faderift | ( OPEN ) blending about as well as somebody wearing the glasses with a fake nose attached

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( OPEN ) blending about as well as somebody wearing the glasses with a fake nose attached

WHO: Emma Swan and PLEASE YOU don't leave me on my own
WHAT: Emma trying to make sense of the new place she's flumped in
WHEN: backdated-ish towards closer to her arrival thru now?
WHERE: Gettin all cozy in Emprise/Skyhold I believe
NOTES: Nothing dramatic yet. at least I don't think so. tba.

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It's at least a little bit ironic that she's more powerful than she's ever been and she still doesn't have much of anything. Being a rifter apparently rewards her no incentives, which is not surprising really but at least a little discouraging. She's been stuck close to a few weeks now and she's no closer to finding a way out, and no closer to finding a steady source of income, either.

She works little ends and odds here, yet she's not a great worker. When she can focus, she's quite dilligent and determined. It's focusing that is the hard part. Jobs that get more complicated than a monotonous repeated task tend to get scattered quickly. And it's safe to say not all residents of Skyhold trust a rifter to do even the most menial of tasks. She's lucky to put together enough coin to get some food for her and Ruby on occasion, she certainly doesn't have enough money to buy something to arm herself.

She can't actually be hurt, yet the lack of an ability to defend herself when she can't use her magic makes her very nervous.

So occasionally when the soldiers are out training, or weapons are out for polishing and display in the courtyard, Emma is there to look wistfully at what she can't have yet. Oh she could steal one, it's just that would be awful stupid when she still sleeps and is forced to exist here for the time being. So for now she just watches... and occasionally she'll point out sloppy form if she spots it. Hey, she isn't a master at a sword but apparently being the daughter of Prince Charming has taught her something in the past two years. And she knows poor form if she sees it. (That sounds a bit more like her pirate boyfriend than her father, though, doesn't it?)

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Something she didn't know about until it was far too late? Dark Ones don't require a lot of sleep. There's only so much time she can pretend to be sleeping for Ruby's sake. When that gets to be too much, Emma generally wanders around the open areas of the fortress, trying to keep to herself and keep fairly quiet at that.

She seems to like the courtyard best, and is often found doing something with her hands. Braiding straw or even something she never dreamed she'd get into — knitting. Hey, the place is freezing and she's ... okay she's not good. If anyone wants some lumpy socks, though, she's your lady. She's game for other tasks to distract her, too, even if they end up mundane like sweeping or other chores.

It's possible one might catch her talking to herself. Under her breath, barely a whisper, enough that it can be forgotten as a trick of the fortress that barely sleeps more than she does. You'd have to get pretty close to understand what she's saying, and that's probably for the best. Chances are you don't want to know.

ＣＵＲＩＯＳＩＴＹ.

The last thing one would think Emma would be interested in is more magic. She's got plenty, thanks, and not a whole lot of places for it to go. Not to mention the fact she has magic seems more like a strike against her than a positive quality in this place, though to be fair, when has magic ever felt like a gift over a curse? She tries her best not to use magic, no matter the situation, just to protect herself...

Yet she still can't quite keep her nose out of it all the same.

The magic of this world is very interesting to her, and it's often she'll watch mages at work, though if they ask her to buzz off she will. They use techniques completely foreign to the ones she's started to understand back home. Emma is intensely interested in how mages control their abilities, quietly hoping that she can learn something from them.

She hasn't gone as far as asking questions, yet... but the way she lingers and watches has to be at least a little bit creepy, especially if the poor mage in question has no damn idea who she is.

ＷＩＬＤＣＡＲＤ.

hit me up with whatever you like! Emma roams the castle a lot, and probably is distracted and weird while doing so. hit me up at goplayzelda if you wanna chat magic stuff!

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Combat is something that Ellana only has some experience with, and she gets the feeling that if she's ever caught unawares on her own that she'll be dead before she can call for help. Every battle she's been in so far has had at least one other person there to take the weight of it off her. Mages are mainly ranged fighters; it's the battlemages and knight-enchanters who charge forward. Ellana, meanwhile, gets the sense that she wouldn't even be able to move in armor any heavier than what she already wears, so gearing up and charging forward isn't for her.

So she trains. She knows she's no tactician, and it's something she needs to get better at. Which spells work best for which situations, and how much mana is needed to place protective spells over herself if the enemy draws too near? She's been slacking lately, so now she devote a little time each day to practice.

Today she notices she's being watched and she stops, her wrist rotating her staff to sink the staff blade into the ground. Being that it's a human watching her, she braces herself for a rude comment even as she offers, "Hello."

