Hazelnuts and plaid

[Marian Hawke]

"My... My father left me," she says quietly. "Because I'm weak, and he didn't want to be my weakness. He wanted me to get stronger in his absence but I didn't. I fell apart, and it was so hard on everyone, Aveline had to take a ton of time off to take care of me, and Zevran and Merrill were fighting over something that happened due to one of my misadventures, and it just... I wasn't strong enough to hold everyone together without my Papa."

[NPCs]

Vosang gives her a moment, though it's hard to tell how much is compassion and how much is simply not wanting to have to wade through her emotion-soaked words. "Was this the cause of your drinking and if so, how does it coincide with the time of his departure."

[Marian Hawke]

"Yes. The drinking began four months after he left, when I enrolled in university and realized I'd need some way to be functional during the day."

[NPCs]

"Being regularly inebriated was an increase in your functionality? Explain."

[Marian Hawke]

"I don't like talking about it, it's very personal, but I was... they were considering sending me for treatment at Summerhill because I was so... distraught."

[NPCs]

"You were opposed to this outcome?"

[Marian Hawke]

"Heavily."

[NPCs]

"Describe the extent to how much you opposed this outcome."

[Marian Hawke]

She lets out a sharp breath, giving a plaintive look. "Is this really necessary?"

[NPCs]

Vosang stares back at her, implacable and unmoved. 

Across the room, Evide's right hand flexes and twitches as if reaching for something.

[Marian Hawke]

"I have said on numerous occasions I would rather die than return. I am deeply ashamed of having needed to attend once, and that was after the most extenuating circumstances I could imagine. Happy?"

[NPCs]

"Would you be willing to kill in order to prevent returning there?"

[Marian Hawke]

"N-- Depends on who."

[NPCs]

"A member of your Clan." No pause. "Or your wife, Merrill zi'Hawke."

[Marian Hawke]

"I could never kill Merrill. Never." A pause. "There would have to be extreme circumstances for me to kill any of my Clan. If it were Merrill I had to go through, I'd kill myself instead."