[OPEN] i will be your true companion

[wheretheferngrows]

WHO: Fern + various starters, and OPEN
WHAT: Life keeps going, even when you lose someone you care about.
WHEN: Early through mid-January.
WHERE: The Gallows, Kirkwall
NOTES: None currently, will update as necessary.

I. HERB GARDEN (OPEN)


This was not how Fern had ever hoped to take on the mantle of Head Gardener--but with Sina gone and no one else in the base operations project possessing the same skill set, she steps into the role without complaint. Besides, some part of her cherishes the opportunity to familiarize herself with what would have been Sina's old routine.

She's bundled up against the cold one early morning, eyes still a little heavy from recent sleep and her expression tired and neutral, and is at work clearing out some of the remaining bits of dead brush that weren't gathered before the snow and ice storm arrived. Some of the brush is set aside to be used for kindling or mulch later.

It's simple work, tedious, but it helps to keep the lingering grief at bay.



II. BELETH & SORREL


Fern is cautious to approach them at first, even with Sina's promise in the back of her mind. The burial and funeral are over, and it would of course make sense for the two of them to put their own families and the needs of their clan ahead of some silly farm girl who may not realize she's overstepping their boundaries.

Eventually, she summons up her courage and seeks them out in the garden... waiting for the right time, of course, so as to not interrupt them in the middle of a private conversation.

She clears her throat and peers into their peripheral vision, hoping to catch Beleth's eye, or Sorrel's. "Um," she starts gracefully, "hello. I don't... know if you remember me--"

Sorrel surely does. Beleth may not.



III. MESS HALL (NELL)


It has been a bit easier for Fern to focus on her spellcasting since returning from the Plains--a bit, at any rate. Gaining closure in one respect doesn't mean she has a solution to her other most recent problem, namely Finch's arrival and all that that entails. Still, she's desperately afraid of disappointing Nell, and so perhaps tries too hard to focus on the lessons as they are described to her. Too much concentration means burnout, which means more mistakes.

She's trying not to dwell on them while they sit in the mess hall together eating lunch, but it's difficult not to get discouraged. And in the back of her mind, she's toying with another thought, one that Anders brought up to her when he reached out to her with a message the other evening.

In spite of whatever else it is they're discussing, when there's a pause, Fern looks across the table at Nell and asks, "Do you know Anders very well?"



IV. ELVEN ARTIFACTS OFFICE (PEL)


It's a bit of an adventure for Fern to find her way to the Elven Artifacts research offices, just because she spends very little of her day in this part of the Gallows--but find it she does. After a moment spent straightening out her shirt and tucking some loose strands of hair behind her ears, she knocks on the door and waits.

Comments

[wheretheferngrows]

"No matter how much you think a Templar is a good person, how kind and reasonable and trustworthy they seem, you have to remember that they have been taught since childhood that mages are not really people, not the way they are. They can be friendly, when it's easy. But when push comes to shove they will always choose their own over you."

Can she know how her words affect Fern? Maybe she has some idea--there's a reason why she chose to share this much of her trauma with the young girl she's come to mentor after all, isn't there? Still, Fern sits very still, very quiet, as she hears a life described to her that, perhaps under other circumstances, could have been her own. She could have gone to the Circle as a child, received the upbringing and education that Nell describes to her now--and she knows her own heart well enough to know that, had she been given the chance, she'd have leapt at the opportunity to be a Knight-Enchanter. (Somewhere, deep in her heart, there's still the idealistic young girl who came to the Inquisition intending to join the Grey Wardens.)

"...they will always choose their own over you."

In something approaching shocked silence, Fern sits across from Nell and doesn't say anything at all. She presses her lips into a thin line and looks down, self consciously arranging her napkin in her lap, then fiddling with the end of a lock of hair.

"I'm--" she tries to start after a moment, her eyes searching and finding no purchase on the table in front of her. Eventually, she looks up to Nell, her expressive eyes full of so much conflict and sadness it's hard to place where one begins and the other ends. "I'm--so sorry that happened. That you were beaten, and..." Her words taper off.