[GP/EP] Check-In Day

[st_oriedqueen]

Why Caroline had needed her to help with Check-In Day she hadn't bothered to say. Just, "you said you'd help," and when Regina protested she wasn't good with people, "aren't you a Queen or a Mayor or something?" complete with shooing gestures. While Regina found Caroline more exasperating the terrifying, she did have a point.

So Regina suited up--literally, gathered her files and folders, coffee mug, pens and pocketed the wooden carving of Henry/Roland Robin had made for her, then headed for the cafe. If, polished and politic and patently Busy, she didn't offer newcomers the brightest or warmest smile when they arrived, it was nevertheless confident and quite possibly reassuring.

Caroline did friendly. Regina...did knowledgeable and polite. Dot and Ignis had been asked to provide finger food on catering trays. The still-grieving Miss Pryde had been tasked with samovars of tea and coffee and ice chest of soda and beer. Caroline's welcome baskets sat on the table beside Regina's for easy access. And though she didn't when she was alone in the office, Regina spent the magic to fix her eyesight so she didn't put glasses between her and new arrivals.

Madame Mayor was in.

Comments

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

"I was actually looking for someone," Rey says, looking down at her hands. "You remember what I showed you earlier, with the rock? We call it the Force... and there's a lot you can do with it beyond that. The person I was looking for was going to teach me how to use it."

A beat.

"At least, I was hoping he would. It looked as though we'd landed on the right planet, but when I stepped off the platform everything had turned to sand, and I -- I was here instead of there."

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

The elf frowned. "This all a big mystery isn't it?" she sighed. She chewed on her lower lip. "What do you mean by the right planet?"

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

"Oh," Rey says, looking up. "You don't have space travel where you come from?" Rey had spoken to a few people who didn't have space travel -- and some that did, but not on the same level as she did.

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

"You mean like...to the stars?" she asked, "Gods, no, not even remotely. How would you get up that high in the first place? Is it wonderful? It sounds wonderful."

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

How does she even begin to explain this?

"There are these big, contained ships that are propelled into space by force. It takes a lot of force. A lot," Rey says, thinking of the Ghtroc 690, and all her attempts to get it spaceready a few years ago.

"But you're right -- it is wonderful," she confirms. "I spent almost all my life on the same planet -- a desert planet that's not all that different from here, and when I first saw what other planets were like... it was like nothing I imagined." Rey shakes her head. "And seeing stars up close is even better than seeing them from the ground."

She smiles.

"I wish you could see it," she says. "Aside from my friends... space is probably what I miss most."

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

"I miss my friends too," Merrill said, sighing. "It's been years now. Ever since the war started we haven't seen a lot of each other. We- Some of us keep in contact, of course, letters mostly sometimes a visit, but it's not quite the same." She never expected to hear from Fenris or Sebastian unless they decided they had absolutely no other choice. Or Anders really, not directly. Hawke would mention him from time to time so she had an idea of how he was, but... well, she always knew how Anders felt about her.

"I miss the ruins," she said, "Not that I've been away from home for all that long but while I've been busy there hasn't been time to...to really study lately. They're so beautiful. Maybe somehow one day you can show me space and I can show you some elvhen ruins. That would be nice, don't you think?"

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

Rey nods. It would be nice.

"What were your ruins like?" The only ruins Rey really knew were those left behind by war -- the husked-out remains of old starships on Jakku and Kaz's Cantina after the First Order attacked. Were Merrill's ruins the same?

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

"Old and stone, mostly, full of sadness and forgotten things," Merrill said softly. "So many memories linger in the stone, in the trees. But they're beautiful, really. And they've been there for so long, centuries that the pain isn't so near to us anymore. It's still there. It still hurts, but... They're places to be quiet and learn if you can, not really to fear. Aside from the spiders, of course."

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

"Spiders I can handle," Rey says. She's not afraid of spiders; they've thankfully never bothered her.

"Do you mind if I ask a personal question?" All the questions she's asked so far are probably personal questions, but this one might be a touch more personal than what she's asked so far.

