A picture of Marian “Mary” Hawke, aged 17: jutting bones, bloody knuckles, a scar on her nose, and a leather jacket. She has the kind of look that’s been called faux punk a couple of times, but not for very long, and the ones saying it always ended up regretting it after a fist to their face. There’s nothing faux about Hawke, thank you very much. Right now she can be spotted smoking a cigarette in her foster father’s garden and wondering if it’s worth the effort of running away this time. It wouldn’t be the first time, by her count she’s run away from about six foster families in the past, and driven at least as many to tears. She’s what the social workers like to call a problem child. Child her ass. And they’re the ones with the problems, anyway. They can point a finger at her and say behavioural issues all they want, she calls it common sense.
There is a good thing about this one’s house, mind, the old geezer has a good tree for thinking in out the back. It’s a big old thing (the tree, that is) an oak she thinks. She’s hidden away in the higher branches, glaring out at the neighbouring garden. Smoking in a dry tree probably isn’t the best plan she’s ever had, but whatever, at least she’d go out in a blaze of glory. The main advantage of running away is of course not having to answer this old shitbag, or go to counselling, but the disadvantage is the loss of three square meals a day (plus snacks) and a warm shower. Maybe she can crash on Varric’s couch again, his parents are never around anyway.
Footsteps below the tree make her jump until she realises it’s Neal, the other unlucky sod who’s stuck here, and not the old guy. Not that she’s afraid of the old dude, but he has the kind of face that makes shouting at him seem meaner than it is. “Sup?” she calls down, mostly just to let him know that he’s up here in case he’s thinking of pissing against the tree, or wanking off, or whatever it is teenage boys do these days. Then because she’s said something she decides she probably better say some more. “I think I’m gunna bounce in a couple’v days, how about you?”