“Thanks for coming, everyone." For once, Estella allowed herself to wear a smile openly, glancing between her assembled friends with a little bubble of warmth in her chest. She'd invited all of them to her rooms for the afternoon, with the promise of something to do to take their mind off everything else going on, and a chance to get out of the cold. She'd pretty much counted on Khari and Lia being there, but she was glad Asala had been able to get away from her work for a bit, and that Zahra was feeling up to it.
Of course, now she had to explain exactly what she had in mind. At present, her bedroom, located at the top of one of the smaller towers on the castle itself, was bare of what sparse furniture it normally had, and she'd laid cheesecloth over the floor. Several large ceramic jars sat nearly against one of the walls, an assortment of large brushes next to them. She'd had to ask Leon, Hissrad, and Reed for their help moving the jars and her furnishings, but apparently they hadn't minded.
“I... may have decided I'd like to paint in here," she explained, gesturing to the blank walls. “I thought maybe you all would like to help? If it just seems like work, you don't have to, obviously, but I thought it might be fun if we all did it together." Folding her hands behind her, she rocked back on her heels.
Khari, who'd looked confused up until that point—likely due to the absence of furniture—grinned broadly. “I can't draw for shit, but if you don't care about that, then I'm in. What kinds of colors did you get?" She crouched next to one of the jars and removed the lid with a soft pop. When the hue in question turned out to be a verdigris pigment, her eyes lit up.
“Oh, this is nice. Let's do it!"
“Glad you like it," Estella said with some humor. “I wasn't sure what colors to choose, but thankfully we had a bit of everything leftover from the renovations to Skyhold, so there's all kinds of things there." She turned to the other three with a smile. “Give us a hand?"
"Absolutely!" Lia jumped quickly to the task, and searching until she found a dark enough shade of green. "You know, I tried to decorate the Alienage sort of like this when I was little. I don't remember where we got the paint from. Nothing as nice as this, though." She stooped to pick up one of the jars and carried it over to a wall she deemed in need of her services.
"'Course, I had to use my fingers for that. Father wasn't too pleased when he found me decorating the inside of our house." She smiled wistfully at the thought, and got to work, dipping her brush into the paint and starting on a design.
"Tammy gave Meraad and I each a side of the wall of our home to paint as we wished," Asala added, popping open another can with a thin barrier. She then dipped the edge of the barrier into the paint, and when she pulled it out, a thin film of burnt orange lined the barrier. She nodded and let the barrier dissipate, letting the paint fall back into the can with a quiet splash. "He was... liberal in his application," Asala added with smile.
Apparently satisfied with the hue, Asala reached for a brush and inspected the walls, as if to try and find the best place to begin.
“Sounds like fun. I’m in too,” Zahra stood around them as they fished through the collection of paints. She scratched at her chin and walked between them. Perusing the assortment Estella had scrounged up. She stooped low to expect them and strode away, hands plucking lids off and popping them back on. “Might ask one of you to paint the new figurehead. Riptide will be needing one.”
“We always painted our own boats. Little one-sailed shifts. Ridiculous colors, most times—they hated that,” She offered. A scoff of laughter followed. Whatever memory she was recalling probably had more to it then that. She’d been smiling more lately. It appeared as if this get together had worked on her, at least, in softening her bristled edges. She popped a few more open before idling her hand on top of one particular shade of blue: turquoise. She scooped it up and claimed a spot of her own beside Lia, already working out a pattern.
She paused occasionally, glancing at everyone else’s pallets.
Estella herself started with a shade of blue, though she spent considerably more time staring at the wall than she did actually painting anything. It was a fault of hers, she knew; she'd work herself up so much that the specter of failure nearly paralyzed her, even failure at something so simple.
But... everyone else was starting in on their parts, and they were doing it for her, with her. She took a deep breath and tried to let go of the need to do this right—what did it matter if whatever she did wasn't spectacular? There would be no one up here ever to see, beyond these people that wouldn't mind in the slightest.
