[OPEN] build a bridge or maybe two

[wheretheferngrows]

WHO: Fern + various starters and OPEN
WHAT: Catch-all for the month of November.
WHEN: Early through mid-November.
WHERE: Kirkwall and the Gallows
NOTES: None yet.

I. AT THE DOCKS (ARACELI AND KORRIN)


The trip from the Gallows to the Kirkwall docks isn't a very long one, but time feels strange to Fern lately, like it travels at a different speed while she's seated at Sina's bedside. Sitting in the boat while the ferryman pilots their way across the channel towards the city, she looks pensively out across the water, then towards her new friend seated beside her. She fiddles with the end of a lock of her hair, chewing at the corner of her mouth.

"Thanks," she says after a pause, "for inviting me to dinner."



II. TRAINING GROUNDS (NELL)


It's startling for Fern to realize that actually, she's quite good at offensive magic.

The training grounds are mostly empty this morning, which gives Fern plenty of time to work through the small selection of spells that Nell has given her to work with, so far. The fire spells are the ones that come most easily to her, she's discovering, whereas her attempts at an ice wall generate something that more accurately approaches a drift of slushy snow. Nell hasn't, strictly speaking, given her any instruction in how to tackle electricity spells yet... though that doesn't stop her from deciding to attempt one.

Realistically, it could have gone much worse than a bit of a shock, and hair that now stands on end as though subjected to too much static electricity.

Fern hisses and shakes out both of her hands, which still smart from the backfired spell, and hastily tries to comb her hair back down into submission before Nell shows up.



III. GWENAELLE'S HOME (GWEN)


While hardly Fern's first visit to Hightown, this is the first time she's ventured anywhere near the Vauquelin estate--and today, she's meant to walk right up to the doors and request to be let inside.

Or, well. To the front gate, as it were.

That's where she hovers now, a bit after the prescribed time that she was meant to arrive for her lessons but nevertheless present, with an effort made to appear washed and tidy. She even took a bit of care tie her hair back from her face with a bit of satin ribbon, and has some of the wonderful writing supplies gifted to her tucked into the satchel slung over her shoulders.

She's as ready to learn as she's going to get. ...Now, if she could just sort out how to get past the front gate.

"Um. ...Hello?" she calls out.



IV. THE LIBRARY (SIMON + OPEN)


(OOC: The thread with Simon is closed, but other characters can pop by at other times!)

Apparently if Gwen and Nell have nothing else in common with each other, they're both proponents of this cruel mode of torture that is apparently called 'home work,' and Fern doesn't like it at all.

She's sequestered herself in a corner of the library where she's fairly sure she won't be bothered by the mean little scholars who gave her such a hard time earlier in the summer--but frankly, the books open in front of her are doing a better job of reminding her of how stupid she feels than anything those other teenagers might have said. She sits with her arms folded over her chest and a black scowl bending her brows into a dark furrow, all of her fancy writing utensils and tools for learning resting, elegant and untouched, on the tabletop.

"This is so stupid," she says to--well, no one, really. Exhaling, she picks up the pen like it's the hardest thing in the world to make herself do, and just fiddles with the end of it, popping the cap on and off again.



V. THE STABLES (MELYS)


It's pissing with rain one night after Fern slinks into her chosen hideaway after a day spent at work in the gardens, at her training with Nell, and working on her letters with Lady Gwen... and, as usual, an hour spent sitting quietly at Sina's bedside. It's like entering a different world, crossing the threshold of the infirmary to keep a vigil by her bed, sometimes with Nari, sometimes alone. (She stays away when Sorrel is there. It seems wrong, otherwise.)

Tonight, a bit sodden to match her dismal mood, she's warming up with a mug of tea and a blanket slung round her shoulders, alternating between feeding bits of dried fruit to Rooster from her palm and stroking his nose affectionately.



VI.  THE CHANTRY GARDEN (OPEN + ELLANA)


(OOC: The thread with Ellana is closed, but other characters can pop by at other times!)

Fern promised she would look after the garden for Sina, and so that is what she's going to do. The trouble is, she hasn't quite dealt with <i>this much</i> much before, much less on her own.

