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

[foxsays]

“Tuck and roll is good, there isn’t much call for it here but when you’re really running across the rooftops and jumping as much as I hope people will, it’s good, transfers the momentum so you knees and ankles don’t shatter.” Now that’s a nasty business. “Sending people off without a doctor though, idiots.”

If even a tiny ship has a doctor and the Inquisition is practically groaning with mages, they can afford to make sure someone is with them.

“So the first lesson is falling, properly. You can do it from the fence into the hay if you would rather not - we had something of an accident with Gavin, Merrick, and a horse so I am anxious not to repeat that but if you feel confident enough, I can show you how to climb up the wall and you can fall from there. Falling is falling, you just have to be louder when you tell your head to shut up.”

[el_tybs]

That earns Sal a raised brow. "You had no healers? There was a couple of us at Emprise..." It hadn't occurred to him that the other scouting group didn't have a healer, even if both groups had initially traveled together west. Maybe after this he should consider suggesting Sal learn how to heal, at least enough in a pinch.

"Ah... I'd honestly suggest practicing with the fence and the hay pile first." He hadn't done that for his first fall, but as it was Sal was already freaking out about climbing the wall. Telling him to fall from the top of the barn seemed like it might send his fellow mage running. Especially since Araceli had gone ahead and mentioned the accident. "You got rid of the ropes, Araceli?"

[salvatore_underfoot]

"We did alright. Came back alive, didn't we?" He'd never considered learning healing. It had always seemed contrary to necromancy. Life, death. Oil, water. But it would have been useful, when they were miles away from home, rationing health potions.

He nods along with Araceli. He's anxious not to have any accidents either. Not with horses or any other way. "Well, if Sam suggests the fence, we'll start with the fence." Not that he was freaking out! He was being cautious.

[foxsays]

"The ropes were a precaution for my own benefit seeing as I had been here mere days and Stannis decided to suspect us rifters of being demons. So I wished to provide him with no further ammunition." Plus she wasn't entirely certain of how well Thedosians would take to climbing or how Skyhold would take to it, the walls and rooftops having seen far better days than now but they were sound enough to support Gorse, so they are sound enough for her.

Hopefully there is only one Gavin, only one being like Gavin, and none of them with Merrick's surly disposition.

"So what you need to do is go up on the fence and stand. Once you're steady then you take a deep breath, blow it all out, all the way, and then go loose. Very important, the going loose bit or you hurt yourself." And she demonstrates, not really bothering to wait because well, she's done this for long enough but she does make an exaggeration of the exhale before she lets herself drop into the hay, bouncing back up with a grin and shake of the head.

[el_tybs]

"Yeah, you did." There's certainly more that they could discuss, but that was not why he brought Sal out here today. Mission stuff could be talked about later, falling now.

He's glad that Sal agrees to start off with the fence, because if he was not freaking out before, he certainly might have once Araceli told him to fall backwards from the top of the barn. It actually has Sam wondering why falling from the fence had not been offered to him when he signed up, but seemed a mute point now that he regularly climbed the wall and fell into the hay.

Seeing that Araceli was explaining and actually showing Sal what to do, Sam slides off to the side and takes a seat on the fence a bit further down. Enough that he was still close but Sal had the space he needed.

[salvatore_underfoot]

Salvatore watches the demonstration, and gives a small applause at the end. It doesn't seem all that difficult. And let's be honest, he'll probably fall from the fence anyway. Shouldn't balance be the first lesson? "Easy enough."

Except the getting up on the fence. Sitting on it, fine. Standing, not so much. He's part way to all the way up when his arms start pinwheeling. He manages to right himself. He's wobbly, but he's standing. He does the whole breathing thing - checks to make sure the hay is still there - does the breathing thing again - and falls.

[foxsays]

Applause makes her laugh and bow - what girl isn’t a fan of an appreciative audience? And the reason for all changes in lessons? Gavin.

And Merrick but mostly Gavin because she might not have had warning of Merrick’s temper without Gavin.

For her, balance is a given but if you have bad balance, you're going to fall as it is. An encouraging smile on her face as she watches, there's more than one moment where she reaches out as if to steady him though she'd have no hope of catching him without hurting them both. This is always the worst part for someone new, more than the strain of climbing and she holds her breath before she darts over to kneel by the hay.

"Everything where it should be?"

[el_tybs]

There's several moments where Sam feels like he should reach out and help, but quickly stops himself. Araceli is the one teaching and she doesn't need another set of hands getting in her way. Not unless she asks for it of course.

When Sal eventually does fall, and actually into the hay, Sam gives a short applause for his fellow mage. "How did that feel, Sal?"