open.

[luaithre]

WHO: Marcus Rowntree and other people hopefully
WHAT: A catch all for this guy: training, work meetings, and card games.
WHEN: Backdated Bloomingtide/present day Justinian mishmash
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Open prompts under the cut, also a catch all in the comments.

There is some dark little slice of time where very few people actually see Marcus around the place, even in this, the immediate wake of the attack against the Gallows, with so much to do. Returning from the front with bad news, a quiet and blank presence in between the necessary places he has to go—to eat, to work, to move to and from the tent situation he shares with his partners, and then, also, long periods of time in which no one sees him at all.

It's normal to grieve. It just doesn't need company.

Then, one day, he posts up in the training courtyard. The late springtime warmth is hostile to the quilted protective layers one must wear for sparring, but he equips himself anyway in layers of warm brown and grey, hands in gloves and sweating already at the hairline. It is most common to find him wielding a staff, both non-magical dead wood and the kind with a core of lyrium running through it, but occasionally, he takes up one of the blunted swords available and seeks a partner. He is not without skill after all these years, although it's likely obvious he won't be bringing one to the battlefield anytime soon.

Find him roaming around to find someone to spar with or simply going through casting motions in silence (and he might strip down to breathable layers, if so). If you are a mage, he might give unasked for advice or criticism for your form. And maybe even if you're not a mage.

There's an announcement. The Provost makes it and Marcus sees no reason to make a show of chiming in. Those who care to are able to find him in the vacated office of one James Flint, the private quarters locked shut, the assistant's area barren, and a series of scrolls and books spread out on the desk that Marcus hovers near as he reads and tries to make sense of it all. It's easier to think on his feet and move between it and other filing units. If there is some small part of him that is not quite at ease with simply sitting at the chair allocated to the desk—

He gets over it by the time he has suggested that Forces members make a time to speak to him. By now, too, the air has taken on the taint of cigarette smoke. There's a horse painting on one of the shelves. May as well make the most of things.

For a less formal setting, Marcus makes a semi-frequent appearance at the Loose Noose, certainly always prepared to pay and steal glances at those who might decide not to. He might be found behind the bar, inspecting the meagre collection of liquors there, or nursing a tankard of ale by a window, writing something on loose sheets of paper in the natural light of a late afternoon, or maybe staring into space and doing nothing at all between remembering to take a drink.

And a little thing like the collapsing of the Gallows and the death of a sibling doesn't mean that card games and their allocated Thursday evenings have been completely left to the wayside. He is present every other session, both in the Loose Noose, bringing over some bottles of wine and beer to the larger of the tables inside, or ducking into the chosen tavern on a rainy, early summer night, a coin purse in his pocket that he's set to make heavier.

He is not much of a chatterer during a round of cards, but after a few drinks and perhaps a profitable outcome, he might be what passes as friendly.

Comments

[youwonscience]

She does, finding a light perch on the arm rather than the seat of a chair. "You've got my sympathy, I've done the sorting through the office thing recently enough." She realizes how rarely she'd been in this office when it was Flint's. It's not surprising, really; her work occasionally overlaps with Diplomacy, and sometimes even Scouting, but other than Div Head meetings, the only thing she'd ever really consistently needed from Forces was protection if she had to send people somewhere dangerous.

Instead of lingering on that, she says, "I wanted to just say thanks, for taking the job. The circumstances are kind of wild, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates you stepping up. And, um, if there's anything you need while you're getting started." She's not sure what she has to offer besides marginally more experience heading a division, and even that doesn't feel like much, but the metaphorical extended hand is frank and genuine all the same.

[luaithre]

The scroll case is set aside as Marcus starts sifting through the pages. From where Cosima is perched, she can see several maps of differing quality, detail, and age. Once he sees what he has, Marcus' handling of them is more careful, pausing over each one to get a sense of what he's looking at, and then carefully placing each aside.

Cosima would be within her rights to feel ignored when he doesn't look up throughout her speaking, until he waits for he to be done and says, "Why did you take it?"

A glance up, then. "Besides necessity."

[youwonscience]

"I mean, necessity was in there." She considers him for a moment, maybe trying to gauge why he's asking. "There was some momentum to it, since I was already Tony's assistant. But I guess also ... I believe in what we're doing here. Riftwatch. And it's been important to me for years that rifters don't think of themselves as some other class of people just killing time until they vanish, you know?"

While she often talks with her hands, for this answer, she's relatively still. Thoughtful.

"We don't have that problem as much as we did years ago, but it doesn't never come up. And I think it's important. To show that I'm just as willing to give as much as I can to the cause as anyone else who is here. Both inside and outside the org." She shrugs. "If the best way I can help is coordinating the division, I'll do that. If sometime in the future, it makes sense to hand it off to someone else, I'll do that too."

A sigh, as she absently rubs her knee, not quite nervous energy but a bit of restlessness. "My personal knowledge set is really different than our last two provosts, but I think the main thing is zooming out and looking at all the projects we have going. Seeing what to prioritize, what may need to coordinate with the other divisions. Anyone organized enough who cares could do it. But not everyone is willing to." And she is, so she's here. It's maybe not the best answer, but it's the truth.