allthisshitisweird | PARTY BANTER MEME

In the Dragon Age games, as you travel Thedas with your best pals, they have a lot of short conversations about politics, the weather, butts, etc. So this is the Fade Rift equivalent, in four easy steps!

1. Imagine your characters are on a very long walk somewhere, or on a very long walk back after kicking ass, or standing guard together, or gathering herbs, or working in the library late at night, or anything else sort of boring. You can provide context if you'd like, like "[ On the way back from Antiva: ]," but it isn't mandatory.

2. Post a few different remarks your character might make—similar to TFLN, except spoken out loud and less ridiculous, maybe, or maybe not, I don’t know your life—while passing the time.

3. Tag around to reply to those general remarks or to start new/wildcard conversations! Threads should be pretty short and involve minimal action; there’s no need to turn anything into a big production. Threadjacking to create multiperson conversations is encouraged (unless someone says not to). Multiple different conversations between the same characters occurring on different days are also encouraged.

4. Gather up all of your little conversation snippets like a bouquet and keep them forever, because they’re game canon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Bad news, Ellie. Laura is entirely unconcerned by silence - if there's a 'but' sitting awkwardly between them, like the criss-cross of old scars on display now that it's getting too warm to wear sleeves to her wrists, she either hasn't noticed or doesn't care. ]

[When the silence doesn't work, she lapses into further silence. Usually, it's a pretty clear signal to back off. But this is Laura, so she's thinking. And definitely noticing the rest of the scars.]

Do you want me to stop asking about it?

[ Moments like this used to end when she left, urgent and mortified, in search of someplace small and dark to hide. Now, instead - ]

Yes. [ Being able to say so has yet to stop feeling novel; she's been afforded privacy only in the last two and a half years of her life. ] These are not scars I wish to talk about.

[It helps to put some things into perspective. Ellie looks down at her own hands, her own scars, and nods.]

All right. I won't talk about 'em unless you bring them up. Cool?

Yes.

And I will not ask you about yours.

Thanks.

You can ask, though. I like talking about some of them. And I'm good at saying no about the others.

Your fingers.

[Ooof. She doesn't fuck around does she. Ellie pauses, trying to decide whether she wants to say. And if so, how she wants to say it.]

I was trying to drown somebody, who killed someone I loved. She bit them off. I kept going.

[ People pause when they don't want to talk about something - so she doesn't expect an answer. That she receives one anyway is surprising. ]

Did she drown?

[A year ago, she wouldn't have answered. Now, she's had more time, more distance, ways to come to terms with it. Now, it's difficult but not impossible. Now, she can see the flickers of humanity in this decision, rather than just the heartbreak.

It was the moment she got back a little bit of herself.]

No. I stopped.

[ Laura still struggles to fill in gaps at times, to see what people say and how they look, then put it together into a full story. Now is one of those times: she can't tell if Ellie regrets stopping, or if she regrets having started. All she can guess is that Ellie regrets.

So she doesn't try to guess. Instead, after a pause - ]

I'm sorry she killed someone of yours.

Me too.

[Regret is a heavy word, and it's true for now. Maybe someday she'll feel differently, but she already does feel different from when the started. Her face softens as she settles back in the present, considering Laura.]

Thank you.

[ In ordinary conversations, this is when she should provide a story of her own, comparable in scope. But this isn't an ordinary conversation - and selfishly, she doesn't want to tell Ellie about the people she's killed, or the ones she's left alive. ]

You're welcome.

[A silence, then- while she thinks it through. Enough people have been blindsided by this that it makes the decision easier, if not the words.]

She's here. Her name is Abby.

Just- so it's not a surprise later. We're not trying to kill each other anymore.

[ Laura's gaze cuts sharply toward Ellie. ]

Abby is my friend.

[ If it's accusatory, it's not evident in the flat affect of her voice. ]

Who did she kill?

[Ellie expects this, so the flinch is minimal, and mostly in her eyes.]

It's fine. It's between her and me.

[The next part is harder, especially because she's on her back foot, and it makes her defensive. She doesn't want to open that up, to drag Joel's past out into the light. He's gone. She sets her jaw.]

The man who raised me.

Oh.

[ If it required retribution, then Ellie had cared about him. Laura considers this, and the rest of it, in silence. ]

I will not invite you to places I know she will be.