allthisshitisweird | TEST DRIVE MEME!

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! test drive

TEST DRIVE MEME!

Guess.

go on, guess.

Maybe the Inquisition sent you, maybe you came seeking the Inquisition. Maybe you fell out of a rift into this world last week and are still just trying to find your feet. However it happened, early fall finds you in the Hinterlands. Tucked between Ferelden's massive Lake Calenhad and the icy Frostback Mountains, the Hinterlands are a hilly region covered in patchy forests and small farms trying to eke out a living between the boulders. Though somewhat remote, the area is rich with game and minerals and home to Redcliffe, a bustling town on a busy trade route.

Lately the Hinterlands have also been full of mages and templars and rifts, all threatening to turn once-peaceful countryside into a dangerous warzone. The Inquisition has set up several camps and sent personnel to restore order to the region, unwilling to let it slip into chaos. There's a lot to be done, some of it straightforward killing bad things, some of it weird and nebulous morale-building.

1. BEARIED ALIVE

You have turned the wrong corner, forded the wrong stream, crested the wrong hill, entered the wrong cave. Maybe you are far from camp. Maybe you are in camp. Whatever has happened, wherever you are: you are being chased by bears. Did you provoke the bears? Are they huge? Babies? Fade-touched? Mage-controlled? What are they chasing you away from? What are they chasing you into? What do you plan to make out of their hide if you kill them? What do you think they'll craft out of your hide if they kill you?

2. NICE PLACE FOR A SPOT OF CAMPING

If there were an inn, which there's not, there wouldn't be room for you in it. Traveling with the Inquisition means carrying your own bedrolls, putting up your own tents, and sleeping alongside whoever you've been told to share with--no matter how much you hate them or how loud they snore. If you really can't stand it, the alternative is sleeping outside. On the ground. With the bears.

3. A BIG CRAZY LIGHT IN THE SKY

Not everyone thinks the Breach was a bad thing. In the southeastern mountains, a burgeoning cult has taken up residence in Winterwatch Tower to wait patiently for the Maker to reach through the tears in the veil and gather the faithful to his bosom. They're a little kooky, maybe, but harmless, and they're happy enough to share their wine and lager with travelers in the area. The demon-spewing rift behind the Tower, on the other hand... Too bad the Herald didn't close that thing before she bit it. Watch your step.

4. TROUBLE IN THE DEEP

The Carta is everywhere, but it's here in force, occupying dwarven ruins in a chasm behind a waterfall. Inquisition forces have already cleared most of the smugglers out of the hold, but there's still a vault to break into, bodies to loot, and old texts to search through for anything worth adding to the Inquisition's growing archives. Also: darkspawn. Sorry.

5. CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

Hunt game, kill demons, gather herbs, track bandits, haggle over the price of armor, fall off a deceptively tall rock, get lost circling the same hill ten times trying to find a way up to the weird glowing skull on a stick you can see is up there, climb trees or abandoned towers, rummage around in empty homes, run from a dragon, cry over how cute that fennec fox you just shot was, set up camp and chat around the fire, knock yourself out (figuratively, or even literally if that's more your speed)-- the Hinterlands are your ~~Frostback Mountain~~ oyster.

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[ooc: for the sake of playing Dany a little older I'm going with GOT canon. I'm not quite caught up with s6 yet though so vague things will be vague. Also prose or brackets are ok!]

2-

Daenerys is no stranger to sleeping on the hard ground, or outdoors. While it's been a while since she's suffered such accommodations, she handles and accepts it. This is the way things are, if she's to help in this strange new place.

Unfortunately, the young dwarven woman she's supposed to be sharing a tent with fell asleep much more quickly than she, and her snoring was loud enough to make it nearly impossible for Dany to fall asleep. So she pulled a blanket around her shoulders and wandered out into evening.

She stays close to the camp, only venturing to the edge of the firelight so she can more clearly see the sky. She sits with her eyes upwards, wrapped in her blanket, taking in the unfamiliar constellations. There's an uneasy sense of wonder, settling around her, as she still doesn't quite know what to make of this place.

3-

The cultists seem like lovely people, and Dany spends some time speaking with them, before she feels herself drawn to the back courtyard. She doesn't venture in, standing at the gate as she watches the active rift crackle and shimmer, the mark on her hand itching in response.

She frowns, holding her hand up to her chest, considering stepping forward. She's been warned that one person can't close a rift alone, but she'd also heard the tales of the Herald, and she's almost foolish enough to think maybe she's special like that woman had been. Someone better grab her before she does something dumb.

