#kell and conall

[insufficientchill]

Something blooming, even here.

[lavampira]

raid shenanigans in HM DP council prog tonight include:

me getting bored in the lapse between pulling calphy and waiting for him to drop from the throne so I started pelting him with life day snowballs for parcels

one of the melee dps flying into the void and dying a couple times before realizing that the raptus conal is indeed a conal

zoned out while watching calphy's circles on the floor so I accidentally pushed him into burn and wiped the group

our semi-permanent fill-in and his 'need a cleanse now' chants 0.5s before dying despite running away from the healers every single time a death mark went out

the styrak portal simply refused to spawn on one pull so I leapt into the abyss, landed below the platform, died to ??? who even knows, and the timing of the raid lead hopping down and rezzing me aligned with brontes doing That with her lightning right on top of me as I returned for instant death

desync rearing its head while I tried to kite the kell dragon to brontes (and in our after raid shenanigans as well) to remind us why we've called ourselves 'totally bugged and desynced' as a team name

but we got through it and that wrapped up the last of our hm legacies ops tonight, and then we did some impulse pulls on NiM nefra for funsies until we got that clear (with it being my first time in NiM DF let alone tanking it as well), so after a couple weeks off for the holidays, we're starting our hardmares prog :elmofire:

[puntress-aa]

if you would like to be added to this list, either message me or click here. most of these are off the top of my head or have been discussed ooc, so it’s by no means a complete list. as a reminder, i’ll accept up to two mains of any character. this doesn’t mean interactions are off the table, but that mains and the like will get first priority in terms of starters / meme responses / etc.

ruby rose: @bledrose weiss schnee: @dustess blake belladonna: @dupliqombre penny polendina: @androidess jaune arc: @armoredknight sun wukong: @solisaei, @grimmremnants taiyang xiao long: @dadjckes qrow branwen: @gearwing professor ozpin: @gearcane cinder fall: @maidened jason todd: @bikerfetish dick grayson: @firstwonder rey: @graylit noctis lucis caelum: @royalrite literally all of eli’s blogs: @spunstories, @jaigsight, @lothwolfrun, @skullmotif, etc. literally all of nicole’s blogs: @healedlegacy, @eleutheriana, @spectredeux, etc. literally all of kells’ blogs: @madelegacy, @qvake, @collectve, etc. literally all of conal’s blogs: @artisticallydcne, @slainmessiah, @ancientwonder, etc.

[aetherschreiber]

Fic: Hedge Knight (notes)

So there you are! Thanks for reading! I'm under no delusions that this is going to get a lot of attention, being as the fandom is tiny at this point. So please be aware that any feedback you can give is precious as gold and will be greatly treasured.

This was the result of a very old plot bunny of about twenty years of age. So, older than most acutal bunnies. Back in the day, it was not very clearly worked out, which is probably why it didn't get written until now. This actually bears very little resemblance to the original plot bunny, since 20 years ago I was a silly fifteen-year-old girl without a clue. My historical nerding and ability to do research is what finally really brought this thing to light. It just didn't have a chance, back in the day.

And, while working on this, it bred some other plot bunnies that I might try to nuture in the future. Not sure, yet. We'll see if they come together.

Now, excuse me while I nerd this out...

Because I'm a huge nerd, I went digging around in Irish mythology for some stuff. I've made a few assumptions on stuff that was never clearly established in the show itself, so I thought I would make a few notes here.

Regarding Emain Macha...

The show never gave a name for the village that was in the shadow of Kells Castle. I wanted to have one and the Ulster Cycle calls the town that Conchobar mac Nessa rules from Emain Macha. Plus, I liked the story of the way the town got its name. So I stole it and ran like Macha in the horse race. Nothing too ground-breaking here.

I went and got down and nerdy with the characters's names and some side-stories, too. It's always kind of bothered me that none of them had full, period style names (because, like I said, I'm a nerd). Deirdre and Conchobar would certainly have had something more than just a given name, as would Ivar. Rohan and Angus are somewhat more open to interpretation, so I put my own spin on it. Plus, I'm in the SCA, so I just couldn't help myself while digging through medieval Irish names.

Regarding the name Rohan Draganta Ban Ui Meith Macha...

The conceit of Rohan's clan name is that he is descended from the war goddess Macha. This distinction would have come from his father's side of the family, ostensibly a Kellsman. Draganta I threw in there as a sort of "middle name" because it would have been in there somewhere, but I'm just not sure how it would have been lenited, since as far as I can tell it's not actually an Irish name.

