{SEASONAL EVENT} Dirty Feathers, Better Weather
Nat haniel Sterling
Hunter

Age: 37 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#1
Nate !
The animals feel it, too. Along with Flowerbirth is a collective exhale. The first thing Nathaniel does is open all the doors. This is an old ritual, one inherited from the cabin’s previous inhabitant and thus performed with careful gravity. Or — maybe careful is the wrong word for flinging open the front door so hard it trembles, for snapping back the shutters until one of them breaks and Nathaniel curses loudly to himself. But it is joyful cursing, attentive cursing, because the sun is up and the dog runs circles around his feet and around the house and around the yard, her paws churning mud and dirty snow. These things are all part of the ritual.

So, too, are the chickens: bickering amongst themselves and searching for worms in the still-cold ground, shaking out their feathers, bedraggled but alive. Most of them, anyway. A few of the oldest hens left Longnight with the rest of the unlucky. Of course, the rooster is still alive, and crowing victoriously about it as Nathaniel shovels seven days’ worth of shit and feathers and all else from the chicken coop. Some of it will go to compost, feeding Flowerbirth’s new roots. Some — like the dead — will simply burn. Fire comes later, though.

For now, Nathaniel is working. Sleeves rolled up and clothes already stained, shovel in hand. He isn’t paying much attention to the birds underfoot or to the dog until it begins to bark, its racing put on pause. It stands off to one side of the house, ears up, tail flagged. Warning of someone’s approach.
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#2
REXANNA
It’s finally light outside, and Rexanna was far too excited about that fact to even consider what she could do now that it was safe to go outdoors. She had gotten a good nights sleep, felt the most rested she had in a very long time, and set out with a bag in tow to collect some food for restocking her house. Then, the only place she knew that was reliable was the Fields – a place that had become somewhat comforting for the woman, despite the shrine hidden in the corner. But it was where Rexanna had told Alistair of her story – the only person. Had showed him the brand that no longer sat along her collarbone.

But what she hadn’t experienced before, was the barking from a house she had never noticed before. Likely due to the fact that she mostly kept to the trails she knew and had decided on impulse to try out a different one. She was still wrapped in furs and a bit of leather to keep warm despite the chill of Deepfrost long gone. She pulled the furs tighter, hefting the mostly empty bag against her back as she searched for something, uncertain of what, but mindlessly choosing to follow the barking.

As she approached, there stood a man outside who appeared to be working – cleaning up the remnants of what Longnight had left behind. She sucked in a quiet breath, having not even thought about that, before her gaze slipped from him to the surrounding house and animals and everything the man had. Would he have to clean alone? Perhaps he’d like some help?

She approached closer to his house, still keeping a good distance away in case he chose to tell her to leave, and truly Rexanna didn’t want to impose after all. She raised a gloved hand into the air in a kind of wave before she called out to him. “Hello! Would you like some help?” Her hand lowered back to holding her bag, eyes watching the man though a gentle smile remained on her face.
I think we deserve a soft epilogue, my love,
we are good people and we've suffered enough.
Nat haniel Sterling
Hunter

Age: 37 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#3
Nate !
Nathaniel knows the dog well enough to look up at the sound of her voice. She never warns of nothing, and sure enough a woman appears, small at first, just a pinprick of black against the desolate brown of Deepfrost’s leaving. Straightening up, Nathaniel catches his breath as he watches her approach. The cabin is out of the way, set back against the trees. It is a place of shadows and quiet, though today it sounds like anything but. What is a stranger doing out here?

Outlander, probably. Nathaniel hopes in earnest she didn’t just show up. She appears better equipped than some he’s seen, thick furs turned toward the cold. Maybe she’s exploring, then. Small, alone, she poses little threat. He whistles for the dog.

A moment of thought, and the dog bounds back, circling around the chickens as if counting them. Nathaniel ignores her, moving instead toward the stranger with long strides. Her voice is sweet, friendly, when she calls out. As if she came out all this way to offer help. No one comes out all this way. The man who built the house built it here for a reason, monsters be damned. Nathaniel remains here for similar reasons, though he finds the value of the place lies mostly in what it is not — close to the settlement.

