I'm one card short of a full deck, I'm not quite the shilling [open]

[hattergonnahat]

WHO: Jefferson and YOU.
WHAT: The hatter's settling in at Skyhold. Well. As settled as he can be. The guy's kind of twitchy.
WHEN: Latter part of Solace
WHERE: Skyhold and all associated locales.
NOTES: Will add warnings as needed.

They've been shepherded to this keep in the middle of the mountain range with the promise that they aren't the only ones. That they're working on a way to send them all back home again. It's more than he expected, the courtesy and hospitality, even if some of the people in the keep give them wary looks. There have been incidents. The extent of which he's not sure, but it's not a surprise. Traveling between worlds is tricky at the best of times.

And it's never left him with a souvenir like this one. The mark feels like an invasion, like corruption, and it makes his skin crawl. Occasionally he's taken to rubbing at the green mark on his hand, sometimes without noticing that he's doing it. It's done nothing to improve his already rather nervous temperament.

Still, best thing to do for the moment is try to adapt. Don't draw too much attention, observe the goings on in the castle. He keeps his distance from the soldiers and the training ring, though he does on occasion stop to watch. He flits into the tavern and out again, able to overhear some decent bits of gossip.

There's also a library, as it turns out. It's doubtful there'd be anything of use as far as getting them home, or surely they would have found it by now, but it can't hurt to have a look on the sly. He's not quite sure if 'Rifters' are allowed to go poking through their things, so he does so when there are relatively few people around.

This isn't quite the prison he expected it to be. But that doesn't change the fact that once again, he's been torn away from his daughter. That's a bitter pill to swallow, no matter how scenic the vistas or friendly the people.

Comments

[hattergonnahat]

The splash causes quite the commotion, more than enough to draw the attention of a paranoid hatter. Impulse has him drawing closer to assist -- and helping himself to a look at those books as he picks them up off the ground -- before tucking them under an arm and glancing upwards.

And. Well. Not who he was expecting to see either. He recognizes her, not from the Enchanted Forest but from Storybrooke, from Granny's Diner. He hadn't come down from the mansion in the woods often enough to be familiar with her, and after the first few weeks of trying to see if anyone remembered or might believe him? He'd given up entirely.

Is he bitter? No. That'd be ridiculous.

His expression goes a bit stiff, before he continues reaching down to offer her a hand out of the trough. "Careful. Some of these look important."

[eviscerates]

"Oh, no," Ruby replies ruefully, accepting the hand with a smile that's both grateful and undermined by her irritation with herself. "I bet books are super easy and cheap to produce, here. This isn't a problem at all."

Once she's back on her feet, Ruby fishes the two books out of the water, though her gaze returns to the guy quickly. It's not like she knows him well. For regulars at Granny she could tell you their usual order and any number of random facts, whether about their Storybrooke or Enchanted Forest selves and how often they'd had to survive Granny's scorn. She didn't have those pieces for him.

"Jefferson, right?" She'd heard bits and pieces from David, and even then, it had all been in the context of Regina and Snow and Emma and Henry. "Thanks for the help."

[hattergonnahat]

"So you do know my name." His mouth curls at the corners as he tugs her up and out, watching her set about righting herself and collecting her books. A glance doesn't tell him much, especially given their current soaked state.

He knows her, as well as he's cared to know anyone in Storybrooke. There might still be some residual resentment, but she's hardly alone in that, and he's capable of civility regardless.

Jefferson's eyes squint. She looks...settled in here. Curious, that. "I don't remember seeing you at the portal."

[eviscerates]

"I vaguely recall taking a coffee order or two," she replies, glancing down at the soaking mess she's made of herself, before glancing his way with a rueful smile. "I'm not sure I'd remember just how you liked it, mind you."

Ruby, for her part, had spent most of the past thirty years walking the same few rooms, much the same as most people had. There are people who she's spent most of her life with, regulars, who she's still pretty sure she barely knows at all. Not the them from before, anyway. Still, there's a sense of familiarity with them that Jefferson lacks.

With a faintly unhappy sound she scoops the last book out of the water, trying to figure out if she can possibly salvage it. Maybe if she takes out all the pages and hangs them out to dry they won't stick together? They'd need rebinding, of course, but—

His question snaps her attention entirely away from her book contemplation, for all that the book was a minor concern next to the person from her world being here. "I wasn't there too long, I was helping someone out. But I didn't arrive through the same rift. I've been here... four months, maybe?"

[hattergonnahat]

Well. That's interesting information to have. There've been no reports of anyone missing, and he could have sworn he'd seen her only days before arriving, when Charming initially tried threatening him into helping. Granted, he'd been bolting past her as quickly as he could go, so he could have been mistaken...

But he really doesn't think he was.

"I guess it's easier to get comfortable when being tossed into other worlds is old hat by now," he murmurs, a little distractedly. "And it sounds like it's not particular about where or when it pulls from."

[eviscerates]

"Nope. There are some other people here from the same world, I think, though I don't know them all that well. Samwise might be able to tell you a little about it, though. He's got friends from home here."

She's a little drenched and a little cold, and huffs out a sigh at the state of the books. "I should probably string these up over a fire, or something. Want to come with? I'll... get you a drink after, or something."

A smile, because she realises they have nothing much in common aside from being from the same world(s), but here that's kind of a lot.

[hattergonnahat]

Maybe he's just unused to kindness. Or doesn't trust it. Or her. Or anything about this really. But his hesitation doesn't last long. He tugs a thin smile across his face before offering up an arm.

"Might as well. I didn't really have any other plans for the day. Here, let me help."

It's not at all so he can get a better look at what she's hauling around. That'd just be silly and paranoid of someone to think, really.

[eviscerates]

"Great." At the very least it was sort of like gaining a friendly face, even if they weren't already that, right? "Thanks."

Her books are mostly about plants. Herbalism in the Hinterlands, a study of curatives in the heart of Ferelden and Antidotes in the Wild, and related essays, some of them with titles that could take up an entire page. Conciseness was not, arguably, a strong suit here.

Accepting his offer, and very gratefully at that, Ruby starts to lead Jefferson towards the tavern, warm and with a fire that hopefully would let her hang the books without incinerating them. "It's— it's weird to fall into another world. Keep learning about more worlds that other rifters come from."