strangetrip | [GP/EP] Check-In Day

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[GP/EP] Check-In Day

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.

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"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.

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

"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."

"Templars?" Another unfamiliar term.

"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."

"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?"

"Only sometimes," she said, "It depends. Mages are as different as people are. Some are good. Some aren't. Magic's a tool. It's all in how you use it. Most of the fear comes from the way the Tevinter mages treat people, I think. It all goes back centuries and..." She shook her head now. "The war that I mentioned before, the one that's on now. It's- They're calling it the mage rebellion and a lot of people who don't know much of anything are blaming a friend of mine for it. The thing is, people can only be essentially slaves and prisoners for so long before that blows up. I won't say what he did was right at all, but...but I know what his reasoning for it was and I understand that and I also know that it was going to happen whether or not he..." She shook her head. Anders needed help, more help than she thought even Hawke could give him.

"There are some mages who are working with the Templars, who think so little of themselves that they feel like they need to be kept in a circle, and some who are exploiting the chaos but most just want to live in peace without the threat of being made tranquil constantly looming over them, to be able to see their families or to have families of their own. I can't begrudge anyone that."

Rey lightly bites her lower lip, then opens her mouth to speak.

"Where I come from the people who have powers like mine are called Force Users," Rey says. It's probably the closest thing they have to mages. "A long time ago, before I was born, if you had Force Powers, you would go to a school and eventually apprentice under a more experienced Force-user. Eventually you'd graduate and become a Jedi Knight, and some later became Jedi Masters."

A beat.

"There's some Force Users that weren't so good. They called them Sith. They ended up working with the Empire and wiped out the Jedi so there were none left. For a long time, I thought they were a myth."

Rey looks down at her hands. "I don't really understand everything about your mages," she says, "But I've thought a lot about Jedi while learning about them from Qui-Gon... and I can't help but wonder if the Jedi would still be here if the Jedi teachings weren't so rigidly enforced. People just want to live their lives the way they want to."

It sounded similar enough to her. What struck her the most was how introspective Rey looked in that moment. Without thinking much about it, Merrill moved so she could sit next to Rey and rub her back in a way she hoped was comforting.

"I'm glad you have someone to teach you all the same, though."

Merrill's touch is unexpected -- but it's not unwelcome.

Rey looks over at Merrill and smiles. "I'm glad, too. I'm not sure I could have lived as a Jedi. Especially the whole 'there is no emotion' part of the Jedi Code. Did you ever have any mage guidelines you had to follow?"

It sounds like Dalish might have had more freedom in that arena.

"Many, but I doubt they'd make a lot of sense to you and I think maybe we've spent enough time in the past for one day." She smiled a little. "Will you show me more of this place? It looks like there's a great deal more than just this building."

Rey rises to her feet and gives Merrill a nod. "It's not as big as the places I'm used to," she says, leading the way to the door.

She steps out into the hall, holding the door open for Merrill behind her. "Do you want to see the pool? I've started going out there whenever it gets too hot."

After Jakku, Rey never imagined she'd call a place 'too hot', but this place could get uncomfortably warm at times.

"That would be lovely, yes," Merrill said, smiling as she stood smoothly, brushing off her thighs out of sheer habit and following Rey back outside again.

Rey leads the way, pointing out more minor landmarks as they walk through the hallway; the few people whose rooms she knows she points out as they make their way to the exit.

The pool is large, flanked on all sides by neat rows of outstretched reclining pool chairs. A few oversized red umbrellas provide shelter from the sun.

To one side stands a green-roofed gazebo; near it, another building stands alone.

"That's the bar," Rey says gesturing to the building. "Kitty works there most of the time." Or at least, Kitty's the only person she's ever saw manning the bar. "She serves more than just alcohol, though."

As they pass the pool, Rey kneels down to dip a hand into the water. It's lukewarm.

There's something odd looking about the pool, but Merrill supposed that it was just another one of those almost Orlesian things.

"Why does it smell like that?" she asked, swearing she could practically taste some kind of chemical in the air.

"They say it's chlorine," Rey says. She was just as unfamiliar as Merrill with the smell when she first came here. "It's supposed to help keep the water clean."

"Well, it certainly doesn't make it more inviting," she said, wrinkling her nose. She dipped her toe in a little, just wanting to see what was like. She was half expecting it to burn a little.

"Maybe that's the point. Keep the pool clean by keeping people out of it." Rey offers Merrill a little smile, then crouches down by the pool's edge.

"They didn't have pools where I came from, either. You do get used to the smell after awhile."

Merrill laughed, finally crouching down to touch the water as well. "Pools to us are usually just natural things you find here and there. I wasn't expecting something intentional like this."

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[GP/EP] Check-In Day

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