She'd just made the first stroke when a rapid series of patters on the cheesecloth alerted her to Gil and Elia's arrival. While Bibi spent his time at the clinic, Hanne lived in Leon's office, and Pia never left Cyrus alone, the other two tended to wander, and return to her quarters when they wanted to sleep or avail themselves of willing human attention.
Of course, 'human' wasn't really the right modifier. Elia twined himself around Lia's feet, meowing up at her in a plaintive tone, while Gil made straight for Zahra, apparently very interested in the laces of the captain's boots.
Zahra paused between strokes when the small ball of fur bumbled up and began swatting at her boots. Her grin widened as she stuck the brush behind her ear. She hadn’t gotten very far in her design but it was clear that she intended it to be nautical-based. Loose sweeps of waves. Perhaps, a boat would be the feature.
She plopped down on the ground and loosened her laces enough so that she could pluck one end between her fingers, dangling in front of Gil so that she could entice him to play. It worked well enough. He, too, plopped on the ground and slapped at it with his paws while he squirmed on his back. “More the merrier, right? Kitten,” she glanced over at Asala and her workspace, before laughing and resuming her play.
"Wha-huh?" Asala stammered, both surprised and confused. It seemed like Asala thought Zahra was speaking to her, and she appeared to be too deep in concentration to tell whether or not Zahra may have been speaking to the actual cat or her. "Wait... Uh, sure," she said, nodding along regardless, though it still seemed like she was somewhat confused.
Near where Asala sat, a geometric shape was beginning to take form. A rather large triangle sat askew on the wall, with two orange edges slightly bowing inward while the third was straight an an arrow. She seemed to be just starting on the interior lines, with a light blue one stretching from the straight line to one of the bowed ones, itself slightly bowed outward. Judging by how perfect her line work was, it appeared that her barriers were vital.
Khari apparently found Asala's confusion hilarious. Certainly at least funny enough to look like. Her painting wasn't quite as terrible as she'd suggested with her previous comment. The tree she was painting was at least basically passable, in a more stylized way than true realism. “You have no idea what she just said, do you?" It seemed to be a mostly rhetorical question.
"Nooot... really," she said, answering the rhetorical question.
There was an audible thump as Zahra flopped onto her back and regarded Khari and Asala across the way. She absently wriggled her fingers in front of the kitten’s face, as she propped herself up on one elbow. She blinked up at their work spaces, and her smile broadened, “I’ve never seen straighter lines. Reminds me of the streets in your village.”
"Would you like a better look?" Lia asked the little cat at her feet. She crouched down a scooped the little creature up in one arm. He seemed not to mind, far more interested in pawing at her than observing what she was painting. "These symbols are for Sylaise. She keeps the hearth." Lia had been working with a pair of colors so far, the green being used to create a fairly complex pattern of twisting vines, along with a vibrant pink at various points, where flowers bloomed. Her amateur work actually wasn't all that bad, and she seemed somewhat proud of it.
"Her fire will keep our Lady Inquisitor warm even in the cold winters here," Lia continued, educating the kitten, "and her care will heal her after hard battles." The kitten began to lick at her face, where similar markings had been tattooed years ago. They were of a different goddess, however, one more suited to Lia's lifestyle. The scout pulled her brush away, smiling through her slight annoyance. "She won't do anything, however, if you mess up my painting, so behave yourself."
Estella snorted softly. Her own selection, a cluster of constellations with the lines traced between the individual stars, was taking up decent shape on the wall, but she set her brush down for a moment, moving over to Lia. “Here," she said. “I'll get him out of your hair. I think I've got a bit of string..." She rummaged through her pockets until she found what she was looking for, then reached out to take Gil from her friend.