"Hello," Emma answers back, not so much hostile as awkward. Because it's awkward to be caught staring at someone. Everyone knows it's rude to stare and Emma would probably say something smart if she was the one being stared at. She looks apologetic, and she is. If she's made the woman uncomfortable enough to say something, she probably hasn't been very subtle in the fact she's interested in what she's doing. She momentarily considers making a run for it but probably the only thing more rude than staring at a perfect stranger while they practiced would be running off the second she's caught redhanded.

So she steps a little closer instead, shrugging her shoulders as a finger twines around the tie of her cloak. She's got no necklace to toy with when she's anxious. Heartbreakingly, she can't find Graham's shoelace either. "Sorry. I shouldn't stare. It's just... It's interesting. Watching you work."

It could be interesting even if she didn't have a basis in magic herself. She's only barely started to master the push and pull, the flow and movement required to cast her magic. And the way it's done in this world is incredibly different from what she's accustomed to, though granted, she's not accustomed to much.

"Oh?" she asks, expression shifting a bit. While she knows full well this could be a set up to some comment about how it's interesting an elf can do this or that, she tends to be an optimist, always willing to give the benefit of the doubt. And so her instinct is to be friendly because more elves and humans need to be kind to one another.

"I've been trying to get back in the habit of practicing every day. I know my spells backwards and forwards, it's just that combat is unpredictable."

Taking up her staff, she sets it on her back and walks closer. "I'm Ellana. Nice to meet you."

Sad to say, there's a few parts of this world Emma hasn't caught onto yet. It'll be impossible to be a resident of Thedas long before she catches on to the hatred of Elves, but so far she's been distracted by the hatred of Rifters and individuals with magic. She doesn't think that she might be unexpected company, or that the woman she's talking to might expect the worst of her because that's what she's used to getting. She'll learn soon enough.

"Yeah, you can have strategy memorized but when you have to put it in action it's a hell of a lot harder." It's one of the reasons Emma would rather use her fists than her magic in an altercation, because that's instinct. Sadly, more and more lately her curse overrides her instincts, and not in a positive way. Emma offers a sheepish smile, nodding at the introduction. "Emma. I hope I didn't distract you too much."

"No, you didn't," she replies, with a smile meant to set her at ease. "If anything, I needed a break anyway and your presence reminded me to do that." She doesn't look too out of breath or sweaty, but she does stretch out her arms a little and shake out her wrists.

"Are you newly arrived at Skyhold?"

"Pretty recently, yeah." She's been only for a few weeks, now, but in a lot of ways a few weeks does not feel like enough time to really understand the world she'd landed in. There's still a great deal she's trying to catch up with. She considers whether to point out the obvious before lifting a palm to display the green light that apparently gave her away as a rifter.

"I'm still trying to get used to things here. It's a lot different from what I'm used to." Magic was just the tip of the iceberg, really.

"I can't imagine what it's like, coming from a world so different from this one. Have people been helping you settle in?" Ellana tries to when she knows who the rifters are. To date, she's never come across a rift or the people spilling out of them, so she meets them once they arrive at Skyhold.

Were people trying to help her settle in? Well, if she was blunt about it, no not really. She's sleeping in a barn and considered suspect just because she existed in a place she didn't belong, which isn't exactly the most welcoming. She's offended on principle but a part of her knows that people are right to be wary of her. It's hard to really hold it against them when she knows she's the definition of what they're afraid of. "It seems like everybody around here has more important things on their mind." Skyhold was a busy place, and for reasons deeper than just the Rifts.

That answer is pretty straightforward, but Ellana can't help but wonder if that means people have been neglecting the rifters recently, leaving them to fend for themselves. A tiny crease appears between her eyebrows; a bit of worry that she can't shift.

"Is there anything I can do to help? Maybe show you around or answer questions?"

It really depended on perspective. Were people unwilling to talk to her or answer questions if she had them? No, they'd certainly do that. Still, as much as information could offer, there was a lot of things it couldn't. Information wouldn't get her a proper bed or a weapon to defend herself with.

"I guess finding out more about this place is a good place to start. Is there a... library, or something? Or someone responsible for all of us stuck here?" If Emma were responsible, she'd put together a stipend for the displaced. She'd done it in Storybrooke, but it was not an easy task, especially for a land rather troubled as it was.

"Yes, there is a library. You go up there into the Great Hall and take the first door on the right, then turn left up a flight of stairs and you've found it." Ellana spends a lot of time in the library, though she prefers to take her reading out into the sunshine as opposed to staying in the dim light of candles and their smoke.

