[sandbox]

[bringspeopletogether]

Alistair surprises himself: he adapts to the Basin a lot quicker than he expected.

The camps feel -- snug, he decides. In a good way. Trees overhead, a limited number of egress points, a vantage point so high it puts every night by the ladder to shame: they're not the stone walls of Skyhold, but maybe they're the next best thing. After an initial restless night or two, he sleeps soundly.

(Knowing he's surrounded by lots of people with sharp, pointy weapons? Also helpful.)

Joining the patrol rotations seems like a decent next step. No point in being in the field, especially after all that training with Bull, if he's just going to twiddle his thumbs all day.

Comments

[howtoactfereldan]

"I haven't left yet."

He settles his arm more snugly around Alistair, and says to the lake:

"Besides, you're the one with the knack for making yourself utterly indispensible."

[bringspeopletogether]

Alistair huffs out another small laugh, but doesn't say anything. He leans into the embrace.

(He's -- not sure he agrees. Seems like he has a knack for the opposite, most of the time.)

[howtoactfereldan]

(Like Cullen keeps saying: other people are stupid.)





"'Still alive. Plan to continue.'"

Mild. Innocent.

"That's technically more than Mia gets out of me."

[bringspeopletogether]

Alistair snorts, amused. "I don't know about that," he says. "I'm fairly sure I saw something about chess by mail in that letter."

[howtoactfereldan]

"'Still alive, plan to continue, pawn to E4'?"

[bringspeopletogether]

Satisfied: "Much better."

A beat of consideration.

"Pawn to...A5?"

[howtoactfereldan]

"Theirin. That's an illegal move."

[bringspeopletogether]

"What?" Outrage! "No it's not, not if I'm looking at the board like -- "

He sketches a circle with his free hand, like he's rotating a chess board. Or possibly miming a round chess board. Who knows.

[howtoactfereldan]

"Your pawn starts at A2, it can move a maximum of two spaces, you just said it moved three."

[bringspeopletogether]

Grumble.

"If you're looking at the board from the other side, it looks like it starts on A6. It's reverse chess. Ahead of its time."

[howtoactfereldan]

"Even if it were reverse chess -- which isn't a thing -- it's still a poor move."

[bringspeopletogether]

"It could be a thing." Lofty; then, more curious, "Why is it a poor move?"

Look, if he ever has a hope of catching up to Kieran, he has to learn proper chess sometime.

[howtoactfereldan]

"It's much easier to win if you control the center. And it's much easier to control the center if you get there quickly."

[bringspeopletogether]

" -- Right, yes," he says, sheepish. "I did know that bit. Just didn't remember it."

A small smile, no less sheepish.

"No wonder Kieran keeps winning."

[howtoactfereldan]

"Kieran spends a great deal of time on improving his game," Cullen says mildly. "You spend a great deal of time improving other things."

[bringspeopletogether]

His smile gains a more crooked tilt. "Fair," he allows. "...I wonder what sort of new, er, strategies Dorian will unleash while we're gone."

[howtoactfereldan]

One day, Cullen thinks, Alistair will stop measuring himself by absurd, only tangentially relevant standards and coming up short. If Cullen has anything to do with it, anyhow.

"They're easily countered." A small smirk. "Which is another reason to be able to hold a chessboard in your mind, so you can tell what he's done to it."

[bringspeopletogether]

Thoughtfully, Alistair says, "You could end a game of chess-by-mail if you simply wrote 'a bird made off with the board, terribly sorry,' couldn't you."

[howtoactfereldan]

"You could end it, but you'd forfeit."

[bringspeopletogether]

Cheerfully: "A much more interesting way to forfeit than writing 'I forfeit,' though."

[howtoactfereldan]

Cullen laughs, quiet, warm, fond. "Yes. It is."

[bringspeopletogether]

Alistair beams. He kisses Cullen's temple -- soft, lingering -- and gives him one more squeeze.

Then he gently pulls away from the embrace, walking only a step or two away to kneel by the shoreline. Quite a few rocks dot the ground; he works his fingers under a likely-looking one to see if it's flat enough to skip.

[howtoactfereldan]

"...you're going to skip it at least seven times, aren't you," Cullen says, glum.

[bringspeopletogether]

"There's only one way to find out."

Alistair, by contrast, sounds quite cheerful. He straightens, winds up, and sends the stone winging along the lake.

Skip-plunk.





"...damn."

[howtoactfereldan]

Cullen pats his shoulder and very carefully does not laugh.