faderift | open to all

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 ]

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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."

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."

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?"

"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?"

"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."

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.

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

"What are you fighting for?"

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

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.

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?"

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

"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.

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.

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."

"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."

"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.

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?"

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."

"Well - "

Tertia turns to Gela with an air of settling in, as for a long story or a vociferous conversation. Her elbows go on her knees, and she leans forward. "How do you know it's true?"

Oh, hello.

Gela, to her credit, does not lean back. "Because," she says. Surely that is answer enough?? It's not too telling to add that, "Misfortunes happen around me."

Tertia nods thoughtfully. "What kinds of them?" she asks, head tilted to the side.

"Little kinds," she says, "But big kinds, too." The reluctance to elaborate is plain; she knows already that it's selfish to want to stay, and heap herself upon the people who have offered her housing, and food, but she is tired of being lonely. She flashes Tertia an empty little smile. "I won't bore you with details."

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