crystal;

[foxsays]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Araceli Bonaventura
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Offering advanced parkour lessons and trying to organise a shindig
WHEN: Now
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Threadjacking encouraged. A few notices have been left around the Gallows to sign-up for lessons.

Inquisition, now that we're settled in Kirkwall I come to you with two very exciting propositions. As some of you know, I taught how to climb and run the walls and battlements of Skyhold, how to fall from such heights safely but alas this was not as it was at home when Skyhold was so contained. But here we are in Kirkwall! I can truly teach you how to leap from building to building if your desire and to dive into the waters from buildings and from the rigging of a ship. Of course, we start small so as not to injure your good self but if that prospect sounds intriguing, please come find me. I am Araceli Bonaventura, at your service. I'm either working at the Gallows or by the docks or you might happen to look up.

The second is a thing to celebrate and I could say that I do it as leader of the naval projects but truly? I do it as someone who loves cooking and seafood, to finally be back by the water after so long removed from it. Tell me, Inquisition, what are your favourite seafood dishes? Your favourite meals from Antiva or Rivain or places such as that? Because I thought it might be an idea to have a cookout by the waves towards the end of the month, say, the twenty-second? Everyone is welcome if they are a fan of good food and good times among friends.

[Also it's her birthday but since they don't really do birthdays that way back home, what better thing to do than have a fun time with people that have all certainly earned it?]

Comments

[foxsays]

I'll meet you there then, I'll probably have to go home and change, I'm not ruining this dress. Maybe bring a change of clothes you could leave at mine and Korrin's, we might end up in the water.

[theexile]

I can see what I can come up with.

[She's supposing if she just has to go around in only a blanket for awhile then she'll manage. It's not like she really has...other clothes right now.]

[foxsays]

You'll see Lux before me, of that you can be sure.

[And she'll feel so bad Kattrin when she's still impatiently waiting on a whole bunch of new stuff arriving from Orlais, custom-made and mostly for very occasional use.]

[theexile]

[Welcome to having just packed up on the fly some months ago while in lots of pain. So far just washing her clothes plenty works out though? Ah well, she'll make sure to bring a blanket to wear after she needs to change!]

To guide me to you?

[foxsays]

If Korrin and I have to work to keep a roof over our heads, I see no reason why he shouldn't have to do as well, he's done it before.

[Lux is a working fox after all, highly trained in a specific set of skills that a young lady thief turned queensguard might require of him.

And seriously, Kattrin, she is going to sort out this clothes situation so please enjoy that intervention in your life.]

[theexile]

A wonderful companion.

[She laughs softly.]

I will see you then.

[And be very confused by the intervention she's going to get later.]

[foxsays]

[Hey. Hey Kattrin. Psst.

There's a fox whenever you want to see a fox.

He will guide you to a building where up above there's an Araceli just standing staring dramatically out to the ships like there should be some strings swelling in the distance.]

[theexile]

[Spotting the fox, she follows him until he stops at a building. It's here she looks up and gives a nod. She's already stored her staff so all she's left with is her bag which has the blanket in it.

Looking around, she spots some hand holds and climbs her way up. Years of growing up where she did certainly benefit her as she comes to stand next to Araceli.]

Good evening.

[foxsays]

[It's a good view up here, the ships in the harbour, a bank of low cloud rolling in over the water, people coming and going and lighting lanterns as they go about their nightly business.]

Buenas noches, we'll go past where Korrin and I live and I leave the window open just enough for me so you can leave that there, Lux will probably hop in and guard it. I wouldn't have time to dry him and I don't think Korrin would let a wet Lux stay in the bed with us.

[Araceli's pout is good but it's not that good.]

Ready to go? Most places here are fairly safe, towards the alienage not so much and of course not as sturdy as Hightown. But it's good. I missed this.

[theexile]

I am ready. It has been a few months since I last had to truly climb but the work will be good for me.

[If nothing else it will allow her to see what she can do with how her skin has tightened on her back. It can't be pretty or easy but it is something she has to look into properly so she can know her limitations and how to work around them.]

I will follow where you run then?

[foxsays]

That would have been in the mountains? I wish I had been well enough when I went there with Korrin to retrieve nuggalopes but I was barely able to make the ride there and back.

[Honestly she hadn't even been able to do that, the cold had bitten with cruel teeth, she'd been in agony much of the time but when you've been hurting a long time, when you've been rescued then ordered about by others, when you finally see a chance for something that looks like an escape? You take it, don't you?]

Whistle if you need to catch my attention, shouting might alert other people and I don't expect any undue reactions, I think we would both rather have a fun night. [With a quick stretch up on the tips of her toes, arms high above her head, Araceli grins and winks over her shoulder at Kattrin before she takes off, light on her feet in the way thieves must be.]

[theexile]

[She can't help but to laugh softly. It's true that she would rather have fun. It's been...too long since she last had. Months. Years. It all blends together in her head.

Nodding that she'll whistle if she needs anything, she takes off after her. Of course she isn't quite as fast but she still moves well, obviously much of her life as an Avvar still with her. After all, women are expected to be able to survive as well as the men are. And to fight too.

There are times when she looks for an alternate path but at least she doesn't truly fall behind, Araceli remains in sight.