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

"Well, yes I can handle them, but I'd much prefer tiny house spiders and not the ones bigger than I am you find out in the wild. The tiny ones can be rather cute. The ones in caves and ruins and the like are...well, not." Merrill wrinkled her nose, very much not wanting to think about spiders. She wouldn't mind a Varterral though. Those were lovely when they behaved.

"Not at all, what is it?"

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

"The markings on your face," Rey says, gesturing to where they'd be on her own face. "Do they mean anything?"

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

"Vallaslin," she said, not at all offended by the question. She got it often enough, but usually by city elves who didn't understand why hers weren't the normal ones they saw. "They're a rite of passage to adulthood among my people." With or without a clan, no one was ever going to see her as anything but Dalish.

"Usually they're to honor our gods, to ask for strength and guidance in our lives if there happens to be one we're particularly inclined to."

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

Rey's questions come in rapid succession:

"Do you all have the same tattoos?" she asks, and then: "Did it hurt?"

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

"No, there's eight usual designs and some variations for the gods we honor," and none for Fen'Harel as it should be. "Keepers and their firsts and seconds get different ones if they wish. Others can too, it's just not done often. The Dalish are a very traditional people most of the time."

She took a deep breath. "It's a big day of quiet celebration. The Keeper, that's the name we use for the leaders of our clans, someone who keeps both our sacred history and our people safe, they light some incense and spend hours hand tapping the designs onto whoever is passing into adulthood. It's...it's very painful, but you can't flinch or cry out or the whole thing stops and you have to wait a year to try again to prove that you're ready to handle the pain adulthood brings. Once it's all over, there's a great feast and celebration." It was enough detail for the shemlan, all they ever needed to know.

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

Rey leans forward as Merrill explains, her eyes wide-eyed with interest. She's never had any gods or traditions of her own, so she can't help but be fascinated when others describe their own.

"So what god is yours?" she asks.

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

Merrill shook her head. "I was First of the Sabrae clan," she said, "mine don't represent anyone in particular. I... I meditated for a long time before I came up with them." She blushed a little.

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

"You designed them?"

Rey frequently has a hard time hiding her emotions; ever since she was small, she has always worn her heart on her sleeve. In this moment, it's so incredibly clear that she's equal parts admiring and impressed.

"What exactly did you do as your clan's First?" she asks next. "Did it mean you were a powerful magician?"

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

"I was to be Keeper when ours passed," she said sadly. "It meant I was a mage at all, really. Dalish clans are only supposed to have three mages in them at most, usually only two. I was given to the Sabrae clan when I was very young and my own realized I had magic in the first place."

It'd been a bittersweet thing at the time. She could remember that much, but she had been quite, quite young and she knew that her memory was tainted with knowledge of what happened she didn't have at the time.

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

"You were given?" Rey frowns, her brows furrowed. "Who gave you to them? And why?"

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

"The clan I was born to," she said, "They already had two mages and Sabrae only had one at the time. It's... It's something of a safety precaution for our people and one of the sad things we inherited from the Tevinter mages." She knew more than most did. She'd explored. She'd investigated Asha'bellanar and... She understood too much. The fear of mages was really fear of the Imperium.

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

"Safety precaution?" Rey is befuddled. "Do they not want too many mages around for a reason?"

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

"As long as there's only a couple, we don't draw the attention of the Templars," she said, shrugging. "I was lucky to be given to a new clan. Otherwise, you end up trained some in secret until you're old enough for your vallaslin and then left to fend for yourself."

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

"Templars?" Another unfamiliar term.

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_illsabrae]

"Religious warriors obsessed with leashing mages. Every so often there's a decent one, but most of them...most of them just like having power over others and are generally cruel at heart and refuse to see a mage as a person instead of something the rest of the world needs to be protected from." She sighed, feeling terrible for Anders all over again. "Most of the time they let the Dalish alone. They leave the Avvar alone as well too, but really only because they know the Avvar will slaughter them if they try to get anywhere near."

Re: Merrill - Assigned Threads

[st_reyofsunshine]

"That sounds..." Rey is clearly struggling to find the right word. "...complicated." It's not quite what she wanted, but how else could you describe what Merrill just explained?

"The Templars don't like the mages... and it sounds like a lot of normal people fear the mages..." Rey says, musing to herself. Then, to Merrill: "Do the mages fight each other, too?"