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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

[incaenstrix]

"Ah - "

The downside to being thoroughly absorbed in concentration is that - well - you don't notice people around you. So Tertia had no idea that this man was here until he sat down across from her - and so when he speaks, she visibly jumps, and looks up at him with a wildly guilty expression.

"Am I not supposed to be - ?" His manner isn't unfriendly, but she can't think of any reason that a human would be talking to her that isn't you're doing something wrong. "I can put it back."

[favoriteanalyst]

Mobius holds up his hands when she jumps. "Sorry--sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. You're fine. This is a library, for reading and research. You don't have to put anything away."

Jumpy elf means ah, probably has not had a good life. So noted. He sets his hands back down. "My name's Mobius. I'm a librarian. I noticed you've been at it for a while, so I just wanted to check in, see if you're doing okay."

[incaenstrix]

She searches his expression a moment for some hint of malice or of irony - doesn't find any. Well - It is true that the people here are a bit different. Maybe someone like this would offer to - what, get her a drink? Odd as it seems.

"I'm - Yes. I'm doing okay." She nibbles a little on her lower lip, then dares to ask a question - "What time is it?"

[favoriteanalyst]

"Sun's still up," he says with a smile. "So not late enough for me to suggest you get out of here. I can catch a whiff from the kitchens, though, when I open a window. Think they're starting to get dinner cooked up."

He tilts his head, like getting her from another angle will help. "Reading anything good?"

[incaenstrix]

"I don't really know if it's good or not." Her manner is still shy, still cautious, but a little looser as they talk. She tilts the cover up to reveal Brother Genitivi's In Pursuit of Knowledge: The Travels of a Chantry Scholar. "It's very educational. Have you read it?"

[favoriteanalyst]

"Oh yes," he says with a grin. "It's a very popular book, and very educational like you said. Gives a nice grounded first-hand account of a lot across Thedas. He's a very well-traveled man. He's got a few more books on some more specific topics, if that ever catches your interest."

He spreads his hands. "Or if any particular topic is interesting, I can see what kind of books I can dig up for you. What's your name?"

[incaenstrix]

"I'm - Tertia," she says. She looks down, playing lightly with the corner of the book.

"What sorts of things do you like to read about?"

[favoriteanalyst]

"Well, what I really like to do is learn. So I like to read about things I don't know much about or understand yet. And there's a lot out there I don't know much about, so I'm never lacking for stuff to read. I also like reading about the Chant and the opinions people have on it."

Not to say he doesn't like fiction, too. But mostly the world, existence, everything they've discovered and conjured and figured and studied so far in existence is so fascinating enough by itself. He'll never learn it all...and that's okay.

"Do you like learning about the world around you, Tertia?"