I have other things to fill my time

[selfloyalty]

Date & Time: March 19th, evening
Location: the Hold's courtyard, and around the city close to the Hold
Characters: Anora and OPEN
Summary: Her Highness gets a bit stir crazy and has a bad case of wanderlust.
Warnings: TBD

The last time she had ventured out, she had been accosted by the Masked and tracked as though she were nothing more than a mage. It had been very embarrassing, and when she returned to the apartment a few minutes later after composing herself, she had locked herself in her room for a few hours. She didn't let anyone know, she wouldn't let anyone know. After all, it was foolish, but she was so blinded by the fact that she had to get out and had to get away while the apartment was now occupied by yet another individual that reason had been beyond her for a second or so.

But the Masked were gone for the time being, training had resumed, and she was free to wander as she pleased.

Suffice to say, despite enjoying being a queen, it was slightly refreshing to have been drawn back to her more simpler roots. Fooling around with a sword, allowing herself to get a speck of dirt here and there and breaking into a sweat now and again...it brought her back to her childhood days in Gwaren where it always smelled of fresh cut wood and fish, when both Mother and Father were alive and well and falling and skinning her knees was of the norm.

There was a slight frown as she thought of her youth, and she brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she made her way through the courtyard. Amazing how time flies, and how people come and go from your lives so quickly. Her memories of her father were fresh, and there were still some moments when she'd wake up in middle of the night and splash her face with hot water, convinced that his blood was still there.

This had been one of those moments where she had been feeling so jittery and ill at ease in the close space of her flat that she had to get out. Or, she had to at least sit around the open courtyard in one of her more simpler outfits, hair in a loose braid, looking up at the sky, breathing the open air, half wondering what she'd be doing now if she were back home.

She had sat herself on a bench by the outside of the library, eyes closed as she inhaled for a quiet moment or two. Maybe she'll set out an examine the city, take a look at the ruins and remind herself that her title didn't mean much to the majority of the people here. She'll grant herself a vulnerable moment, Maker knows she's never allowed herself that much before at home.

Here it was different. But...she'd give anything to be back in Ferelden, even if foreigners did enjoy complaining about the apparent "wet dog" smell.

Comments

[septim]

As a dragonborn, Martin struggled against his draconian nature, the need to dominate and destroy, hoard and defend. Destruction, of the murderous sort, wasn't as much of a problem (if at all) as his tendency to hoard knowledge, no matter how useless. Dragons revel in power, and knowledge is power, so Martin (who found this particular outlet of his baser instincts a lot less harmful than, say, setting a town on fire) often found himself falling asleep in the library, cheek pressed against the spines of books.

Sometimes, you learned so much, you needed a break, especially when your face bore the mark of the desk' trim you'd fallen asleep on. So he goes outside for a much needed break, not wholly conscious, dragging his feet until he finds a bench. He doesn't even notice someone else is already sitting down, his brown, medium-length hair a bird's nest of tangles. "Oh, I'm sorry!" Yeah, good thing he hadn't cast a refreshing spell onto himself right then, or Queen Anora of Ferelden would've called him a mage in the same tones one speaks of murderer.

[selfloyalty]

Anora had been lost in thought herself, bunching her hands up in the loose-fitting fabric of her relatively casual dress. Her mind was back in Ferelden for a moment, in her mother's garden in Gwaren, actually, but she was drawn away as soon as she heard the exclamation.

After sharing living quarters with another Martin, one who apologized nonstop, the "sorry" had a rather opposite effect, causing the hairs at the back of her neck to bristle in an annoyed manner.

She looked up, startled, relatively annoyed, before looking past the disheveled mess of hair to find a relatively familiar face. Her expression softened, and she rose from her seat, smoothing out her dress in a mechanical, habitual motion before squaring her shoulders in a more proper posture.

"Oh, it's quite all right. I'm surprised you're managing to walk at all with that mess of hair in the way." The agitation had gone (she actually liked this Martin guy), and her voice was light.

Anora was capable of being genuinely pleasant.

[septim]

Martin laughs nervously, carding fingers through his hair in a half-hearted attempt to tame it. "Fell asleep at the library again," he says, patting down his hair into a less chaotic state, presentable, but not as kept as it usually is. "Am I bothering you?" Aware of his interruption, he stands away from the bench. "I could leave."

[selfloyalty]

"It certainly sounds like you do a lot of reading in your spare time." Granted, every now and then Anora had done the very same thing while reading up on politics while Cailan was...off doing his own thing.

She shook her head, motioning down towards the bench. "Not at all, feel free to sit if you'd like. I just needed a bit of fresh air. I'll admit, I'm not entirely used to having to live in such small living quarters."

[septim]

"I love reading." An understatement—he'd already hoarded a massive amount of books in his room at the flat, deals made with librarians and merchants alike, a myriad of notebooks filled with anecdotes and subjects to be studied further.

He sits back down, chuckling once at Anora's admission. "These flats don't compare to castles, or fortresses." The Emperor's Chambers in Cloud Ruler Temple was spacious, much more than he needed, or wanted. "But they're functional and, dare I say, homely."

[selfloyalty]

When Martin takes a seat, Anora too settles herself back down, but she does put some inches between them for personal space's sake. At the very least, they're outside, and Martin isn't a blathering idiot like her husband, or an overly apologetic teen like the other Martin, so his presence doesn't put her on edge.

"I suppose I know what you mean." There's the temptation to ball her dress in her hands, but in the presence of another she remains composed. "At the very least we're given a place to live, I won't take that for granted, and I did grow up in a similar setting as a young child, but after a few years living in a castle, where I could actually find time to myself it's a bit..." She holds her tongue for a second, searching for the right way to word how she felt. "Too close, especially with our third flatmate back from wherever he had gone."

[septim]

Martin paws at the empty space between them, separating the two figures, blinking before realizing that he hadn't brought a book with him, thus no book rests on the bench, next to him. Hm, he's more tired than he thought. Perhaps proper rest in a proper bed would do a world of good.

"I find this courtyard and the training halls a good place to get away from people when I need time to myself," he offers, knowing well how once you become used to spacious accommodations, it's hard to downgrade. "A third room mate? Yes, I could see how it'd be difficult to acquire privacy with such a full house."

[selfloyalty]

"Hence why I am out here." She finds herself instinctively leaning away as he feels around the empty space between them, noting the rather thoughtless, mechanical motion of the gesture. It wasn't simply that it was an invasion of her personal space (though it was), but more of an instinct that had been embedded ever since she was betrothed to Cailan.

Keep your distance from the men who aren't your husband or father, you never know who might be watching.

"A third roommate...and a child no less. Old enough to train, I suppose, but entirely too apologetic for whatever reason. It makes you wonder why they brought some of the people they did."