{ 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

[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."

[lifeofendurance]

"Nothing physical."

It's an honest answer, direct, and not denying there is something wrong. He's fighting with the frustrations he's had all his life, family making demands he must satisfy while keeping him away and at arm's length. Mother is nagging him to marry again and he just can not bring himself to comply.

He always had a temper, with a long slow burn and explosive culmination. But he'd never wanted a life built on physical exertion. It's what he does now because its all he knows, it's what he was trained to. It allows him to vent in a way that serves others. This life was what his family pushed him right into, so being nagged and nattered that doing so is neglecting familial obligations truly angers him. But, it is wrong to dishonor a parent by blowing his stack, and no way he'll ever have a tantrum like his sister about the unfairness being shoved at him.

So. He'll ignore it and push it away as he always does.

"Faith? I didn't realize spirits would take an interest in someone without magic. How intriguing."