This is the road to ruin and we started at the end [OPEN]

[leadseasy]

WHO: Yael Flaar and open to all
WHAT: Yael settles into Skyhold and everything is SCARY!!
WHEN: Kingsway
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: PM me if you want a closed starter and feel free to give me a starter with whatever!

my heart is like a stallion; shard
This may or may not be where one goes to deal with a shard in their hand. This tall Qunari looks nervous and maybe like she's lost, but she's fidgeting by rubbing her left palm against her stomach.

"Excuse me?" She stopped the nearest person (that's you!), looking nervous and sort of apologetic about it. "I...I'm looking for help with..." She decided to just show them, turning her palm outward so they could see the green particle effect that's been stuck to it light glimmering out of it. "Someone said there was someone I ought to show it to, but I didn't understand the directions they gave me."

She could have been ten feet away, she could have on the wrong side of the castle. She had no way of knowing; have fun with it.

it's not my fault i'm a maniac; training
On the training ground, at least, she looked a little more confident. Anyone who wandered into the further, less-populated corners might find a Qunari in her full armor, short hair knotted back behind her head, shooting arrows into a target placed impressively far away. In fact, eventually, she climbed up onto the wall surrounding the training yard to get even further away, and have to shoot at an angle. Her bow was beautiful, not fancy or ornate in any way, but high-quality and well-made.

we can go back and play pretend; meal or tavern
It never seemed like there was an empty table anywhere in Skyhold. There was always at least one person she'd have to be sitting near enough that it counted as 'sharing space'. Perhaps she was just being late to everything.

That was how, holding her food or drink, a person with an empty seat near them might find themselves addressed by an unexpectedly soft voice. "Is that seat taken?" At least she managed it without stammering.

Comments

[leadseasy]

Yael giggled softly. "I hope he was all right," she said. She generally preferred it when people didn't get hurt, unless they were bad, and probably bad people wouldn't be hanging out in the Inquisition's tavern and drinking maraas-lok.

[gatheringstorm]

"Yeah, he was, after he recovered from the hangover. He failed to keep up spectacularly, but hell, at least he tried. That I can respect." And now he's gone, but Korrin doesn't want to add that as a horrible conclusion. Yael's had a hard enough time just dealing with her shard.

"I should introduce you to my kadan, sometime. She has a shard, too, gained it when the rift threw her out of elsewhere. Her fox came, too, so if you see me with a furry black stole, it's really him. I get a kick out of him startling people who aren't paying close enough attention. One noble lady screamed. It was awesome."

[leadseasy]

"Good to know," Yael said with a nod. She probably would have screamed also, if she was taken by surprise, or at the very least cried. "She came out of a rift? I heard they were demons," she said innocently.

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin's heard that often enough where it doesn't get any reaction from her, other than the swift urge to correct. "Nah, they aren't. I'm a mage, I know what demons are and what they aren't. They're just people with a shard in their palm, like you. Some have already proven themselves to the Inquisition and I'm proud to fight alongside them."

[leadseasy]

"Oh, all right." If Korrin said they weren't demons, it must be true. She was right, after all -- she was a mage, and knew more about it than Yael.

"Tell me more about your...your friend," she urged, trying not to falter too much on the last bit. It had been explained once, but she still wasn't completely sure what a kadan was.

[gatheringstorm]

Yael's quick agreement might be worrying on another topic, but Korrin will take what she can get in terms of rifter treatment. Not that Yael would give them a hard time, but cringing at them constantly isn't going to help either. "She's more than my friend, Yael. Yeah, I know, Qunari don't do romance so 'kadan' doesn't mean quite the same thing for them, but that's how I use it."

She lifts the dragon tooth necklace from around her neck so Yael can see it better. "Araceli is human, from a country that's a lot like Antiva and Rivain in many ways. If she didn't tell you herself, you'd think her Antivan easily enough. I met her when that rift in the remains of Haven first started spewing out people in addition to demons. It was a huge shock for us both, but her more so. No magic aside from that shard, but she has her rapiers, lockpicks and can climb faster and higher than anyone else I know. Hell, she's giving lessons on that for people in Skyhold."

[leadseasy]

'Friend' was just about the best definition she had for the word; she'd only heard it a few times in her life. "Oh, I see," she said, nodding with wide, interested eyes. "Maybe I'll ask her to teach me. I like to climb things, but she could probably make me better at it. It couldn't hurt, anyway." This wasn't so much Yael's more malleable tendencies at work, it was just that she, being a quite large and sometimes ungainly person, was probably slower at fighting gravity than a smaller, fleeter person, and said smaller person might know some tricks she didn't.

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin nods encouragingly. Araceli is a good teacher and Yael could do a lot worse than study under her guidance. "No, it can't. And she's taught enough of our kind by now that I think she'd know how to help you without any issue. Mercenaries always need a decent balance of skills, don't we? Some advice with climbing can only help in the future."

[leadseasy]

"I can already climb some things, but I'd like to be faster," Yael said, looking speculative. "And I'd like to be better at climbing down. I treed myself a couple of months ago," she said, looking terribly mournful and embarrassed about it.

[gatheringstorm]

That brings forth a wince of sympathy. She can't really judge Yael, having done that herself in the past. "Ew, that sucks. It's not as easy for us, is it? More bulk to move around, we can't be as fast as elves or small humans. But every bit helps."