OPEN

[pinprick]

WHO: Nathaniel Howe and YOU
WHAT: Open post for August
WHEN: Present, with one backdated thread
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: Take a peek, see if you're someone he sent a message to about Jonas Cousland.

I. Alistair | backdated to immediately after the mission to find Jonas Cousland

Nathaniel returns to Kirkwall on a cloud of exhaustion and numbness, and the first place he goes is Alistair's office.

He knocks. He rarely ever knocks when it's just the two of them, but he feels he has to give the audible warning of bad news. If it's not the knock, it's the wearied expression on his face as he slithers into the room.

"We're back," he announces unnecessarily, and pauses to make sure Alistair knows he's bringing bad news.

II. Letters to Morrigan, Velanna, and Oghren

I am sorry.

Jonas Cousland was found in the Deep Roads, barely alive and badly mauled by darkspawn. He passed away a few minutes after he was found. He was among friends, in as little pain as possible, and held in the arms of someone who knew him since he was a baby.

You traveled with him and knew him. You were friend to him. So was I. He was a man of great talent and charisma. He will be remembered for uniting a country at war with itself and leading it against the Blight. He carries no shame with him to the grave.

Queen Anora has been written of his passing, as has his brother, Teyrn Fergus. I leave you with no obligation except to deal with your own grief.

Your obedient servant,
Nathaniel Howe

III. Hightown Shops

Nathaniel needs a new pair of boots. Which is a pain.

Shoes are easier to buy than boots. Shoes are less expensive and have less material that has to be fitted correctly. But after this last excursion in the Deep Roads, he needs a new pair entirely. Too much wear, too much Blight, which comes in big black patches in those parts of the Deep Roads. Too many porous surfaces for Blight to seep into. A uniform is standard, but boots don't have to be standard-issue for Wardens. Boots can be purchased at Hightown, and Hightown is where a discerning individual like Nathaniel Howe would go for them.

Once he has found a pair, however, he finds himself browsing other wares at other shops. Fabrics, accessories, pretty little knick-knacks for the home. He can be found waffling about a purchase at whatever shop you happen to be near.

IV. Wildcard

Comments

[ipseite]

Riding the high of success, clutching her packages to her chest as if she isn't entirely sure a mistake wasn't made and someone might take them - she beams back up at him, delighted to have run into a friendly face, one she can be pleased to see in a most uncomplicated way.

"I'd like that very much," she says, tucking her hand at his elbow in long habit. Gentlemen are gentlemen are gentlemen, even if few enough of them have any capacity for gentleness. "I've spent so much time in port cities, I should be in real trouble if I hadn't developed a palate for seafood."

[pinprick]

He immediately relaxes. He wonders if she is his first friend outside the Wardens in a long time, and does not dwell on it after they've steered into the restaurant.

"They make an excellent black pepper crab here, if you like a little heat to your food. If not, the prawns are the size of your head and the lobster is as big as I am."

There is a whiff of tobacco as they pass inside, sweet and smoky and pure, adding a mellow overtone to the smells of the food.

[ipseite]

Her laugh is delighted-- "Oh, I have adored lobster," with a ready enthusiasm that, in its way, underscores the cautious steadiness with which she'd approached her earliest days in Thedas. Some of the stilted, wary way that she engaged with the world then has eased; more natural, more comfortable.

It's fair to say that she's not ventured far from the Gallows, often - her disastrous first mission (mercifully not so disastrous as it might have been, but how woefully unsuited she'd been to the situation--) having left her somewhat reluctant to do so at all - but Melys's invitation and her determination to make the best of her situation have served her well enough. She sleeps easier, nightmares sequestered and a golden city built around her dreams to protect her, and when she wakes sometimes the world looks beautiful, still.

There is much work to be done, of course, but still there is beauty to be found, and hope of achieving the work such as she'd not truly known she lacked until she had it.

Kirkwall is not, perhaps, the most charming example of Thedosian cities. Nevertheless, she is charmed by this, and happy enough to be seated when they are - "You must help me to eat it, it will be far too much for me. What brought you so far from your work today?"