faderift | These scars of mine [open]

Entry tags:

These scars of mine [open]

WHO: Rey, Padawan, and open
WHAT: going through the paces in Kirkwall
WHEN: Throughout Justinian
WHERE: The Gallows, Lowtown,
NOTES: if you would like a custom starter, hmu on plurk or discord!

1.

Just because Obi-Wan is gone, doesn't mean that Rey's training ends. She's spent some time speaking with mages, having learned about "Force Magic" she is studying what she can of it, to see if that helps with her learning at all. The execution seems somewhat different, but she studies it all the same, with a few books spread out in front of her in the Gallows library, her crumpled translation cheat sheet next to her even though she's gotten better at reading the words by sight, some still trip her up from time-to time.

Padawan is asleep behind her chair, a solid presence which has become comforting, much like the lightsabers weighing on her belt and the staff leaning up against the table next to her.

2.

Something that is new for Rey is the second lightsaber she now has to practice with. Obi-Wan had left his behind, and it seemed like that was for a reason. However, she'd only just been learning how to fight with one lightsaber, so two-handed was a bit of a challenge. Often she can be seen out in the courtyard training area, both lightsabers ignited as she tries to adapt what Obi-Wan had taught her into two-handed combat.

The result is she falls a lot, and drops the lightsaber in her left hand more often than not. To her credit every time she falls she gets back up, and every time she drops her weapon she retrieves it, and tries again, shifting her stance or holding the blade differently.

Padawan sits on the sidelines, watching with interest, but keeping her distance. She knows those blades are nothing to get up close and personal with, and anyone who approaches will get a white mabari in their face, making sure they aren't a threat to her charge.

3.

Walking through the Lowtown markets is almost like the Niima outpost, except more warm and welcoming. Not everyone seems happy to be there, but for the most part there isn't the amount of suffering she used to see on Jakku. People have enough food and water, they have mostly adequate shelter. They are able to sell things for money rather than trade them for food. Maybe they're saving up for better lives, or they could very well spend it all on food. Either way, they have those choices.

Rey is on a mission today, looking for clothing. Her few outfits are getting worn, and she has enough coin to buy something new, so she is looking through what the Tailor has on offer, not really looking for a custom-made item. She's been hemming her own clothes most of her life, she doesn't mind taking in something that might not fit perfectly.

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The Gallows isn't Jamie's favorite place in Kirkwall - far from it - but there's times where he has reasons to be there, and today, those reasons have him passing through not far from the courtyard training area. The flashes of light coming from Rey's direction soon catch his attention, and he winds up stopping some distance away to watch. There's something fascinating about watching Rey move and wield both lightsabers at once, even if she does seem prone to dropping one. Wielding more than one weapon at once is tricky, he knows that, and it seems to him so far she's doing a good job of it.

When she does wind up falling, however, it's a different story, and his instincts have him halfway across the training area before he winds up face to face with a protective Padawan - something that's more than enough to get him to wind up stopping in his tracks and holding his hands up in a placating sort of manner. It'd be daft to do that with a dog, but he knows mabari are a lot smarter, which is why he winds up addressing Padawan directly, at least for the moment.

"Hey, now, there's no need for that! Look, I know you're looking out for her, but I just want to see if she's alright. Fair enough?"

Padawan is a statue for a moment as she considers Jamie, before she huffs and turns around, clearly deciding he's fine and padding over to check on Rey.

"I'm fine," she says in a somewhat strained voice having overheard the exchange. She pushes herself back up and brushed dust off her pants. "Just lost my footing." And now she's a little embarrassed that someone had seen the fall, but she pushes that down, absently reaching out to pat Padawan's head.

Having Padawan decide to let him through is a bit of a relief. He doesn't particularly care to find out what would happen if he had to get into an argument with a mabari, especially since he has a sneaking suspicion he knows who'd wind up winning that one, and it's not him.

But it seems he doesn't have to worry after all. Rey's voice might sound a wee bit odd, but she's not hurt, and that's a relief, too. Enough so that by the time he finishes making his way over to her, the faint concern on his face has faded away, replaced with a much more amiable exrpression.

"Aye, well, think there's more than few people who'd have wound up worse off if they'd tried that, but I'm glad to hear it all the same. I'd not realized you fought with two light-sword thingys, though."

Rey sighs as he mentions the dual sabers, shaking her head as she retrieves them from the ground where they fell when she did.

"I usually don't. Obi-Wan left his behind, it... seems like he'd want me to use both of them." He'd taught her a little about fighting two-handed. But not enough, clearly.

"Aye," he says, a little more quietly than he normally otherwise would. "I'd heard he'd gone m- wherever it is we wind up going sometimes."

