faderift | [OPEN] Running with my roots pulled up

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[OPEN] Running with my roots pulled up

WHO: Bruce ~~Banner~~ and whoever else
WHAT: Rumors abound. Bruce is good at pretending he can't hear anything. A dracolisk makes everyone's life hell.
WHEN: Across Justinian
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Belated open log thing for the remainder of June; prompts and such are under the cut. Starting in brackets but feel free to switch to prose and I will follow. If you want specific prompts/starters, let me know @

knightblazer or PM this journal!

one. trouble on four hooves. (stables)

[It's not exactly the first time the horsemaster is on his case and it probably won't be the last as well, if the current situation is to go by it.

Horsemaster Dennet wasn't exactly thrilled with the dracolisk that had decided to trail all the way back here with him (muttering along the lines of 'as if one of them wasn't enough'), but the one that Bruce... was stuck with had a tendency for more collateral damage. Nothing major, at least, but after breaking three gates and four fences in its apparent nightly ritual of getting out of the stables there were some lines that needed to be drawn. Thus, this current situation.

The hammer in his hand pounds loudly against the nails as Bruce does his best fixing up the damage the dracolisk had caused in the last few nights. The sleeves of his threadbare shirts are rolled up, for even with the chill here pounding away like this still made him sweat quite a bit, especially as he continued to toil away the hours.

Beside him the dracolisk chewed delicately on some hay, clearly much calmer and less prone to violence now that its human was around.]

two. not quite back to business (healing tents, courtyard)

[It was impossible to ignore the rumors, even if they weren't that hotly circulated, for better or for worse. But still the damage had been done and it would be a lie if he said that things were the same as before.

Nothing was the same as it used to be. After the fallout with Adelaide things didn't really quite look up. Patients who once came to him for help now avoided his gaze entirely and went to others, and the new ones who came in now looked at him with wariness, with all the suspicion that frustrated Bruce more than anything else. This was one of the reasons why he hid his magic away, why he stuck to herbs and what he could do with nothing but his head and his own two hands. He was here to help and he didn't need his magic to do it. It wasn't worth any of this.

(But of course, he deserved it. He knows that. He deserves every bit of this.)

Still, regardless of everything, he came here to do a job and despite all that had happened, there were always going to be people who needed help. So Bruce does the best he can, going around the courtyard to treat whoever was willing to accept his help and aiding anybody who came to his tent while he was in there.]

three. midnight mulling (battlements)

[The battlements had, in a way, become something of a sanctuary to him now. When the night gets this dark and most of Skyhold is asleep, the biting chill of the cold and the silence of the night comforts him well.

On most other nights he'd have the excuse of potion brewing to be up here but tonight that desire isn't there. He sits on the floor, back against one of the walls as he glances out to the mountains that surround them, the sky above that twinkle with countless stars. When everything feels so vast and overwhelming its easy enough to lose himself into the sight, to let them take him away from the chaos of his mind and his soul. To find that momentary peace within himself again, when every part of him rages for something else otherwise.]

wildcard.

[Feel free to throw in your own prompt or PM/contact me to plot out stuff!]

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[When she had brought the eluvian back to Skyhold, the rumours around her had not been so terrible as the rumours that had followed her in the Winter Palace; of course they had not, Skyhold is not Orlais, and she is helping in plain sight more than she ever was there when things were progressively becoming more tense, when Celene tightened her grip and scrabbled her fingers. Still, they had frustrated her enough to lose her temper when they had been repeated; if you have any idea what I have had to listen to, what I have had to answer since I returned, she had snapped at Ellana Ashara not so long ago.

Of course Morrigan listens to every rumour, and more than that, Kieran said some odd things, watched Bruce come and go, and Morrigan is surprised but she has had much on her mind which is why she is surprised to find him on the battlements in the night, still clad in as little as she ever is, her magic cupped in her hands for a little light to see by.]

What troubles you so late. [She is trying at all this niceness still (she cannot say this is from Leliana, another abomination in their midst after all) but he has always been good at giving information and appearing to be very fair. If pressed, she doesn't entirely dislike him.]

[The fox comes first. Trotting along to investigate the new thing roaming around the stables and stopping at a safe distance because if a horse is very strange, prone to kicking, then a dracolisk does look like it might decide to devour a horse, should it take a fit of temper.

From above, Araceli watches; she heard the rumours when they started but she was exhausted from worry then making sure Korrin was fine, and she likes to verify as far as possible with these sorts of things which is usually done over cards or dice, and always over drink to loosen the tongue just enough. So she watches, then swings herself down without any of the usual flourishes, her face set in a bard's mask.]

First you were a doctor sort of doctor, now you are a carpenter, what next? [She smiles; anyone that doesn't know her very well would think it's real, a teasing girlish smile that would love to be a smirk at the state of him and all this, extending a hand for the dracolisk should it choose to sniff.]

[ The healer without a name - or not enough of one. Cassandra recognizes him immediately, sitting up against the wall on the battlements. Invisible to anyone looking up from below.

She pauses in her own late-night walk, just standing there for a moment, looking down at him. Of course she had heard the rumors. Whether she believes them or not is another question. And so, she takes the most direct route to uncovering the truth of the matter.

