faderift | In the turning of the seasons, in life and death

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In the turning of the seasons, in life and death

WHO: Church, Malcolm, Rachette, YOU
WHAT: Present timeline catch-all
WHEN: Guardian /wiggly hand
WHERE: Up down all around Skyhold
NOTES: Nab me on plurk if you want a specific starter

Church is starting to spend a lot more time in the tavern than he ever did before. Sometimes he's just hanging around, taking some notes. Sometimes he's cleaning up tables with a rag. Sometimes you can actually see him in the back doing what may or may not be actual work. Crazy! He's also spending quite a bit of time around the stables, trying really hard not to look intimidated by the steeds, learning to put on saddles, and you may even see him up on one. This is madness. This is Skyhold.

Rachette does a lot of training, whether it's with her blades, doing her best to cut up a dummy, or doing sick backflips off walls or generally trying to get her parkour on, or at a table with a bunch of scrap fiddling with traps. She's also fond of going out hunting. You can perhaps find her debating with a merchant about the price of turning a rabbit pelt into a pair of gloves or a nice hat. She sometimes hangs nearby classes without trying to look like she's actually sitting in. Learning but not like...being a nerd okay shut up who likes learning not her.

Malcolm hovers around the healer tents more than he ever usually does, either visiting those injured or getting injuries checked up on. He also seems to be making a point of starting to see if there's anything he can do to help despite not being a healer. His training has more to do with keeping the skills he does have sharp, whether through archery (where he has an interesting new bow that hasn't made an appearance yet), or working out, or sparring. He's willing to give advice to people that seek it. And as ever, there's always some point where he can be seen around the kennels or otherwise being with is poodle companion Milady, playing, training, being at least mildly adorable.

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Nine times out of ten, Araceli comes in from upstairs then makes her way down because she's been coming from the battlements or the library so it's faster (or that's the answer she'll ever give if anyone ever bothers to ask her.) This is one of those times since she isn't with someone else coming in, weaving her way past everyone else to make way to the bar before it's time to settle at the table for cards and--

"Church!" Delighted because you know it's never a bad day when you get to see Church after all but she does take a moment, perhaps having a little bit of a flashback to another time, her and another rifter with the bar between them. She shakes it off. "Are you becoming an honest man?"

Why yes she will say that in the scandalised whisper it deserves, leaning across so that the person next to her doesn't need to her and can only try to guess what's going on from the face she's pulling.

He can be an annoying shit, but he hasn't gotten thrown out of the tavern yet, so he must be doing something right. But two can play at the 'what are they talking about is it juicy gossip' game while he's here.

He puts a hand over his heart with a mildly scandalized face before returning the lean in. "When have you ever known me to not be honest?" Maybe don't answer that question, actually. "I know, I know, look at me starting to settle down with an actual job for a while. I might even go native at this rate."

The tavern needs people behind the bar with personality and spark. Cabot, for all that someone, somewhere, must've seen something worth hiring in him has not and has never provided anything for Araceli beyond drinks.

"Three separate occasions come to mind in the last week alone, of course with witnesses of good standing." Witnesses she can fabricate from thin air, she's a bard after all she can always do with some on the spot practice if he's up for it. "And what's prompted all this? Am I to expect an announcement? A girl needs time to speak with her tailor if that's the case."

"Alas, alack," he overdramatizes with a hand to his forehead, "I'd take your hand if it wasn't for your big badass girlfriend. And, y'know, your general lack of interest in dudes. Truly we're all the lesser without that attention." c h u r c h

"You can actually thank Cosima for prompting all this. She's not speaking to any tailors either. I...have no idea if guys interest her, either, now that I think about it." Which doesn't matter and is entirely apart from the point. "A couple of us got this...idea. Home brewed booze. Slightly more modern homestyle food. Far be it for us to take over a tavern overnight; we gotta know how to run the joint and how it operates, right? It's a learning experience. Never been a bus boy before. Or a barback. Is it weird that this is kind of relaxing in place of running around creation waving a sword at impossible terrifying creatures from another dimension?"

"You can take my hand, men just come with...conditions. But I've had fun with them too." Terms and conditions longer than she is but they aren't really here to talk about Araceli's storied love life. Unless they are, she doesn't honestly mind, it's interesting to see what people actually think when she hold all the truth cards. Reaching across the bar to playfully brush her knuckles across his cheek, she smirks at him then laughs. "The things you say, I will remember that and threaten whoever steals your heart appropriately." In the night. Sneaking into their room while they sleep. Perched on the furniture. It'll be very dramatic.

"You know, when we were playing Wicked Grace she did mention a little something about you two and recreating your own foods. Not so easy for some of you as it is for others. Flip cup?" Yes. That was the name. "Flip cup if you get the right cups through a rift. It's not weird. This is normal. I would go listen to gossip and play cards or dice, do some drinking and join in with the songs, but I wasn't helping to fight wars and save the world before. No monsters outside of stories for me until I fell out of the sky, remember? You've always been one of my very favourite people to be around, I feel lighter speaking to you." Sometimes that's most of what someone behind the bar needs. Sympathetic ear, fill the glass, know what to say and how to say it. Maybe Church fumbles that a bit but his heart is in the right place and that counts for so much in Araceli's book.

