coquettish_trees: (actually sad)
Lady Alexandrie d'Asgard ([personal profile] coquettish_trees) wrote in [community profile] faderift2018-08-09 04:45 pm

OPEN | Looking Down on Empty Streets

WHO: Lexie, Evie, Loki, Thor, Fifi, Gwen, anyone else who wants to deal with this actual mess of a woman (special shout out to anyone who has a four letter (nick)name apparently)
WHAT: Late nights, early mornings, a bunch of processing the horrible things that happened!
WHEN: Post return from Tevinter (so... mid-month?)
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: cw: a nice violent nightmare, general mental trauma. hmu if you want something special, will do brackets or prose as desired.




I. The Apartments (Day)

When Alexandrie is home, much of her time is spent laying on the chaise out on the balcony staring into nothing and hardly seeming to care about the oppressive heat that so irked her the month before. Her hair, if it is styled at all, is woven into a simple braid and pinned up, a far cry from the way she used to wear it. Sometimes she is a fury of diplomatic paperwork, sometimes she is repetitively and grimly throwing a knife into a target that is a new fixture in the area. Sometimes she will, all of a sudden, snap into the light and cheerful woman she was, although her laughter is harder to come by. Whichever it is, she is still welcoming of callers.


II. Hightown (Night)

She haunts the streets like a ghost; all loose hair and pale wan skin and simple white dress, dressing gown layered over it against the slight chill that still manages to cover Kirkwall by second or third bell despite the heat of the day. Often, she is in the memorial garden, sitting and watching the fountain or pacing the paths repetitively. Sometimes she makes her way to wherever the sea can be best seen. Like a spectre, too, she is gone by the time the sky begins to lighten.

Anyone else out and about in the dark hours?


III. Loki/Evie:

Smell. Noise. There's so much of it. The screams of panic, the mortal ones unlike any other, some far too high to have issued from fully grown throats. The ozone of magic ripping the air mixing with the choking char of burning stalls, the metallic smell of blood. Blood. Far too much of it. How can there be so much. The visceral nigh-unbelievable revulsion at how thickly it drips. It clings to her hands, sliding, sticking. The wink of sunlight on silver. The noise he makes around it is so desperately wrong: liquid, bubbling. The same thing, then, on a far slenderer throat. Sudden. Silver again, but streaked with red. Silver where it doesn't belong. Cannot belong. Disbelief. Overwhelming horror that grips so hard she is frozen and the sound, the sound that comes from them.

She never quite screams. While there is noise that accompanies Alexandrie's gasping terrified surges to consciousness, the shriek in her throat never truly makes it past the hands that fly reflexively to cover her mouth to fiercely stifle it as her knees shoot to her chest, her heart pounding like something is trying to fight its way outside of her. Sometimes they are clapped flat against her face; sometimes it's the side of her hand between her teeth, her jaw clenching hard enough to bruise, even to draw blood, although that is more rare. Always it is a desperate bid to prevent her horrified shuddering panic from waking her bedmate.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not.


IV. Thor/Fifi:

There is a small disturbance in the kitchens. The pour of water, the clink of metal, of china, rummaging through dry goods. Investigating will reveal Alexandrie, wrapped in a white silk dressing gown, her hair finger-combed and tied around itself in a simple knot, quietly looking through the selection of tea as the glyphs on the kettle do their work of setting the water to boil.

She looks tired and subdued—she often looks so, recently—but she manages a small smile all the same.

Pardonnez-moi. Did I wake you?”


V. Gwenaëlle:

[ she has come looking for Gwenaëlle for a reason she can't really fathom. Perhaps it is because there is precious little in Kirkwall that is familiar and they had walked the same streets and halls, seen much of the same art, known many of the same faces, have the same mother tongue. Perhaps it is because Gwen too had been abruptly thrown from that world into one that so immediately included brutal violence and death that stood close enough to feel the hot splatter of it. Perhaps it is both things.

Whatever the reason, Alexandrie is knocking now on the door to the Provost's rooms in hopes of finding the small, concentrated, dark-haired woman, wearing a simple summer dress with her hair pinned up just as simply, the neck of a bottle containing something substantially stronger than the wine she'd offered at the Tourney in her fist. ]


notacrow: (:()

[personal profile] notacrow 2018-08-10 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The little squeeze brings a smile to Myira's face again. Still not her usual beaming radiance, but a smile. ]

Skies, did it ever. Lakshmi an' Kitty were staring down their noses at each other th' whole way and it was... ugh.

