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

wildcardish

[taiyny]

He isn't the only one up well after the sun sets, when the stars have risen high into the sky and the moons are the only illumination available, outside of the candles and oil lamps present within Skyhold. It's a beautiful place, at night, and Natalia finds herself, more often than not, sitting on the ramparts with her legs folded underneath her. If she's afraid of the height before her, she doesn't show it, letting the wind chill her, breath misting into the dark before her.

This place is unlike the humid warmth of Antiva, a cold but not desolate place. She can make out the mountains beyond, the tiny firelights of Inquisition forces dotting the landscape out as far as she can see. She prefers to not sleep until the grey light of dawn, and even then only for a few hours. Paranoia, maybe. She'd prefer to call it caution.

When she hears him approach, she turns to look, lowering her hood and raising an eyebrow.

"Up late, Commander? Shouldn't you be well rested for the forces?"

[perseverances]

Cullen had expected to find himself alone at this time of night, save for a few soldiers stationed at their posts. Anyone who was smart would be well asleep, hoping that the dawn would bring better hopes and better news than the previous day.

But unfortunately, one wouldn't call Cullen too smart when it came to sleep. It's not often he sleeps a full night, and when he does try to, well, he'd rather not have any repeats of them.

"You'd be surprised how much sleep I can survive without." This late in the evening would catch him as more candid than in the daylight hours. "Shouldn't you be asleep as well?"

[taiyny]

Natalia stretches her legs out and turns to slide off her seat, lifting one shoulder in a shrug.

"I don't have an army to command," she says with a small smirk. "So I don't need that much sleep. Besides, a lot can happen at night. Better to have more eyes out, don't you think?"