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middleofsomewhere2021-03-17 05:43 am
voidtreckermods) wrote in middleofsomewhere2021-03-17 05:43 am
Entry tags:
The Will to Fight: Ongoing: Blue
So Far
It's been a hard few days of cajoling the citizens of the Shining City into and through the catacombs. Many still talk about returning to the comforts of the city, scoffing at the idea of danger. But slowly, as they get further away from the city, more and more of them break out of the illusion. Though some remain lost in the illusion still, the majority are clear-minded by Kazoo 9.
Their mission changes from hurrying stubborn people along to comforting them as the truth dawns on them. The atmosphere becomes more desperate, more angry. More driven.
A plan is offered by the citizens: there is a cavern marked on their maps that opens up to the surface. It can be used as a base whilst any that feel able can go out to join the fight against the demons.
New Allies
Not long after breaking camp on the ninth day of the month of Kazoo they reach the cavern. However, it is clear straight away that something is wrong. The cavern is dark with no exits to be seen, and the Voidtreckers will quickly learn they are not alone. There's a small camp in the cavern, all humans, and after a tense moment they will welcome the citizens and their escorts.
Their story is simple: they were outside the city fighting when they got overwhelmed; they took shelter in the cavern but a gate opened nearby on the surface and caused a cave in. None of the scouts they had sent through the tunnels to the city have returned. Their food is running out and they were on the verge of heading to the city regardless of what they might find there when the Voidtreckers arrived.
Breaking Free
The cave-in is a large one, several metres thick at its weakest and blocking the exit to the outside completely. Those trapped here have made some progress but it's going to take a lot of hands, and potentially some magical help, to clear the blockages.
If they can clear it though, it will mean those who can fight, both citizen and Voidtrecker can begin to head back towards the city to fight, without having to re-enter the range of the illusionary Shining City.
The cavern makes a good staging point, and a secure place for those who cannot fight. Even with the blockage clear it is easy to defend, and holds the same sanctified protections as the tunnels themselves.
It's been a hard few days of cajoling the citizens of the Shining City into and through the catacombs. Many still talk about returning to the comforts of the city, scoffing at the idea of danger. But slowly, as they get further away from the city, more and more of them break out of the illusion. Though some remain lost in the illusion still, the majority are clear-minded by Kazoo 9.
Their mission changes from hurrying stubborn people along to comforting them as the truth dawns on them. The atmosphere becomes more desperate, more angry. More driven.
A plan is offered by the citizens: there is a cavern marked on their maps that opens up to the surface. It can be used as a base whilst any that feel able can go out to join the fight against the demons.
New Allies
Not long after breaking camp on the ninth day of the month of Kazoo they reach the cavern. However, it is clear straight away that something is wrong. The cavern is dark with no exits to be seen, and the Voidtreckers will quickly learn they are not alone. There's a small camp in the cavern, all humans, and after a tense moment they will welcome the citizens and their escorts.
Their story is simple: they were outside the city fighting when they got overwhelmed; they took shelter in the cavern but a gate opened nearby on the surface and caused a cave in. None of the scouts they had sent through the tunnels to the city have returned. Their food is running out and they were on the verge of heading to the city regardless of what they might find there when the Voidtreckers arrived.
Breaking Free
The cave-in is a large one, several metres thick at its weakest and blocking the exit to the outside completely. Those trapped here have made some progress but it's going to take a lot of hands, and potentially some magical help, to clear the blockages.
If they can clear it though, it will mean those who can fight, both citizen and Voidtrecker can begin to head back towards the city to fight, without having to re-enter the range of the illusionary Shining City.
The cavern makes a good staging point, and a secure place for those who cannot fight. Even with the blockage clear it is easy to defend, and holds the same sanctified protections as the tunnels themselves.
no subject
He loosely gestures to her arm.
"Ya seem to handle yourself pretty well, but that don't look like it came from a papercut." A blatant question, but he figures if he told her that much he might as well ask.
no subject
"It's a long story," she grunts, "not one I have a problem telling you if you really want to know, but long."
Long enough to be boring if all he's wanting is small talk. It's not as easy as 'someone chopped it off' or something.
no subject
He offers her the last bit of the beer, the song switches quietly in the background. In the meantime he keeps an eye out for any other demons.
no subject
"So without going too far back in the story, I was sent by my Clan to spy on this big conclave between the mages and templars, being hosted by the human church, the Chantry. The mages and templars were in an all-out war, so my Clan wanted to know what came of this meeting. World-shaping stuff, and all, and no one sends the Dalish elves the news if they don't seek it out themselves."
So, that's what she'd been doing.
"I went snooping around and came across something... weird. This... thing was holding the Divine -- the leader of the Chantry -- in the air by her throat, and had this... orb in its other hand."
A little alarming, that.
"She knocked the orb out of its hand and it rolled over to me, so I... picked it up."
Like you do.
"It seared this... mark into my left hand. Everything blew up, literally, and I found myself in the Fade. The Fade's like... like the demon realm here, sort of. Another world, but closely linked to the one I'm from. People do not go there physically, the last time that happened the world almost ended."
no subject
But that's beside the point. She picked being here for whatever reason, rather than out there fightin'.
