faderift | [ open ] fly high across the sky from here to kingdom come

WHO: Aveline + open
WHAT: arrival + exploring
WHEN: around the time when the Rifters arrived + first few days afterwards
WHERE: all over.
NOTES: none... that I can think of!

Courtyard.

Skyhold is a marvel, Aveline will give it that. Grand turrets and towers she can see. The first look at the famed Inquisition is the activity going on in the Courtyard, where vendors sell their items, soldiers spar and train. She allows the guard beyond the gate to take her horse and she hefts her pack, so that the battered Templar shield at her back is visible. The air is crisp and cold and there's mud on her boots, caked and dried.

Hadn't missed that much.

She hadn't thought that she'd be setting foot on Ferelden soil once again in her lifetime, but here she is. Aveline only pauses briefly to look around, before stepping in proper, almost immeadiatly turning towards the first individual she sees.

"Excuse me. Can you direct me to Commander Cullen's office?"

The Rookery.

It's difficult to locate, with all it's many staircases and different rooms all over, but the first place she visits is the Rookery, a letter sent off to Donnic and Kirkwall to let him know that she had made it. It's short and non-descriptive, but Donnic would understand the need to keep things vague, with Sebastian and Starkhaven currently backing down against them. Oh sure, they'd likely hear from him again.

She watches the bird with her letter attached grow smaller into the distance until it's but a speck, then gone. Strange to think that she had allowed herself to come this far, travel so long to be somewhere else entirely -- her life back across that sea (and Maker, does she not look forward to the ship ride back). But if her friends needed her, than she would be here.

Training grounds.

Even after the long journey, Aveline doesn't take long to rest, she freshens up and changes from her armor to more casual training attire -- the sword and shield are both still at her back as she makes her way down towards the training grounds. The dummies near the tavern are well worn, and used. There's and edge of nerves to her, a knot of worry that she can't quite push down or shake but it doesn't show on her.

Her strikes are well placed, each swing of her arm is strong and every hit with the flat side of the blade is followed by a second one directly after. After a while, she swaps the sword for her shield, blocking imaginary blows and hitting the dummy with solid hits.

Her hair is falling out of it's tie, by the time she is finished and the sun is beginning to set and finally she feels worn enough to go rest.

Exploration. - everywhere else

From the gardens, to the tavern, to the library -- Skyhold is vast and it takes a matter of hours to walk around it entirely. Aveline prides herself in knowing the long winding streets of Kirkwall -- and even ten years in the city, there are passages and areas that she still discovers, but otherwise, she knows her city.

But she hadn't always, just as she doesn't yet know the layout of the change in scenery. But that is what she's doing. Certain areas are off limits and those are the ones that she doesn't scope out, but she works to familiarize herself with the layout, landmarks -- what is where, and perhaps... she is looking for certain familiar faces in each one of these areas.

Wildcard!

[ If you don't see anything that tickles your fancy here, feel free to come up with your own. Aveline will be all over, exploring. And if you'd like to plot with me personally, you can send me a pm or hit me on plurk
at

rabbithearted

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He's stepped out of the healing tent to work a kink out of his neck. The last patient had been a difficult one, infection deep set into the wound, and he needs the air. Anders is not exactly sure that he needs the sight of a certain face, though. If only he could believe he's worked himself so hard that he's hallucinating...

"What, get tired of locking everyone up in Kirkwall and thought there had to be more opportunities elsewhere?" It's more tired than it is biting. He's more tired than anything, and wondering what seeing her here means.

Aveline doesn't need to look up to know who it is speaking. She'd recognize Anders' voice, and familiar claims anywhere. She looks up with a defiant tilt of her chin to meet his gaze. Of course they'd meet somewhere, sometime -- perhaps sooner is better than later.

Maybe he's not looking to pick a fight, and neither is she -- not two days or so days into her stay, but she would be lying if she tried to deny any anger. Kirkwall is still very much a broken city.