“Help?” he calls, his voice a sober baritone in answer to her sweeter sound. Nathaniel hesitates as he considers, his gaze sweeping the mess of the yard, the dog, the birds. The work always went faster when he had another pair of hands to share it. His expression shifts, unfathomable, and his weight shifts, too, as he looks back at her. “Sure, I guess. There’s a wheelbarrow over there.” With a gesture toward one side of the house. He doesn't really expect her to go fetch it. Why would she? Probably just didn't expect to find him out here. Probably about to wander off again, get eaten by something. But — “Watch out for the rooster,” he adds, just in case.  He’s not sure where the thing’s gone off to. Maybe eaten by a fox.

As if he’d be so lucky.
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#4
REXANNA
She wasn’t expecting him to hear her – she’d noticed that some of the Naturals within the barrier seemed to prefer keeping to themselves, without the help of the Outlanders. Which she could understand to an extent. She didn’t even know if the man was a Natural, but it made sense considering how far out of the way the house was. How he seemed to have a grasp on the home and the surrounding area, how he seemed to work the land.

There was a moment of surprise that crossed her face when he responded, though it almost seemed confused. His voice deep and dark, and she tilted her head for a moment as he seemed to contemplate it. He mentioned a wheelbarrow, and gestured with his hands to the side of the house. Well, no room for introductions, supposed, but hefted her bag – snorting at the idea that a rooster of all things would take her out. But she remained slightly cautious nonetheless.

Approaching the side of the house and through any fencing there might be, she found said wheelbarrow and avoided the chickens the best she could. She righted the wheelbarrow and moved it around the corner to meet up with the stranger, pausing when she reached him and offered a wide grin before moving to drop her bag onto the porch so it was out of the way. “I’m Rexanna, by the way.” She purred to him, though the flirtation wasn’t reflected in her eyes.

So what first?” She questioned, turning to look around at all the things that needed cleaning. What would he prefer she start with or help with, what might make it easier for him. There was a lot, but Rexanna was always up for a challenge. Her exploring after Longnight not an absolute necessity in light of everything that had happened.
I think we deserve a soft epilogue, my love,
we are good people and we've suffered enough.
Nat haniel Sterling
Hunter

Age: 37 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#5
Nate !
Nathaniel’s dark eyes narrow, his features closing off just slightly, as the stranger disappears around the house. Some part of him wants to follow, to keep her in sight. The dog obliges for him, though, and Nathaniel returns to finish mucking out the chicken coop.

They return soon enough: the woman, the wheelbarrow, the dog a large grey sentinel behind her. It sniffs with dignified interest at her heels, its tail curling high over its back. As they draw near, Nathaniel straightens up to watch, intrigued despite himself. He can’t think of any good ulterior motive for this help, though he certainly tries.

“Rexanna,” he repeats, doubt lacing every syllable. Nathaniel’s own voice is flat, though not because he wants to convey disinterest. He turns to scoop up a shovel from the pile he’s made and drop it into the barrow. Should he give her his name? Yes — he probably should. “I’m Nathaniel.” He almost adds, I live here, but that’s an embarrassingly obvious thing to say and he catches himself just in time. Continues filling up the wheelbarrow instead. “This is first.”

Once it’s full, Nathaniel straightens and gestures toward a spot in the distance, near the edge of the trees. “It gets dumped over there.” He gives her a second glance. Can she wheel it all the way over there? She is small… He doesn’t want to ask her to do something she can’t. He can’t tell by looking what her occupation might be, and he certainly doesn’t recognize her. “The rugs inside need to come out,” he adds after a moment, internally wincing at the idea of this stranger wandering around loose in his house. “And the porch needs to be fixed…” but he could do that later. “Actually — have a look in the nesting boxes,” Nate instructs, gesturing at the chicken coop. Free of straw and manure at least, it shouldn't be too unpleasant unless there are a lot of broken eggs.

