driftfleet | Your regularly scheduled creepy visitor

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Your regularly scheduled creepy visitor

Who: Cole and anyone who needs him... or wants to chat to him
Broadcast: No
Action: On any ship except Marsiva, Tourist or Red Fish because he avoids visiting two and can't visit the third.
When: While the fleet is moving and probably a bit after

[There is this thing Cole does.

He visits other ships. Sometimes he put the Pathstone alongside to visit and sometimes he takes a shuttle, but he's constantly wandering all over the fleet, being with people, circulating.

He hasn't done it in a while. He got a nasty fright and went into hiding for a while.

But the creepy psychic being is back! Sticking his large nose into all the business.]

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No. Yes. It's complicated. I like to visit ships, see if I can help, but when I came near- Our threads have touched. You helped me. I can find you easier now. I know you, because you tried to know me. You gave me Compassion.

[And anyone kind to a Compassion spirit tends to get them hanging around. Returning what was given to them.]

I know what hurts you now. In my world, my Thedas, I went to Adamant. Into the Fade. I faced the nightmare with them.

[The ship has seen no shortage of pain and suffering. And so much of it was beyond anyone's control. The helplessness worsened it, at least for Riona.

The mention of Adamant wraps around and hangs on her heart like lead. She's so afraid to ask him, to press for details. Last time she did that... well, she found out about what's hurting her now.]

Are you from his Thedas? Adalwolfe's? [The name tastes bitter on her tongue.]

No.

[That simple. He isn't.]

Adamant was different for me. We went with a Marian Hawke and Warden Stroud. My Inquisitor is different from everyone else's I've met. Most are a Lavellan. Jove was here a long time. But mine was Cadash.

[She's mostly relieved at that, although a part of her almost hoped he was, so maybe he could offer more of an explanation. Fill in the holes of that odd scenario in which this tragedy happened.]

Cadash? As in House Cadash? Of the dwarves? [Shale's family. So one of her descendants was Inquisitor? She almost smiles at imagining the golem's reaction to that.]

Leliana tells me the Inquisitor - the one she knows - goes by Trevelyan. She was with Hawke, who was a woman, and this Warden Stroud as well. [Her brow furrows.] I do not know who Adalwolfe's Inquisitor is. I do not care. [Elf, human, dwarf... it didn't matter. She would have her answers from them. She, or whatever version of Riona Adalwolfe had in his Thedas.]

Yes. She was from Dust Town.

I haven't met anyone else who knows a Cadash.

... it's not his fault, Riona. Blame Corypheus, or Nightmare. Blame the Wardens who listened to desperation. There was no good outcome.

I know a Cadash, just not one that became Inquisitor.

[She assumes he means Hawke. If so, then he's somewhat right.]

The brunt of the blame does not fall to Hawke, no, though he's complicit in that he allowed it to happen. I blame the Inquisitor for picking him. [She sighs.] And I know. I don't lightly say that it should have been Hawke, I really don't, but his death isn't going to send a country spiraling into civil strife. He doesn't have a whole kingdom on his shoulders.

[Maker, so much about what Hawke said still doesn't make sense.]

Alistair should never have been there to begin with.

Alistair shouldn't have volunteered. And no, your Inquisitor shouldn't have let him. But maybe he couldn't bear to hurt Varric

[Because losing Hawke would shatter Varric inside and Varric had had so much pain. So much.]

I don't think anyone could carry an entire country. Unless it was a very little country. For fleas, maybe.

It doesn't make sense. So many people would have stood in his way to stop him.

[Her brother being one of them. He swore to her he would keep an eye on Alistair when she went to Amaranthine. And she knows he would do the same when she went to search for a cure to the Calling, as Leliana said she would be doing.]

I meant it metaphorically. [Still, she huffs out a small laugh.]

I want to be able to give you answers, but I can't because it didn't happen where I'm from. Alistair wasn't there, he was back in Denerim.

