{ OPEN } May there always be angels to watch over you

[aceso]

WHO: Christine Delacroix and OPEN!
WHAT: She's getting used to being a Spirit Healer and having a friend on the other side.
WHEN: any time after Drakonis 17th until month's end.
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Christine has a spirit of Faith in communication with her. It will be observing the world around her and asking her questions. If your character is having a crisis of faith, doubts, etc. Faith may nudge Christine towards your character to see if she can be of help, but she won't know what exactly is the matter without your character telling her. Also, Faith will just be really curious in general. Have your character dance a jig, lose at cards, mend a shirt, whatever, and Faith will be wanting to know more.

{ anywhere }
When she thinks back on it, Christine knows that the reason the spirit of Faith approached her in the Fade is because Christine had visited the chapel before her test, trying to erase her doubts. But it was having doubt that caught Faith's attention and cemented their relationship. It's hard for a perfectionist like her to admit that there are times when she isn't sure of herself because it's admitting to weakness. Yet already Faith is changing her perceptions. There can be no faith without doubt. If Christine was perfect in every way, she wouldn't need a spirit to help with her ability to heal. Faith is needed, because doubt is inevitable. Questioning things, missteps, complications -- Faith is drawn to it all, and as Christine sticks to her daily routine around Skyhold, she often feels the gentle nudge of her spirit companion against her mind, sending her towards a person.

Of course, Faith doesn't always use words and simply say why it's guiding Christine towards a person. Is it because they no longer believe in the Maker, or because Faith wants to know what they're doing with that rope, tankard, and a duck?

{ kitchens }
With the soiree over, Christine can head back into the kitchens to practice her cooking once more without Skyhold's cooking staff at their wit's end trying to get all the food prepared in time. Some days she makes bread, others she makes pie. Others still it's something completely different, but if anyone comes in looking for a snack, she invites them to be her taste tester.

{ healers' tents }
Just because she's now a Spirit Healer doesn't mean Christine is going to request the help of Faith for every little scrape and cut. The point is to use the spirit's power for much more complicated wounds, to save the healer's mana. So there are no glowing blue eyes to be found as Christine sees to patients. When the rifters arrive, she's available to use healing magic to lessen the ache in their hands until they get used to the shard, and is happy to fill them in on the world they've been dropped into. For anyone else, she's there to heal them with magic or bandages; whichever they'd prefer.

Comments

Kitchens

[el_tybs]

When he couldn't find her at the healers' tents he always came to check out the kitchen seeing as they had practically become her stomping grounds. At first spotting her, Sam doesn't address her right away, instead just silently watching and feeling out the new aura about her.

After a time though he smiles and lightly raps his knuckle against a hanging pot to signal that he was there. "Cooking again are we?"

[aceso]

Christine is still coming to grips with the changes to her life now that Faith is always there. She knew things would be different, because she read all about it, but all the first-hand accounts in the world still aren't enough to feel the change. When Sam enters, Faith takes notice. There's a gentle nudge against Christine's mind before the spirit retreats a little, allowing Christine to learn for herself. She does feel something more than just another presence in the room, and it stops her from turning right away to see who it is. There's something more there. A feeling not unlike Faith, but different. It's like having a sixth sense. With touch, feathers feel different from leather and steel different from wood. With taste, some foods are salty and some sweet. With this new sense, she slowly realizes that she senses a spirit beyond Faith, but she doesn't know which it is. She turns, and her face breaks into a grin.

"Sam," she says, stepping towards him. "This is so new. I can feel Fortitude with you." And then she nods her head. "Practice makes perfect."

[el_tybs]

He knows he had gotten her attention by the way her head lifted a bit and turned ever so slightly, but not enough to actually see him. Christine was feeling things out, which he recognized from how he had done so when he had first gotten his partner. For that he stayed silent, waiting and watching.

The grin that he is welcomed with has his smile widening, and lowering his gaze when she comes up to greet him. Fortitude rumbles lowly at the presence of another spirit. "Isn't it? That's how I felt when I first... noticed Compassion with Adelaide."

[aceso]

Now Faith lets her know it's there if she needs it, and there's a question about Sam in her mind.

A friend, Christine answers, and she's already explained to Faith what a friend is. The spirit is satisfied and simply observes.

"It's like a warm glow. Something welcoming and good."

[el_tybs]

He wouldn't describe Fortitude was a warm glow, to him it was more of a weight, a firm presence that wrapped around him like an invisible shield. "Which spirit are you working with? I'm still getting a feel for what each one is like."

Whichever one it was it certainly had that welcoming feeling that Christine had been mentioning.

Kitchen

[gatheringstorm]

After her daily training, Korrin often makes a beeline for the kitchen in order to relax and replenish. And perhaps see if she can snag some hearth cakes before Kas can swoop in and steal them all. He's a growing boy, but she's not going to let him get away with that all the time.

As the scent of pie reaches her, Korrin quickens her pace. Eager to satisfy that sweet tooth, the Vashoth woman enters and catches sight of Christine. Surprised but pleased, she stops short and observes for a moment before speaking up.

