QUE GET YO ASS HERE I DID THIS FOR YOU / OPEN, JOINING

[size=8]" You know, I never did work out why they were so angry at me. I sort of just accepted it, and ran away. "
The leopard's voice was low and mumbled, and he shook out one paw; it dripped blood, lightly, but the pain of the small wound was no longer present.
He had come a long way, wandering as a nomad for a while, now, and really didn't have any plans for heading anywhere safer. He'd thought about heading back to Weisshaupt, but to no avail. He was lost, see, as always, and he had no idea of where to go to find a familiar land mark.
" And- you know, now I'm even talking to myself. I was always a sleep-talker, but this is ridiculous. Reckon the Calling's almost upon me, actually. The nightmares would finally make sense, anyway. "
He'd been trying to block them out for a while, but darkspawn and roaring whispers haunted his sleep, to the point where he stayed awake at night. The Calling would be an explanation, but his fur wasn't falling out, or anything.
The male stopped in his rambling and wandering as he happened upon scent markers, eyes wandering over an invisible border.
" ... Huh. " he declared, squinting. " A marked territory. Wonder who's it is. "
He was often oblivious, but he wasn't downright rude. He'd wait, patiently, for someone to arrive and question him, regardless of how long that would take; perhaps they knew where he was, if nothing else.
[size=1px][color=transparent] #lyriumshield
#swoopingisbad
#bastardboy

[size=8]Alistair had once met people who had different ' selves ' — or, something of the sort — and he'd tried to imagine life with multiple personas, both in the sense of each alter ego being aware of the others and in the sense of each being totally oblivious.
It had not worked, of course. He was Alistair, or Lyriumshield, but they weren't different people. It was ... he was only one person. The odd names were ... Well, his name was Alistair, and Lyriumshield was a nickname.
It was the closest to his predicament he could describe, really. He didn't describe himself often.
He was alert in such an alien place, and so heard the sound of somebody rather dramatically falling to the floor; his audits twitched curiously, and then he drew himself up as a lady with a deadly-cool gaze fixed him with an ice-cold state and spoke in an intimidating accent.
Well, she was awfully lovely, wasn't she? And there was a tiger behind her, observing in silence.
The Warden sighed to himself, fatigue making him delirious.
" Well ... alright, but only because you asked so nicely. I'm a sucker for rays of sunshine, let me tell you. "
He was being sarcastic as usual, making witty quips as a sort of barrier, but he did look rather hesitant. She had, judging by sound, just fallen from a tree, and what with the stare she was giving him, he guessed he was to blame.
He felt rather bad about that, but if he didn't mention it, perhaps she'd think he didn't know.
" Anyway, I'm Alistair. Or- Lyriumshield. But you can call me Alistair. "
He shifted from paw to paw, echoing his own introduction in his head. Alistair. Lyriumshield. Some people even called him Ali, and he always wrinkled his nose at that, sometimes in mock irritation and sometimes in genuine annoyance, depending on the speaker. It was ... Very strange.
" And ... I'm actually lost. That's not a surprise, of course — I've never been good at map reading, or independent searching — but you'd not know that, because we've ... never mind. Is it possible for me to stay here? I've been walking for ages, let me tell you, and I'm starving. "
[size=1px][color=transparent] #lyriumshield
#swoopingisbad
#bastardboy

[size=8]It looked as if he wasn't getting out of that one, then.
" Would a sorry be enough to get me out of this? Would it make you stop making me feel like I'm a cub again, a very naughty cub who just ransacked the pantry- again? "
Alistair wasn't being entirely serious, but it wasn't really a joke. She was rather intimidating, like a Chantry Mother, only crasser and less holy.
" Maybe we could just ... I don't know- " but oh, he did know- " let sleeping dogs lie? Actually, come to think of it, that's a really odd saying. ' Dog ' is a vague word, you know. It could mean big, slobbering dogs, or tiny little dogs. I'd not be very scared of a little dog, really. Now, if you said ' let sleeping dragons lie ', I'd be scared. I don't want to fight a dragon alone, especially not after waking it from a lovely nap. "
Of course, an archdemon would be worse, and he'd already seen one of those. Big, ugly, almost looked like a dragon, but worse ... Not for him. Blights were horrible.
And now he'd lost Surana. Bloody brilliant.
He was also rambling, again, to pass time, but she seemed to be rambling, too, so at least he wasn't alone. He let her vomit words at him for a little while, in fact, just to clear his head before replying, so that he didn't sound as brain dead as he apparently was.
" Ah,'okay, I think I've got it- wait, did you just say you were the leader? Wow. I've been here five minutes and I've already scared the bloody leader out of the tree. "
He wasn't doing a very good job, was he? Alistair sighed.
" I'll do my best not to go cliff-jumping, thank you. That was bad enough the first ten times I did it. "
The last part of this was muttered, but he still kept up his witty, optimistic, quip-filled tone.
" Mind directing me to your camp? That is- assuming you have a camp. Good territories should have one, and this is pretty impressive ... "

