faderift | ( OPEN ) blending about as well as somebody wearing the glasses with a fake nose attached

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( OPEN ) blending about as well as somebody wearing the glasses with a fake nose attached

WHO: Emma Swan and PLEASE YOU don't leave me on my own
WHAT: Emma trying to make sense of the new place she's flumped in
WHEN: backdated-ish towards closer to her arrival thru now?
WHERE: Gettin all cozy in Emprise/Skyhold I believe
NOTES: Nothing dramatic yet. at least I don't think so. tba.

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It's at least a little bit ironic that she's more powerful than she's ever been and she still doesn't have much of anything. Being a rifter apparently rewards her no incentives, which is not surprising really but at least a little discouraging. She's been stuck close to a few weeks now and she's no closer to finding a way out, and no closer to finding a steady source of income, either.

She works little ends and odds here, yet she's not a great worker. When she can focus, she's quite dilligent and determined. It's focusing that is the hard part. Jobs that get more complicated than a monotonous repeated task tend to get scattered quickly. And it's safe to say not all residents of Skyhold trust a rifter to do even the most menial of tasks. She's lucky to put together enough coin to get some food for her and Ruby on occasion, she certainly doesn't have enough money to buy something to arm herself.

She can't actually be hurt, yet the lack of an ability to defend herself when she can't use her magic makes her very nervous.

So occasionally when the soldiers are out training, or weapons are out for polishing and display in the courtyard, Emma is there to look wistfully at what she can't have yet. Oh she could steal one, it's just that would be awful stupid when she still sleeps and is forced to exist here for the time being. So for now she just watches... and occasionally she'll point out sloppy form if she spots it. Hey, she isn't a master at a sword but apparently being the daughter of Prince Charming has taught her something in the past two years. And she knows poor form if she sees it. (That sounds a bit more like her pirate boyfriend than her father, though, doesn't it?)

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Something she didn't know about until it was far too late? Dark Ones don't require a lot of sleep. There's only so much time she can pretend to be sleeping for Ruby's sake. When that gets to be too much, Emma generally wanders around the open areas of the fortress, trying to keep to herself and keep fairly quiet at that.

She seems to like the courtyard best, and is often found doing something with her hands. Braiding straw or even something she never dreamed she'd get into — knitting. Hey, the place is freezing and she's ... okay she's not good. If anyone wants some lumpy socks, though, she's your lady. She's game for other tasks to distract her, too, even if they end up mundane like sweeping or other chores.

It's possible one might catch her talking to herself. Under her breath, barely a whisper, enough that it can be forgotten as a trick of the fortress that barely sleeps more than she does. You'd have to get pretty close to understand what she's saying, and that's probably for the best. Chances are you don't want to know.

ＣＵＲＩＯＳＩＴＹ.

The last thing one would think Emma would be interested in is more magic. She's got plenty, thanks, and not a whole lot of places for it to go. Not to mention the fact she has magic seems more like a strike against her than a positive quality in this place, though to be fair, when has magic ever felt like a gift over a curse? She tries her best not to use magic, no matter the situation, just to protect herself...

Yet she still can't quite keep her nose out of it all the same.

The magic of this world is very interesting to her, and it's often she'll watch mages at work, though if they ask her to buzz off she will. They use techniques completely foreign to the ones she's started to understand back home. Emma is intensely interested in how mages control their abilities, quietly hoping that she can learn something from them.

She hasn't gone as far as asking questions, yet... but the way she lingers and watches has to be at least a little bit creepy, especially if the poor mage in question has no damn idea who she is.

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hit me up with whatever you like! Emma roams the castle a lot, and probably is distracted and weird while doing so. hit me up at goplayzelda if you wanna chat magic stuff!

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"All spirits are from the Fade, yes, but I found wisp essence at the Fallow Mire for the crafting." Korrin wrinkles her nose at mention of that horrid place, believing that giving a warning about it is the only kind thing to do. "Don't go there if you can help it, by the way. It's full of nothing but disease-ridden water and undead. The Inquisition assigned us there sometime ago, and ugh--never again."

Even Emprise du Lion, a mess if there ever is one, still ranks higher in her estimation. Backing up, she demonstrates with a practice swing so that Emma can get a better look than she might have at Korrin's full speed. "You know the funny apart? Apostates like me never get to learn this kind of magic, normally. If war hadn't broken out, Knight-Enchanters would still only be Circle mages. It's fun to see the look on a stuffy Loyalist or Chantry sister when they realize what I've learned, despite what I obviously am to them."

"I am. I learned magic from my clan's leader." Pel sets her spinning aside to give Emma her full attention.

She's honestly got to get better at blending. She used to be good at this. Though sticking out like a sore thumb is sort of how it always goes when she ends up in worlds that aren't modern. She wonders if David would be proud that she's been caught jealously yearning over swords. Probably not, it seems like she's just not meant to make her parents proud.

