and when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree [open]

[lettersfromhome]

WHO: Mia Rutherford & YOU
WHAT: Pre-Orlais Catch-All for July
WHEN: Beginning of the month up to Orlais shenanigans.
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: n/a

For not being caught up in much of actual events of the keep, it certainly is exhausting keeping up with everything.

That might be life with Zevran and the baby talking, however. As many people seem happy to pitch in with helping Zevran with his son, Mia still quietly thinks the best hands are her own. And his father's, of course, but the poor dear seems to be at his wit's end on most days. He's trying to do well for the boy, though she'd expect no less from him. Still. Sharing a room with him means watching the toll it takes and, when she is available to, helping take the baby off his hands so he might get some Maker-blessed sleep.

Of course, she can't spend the entire day with the baby, much as she'd like to. She still has duties to attend to around the keep, and the recent activity with assassins and spirits being purged from abominations doesn't mean that the refugees are any less eager to get the things they need. Luckily, construction for the new appointments for them seem to be going well. Katniss has managed a wonderful job in that regard, and Mia's more than happy to lend a hand, even if it's as simple a thing as making sure the workers are eating, too.

That doesn't leave much spare time, but she does what she can. She makes herself available now and then in the gardens, and now more than ever she's been taking the time to drop in on her brother, if only to briefly chat and see that things are well before letting him carry on.

They've all got their fair share to do around here. And keeping busy...well, it keeps a lot of things off your mind, that way.

Comments

[foxsays]

"Everything with the mage council seems well, even Korrin has been coming back in a good mood lately, I only hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot by saying that." Still, she's smiling because after what felt like a few months of nothing but bad news and constant strain hanging over everyone, they've all earned a chance to catch their breath so they can plan without having to look over their shoulders.

With a smile and a little nudge, she tuts. "You've earned the right to be biased. Korrin was on a mission not so long ago with the commander too, her report when she came back was glowing. The more I learn about everything they all went through...everyone caught up in all that violence. At least everyone seems to be working together now, even if they have to just grit their teeth and get on with it, remembering that they have to act like adults and behave themselves."

The Mage Council should be paying Araceli for soothing Korrin sometimes, she's been tempted to send them the odd 'you're welcome' message now and again but she's polite and she'll save it for calling in a favour in the future.

"I still haven't met this mysterious Dorian, perhaps one day." Ah there it is, the fabled one day. Always on the horizon. That's always the next day, then the next day, then the next day. "I did meet a very interesting priest at the party for the new year but he seems to have disappeared, one conversation wasn't enough to decide intent and he wasn't a mage but I never thought I would ever get to meet a man from the Imperial Chantry."

[lettersfromhome]

"That must have been quite the experience. I must have missed him somehow." Somehow, because the Imperium did like announcing its presence, even non-verbally. But it was perhaps for the best. These political and religious matters were best served with her as far removed from them as possible.

"And I'm surprised you haven't run across Dorian yet. Charming fellow, he really is, and knows it too." Both eyebrows arch a little higher with a knowing look. "He seems like he should be more of a trouble-maker than he really is."

Which, frankly, could be said for a number of them, couldn't it?

[foxsays]

"It was interesting to hear his ideas about the faith though I didn't take him for a priest at first. Everything everyone had told me of Tevinter and I thought they'd all be very severe or you'd just have some terrible feeling. Like a great wave of doom crashing over my head. I don't know how much of it was true sincerity on his part but it made the boring formal bit of the party more interesting."

Translation: she was so homesick she wanted to cry, and he made her smile. Whatever other sins he'd been hiding, it's hard not to feel grateful for that.

"Somehow I'm sure that studying the hidden meanings of place settings wards people away. No one wants to get entangled with anything Orlesian if they can help it." It's sad that she isn't exaggeration about the place settings that much, who knew you could write chapters upon the insults implied by a certain tablecloth and the angle of a wineglass to the salad fork? Their one conversation during Zevran's most recent sending crystal game doesn't count even if he was very good about her killing him because if it came down to two girls and a man, she'd always bump off the man by default. "You know that most people I've known in my whole life say that about me. Usually to my mother and she sighs and wishes she had grey hairs to blame me for though I promise to wait until he's in double digits before I teach him anything too terrible." Her smirk is worrying though since Araceli's idea of 'too terrible' can be miles from the opinions others hold on such things, but that's half the fun of it.

[lettersfromhome]

"Well I'm glad it went well for you. Truly. And I don't suppose every Tevinter is quite what the general idea of them would be," she allowed, though her lips twisted slightly. "Everyone has the right to be judged on their own merits, and if you were entertained by him, then I'd say the party did it's job."

Which isn't to say she'd be willing to throw them all a party, of course. Corruption in the Imperium is well-known, and Ferelden does not so soon forget that they would be part of that empire, if not for Andraste and her descendants.

And then her lips really do twist upwards. "Kindly refrain from teaching Lucci any of your more interesting habits. He's quite the handful as it is."

[foxsays]

"Everyone has to know how to pay taxes if they don't want to get in trouble, and what if you are in need of a peaceful night? There are a hundred and one ways to tire out small children." When Araceli did finally stagger inside off the docks she more or less managed to make it through supper before she fell asleep in it. Most nights. "You learn plenty of things playing cards that aren't just playing cards."

Things that are easier to learn when you're younger too although she'd ask Zevran first but when her father had sat her down on his knee, or pulled her up to the table whenever he'd been in port, it had been a lesson in disguise that she hadn't realised until she was older. Until the lessons were lived and breathed: this man scratches his nose when he lies, this woman knows that she smirks and tries to hide it behind her glass. You play the hand you're dealt, he always said. And then he would move his sleeve just so and there would be an extra card, or a weighted dice, or an extra coin or two, and he would kiss her curls like any father just returned from sea would.

"I had thought to get him some books though, when I'm away. Traditionally we don't do yearly gifts - you get gifts when you're very little to last you through life. Maps, histories, stories from distant shores. Things that Skyhold might not have in the library."

[lettersfromhome]

The little one won't lack for resources. He might even grow up better off than he might have in Antiva, though that's not a very civil thing to think. Certainly his mother must have tried, must have known all the reasons he could not be kept.

"I'm certain Zevran will appreciate the generosity...as will Lucci, once he's a bit older," she murmurs. "As it is, I've given up on the prospect of a peaceful night long before he came into our lives."

At least now, the source of that tired look behind her eyes is a happier one. That's an improvement no matter what anyone says.

[foxsays]

When everyone child is wanted, it hurts to think that anyone might not have wanted Lucci. Araceli might not want to do much with him until he's older and less likely to pull her hair, throw up on her, and probably try to teeth on Lux's tail (just having him in a room with Lux since he's been her baby all his life might be hilarious if she didn't need to deal with a stroppy fox afterwards.)

"I'm sure he will find me on a rooftop and attempt to give me some sort of token scolding, he wouldn't be an uncle if he didn't." Because that's very much what he is. Like all her father's male crewmates through her whole life. "You know a tiny bit of brandy. Under the tongue. I grew up perfectly well."

Sometimes her mother jokes that it took half a bottle.

[lettersfromhome]

"We are not giving the baby brandy. Not until he starts to teethe, at the very least."

Mia clucks her tongue in disapproval. If Lucci is active for his age, then so much the better. Better than a sickly babe who could barely move, or one that simply chose not to. Hale and hearty and in everything possible for a baby to get into was better than many alternative she'd seen in the course of her life.

"Uncle, is it? I hadn't realized he was adopting as well," she chuckles.