When you get right down to it, Rohan is basically CuChullain, who was not born with that name and only was called that after defeating a giant hound (see Tash Hound of Temra, and may other references throughout the show). As a young boy, since no one in the village knew anything about his epic destiny, he was called by the villagers of Emain Macha "Rohan Ban" meaning "Rohan the fair" because of his hair. The moniker stuck, even after he finds out his identity as the Warrior Draganta.

Regarding the name Deirdre inghean Conchobair Ui Rudhraighe...

There isn't a whole lot here that needs to be explained. This is a straight up lineage type of a name. It basically says that she's Conchobar's daughter, who is in turn a male descendant of a man named Rudraige. This clan name is derived from a high-king of Ireland, Rudraige, whose son was a king of Ulster (or in this context, Kells). I never actually got around to actually using the name in the fic, but it's here in the notes for completeness' sake.

In my head, Deirdre's mother was named Eithne. She was killed by Maeve when Deirdre was a little girl. Don't know why that's relevant. But there you are.

The show pretty much tossed out the actual Irish mythology of Deirdre and Conchobar. Trust me, this is a good thing. The Conchobar of myth was a real creeper and what he did to the Deirdre of myth was unsettling and I'm pretty sure illegal in modern life (and no, I don't just mean killing her husband; that's DEFINITELY illegal). So I pretty much tossed out anything of the names of the characters from myth and more or less treated them as new characters with their own backstories.

Regarding the name Angus Dubh o Cumhaill...

Angus effectively equates to Conall Cernach, the best friend of CuChullain.

In my fic, he is a descendant of Cailte mac Ronain, nephew of the last king of the Fianna, through his son Oisin. In actual Irsh myth, Conall and Cailte were not related (in fact, one is from the Ulster Cycle and the other from the Fenian Cycle and here I've even reversed their time periods), but a relating of the two characters is used for story purposes, because what the hell? The show didn't care about that stuff, either.

All of this was on his mother's side of the family. His mother's brother, Cet mac Magach, was told by a druid that the baby would one day kill his uncle. Cet was afraid of this and tried to kill Angus shortly after he was born. This is based on the story of Conall and Cet from Irish myth, but around there is where the similarities end and artistic licence takes over. When Cet did not succeed, he fled to Temra. Angus' mother and father then left him with an old lady named Brighde in Emain Macha to hide him from any further attempts on his life by Cet. This is why he was basically brought up as a street urchin along side Rohan.

The old lady gave him the moniker Dubh because of his dark hair. But Angus never really liked it, so he didn't perpetuate it after Brighde died. The fact that Cet refers to him as such is the result of a very old rumor finally making its way to Cet after many years.

The story Angus tells of besting the soldier Anluan is based on the Tale of Mac Da Tho's Pig. In that, Conall wins the debate by casually tossing Anluan's freshly-severed head to Cet. I uh... toned it down, just a smidge.

Conall kind of has a history of severing heads. I pretty much left that out. It didn't exactly say "Angus" to me...

Regarding the name Ivar ibn Idris Adar as-Salar...

No, you didn't miss this name, either. Again, never got around to using it in the fic. But it was a fun excersise.

The idea for Ivar is that he is a prince in pre-Muslim Syria. He is the son of Idris, a prince, of the clan Salar. In that culture, the title of Prince has a different connotation. Ivar's father is not necessarily a king and Ivar will not necessarily succeed him. In fact, given that it was his task to guard the silver chalice, and that he was sent to retrieve it, and that he was free to pledge help to Rohan and Kells, it seems likely that he is a younger son of a local prince, under a sultan, and not likely to inherit.

Random note, Ivar is NOT a Syrian name and is most likely a derivation of the Scandanavian name Ivor. Why the show didn't go ahead and find an actual name of the type of heritage that Ivar was clearly supposed to have, I really don't know and I was rather disappointed to learn. But Ivar isn't terribly glaring in its ethic displacement, so I ran with it and chose a name sort of like it for his father in order to help it fit in.

Finally, in reference to the title of the fic...

Yes, I am aware that the term "hedge knight" first showed up in the Song of Ice and Fire series. However, that wasn't what inspired the title of this fic. Rather it was a fantastic song I heard around a campfire in the SCA. I know the bard in question as Lady Cobflaith (she's a really awesome person with a lot of talent!). The song itself has very little to do with the plot of the fic at all, but it did introduce me to the idea of a penniless knight and the idea that someone who might not seem to others to be worthy can do great things, even if only in the eyes of the few or the one.

