faderift | [OPEN] build a bridge or maybe two

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[OPEN] build a bridge or maybe two

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.)

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He's got a sack on his back, and for once there's no cat present as he passes through the gardens. His robes are even drab, olive green and browns without embellishment, and there's not even a staff on his back. But he's smiling despite the lack of usual accessories, and as he sees Fern his expression brightens even more.

"Fern!" He detours over to her. "Are you busy? Would you like to meet a griffon?"

She hasn't quite had time to manage it by the time Nell shows up, stepping over the melting slush pie on her way. She glances down at it, momentarily confused--it's cold, especially for a Nevarran, but sure not that-- oh. She smiles, and then it flashes wider as she looks up and spots Fern's hair. "I did that so many times," she says, "Kostos even worse, I swear his hair stood up for a whole year just about when we were starting out."

"We can work on electricity today if you like. But first you've got to hit the bullseye with five fireballs, and hold a steady flame for two minutes. Yeah?" They've been working on control most of all. Nell's adamant about its importance, and each lesson she steps up the demands incrementally, a series of repeated exercises to begin and end each lesson, sandwiching new material in between.

Nell leans her staff against a bench and steps in the general direction of the targets, unbuttoning her coat and shaking out her arms. "What are you making of Emory's Enchantments?" she asks.

"Would you like to meet a griffon?"

Fern is elbow-deep in garden soil and so lost in thought that she startles when Anders calls out to her, whipping her head back around to blink owlishly at him. "What--a griffon?" she starts, a slow smile chasing the shock off her face, and starts up to her feet. "Really? I mean--am I allowed? Since I'm not a Warden, I mean."

Nope. Nope. She's not bitter about that at all. (...All right, she is, but not at Anders.)

Fern whips her head around, spots Nell, and blushes furious, but there's a tiny smile tugging up the corners of her lips as she does so. "Is he a friend of yours?" she asks, obviously referring to Kostos; better to get her teacher chatting about someone else, rather than how silly her pupil looks with her hair puffed up like an Orlesian lap dog. Fern finally fishes a bit of ribbon out of one of her pockets and uses that to tie her hair back from her face.

She nods vigorously at her first set of instructions and is already following along at Nell's heels towards the targets, but balks uncertainly at that question: "What are you making of Emory's Enchantments?"

Oh, bother. "Um," she begins smartly and cuts her eyes to the side; she can't very well keep up this pretence for very long, and she's frankly a terrible liar. Uncomfortably looking to Nell again, she mumbles, "I can't--didn't, read it."

Having a moment to simply sit down even for the duration of the ferry ride is a luxury right now. Running around to get her work done at the Gallows or elsewhere, to go home and make food for Korrin and Nari sitting with Sina when she goes to sit herself, Araceli doesn't have a lot of time right now to relax. The free hours swallowed up by worries faster than she can sort through them.

"You're always welcome Fern," Araceli replies, and though her voice is kind the smile is tired, more distracted than usual. "I can't remember everything in our kitchen right now but there's always something good, and right now, sitting down with a hot meal for a little while is what everyone needs."

Araceli needs someone she can feed that isn't going to waste away. Korrin needs to see another person that isn't dying in front of her. Fern needs to not be so close to death when she's young and should have the wind in her hair and turning her cheeks pink.

"Lux needs someone to fuss over him, he feels terribly neglected," she confides as if this is the greatest of secrets and not one of the most well-known facts about her spoiled fox.

"Lux needs someone to fuss over him, he feels terribly neglected," Araceli tells her with such a twinkle in her eye that Fern has to smile a little, ducking her head and threading hair behind one of her ears. Her cheeks are already looking a bit windburnt. "We had to chase foxes away from the chicken coops and rabbit hutches, back in Ansburg," she tells Araceli thoughtfully, "but I always thought they were so pretty. Ma' would never have let me keep one though."

As the ferry comes closer to the docks, some of her smile begins to fade, guilt coming in to chase away the corners of her levity. She swallows, worrying her lower lip, and admits, "I feel--bad. Every time I think a happy thought, knowing that Sina is.." She trails off, predictably, and drops her eyes.

