dashing: (♛ eigh.)
ᏂᏋᏒᎥᏗᏁ "ᏖᏂᏋ ᏦᎥᏝᏝᏠᎧᎩ" ᏗᎷᏕᏋᏝ ([personal profile] dashing) wrote in [community profile] faderift2016-07-16 10:36 pm

points the faith in higher things,

WHO: Herian Amsel & open.
WHAT: the party don't start 'til she walks in. (Introducing Herian & her recruitment to the Inquisiton.)
WHEN: mid-July & onwards.
WHERE: Halamshiral & surrounds, maybe some Skyhold later?
NOTES: Prose/brackets are both fine!
Open starters in the main post (more to be added), closed starters in the comments, if we've discussed any plans feel free to barge in with a wildcard or prod me via pm or pp @karmacharging and I'll whip something up. If you'd like some information on this problem child, here is her info post.
WARNINGS: Herian's background includes themes of violence, torture and death, as well as discrimination and her own post traumatic stress disorder. While she will not in general be vocal about some of her own prejudices (against apostates, Dalish and nobles as some examples) it is very likely to come up in narrative and could come up in dialogue depending on interactions. Here is an opt out post if you'd rather certain things be avoided, or if you'd like to opt out of interactions with her in general.



Arriving with the Inquisition ( open. )
Herian Amsel exists in shades of winter, even when the world around her is dusty from heat. Her hair is dark, the black of a tree stripped of leaves and colour and grasping at a grey, unsympathetic sky, her eyes a pale, blue that people might foolishly attribute to ice in a fit of romanticism. For all that she appears to carry winter with her, summer has rolled relentlessly through a country already bearing the scorchmarks of war, making the people and the landscape seem to blur together. It is the dirt, she expects, the clouds of dust that have rolled over them on their journey. Even the grass feels dry and brittle. The closer they have drawn to the estate of Duc Hugues Pelletier, the more she has wondered just what difference there will be between the state of the gardens and the grass the common folk can wander on outside. It seems comical, if not downright insane that she be leading a group of elven refugees to the estate of an Orlesian noble for sanctuary, but she promised them she would bring them to the Inquisiton, and if the Inquisition is in Halamshiral then the group will have access to better food and medicine and more protection than she can afford them if she were to escort them to Skyhold as their sole guard.


Option A.
Herian is on foot, leading a palomino stallion with an elven woman on his back, pregnant and exhausted. Mage as she might be, Herian carries no staff. Instead a sword hangs by her side, and something like twenty refugees follow behind her.

"Inquisition," she starts, and her accent is defiantly and perhaps unexpectedly Starkhaven. "These refugees seek sanctuary amongst your number, and to lend their hands to your cause. To where shall I lead them?"


Option B.
Still on foot, Herian accompanies a smaller number of elves, now, heading towards the makeshift Medical Tents. The pregnant woman from before is with her, Herian leading her so that the woman can rest a hand on her forearm, Herian move slowly and patiently.

"This way. The mages here work under the Inquisiton banner, so if your need is dire then they are well qualified to bring you aid. You need not spend any time in the presence of those that set you ill at ease." Her voice is soft, and she has not yet looked up to the person standing nearby. "Can I have the names of your elven healers, for my friends?"


Other Increasingly Ridiculous Prompts ( open. )
Option C.
There is something singularly satisfying about the burn of muscles after exertion. Usually it comes in the form of training, practicing forms over and over for hours on end. Today, though, Herian is chopping wood, ensuring that those she accompanied who are still tired or injured need not worry should they have need, or perhaps so she can be useful to the Inquisition in some form.

Largely she does it because she likes to work, and the steady routine of grabbing up the heavy slabs of wood and breaking them apart with an axe is steadying. Not quite the meditation technique that she was taught in the Spire, but it sets her in the right frame of mind all the same. Her breath, her mind, and the regular thud and splinter make her feel better. Sweat rolls down her back, the thin material of her shirt sticks to her skin, and the tangled mess of her hair seems wilder even than before.

.... Although it is after noon and she's doing it non-stop for a long time in the summer sun, so perhaps an intervention would be wise.


Wildcard me, bro.
youwonscience: (that it was good)

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-23 12:51 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh awesome." She looks up from where she's already vigorously relocated to wash her hands. "Is it an anti-inflammatory, or does it actually block the..." She trails as she realizes "histamine reaction" is probably not going to be helpful. Rephrasing!

"Does it help with the itch, or does it mainly reduce swelling and redness? I mean, either's great, I've had my world's equivalent before and it's not especially fun to just ride out without help."