Oh, and one more note. Mace fighting is weird and hard to write. A sword girl like me, who depends on keeping covered and breaking tempos, can't wrap her head around a weapon that works with a rhythm and leaves parts of the wielder open to thrust attacks at regular intervals. So, those bits probably kind of sucked and I'm sorry.

Sláinte!

[insufficientchill]

character arc —

disillusionment arc

it's hard to imagine yourself when you were young. maybe you were meant to be a hero; maybe you could have been, in another world, but this world only made you sad. there seemed to be too many problems to fix and too much cruelty and too many hard lines that you did not know how to soften. the world turns and it is bloody and hard and you sit on your bed, thinking about the blood and the hardness and all you failed to do. i know it feels like you could sleep until the end of time, but i hope you don't. i hope you lift yourself out of bed one day, not to save the world, but to peel an orange and to walk in a forest; to find all the softness you could not create.

all on point except that kell's disillusionment arc happened long before he became arisen & he's over it & back to peeling oranges, because you might as well peel some oranges while you're waiting to die. if he's newly disillusioned at the end of this story it's not about failure, it's about survivor's guilt.

tragic hero arc

we all know how this story goes. when it began, you were almost the perfect hero, but almost is never enough. you lacked introspection, or you were too stubborn or vengeful or reckless - as reckless as the world that helped to ruin you. you were not perfect, and that's okay. we knew the story ended in blood and we watched it anyway. we knew you would die in the end and we still couldn't help but love you, just a little bit. at the very least, you are more human than a hero could ever be.

oh.....yeah. all this happened a long time ago, but it's going to happen again.

i like that for both of them these are less arcs than circles, patterns, cycles they're struggling to escape. feels very very. also that conall gets to be the hero—that this is in some way his story—because of course.

(tagged in by @arisenreborn , thank you! quiz here!)

[insufficientchill]

it was a mistake to entrust me with this (CarryMeSenpai mod)

e: "me," tumblr user insufficientchill, and "this," the mod, but also "me," kell the thief from the checkpoint, and "this," his longsuffering and very sleepy mage

[insufficientchill]

con finally caught kell but i wasn't fast enough on the screenshot so it just looks like he's checking if kell's day-drunk (possible tbh)

[insufficientchill]

Aught catches the light...

[insufficientchill]

how i imagine the Camping situation plays out. incidentally

[insufficientchill]

first shot at drawing my arisen and main pawn—kell's not there yet, but conall's getting close. charming thief / stoic mage is always the right choice

[insufficientchill]

addt'nlly. should really have slapped the game logo on this one

[insufficientchill]

👻🎩🧸 for the miscellaneous symbol headcanons ask game?

Ahh thank you so much! This was fun. <3 Con and Kell in combination, since they go together.

👻 - How does your muse handle feeling scared? Do they enjoy horror? Do they believe in the paranormal? What calms your muse down? Do they have any scary stories?

Conall is extremely good at compartmentalizing and, while he is frequently afraid (of falling, of failing, of not being enough), he remains extremely reserved and collected in most circumstnces. Even when he’s alone he tends to tell himself that he can’t be afraid—can’t in the sense of mustn’t but also can’t in the sense of isn’t able to, because pawns don’t feel. Kell mostly notices this as Conall constantly flexing and stretching his fingers, and, assuming they’re just sore from casting, Kell will catch hold of his hands absentmindedly while talking about something else and massage them the way he’d massage a comrade’s sword-hand after a long day on the road. Fortunately this does in fact help. 

Kell will happily tell you he’s a coward, but what he really means is that he’s not particularly bothered about honour or glory, and he’ll gladly cut a deal to end a fight quicker. Actual in-the-moment fear is something he’s almost desensitized to; he’s had a lot of near-death experiences, and at this point he’s good at laughing them off. He knows some hair-raising ghost stories and tall tales, and he also knows how to string them out as long as someone keeps buying drinks.

They both absolutely believe in the paranormal (how could they not). Conall doesn’t particularly enjoy horror—fiction generally is a luxury he doesn’t allow himself unless he feels it reveals something useful about the world—but Kell likes any rollicking story with twists and turns.

🎩 - What would your muse wear to a formal event? Do they dress more modestly, or do they go all out?