That is quite a hat he's got. Emma is momentarily lost trying to figure out if his greeting means she has to do something in return. She waits a little too long and then curtsies and feels incredibly foolish while she does so. Someone has got to teach her the proper greetings in this place, because she's just making it up as she goes and probably not well.

"It's one of the few things that seems familiar around here." Mostly because the dated dress and technology is from her parent's world more than it was ever from hers. "And mud? Seriously?"

Edited (SORRY hit enter too soon ) 2016-03-09 21:05 (UTC)

Emma is still getting used to Qunari, but hey. She's met taller things in her lifetime. Compared to Anton, The Iron Bull isn't that tall at all. Compared to her, though... well, maybe. She's not going to admit it out loud, though.

She doesn't startle, though, it's true. In fact these days she can get so lost in her head it seems almost impossible to startle her, because she'd have to be alert enough for it. This time she doesn't because she can hear him coming, turning enough to spot him before he gets the chance to speak.

"I don't want to swing one so much as I want to have one," she answers bluntly. Practice is nice but what she wants is something to defend herself, and she doesn't have the money to buy herself one yet. "But if you're offering I won't say no." Maybe trying her hand at the drills David taught her will help her keep her mind focused. Something she needs desperately these days.

The curtsy makes him chuckle, but he doesn't make any judgments; instead, he observes her, more curious than anything else. Making her feel embarrassed isn't his intent right at this moment.

"I can't really imagine what that must be like, taken from what you know and placed somewhere far off." The rifters have his sympathies. "I may have to ask what your world is like sometime. You're all wonderfully unique."

Twisted Fate snorts. "You haven't met most of the Dalish. Traditionally, Dalish elves don't wear footwear. I don't really see eye-to-eye with that and really enjoy my boots, personally."

A hand is held out. "I go by Twisted Fate. Bit of a mage, bit of a rogue, but always an entertainer."

"No?" Ruby is aghast! Except for, you know, that ridiculous grin of hers. "This could be, I don't know. A retelling. A retelling of a film adaptation of a historical event including two woman from a book of fairy tales..." Ruby trails off, eyebrows raised. "I don't know, but that sounds like we should get an award."

True facts about Ruby Lucas, she actually spends a lot of time reading, whenever she's not working. Other true facts: she doesn't actually have much of a life. But Ruby had been more interested in movies than Red, at least, and so she takes a moment to mull that over. "I'm pretty sure we had Steel Magnolias and The Land Before Time... actually, I'm not sure if those are even from the Nineties."

She'd go look it up if they weren't so very very stranded. Maybe Emma'll just have to take her word for it. "Any story that was depressing would probably have managed to fight its way through the Curse. No happy endings, right?" Maybe it just depends on your interpretation, of course. Some could consider Clueless a tragedy, if they were committed enough.

Gently knocking Emma with her shoulder, Ruby nods towards a cart in the courtyard below. "Come on. You look cold."

"No, you didn't," she replies, with a smile meant to set her at ease. "If anything, I needed a break anyway and your presence reminded me to do that." She doesn't look too out of breath or sweaty, but she does stretch out her arms a little and shake out her wrists.

"Are you newly arrived at Skyhold?"

"Adelaide." She offers a hand as is custom, lips twisted in a faint smile. "You are new to Thedas, yes?"

It is difficult to not notice the mark; especially when she makes a point to be aware of the faces of the rifters- if not know all their names. "I suppose that might also have a hand in making it difficult to sleep. A new room? Everything sounds different. A new world...even the air does not taste the same from what I have been told."

"I think I'd feel bad about getting an award for Leo's work before he did." Poor bastard, when was he ever going to get that Oscar? Well, from where she was currently, Leonardo could get the critical acclaim he'd been dying for and she'd never know. There's a lot she misses more than award shows she barely even watched, but it's just another reminder she's not where she wants to be.

"Honestly, I don't remember either." Most of Emma's experience with movies in the eighties had been from watching them in her late twenties. It was not like a kid in foster care was often found watching new releases just as they came out. Chances hadn't been that much better for a homeless teenager, or a recently released convict. It doesn't matter to much what Storybrooke had once, since not only were they past the 80s now, they were also not in Storybrooke. It was just nice to reminisce a little bit about the place she missed so much, and a little less painful than thinking about the people. "If you think about it, every 80s movie is tragic in their own way." Apparently Emma could swing most of that decade through curse limitations through sheer force of will.

As for being cold, she could argue. She's a dark one, she couldn't freeze even if she wanted to. She'll survive a little longer up here, out in the wind. She relents before the fight, though. She's more concerned about the company, not the location. "I'm fine, Mom. I guess we're taking turns with this." And in both situations, it's ironic, because neither of them really need to be mothered.

