your pose as the dust settled around us

[dashing]

WHO: HERIAN and some others.
WHAT: some open stuff, some closed stuff; basically a belated catch all.
WHEN: through September
WHERE: various, I think all Kirkwall
NOTES: some of the open stuff will have caps for how many tag-ins I'll be able to handle, just for variety's sake
WARNINGS: Nothing as yet, but I have an opt-out over here for particular topics with Herian (or just CR with her generally) as there is potential for themes of PTSD, torture, and generally terrible things.

OPEN: in the alienage
OPEN: in hightown

More to be added! If you'd like a specific set up then get in touch and we can plot up a storm.

Comments

[dashing]

Aye, that we have, ( Herian agrees, rather ruefully, ) and we have been mistrusted as much as we have been befriended.

( She does not forget everything, and she remembers what it was to be elf-blooded in the presence of her mother, a healer, and what it was to be elf-blooded when her mother was not pressing paste of leaves and ointment to putrid flesh, treating fevers or preparing compresses, or whatever else might be required of her. It had been a complicated and seemingly never-ending dance of proving worth and loyalty.

For all that, she does not greatly begrudge Inessa her view. There is enough struggle as an elf to perhaps miss the paranoia that could spark when guards came into the alienage, the suspicious looks that could be cast to humans born with elven blood. Neither side trusted their loyalty, or at least, not inherently. Her own relatives would speak of elfbloods in ways that, at best, came with notes of but not you, obviously. You're different.

Sorrow for that felt self-indulgent, all the same. )

I am not so certain. I have no yet proven myself, here. A human with elven blood looks the same as any other human.

[circleprodigy]

[Inessa listens with sympathy, and Garahel gives a soft whine as well. She remembers alienage life to a degree, but she was also taken while barely out of toddlerhood. However clear some memories might be, there is still much she did not witness. That would include the lives and difficulties of the elfblooded, as well.]

In time, I hope the difference will be clear. An alienage is always in need, in one way or another. There won't be a lack of means to prove yourself, I'm certain.

...but I will not speak over what experiences you have, either. I'm sorry you met with suspicion rather than acceptance. It's a view I can't understand and perhaps never will, spending more time in a Circle than an alienage. [Growing up in the Circle, she didn't think twice about working alongside and living with humans, elfblooded or otherwise. What mattered, what set them apart, was their magic.]

[dashing]

I was lucky. ( That she knows. That she tries to remind herself, even though the words are exceptionally bitter, some days. There is little to sugar coat them. )

My mother's father, he was one of the healers in the alienage, and he taught her well. She is human, and has served the alienage loyally, ever since she has been old enough to gather plants and sew wounds shut. If not for her, and for her father, my own time in the alienage would have been far more challenging.

( A elven wife birthing a human child was not unheard of, but whether or not the child would remain, that was more complex. His kindness was not to be overlooked. And, perhaps in some way, it was another means of trying to heal the alienage, to make elven blooded humans more accepted. Perhaps that was Herian overreaching with her thoughts, with attempts to better comfort herself.

Herian huffs out a breath, and straightens her posture. ) Forgive me, my— home has been much on my mind, of late.

( And whether she can call it home, for that matter. ) How do you fare, of late? And Garahel?

[circleprodigy]

[Inessa's smile is soft and a little wistful at mention of family, but she keeps her focus on Herian rather than her own memories.]

There's nothing to forgive; home and family are important, whether or not we still have them, they shaped who we are now. It's natural to have them linger in our thoughts, I believe.

[Garahel responds to the question with a happy huff and Inessa chuckles as she pets him.]

Garahel is doing well, here. He loves the city; more people to befriend and possibly spoil him, of course. The alienage children were a little wary, at first, but now he's an established playmate. [Indeed, some of the children call out to him when he's spotted. Garahel looks over to Inessa, who nods, before darting off to greet them.]

As for myself, I'm now heading the Rifts and the Veil project. I hope to see what more we can learn regarding the shards and how to best assist those bearing them.