A/N: Part of "humanize your least favourited character" challenge an OP!anon raised over at dragonage_kink meme. In DA2 style. This story is for Seneschal Bran, the disdainful noble at the Viscount Keep. I wish there was more to him in the game, oh well.
Seneschal Bran - "End Justifies the Means"
He knew what people thought of him.
Too arrogant.
Too disdainful.
Too young.
Too unscrupulous.
Too unsuitable.
Too everything.
Too nothing.
Only the Viscount seemed to think him capable, otherwise he wouldn't appoint him the Seneschal. The young viscount's son seemed to be vary around him, the boy already too somber for his age - but there was something what connects them. The suffering of seeing the man they both looked up to being put down by every idiot who thought themselves important enough to be looking down on the man who were a great person in position not suited his character.
He worked harder and harder each day, trying to make Marlowe's (he's one of the few people allowed to call the Viscount by the name when they discuss matters of the city away from the ears of others) reign easier in the difficult time of Blight brewing in the south, taking loads of the paperwork off Viscount's table so he could negotiate with the nobility. Lord Harriman was one of the more reasonable nobles in whole of Free Marches, pushing through the idea of sending help to Ferelden striked down by the Blight, even if the city is full of refugees and nobles are against anything even distantly sounding as Fereldan or Ferelden.
It was hard to organize a city full of refugees and faulty guards but he managed, especially after the Qunari crashlanded in Kirkwall but he still managed, scrambling the little resources they had to their disposal and somehow making the city continue in its life in relative smoothness.
It wasn't until the defeat of the Blight that several of the Fereldan refugees started to make a name for themselves, drawing on the name of their ancestors ('Amell' was the name of the mother of the small family, at least until she got married off), raising in the ranks of Kirkwall citizens and making his head hurt with all the extra paperwork it brought him.
He remembered the refugee, a curious woman with hair so light they almost seemed white, lines of Chasind tattoo light on her face, dressed in strange mixture of clothing and armor, followed by a similarly looking dark-haired man with two-handed sword strapped to his back, dwarf he remembered being younger brother of Bartrand Tethras and the guard captain-to-be, meeting them all together for the first time when young Saemus got missing and it was clear to him that this woman is going to be trouble. Trouble with capital T.
It sure didn't make him doing happy dances every time Viscount called on her, Thea Hawke, in the next several years - he saw the disdain in her eyes when he mentioned that he would do everything to reduce the damage for the office. Better to sacrifice bunch of fanatics, bunch of helpers, bunch of anyone aside for the ruling family, so the office would remain strong. But then Saemus left with another of his grand gestures and was murdered by bunch of fanatics and Marlowe lost the will to live.
Hawke was nearly constant presence in the keep since then, keeping the broken man company, together with his making him do at least some work so he would snap from the melancholy. He never really got the chance, for the situation with Qunari finally got out of hand. Bran saw the Arishok's mocking in the face of a broken man, whose suffering ended the moment the vicious blade met his neck and his head flew away to land at Hawke's feet.
He cheered for the new Kirkwall Champion, for she managed to avert a crisis in his city.
Three years later, he knew that the crisis was just a foreboding of even greater crisis. His post of seneschal was just of the "place your stamp on this and keep quiet" variety, people trying to rip piece of the city to themselves. When Champion appeared in front of him, he couldn't stop himself from throwing his frustrations on her.
Small part of him had been ashamed of that afterwards, since she only came to see how he was and he nearly bit her head off for that.
But the climax of the brewing confrontation came soon after, Hawke being the one left standing, mage who turned her back against her own, and the one being supported by both templars and citizens. He offered his services to her nearly immediately after the talks of her becoming a Viscount came up, and with a small smirk she accepted, for they shared an understanding, no matter the gossips about him being a turncoat spread by envious nobles who hoped to become seneschals now.
There will be nothing to stop them from doing what's best for Kirkwall. Nothing, and no one.