[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

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin takes the jabbing with a good-natured chuckle, but it's quiet and quickly subsides as she nods in agreement with her kadan's advice. Araceli's searching hand is met with her own larger one, giving it a tender squeeze. Her own eyes suspiciously bright for a moment, she clears her throat.

"Good, I'm glad to hear it. It's better than leaving things unsaid and regretting it later, trust me. She'll understand." Korrin's heart aches for the love and affection Sina deserves, yet didn't get to have. It's too late for a life with Fern, but not for the warmth that such an admission might bring.

[foxsays]

After the first time crying in front of Sina, Araceli hasn't done it since. What does it do, where does it get either of them but when she's here it all comes out (she's saving a fortune on salt these days and those to come, no one can see her tears when she's cooking.) Fern's so young though, and Araceli doesn't want her to see a person closed off.

Better to stay soft. You don't get hurt that way no matter what people say.

"Sina-" Why does her voice keep giving up on her, why won't it hold out longer, "Sina gave so much to the Inquisition. And I know that she never got what she deserved or needed or wanted from it, not really, not enough."

How terrible to say you've put all the breath in your body into a thing that's failing someone you love, Araceli takes little solace in admitting it but she can.

"And for you, Fern, don't let it eat you. Some things you swallow but that's a lesson for a better day so I'll say this: keep inside a regret and it turns you bitter, you're too good of heart for that." Korrin's poor hand is in a whiteknuckle grip but wouldn't people maybe have said the same sort of thing about them before?

[wheretheferngrows]

"Okay," Fern whispers back, looking from Araceli to Korrin both with eyes that are misty again, but there's a conviction in the set of her jaw that she hopes will reassure them both.

For a moment longer she stays put in her seat, before she can't anymore. Getting up, she slips around to the other side of the table to put her arms around Araceli's shoulders--and Korrin's, if she'll accept it. Fern squeezes her eyes shut. "Thank you both, for being--for being so kind to me." It's more than she'd ever dreamed to expect from anyone in Kirkwall.

[gatheringstorm]

That surprise affection isn't turned away, not from Korrin's end. She smiles despite the heartache to come, reaching up with her free hand to rest it upon Fern's own.

"You're welcome, Fern. It means a lot to know that someone cares for her, even now. And if you'd like to return for more dinners, I definitely won't object. Lux probably won't either." Right, fluffy loaf?

[foxsays]

Maybe living two years apart and in another world from the people you love while settling into a new life makes you able to say certain things. That there's a bravery in being able to open your heart, accept a hurt and live with that, to move on with the memory of it; one day looking back at it when it's not so raw. Or maybe that's Korrin's to tell with someone who could disappear same as any other rifter has in the past without any word or sign, something Araceli might not have control over.

Araceli's smile is bright because no matter how terrible a thing she's been there for (and Thedas has brought her worse than home ever did) there's always been kindness, there's always been a hand, a friend, a smile. "Kindness costs so little to the hand that extends it. The offer is always open for dinner and for one of us to get you here, I know it's not the best of places to get to all the time."