Take me to the water's edge [open]

[provenforce]

WHO: Rey and YOU
WHAT: Stuff Rey is doing for the month of Harvestmere
WHEN: ~whenever~
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: if you'd like a closed starter hit me up on plurk, or pm!

i. riverside

Rey can be found often standing on the river bank, a little ways away from the camp, where she thinks no one will see her. Even after her lessons have concluded for the day with Obi-Wan she'll come here to keep practising, picking rocks up from the riverbank using nothing but the Force, then throwing them out into the water.

Sometimes she sees if she can find the same rock and pull it back, other times she'll try to angle a smooth stone, perfect for skipping, just to see if she can skip it with her will alone. And sometimes she'll get frustrated with that and just actually physically skip stones, something she learned to do in the water troughs at the edge of Niima outpost when she was young.


ii. tower

Sleeping in the barracks was something that Rey wasn't quite comfortable with, too many bodies, too many people she doesn't know well enough to trust letting her guard down around. So for a while she'd taken to sleeping in nooks and crannies around the castle, wherever she could tuck herself to avoid getting trampled on or spotted. Finally she found herself a room that looked unoccupied, possibly due to the massive hole in the wall facing the valley. Rey is however something of an expert in patching up sad hovels into something liveable. She hung a heavy wool blanket across the hole, and added some nails she acquired to pin it into place when night fell and the wind blew.

Anyone who happens into the tower her room is located in, whether looking for her or not, may find her with tools spread out on the floor as she attempts to install a locking mechanism into the door. She doesn't own much, certainly nothing anyone would want to steal, but a lock will make her feel more at ease at night.


iii. hot springs

Rey can count on one hand the number of times she's used a bath with actual water. On Jakku every drop was precious and needed more for hydration than the luxury of cleaning oneself. Sonic showers were the norm, and even those had been fairly infrequent. She'd had a real shower before leaving to try and track Luke Skywalker down, it had felt bizarre to waste water in such a way.

Standing looking at the hot springs now, she still feels that way. All the same she needs to get clean, and she knows this is the best option, the other being the freezing river. She's getting better at tolerating the cold, but she does still have her limits. This isn't her first time here, but she's still unaccustomed to the concept, so it's late at night when she's less likely to run into someone else. With a little puttering she puts her things aside, before making her way into the water, letting out a sigh as the heat seeps into her skin. It's the closest she's gotten to the Jakku heat since arriving in Thedas, and strange as it is, it's not unwelcome.

After soaking it in for a few moments she sets to the task of letting her hair down, wanting to be in and out in as short amount of time as absolutely possible.

Comments

[provenforce]

"You're a mage, aren't you?" She can't sense something like that, maybe eventually, but she's fairly perceptive all on her own. In her limited experience though, while many non-mages do seem sympathetic, they carry themselves very differently. It reminds her a little of many of the people who made their lives on Jakku. Trapped by circumstances, just doing what they can to survive.

[aceso]

Such people carry themselves without the burden of what magic means in Thedas. As well as without the dreams that come with demons tempting you. Mages hold onto that heaviness everyday. Christine nods.

"I am. One of those who was kept in a Circle before we broke free. I do not know if you have heard much about that."

[provenforce]

"Not much. A prison for mages, I've heard?" That certainly would explain the way some of the mages act, like the world is terrifying to them, rather than amazing and new, as Rey reacts to it. She's only heard a smattering of accounts, and some from very angry individuals, so angry she could feel it radiating off of them when they spoke of what they'd been through.

[aceso]

"Something like that. It depends on who you ask, which Circle it was; things like that." All Christine can say is that whatever the new Divine decides regarding mages won't matter to her. She is never going back into the Circle.

[provenforce]

"I didn't realize there was more than one," she replies, although it does make sense. There's so many mages, the single prison to hold them all would be massive.

"It's... nice that you've all come together here. To help, after everything you've been through." She has a lot of respect for the mages in this world, to have such power but not to have used it in a way that would harm those who weren't so gifted, even if they likely could have. It reminds her vaguely of the stories she'd heard of the Jedi Order, before they'd been all but wiped out.

[aceso]

"There are usually at least two in every country in the south, but it varies depending on size of the country and mage population." Luckily Christine was in Montsimmard instead of the White Spire. Unluckily she was one of the mages who came with Fiona for the vote and found herself driven across the country into Ferelden by crazed Templars.

"The Inquisition helps us in return. Many are scared as to our place in the world now, and the Inquisition offers us sanctuary. But I am sure you can relate, as a rifter."

[provenforce]

"Well, we aren't really given much of a choice on that," she replies, though it's not bitterness. She knows the Inquisition are the only group helping Rifters right now. Still it's not an ideal situation, and she recognizes that.

"Not that it isn't good of them to put us up. They could have easily decided we were a threat and started killing us right out of the rifts. Might be easier, really."

[aceso]

"Mmm," Christine agrees. "Though if you do not seem dangerous the Inquisition allows you some leeway. Rifters have traveled as far as Rivain, to my knowledge. Perhaps to the Anderfels too. We have had missions there but I know little about them." Grey Warden business, pretty much.

"Easier, but thankfully the Inquisition is better than that."