"I don't suppose you're planning to share that?"

[aceso]

Christine looks up and smiles at Korrin, because she is about to be her taste tester.

"The best cooks always share what they make," she replies, taking a knife to cut Korrin a wedge of pie. "You are just in time to test this for me. It's cooled and ready for eating." And enjoying. Hopefully. "This isn't my first pie, so you shouldn't be worried," she adds teasingly as the pie is put on a plate.

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin flashes a grin, hardly about to refuse when she didn't have enough pride to pretend like she wasn't interested to begin with. "All things I like to hear."

She won't waste time, digging in as soon as it's within fork range. A bite and a thoughtful nod later, and she'll speak up again. "Now this was definitely worth the kitchen trip. You're a lifesaver, Christine."

[aceso]

"A lifesaver? It sounds as though you were about to perish from starvation. What have you been doing today, hmm?" As she speaks, she watches Korrin eat, pleased she likes it. But she really can't resist having some herself. It's hardly fun to create something in the kitchen and not have any of it yourself. And so Christine takes out another plate for herself and cuts a slice of pie.

Healing Tents

[kallian_endris]

Kallian has always used mundane healing rather than magical in the tents, and today is no different as she organizes supplies, applies bandages and poultices, rubs on salves.

Normally, she's fairly cheerful, if a bit blandly so, around the patients, but today she's wary. Something prickles at the back of her mind, and she can sense Hope watching eagerly, sending out tendrils for a friend.

Faith.

A new spirit, here? Kallian is nervous for a reason. If Hope can sense her own kind, it goes both ways. Would she be able to trust the person it belongs to?

[aceso]

Christine is still learning what all this feels like: having a spirit watching from across the partition between the physical world and the Fade. There are so many questions as Faith becomes acquainted with things and now has someone to explain it instead of no answers. But as with Sam, when Faith senses another spirit close by, it nudges Christine to alert her and then retreats, allowing her to sense it herself.

The feeling brushes up against her mind and Christine stops organized a chest of supplies, sitting back on her heels. She processes this and then turns around, looking at the people gathered by. There aren't many, and some are further away. This feels close. Kallian sends a patient away and Christine's eyes follow them. No, not them. Her eyes focus in on Kallian and suddenly she knows. This spirit is strong like Faith, but doesn't feel like Faith. It must be Hope.

Now that they're alone, Christine gets up and approaches her.

"Kallian?" she asks, though there is a more loaded question there in what she doesn't say. This is the first day in Kallian's presence since Christine obtained the help of Faith. And now she can see clearer.

[kallian_endris]

The elf draws a ragged breath at her name, and her hands are shaking, but she offers up a small smile.

"Yes, Miss Christine? Is there something I can help you with?"

She's not dumb. Nor is Christine. But she can't. She can't say it out loud. She can't answer that question unless she has to. Her life has depended on that for too long now.

[aceso]

Christine is momentarily confused at this situation. There is absolutely a spirit of Hope here, but Kallian is not a mage. Or is she? Could she be?

"I... feel something else here," she begins, her curiosity needing to be satisfied. "Is this something you don't speak of?"

[lifeofendurance]

For once, Aleron is not mired in research in the library. He'd quite prefer to be. Instead, he's engaged in an intense training session in the courtyard. There is a determined glint in his eyes, his jaw is firmly locked. Whatever internal torments he's battling, he's doing it in a very physical way. A stab, a jab, a side swing of the sword. Foot kicks out at the base of the training dummy. Shield bash to its blank face.

It's pretty obvious with how hard he's training against that dummy that he'll drop from exhaustion before quitting.

[aceso]

Christine is busy with organizing things in the healer's tent when Faith expresses such excitement that Christine nearly jumps out of her skin. She whirls around, searching the space, but there is nothing there. It's for the best, really. If Faith was than excited over a stray cat or -- Maker forbid -- a dog, Christine would have to give Faith a stern lecture.

But this means she doesn't know what has the spirit in such a state. Questioning it gets her little information, beyond leading her away from the tents and through Skyhold. Faith doesn't know what the training ring is called, so Christine is left following rather strange directions as she tries to track down the source of this sudden elation in her spirit friend. When she sees Aleron attacking the dummy, Faith lets her know she's found their goal.

What? That is Aleron. Why did you bring me here?

Faith's answer is frustratingly cryptic. Purged. Sought. Found.

Well, that tells her nothing. But she moves closer and sees how the man is pushing himself. Does he even see the dummy right now?

Hurt. Pain. Heal?

Of course Christine will heal him, if he'll allow her.

"Aleron?" she calls out to him.

S-so late...

[lifeofendurance]

Christine's voice breaking through is the only thing that interrupts Aleron's focused training enough to jostle him out of it. He pauses, looking around for a brief moment, looking nigh on to puzzled. Then he spots his research partner and jabs his sword into the dirt while he catches his breath. And breathing hard he is, so intense has been his pushing of himself.

