Chars: Male Lavellan (Noalanniel "Noah") & Male Inquisition Solider/Charger (Oberon O'Tiekrenal "Tek"), Noah & Iron Bull,
Ch. sum: He complained as much as the people he complained about...Bull and his charger's join the inquisition...not without trouble; however.
Horns Up
Sweet Andraste
He'd never felt so utterly alone – even when amongst his own kind – until now with the Inquisition. He was surrounded by hundreds of people on a daily basis – yet it felt as if he walked around through empty halls and rooms. He hated the shems, he'd hear them whispering some horrendous tall tales about the Dalish. Josephine had warned him of those rumors but had refused to tell him what they were. Now he knew what they were and the stories the shems could come up with – he steered clear of them all.
He'd attempted to engage in conversation with the few elves roaming the camp – which was futile. They were either Dalish abandoned by their clan or city elves who didn't care for the Dalish. All and all, the elves hated what he was and the humans hated what he was.
He was quite literally and utterly alone.
He didn't trust to speak with Cassandra and Leliana – one, because he hated Cassandra for keeping him captive and two, because he thought Leliana was a bitch – also because they were shems but mostly for the other reasons – but not….
He hated being around Josephine because she talked entirely too much about things he didn't care for. She also had a horrible knack of pointing out his shortcomings. Always about the shems and their politics and the way he was carrying himself wrong; how he should be more poised and polished – not looking like something that was dragged out of the forest barefoot, kicking and screaming. That last one he had given her a withering glare for. That was essentially his case – well without the kicking and screaming part. She'd apologized profusely but he'd shrugged her apology off and decided he'd only deal with her whenever he was forced to.
He didn't like Solas for some of the same reasons he didn't like Josephine. Whenever he'd engage in conversation with the elven mage, he'd always leave with a headache and sour expression. The elven mage always found some way to talk down about Noah's heritage. He had brushed it off the first few times – the elf was obviously older and had much more reason and logic behind his distaste for the Dalish but had limited it to just parts of their customs and limited knowledge. After a while, it just got plain ole offensive. He stopped trying to engage the elf and just ignored his presence entirely.
It'd seem Solas had taken note of that and gave him little smug smirks from time to time– though, to anyone else, the elf was sharing some secret elven cues that were most likely talking down about the human kind – which made absolutely no sense at all but that was coming from a shem's mouth and….their rumors that star elves never make sense…. Solas just rubbed Noah the wrong way.
Varric…Varric was okay….He didn't mind Varric at all. If anyone were to cure him of his loneliness, it'd probably be Varric. He knew how it felt to be held captive by the overbearing Seeker. He'd had to deal with Leliana on past excursions. He would somewhat relate to Noah's feelings about both the Seeker and the Crow leader. The only thing was, he didn't like how familiar the dwarf would address him on. It didn't anger him – it just made him a little uncomfortable…that is until the dwarf decided he couldn't bother to pronounce the elf's name right. That was when Noah's ire rose.
"Your name is too complicated…Teddy…I like Teddy. I'll call you Teddy," Varric had said. Noah had given him a look that urged him to continue. "Teddy as in bear. You know Bears, they look all cuddly and nice but then they go and rip your face off! You remind me of a bear." He had been smirking.
Noah hated and accepted the idea. He hated the fact he was seen as…cuddly but liked the 'rip your face off' part. He knew there was nothing he could do to change the dwarf's mind – he seemed to have given everyone a nickname. He just had to deal with being cuddly and vicious. Noah snorted.
Then there was Dorian….Creators…Dorian…The mere thought of the man caused Noah's ire to rise. The man was insufferably sarcastic and never took anything serious unless it benefited him – granted that seemed to be the protocol for all things humans….well except Cassandra whom seemed to be anally retentive and overbearingly serious towards anything and everything.
Camp
The dark haired elf was sitting across from the fire with his broad sword across his lap. Reaching up, he pulled out the thin, leather strap keeping his long locks up in a bun. His silken, raven locks cascaded around him like a dark waterfall. He took a moment to trace over his vallaslin, watching his reflection in his sword. You could barely make out the designs, as it was nearly the same pale peach color of his skin.
Elgar'nan.
It was one of the trickier elven pantheon to prove yourself worthy of – at least it was in his clan. He didn't particularly like the memory that brought about his proof…
They were currently camped in Storm Coast. They had two things to do: one, meet people and two, meet people.
…..
…..
…..
Okay, that wasn't exactly what they had said but…Noah never really paid much mind during those war room meetings. He was too busy wallowing in the irritation he felt being surrounded by people he hated with such passion, it rivaled the damn hole in the sky…if the hole was hot, of course… Noah felt his face flush at the double meaning of his thoughts.
Creators…he needed to get laid…
"Noalen," he looked up to see Cassandra staring down at him with an odd look across her face. He hated how she changed his name every time she said it. He would much rather she just refer to him as Lavellan….though most of the time she would say Herald. Those times were when he wanted to bash her in the head with something…..he kept his anger in check, though – mostly…sometimes…
She stood there a while, not saying anything. As the seconds ticked on, irritation started to rise in the elf. He hated when the shem would just stare at him and say nothing. It grated on his last nerve. He was not known for his patience.
"What?" he snapped. His irate tone seemed to snap Cassandra out of whatever self-induced trance she was in. She gave one last wary look at Noah before shaking her head.
"Never mind," and with that, Noah watched her walk away.
"You know," Noah brought his gaze to Varric as the dwarf started for him. "She's probably just worried about you, Teddy." Noah narrowed his eyes at the nickname.