"What happened from there?"
no subject
So, she's here.
Where a shield might come in useful, and not just the one on her back.
"To make a very, very long story ridiculously short, I survived the Fade. Got back to the waking world, got taken prisoner by the surviving Chantry, got turned into their Herald of Andraste because obviously to them, the Maker was how I survived the Fade... found out the mark on my hand was the only thing that could seal up the tears in the sky that had started happening after the explosion. Tears in the Veil between my world and the Fade.
So I kind of had to stick around, lest the world end. A couple years of fighting, gathering allies, full blown war, so on and so forth-- I kill the thousands-of-years-old ancient Tevinter Magister Corypheus, who had the orb, and stop him from entering the Fade himself to claim godhood."
It's really hard to boil it all down to a few paragraphs, but she's trying.
"A couple more years go by, my Inquisition is just sort of mopping up the mess left behind -- and my hand starts to go haywire. The mark widens. It was already like a rift in my palm that lead right into the Fade, so having it do anything new was pretty alarming."
To say the least. In the here and now, all this talking is at least warming her voice up, making it smooth out. It's still damaged, but it doesn't have to sound like actual gravel and glass shards.
"I hunt down the ancient elvhen God who made the orb, and the Veil, and by then my hand is actively trying to kill me. Bones feel like they're melting through my flesh. Green lightning everywhere. Likes to lift me up into the air and then explode with power if I don't use it up fast enough. Got the power leaking out of my eyes by then. I can still taste it in my teeth.
"The ancient elvhen God, who worked for me in the Inquisition, reveals that this is his power, the same power that created the Veil and split the waking world and the Fade into two realms. He turns my arm to stone, and it crumbles off."
There's so much she's glossing over here, but it's in the interest in not boring her 'audience'. People don't usually want to know about her, it's usually only the other way around. Yondu's probably regretting asking, about now, so time to wrap it up.
"So now I have a bar for an arm, and," she unfolds her arms and holds the bar up, and some bright green power crackles down the length of it, starting from the covered stump. "And that. Residual power from the mark, stable now."
no subject
"I've had a lotta crew with missin' limbs. Eyes 'n' legs 'n' fingers an' such. Lotsa differ'nt problems comes with it, depending on how they done lost it."
So, yeah, the story is important. Not just in being an experience, but how she needs to handle it.
"I always worked as a team, I feel kinda like a waste down here. But you're probably right in that they'd just go an' do their own thing. Most of 'em are just set up that way, that's how they got trained."
And even if it was for shit reasons, Yondu learned to fight beside people.
no subject
"Well, at least some good came of it, then." Dry as can be, but there it is. Returning joke?
The rest just has the Inquisitor nodding, and giving a one-shoulder shrug as she re-folds her arm and bar together. "Can't be helped, the train grabs who it grabs. Rather wish it hadn't grabbed me, it's one thing to help out these random worlds, but Thedas also needs saving right now. Again."
And she's here, helping this... random world instead.
"Ever hear of phantom limb pain?" Since he knows so many people with missing parts, and all.
no subject
He wonders if hers feels different from the normal sort, considering it was a hell of a strange magic that did that to her. Wouldn't be surprised if it did.
no subject
But if he's heard of it too, then it probably isn't.
"Lost the arm pretty shortly before I ended up here."
no subject
Then he stops to think.
"Look, if a talkin' raccoon ever shows up? An' asks for your arm an' says he needs it? He don't. Just hit 'im with it. He's a good guy at heart but he's a plumb stupid bastard when he puts his mind to it."
And his face is painfully earnest as he warns her of Rocket. Because it would happen.
no subject
The bit about Rocket gets a raised eyebrow. "Noted, I'm not keen on giving away parts anyway."
That includes the bar standing in for her arm. She needs it! What else is her shield going to bolt to?
And if she can't use a shield, then...
Well. It's not going to happen.
no subject
But he'd kind of like to, to be honest. By the end of that, the Raccoon was one of the first friends he'd made in a long long time.
Rocket did require a warning label, though.
no subject
She'd both be relieved and anxious if any of her crew showed up here. Relieved to have backup, but anxious knowing that was one less person on Thedas prepared to try to save it from Solas.
Unless Solas himself was brought here, which would be the best solution to all her problems, but she's not going to hold her breath.
CW: Depression/life-hating talk
"I bet it gets irritatin'. No one really understandin' exactly all the complications you had from home. Someone from there'd get it, whether you knew 'em or not. Sometimes I get jealous of Terran folks that are all from similar worlds. Not too bad? Just a little, in that they just get it real easy when they talk to each other."
No explaining wars or cell phones or cars. It's just there.
no subject
But his point is taken, at least someone from Thedas would know about the Fade, if not all the details she knows now. They'd understand that a warrior with a shield is someone you get behind, not run off from in every random direction possible on a battlefield.
"I get what you mean, though. Especially about all the Terrans." 'Terran' is as foreign a word for her as 'Earth', after all. Why not use it? "It's like they have the same codex of information to draw on, while the rest of us have to explain basic shit."