At least she hadn't gone so far astray as to pull anything actually toxic. In the name of this woman not thinking she's a total idiot, she adds, "I thought it was starweed. Still getting the hang of plant identification." It would be way easier with a working phone. Or even a field guide rather than notes from the library with her best attempt at sketches.
youwonscience: (take a ladder to the shadows)

Look, we've all been there

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-23 01:30 pm (UTC)(link)
"Thank you." She takes the jar, though she makes it a slow, fluid movement. The woman seems like a bad choice of person to startle.

"Um, yeah, I came through a Rift a few weeks back. So they tell me, at least; I didn't know anything about Rifts or the Fade until I arrived. Definitely not on purpose." She starts working the salve into her skin. "I'm Cosima."

In fairness, Cosima's demeanor is the opposite of dangerous, especially at the moment. She feels a bit foolish, but not so much so that she's going to give up the project entirely. (Gloves, next time, if she can somehow get a pair.)
youwonscience: (in the beginning)

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-23 01:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Cosima's experience with mages generally is still limited, much less knight enchanters, but the concrete offer of help wins a sheepish smile.

"Thanks, I appreciate it. I've been reading up about the properties of different plants, and I wanted to do some practical experiments on a few. But it also seems like... well, the Inquisition has made it clear that they're doing me a favor to let me stay at all, so I didn't want to go bothering anyone just to satisfy my own curiosity." She sits back on her heels. "Maybe that's kind of silly. I mean, surely there are already people in the world somewhere who know this kind of thing. But I'm no good without something to do."
youwonscience: (that it was good)

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-25 10:24 am (UTC)(link)
"Okay, well, I had a couple different projects," she says, getting to her feet. "The first one I was going to tackle was to see if there's something similar to a plant that grows where I'm from. When smoked or ingested, it causes mild but pronounced euphoria and it helps with pain. Some people take it medicinally, some recreationally for the euphoria part."
youwonscience: (take a ladder to the shadows)

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-25 10:57 am (UTC)(link)
The ghost of a smile gets her to raise an eyebrow. "I've run across a lot about elfroot, but no one's mentioned that particular quality, no." Her own smile, while subdued, is a little more evident than the one it's responding to. "And I don't see why it has to be just one or the other. After all, people use wine to dull pain... and also just drink wine because they like it. Right?"
youwonscience: (oh my love it's time)

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-25 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"Man, the pain dulling part seems like a raw deal. Aren't knights likely to get injured sometimes?" It's a frank question, but not an unkind one.
youwonscience: (take a ladder to the shadows)

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-25 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, I've known one or two of those." Cosima starts resorting her piles, based on the identifications - tweaking, more than anything, as she hadn't gotten it totally wrong.

"I'm not very suited to austerity, myself. But then again, I'm not a knight. Thanks, by the way." She adds a small smile. "I really do appreciate the help."
youwonscience: (in the beginning)

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-26 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"I guess I'm not much of a botanist," Cosima says, taking them gratefully. "What would Gregor Mendel say?"

Stop making jokes no one will get, Cosima.

"Are you heading to Skyhold?"
youwonscience: (Still you've been waiting for me here)

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-30 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
"I'd like that, as long as it's not too much trouble. I'll get gloves... somewhere. But in the meantime I could use the advice of someone who knows what they're doing."

She shrugs, then adds, "I've probably gotten lazy. Where I come from, there's a way to carry images easily, so I can consult them, with greater fidelity than a black and white sketch and an accompanying description."
youwonscience: (behold it was good)

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-30 01:34 pm (UTC)(link)
The last observation makes Cosima laugh.

"Yeah, that device was... useful." Cosima sounds rueful. She could write a blog post when she gets back aimed at the people elegiacally describing a time before the Internet. Something pointed to do with identifying poison oak.

"I'd even settle for a way to take better notes. I was lucky to live in a place where paper and ink were cheap. I'm having to reorganize how I approach things here."
youwonscience: (Darkness was upon the face of the deep)

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-30 02:38 pm (UTC)(link)
"Gloves," Cosima says with a grin. "Definitely gloves first, then paper. But thank you. I don't mind working to support myself, either, but my skill set is kind of... the things I do at home wouldn't work here." She uses her wrist to push her glasses back up to the bridge of her nose. "I guess it's taken me a few weeks to accept I'm not just going back home, so."

She isn't sure why she's telling Herian all this. Probably just because the other woman seems genuinely interested.
youwonscience: (behold it was good)

[personal profile] youwonscience 2016-07-30 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Cosima pauses, not because she's reluctant to answer, but because she's trying to think of how best to explain. "Here in Thedas, do you have people who study the natural world? Not healers, but like... people who observe plants and animals and try to figure out how they're related and why they behave like they do?"

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