The Bar

"Well, this place definitely wouldn't fit in back in Chel," Riaa said. "I just wandered in without thinking - guess it's a good thing that it's such a friendly place, I suppose." She looked - or rather, didn't look - at Nat. "And there are a couple places like this. A lot of them are even restaurants."

 

Katters nods emphatically. "Yeah, just started pouring as I was comin' home, had to duck in here to get out of it. Real sudden — but that's the weather for you, right?"
She grins. "I've got a friend, too. Studies magic, poor judgement. Must be something about the field."

 

"I've studied magic!" Berit protests. "... But then, it has been a long time since I studied anything but how to kill people more effectively with it." She laughs, a little bitterly. "Perhaps I'm not a sterling example of good judgement, either."

 

Katters pauses, giving Berit a curious look, but then also laughs. "I guess my judgement isn't always perfect," she admits. "What is it you do?"

 

"Nope. This is the only one I know of."

 

Riaa looked mock-confused. "There's other things you'd study magic for?"

 

"Cool. It's a nice looking place, anyway - you're sure it's not from where I'm from? I can come in?"

 

"'Inquisitor,' officially," Berit says, internally chastising herself for being maudlin. It's sort of nice to talk to someone who doesn't know this already. "It's not quite as bloodthirsty as that sounds, but I still have to fight more bandits and demons and, and lunatic cultists than you'd expect."

To Riaa she says, "I learned a variety of skills - completely unrelated to killing people, even! - in the Circle. Damned if I can remember most of them anymore, though."

 

"Eet vos rainink for me!" Mina throws in from the bar. "Bot hyu don´t look like hyu iz from Mchanicsburg, either of hyu."

 

Katters considers asking about the Spanish Inquisition, but decides Berit is not quite dressed the part. "It sounds exciting," she says. "Frankly, more than 'none' is more than I'd expect."

"Snowtown," Katters offers. "For some interpretations of 'from'."

 

"Skyhold, currently," says Berit. "It's in the mountains. Snow's more likely for us than rain."

 

"I got here from Chel'el'Sussoloth," Riaa said. "Not much weather underground."

 

"You live underground?" says Berit. She's never heard of Chel'el'Sussoloth, but then, she's never heard of giant spider people, either. (Regular giant spiders, sure. Plenty of those.) She thinks of the Deep Roads first, but she's never met a Darkspawn this coherent or non-homicidal. Her next thought is of Orzammar. "Do you have dwarves? .. or nugs?"

 

Riaa nodded. "The surface got kind of... well, it's not a wasteland, there's tons of plants and animals and humans, but the old elves caused a minor apocalypse and almost everyone moved underground. There's colonies on the surface, though, since a few years ago. We have dwarves, and I don't know what a nug is, but we have tiktikkis? These cute armored lizard things."

 

"Elves and apocalypses," says Berit, shaking her head. "It's an epidemic. Nugs are.. strange little creatures, about this size -" her hands encompass a space about the size of a cat "- no hair, hands for feet. I had to hunt a small army of them down, the last time I was in a dwarven city." She brings her hands together abruptly. "I don't like them very much."

(#berit is an elf #but she is starting to have some idea of the theological history of thedas and the relevance of certain trickster gods to it #and is not currently keen on the ~Ancient Elves~)

 

"Well, it was only the one apocalypse," Riaa said, before considering. "Though there was the Nidra'chaal war... and whatever Snadhya'rune is planning... and the Vloz'ress did actually summon some kind of demon god, though that sort of ended quickly. You might have a point about the epidemic," she said, shaking her head.

 

Berit raises her eyebrows. "Really? Fascinating. We've only had the one, as far as I know." A thought occurs to her. "Do all elves where you're from have spider legs, then?"

 

Having listened to the conversation for a while (he had been walking around the room while doing that), Dom was getting more and more interested by this whole "magic bar" thing. He finally decides to add something to the conversation:
"Where I'm from, magic is... Not, strictly speaking, a thing, but there's lots of weird stuff that we're studying. We do have dwarves, some elves, and a bunch of apocalypses, though. I've been through two, or three, depends on how you count them.
.... Uh, sorry if I'm interrupting something here. My name is Dom, by the way."

 

"Hy deedn´t know apokaleepses vere zo common." Mina throws in. "Ve hed a sort ov vun chust seexteen yearz ago een Europa."

 

"I'm starting to feel left out. I've never been through even one apocalypse."