( mobile and it's 3am, excuse any mistakes! )
[size=1px][color=transparent] #lyriumshield
#swoopingisbad
#bastardboy

[size=8]Oh, well, at least she could joke around. Some things, Alistair supposed, weren't all that bad; he pouted nonetheless, dragging his gaze along the ground as if sheepish — which he was, to be perfectly honest, but they didn't need to know about that.
" Well, five minutes into meeting me and you've already got the right idea, I suppose. Do I just have a face that's easy to ridicule? "
This ' right idea ' he was referring to was none other than the teasing; he'd experienced it a lot in his past, and had also been subjected to several insults regarding his intellect.
And what of it? He'd been a bitter, stubborn child after being sold to the Chantry; he'd hated the monastery and focused on training so much that he'd forgotten to behave like a boy — he expected this attitude was his childhood returning to be lived again.
Not that it had picked an opportune time, and all, what with the blight just over, but ... ah, well.
" You know, when you said ' friend ', I got the distinct impression that you didn't exactly mean ' friend '. I'm not gonna judge, though. "
Friend could mean enemy, it could mean lover. Honestly, when he said ' friend ', he did just literally mean ' friend '. If he insulted them with contempt, he meant enemy. And if he squirmed around shyly, avoiding answering questions with stutters more than humour?
Probably something more. But Alistair and love didn't go well together. At all. Ever.
Her next words were oddly ominous, then, and Alistair blinked; worse than killing? Did he want to even know what she'd done in her lifetime?
" Err ... right. Remind me to never get on your bad side, and we should be good. Alright? "
He decided to make a sarcastic joke out of it to scoot around his momentary panic. Had he just been threatened by the ColouredClan equivalent of the queen?
He was doing terribly!
" Oh, ha ha. Thanks, but I think I'll pass cliff-jumping unless I'm on fire or I'm being chased by someone who is. They're my preferred conditions for launching myself into freezing cold water- sounds a bit picky, I know- " his voice dropped into a deep deadpan for those two, simple words, before lifting to his usual tone- " but that's me in a nutshell, I suppose. Picky. "
He didn't think he could get any more sarcastic by this point; he'd learned not to be picky when he'd slept on dirt and in the mud that night during winter, crushed between that flirty assassin - Zevran, Surana and a tree.
Mister flirty assassin had had wandering paws, and Surana had spent most of the night slapping those wandering paws away from Alistair, who had laid in between the two, wide awake and feeling very uncomfortable.
It was the last time they'd tried that, needless to say. The girls had fared better.
As she finally gave him directions to camp — or, rather, told him whereabouts in this foreign territory it was (like he knew where the centre was. He was good, but not that good.) — Alistair nodded, once.
" A town? Thank the Maker for that. " the leopard grinned. " Well! Lovely chatting with you, and all, lady Impavidstar, but I'm going to head that way. I don't know if you're coming with me or going back to the tree, see, so I figured I'd say my goodbyes now. As much as it hurts to part from you —I feel like we've grown so close- "
Here, he wiped a mock tear from his eye-
" I really need some food. "
And with that, he set off in the vague direction of camp, ears perked.

/mobile again, excuse shitty mistakes
I have so much muse for my baby Alistair oml
oh no it has begun
lyriumimagination (that actually MAKES SENSE THOUGH IN DRAGON AGE oh my)
impavidshield (A FEARLESS SHIELD. PERFECT.)

edit: fixed some mistakes
[size=1px][color=transparent] #lyriumshield
#swoopingisbad
#bastardboy