"Duly noted." The idea of a mine might call to certain people, though Emma really didn't find the call of ore or money particularly appealing. Add in dirty, dangerous water and dead people? Well, no thanks. She wasn't interested in pushing herself through a place like that unless it'd help her, and by the sounds of it she probably wouldn't be finding a portal home there.

Emma steps back and tilts her head a little as she watches, appreciating the unspoken gesture to slow down the movement so she can see it better. It doesn't make it any less impressive. Her attention is a little distracted, though, by the mention of apostates. She doesn't know exactly what that is, but with context she can guess the basics. "Apostate, what is that? Practicing magic out of a particular school?" She can understand the feeling of beating back expectation, at least. She's spent a whole life doing her best to do that of people that thought a homeless delinquent could not make anything of herself.

Emma can feel a little out of place, but putting her on the spot probably wouldn't work anyway. No, she can't curtsey very well. That was her third in an entire lifetime and she'd only been in this place for a few weeks, she didn't have the specifics of the culture pinned down. Mocking her for that wasn't going to make her feel bad, it'd probably just make her annoyed.

"I'm sure there's plenty of stories wandering around at this point." Her world was pretty different from this one, and talking about Maine or her version of Earth would be easier than talking about the specifics of her actual home. Trying to explain cell phones and the internet to people that had little concept of technology would probably be pretty difficult, though.

"Really? Not even in cold like this?" Emma had been forced to arrive without shoes and she hadn't particularly enjoyed it. She shakes it off quickly, though, because that's probably not the important thing right now. Her eyebrows lift at the introductions but compared to Tinker Bell, it's not the weirdest name she's ever heard. "Emma. It's nice to meet you, part rogue and all."

She'll never admit it, but maybe she's grown rather fond of rogues after she started dating one.

"Pretty recently, yeah." She's been only for a few weeks, now, but in a lot of ways a few weeks does not feel like enough time to really understand the world she'd landed in. There's still a great deal she's trying to catch up with. She considers whether to point out the obvious before lifting a palm to display the green light that apparently gave her away as a rifter.

"I'm still trying to get used to things here. It's a lot different from what I'm used to." Magic was just the tip of the iceberg, really.

"Yeah. It's been a few weeks now, I guess, but I'm still trying to get used to it." It didn't help that it was a jarring jump from what she was accustomed to. Even a small town in Maine was a completely different world than Thedas. The noises and the activity were vastly different in a non-modern world, and that was not even touching the customs and habits of the people.

She laughs a little at the air tasting different. "I don't think you'd believe me if I told you what the air was like in New York." Pollution was probably a pretty foreign concept around here. "Ruby and I have been staying in a barn and that has its disadvantages when it comes to sleeping, too."

"Your clan? Is that clan of mages?" It does feel like a disadvantage, sometimes, to be so foreign to this place. She has a lot to learn and no way to really find out the answers without asking and being wrong on occasion.

"I would make an effort to try." Occasionally speaking of home eases the ache- it is not something she herself has indulged in all that often as she didn't have the time for it. But rifters have a stronger need than most. Displaced almost (or most certainly) in a violent fashion to a violent world with politics they have become ensnared in one way or another? Adelaide understands the feeling. While she has little to offer- listening costs nothing. "I have met Ruby- she is a very kind young woman. Quite helpful."

A little odd but who is Adelaide to judge such things? Most people of the Inquisition tend to be odd. "There are a few potions that might aid with sleep, or blends of tea."

As the blade winks out again, Korrin straightens and shakes her head. "It means someone who isn't a Circle mage, or who escaped the Circle. I don't like using the same term for both, because there's a world of difference between the training styles of someone who was part of one and someone who never had that influence, but whatever. It's like people calling me a Qunari. It's technically wrong, but that's the term everyone's used to."

She just shrugs, not especially annoyed. If she got riled up every time someone misused those terms, she wouldn't have energy for anything else.

"I'm going to have to explain the Circle of Magi, aren't I? This will be fun. Just keep in mind that I'm very heavily biased against them. I love my freedom and Circle life is...pretty much the opposite of that."

Certainly not at the 2016 Academy Awards, that's for sure. That'd imply he had a shot at a happy ending, after all.

"But that's the way the world usually works," Ruby replies, just a little too bright, as if this were not a real and pressing issue. In any case, it's easier to sass along with Emma, than to really start to analyse their lives or situation. "For the hair, if nothing else," she agrees instead, gently nudging Emma.

As it is, she's just fine with Emma thinking she's being over the top or too protective. The main thing? The main thing, really, is Emma knowing that someone has her back, even if they are kind of a pain about it. Caring is caring. She got pretty steamed about Granny from time to time, but she always knew she cared, no matter how mad she was.

"Maybe," Ruby agrees, easily and happy. "But since I'm always right, at least my turns will be just fine, right?"