"If you mean who provides for you, the Inquisition will see that you are clothed and fed. If you choose to officially join the Inquisition, you may be asked to go on missions or do other work, but you'll be paid too."

"Thanks." Emma is not a patient person, reading books and running through tomes is really not her strongest suit. Still, if it offers any information about the new place she's found herself landed in, then she doesn't have a better option. She's not supposed to be using her magic, so reading might be the best option for her. Probably not going to be attacked by too many books.

Still, she's heard about joining the Inquisition, and that brings up questions. "What does it mean, to be a part of the Inquisition? I'm not going to join up without knowing what it stands for." Honestly she doesn't want to sign up either way, but that's neither here nor there.

"The Inquisition was initially founded to find the person who created an explosion who killed a temple full of people and created the Breach in the sky. But once it was discovered who that was and his plan to become a god, the Inquisition expanded into a much greater thing." A thing that Ellana is proud to be a part of. Initially, she saw it as a way to finally leave the clan while her fellow clansmates saw their joining to be a way to make sure the shems didn't screw it all up. But now after everything she's seen, she will gladly fight to keep the world safe.

"There are rifts throughout southern Thedas, pouring out demons, and the only ones who can close them are you rifters. Our enemy, Corypheus, is gathering an army to destroy us and take over every country, so he can bring Tevinter back to its former glory. He's powerful, but not unbeatable. If we destroy his armies, we destroy his support. And then we can defeat him too. That is what the Inquisition is doing: we're stopping the spread of chaos and making the world as safe as we can." Not safe again, because when has the world ever been safe?

"It seems like a lot to ask of someone forced here against their will to join a war." Emma sighs, and it's not personal, she just is a little frustrated. She's stranded without her family, far away from home, and the only way to get enough to eat and provide for herself is to enlist in an army of sorts? Even for a good cause, that's not exactly the answer she was hoping for. Even if it makes sense.

"I appreciate your answering my questions. I bet there's a lot of them to answer from people like me." Emma didn't want to ignore people in need, if she could help close the Rifts she probably would. She'd just rather not commit to the Inquisition to do it, if she could avoid it.

"It is, which is why no one has forced you to do that," Ellana answers sensibly. "Some rifters have volunteered of their own volition, and for their own reasons. But no one should be in charge of making that decision but you."

Rifters do have many questions, but they have the history, culture, religion, and politics of a completely new world to catch up on.

"I don't blame you for having many questions. So much here must seem unusual to you."

No, she didn't have to join. She just wouldn't get any aid unless she did. It probably was not obviously manipulative to someone that believed in the cause of the Inquisition, yet Emma herself wasn't impressed. It was far from the worst incidence of coercion she'd ever had to witness, that didn't really make her enjoy it any moere, though.

"It's not as strange as you might think, but it definitely is different from Maine." She can't quite admit she's technically from a magical world to a stranger. Still, it's not actually her first time she wounded up stranded in a magic world, yet it had to be a different one, leaving her a fish out of water all over again.

"Maine," she repeats. "What is it like there?" Ellana is fascinated by other places and people, and it can't get more different than people from other worlds. This is something she never considered before, only imagining what life was like for people in Rivain, Orlais, Ferelden, etc.

Ah, Maine. How to describe it to a stranger? "It's not that much warmer than it is here, I have to say." Apparently apart from Neverland, she was never going to visit a world warmer than her own. "It's by the ocean, so it's a different atmosphere than here. And we're a little more about technology than magic... that part is harder to explain." She looks a little apologetic at that. "I live in a small town. It's nice. Home."

It's said that just as she started to believe Storybrooke was home again, she wound up somewhere else. No wonder she had a hard time buying things were ever going to be calm, that she was going to get to her happily ever after; because they never stayed calm for long.

"I hope through research that the Inquisition is able to find a way to send you back there," she says sincerely. No one should be stuck here against their will. The world is already a dangerous, frightening place. To be dropped into it instead of born into it makes the situation even more difficult.

Her smile is a little tight, but it's also genuine. That means something to her, and she appreciates the sentiment. "Thanks," she says, nodding a little. "And thanks for the information. I appreciate it. I should probably let you get back to your practice, though."

Hopefully, without the staring this time.

"All right. Don't be afraid to reach out to me on the crystals, if you have one." It's an easier way to find her than looking all over Skyhold.

But with that said, she takes her staff and moves back to where she was practicing to start up once more.

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( OPEN ) blending about as well as somebody wearing the glasses with a fake nose attached

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