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WHO: Katniss and You
WHAT: A week in the life of a Mockingjay
WHEN: Covering the first week of Haring
WHERE: All around Skyhold
NOTES: Warnings for possible suicidal triggers via music.

Katniss Everdeen is a young woman who does not like to be idle when it can be helped, especially when she is waiting to know where she can help. So if you are looking for the rather brusque 'Some Other Archer', you will find it hard to miss her.

1. Distributing Food and Supplies Through The Survivors

Skyhold has literally become the pilgrimage of hundreds who are seeking to flee from Corpheysus's reign of terror, who are looking for balance in a world gone mad without a Divine, or have lost their homes in one of the many wars blossoming across Thedas. Many of them came without a stitch on their backs, or food to feed themselves -- or their families.

Yet, in the last week, a tall young woman with serious grey eyes and dark hair braided along the side of her head has been handing out provisions - fresh meat mostly, and cleaned leathers and warm furs. Candles, cooking fat, and there are even healing poultices, simple things. She asks for nothing in return, and thanks makes her nervous -- but she is there almost every day to offer assistance where she can. Children make her easier - she brings them necklaces made of leather and small stones, and little toys made of bone.

Do you meet here here or ...

2. Outside in the training areas outside of Skyhold

Someone has taken the time to set up what can only be considered a crude archery training area, out of old barrels and crates, with targets painted on. But it's not just straight targets and dummies, no. It's practically an obstacle course - with the targets being at different heights, and various objects that one had to move around to get a clear shot. It's not just a test of accuracy, it's one of agility and of quick thinking.

Katniss trains here every day, practicing her shots in a dozen different scenarios. Up high, down low, jumping and rolling out of the way to make a shot. Shooting and moving at the same time, weaving between targets. She wants to challenge herself, that's clear enough. Against what? Everything, apparently.

Want to join? Want to gawk? Want to take your barrel back? Come and speak with her, unless you want to speak to her ...

3. Alone On The Ramparts

It's the song that will capture your attention. A beautiful, clear female voice will echo down to you as you climb the stairs to the ramparts, perhaps to go on guard duty. Perhaps only to see the stars. Yet while the voice will make you smile, perhaps, the song itself might just chill you down to the bones.

Or at least wonder who would sing such a song.

"Are you, are you?
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say murdered three
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where the dead man called out for his love to flee
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run, so we’d both be free
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say murdered three
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight in the hanging tree..."

If you go hunting down the voice, you'll find it soon enough. Katniss is sitting with her back against the ramparts, looking up to the sky and singing upwards to the stars. As if she is trying to reach someone with her voice that she just can't seem to get to.

Will you come and sit with her, or pass by?

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Now in possession of a new staff blade at the end of her staff, Ellana needs to practice with it. It's an added weight and adds height too, so she wants to be comfortable with it before facing any enemies again. Yet she's aware that not everyone will look kindly on a mage practicing her magic in front of them, either because of their own prejudices, or simply because magic makes them uncomfortable. If she were in a group all practicing magic together, it would be different; people could just move away if they didn't want to see it. But by herself, she thinks it better if she finds a quiet space to practice.

And that's when she finds the archery set up. The targets will work well enough for a few of her spells. She's certainly not going to set them on fire or anything like that. Mainly, she's focusing on the new weight of her staff and how to swing it to make use of the blade, should anyone come into melee range. She's only at it for around twenty minutes before she sees Katniss approach with her bow.

"I was wondering when I would see some archers turn up," she says pleasantly as a greeting. "I'll move out of your way."

The voice certainly catches Korrin's attention, since not many people tend to sing at the ramparts...unless the tavern is closing for the night, but the singing that happens then is hardly pleasant. This voice is obviously different from that usual nonsense, so she follows due to idle curiosity and generally feeling restless. Upon spotting the vaguely familiar girl, she pauses to listen until it's done.

"Rather morbid, but you have a nice voice." She nods in approval, not judging so much as just blunt. It's just the way she is, and not likely to change any time soon.

Katniss herself has her bow over one shoulder, and several quivers filled with arrows with her. She paused herself, as she saw the mage - Dalish mage standing there with her staff out, blade glinting in the light. She raises an eyebrow, but her shrug is light as she continues to move forward into her training area.

"No need to on my account. Always glad to see a mage learning how to keep their spells going in the right direction." She looks at the targets critically, and made a quiet noise of approval, "No fire. Thanks."

Katniss jerks a little when she hears someone speak just off in the darkness, and she frowns. That frown fades into a look of astonishment as the tall - good god tall woman appears, with horns coming out of her head.

