[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

[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.

[bringspeopletogether]

Alistair's covered his mouth, struggling not to laugh himself.

"Well," he says eventually, as solemn as possible -- so not very -- "I'm sure Harding will be delighted to hear her record still stands."

He digs up another rock, offering it to Cullen.

[howtoactfereldan]

Who takes it, giving it a look-over before fitting his index finger along the edge and letting fly.

"Three," he says, watching it go. "Disappointing."

[bringspeopletogether]

"At this point -- "

Alistair fetches another rock.

" -- we may only beat Harding if we add our scores together."

On his next throw, he manages two skips before the stone sinks.

[howtoactfereldan]

"Improvement," Cullen says, pointing at the lake. "And addition would be fairer against Harding than Kieran. We could try it."

[bringspeopletogether]

"So we're up to..." Alistair squints in thought. "Six so far? Or should it be as many as we can get in a single turn each?"

He pulls up a likely looking rock -- which, unfortunately, looks flat on the surface but is as round as a sovereign underneath. He wrinkles his nose and tosses it in with another loud plunk before continuing the hunt.

[howtoactfereldan]

"Whatever allows us to win."

He says it cheerfully enough.

"Preferably by the largest margin."

[bringspeopletogether]

"Just imagine her face," he says, just as cheery, "when we loudly announce the thirty-six skips we pulled off. The stone traveled the whole width of the lake. Go find it on the opposite shoreline if you don't believe us."

Two more rocks, both appropriately flat; Alistair presses one of them into Cullen's palm.