#;codex;

During the first six to nine months after leaving Kirkwall, Merryn never really considered ‘settling’ at all --- they figured they’d catch a sword or an arrow in the wrong place before they ever got far enough to think about settling. Even after, they’ve never bothered to spare much thought to anything beyond the next day, the next job; moving around isn’t always the easiest, but it’s safer that way for someone who prefers to be as invisible as possible. ‘Home’ is for people with money, with families, they’d tell you.

This one’s heavily verse-dependent, but in their ‘main’ verse, he’s alive but they believe him to be dead until partway through Inquisition’s timeline (I’ve yet to write it up, but Merryn’s personal quest as a companion revolves around their finding out that he’s alive). If asked, they’ll either refuse to answer entirely (to someone they don’t know/trust) or acknowledge that he could be, but they hope he isn’t. 

{codex entries meme} || accepting

3. a report written by a teacher or mentor

……the kid’s got talent, that’s for sure. Youngest I’ve ever trained, but they’ve got the most consistent lift of the lot right now and an eye for goods that’ll be easy to flip. Super defensive about their family, but that’s normal, especially at this age. As far as I can tell they’ve got a mother and a brother living in Darktown–gonna have to keep an ear to the ground there. Kid might lose it if anything happened to them, and that’d be a disaster all ‘round.

— from the undated notes of one Cyrus Gilbert, merchant, estimated to be written some time between 9:25 and 9:30 Dragon

5. letters between two companions about them

……I think I’ve finally figured out where Merryn sleeps–a couple of maids came running out of the kitchen babbling about a scream in the middle of the afternoon, and about ten minutes later Merryn walks out the cellar door with a crease across the side of their face that looked an awful lot like the seam in the shoulder of that jacket they’re always wearing. I don’t know what worries me more; that they’re sleeping in the cellar, or that they’re having nightmares bad enough to wake up screaming.

……Sleeping in the cellar? Maker, I had no idea. Leliana must know, but if she hasn’t done anything I believe there’s nothing she can do, which would indicate there’s little hope for the rest of us. Still, I can see about arranging a proper room, if you think you can convince them to actually use it. I’m afraid I can’t do much about the nightmares, but perhaps Adan or Elan might have some sort of tonic that might help? I try not to meddle, but I do hate knowing and not at least attempting to make it right.