lost myself and I am nowhere to be found

[fightingale]

WHO: catch-all for Leliana, Ruby & Herc
WHAT: all sorts! some open prompts for each, as well as closed starters.
WHEN: throughout Bloomingtide
WHERE: various
NOTES: Depression, discussion of death, alcohol, potential violence, others to be added as necessary. If we're threading and something comes up in a tag, feel free to add a warning to the subject line.

Starters in the comments! If you'd like a personalised thing then just prod me via pp (@karmacharging) or pm and I will whip something up C:

Comments

[aeipathos]

He is, as yet, not entirely comfortable within the walls of Skyhold. So long more or less consistently by himself, so long even before that uncomfortable with large groups of people, ill-accustomed to people amassed in one place meaning anything other than exponentially more reasons to watch one's back - he is acclimating, but the process has been slow, and gradual. In the meanwhile, he makes himself as useful as possible while he can stand to stay within the walls and does his best to remain so when he cannot.

Thus the trips that take him outside them. He gathers what resources he is able to recognise, hunts what he can. The Inquisition is resourceful and has growing allies, but at the same time people within the castle still welcome whatever comes their way, and he would rather remain marginally useful rather than a burden - at least while he is outside the walls he is not relying on what resources they do possess.

Water tends to be a draw for attention but at the same time there are valuable plants that grow not too far from it. Athos isn't actually tracking the bears nearby, but he might have been close enough to hear some of those cracking branches and attempt to investigate. While he wasn't actually attempting to hide, he was following habits and moving somewhat quietly. At least, as much as possible in his armour.

She's clearly injured, but there's no need to get any further than necessary regardless - you never know. So, he emerges a bit more clearly once she acknowledges his presence, staying as far away as he already is, but keeping a hand on his sword nonetheless. If she is a mage, it's not like it will help much, but. It makes him feel better. Plus it's just easier to keep the thing from moving around. "Not whatever brought you here," he says, accent present but dulled somewhat by years of staying outside Orlais.

"Or would you prefer I continued on my way?"

[eviscerates]

He sounds kind of French, so far as she can tell, and she's not sure if that means he is French, or Canadian, or comes from Orlais or... somewhere else, because there are people here from worlds that she's never heard of before. Ultimately the name for his accent doesn't really matter, but it's just another thing she doesn't know, and things Ruby doesn't know has been a list that's gotten progressively more out of hand throughout her entire life (this month, though. This month.)

There is a bow and arrows at her back, and a pouch hanging from her belt with traps and grenades and devices that Varric has been showing her to make in ways that will cost her less fingers than the book she was using might have, but she keeps her hands away from it for now, setting her boot down on the ground.

"No," she agrees, with a rueful smile. "You definitely don't look bear-like." Yet, but armour doesn't yell mage to her, and shapeshifters aren't exactly common amongst them in any case. There's a little hiss as she tries to roll her ankle and it protests.

"Well, I promise not to attack you if you promise not to attack me," she says, with the tone of someone who knows that isn't necessarily how things work in the real world, but offers it with a certain amount of humour and hope anyway. Doesn't hurt to try, right? Being up here might mean he's Inquisition, anyway, or on his way to deal with business there, and that'd make them at least partially on the same side. The Inquisition doesn't seem all that cut and dry, with all the nuances that she's still trying to learn about. Ruby's expression becomes a little more serious. "I'm Ruby. I'm... with the Inquisition, when I'm not picking fights with bears."

[aeipathos]

He inclines his head somewhat at the acknowledgement that he is not, in fact, a bear - or even bear-like. In the meantime, he remains nothing but the picture of well-mannered, posture straight, stance ready but not aggressive - he's not attempting to escalate anything any more than he's going to step closer until she indicates she might welcome the assistance.

And thankfully she does, in a round-about manner certainly, but the call for a truce of sorts works well enough. He relaxes, microscopically, and lets himself catalogue her person beyond simply her potentially threatening aspects.

He doesn't have his horse with him - Roger deserved a bit of a break, and moreover one of the stablehands seemed to have taken a liking to him, and Athos for whatever reason decided to indulge it this time. Perhaps he wanted the challenge of actually being on his own for a bit. He doesn't dissect his intentions very often. Either way, it means that he is carrying more or less whatever he should have with him - he has a camp not too far away but it's never a good idea to leave important things behind - and as such he has the sort of things on his person that might help with such an ankle injury. It's nothing too much more than ready poultices and bandages, but even so.

"Amenable terms," he says, similar in tone but also similarly willing to broker whatever peace might come between them. When she continues though, that does rather make things easier. "I'm newly welcomed to the Inquisition myself, regardless of bears. My name is Athos. May I?"

That's with a vague gesture towards herself, given that he's so far away, but he means to assist her with the ankle issue. He can't heal it, but he might at least be able to help her travel safely back to someone who can.

[eviscerates]

"I'm glad you think so." Her tone brightens with that, not quite able to repress a bit of a grin, for all that she's tired and in pain. Amenable terms just seems so understated. It's great. The way her own shoulders relax is rather more obvious, a slight slumping that has a certain amount to do with tiredness and pain over poor posture.

"Athos," she repeats, just once to make sure she remembers it, and nods to his question. He may indeed. "Generally I've found the Inquisition to be pretty bear free, but I was a little unlucky this time around." Ruby's voice is rich with a certain kind of self mockery, and she shifts back on her improvised seat so she can rest her foot on a log to make any inspection a little easier. "I've only been around a few months, but they're good people. I hope you have a... I hope it treats you well."

I hope you have a good time just seemed a weird thing to say during a war.

god i'm sorry tony decided to privately inbox all of cb so my inbox was insane

[aeipathos]

She seems to accept his neutral terms well enough - at least with the benevolence he is accustomed to seeing amongst those who are either unlikely to unexpectedly draw a dagger to his back, or those who are genuinely friendly or reasonable. Either way, he's not sure he'd mind regardless of her personal motivations right now. Her relaxing though - because he is nothing if not attuned to the most minute of bodily language - is indicative enough towards the latter.

"Given the vast disparity," he comments, drawing closer but simultaneously giving her the same benefit of the doubt in taking his eyes off her to retrieve something specific from his pockets that she is affording him in allowing him to come close, "I wouldn't say we could feasibly rule bears out of the ranks."

And he's entirely not sure what to do with the last thing she's said, so he's going to just sort of. Ignore it. Sorry. Focus on ensuring her ankle isn't broken - hopefully it's just swollen and tender instead. His touch is delicate and proper - probably too much so in some respects to be useful after a point - and far from technically practised, but he's familiar enough with various injuries to guess well. "Not that I have noticed any myself. Technically your statement itself doesn't mean there aren't any bears currently employed by the Inquisition."