Home, maybe, but he doesn't know. There were so many rifters that'd left and never come back, and when it comes down to it he has no idea where the people who leave here wind up going. Rather than dwell on that, however, he pushes the thought to the back of his head and turns his attention to where Rey has gone, pursing his lips thoughtfully as he studies the pair of sabers.

"Look, I don't know how those things work, exactly, but I'm guessing they're balanced in some way, like regular swords. Is having to deal with that throwing you off, do you think?"

"Yes, I think that's exactly what's throwing me off," Rey replies sighing, perfectly happy to not talk about Obi-Wan at all. She absently rotates both unlit sabers in her hands, frowning a little.

"I learned how to fight with a staff, and I've been learning the past several months how to fight with one blade. I could probably do a decent hack job, but if I lose my balance while fighting I'd be in trouble."

If she doesn't want to talk about Obi-Wan, that's perfectly fine with him. Having wound up in a similar situation with the Doctor, he can understand the desire to not dwell on his leaving - and, as a result, he's more than willing to talk about other things instead.

"Think I can see why that might be. Listen, do you have something that's the same sort of weight you can use as practice blades instead, or-"

He breaks off for a moment, snapping his fingers before pointing with at her with his index finger - which bobs up and down very briefly before he pipes up again.

"Hey, I've an idea that just might work. What about sparring with someone else? Could be having an opponent would give you a chance to feel find that balance, like you'd have to in a real fight Ah, if there's a way to fight with them so they don't hurt someone else, that is. I'd not particularly fancy being skewered by one of those, no offense."

Heading back from somewhere doing something for someone because that's how it goes, keep it vague so you fill it all in later and flesh it out and that way the lie flows easier off the tongue because you can spot a rehearsed lie a mile off or that's how Yngvi was taught, and Yngvi's at least sober. Y'know unlike the last time Rey saw him.

Keeping busy is helping because that way he's not just driving himself slightly mad with it all.

Which might not be apparent when he just walks into her but whatever she's sturdy enough to take it and he's smiling. "Oi, what you up to?" Like he doesn't have eyes in his head.

Rey turns at the bump, about to check to see if someone tried to lift her purse and if she has to run down a thief, but the frown on her face quickly splits into a smile when she sees it's Yngvi.

"Hey you!" she exclaims, before raising an eyebrow at his question. It's pretty clear what she's doing, but she indulges him well enough. "Shopping. Is that not obvious?"

Rey. Lovely Rey. If Yngvi was lifting your purse it'd be lifted already because this is Yngvi and he's been doing that whole scene a long time, he might have small dirty fingers but they're talented like that. Fortunately he's rolling in money. Sort of. What do three stipends make?

"You say you're shopping and you might be but there's more than one way to skin a halla." Cat, Yngvi, it's cat, you're still mad about your new boss at the Inquisition end of things aren't you. "Not up to other stuff? Making new friends? Hands to kiss, babies to shake?"

That's the correct turn of phrase have you seen a baby recently?

Just because Yngvi is a good thief doesn't mean everyone in Kirkwall is. Rey avoids keeping her purse in plain sight, but there's probably a thief somewhere who would still try to go for it.

She shakes her head a little at Yngvi's phrase turning, her smile not fading.

"No, mostly just shopping. I meet plenty of people within the Inquisition and making new friends isn't part of my job description anyway." She's not a diplomat.

It's true, standards have slipped to a truly appalling degree, folk somewhere must be feeding the failures. Missing your dinner is what inspires you to do better, it goes against years of hard work and shoddy dubious parenting to raise them any other way thinking that there's still going to be a meal even if they make an arse of it.

Diplomats are of course all well and good if they actually put their money where their mouths are though abstract promises seem to be more their speed, this whole idea of tomorrow where tomorrow isn't actually tomorrow but a nebulous thing glimpsed through a thick fog. "Handy to know folk in Kirkwall though, need to know what deepstalker'll bite and what one'll just make a lot of noise and spit at you for looking too long. Can't beat mates rates either, even me, the long lost boy gets those from a few faces here and there. What are you doing though? Not just the scouting bit, did you get swayed by any of their other shiny baubles?"

Rey just sort of nods along as Yngvi talks, of course there are merits for getting to know locals, and she may very well in time. But she's still getting over her natural wariness, talking to strangers when she doesn't have to isn't always one of her strengths.

She shakes her head at his question, absently adjusting the strap of her staff on her shoulder.

"I'm just looking for clothes. I only have a few different outfits and they're all starting to fall apart."

Kirkwall at least is a place where wariness can't be faulted, seeing as it keeps you alive though the more obvious it is, the less advantage it provides. You just swallow it down and there it festers away under your skin until you either cut it out or it devours you. Yngvi's watched it happen. Not paranoia eat a person, he was too young for that but he saw what happened when a thing eats you from the inside out, that sort of death by inches and he wouldn't say he recommends it even as he does it all again because coming back…

Coming back is hard. What do they call wounds you don't know you ever had when they were all inside you?

