What did you do today in DA? [Spoilers]

I'm a thick gal for a duster; muscular, tough. Got that way for a couple reasons, but mostly from when mama was still making coin off her looks we ate good. Rica came into the picture later, and then mama wasn't getting as many customers. At first, that made mama angry. Said Rica ruined her good looks. She eventually got mad at me, though, for not having any to make coin with. So, I turned to thug work, because cleaning bronto dung wasn't keeping mama in ale. Although it made me sturdy and strong for when I sold my skills as a thug. Mama has always told me that I'm pretty simple minded. Ya, under pressure I could make something up to keep my buns off the fire; but come up with some clever grand story to manipulate people my way? Eh, not so much. It's too bad, really. I hear there's coin in it.

Rica said I'd get fewer scars if I stuck to the shadows more. Stealth, she calls it. HA! I'm not graceful or patient enough for that. I'd rather jump in, daggers a blur, and take care of business. Can't make an ale skin out of a nug's ear, is what mama always says. Well, if she's sober enough to remember what a nug is. Never forgets what an ale skin is, though.

It's rough, though. Not the nugs ear, the thug work. Paragon's honor, I don't have the stomach for cold blooded murder or robbing honest folk. Although, can't quite describe what honest folk looks like. I know it when I see it, I figure. Just like stepping in bronto dung. Now now, that all said, I expect payment for work that's been done, I just see no sense in putting the fear in people. Dark enough world as it is.

In this world, people who have more make those who have less do bad things to get by. That's just the way of it.

---

Rica was getting the shake down from Beraht. Rica was getting all flustered by the topic, but I told her I wasn't bothered by it. She's got her slim figure and long shiny red hair and her smarts, and I've got my knives, and we're dusters. This is how it works and it's best we stop being so fussy about the skills we have to do the work we do. Still, it bites duster balls that we got a boss like Beraht.

Headed out on a job with Leske. Gave him a hard time about his crush on Rica. Teased him about that time he asked for a tumble with me and made him blush. Thing is, I think that didn't work out because of me. He was telling me he was getting all hot and bothered, but I didn't feel a thing, and I think it made him feel awkward and call it off. It's possible I like girls? But then, I really hardly think about the whole thing. But ever since, it's been Rica this, and Rica that. I hope she hasn't been encouraging him. I don't think she has, though, because she seems a bit sweet on the guy she has an "appointment" with.

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Aw, nughumpers. I screwed up the job. I choked at the last minute and just sent the man running for the surface, short a few lyrium nuggets. What was I thinking? I wasn't, was I? I just couldn't tell Leske to sink his blades into a guy that was begging for his life when all he did was skim a little. But what about my life? What about Leske's? Rica will probably be okay no matter what, though. She's smart.

---

Whew. Leske helped, but Beraht bought it that we'd killed the guy. Leske is pretty clever. If Rica didn't have a prime ticket out of Dust Town, I guess those two wouldn't have been a bad match after all. Jarvia didn't like us, but we got another job. I'll work harder to do it this time. just rig the Provings, easy right?

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Sodding...humping brontos! Everd is stone cold drunk passed out on the floor. I've got to make this happen!

so I say to Leske, "Hey, this may be a dumb idea, but how about I wear his armor and make a go of it myself?" Leske thought I was brilliant. Ha! That's a first. Felt good, though, having an idea come up so quick like that and being the smart one.

---

I guess I wasn't so brilliant after all. Never occurred to me to tell Leske to keep Everd in his room. I'm going to die a nameless duster, here, right now. and I probably killed Leske too. I wish I'd gotten to brush through Rica's hair one last time. She always did let me do that right before she went to the Bathhouse on accounts of my hands always being so dirty. Her hair was always so soft. Still.

I beat them all, their soddest Best of House some and such. Me, a duster, a thug. So, I took off my helmet and threw it to the ground, and I glared at them all. I said a silent prayer to the ancestors, unheard surely, before I raised my blades against those before me. This was my moment and if there is one good thing about dirtying the Proving grounds, it's that they'll always remember me...even if they'll never know my name. .