Darkest Timeline AU Flashback Meme

[faderifting]

DARKEST TIMELINE AU FLASHBACK MEME
Did you work out something for your character's darkest timeline AU that you love so much it would be an absolute crime not to be able to write it out for real? WHAT LUCK! This meme is here for all your flashback-from-the-future needs. It's also the place to display sad single-character vignettes, letters that were never sent to dead friends, and anything else your dastardly little heart desires. Go forth and suffer.

The contents of this meme do not count for AC. For AC, you must participate in the real logs for the event, which will take place in Cloudreach 9:48, or else continue your normal non-event RP in the present (Guardian 9:43). However, you can count log threads in this meme toward your rewards points for the month.

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[samahl]

9:45, post Beleth rescue attempt

When the small group of Dalish elves return from their attempt to rescue Beleth, they come back empty handed. One of them has a giant wound across his face which is wrapped up carefully but will leave a scar.

Cyril had been getting steadily more angry with every loss and every defeat. Pel had been the worst for him, personally, but every additional death and defeat has left its mark on his heart and spirit. This defeat, though, it leaves him bitter and angry.

People who know him notice a stark difference from the man who left with Merrick and Merrill believing they'd bring back Beleth and the one who returns his bandages over one side of his face.

"She betrayed us," he says, to anyone who asks. He calls her harellan instead of using her name and glares at anyone who acts as if they miss her - even if that person is his brother.


9:47, after Taas's death

It's his first mission since he ended Taas's suffering and he's quiet and lonely. He knows the people he's with can be trusted - at least he hopes none of them have turned - but that doesn't ease the feeling of loss that hangs around him.

Taas should be here. He should be warm and alive, with arms so strong and solid that they stop Cyril from falling into his own despair. The loss is heavy in his heart and he doesn't know how to stop from drowning in it.

They still have the sending crystals though, and he reaches out to Orzammar after a bit. It's almost bedtime there. The feed is open, because Sina is too small to work privacy settings and the dwarven couple watching her is still new to using the crystals, but he doesn't share any secrets or details of where he is. Instead, he sings. It's a lullaby, meant for the child that he might never see again if they don't return.

"Elgara vallas, da'len
Melava somniar
Mala taren aravas
Ara ma'desen melar..."

[ooc; While these are just little ficlet types scenes that had been rattling along in my head, feel free to treat this like a starter. The second one also welcomes network style responses to people who want to complain that Cyril is singing on the network. Cyril's voice is based on Cillian Murphy's voice and this is Murphy's singing voice.]

Little Sina - Orzammar

[mythalenaste]

9:48

"IT'S COMING IT'S COMING IT'S COMING IT'S COMING IT'S COMING IT'S COMING IT'S COMING--"

A four-year-old elf is blazing straight for you, unable to keep from grinning because this is imaginary, not actual invasion by anything harmful. She might also be repeating herself partly because she knows it's annoying, and being annoying is hilarious.

[mythalenaste]

"Papa?"

The sound over the crystals is plaintive. Taas' death caused her to cry in confusion, but the effect of it on her guardian is the worst part of it all. She somehow has to make things better, or the world will keep being askew.

[samahl]

"Hello da'len," he replies carefully. She's grown up with people using the crystals so she can cope with his voice coming out of it better than he would have at her age. "Are you getting ready for bed?"

[mythalenaste]

There's an awkward pause because Sina doesn't want to get in trouble.

"Yes," she says at last, because she has gotten up and started to do so. She can't bear to disappoint him further. "Papa, do you want to hear a song I made up?"

She hasn't made it up yet. She's having to think about what will be funny and make him smile. So far, her options are ridiculous and random crap and ridiculous and random crap. She's creative, but she's still three.

[samahl]

"Of course," he encourages. He always encourages her creativity and imagination. She needs that being an elvhen child growing up underground.

His heart is also soothed a bit by the fact that she wants to create something for him. It's harder to feel alone when she's there reminding him that he isn't. He still has someone to return to.

[mythalenaste]

"Ummmmm." It comforts her to hear his voice, and to know he hears hers. She loves her foster-parents, but there's no one like her Papa Cyril. She thinks as she pulls her clothes over her head.

