You're easier to love from afar (open)

[youwonscience]

WHO: Cosima and open
WHAT: Open post/catchall for Wintermarch
WHEN: Throughout the month; if you need to back or forward date due to Orlais plot, feel free
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: No warnings to start except for the potential of sad Cosima in some threads.

Tavern

Cosima's been moping long enough. She says this silently and firmly to herself several times a day, in fact. Enough moping. Get out, do some good, meet some people.

And while she's generally inclined to constructive action, Cosima isn't made of stone. After all, she's seen with her own eyes how possible it is she could be gone any moment without warning. (Home or ... wherever.) Carpe diem.

Which, loosely translated, means "have some wine at the tavern and flirt with ladies, because fuck it, you're in another world and you might as well." (Unless she sees a friend first, of course.)

Barracks (semi-closed; you know who you are)

While Avery is at work, Cosima has the room to herself. This makes it an excellent place to hold a meeting, and there's some unfinished business to attend to. She gathers Church and Jamie and does some digging to see if there's anyone else Ruby had roped into this idea before she left. Cosima is, by no means, a natural entrepreneur. But it felt like something she owed her friend.

"So. Who's ever run an eatery before?"

Points Around Skyhold (choose your own adventure)

As far as Cosima can determine, there's not just one place to declare: "Hi, I'd like to formally join the Inquisition" if you're not a fighter, a healer or a mage. She knows she can be useful, surely, but she doesn't know exactly where and she isn't entirely sure who to ask.

But she's seen a little of this world now - run up against Venatori and seen some of the effects of rifts that are much more destructive than spitting rifters into Thedas. She's determined to help.

So she'll keep trying to find a way in. There's a lot of research that goes on in Skyhold; surely someone can use an off-world research assistant.

Comments

No, this is the happy kind of drinking (closed to Avery)

[youwonscience]

Cosima and Avery don't really plan their nights of splitting a bottle of wine -- or two -- in their room. It's more that Cosima's coming back from the tavern, or Avery is coming back from the kitchen, and habit suggests the other will be appreciative of some liquid refreshments.

They haven't talked about looking for a third roommate again. Cosima doubts they're going to.

Without Ruby, Cosima is less inclined to the constant stream of chatter the two of them had developed. She certainly talks more than Avery, true, but she seems a bit tamped down all the same. This particular evening, she says out of nowhere, "Did I ever get around to telling you my girlfriend from home was here?"

[thecookery]

Avery has to stop and think for a moment, nose scrunching up slightly with the effort. She doesn't quite remember Cosima using that word to describe anyone before but...

"She the one you were asking about back a bit?" she asks, lifting her head up from the bed she's been lounging on for a little while to look over at Cosima. It's kind of a random question after all, but she thinks she knows her roommate well enough at this point to assume it's going somewhere at least. Even if that somewhere isn't always going to be a place Avery can follow easily.

[youwonscience]

"Yeah. I mean, I guess she's my ex, really, but since we're literally in different worlds now it probably doesn't matter." She takes a swig of wine, then says, "She was only here for a couple of months, and now she's gone wherever rifters go when they vanish and I spent most of the time avoiding her but..."

Cosima shakes her head. "Anyway. She was a scientist, like me, but even as briefly as she was here, she was teaching herself to fight with Thedas' weapons. Maybe I'm just being ... I don't know. Lazy? Stubborn?"

Granted, Delphine had a bit more knowledge of her own world's weaponry than Cosima did. Still.

[thecookery]

Ah. So this is more about something else than Delphine herself.

Pushing herself up into a sitting position, Avery gives Cosima a questioning look and says, "Not everybody has to know how to swing a sword around. Sure, there are times when it helps, but as long as you're halfway smart and you don't go running into danger..."

She shrugs. The only time Avery's had to fight at all since she joined the Inquisition was when she chose to leave the keep for a mission.

[youwonscience]

"She'd be better at this than I am," Cosima says frankly, because it is sort of about Delphine. "I know it's just random chance, that I'm still here and she's already gone, but she's more ... I don't know what I'm doing here," she finishes, quietly frustrated. "I have skills that are only useful in a world that doesn't exist."

