faderift | You'll fight and you'll make it through

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You'll fight and you'll make it through

WHO: Hermione and OPEN!
WHAT: Catch-all for the month (let me know if you'd like a particular starter)
WHEN: Wintermarch, going into Guardian if need be
WHERE: Throughout Skyhold
NOTES: Feel free to assume prior minor CR between them, especially if your character would have taken/taught any classes involving magic or Thedosian history/culture. I'm willing to handwave more major previous CR if that would make the thread move along more easily, but we can hash out those details either via PM or on plurk (

StarryOblivion).

Archery range

To her credit, Hermione was trying.

Her magic still wasn't coming along as seamlessly as she would hope, and so she'd bitten the bullet and decided that she'd need to learn other ways of defending herself, since she couldn't rightfully stay within the confines of Skyhold forever. Most weapons were too large or heavy for an untrained person of smaller stature, and the ones that weren't would force her to get much closer to an enemy than she would want to, especially if bloodshed was going to be involved. Given all that, archery seemed the best bet. She could stay a safe distance from most of the fighting and also run with her weapon without it tripping her up or throwing off her balance. And besides, she'd used a bow and arrow before.

Once.

For fun.

And she hadn't been very good.

Which explained why she'd raised the bow before the arrow was properly nocked, resulting in the arrow unexpectedly flying loose with an almost comical twang! and a gasp from the startled young witch. She widened her eyes as she instinctively looked around, hoping that no one had seen that, before realizing that she should be more concerned with where the arrow had gone and fervently hoping it hadn't managed to somehow hit someone.

Perhaps she should stay away from weapons for a while?

Training Grounds

She'd made it quite clear to anyone who offered to spar with her that she didn't know the first thing about fighting without any sort of magic, but even so, Hermione wasn't really going to leave anything to chance. She'd been tortured before, and while no physical injury could match what had been done to her, she still wasn't a big fan of pain and was in no hurry to subject herself to any injuries that may require more than a quick visit to the healing tents.

Long hair pulled back into a bun and wearing as much light armor as she could get away with without hindering her movement, Hermione always stood stiffly as she eyed her opponent, looking for weaknesses. She was small and fairly fast, so if she could assess her situation before the match even started, she could try to use that to her advantage and end things as quickly as possible. Still, she was here to learn, and one didn't learn without asking questions, so there was no shortage of those as she awkwardly went through the motions each and every time.

"Is my stance all right? Where should my hands be while I'm defending myself? You're not going to actually hit me hard, are you? I don't fancy a broken nose, and I'm not looking to hurt you. You know I'm only looking to defend myself, don't you? You'll stop if I ask you to, won't you? What should I be doing with my feet?"

On and on it went, and if she couldn't get herself used to any kind of bare-handed combat, Hermione was just going to have to get her hands on her own staff and start practicing a different sort of sparring, assuming that her mage friends wouldn't mind showing her how to use a staff in a less traditional sort of way.

The Baths

While she always did what she could to keep herself clean, Hermione had managed to avoid the baths for an extended period of time. It was easy enough when making water was one of the only spells she could still reliably do, and she'd been forced to get used to limited hygiene during the year she'd spent on the run. But now that she was actually involved in regular physical activity, she couldn't really make do with a quick wash or a mostly-clothed dip in the bath.

Though it always seemed like most of the people she would see down there relished their time in the water, Hermione had never exactly enjoyed communal baths. Still, she did happen to go down there while it was mostly empty, and there was no rule saying she had to be completely nude to get herself clean. She was a grown woman, and if she wanted to sit in a bath with her underwear on, she was surely entitled to it.

Besides, the hot water felt good on her sore muscles (she was getting muscles now; when did that happen?), and so it was easier for her to relax than she might have thought otherwise. So long as no one tried to engage her in conversation while their privates were less-than-private, she could almost enjoy soaking in there for a bit.

Library

The drawback to not having your own small, private, contained bath was that you couldn't read in the tub, and despite her newer hobbies, reading will always be Hermione's first love. While she might not be as much of a fixture in the library as she used to be upon her initial arrival, anyone looking for her could simply hang about the vicinity long enough and she would find her way back there before too long. These days, she mostly read for the various classes she was taking, but she still found the time to read one of the "lighter" books available in Skyhold's library. Sometimes, these books were written with a very marked biased, and whoever might be sitting close enough to the young rifter might be drawn into a heated discussion over said bias. It was all right, though; she usually kept her voice down, given that it was a library.

Wildcard!

Choose your own adventure!

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Ah. And there he goes, scrubbing at his hair as though trying to draw attention to the fact that they are, in fact, in a bath, despite Hermione's best efforts to pretend that they're virtually anywhere else. She'd almost rather they were in the middle of a desolate battlefield together, though she does appreciate the lack of bloodshed involved in their current scenario. "I would think the not-dying bit is the most important part of any fight."

His sudden concern surprises her, and she blinks at him as he seems to be gearing to move closer. "No!" she blurts out, feeling embarrassed by this whole thing. "I mean, no, he didn't hurt me. It's just... I'm still not exactly used to... this. Communal baths. It's much more private, where I'm from, so I'm still a little...." Put off by it, is what she wants to say, but she instead simply makes a vague, helpless sort of gesture with her hands. "It's not your nor Puppy's fault, really. It's just one of the only places where culture shock still applies, even after all this time."

It's not his fault, all right? His hair has mud in it, and they are in a bath. He needs to get clean.

Later.