[ She sighs and without much ado flops over to lean her head against Lexie's shoulder. Personal space? What's that? ]

I'm just happy t'be back. And that you're back safe. This whole business is wearin' me out. My feathers're gonna fall out from the stres...
rathercommon: (chatting)

[personal profile] rathercommon 2018-08-10 07:21 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Lexie must be in a bad state, if she's not even stopping to have her hair or make-up touched up. Well, that's not good, but Kitty likes not wasting that time. So she pushes to her feet herself, and nods energetically. ]

Right. We're headed to the Gallows, then. I copied down a few things from the libraries up in Tevinter - do you read Tevene?
notacrow: (:()

[personal profile] notacrow 2018-08-10 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Aye. Lakshmi Bai an' Kitty.

[ Myira heaves a sigh. All this business of class and queens and whatnot is silly to her. It's much simpler when you just put Grandmothers in charge of everything like ravens. She purses her lips in something of a pout. ]

They wouldn't talk to each other! I had t'be the one to say anything. It was like...

[ Myira frowns, groping for a good metaphor. ]

Even if they weren't arguin' you could feel the bad feelings between 'em. And then Kitty was talking about how 'oh Lakshmi thinks she knows better'n the common people and that's why I'm mad' and it was just a bit of stupidness like that--

[ Just thinking about that argument is enough to get Myira's waterworks going again. She's not bawling, but there are definitely tears. She scrubs at her eyes and grumbles. ]

What's the point of gettin' upset over stuff like that? She's older anyway, shouldn't we listen to her? Ugh. Now I'm leakin' all over the place again...
rathercommon: (ah hah um what)

[personal profile] rathercommon 2018-08-10 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Kitty, bare-headed, bare-armed, and as brown with the sun as any city girl can be, watches this process with a bit of bemusement. But she doesn't comment. Instead: ]

I'd prefer you, thanks. I feel like a joint research project with Lord Loki would end with me shoving paper down his throat till he choked to death. And I wouldn't want to do that to the poor books.
thorndergod: (This troubles me)

[personal profile] thorndergod 2018-08-10 11:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"Thor," he corrects. She was there for the death, she seems to genuinely be into his brother (and even more surprisingly, the reverse seems to be true,) she's basically staying at their house, and she'd been in danger alongside him. The time for lord is past.

"Anything for wakefulness we have." There's a pause before he wearily sinks down into a chair. "But please do not tell my brother."

Maybe Loki's worn out enough as well that it won't turn into something he uses to needle Thor later, but there's a fair chance he's not. Loki holds on to things. Lexie may as well, but at least her question seems to imply this weakness she'll let pass.
justice_is_blond: (A small atonement)

[personal profile] justice_is_blond 2018-08-11 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
He's used to hearing his name down here. He's not all that used to hearing it called quietly and almost nervously, and that pulls his attention to the woman who has come down here. He can't exactly tell the twins apart, having spent little time in the vicinity of either, but the clothes suggest it's the more serious one.

"Genevieve, yes? Come over." There are a few people scattered around, a table full of students, a volunteer rolling bandages, another handing out potions to a harried-looking woman, so his voice carries well enough from the table he's making a few other potions at. "What brings you here?"

She doesn't look seriously injured, which has him very curious about why she chose the Clinic in Darktown and not the Infirmary in the Gallows.
justice_is_blond: (Wouldn't that be something)

[personal profile] justice_is_blond 2018-08-11 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
He gives her an apologetic look at the mistake. It fades as she speaks, because there's only one reason someone asks that question. She's lost someone.

"Possibly, yes." Anders' voice is as gentle as the feathers on his shoulders. "Before you describe it, though, I do want you to know that there's no... There's no real comfort to be found in wondering if you could have found a healer in time, or wondering what you could have done differently. And please pull up a chair?" This won't be an easy conversation. Which has him looking over his shoulder and finding the volunteer.

