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allthisshitisweird2016-02-02 01:07 am
faderifting) wrote in allthisshitisweird2016-02-02 01:07 am
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TEST DRIVE MEME!
What if there is no tomorrow?
Only more Hinterlands
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, the first days of the new year find 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 try 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.
STILL WITH ADDED SNOW AND NOW ALSO ADDED KINDNESS TO ANIMALS (MOSTLY).
1. IF I GET SCARED, YOU'RE ALWAYS AROUND
You have turned the wrong corner in the snow, forded the wrong stream in the snow, crested the wrong hill in the snow, entered the wrong cave in the snow. Maybe you are far from camp, in the snow. Maybe you are in camp, which is also snowy. Whatever has happened, wherever you are: you are being chased through the snow by bears. Did you throw a snowball at the bears? Are they huge and snow-dusted? Babies burrowing through the snow drifts and coming for your ankles? Fade-touched in addition to snow-touched? Controlled by cold mages who are hiding in the snow? Popping up out of the snow like a game of whack-a-mole? What are they chasing you away from in all of this snow? What are they chasing you into, other than more snow? What warm things do you plan to make out of their hide if you kill them in the snow? What do you think they'll craft out of your hide if they kill you in the snow? P.S. It's still snowy.
2. THEY SAY WE'RE YOUNG AND WE DON'T KNOW
The Inquisition has, possibly, been a little too good at dealing with the Hinterlands' bear problem, and a group of concerned citizens--including young burgeoning naturalists, farmers concerned about the effect an unchecked population of rams may have on their crops come spring, and at least one woman who claims to be directly descended from bears--has taken issue. Maybe they're blocking your character's attempt to enter a bear-infested area. Maybe they've doused your character in bear blood. Maybe the bears they have been working so hard to save have cornered them in the wilderness and they're changing their tunes.
3. WITH YOU I CAN'T GO WRONG
The Inquisition's (cough Leliana's) habit of communicating by raven works out fine, usually, but this particular raven has gone a little rogue. It's not the raven's fault! She's young, she's trying. But she has very important information tied to her leg, and instead of delivering it, she's joined a flock of identical wild ravens to hunt for food in the snow. Recover her, somehow, without hurting her and making any spymistresses angry.
4. BEFORE IT'S EARNED, OUR MONEY'S ALL BEEN SPENT
The tavern at Redcliffe remains as busy as ever, filled with locals, travelers, and Inquisition members. But this month in addition to the usual free-flowing ale and rowdy conversation there is also a contest going on. Bakers have come from across the Hinterlands bearing their very best in an effort to win a coveted ribbon and the title of Best Cake. They pack the tavern and spill out into the surrounding courtyard when the weather allows, cakes sold off tables, out of packs, small chunks given away to whoever is passing and not paying enough attention to refuse. The votes are carefully guarded by several serious looking fellows in the back corner of the tavern. In addition to traffic issues, the cake madness has also caused an infestation of large local rodents, who have appeared out of their holes to devour the many crumbs. Legend has it that if they can be humanely eradicated from the tavern before the final vote is cast, spring will come early. No one in living memory has succeeded, but you are strongly encouraged to try anyway.
5. AIN'T NO HILL OR MOUNTAIN WE CAN'T CLIMB
Hunt game so you can rescue it before other hunters get there, kill demons or maybe just try to hug it out?, dig under the snow for herbs or plant some of your own to replace what others have taken, track bandits through the snow and see if they need a hand, deal with someone charging extortionist coat prices now that it's snowing and convince them to do the right thing, fall off a deceptively tall rock into the snow and admit it was your own fault, 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 in the snow so that you can give it a decent burial, climb trees or abandoned towers covered in snow and be careful not to knock them down, rummage around in empty homes to get out of the snow but leave a nice apology note, run from a dragon in the snow and promise not to trespass on its territory again, definitely don't kill any fennec foxes, set up camp and chat around the fire about your feelings because it's snowy and cold, give yourself a pat on the back (figuratively, or even literally if that's more your speed)-- the Hinterlands are your playground.
Brienne of Tarth // ASOIAF (Dragon Age AU)
There are no fair maidens in this tale. But there is a bear, touched by something that makes it roar angrily and give chase after the woman with a Templar shield. Brienne of Tarth is a great beast of a woman herself, but she does not have claws or teeth. Just a shield and rusted blade in each hand.
Was it possessed? Could a demon truly possess an animal with no will of it or was it influenced by the hole in the sky that has been?
Little has made sense of late, since war broke out, since the breach appeared. By that point the mages had already revolted and the Templars had left - including her own fellows. She'd yet to become fully fledged in the order. Now there was none.
A war with no winner, and endless cold. So much fighting - and now the innocent lives that were caught in the middle. This was how far they had fallen.
And now... bears. The woman stops, bright blue eyes meeting the glowing green of the bear. Brienne raises her blade, slashing out as it lunges at her. Her feet scramble over branches hidden by snow as a hairy paw swipes at her.
2. what's a little bear blood?
She had been trying to help - and for her efforts, Brienne winds up covered with it. Bear blood. Swallowing past her disgust, the embarrassment, and the cruel words (only wind, words are wind), the young woman steels herself.
"I wish to help you and this is how you repay me?" A hand reaches up to brush blood out of her face, ignoring the slight waver in her voice. "If this is what you wish, then fine."
5. you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave
Brienne has taken for granted just how large the Hinterlands is. It seems as if she has been here for so long that she should be able to find the road. But between bears, angry villagers, the snow - all of it works against her. She hefts the bag of gear and her weapons as she trudges through snow that goes up to her ankles.
There's a smell in the air. An inhuman noise has her turning - and facing a fiery red creature. Fear demon. While her training is less than finished, she calls upon her abilities to cast a smite on it.
wildcard me
[ meet Brienne elsewhere? ]
2
The smell of blood is rich and heavy and just a little rancid, and Red wishes for the hundredth or so time that she did not have the sharp senses of a wolf as she pushes towards the scene. A woman, tall (so tall? like really tall, wow) covered in blood, and something in Red smarts at the injustice of it, the cruelty and the rudeness. It reminds her of Violet and the girls in school and their pettiness, and things she hasn't thought of in a very long time.
"What is wrong with you? I think you should go," she tells the villagers, forceful and angry, staring them down until they back away. On the plus side, no fire, no pitchforks, no desire to kill you for being what you are? On the down side: still sucks, and none of those things can be said to the woman with blood on her face.
Finally Red turns to her, drawing a handkerchief out of the pouch on her belt. Her dress seems fitting enough for Ferelden, as does the red cloak that hangs from her shoulders, but she is no Thedosian, and she is glad of the red leather gloves on her hand that conceal the glowing green mark she found there earlier.
"Are you okay?" she asks, and it feels like a stupid question, as she holds out the cloth in offering. "We might need some more handkerchiefs, I think." The joke feels silly, and it is, but-- getting blood thrown on you has to suck. Trying to get someone to smile in bad circumstances if kind of her thing.
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