She asks. ]

Is it true?

( She'd come by maybe once, twice, during the water sickness. Even when she's present she's the type of person to say little and keep to herself.

Slowly, she's starting to grow tired of being that person. She'll stand by the edge of Bruce's tent before shyly poking her head in. )

Hey.

( A deep breath. She shallows thickly. )

Am I bothering you?

[Anders ducks in, looking for an extra basin, and he raises an eyebrow at Bruce.]

Welcome to mage life.

[His voice is dryly amused.]

There are worse things to be known as. At least you don't have to deal with those.

[Yet.]

What spirit are you telling people you're using, even? Or are you not going as a spirit healer, and hoping that nothing will be noticed?

[Solitude is something that is never really quite present here in Skyhold, not when there's the entirety of the Inquisition in this fortress. He's not terribly surprise to have his silence eventually broken by company, but he is somewhat surprised for that person to be Morrigan. She didn't seem like the kind of person for things like these, even if she had most likely passed by here by chance.]

What makes you think I'm troubled? [He tries to play it off but even Bruce knows its not of any use. Even if him being up here is a common occurrence, its hard to fully disguise the weariness that weighs him down and echoes through his voice.]

[The dracolisk seems to take no notice at all to its fellow animal companion, focusing instead at the hand extended to it. Still chewing the hay in its mouth, it leans it to take a cautious sniff before it snorts and presses the rest of its snout against her palm - even as it continues to chew its given food.

Bruce in the meantime merely grunts as he pounds another nail into the joint between one of the frames and the stand of the fence he's currently fixing.] I owe the horsemaster a few favors, that's all. [More than a few of them, really, given the dracolisk's inclination to not be in held in a pen. If this continued Bruce supposes he has to do something about it once and for all.]

[He hears the clink of armor before anything else, and at first he of course ignores it - the night patrol was around, as always, and Bruce had been up here enough times by now to be a familiar sight for them, even if recent... things probably made them more wary than usual. But he hadn't been doing anything, so they had pointedly left him alone save for passing by during their routes.

It's only when she speaks then does Bruce realize who it is. The Seeker. Of course she would want to know - the Inquisition is her priority after all. And leaving a mage unchecked for so long...

He wants to lie. He wants to put this all behind him and move on but he knows he can't--not any more. Just as with Adelaide the Seeker doesn't deserve that kind of deceit. And its not like he can maintain it now, anyway, what with all that had happened. Even if he lied now, the real truth was bound to turn up eventually.]

Yes. [He closes his eyes as he says that, and the darkness behind his eyelids gives him comfort, just for a moment. The calm before the storm, in a way.]

[Bruce looks up from the old, tattered journal he had been reading through at the voice - it takes a moment to place a face to a name, but it comes back after a bit.]

Durand. [A quiet greeting, and Bruce inclines his head.] Not at all; I was just reviewing my notes. Did you need me for something?

[Anders is probably the last person Bruce wants to see - let alone talk to - but then its not like he can delay that forever. Might as well let the other have his last laughs and get on with life.]

I've never called myself as such. [Just with a small bite to his voice, though Bruce is doing well to keep it civil.] Didn't get that far in the first place. [And its not like he had been using his magic at all, even after what happened.]

[Malcolm has had to come down a few times to the stables, seeing the aftermath of something unruly, or spooked, or otherwise untamed, simply to calm his mount down. Charles is a hardy horse, and he does not spook easily, but the ruckus was unusual and a potential danger.

And now when he entered the stable, there was that thing. He didn't understand how something that scrawny could be considered a decent mount, and he didn't understand why Master Dennet continued to allow it here. It was not Dennet that was pounding away at the gates, though, so he couldn't demand anything from the fellow.

He crossed his arms and stared at what might as well be a miniature wingless dragon before clearing his throat.] Whose beast is this?

[If he thinks either human or dracolisk is going to be intimidated by his voice and presence, he's got another thing coming. Said dracolkisk only gives the new human a brief look before it snorts and resumes chewing on its hay while Bruce continues to work on fixing up the broken fences.

...its probably going to stay that way too. After all while the dracolisk had decided to stick to Bruce, he certainly isn't going to claim ownership of it.]

[Look, he doesn't really care if the dracolisk likes him or not. He just wants it to stop fucking up the stables. And bothering his horse. The man working away makes no noise of even having heard Malcolm.

That's. irritating. ~~Hilariously~~ Thankfully he doesn't know that the mount has chosen Bruce, so he isn't immediately going to accuse him of being the owner anyway.]

Excuse me. [See, still polite. Just a little louder.] I ask, might you know who owns this beast? Shouldn't it at least be tied to a post if its stable needs repaired?

[At least this time Bruce does pause, if only because it sinks to him that the person is actually talking to him. One can never be too sure, after all, when so many people pass by the stables especially at this time.

He glances over, first to him, then to the dracolisk as it chews on its given hay some more before he looks back at the person who addressed him and shrugs.] It doesn't belong to anybody.

[And with that said, he turns back to the fence and starts pounding away again with the hammer.]