"Maeva, I think Paedric was making some tea. Could you bring us some if there's any left?" The woman nods and heads to the backroom of the Clinic.
justice_is_blond: (Even sunlight does not fix this)

[personal profile] justice_is_blond 2018-08-11 04:45 am (UTC)(link)
Anders grabs a basin as she begins to look ill and offers it out in case. The tea arrives moments later and one chipped mug is set in front of her, the other in front of him, before Maeva walks back away. Working in the Clinic does not mean one gets used to gore, or wants to hear about it, simply that they can deal with it.

"There is nothing that could have been done," Anders says quietly. The description is clear. "A skilled healer can deal with the airway cut, or the artery there, or the vein, or the spinal column, one of those, but when all four are severed in one blow there is nothing that can be done by anyone." Save possession, but he's not going to say that. It's not a viable alternative. He would know.

"She was gone. And quickly, too. Once the..." He should probably not go too detailed. "She would not have been in pain long at all, a brief moment." The comfort is small, barely anything at all. Nearly negligible. But it's not non-existent.

"I'm sorry for your loss, lack of suffering notwithstanding."
rathercommon: (uhmmmmmm)

[personal profile] rathercommon 2018-08-11 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Kitty lets out an ill-contented little grunt of acknowledgment. She doesn't want Loki involved in any way, shape or form, but...She knows that Lexi has this weird fondness for him that Kitty doesn't understand and that she definitely doesn't like. But it's not a time to fight. She hopes there'll come a time when they can fight about it.

As they emerge onto the street, a dog falls in behind them. Massive, broad, and phenomenally ugly, it's recognizably one of the famous Ferelden mabari. Kitty shoots it a look that contains a bit of bewilderment but no surprise; the dog's been following her around for a few days now, and she's gotten used to it, even if she doesn't fully understand it. She doesn't comment on it, either, because she feels a little bit embarrassed by its clear devotion to her. So, instead - ]


What other languages do you know?
hwaaaitsme: (Cell Up Close)

III

[personal profile] hwaaaitsme 2018-08-11 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Loki has not slept well in weeks; on some nights he refrains from it actively, avoids sleep as one might avoid walking too closely to the border of darktown, and on others he attempts to succumb and finds he cannot. Tonight had been neither and, for a few hours, wrapped in the warmth of his bed and the warmth of his bedmate--ah but touch still scalds and he finds he cannot force the tension out when it is upon him--he found some measure of peace.

His dreams were black and formless, a mass of nothing wrought from a mind to exhausted to even conjure images. He rises from the depths of that blessed darkness as the bedding pulls--shears away from him at an angle--and he knows that Alexandrie has bolted upright. He does not need to ask, nor even be fully awake, to know what has awoken her so. The image is back in the forefront of his mind and his hands tense where they are fisted in his coverlet.

She is trembling, he can feel it despite how she draws away. She wants to scream and, at the same time, is desperate not to. Her silence is caustic and, tonight, it comes with the smell of blood.

He will not be able to sleep again.

"Are you alright?" He asks, knowing already that the answer is 'no'. Had he more wits about him he might have pretended that he had awoken slowly, that his ascent hadn't been abrupt and draining, but he was drawn thin. He sits, lets the blankets fall away, and turns to look at the woman beside him.
rathercommon: (pensive)

[personal profile] rathercommon 2018-08-12 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
[ That's...a lot. As for the latter question - ]

Oh. Mine, I guess.
rathercommon: (ummm whatever though)

[personal profile] rathercommon 2018-08-12 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
It just started following me.

[ Kitty looks behind her at the dog, who wags cheerfully at the attention. ]

Someone at the Gallows - he said that they imprint. Whatever that means. I guess she decided she liked me, and now...

[ A puff of air. ]

Don't suppose you know anything about dogs?
sulena: DO NOT TAKE. (00.)

hightown

[personal profile] sulena 2018-08-12 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
It is usually night when it feels safe enough to venture into Hightown without the strange or annoyed looks of its human occupants. There is little for them to worry about in their sleep, even a small elven mage visiting the sight where several elves once weaved a forest into existence with magic alone. Although she, at times, misses the forest there is solace to be found in the memorial that was built in the ashes of two tragic events.

She is often not alone in the garden, even in these early hours before the sun rises up but she does not expect to find this ghost of a woman when she enters carrying a woven crown of wildflowers. There is a moment of pause before she bows her head, a simple greeting.

"I hope I am not disturbing you."

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