Kell hates looking too pulled together—it kind of undermines his whole easy-lazy-please-underestimate-me thing—so, unless under duress, his preferred formal-wear involves open collars, leather breeches and rag-and-bone-shop velvets. He sort of cultivates an air of decayed luxury, with mismatched jewellery and even more kohl than usual. Might swing for a black silk eyepatch, maybe. There’s probably some cologne going on (smoke, sandalwood, damask rose). 

Conall’s default approach to formalwear is to ask if what he’s wearing now will do, and if not, to find the plainest black robes possible: he’s just a loyal servant, after all. It's not the choosing that bothers him so much as the spotlight on choice; really he's fairly picky about what he wears day-to-day, as long as no one points out that he seems to have a preference. Kell has to cajole him into dressing up—c’mon, people are going to think I don’t treat you right—and even then he’s so unsettled by the process he just ends up telling Kell to pick something for him anyway. (He might, after too long trying on clothes, let his eyes fix on a silver-chain pendant for a moment—moonstone, set it sterling—and Kell might buy it for him, or nick it, depending on whether he likes the seller. Kell also tries to get Con to do “something nice” with “all that hair,” but Conall usually doesn’t got for it.)

🧸 - Does your muse own any sentimental objects from their past? What makes it/them so special?

Kell still has the bootknife that was his first dagger, left to him after its owner—a hard-living “old man” who, in retrospect, can’t have been more than 45 or so—fell in a meaningless little scuffle on the mountain road. It’s not a well-made or elegant thing—a heavy-bladed hunting knife, honed and sharpened down over years into a poorly balanced, oddly narrow blade that happens to fit between the joints of a knight’s full-plate—but it has a wooden handle polished to a shine by many hands, and it still serves its purpose. 

Conall has a pouch on his belt with a few things in it: a smooth river stone, a steel fishhook, a cracked and charred red gem cut for a pommel, a single dried flower, a twist of leather cord. He has no memory of what these things mean, but he takes them out sometimes to look at anyway. 

Miscellaneous Symbol Headcanons <3

[insufficientchill]

(from arisenreborn) ⛄️ for Kell and Conall?

Oh thank you!! This is a lovely one.

⛄️ What would be your muse's ideal weather conditions? Do they prefer being hot or cold? What's their favorite season?

Kell’s a hot weather kid, though truthfully he’s pretty inured to most conditions: hot weather at least means berries on the bushes, less chance of fever or frostbite, a little more space to sleep in. But it never really occurs to him to care or complain about the weather, honestly—unless someone else is clearly thinking it, then he’s happy to take up the slack and lead the charge on their behalf. Late summer, late evening, sitting on a roof somewhere with a bottle of wine and your boots off, no outstanding warrants for your arrest—that’s the ideal. 

Having spent most of the past century in the rift, Conall regards any weather with suspicion and resolute endurance—one of those conditions of the world, like death and library late fees, that one must accept in the pursuit of one's duty. That said, he runs hot by nature, so he prefers colder weather; he’d rather be too warm by a fire than too warm in the sun. He is, as you might expect, prone to sunburn; Kell tries to get him to wear hats in the desert but he mostly refuses because they “impact his field of view” (he thinks they look undignified). He’d be happiest in a warm room with a storm howling outside, with a pot of tea and a stack of books. (And Kell.)

Miscellaneous Symbol Headcanons <3

[insufficientchill]

in answer to my own question, Conall pretends to be indifferent because he thinks that’s how good pawns are supposed to be, but actually he’s a bit picky. he doesn’t like being the centre of attention, so he prefers clothes that are relatively quiet: muted colours, limited detailing. he also gets attached to things and doesn’t like changing them, even if there’s a better option available. he doesn’t like showing off the burns—less as a matter of physical vanity and more because he worries that they suggest failure or incompetence.

he has no particular thoughts or feelings about his physical appearance generally—he’s not uncomfortable, but it still feels a bit like he’s borrowed someone else’s body—except that he’s put on a little weight travelling with kell (who wants everyone to eat well, always), and he’s slightly self-conscious about that. he’s maybe gotten slightly vain about his hair, too, since kell is clearly enamoured of it.

he sleeps in his shirt and prefers plain dark robes when he’s not in combat dress. 

