that for all of his friends, but that didn't mean he wouldn't fight and die for his friends.]

Duty?

[Oh that doesn't sound good.]

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

It's politics, really. A clansman might do as he pleases with an unowned Valei.

[She shrugs. It's nothing new to her.]

There are gods in my homeworld that have been silenced. Shad sought to bring them back. Without them, there is no balance. My world is falling apart. He found a way to reach them, or at least the place they were in. It's not something that can be done in a standard lifetime, so he managed to extend that as well.

[Talking about any of this is strange, and she's not sure how much sense she's making, but telling Hawke feels almost safe. Better for him to know than not.]

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

These clansmen just sound like the best kind of people.

[And exactly the kind of people who would find his boot up their ass.]

Maybe you can ask them where the Maker went while you're at it.

[This sounds really heavy, and really important. The idea that he would be able to convince Vie to come with him is starting to fade.]

So...you don't age?

[Because it's kind of hard to miss that part of the conversation.]

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

[Vie chuckles, but there's little humour to the laugh.]

I haven't aged a day since I was twenty-three. I'm thirty-eight now.

[Any amusement, however dry, fades.]

This is... something I should have told you earlier. Sorry.

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

Huh, you're older than me. Never knew you were into younger men.

[Hawke places his hand on her shoulder.]

I'm sure I would have figured it out eventually.

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

[She smirks a little. At least he hasn't run screaming.]

I'm not that much older, am I?

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

[It takes a lot more than that to get him to run away screaming. In fact, unless she revealed she was actually made of Gamlen's cheese, he wouldn't be running from her at all.]

Only by about seven years. If it means anything, you still look younger and cuter than I do.

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

Seven. Well, don't I feel old now.

[Even with everything going on, Hawke was still the one able to make her smile. She curled her hand in his, back of hers against his palm and stepped closer to rest her forehead on collar.]

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

Oh you are, but you're still beautiful.

[He gripped her hand in his and tucked her head beneath his chin. That ever present smile hid his inner turmoil. Clearly her mission was an important one, and he couldn't stop her from doing it. At the same time he didn't want to lose her when this was over. It had been a long time since Hawke felt this lost.]

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

[She smiled a little herself, but it was much the same as his. For a time, Vie doesn't move, content to stand there with him and enjoy that closeness. Eventually she looked up at him.]

When our time at this Keep is done, unless something in my world changes while we're here, I must go back.

[It hurt to even think as much, but there was too much at stake for her not to go. What she had to do was too important to leave.]

But I promise you, I will find you again.

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

[That...that hurts far more than any wound he's ever taken in his life and yet he knew it was coming. The smile he puts on as he looks down at her is the most forced he's ever done, but he won't let her see just how badly this hurts. He won't make it harder for her.]

If you don't then I'm tearing through the Veil to come after you.

[He wishes he could make the offer to go with her instead but there's too many people that count on him in Thedas. The people of Kirkwall, his friends, and his little sister, they all need him. Nothing really ever works out for him does it?]

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

[Not for the first time Vie wished that another had survived the assault. It was a selfish thought, to put her own want over that of her people, but one Vie held to all the same. Perhaps she'd been foolish to get this involved. While she'd liked Hawke almost instantly, Vie had never set out to love him.

And yet here she was. She wouldn't cry, much as she wanted to.]

I mean it. If there's a way, I will find it.

[And if there wasn't a way, she would make one.]

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

[Never did Hawke want to abandon his so called duty as Champion more than right now. There have been women in his life but nothing like this. He loved her more deeply than he ever thought he was capable of, and of course she had to be from another world entirely. Hawke sure knew how to pick them.]

So will I. You can't get rid of me that easily. I promise.

[Hawke slipped an arm around her and just held her. Their time together might be limited but he wasn't going to waste a single moment with her.]

[gotyourwallet.livejournal.com]

[Vie returned the embrace, breathing a sigh as she leaned against him. Her thoughts followed suit with his; what time they had together would not be wasted.

She doesn't move for a long while, not making an effort to speak either. When Vie does lean back, however, it was the pup between their feet that held her attention.]

You know, he's not so bad.

[Small victories. Huge distractions.]

[iwannabeadragon.livejournal.com]

[Hawke was content to stand there in silence for however long and just hold Vie to him. On the bright side, at least this wasn't going as horribly as Aveline's attempt to woo Donnic.

His gaze follows her gaze down to the pup whose tail immediately begins wagging now that he's the center of attention again.]

Only because you haven't know him long enough.

[Distractions are the best things ever.]