app for outer_divide

[sayhitobianca]

[- OOC Information -]

Name: Bri
Do you play any other characters in Outer Divide? Nick Burkhardt

[- Character Information -]

Character Name: Varric Tethras
Fandom: Dragon Age 2
OU, AU, or CR AU: OU
Canon Point: Just after Act II
Journal: sayhitobianca


Character History:
Varric is from the House Tethras, a family that was once part of the noble caste in the underground dwarven kingdom of Orzammar. At least until Varric’s father was caught fixing Provings, a really popular and important fighting tournament for the warrior caste, and the entire house was expelled from Orzammar. Varric himself was born topside, three years after this occurred, and has never even been to Orzammar.

Varric grew up in Kirkwall, content with his position as a younger son. He had his suite at the Hanged Man, where he kept up appearances as an idle little brother who had nothing better to do than drink and play Diamondback all day. It was also the perfect location to keep an eye on just about everyone, learn bits and pieces of information those who’d had too much to drink were more than happy to share, and meet with his “contacts.” Being a family in the Dwarven Merchant Guild was a tricky business, especially with Varric’s older brother Bartrand as the head of the house. Eventually, Varric and Bartrand found out about a few abandoned thaigs in the Deep Roads that had yet to explored, and most likely contained things worth their weight in gold. Possibly literally. And, well, they figured they might as well be the first people to explore them.

It was a good plan, but leading an expedition like this took financing, something they didn’t have enough of. And with Bartrand not doing anything about it, Varric took it upon himself to remedy this. He took a chance on a particular Ferelden refugee who’d been bugging Bartrand about getting hired on, a man named Hawke. Hawke had made something of a name for himself during his year in Kirkwall, and Varric always did consider himself to be a good judge of character. It would prove to be an - interesting friendship, and either the best or worst decision Varric ever made. (His opinion tends to vary depending on how many giant spiders and dragons they’ve been attacked by that particular day.)

Varric convinced Hawke to raise up some coin and enter into the expedition as a partner, with a full share in whatever profits came from it. Varric assisted in raising the coin, of course, along with Hawke’s sister and a number of other people who ended up becoming companions with Hawke after he helped them out in some personal problem or another. With the coin raised, and the added bonus of a map of the Deep Roads (from a former Grey Warden that Varric had found out about, who, incidentally, became one of the aforementioned companions), Bartrand had no choice to but to allow Hawke into the expedition.

The expedition ended up being a success. Well. Except for the part where Bartrand stabbed them in the back and left them to die over a lousy idol (and not wanting to share the profits), leading to things such as having to find another way out, battling demons and rock wraiths, and swearing bloody revenge on the nug-humping bastard. But aside from the messy family betrayal, they did find treasure aplenty. So. Upside.

Varric handled Bartrand’s betrayal the best way he knew how. He set his network to tracking Bartrand down, kept his eyes open for any word of Bartrand returning to town, and, aside from a few lovely fantasies of revenge (Anders’s suggestion of dipping him in gold and leaving him as a statue in the Viscount’s keep was still his favorite), mostly went on as though it hadn’t happened. The new head of the house was his “cousin” Elmand, all the family businesses were registered in his name, and Varric went right back to exactly what he was doing before. Except with quite a bit more money, and a few more friends. (Although some of these friends insisted on doing stupid things like running a free clinic in Darktown or cutting through the alleys of Lowtown at night, which were very expensive habits to have while still being alive. So maybe not as much more money as he could have had.)

Three years went by without much incident, although the fact that the Qunari who had taken up temporary residence in a compound on the docks were still there was starting to make a lot of people nervous. Some of these people were a corrupt Chantry mother and a templar, who had varying degrees of involvement in kidnapping and torturing a Qunari delegate sent to the Viscount. Most of those involved were killed, but the Qunari were also dead. So. It wasn’t like that was going to come back to bite them in the back side or anything.

On top of it all, Varric soon got word that Bartrand had returned to the city. He immediately told Hawke about it, figuring Hawke wanted revenge as well, and they paid Bartrand a little visit at his estate. Unfortunately, it wasn’t anything like what Varric had been expecting. Whatever that idol that Bartrand had betrayed them over was, it was bad news, and it had driven Bartrand even more insane. He was confused and hallucinating, talking to no one and yelling about “singing” he could hear even after he’d gotten rid of the idol. No matter how much Varric may have wanted to kill Bartrand, in the end, he couldn’t do it.

It wasn’t long after this that things with the Qunari came to a head. The Viscount’s son converted to the Qun, and the same corrupt Chantry mother hatched a plan that involved killing him and blaming Hawke. It didn’t go well for her, and she ended up killed by the Qunari. Then there was some more conflict involving a relic that had been stolen from the Qunari (by Isabela, one of Hawke’s companions, because of course Varric’s friends had to be involved) that they couldn’t leave without. It ended up in the Qunari leading a full on assault on the city, killing the Viscount and a whole bunch of other people. Ultimately, the Qunari got their relic back and Hawke defeated the Arishok in single combat. The Qunari left, Hawke was named the Champion of Kirkwall, and Varric had a whole bunch of fuel for his stories.


Personality:
Varric’s very fond of talking. A lot. He loves the sound of his own voice, and is convinced other people do, as well. If people let him, he’ll happily engage them in cheerful conversation, drink, and games of Diamondback until they’re drunk. And possibly poor. Despite this, Varric hardly ever actually says anything about himself. Even when asked direct questions, he’ll most likely deflect, either with some half-truth that may or may not sound plausible, a joke, a story that may or may not be true, or by steering the conversation other ways. For someone so talkative, Varric is an extremely private person. It's rare that he'll tell anyone something personal about himself, and even rarer that it's without motivation or an attempt to get something out of the other person.

It’s also entirely likely that Varric’s memorizing everything the other person says, looking for information that could be of use to him, for the chance to make a profit on something, or even just fuel for his stories. Varric absolutely adores telling stories. There’s nothing better than an appreciative audience, and Varric loves being at the center of it.

In most other situations, though, Varric is more than happy to stand in the background and let someone else have the attention. There’s a reason that Hawke is the main figure in his stories, and not Varric, and it’s the same reason that Varric was more than happy to have first Bartrand and now the fictitious Elmand be the head of the family business. Varric’s type of work is much better done when he can be overlooked, considered far less important than someone else who remains the center of attention. The life of a hero is always incredibly complicated, and Varric has no desire to make his own life more so. Well. That, and in Hawke’s case, some people are just born to be the hero in a tale. There’s a recipe for it.

His life is really one giant pretense. He pretends to be the idle younger son, the cheerful friend who does nothing but drink and play Diamondback (for all that quite a few people know there’s more to him. He’ll continue to deny it). His sense of humor is near constant, to the point that sometimes it’s difficult to tell when he’s joking and when he’s telling the truth. He’s not likely to clarify if asked, either. And while being a shrewd businessman and caring more about coin than anything else isn’t really a pretense, Varric is secretly a bit of a softy. He may always have an eye out for what’s in it for him if he does something, but he’s unlikely to turn someone down if they really need help and it’s in his power to do so. Though he may complain and blame someone else the entire way.

Varric’s the kind of person who has a lot of “friends,” but few actual friends. Rare as they are, there’s not much he wouldn’t do for the people he genuinely cares about. This includes protecting them with his own life, and even (more importantly), with his own money. Not that he’d ever admit if, of course, even if pressed. He has a reputation as a businessman to maintain, and that doesn’t include being the guy who goes behind his friends’ backs and gives away coin to keep them safe. Well. Maybe the going behind his friends’ backs part, but definitely not the giving away coin bit.

Despite his good qualities and charming exterior, Varric isn't necessarily a good guy. His morals are, well, fairly loose, and he lies and cheats and steals with the best of them. Varric has little problem screwing someone over if it will further his own goals, or the goals of his friends - particularly if it's someone he doesn't know at all or doesn't like. Ultimately, Varric is concerned with his own survival, and the survival of the people he cares about. He has absolutely no problem with killing - he has done so many times, without remorse. It's pretty much a standard Tuesday afternoon for him, and he honestly can't count the number of people he's killed. It doesn't matter if they're faceless mooks or acquaintances or even someone who's been helping them and is likely about to betray them, Varric will kill them without hesitation.

Varric doesn't take betrayal well. It's one of the reasons that he's so slow to trust anyone or to make any real friends; in his line of business, and with his family's experience, betrayal is all too common. He almost expects it of casual acquaintances, and usually takes precautions for it and reacts accordingly - including killing the person before they can actually betray him. The only time that this didn't happen was with his brother. For all Varric's casual attitude towards killing, and his hatred of someone he once trusted betraying him; he still isn't able to kill someone he loves in cold blood.

Powers/Abilities:
Varric is an excellent marksman. He's skilled with a regular crossbow, and when he uses his high-tech crossbow Bianca, he becomes even more remarkable. This is partially because Bianca is equipped with things such as a retractable bayonet, the ability for rapid firing and firing more than one bolt at once, and trick arrows. (Or, the talents on this talent tree, and this one.) As a rogue, Varric's not only an expert in hand to hand combat, but skilled in stealth, evasion, ambushing, and well, generally fighting dirty. (This talent tree on the Dragon Age wiki.) He also has the ability to make miasmic flasks, that cause small explosions when thrown, or a similar version that results in a cloud of smoke. Finally, Varric is excellent at typical rogue abilities such as lock-picking, lying, confusion, and generally bullshitting his way out of a bad situation.

Possessions:

Arrival: On the ship!


[- Writing Samples -]

Network Sample:

Log Sample:
“-and then-”

Varric paused a moment, for the suspense, of course. And also a tiny bit to bask in the wide-eyed looks of the people gathered around him (though, granted, some of those wide-eyes were also glazed over and might be attributed more towards Corff’s whiskey, which seemed particularly dangerous tonight, than anything Varric himself said). Still, a little suspense building never hurt a story, provided you knew how to time it exactly right.

And provided the subject of your current story didn’t ruin all the hard work you’d put into that building by showing up in the middle of it.

But, fortunately, Hawke was nowhere in sight at the moment. And, even more importantly, Aveline was nowhere in sight. Hawke he could deal with (shit, Hawke showing up might even be a bonus for this particular story), but the last thing he needed was Aveline hearing him tell the story of how Hawke (and Varric himself, of course) had helped her and Donnic obtain their happily ever after. The woman was scary in the best of times, and his story probably wasn’t something she would consider ‘the best of times.’

It might not have been along the lines of Isabella’s “friend fiction,” but Varric doubted Aveline would appreciate the difference. The fact that Aveline would undoubtedly hear about this at some point was of little concern to him. There were all sorts of rumors circulating about their little group, and not all of them came from Varric’s stories. A fair number of them, sure, but not all. And that made for plausible deniability. As long as she didn’t actually catch him in the act, he was golden.

Besides. If this particular version of the story ever got around to her, she should be thanking him. (Not that she would, but she should be). He’d significantly down-played her inability to do anything that resembled proper flirting. And completely left out her idea of goats and a sheaf of wheat, and that one had been painful not to include.

Of course, there was a very good possibility she was still angry at him for his comment about drawing Donnic a picture of where she wanted to touch him. She shouldn’t have been, considering it was a long time ago and, in Varric’s opinion, was probably what had pushed Donnic into finally making a move, but Aveline could be harsh about things like that.

And scary. Did he mention scary?

Maybe it was time to bring this story to a close.