Alistair

Welcome to your life, There's no turning back...

Alistair: Unless it's my wife on a griffon coming back from three years in the west, after finding a cure to the Calling.

Alistair: with our dog, and some exotic cheeses.

Alistair: My wife swooping is great.

Alistair: My wife.

A new addition to my video game vintage flower poster collection: Flora of Thedas! The Dragon Age games have a huge number of different plants so it was tricky to narrow it down. Enjoy. <3

"Alistair."

His tone is firm, borderline angry. He clearly didn't appreciate the quip.

"You must have one. You can't tell me you Wardens are one-hundred percent doom and gloom all the time. Come on. Nobody ever got shut out of the sleeping quarters without clothes? Or convinced a new recruit that something silly was part of the routine? A commanding officer no-one liked fell off his horse? Anything?"

He is careful as he navigates through the ruins, keeping an eye out for any movement that might indicate an enemy nearby while he talks. He does his best to avoid jostling Alistair or letting him bump into anything, concentrating on getting them both forward.

He isn't being helpful and he knows it, and Alistair scowls with his own failure.

"That's us," he replies carefully so that he doesn't distract or interrupt Thilfonir. "All doom and gloom, all the time. If somebody laughs they're immediately kicked out of the Wardens."

He's at least able to shoot the elf a wry smirk enough to let the other man know that he's being completely facetious before it falls into a grimace. "I suppose… I could tell you about how they hazed me. It's all very secretive, you know, so you can get away with most things." He groans. "Turns out, that includes hexing your smallclothes. I'm not sure you'd want to know exactly how."

He isn't even sure he could keep going, but he focuses on keeping his eyes open.

What he hadn't expected was Alistair to speak so frankly on his own challenges with leadership. Jasper said nothing but listened attentively all the same.

He knew exactly what that felt like, Haven had hammered it home for him harder than any lesson he had ever learned. He kept returning in his mind to why they had chosen to stay in a town with no real fortifications, barely enough room to house everyone, and reeling from devastation on its doorstep. Logically, he knew it was the only base they had and that trying to move earlier would have been complicated and maybe even impossible. Still, the people of Haven had suffered twice over and the worst bit was seeing the bodies laid in the snow as they had trekked through the mountains, too weak and tired to continue so they had passed in their sleep or the ones who just collapsed and couldn't summon the strength to move.

"Thank you." Jasper's voice was quiet but his words were earnest. "They didn't deserve what happened to them. If I hadn't been there..."

If he hadn't been there then Corypheus would have never looked twice at the village. It didn't feel fair when he'd gotten away with bruised ribs, a dislocated arm, and some minor frostbite. If anyone had deserved to bear the brunt of it, it was him. He had been the real target.

"Does it ever get easier? How do you even cope with that? I'm still surprised I'm still standing at all."

"No," he finally answered honestly. "It doesn't get easier, and I think you already knew that was the answer." Alistair turned to look at Jasper with something in his expression that was more empathy than he'd had before. He recognized the position the other man was in, after all. Had been through a similar experience with leadership and knew some of the worst of it. He thought about his own losses. "What happens… Is you get better at carrying it instead. It sounds terrible, I know, but - it's necessary. The people I've lost I haven't stopped thinking about. But it doesn't feel so hollow as it once did. It hurts still, and I will never forget them, but I'm able to continue and make the next decisions that must be made."

Grey Warden Alistair Theirin is sponsored by Redcliffe Parmesan and many sketches are taken of him posing with large wheels of cheese