You don't expect to be bright and bon vivant - OPEN

[youwonscience]

WHO: Cosima, Anders, Herian, YOU?
WHAT: Catchall open post for Kingsway
WHEN: Your choice if it needs to be specific within the month - Cosima's not going anywhere that I know of
WHERE: Various around Kirkwall
NOTES: If you want a specific starter, hit me up on plurk/discord/etc.

I - Infirmary

Kirkwall has seemed to agree with Cosima, overall. It's easier to breathe, out of the cold, and as vertical as the city is, at least it comes with stairs. Still, she's careful not to miss her scheduled sessions with the healers all the same. Given the unknowns about her disease, her anchor shard, and whether or not they affect one another, she's not eager to take unnecessary chances.

It's been over a year now, so she's on a greeting basis with a lot of the people who work in and around what used to be the healing tents. But she's ready to greet new faces too, if they seem open to it. (Especially right after treatment, which is inarguably the best she feels all month.)

II - Library

Doing formal research for the Inquisition has offered the advantage of focusing her efforts, at least a little. But after her recent discussions about microscopes, she's come to wonder if trying to have a simple one built might be a good idea after all. She can think of several uses, both regarding the Fade and red lyrium, and maybe someone higher up will be willing to secure the funding necessary.

She's working on some detailed sketches, with concentration, but not so much that she can't be interrupted.

III - Tavern

It's important not to burn out by working all the time. Cosima would be quick to tell that to anyone who asks -- but no one does, really, she's just reassuring herself. It's true, though, and she can let herself relax into an evening out now and again. She wears gloves and keeps an eye out for trouble, but she also has a few drinks and even joins a friendly card game now and then.

Kirkwall doesn't feel like home; Thedas doesn't feel like home. But she's sometimes surprised how much it's come to feel something like normal. Especially with some friendly company.

IV - Wildcard

[Choose your own adventure]

Comments

I know you're hiatused, but I couldn't resist:

[youwonscience]

"Yeah, that's totally how most people describe me. Intensely poetic," she says with a rueful little grin. "I mean, the piercings are just because I thought they were pretty, so it's not like I'm not a little vain, too."

Despite the light response, she's warmed by Herian's reaction all the same. It feels like much of her days in Kirkwall are devoted to practical considerations, putting out fires and trying to solve problems that have increasingly become more urgent. It's unexpectedly refreshing, talking about nature and art with Herian and listening to the water nearby.

i mean i always return for cute nonsense so

[dashing]

Herian laughs quietly, holding out her arm so she can look at the intricate pattern where it stretches down her forearm. "I, however, am immune to vanity."

H a h. No, if there's one thing she is, that she knows she is, vain is one of those things. Or perhaps not vain, but at least appreciative of her own appreciate, confident in it. "It is not vain to enjoy art your own skin. Perhaps if you spent all your days gazing upon a looking glass in self-admiration."

She sits up, just enough to press a kiss to Cosima's cheek. "I think your mind would sooner ponder the wonders of the world than just yourself, wonderful though you are."

[youwonscience]

She smiles, a little ruefully - a year ago, she was intensely diving into her own genetic sequence, which was strangely close to the self-study Herian was suggesting (if inadvertently so). Sometimes it seems like she's only just left that work; sometimes it feels like it's been much longer than it has.

But that's not a pleasant topic, really, and she doesn't want to spoil a pleasant afternoon. Instead, she runs her fingers along Herian's arm, lightly, as if measuring it. Or tracing the design, perhaps. "I think it's all of a piece, really. There's nothing in the world that isn't interconnected to other parts of the world, here or at home. I enjoy myself because I'm part of nature too." She was resolved to be, even if her origins were far from what most people would call natural.

[dashing]

"Do you remember the first time we met? A stream near Skyhold, and you were pulling up rashvine barehanded." There is a note of fond amusement in her voice, easy nostalgia. "My fondness for rashvine has heightened considerably, since then."

She's being a little silly, albeit in an understated way. Her focus is more on Cosima's fingers grazing over her skin, and the warmth of the late summer sun, if it could still be called such.

"I think you are right, though. It is part of why life is so sacred." Even when there is the darkspawn, the Venatori, beings and moralities taken by corruption. "There are times when I feel that the connection mages have to the Fade is a great blessing. It is an aspect of the world that is untouchable to some, that mages are able to harness - we have a gift that can do so much." Her smile turns a little bittersweet, and she shakes her head, idly starting to trace her fingers across Cosima's collarbones. "But there are times when I suspect it would be better if mages were considerably less connected to nature."

[youwonscience]

"What's the Fade like? I mean, if you don't mind talking about it. I guess I'm there when I sleep, but I don't really register it feeling substantially different than dreaming at home." She supposes her world must have some connection to the Fade -- how else could she be here -- but Cosima is curious what it's like for someone who can retain consciousness there.

[dashing]

For a few moments, Herian is quiet, though it's a pensive silence rather than one that is locked down and distant, maintaining contact as she ponder.

"Frightening," she replies, eventually. She hopes the response is not unknightly, in some way, that being afraid at all does not undercut bravery before it has a chance to show itself. Be brave, always be brave. "It is... concerning to know that we are so linked to something that allows us to do such harm. But— not all terrible. It is ever changing, I think."

[youwonscience]

"It's sort of mind-blowing to think about. I mean, not only that there are a bunch of different worlds out there -- people where I'm from have theorized that -- but that there's the Fade gluing them together."