Telling anyone else what to do makes him feel like an asshole, but he can’t exactly take it back. “If there are any worthwhile eggs in there, you can keep them.” That should be fair. He moves to take the wheelbarrow himself once she’s out of the way, adding, “So, did you just come out here to do good deeds?”
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#6
REXANNA
He repeated her name, and she bobbed her head in response. And while she stood there with the wheelbarrow before her, she watched as he began to scoop up and clean, dumping it into the wheelbarrow she had brought. Her eyes glanced from him to the surrounding area, finding the house despite its distance to be charming. When he spoke, her head shifted back to him and she offered him a kind smile in response. “Pleased to meet you.” She hummed, perhaps a bit quieter as he worked. She didn’t really want to distract him too much from what he needed done.

She nodded, though, as he spoke of the pile and the wheelbarrow being the first to work on. And she wasn’t really sure what else to do while he piled it on – so she kept her hands on the handles to keep it from tipping over should it be uneven, and watched the dog in the meantime. When it was full, and he put the shovel back onto the ground and spoke, her head followed his gesture to where to dump it. She nodded, uncertain how heavy the wheelbarrow was, but she wanted to give it a shot. She turned for a moment back to the porch where she had rested her bag before, and took off a layer or two of furs and the outermost outerwear she had come with.

Hard work would warm her up, she was sure. She pushed up her sleeves and gripped the wheelbarrow again, trying to push it forward only to have it inch sluggishly along. Rexanna was stubborn, but with Nathaniel listing off the rest of the things that needed to be done, perhaps it would be best to let him handle it. She glanced to him and was certain he could handle it. She paused while he mentioned the nesting boxes, and nodded, letting go of the wheelbarrow and offering him a small and almost embarrassed smile.

She moved out of his way, and nodded at his offer – deciding that if he really needed the eggs he wouldn’t have let her have them. “Thanks!” She chimed, not really knowing why he was being nice to her in the first place. The Naturals were something else when it came to Outlanders – and for the most part, this interaction had been quite pleasant. So she nodded and offered another wide smile before stepping into the nesting boxes. She had discarded her gloves back with her bag, preferring to not get them too dirty with this kind of work – it was easier to wash hands for her than it was for getting things out of clothing.  But as he spoke to ask her if she came out to do good deeds, she chuckled in response. “Foraging, actually. I spent all of Longnight in the Rathskeller so it was nice to get some fresh air. I decided to take a different path this time.” She offered with that same honey-dipped purr in her voice. But she didn’t respond further as she moved toward the task at hand.

In the nesting boxes, it had been relatively clean from Nathaniel’s previous work, and so she got to work cleaning out the eggs that had been broken, and collecting the ones that were fine. She made a small pile of the good eggs, moving them back toward the porch to keep them safe and made her way back to the nesting boxes to clean the rest of the broken eggs and clean up the remnants of that. When she had finished, she appeared out of it to look at what else needed to be done, her hands dirty and a bit of a smudge on her cheek from where she had finally tied her hair up. “Did you stay here all Longnight?” She asked him with a tilt of her head, moving toward the porch.
I think we deserve a soft epilogue, my love,
we are good people and we've suffered enough.
Nat haniel Sterling
Hunter

Age: 37 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#7
Nate !
Something about the way the woman talks is a little strange. Nathaniel can’t quite place it, so he ignores her tone. The words themselves are harmless, friendly, though her voice renders them somehow suspicious. Skepticism prickles at the back of his mind. He trusts the dog to keep an eye on her, though, as he takes over the wheelbarrow. Not sure if watching her try has instilled respect or the opposite.

“Rathskeller, huh?” There’s a stroke of good luck. Short of visiting himself, a visit Nathaniel continually postpones, he’s had no source of news from the Sanctuary. “Vai take good care of you?” Of course, Nathaniel already knew the answer to that. But he hoped this bubbly young woman might expound a little on what had been going on the last week. “You’re an Outlander, I take it? This your first Longnight?” He can’t imagine what it would be like, waking up one day in a place like Caido. It is the only thing he’s ever known, but Nathaniel has come to think of Outlanders as soft, for the most part. As if all other worlds are kinder than his own.

Finally hefting the wheelbarrow, he wheels it away quickly when Rexana goes to attend the coop, the big dog standing at her side, watching with studious old eyes. He is beginning to relax just a little as he returns. The woman seems eager to go to work, which is a nice surprise. Nathaniel still can’t imagine why, but he isn’t stupid enough to question her out loud.

