faderift | [ OPEN ] I'm Floating in a Most Peculiar Way

WHO: Jim Kirk & Anyone
WHAT: Catch-all for the month
WHEN: June/Justinian (after the Justice Ritual #4)
WHERE: Around Skyhold
NOTES: Possible language, probably kittens, wounds, probably demon-talk, shenanigans, maybe some other heavy subjects, possibly some amorous action, everything goes here

[ Class Is In Session - Math + Self-Defense ]
Hearing of a school going up, Kirk naturally offered himself up as a teacher - not least because it gave him something to do here other than be a pretty helper to Sam's forge and a jack-of-all trades laborer.

He taught all levels of math, and any new students who came to the class would be asked to complete an exam that had problems ranging from simple addition and subtraction all the way up to the higher maths such as Calculus to gauge their skill. From that, he did his best to improve upon their skills and further their understanding. A little hard with a range of people, but he did his best, and he was more than willing to answer questions both related to math and to other subjects as well.

When he was not teaching maths, he taught Self-Defense with hand-to-hand combat - or at least he started to once he was physically well enough given that the Ritual had done a number on him. He took to the training area for this class though, and new students were told to fight him as their practical exam. It's not meant to be a hard fight, more like just a quick assessment of their current skill. He welcomed everyone from children to adults, but as a fair notice - expect to walk away with some bruises.

[ Stables ]
If the Western Approach and going after Servis had taught him anything, it was that he really needed to learn to ride something. Being able to hike and run was all well and good, but travel would be much, much easier if he could ride astride something with a longer stride and a touch faster than himself. Motorcycles were a long way off in this world.

So Kirk was being taught to ride, mostly by Sam and on a horse used with permission, though if someone else offered correction to his form as he practiced he would accept it. At this point, everyone was more the expert than himself. At least, so far, he'd avoided falling - for which his ribs were grateful.

Sometimes, though, he could be found around there just enjoying some time with the animals, petting and murmuring to them (and maybe sneaking a carrot to a tiny pony named Bill).

[ The Tavern ]
Most nights Kirk can be found here - work is done, and where else is there to hang out at night in Skyhold (that doesn't make you look incredibly suspicious)? But he liked the crowds and the warmth and the music and the laughter. He could usually be found with a pint of beer in front of him, slowly acclimating to the stuff, and sometimes he would hang out at a table with a chess set in front of him, waiting for a challenger. Other times he had a deck of cards, willing to play Wicked Grace or teach the good folk of Thedas some poker.

And maybe, just maybe, if he'd had enough to drink and laughed enough - he could be convinced to sing a song from a far away land or tell a tale of the same.

[ The Gardens - Specifically at Night/Very Early Morning ]
Even having found a steady place to sleep and steady companion, Kirk's nights were not always quiet and dreamless. He tried his best not to bother Sam on those nights, when sleep would not come, or more accurately he did not wish to close his eyes and see what his mind might twist together when he was not paying attention.

So on those particular nights he would slip out of bed and head to the gardens, sometimes late and sometimes in the early gray before dawn. He walked the paths, breathing in the scent of flowers and the earth. Sometimes he would find a space to sit and fold his legs and rest the back of his hands atop his knees, attempt to meditate in the ways Spock had initially taught him - though more often than not he simply created a numbing tingle in his legs and frustration.

Company, no matter the hour, was always welcome.

[ Around Skyhold - Usually Morning + The Hot Springs ]
Part of Kirk's daily routine was to run and run a lot. He could easily be seen jogging around the perimeter of Skyhold, sometimes with a shirt and sometimes without. Afterwards he usually went to the hot springs to rinse himself off, and in the early days after the Fourth Ritual to clean his wounds as well.

[ The Library ]
Kirk could be found here on and off, mostly coming to return books he had taken for comfortable reading back in the loft with Sam, but now and then he could be seen sitting at a table, taking notes on papers or in a journal he had secured. He was taking more or less everything he read in historical accounts with a grain of salt, but it was still important, he thought, to read such accounts even as he asked others about them.

[ Wild card me! ]
Because there's probably tons of stuff I didn't cover.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Even after trekking across the Free Marches after the collapse of the Circles, the novelty of freedom still hasn't worn off. It is equal parts terrifying and exhilarating, but since Amélie has never been one for grand emotive gestures, she mostly takes quiet comfort in her newfound capacity to be alone. No templars or tiny, scared children, no friends, no family. No responsibility for others, and for the first time in her life, no-one to take care of.

