Semi-Open

[youwonscience]

WHO: Cosima Niehaus, Ruby Lucas, Avery, Lexa, Herian Amsel, Raymond Gibbs, you?
WHAT: Various odds and ends for Harvestmere
WHEN: Covering the last twoish weeks or so of the month
WHERE: Various
NOTES: Not going to set up open hooks this time. HOWEVER if I a) forgot a thing we said we were going to do or b) You'd like to do something with Cosima this month and aren't elsewhere, hit me by DM or Plurk. ETA: note the warning for discussion of torture in one of the threads.

Comments

[dashing]

"So far as I know it the tavern only bad spirits take the form of cheap whiskey."

Herian exhales a laugh, and holds out the parcel folded beneath her arm. It is wrapped loosely in rough brown paper, and within are two things. The first is a book of herbalism and plants in Thedas, images sketched out. The second is a paper bag, containing dried elfroot.

"I took the liberty of securing these for you, though the elfroot had been intended more in jest than with set purpose." A little shake of her head. "I fear... it will appear presumptuous, now, but 'tis rightly prepared for the medicinal and relaxing purposes we discussed."

[youwonscience]

Cosima looks touched, accepting the parcel. "Oh wow - thank you. Really. Not presumptuous at all. Do you mind if we swing by my room before we head for the tavern? This is way too nice to risk getting beer spilled all over it."

[dashing]

"You're more than welcome. No thanks are necessary, though, I assure you."

She shakes her head a little. "By all means. WOuld you mind company, or shall I better meet you at the tavern?"

[youwonscience]

"No, come on. It won't take long, and I'd like the company." Cosima tucks the package under her arm and sets off, not terribly fast. "Did I tell you I'm staying in the barracks now? I can't remember."

[dashing]

A little nod, at that, acquiescing, falling into step. She is used to moving everywhere with a kind of briskness, moreso recently.

"No, I'd not heard. I remain in the camp, myself. How do you favour them?"

[youwonscience]

"They're good enough. Sort of like the dormitories at school, but less people making sure you don't have contraband at random, which is nice."

A pause, then she adds less glibly, "I've been thinking about officially throwing in with the Inquisition. It's been suggested I might be able to help Helisma with research on rifters, but even if it's not that... besides a place to stay, they've saved my life twice."

She felt like a burden, and it had begun to grate.

[dashing]

"One might contend they risked it once, as well. I have sworn myself to the Inquisition, as well, but—"

She pauses, though she does not cease walking, and her brow is furrowed. "Pray do not berate yourself. 'Tis no fault of your own that has rendered you in this world. Well might the Inquisition appreciate your aid and energies put to their cause, but your presence hence is not burden on them."

A brash statement, perhaps, an assumption of sorts. "My intention is not to discourage your efforts, only to ease any guilt you might hold for the aid the Inquisition has offered you."

[youwonscience]

"I guess that's fair," Cosima says. "But it's not like they wanted me here any more than I want to be here. And I did volunteer to go out there; no one pushed me to do it."

Whatever Ruby's guilt-trip tells her to the contrary.

"It just... it came home to me recently that I may not leave soon." Ever. "It's made me think about stuff a little differently."

[dashing]

Herian can hardly argue with that, and smiles ruefully.

"I can hardly imagine." To fall into another world was unfathomable. "I've not returned to Starkhaven since I was a girl, but the possibility always remained. 'TWas a matter of distance and Circle law, rather than navigating the roads between worlds."

Herian is silent for a few moments, keeping her pace slow enough to match Cosima's, before glancing to her. "Selfishly I have no objection to your staying, though I cannot imagine such sentiment would be a great comfort." Home is, after all, home.

[youwonscience]

"It totally matters," Cosima says, quieter. "I came into the world not knowing anybody, you know? It's easier to think about how long I have to stay knowing there are people who care about me. Who I care about," an expansion, rather than a correction.

She tries not to think about her sisters, left without a scientist and unsure what happened to her. Maybe she goes back; maybe Delphine's from farther on, and didn't notice her gone at all.

"What was Starkhaven like? If you don't mind talking about it."

[dashing]

"I don't mind." It's nice, actually. Nobody really asks about Starkhaven. Not Kirkwall seems to be the extent of most people's understanding or interest. "Though I must admit I lived only ever in the alienage, and only when I was very young. I was taken to the Circle when I was... in my seventh year, I think." A collection of seconds pass where Herian is trying to organise her thoughts, before she starts.

"The alienage was cold. It seemed to either by very muddy or very dusty, rarely a moment of balance. So many things were brown or grey, but then we had wild flowers that seemed to grow out of sheer stubbornness. Thistles, forget-me-nots... they were so vibrant amidst all the other struggles." Her mouth quirks with a bit of a smile. "That, I think, summarises Starkhaven. Everything is done out of stubbornness or tradition. In the alienage we have a dialect that I've only ever heard fall from the tongues of those also raised there. The people there are spirited and resilient, even in the most downcast corners."

Perhaps she romanticises it a little - she would not be surprised. "I've not returned in some time. What of your home?"

[youwonscience]

Cosima smiles at Herian's reminiscence. "Sort of the opposite of that, really. It's a city on the ocean, and it's never really cold or really warm, at least by most people's standards. I didn't see snow until I was, god, maybe 11 or 12 and we went on a winter vacation? We'd get this intense, rolling fog, though. The city's really hilly, and it'd just be where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, sometimes, at the bottom of the hills when it got foggy."