Qunari. She's heard the stories, of course, and when she was in Redcliffe as a child she vaguely remembered a tall, stern looking man with odd-colored skin. He had traveled with the Hero of Fereldan. Later on someone had told her that man had been a Qunari -- but she had been ten then. She thought she had been imagining how tall they were.

...Apparently, she had not.

"In a morbid sort of mood." Is her reply, finally, "But, thank you, I suppose."

"Oh, I didn't want to ruin anything," she replies, eyeing the targets. "I have a new staff blade, so I'm mainly practicing with the added weight as opposed to going through all my spells." She looks over Katniss's bow and all her arrows. Ellana has never paid too much attention to what the clan's hunters carry. Or, at least, not anymore. She once was in love with a hunter and she knew what his bow looked like as it lay discarded off to the side while they fooled around, but she is by no means familiar with archery.

"Are you a hunter? Or, I mean, ordinarily a hunter. The Inquisition has us filling new roles, doesn't it?"

Korrin's seen that look a far amount, especially among rifters, so she takes it in stride. She's not as tall as Sten himself, but easily a head and shoulders above most human men. Her face is far more expressive, though, and she smiles, nodding.

"It's not often I hear singing from the ramparts...well, singing that isn't some lewd or silly drinking song. Nothing wrong with a change of pace. Are you one of the new agents, then?" Or has Katniss been around for a while and Korrin just doesn't remember? Given her back-and-forth with the Fallow Mire, it's possible.

"Well, it's not like they would be much of a loss. I took these all from places where people were piling up rubbish." Katniss snorted softly, as she put the quivers down, hooking one on her fingers to swing over her other shoulder. Any hunter will tell you that you should bring several quivers and store the extras in a safe place so you can have access to them once you've used up all those in your quiver.

However, if you are having a bad enough day that you haven't caught anything with one quiver of arrows -- perhaps you shouldn't be hunting that day to begin with.

"I was." Katniss rests her bow on the ground, giving the staff a thoughtful look. "Do you want to test some of your spells?"

One corner of Katniss's mouth twisted, as she tips her head back a little. If she listens hard enough, she can hear someone singing such a song below. "There does seem to be a lot of calls for 'Nuggins' around here, I suppose."

She looked at her fingers, clasped at her knees. "I am. Well, I will be hopefully. I am up for being a scout."

Korrin chuckles as she catches some of that song below as well and moves to sit down, giving Katniss plenty of personal space. It's easier -and probably less intimidating- for her not to be looming over the girl while they talk.

"Good on you, we need as many scouts as we can get. Harding will be the one to decide all that, but as far as I know -and have been told- she has a good head on her shoulders. I'm a mage, not a scout, but I know and work with far too many not to know about her."

Katniss leaned her head back against the stone, breathing in deeply as she looked back up to the sky. Then she looked over to the other woman - she didn't seem like the Qunari were supposed to be. Which meant she was probably a - what was it? Tal-vashoth.

"You know La- Lead Scout Harding?" She tipped her head up curiously. "And yes that is what Cul - Commander Cullen said." She was thankful it was dark out here. "At ... any rate, uhm. Do mages usually go out into the field?"

She stopped, then rubbed her face. "Sorry. Usually don't stick my nose this far into other people's business."

Edited 2015-11-29 02:41 (UTC)

The question makes Ellana smile a little. If Katniss was uncomfortable with magic, she wouldn't be giving her the opportunity now to use it, would she? It's good to find so many who have no problems with it, or at least trust her not to misuse it.

"I could. I'm Ellana, by the way. I haven't seen you around before, but I did just return from the Fallow Mire."

When he's not keeping busy with his own interests, Salvatore helps out with the rebuilding efforts. That usually means supply runs and other menial tasks, as he's proven rather uncoordinated with tools, and not strong enough to do any of the heavy lifting.

Today, he's been tasked with bringing a pile of blankets down to a group of survivors. They aren't in great condition. Most of them are just unusable clothes patched together into rough blanket-shapes. But anything is better than nothing.

He's a little surprised to see someone else already down here, doing and hell of a lot more than just dropping off a bunch of crappy blankets. He puts on a smile and skips right up to her, figuring she'd have a better idea what to do with them.

"Hey. I have some blankets here. Know where I can put them?"

Katniss had never had any problems with magic - in a lot of ways she sympathized with mages. She understood what it was to be outcast with something that you were just born with.

What she had a problem with was the mages who thought they were better than everyone else, slit their wrists open because more power has to be a good thing, and didn't look at all to see if they were hurting innocent people. From what she had seen of Pel, and the other mages here? That was not the case.

So ... Ellana seemed all right. "Katniss. Everdeen." She offered the woman her hand, before her grey eyes narrowed thoughtfully, "You wouldn't have happened to see an older man, there? Dark curls, kind smile, always getting down on himself? He goes by Bruce."