He was easy to satisfy, fortunately, and preoccupied himself batting around the snippet of yarn for a while. They'd been working for about an hour when someone knocked on the doorframe. Estella turned, spotting Livia hesitating at the threshold, a tray in-hand.
“You can come in," she assured her, offering a smile. “Were you asked to find one of us?" She didn't recall making any requests, and Livia was a bit too retiring to venture here without some reason or another.
Livia returned the smile, shaking her head a little. Her braids knocked together, producing a soft metallic chime from the cheap ornaments woven into them. "Cyrus asked me to bring you this. He said you'd have friends by for something." The tray was laden down with what smelled like coffee and tea, with small containers of the cinnamon and nutmeg Estella preferred in her coffee, as well as more ordinary things like sugar, milk, and honey. "I'll just leave it here, shall I?"
Estella was more than a little surprised Cyrus had even known to do something like that. She'd mentioned her plans for this only once in passing, and she could have sworn he'd been completely in his own head at the time. Still, the refreshment was welcome, as far as she was concerned. “That sounds good. Thank you, Livia. Does anyone want tea or coffee?"
Just at a glance, most of the designs looked nearly finished; she was eager to see what they'd come up with.
Khari finished filling in a bit of green on her tree; it wasn't especially skillful, but from the way parts of it were shaded and highlighted in other versions of the same color, it did have a certain kind of depth to it. “Oh, tea. Yes please." She took it with quite a lot of honey, but no sugar.
There was an appreciative sniff from Zahra’s corner of the wide chamber, followed by the sound of hands scuffling against knees, and approaching footsteps, “Smells good. Thanks, love.” She’d snatched up her own odd mixture of coffee, tea and an unhealthy dollop of cinnamon and nutmeg in equal proportions. From the looks of it, she had a major sweet-tooth. With her cup in hand, she resumed her station.
What had appeared like the sea’s waves, hadn’t been the ocean at all. Rather, it was the sky. Fat white clouds mixed with light grays filtered through a sea-worthy sky. A red-wood ship was painted in vibrant, wild strokes, as if it were cutting through them—flying rather than sailing. It’s sails were black as night. Given her lackadaisical attitude, there was a surprising amount of details. As if she’d done it before. The jolly roger she’d drawn flapping on the mast was of unknown origins: a red hand grasping an arrow.
"I'd love some tea," Lia said, heading over to Estella and trading her brush for a cup. Her work was just about finished, covering a good portion of the section of wall she'd chosen to work on. "Do you like it? I thought maybe Mythal, but this seemed like a better fit for a room. Some of the flowers don't look quite right from here, actually. Need to fix those..."
“It's lovely," Estella replied honestly, adding a dash of cinnamon to her cup. She loved the way it smelled. “And I like the flowers. I wasn't sure there'd be any use for the pink, but it's such a pretty color." She glanced over at where Zahra was still working. “I seem to have acquired my own pirate ship as well, which is something I never thought I'd say."
That left one. “Asala? Can I see yours, as well?" She was willing to bet it would be precisely-executed and colorful, but beyond that, she had no guess at all.
Asala was sprawled across the floor on her belly near the tray that held the tea and coffee, her hands just reaching a cup that held coffee and a carafe of milk. She'd been in the middle of pouring milk into her coffee when Estella called. She looked up from her prone position before turning to look at the painting on the wall, though she made no move to get up. "Oh, sure," she said, using a leg to gesture toward the wall.
The orange triangle was now filled in with several blue lines, each bowing inward until they finally met in the middle. The lines gave the painting an illusion of depth, as if the triangle continued beyond the wall. She pulled the coffee closer to her mouth before she took another glance at the painting. "The corners stand for the mind, body, and soul while the angle represents balance," she explained, taking a sip of the coffee. Her eyes lit up for a moment and she stared at it before continuing the explanation. "The lines gives it strength. This coffee is good," she added, quickly.
Taken together, the designs were an almost-comical mismatch in style, color, and honestly even the skill with which they were applied. Estella loved them. “Thank you, everyone. These are beautiful."