He finds her already a little dusty when he returns, and lifts an eyebrow in wry amusement. With the animals taken care of, the rest of the house comes next. It will at least have had time to air out, exhaling a week’s worth of smoke and wet dog and stale air. All smells Nathaniel didn’t particularly mind, but which he thinks Rexana might.

“Yeah,” he drops the barrow back alongside the chicken coop and dusts off his hands. “Rathskeller gets a little… crowded.” In truth, Nathaniel has only stayed there one year, rather recently, but he has no desire to repeat the experience. Vervain is a capable woman, but all those people, all those Outlanders crammed into one space? A wonder they all managed to survive it, Longnight or no. He might have gone in to town and spent the night with his parents — a good son probably would — but in all honesty Nathaniel felt he would prefer the monsters.
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#8
REXANNA
He mentioned the Rathskeller, and she offered him a brisk nod in response to the question of Vai – whom she assumed to be Vervain. She hadn’t particularly talked to the woman much, but she had been the one that had come to her call of needing a healer. When Rory had come in with Jigano, burnt and bleeding, and standing along deaths door. She offered a small smile, but moved onto her task. Deciding to answer his question of being an Outlander once he returned.

When she had finished and returned, she noticed the dog’s attention remaining on her. Something that she could understand – the gilded girl was a stranger, after all. She’d be a bit put off as well. But Nathaniel returns, and she looks to him despite the dust and dirt she was now covered in. “I’m an Outsider, yeah. I arrived just after Leafchange started, I think.” She mentioned, her uncertainties residing in when she arrived during Leafchange, but she had thought it was right after it began.

Regardless, it seemed Nathaniel had stayed here and braved it rather than go to the Rathskeller. A small chuckle escaped her lips at that. “It was very crowded. People kept coming in all throughout with injuries and – well, it was a sad time.” She finally said, a small frown crossing her features as her thoughts drifted to Ronin, Kiada, Jigano, and others. But she tried to focus on the here and the now. “The ones that made it in, however, are healing. The Spark Bird came as well to offer more protection – though it was too late for some.” She hummed, allowing him to approach the house first, deciding that it was impolite to barge in when she didn’t have any idea of what to expect.

But he had laid out what needed to be done, the porch needed fixing and the rugs needed to be cleaned. “How was it here?” She added, gesturing to the house that was still standing and the dog and chickens that roamed about relatively unharmed. It wasn't so much the danger of Longnight that had effected Rexanna the most, it was mostly the mental stress she had endured during it.
I think we deserve a soft epilogue, my love,
we are good people and we've suffered enough.
Nat haniel Sterling
Hunter

Age: 37 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#9
Nate !
A sad time. Contender for Understatement of the Year, that one. “Some people never learn.” Nathaniel shakes his head, the disapproval obvious in his tone. No one with sense goes outdoors on Longnight. Hiding indoors is dangerous enough. Some Outlanders learn too late, but some Naturals, too, risk their necks for no reason. Nathaniel’s own doors had been securely locked the whole week.

“I heard about the Spark Bird,” he adds. He has seen the perch, too, the scorch marks left behind by blazing feathers. The ambivalent roil of something he feels about that subject never makes it into his voice. “You’re lucky. It doesn’t visit very often.” Maybe, if he had looked out the right window, Nathaniel would have seen the glow. But faintly. His cabin is too far out. The bird’s arrival gave him nothing.

He sighs then, and turns his attention toward the house. He still isn’t sure he wants the Outlander in there. Not exactly because he keeps valuables, or because it’s cluttered, or even because there are certainly weapons inside. But the space is his, and he cannot remember the last time he invited anyone inside the walls. He strides toward the cabin anyway, caught between anxiety and stubbornness. He won’t tell her to leave if it makes him look afraid. He won’t admit he’s afraid of some tiny Outlander. And it isn’t fear, anyway, it’s just — fucking Outlanders.

“Uneventful,” he calls over his shoulder. “The way I like it.” He takes the porch steps in two bounds and glances over his shoulder at her. “You really don’t have to help, you know. If you’ve got…” he waves a hand at the fields, “foraging to do, don’t let me keep you.” He ducks inside after that, hoping if he gives her no time to answer, she’ll realize they’re both better off if she leaves, and go continue her day without him. If she is still around when he reemerges, a thick fur rug grasped in one hand and a woven mat in the other, he supposes he can tolerate letting her beat the dust out of them on the porch.