Katniss is finishing up a low conversation with a young mother, showing her how to use the leather wrap around the fur-lined cover she made for her young baby. It was something her father taught her to make - it sold well in winter and was easy enough to construct. She shows the mother where it buttons, shakes her head at the fervent 'Oh Maker bless you ...' before she rises.

And takes in the rather chipper young man before her. She arched an eyebrow, but the blankets would be useful ... "Yes, follow me." She jerked her head a little. "There are some families here with younger children who can use them, and a few with older relatives. I'm surprised, I didn't think there were any blankets to spare."

Ellana is happy to shake Katniss's hand, her pale, delicate hand giving a fair squeeze to show she isn't as delicate as she looks.

"Oh, yes, I saw him." He'd arrived with Gavin and Zevran, but she had seen Bruce before, hovering around the healer tents here at Skyhold. "He looked well the last I saw him. You two are friends?"

"From the looks of them, we're scraping together what we can from what we have." He feels guilty now for trading one of his better blankets for a book while down in the Mire. He follows dutifully behind her, checking around for anyone else. "Were you assigned to do this alone?"

It's the singing that draws him in. At first, it's the voice more than the words, but even without being able to pick everything out, it's enough to spark his curiosity and send him off in search of the singer. When he does manage to find her, he pauses a few feet away to listen quietly, not wanting to disturb her until she's done.

It's only after that that he cautiously approaches, the glow in his hand marking him as one of rifters - and his clothing as a stranger, even though his accent makes him sound remarkably like someone from Starkhaven. The smile on his face is friendly enough, though, even if the darkness makes it slightly harder to spot.

"Can't say as I've heard all that many songs like that lately. Is that something from around here, if you don't mind my asking?"

Great Maker - everything about this girl seemed delicate, light, and beautiful - except for her grip. Her grip was clearly from a lifetime of carrying a staff with her. Perhaps another sign of do not judge appearances for the actual content of a person..

Relief flashed over Katniss's face, before her mouth twitched, "Friends, yes. Although I often act the part of his annoying, nagging sister."

"Ah ... well, something is better than nothing." She took some of the blankets from him, gesturing him to a group while they walked where he could give out some of them.

She blinked at the question, before she snorted in answer, "No. I'm doing this because I wouldn't have thought much of myself if I didn't try to help saves lives.."

She sees the glow before she sees the man, and her eyes don't widen. They narrow - for this is the second such shard she has seen. A Rifter, they were calling them. People who were not from their world. The clothes alone probably would have given him away anyways, but still.

She gives him an even look, before she sighs and looks up to the sky once more "No ... it's something of a taboo song in the Hinterlands. My father taught me."

That makes Ellana giggle and nod. "I have someone that I could be called the nagging sister to, if he is the reckless brother." She'd given Gavin an earful in the Mire for taking off as he had, but the two had later reconciled. She really only nags him because she worries about him.

"Do you have a sending crystal to use to keep in contact with him?"

"They're a pain in the ass, brothers." Katniss stated with a straight face, before she gave her a curious look, "Is he here, your pain in the ass brother?"

She's not sure she would have brought Prim here -- but no. That was a lie. She would have, in a heartbeat.

"I - no. I thought those were for important people." She said slowly, because they seemed like valuable equipment that you didn't just hand out to anyone. Especially some bumpkin from the Hinterlands who wasn't officially part of the Inquisition yet.

It doesn't escape her notice how Katniss nearly refers to the others, but she doesn't pry. Nor does she seem to mind any prying on Katniss' part, not seeing it as such. So, Korrin just shrugs.

"I came to you, didn't I? That's a question I can handle. It depends on the mage, though. Those from the Circle? Probably not, unless they saw action after those fell. I'm an apostate, though. Never been in one of those--hell, I've been a mercenary all my life. The field is where I'm at my best."

"Not at the moment. He's back in the Mire now." And he tends to disappear with no warning, leaving people like her worried for his safety. "His name is Gavin, if you ever come across him. We're both from Clan Ashara."

Ellana shrugs at Katniss's answer, not exactly sure herself, but knowing that she probably shouldn't have one if that's the case.

"They were found here at Skyhold, and someone started handing them out. I'm certainly not in the chain of command, and I have one. Maybe you could ask? I'm not sure if they're running low and perhaps they decided to save them for certain people."

Well, name dropping doesn't seem like a way to make you friends here. Or at least, people who you will have fighting beside you. Besides, one-upmanship has never been Katniss's style.

"Huh." Katniss gnawed on her lower lip, before asking, "All right, as an apostate, and a mercenary -- does that make you less likely to bust out blood magic?"

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