She took a sip of her coffee, watching Zahra finish up the last parts of the boat's design. Even without any of the furniture, the room felt more like home than it had since she'd moved into it.
Of course, now she had to explain exactly what she had in mind. At present, her bedroom, located at the top of one of the smaller towers on the castle itself, was bare of what sparse furniture it normally had, and she'd laid cheesecloth over the floor. Several large ceramic jars sat nearly against one of the walls, an assortment of large brushes next to them. She'd had to ask Leon, Hissrad, and Reed for their help moving the jars and her furnishings, but apparently they hadn't minded.
“I... may have decided I'd like to paint in here," she explained, gesturing to the blank walls. “I thought maybe you all would like to help? If it just seems like work, you don't have to, obviously, but I thought it might be fun if we all did it together." Folding her hands behind her, she rocked back on her heels.
Khari, who'd looked confused up until that point—likely due to the absence of furniture—grinned broadly. “I can't draw for shit, but if you don't care about that, then I'm in. What kinds of colors did you get?" She crouched next to one of the jars and removed the lid with a soft pop. When the hue in question turned out to be a verdigris pigment, her eyes lit up.
“Oh, this is nice. Let's do it!"
“Glad you like it," Estella said with some humor. “I wasn't sure what colors to choose, but thankfully we had a bit of everything leftover from the renovations to Skyhold, so there's all kinds of things there." She turned to the other three with a smile. “Give us a hand?"
"Absolutely!" Lia jumped quickly to the task, and searching until she found a dark enough shade of green. "You know, I tried to decorate the Alienage sort of like this when I was little. I don't remember where we got the paint from. Nothing as nice as this, though." She stooped to pick up one of the jars and carried it over to a wall she deemed in need of her services.
"'Course, I had to use my fingers for that. Father wasn't too pleased when he found me decorating the inside of our house." She smiled wistfully at the thought, and got to work, dipping her brush into the paint and starting on a design.
"Tammy gave Meraad and I each a side of the wall of our home to paint as we wished," Asala added, popping open another can with a thin barrier. She then dipped the edge of the barrier into the paint, and when she pulled it out, a thin film of burnt orange lined the barrier. She nodded and let the barrier dissipate, letting the paint fall back into the can with a quiet splash. "He was... liberal in his application," Asala added with smile.
Apparently satisfied with the hue, Asala reached for a brush and inspected the walls, as if to try and find the best place to begin.
“Sounds like fun. I’m in too,” Zahra stood around them as they fished through the collection of paints. She scratched at her chin and walked between them. Perusing the assortment Estella had scrounged up. She stooped low to expect them and strode away, hands plucking lids off and popping them back on. “Might ask one of you to paint the new figurehead. Riptide will be needing one.”
“We always painted our own boats. Little one-sailed shifts. Ridiculous colors, most times—they hated that,” She offered. A scoff of laughter followed. Whatever memory she was recalling probably had more to it then that. She’d been smiling more lately. It appeared as if this get together had worked on her, at least, in softening her bristled edges. She popped a few more open before idling her hand on top of one particular shade of blue: turquoise. She scooped it up and claimed a spot of her own beside Lia, already working out a pattern.
She paused occasionally, glancing at everyone else’s pallets.
Estella herself started with a shade of blue, though she spent considerably more time staring at the wall than she did actually painting anything. It was a fault of hers, she knew; she'd work herself up so much that the specter of failure nearly paralyzed her, even failure at something so simple.
But... everyone else was starting in on their parts, and they were doing it for her, with her. She took a deep breath and tried to let go of the need to do this right—what did it matter if whatever she did wasn't spectacular? There would be no one up here ever to see, beyond these people that wouldn't mind in the slightest.
