Imprints in Stone [AU]

[Andy za'Frane]

"You're a stranger! Look at it from our point of view, Carver! A boy- because as much as you might hate it, that's what you still are- you're sixteen and not yet an adult- is claiming that he can take care of himself, without any known living arrangements or means of support and just- what? Expects us to nod our heads and accept it? You might be a good kid, but how could we know that? What if you were some cruel, heartless punk? Or even just an over-confident fool? You and Beth could have been killed or sold off into the slave trade or something of that sort!"

[Carver Amell]

"But some stranger's just as likely to kill us or sell us!" he snaps. "We're family, at the very least!"

[Andy za'Frane]

"Except they wouldn't be a stranger! To you, yes, but the foster families that guard works with are all carefully vetted and watched over. There's no checks for blood, but with foster families, there are. Yes, sometimes people slip through the checks, bad people, but far less often than blood family does something foul to their own," Andy counters.

[Carver Amell]

"But Beth has a dad! And you took him away, for weeks, over something that was obviously a lie. So I'm meant to trust your judgement to give her a new one?!"

[Andy za'Frane]

"Again, it's only obvious because you knew him for years," Andy points out. "Varric is a good man, I know that now, but at the time... dwarf with a reputation for shady and unethical business practices- most of them related to his brother, but some his own- moves to a small village without warning. Slowly buys up land and shares of the gold mine, then suddenly the entire place is rendered unfit, the people displaced? Values plument and he snaps everything up for coppers on the gold. He turned out innocent, but it looked pretty bad. We had to be sure. I won't deny it took longer than it should have, but not all of that was on us- your mother's accusations of kidnapping, child abuse, pedophila and under-aged prostituion... well."

[Carver Amell]

His whole body tenses with anger, stopping him from speaking for a moment. I hate her, he struggles not to blurt out. "If you believe her over him you don't know anything at all," he finally snarls. "We're almost seventeen. There's nothing wrong with being home alone for a few weeks when you're practically of age. But you adults never fucking listen, do you?!"

[Andy za'Frane]

"If that's true, then I guess you are practically an adult," Andy says tiredly. "Do what you want Carver." He turns around again, done with this. It's just too much. Guard, tiefling, adult... he hates everything about me. Why should I even bother?

[Carver Amell]

Carver lets out a shout of frustration, turning to punch the wall around the property. Without further comment, he heads inside, his hand stinging, his eyes full of tears, his body still tense. I guess I won, he thinks bitterly.


Ten minutes later, his body still tense with rage, he makes his way out to the backyard and finds a pair of long wooden sticks. After smacking his against a tree for a few minutes, he heads back inside and asks Varric to show him (again) how the footwork went.

It's easy to see why he can't get it -- he's still so hurt and angry and frustrated he can barely focus.

[Varric]

"Alright, enough. Grab the heavy pack in the shed and run laps. Do fifty circuits of the yard or ten minutes, whichever happens first," Varric orders crisply after several minutes of that. He takes a few steps back. "Then dunk your head and do fifty push-ups."

[Carver Amell]

Carver jumps to do so without complaints, doing his laps and then a set of pushups. When he makes his way back to Varric, he looks less tense, though not too much happier. 

[Varric]

Varric studies the youth. Am I getting old, that I marvel at how happily (well, comparatively, for Carver) he did all that sweating? "Ready to work though whatever's burning in your gut?"

[Carver Amell]

"Sure?" he says, frowning. "I guess. I'm still mad but I don't know how much more  can run."

[Varric]

"Alright. Start from the beginning. Don't explain or justify, just say what happened. We'll circle back to why's and reasons later," Varric says, a refrain quickly becoming familiar to the pair.

[Carver Amell]

Carver nods. "That stupid guard Andy came over. He wants me to start training combat stuff, so I can become a paladin. We got to talking and I mentioned I don't trust the guard -- because, who does -- and he said Lt Vallen was better than most guards. I mentioned I doubt she's gonna be any better for the catfolk who live downtown, and he made a comment about how he understands what it's like to not be human. That's when everything got all..." He gestures. "I told him, that's different, his parents are literally evil. He didn't like that. I knew Beth would be mad but I didn't know how to fix it."

[Varric]

What it's like to not be (specifically) human? How did I never really notice... "Curious- what do you think about catfolk? Humans? Dwarves? Elves?"