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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Something you're lookin' for?"

Raylan just generally didn't like people a whole lot, at least not all the time, so he kept up the same habit as Jefferson, of visiting the library when there weren't many people in it. He'd noticed the man's strange manner of dress, the mark on his hand -- Raylan was coming to learn that rifters weren't very good at hiding that they were rifters. That didn't seem to matter to him, though, and he certainly wasn't chasing Jefferson away. He'd been parked at a table with a book the size of his torso for most of Jefferson's visit, an esoteric tome on magic at odds with the simple pants, shirt, and boots he wore. Raylan was offended enough at the sorry-ass state of the Skyhold library's organization to want to help out someone who was pecking around, who might be lost.

Not that he'd say no to help, necessarily. But Jefferson was skittish in general, and help from strangers usually came with some kind of strings attached. Still, he flashes a pleasant enough smile at the man when he speaks up, some distance away.

Quiet as this place tends to be, voices carry.

"I'd say 'anything useful', but that's kind of a broad subject to start with, isn't it?" he replies with a vague, open gesture of his hands, his brow lifting archly.

"I take it you're one a' them rifters?" Raylan asked, sitting back in his chair. "I'd suggest startin' with history, then." He got up from his chair, leaving his monumental-sized book laid open on the table.

"I believe I saw somethin' on the Chantry over here," he said, squinting at a nearby shelf. "And right by you ought to be an abbreviated history of the Blights. Aimed at older kids and younger teenagers, easy to understand."

Jefferson smiled at that, toothily. Not at all friendly. "I can't tell if I should be grateful I still look that young or insulted that you think I need the cliffnotes version," he replied dryly, that bitter smirk still in place as he stepped away, towards the section on Chantry history.

Raylan's not wrong. Learning the history of this place could be every bit as useful as learning its magic. But he wasn't about to let the slight go by unremarked.

Raylan rolled his eyes. Great. A touchy rifter.

"The more complicated ones are gonna assume a certain base level of knowledge, which you ain't got yet. The kid version'll have everything you need and be quicker -- sorry for tryin' to save you time." Fine response to someone trying to help him. Hmph.

What, is he not being grateful enough for Raylan's tastes? What a tragedy. He'll cry himself to sleep tonight over it, surely.

"Yes, I did actually catch that the children's version might be simpler. Funny thing. Our world works almost the same way." One finger catches the book by the spine, sliding it free from his fellows as Jefferson flipped it open in the crook of his arm.

"Fortunately, none of your books seem to come with any precautionary spells or enchantments. None that I've seen yet, anyway."

"Not as far as I know," Raylan agreed. "You hear rumors or speculation about it sometimes, but I doubt it actually exists." Knowing the magic that would be involved and what was or wasn't likely to be in a book with such a thing, Raylan was skeptical that anyone would go to the trouble. The only group he could see even attempting it was blood mages, meaning that any book that might have any such curse wouldn't be found here. Even then, blood mages generally kept all their things so protected that he couldn't see them needing the extra on one particular thing.

"Oh. It exists. Maybe not in this world, but..."

Jefferson smiled thinly once more, lips tightening as he turned a page, eyes scanning the page rapidly. "People in other realms can be a little less generous than our current hosts."

He'd had more than one experience having to deal with protective charms or hexes meant to keep out thieves and other ne'er-do-wells. If this world didn't have magic of that sort to contend with? So much the better.

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

library

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject