[Open] Autumn is a Second Spring

[sunshinethroughgrey]

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..."

Comments

[thecookery]

"Still a lot closer than I could get. And with a few friends to help you...?" She shrugs. "Maybe that's the bet you make your fortune on. The magic pie business."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"While I have no doubt of it's success ... I am going to start a school of magic. To help young mages outside of a Circle, to teach them how to control their powers but still allow them to stay with their families." She stated simply, as she carefully cut up the apples, and mixed them in with the sugar and the cinnamon."

[thecookery]

"And how do you think that's going to go over?" Avery asks after a long moment of silence. She's doing a fair job of imagining some people's reactions right now. Some of them maybe even violent.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"I think that it will be met as all new ideas are - with both hope and fear in equal measure. I do not think it will be an easy task -- but I know we can't go backwards any longer." Bethany sighed, as she poured her apples inside of the tart tins. "There has to be a compromise - a different option than just Circles or no Circles."

[thecookery]

Whether it's Avery's place to be commenting on this at all, she's not sure. She's no mage and honestly hadn't even gotten to know any until she came to Skyhold, but that doesn't mean she's completely missing what Bethany is saying.

"I can't say as I know much about how the Circles worked, but judging by the end, it seems like they didn't."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

She looked up from where she was pouring the apples into the tarts. "No ... not the way most of them were run. They most certainly did not work at all."

[thecookery]

"You hear a lot about them," she muses, pausing to have another sip of water. "Especially these days. But... I've never even seen one. A Tower. And before all this, I'd barely seen any mages either."

It's strange, getting used to having so many around. Especially when her own most prominent memory of mages is so unpleasant.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"I suppose we could always rebuild them. Make them into places of sanctuary for any mages who want to keep their freedom but did not feel comfortable out amongst the people." Bethany mused for a moment, before she looked over at Avery. She pauses for a long moment, before she asks thoughtfully.

"What do you think?"

[thecookery]

What does she think? Does her opinion really matter? Why so many people keep trying to get her to share her thoughts on stuff like this Avery will never understand, but after a moment, she tries anyway, "I think... it's convenient. Some of them are pretty far from big cities if it's distance they're looking for. And it's familiar." She thinks about it a little longer.

"Maybe too familiar. If things were as bad as it sounds, there'll be a lot of memories there. for them that's inside and out."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany hummed thoughtfully, before she nodded slowly, "You make a good point. It could end up being really traumatic for some mages, considering what they went through."