5-

[make something up she's got dragon blood and crazy white hair and a glowing green hand this lady is a walking conversation piece ok]

[ Henry has come to visit the cultists. They're relatively pleasent but something makes him just a bit sad at it all. These people were torn from loved ones and lost so much. Despair was something that seemed to claim them as they worship the breach. The green, ghastly hole in the sky that has brought nothing but misery to all.

He was just doing his rounds, passing out poultices and using his own magic to help others when he see's her.

He's a little a taken back by her. Her hair stands out, like pale moonlight but the glow in her hand catches his eye quicker. A rifter....a rifter going towards a rift. Alone.

Shit not good.

He's already racing forwards and he grabs her free hand quickly, not really thinking how impolite that might be.]

Wait, don't!

[She freezes on reflex as the young man grabs her hand, her head whipping towards him with a cool expression, before it relaxes as she realizes he's probably just trying to help.

All the same she's quick to pull her hand back, stepping backwards.]

That rift should be sealed. It's unsafe for these people to be living so close to it.

[ He lets her go easily, the motion only meant to at least stop from brash action. Still, he offers an apologetic frown. He'll apologize officially later but right now this rift is a problem.]

Yes, it should be. I don't deny that but we need more of those shards like yours. Otherwise it won't work.

[ He places his hand to his chin thinking. The rift looked benign for the moment but at any moment... ]

For now the best we can do is to set up protective wards of some form...or maybe...

[ He looks to her mark again. ]

We could do what they did at the Breach with your shard.

You mean seal it?

[she frowns, looking down at her hand. She doesn't quite know the power of this thing, and it's strange magic to her. In her own land, this kind of magic would be feared. It seems it's feared here to an extent, as well.]

I was told you needed more than one person to seal a rift.

Well, yes, but the theory was if more magic were poured into the mark it could seal something as large as the breach. So maybe it'll work with a shard.

[ He looks to her hand, to his staff and then to the rift. ]

Would you be willing to give it a shot? I could possibly supply enough power, at least for this one.

As Daenerys stares up at the constellations, a voice speaks up.

"That one's called Draconis. See the wings?" A horned woman, easily a foot taller than the average human male, approaches with no thought of stealth at all. Given her heavy footfalls, she'd be ill suited to it anyway. Respectful of personal space, she pauses a short distance away, eyeing the newcomer with interest...and compassion. It's not easy to be ripped away from everything famliar, she's seen that much.

A smile spreads across Dany's face as the constellation is named for her.

"Draconis," she says softly, with a touch of heartache. She is a dragon torn from her children and her world, but this constellation, that looks so similar to the Ice Dragon from home, is oddly comforting. She glances back at the woman who approached her, surprised to see the horns and her height, but not particularly startled.

"I thought I was just seeing a dragon because that was what I wanted to see. It's nice to know I wasn't imagining it."

Korrin traces the outline of the constellation with her finger, a small smile on her lips. She has many fond memories of stargazing with family, in what felt like simpler times. "No, hardly. It's one of my favorites, and the first one I was taught to see, probably because it's among the easiest of the set to find. I used to wish on it and hope I'd see a real dragon someday. I got that wish."

Dany smiles, her eyes returning to the stars.

"I had a similar wish. Though dragons are not as common where I am from as they are here." Which is saying something, because really, dragons aren't the most common pests in Thedas, either. "They had all died out hundreds of years ago. But I managed to hatch three from petrified eggs." She misses them. Her unruly children.

"We thought them extinct, too, but they weren't, not quite. That's why this age is called the Dragon Age. Their resurfacing was a surprise to everyone." Not a welcome surprise either, given their potential for destruction, but for the time being Korrin would rather focus on the wonder. Then those last words sink in and she turns fully, surprise and curiosity etched on her features. "You--what? Really? How?"

"Not easily," she replies, turning her gaze back upon the woman towering over her. "I put the eggs on my husband's pyre, and I climbed in with them. The flames burned away everything, but left me and my three dragons." It's somewhat strange to explain, it always has been, although she's rarely the one who has to do it. Those who bore witness did it for her. Here though, there aren't even dragons to offer as proof that yes, that did happen. She can walk through fire and remain untouched.

'Strange' is definitely an apt word for it, though Korrin doesn't seem to disbelieve her on that. She's heard plenty of rifter tales by now, some just a bizarre to her Thedosian sensibilities. Her expression softens a bit at mention of the pyre, but they've just met so she won't prod much. Not about something potentially painful. "So you're immune to fire? That's quite a boon...one I hope won't be needed here, but I can't promise anything. I'm guessing your dragons didn't come with, or I would have heard some panicked messages over the sending crystals by now."

