OPEN

[spaceswan]

WHO: Mac Journey and you there!
WHAT: Exploration of Skyhold, self-educating and existential dilemmas.
WHEN: The duration of Kingsway.
WHERE: Everywhere in Skyhold he can get access too, really.
NOTES: No warnings as of yet. Several prompts inside but feel free to bump into him anywhere! He's bound to stick his nose where it doesn't belong at some point.

Mac made it to Skyhold safely, accompanied by the lovely Miss Ellana. He learned most of the basics along the way, accepted his new palm and head accessories and decided sometime during the journey that he wanted to be part of the Inquisition, formally or otherwise. Anywhere people were in need, Mac was supposed to be there, and as far as Ellana said, the Inquisition was the choice to make. Fine by him.

Besides, they have a castle fortress and he's not about to pass up that opportunity.

Throughout the days following, Mac spends most of his time trying to learn about the world he's landed in and the people inhabiting it, both through literature and personal experience. As with all social efforts it's a bit touch and go; it's not made any easier for him being newly minted as a Qunari - or Rifter equivalent - and he certainly stands out with gold-plated ram horns, lime-colored eyes and long, undercut hair he painstakingly dyes a rich purple color.


Library

While terribly excited about the innumerable prospects available to him upon arriving at Skyhold, Mac is infinitely more intent upon the library, mentioned to him in brief. If is meant to be in the strange new world he has to do what any self-respecting Warlock would do: educate himself.

Back home the Guardian had scoured every library available to him and even gone on countless missions for the colleges to recover lost knowledge from the Ishtar Academy. He has a voracious appetite for knowledge (though a good many that knew him would say he wasted that motivation on his obsession with fiction and fantasy) and speed-reading is a talent he happily indulges. Thedas, as it turns out, is everything he had ever dreamed of and if he's going to inhabit the land for any length of time, being poorly educated is simply unacceptable.

Though certainly availing himself of other amenities available in the hold, Mac is most often found sitting on the floor surrounded by books, flipping through page after page, pale eyes scanning written words so quickly it's a wonder he can retain anything at all. His curiosity isn't limited to the written word, however, and anyone passing within range of him gets stared at without a hint of apology. He isn't trying to be rude, of course, but he's quite in love with everything and everyone he sees at present; that includes all those from the flashiest of Orlesian courtiers to the blandest of wool-wearing scullery maids.


Tavern and Kitchens

As it turns out, getting spit out of a green sky means you don't always come out the other side quite the same. Never actually having to eat or sleep back home was more of a dull fact than a boon and the novelty of needing to do both is unlikely to wear off anytime soon for Mac. As such he's always eagerly poking his head around corners and following the smells of local vittles.

There is nothing he's unwilling to try, however vile it might first appear, and his new appetite happens to be curiously large; he accounts it to his magic likely needing to be supported more by his metabolism and personal health now than the physics of his former home.

He's also never been able to enjoy the effects of alcohol and he's easily seen spending more time at the tavern during evening repast observing the effects on others while obviously longing to join in but being too unsure to try.


Healers

Injuries are a new thing for Mac, and they aren't at all welcome. While adapting to sleeping and eating regularly has been immensely enjoyable, having to actually heal from wounds is forcing him to question his usually more reckless approach to things.

Paper cuts, scrapes and bumps have been accepted as badges of newfound potential mortality, odd but harmless. The first time he endured a solid bruising left him bewildered but largely unmoved. The day he decided to hop down the battlement steps instead of walking the distance resulted in a tweaked ankle and limping. That was far more alarming. As a result Mac has endeavored to be more careful with his actions and person, but years of blindly barreling onward are difficult to change.

Due to his inevitable learning curve, Mac shows up at the healers regularly enough, pouting and holding new bruises and cuts as he seeks aid for ailments he's never had to deal with. It's about the most sullen he gets, having to put his fun on hold to treat a cut or burn. On the upside, he's certainly garnering a lot more respect for medicinal arts.


Main Bridge

When the library gets a bit crowded - as it sometimes does with all the mages, intellectuals and other curious Rifters - Mac likes to sneak a book off to the bridge and tuck himself against the stones jutting from the parapets, feet dangling over the side. Often, however, when he goes here he spends more time looking out across the frozen valley than actually reading, lost in thought or lost in the view.