She'd just made the first stroke when a rapid series of patters on the cheesecloth alerted her to Gil and Elia's arrival. While Bibi spent his time at the clinic, Hanne lived in Leon's office, and Pia never left Cyrus alone, the other two tended to wander, and return to her quarters when they wanted to sleep or avail themselves of willing human attention.
Of course, 'human' wasn't really the right modifier. Elia twined himself around Lia's feet, meowing up at her in a plaintive tone, while Gil made straight for Zahra, apparently very interested in the laces of the captain's boots.
Zahra paused between strokes when the small ball of fur bumbled up and began swatting at her boots. Her grin widened as she stuck the brush behind her ear. She hadn’t gotten very far in her design but it was clear that she intended it to be nautical-based. Loose sweeps of waves. Perhaps, a boat would be the feature.
She plopped down on the ground and loosened her laces enough so that she could pluck one end between her fingers, dangling in front of Gil so that she could entice him to play. It worked well enough. He, too, plopped on the ground and slapped at it with his paws while he squirmed on his back. “More the merrier, right? Kitten,” she glanced over at Asala and her workspace, before laughing and resuming her play.
"Wha-huh?" Asala stammered, both surprised and confused. It seemed like Asala thought Zahra was speaking to her, and she appeared to be too deep in concentration to tell whether or not Zahra may have been speaking to the actual cat or her. "Wait... Uh, sure," she said, nodding along regardless, though it still seemed like she was somewhat confused.
Near where Asala sat, a geometric shape was beginning to take form. A rather large triangle sat askew on the wall, with two orange edges slightly bowing inward while the third was straight an an arrow. She seemed to be just starting on the interior lines, with a light blue one stretching from the straight line to one of the bowed ones, itself slightly bowed outward. Judging by how perfect her line work was, it appeared that her barriers were vital.
Khari apparently found Asala's confusion hilarious. Certainly at least funny enough to look like. Her painting wasn't quite as terrible as she'd suggested with her previous comment. The tree she was painting was at least basically passable, in a more stylized way than true realism. “You have no idea what she just said, do you?" It seemed to be a mostly rhetorical question.
"Nooot... really," she said, answering the rhetorical question.
There was an audible thump as Zahra flopped onto her back and regarded Khari and Asala across the way. She absently wriggled her fingers in front of the kitten’s face, as she propped herself up on one elbow. She blinked up at their work spaces, and her smile broadened, “I’ve never seen straighter lines. Reminds me of the streets in your village.”
"Would you like a better look?" Lia asked the little cat at her feet. She crouched down a scooped the little creature up in one arm. He seemed not to mind, far more interested in pawing at her than observing what she was painting. "These symbols are for Sylaise. She keeps the hearth." Lia had been working with a pair of colors so far, the green being used to create a fairly complex pattern of twisting vines, along with a vibrant pink at various points, where flowers bloomed. Her amateur work actually wasn't all that bad, and she seemed somewhat proud of it.
"Her fire will keep our Lady Inquisitor warm even in the cold winters here," Lia continued, educating the kitten, "and her care will heal her after hard battles." The kitten began to lick at her face, where similar markings had been tattooed years ago. They were of a different goddess, however, one more suited to Lia's lifestyle. The scout pulled her brush away, smiling through her slight annoyance. "She won't do anything, however, if you mess up my painting, so behave yourself."
Estella snorted softly. Her own selection, a cluster of constellations with the lines traced between the individual stars, was taking up decent shape on the wall, but she set her brush down for a moment, moving over to Lia. “Here," she said. “I'll get him out of your hair. I think I've got a bit of string..." She rummaged through her pockets until she found what she was looking for, then reached out to take Gil from her friend.
He was easy to satisfy, fortunately, and preoccupied himself batting around the snippet of yarn for a while. They'd been working for about an hour when someone knocked on the doorframe. Estella turned, spotting Livia hesitating at the threshold, a tray in-hand.
“You can come in," she assured her, offering a smile. “Were you asked to find one of us?" She didn't recall making any requests, and Livia was a bit too retiring to venture here without some reason or another.
