Skyhold

[faderifting]

WHO: Anyone & everyone
WHAT: Open post for business as usual around Skyhold
WHEN: The first couple weeks of Harvestmere, 9:41 (aka October)
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Please mark any necessary content warnings in thread subject lines. Also, make sure to check out the other log posts already made!

Far from the glamorous adventurous world-saving people signed up for, most of the hustle and bustle in Skyhold at present is cleaning. The Great Hall is a disaster, and crews are assigned to haul out the cracked and rotting planks fallen from the wide-open roof, and tear down the vines covering the walls. Ivy encrusts the main staircase outside and many of the fortress walls and is cleared in section while other groups assess or begin shoring up the stonework as it's revealed. There are scaffolding to build, materials to sort, crates to unload, tents to stitch together or set-up, and on and on and on, endless mundane chores vital to the survival of the organization.

When not hard at work, people cluster around fires across the courtyards. Many mingle freely, going about their business, running errands and messages, planning scouting missions, tallying up supplies, distributing or playing with the sending crystals that were found in a basement vault and which a group of mages have just today finished preparing for use. Once a good number have been passed around and the first Inquisition-wide transmission made messages start being broadcast; maybe you can help someone out.

The rebel mages and renegade templars mainly keep to themselves at opposite sides of the complex given the choice. Mages assist with healing and research and bicker amongst themselves about their options and their fate. Templars help train recruits in swordforms and basic combat techniques or spar with the more advanced and bicker amongst themselves about their options and their fate. Despite having all pledged themselves to the Inquisition, they still feel like separate factions and tension between them is palpable wherever they cross paths.

Like at meals, or the communal message board in the courtyard, or at the Herald's Rest. The mess hall/tavern is so new it still smells of sawdust, and its stock has been limited to one type of strong ale until today, when a shipment of West Hill brandy has finally arrived. The mood in the place is convivial in celebration of that, but there's still plenty of muttering, especially as the night drags on and the discontented get further into their cups.

Comments

[vir_tasallan]

"Not too far from home, then," she brightened a little, tilting her head to watch the sparrows dive in and land, pecking at the grass and crumbs. "It's nice to see so many people here, helping out Ferelden. And the Inquisition. Can't imagine how it is to have a Blight and then this happen."

Must be dreadful. Home was meant to be a place where you had normal squabbles, not world-shaking tragedies on your doorstep.

"Do you have a proper place to stay? Sorry, I'm not trying to pry, just-- well, we have to look after each other and you looked a bit lonely. It's not a nice feeling, being lonely."

[ancarrow]

"We were at the point where we'd just begun to recover properly from the Blight." They'd seen few darkspawn, but she remembers how crowded Gwaren had become with refugees fleeing; many of the humans using it as an embarkation point to cross to the Free Marches, and many of the elves finding themselves still in the alienage there ten years later. "I worry that the holes in the sky will have appeared there, too." She's certain the authorities would evacuate the noble and merchant classes and leave her people to fend for themselves. But then, that was what the Inquisition was for.

"Oh no, I don't mind. I've claimed a spot on the kitchen floor so far. It seems as though beds are in short supply." It's not nice, but already Merrill's making it fade just a little with her kind consideration.

[vir_tasallan]

"Even the lands, I hear, take ages to recover from Blights." she wriggled her toes a little, sitting to hug her knees as she listened. The kitchen floor, while not proper, was more ideal than an hayloft. At least she'd be warm and inside. "It does seem like sleeping spots are at a premium. But don't settle for something less than comfortable once the Inquisition gets on its feet. They're supposed to treat us all like allies, here."

She stood her full height to regard the people in the distance. "Such an idealistic notion, though. I wonder if it'll work. I hope it does. Oh, and also--"

Stern, she was going with stern when her expression hardened. She only managed to accomplish firm, not stern. "They've got plenty of supplies coming in. I'll have your word you won't be skipping meals again. Where would they be if you keel over from hunger?"

Her arms folded and she smiled a little, "Still hurt and possibly stuck under you. Your word, lethallan."

[ancarrow]

"I'll do all I can to eat my share." It's a rather loose promise, but she knows that if it's a choice between her own welfare and that of her charges, she'll lose out every time.

She blinks a couple of times, then looks up at her curiously. "What was that you called me?"