faderift | Our aspirations are wrapped up in books

Entry tags:

Our aspirations are wrapped up in books

WHO: Hermione Granger and Open!
WHAT: There's a new ~~witch~~ mage wandering around Skyhold. Come say hello?
WHEN: Backdated to her arrival near the end of Guardian and onward throughout Drakonis.
WHERE: ~~The library.~~ All over Skyhold. ~~But mostly its library.~~
NOTES: Feel free to run into her pretty much anywhere, or have her run into you. And be prepared for all the questions about your character and Thedas/their homeworld and everything in between.

If not for the fact that Hermione had spent so many of her formative years in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Skyhold might have been overwhelming

As it was, the sprawling fortress was a little hard to get used to, since the academic environment that had given Hogwarts some sense of structure amidst the chaos wasn't present here. There was a library, thankfully, and she spent much of her time there, though it was so small that she was certain she'd end up reading every book in there in two weeks' time if she didn't actually go out and explore the rest of her surroundings.

And so every so often, she pried herself away from the cold little corner she'd set aside for herself and wander the rest of the area, though granted, she more often than not was carrying at least one book with her. Usually it was one of the books that had survived the trip through the Fade; anyone who might spot her in the garden or tavern or a safe distance away from the sparring going on in the training grounds might notice her engrossed in such unfamiliar titles as Hogwarts, A History or occasionally digging through Spellman's Syllabary in the vain hope of finding recognizable runes on various inscriptions throughout Skyhold.

After all, just because she was endlessly fascinated by all the new people and cultures and history and magic, it didn't mean she didn't occasionally need a bittersweet reminder of home. Especially when her other major reminder was her wand, which - despite the fact that she'd taken to finding the most solitary places she could find and practicing with it harder than she ever had the night before an exam - still wasn't behaving properly at all. Apologies to those of you who end up slipping on some wayward ice or getting sprayed with pebbles from a spell gone wrong.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Korrin doesn't often seek out-of-the way areas, but when she does it's usually with the purpose of reading letters from 'home' and writing back. She has a stack that needs answering, having accumulated since her departure for Emprise du Lion. Now that she's around again, they deserve some decent replies in turn. Hence her picking that abandoned tower not too far from the tavern. Given it's decrepit status, no one seems interested in claiming it and as such its a perfect spot.

The Vashoth mage steps inside...and promptly yelps as she slides on a patch of ice that shouldn't be there. She reaches back for the doorframe but misses and promptly falls on her back, her letters scattering everywhere. There's a hiss of pain, though she can barely manage more with the wind knocked out of her lungs. "Vashedan!"

Mia comes to the garden now and then, when she isn't otherwise occupied bustling around the castle. That does take up a tremendous amount of the day, partially by design, but she's been told more than once that taking a break won't hurt.

And the garden is such a lovely spot for sitting, taking in the sunshine and the smell of flowers, and setting up for a game of chess. Some days she plays herself, for lack of any competition, and other times people invite themselves over to join her. She's just in the midst of moving towards the pavilion to set up such a game when she spots the unfamiliar girl nearby, her nose pressed into a book.

"Good reading?" she murmurs, by way of greeting, before stepping up towards the table already sitting at the ready.

Hermione wasn't the only one looking for a solitary space. Ellana didn't mind others coming across her practicing her lute, but that was because she was switching between the few songs she actually knew rather well by now. There were still a few slip ups that left her flustered, but she decided to move on to something new rather than go over the same few pieces yet again. She'd asked the minstrel in the tavern to write out a simple song for her -- only a few repeated chords -- and now Ellana was looking for a quiet spot to practice this new song. She knew that the ramparts above the barn rarely saw people, and the wind up there would carry away her poorly played notes, so she headed up there, lute strapped to her back.

To her surprise, someone was already there, and holding a strange little stick. Ellana was just about to make her presence known when a load of pebbles came flying at her and she let out a yelp, dropping a glyph under her feet to raise a barrier over herself out of pure instinct. There was a brief moment of panic, born out of the fact that some people just really, really hated elves, but then logic kicked in and she knew that if this person wanted to hurt her, she wouldn't use pebbles.