Comments

[aceso]

Christine continues healing his wounds, but since they aren't life-threatening, she can listen to what he's saying as well.

"Mages here are born with the ability to have magic. Our bodies are naturally open to receive energy from the Fade to fuel our magic. When we are still young, there will be some pivotal moment where we accidentally use a spell. That is how we know what we are. That and the dreams."

One scrape finished, she moves on to the next. "Magic is not something everyone can learn. You are either born to be a mage or not."

[spaceswan]

"Natural born people don't have magic, back home. Just those brought back from the dead. But everyone brought back can have magic, just different kinds. Titans, Warlocks, Hunters...each one can do their own magic, but they can't learn anything another Guardian has. Just takes too much to focus in one direction and spreading yourself out weakens your abilities. But everyone has several schools they can learn, so there's still plenty of versatility. Still, I really wish I could summon up a bitchin' hammer made out of fire," he sighs, wrinkling his nose and turning his face away with a pout.

"I did hear a rumor, though, that people are starting to be able to use magic without being a Guardian. No one knows what that means, yet. It would be nice, though. I think everyone should be able to protect themselves and help others the way Guardians do. We can't always be there."

[aceso]

She looks up with a start, and then her expression turns sad. "The dead do not come back to life here." She thinks of the recent losses: Asher, Kain, and on and on.

"We have different branches or schools of magic too. And specializations. What I am doing now is Spirit Healing. Not every mage is a Spirit Healer. You have to study a long time and take an arduous test." A test that will kill you if you aren't on your guard.

"Perhaps that will spread until all people possess magic."

[spaceswan]

"Maybe. Where I come from, magic and the ability to use it is usually a pretty inarguable sign of overall good in a person. People still treat you with suspicion because they don't have magic, but in general it's a huge honor. You're chosen, for some reason. Whatever made you you made you special enough to be picked for the honor. I don't know any Guardian that isn't at least a little proud and humble, under all the bluster," he murmurs, smirking faintly and glancing off to the side. May as well have been talking about himself, though he'd deny it.

"I've been reading a little here and there about magic in this place and I just don't understand where all the hate comes from. I'm sorry you people have it so rough..." Mac murmurs, shifting his weight slightly, though he's careful not to pull his hand away. "Every mage I've met so far has been pretty remarkable. I guess it's just ignorance...same story no matter where you go."

[aceso]

She exhales something like a huff of disbelief. An honor, he says. Here they say the Maker is punishing you for your sins, though she's never understood what sins a child could collect in order to be given such a punishment. It's no surprise that she's been questioning the Maker a lot in recent years.

"We are powerful, and some fear that power. And we are also vulnerable to demons, which allows them into our world. Until the rifts appeared, there was no other easy way for a demon to enter, beyond possessing the body of a mage." Her healing is rather quick, since the scrapes aren't too deep, and soon his side is looking back to normal.

"Can you use your magic here at all? Not in the way you are used to, I would imagine."

[spaceswan]

He's still watching her work on and off, fascinated by the healing as much as the magic himself. Actually having to physically recover from wounds isn't very fun, but it's a strange enough thing that the novelty has yet to wear off.

"I can use it, mostly. So far as I can tell, anyways. I haven't been unable to do anything I've tried, but that hasn't been much, to be fair. Our magic comes from the Light. It's kind of an abstract concept, I suppose, but it's like...good? I don't know, really. Just the opposite of evil. So wherever there is good and evil, I can function. Which is pretty much everywhere, I imagine," Mac snorts softly, reaching up to scratch at his eyebrow, flicking his lime-colored gaze up to her face.

"We deal with a lot of abstracts where I come from. You say mages are feared because they're vulnerable to demons, we say demons are a manifestation of the concept of evil...and everyone is vulnerable to evil. Putting all the blame on a single group of people is just stupid. You won't hear any judgment from me, so far as you and yours are concerned."

