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WHO: Cyril and OPEN; starts for: Pel, Sam, Cassandra, Lex Luthur, Ellana, Anders, Kalli, and Bruce. Contact if you want your own starter.
WHAT: Cyril sells wares at his booth, and other assorted scenes.
WHEN: Throughout the month
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: None yet

In the courtyard of Skyhold there are assorted booths that sell a variety of items. When someone needs armor or other items, they can purchase them. The booth run by a small blond elf holds a variety of hunting traps, fighting traps, and other trinkets. He's fond of crafting little things of amusement, such a toys or puzzle boxes. Those typically don't sell as well, but he still enjoys working on them.

He's tinkering with one of them now, a sort of puzzle toy that has a couple moving pieces. He puts it together and tests it, then figures out he doesn't like the way it works and starts dismantling it to start over. Despite his apparent distraction, the moment someone comes near he looks up and smiles at them, welcoming them to spend gold here if they wish.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ellana sits in a grassy spot, wearing a shawl she picked up in Rivain. It's not exactly the same as the one Keeper Shinasha of the Rivaini clan wore, but it reminds Ellana of her and makes her miss Rivain all the more. Is it possible to be homesick for a place you've never lived? She already wants to return. Maybe she won't be so starry-eyed if she gets used to the place and then it will feel like any other, but right now she feels it's really special.

Looking up from the journal spread across her lap, she smiles at Cyril's approach. "Are you sure I don't just have some silly, dreamy look on my face again? I have a habit of doing that." Granted, it's usually from thinking of the man she loves anyway, so he's not wrong.

"That might be a more flattering expression than you think," Cyril says as he settles next to work. He starts unpacking their food. "How have things been with him?"

"Very good," she says, closing her journal and setting it beside her. "We tried to have a fight once -- just as practice -- and we couldn't even accomplish that. We're failures at being normal." But that goes without saying, doesn't it? A Tevinter magister and a Dalish elf were never going to be normal. From her tone of voice, it's clear she means what she's saying in the best way possible anyway.

"Should I ask how your conquests are going, or would my face turn red?"

"That's better than fighting all of the time, I'd think," Cyril says. Though, honestly, he's not the best for knowing what a normal relationship is like.

"Surprisingly, I've been rather tame lately. Perhaps that's part of settling down into old - er, older age."

She gives him a teasing little shove. "So old. Take your makeup off and I'm sure you're one big wrinkle underneath." But then she focuses on the snacks he brought with him, selecting one to munch on.

"How are things going now that you're the Dalish liaison?"

He gives her a scandalized look. "Not even one, not yet, mind you." It is a tease though, as he isn't actually that offended.

"Well, I think. You're Dalish, have you noticed anything going wrong?"

"Besides the normal everyday?" she asks, taking a bite of food. She shrugs, thinking it over. "I haven't noticed any humans trying to get near the halla. Just standing on the outskirts watching sometimes. Haven't been called knife-ear in quite some time either." Perhaps the humans have gotten used to their presence here?

"About that, though. I mean being a representative. I figure as Dalish liasion you should know that I've left the Mage Council. It really doesn't have any authority over mages anyway, so I'm sure the Dalish mages here don't need me to represent them anymore."

Cyril chews his own food thoughtfully. "Yeah," he says. "But you have other things you can do. The mages council is more of a human and city elf thing, anyway." At least, he'd assume that. Dalish mages have their own way.

"What did you want to do?"

"It's very pro-Circle," she admits, and with the addition of several more council members with that opinion, she had decided it was a good time to bow out. She doesn't think she'll ever understand politics anyway.

"I wanted to focus of everything else I have going on. I'm still researching these clues I found on my trip to an elven ruin, and I want to play a big part in looking after the halla here. Then there's practicing the lute, lessons on stealth, lessons on bluffing, Sam teaches me metalworking sometimes, I still need to decide on a big animal as a shapeshift form--" She stops herself and blows out a breath before smiling. "I stay busy."

"Lessons in bluffing?" he asks, blinking in surprise. "Why would you want to lie? I do enough of that for both of us."

"Think of it: I'm on a mission and I'm captured. The enemy starts questioning me on the Inquisition. I have to be able to lie without my face turning red and voice stammering, because I'm not about to give up secrets."

"Hm, that's a good point," Cyril concedes as he bites into a piece of fruit. "But let's try not to get captured."

"It wasn't my first plan." She gives him a crooked smiling and keeps eating. "I can shift into a couple different animals, so hopefully I could escape that way." The bird being the easiest one to use for an escape.

"Are you still designing puzzles?"

"I am!" he brightens up as they talk about it. "I've gotten pretty good at it. Some of the soldiers are using my boxes to amuse them when they're bored. I keep giving them away for free to test them."

"Oh, good!" she says, glad so see his eyes light up. It's important to her that the people she cares about be happy and satisfied while they're here working for the Inquisition. Things can get stressful and dangerous, so moments to relax are important.

"I was wondering, would you possibly be interested in putting Dalish designs on some of your puzzle boxes? I copied some designs from the ruin I visited." Ellana doesn't yet reach for her notebook, since she doesn't want him to feel like he has to if he doesn't like the idea.

"Oh, that's a really good idea," Cyril said thoughtfully. "If you show them to me then I can see about designing them. You could even paint them for me."

"Well, I could try," she says, pulling her notebook into her lap with a self-deprecating smile. "I'm not a very good artist. With these, I've redrawn them a few times to get them looking decent."

She flips to a page with a sunburst pattern carefully drawn on it for Elgar'nan. "I thought this would look lovely in some kind of gold paint? Or yellow if gold costs too much."

"Those would look lovely," Cyril agrees. "Do you mind if you draw one for me so I can copy it?"

"Sure! I have it memorized by now." She flips to a fresh page in the back and starts sketching out the shape, pausing to push back her hair as it falls forward in her way.

"There were these metal gates designed like Mythal's trees too. They might look nice."

"Yeah, that would look really nice. I could put together some boxes for humans, dwarves, and qunari too. Though I doubt most dwarves were be interested in these...."

"You don't think so?" she asks, taking a moment to count her sunburst points. "Is it because they make their own?"

"Yeah, and dwarven technology is so impressive."

"Gavin's been to Orzammar. He told me about it once." She pauses to look up and snag a strawberry. "I'm not sure I'd like it down there. I mean, I've been in caves and ruins, but something about that place... maybe because it's so close to a Deep Roads entrance? I just don't think I'd like it. And that's even if I'd be allowed in. I have no idea how Gavin managed it. Still, a lot of their technology would be on display."

"Well, if you ever get an invitation pass it on to me, I'd love to see it." He looks a little wishful at the idea.

"You'd get an invitation before I would!" she protests lightly. "They would probably be interested in your traps as a way to catch nugs."