"What are you trying to do?" she asked tentatively, still unsure if she was unwelcome.

New figures near the Rookery do not go unnoticed. Her scouts keep track of those lurking nearby, and the library was extremely nearby. A young woman, they said, sometimes seen with a stick. Some manner of mage, perhaps, and although one of her scouts had skidded on ice after seeing her working with her exceptionally tiny staff, the act had apparently not appeared to be a malicious one.

Leliana finds herself curious, one day, when she spots the young woman in the Library, and not for the first time that week. She, herself, has a gift be blending and being unseen, but then that is what she was raised to be. Minstrel turned monster, you could say.

Approaching the potential-mage potential-rifter, Leliana takes note of the book she is reading, eyebrow quirked as she stands, posture overly correct and hands behind her back. "That one is a less than reliable account of elven history," Leliana offers, quietly. "Better you speak to the Dalish and to our Arcane Advisor, if you should wish to gain some understanding."

Understanding of the Dalish and the plight of elves is skewed enough, as is. Better to go to those who have lived it, and those who have dedicated so much of their life trying to piece together whatever understanding they can gather.

Hermione used to be able to manipulate her magic seamlessly, which means that she's extraordinarily frustrated by the state of things now. It's taking far too much effort to do something as simple as a Levitating Charm, and she just barely manages to see the broken chair she's focusing on twitch just slightly off the ground before she hears someone cry out, causing her to jump and whirl around with a gasp.

She's not sure if it's worse that it's someone she knows versus someone she doesn't but either way, Hermione immediately (and carefully) makes her way toward Korrin, reaching out a hand for her... despite the fact that the much larger woman is more likely to pull her down with her than be helped up. "Korrin! I'm so sorry! Are you all right?" The scattered papers everywhere make her fret for a moment that she'd dropped a book and the pages had flown out of the seams, and that just makes her feel even worse.

Sometimes Hermione can still pretend that she's at Hogwarts, just... during a holiday when there are no classes and most of the other students have gone home. The grounds here at Syhold are certainly almost large enough to be similar, after all. But at Hogwarts, people generally don't talk to her when she's reading, not unless it has something to do with last-minute review for an exam or, you know. A matter of life and death.

So when she hears someone speaking nearby, she glances up for a moment, only to be surprised that the unfamiliar woman is speaking to her. Considering it to be simply idle chatter, she smiles a little, a fingertip holding her place in her reading.

"Research. After a fashion." She's still holding onto some hope that re-reading the books from home will shed some light on how she'd gotten here and how she could get back, but even Hogwarts, A History has its limitations.

Hearing someone cry out, Hermione gasped and turned around, immediately stopping what she was doing. A few larger rocks littered the floor around her, but she forgot all about them as she took a tentative step towards the other woman, reaching out a concerned hand.

"I'm sorry! You didn't get scratched up, did you? I was just trying to work on some small Blasting Charms; the larger ones haven't been working very well for me, so I figured that I could start small and if things got out of hand and I fell, at least I'd fall into the hay. Probably. Maybe if I stood a bit more to the right...."

Feeling a little foolish, Hermione hid her wand up her sleeve, giving up on magic for the moment at least. "I didn't know people came up here. I can go find someplace else to practice."

While Hermione has grown marginally more observant since the beginning of the Second Wizarding War - she notes how many possible exits a room has and where there would be the most cover in the midst of a sudden battle, for instance - she assumes she's relatively safe here, especially when she's hidden among her books. The only dangers she knows of in this world are the demons that fall out of the rift, and as she hasn't seen any of that distinctive green color outside of the palm of her hand, she's going to assume she's not in so much danger that she can't afford to get lost in a book or two. Or seven.

It's especially easy to get lost in her reading when she's learning about an entirely new world that sounds eerily similar to hers in some respects and yet not at all like it in most others. She knows about elves, and has a great affinity for them, but she hasn't seen any around Skyhold (at least, not any that she can recognize as elves). And what's described in this book... it doesn't sound very elfish at all.

But then an unfamiliar voice seems to explain why, and she looks up to see a woman that she hadn't noticed before. Which isn't out of the ordinary, really, considering how many people have sought out shelter in Skyhold or have otherwise come to call the fortress home.

So she manages a small smile as she quizzically asks, "Dalish? Those are the nomadic elves, aren't they? I thought they avoided humans?" Flipping through earlier passages of the book, she explains, "I'm still trying to learn about the different kinds of beings that inhabit this world. We have elves at home, and no one really knows much about them either... but unless this writer took certain liberties in the way she describes the elves here, I'm going to guess there are some marked disparities between the two."

Ariadne had found the absolute, perfect tree branch. It was high enough off the ground to feel safe, but low enough that she wasn't quite hidden by the leaves of higher branches. It rose at just such an angle that she could tuck herself into the nook where branch met trunk and feel stable, but it wasn't so high that she was uncomfortable straddling it.

It was such a little thing to find. But somehow, it made Ariadne more comfortable than she'd been in months. If she just squeezed her eyes shut the right way, she could almost fool herself into thinking that she was back in the forests of Deleo.

Funny. She'd never really been all that homesick for the forest before. Not while she was living in Valeria, a place full of bustling and energy and life. It was only now, when the possibility of ever going back to her childhood home seemed so remote, that she found that she missed it.

The branch would have to be a good-enough substitute.

And for the moment, it was. She was stretched out and content, absently playing a few notes on her pipes when an unfamiliar scent caught her attention.

Someone new? How exciting!

The hand up is appreciated, though mindful of the size difference, Korrin tries to stand mostly on her own effort. That's slow going, though, as she moves stiffly and winces. That's going to hurt for a while. She takes no notice of the scattered letters for the moment in light of that, as bending over to pick them up just isn't going to happen right now.

"Hermione? I--ow--that'll sting for a bit. I've had worse, though." Far worse. She does her best to avoid that slippery patch of ice on the floor this time, not wanting an encore of her graceless moment. "Experimenting with ice magic?"

Mia's eyebrows lift. "Goodness. Well, I didn't mean to interrupt," she answers in turn, setting the board on the table and unfolding it, picking up the pieces that have scattered along the inside. It will take a few moments to set them all into place, and she does so with practiced patience.

"You couldn't have picked a nicer spot for it," she adds after a moment, turning her head to gaze skyward. A few ravens appear to be leaving the tower, off to destinations unknown.

Quick to shake her head no, Ellana gestured to herself to show she was fine. There were thin blue lines swirling around her form as evidence of her barrier protecting her, but it was rapidly decaying without being cast with a staff for focus.

"I'm fine. I've never heard of a Blasting Charm before." Her head tilted in curiosity, especially as the wand disappeared up her sleeve. "You're one of those who came in through the rift, aren't you? Don't worry about being up here. I was just looking for a place to practice music, but you were here first."

Hermione had started out looking for some place with no people or animals around, since her magic was beginning to be more of a nuisance than anything else. People kept getting hurt, or at the very least annoyed, and she really didn't want to end up wearing out her welcome when she had no place else to go at the moment.

But despite her search for solitude, she couldn't help but realize that she was walking towards the vague sound of music, and she eventually looked up, catching sight of someone in a tree. For a moment, it seemed like the sort of mad thing Luna Lovegood might do, but then she realized that no, Luna wasn't here, and that girl up there looked nothing like Luna, and it probably wasn't very polite to stare.

At least, it wouldn't be polite to stare without saying something, so she offers a smile before moving to continue on her way. "That doesn't look particularly comfortable."

Knowing she can't completely help Korrin up, Hermione moves to brace her free arm around her back, hoping to at least make it easier for her to get to her feet. Seeing the obvious signs of pain on her face makes her wince a bit in return, and she feels doubly bad for it, if possible. For now, she tries to minimize her guilt by carefully gathering up some of the papers Korrin had dropped upon her fall, babbling all the while.

"I'm sorry, I should have cleared that out as soon as it had happened! Granted, with the way things have been going, I probably would have set the entire tower on fire. I've just been going over the elementary spells I'd first learned; I'm trying to see at what difficulty things start getting, well... difficult."

"Oh! No, I didn't mean it like that!" Granted, it had, technically, been an interruption, but Hermione hadn't meant to be rude about it, is what she means. You never tell someone they're interrupting you. Not unless they're Ron. He can stand a bit of rudeness thrown back at him every so often.