Korrin's similarly tired and distracted, recent events taking their toll, but she would never say no to Araceli having friends over for dinner (as long as they aren't Anders). Besides, her kadan is right. It will do them good to have a nice sit-down meal with someone, away from the healing tent. The fact that Fern has visited there as well hasn't gone unnoticed, and the Vashoth's smile remains warm as she shifts her gaze from Araceli to their guest.

It fades as she listens and lets out a soft sigh, nodding. "...I know. That happens to me, too. I just try to tell myself that holding back those thoughts doesn't help her any." If they did...but they won't, Sina's course is set and they all know it.

But foxes! Foxes are a much less depressing topic. "I swear he's the most spoiled fox in Thedas...but with a coat like that, Lux deserves all the attention he gets. I do try to give him brushings and toys more than treats, Araceli doesn't want him getting too fat." But it's hard, holding back when she knows he's watching her.

There is no particular reason why Simon is doing paperwork in the library today instead of at his own private desk. No reason at all, and certainly not one that has anything to do with mages who frequent the place. He is not planning to run into any small elven mages whatsoever.

But he'll take any who happen to be around, even if they are perhaps not the ones he totally wasn't expecting anyway. He's always pleased to see Fern without having to go all the way out to the stables for the privilege. "What's got you all riled-up?" he asks, signing an incident report with a lazy scribble.

Oblivious to her learning tribulations, his mind has not registered anything significant at all about her sitting there with an untouched pile of books and pens. That's just what mages do.

Edited 2017-11-15 10:02 (UTC)

"What's got you all riled-up?"

Moody and annoyed, Fern shoots him a black look that could only be conjured by a teenager. "Nothing," she mumbles defensively, drops her eyes, then sighs and props her face up with both hands. She stares down at her work, equal parts frustrated and perhaps a little intimidated. "It's just--this work, that's all. It's harder than I thought it would be."

The idea of Lux chasing a real wild animal would make Araceli laugh at any other time, today it gets a snort. "He'll chase a pretty girl he thinks might be a soft touch for all his sad looks or a bit of food you turn your back on but a supper he'd have to work for? No, he's far too much the gentleman." Until he goes rolling in dead seagulls or fences with crabs blocking his path on the beach thank you very much.

"After Korrin, Sina was the first friend I made after I came to Thedas," Araceli says which isn't news to Korrin but will be for Fern. "She's always been a person who gives, much more of it smiling when wisdom would say she shouldn't. Life is to be lived. To go somewhere, to see something, to hear a tale, a song, meet a new person then tell a friend; a part of her is going to be with you after. She won't be...she won't be gone." Not easy to say now but easier to say with Sina still clinging to life, let her see what happens to the words that she can practice once she's gone and the next day comes, then the next.

Still, she's been here two years now away from loved ones. That's a grief in and of itself, not so easily understood as she slips coin into the hand of the ferryman to lead the way to an absurdly cheerful blue door. And right as the key slips in the lock, Lux comes barging out to investigate a new guest, a blur of black and orange wiggling fur.

"Oh," says Nell, taking her meaning from the mumbling and general discomfort, combined with the fact that Fern's yet to seem the type to just skive off a lesson. She turns toward the targets, fixes her attention on them instead of on Fern, and flame springs to life above her hands, expanding and bending to shape itself into a ball. She holds it, not launching straight away, but also not focusing the whole of her attention on the magic.

"We'll have to find you a teacher," she says, casually, "Casimir could probably help, they made him tutor me when I first got to the Circle. I couldn't read at all and my Nevarran was terrible." She pauses, glances over her shoulder at Fern. "--I assume you want to learn."

She flinches at that "oh", and takes a sudden interest in the toes of her boots. Is it strange to have wished for a bit of needling from her teacher on that subject? Of course she shouldn't wish to be made fun of, but it's so much easier to get angry at someone for being cruel, rather than... respond however it is she's supposed to respond, to this pragmatic non-judgment. She fidgets her fingers together.

"--I assume you want to learn."

"I do," she starts, then straightens her shoulders and asserts more firmly, "I already am, actually. I've got a tutor. She teaches me lessons, gives me homework--" ugh, "--and everything."

