Player Plot: The Brecilian Ruins

[mythalenaste]

WHO: Merrill, Ruby, and Pel
WHAT: Researching werewolves and elves at the Brecilian Ruins
WHEN: Early Firstfall
WHERE: The Brecilian Forest
NOTES: Warning for ghosts. Boo.

Comments

Arrival

[mythalenaste]

The Brecilian Forest smells of rain and pine, and a mist has settled heavily upon it. The dawn will break soon, the sun melting the mist, but right now it is icy and blue in the waxing light. Pel's hood is drawn up to protect her ears. The chill is turning her breath to frost, but she doesn't seem troubled.

The door to the ruin is ajar. She toes it open wider with a booted foot and steps inside.

The grand structure arches overhead, some pieces of the ceiling fallen, as is typical of local Tevinter ruins. Leaves have fallen through the ceiling to the floor, an abundant array of bright color against grey stone. There's an eerie silence, the sort of natural reverence one might hear in a tomb, not a living thing making a sound inside. Here, the women can hear their breaths as well as see them, everything amplified by the resounding silence.

[eviscerates]

Ruby's cloak is red. Always red. She'd no great desire to leave Skyhold, truthfully, not now and not for a long while. This trip was important, though. A chance to learn of werewolves, to spend time with Merrill and be supportive in another adventure when Merrill had done so much to help Ruby and all the rest of them. The smell of the place is intense, and Ruby inhales deeply to try and get a sense of it. It just feels so old, though, and it's amazing.

She holds the door open after Pel goes through, propping it open for Merrill. "Do we speak, or are we going for the reverent silence thing?"

Whispered, and quiet enough that she hopes it isn't disrespectful.

[chainlightning]

This is for all three of them, as far as Merrill is concerned. She also thinks it's good for them all to go out like this -- there is some concern about Pel, due to being pregnant, but Ruby should be reminded that she's no danger to them without being forced to be one. As a result, Merrill has been more affectionate than usual for the both of them (hope you enjoyed your hands being held, ladies).

It also makes her a little more giggly than usual, though it's calming down in the ruins. It doesn't stop her from giggling at Ruby's question, Merrill shaking her head. "No, I think we can speak. Maybe quietly, just in case something is in here?"

[mythalenaste]

Pel offers a rare grin, especially after Merrill giggles. She is a quiet sort, but it's not the ruin so much as the autumn that has her hesitant to break the silence. Skyhold is magnificent, but she has missed the quiet woods, the rustle of leaves in the wind, the bending branches and smell of spicy mould as the decay fertilizes the earth for spring. She breathes deep, hoping the goodness of it can travel from her breath to her child.

"We can speak," she says finally. "We can even shout if we need to, and we might. Giant spiders and all. I just...love it, is all."

She has the best job in the world.

[eviscerates]

"Giant spiders. My favourite."

Spoilers: they are not her favourite. Still, Ruby smiles brightly, albeit a slightly strained kind of brightness. She squeezes Merrill's hand gently, all the same. This is fine, she is fine, everything ever will be fine. They've got this.

"It's very beautiful," Ruby adds, looking about the place. It's so rich in everything, smells and all the rest. It's almost hard to really grasp just how beautiful it is, how... wild and isolated it is, at the same time. "I've never seen anything like it."

Tangled roots, shafts of light, broken stone in some places and everything complete and perfect in others.

sorry about the delay, my wrist decided i wasn't allowed to use it for 3 weeks :'|

[chainlightning]

Merrill makes a face, agreeing; giant spiders are awful, text it. Sending crystal it. Whatever.

"I almost- is it weird to say I almost like it better this way? With the light coming in, the plants, the life. It's hard to remember, sometimes, that those in Arlathan maybe didn't live so readily with the wild as the Dalish do."

The Dalish did not do it by choice, but as someone who has now lived in an alienage, Merrill knows which one she prefers.