exsiliumlogs | I lost my way here in this quest [OPEN]

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I lost my way here in this quest [OPEN]

Date & Time: July 22nd & 23rd, all day.
Location: All over the city and then in the training compound.
Characters: Elissa Cousland and YOU.
Summary: Elissa goes out to explore her surroundings, especially when everything looks so crazy in the ~future~. Then, she's training, testing her mettle.
Warnings: None for now! Will update if needed.

Elissa Cousland is nothing if not curious. It's a trait her parents nurtured in her, much to her mother's dismay as she grew older. Suitors and workers alike would be taken aback by her questioning nature, by her adventuring and her recklessness. Fergus had been much the same, once upon a time, before the birth of his son brought him to settle himself down. Untied, Elissa reveled in the chance to run, ride, and scout. Even as a Warden, she hated the idea of needing to stay in Vigil's Keep for so long. She wanted the fresh air and the sunshine, the chance to go out and be free. It would be foolish of anyone to believe this part of her had changed.

She knows she should go to the training hall and test herself, begin a rigorous set to make sure she's capable of catching up to the people who have surpassed her now in years and experience. She refuses to be the weak one holding up the rear guard. She's always been out in front, a dangerous tactic for a rogue but one she's overcome with a strict regimen and handy back-up in the form of a Kossith who traveled beside her. She needs that again, now, and she needs to keep herself bound to that.

Still, the city is there, ripe for the exploring. She knows she can't resist it and, indeed, does not even try to. Exploring is first on her list of things to do as she acclimates to her new home. Eventually, she'll go back to the hall to practice, to pick up her two blades and see how hard she has to push herself until she's finally paced with Nathaniel.

[ooc: OPEN LOG IS OPEN. She'll be out and about for both of these days and also training, so feel free to see her doing either and go to chat her up. She'll definitely engage in conversation with anyone she happens upon, too.]

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Corosa's back exploring in the city, too, though he's very reluctant to be here. Again. The walls seem closer than last time, somehow, the buildings taller, the sky further away. It makes him jumpy and it makes him keep double-checking his surroundings.

The streets he's been traveling thus far have been dishearteningly empty. So when he finally spots someone walking away at the other end of an alley, Corosa stops -- and looks unhappily at the walls of said alley. He wants to go down, catch up to whoever it is down there, but the path is narrow. Those walls are very close together.

So instead, he hovers indecisively near his end of the alley until Elissa is nearly out of sight. Oh, hell. Well.

Corosa raises his hand to his mouth and shouts. "Excuse me!" His voice is hoarse, not quite as loud as he'd expected.

A large dog walks in front of Elissa, always four steps ahead unless he's preoccupied. And he has been, admittedly, sniffing at everything and everyone he can find. People don't like the invasion of privacy, though Elissa pays them no mind. As the streets span out and the natives seem fewer in number, the dog starts running around more, exploring and digging wherever he can.

When he lopes into an alleyway, she follows him with a sigh; he's caught a scent and won't let it go. He runs down it without his master giving chase, though he eventually pounces towards something and sits there, panting happily. "Foolish thing. You're not catching anything, you know," she chides softly.

"Excuse me!"

She stops and turns back, seeing a man at the other end of the alleyway. Elissa raises a brow and steps back towards him, frowning. "Yes? Can I help you?"

Corosa does not answer immediately, busy contemplating the alley. He gives it a closer look and decides that he does not like it at all, and that he is going to stay down here at his end, thank you very much.

Once that decision is made, he returns his attention to Elissa. From here he can't make out any details of her features. The sun is in his eyes and no amount of squinting will change that. His gaze briefly flickers to the dog at Elissa's feet, then back to Elissa herself.

"Yes, actually," Corosa calls back. "I need to know where the nearest merchant is. One that sells ammunition."

Ammunition? She raises an eyebrow, curious. There were no guns in Ferelden, though there was gunpowder needed for explosives. They also had arrows and bolts. She knows she saw a shop, though, for 'guns and ammunition' in the city. It was a small, threadbare place and she wasn't allowed to take her dog in with her.

"I saw a shop that said it was selling ammunition, though I'm not so certain it will have what you need. It's several blocks into the city, about five to ten minutes from here."

