Memory - Being cool stoner aunt to Merrill (Act 1)

[likebigboats]

This is the early days of Hawke's group, but already the elvish mage Hawke's found has gotten attached to Isabela. She's cute, in this mixture of innocence and naivety, and even though Isabela doesn't want their lifestyles to mix because of that, the pirate enjoys having her around. Whether it's answering Merrill's odd questions while Isabela gets drunk at the pub or simply chatting while out and about on Hawke's errands, she relaxes and tends to engage more genuinely with the elf instead of trolling her like Isabela would with the rest, because for once it seems entirely harmless.

Merrill: How do you do that?
Isabela: Do what, Kitten?
Merrill: You sort of... swagger when you walk. I've been trying, but I trip over my own feet when I do it.
Isabela: You just strut. It's not something you practice.
Merrill: How do I learn it, then?
Isabela: It comes to you. Usually at night. It's like a lover... or maybe a burglar. Either it ravishes you, or runs off with all your jewelry and you have to run it down and stab it in the heart. And... that metaphor got a bit away from me, didn't it?
Merrill: I think it did, but it was certainly exciting!

--

Merrill: Do you really like sailing?
Isabela: Like it? I love it! The salt spray on my face, the wind whipping by my ears, the gulls screaming overhead -- I love it all.
Merrill: Don't you get sick? I was so sick on our trip across the sea.
Isabela: Were you in the hold?
Merrill: Everyone was in the hold.
Isabela: There's your problem. You need to be up on deck, under the sky, with nothing between you and the horizon. Sailing is like sex. Do it wrong, and it'll make you sick. But do it right, and there's no feeling in the world like it.

--

Merrill: Do you have a parrot, Isabela?
Isabela: What would I want a parrot for?
Merrill: What about a peg leg? Do you have one of those?
Isabela: You can see that I don't, dear.
Merrill: Eye patch?
Isabela: I'm disappointing you terribly, aren't I? And no hook for a hand, either.
Merrill: Seems that Varric's pirate stories are awfully inaccurate.
Isabela: He knows, Kitten. He likes them better that way.

--

Isabela: It's not always fun and games on the sea, though. There are storms and hostile pirates. And it's trying being cooped up with men who haven't seen a woman in months.
Merrill: You're a woman.
Isabela: Exactly. And I don't usually let them touch me, so they get... frustrated.I insist all of them get alone time. Helps with the crankiness.
Merrill: But they're already lonely! Why would you insist that they be alone some more?
Isabela: Oh, Merrill.
Merrill: What? Did I miss something?
Isabela: Go think about it. Maybe it'll come to you.