"She can keep her worry to herself – I care naught." Noah returned his gaze to his sword and glared at his reflection. Didn't they realize he hated them all? That, if given the chance, he would high-tail the hell out of here. He hated how they relied on him – seeming to hang on his every little word. They'd look to him for answers they could have found on their own or decisions they could have made on their own and if they didn't like said decision or answer, they'd look on in disappointment or give him a disapproving look.
If they didn't want to do what he thought was right, why in the hell would they keep coming back to him for him to decide on things? If they hated the fact that he was an elf, why keep pretending he was some herald to some god he didn't even believe in?
He felt a light weight settle on his hand and he jumped. If Varric hadn't have stepped back when he did, there was a high chance he would have been punched in the face.
"Teddy?" Noah looked up to see Varric giving him a worried look. He gestured down and Noah followed the gesture. He'd been gripping the blade of his sword and had cut into his hands. He hadn't even noticed… "Hey," Noah looked back to Varric. "It's not over-stepping it if you tell them to back off here and there," it looked like he wanted to say more. Noah frowned as he watched the dwarf walk away.
"Oh goody, Venatori! What a refreshing sight," Dorian commented dryly. They were just coming up on the shore where their first 'meeting people' mission was to take place. He vaguely remembered the Cream man say something about a charging bull. He wasn't so sure about that though…He only half listened to him.
When they came up on the sight, they were greeted by fighting. A mercenary group, who he believed were the ones they were meeting up with, were fighting against – you guessed it – Venatori.
"Quit your belly-aching and let's help them." Noah huffed, already pulling his great sword from its holster on his back.
"I get to complain until they're all dead," Dorian huffed back, already allowing his hands to spark with storm magic. Noah's would-be snarky reply was interrupted by one of the Venatori came charging at him with a sword raised. Noah brought up his sword to deflect the blow. He ended up making the vint's sword fly out of his hand.
"I thought this would be harder than that…" Noah grumbled as he crashed his sword into the vint's head, splitting it and allowing blood to spray across his face.
"Hn. An Elf with a sword, that's a first." Noah looked up at the deep voice. He watched in fascination as the giant man who had spoken swung his great sword and smashed into 3 of the vints at once. "The Iron Bull. These are my Chargers. We'll talk more when the vints are dead."
"Noalanniel, Herald….thingy…Yeah, when they die…" Noah grumbled back an introduction, causing the giant man to smirk.
The battle raged on without incident – well incident for those not Venatori agents. Noah had struck his sword down into the ground to catch his breath.
He could swing the sword easily but it still took a lot out of him. He took that time to observe those he was fighting alongside. Dorian and Varric were somewhere in the backlines picking off Venatori archers. The big Qunari dude – Bull – he'd been on the front lines along with Noah. They actually worked pretty well together. They kept enemies from flanking each other.
"Sweet Andraste's flaming titty-knuckles!" Noah's gaze shot to his right at the shout to see someone come flying at him. The guy rammed into him so hard, it sent both of them flying to the ground. Noah managed to knock his head on a stone on the way down. He managed to keep conscious long enough to hear sputtered apologies and curses intermingled with four different languages. He couldn't really tell what languages they were because he was already blackening out.
"'Sweet Andraste's flaming titty knuckles'?" Varric quirked an amused eyebrow at the man currently kneeling on the ground bowing.
"Geez, Renal," Bull sighed. "You need to watch what you're doing…you could have killed our potential employer." Bull stared down at the unconscious elf with a raised eyebrow. "'Sweet Andraste's flaming titty-knuckles'?" Bull regarded the man still on the ground with an amused smirk. "That's a new one."
"I swear, in the maker's name, I didn't even see the defender! He literally came out of fucking nowhere and flung me across the damn world!" Renal cried. "Is he okay?" He was now referring to the elf still laid out on the ground with a gash on the side of his head. Dorian was kneeling over him with his hand hovering over the gash.
"I'm not a healer." Dorian grumbled lowly. "The most I can do is stop the bleeding…Though, I'm pretty sure he'll be in a tremendous amount of pain when he wakes up." Dorian paused, glancing at the man who winced. "I wouldn't want to be around him when he wakes…But that is just coming from a shem who wants to keep all of their body parts in the right places."
"Hnhnhn…" the man made a series of nervous noises as Bull sighed.
"I'm guessing this hurts our chances of an alliance, huh?" Iron Bull asked. He looked at Cassandra. "Unless it's…you who is calling all the shots?" Cassandra just shrugged, gesturing down to the unconscious elf.
"I say," Dorian started as he stood up. "We leave this dreadful place and return to Haven. I'm wet, cold, and aggravated!" Cassandra glared at him. "Besides," Dorian added as he caught the look Cassandra was giving him. "The herald should be somewhere warm and comfortable surrounded by healers for him to get better faster…?" it came out more as a question then anything. Cassandra sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Very well…I suppose we should return….At least we have finished half of what we have come here for…Though, I do not believe we can wait for him to get better to do the rest. I will assemble a few soldiers and will return here to finish our mission."
"Right." Dorian grumbled. Cassandra narrowed her eyes at him while he just smiled at her.
"Well…" Bull was frowning.
"Yes. I do believe he would have you join us anyway." Cassandra sighed. "We can talk about this in detail later. I am Cassandra Pentaghast. I have heard of you and your Chargers group. You will be a valuable asset to the inquisition."
"Glad to hear." He pointed to himself. "The Iron Bull," He pointed at the man walking towards them. "My second, Krem. You might be familiar with him already since he was the one to send you the message about us being over here." Bull rolled his eyes and pointed at the man on the ground. "The klutz is Oberon."