OPEN: And you can shake the mountains with a whisper

[bookish_lioness]

WHO: Hermione Granger and YOU!
WHAT: Hermione ventures out of the library. Sometimes. But she's also in the library most of the time, because she's Hermione.
WHEN: Late Justinian, creeping into early Solace if need be.
WHERE: Throughout Skyhold, just outside of Skyhold, pick a place far away from Skyhold and find a reason to drag her there.
NOTES: If you'd like a particular starter and/or would like to hash out some minor assumed CR that can lead into this, feel free to let me know either via PM or plurk (StarryOblivion). Otherwise, feel free to have them randomly bump into one another!

The Herald's Rest.

Hermione doesn't often come in here, not since receiving an odd look when she'd first asked for just some water (really, given how young everyone here seems to think she is, she'd been surprised that the surly bartender had thought she'd wanted something harder). But sometimes it's a nice change of pace, sitting among the mostly quiet chattering of the other patrons and enjoying the fire as she reads or looks over her notes. Presuming, of course, that no one is foolish enough to have too much to drink and try to bother her. Talking is a distraction she'll accept with no fuss, but Merlin help anyone who's had enough alcohol to think she's open to anything friendlier than that.

Stables.

When she'd first arrived at Skyhold, the stables had seemed relatively empty and were a fine place for practicing her magic without risking hurting anyone. She'd thought she could do the same now, only to find that there are considerably more horses - and, er, other creatures - residing there. Magic might only frighten them, she decides, but they're so pretty that she can't help visiting with them for a bit, getting as close to them as she dares. It's been years since she's ridden a horse, but she's entirely certain that these mounts aren't exactly the type that would trot gently along a given course for an inexperienced rider, so she isn't even going to ask after something so silly, even if the interest is clearly there in her eyes.

Courtyard, not too far from the healing tents.

When the stables prove not to be the best place to practice with her magic, Hermione decides that it might be best to find a little corner close to the healing tents instead. At least then there would be other mages around, and so it was less likely that anyone who stumbled across her would look at her disdainfully. And if anyone gets hurt, a healer wouldn't be too far away. Of course, she highly doubts that anyone would get hurt just because she was unsuccessfully attempting to transfigure leaves and pebbles and whatever else happens to be in the vicinity. Transfiguration doesn't seem to be an aspect of her magic that's carried over into Thedas, or at least Hermione can't manage it without more practice, given that she's growing more and more frustrated as she continuously taps rocks and other objects with what looks like a stick, muttering to herself in exasperation.

Library. Because of course.

If you've been to the library, you've seen her. Whether you know her and enjoy talking to her about rifter politics or think it's entertaining to scandalize her or have never bothered to approach her, Hermione can more often than not be found in the same little niche in the library, nose in a book or a quill hastily scribbling down notes. Or even, occasionally, dozing off, since she hasn't exactly claimed any sort of sleeping space for her own and more often than not loses track of the time when she doesn't explicitly have somewhere to be.

Wildcard!

Hermione wanders, and while she tries to be careful, sometimes it takes her places she just shouldn't go. If it doesn't look like a private room or setting, it's safe to assume that the young witch has made her way there, likely looking for a quiet place to read or do magic or just to get a few moments of silence. And while she doesn't often journey outside of Skyhold, she can definitely be tempted beyond its walls if she has the right incentive, or the right company.

Comments

[universal_charm]

That was part of the problem, wasn't it? It was nice that the Inquisition was seemingly open to all sorts, and that seemed to be because their leadership had varied points of view. But was that true, and would it always be so? What happened if they lost a leader? Who would replace them? Could the Inquisition's motives, then, be turned and twisted? It was a laundry list of possibilities, and Kirk simply didn't know the command well enough to say anything one way or the other. And he had a dislike for command over all, especially with Marcus leaving such a bad taste in his mouth.

"But there you go - political and religious agendas are set aside "publicly". What about privately though? What could we be asked to do, what little steps could we be asked to take that might lead us down a road we aren't comfortable with? It comes down to, for me, not knowing the leadership well enough to put my faith in them. So for now, I won't outright align myself with them. Not to mention I'm singularly bad with authority, and I really don't want to have to go through a court martial here."

