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

Tavern

[gatheringstorm]

Normally, Korrin isn't a fan of watering down anything alcoholic. It ruins a good drink and far too many taverns try to get away with that crap, anyhow. The Herald's Rest is a nice exception, in her experience, and she doesn't want to encourage that sort of thing.

...but Sina isn't exactly robust, and Korrin doesn't want to overwhelm her. So, they'll start slow. As soon as time permits, a corner table for the three of them, hoping Sina will feel more at ease with a little seclusion. It's close enough to hear the bard's lute, at any rate, and music helps the ambiance.

parkour;

[ungovernable]

With a tendency to make note of most things posted on the bulletin board (for various reasons, some of them repeatable) and less of one to actively respond to any of them, Benevenuta doesn't seek Araceli out beforehand, but simply presents herself at the designated place and time. It's unusual to see her in trousers and with her hair braided if she isn't also wearing a coat and on her way out of the hold, but it isn't really unusual for her to be intrigued by any opportunity to learn. The training with mages and former templars is more about developing the skills for war that are suited to mages, more about learning how to best work together cohesively than developing entirely different skillsets--

And it is interesting, and it is valuable, but the things Benevenuta wants most to learn are those things that are outside of what she might otherwise have access to. This will compliment nicely some of her goals, and moreover, prevent any repeats of her first encounter with Dorian. After all, not everyone can be trusted not to push her down a crevasse given the opportunity.

(But 'deciding whether or not to try to kill each other on the mountainside' is an excellent method of making a friend, apparently. Worth noting.)

--she isn't precious about the fall. She does it once, and then, frowning, squints up at the fence she tumbled from.

"I will do that again."

Parkour

[the_effect_she_has]

Of course Katniss is there for her second batch of lessons - she's been practicing as religiously as a Templar does the Verses of Transfiguration. Climbing, falling, working on her rolls. So with her nose and mouth mostly healed up at this point, and her hands healed up completely, she's there to work on falling into bales of hay, because seriously, learning how to fall from heights was going to save her in Emprise du Lion.

She climbs up the side of the crumbling tower, and balances herself, before letting herself dive-fall down into the hay.

"How was that, Ara?"

Parkour and friends

[el_tybs]

Ever since getting back Sam has been keeping up with lessons with the Rifter since he had joined up from the beginning, using the time to get better and to just spend time. While it was nice having the one-on-one, Sam thinks it's a great idea that Araceli is willing to teach openly again.

Maybe a bit too eager that she was doing so because no sooner had the flier gone up, Sam was sure to drag along a couple people to the area where Araceli had them meet to start.

A while back he had promised Salvatore that they would do something together that would help the other mage get a bit stronger. While this wasn't exactly what the other mage had in mind, Sam figure this was a good start, important to know, and certainly would get his mind off of a certain someone.

For Pel it was really just a way to get her out - not the kind with certain Templars. Course he hadn't told her what they were doing, but just asked her if she wanted to do something different.

parkour

[aceso]

Christine has no interest in learning to fall, but she takes great interest in those who are participating. Though she sits not far away in a little wooden chair to observe, she sits with a book in her lap, so she isn't merely staring at the participants. But she wants to see them do this, because even as Araceli explains that this technique is so they learn how not to hurt themselves from a fall, Christine predicts some will get it wrong and require medical aid. Which she is here to provide.

So she sits and waits, eyes scanning a few lines in her book before she hears someone impact the hay, which makes her look up to check if the person's hurt themselves. Once she's satisfied they're fine, she reads a few lines and listens for the sound again. On and on it goes until the lesson is over for the day and Araceli is alone.

"How do you think they are coming along?"

Library

[motherfucking_ghost]

He can't help but feel like a nerd, but he only minds it as far as his image is concerned. He's not stupid enough to think that he doesn't need whatever information he can gather. There are plenty of texts on stuff he doesn't really understand yet, so he's mostly been focusing on locations, maps, getting a lay of the land. Though he's also looking at a couple books about some of the various societies, given what he's heard about elves, and a whisper or two about dwarves, and jesus christ, don't get him started on qunari... And, yeah, also maybe magic stuff but god damn there's a lot.

At least maps are easy in that sense. So a couple scrolls and a book carried under one arm to take up some table space for a couple hours or so and--oh hey. Hey! It's one of the rifter chicks! "Hey." He glances around, wondering for a moment if this is like a public library and doesn't want to be too loud. "Hey, you um. You've got something on your face." Church makes a motion across with his free hand.

Library

[lettersfromhome]

"Well, I'm glad the art of letter-writing exists even beyond the Fade. Now Cullen really does have no excuse."

Mia hadn't mean to peer over her shoulder, really. She'd simply been passing through and noticed those familiar dark curls. Remembering the woman's anxiety regarding her family and friends back home, who likely had no notion of where she'd disappeared to, she could likely hazard a guess as to whom those letters might be addressed.

Her book tucked under her arm, Mia strays closer, a curious crook to her eyebrow. If she wishes to share the conditions of the letter-writing endeavor she's more than welcome to, but Mia is trying to be better about prying lately.