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Fade Rift Mods ([personal profile] faderifting) wrote in [community profile] allthisshitisweird2019-07-24 07:02 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME

TEST DRIVE MEME

While in some alternate, tidier timeline, the War against the Elder One ended years ago, you're not in that timeline. It's 9:45, and there's a war raging in northern Orlais, where the Chantry, aided by the Inquisition, marshalling Orlais and the faithful of Southern Thedas into a new Exalted March against the army of demon-bound Wardens, Red Templars, Venatori loyalists, and darkspawn Corypheus has amassed over the last four years. Rifts are still scattered across the continent, periodically spitting out strangers from strange worlds with green-glowing anchors embedded in their hands. There's no Herald of Andraste to save Thedas. Someone else is going to have to do it.

You're part of (or allied with, recently hired by, imprisoned by, etc.) a new organization that's an offshoot of the Inquisition, dubbed Riftwatch, that consists mainly of the otherworldly new arrivals, rebels and Wardens, and other people who want to prevent the apocalypse without necessarily marching under the Chantry's banner to do it. Their headquarters is an island fortress called the Gallows—formerly a Circle of Magi, more formerly a prison for slaves, but its new occupants have done a good job removing the more grotesque reminders of that past and making the place livable.

Maybe you're here because you want to help. Maybe you need the money (though there isn't much of it). Maybe you acquired an anchor and sticking around is the only way to prevent your hand from falling off. Maybe you've been sent by the Chantry or some other entity to keep an eye on everyone—they're rumored to be a lot of weirdos and troublemakers. Or maybe you're a new rifter and just going where the nice people with swords tell you that you need to go.


I. KIRKWALL: Even when enormous evil darkspawn are trying to take over the known world and you and your colleagues might be the only ones who can truly stop him, you can't work all the time. And when you aren't working, Kirkwall is there for you with its dingy Lowtown taverns, its flashy Hightown establishments, its market stalls and street musicians and cellars hosting gamblers. (Or maybe you can work all the time, and you're in the city to do some official shopping, try to spy on a suspicious character, or show a potential financial backer a good time.)

II. THE PLANASCENE FOREST: West of Kirkwall lies the Planascene forest. As far as enormous, ancient forests go, it's fairly small, but still large enough to disappear in if you aren't careful. And someone hasn't been careful. A merchant en route to deliver raw materials to the Gallows has gone missing somewhere on the road, and you're one of the lucky short-straw-drawers sent to find them. Or whatever is left of them. There are Dalish in the woods—mean ones, rumor has it—as well as Thedas' typical unnaturally aggressive wolves and bears, steep drops and hidden traps left behind by hunters, and at least one group of vicious bandits.

III. THE DEEP ROADS: The ground beneath Thedas is threaded with cavernous ancient roads, once used by the dwarves to traverse the continent, now largely abandoned by anyone except roving bands of darkspawn. Unfortunately for everyone, this abandonment and inhospitality make them an excellent way to travel unnoticed beneath everyone else's feet, which is why you're currently engaged in a skirmish with a gang of snarling, corrupted genlocks, or trying to cross a narrow stone bridge without thinking about how bottomless the dark beneath it seems to be.

IV. SEND A MESSAGE: Each member of Riftwatch (or rifter, or ally) is assigned a blue crystal, small enough to wear around the neck, that can transmit voice messages, as well as an enchanted book tied to that crystal that can be used to exchange written messages. They're secure enough to discuss the war, if you'd like to get down to business, but loosely controlled enough to ask a question or play a game with only a few rolled eyes from people who hate fun.

V. WILDCARD: From the Gallows' library to the pirate islands off the coast, from Hightown's high-priced market stalls to the bloody frontlines of the war, Thedas is yours to explore.

revise: dnt (Default)

[personal profile] revise 2019-09-10 12:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[Not terribly complicated, is what. Once the wound has returned to within easy reach, Miriam simply creates a pad from the squares and sets it over the gently oozing line of stitching on his chest.]

Hold this here.

[Indicating the tail of the bandage, set flush to skin. He's broad enough that she can't reasonably rely on holding the tension alone. And then she begins the clumsy and awkward process of passing the bandage about him - pulling here, easing there, ordering him to pin each new layer when it reaches his hand.]
hemitheoi: (⚔ and these bitches be 2s)

[personal profile] hemitheoi 2019-09-10 01:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He lays his hand where she instructs. Despite his general demeanour, he does follow directions well, silently, no biting commentary to go with it. Just doing as he is told with it, exactly. Even the little things, lifting his arms when she needs it before she might have to say it, being careful where that means she has to lean over him to keep what he's doing.

Warmth. That faint human scent they had. Hm.

Then, after a while:
] Who are you?
revise: dnt ([002])

[personal profile] revise 2019-09-10 02:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Miriam. [Her family name does her no good; 'Yes, but which Enchanter Smythe?'] I'm here with Riftwatch's Forces division - late of the Inquisition.

[Though the same could be said by plenty of Riftwatch's members. After a beat, she clarifies:]

From Skyhold.
hemitheoi: (⚔ what the fuck)

[personal profile] hemitheoi 2019-09-12 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
[ He nods. A pause there, because in the end, their names don't mean anything. No indication of who and what they are. Pretty little sounds that indicate less than their clothes do. ]

What do you do?
revise: dnt (Default)

[personal profile] revise 2019-09-12 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
I-- [just said. She passes the bandage clumsily about him, pausing to see it flat and correct the tension.] I go out to do Riftwatch's work. Working with the front line in Orlais. Helping to manage the Gallows.

[A pause. She tucks another layer of bandages under the pinion of his hand.]

Minding dignitaries.
hemitheoi: (⚔ you can't sit with us)

[personal profile] hemitheoi 2019-09-12 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
Bas. [ He mutters it. That was all vague. Nothing direct. Did these people truly have no direct purpose? Sometimes it began to feel like it. ]

I am Beresaad. We are Antaam - soldiers, vanguard. Those who journey ahead of the Qun to learn, trade, navigate and find out the ways of others, negotiate outside of the Qun.
revise: dnt ([002])

[personal profile] revise 2019-09-12 08:37 am (UTC)(link)
['Journey ahead' is such a light arrangement of words, but it prickles uneasily at her skin. Another loop of the bandage and she pauses here to pin the end in place and motion to the young, lamb eyed physician for the second roll. He's too broad for the one.]

Is this your first time to Kirkwall, Beresaad?