driftfleet | sooner or later, god'll cut you down.

sooner or later, god'll cut you down.

Who: Everyone
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Lato'li's orbit and also planetside.
When: Forward dated to 11/15.

[The Interceptor Fleet moves into position, waiting for the last few shield generators to fall. And in the early hours of the 15th, they do. The shield dissolves with a blip as if it was never there, leaving the man-eaters as prone as their prey. The Interceptors send out a transmission-- an unholy mix of Cockney and Australian that graces every available communicator-- if they answer it.]

We’re firin’! Do yer worst, Vieziri! We’re gonna kick yer sorry arses so hard you’ll kiss the moons!

[Five Interceptor ships swoop out of the dark and unload their various weaponry onto the Vieziri warships. At the same time, people stranded on the planet below ready the anti-aircraft guns onto their makers. And of course there is the Fleet itself, battered and yet beautiful across the velvet sky, as they fire everything they have.

Now the Vieziri start moving. Though the big red ship can’t do much maneuvering, the rest of the Vieziri warships certainly can. They fire back at the Interceptors and whoever else fires at them, willing to defend their leader and lose their lives in the process.

Luckily, the Interceptors have their own daring ships, which may look familiar to those who were here for the raider attack. One is emblazoned with racing stripes and flames all along the hull, and it moves so fast it nearly enters hyperspace. It’s there and gone in a flash, weaving past the enemy in crazy thrillseeking loops. Still another Interceptor ship is painted red and orange with a gold plate near the front, which reads BAMF with no explanation. This one has guns aplenty and easily weathers any duel it gets into. The third Interceptor ship is beautiful gold and black, sleek as hell and engineered with sense; this one packs the most gadgets and formidable guns of all calibers, and appears to do the most damage. Trailing behind is a much smaller ship, so nondescript it almost doesn’t stand out at all-- that is, until it forms a barrier to absorb some oncoming fire and reflect it back at the Vieziri.

There’s one ship that’s missing, though-- the one that was blown up several months ago after the heist. In its place is a small black ship that runs invisible to radar, sweeping past with silent speed as it lets loose a barrage of photon missiles onto the Vieziri flagship.

Down below, the Vieziri come out in full force-- one last stand before the warlord falls, trying to finish their fell rituals. Some of them rush the encampments, some go for the cities. Near the restored comms tower, a cloaked figure with a plain white mask fights their way through the onslaught using a plasma blade and a laser rifle.

After an hours-long siege, the big warship finally takes too much fire and breaks apart, lighting up the sky with falling shards like stars. The biggest debris burns up in orbit, but little pieces still rain down. It signals the end as the Vieziri begin to retreat both on ground and in the air. The loss of their leadership leaves them scattered and panicked.

The Fleet has won the day, but as the sun rises again over the wreckage, there is still plenty of work to be done.]

[ooc: Feel free to assume the Interceptors are helping your ships! The gold and black ship can be hailed and will give responses, as she’s been the main point of contact during this plot. You can also run into Zhade, though tags will be slow for both accounting for RL things. Please mark Zhade or Interceptors in the header of your toplevel if you’d like NPC interaction.

Any questions should be asked on the plot post for phase two.]

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I believe he finds me unsettling, but no more than any other mortal I encounter. He fought well when we attacked the camps, and he seems to be a good man. [Which is high praise coming from Justice. Good job, Riona. Justice approves of your taste in men.

He hasn't seen Riona smile like that since... well, he's not sure if he's ever seen Riona smile like that. He decides that he likes it when she does.

The corners of Justice's mouth twitch. He doesn't smile, exactly, but he does that thing where he looks like he might be approaching a smile, if one squints. It is the height of expression, by his standards.]

I am glad you were wrong as well. I understand that you felt his absence. [Like Justice feels the absence of their missing friends, though he imagines it is so much more intense for a mortal missing their spouse. Maybe she will be smiling more often now.]

