Moving Day

[pinprick]

WHO: All the Wardens and whatever onlookers/helpers they may find.
WHAT: Moving Day
WHEN: Current-ish
WHERE: Skyhold and just outside Skyhold
NOTES: The Wardens are grounded. They have been told to camp outside Skyhold. So it's moving day.

It is a relatively flat and pretty utterly frozen piece of land outside Skyhold that the Wardens have found. Since there are only a couple dozen of them, they don't need a large space, at least. There's going to be a premium on slightly more elevated spots, so it's first come first serve. Some Wardens arrive with the sun and lay claim with canvas, stakes, ropes, and poles stacked up while they go back for heavier things. Digging into the frozen ground with the stakes is rough, especially for those who brought wooden stakes instead of iron. Some will be forced to wait until the sun softens things a bit. Some are chasing away the feeling of eviction by making themselves at home, starting fires in pits, or making light of their work through periodic bouts of horseplay. For example, one large longbowman with a wounded right arm, fed up with teasing for his inability to do heavy lifting, carries with his left arm a blond mage who hits him repeatedly with a pillow. Unperturbed, he continues on.

But when the tents are pitched and the sun is down, the cozy camp is a little less strange. People will gather around fires for warmth and companionship, knowing that after one sleep, this will start to feel like home.

Comments

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Nathaniel gives a grunt and eases Anders back to his feet. He cannot, after all, do that forever, and he's sure Anders has a point.

"You were being a brat," he points out lamely, trying to keep things light.

[justice_is_blond]

"I was? Me. The one doing most of the carrying for the both of us. Are you sure you've the right person?" The teasing isn't as strong as it could be, but at least his voice is nearly right for it. No one's swung at him yet today or yelled. It's a good day.

[pinprick]

Nathaniel quickly reaches to grapple Anders again, but keeps it just slow enough that Anders can avoid it.

[justice_is_blond]

He doesn't dodge, because he's got a slightly better defense planned - the second Nate touches him, Anders will be casting and giving the man a jolt of lightning. It's not powerful, barely a step up from the vaunted 'electricity trick,' but it'll be enough to be felt.

[pinprick]

Nathaniel starts away immediately. It wasn't painful, but he definitely felt that. It takes him a second to figure out what happened, eyes narrowing in suspicion. Then, he gives a loud psh and almost gives Anders a dope slap--only to remember that beating on a mage isn't like beating on any other brother- or sister-in-arms. Especially Circle mages. He settles for a barbed word.

"Brat."

Okay, not that barbed.

[justice_is_blond]

There's the faintest hint of smugness in Anders' eyes, though its strength is diminished momentarily when Nate's hand shifts. It returns a second later as Anders shrugs.

"I believe the saying goes 'takes one to know one,' so if I'm a brat..." He trails off, letting Nate reach the natural end of that sentence mentally, before nodding at the small area they'd chosen to set up their tent. "If I work on thawing where we could use a drainage ditch, are you up to digging that? Or will you need a nest of pillows to lounge upon and chilled drinks?"

[pinprick]

"It's up to you, healer. I'd need both arms to dig." In other words, no. "I can hold the shovel and look ruggedly and stoically handsome."

[justice_is_blond]

"Please. You'd need both arms if you were using a shovel. Last I checked you had hands." Despite the teasing, he glances around. Nate's never struck him as lazy, which means being left out of setting up camp might be a little demoralizing and Anders prefers for his patients to have some outlets. Not much presents itself as an option, though.

"But if you insist on using the injured card, then you can at least help sweep the little area so we're not sleeping on rocks."

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Nathaniel perks up a bit. He finds a broom and starts to work, kicking the larger rocks out of the way and sweeping the rest clear of snow and rubble.

"Did you see the cots we brought in? Should keep the ground from softening too much from the heat."

[justice_is_blond]

"And lessen the chances of me having to treat regular illness. The ground leeches heat from bodies like nothing else."

Anders focuses on what he's doing, creating careful lines of fire where the drainage ditch is going to be so the earth is easier to move in a few minutes here.

"Not only that, they're better than the cot I had in Darktown." And better than sleeping on the ground in his bedroll. They're a definite improvement. Hopefully Purrelden will agree, and still decide to climb from Anders' to Nate's to land on the archer's face in the mornings. It brought Anders a tiny bit of joy every time it happened.

[pinprick]

"Anything is better than a cot in Darktown. Probably fleas the size of cockroaches in the one you had." Noble upbringing shows in him at times like this.

[justice_is_blond]

"Named, too. I even knit collars for them with bells so I knew when to kick out so I didn't get my blood sucked." It hadn't been nice, exactly, in Darktown. It had been pretty miserable. But it hadn't been the Circle, and that's something that most people don't quite grasp. "Then again, they always were gentler with the abuse than the Templars."

Now he casts again, fire gone, starting to shift the earth so there's a ditch and a small wall that will serve as backup.

[pinprick]

When Anders speaks casually about Templar abuse, it makes Nathaniel want to find one and sock them in the jaw. He clears his throat, ashamed of his own thoughtlessness.

"Well. I suppose not everything is better than a cot in Darktown."

[justice_is_blond]

It's his own way of coping, and this is one of the few places he's safe enough to actually address any of it - in company with someone he trusts. So much of his past could be sharpened into weapons to use against him. Nate wouldn't do that.

"One day the worst will be that cot." Anders looks up from his work and over at Nate. "One day poverty will be the worst that can happen, and even that can be worked on. We will all be people in everyone's sight, not lesser, not things. ...And on that day, the fleas will be very sad, but forget the fleas."