"Yeah reckon you'd be a sight naked, humans usually are? You all...I screamed y'know? First time I saw one of your kind naked, I mean not a rifter but sometimes when we're sharing everything it happens so reckon folk'd say by now if you were hiding something like tails or pincers or hooves or summat but wasn't expecting what humans look like. Legs and arms going on forever." He shakes the thought away as if it disturbs him even now, who can say, maybe it does, does anyone know what the esteemed Mr Congealedinagutterson looks for in a person? "Can you sew?"

The mind boggles, he didn't peg her for the seamstressing kind.

Rey makes a bit of a face as he says humans are "legs and arms going on forever" glancing down like she's trying to figure out how that would throw him off so much.

"Dwarves can't be that much different. Just shorter. There are short humans, too." Kids, for example. Rey isn't a great example, as she's on the high end of "average" but really. She knows there are humans and dwarves who are married to each other in Thedas, so the anatomy had to at least be similar.

She nods at his question, rocking back on her heels.

"I had to learn. I can't do anything fancy, but I grew up in an outpost. Nothing ever fit right unless you altered it, and ill-fitting clothes would kill you if they got caught in something while scavenging."

"You," Yngvi leans in as much as he actually can considering Rey has a good foot on him after all, "haven't seen me in the buff now have you? You don't know what I have going on underneath all this. You hear about elf-blooded folk but well, there aren't dwarf-blooded ones, we're different."

No. No they're not but that's the mystery. That and how Yngvi isn't growing potatoes behind his ears and mushrooms under his armpits, that's probably the most surprising thing when he starts stripping off.

"What were you scavenging on that they'd get caught? You hear about people doing it in the Deep Roads but that's more the Darkspawn that'd get them or a roaming pack of deepstalkers, maybe eating deep mushrooms if they start eating them." Scavenging is a thing, yeah, but still it doesn't exactly fit into his whole view of the world but his world was 'Carta' then 'Boneflayers' so it's pretty specific pools of reference after all.

Cullen needs clothing. Well, no, he doesn't really. Cullen has plenty to clothe himself with. Thing it, it's all the same clothing, it all marks him as what he is, who he is. Being back in Kirkwall, dealing with the return to things he'd thought (hoped, really) were buried in the past and would stay there - suddenly the weight of it all grates, chafes, makes it more difficult to get through the day rather than being a pillar to lean against.

So what he needs are more things he doesn't have. A jacket that doesn't mark him as Templar or Inquisition, shirts without adornment that aren't just his underthings. Or maybe he just needs... change.

Rey's face is passingly familiar, but it's the light saber at her hip that he actually recognizes. He doesn't mean to stare. It's not even done consciously, but as soon as he catches sight of it, he stops browsing for himself and begins simply following her movements through the little shop.

Rey has always had a gift for being able to tell when someone is watching her. Now that she's more aware of what she's capable of, she knows it's likely the Force whispering to her, but regardless it's an instinct she listens to. She ignores it at first as she runs her fingers over different fabrics but eventually turns, somewhat surprised to see the Commander. She doesn't really know him well, but she's a Rifter in the care of the Inquisition. They all know him.

"Is there something I can help you with?" She's trying not to be rude or accusatory, but she isn't really a fan of people watching her. It meant too many bad things on Jakku, often someone looking to follow her and rob her blind.

He realizes that he's staring only when she calls him on it, and there's a moment of Cullen visibly shaking himself out of it before he looks up to her eyes. "Sorry. No. I didn't mean--" He gestures to the weapon, attempting to convey that it's what caught his attention, not her. He's not a creep, he's just... well, hopefully not creepy. "Is that yours?"

The frown on Rey's face flashes to one of confusion as he gestures to the weapon on her belt and she glances down at it, her fingers absently going to secure the metal piece, before nodding her head.

"Yes, it's mine." Though sometimes she had difficulty admitting that the lightsabers she'd inherited were hers, the one on her belt-Luke's- came a little easier to her now than Obi-Wan's. His was tucked safely in her bag.

Cullen didn't mean to make her question whether or not she deserved them. He only wondered whether it belonged to her, or she'd found it. He catches the frown, though, because he's not blind. "I'm sorry," he says, coming closer. "It's just that a friend of mine has one--" Actually, no, now that he's closer, he can see there are differences.

His own frown is smaller. "No. His is different. I'm sorry." He chuckles, shakes his head. "Long day." Never mind that it's only the afternoon, and just barely.

There's only one other person she knows who carried a lightsaber. She knew she hadn't met all of Obi-Wan's friends, but she would have thought the Commander of the Inquisition he might have mentioned. Still, Obi-Wan in general didn't talk much about himself.

"Was your friend Obi-Wan?" she ventures, relatively sure she knows the answer already.

