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[incaenstrix]

WHO: Character(s)
WHAT: Various open prompts for MAKING FRIENDS
WHEN: Eh, nowish
WHERE: Around the Gallows
NOTES: Potential references to slavery, anxiety, and injury.

i. The Courtyard, night
There have been times in the past when Tertia has had a bed to sleep in. But when she was servus publicus, she slept on a thin pad on the hard floor, and when she was fighting with the People she slept in a bedroll out in the field. She had a bed with the Magister, though. Soft and stuffed with goose-down. Gentle cotton sheets.

So sleeping in a bed has proven to be nearly an impossibility. And so at night, she's been taking a blanket and a thin pillow out to the courtyard, and she's been laying them down on the ground beneath the stars - or the clouds - to sleep.

The downside to this, though: she's likely a near-invisible figure in the dark. Someone taking a late-night stroll might well trip over a small sleeping girl, or might be startled to find that something out of the corner of their eye when they're having a smoke is stirring, elf-eyes glinting in the dark.


ii. The Library, daytime
There are signs when someone isn't a particularly adept reader. Tertia bears those signs: her lips move as she reads, forming the sounds unconsciously, and her finger traces along the lines as she goes along. But she also doesn't waver. She sits for actual hours, focused intensely on the work, determination in the set of her jaw and the furrow of her brow.


iii. The Training Grounds, daytime; action brackets preferred
Excuse me.

[ A young elf woman might approach you while you're training. Her staff makes it clear that she's a mage. Her manner is softspoken and mild, and she asks - ]

Would you tell me a bit more about your fighting style? Where did you learn it?


iv. Wildcard
[ do WHATEVER ]

Comments

courtyard

[sprent]

Night strolls are not in Gela's usual repertoire, but tonight she cannot sleep. Maybe her bed is too warm, or her mind too restless? She has her own theory. Because she cannot see the moon out of the little window in her tower room (despite craning her neck at many terrible angles), she takes the stairs down and emerges into the courtyard barefoot, blinking up at the sky.

In her slow course about the yard in order to get the best angle (is it full? Is the sleeplessness some kind of sign, or warning?), her toes touch the edge of something that is not grass.

A blanket? And a person lying on top of it, staring up at the sky, wholly unexpected.

"Maker." Gela nearly stepped on her. "Sorry– I wasn't lookin'."

[incaenstrix]

Tertia had seen her coming, to be fair. She'd debated making a little sound of warning - hey, don't be scared - but had spent far too long trying to decide what she'd actually say and had ended up staying silent till the girl had almost tripped over her.

"No, I'm - " She gives a little laugh of embarrassment, and draws her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. "Sorry. It's - I'd tried to find somewhere out of the way, but I guess I didn't pick the best place. Sorry." Then - "Do you want one of my blankets? It's a little chill out here."

[sprent]

"No," Gela defers, blinking, "I think it was a fine place. Everybody else is sleepin'." And she should be too, but isn't. Eventually she recognises the little voice and says, "Tertia? We spoke on the crystal. My name is Gela." And, "I'd love a blanket, if you don't mind."

She's already regretting the bare feet.

[incaenstrix]

"Oh!" Tertia smiles, barely visible in the darkness. "Gela. Yes. - You have an incredible ear. I don't think I'd have been able to recognize you by voice."

She fetches up one of the blankets - then notices those bare feet. And she urges her, "A blanket, or - You could sit beside me, if you'd like. Your feet must be freezing."

[sprent]

An incredible ear... that is true, but it gives Gela an unwelcome squirm in her stomach all the same. She casts a glance up at the sky again. The moon is hiding behind the clouds.

Is it safe to sit here, with somebody who doesn't know what she is? What she's capable of? She shifts in the cold, damp grass.

"It's not so bad," she says, smiling, and then pauses. Usually she would make an excuse and take her leave, but it feels bad to leave this wee person alone, and in the dark. "Are you– sleepin' out here? Did you not find a bed?"

[incaenstrix]

"Oh, no, it's just - You know. It's awfully soft, that bed." She sits up more fully, legs crossed. "And the stars are beautiful. Isn't that worth spending the night outside for? At least while the weather's still warm?"

She tilts her head back, looking upwards. "Is that why you're out here? I saw you looking at the sky."

