And we are far, far from home

[foxsays]

WHO: Araceli Bonaventura; open
WHAT: Parkour lessons part 2; writing letters home in the library; gals being pals with Korrin and Sina
WHEN: early Wintermarch;
WHERE: Skyhold; various locations
NOTES: Tavern thread is closed to Korrin and Sina but feel free to see and/or hear them

parkour;
It's been too long since she last organised real parkour lessons and so for a few days there have been notices tacked up on the bulletin board regularly to announce the start of a new batch of lessons.  The ropes are gone now that she's more sure of her teaching skills and her place within Skyhold, and there are a few more places with bales of hay beneath different chunks of the battlements now, not just that first crumbling section of the wall down by the stables.

The warm up is still mandatory though, and for a newbie, she'll still insist on watching you fall though this time it's only from the fence and into the hay, and no, she doesn't care if you feel stupid, you'll feel more stupid if you fell badly and broke a few bones for your trouble.

library;
When the rift pulled her through from Castileos, it was still summer, seemingly endless days spent longing for a breeze to blow in off the seas, the markets packed, a riot of noise and colour.  Even the smell of the fish market carried on the salt air is something she longs for as finds a seat somewhere quiet in the library, a neat stack of letters to one side of her as she stretches out her right arm with a muttered curse, trying to ease the cramp in it.  A smear of ink stretches up from her cheek, across and over her nose.  If someone were to read over her shoulder, they'd find letters addressed mainly to her mother, her father, or to a woman named Leandra more than to anyone else, all of them recounting bits and pieces of what she's seen here, what she's learned.

No one can say that a letter shoved through a rift won't go back home.

tavern;
Now it's not a crime if a person doesn't drink but sometimes a drink is good to help your forget, and well, Korrin likes drinking, Araceli likes drinking but Sina, well Sina might have told Araceli once that she's hasn't had a drink.  Not of anything that Araceli or Korrin are used to, that's for certain.  So what is a good friend to do?  Well if they're Araceli Bonaventura then they call in Korrin Ataash who just so happens to be the person who introduced her to the strongest alcohol she'd ever tasted in her life.

Not that it's on offer for Sina.  Babysteps.  Babysteps and watering it down to an almost criminal degree but such is life.

wildcard;
[Feel free to have spotted her elsewhere, for whatever reasons you'd like!]

Comments

[eolasemah]

Although a prude through and through, Sina can't argue with their reasoning. "We won't let it," she says to Araceli, and, as she's seen people do, she lifts her glass to toast the other two. "Thank you again for inviting me." She isn't certain what the other two, so strong and confident and funny, see in a little mouse like her, but gratitude is easier than questioning everything.

[foxsays]

Korrin please tell her of the Blooming Rose when there are less delicate ears about. "And if people say anything, you are a grown woman and your decisions are entirely your own, there is a point in our lives where we get to stand up and inform others that we make our own decisions. Such as getting legless, then waking everyone up laughing at something in the small hours." And locking yourself out and almost drowning when you try to break in and fail. Or being caught by your mother when you aren't quite old enough and throwing up all over her feet.

None of that will be happening tonight.

"To friendship," she says, lifting her to clink against the others, taking a sip and almost laughing at how she used to feel like a grown-up, drinking this at dinner. "Hopefully this won't cloud the mind too much. It'll loosen the tongue first, but it takes more and stronger to make you lose your wits."

[gatheringstorm]

"To friendship." Korrin gladly responds to that toast, clinking her tankard and taking an appreciative sip from it afterward. "Araceli's really the better option for measuring alcohol tolerance against; even without my experience, most of this stuff doesn't affect my kind much. So absolutely do not follow my example, not that I think you would. But still."

Korrin can drink like a fish, okay. Even with Araceli's own experience, she's much closer to Sina's size and therefore a better model for such things.

[eolasemah]

"To friendship," Sina agrees, and takes a sip from her cup. Then she immediately makes a face and covers her mouth, eyeing the wine like it just insulted her. After she swallows, she clears her throat.

"Oh no," she groans, "grapes aren't supposed to taste like that."

[foxsays]

"Which reminds me - the smaller you are, the more important it becomes to line your stomach, it takes longer to get drunk that way, it's why it's better to have a drink when you're having a meal or, if you want to go out and drink a lot without being an embarrassment and a disgrace, you eat a big dinner, but not something that might upset the stomach." The idea of anyone of the Qunari or Vashoth persuasion having to do that though almost makes her choke on her wine when she ends up laughing as she sips; for the big giant men she's seen, it'd practically have to be a banquet!