At first, all he can manage is a polite head-bob of greeting, until he is no longer so breathless that speaking is right out. "Christine. Good morning." Still very confused what would bring her out here and feeling muddleheaded from being whipped out of concentration. "Is aught amiss?"

[aceso]

"I do not believe so," she answers, because she can't be certain with how Faith is acting. "This might sound odd, but my spirit partner, Faith, led me here. I think it wished to see you." Her lips purse, because she's slightly frustrated with the spirit for not giving her a straight answer. She needs to make it more clear in the future that she prefers the spirit speak to her in full sentences.

"Are you hurt? Maybe that is why I have been brought here."

Chapel under the Garden

[unharrowed]

Vasran was never the most pious person, back in the Circle. She would listen to the Sisters, and occasionally saw something of value in the Chant, but that was about it.

That was before she had seen so much death, before she'd been cast adrift into a war she hadn't wanted. Skyhold is a refuge, yes, and better than trying to scrape together an existence in the wilderness of the Hinterlands... and somehow, still, everything seems so scattered here. Fractured. Vasran had hoped joining the Inquisition would give her a sense of purpose again. So far, it has come up short.

With nowhere else, for the moment, to turn, she regularly kneels by the small statue of Andraste in an alcove below Skyhold's garden. Most days, she rises feeling only a little bit better, but it's something. Some days, she feels emptier than when she started. And sometimes, the anger nipping at her heels catches up, and she feels tears of frustration pricking the corners of her eyes.

Vasran breaks from her meditative posture to shut her eyes tight, not wanting to let the tears fall.

"Shit," she mutters under her breath.

[aceso]

It's no surprise to Christine that Faith whispers against her mind to head for the chapel at times. When she spoke with Faith in the Fade, Christine made it clear that she wanted their relationship to be one where the spirit would help her heal physical injuries only, and she went into great detail as to what that meant. Knowing that Faith would be drawn to those who were struggling or having doubts, Christine didn't want to pry into the private lives of others or try to involve herself in their mental health. Had she not been clear in their arrangement, Faith would have grown agitated that Christine was not somehow healing people's minds and that could warp the spirit into a demon.

And yet despite this, when Faith feels someone losing their own personal faith, it nudges Christine. It knows she cannot and will not heal these people of their doubts, but it is its very nature to want to reach out. Christine agreeing to look in on them is a courtesy; a gesture to show Faith she values it and will do this for it.

And so when she feels that urging to head to the chapel, she does so, stopping inside the doorway.

"Forgive me," she says softly. "Am I interrupting?"

[unharrowed]

Christine will see the young elf kneeling in front of the altar, dressed in robes of the Ferelden Circle... who is sniffing, and wiping at the underside of her nose with her knuckles, just in case.

She'd heard the footsteps approaching, but it had only given her so much time to pull herself together.

"No. Not at all," she says, looking over her shoulder — assuming the woman wants to make use of the chapel herself. Vasran gestures to a space nearby, silently inviting.

[aceso]

Christine came and knelt down beside the elf.

"It is a difficult time for us all," she said gently. "I hope you have an outlet for your thoughts, whatever they may be."

healing tents

[motherfucking_ghost]

When Church finally gets tired, too worried, of not hearing back specifically from Christine after, uh...their night...before going to do dangerous thing she might die of demons from...then he goes looking for her himself. And since she's a mage doctor healer faith spirit glowy doctor nurse lady, he heads for the tents that he'd normally bug Adelaide in.

"Uh," he says to someone rushing by with an armful of blankets, "sorry, I was wondering if you'd seen--oh hey! Nevermind, thanks." He pats the nurse on the shoulder and grins at Christine emerging from one of the tents. "Sup. Looks like you survived your...y'know, ordeal. Training. The thing you were worried about. I was..." Worried. "Wondering." That too.

[aceso]

Christine approaches with an amused smile. Church just wouldn't be Church if he wasn't using fifty words where ten would suffice.

"I did. Had I not, I am sure word would have spread of the abomination that was cut down." If only word could spread that the abomination known as Anders was cut down. Alas.

"But I now have the assistance of a spirit when I need it."

[motherfucking_ghost]

"That's great!" It is, and that's all awesome that she's, y'know, alive, but he can't help but be bothered by being left out in the cold about it. "The spirit thing. Not the idea of anyone getting cut down." No more swords to his throat, thanks.

He leans on the nearest something sturdy that isn't going to buckle when being leaned on. "So uh. Yeah. Got that spirit-y glow thing going. I just kind of figured you'd say something along the lines of 'hey it went well I'm still alive' or anything. I mean. After you made a point of talking about it. Before."

[aceso]

His enthusiasm has her smile widening for a moment until he points out that she didn't come to tell him of her success after. Oh.

"I am sorry," she says, forehead wrinkling. "I did not rush to tell anyone. Having a spirit experience the world alongside you takes a good deal of concentration. It is a bit like baby-sitting a small child, actually."

Faith asks Christine why she says so, and in her mind, she answers, Because you ask so many questions, like a child learning new things. That satisfies Faith, and it quiets down again.