Barracks

[wontforgetyou]

"Run an..."

To be honest, Jamie hasn't been thinking about the plans that Ruby originally put into place. It's been hard enough to deal with her having vanished as it is, and it's easier to assume with her being gone the idea of taking over the tavern's gone as well. So the possibility that it's not hasn't really crossed his mind, and as a result, he winds up giving Cosima a somewhat baffled look.

"Why do you want to know?"

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Uhhh, I've run an army base full of assholes, but not a bar. Close enough, though, right?" Making jokes is always better than addressing the pain of someone awesome gone missing. But the answer's still an unfortunate no. "Dude, she's talking about how Ruby wanted to do some kind of Rifter-eatery. Rifteatery. Rifter bar. Chez Rifter." With a confirming look to Cosima. "Right? Cuz, I mean, all that brewing stuff is still there."

[youwonscience]

"That's it, yeah." Cosima smiles. "The rifter bar, where everyone knows your name and no one knows your pop culture references."

She worries her lower lip, though, as she thinks through the dispiriting lack of food service experience between the three of them.

"I mean ... maybe it's too much. It was Ruby's baby, really. But I thought working on it might be, I don't know. Sort of a tribute or -- a way she can leave a mark here. She was always trying to help me feel more welcome, I thought it might be a good way to pay it forward."

Now it seems maybe a little over-ambitious. She's really got nothing except the ability to theoretically take over making moonshine, which she understands the theory behind, but the closest she's ever gotten was the time she dated a girl who colonized three-fourths of the fridge for her home brewing projects.

[wontforgetyou]

"Oh!"

That actually makes sense, and apart from the fact that apparently they don't really have any real experience in how to run a bar, it's not such a bad idea. Ruby helped a lot of people, and if there's a way to pay her back for that, then maybe they should - even if she's not here to see them go through with it.

He's not all that worried after that lack of experience, though. He's learned how to do quite a few things over the past few years - things that he'd never imagined were possible. If he can do that, they can do this, and it's only a few seconds before he gives a dismissive snort.

"Och, look, how hard can it be? If we can figure out how to make the drinks, I reckon we can figure out how to sell them. We've all been to taverns or the like, aye? We can use what we've picked up from being there and use that as a place to start."

[motherfucking_ghost]

"And for food, we only need like, nibbles. Bar food. Some of the normal shit for the people here, and a couple little things that we know. Hell, I got the dudes in the kitchen to make pizza bites one time. For...Ruby, actually. Those were for her." Ouch.

But not the point! The point is, reckless male optimism! "I mean, if we open up a new place, that's time and effort into building it or moving into a place, and that's costly. If we take over the tavern, we're gonna see a lot of pushback from the natives for a while, I think. We got costs for food and booze and keeping up with everything, but hey, we don't have machines or electricity to worry about, so that's stuff off the list. We could probably hang around the tavern and ask to see how the sausage gets made. Figuratively. I don't actually wanna see them make sausage."

Tavern

[conqueredhearts]

The tavern. It was a great place to find this giant of a man. He loved a good drink and the company of others. So of course when he saw the young woman, he immediately smiled and went over to her. With a cup of wine in offer and a smile in greeting, he really looked like something of a jolly giant at least. Hopefully that made up for any sort of intimidation his size might or might not cause.

"Hello! Will you have a drink with me, my friend? I always enjoy the company and wine always tastes best when consumed with others at your side."

[youwonscience]

Cosima blinks, mildly startled and briefly trying to place him. She's definitely seen him from afar at some point - he's hard to miss - but she's pretty sure they haven't met.

"Uh, sure. Free country." (Sort of.) She offers a small smile, though, and says, "I suppose I could use the company too."

[conqueredhearts]

"Free country? Is this a saying where you are from?" He wasn't sure so obviously that meant he had to ask. Besides, it was a decent way of starting a conversation and getting to know her better. Oh and he supposed he should probably introduce himself too.

"Ah. I am Iskandar, by the way. It is good to meet you, my friend."

[youwonscience]

"Yeah, sorry. Hard habit to break." She smiles a little, and flashes her hand, as if he needed confirmation that she's a rifter. "I'm Cosima. Been here long?"