Corosa looks around, then at Elissa and her dog again. He's uncomfortable with the distance between them -- it makes conversation awkward -- and he makes a hesitant step into the alley. But as soon as his foot touches the ground, his stomach twists itself up and he hastily backs out again. All right, fine. Awkward will have to do.

"Just a shop?" Corosa asks, raising his voice to make sure that his words reach her. He's slightly disappointed, and he sounds it. "No merchants?"

Come to think of it, he hasn't exactly seen any merchants around here. Just shops and stores. So different from Rune-Midgard, where he could count on encountering a few traveling sellers on any road.

Despite the flat being one roommate short (Martin had been off and living Maker knows where for the past few weeks, and Anora had just about given up on attempting to seek him out and sway him to stay) she still felt cramped. Common-born or not, she had grown used to the large comforts the palace had provided, so the small enclosed space of her given living space was less than desirable.

So she generally made excuses for herself to be out and about for as long as possible, and generally she would spend her days holed up in a library or wandering the city. Today was a city day, and finally had an idea as to what to look for. She didn't bother dressing up, her hair was in a simple long braid, and she was wearing slacks and a shirt as opposed to a dress.

If there was one thing she appreciated about this place, it was the fact that she was not confined to having to wear tight-fitting finery. Suffice to say, she wasn't exactly expecting to run into anyone she knew today.

In fact, she didn't exactly notice Elissa as she brushed past her to stop and look at a street vendor selling small potted flowers and other various gardening supplies.

Elissa would not recognize Anora anyway, dressed as she was. She'd always seen Anora in the regalia afforded to a queen and, thus, would not think to look for her in such informal clothes. It was hypocritical, of course; the Warden, herself, had gone off to find and purchase some new clothes for herself and, finding nothing that looked like what she wore at home, she settled for something comfortable and simple. She'd found some simple leggings, two pairs of black jeans, and a few shirts that suited her.

Her dog trotted along in front of her, the poor thing barred from shopping with her. He'd waited patiently outside and was rewarded with a bone from a shop, though she watched him carefully to be sure it didn't shatter and hurt him.

She passed Anora almost without seeing her, too busy looking through her bag. But Atticus stopped and sniffed, turning back around with his small tail wagging. Her barked, his mouth full of his treat. Elissa looked at him. "What? Who's here?" she asked, turning. She expected Anders or Morrigan, maybe even Nathaniel, but none were to be seen. And she almost turned away to continue walking when she spotted Anora in profile and paused.

She looked so different. Still lovely, still regal and proud, but...informal. It was strange. Elissa almost didn't call out to her, but her curiosity got the best of her. "Anora?"

She hadn't looked up when she heard a dog bark, and instead continued examining the flowers of a lavender plant for sale. It was when she heard her name that she looked over.

Anora's surprise was obvious for a split second before she gained control of her expression and set it to her usual neutral gaze. Her lips were drawn into a line as she looked from the Warden and down at the mabari. She should have known...after years of sitting through Cailan talking about his prized mabari at the dinner table, and walking through the kennels escorted by both him and Erlina, there was a distinct difference between a common dog's bark and that of a mabari's.

She looked at Elissa once again, holding her gaze before going back to idly look at the plant.

"I suppose I should not be surprised to see that you have already started to acclimate yourself here, Warden." She motioned at the bag she was holding slightly as she sifted though the packets of seeds, the vendor off helping another customer at the other end of his cart. Her lips curled up into a slight smirk.

"You would think I would be able to pick out a mabari's bark out of a crowd by now."

Atticus wagged his rear end, long tongue poking out from his jaws as he watched Anora, heedless of any potential tension between his bonded human and the other woman. Elissa set a hand on his head and shrugged at Anora, who had already set her attention on other things.

"I cannot stay in the same clothes forever, of course." Even if they did not sell items she wanted or anything that seemed remotely familiar to the garb she was used to, she would not continue to wear all that she had brought with her. If they were going to stay for some time, then she needed to be prepared. And if nothing came of it, at least she would then have souvenirs to bring home.

"I think he's delighting in scaring people. No one's seen a dog like him before," she said with a smile, scratching him behind his ears. "But I didn't expect to see you out wandering." Especially not in those sorts of clothes, she could say, but she kept that to herself. Anora, like her, could wear what she wished. It was only difficult to wrap her mind around the appearance of her, as Elissa had once been foolish enough to believe the king and queen must have always stood in either formal dress or armor.