The forest was cooler than the walk down, Kirk taking a deep breath of the fresh trees and the loam beneath their feet. "Well that's what I'm saying. Stop trying to find one of their ways, and start trying to find yours through your experiences. You were trying the way you do it in your homeworld on those rocks earlier, right? Clearly, that's not working. So why not try making small adjustments to the way you're used to? Something should click eventually. To be honest, I don't think any of the ways they do things is going to work for you because they won't fit you as a person or your previous training." That was just his thoughts, anyways.

"Bits and pieces. Basically sounds like something out of Renaissance Italy or Victorian London. Political machinations, vying for power, one-upping each other and not giving a damn about who gets crushed under foot."

[bookish_lioness]

Considering that the Inquisitor had died and yet the advisors still carried on in her stead, Hermione doubted that the nature of the Inquisition could really be changed. Defeating Corypheus and closing the rifts seemed to be their only real goals, and unless someone with ulterior motives happened to worm their way into a position of power - unlikely, given how distrustful most of them seemed - it didn't seem likely that they'd stray too far from that.

"Cullen was a Templar," she told him. "His story isn't mine to tell, but from what I'd heard from his sister, he'd seen and done some terrible things in the name of the Order. The fact that he's now willing to live and work alongside mages and trusts them enough to go on missions without assigning a Templar to watch their every move speaks volumes." Granted, she'd only briefly met the man, but Mia was an extremely forthright, no-nonsense sort of person, and she doubted she'd paint her brother in a positive light if he didn't actually deserve it. "You can always find them and have a sit-down with them. So long as they have a few moments to spare, I've found that most of them have always been very good about answering any questions I might have."

Absently scratching at her cheek, Hermione frowned and brought up, "People keep saying I should switch to a staff. I'd practiced with one once. It felt... clumsy. But I really should keep practicing with it, in the event that something happens to my wand. I can't exactly get a replacement while I'm here." Unless the smiths in the undercroft were exceptionally talented.

Wrinkling her nose as they began talking about the Orlesian Game, she looked around, trying to admire the nature around them and not think about just how far she actually was from home. "It's disgusting, isn't it? I wonder what those nobles thought of us during that soiree a few months ago. We must have looked like clowns to them, and if any of us had behaved in any way that they'd considered peculiar or insulting, they likely could have had us killed and no Orlesian would have blinked behind their stupid gilded masks."

[universal_charm]

Kirk didn't. People changed. He wanted to believe that they would hold true to the mission of defeating Corphyeus and sending the Rifters homes and stopping the Rifts, but who knew what could happen in the coming months, even years? Most likely years. Things like this were rarely swift, and all to recently he had seen how the good intentions of an organization could get twisted by someone's perspective, how they could believe they were doing right and it go so horribly, terribly wrong.

"A good talk would be nice, but watching from afar speaks volumes too," he shrugged. "For now I am content with where I am, though, I have the feeling that someday, perhaps soon, I will be forced to take some steps outside of the little spot I have carved for myself." No one could ever truly stay neutral, especially here he was sure. But for the moment he managed.

"That's not a bad idea, and the staff doubles as a weapon in its own right. If your magic is currently unreliable, it would be in your better interest to learn alternative ways of defending yourself," he advised. "Who knows. Changing the medium of the way you channel your magic might help you find your way back to it."

It seemed like a sound enough theory. If she always used a wand and it wasn't working, that might be the thing to change first rather than anything else.

"They sound so very charming," he snorted, pausing in their hike to kneel down and collect a few mushrooms he spotted.

[bookish_lioness]

Hermione knew a thing or two about trusting authority and finding that you were wrong to. When her own government tried turning her best friend first into everything from a scapegoat to a puppet, she knew that you couldn't always trust the people in charge to look out for your best interests. But while she might not trust the Inquisition to be able to settle the mage-templar dispute to any satisfaction, they were at least aware of their enemy and wanted him gone, and she was fairly certain they wouldn't do anything to prolong this particular war, since it benefited absolutely no one.

"But a good talk and watching from afar says even more," Hermione brought up, voice just a touch dry. "It allows you to draw conclusions based on both observation and research, and it never hurts to start your research before you actually have to use it."

Though she agreed well enough that switching to a staff might actually help with her magic, she couldn't help but scoff at the idea of using it as a weapon. "I can barely throw a punch, much less manage to wield a giant stick without hurting myself or people near me," she chuckled. "I've never exactly had to engage in any physical combat before. Or, at least, not without magic to help bolster some of it."