"I have the blood of the dragon," which means yes, she is immune to fire, but she has always felt that that was under-describing it. Her smile is a little sad when she nods her head at the mention of her dragons not coming with her.

"No, they seem to have been left behind when I was brought here. I feel a little lost without them, to be honest. I cannot be the mother of dragons with no dragons."

"It might be that you'll see them again here. I can't promise anything, but people -and things and creatures- emerge from rifts all the time. Though for your sake and the Inquisiton's, I'll hope that you're there when it happens." Otherwise, she can't see it ending well for anyone.

"The blood of the dragon? Huh, interesting. Some of my kind believe we have blood ties to dragons here. I can't say if it's true or complete bullshit, though immunity to fire doesn't come with that regardless. Believe me, there are times I wish it did." Korrin shrugs, doubting they'll ever really know the truth. But the horns do make her wonder, from time to time.

Stargazing is one of Kain's favorite past times... it's so different from back home that he still finds it fascinating to look at. He's heading to do just that himself, when he realizes he's not the only one with such an idea. He approaches slowly, noticing that it's another rifter, one of the newer ones. He knows how that feels all too well. He's wearing his typical dragoon armor, of course, complete with dragon-shaped helmet.

"Incredible, isn't it?" He says this as he glances upward.

"Familiar, yet so different," Dany replies, glancing at her visitor after a moment. The armor is a surprise, she had heard tales of Rhaegar wearing similar, but she'd never seen the like. The colors were wrong, of course.

"I keep looking for constellations I've grown up with my whole life, but they're nowhere to be found."

Kain nods agreement, knowing what she means. Sometimes he used to stubbornly try to find ones he knows, try to make them fit, but the arrangement of the stars makes it pretty much impossible.

"That was when it really sunk in for me that I was away from my world, when I saw those stars..." That had happened back in the gods' war too, but that's too long of a story to get into now. "I've read some about them, though. Many have to do with this world's gods and the legends surrounding them. There are some interesting ones as well... a wolf, a sword... a dragon..." The last one being his main interest by far, of course.

"I spotted the dragon," Dany replies, a smile creeping onto her face as she traces her finger over the line of the wings and tail. "There are a few less stars than the one from my home, but it's always been my favorite." Maybe it's predictable, to be so fond of the creature that represents her house, but when you're the Mother of Dragons, it's probably forgiven.

Kain nods, appreciative of anyone who can figure out a dragon-constellation so well. "It's a favorite of mine as well. It was one of the first things that made me feel... a little less out of sorts about being here. Something about knowing that dragons still command the skies, even here, whether literally or in the stars above..." He glances over. "Are they important to your home, as well?"

She tilts her head a little in a shrug at his question, her eyes moving with the motion. "Important to me, at least. Whether or not they're important to all people where I am from remains to be seen." Certainly people were afraid of her dragons. But the Sons of the Harpy had tried to kill Drogon. They clearly had not grasped how important the last living true dragons were.

"My house's sigil is a three-headed dragon. It is said we have dragon blood mingled with our own."

That certainly gets all of Kain's attention. Not only because he wonders how it might be possible, but because he quite recently went through a ritual involving just that. Though what she means might be completely different. "Dragon blood? Are you saying... are your people descended from dragons in some way? Or was there some other means they took the dragon blood into themselves?"

"It seems we have much in common." He figures he may as well explain his own connection further as well. "I'm a dragoon, a warrior who emulates the dragon in battle. I'm trained to leap to great heights, and I have a great affinity for the element of wind. There once was a time we dragoons even rode dragons..." He trails off, wistful, missing his father and his father's dragon dearly. "And just recently, I became a Reaver, in this world, by drinking the blood of a dragon."

Kirk ended up in the strangest of places sometimes. He had to think it was part of being whom he was and part of Star Fleet - it just kind of happened. At least these particular cultists weren't wanting to lock him up or chase him off with pitchforks or something crazy like that, though he really did need to get a move on. He needed to get back to Skyhold, having completed the job he'd taken, and he was behind schedule thanks to these guys. But their wine tasted nice, so it could be a nice parting gift, probably.

As it is, he's trying to sneak away from them to keep from getting pulled back into some ritual or another, and certainly away from that Rift. He's not good enough with his shard to close it on his own, he's not sure any Rifter is, so best to get further from it ( he had told the Cultists to leave too, but they refused, so what could he do?).

Turning around a bit of stone he sees Daenerys, sees the glowing green of her hand and curses silent, pulling his horse along behind and up to the woman.

"Oi, come on, this isn't a good place for people like us," he said in a tight, low voice, jerking his head back behind her to indicate she should move off with him.

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TEST DRIVE MEME!

Daenerys Targaryen | Game of Thrones | Rifter

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