(a question i always have about other people's pawns: do they care about their clothes? did they choose their armour carefully, or did the arisen give it to them? do they change at the drop of a hat, or are they committed to a particular outfit? are they vain, insecure, comfortable, indifferent? what do they wear on a day off, or to bed?

i could do this as an ask thing i guess, but not sure anyone's as interested as i am, so—take this as a prompt if you like!)

[insufficientchill]

i wanted to do this lovely DD2 character intro from @arisenreborn but i think details will be up in the air until i get deeper in the plot... but i can do basics, at least!

♛ THE ARISEN:

NAME: Kell (no one remembers what it's short for) AGE: 27 RACE: Human PRONOUNS: He/him PREFERRED VOCATION: Thief FAVORED GIFTS: He'd say "gold," but really it's food and drink FAMILY: None left except maybe some bandits northeast of the Rest Town (Vermund side), sort of, depending on how he feels about them today POSITIVE TRAITS: Egalitarian, easy-going, generous, preternaturally good balance NEGATIVE TRAITS: Unpredictable, doesn’t value his own life, sometimes veers melancholic in his cups LIKES: Sticking it to the bastards, drinking with friends, getting away with it DISLIKES: Noble smugness, the concept of “glory,” paying for inns

♟︎ THE PAWN:

NAME: Conall AGE: Appears to be in his early/mid-30s RACE: Human-looking PRONOUNS: He/him PREFERRED VOCATION: Mage FAVORED GIFTS: Books. INCLINATION: Calm POSITIVE TRAITS: Intelligent, thoughtful, magickally talented, practical NEGATIVE TRAITS: Comes off cold and callous; practical to the point of ruthlessness, especially when it comes to his own safety. Will use magick unsafely if he thinks it will be effective LIKES: Reading, praise, occasionally showing off a little DISLIKES: Failure, crowded places, small talk

Questions to come as part 2 (I have my provisional answers all worked out)!

[insufficientchill]

part two: Q&A! Long answers incoming.

♛ THE ARISEN: Kell

1. What was their life like before becoming Arisen?

Kell grew up with bandits—not the organized kind with a name and a reputation and an imposing hideout, just a few desperate people sleeping in the basement of a ruined tower north of the Rest Town on the Guerco Mountain Road. It’d be a stretch to say they raised him, but they kept him fed and clothed in exchange for his help scamming travellers and, later, holding up oxcarts at knifepoint. If anyone raised him it was the town: he learned to read (ambivalently) from Ibrahim at the Scrap Store, and he learned to charm people (and cheat at dice) from a sequence of short-term barmaids at the Sword and Staff. Robbe taught him to fight and Jacint taught him to cook. When he lost his eye at 17 to a caravan guard’s broadsword, the fever nearly killed him; Morris and Radcliff kept him alive. In return he leaves a little gold for whoever needs it, when he’s flush.

Eventually, after a job went wrong (a few too many bodies), Kell cut himself loose and left the mountains—most people in town assume he bit the dust out in some nameless gully, with his daggers and his wineskin for company. 23 years is a pretty good run for a bandit’s brat from nowhere, and the townsfolk can all say they did right by the kid. In fact, Kell made his way to the capital, finding work of mixed legality there too: smuggler, bouncer, sellsword, pickpocket. When the guards finally caught up with him, an understaffed lieutenant offered him the chance to join up instead of six months’ hard labour. He planned to desert as soon as he got far enough from Vernworth, but they sent him to Melve…

2. How do they handle being Arisen, and the responsibilities that come with it?

Kell doesn’t mind being the Arisen so much. It’s just the luck of the draw, he thinks; you win some, you lose some. Sometimes the judge recognizes you by your scars; sometimes you’ve gotta climb out of the hole the harpy dropped you in. He doesn’t have much sense of fate or faith, and he’s had worse sentences hanging over his head. The responsibilities—that’s a bit harder. Kell will tell anyone he’s a coward; he’d much rather run than fight. (This isn’t necessarily true, but if nothing else it’s a useful lie.) He’s prepared to die fighting the dragon; he can’t really foresee any other outcome, but—it’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened to him.

(It’s a little awkward that he’s got to work with all these nobs and guardsmen and the like, now—he’s definitely robbed some of these people before, not that they’d have noticed, and Brant absolutely recognizes him. Fortunately Kell never holds much of a grudge.)

3. What are their thoughts on Pawns in general?

Kell’s too used to people-who-don’t-count-as-people to put much stock in the common wisdom about pawns. So they’re a little odd—so are most folk, when it comes to it. And Kell likes people, he likes being around people—his early years taught him that being with people means living and being alone means dying. So he likes being around pawns. He doesn’t really have a sense that they’re any different from your average hired mercenaries except that they’re a little mystical or whatever, and the payment system is kind of weird. He’s not really interested in the cosmic ramifications. 

4. What's their relationship like with their main Pawn?

Conall is the best thing that’s ever happened to Kell. He’s the perfect partner, the best accomplice, the winning hand; Kell is extremely satisfied that he lucked into Conall. (Conall has attempted to explain that it’s not really a question of luck, but Kell’s good at not hearing things he doesn’t want to hear.) Kell is casually affectionate and likes body contact; he tries to be cautious about not overstepping, given the whole no-free-will thing—which he’s not sure he believes, anyway—but touching Con isn’t a romantic or sexual drive, for him, it’s just a core part of his personality. I’m here, you’re here, we’re together and we’ll look out for one another. Conall can be stand-offish, but Kell is good at asking him questions—is this alright, are you only agreeing because you can’t refuse me, do you really not feel anything, what does “no free will” even mean—and the fact that Con will snap at him if he asks too many reassures him that Conall does know how to say stop it. 

5. Do they have any interest in being Sovran? What are their opinions on the politics of the world in general?

Kell hates the thought of being Sovran and is honestly reassured by the thought that he’s probably going to die before he has to deal with anything beyond some stupid ceremonies. Kell and the system do not get along, and he’d kick in every gaol cell if he could—but he also recognizes that he doesn’t really have a plan or an idea of how to deal with the people he’s put in there himself.

Maybe if he were still just Kell he could knock some sense into ‘em—but that lands differently when you’re the Sovran of the Realm, rather than a nameless bandit. Not really an option anymore. “Outside the law” takes on a different tone when you do have real power.  If he actually has to rule, he’ll come to it when he comes to it—he’s sensible enough not to worry too much about the future. 

6. Who are their love interest(s) and/or closest friends?

Kell’s never really needed to articulate love. He’s affectionate and generous; he likes casual relationships and casual sex, and he generally considers the people he’s fucking friends. He can be romantic, in the rose-between-the-teeth bottle-of-wine-under-the-stars sense, but the long-term always feels vague to him. Not uncomfortable, just implausible, like planning your life around striking it rich. He’s on borrowed time. That’s the card he drew—not from the Dragon, from the day he was born.

He gets along with a lot of people, Wilhelmina and Srail in particular. He thinks Ulrika, Glyndwr and Sven are sweet, but they all seem to belong to another world entirely. 

And, of course, there’s Conall—Conall who he loves fiercely and defensively, Conall who is the one good thing about being Arisen, Conall who is maybe the first person in Kell’s life who have ever put him first. 

7. What drew them to their preferred vocation? Do they have history with it? 

Kell has been a thief since before he could hold a weapon; he’s been a Thief since he first stuck a hunting knife through his belt at the age of 11. He’s too small to be an effective fighter; he doesn’t have much talent for magick, as far as he knows. Even when he’s practicing another vocation, he’s a thief. 

He doesn’t feel much guilt about his banditry, and he certainly doesn’t feel resentful of the people who taught him the tricks of the trade. He’s a no-hard-feelings-but-it’s-you-or-me type, at least when he has to be; that said, he doesn’t steal from people who don’t have anything worth stealing, or who would starve if he took what they had. He thinks the Nameless Village thieves are kind of up themselves—it’s not that complicated; you don’t need to do backflips—but he still hit it off (if you know what I mean) with Srail. 

8. Do they have any hobbies? Any way of relaxing between all that monster-slaying and traveling?

Kell’s sort of a casual hedonist; he likes to eat and drink and listen to a good fiddler in a dark bar. He plays dice—always with things he can afford to lose, cheap rings that he spins magickal backstories for and harpy pinions he claims he plucked from a griffin’s nest. A few cups in, you might convince him to sing something—his voice isn’t great, but it’s fine—and a few cups after that, he might pull out the penny whistle, which he plays better than you’d expect. He’ll dance if you ask him, and he’ll go to bed if you ask him after that: except less, now that Conall occasionally looks upset about it.

(Kell’s name, by the way, was probably Khalid, but it might have been Kelly—the townsfolk at the Checkpoint can’t agree, and so few people stay here for any longer than they have to. Most haven’t been around long enough to remember a woman who died in childbirth, 26 years ago, or the penniless drifter who buried her out in the ancient graveyard while a barmaid nursed the crying baby alongside her own. But Radcliff remembers, and he says it was Khalid, so.)

♟︎ THE PAWN: Conall

1. What was their life like prior to being summoned by their Arisen? 

Conall wasn’t born when Kell called for him—at least he doesn’t think so. He has only the vaguest memories—impressions of memories—from before, but he thinks they’re real. Certainly his burns are real, and he came to Kell with those, or most of them at least. He doesn’t remember how they happened, not in any helpful way—it’s been a long, long time since he was last needed—but he remembers the breathless heat and the raw, blistering new skin trying to heal itself and burning again, and the adrenaline that kept him casting through the waves and waves of pain. The desolation after, and the cool of the Rift. 

Then again, there are times when he wonders if he didn’t just dream it: if his memories didn’t come into being with him when Kell laid his hand on the stone. He doesn’t know what purpose they’d serve, but perhaps such things are beyond him.

Often he feels like he is just now waking up from something.

2. What is their opinion on the Arisen? How do they view their relationship?

Kell is sort of a mystery to Conall. Partially, he thinks, it’s just the distance between being a pawn and a real person, and then the distance again between a person and the Arisen—but he can’t quite rationalize how or why he was called to Kell’s side. He tries to be what Kell needs, but often he isn’t sure what that is, or if he can; Kell, infuriatingly, never seems to have much in the way of direction or instruction. He says Conall’s doing fine, regardless of whether he’s been useful at all. Even when Conall spends most of a battle unconcious, Kell just helps him up and asks if he’s injured: there’s never a reprimand, never a complaint. 

Kell treats Conall like a partner in crime, and Conall views himself as a loyal servant; he doesn’t always understand why Kell gives him things (a ripe apple; a ring with no practical function) or talks to him like an equal, like he might have an opinion beyond which road is safer or whether an item might be valuable. He’s settled on understanding this as Kell being lonely—he’s used to people, after all—and is doing his best to be a companion, even though it feels very strange and new.

He thinks the fact that Kell called him—a mage, a scholar, older (in appearance as well as reality) than Kell is himself—inasmuch as it wasn’t simply a mistake—means he’s meant to be wise and steady and impart his solemn knowledge of things. But he’s spent most of his “life” such as it is either ghosting the rift or in quiet study, so he doesn’t really understand The World. He desperately wants to be everything Kell needs (because then maybe—maybe—there’s no close to the thought), but he constantly second-guesses what that means.

3. Is there anything about the Arisen they find troublesome? Be it a small quirk or bad habit? (Or are they obviously flawless?)

Conall sometimes feels blessed that he doesn’t experience emotion—no contradiction there, what do you mean—because if he did, Kell would infuriate him. He’s reckless; it’s never clear whether he’s going to circle a battle for hours or rush right in. He steals things he doesn’t need to steal just because they belong to people he doesn’t like. He gets distracted by every cave and tower they pass, and he’ll spend ten minutes pulling gold teeth out of a ghoul’s head and then run right past a crate of supplies. He buys rounds of drinks at the bar for no reason. He’s incautious in battle, always trying to get one more hit in; he insists on leading the way down dark tunnels and caves, lantern extinguished, and insists he can see in the dark (he can’t). He doesn’t seem to recognize that his own life is any more valuable than a pawn’s.

If it were Conall’s place to question him perhaps he’d ask Kell: if you get killed for no reason, what do you think is going to happen to me? But it’s not, and he doesn’t.

4. What is their specialization and is there any story behind how they cultivated that skill set?

Conall learned Elvish from a book, a long time ago: he doesn’t remember why, but his knowledge of the elvish names of herbs and materials suggest that may have been the angle. He speaks it with a strange archaic diction that sometimes throws people off; occasionally it’s completely unintelligible, but mostly he gets by.

5. Do they have any thoughts on the politics of the world and their place in it as a Pawn - or how Pawns are treated? 

Conall thinks pawns are pawns and people are people and that’s that. (The alternative—that pawns are people, that they deserve things, feels so unbearable that he can’t think about it, even if he can’t entirely remember why.) As such, he struggles when Kell asks him not to call the Arisen “master” or chats with other pawns about their thoughts and feelings as though they’re just like anyone else. 