[conqueredhearts]

Seeing the shard, he lifted his own hand to show that he was one as well. Something they had in common! Well, if it came to be they had nothing else in common at least they had this, right? That worked out for Iskandar who really wasn't that picky about things. "A few months now. Your name...is it Greek in origin?"

Tavern

[gatheringstorm]

Most evenings find Korrin at the Herald's Rest, at least long enough to socialize or get into a card game. At the moment, however, she's not deeply involved in anything in particular. Instead Korrin's propping her feet up on the chair in front of her as the area isn't that crowded for the time being and she can afford to stretch out. Between the mulled wine and the music, her mood is starting to lift. So upon spotting Cosima, she raises her glass in greeting. That's a familiar face, though it takes a moment to remember from where; the healing tents.

"...Cassia? No wait, Cosima. Sorry, I have Tevinter names on the brain. How've you been?"

[youwonscience]

"Oh, hey." Cosima offers a smile at the unexpected familiar face, and comes over to say hello properly. "I'm okay. How are you doing? And Bronson?"

The last time they'd spoken had been one of loss, and Cosima isn't going to stir it up on purpose, but it's nice to see Korrin in a setting less fraught than the healing tents.

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin takes a sip before answering, a small sad smile on her lips. "Bronson is gone. He was old, and losing his human was too much for him after a while, I think. But Aura -his new owner- made sure he was as comfortable as he could be at the end, I'm sure. It's alright, that just means he's with Asher now."

She rolls up a sleeve to show a honey badger tattoo that wasn't there before. "I got this for him a while back. Now I guess it counts for them both."

[youwonscience]

"Oh man, I'm sorry to hear that. It's a great tattoo, though." She considers, then says, "Can I buy you a drink? For lost friends."

Because, as much as Cosima's lost a few people recently, at least none of them are dead. She doesn't know Korrin well enough to be sure the offer will be welcome, but she figures it can't hurt to make it.

do you wanna join an inquisition

[stabsbooks]

It actually does have to be an Inquisition, sorry.

But if anyone has the authority to accept new recruits, it's Cassandra. Who is walking by on her way from the forge to the Great Hall when she suddenly slows, and then stops, staring at Cosima with an odd look. After a pause, she speaks, hesitantly.

"Is that...armor?"

Transparent armor. For her eyes. It's not the worst idea, perhaps, but considering the woman's lack of any other sort of plate, the eye armor on its own doesn't make much sense.

[youwonscience]

"What?" At first she isn't sure what Cassandra is even referring to, then puts it together. Cosima taps the edges of her frames. "These? Not really - they offer a little protection, but that's not why I wear them. My eyes are a little weak, and the lenses make my vision sharper."

At home, she'd offer to let someone else look at them. Here, though, she's aware of how irreplaceable they are; she doesn't hand them off quite as quickly.

/rolls in late to the tavern

[universal_charm]

It has been to long since Kirk had spoken with Cosima. Not because he had been actively avoiding here, it was just that trying to scrape together a living and missions had kept him either busy or away. Considering it, he thought it would be a beneficial thing to get the Rifters together for some sort of mutual support group once a month, but that was beside the point when he spotted Cosima in the dim light of the bar - currently eyeing another lovely lady if his eyes did not deceive him.

"You into brunettes?" he asked her, leaning against the bar beside her with a grin.

Never too late!

[youwonscience]

She grins at that, and at him. With so many people leaving Skyhold indefinitely, it's always nice when one of her friends actually comes back.

"Not as a rule, but I try to keep an open mind. Are you offering to be my wingman, captain?"

Re: Never too late!

[universal_charm]

That was the trouble with missions, wasn't it? You just never knew, and half the time things went sideways one way or another.

"I wouldn't be a proper captain if I didn't!" he declared with an appropriate amount of bravado and drama. "Have you talked to her yet?"

[youwonscience]

"Nah, been trying to figure out if she's meeting someone. My luck, I'd start chatting her up and some big-ass knight would come in and get all precious about it." She pushes her glasses up her nose, pseudo-pointedly. "Can't go getting my specs broken."