faderift | [Open] Autumn is a Second Spring

WHO: Bethany Hawke and You
WHAT: Teaching, knitting, reading, and surprise ... bringing stuff for baking.
WHEN: Last two weeks of September (Kingsway)
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Warnings for cheekiness?

Knitting

Fall is fast approaching, and with that, the need for warmer clothes is coming to Skyhold. Bethany is always all about doing her part for the refugees, so one might find her out enjoying the early fall sunshine in the gardens, skeens of yarn before her as she knits blankets, sweaters scarves and hats of all sizes and colors. Sometimes, she will have a book in her lap, reading while her needles click away, murmuring under her breath as she reads.

Teaching

When Bethany agreed to help Merrill teach the Rifters about varying aspects of Thedas, she never thought she would find herself teaching so many other people as well. Today's lesson is a simple one - she is teaching the tale of 'Every Grey Warden', quoting it from memory as she looked out on a number of faces - young, old, dirty and clean. Some familiar, some not.

"The Blight had ravaged the land for months; the armies of the great kings amassed for one last stand. As the sun burst through the clouds that boiled and churned in the dark sky, it illuminated a vast seething horde of darkspawn with the Archdemon at its head.

It was then— when courage seemed to fail and all lost to death and despair — that the Grey Wardens came...."

Baking

Ever since that young cook Avery had spoken out about people stealing baking supplies, whenever Bethany wanted into the kitchen, she would bring her own - larger bags than what she needed so she could share with the chefs and of course, continue garnering goodwill. Today, she brought in a basket with eggs, along with a small sack of flour and apples, along with a smaller sack of sugar and some cinnamon sticks.

She peered inside, beaming at the cooks, and chatted them up as she charmed her way into using some of the tins and some of their tools to make fresh apple tarts for the Wardens down below. You could find her there, a smudge of flour on one cheek, telling a rather saucy tale about the time Isabela got them all into a game of Strip Wicked Grace.

"So then - Marian looks over at me and I can tell - I can just tell that's she's got nothing on her besides a very small hand ... and I have this sinking feeling that this might be one of the days she decided not to wear smallclothes..."

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"And if I complained, then you'd say I was ranting again." He cant win... but he probably owes her a little bit of an explanation. "I don't like the person I've become, Bethany. I don't like that I'm short on temper, that I've a habit of going off on someone without awareness until after. I don't like seeing the look on Nate's face after I've argued with Fenris."

His voice is quiet. They may be away from everyone else, but he wants to be very careful to not be overheard. He doesn't want people to possibly have new items to use against him; there's enough already.

"For today, though, or rather for now, not thinking too ahead of ourselves, will you help with the teaching?"

"If you complained, Anders, I would listen. I have always listened." She said gently, before her brown eyes saddened, "Oh, Fenris didn't try to kill you again, did he?"

She's worried about that - she had hoped -- well perhaps they would never get along but perhaps they would take a step back for the greater good. Apparently not.

"I will absolutely help in the teaching - I know a great deal of useful force magic. Ways to make life a little easier."

She had. He knew he had a habit of getting oversensitive, overreacting, and it was another thing he didn't like about himself. Anders glances down in guilt before shaking his head and looking back up.

"No. But he yelled at me for looking at him during a mission, and it... it escalated. On a mission where Nate was in charge. Which meant Nate had to step in." And he'd felt shitty about that ever since. Every time it crosses his mind, really.

"Thank you, though. The agreeing to teach. I want it to go well. If mages know they have possibilities, they may be less scared. They may be more eager to move forward and be free."

Bethany exhaled, heavily, before she looked over at him sympathetically, "The two of you are always rather like water and oil -- I'm sure that Nate was expecting something like that. But no one got hurt, physically ... and that is a big step. For you and for him. Small victories, Anders. We take them when we find them."

She crooked a smile, "It's the least I can do to ease my own guilt for always having my own freedom, even if it wasn't always so freeing."

If one sets oil and water on fire, eventually only one is left, Anders thinks but doesn't say. He shouldn't be setting anything on fire, least of all Fenris.

"It's hard to overcome guilt," he said quietly. "But at least I believe we can overcome the Circles for good." His belief wavered sometimes, frequently, even, but right now, with everyone that had agreed to teach, it was stronger than it often was.

Well, she's really hoping that was not going to be one of those circumstances where they set things on fire all the time.

"That, I can understand." She sighed softly, before she folded her hands in front of her, "I'm not sure what the answers are anymore, for any of us. I just know ... we have to keep going forward."

"Forward is the only way we can go," he agreed. They had to figure the way out... and there was no telling how much time they had to do so. No one knew. Corypheus could take a year to defeat, or a lucky break could make it a couple of months. Time couldn't be wasted.

"We'll work on this."

She looked at him, one corner of her mouth lifting up into a quiet smile. "That's what I always like best. Working together to find a solution for everyone."

[Open] Autumn is a Second Spring

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