6. Does their journey with the Arisen change them in any significant way and how? 

This could be a very long answer but, if nothing else, Conall knows now that he likes to be touched. (He knows, now that he’s asked every day, that he does have things he likes and hates, things he wants and fears—a scrap of will, barely there, like a little flicker of candle-flame that won’t go out. He doesn’t know what it means, or whether it’s just another way that he’s defective. But he trusts Kell, so Kell knows too.)

7. Is there a reason they chose their preferred vocation? 

It was chosen for him, although not as a first choice—his first and only other master intended him to be a warrior. He was a disappointment, so she made him a mage instead. He doesn’t remember this, except that he hates the feel of a sword in his hand: it feels like failure. (Kell doesn’t know this, when he tells Con he might as well try it out—he’s a big man, strong, level-headed; he might learn something useful. Conall agrees because that’s his job. By the time he has mastered the skills of a fighter he’s more at ease with it—he doesn’t mind the feel of a shield on his arm, at least.)

Conall has vague memories of learning to cast in a tower somewhere, a library; hushed voices, precise and severe and generally approving. The relative effortlessness of it. Becoming useful, at least as much as he could. Healing comes easy; so does fire. Too easy, almost. Sometimes it’s like a dam breaking, a sudden torrent: too much of it, if he isn’t careful, like he’s full of some invisible fuel that just keeps burning and burning and burning. 

(They’ve talked about it. “Kind of fucked up, if I made you this way,” Kell says, sitting up against the wall, in bed in the little house in Vernworth after midnight. He’s not-quite-touching the glossy scars that cover Conall’s left forearm, up his bicep to his collarbone and his cheek. Conall shifts, slightly, so that Kell’s hand lands on his shoulder: Kell doesn’t move it. Strokes his thumb against the smoothness of the long-healed burn.

“You don’t like it,” Conall says, evenly. It’s possible, he thinks, to remove such things; he’s heard of it done. He could wear another face for Kell; this one wouldn’t be a great loss. A handsome veteran, maybe, or a pretty, slight thing with smooth skin and refined features.

Kell huffs. “Don’t mean it like that,” he says. His hand ghosts down Conall’s arm to the unscarred band above  the bone of his wrist, where some cuff or bracelet must have blocked the lick of flame: the skin there is pale and freckled, dusted with reddish hair, a little interruption as if just to show the contrast. “I don’t mind how it looks. Just—you remember it, don’t you? Whatever did this. Fucked up if I gave you the memory.”

“You didn’t,” Conall says, quiet, almost too quick. He’s nearly sure. “And if you did it, you must have had a reason. It must serve a purpose. You wouldn’t hurt me unless you had to.”

Kell’s eye widens a little, smudged with the kohl he never takes off. “Right,” he says, a little rough. Perhaps he needs a drink. “Right. Long as you know that, we’re good.”

They sleep side by side, touching at the wrist and knee and ankle, in the narrow single bed.)

8. Do they have any hobbies or preferred past-times? 

He would say no, but he does love to read. 

i wanted to do this lovely DD2 character intro from @arisenreborn but i think details will be up in the air until i get deeper in the plot... but i can do basics, at least!

♛ THE ARISEN:

NAME: Kell (no one remembers what it's short for) AGE: 27 RACE: Human PRONOUNS: He/him PREFERRED VOCATION: Thief FAVORED GIFTS: He'd say "gold," but really it's food and drink FAMILY: None left except maybe some bandits northeast of the Rest Town (Vermund side), sort of, depending on how he feels about them today POSITIVE TRAITS: Egalitarian, easy-going, generous, preternaturally good balance NEGATIVE TRAITS: Unpredictable, doesn’t value his own life, sometimes veers melancholic in his cups LIKES: Sticking it to the bastards, drinking with friends, getting away with it DISLIKES: Noble smugness, the concept of “glory,” paying for inns

♟︎ THE PAWN:

NAME: Conall AGE: Appears to be in his early/mid-30s RACE: Human-looking PRONOUNS: He/him PREFERRED VOCATION: Mage FAVORED GIFTS: Books. INCLINATION: Calm POSITIVE TRAITS: Intelligent, thoughtful, magickally talented, practical NEGATIVE TRAITS: Comes off cold and callous; practical to the point of ruthlessness, especially when it comes to his own safety. Will use magick unsafely if he thinks it will be effective LIKES: Reading, praise, occasionally showing off a little DISLIKES: Failure, crowded places, small talk

Questions to come as part 2 (I have my provisional answers all worked out)!