She robbed them of wealth

[foxsays]

WHO: Araceli Bonaventura and you!
WHAT: Catch-all for post-Mire; gambling in the tavern, Skyhold parkour 2: electric boogaloo, chilling in the gardens and wildcard available. Also dinner with Korrin Ataash
WHEN: Between returning from the Fallow Mire and folks departing to the darkspawn desert and red templar winter adventureland
WHERE: Skyhold; the Herald’s Rest, battlements, gardens or wherever if you wildcard it
NOTES: Feel free to have seen a wild Araceli roaming past (and possibly up and over) your windows or to have had a run-in with her fox. I’ll match your style/tense.

tavern; teaching cards and dice
If she’s going to have to learn new games of cards, the least she can do is make sure people can play a few hands of the games she grew up with or introduce them to liar’s dice. Liar’s dice is always so much more than just making coin or whatever you’re wagering after all; liar’s dice teaches you how to figure out a tell and how to cover your own with enough practice and how to tell the most bold-faced lies without a single person noticing if you’re good.

She’s more than happy to buy a drink for anyone who wants to play a hand or two. If you’re new she’ll go easy on you if you offer to explain how Wicked Grace works.

parkour;
The best thing about being back in Skyhold is actually having something to climb that won’t have her landing stagnant water that’s full of corpses ready to attack her. There’s always a little note tacked on a corner of the board in her elegant hand offering lessons and her name but it’s easier in small groups or one on one. Often you’ll need to track her down as she does her regular circuits of Skyhold, climbing up and down the walls either side of the fortress

gardens;
The gardens of Skyhold are larger than most gardens in Castileos, lacking the sea air but they’re more sheltered than most other places in Skyhold so she can some of the weak watery sun. After the Mire she needs it so she’s relocated from the library that was beginning to feel overcrowded with actual researchers, something she is absolutely not. Instead she’s working on something of a report, scowling at it most of the time and there are doodles in the margins, annoyed scribbles and half a paw print along the edge of one of the pages but it’s fine, it’s a draft, it’s perfectly fine.

Besides, it’s not even a report exactly, more of a guide, advice about how to actually get around and fight safely in conditions like the Mire.

Feel free to interrupt before she starts getting distracted with her little reference sketches.

wildcard;
Where else have you bumped into her? Or have you met a rather striking fox with streaks of red beneath his black fur and wondered who the hell keeps shouting ‘Lux’ as you stare down at said fox.

dinner with Korrin Ataash;
It took a lot of convincing to get the kitchen staff to allow her to cook. It helps that she had the coin to pay for it thanks to several profitable games of dice because it’s easy to spot a liar and far too many of the soldiers have honest faces here, the kind of men and women that’d be eaten alive in Castileos. She promised Korrin a meal she’d cooked herself and they absolutely deserve it after that hell.

She can’t make her favourite exactly. They don’t have quite as many fish but that’s obviously the problem with being stuck up a bloody mountain although there’s at least plenty of snow and ice to help keep it fresh. One of the helpers stays to explain the herbs she doesn’t recognise but all in all there’s plenty of fish stew served in bread bowls with rich tomato sauce with a healthy glug of good red wine through it.

When Korrin arrives according to the note Araceli left with her, there’s even a candle or two lit. Look, you gotta have ambience for this after she spent a whole day engaged in high stakes kitchen negotiations.

Comments

[amygdalae]

There was probably one heck of a story behind those words, but Bruce figured he probably shouldn't pry - it wasn't in him to ask anyway unless the other party was willing to offer the information. Valuing his own privacy himself, Bruce would find it hypocritical if he didn't extend that same courtesy to others.

"For everyone's sake, I hope that is a lesson they quickly learn well," he returned with some bemusement. "And I'm a 'doctor sort of doctor', as you might say, although I do appreciate what the healers can do. Their magic is useful in many things that potions and poultices can't quite manage." As much as Bruce liked his potions and poultices, it was hard to deny the effectiveness of magic and how much they helped.

[foxsays]

"I demonstrated and I always offer ropes, I know that for some people they just can't, their head gets too full of fear before they even look down. You see them tense up when you mention it but this far up a mountain, it seemed a sensible place to start." Although snow was awful to land in, even when it didn't have a layer of ice and the old horsemaster could deal with her borrowing stable supplies if it meant no one hurt themselves.

Well no one but Gavin but he clearly needed his own set of rules.