[sprent]

Gela, relieved, says, "I know exactly what you mean." The bed being too soft, and the stars too bright to head inside. Slowly, she lowers herself to sit, but she'll keep her grassy feet off of Tertia's blanket. She tilts her head back.

"Before I came to the Gallows I did a lot of travellin'. Spent a lot of nights outside, on the ground, if I couldn't find a place to stay– it wasn't good, but sometimes I miss it."

Is that strange? Maybe.

[incaenstrix]

Tertia nods. "Yeah," she says. Then - "Does it get easier? Sleeping in a bed? I know it's supposed to be better, so I suppose I should learn."

[sprent]

Gela links her arms around her knees, hugging them. "It does, eventually. I actually like havin' the room more than I do the bed. I don't have to carry everythin' around with me any more."

[incaenstrix]

She gives a little noise of understanding. "So - do you think you're here for the long term?" She tilts her head. "With Riftwatch for the rest of the war?"

[sprent]

"Yes."

Gela has been thinking about it a lot lately, but this is her conclusion: yes, she could stay here. Everybody here knows, to at least some degree, how to fight. There are healers. If the worst were to happen, she thinks they would be safe from her. "Will you stay?"

[incaenstrix]

"I don't know."

She supposes that she could probably be a little less honest about this. It probably would please the people of Riftwatch better if she swore stronger allegiance to their cause. But she's never been particularly good at lying. So why try?

"I have a cause I love a lot better than defeating Corypheus." A small shrug. "So if Riftwatch will start fighting for that cause - then yes. If not...then this isn't where my heart lies."

[sprent]

On the contrary, Gela quietly admires her honesty. She nods, and glances down at her knuckles. She smooths the pad of her thumb along a scar arching over the back of her hand. "I think that's a good idea; you've got priorities. But other folk who have been here longer might not like to hear you say that."

An empty bit of advice, really, when she is here for entirely selfish reasons.

[incaenstrix]

"Maybe," she agrees. And she tilts her head back to look at the stars.

"What are you fighting for?"

[sprent]

Gela hums, thinking of what words to say. Eventually she replies, "Safety," which is true. "For me. And for the people that I love."

[incaenstrix]

The people she loves? Tertia tilts her head curiously to the side. "Where do you come from?" Meaning, essentially, where is it you're protecting? She assumes, after all, that the people that Gela loves aren't necessarily the people here.

[sprent]

She assumes correctly. "I came here from Nevarra," she supplies, and is fine with saying so, "I left family behind. Where do you come from?"

[incaenstrix]

"Tevinter," she answers quietly, and keeps looking at the sky. "So - we're neighbors, or nearly."

[sprent]

"Nearly," she echoes, and then she realises what Tertia is telling her. She is a young elf woman, here. From Tevinter.

Her stomach cramps. She is staring, but stops the moment she realises.

[incaenstrix]

Tertia catches the look. She glances over, and gives a quick, unhappy little smile, and then looks back at the sky.

"That's my cause," she says, simply, and trusts that Gela will take her meaning.

[sprent]

Gela nods, running her tongue over her teeth.

There's not much she could say to offer any comfort here, she knows it, and feels a sharp pang of sympathy all the same anyway. "We'd be lucky to have you." Her voice is soft, "If you chose to stay, in the end."

[incaenstrix]

"Oh," Tertia says, and squirms a little uncomfortably, "I mean - I guess we're lucky to have anyone, right? To have anyone's belief, ever. Your people are lucky to have you, too."

[sprent]

"Exactly," Gela says quickly, picking up on the mood, "Riftwatch is always lookin' for more people." Not Tertia specifically...

Awkward. She dislikes the feeling. She goes quiet for a moment, searching for something to say. "Thank you," is as good as anything, really. And, "I– actually don't have very good luck. It's better if I'm here, and they're there." That way, nothing can happen to them. Gela can't happen to them.

[incaenstrix]

Tertia turns to look at Gela more fully. "Why's that?" she asks curiously. Then - "I mean, is that really true? Or is it just something you feel is true?"

[sprent]

Nobody has ever asked her that before, but Gela doesn't hesitate before answering, "Of course it's true." Why would she have said it otherwise? She almost laughs. "But there isn't much that I could do about that, is there."