Livia returned the smile, shaking her head a little. Her braids knocked together, producing a soft metallic chime from the cheap ornaments woven into them. "Cyrus asked me to bring you this. He said you'd have friends by for something." The tray was laden down with what smelled like coffee and tea, with small containers of the cinnamon and nutmeg Estella preferred in her coffee, as well as more ordinary things like sugar, milk, and honey. "I'll just leave it here, shall I?"
Estella was more than a little surprised Cyrus had even known to do something like that. She'd mentioned her plans for this only once in passing, and she could have sworn he'd been completely in his own head at the time. Still, the refreshment was welcome, as far as she was concerned. “That sounds good. Thank you, Livia. Does anyone want tea or coffee?"
Just at a glance, most of the designs looked nearly finished; she was eager to see what they'd come up with.
Khari finished filling in a bit of green on her tree; it wasn't especially skillful, but from the way parts of it were shaded and highlighted in other versions of the same color, it did have a certain kind of depth to it. “Oh, tea. Yes please." She took it with quite a lot of honey, but no sugar.
There was an appreciative sniff from Zahra’s corner of the wide chamber, followed by the sound of hands scuffling against knees, and approaching footsteps, “Smells good. Thanks, love.” She’d snatched up her own odd mixture of coffee, tea and an unhealthy dollop of cinnamon and nutmeg in equal proportions. From the looks of it, she had a major sweet-tooth. With her cup in hand, she resumed her station.
What had appeared like the sea’s waves, hadn’t been the ocean at all. Rather, it was the sky. Fat white clouds mixed with light grays filtered through a sea-worthy sky. A red-wood ship was painted in vibrant, wild strokes, as if it were cutting through them—flying rather than sailing. It’s sails were black as night. Given her lackadaisical attitude, there was a surprising amount of details. As if she’d done it before. The jolly roger she’d drawn flapping on the mast was of unknown origins: a red hand grasping an arrow.
"I'd love some tea," Lia said, heading over to Estella and trading her brush for a cup. Her work was just about finished, covering a good portion of the section of wall she'd chosen to work on. "Do you like it? I thought maybe Mythal, but this seemed like a better fit for a room. Some of the flowers don't look quite right from here, actually. Need to fix those..."
“It's lovely," Estella replied honestly, adding a dash of cinnamon to her cup. She loved the way it smelled. “And I like the flowers. I wasn't sure there'd be any use for the pink, but it's such a pretty color." She glanced over at where Zahra was still working. “I seem to have acquired my own pirate ship as well, which is something I never thought I'd say."
That left one. “Asala? Can I see yours, as well?" She was willing to bet it would be precisely-executed and colorful, but beyond that, she had no guess at all.
Asala was sprawled across the floor on her belly near the tray that held the tea and coffee, her hands just reaching a cup that held coffee and a carafe of milk. She'd been in the middle of pouring milk into her coffee when Estella called. She looked up from her prone position before turning to look at the painting on the wall, though she made no move to get up. "Oh, sure," she said, using a leg to gesture toward the wall.
The orange triangle was now filled in with several blue lines, each bowing inward until they finally met in the middle. The lines gave the painting an illusion of depth, as if the triangle continued beyond the wall. She pulled the coffee closer to her mouth before she took another glance at the painting. "The corners stand for the mind, body, and soul while the angle represents balance," she explained, taking a sip of the coffee. Her eyes lit up for a moment and she stared at it before continuing the explanation. "The lines gives it strength. This coffee is good," she added, quickly.
Taken together, the designs were an almost-comical mismatch in style, color, and honestly even the skill with which they were applied. Estella loved them. “Thank you, everyone. These are beautiful."
She took a sip of her coffee, watching Zahra finish up the last parts of the boat's design. Even without any of the furniture, the room felt more like home than it had since she'd moved into it.