OPEN | The daylight is almost gone

[mythalenaste]

WHO: Pel and YOU
WHAT: November/Firstfall open post
WHEN: Throughout Firstfall
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Pel has near-constant morning sickness, so if you are squicked by vomit, let me know somehow and I'll spare you.

I

Knitting is a refuge, though it is a trying task as Pel's hand heals. Healers have carefully arranged the bones at each healing, but there is still a great deal of stiffness in her right hand. It makes knitting a slow and imprecise effort. Right now, it's a baby blanket, made of the softest wool she has. The pattern is popcorn, little buds covering every centimeter to make the blanket thicker and warmer.

She can also be found at her regular job during the day, in the library, thoughtfully twirling a pen between her fingers as she studies some ancient text.

At night, she can be found on the battlements, facing the sunset and sending up a quiet prayer.

II

There are some days when Pel is hunched over her desk in the library, cheek against the surface waiting for nausea to lessen.

Some days she doesn't get out of bed.

There is one night when she walks into the tavern from her room above, her face covered with her neck handkerchief and eyes watering. She dashes to the far end of the room, picks up a plate with an abandoned half-eaten boiled egg on it, and flings the egg as far out the window as she can manage, even using some magic to make it go as far as possible. Face still covered like she is entering the sulfur pits of the Western Approach, she runs to the other side of the room, then the top of the first flight of stairs, before at last daring to breathe, suppressing a gag amidst her gasps.

Wildcard

Comments

[foxsays]

"I miss being right on the sea," she doesn't need to say all the time since that's always a given with her, "for the markets. Everything has to come through them. I've been going around in a bear pelt but if I can get a coat dyed blue? I will absolutely get a coat dyed blue. If we were in Castileos though I'd get you something made of sealskin, that's what we use instead of wool."

Wool is usually too hot for Araceli back home, especially with the way that the heat rolls in off the waters but sealskin has saved many a life out on a ship.

"And what about you? I'm looking forward to seeing what you're getting."

[mythalenaste]

When Pel thinks of things she needs to shop for, she thinks of lightweight linen and heavy wool, and things for the baby. But this isn't that kind of shopping trip. This is Treat Yo'Self 9:42. And with as much as she has saved from her wages, she can afford it.

"I want," she forces herself to say, "something pretty for my hair. I want expensive wine and delicious food and to feel pretty. I want a wonderful memory with my wonderful friend."

She smiles at Araceli and playfully offers her arm to escort her into the heart of the marketplace.

[foxsays]

Pel. Pel, Pel, Pel, go ask Zevran what Araceli returned from Rivain with for Lucci. She will do no less for this child because that's how it works where she comes from - your birthday (the first few in truth) are where the nearest and dearest establish a strong foundation. After that, you buy them more life, enjoy the time with them. Like they're doing just now.

"Your hair is as white as Korrin's, you could go very dark. Hair pins or oraments, lacquered wood or obsidian maybe. I got black pearls for Korrin as a gift when she wears her hair up, it depends if you want a very dramatic piece or little things you can mix and match. Purples or deep blues would suit your colouring, I think." This is so familiar it makes the smile come easier now. Meandering through Castileos with the rest of the guard on their off hours, little clusters of them keeping an eye on things, sometimes even with Leandra. "Maybe not so many tiny cakes, I am full to the gills with tiny cakes - would it be a terrible memory if I ate so many I became a tiny cake?"

Araceli does manage to just about hold in her laughter as she takes Pel's arm, getting a better glance about for anyone that might be staring under the guise of shaking out her curls.

[mythalenaste]

"I haven't understood the appeal of tiny cakes over large ones. Though there's been quite a lot of cake in my life since I got pregnant--everyone insists on spoiling me. What else is sweet and elegant? Cobblers? Oh--there's a cobbler shop right there."

The sign over the shop does indeed say COBBLER. Pel nudges the door open and steps in. Her expression changes from elation to bewilderment upon seeing not delicious fruit with a cakey topcrust, but a great many shoes. She looks to Araceli for explanation.

[foxsays]

"They're good when you're studying something dull. A reward for when you get through each chapter but almost everyone who visited when I was healing brought me something like that. Maybe it was a reminder that nice things still exist." Or more likely that Araceli doesn't like most of the food in the kitchens so it was a safer bet to bring her sweet things instead of something bland that'd prompt more complaints. "You can't eat a--

She doesn't finish the sentence, biting her lip because it'd be rude to laugh as she follows Pel inside.

"You need to explain to me after what a cobbler is to you," she murmurs before she uses her cane to nudge her dress back from her feet, showing her boots. "To me? They make boots or shoes, repair them too. You get them fitted exactly if you can afford it so they don't pinch because there is nothing worse than running around in shoes that don't fit, with bruised toes and blisters and blood everywhere when you get them off."

[mythalenaste]

Pel gives Araceli an owlish, lost sort of look.

"I'll bake you cobbler when we get back," she says, scanning the ready-made wares now for sale. "Provided you tell me what the fuss is about shoes. People pay so much for something they only need when it's cold out."

Of course, her ribbon-clad feet are rather filthy on the soles now that they've been walking on the city streets all day. But that doesn't even show when she's standing still. These shoes are all very nice, she's sure, some more delicate than others, but to her, shoes fulfill a function and nothing more. There's no point in having more than one pair if the pair you've got is a good pair.

[foxsays]

Trying her best to look only mildly wounded as she settles her skirts to cover her shoes again, she shakes her head. "You need them for more than just that. There are places where it's too hot to go out with nothing on your feet, even where I come from. You'd burn your feet in minutes without shoes on or on a ship? Caltrops can go through boots but Pel, I've seen what they do to a bare foot, and a boot stops so much worse."

The memory of it makes her feel a little sick as she picks up one of the nearest pairs, tilting it in the light better, wondering what animal in Thedas it came from. It's slightly more simple at home: leather is leather, it doesn't have the same sort of fantastical variety found in Thedas.

"I had shoes just for going out dancing," Araceli continues wistfully because yes, she has a pair here but she only has the one and they aren't any of the shoes from home that she wore in very carefully, and she would like to have the choice. "Boots just for being on a ship to keep my feet dry - even my people, accustomed to the sea know that you don't want to be wrinkled like a prune all the time on a ship - and boots I wore in just for climbing. Fingers grip well but when you push with your legs? You need the strength of good heels. Shoes were part of the outfit. You had to have things for your hair, jewellery, and just the right shoes. Don't your feet get sore? Running around like that?"