#kirkwall is not his ideal habitat

[the-second-moon]

"da2 companion dorian" possibilities continue to intrigue me

“Stop,” Dorian says. “I didn’t march uninvited into your home so that I could moan about my circumstances and dump all of my personal problems into your lap.”

Hawke glances over his shoulder toward the door. “You do know that’s what literally everyone else marches in here for, right?”

“That hardly makes it more appealing, Hawke.”

To that, Hawke chuckles, slightly uncertain though it is. “All right… then what can I do for you?”

“I just—simply—I would like to talk. Could we talk? Two friends, having a casual and lighthearted conversation? No drama or anguish peppered into the mix?”

“Why, certainly! I presume that must be a thing that friends do,” Hawke says. He plops into the chair across Dorian’s. “So, then… I, uh… How was your day?”

Dorian pauses. “Awful,” he says, and laughs aloud. “It was complete and utter shit, in all honesty.”

Hawke grins. “What do you know! Mine, too. Though I suppose that’s the standard response around these parts.”

“So it is. What was I thinking, trying to force normalcy in this of all places?”

“Honest mistake,” Hawke says. “But, yes… that’s probably hopeless. Normalcy doesn’t fare very well in Kirkwall these days.”

“No indeed. And yet somehow you seem perfectly comfortable here.”

“I’m not particularly skilled at normalcy either,” Hawke says. “Birds of a strange feather must flock to the appropriate nesting ground, or what have you…”

(this is a first-draft snippet from a future hawke estate conversation in my stupid da2 dorian fic, "bit of a shithole")