She shifts, tucked against Herian's side. "It's a lot take in, even after all this time."

[dashing]

"It is." She smiles a little with Cosima settling closer, and drapes one of her arms across Cosima's waist, a loose embrace. "The sentimentalist in me cannot be entirely against that connection. You seem proof enough that the unknown is not always so terrible.*"

For a moment, her smile brightens. "I'll gladly brave demons for the sake of knowing you."


*Unless the unknown is Dalish, and then it is always terrible.

[youwonscience]

Cosima beams, though she seems on the edge of a laugh. "That's maybe both the sweetest and weirdest thing anyone's ever said to me. What is my life even."

[dashing]

"Would you like to me attempt to answer that, or allow it to remain wholly rhetorical?"

She grins, or at least it's a Herian grin, which might be considered a warm smile on most other people. "Are sweetness and weirdness heights to which I should continually aspire?"

[youwonscience]

Cosima reaches over to fondly touch Herian's jaw. "I don't think you have to try, honestly, it'll probably just keep happening if you stick around." Which sounds, oddly, like please stick around the way Cosima says it.

[dashing]

Leaning into the contact, Herian presses a glancing kiss to Cosima's wrist. "I'd say that's more than likely."

The dangers that might see her act otherwise aren't totally immediate, at the very least.

[youwonscience]

"I'm so glad you came back," she says, almost abrupt except for its warmth. "I didn't think you would. Or if you did, I wasn't sure I'd still be here."

With Rifters, more than usual, it felt like nothing was promised.

[dashing]

Herian's not totally sure how to respond. Too often it feels as though her words are clumsy things, in moments like these - too crowded and too measured in the same moment, as though she needs far too many words to express what others can convey succinctly. I, as well seems inadequate to convey the depth and nuances of it.

Instead she leans down, catching the corner of Cosima's mouth with a lingering kiss. That might better serve.

[youwonscience]

A kiss seems like the perfect answer. It's much easier than wondering whether she'll ever go home, or whether Herian will be called off again sooner than she'd like, or any of the dozens of problems hanging over their heads.

Better to taste the lingering salt from where they'd been swimming not long before, and feel the sun on their skin.

[dashing]

Her hand rests on Cosima's abdomen, steadying, or so she hopes. Which of them she intends to steady is less obvious, when she'd best prefer to claim it was never herself, and yet in this moment she feels rather more dependent on it. Cosima is solid, real; perhaps it is Cosima who is steadying, now.

In general contact means pain inflicted, proximity meant threats. Weapons met flesh, not kisses and careful touches. There was something grounding, in this, in the slow reminder than touch and closeness were good.

"I am honour bound to keep you out of trouble," she finally says, breaking the kiss only to murmur gentle teasing.

[youwonscience]

She laughs, bright, a sharp vibration under Herian's palm. "Good luck with that one. I've been told I'm a terrible influence."

...while this seems unlikely, it is technically true.

[dashing]

"Oh? Is that so?" Herian seems more amused than alarmed, or even concerned. "Someone here? Or from home?"

Or both, she supposes. It could plausibly be both. Currently she'd have to admit that she largely thinks the worst influence Cosima could prove in Thedas would be on herself.

[youwonscience]

"Home, definitely home," Cosima says, laughing. "I mean, I guess people could think I'm a bad influence because they think I'm secretly a demon or something, but they haven't said so to my face."

And it doesn't seem to bother her, especially. She feels safe enough here in Kirkwall, with the Inquisition at her back. (Maybe safer than she should, really, but the idea that anyone would think she was a demon after talking with her for five minutes strikes Cosima as unlikely.)

[dashing]

"I certainly keep my suspicions to myself," she replies very seriously, before pressing another kiss to Cosima's jaw and leaning back a little.

Really, though, imagining Cosima as a bad influence given the sheer level of terribleness that seems, at times, so pervasive in Thedas, is keeping an amused little smile lurking, the shadow of it there even when she isn't exactly smiling.

"What am I to do with your dastardly self?"

[youwonscience]

"Hm, I'm probably not the most trustworthy person to answer that question," she points out, reaching to trace Herian's lower lip. "I could make a list of suggestions, though, if you wanted."

[dashing]

“I will be stalwart and uncompromising.” Any air of sternness is deftly sabotaged as she tilts her head, so she gently catches Cosima’s fingertip withher teeth, for just a moment. “Even in the face of your suggestions.”

Which she wholeheartedly invites, brow just slightly quirked.

That wasn't 100% the icon I'd originally intended to use, but then I was like "...WELL"

[youwonscience]

"I think you should keep a very close eye on me, then," Cosima says with a grin. "Make sure I stay out of trouble through constant vigilance."

HAHA it;s perfect tbh

[dashing]

Herian laughs at that, quiet but very definitely an actual laugh rather than just vaguely amused sound variation #05. She should, probably, offer something as a witty retort, but instead she rests her hand against Cosima's neck, dipping her head to press a kiss to Cosima's cheek, her jaw, her neck, brief and affectionate things, before laughing softly again as a thought occurs to her.

"And will you be vigilant, as well? In the hopes of learning from my example?"

[youwonscience]

"I mean, I'll do my best, but they say it's hard to reform a real troublemaker," she says, failing utterly to look solemn in the face of Herian's actual laugh.