Her eyes are drawn immediately to the impeccable control Nell seems to exert over the ball of flame that flickers and bends menacingly in her palm, taking a few steps closer to regard it admiringly. "...Can I try to do that?"

Araceli's words sit heavily in Fern's heart as she trails a little way's behind her and Korrin on the way to their home. It isn't bleak depression that makes her melancholic; it's just the knowledge of what.. might have been, if only she and Sina had had more time, if things had been different--

But both Korrin and Araceli are right that to think only of the bad things won't do Sina any good now, and so it's not so difficult for a sunny smile to suddenly light Fern's face as Lux comes scampering over to investigate her. "--oh, he's lovely!" she exclaims and crouches before him with a giggle, stroking both hands over his energetically wiggling form and scratching behind his ears. Cooing, she adds, "You know you're handsome, don't you!" Because of course he does.

"Of course. I'd not invite you if you weren't." Anders tilts his head in the direction he's going. "Anything you've got on that's shiny will need to go in a pocket or pouch; the griffon I work with is fairly well behaved but there's always the chance of another swooping in."

He knows the Warden comment is probably still a sore spot and it makes sense, but he'll just... let it pass. There's no need to call attention to it.

"Buggy is a bit of an attention hog, so you'll want to mainly pay attention to her," he says as he starts to lead the way.

She's glad, for the moment, not to have to think about the Wardens--or Sina, though it makes her heart ache to admit that to herself. Grieving is an exhausting task.

When he mentions the griffons' proclivity towards picking at shiny objects, she gives a snort and falls into step next to him, dusting more dirt and such off of her hands and leggings. "I definitely don't have anything like that," she replies--then remembers the bit of satin ribbon in her hair, a gift from her division head, and frowns. She starts to tug it loose and stuff it into one of her pockets... just to be safe.

"I didn't think griffons were real anymore," she starts as they walk along, giving him a sideways look. ...Is he trying to pull a fast one on her? "Are you sure they're really griffons?"

His eyes sparkle at the question.

"I suppose they could be very, very good at bluffing. They've clever enough beaks to have picked up a bunch of feathers, but how would they have covered themselves in glue enough for the feathers to stick?"

The guard at the entrance to the griffon's tower gets a nod before he lets them past, and Anders waves Fern to come along.

"Of course, that begs the question of what they were before they made themselves look like griffons. Perhaps overly large eagles that ate all of their vegetables? Or wyverns that are too smart for their own good, that's possible too." He hopes his voice makes it clear he's not making fun of her as they climb the stairs and get toward the door at the top.

Not making fun of her, but clearly making fun. She giggles, blushing a bit; all right, it was a silly question, she'll admit it.

Once they reach the door, she feels a rush of elation and finds herself startled by it. Perhaps Anders was right to come pull her out of the tedium of her daily routine, to mix things up a bit; this is exciting, and new, in a way things haven't been for her--at least not in a positive way--in quite some time. She looks questioningly Anders' way, wide eyes suddenly uncertain. "I've never been any good with birds," she blurts out suddenly, "how am I supposed to behave around them?"

Listening to Araceli, Korrin's smile is bittersweet. One reason why it's painful to dwell on Sina's passing is that she has been with them for so long; since the beginning, for Araceli, and almost as long for Korrin herself. The Inquisition won't be the same without her presence. "That reminds me, I think I want to get another tattoo, for her...but I'm not sure what, just yet." And no it won't be vallaslin-related, that would never be appropriate.

As Lux joins them, that smile changes into an actual grin. "Oh, he knows, but he never minds hearing it again and again. What do you think, Lux? Is she a new friend?"

The blush and worried question have his smile turning more gentle. If only all of the younger mages were like her, reaching for the world with open minds.

"Breathe, for one. Treat Buggy like an overgrown cat who can do more damage than a cat if she gets a mind to... but as long as you're feeding her and brushing her and telling her she's gorgeous, she's not going to attack."

Anders opens the door slowly, peeking in first to make sure the griffons aren't all being rowdy. A few look up at him, and all but one go back to what they were doing. They know who he's here for, a majestic looking griffon who stands from her straw bed and shakes herself off before coming over.