Though he can’t fathom why she might want to.
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#10
REXANNA
She wasn’t sure how to respond to the comment from Nathaniel, and so Rexanna left it open ended. Adding a small nod in his direction in response. It was her first Longnight, and it certainly wasn’t anything that she had expected. But Nathaniel moved on, speaking of the Sparkbird she had mentioned and she nodded once again. “That’s what I was told! The perch that was constructed was being attacked by the monsters I think, Rory and a few others left to go and fix it. They were pretty hurt but I think that knowing the Sparkbird came made it worth it for them.” She hummed thoughtfully to him. Though part of her was sad that he had missed it. She thought for a moment back to Wessex and her outburst at the lantern festival – of Outlanders taking things from the Naturals, and she seemed to shrink a bit at the thought of the Sparkbird being the same.

But Nathaniel started to bound up the steps and told her that she could go if she needed to, if she had foraging to do. Part of her, the part that imagined her as an annoying Outlander wanted to agree. But Rexanna was stubborn and she wanted to help him, maybe prove to him that she didn’t have a choice in the matter and was trying to do good with the second chance she’d been given. But she also didn’t blame him for not wanting her in his house. He disappeared before she could respond, and she waited outside – making a point to not look at the house and rather anywhere else. Just in case he was paranoid of her exploring where she shouldn’t be.

When he returned, she turned to him and offered an easy but small smile. “I can stay out here if you prefer? I don’t mean to impose, but I would like to help. I can beat the dust out of the rugs to leave the inside to you.” She offered in her flirtatious tone, but the words were serious. It was his home after all – one he probably lived in for quite some time. Who was she to waltz in when it was clear she was unwanted there. But if she could help him finish his task, it was the possibility of that which kept her heels dug in until Nathaniel told her she’d have to go. Which she hoped wouldn’t happen, but she couldn’t be too certain. It had been a rocky, awkward start. But she hoped to leave a good impression.
I think we deserve a soft epilogue, my love,
we are good people and we've suffered enough.
Nat haniel Sterling
Hunter

Age: 37 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#11
Nate !
“Rory? Rory with the ponies?” Nathaniel sounds more surprised than he is, once he thinks about it. Rory, soft and quiet, doing something reckless and probably altruistic… It fits what little he knows of the man. Annoys him, too, and that shines through clearly in his tone. Stupid is synonymous with brave during Longnight. And usually with dead.

At least Rory isn’t.

It still stings when he thinks about missing the Spark Bird, but it stings less thinking about the chaos. Nathaniel can only shake his head as he disappears inside.

Rexanna is, of course, right where he left her when he returns. A pang of — what? Nerves? — something unpleasant hits him square in the gut when he sees her still just standing there. Smiling. Like some kind of spring cleaning fairy. Then she opens her mouth and it’s like she read his mind and he’s embarrassed all over again.

He throws the rugs across the porch railing, avoiding the side rendered weak by wind or snow or something else. “There’s nothing valuable,” he says, in a tone one part what–do–I–care and one part annoyed. He doesn’t make eye contact, though. Her offer, at least, is fair enough. “If you really want to help…”

Nate ducks his head inside again briefly and emerges a few second later with a broom. He tosses it toward her. “Go ahead and use that.” This whole giving orders thing makes him feel a little like a stranger in his own home. Following orders, he can do that, but giving them? To random Outlanders? Nathaniel busies himself with the inside of the house, glancing out occasionally to check on her.

The work is routine, and goes more quickly with two hands. Eventually, the inside is clean enough, and the saddest of the indoor plants sit out on the porch, enjoying the sun's return. Nathaniel looks over at Rexana, his hands on his hips. "Not bad," he says. Which, in hindsight, is an incredibly lame thing to say, but he can't take it back.
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#12
REXANNA
Before Nathaniel vanished, he mentioned Rory. “Rory with the ponies?” She nodded, but she wasn’t sure. She didn’t know Rory that well, didn’t know that he had horses or ponies or animals. And she began to realize that she had really only spent time with the Outlanders – feeling comfort in their outcasted status that she didn’t feel the need to prove herself. But Amalia had been kind, standoffish at first. Rory, well… She had only seen him burnt and bloody, helped to press her hands against Jigano’s and stop the bleeding before Vervain could get there to help.