"Potions," she tried and failed to hold the smile back but some things were still too new and strange. "We have lots of poultices but potions are things like love potions to woo the man or woman of your dreams, not potions that do whatever it is that they do. Do they actually really heal you, quick as a flash? I never drank the one I was given."

[amygdalae]

Bruce blinked at the question, a little surprised at the question and then some other parts of what she had said. Love potions? That--certainly was not a thing here - or at least, not something that Bruce knew of. Maybe something like that did exist, but that wasn't exactly in his realm of expertise.

"There's some that can do that, but they're usually enchanted with magic after being brewed." Potions were made with herbs after all, and those were certainly not magical. "But if you're drinking a magical potion its usually easier to just get a healer to patch up your wounds instead."

[foxsays]

Sorry Thedas has no sense of romance without it being accompanied by something awful, what a world, no love potions sold by old ladies down by the shore when the tide was just right. Not that she’d vouch for that because it was cheating to use something out of a bottle to do it.

“Honestly if I’d been hurt badly by one of those corpses I would rather trust someone with stitches and leeches when I know that it works in the past.” Not that they were just as bad as that but the classics, she liked those. “How are your patients? You must get so many when people are always tramping in and out, up and down the mountains, you must have to work around the clock, even falling over mages.” Maybe there weren’t so many to people used to them but going from zero to most of the people she knew? Quite a leap.

[amygdalae]

"There's always work to be done, but I manage for the most part." Plus Bruce liked to be kept busy - it made him feel useful, made him feel like he was actually doing something, doing what he had come here to do. "The healers try their best as well, even if sometimes the patients can be wary." Bruce does try his best to assure them though, especially for the ones who do need magic to treat their illness and injuries. As much as he likes his potions and stuff, he knows how much more effective magic can be.

Still, if she preferred the traditional ways, Bruce couldn't begrudge her on that. "Feel free to look for me if you ever need some patching up. I'll do my best, as much as I'm able."

[foxsays]

"Seeing as everything here seems to want to eat people, well, more or less, you must be running around like a chicken with its head cut off." Seriously, is there a rule that virtually everything here is a special brand of not only murderous or awful but both at once? Even the wildlife gets very testy if accidentally zapped or hit in the heat of battle. "No doubt a mage will have to heal me one day when the barrier thing they cast stops working but that first time? We cling to the familiar. Or some of us more than others."

An awful lot here is strange, including her own left hand, something that she never thought possible.

"Then it's only right I extend to you a personal invitation to a lesson one day. It clears the mind more than you might think." Especially up here when 'bracing' was a charitable way to describe the wind when you were halfway up the side of the main chunk of the building.

[amygdalae]

Bruce managed out a small, amused sound by her descriptions, especially since there was a grain of truth to them. Between the bears, the wild mabari and other various assorted fierce wildlife, it almost did seem like a lot of things were out to get them.

"I'm sure you'll get the hang of it," he returned, the amusement still clear in his voice. "And thank you for the offer, but I think I'd rather prefer to have both of my feet firmly on the ground." Not that he has anything against her, but Bruce is pretty sure he isn't going to be able to do what she was doing up there - not to mention just thinking about it made him a bit... queasy.

[foxsays]

Whenever she met her first bear in the flesh, pretty much of all Thedas was guaranteed to hear her horrified screaming.

"I think the library and I shall have many more dates long into the night." Not that she minded but too many of the books were clearly written by the most boring men alive. The sort of men with beards that were at least three-quarters dust. "No? Your feet do touch something at least, something more solid than the avalanche risk going to and from this place. Falling from up there," she turned, pointing all the way up to roughly the balcony because she hadn't investigated the roof and stealing that much straw had been an ordeal, "is as close to flying as any of us are likely to get."

[amygdalae]

Bruce followed where she was pointing towards, seeing the balcony and then slowly drawing his gaze down to the ground from that sort of height. It was... well. It certainly wasn't something that Bruce was ever going to do willingly.

"Sadly I don't think I have the aptitude for something that exciting." The smile on his face is wry, and Bruce inclined his head a little before continuing. "But should you ever attempt it yourself, I wouldn't mind seeing it."

[foxsays]

"I have to wait until fewer people are out and about, lest I give you sudden extra work in the form of heart attacks." A nation of sailors? Fine, everyone was used to that but here, the sight of someone casually climbing drew the eye as it had today with him and she could only offer a rueful smile. She wouldn't want to give such a kindly man extra work. "Ah, it's never too late to learn a new skill, each day can be a school day my father always likes to say."