"The bathtub is stinky," she decides on at last. "The bathtub is stinky, the bathtub is stinky and ugly..."

A halt in the proceedings as the performer pulls on a clean shift.

[samahl]

He finds himself chuckling as soon as she begins and lets her finish before talking. The sound is a bit softer than how he used to laugh, but at least it is a laugh.

[mythalenaste]

Success! A laugh! It's the most satisfying job she has ever done, and she decides right away that making him laugh is her life's work.

The rest of the song is very similar, and by the end of it she is ready for bed, and stops to allow her adoring public to applaud her work.

[samahl]

He does clap and even gives a quiet cheer. "That was wonderful, da'len," he says. "Now are you going to be all right with Frieda and Gunter?"

He asks not because he doesn't trust her to behave (even though sometimes her energy might test that) but because he knows she also is coping with the loss. Taas had been in her life for as long as she knows.

[mythalenaste]

That cheer makes her life. She soars, way too stoked to go to bed now.

"Today," she bubbles, "we went to the store."

Spoken like it's a veritable haven. Nirvana.

"And we got blackberries."

Now, this is indeed a luxury. Fresh fruit is very hard to find in Ortan Thaig, when it grows on the surface.

"Frieda made Blackberry Cobbler." The capitals are implied.

[samahl]

"Oh, wow, I bet that was tasty!" he replies. He also makes a mental note to repay Frieda for that somehow. It can't have been cheap to get blackberries. "Did you thank her?"

[mythalenaste]

"Yes," she says, and it's unclear whether it's a lie. Although she does not cover the stone when she yells, "THANK YOU FRIEDA!"

But Sina sometimes overdoes the joy and the thanks. She rarely thinks once is enough, whether it's thanks or 'the song that never ends.'

[samahl]

Cyril pulls his crystal back a bit and also makes a mental note to talk to her about yelling in those things later.

"That's good," he praises her being thoughtful and grateful and then settles down. He's still a little stuck on the idea of blackberries though. He wonders what he can possibly do to repay such a luxury and realizes, like a cold weight in his stomach, that Sina should have access to fresh berries every day. She should be a child of the wood and instead she's surrounded by stone and dirt.

He wants to be responsible and tell her to go to bed and end the conversation but leaving her voice would remind him that he's alone so instead he asks, "What else did you do today?" and remembers that she needs to know that she is heard too. He's not the only one dealing with loss.

[mythalenaste]

"Oommmmm," she answers thoughtfully, postponing the actual answer. Things don't change very much for dwarves who never go to the surface, and that is her most common frame of reference. "Gunter taught me how to make really big burps. Want to hear?"

She does not wait for him to answer.

gwenaëlle vauquelin

[elegiaque]

( stashing starters beneath this header. )

benevenuta thevenet

[ungovernable]

( stashing starters beneath this header. )

Ellana

[serannas]

Christine Delacroix

[aceso]

[dalishious]

Merrick carefully catches Sina before she barrels into something, lifting her briefly before setting her down on a nearby chair.

"What do we do when a threat is near?" he murmurs to her, looking at her expectantly.

Whenever he shows up, he makes a point of teaching Sina how to fight. He has already given her a knife, and has shown her the basics of blocking and attacking, and how to use her small size to her advantage to hide from enemies. At the very least, she knows that she is not defenseless.

He still holds darkness in his heart, bitterness that this child lives while Pel is gone forever, but he never shows it. Though he's stern with Sina, he shows her nothing but gentleness.

[mythalenaste]

Quickly, she is in the position he has taught her. She wants to make him proud, after all.

"Find a route for escape," she recites, looking around to do so while sinking into a defensive fighting position.

cirilla

[ichaer]

( starters to be posted below the header. if you're interested in one with ciri then feel free to hit me up through a pm, on discord at kaldwin#9001 or at kaldwin! )

[dalishious]

"Good," he tells her with a nod of his head. "What do we do if we're caught?"

[mythalenaste]

"Break their hold," she answers, though she doesn't change position because he hasn't yet shown her what kind of hold she is breaking.

[dalishious]

He circles around her and places his arm around her neck, very gently, but imitating a stronger hold.

"Show me."