She hesitates between going back to her reading and debating whether she should engage the woman in conversation. Seeing what she's doing, though, piques her genuine curiosity. "It is nice, isn't it? Sorry, is that... chess?"

She knows the wizarding world is confused by the notion of chess, calling it instead Wizard's Chess and throwing in some enchanted pieces. Would Thedosian chess have a similar quirk to it?

More than the strange - though no longer entirely unfamiliar - light of the barrier, Hermione noticed the markings on the woman's face when she stopped to get a good look at her. She was torn between curiosity and a lifetime of being told not to stare, so she didn't make mention of them right away, even when she realized this woman might not be wholly human, given the barest tips she could make out of her pointed ears.

"No, I-... I mean, yes, I came in through the rift, but I can find somewhere else to practice. Or give it up for the day. My magic hasn't been working right since I got here. I'd blame my wand, but even the small bit of wandless magic I'd been able to do isn't-...."

Realizing she was babbling, Hermione shook her head, remarking, "Sorry, I didn't mean to prattle. I'm Hermione Granger, and I'm very glad you're all right."

Ariadne glanced down at her position curiously. Humans were always so strange when it came to comfort. Of course, it had taken her forever to get used to sleeping in a bed, but now she quite enjoyed it.

Matter of taste.

With a shrug, she hooked her right knee around the crook of the branch and threw her weight forward, flipping so that she was hanging upside down by her knee. The long rope of hair over her shoulder, pulled into a neat braid, coiled on the ground beneath her.

She offered the stranger an impish smile.

"Does this look better?"

Mia quirks a brow, interested. "It is. Do you play?"

She gestures to the board, which unlike the ones Hermione is likely used to, sits in a hexagon shape with similarly-shaped tiles. The pieces are also quite different, though they appear to serve the same function.

"You're more than welcome to join me, though if you've research to be done, I quite understand if you don't." Giving the girl a kind smile, she settles herself in at one side of the board.

If she had any reason to doubt that the girl was likely a rifter, those are now vanished. Interesting to listen to her voice, though. Lara and this young woman had accents that seemed not terrible different from one another, but Lara had said that elves lived only in the realms of fiction in her world, and so too dwarves and dragons. Qunari existed not at all. Then again, there are those of Thedas with similar accents, but the overlap in some things was intriguing - moreso, given her and Morrigan's fledgling project.

"That they are, though it is rather more complex than their simply being nomadic." And Leliana nods. She speaks with careful precision, always, and her own accent might not sound so terribly unfamiliar to Hermione - though it isn't quite French. "And for the most part, yes. With good reason, as well, but times such as these have the potential to draw people together who might not otherwise find any commonality. The Dalish lend the Inquisition their aid and their knowledge, and for that we owe them much." And they had already owed them far more than could ever be given.

"Well," she starts, glancing towards the Rookery and allowing herself the indulgence of sitting for a moment, instead, "there are accuracies, and then there are exaggerations and distortions of fact. It is hard to find a book that treats elves fairly, in truth. Thedosian culture is rich with the urge to denigrate them. "But if you have questions, I can endeavour to answer them with a little more balance, until you find time to speak with them, if such a thing should even interest you. What differences have these books indicated between the elves of your world than ours?"

She should probably introduce herself, but this is a matter she feels rather passionately about.

She didn't blame Hermione for prattling, since she seemed pretty alarmed at her spell coming out the wrong way. She gave a gentle smile and shook her head to assure her it was all right and that she really was fine.

"No harm done," she said as the barrier dissipated. Maybe things could have gone poorly, but she wouldn't dwell on the what ifs here. There had been talk recently among the Mage Council about rifters who could do magic. In the wake of a shardbearer accidentally opening up a rift right in Skyhold, it was thought that anyone with a shard should be watched more closely. Ellana was of the mindset that only those with magic should have supervision, and only if they were doing experimental magic. Now seeing Hermione and hearing how her magic wasn't performing as she intended, it gave her pause.