She did not step closer, though her eyes traveled to the sign on the cart. She raised an eyebrow in question. "You're looking for seeds?" she asked.

"of course." It's said absentmindedly as she continued to look over the packets for seeds. As Elissa went on about her dog, her smirk grew a bit fonder, that bit of Ferelden pride shining through. People may complain that their country smelled of wet dog, but they were damn powerful breeds. As a child she had asked her father to bring one to Gwaren from his frequent stays at the palace, but he told her he didn't want her growing attached to anything that could easily be taken away.

His reasoning never made sense.

"Yes, well, not everyone enjoys staying holed up in a small flat all day with only a book for company." She collected a few packets of seeds in a basket as she continued to talk. The names of some of the flowers and vegetables were foreign, while others familiar, she was merely picking those that seemed to grow best for late summer.

"It would appear that I am. Does that surprise you as well, Warden?"

"I don't blame you for that," she said gently, reaching over to tug her dog back. The last thing she wanted was for him to trot over and jump all over Anora. She gave the woman a faint smile, patting the mabari until he sat once more. "I would not imagine you to do such a thing at home. Even my mother, old and disliking of politics, would do far more than sit around with a book." Even when they had company, her mother found time to do so much more than simply entertain. Granted, the company her mother kept was fairly limited to the older nobles and their children, but it was still something.

Besides, Elissa would never imagine Anora staying idle. In fact, she'd have to be locked up to sit around a read a book, and even then she would expect the other woman to be scheming, her thoughts racing at a mile a minute.

Eamon had been right about Anora in some ways. She was a planner, a thinker. She did what she felt was necessary. She would never allow herself to relax if there was work to be done. And this led to the obvious question: what else did she do in this 'world' if she had so little to do? Even Elissa was restless with how little she had to work with. Never before had she imagined herself needing to be occupied by the tasks she had as Warden-Commander until she was idle like this. Training provided little comfort.

She raised an eyebrow. "I suppose it does, indeed." A noblewoman plotting seeds? It was mostly unheard of. "What are you looking to plant, if I may ask?"

"Ah yes, I remember Eleanor." It was said with a slight tone of fondness, her smile growing a bit softer in reminiscing. Anora was never the sort to make nor keep friends, especially not with the nobles (few liked the idea of a common-born being married to royal blood when there had been far more "suitable" candidates of noble birth for Maric's child), but the Couslands had always been a family Anora regarded with some respect.

Shame what had happened to them. She had actually been somewhat relieved that Fergus had popped up seemingly out of nowhere, alive.

In any case, back to the topic at hand. "My mother had a rather impressive rose garden when she had been alive. I used to help her tend to them, seeing as my father was completely useless with plants. I suppose when I was carted off to the palace, it developed into a sort of a hobby of mine." She adjusted the basket to rest in her elbow, taking the potted lavender plant in her hands.

"So I suppose I am looking for any sort of thing to plant. Flowers, mainly, but I suppose some vegetables would be beneficial. Food always seems to taste better when you tended to it yourself." She turned to Elissa once again, her eyebrow raised. "Surely you are not all that interested in what I plan on doing?"

Snow has been exploring the city herself, at least when she's not in the library. Normally she'd appreciate the solitude, having never been bothered too much by being on her own. But lately...

Well, dying gave you a different perspective on some things. So when she sees Cousland wandering down the street she tugs a smile onto her face, waving. "Elissa!" She runs over. The fact that they've only spoken to each other once apparently has little bearing on her decision to intrude on the other woman's walk. "Fancy running into you here."

She isn't prepared for slightly-familiar voices to interrupt her walk, though it's not unwelcome in the slightest. Her head perks up in time with her Mabari's, the hound giving a sniff on the air as his tail wags excessively. Elissa turns and sees Snow approaching, taking a moment to remember who she is. There are too many faces to remember so soon.

But she does smile at her, glad to see she's about and doing all right. "I was just going to say that," she says, nodding. "How are you?"

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I lost my way here in this quest [OPEN]

[07/22 | out in the city]

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june 23rd, the CITY ARE YOU READY FOR THIS

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