allthisshitisweird | TEST DRIVE MEME!

Entry tags:

! test drive

TEST DRIVE MEME!

I ROLL TO SEDUCE THE BEAR

Tucked between the massive Lake Calenhad and the icy Frostback Mountains in Ferelden’s chilly, hilly south, the Hinterlands are a region covered in patchy forests, small farms, and a bustling fishing village called Redcliffe. The region was recently the frontline of a war between mages and Templars, but the Inquisition’s military presence has restored order and is now focused on helping the locals and influx of refugees rebuild their lives. Whether you’re a recent recruit or a hardened veteran, a Fereldan local or someone who recently fell out of a rift from another world, you may be asked to go lend a hand.

I. FLOODS

A burst of unseasonably warm weather (in no way inspired by real life events) is initially greeted with relief, gloves discarded and scarves unwrapped—but followed within the week by severe flooding across the region. Maybe you’re sent out to help debris from a road or collect the bodies of those swept away. Or maybe you’re less lucky and instead there when the waters come, shepherding refugees to higher ground, or caught riding in the flow on a dislodged roof or log. Maybe there’s a bear on the roof with you.

II. TREASURE HUNTS

Given the lack of banks and lockboxes, when the people here have something they value, they often hide it—under the ground, in a tree, behind a waterfall. So here you are, with a sketch of some landmarks found on a body, trying to find… something. If you find it, it might be useful: weapons, runes, a stash of supplies. Or it might be someone’s box of racy letters and a request to deliver them to a now-married woman who will slap you on delivery.

III. BEARS

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?

IV. CRYSTALS

Members and trusted agents of the Inquisition are given access to one of the Inquisition's stores of ancient, mysterious sending crystals, allowing them to communicate instantaneously by voice. It's magic. And a magical excuse to ask everyone what their favorite constellation is in the middle of the night.

Or to call for help because you've been treed by bears.

Either way.

V. MISCELLANEOUS

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Simple. Then it tells me you're not from my universe.

[Which, frankly is all she cares about right now. She wants to know how many people from her universe are here.]

Has it worked? Are there others from where you are here?

I don't know yet. Given what was happening in my universe, though, it wouldn't surprise me.

[And that sounds like something she'd rather not talk about. It's difficult to watch your universe be plunged into a war that could destroy the entire thing.]

I see. Well, while you wait, I'd assume you don't know everything you need to know about this universe. If you've questions...

[He might sound a little self-assured and pleased with himself.]

You're right, I don't. And while I am used to having advisors consult with me about such matters, I have not allowed myself to grow overly complacent as president.

['Unlike some people' could be heard in her tone.]

So, let me phrase my question like this: I the leader of my entire world in my universe. What knowledge would be most beneficial for someone like me?

[She's challenging him. He's sounding a little too pleased with himself. It reminds her a bit of the Doctor. The Doctor was arrogant. Romana? Was actually just that intelligent.]

[He just likes being needed. And proving that he's useful or needed. ...And a bit arrogant too.]

The first thing to know is that your position there carries no weight here. In fact, a lot of people don't like those who come from other worlds, the Rifters. If you're too open about being a Rifter in places other than Skyhold, you could be attacked, so I'd keep that bit quiet in person.

The second... Your entire world? Maker, what a mess that must have been. One person ruling a whole... Right, sorry. I got distracted. The second is that you're going to find there are a few groups that are popular to dislike. I'd suggest ignoring that. Unity among the peoples who are looked down on is far stronger than greater division. Rifters, mages, Dalish, elves, we're all people, no matter what some think or do.

[Her tone grows solemn. Not quite sad, but it could go that way.]

If you knew all the things I've faced as president... All the things I've done... you would show a bit more respect. I have yet to see anything here that is as bad as anything back home.

[Daleks aside. The Free Time Virus was down-right terrible. Basically Red Lyrium for Time Lords. Only worse - forced them to regenerate into the equivalent of Zombies.]

I have travelled the whole of my universe with... my friend. Different cultures are not a problem for me.

[Magic, yes. The person themselves? No.]

Nothing here as bad as it is back home.

[He snorts.]

That's the arrogance I'd expect of a leader, to be certain. Suffering is suffering, and you've just entirely dismissed that of my people. All I know is what you do and say here, all that matters here is what you do and say here, and you've dismissed all I've faced as a mage.

Different cultures may prove a challenge for you after all if you ignore that they have their own struggles.

I never said they have not experienced their own suffering. But unless you are prepared to tell me that you are facing the destruction of the whole of time and space, then the challenges faced her are not as dire.

[Her tone is sad, not angry. She doesn't actually hold anything against him.]

