Imprints in Stone [AU]

[Carver Amell]

The last one gets a scowl. "Catfolk are fine. You're fine. I don't know. Elves are..." He gestures broadly. "I only knew one."

[Varric]

"Go on," Varric prompts him. 

[Carver Amell]

"It's just... They don't... Well, they're snobbish," he says, after a moment. 

[Varric]

"They can be," Varric allows. "But so can humans. Or dwarves. Hells, I should introduce you to Chauncy of Snotterrock. Orc that works out of Crafter, in the brewery area. Lives in a shack, wearings burlap- fashioned into suits mind you- and eats rotting meat by preference and yet puts on all the airs of a Skysong legacy. Weird guy."

[Carver Amell]

He shrugs. "Never met an orc. But elves, they... they don't mix with humans often. Don't like to. Think they're too good. And they don't bother raising their kids if it does happen."

[Varric]

"Ah." Yeah, figured that was were this was going. Or coming from rather. "Carver, you realize that your father being a dirtbag isn't because he's an elf, right? He'd have been an ass whatever species he was born. Some people just are."

[Carver Amell]

He scowls, looking away. "Well, everyone expected it. Elves are like that."

[Varric]

"...based on your vast and varied experience of one?" Varric asks pointedly.

[Carver Amell]

"There've been elves in Golden Shores before," he poitns out. "The adults all said he'd abandon us, but I didn't... I guess I didn't think it'd be true."

[Varric]

"And they've all been snobby and shiftless?" Varric ambles over to get the sparring sticks and tosses Carver one. 

[Carver Amell]

"Snobby, sure. I guess some were adventurers, but that's not much better, really. Too good to talk to us or stay, anyway."

[Varric]

"Well, that's just what adventurers do," Varric points out. "How many travelers of any species stay?"

[Carver Amell]

"Enough," he says mulishly. 

[Varric]

Varric raises an eyebrow, waiting patiently. 

[Carver Amell]

"Three or four since Mother moved here. There."