And this...it really is fun. To just run like this, above the world. She doesn't always move like she wants to but she still feels freer than she has in ages...]

[foxsays]

[This is what Araceli missed when she was in Skyhold. It was always the same enclosed loop no matter how many times she tried to change it up but she can go wherever she wants to now, over as many buildings as she'd like, down to the docks and to use the rigging because the sailors aren't accustomed to people doing that so they tend not to notice a small dark shape moving around.

She listens carefully for anything that might be something worth bothering about because this isn't home after all but no one in Thedas has a pistol and she's yet to meet a pain that's quite like being shot in the back of the leg unexpectedly in the freezing cold of a dark night.

It's when she comes to one building that she comes to a halt, disappearing down for a few moments before she arrives back up with Lux over her shoulders.]

I don't want to go down to the door to get in. [He's very used to this sort of life.]

[theexile]

[Her breathing is faster but there is a smile on her lips. She's having fun. Yes she's noting that perhaps her scars are tighter than she realized but there is little to be done about that aside from just learn to live with them. What better way than this?

So she's sitting there catching her breath when Araceli comes back up, her fennec companion poking his head out of her pack to look around the high area with curiosity.]

To the window then?

[foxsays]

To the window.

[Lux sniffs the air as Araceli agrees before she starts to clamber over the edge where she's left a window open just enough for her to start opening it once she's down and level. Feet balanced on the edge of it, the fox hops down and in, peering out before she moves away along the wall to look up at Kattrin.]

I'll close it once you've put your things in, Lux sounding off if anyone else shows up'll scare them off and Korrin's shift might be over before we're back.

[Maybe. Sometimes they change and sometimes she stays late, so long as she keeps out of trouble given what's happened.]

[theexile]

I have little so I am not worried.

[Climbing down, she moves along the wall and waits until she has a good angle before swinging her bag inside. It lands neatly to the side of the window and she nods in satisfaction before moving up the wall again towards the roof again. Certainly easier for free running up there than to test grip strength.]

[foxsays]

[Lux yips once, the usual signal of him acknowledging he's been asked to do something before shutting up again. Araceli smiles, ready to go, the route clear in her head.]

You know where the warehouses are? I thought we could go make it to there without touching the ground, dive in, run back so we don't go too cold. And I realise now that's more an issue for me than you.

[Look she's short and most of Thedas is colder all the year round than home.]

[theexile]

[She looks to where the warehouses are and gives a nod. Of course then she pauses and offers a smile.]

If you find yourself cold you can wear my coat and tunic. They will be warm even when wet.

[She seriously doesn't mind running around topless. Araceli should see what some Avvar armor is.]

[foxsays]

[Oh she did. You don't forget the time your girlfriend came home from a funeral covered in something kind of like paint from the waist up.

What an Age to be alive in.]

I couldn't possibly, those are yours Kattrin.

[As much as Araceli shares, clothes are kind of a thing.]

[theexile]

I was raised in cold weather. I do not mind letting you borrow them to stay warm.

[Kattrin really means that. If Araceli finds herself cold then she will give the shirt off her back to help her to stay warm.]

I often find myself too warm here. To run with freedom will be welcome.

[With that, she starts to walk along the roof towards the warehouses.]

[foxsays]

[Kattrin you have literally no clothes. Meanwhile Araceli Bonaventura, anxiously awaits the arrival of the ship from Orlais that's bringing the things she had tailored thanks to a generous line of credit.]

There was one place I was too warm and that was the Western Approach. [An image pops into her head so suddenly that she laughs, stifles it, and gets herself moving.] I think you would be a puddle there. All that sand and dry desert heat. We would go and oh where is Kattrin, I recognise those-- that puddle? And then it would be so hot the puddle would go too.

[theexile]

[Shhhhh. You can scold her about that when you learn that's the case, Araceli.]

The Western Approach?

[At first she isn't too sure but the more that is described, the more she ends up frowning until Araceli talks about how she would end up as a puddle. In that moment, she laughs softly.]

I think you would need to carry me in a cup to save me.

[foxsays]

It's out in Orlais. The edges of it, it's got the huge Abyssal Rift from one of the Blights.

[When she's running around doing this, she can't picture her map and pull up dates and facts as easily as she could sitting down, something she needs to work on but generally this isn't what a noble might question her about at a party so it's not the priority information to memorise.]

I think-- [Araceli stops talking to leap between two buildings, a quiet muffled thump as she lands and rolls to take the impact, rapiers secured well enough to make no noise] even with a cup you would not have been safe.

[theexile]

No? Shall I be too lost to the heat?

[She has to take a moment to move another way but soon catches up to Araceli again. If nothing else she's creative about how she solves problems when she realizes she can't run the same path.]

How shall I be saved?

[foxsays]

I'd say hug the mountains to stay in the shadows but I got stuck up one.

[Not for too long but long enough she hadn't been happy about the situation at hand. Because there are plenty of very big, very hungry things.

It's pretty rude of everyone here to be horrified by sea creatures when literally everything they've met on the land wants to eat or crush Araceli to be brutally honest, from bogfishers to demons to bears to dragons to every damn scavenger in that forsaken place.]