[amygdalae]

"The thought is appreciated." Bruce can certainly see how such a sight would cause quite the stir among the people. Even for Bruce watching it was already something in and of itself.

Honestly, Bruce is pretty sure that he's alright with never learning something like what she was doing, but he doesn't want to outright reject her since that would only be impolite. "I'll give it a thought, I suppose." Never mind that said thought was probably only going to happen a good while layer - but hopefully that was enough, for now.

[foxsays]

"Might I ask, while we're both here, where you come from - lest your duties call you away? Where I know the countries and people there, I was good at placing accents but here it's Antivan because they sound just like me, or Orlesian or not Orlesian." It wasn't that much of a challenge really given how incredibly different Orlesian sounded but it'd get her out and talking to more people, it might even help her feel less like a stranger.

Besides, it had paid well at home to know a bit about a person before they actually said two words to you. Here, when she was already at a disadvantage it would only help.

[amygdalae]

Bruce paused a little when she asked him about where he came from, mostly because Bruce tended to be extremely private about anything that was about him. It was something that was born from years of paranoia and the need to be cautious.

Still, seeing the mark on her hand, Bruce supposed any sort of answer would work for her. It was a little unfair, yes, but Bruce also had his reasons at the same time.

"I hail from Ferelden," he answers her after a moment. "Though I had been travelling around Thedas for the last several years, so there's really not much of it left in me."

[foxsays]

Waiting patiently, she made a little note in her head because she was always getting Ferelden and the Free Marches confused, unless it was Starkhaven because that was an accent.

"Doctors often travel with the ships and on the sailing routes with us to study in each land, indeed, if our ships have a doctor, you know it's a good ship." Unfortunately, many ships couldn't afford to keep a doctor unless he was a passenger and it was normally the cook placed in charge of dealing with any and all maladies. "Do you miss it? Being here in Skyhold? If I could get to and from places without so much walking I'd be exploring more."

[amygdalae]

Bruce had been on several ships himself before, and so he did understand the general state of how people were out at sea and what she was saying. Out there in the waters resources and such were limited, and with so many people together in one space illnesses could all too easily spread. Having somebody onboard who could deal with these things would be of great help.

"It has been a change of pace, but I can't say I mind it." Bruce turned his gaze over to the rows of tents and such from the refugees that had come all the way here. "I just go where people need help and do what I can to give it."

[foxsays]

"There's a change of pace and then there's this; is it just to an outsider that it feels as if when I stop running that I'll just slide backwards? Like shouting at the tide to make it stop even as it creeps higher and higher, up over my shoulders and towards my head?" She asked it honestly, sighing and rubbing the back of her neck because there was just so much here, maybe not only for someone coming through the rift but for everyone. Tears in the sky, a still - or barely, depending how she looked at it - healing wound between mages and templars and trouble everywhere. Up high on the battlements you could watch the traffic coming and going out of Skyhold and when she missed home so dearly, it was more difficult to stay optimistic about it.

Then again, maybe that was how things were at war, she wouldn't know, it had been so long since anything more than petty squabbles had ever troubled a single soul back home.

"Forgive me, I don't wish to sound discouraging when your work is harder than most, being away from home for so long for the first time, it makes me see things differently."

Or she lost her rose-tinted glasses falling through that rift.

[amygdalae]

Rather than feeling bothered to hear any of that Bruce only shakes his head and gives her a hopefully reassuring smile. "It's quite alright. It must be hard, being thrown into something like this without warning at all. If anything, we should be the ones apologizing for causing you so much distress." Sure, the whole coming out of a Rift thing really wasn't something anybody could have planned, but--everything after that was another case entirely.

His expression turned apologetic then. "Things here have just been hard in the last few years, and the Breach made it even harder. All of us are simply trying out best, in our own way. Wherever we come from, we are all the same in that regard." It was just a matter of what, mostly.

[foxsays]

"Only one or two have given me any cause to seek a true apology and that's because they've decided to call me a demon just for an accident outwith my control. And I take exception to being called after things that tried to murder me." More than that though, she took exception to being judged for what she appeared to be but that was an old wound by now, easily forgotten until touched when it flared back and had her clenching her fists and trying to remain calm. A hot temper would do her few favours here around the wrong company even if things had been better since the Mire and there were so many of them, likely all lumped together by circumstance and she had no wish to disadvantage them with an ill-thought word or deed.