Let her gently steer Emma towards the stairs and down them. Just gently and quietly, before Emma can object, or maybe despite them. Ruby and Granny are both kind of good at the being a bulldozer in human form branch of 'life skills.'

"I can't imagine what it's like, coming from a world so different from this one. Have people been helping you settle in?" Ellana tries to when she knows who the rifters are. To date, she's never come across a rift or the people spilling out of them, so she meets them once they arrive at Skyhold.

Ingrid notices Emma off to the side, has seen her working about. She can appreciate a solid work ethic. She also suspects there is more to the woman than meets the eye. Her templar training has taught her how to spot mages, but there's something... off about this woman. If she is a mage, it's not like any Ingrid's encountered before.

Still, she approaches.

"Are you looking for a spar partner?"

"I've heard several. Some claiming the rifters are demons in disguise, worlds about blood-sucking monsters, and a world of pirates. Personally, as much as I enjoy gossip, sometimes it's more satisfying to hear the words right from the source."

There's a small snort. "No. No amount of snow or puddles will usually convince a Dalish to wear boots. I, on the other hand, like to be dry and untouched by weather if I can help it. But not every Dalish is born with a sense." Somewhere out there, Beleth is infuriated. "Emma, it is a pleasure.

"I imagine you must have several questions. I don't suppose if there's anything I can do to help clarify anything? Unless you'd simply prefer a distraction. I'm immensely good at those."

"I guess you don't have to, but anything you've got to share about this place would be appreciated." She's been thrown in the deep end and Emma is doing her best to keep afloat, but there's so much she doesn't know still. She's trying to keep track of it all and she's learning new things every day. She'd like one day to not have so many questions, it's as tedious to not know as it is to explain.

She can understand a bias and Emma has always been one to make her own opinions, but honestly? A description like that doesn't gear her toward the Circle, at all. She's always valued freedom, freedom and choice. She can understand wanting to control magic, but from what she understands a lot of people with magic are treated like second class citizens to ones that did not, and she's not ever going to be okay with that. "So the Circle is the general way people learn magic here, I'm guessing?"

Were people trying to help her settle in? Well, if she was blunt about it, no not really. She's sleeping in a barn and considered suspect just because she existed in a place she didn't belong, which isn't exactly the most welcoming. She's offended on principle but a part of her knows that people are right to be wary of her. It's hard to really hold it against them when she knows she's the definition of what they're afraid of. "It seems like everybody around here has more important things on their mind." Skyhold was a busy place, and for reasons deeper than just the Rifts.

"There's probably more interesting things about my world to talk about than the smog in the city. I wouldn't inflict that on anybody." She does see the offer as what it is, though. A chance to talk about home, if it'll make her feel better. Emma isn't sure that it will. Missing her family and the world she can't get back to is probably just going to make her feel more isolated. Beyond that, Emma has never been skilled about talking about personal things.

Emma manages a smile at the mention of Ruby. Kind and helpful sounds about right. "She likes taking care of people. She seems to have gotten it in her head she needs to take care of me, too, and I've been doing that myself for thirty years." It's weird, and definitely unnecessary... yet Emma can't deny she appreciates the fact Red bothers to care that much. Emma isn't used to that.

The idea of a potion that might help her sleep is honestly very tempting. She has no idea if it'll work when combined with her magic but after only a short hesitation, she asks, "Who would I talk to about a potion?"

"I think you have to actually go through labor to get the always right mom perk." Emma is just geared toward arguing when it comes down to it. She's gone so long not having someone care about her that even now, years after being surrounded by family that did, sometimes she struggles with accepting it. She sees what Red is trying to do and that means a lot to her. She's getting a little better at people trying to help her, at least — though where Red helps her the most has nothing to do with keeping her out of the cold or trying to make sure she has a meal every night.

Emma sighs as she's elbowed toward the steps. She likes being out of the busy rush of the courtyard, but maybe it's better to keep her somewhere where her thoughts can't run away with her. "I helped out in the kitchen, earlier, they promised me a free plate tonight." A hot meal wasn't much of a gift, but Emma wanted to help Ruby as much as Ruby wanted to help her.

"Hate to break it to you on the world of pirates front, but I've only met the one." And she misses that fucker, too. It's hard to think about Killian without feeling a little guilty. Telling him she loved him just as she left him wasn't fair, and now she doesn't have the chance to make it up to him. Still, she's going to see him again, right? If her parents can find each other time and time again, maybe one day she can find her way back to him, too.

"I'm with you on the dry feet thing, but that's pretty normal as far as humans are concerned." Not unanimous, though, there were probably a few hippies that would rather never put on a pair of shoes. As far as questions, she glances back toward the display of swords. "The only one I can think of is how does someone without much in the way of money get one of those?"

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( OPEN ) blending about as well as somebody wearing the glasses with a fake nose attached

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