Another "Hilarity Ensues!" excerpt

[snarkysedai]

"You've got Cullen Rutherford as the Commander of your forces?" Hawke chuckled and ran her fingers through her hair, catching on the leather tie she was using to hold most of it back and making a comment on the parentage of the leather's previous owner that wasn't complementary. "Maker's breath, Inquisitor, I hope you know what you're doing. You know what they say about templars, right?"

Ellana looked startled for a moment, eyes widening before narrowing slightly in suspicion. "You know Cullen?" The faint blush on her cheeks gave her away.

"I thought you were sweet on that elven apostate," Hawke said, avoiding the question. "I've only been here about ten minutes but I've already heard a dozen rumors and seen you two talk twice, and you *looked* awfully sweet on him."

"It's...complicated," Ellana said, the faint blush suddenly turning into the kind of sunset you get in heavily polluted, industrialized areas of another world.

"Oh, so it's like that?" Hawke leaned on the battlement, crossing her ankles and inspecting her nails. "If you never take any piece of advice on romance in your life, take this one: never go for the mage. All you wind up doing in that relationship is being an accomplice to their agenda."

"I'll.... take that under consideration," Ellana said, her head spinning with the different directions the conversations was going. She thought Varric brought Hawke here because Ellana needed to know more about Corypheus, not because he thought she needed advice on her love affairs. "Speaking of romances, where is Fenris?"

"Doing Fenris-y things, I expect," Hawke replied, so evasively that a massive, glowing sign should have appeared over her head with an arrow pointing down to her that read "LIAR LIAR LIAR FILTHY LIAR." Close by, Varric chuckled before he took another long drink of his wine.