"Oh grapes certainly are supposed to taste like that, isn't that right? And this is a sweet wine, Sina, querida, there are wines dry as a desert, that almost turn your cheeks inside out. Or I would think dry as a desert?" She has to turn to Korrin for that seeing as she hasn't actually been to one and is relying on what anyone in a tavern or the palace has said, as well as Rajani and Argyris as far as descriptions of their homeland go.

[gatheringstorm]

Araceli has an excellent point, about food, and Korrin can't help but eye the very slight Sina with some concern. "Well, they do have food available. We can always order something to split between us. Between that and pacing yourself, you'll be alright." And if Sina can't handle even that, she'll find herself with Vashoth transport back to her tent.

"Ugh, just thinking about deserts makes the base of my horns itch. That dry air never does me any favors. But yes, there are plenty of other, less sweet, wines. There's even one with a small bit of refined lyrium mixed in, though they don't have it here and that's just as well. It's not meant to be consumed in any great quantity."

[eolasemah]

Sina takes another hesitant sip, already frowning in anticipation, but she doesn't complain again. She nods her understanding to the other two as she sets the cup down again. "I've heard of honey wine," she adds, "it always sounded nice enough to try, though... perhaps it too is an acquired taste." She's never been to a desert either, and doesn't want to be rude by remarking that it's hard for her to imagine anything tasting worse than this.

[foxsays]

"Tonight we might need to just stick with the wine, the first time I drank properly I had to try a glass of every type of alcohol we could get our hands on and the next morning was rough." The next morning was her having to be supported as she bent double over the railing of a ship, someone clutching her hair out of her face as she cried and swore and heaved.

At least most of the food here is stodgy, perfect for soaking up booze.

"Remind me to actually find out what normal lyrium is Korrin," she says, aiming for casual because she doesn't need the lesson tonight when it might leak out of her brain. "And honey wine is delicious, so long as you remember that when it's sweet, you don't taste the alcohol. Is there any specific that your clan do indulge in? Say, how Korrin's folk have Maaras-Lok and my own have rum and brandy."

[gatheringstorm]

"I like honey wine well enough, at least when I'm in the mood to savor something instead of head straight towards intoxication. Warm it up a little and it makes a good antidote to chilly nights. Araceli's right, I think it'll be an easier transition since the taste is different." Add some apple, brown sugar and cinnamon, and it's close to Korrin's recipe for spiced wine, which she's now longing to make. But she'll do that later; right now, anything that involves leaving the table is too much effort.

She does perk up at Araceli's question, thinking back to the aftermath of that one mage meeting, when everyone brought booze. "Yes, do tell. I know Merrick makes his own hooch sometimes, but I don't know if that's just his own thing, an Ashara custom or what. I'd love to hear more about your own clan in particular."

As much as she likes the Asharas, it's not quite fair to let them overshadow other Dalish.

[eolasemah]

Sina shrugs and grins, shaking her head. "Just honey wine, when they can get it," she replies, "it's difficult to come across these things when you don't stay in one place for very long, and there aren't many of us. I've never seen such indulgences as there are in Skyhold." Anything that isn't direct nourishment is rare to find or make in Clan Dahlasanor.

She sips at the wine again, and though she still doesn't enjoy the taste, she finds that it's starting to grow on her in a strange way. "I don't know if other Dalish have specialties. All the clans are different."

[foxsays]

"Are you sure Merrick doesn't make poison?" That's uncharitable of her but her experiences with Merrick thus far have been trying, if she goes with the most polite term that she can, and the thought of him making alcohol is disturbing. "Do you truly not trade then? Even little fishing boats usually have something brewing on them, they do a bit when they're in port and then as they're out it's ready to drink. Though we can't keep water on ships."

It turns into slime. Really smelly slime. It's bad.

"I can't imagine what that must be like, rum and brandy are staples for all of us, wine with dinner, spirits and other drinks imported on our ships...Each crew has their own special recipe of at least one way to fancy up the rum too, so it feels like alcohol again."

[gatheringstorm]

"Not on purpose. And trust me, it's not half-bad." Korrin darts a smile at Araceli, accepting fact that Merrick's prickliness hasn't endeared himself to a lot of people. The Vashoth herself seems to be an exception, for whatever reason.

Glancing back to Sina, Korrin gives a conceding nod "Fair enough. Life on the road has its limitations and I should know, since it's always been that way for me. My people my not be as secluded, but the best work we can get demands that we rarely stay put." It's a little weird for her, with Skyhold to return to and remain for weeks at a stretch, but nights like this...well, they remind her that it's not a bad thing to have that.