[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

VI

[justice_is_blond]

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?"

[galvanising]

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.

i;

[foxsays]

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.

[paladingus]

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.

{ chantry garden }

[serannas]

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?"

iv

[thunderproof]

Adalia, on the other hand, feels most at home in the library. Granted it's not as big as Candlekeep, and granted it feels a lot more cold than Candlekeep ever did... it's still a library. Adalia was raised with books and librarians and quiet, and being here, doing research and taking notes, makes her feel a lot more like herself than she has in months. With Charis dozing lightly on her shoulders, she might even dare to call this her favourite place in Kirkwall.

She's been keeping to herself, reading Brother Genitivi's Kirkwall: The City of Chains and taking notes on everything she thinks a Rifter should know, but it's impossible not to notice the pouty little elf girl a few tables down, glaring at her books as if the force of her displeasure could set them on fire. Who knows, maybe she's a mage and it can! Adalia keeps glancing up, trying to keep the amused smile off her face, but the picture the girl paints is so familiar it's almost comical, and eventually Adalia gathers up all her things, nudges Charis to get him to take to the air, and walks over to the girl's table, where she spreads out all her things and takes a chair, entirely as if she had been asked to come over.

"I find studying is much more fun with a partner, don't you? What are you working on?"

six hundred years later

[aforethought]

She’s around the stables often enough — less, now they’ve got that big painted woman watching over the lot of them, but sooner or later there’s always someone to go calling in accounts: Melys, what’s it you said you were gonna be doing for us now, again? Can only duck the obligations, set them against each other for so long before you’ve got to give in.

Besides, she likes the horses.

She’s around the stables often enough, but never this late in the evening. The creak of doors, the pad of feet signals her approach: Not the step of someone trying for silence; closer, maybe, to the absence of it. No reason to put on a show. Melys coughs, shakes the wet from her raggedy mane.

Soaked through and trying vainly to light the pipe in her teeth (flint won’t catch), it’s a moment before she notes Fern’s presence, eyes turned to her wide and red-rimmed and (briefly) unguarded. The shake of her head, away. She stops trying for a spark, holds her distance. No call to spook a kid.

"That one yours?"

It's hoarse. She’s not looking at Fern to toss the kit back in a pocket, to drag hand and pipe up through her hair. Steady. You’ve got to be steady around mules.