Obi-Wan might have not thought of Cullen as a friend. It's the most likely explanation. He's not really that great with people, with social cues and the ins and outs of friendship. It might be more accurate to say that their dogs had been friends.

So he nods. "Yes." He also picks up on the fact that she's speaking about him in the past tense, and that explains why Cullen hasn't seen him in a while. He hasn't exactly been on top of things.

She exhales, her shoulders slumping a little. She'd been hoping for a different answer, but she'd known better. There'd been a reason beyond just not knowing all the people Obi-Wan had been acquainted with for her to announce he'd left Thedas over the crystal. She didn't relish the idea of telling people in person. Of course not everyone would have heard it.

"I'm... sorry to tell you this then, but he's gone. Back to our universe, I think." To live another twenty years and then get killed by Darth Vader.

Cullen is not good about keeping up with all the communication happening on the crystals. Sometimes, even when it's sitting on his desk and he's right there beside it, he misses large chunks of what's happening, unable to focus.

"I figured, when you asked if he was my friend." He smiles, a little sadly, but he's accepting of it. It happens. You lose people. He knows this better than most. Honestly, he's more concerned with the look on her face right now. "Are you-- do you need anything?" Cullen doesn't know how long he's been gone, but he figures a while. He hasn't seen him in... yeah, a while.

It's still strange to her, and maybe it never will reach a point where she expects others to care. Even someone who doesn't really know her, asking if she needs anything.

"I- no. It's been a while. I let people know over the crystals, but I'm still meeting people that he knew." She pauses, thinking for a moment before adding. "Though if you know anything about mabari, I'm open to advice. His mabari has sort of ended up in my care." Or she'd ended up in Padawan's care, was probably more accurate. It was a wonder the dog wasn't with her in the market today, but that was mostly because Rey hadn't been sure how welcome a war dog was here.

Ever since joining the research division, Hermione has thrown herself entirely into her various projects, scarcely coming up for air. If one of her friends doesn't find her and nudge her towards food or a bed, it's very likely that she'll simply fall into the same patterns she had when she'd first arrived in Thedas, falling asleep over books and waking up with an aching back and little to no memory of anything she'd read in the few hours leading up to her losing consciousness.

Thankfully, though, she's become a little more prudent about self-care, and it's while taking a break to stretch and look at something other than dodgy printing in candlelight that she notices a familiar face in the library with her. Blinking a few times as though needing to make sure she hadn't simply nodded off, Hermione looks down at her work before taking a few moments to set it all neatly into her messenger bag so she can pick up right where she left off, and then gets up, quietly moving over towards Rey.

She doesn't want to startle the other girl, so she stands nearby until she's noticed, taking a moment to curiously tilt her head as she looks over what Rey's working on. "I thought you'd told me that the Force and magic are two separate things."

It doesn't take Rey long to notice Hermione, really, and when she does she isn't particularly startled. She sighs at Hermione's comment, shrugging her shoulders in a halfway defeated gesture.

"It isn't, really. Unfortunately I'm without a teacher now, and some of the principles are similar, I think?" She's kind of running at it blind. "I figure it won't hurt to try to study magic, at least. Even if it may not help with the parts of the Force that aren't blunt force like what's in this book." Which is what most force magic seemed to be, here.

"You had a teach-... oh." Obi-Wan. She'd only met him a handful of times, but he'd been a very kind man, and she can only imagine how much Rey would be feeling his absence, considering that Hermione still aches as she wonders over Harry.

But she's more tactful than to bring up such a depressing subject, or at least too tactful to remain on the subject, and so she looks down at Rey's book again, trying to figure out just what it is she's studying. "If it helps, I haven't really mastered magic here, either, which is impeding my own magical growth. But Thedosian magic has helped me understand my own abilities a little better, once I could find the common threads between them, so perhaps it will do the same for you."

"I hear those jerkins with the frilly embroidery on them are all the rage." Prompto's on the same mission as Rey, though his is more to simply build up an actual wardrobe. He's acquired enough to be able to dress like a native regularly, but the more clothes the better. He offers her a smile as he continues, "Normally I'd consider myself a fashionable guy, but I think it's a craze I'll pass up on. Might look pretty on you, though."

Rey politely responds to Prompto's smile with one of her own, although it's followed with a grimace at the thought of wearing something with frills. She's got incredibly simple taste, as is obvious with the way she dresses from day to day.

"Not really my style. I feel like the edges are just begging to get caught on something and ripped apart." Maybe if she'd been raised on Coruscant she'd have a wider appreciation for decorative flair, but as it is she prefers function over form every time.

"I hear ya. They are kind of an accident waiting to happen, huh?" Maybe okay for parties, but with how roughshod Thedas seems to be, probably not good for everyday wear. "So if no frills, whatcha lookin for?"

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These scars of mine [open]

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