[Alistair stops walking as Jon tells his story, looking at him in surprise.]
You- [He shakes his head and laughs quietly.] Huh. Well, that's funny.
[He should maybe explain what exactly is so funny before Jon thinks he's laughing at him though. The subject clearly isn't an easy one for him to talk about - a feeling Alistair knows all too well. It makes it easy to answer when the question is turned back on him, without feeling the need to omit certain facts he ordinarily wouldn't share with someone he's just met.]
I was recruited into the Wardens from the abbey where I was sent as a boy. I grew up in the household of one of the nobles in my home too. As a bastard. [He grins at Jon, hoping the man will find as much amusement in the coincidence as he does.] His wife believed the rumours I was his and wanted me gone so off I was packed. I was lucky to become a Warden, the life they had planned for me at the Chantry - the abbey - wasn't something I wanted. Or would have been any good at.
[And in his own way he'd wanted to make a name for himself too. Rather than being seen just as someone's unwanted bastard - or, worse, the bastard prince to those who knew his parentage - the Wardens had seen him as just Alistair, just another Warden. It had been the first time he'd been given any choice in his life and the first time anyone had cared what he wanted. Even the price of joining the Wardens had been worth that. They'd been his family and even now, months after the fact, their loss still hurts.]
no subject
You- [He shakes his head and laughs quietly.] Huh. Well, that's funny.
[He should maybe explain what exactly is so funny before Jon thinks he's laughing at him though. The subject clearly isn't an easy one for him to talk about - a feeling Alistair knows all too well. It makes it easy to answer when the question is turned back on him, without feeling the need to omit certain facts he ordinarily wouldn't share with someone he's just met.]
I was recruited into the Wardens from the abbey where I was sent as a boy. I grew up in the household of one of the nobles in my home too. As a bastard. [He grins at Jon, hoping the man will find as much amusement in the coincidence as he does.] His wife believed the rumours I was his and wanted me gone so off I was packed. I was lucky to become a Warden, the life they had planned for me at the Chantry - the abbey - wasn't something I wanted. Or would have been any good at.
[And in his own way he'd wanted to make a name for himself too. Rather than being seen just as someone's unwanted bastard - or, worse, the bastard prince to those who knew his parentage - the Wardens had seen him as just Alistair, just another Warden. It had been the first time he'd been given any choice in his life and the first time anyone had cared what he wanted. Even the price of joining the Wardens had been worth that. They'd been his family and even now, months after the fact, their loss still hurts.]