Right now, he's worried about Hermione. She's not usually this flustered, is she? Has he done something wrong? As she explains, it makes a little more-- well, all right, no, it doesn't make sense. But he understands. Maybe. Private? She's embarrassed? "Are you-- naked?" His cheeks pink slightly as he asks, but mostly because he's trying to imagine what's got her so flustered, and it's flustering him. "Would you like me to get you something to put on? Or... I could leave. Come back later." Yes, maybe that's the best thing here. He's clean-ish. Most of the mud is gone, at least.

"No!" she immediately blurts out when he asks if she's naked. She actually has to stop herself from standing up in the water to prove her point, but thankfully she decides that that's ultimately a bad idea, especially since her self-consciousness seems to have embarrassed him. "I'm wearing... something. Enough to cover the important things. It's just much less than I'm used to wearing in front of people for an extended period of time, so it's odd, but it doesn't have to be odd, it's just a matter of cultural difference, because this isn't the way things are done back home and I just haven't quite gotten used to that...."

She's edging close to rambling territory, and she's already ascertained that her discomfort is having an effect on him. So she takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, trying to release some of the tension in her shoulders as she sits up a little straighter (which, at least, makes it clear that she is indeed wearing the closest approximation to her own sorts of bras that she could find). "You don't have to go. You just got in. Besides," she adds, clearly trying to lighten the mood a little, "do you really want to have to deal with wet mabari smell without having at least enjoyed a little time away from your office?"

"No, I don't. I don't think anyone wants to deal with wet mabari smell.You talk a lot when you're nervous, though, and you are talking a lot." Before Hermione can protest, he holds up a hand. "Which is charming, I assure you, but I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

Puppy has no such hangup. He's retrieved the ball of rags again, and is now bringing it to Hermione since she is closer, strong little legs churning up the water as he goes. He likes Hermione. She pays full attention to him and knows the right place to scratch behind his ears.

Hermione isn't sure what to make of his very blunt assessment of her nervous tell, but luckily Puppy is there to distract her for the moment. Flinching away from the splash of the water as the sturdy dog makes his way over to her, she laughs a little as she reaches out for him, gently petting at him as she reaches for the ball of rags and playfully shakes it from his mouth. She lets herself be perfectly preoccupied with him for a few moments before carefully tossing the rags across the way, giving the dog something to do to occupy his time.

"You're not making me uncomfortable, Cullen," she tells him once she's no longer distracted, looking at Puppy for a moment longer before giving Cullen a small smile. "And given that I'm not a soldier and so likely won't ever fall under your charge, I find it highly improbable that you'll ever make me uncomfortable."

He's not sure he believes her, but he also can recognize that she doesn't want to talk about it. So he accepts the change of subject. "Hey, don't sell yourself short. You're smart and capable and quick. Those are the qualities I look for, and we're hardly in a position to turn away recruits." Because of course Cullen assumes that her assertion is because she doesn't think she'd be taken as a soldier, not that she doesn't want to be one.

Surprised by where he's chosen to take that conversation, Hermione blinks for a moment before letting out an incredulous laugh. "I can just barely defend myself with the magic I've been learning since I was a child," she points out, settling back in the water a little more comfortably. "I don't think I'll be in any position to physically defend the entirety of the Inquisition anytime soon, given that the only time I've ever struck a blow with a weapon, the target hadn't been alive... in the technical sense."

Do Horcruxes count as being alive, if they have a piece of a soul locked inside them? Hermione doesn't know, but she's often wondered whether or not that makes her and Harry and Ron murderers of a sort, even if it had been entirely justifiable.

"That's the beauty of it. It's not the entirety of the Inquisition. It's just you, the person next to you. That's what you worry about. That's what you try to protect." Cullen has pretty much entirely forgotten that they're in the bath at all. He's still bobbing in the hot water, enjoying the way it's loosening his muscles. They might as well be sitting in the courtyard for how casually he's treating this all, though.

Hermione hasn't entirely forgotten where they are, though she's at least able to get past it and focus on the conversation, so long as she can look towards Puppy and not directly at Cullen every so often. "Again, I can hardly protect myself. Knowing that the person or people besides me might rely on me when I'm not at one hundred percent isn't really going to do much for my performance."

"Then we'll just have to see that you improve."

Puppy brings the rag ball back to Cullen, and he tosses it clear out of the spring, so that it will take his hound longer to bring it back. Mostly because he has trouble scrambling out of the pool on the wet, uneven rocks.

"Are you really that worried? Is this false modesty? You seem to think you're not very good at quite a few things I think you're exceptional at."

Cullen makes it sound so simple. For someone who's never had to engage in much physical combat in her life and had been inordinately pleased when she'd managed to punch a bully hard enough to make him run away, fighting without magic is one of the most challenging aspects of living in Thedas. Granted, she can still use her magic, but being overly cautious means that she'd rather not risk an abundance of friendly fire if things get a bit too heated.

Feeling for Puppy when she sees him struggling to get out of the water, Hermione moves towards him. Rather than pick him up and settle him on dry land, she instead offers her arm as a bit of leverage to help make it easier. He could do it on his own, but no sense in taking an unnecessary risk of him slipping, after all.

"No offense, but you wouldn't know what I may or may not be good at, I don't think," she brings up, looking to Cullen once again. "I know my strengths, and I also know my weaknesses. That's why I'm working on the things I consider a weakness. I don't know about the mages here, but we never had to worry much about physical altercations in my magic school. Not that we didn't have our own dangers, but one can hardly expect a modern witch or wizard to be adept at swordplay, except perhaps in a ceremonial capacity."

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You'll fight and you'll make it through

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