"There was the Blight, I heard about that from a few people, and this war between the mages and the templars, yes? I don't know if I'm missing anything else, I can't even imagine what a normal war must be like."

[amygdalae]

--yes, well, that was exactly the kind of thing Bruce had expected. Times were trying for all and as much as he couldn't blame the people in the wrong, they still were, well, in the wrong. There needed to be an understanding between both parties before anything could really move on.

And speaking of that--Bruce nodded at her words, pausing for a second before he did his best to fill in the gaps for her. "That's the gist of it. The relations between the mages and Templars have been very fragile in the last few years, and there was an incident at Kirkwall that sparked off the rest of it." After that had been nothing else but constant unrest and skirmishes everywhere, and the Breach had not helped in that regard either.

[foxsays]

Alas, if people living in the world all the time couldn't reach common ground, how much hope was there for the rifters achieving real acceptance, especially any of them with magic beyond what the rifts had given them.

"I think I heard bits about Kirkwall but everything was about the conclave, was there more that happened? Before the death of your Divine and Herald that is." Haven, being little more than rubble, had been very much a crash course in the facts that really mattered but context? Context was always welcome if only so she didn't say something completely idiotic to the wrong person.

[amygdalae]

"There was probably more, but I'm not very well informed of the the last few years myself either," Bruce admits, since he'd rather he honest about that than try to make up something and end up giving them misinformation - if they needed to know then they should know what was real and what wasn't. "My travels around mean that news usually don't reach me often - only the really big ones are the things I tend to hear most."

Still, if she did want details and such on some things, Bruce would be willing to help however he could manage.

[foxsays]

"Often a stranger has to pay a captain or his crew for the news and even then there's always a little less honesty. Or a lot less. Some sailors are unscrupulous bastards and suspicious of landlubbers, other people just like to sell the news. Even dockworkers and port authorities are just as bad for it. And I know that news travels far slower by wind than mouth." After all, she knew about the other side of travel because it was only the Castilean sailors that chatted freely or for the offer of a drink or a meal. "Some things are like a game of whispers when everyone is drunk and there's a band in the tavern. But this explosion - did someone important die? It sounds terrible but there are explosions and death every day, I can see the Conclave one being bad but to lead to a war..."

Wars were invasions at home. Resources that were yours but produced by others that they then had to buy back from you. Blockades and armadas. A war over the mages and templars seemed a much more complicated and tricky affair.

[amygdalae]

All those things that she said, Bruce knew it well - it was why he was never one to go actively seeking for news, among other reasons. Whatever he heard, it was mostly through gossip and rumors and what patients would tell him as he treated them. Some of them were of course pure speculation and falsities, but more often than not there was still some grain of truth to them.

"As in the explosion in Kirkwall, or the Conclave?" Bruce inquired as to the one she meant - both were equally terrible in their own right, but they both had rather different effects given the circumstances and time in where they happened.

[foxsays]

"Kirkwall first I think. Religion or spirituality isn't centred around specific figures or entities as such where I come from so it's hard to understand how one dying, sad and violent though it surely was, and unquestionably despicable, would provoke that response. Only the death of a ruler would be able to start a war, maybe loved ones if they sought vengeance." She paused, considering the notion, weighing the response that would come from the people of Castileos alone were anything to happen to Leandra that could be traced back to a foreign power. "The Conclave does make sense. As much as any of that makes sense."

A little self-consciously she raised her left hand, wiggling the fingers because the explanation of that hadn't quite satisfied her as much as she might like.

[amygdalae]

Kirkwall... to be entirely fair, there was also much of it that Bruce was not aware of besides the basics, and even that perhaps wasn't much, since he wasn't exactly keeping in touch with the world.

"From what I understand, a mage used his powers to blow up the Chantry in Kirkwall." Here Bruce paused for a moment, to let it sink in - for her as well as for himself, because even now it was hard to take it in. "I cannot say that I know why the perpetrator did it, but beyond just the Templars, there were also innocent people caught in that entire incident." Overall the whole thing was more sad than anything else - maybe the mage who did it wanted vengeance against the Templars, but there was no reason to bring in the innocents as well. "Because it was a mage that did it, the Templars' response came back just as harsh, and things simply escalated from there."

A sad truth, but one that was real in this world they were in. Bruce couldn't say he would blame either side, for both had their own faults that led to the mess they were in now.