He hums and nods. Because he helped lighten her mood a little with that comment.

Did you know Wynne and Shale?

It's all right. I do not think anyone can provide me the answers I want.

[Besides, perhaps, Adalwolfe. And she certainly wasn't keen on speaking with him any time soon.]

I did. They traveled with me during the Blight.

I knew Wynne and Shale. For a little while.

Tell me about the Wynne you knew? I don't want to be angry with her.

Because of how she treated her son? I remember you telling me that she did not reach out to him and talk to him like she should have.

Yes. Other things. Mostly that. She hurt Rhys a lot and she didn't regret that. So I want to know more about her, so I understand better.

[Wynne's name brings forth a myriad of feelings: comfort, fondness, nostalgia, worry... and even a bit of frustration. The woman has been many things to Riona; it's hard to decide where to start.]

Wynne... has lead a full life. One with few regrets. She was never meant to die in bed, old and miserable. It's not what she wanted, anyway. In some ways, she was a model mage. Devout, responsible, and cautious. She understood the dangers of magic, and never held it against anyone for being wary of it. On the other hand, I think she has a wanderlust that must have made her life in the Circle more difficult.

She didn't die in bed. She was old, though.

Her Circle let her wander, go out researching, into the world.

It wasn't like the White Spire. The White Spire was tangled on itself, with all the masks and games of Val Royeaux.

What did she like?

Books. She loves to read. [Wynne's eyes always lit up whenever Riona found one and gave it to her.] And just about anything, too. Histories, romances, you name it.

[She hums in consideration.]

Telling stories, too. Both personal and historical, and even legends. She has a lot of knowledge, and she likes to share it.

Like the story of Tyddr Bright-Axe? We found all these plinths with that story written on it. Cadash was really sad that it wasn't an actual axe.

It is not one she ever told me, but I could see her telling something like it. That's a story I don't believe I've ever heard, though the name rings a bell.

Tyddr Bright-Axe was an Avvar-Mother, mountain maker. She had a leaf-eared lover, an elf, who gave her her weapon and was her closest counsel.

The Bright Axe wasn't an axe, though. It was a staff. Dorian loved it, though.

Ahhh. Eternal disappointment for a dwarf. No wonder. But I haven't heard much in the way of Avvar tales. Not... entirely "appropriate" stories for a noble girl to grow up on. [Eye roll.] Wynne liked to tell Alistair and I Grey Warden stories she knew about. Wanted to help keep our spirits up, I think.

She doesn't use an axe. She prefers a short sword and shield. She wanted to give the axe to The Iron Bull, she thought given Tyddr was an Avvar, it would be a good size for him.

Cole's mother was descended from Avvar. But neither of us knew much about it. I know some about them, because they like us. They understand us much better.

"Us"? You mean spirits? How so?

[Her knowledge of the Avvar is, as demonstrated, very limited given how far north of them she lives.]

Yes. The Avaar don't have the Chantry. They talk with spirits, let us inhabit them briefly to help and then depart again. They understand more about us and magic than the Circles do. Not, book knowing. We're part of their world. Their histories remember before, when were part of them.

[He knows it probably doesn't make sense to Riona, but he doesn't know how else to explain.]

Really? [Wow. that's... something. Riona's knowledge of magic is purely from Wynne and Morrigan, and what little bits she picked up during her journey. While she always wondered if spirits were really as the Chantry said, the thought of people willingly letting them in and basically being possessed boggled her.] Becoming an... abomination - technically - doesn't worry them at all? It just, it seems dangerous.

No.

Because it's not permanent. They don't live together. Spirits... don't understand this world. A host makes it easier. Being welcomed in, it's gentler. The spirit stays true to itself, because the host doesn't try and force anything onto them.

(no subject)

bryces_pup - 2016-07-03 23:39 (UTC) - Expand

Sorry, I dropped the ball.

killedwithlove - 2016-07-11 08:42 (UTC) - Expand

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