FIRE THROWER.

            She nods and SIGHS; she’d suspected there’d be no shortcuts in...whatever it is she’s trying to do.  WOO SOMEONE.  She’d not even properly kissed Helewise before she was taken away ( and, if we’re being honest, she’s hyper - aware that most seem to find her UGLY ) and is lacking GREATLY in confidence.  She plops beside him with a groan.  “How are YOU so good at flirting with everyone?  I’m jealous.”

the most beautiful sad girl ever.

         That’s COMFORTING, at least --- so the woman at least LIKES HER.  In some capacity.  “I just don’t want to ------ make her uncomfortable, you know.  If she wouldn’t --- like a woman.  Or...”  A gesture to her --- her EVERYTHING, honestly.  She’s aware brutish Qunari women aren’t the fantasy of MOST.  “This all sounds terribly silly, doesn’t it?”

                     “The vitaar doesn’t hurt, or --- anything like that.  It doesn’t mark us as being of age, either.  It’s like armor; it hardens our skin, like armor does, and makes us stronger.  It’s not DECORATION, but it’s just --- utilitarian.  The Qun isn’t one for anything fancier.”  A loss she feels acutely; the Qun would never WANT HER.  Would see her chained and mute.  But she aches for SOMETHING like culture to call her own.

             “You’re --- SURE?”  Bronzy digits twists and tangle before her body.  “I don’t know if I’d call myself EXOTIC...but if it won’t be a DEAL - BREAKER, I can manage that, I think.”  She is good at manipulation; she knows this much.  But if they cannot see past horns to words and actions, she worries there will be no space for her understated misdirection.  A shy smile takes her expression.  “Thank you, though.  I suppose I just tend to worry too much.”

         “Don’t laugh!”  She knows it isn’t MEAN - SPIRITED but she pouts nonetheless, grasping his shoulders and glancing frantically about.  “And don’t be loud!!  I don’t want --- YES, I do, I guess?  If you think she might say yes?  I don’t know.”

         “I guess a part of it just seems SILLY.  I know that nothing I do --- no matter how I study or learn, as soon as I walk into Halamshiral, all the humans are going to see is a BRUTE.”  It hurts her as much as it frustrates her; there is no way to gain the court’s approval looking as she does.  At least it SEEMS that way.

              “Are the --- vallaslin, is it?”  She gets the pronunciation almost right.  “Are they just for decoration, like the humans wear, or is it like our vitaar?”

          “Um.  So.  I have a question and it ------ might be kind of weird but.  Uh.”  Her fingers tangle in her lap and she pauses long enough to bite her lip once.  Oh, MAKER, this is embarrassing.  “Your sister, does --- uh.”  SPIT IT OUT!!  “Does she like --- girls?”

        “You’d be on the few who didn’t.  Everyone expects I’m just like him.”  Well, BULL certainly doesn’t.  Though his words are harsher than mere misunderstanding.  “Oh --- well!  If you want!  They bolted from the Qun when my mama realized she was pregnant.  They knew I might have magic, and they didn’t want --- the Qun is HARSH to mages.  They didn’t want that for me.  Risked their lives.”

         A SMILE quirks her lips at that ------ after all, she supposes it is always funny, in the least mean - spirited way it can be, to see Solas so frustrated.  She’s not certain it’s worth it when both come to harass her, though.  “Mostly it’s because he blames Dorian, and then Solas shouts at Dorian, and they both come to bother me.  Not selling out your brother is shaving years off my life.”

babyface!!

              “Well --- I do have parents, actually.  Just because BULL doesn’t ---...  No one meets their parents in the Qun.  But I was born outside of it, so...I have parents just like anyone else in Thedas.”

tfw cullen accidentally lets slip some magephobic shit