But before her thoughts could get darker, Nate returned and she offered him a bright grin, at odds with the darkness eddying and swirling within her thoughts. It was then, when she realized perhaps she had embarrassed him somehow – perhaps by mentioning that she was fine remaining outside. But he had made it obvious to an extent. She shrugged her shoulders, a small elegant roll. “It’s fine, really.” She said, and she meant it. She understood.

If it were the other way around, with how little the Naturals had to begin with and the Outlanders pouring in at every corner, she imagined she’d be the same. Regardless, he seemed to agree to continue to let her help – tossing a broom to her that she caught and she began to use against the rugs. First brushing them off and then hanging them off the porch to knock the rest of the dust out. One after one, she worked quietly until the inside was clean enough and the plants were set outside for some fresh air.

She placed the broom on the ground and leaned against it, glancing around the place while Nate looked toward her with his hands on his hips. And when he spoke, she offered an almost tired chuckle. “Not bad at all.” She offered, beaming a smile toward him and straightening her posture to brush off the dust from her hands. “It hadn’t occurred to me at first. How much damage outside Longnight causes. Has it always been like that?” (Have you always had to deal with such terrible things from a child until now?) She asked (and wanted to ask), before she tilted her head – pieces of her hair falling out of her makeshift braid to dance along with the wind.
I think we deserve a soft epilogue, my love,
we are good people and we've suffered enough.
Nat haniel Sterling
Hunter

Age: 37 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#13
Nate !
Nathaniel hasn't thought about it either, really. Difficult to quantify Longnight itself when he spent so much of it in the farthest corner of the house he could find, door shut against more than monsters. When he bolted at the first opportunit, leaving it all behind for someone else to clean up. Now — now he's accustomed to it. No different from patching the roof after heavy snow, ripping up the floorboards after a flood. He thinks on it for a time before he answers, shifting to stand with his hands on the porch railing, eyes sweeping over the fields.

"Always?" he repeats, and rolls his shoulders, a shrug turning into a stretch. "As long as I've been alive. What — What is Deepfrost like where you come from?" Nathaniel frowns, stumbling a little over the question as he asks it. As if he has no right, as if it's some breach of a carefully maintained barrier to ask her this small, innocuous thing.
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#14
REXANNA
He replied to her, a shrug and an “always” that had her brow raising with the almost open ended question. But a frown found her face and she wanted to comment about how terrible it was to have to deal with that. But he poised a question to her and she had to think about what they did back in Halyven. She hadn’t really been a part of much of the royal affairs at first, and Asciend celebrated the winter month differently from her homeland. So she thought of the best way to put it.

It’s… a very happy time actually.” She offered thoughtfully, glancing to Nathaniel before looking over where the chickens had been. “We celebrated the winter months with food and company, sometimes there would be gifts to give. We mostly just made them by hand and gave them to one another. One year I gave a friend a little doll I had made out of wool and some satin I had stolen from one of the rooms I had been a servant to.” She added with a quiet laugh at the idea. She had never been caught, and it had already been a torn piece of fabric anyway. It certainly didn’t matter much anyway.

Later I was married off to a different country who celebrated things differently. Huge festivals with dancing and lots of food and drinks. No gifts were given, but celebration in dance and song had been enough for those people. I’m certain many of them gained thirty pounds over the season.” She laughed yet again before sighing to herself. “Of course, I was of a higher status there. It could have been the same back home where I’m from but I was a servant there. I wasn’t allowed to be a part of it all.” She shrugged, turning her head back to Nathaniel. “We didn’t have any long days of pure black with monsters at our doorsteps.” Her eyes focused on him a bit further. “The people of this land are the strongest people I’ve ever seen, having to deal with that and move on as though nothing happened. I can’t imagine what it would be like in my own city.” She added with a small nod.
I think we deserve a soft epilogue, my love,
we are good people and we've suffered enough.


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