#Secret adopted that technique but instead of just being friendly she makes an active effort to stand out

[herearedragons]

Hello! For the character building questions…

13, 21 and 45, all for your Hawke? :)

(or anyone you'd like to answer for)

13. When do they fake a smile? How often?

Really often, actually. Secret's whole thing is built around the idea of "fake it 'til you make it" and she's also a trickster by nature, so that means a lot of smiles that aren't entirely genuine. I guess I can split those fake smiles into two main categories: one is what Malcolm taught her, finding something to smile about when everyone expects you to be distressed (I guess this is more forced than fake, but I'll say it counts for the question), and the other is her being over-the-top on purpose, turning her charm up to eleven to distract people from something else that's going on. This could be anything from chatting up some guards as a distraction to going out of her way to become the most popular recruit at Ostagar despite being an apostate who, theoretically, shouldn't draw attention to herself at all.

21. What common etiquette do they disagree with? Do they still follow it?

She got plenty of criticism for being "too cheerful" in the wake of Malcom, Bethany and Leandra's deaths, respectively, exactly for the reasons detailed in the previous answer. This was especially ironic in Malcolm's case, because this version of Malcolm was the kind of guy to have "come up up at least one good joke about my death after I'm gone" as a last request. She knows that most people don't approach heartbreak the way she does, but she keeps doing it, and honestly, maybe that's why she comes out of the events of DA2 a little less haunted than some of my past Hawkes. (at least in theory. here's to hoping that things don't suddenly become Super Tragic once I actually play her)

45. What’s something unimportant / frivolous that they hate passionately?

I actually don't think she's the type to hate something passionately, especially small things. Secret tends to turn even the biggest bad things that happen to her into jokes and stories and just another part of the lore she's building around herself, so if she did have a pet peeve, it would probably just be some kind of inside joke.

Thanks for the ask!

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