She considers, then added, "There's this big, gorgeous bridge. Really tall, and you could see the top of it, peeking out of the fog. Then it'd clear, and you could see the whole huge bay."

[dashing]

"No snow?" That seemed hard to fathom, and it almost makes her stop in her steps. "Skyhold must be more different than I'd imagined," Herian replies, and perhaps there is the faintest note of teasing in it.

"We had snow, and then we had an abundance of icy slush and muddy slurry. Delightful," she adds, with a bit of a smile. "Though your home sounds... beautiful, I think. I've never seen a great bay, truly, that I can think of. What is it called, your home city?"

Fog, that she knew. Fog could be a blessing or a curse.

[youwonscience]

"San Francisco," she says. "It's named after a saint - a holy man, from centuries ago."

Cosima adds, after a moment, "The country I'm from is really big, for what it's worth. There's plenty of snow other places, including the place I was right before here."

(Toronto is not technically her country, but she's counting it as a brief departure from Minnesota, not a permanent move. Internal semantics are important.)

[dashing]

"San Francisco." It feels a little awkward on her tongue, the awkward tilt of it not fitting with her native tongue. "It sounds close to Antivan," she says, after a moment of thought. "Strange, the things our worlds have in common, no?"

Her gaze drops as they walk, before she glances sidelong at Cosima. "Have you been to Antiva, yet? I don't believe it snows there, with any manner of frequency. Mayhaps it would... offer you some soothing for feelings of homesickness. Unless those feelings are exclusive to Thedas?"

Stop trolling, Herian.

[youwonscience]

"Uh, no, I think homesickness is just a 'person' thing," Cosima says, rueful for how she seldom talks about being so. (At least in so many words.) "And no, haven't been to Antiva. Haven't really been anywhere but Skyhold yet except my recent disaster field trip."

She really will stop pretending to be glib about this. Eventually.

"What's Antiva like, besides warm?"

[dashing]

Herian stops, then, and briefly catches Cosima's wrist in her grip - loose, and only lasting long enough to make her stop in her steps for a moment. "Do not make light of what happened to you." It sounds harsh, but she exhales and shuts her eyes for a second. Calmer. "Well do I understand that we each of us process such events in different ways. What happened to you, though, should not be dismissed so lightly. Such cruelty is horrifying. Your suffering is no matter to be rendered a joke."

For a moment - just a moment, she rubs her forehead before catching herself and schooling her hands back to her sides.

"Antiva is... home to people who are possessing a better humour than I, I've heard." Apologetic, sort of. "Colourful. Spirited, from what I've heard. Home of assassins and intrigues."

[youwonscience]

"Man, I suck at intrigues," she says, with a little smile, meant to put Herian back at ease. (And maybe to put herself back at ease a little.) "But I'd like to see it sometime."

They walk for a bit, then she says, "I didn't mean to... I just don't know what to do with it. You know? I mean, while I was healing from the physical effects, that's all I had to think about, and then my friend was blaming herself for everything that happened, and it's all just... I didn't mean to offend you."

[dashing]

A slow exhale, then.

"You committed no offence against me." Though there is a tension still pulling between her shoulders, turning them rigid. "What happened was horrific. I— cannot make light of mine own circumstances, but that is no reason to speak harshly against your own— coping." Her jaw clenches and loosens, visibly. "I spoke out of turn and unkindly. I am sorry. That you were hurt and that any would make light of it troubles me, but I... understand. We each of us come to terms in different ways."

Some people become overly rigid knights that have no chill, for example. Cosima's doing much better on that front. Gently, she catches Cosima's ribs with her elbow, conciliatory or teasing or both, maybe. "I've heard that Antivan dances are a grand affair. A lack of proficiency in intrigues might render you better able to enjoy those, and less time worrying about scandals."

[youwonscience]

The tease settles Cosima a bit, or at least convinces her she didn't completely sour things between them. "I'm hard to scandalize. Probably more likely I'd be the scandal, under the circumstances. I bet their dances aren't the ones I know, for one thing."

[dashing]

"Maker forbid." Truly, the most scandalised Herian has ever sounded. "I dread to think what the Duchess would say about that. "

Although, she does look to Cosima with a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Naturally I'll be forced to write letters to all mine acquaintances, to advise them of this outrage."

[youwonscience]

"Man, hold off until I show you my dance moves so you can be properly appalled," she says, as they approach her room. "We're very informal, where I'm from, it's a lot of gyrating." It feels like something safer to joke about.

[dashing]

At that, Herian actually laughs. A proper laugh, too, not just one of her amused exhales. "You've not seen any of the dances from Starkhaven. Meetings of elves and such were not kindly looked upon, so when they came to pass... everything became very wild very quickly. Young as I was, I am well aware how... suggestive and free dancing can be."

And her eyebrow quirks. "Should I advise the minstrel at the tavern that we will require something spirited to dance to?"

[youwonscience]

Cosima takes the laugh as a total win. She grins back, shameless, as she unlocks the door. "You could, but it's the slow stuff that really gets the rumors flying."

She's probably made enough noise, but says, "Coming in," out of habit anyway. She doubts either Ruby or Avery is home this time of day, but it still seems the thing to do.

[dashing]

"Not that so delicate and proper a lady as yourself would be acquainted with such things," she counters, too richly amused and teasing for her to play off as dry.

Respectful, despite her teasing, Herian stands just outside the doorway.

"That would not be sufficient warning."