[aceso]

"I ask because here you are most likely using your abilities by channeling energy from the Fade, as we mages do. That leaves you susceptible to demons as well. I thought you should know before Seeker Pentaghast starts breathing down your neck about it."

Finishing up with healing him, she stands and brushes the grass from her knees. "You simply must not fall prey to their lies, if they ever come to you in dreams. Whatever you are offered, do not accept."

[spaceswan]

"I don't think there's anything someone could offer me that I really want that much," the Guardian admits, folding his legs and leaning to peer at and poke around his previously savaged skin, smiling happily.

"You're pretty awesome, you know that?" he chuckles, glancing up and winking before working his clothes back into proper place, smoothing chain and fabric back to original neatness. For all that Mac's actions often appear erratic and reckless, he always takes care with his presentation, washed, pressed and combed. He's never untidy, but for when he ends up hurt and comes looking for help.

"Let her come at me," he shrugs, stretching with a satisfying crackle. "I don't want to go home all that much, but if I have to I'll accept it, so it isn't like something can come and offer me a way to stay or go and expect me to be desperate for an answer. I don't have a lot of personal or material needs and desires, either," he muses, shrugging slightly.

Frankly, I'm totally happy right now. Besides, as a Warlock and student of Thanatonaut arts, I'm extremely suspicious of dreams, visions and strangers in my head. That's all putting a toe in Darkness. I don't even use my own dark arts. No thank you. Bleh. Uh-uh," he mutters, shuddering visibly and shaking his hands out at his sides as though he'd touched something slimy.

"I want to be here and I want to help. This is my destiny, right now. Spooky things trying to distract me can stuff it. You people need me for some reason. That's all I care about."

[aceso]

Christine listens, a small, amused smile gracing her lips.

"Were you not so lively, I would think you something akin to a Tranquil. The way you speak, I cannot say the demons will not look on you as similar to one, and therefore leave you alone." It's not a bad thing to be ignored by demons.

"Now if only you took more care to not injure yourself."

[spaceswan]

"Hey now, hey, I'm working on that! Give me some credit. There's a huge learning curve for this kind of thing when you'd gone around pretty much invincible for all of your living memory," Mac huffs, reaching down and patting his covered side. Squinting, thinking back on his reading and trying to pull words, he finally recalls a few passages on Tranquil, shaking his head.

"I don't fully understand them, I'm sorry. I'm reading but the texts are vague on a lot of things. Demons I sort of understand. Tranquil I don't."

[aceso]

"Tranquility is something done to mages to take away their magic." Her expression darkens as she speaks. "Some volunteer, afraid of their magic or of demons, but many have it forced upon them. Their connection to the Fade is severed, and with it their ability to cast magic, dream, or feel an emotion. It is a mutilation, done to control us because we are feared."

[spaceswan]

There's a few moments of silence between them, Mac watching Christine as she speaks even as his mind flits about, wavering between fantasy and reality as he recalls books both fictional and scientific - none of them less than grim. He frowns, shaking his head slowly.

"I guess magic is persecuted in history no matter where you go. We didn't have anything like that where I'm from; they just killed people. Witch hunts. Salem...far, far before my time. I don't think they would have done anything like Tranquility - smacks too much of magic itself. Still...isn't that like...removing a soul?" he asks, tilting his head in confusion.

"Dreams and emotions are so important to growth of any kind, I can't imagine any measure of sense behind the act. Like severing a spine and paralyzing someone to treat a broken leg. You don't do something that drastic for anything that has so many alternatives. That's ghastly primitive."

[aceso]

"They sometimes just kill us too," Christine mutters grimly. "Long ago, the Circles were meant to be places of protection against the masses, with the Templars there to protect us from those masses getting in. But then it all changed and the Templars controlled us like we were prisoners and they were guards."

She sighs and crosses her arms, looking out across the courtyard. Since arriving at Skyhold, she's met Templars and Seekers who don't make her skin crawl, but those people are rare when counted against the whole of the former Templar Order.

"It is born of fear. Fear of power in the wrong hands. What non-mages fail to understand is that they make mages afraid of what we are to start with. The apostates who were raised outside the Circle: they are often strong and stable while we Circle mages always feel we are standing on the precipice, about to succumb to evil."