OPEN

[vorbratta]

WHO: Sonia Barra and YOU
WHAT: Wandering about the Gallows and Kirkwall, getting comfortable with her new locale, meeting people, all the good stuff
WHEN: this week, ish
WHERE: the Gallows and Kirkwall
NOTES: check out her info post if you're looking for a hook, or feel free to hit me up at runawayballista to plot something!

the courtyard
There's something decidedly gloomy about the Gallows -- all that statuary in the courtyard is off-putting enough, but the general air of urgency and pressing danger seems to fill the place with a psychological fog that dims the heart. It reminds her of the civil war, an echo of a feeling more than a memory. But that's the thing, isn't it? This is war, too. She can't have expected it to feel like anything else.

Maybe if the scenery were a little less grotesque she'd feel lighter. She'd brought her paints with her, all her supplies wrapped in a cloth bundle tucked under her arm, but as she stands at the edge of the courtyard staring at all those tortured souls immortalized in stone, she purses her lips in dismay and blows a piece of hair from her face with a puff of breath.

"Surely there has to be better scenery somewhere."

the baths
There's nothing like a good long journey to make one feel so deeply in need of a bath. Sonia's well-acquainted with travel, but the trip from Wildcrest to Denerim is a stone's throw compared to the long haul all the way to Kirkwall. She'd come down to the heated baths with a bucket fully intent on bringing some nice hot water up to her room for a private soak, but as she stares at the bucket in her hands and contemplates the five flights of stairs up to her room, the price of modesty suddenly seems far too high.

Hm, no. She's not body-shy enough for any more grueling stair-climbing, and she wants a hot bath more than anything else right now. She sets the bucket firmly down and begins to strip down. A heated bath sounds like absolute bliss right now.

the library
It's not so much that Sonia has a dedicated work ethic so much as she is occasionally inspired by fits of duty and honor and the prospect of doing something good. When she feels like it, she can sit at a desk all day writing and reading and sorting correspondence, setting up meetings, coordinating the minutiae of an important party -- when she feels like it, Sonia has boundless energy for work.

Today, she does not particularly feel like it. Today, she is not in the library to work or to study, but to take advantage of the quiet to nurse a moderate hangover. It's a cruel cosmic joke that fun sometimes comes at such a vicious price, one she mourns as she stares blearily at the book laid open in front of her. It's some history or another -- she didn't really pay attention to the title when she grabbed it, she just needed something to put in front of her to distract from the fact that she is, actually, still drinking. From a flask this time, and a classily ornamental one at that, but anyone who gets close enough will be able to tell that it is most definitely not water.

kirkwall
Shopping! So much shopping. Sonia has, honestly, missed shopping. The journey to Kirkwall hadn't really permitted any detours, and there's something about packing up and leaving home that just makes her want things. Not just any things -- she's not usually in the habit of picking up bric-a-brac simply to collect. Some nice clothes and a few fine bottles of wine would do nicely.

"Pardon me -- hello!" She smiles sunnily, waving down someone she thinks might be able to help, familiar face or no. "You don't happen to know the merchants around here, do you? I've got a bit of a shopping list, and I'd rather skip over the ones not worth dealing with."

wildcard
SURPRISE ME MY DUDES

Comments

library

[rathercommon]

The thing is: Kitty needs that book that she's grabbed. She'd come into the library a few minutes after Sonia, and had spent a few fruitless minutes searching for the book before noticing it plopped before the miserable-looking woman sitting there. And she'd have let it be, honestly she would, and just worked with other books, except for the fact that she's glanced over at the woman three times in the past fifteen minutes and she's been on the same page the entire time, with the exact same illustration in the top right corner. So eventually she simply cannot take it any longer, and goes over to the woman with a pointed -

"'Scuse me. But if you don't need that, I'd like it, please."

[vorbratta]

Sonia's eyes had glazed over as she stared at the page in front of her, trying to will away the pounding headache, and she starts slightly when Kitty's voice shakes her out of her reverie. She stares down at the book, realizes how painfully obvious it is that she isn't actually reading, and gives Kitty a bright and slightly rueful smile. The effect is only somewhat dampened by her bleary eyes.

"Oh -- er, yes, of course. Please, it's all yours." Discreetly tucking her flask back into her lap, Sonia slides the book across the table to the other girl. God, she hopes Kitty doesn't detect the distinct tang of alcohol on her breath. This is...a little embarrassing.

[rathercommon]

Oh, God. She's not hung over. She's drunk. It's not even noon, and she's drunk. Kitty doesn't know whether to regard her with pity or with scorn, and ends up splitting the difference: she eyes Sonia with her mouth all twisted up and her brows pushed down, hands on hips, tapping her foot.

Finally, after a long moment regarding her, Kitty asks - and it's worth noting that her voice is quite bossy in the way that only teenaged girls' voices can be - "D'you need help?"

[vorbratta]

At another time, in a different mood, with less of a headache, Sonia might find this girl's attitude precocious, even a little cute -- but right now, she absolutely cannot handle being condescended to by a teenager, and a bossy one at that. Any resemblance to her own self at that age completely escapes her right now. She gives Kitty a thin smile, debating whether it's worth crawling the five flights of stairs to her room over the indignity of taking a nap in the library. Ooh, tough choices.

"No, thank you, I'm quite alright," she says primly, despite the hoarseness in her voice. She clears her throat, then hiccups, and her hand goes to her mouth. Ohh, no. That didn't feel right. She swallows and forces a bright smile, slowly getting to her feet. "Actually, if you'd do me the favor of pointing me in the direction of the nearest, ah -- "

She flaps her hand without finishing the sentence. Lavatory. She needs a lavatory, or whatever the closest thing is near to here, because she's pretty sure she might throw up.