[OPEN] And so become yourself

[wheretheferngrows]

WHO: Fern + OPEN
WHAT: A catch-all kind of post for mid-September.
WHEN: A couple weeks before the island adventure, about a week after her last open post.
WHERE: Around Kirkwall and the Gallows, specifically the stables, the herb garden, training grounds.
NOTES: None currently, will update as needed. Also, if you'd like a specific starter, please ping me on plurk or discord and we can set something up!

I. THE STABLES


Fern likes the stables. It's the smell, she thinks--not that she's particularly taken in by the stink of horse manure or anything, but horses and dogs and animal smells in Kirkwall aren't so very different from those same smells back in Ansburg (and, more distantly, Ferelden). That's probably why, although the Inquisition has given her a place to sleep in the mages' tower in the Gallows, Fern prefers to bunk in the hay loft above Rooster's stall. It's a bit drafty at night, sure, but still so much easier for her to sleep here, with the animal sounds and the soft, ambient glow of the outdoor lanterns spilling warmly through the windows.

This is where she's sleeping one night when the sound of the stable doors opening wakes her up. Blinking sleep out of her eyes (and plucking some hay out of her hair), she sits up underneath her blanket and steals a tiny peek over the edge of the loft, trying to see who it is who's come to snoop about the animals so late at night. In his stall below her, Rooster swivels his large ears forward and drowsily sticks his head out of his paddock, curious.



II. THE HERB GARDEN


She tells herself that she isn't just spending her free time loitering about the Gallows herb garden because she's hoping to casually run into Sina here, but that's probably a large part of it.

Nevertheless, now that she's spent enough time here to develop a sense of familiarity with the plants, it's not that much of a hardship to go about the process of watering the plants that need it, harvesting from those at risk of going to seed, and placing a few warming glyphs near the summer plants that are at risk of dying when the temperatures dip at night.

At present she's up to her elbows in dirt trying to salvage a few wilting elfroot plants.



III. THE GALLOWS TRAINING GROUNDS


It feels profoundly unfair to Fern that even after being told no by that Senior Grey Warden, after crying in front of a bunch of complete strangers, after trying so hard to find other ways to keep herself occupied and make herself useful, she still ends up hovering on the outskirts of the training grounds when she doesn't have anything else to do.

It's afternoon on an unseasonably warm day; no one particular group has reserved the grounds for a session, so it's a mish-mash of soldiers, scouts, Templars, and other sorts (including, yes, probably some Grey Wardens) who are making use of the facilities now. Fern sits off to the side in a patch of shade with a sewing needle and some of her own worn socks that are in need of mending; with some longing, she watches the Wardens at their work--then stabs the needle through her sock grudgingly. (take that, alistair.)



IV. WILDCARD


(OOC: Surprise me!)

Comments

[ichaer]

"I named her when I was eighteen," she says with a slight laugh. "So you've definitely got that much over me."

Because who names horses they steal after monsters of myth that drown anyone that rides them? This girl. She smiles though at the introduction, raising a brow and chuckling slightly.

"Got it in one. What gave it away, being up at an unreasonable hour or the griffons drawn on everything I own?"

[wheretheferngrows]

Fern smiles shyly and drops her eyes for a moment, rubbing the back of her neck. "The griffons, I guess," she says, snickering a little. Yeah, it was a rhetorical question, but still-- she knows all about the griffons of legend.

"Do you like it?" she asks a moment later. "Being a Warden, I mean."

[ichaer]

"They always give me away," she says, chuckling again. At the question, she knits her brows together because it wasn't often really that someone asked her how she felt about being a Warden or rather if she even liked it. Most people seemed to just... avoid the topic all together.

"Sometimes, I think." Ciri murmurs, adjusting her gloves to help her focus on something. "I like helping people but this wasn't something I wanted, or even something I asked for. I didn't have a choice in becoming a Warden."

[wheretheferngrows]

"I wanted to join," Fern says suddenly, half speaking over Ciri with the thoughtlessness of the young, though she has the decency to look embarrassed as soon as she's done it. Still, she looks aside, leaning a little against Rooster's stall. "Your Senior Warden, Alistair--he said Wardens aren't needed in the fight right now. He wouldn't let me."

It's been some days since that rejection, but still, it stings, and it's impossible to miss how deeply wounded she is by having this particular dream crushed.

[ichaer]

Ah... there it was. Ciri just sort of trails off as she speaks, suddenly glancing to the floor and her hand raising to the scar marring her face. Right, well, this was awkward? She's never been faced with this sort of thing either especially since everything went balls up for the Wardens.

"Don't tell him I said this but he's right, you know." It is said carefully, as if she is trying to figure out each little word and how to phrase it. "We're not exactly in a good spot right now. Alistair's probably scared; Maker, I'm scared that what happened at Weisshaupt might happen again. No one deserves to go through that if it can be prevented."

[wheretheferngrows]

For a moment there's a flash of anger across Fern's face--Alistair had said the exact same thing to her, almost--but then it fizzles, because Ciri says something that Alistair hadn't said. "...I'm scared that what happened at Weisshaupt might happen again. No one deserves to go through that if it can be prevented."

"Go through what?" Fern asks, blurting it out in a tone of voice that is nearly rude, except for the desperation in her eyes. "What happened?"

[ichaer]

And Ciri stares back, unmoving except to bite into her apple and hums tiredly.

"Whole lot of throats being slit mostly," she says as if she's talking about the weather. "Higher upas had a lot of shite ideas and now what ones didn't die or end up bound to demons are ruining the Anderfels, so... a lot has happened more or less."