OPEN | Too Much Sunshine

[nadasharillen]

WHO: Nari, Lexie, Myr, Korrin, Kylo, You!
WHAT: Catchall for my gals (hmu if you want a prompt)
WHEN: Pre-Tevinter Solace
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: on a scale from Lexie to Nari, what's your work ethic?

Nari

I. Working (Gallows)

Despite the hot, sticky, relentless weather, there's still work to be done, and Nari is doing it. Sometimes in a loose light cotton tunic and sometimes stripped to a breastband and shorter leggings (she'd added the breastband after the casual habitual strip of her shirt she'd employed at home seemed to be vaguely distracting), but whether in the oppressive closeness, but shade, of the workshop or out under the blaze of the sun when it manages to peek through the haze, she's out in the Gallows at the constant repair tasks as well as light deconstruction on the finished pieces of the obstacle course to prepare for their move to the Wounded Coast.

Currently swearing and trying unsuccessfully at one of the boards securing the latter—her team had perhaps been too effective—it looks like she could use either help or a break.


II. The Beach Episode (Korrin, OTA, let's all go together)

Okay, maybe some time for leisure. As devoted as she is to working herself into a tired stupor on a daily basis, spending time with Korrin is always something that will make her take a pause. That, and it's a rare nice day. So, off they go to the beaches outside of town with some blankets to spread across the sand, some food, and the intention to heap sand on top of sand and purposefully cover themselves entirely in water that isn't falling from the sky in sheets.

It's gonna be a good day.


III. Wildcard!

She's around~



Lexie

I. It's Hot Up Here, A Lot up Here

Each day of unfavorable weather—which is to say, most of them—finds Alexandrie lounging out on the balcony of the apartments that faces the Waking Sea in dresses with fewer layers, lighter weight fabrics, and less corseting than she would wear out in society. Her hair is up more simply than usual and she looks alternately vexed and content depending on whether or not the breezes are currently blowing past her off the water.

All things considered, it is not a poor place to spend the afternoon. Do come play cards, or read, or chat about current events, or drink, or watch the late afternoon storms roll by in their brief cacophonies.

(Or be smugly used to the heat, you Tevene savages.)

[ impromptu group activities welcome :3 ]


II. Wildcard

Catch her outside painting on the two non-garbage days this month. Sit in the Memorial Garden. Something else!

Comments

[coquettish_trees]

The terrible news is that Alexandrie figured out the straightforward bit on her birthday after the news of her 'engagement' was so genuinely received. The good news is that he wasn't betrayed by Loki this singular time! It is a quality that tends to undercut her usual method of operation, however, which means she has to be more careful about being caught off guard.

She murmurs agreement on the idea of knowing those around you and hums thoughtfully.

"A different animal, perhaps, but with many of the same features. There are always teeth, always claws, always watchful eyes, keen ears." She finally picks up his discard to replace it with one of her own and lay down the book it had completed. "Since I remember some talk of your playing several instruments, I might liken it more to picking up a lute after having learned well the viol. It may require you to learn to strum rather than bow, but the notes and theory are the same, and the dexterity you gained in one will make the learning quicker in the other.

"Although there is perhaps less need to guard against magics when playing the lute," she observes with some amusement.

[thorndergod]

He snorts, adding a card to her book and shaking his head.

"In the South, perhaps. In Tevinter one must always be on their guard from assassins when they are from a more powerful house, and magic is commonly used. Some invest in having slaves that look like themselves about the place, to catch lazy attempts. I have chosen to train myself instead. I have survived many attempts on my life."

There really isn't a need to say how many of those have been Loki. He doesn't know if that will give Lexi ideas or drive her away from his brother and he also doesn't know that he wants either. If Loki has found some measure of happiness, even absolutely confusing happiness, then Thor wants him to have it.

"That is something to keep in mind, if you come to our estate. There is magic everywhere there."

[coquettish_trees]

"A knife may kill as successfully as a spell, I think," Alexandrie replies, eyeing Thor's addition and considering her hand anew, "After all, the Crows of Antiva are famed assassins, and those who are not mages still enjoy a great deal of innovative success.

"Although," she grants, finally laying down a book of her own and drawing, "one may still employ the rudeness of... 'traditional' methods in Tevinter and add yet still more with all that magics are capable of. From all I have gathered, it seems a country that forges strong blades of necessity." Here she chuckles, looking again at her hand, "I am not entirely surprised, given that same gathering, that our countries have been more adversaries than admirers over the years."

[thorndergod]

"Trust me. I've fended off my fair share of knives," Thor grumbles, setting down another card and discarding. He's left with one card, a good position to be in.

"And I think it is fear that keeps our countries against each other." He leans back, watching her as he talks. "A fear of loss of power. A fear of magic on one side, and a fear of cages and jailers on the other. You are cruel to your mages. I have seen the way they hide, half-broken and trying to deny it. And we are cruel to those who do not or cannot keep up. Our countries do not bend. Sooner or later one will shatter."

He hopes it is hers, as much as he is certain she hopes it will be his.

[coquettish_trees]

"Oh là là, I had no idea that we were each allotted a fair share of knives," Alexandrie replies with a smile, "I shall have to keep better watch."

Mm. One card left in his hand, two in hers, and they match none of the books currently laid out. She shall simply have to hope that Thor is in a similar position and that her cards appear before his.

"I think you are quite correct that fear is part of it, my lord," she replies as she thinks. "We are both quite used to our ways, and both fearful of giving up what we might be asked to in order to reach any lasting accord; to give up the possibility that the other shall break and succumb in total. So much so that we are able to give little thought to what unknown good might perhaps come of it." She draws, discards. "It is a... terribly common way to exist.

"Not all the Circles are jails and not all Templar jailers, although I hear that many are. It is true that there is always a degree of separation between us, and that there is always the threat of your being choked back, and that both of those have perhaps made things worse." She lifts her shoulders in a slight shrug. But what would I know, truly? "I myself have had little prior opportunity to interact with any mage, and so I thought as little of it as I might think of the other life denied a panther in a menagerie. They are fed, yes? Cared for? What more might they ask?" A pause, and then with an odd sort of gentleness, "It is different, once you have seen one wild."

The look passes quickly back under a light smile. "How unforgivably serious of me! Hardly talk for a game of cards."

[thorndergod]

He's tempted to grumble again. Thor greatly prefers serious talk to light and easy meaningless flattery and frippery. There is no gain in discussing lace patterns, though his mother has done her best to teach him the expensive ones so he doesn't wind up ordering the wrong sorts for their estate. For too many the visual is everything and the substance is lacking.

But he is a guest here and she is Orlesian. Some accommodations must be made.

"Hardly. Neither of us has managed to tell the other how soundly we wil beat them, yet. It is unheard of." ...and some accommodations need to be made for him too, he feels. "Luckily for you, my lady, mages are not like panthers. We are dangerous, but we are not driven by animal instincts. I know not to leap up on the table, for instance."

It is very polite. He is refraining from talk of devouring or clawing hearts out or the like. His father might almost be proud. And then Thor draws a wild, plays it, discards his last, and wins the hand. His father would actually be proud of that.

[coquettish_trees]

"It is surpassingly genteel of you to not disturb the game by leaping upon the table, my lord," Alexandrie commends, her smile twitching at the edges. It widens further at his play, and she exclaims with affected distress. "Ah, non! That makes two points for me, yes?"

And then: "Regarding the previous, I think perhaps those who fear mages do so because you are men rather than animals. Animals rarely kill their own kind, after all, but men excel at it, and those men who command magics very often have the ability to excel at it further still. Fear is sometime warranted, after all; there are things in this world that one ought to be so wary of." She shifts slightly to place the remainder of her hand into the discard, then reaches to gather the cards and take her turn at shuffling and dealing out the second hand.

(Also taken is the opportunity to palm and stow that wild.)

"I pray you not take any of this as slight or lack of trust on my part. It is only idle thought and curiosity. As part of the latter, I must ask: what think you, of those of us who are ungifted? Are we lesser as a matter of course? Are we wrong, in the south, to be so worried about what might occur to our power and freedom were mages to be let loose entirely from the strictures of our Chantry?"

She reaches for the bowl she'd been picking at when he'd come in and offers it as if she were talking about something much lighter than the complex nature of negotiating these things in two such disparate societies. "Ah. I have been remiss as a hostess, please forgive me. Strawberry?"