"I don't make a habit of locking up the innocent. Or those who happen to be pardoned for heinous crimes, deserving though they might be." Her tone is cool. Aveline pauses. "I was asked to come. By a friend. What are you doing here, Anders?"

"Healing. You're at the healing tents." There's a half-dozen barbs he can think of to add to that, but he's at the healing tents. It's one of few places he can drop his guard and simply work, and if he lashes out here, he risks alienating the last few healers who are fine with him. The price is too high and so he bites his tongue.

"Who asked?" Most of them, he thought, would have given him some sort of head's up that she'd be around if just in the hope he'd steer clear. Maybe it had been Fenris. "Did you leave Donnic behind, or is he here too?"

"I know where I am, and that's not what I'm asking. What are you doing here. With the Inquisition." She crosses her arms. This is civil, for as much as she'd like to grab him, and demand answers -- she's not about to make that kind of impression with these people.

The moment passes. Aveline sighs. "Varric. He's been keeping me updated since he left Kirkwall." She wouldn't have left if it had not been for Starkhaven's Prince laying down his grudge on the city. "No, Donnic isn't here with me. He's staying back, for the time."

"Raising an army of kittens to wipe out the Darkspawn threat for once and for all." He takes a breath and stops the sarcasm. "I'm here healing for the Inquisition and the Grey Wardens. I'm doing what I can to help out. What are you doing here?"

Especially if Donnic didn't come with. There has to be something pressing, and he hopes Sebastian hasn't breached Kirkwall's defenses. Surely news would have to have spread of Anders being with the Inquisition and redirected the asshole's ire, right? Otherwise... Otherwise, in a seige, in warfare, it was the lowest who suffered the most and were the most ignored, and the people he'd worked with and healed and cared about so long in Darktown would suffer the greatest.

The sarcasm is noted, and ignored. "Sebastian's interest is no longer in Kirkwall, now that you're known to be here. He picked up and left not long after you revealed yourself, with his armies in tow. Now that construction is underway on the city, I wanted to come and help in any way that I can."

Whether that be training soldiers, or fighting demons and red Templars. "You're with the Wardens again. I seem to recall that you wanted nothing to do with them, years ago. They're watching you? Is that one of the conditions of you remaining here?"

"They were under direct management that saw nothing wrong with letting one of their own be harassed by people who wanted them dead, despite how he'd done nothing wrong at that time. I ran because there was no chance at life there. The Wardens have better leadership here."

As far as the other, yes. He can't go anywhere without being watched, but it's more everyone around him being watchful. But he's not about to say as much.

"I'm surprised it actually sank in through his thick skull that there was nothing to be gained by continuing his efforts against Kirkwall. Perhaps there's one spark of intelligence in there after all. How is Darktown?" Keep talking, and maybe she'll not notice that he's not answering some of her questions.

"I see."

She almost agrees with him, on Sebastian. Almost. But when he asks about Darktown, her mouth twists into a hard, angry line. If he wanted her to keep talking, Kirkwall was a good subject.

"How do you think Darktown is doing, Anders? Your stunt has not helped them, nor anyone in the city." Guard stretched too thin, too many using that by picking on those they could not save. "They lost their healer, and far too many try to take advantage of the people down there. There have been more slaver operations we've shut down in the last two years than in the five years prior."

And by shut down, she means they didn't make it out of the undercity. Not alive, at least.

"Their healer could not stand idly by and watch more of his people die. Unlike most of the city. My stunt got some out, and the network I built to help, that was murdered down to the last man by those in authority, had been helping as well. I was supposed to put Darktown ahead of my people, when I'd been helping Darktown for years?"

He crosses his arms. "No one was going to help the mages. At the very least I knew the guards had an oath to the city and would be down in Darktown helping out when they would not interfere with the Rite of Annulment."

That she'd even try to suggest he owed them his healing is a little insulting. For seven years he'd given everything he had, and they'd watched his back for that, but he'd worked himself to exhaustion. That they had a healer in the first place was an improvement in their circumstances; hundreds of lives had been saved by him.

[ open ] fly high across the sky from here to kingdom come

Exploration

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