[That's it? Just that? He supposes if the man doesn't know then he can't press the issue, but this feels...suspicious. HMM. Does it even have a bit? Just a disgustingly coloured wild creature roaming around?] If you work for Dennet, then you can escort it out of Skyhold and back to the wilds from whence it came, before it does more damage. It would make less work for you in the end, I imagine.

[The rumors of the surprise mage surgeon only refer to a name, and he's never had the 'pleasure' of meeting Bruce before. With so many under the Inquisition banner, this could be anybody, really.]

[The dracolisk indeed doesn't have anything on it - which was pretty much another point of contention for the the horsemaster to get on Bruce's case. Any attempts to put anything resembling a saddle on the dracolisk had ended pretty badly. It may also be why Bruce has four fences to fix instead of three.

He takes a moment to give the nail he's on a few more pounds of the hammer before he pauses and turns back to the other once again.] I don't work for the horsemaster. I just... owe him a few debts.

[All of which involving said dracolisk in question.]

[His gaze pointedly slides to the so-far demure draconic mount.] And he put you to work here because this...unclaimed one doesn't seem to like staying in a stable.

Again, I suggest getting it out even for your own sake. Then he could have you doing something less tedious. And the rest of the mounts can stop being unsettled. [Notice he doesn't suggest he do it himself, of course. He's not looking to lose a hand. But he does start to wonder how much the hide of this thing could fetch in a market in Val Royeaux.]

[He presses his lips together, considering. Maybe it's simply because Anders is possessed he can feel the spirit there. It could explain why no one had picked it up before.]

Right. How far did you get? With training to be a healer.

[The mockery is gone from his voice. If Bruce hadn't finished learning, there's not a chance Adelaide will be willing to teach him. And while there's not a great chance Bruce would want to learn from Anders, at least Justice accepts that this might do more good than harm.]

[ Cassandra lets out a long sigh, studying him. At least, she thinks, he is being honest now.

Still, that does not explain anything. There are many mages in Skyhold - there has never been any danger in simply admitting to being one. ]

Then why? Why did you lie? What were you afraid of?

Everything up to any actual territory with spirit healing.

[It's... well, its easier, when the talk is strictly professional. Bruce can keep the emotions at bay, voice clipped and businesslike and straight to the point. Easier to focus on the work and little else.]

I've read the texts, but its been years and I've never had occasion to go back to them. [Especially since the spirit inside him happens to be not a spirit at all and Bruce knows better than to try his luck.]

[Bruce is nowhere near honest right now - this truth is only one of many that he continues to hide. Him being a mage is just the tip of the iceberg. There is still so much he dares not speak about, dares not show - can never show, not for his sake but for others. There's no telling the chaos it could bring if they truly knew.

But right now, at this - this much he can talk about. To an extent.]

What wouldn't one not be afraid of? [He returns, only the tiniest hint of disbelief in his voice.] The scrutiny, the suspicion, the fear - all of that and more. As long as people know you are a mage there will always be eyes on you, watching your every move, waiting for one reason to condemn your very existence. It's far easier to keep your head down and be forgotten among the many.

[A face in a crowd of others so easily forgotten. a person who others forget once out of sight. Its much easier to live like that as opposed to the alternative.]

[ They'd spoken- argued- and she requested a write up. He'd given it. Of course after what he'd done he cannot possibly expect her to trust such an assessment of his skills blindly.

The hour is early and she herself is dressed simply, staff tucked against her shoulder, hair bound back, eyes cold and hard as she raps upon the support post for his tent. ]

Bruce.

[ There will be an explanation when he pokes his head out. ]

[To that Bruce just snorts - not at the other, really, but--well, okay, maybe just a little. But its mostly for himself than anything else.]

Believe me, I've tried. It just keeps coming back every single time.

[With on memorable time when Bruce was in his tent. Luckily it had been during the night and so didn't attract that much attention - even if the damage was still done.]

[Sleep is always a fitful thing for Bruce, and with his sour mood? Doubly so, these days. He's long up by the time Adelaide is rapping at his tent, the tranquil silence of the pre-dawn broken by the sounds of her intrusion.

It only takes a moment before Bruce responds, and he opens the flap of his tent, already dressed out of his sleeping clothes and into his usual garb since he's given up sleep a good while back.]

Leblanc. [He returns the curtness with his own, gaze already sharp and bright despite the early hours. He's certain he'll feel the crash later, but he'll deal with that when it comes.]

There is nothing shameful in being a mage. Magic is a gift from the Maker, as are all things. It is what you choose to do with that gift that matters.

[ It's not the way she'd always thought. But opinions change.

From her tone, it's clear that "hiding that gift away" isn't high on Cassandra's approval list. ]

You must have known the truth would come out eventually.

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[OPEN] Running with my roots pulled up

battlements;

stables;

3

healing tents;

2, healing tents

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stables

i'm so sorry

bruce plz

malcom doesn't deserve this

look just because his mount isn't super special

malcom deserves better things

tbf so does bruce. eventually. at the end of the day

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WILDCARD: Being a Mage 101 or Spells for the Spell god

far into the future more like tbh

SPELLS FOR THE SPELL GOD

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