#she misses Rica and Leske SO MUCH tho

[faejilly]

This is Finna, btw.

And her continuing adventures!

-

Go climb a tower that's crawling with darkspawn, which is, after all, what darkspawn do, (crawl over everything), but apparently everyone else thinks they shouldn't be there.

(Surfacers are dumb)

almost die, get rescued by Weird Witches (possibly for the second time, really, considering they're the ones that found the treaties the first time?) and have one of them insist you adopt the other one

(you haven't adopted anyone since Leske, this is kind of nice actually)

Find out the Surfacers can't even follow their OWN war plans, almost everyone's dead, the horde's just wandering around doing whatever the fuck it wants, and Alistair is barely more of a Grey Warden than you are and doesn't actually know anything useful about how they do shit and thus needs you to adopt him too because he's a little overwhelmed.

(Honestly, that's kind of fair, if Duncan hadn't been there when you first left Orzammar you would have gotten eaten by a bear or something. At least you and Alistair didn't hit the 'lost everything and everyone and am very confused about the world' at the same time?)

So. Understandable, but it is not ideal, darkspawn suck and archdemons are terrifying and you have no idea how anything works but you're in charge now!

Which is The Ultimate Surfacer Nonsense, but whatever, at least you can ignore most of the stupid and focus on killing darkspawn which is the whole reason Orzammar let the Grey Wardens recruit you, so.

So.

Follow Morrigan and Alistair around because they at least know how to navigate above ground even if they're cranky about navigating together.

GET A PUPPY! Maybe Surface Shit Isn't All Stupid. The Dog Is Cool. You named him Runar.

Get to human town to regroup. Find stupid bandits and run them off. (Who tries to steal from the people who don't have anything? even the Carta doesn't steal from Dusters, that's just DUMB) This is apparently a good move, all the humans are pleased.

Find stupid merchant who is ALSO trying to steal from the people who don't have anything what the hell Surfacers aren't even good criminals, this is so exhausting. He leaves in a huff, you suppose one of these days you should figure out how to talk to people rather than just sighing and rolling your eyes at them because they're stupid, but historically you were just supposed to hit them, so this is not your usual skill set, and you really don't want to talk to people so maybe you'll just go back to stabbing them?

You found a very nice fancy dagger after all, might as well use it.

Meet a giant in a cage who apparently got locked up for murder, but come on now, who among us hasn't done that? And he's been there for ages and is still alive which seems useful when fighting Darkspawn, so you let him out & adopt him too so he can help.

He is pretty insulting about it, but he's still nicer than most of Orzammar was to dusters, so whatever. And it's clearly not personal, he likes insulting everyone even more than Morrigan likes insulting Alistair, so you don't care.

Adopt a weird chantry lady too, because she also seems to be good at the fighting people, even if she let Loghain's idiots run away. (To be fair, you let the stupid bandits run away an hour ago, so it's not like you're one to talk. You can't kill all the stupid people, there'd be no one left.) She is also batshit crazy, but again. That's kind of comfortingly familiar, no one who worked for Beraht was quiet or sane about much of anything.

Help some humans out, (and some dwarves! that was nice) because they are really bad at this being surrounded by darkspawn thing and it's kind of adorable.

Also when they like you they give you shit, and you're not about to turn down anything that might be helpful. (See above and adopting all the crazy surfacers.)

Kill more bandits and giant spiders and wolves and darkspawn again and even more dumb humans who did not learn from seeing all the OTHER people who tried and failed to kill you and thought they'd get a reward out of it, and none of this is changing your mind that Surfacers make things way too complicated and are also (even at their best) kind-of dumb.

But still.

You're not dead! You have some help! You own more shit than you ever did in Dust Town!

You have a dog.

(The dog's still the best part. And the only one with sense.)

Your barbarian mace with an extra stabby bit in the hilt is pretty nice too though.

Be a duster, don't even have a name really, not as dwarves count such things, kill a guy, find a drunk guy, panic, fight some more guys (just trying not to get killed by your boss), boss tries to kill you anyway, leave your sister and best friend behind in the dust because they told you to, (and it's that or die, honestly, and you're not ready for that), get to Ostagar, meet a KING?!?, there's a fucking view with sky and distant trees and this is IMPOSSIBLE, you miss the fucking STONE and then some very very random nobody is all, "Maker watch over you, my lady"

Apparently you're a lady

what the actual fuck, Brosca's life is very weird

[undead-potatoes]

@black-rose4 replied to your post "Would you be able to tell me about your HoF? 🙏"

v. important question: how's she feel about Leske? also about the sky and generally being top side?

Leske is... complicated, to say the least. They were literal partners in crimes for years, and he was probably the closest friend Nimri had. I imagine he would have to tone down his talk about Rica tho, lest Nimri turn him into an origami swan lmao

Nimri is someone who is loyal to a fault, it's kinda of a core tenant of her personality, and she does (subconsciously) expect the same from others in return. Leske's betrayal hit her HARD, and his death even harder. She's so filled with anger and grief and frustration, it's all just a big mess and she doesn't know how to sort any of it.

She's angry at him for being such a spineless and fickle coward. She's devastated someone she loves is dead. And maybe worst of all, she has to grapple with the guilt, knowing that she got away while he was left behind to deal with her mess. Of course he'd end up where he did - in Dust Town you do what you have to just to survive.

The surface had almost made her forget so much of her old life, how fucking miserable and shitty everything was. The year she'd spent topside had really started to bring her out of her shell, but returning to Orzammar immediately started to undo all of that. Leske's death was simply the final drop that sent her back into complete emotional lockdown.

Nimri still thinks about him, decades later, never quite getting over her anger andgrief. I still miss you, you dumb piece of shit.

- - -

The surface, on the other hand, is amazing.

It took her a moment to get used to literally everything, but things are so much better topside. Up there she's just "a dwarf", treated like any other unimportant ham-and-egger. If someone is rude or treats her like shit, they're just regular assholes. No-one assumes or judges her based on her brand, the mark that has defined her whole life.

Being treated like a normal ass person for the first time in her life really gave her a different outlook on things, and was crucial in both radicalizing her further, as well as her road to patch together her mental health. Being re-traumatized every day of your life while everyone tells you how much of a worthless piece of shit you are does tend to have a negative impact on your mental health, surprisingly enough.

But oh my god, the food. Bread made with real grain, fresh fruit and vegetables, clean water falling from the sky and running down clear streams. You can just walk into any old forest and find a bounty of food waiting for you - the first time Leliana stopped to show her a raspberry bush on the side of a road it rocked Nimri's entire world. Fish is gross tho, you can keep the fish.

Weather's a bit of a mixed bag. A little rain? Good, refreshing. A lot of rain? Cold, very muddy, sucks ass. The sun is pretty, but the sunburns are brutal. Snow is just straight up magic, until it caves your tent roof in at 4 in the morning. She's always cold, but that's less of a problem once she's sandwiched between her two living space heaters, Alistair and Rabbit the mabari.

The surface gives her room to just exist, like she's more of a person and less like a cornered animal. She goes to bed with a full stomach more often than not. She gets to read and draw and stargaze in the cool summer grass. She trusts her companions to have her back, even when things go sideways. Things are good, better than they've ever been in Orzammar, even with a Blight raging on in the background.