"Ellana Ashara," she added a moment later. "Pleased to meet you. I would caution you about using your magic at this time. People are still recovering from recent events having to do with a shardbearer using magic and opening a rift here, and I wouldn't want you to get in trouble for not knowing about it."

The assistance with getting back to her feet as well as gathering what she herself can't at the moment gets Hermione a grateful if slightly strained smile. Korrin props herself up against the wall, hoping that the throbbing pain will subside in a little while. If not, it's elfroot tea time. "It'll be alright, just maybe put up a sign next time."

Mention of magic perks her up a little; there wasn't exactly time to compare notes in Emprise du Lion. "What difficulty would that be, then? What can you easily do, and what seems harder than before?"

She'd been about to walk under the branch, only to stop in surprise when the woman was suddenly hanging upside in front of her. Blinking, she let out a short, uncertain laugh despite herself, mentioning, "It looks like you might earn yourself a head injury if you aren't careful."

Though she doubted that she'd need to help getting down or even wanted to get down to begin with, Hermione offers her hand, in the event that she needed it to safely get on her feet. "There are enough ways to get hurt around here without inviting trouble."

Said the witch who was best friends with two wizards who shared Trouble as a middle name.

"I'm... not sure."

She gets up and looks at the board a bit curiously, seeing enough similarities to be able to recognize the game for what it is but wondering over the unfamiliar shapes and pieces. Smiling up at the fair-haired woman, she explains, "I'm used to a square board. But if the pieces don't sass you and nothing explodes, I suppose it can't be too difficult to figure out."

Taking a seat at the opposite end of the board, she offers, "My name is Hermione, by the way."

Hermione has noticed the strange accents as well, making it impossible to tell who here was a native and who came from somewhere else without looking at their hand first. And even that isn't a guarantee, given she'd heard about how not all the shards are in people's hands. So she didn't even bother to guess anymore. If people care to tell her about themselves, she'd listen; if not, she'd asked. She isn't exactly forcing the information out of anyone either way.

She sits up, curiosity instantly piqued as this woman begins talking about these Dalish elves. She has so many questions she wants to ask, but that's nothing new. Somehow, though, she manages to keep quiet until she stops talking, not wanting to seem rude and cut her off halfway through a possible explanation.

Surprised by how willingly information is being offered up, Hermione turns to face her fully, the book momentarily forgotten, though she sort of wishes she had some parchment and a quill with which to take notes. "Well for starters, the physical descriptions don't quite match up. I read something about facial tattoos, but the elves I know...." She chuckles softly, shaking her head a little. "I can't imagine any of them sitting still for something like that. House-elves are small, thin-... though, well, that might be because most of them are starved, poor things."

Trying not to scowl, she explains, "For as long as anyone can remember, elves have been little more than indentured servants to magical families. Some families are very nice and their elves are treated very well, but more often than not, it's the less nice ones that keep elves around. There's a loophole in their contract that grants them freedom if their 'masters' give them a gift of clothing, but some elves have been doing this for so long that they've been brainwashed to think they don't want to be free. It's awful, especially when I think back on how many times I'd enjoyed a fire or a meal that I hadn't known had been prepared by an elf."

Clearly, this is something she's very passionate about, too.

For what it was worth, she was glad that she hadn't accidentally hurt anyone, though she still wasn't pleased about the suggestion that she not practice magic. She wasn't one of those witches who couldn't so much as pour themselves a glass of water without magic, but knowing that things weren't working the way they should, how could Hermione properly rest without at least trying to straighten her magic out?

Still, it was nice to have a warning, leading her to reply, "I appreciate that. It's just frustrating, having studied magic for so long and now I suddenly can't do the spells I'd had perfected since I was eleven. I'm trying to do as much research as I can, but there aren't a huge amount of books on practical magic in the library, and what I find doesn't sound at all similar to what I'm used to."

She pauses for a moment, frowning in thought. "I wouldn't be able to open one of these rifts accidentally, would I? Is that possible?"

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 15

Our aspirations are wrapped up in books

/random horribleness

no subject

no subject

no subject

no that’s horrible and by horrible I mean perfect

no subject

no subject

no subject

Some random garden area between point A and point B?

no subject

no subject

no subject

Sounds good! o/

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject