riverviewlogs | Merry Month of March

Entry tags:

Merry Month of March

who: Cullen Rutherford and You?
what: March Catch-all
when: The month of March
where: The Wall, the city, miscellaneous
warnings: Nothing so much

Cullen is a creature of habit. He works as a member of the Perimeter Guard because it is something he's used to doing. He's even gone for a more specialized team because he doesn't do well with just waiting around for things to happen. A part of him needs to be out on the front lines again, after so long of waiting back in Skyhold on Thedas.

He goes from the barracks to his patrol area to the barracks most days. (After one very embarrassing digression into the part of the town that is holding most of the strange celebration that he'd rather not discuss, he takes extra care when traveling through the city.)

He makes a few digressions from his pattern, of course. He's promised to meet a certain young lady for drinks at the Quarantine Bar and Grille.

There is the day where decides to explore the inner city as a day off and wanders into the Sampremi celebration, pulled in by all the sounds and colors of the raves. (He'd rather not talk about that, but feel free to find him there.)

After that, he stays away from that particular part of the city and spends more time searching other parts. Shopping happens, of course, but he does end up at the beachy shores of the river a few times, face drawn and pensive each time.

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"My older sister was the better player until my brother and I joined forces to beat her. She's still the toughest opponent I've faced." And she's scary enough as is, considering her correspondence in the last year has been one scolding after another about his lack of contact.

"It seems rather limited to assume that your sisters were only into 'girl things'."

Freya held up a hand. "Question." She leaned forward as if she was going to ask Cullen something very serious. "How do you 'join forces' in chess?" She had heard of four-way chess but she didn't think that's what he was talking about. Maybe she should introduce him to four-way chess. It'd be fun though they need two more people who like and/or know how to play chess.

"Not limited." She added quickly. "That's there words, not mine, they liked hiking and stuff. My whole family was the outdoors type but their main interests were in baking, sewing or doing each others hair."

Freya never cut her hair but she also rarely brushed it.

"Play until your brain is exhausted and you've done every move you can possibly execute." He smirks in satisfaction. "She never knew what hit her. It was the first time either of us had played her that she didn't get to gloat about being superior."

He shakes his head at her attempted explanation. "Those are all good things and take a great deal of skill and attention to detail."

"Sounds like you cheated." Freya teased though she couldn't help but also be impressed. For him to win against his sister, who from his account, was very skilled. It didn't sound like it was easy.

"It is. I never said girly things weren't hard. I can't cook to save my life. In fact, I stay out of kitchens so houses don't burn to the ground." She wasn't exaggerating.

"How is it cheating when we worked very hard to gain the skill to beat her? That is the very definition of honor, madam."

Wow, wow, don't even go there. He earned those bragging rights.

"I will admit that I'm not that skilled in the kitchens either, but I did learn how to at least forage for myself so that I won't starve."

"I believe you. You made it sound like the two of you worked together to defeat her which hardly seems fair when it's a game that stretch your mental knowledge. You know?" She was stubbornly stick to what she thought he said instead of what he actually said.

"That said. If it was just you verse her then totally. That's awesome. You'd probably kick my ass but hey, losing is a way of getting better. At least, that's how I view it." Freya messed up a lot of stuff but she was proud that she never made the same mistake twice.

"oh!" Her smile widened. "I know how to hunt. I can also cook over an open fire." Though Freya usually just wolfed it and ate things raw. "That's about it."

A pause.

"I used to spend a lot of time in caves and forests. Free lodging, you know."

"I'm sure that until we got better, Mia could have easily beaten us both. She still gives Branson a run for his sovereigns if her letters are to be believed."

He's not saying his sister has an ego, but she might. It's a Rutherford thing.

"Cooking over an open fire is a good skill to have, but I was talking about foraging in a larder. I've only lived in villages and cities where food is relatively easy to purchase or grow. Even camping outdoors had packed food."

No caves for this guy.

"That's interesting."

Freya sat back and let their conversation rattle around in her head. He was an interesting guy but there were still a few gaps that she was curious about. Then she should probably open the floor to Cullen's questions since she's been so intent on learning about him. It only seems fair.

"What's your world like? I get you but what are you fighting against? Are there other races?" She knew that his dress was something out of a renascence fair. It looked cool but maybe wasn't accurate.

She still got the feeling of D&D from him.

Cullen turns in his chair to look at her, eyebrow raised in thought as he takes in the woman he'd agreed to meet without much thought.

She's asking a lot of questions, but she's giving as much information as she's requesting. It's a relief, sure, but she'd never last around someone like Leliana or any Orlesian Cullen's ever met. Perhaps that's good, since he despises the bloody Great Game.

"It would be difficult to try to explain what Thedas is like in a few words. There are as many countries as fingers on my hands that we know of so far. As far as races go, there are humans, elves, dwarves, and Qunari but I suspect there are more that we don't know about."

He doesn't need to go into Darkspawn, dragons, and all of the different break downs of city elves versus the Dalish versus the ancient elves.

Freya listened intently as she sipped at her beer. She liked the sound of his voice, it was deep and smooth. He should record books so she can listen to them before bed. She could absolutely sleep to his voice.

"Neat. We got time. Tell me about it. I always liked learning about new places." It was one of the benefits to being brought to this weird moon. "I'll also keep you stocked in beer for as long as you're talking so there is that." She paused. "Or if you want food. I think they have very good chicken wings here."

She liked the wings though Freya liked most food.

"I also don't know what a Qunari is."

Please never tell him that. It would make him so uncomfortable, since he's not really used to being told anything remotely close to that.

"I'd rather not. You seem nice enough, certainly, but we've just met." You need at least an approval rating of 75 or higher for Cullen to go into all the shit that is wrong with Thedas.

"Qunari are a larger race of people from my world. No one knows what country they originated from, but most that are known are from an island called Par Vollen far to the north of where I'm from."

"Okay." He had a point though Freya saw on issue with it. "Then how will I get to you know? I mean, I get that you don't want to tell me stuff about yourself, which is why I figured I'd ask about your world instead. It's like general things and not really about you. That way you can ask me things and we can get to know each other and pass the just-met phase. If we don't really talk about anything then we'll always be people who just met."

Freya paused and took a sip of her beer.

"Anyway, that sounds cool. There are a lot of races in my world but most are in hiding. They aren't human or they'll be hunted, reasons like that. There are mages, who I haven't actually met that many of. Werewolves who are usually pretty cool. There are other were's too but they're mostly not in the places I've traveled. I've heard of wer-tigers and wer-bears." There were a few others but Freya wasn't going to bore him with a list. "There are fairies, elves and fea but they mostly stick to themselves and dislike everyone else, I assume it's a long live span thing. Then there are vampires and druids and other people like that though less of them."

Freya paused. "90% of the whole world is just regular human though. Lots of technology like this place."

"Asking questions about my world is fine, but what you've asked would take more time that I want to spend trying to explain the inner workings of Thedas to an outsider. I would have to build a frame of reference to even answer half of that. It's a flawed world with flawed people, same as those in some of the books I've read since I arrived.

"I don't mind answering questions about the people I know and the positions I held, but Maker take me, I'm not patient enough to talk to you about the entire world."

Today is an 'okay' day, which basically means he doesn't have a blinding headache and his skin isn't crawling.

"While humans are the predominant race of Thedas, most of the problems stem from the struggles between mages and non-mages. And if the rumors are to believed, there was a pack of werewolves in the Brecilian Forest about ten years ago."

"Ah. I guess it's government stuff." That's not as entertaining anyway. Not for beer stories. "What about the Maker? Who's that? Is that like the Shapers?" Freya thought about her question for a fraction of a second and realized that Cullen-McBoring-Pants probably didn't know who the Shapers were.

"Okay, werewolves are cool protectors of nature in my world and the Shapers made them." She didn't know if Cullen disliked werewolves but she might take some time before telling him about her particular gift. She wasn't sure that he liked her very much anyway, no reason to make it worse.

"Mages are also not that douchey where I'm from because they're human like everyone else. Just able to tap into those magicy things." That she didn't know a lot about.

"The Maker..."

Why is she asking such long and nuanced questions? He doesn't want to talk about it. In fact, despite her being open with him about herself and her world, he's finding that this conversation isn't doing a great deal for him.

"The Maker is the one responsible for creating my world. He is our god and the biggest religion on Thedas is based upon following the tenets of the Chant of Light."

He hopes that his tone is enough to convey that he won't be talking about that anymore.

"And I never said that mages were not regular humans. Some of the best people I know are mages. Some of the worst as well. Same as any other person. It's just that a great deal of people fear magic on my world."

"Oh."

Freya's expression falters. She was definitely picking up on the fact that Cullen wasn't really having a good time. She knew that she could be overbearing at times but she didn't think she was being that bad right now. Freya tapped lightly on the side of her glass before looking back over at Cullen.

"Okay, I'm done with those kinds of questions." She pinched her thumb and pointer finger together and dragged it over her mouth. "You got anything for me? If not we can play a game. I actually don't know if there are bar games here but I usually have a deck a cards in one of my pockets." She had too many pockets.

"No. No cards."

He runs a hand down his face, in frustration. He is more irritated with himself than her. Of course others who have been here for a while will have questions about him and Thedas and the differences from what they already know.

He should have expected that.

However, he didn't and now he wishes he'd declined the woman's offer of coming here.

"I... I'm sorry. This was a poorly thought out meeting on my part. I think I will return to the barracks now, but thank you for the drink and the conversation, Freya."

That's disappointing.

"How about I leave and you finish your beer on me. You look like you could use the liquor." She rose to her feet and tossed a enough money on the counter for Cullen to get another beer. "Plus, I got here super early and I need to be moseying on."

Freya flashed him a smile and without giving Cullen a chance to argue, she heads towards the door. She didn't look particularly upset about their meeting. It'd been interesting which was what Freya had been hoping for.

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Merry Month of March

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