And yet... they are.

[He's a little vexed, personally. But he has a habit of getting vexed easily, and mixed in with that is sadness as well.]

A challenge to one's survival in one universe is the same as a challenge to one's survival in another. It's still people facing uncertainty and death, pain and fear. Your point of view is too... backed-away. Too distant. People, lives, matter. Individuals matter. We are facing a being that wants us all dead, and that is just as dire a threat.

[Romana is tempted to explain just how different such challenges are. But she'll let it pass.]

Look, I have no desire to argue with you further. You clearly are not from my universe, nor do you have any understanding of it. You more than likely do not know anyone from my universe, or if you do, they've kept quiet about their past.

I just need to find them, if they are here.

I've no need to understand your universe. I'm not in it.

[But he's not going to get through to someone who is caught up in being a world leader.]

Good luck finding your people. You'll need more luck to find respect given when you've no respect for what the people here are going through.

If everyone is as welcoming and understanding as you have been, then there won't be a need.

[Respect goes two ways.]

I'm certain if you tell them that you've faced worse than they have, their reception will be quite the same.

That might be just you....

[Given that he has no idea what she has faced, because she hasn't actually told him.]

No, please. Tell someone else here that what they've faced has nothing on what you have. I'm sure they'll suddenly respect you greatly.

[Nobody likes to be told that their struggle isn't as bad as other peoples', he's quite certain.]

[In her case he would be quite wrong. Because hers is worse, sorry.]

Great wisdom can only come from great suffering.

[Which, anyone can understand.]

It can come. It doesn't always. And plenty of us have been through great suffering.

We shall see...

[She's honestly tired of this. At this point, she'd even take a conversation with Brax over talking to this man.]

Your poor people.

[He's not really one for letting someone else have the last word, especially when they're blind to others.]

[She sighs heavily. And he's about to learn the extent of her suffering. Her voice is soft. Sad. And filled with the weight of the knowledge that the lives of billions upon billions rest upon her shoulders.]

Which ones? Which version of my people are you talking about? Because I have been to so many parallel universes. There's the universe where Time Lords never existed because they never unlocked the secrets of time travel. There's the one where nearly the entire planet was overrun with the Free Time Virus. Which your Red Lyrium seems comparable to. There's the Universe where my counterpart was a ruthless dictator bent on killing anyone who didn't agree with her because she was that mad for power. There was my home universe, which is on the brink of a multi-universe war that will likely end in the destruction of the whole of creation. So which of my people are so poor?

You think I have no compassion based upon this short conversation. But know this: I consider all of those people my people and I would do anything to save them. Anything.

[Even sacrifice herself. Her past and her future. She would give it all up, if it meant saving them from the Daleks and the Free Time Virus.]

[He sighs heavily.]

I think you lack understanding. Maybe you've compassion for the smallest of your people, but I think it more likely you lose sight. I could list what all my world has been through, what I've been through, but my point is that you telling someone that their struggles, their conflicts and pain, don't match up to yours without you knowing a thing about them is dismissive and ignorant. You don't know this world and you're not seeking an understanding by assuming you've been through worse.

I think the people you see past are the poor ones.

Well. We have clearly reached an impasse.

[And she just sounds... tired. Even in this universe she carries the weight of all those Gallifreys with her. And that's something this man isn't understanding at all.]

Because the thing you expect from me is the same thing you refuse to give.

[No matter that she has given it. Simply by listening to him. She doesn't have to agree with him to listen.]

I'd give you respect if you acknowledged me as an equal. But you don't. Not by dismissing what I've been through as less, rather than simply different. That's all I was seeking. But you didn't want to speak with someone of this world, your voice made that clear even if you didn't say it outright, and you don't see me as an equal.

[He exhales.]

Which is the very thing I've spent my whole life fighting for, freedom and equality, so you'll have to excuse me for not respecting yet another person who refuses to see me as a person.

[And now her frustration comes out.]

Oh for goodness sake! I try to find and connect with people from my universe and suddenly that means I don't see you as a person? Do you realise how ridiculous that sounds?

[If she were the faceplaming sort, that would be happening right now.]

Look, I know it must be terribly confusing to have people from so many different places arriving here. But, you have your people here. I am just trying to see if any of mine are. That doesn't mean you are lesser. It only means that I desire to connect with people who understand what I understand, so that I can have one moment where maybe things make sense in all of this chaos.

TEST DRIVE MEME!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Erm. Sorry for the TL;DR

...and sorry back for hitting enter, LOL

I've done that too many times to count!

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

Private

Re: Private

Private

Re: Private