She's brought a small kit of gardening tools with her, as well as her sturdy boots and gloves (and a small lyrium potion, just in the event she needs to lend some strength to her creation magic for the task ahead). Now she stands in the middle of the garden, looking around in vulnerable awe at the growth her friend had created. The leaves that remain are a greyish brown, but when she rests a hand against the trunk of a nearby tree, she can feel the pliant, living strength of the wood and bark. It's only sleeping; in spring, it will be whole again.

That's more than can be said for Sina. Fern squeezes her eyes shut, squares her shoulders, and sets to the task of cleaning up the dead twigs and branches from the forest floor.



VII.  WILDCARD (OPEN)


(OOC: Surprise me! Or hit me up on plurk if you want a specific starter.)

Comments

[wheretheferngrows]

That response gives her a moment's pause, and she looks rather surprised by Ellana's answer. But her aunt often cautioned her against assuming much of a person's internal landscape just based on the responses they give you in conversation--and really, Ellana doesn't know her well at all, does she? It would make sense that she'd keep any feelings she has about Sina's situation to herself.

"...that would be nice, thank you," she replies when Ellana offers to help her tidy up some of the underbrush. She gestures over to the wheelbarrow where she's been depositing the other branches and twigs. "I'm just putting everything over there for now, until I can sort out what else to do with it. Do you like gardening too?"

[serannas]

That and Ellana's made peace with it all. Her Warden ex-boyfriend gave her a new perspective on life and death. Sina's death will finally free her from the pain; that's how Ellana's choosing to look at it.

Without further ado, Ellana gets right into helping, not minding that she doesn't have on any gloves today. She grew up in the forest, collecting tinder and firewood. Her hands recognize the sensation of bark against skin once more and it's like a memory trigger, taking her back to her time in the clan when she felt desperate to be useful somehow. Where she felt a longing for something more.

"I actually don't have any experience with it," she admits, biting her lip with a smile. "I know that must sound silly, but it's just never been an area I've explored. I'll bet it's fun, though. To nurture something and make it grow." Just one more bit of magic the Keeper never bothered teaching her. She used to be envious of how the other Dalish mages could make plants grow. But she has other magical strengths now that she hardly thinks of it anymore.

[wheretheferngrows]

Fern pauses before dumping another armful of branches into the wheelbarrow to consider Ellana's words, knitting her eyebrows some in thought. Did she consider gardening fun? It was more something that she'd just always known how to do, growing up on farms surrounded by plants and animals. But--yes. She did enjoy it, she supposed. She seemed drawn to it, wherever she went.

"I don't know any Keeper magic," she admits, drops the branches into the wheelbarrow, then wanders back towards Ellana with a thoughtful look on her face. "Sina was going to teach me a little of it, but we... we've run out of time for that." Before the sadness can creep in and seize hold of her, she adds with a little smile, "But I do know some magic for gardening. I can show it to you, if you like."

A bit embarrassed, having said that; surely Ellana knows more interesting magic than anything Fern could share with her.

[serannas]

"I'd help if I could, but I don't know any either." Which she hopes doesn't spark more questions. She feels like she's spent too long caring about her past and how the Keeper failed her. She wants to move forward now.

"I'd like that!" She offers a smile. "Maybe I'll be more inclined to try gardening if I know some magic for it. Then I wouldn't worry about messing something up."

[wheretheferngrows]

"Oh, you can still mess it up," Fern insists, looking almost chagrined as she says it; sounds like she speaks from experience. She brightens anyway and starts to push her sleeves up her arms.

"My aunt taught me this warming glyph, for keeping plants warm during the colder months. It's for the roots mostly, I think--or at least, I think that's what she told me. Can't really remember." She kneels in the dry, cold dirt next to a thatch of blackberry bushes and with a deft hand that draws upon the magic of the Fade sketches a glyph just above the soil. There's a slight pulse of energy, and something like steam seems to waft from the surface of the ground, before the gentle, lambent glow of a golden yellow glyph begins to glow beneath the branches of the bush.

"It's not fire-based," Fern adds to Ellana quickly, as though worried she'll have the same concern as Myr and suspect Fern of setting a brushfire. "It's just warmth, like... like sunlight." She watches the other elf curiously, expectantly. "What do you think?"

[serannas]

Ellana's green eyes go wide as she watches, not because she fears a fire starting, but because it's an impressive bit of magic. When asked for her opinion, she beams back at Fern.

"It's amazing! I've never seen a glyph like it before that just warms like that. I wonder if it could work in bathwater too. Have you ever tried?"