can u do tabris + orzammar folks?
tabris’ mother adaia was the daughter of elven apostates hiding from the chantry in orzammar, who regretfully but lovingly allowed their daughter to return to the surface once it became clear she did not share their magic and was not in the same danger. (bonus for taking it to stupid levels: adaia had a brother who fathered one of the brosca children. or idk t4t cyrion/adaia, adaia is brosca’s other parent, the world’s your oyster)
ancient respect means that elven crafts are far more highly valued in orzammar than the rest of thedas. with the money and prestige mostly sapped away between gherlen’s pass and denerim by unscrupulous merchants, tabris is shocked to discover that anyone who’s anyone in the noble houses knows half the alienage’s craftspeople and merchants by name, including cyrion
a young tabris helped in the kitchen while cyrion worked as a servant in gorim’s father-in-law’s house, OR a young tabris was briefly apprenticed with gorim’s father-in-law smithing armour before he was forced to turn them away due to the human reaction. either way, gorim’s wife in denerim might be a cruel childhood bully or a true friend that tabris continued to sneak out of the alienage to see
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𝐖𝐇𝐎: max mayfield & @hcllywheeler
𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓: sry ur nephew is missing
𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: the streets (idk like downtown where they would have one of those metal newspaper things)
max wasn’t huge on reading newspapers. there were enough articles and resources she sifted through on a daily basis for clients or her own personal curiosity that she didn’t see the use in still getting the whole thing. but as she passed a hawkins post dispenser on the road as she walked towards jitters for yet another coffee, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea. luke was gone, but so were other people. and that was...cause for concern. amidst her indefinite stay, being informed didn’t seem like such a bad idea. she sighed, still operating from a state of constant disbelief. she stepped towards the machine, bumping into a blonde woman who she quickly identified as holly wheeler.
not because this full adult resembled the little kid max would’ve recognized, but she had those i-can’t-put-a-finger-on-it wheeler features. “oh...” max’s brows furrowed over her tired eyes and she gestured ahead to the machine, “go for it.” holly had not really been part of their supernatural investigations, which was probably for the best, but it also meant max hadn’t been given the opportunity to really talk to her. the last she remembered of holly was using her crayons. max briefly wondered what her life had been like since then. she extended one arm for a stiff hug as she said, “i won’t do the how are you bullshit.” she promised holly, “but i’m sorry about luke.” max didn’t even know if they were close. it stung every time max either remembered or was reminded by how little she knew. max was a stranger to holly, but in light of everything, the least she could offer was gesturing ahead, “let me buy you a coffee?”
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I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.
Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.
Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.
Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.
I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.
He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).
First, we get this:
Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.
They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.
It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.
We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.
What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?
He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.
In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.
Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!
...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.
Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.
And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.
I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.
And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.
Meals are the privilege of the living.
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