Too bad caring was the only thing she'd ever been good at.

It's during a stark moment of loneliness that she comes across the man, sitting in the gardens all comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. Before she can talk herself out of it, Amélie stalks over until she's standing behind him. "Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

Kirk heard her coming, so he didn't jump when she spoke. Instead he slowly tilted his head back, corn-flower blue eyes looking up at her upside down. His lips pulled into a little grin at the statement and he gave a shrug, righting his head before the blood flow could make him to dizzy.

"Got it in one," he shifted to push himself to his feet, kicking one leg to get the circulation back. "I thought I would try and meditate - but I forgot I'm very bad at sitting still."

Amélie cocks her head to one side at that statement, brows furrowed in slight confusion. "What's so hard about it? Doesn't take much doing--" She frowns a little, wishing her words were less thickly layered with sleep. Scuffing a boot against the ground, she continues. "Just not doing. I guess it's always come easily to me."

"It's one of the things that doesn't come easy to me though," he chuckled. "I've never been good at it. I like doing something - working on a project, solving a problem, just being occupied in general. Doing nothing feels like... wasting my time. I thought meditation would feel enough like doing something to not make me feel that way, but turns out no, they feel exactly the same."

"Well, I suppose it depends on what you're trying to get out of it." She shrugged, folding her arms across her chest. "You said it yourself, you're more the type to keep yourself busy when you're up late at night. So, why meditation?"

If she were inclined towards making jokes she would suggest the man had run out of things to do. As she was not, the corners of her mouth turned downwards as she berated herself for even thinking of it.

"I thought it might help me calm my mind, think some things through. It's a change from what I normally do, which I thought might help some things to," he shrugged in turn, because that was as honest an answer as he could give.

But the joke she did not make would not have been entirely inaccurate. He was a little at a loss for what to do with himself, which had been a reason for his taking on his teaching courses.

"It seemed worth a try, at any rate, if a now unsuccessful one."

He tilted his head at her.

"What brings you out so early?"

She looked back at him and suddenly finding herself feeling very vulnerable, she averted her gaze. "As I said. I couldn't sleep."

Guilty at the brusqueness of her answer, she swung her head back up again to add. "The sky looks nicest at this time, though, so I don't mind it. You don't have to say anything, but if I may ask: what were you thinking about?"

He had thought she might open up a bit more if he asked again, but it seemed not. Well, it was the lady's business.

He seemed unfazed by the briskness though and just smiled instead. "I agree with you there. It does look lovely around this time. I like it better than sunset, personally." He glanced away from the sky and back at her. "Oh, well, the point was to think about nothing at all, but.... home. I was thinking about home."

Home. Amélie's gaze turns almost wistful as she stares over the horizon. She feels as though she hasn't thought about home in a long time. Doesn't even know where home is.

"Home, huh... What does home mean to you? "

"A place very far away from here," he mused softly. "A ship, actually - so more a thing than a place. But a ship with my crew, my family. That's home to me." He turned his gaze to her. "And yourself?"

She looks him over again at his response, as though she's not entirely sure what to make of it. She wouldn't have pegged him as a sailor, and is about to remark upon her impression, when he turns her question around on her and she finds herself confronted with the very memories she'd been trying to avoid.

"Somehow," she starts carefully, trying both to be honest but not give too much away, "I have a feeling I haven't come quite as far as you have. I was from near Tantervale originally, but more recently, I've spent time in Hamsal."

She's not going to say anything about the Circle. Not yet.

Well, that was an understatement, but one he chose not elaborate on. Revealing where he came from he did with a little more discretion, especially since he didn't think a good portion of the people he met would even believe him in the first place. But he is not so well traveled or versed her that he would have picked up "Circle" from the name of a town, or anything else. He knows little of Thedas beyond Skyhold and the Western Approach.

"I'll have to go look those up on one of the maps soon," he said in way of reply with an apologetic smile. "I'm still learning all the country and town names. Does that mean you're new to Skyhold then?"

[ OPEN ] I'm Floating in a Most Peculiar Way

Gardens!

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