It's very familiar in the best possible sense. Hawke's been dreaming regularly about her friends, some of them even the lucid kind, but it still feels impossible to have Isabela there. As if she'll close her eyes and she'll have dreamed her up again. Except she's definitely there, with her smokey voice and teasing tone and the casual way she puts her legs up on Hawke. And the natural way Hawke was already ready for it, patting Isabela's knee.

"Awhile, I've been here awhile." That's general enough without a headache. It's been months but Hawke was on the road for months before that too. Varric was the one she communicated with the most while lying low, but she managed to sneak a few letters to her pirate friend too. She smiles as she spots who got the good hit in and reminds herself to give him a thumbs up for it later. Hawke knows a lot of the people in here, unsurprisingly. Some even learned a few moves from her.

"It was of course nearly the first place I went when I got here. I heard one of the only ways to get coin easily was to fight for it." So Hawke saw that as a challenge and a distraction. She could fight out her frustration. "Imagine my grumpiness when I wasn't immediately the Champion here too." Hawke purposely pouts, as if still offended by it. She's one of the better ones, sure, and her reputation as fun to watch makes her a good person for people to bet on. But some of these people are just better, straight up.

"There's so many fancy bars. There's one in the expensive area that is so clean you could eat off the floor. I hate it."