Pausing to crouch by Kirk and hold one of her bags open so he can set the mushrooms inside, she managed not to roll her eyes as she remarked, "The Orlesians are the very definition of charm. You can tell by how very passive aggressive they can be."

[universal_charm]

"And if the research doesn't match what you see?" he asked her, curious because she seemed to hold to that word, didn't she? Research. Her books. It said something about her, and it wasn't entirely bad, though it made him worry. Books were well and good, but it made him concerned for her finding her own answers, especially in a place that - well, one couldn't always trust the books, could you?

"Well, we can fix both of those things," he told her as he slid the mushroom in, nodding his thanks for her help. "I teach self-defense with hand-to-hand combat, and my friend Samouel has been teaching me the staff. I could see if he would teach it to you as well," he offered her. "It would do you good to learn how to handle yourself without magic, especially since it doesn't seem to be as reliable for you as it once was. Never a bad time to start learning."

As for the Orlesians, he left that conversation as it was. He straightened and moved on, continuing to pick his way through the wood, casting his eyes over the ground for herbs, nuts, and fungi they could use.

[bookish_lioness]

"Then you have to observe enough to get a better sense of where the research went wrong," Hermione replied easily. Books weren't the be all and end all for her, not any longer. While they served as an excellent basis for most fields of knowledge, being unable to adapt to the changing realities of the world can lead to death. She hadn't survived a war just so she could die because she'd fallen through a rift like Alice down the rabbit hole. "Or ask someone to explain how they could think or feel the way they do when it doesn't reconcile with what's supposed to be common knowledge, if it's written down somewhere."

Hermione hesitated a little at his offer. She'd never much liked violence, much less physical violence, even if the one time she'd let herself punch someone out of anger had felt wonderful. She just didn't want to become too used to solving all her problems that way, even if such a thing wasn't likely for her. "I know Samouel," she said instead, closing up her bag and absently moving about the surrounding area. "He's offered me the same. It just... feels odd, using something that's supposed to be for casting spells as a weapon. Odder still is if all the other mages can use it for magic and I can't. I've practiced vaguely with Anders' staff, and it was about as useful as my wand currently is, but then, I was holding back a bit."

She was also just reluctant to delve too deeply into Thedas' magic, considering how little is known about how a rifter "mage" might fully utilize it, and that included so much as touching staves longer than she had to. In an effort to change the subject, she tilted her head up towards a rock formation and asked, "Is that Arbor Blessing?" She doubted the vine she caught sight of was actually Arbor Blessing, but it at least gave her a reason to break off a little and attempt to carefully scale the rock as she tried reaching for it.

[universal_charm]

He made a sound that suggested he was pleased with the answer, having been worried for her reliance on the books. He still thought she perhaps clung to them to much, but who was he to rip away a comforting thing from her? He would take talking to someone over written, at least here. To much, he felt, got lost in the translation of thought to paper as he didn't believe many of the people here truly understood how to write or read.

There's a cant of his head, blinking at her. "But can't the spells themselves be weapons? I mean - casting fire, binding someone, etcetera. Not every spell you can cast is benign, is it not?" he reasoned. "I still think you should consider learning a way to defend yourself that doesn't involve magic. That doesn't mean having to go attack people - but if you do get attacked, you'll know what to do."

He probably wouldn't get much of the theory behind it really. He would of course listen and try to help, but most of his reasoning would be entirely to logical, most likely. That was just how he was. He glanced at the rock and back at her, clearly aware of what she was doing, but deciding to play along.

"I don't think it likes to grow in places like that, but it might be useful, whatever it is," he shrugged, making for it.

[bookish_lioness]

Hermione had never really thought too hard about literacy in Thedas, since most of the people she'd spoken to had been mages, warriors, and/or minor nobility who'd had some form of formal education. And when it came to those who hadn't had that advantage, the subject of reading had, miraculously, simply never come up.

"The spells are weapons," Hermione agreed. "But not the object I use to cast them. It feels counter-intuitive, like... like throwing a loaded gun at someone instead of shooting it, I suppose." She assumed he still had guns in his world; as much as she'd like to believe that they were relics from his ancient history, she doubted that any world can change quite that much, at least when it came to warfare. "I don't mind learning self-defense, and I suppose it makes more sense to incorporate something that I may well have on me at the time than to simply pick up a random weapon and learn how to wield that. It would just take a bit to get over the strangeness factor."