Don't go creeping on Christine. Not that Christine would ever come up because obviously they aren't a thing thing and no hearts are stolen at all so forget he ever thought that haha!

"Wow, sorry, I'm just, I'm still stuck on the fact that you know flip cup. Flip cup. I mean I guess you would, and...any civilization with sufficient cups would eventually develop flip cup--"

His eyes go wide. Forget talking about him and Cosima and Jamie making fried foods and continuing Ruby's still. He starts up, hands on the bar, and a wickedly delighted grin slaps onto his face. "Holy shit. We've got cups! Mugs, glasses, tankards, fucking whatever! Okay, we're gonna need a long table, at least twelve cups, and a small ball that can fit in a cup. I don't know if we have those here. Anyone got a ping-pong ball? Is ping pong a thing here? It has to be small, and it has to be able to bounce. I have got to introduce this world to beer pong!"

She is silent as the night, if she hears the edge of a whisper she will investigate. For the sake of your happiness because she is invested in that thank you very much.

"You can thank Cosima. We were talking games and drinking, the things go together." Sorry Church, she does not know the arcane mysteries of flip cup personally although she could probably play it since the rules seem pretty simple all things considered. "I come from card and dice games with lots of rules, I was trying to explain Wicked Grace over drinks - you know how these things go when it's two ladies talking and enjoying an evening."

In the face of Church's enthusiasm, Araceli is incredibly reluctant to admit the truth but it's so hard to lie to her friends unless the situation absolutely calls for it and this...is not one of those times. The apology is written on her face though she does drum her fingers as she tries to think of what might be able to help. "Maybe some of the rogues or mages could help? People that know about alchemy things? They have to have something like that. Before we are swept away, I must ask, what is ping-pong?"

"It's a game with this little ball, usually a little hollow one, and there's a table with a little net in the middle, and you bat it back and forth with paddles. I...think it's called that because the sounds when you hit it and it bounces sound kind of like a ping and a pong?" He manages to deflate a little, though, realizing that his dreams of taking the world by storm with red-painted cups and little glow in the dark balls are not likely to take flight.

"Eh. I can at least explain the rules sometime. You might be able to finagle some homebrew rules involving a coin, buuuut." Shrug. "I think sometimes the games with less rules are better. Easier to learn, easier to play when drunk, and easier for everyone to lose money equally instead of all to the bard who knows her way around dice and cards and has a poker face like damn." WONDER WHO HE'S TALKING ABOUT HM. "...Were you two really just talking about games? Is...is that what ladies do when they're drinking together?"

"I love to hear about all the worlds people come from, but some of you come from places with such odd things. If you manage to do it, I will come along and learn how to play." After all, she did pocket some sunglasses from the box the rift spat out that one time just for the sheer novelty value of looking like an idiot.

"Church." Church please. Allow her to set her dainty, honest hand on you. The hand that does not at all ever have cards up the sleeve or weighted dice or anything like that because it's the hand with a glowing green mark so she can't actually use it that way now. "I cannot help that there are people in this life with open faces, and that my father sat me on his knee and taught me to play when I was only as high as the table."

(That's a lie, she was smaller than the table, she has always be pretty fun-sized.)

Putting on her most puzzled expression, she tips her head to the side to think about that question for a good minute or two. "It depends who I'm with. A lot of the time there's talking about home of course because it's always so different, why the people of Ferelden and Orlais shouldn't be allowed in a kitchen without strict supervision, if your girlfriend has magic in the bedroom you might forget that you have legs," right there she's fucking with you but she'll say it in the exact same casual tone as if she's honestly had that chat with someone. "I've recounted many duels I've had with men who haven't liked my involvement with the ladies in their lives be it daughter, sister, fiancee or some other partner. Is it very different to what men talk about?"

"Uh. I mean. What? I'm pretty sure magic in the bedroom is only reserved for getting your go back on quicker. Y'know. Uh. Not that I uh. Know anything about that. Sorry, uh, so, wait, you've totally dueled guys because you fucked their fiancees? That's hardcore. You go hardcore, Araceli. I'm honestly impressed. Guys, uh, I mean guys talk about, y'know, guy things. Fights and women and, y'know, other things. Secret things. Secret guy things." Church, most of your 'guy' conversations end up being how to pick chicks up in tanks or telling Caboose to shut the fuck up.

"That's not something I've ever had to worry about - would you recommend trying it, just for the experience?" Did you know that she can smile just like a very friendly shark sometimes Church? "Well it wasn't always that far, some people are very possessive but that was better than having the guard called on me when I was getting out the window or trying to get my boots on in the morning."

Araceli you are twenty-one and that happened in Thedas. You have lived a life.

"Secret things? Would you be cast out of the club if you breathed even the edge of a word about it?"

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In the turning of the seasons, in life and death

church, tavern;

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