The sack comes off his back and he pulls the first fish out, offering it over. "Take another from the bag and copy what I'm doing, if you'd like. She'll eat from you after she's eaten this one, won't you, lovely."

"Breathe, right," she repeats, and does that, because it sounds like good advice for any situation anyway. She straightens up and waits for him to open the door, reminding herself that really, could they be any worse than Rooster after he's been stung by a hornet? She can't imagine it.

Still, nothing quite prepares her for the sight of the enormous beasts beyond the door, and her eyes, already quite large to begin with, grow even rounder, and bluer, if possible. "--Maker, look at them..!" she starts breathily, then spooks a bit like a deer when that large griffon gets up and stretches languorously like a cat, before ambling over.

Out come the fish, and Fern takes one from Anders mechanically as he offers it out to her. "Right," she says again, a bit meekly, then looks to Buggy and watches avidly as Anders goes about feeding her first. Then, offering the fish out, she quirks a shy smile. "Hi there, pretty," she says, voice a bit sing-song. Please eat the fish and not her hand, that would be so nice.

Buggy is careful when eating from Anders' hand, and only pauses a moment before addressing the fish in Fern's hand next. Anders grins and sets the sack right next to Fern before stepping to the side and grabbing her brush.

"Good girl," he murmurs to the griffon. Maybe she doesn't need encouragement, but it seems to help and he'd like to keep Fern's nerves steady.

"Just like that," he says to Fern. "She wants the fish and attention, and she's smart enough to know that biting gets her neither, aren't you, Buggy."

The griffon looks at him and tilts her head as if to talk back, earning her a wing scratch. She chirps happily and leans forward to nudge at the pack, looking for more food.

Ellana doesn't have a green thumb, so she really has little reason to visit gardens. But today she finds herself wandering, deep in thought, and it just so happens she ends up here, spotting a person moving around the middle of it. On closer inspection, she sees it's Fern, so she pushes her own thoughts aside to give Fern a smile.

"Hey there. I don't have to ask what you're doing here," she says, nodding towards Fern's gloves. "Do you have experience with gardening?"

One of the most alarming sounds known to man is unfortunately the sound of an excited fox. Araceli is immune having owned Lux since the age of twelve but it's why getting the door shut was such a priority since it muffles the noise enough to not give the neighbours another reason to hate them as the fox wiggles, headbutting his face against Fern without any sort of grace.

"Lux," she says as she makes her way to the small kitchen area after hanging up her coat, "any chance you've had of playing the suave gentleman are gone. Washed away like so many a sandcastle."

(He's not even listening, he's too happy being lavished with attention after being abandoned, Fern, cruelly and shamefully abandoned by this woman for work of all things!)

With most of dinner set from the evening before, Araceli glances back at Korrin. "Something to do with plants and the garden? Nari would know her favourites, maybe a little halla in amongst them? Nari told me that even the halla loved Sina too. Fern would you like something to drink - chase Lux away, he'll be under that table with his mouth open for food to fall in it, go sit, this won't take long to cook."

And food she shall receive, and as soon as Fern determines that Buggy is indeed the good girl that Anders proclaims her to be, she smiles more broadly and offers the fish out to the griffon with shades of her cheery disposition returning.

Inquisitively, she asks Anders, "Do you ever ride her?" Looking at the great animal's back, she tries to picture what a saddle and harness would even look like on a griffon, and keeps drawing a blank.

She startles when she hears a voice behind her and quickly turns around, then smiles some when she spots Ellana. "Oh, yes," she replies, looking down to her gloves, as well as the bundle of twigs and branches she now holds in her arms, ready to be carted off for disposal. "I helped look after the crops on my family's farm, back outside Ansburg. And outside Denerim. ...and everywhere else we've been, to be honest."

She carries the branches over to a wheel barrow she's requisitioned for the purpose of her work and deposits them there, dusts off her hands, then peers back at Ellana. "Did you come out here to see the stones Sina laid here?" Her voice is a bit sad now.

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[OPEN] build a bridge or maybe two

VI

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{ chantry garden }

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