Glad that he wasn't calling her out as she attempted to gather up what might well be a useless weed, Hermione was careful as her feet left the ground and she climbed higher, hoping that nothing would startle her into losing her footing. It wouldn't be a long way to fall, but she'd rather avoid that altogether. "It's time likes these where I miss color photographs in lieu of the sketches you may find in the occasional book. Especially the photos in the wizarding world; they move a bit, so you can see more of whatever you're looking at than you would in a still image."

[universal_charm]

He wondered if he could argue it, since the wand itself seemed necessary for actually casting them, but that was just another argument for the sake of argument and he didn't want to get into that. He hadn't brought her out here for that, after all. Maybe that meant they should stop talking about magic all together. At least for a little bit.

"I can understand that," he nodded, referencing the latter subject instead. "But I promise it will be worth it to learn. You don't seem the type of girl to want someone else's protection, but that means you better learn to protect yourself." He looked to her. "And on the selfish side of things, it would make me feel better knowing you can."

What? At least he was being honest about it. But he did care about Hermoine. She was a bright young lady, smart and intriguing, and he would feel better knowing she didn't need magic to take care of herself. He wanted her to make it through this, couldn't imagine seeing her hurt.

Kirk remained at the bottom, watching her as she climbed, prepared to catch her if she fell. "What, like a mini-movie?" he asked.

[bookish_lioness]

She'd never seen any talk she had with Kirk as an argument; he just liked to discuss things, and considering that they came from very different versions of the same world, it stood to reason that their worldviews would often conflict. Even that talk about the Prime Directive hadn't exactly been an argument so much as Hermione trying to wrap her mind around how callous it had the potential to be.

Hermione paused in mid-climb when Kirk cited his "selfish" reasoning for wanting to teach her self-defense, and she looked down at him, as though trying to puzzle out what he meant. Assuming that he simply meant he liked to be needed, she told him, "I'm sure you get enough of that from the people you currently help. But if one more 'student' is going to make you feel that much better, then I suppose I couldn't exactly say no to that." After all, it wasn't as though Hermione was one to turn down a class in something that was thoroughly practical, especially not if she got on with the "professor" involved.

Looking back up to the vine that was most definitely not Arbor Blessing, she frowned at it for a moment before stretching a hand out towards it. "Sort of, but without sound. It's just a quick little snapshot into that moment of time, such as a repeated dance move or a perpetual laugh. Paintings, though, take on a life of their own. Literally. You can hold conversations with them and everything. It can be quite jarring if you really stop to think about it."

[universal_charm]

He blinked, not sure quite what she was getting at with that. He shook his head slightly, smiling a touch wryly. "No, I meant, I care about you, so I want to know you can take care of yourself without magic," he clarified. What else had she thought he meant? He didn't care about all his students the way he cared about Hermoine or Sam or Korrin. It was not the same.

"Oh, then like a GIF," he said, thinking of the old earth computer format that allowed pictures to be relayed in short loops. It still existed, but was considered antique, more of a hobby way of performing such things, or getting that vintage feel and not forgetting the ancient ways of doing things.

"That's... odd about the paintings. I'm not sure how I'd feel about things that were painted suddenly coming to life."

[bookish_lioness]

It was her turn to blink, taken a bit by surprise by Kirk's matter-of-fact explanation. She cared about her friends, of course, but she wasn't used to people being so point-blank about their feelings. Especially not when those people were men. They seemed to be that much more standoffish most of the time.

But then, Kirk was a fair bit older than Harry and Ron, and Americans had a reputation for being much more forthright, so perhaps it was a bit unfair for her to be so surprised.

"That's-... thank you," she stammered, managing a small smile and trying not to read too much into it before turning her attention back to the vine just out of her reach. "I appreciate that."

Hermione wasn't sure what a GIF was, frowning a little as she tried to think over what he might be talking about. She didn't spend a lot of her time on computers, and while she'd seen a few such images in her time, she hadn't known what they'd been called. She could only infer that was what he was talking about, and so as she carefully stretched out a little more, she remarked, "I suppose so. Only with film rather than any advanced technology. As for the paintings, you can usually cover them up and they'll stay quiet, so long as there isn't another portrait of the person nearby that they can badger you through. Sometimes they can be rather helpful, but other times-...." She finished that off with a shrug, as though that said all that needed to be said.