[Riona had wondered what Justice would think of Alistair. She's ridiculously biased about him, of course, but she wants her friends to like her husband. And Justice can be a tough nut to crack, given how he can pick up on emotions and intentions. It'd have been awkward and difficult if Justice somehow found major fault with Alistair. Luckily, that doesn't seem to be the case. To say she's pleased would be an understatement.]

He is very much a good man. One of the best I know, and I'm only speaking a little bit out of bias when I say that. Also a damn good warrior, even better than I am. [She smiles wryly.] But just a little.

[That's about as happy a look on Justice as she's ever seen. She knows he cares a great deal about her well-being, but it's still nice to see it, given how... well, stern-faced he usually is.]

I did. When you love someone that much and have been with them for so long, you feel like you're missing a part of yourself when you're separated. [Or maybe it's just how she feels.]

I see. Sometimes that can happen to spirits as well. [Literally. Spirits can literally be separated from a part of themselves and it is an extremely unpleasant experience.

He's sure he doesn't fully grasp what it's like to be without someone so beloved, but that doesn't mean he can't appreciate the effect of having the man around. It's good to see Riona so happy, to feel it fluttering off her skin. She deserves to be happy.]

I am pleased to have met him. I look forward to knowing him better. [Assuming, of course, the man doesn't get too put off by the whole 'I'm a spirit with zero social skills' thing.]

Er... how does that happen? [A part of her was almost afraid to ask, but curiosity won out. Hopefully that's not something that happens often because it does sound kind of awful.]

I think you'll really like him. Might take him a little bit to warm up to you, but I'll talk to him and explain how we met. That should ease a few concerns of his.

Powerful magic is usually involved. For example, sometimes mages do not complete summonings after they begin them. [Justice can't help grimacing at the thought. Justice very much Does Not Recommend.

It's sweet how Riona is ready to put in the effort to make her husband more comfortable Justice. It makes Justice's eyes soften, his almost-smile lingering on his face.] I thank you for your efforts. I understand that I can be difficult to 'warm up to.'

Oh... Oh ouch. [Riona can't even imagine being torn in two like that, caught between the Fade and the waking world. It does not sound like a good time at all.]

Most people just don't know much about spirits or how you perceive the world. I'm still learning myself. Since you're my friend, he knows that you can be trusted, at the very least.

Indeed. [The moral of this story is that some mages really need a reminder that spirits are people too and to always properly finish their summonings.

Justice cocks his head, listening. It's not anything he didn't know before. He's seen the difference between his perspective and a mortal's, after all.] If you ever have a question for me about my perspective or spirits in general, you may ask it.

[Riona probably already knows that, but Justice wants to say it anyway. He appreciates how patient she is in explaining her perspective, and he doesn't want her to feel like he will refuse if she wants him to do the same thing.]

I will, I promise. [Luckily, she knows him well enough that usually she has an idea of where he's coming from. And if she doesn't, he's usually explaining it before she even has a chance to ask.] You know, it's too bad you weren't here when Cole was here. It'd have been intriguing to see you two converse.

The compassion spirit was here? And you met it?

[Cyril talked to Justice about the spirit and its odd adoption of human mannerisms. Justice wishes for the chance to meet it and exchange experiences. It would be nice to talk to someone else who is just as much an outsider as he is.]

Yes, he was. We spoke a number of times. [Cole was a little strange, but no more than Justice. It's likely what allowed her to be able to speak and help him.]

The elf with the false arm informed me of its nature. I am curious.

What was your impression of it?

[Justice calls Cole an 'it', but there's none of the demeaning intent that would be inherent in the pronoun from nearly anyone else. Justice is just using accurate language for most spirits, not cruel or dismissive.]

[Ah, Cyril. Of course, since he's the Inquisitor, he would have known Cole. From what she remembers, Cole's Inquisitor was a dwarf.]

Cole was... He's an odd case. Not quite a spirit anymore, but not a person either? He took on his own physical form in Thedas, but didn't possess anyone. But he did remind me a bit of you. That same curiosity about the mortal world, and not always sure what to make of it.

[Justice frowns at the 'not a person' phrasing. He knows that Riona means nothing by it, but it's still a little awkward to be told you don't count as a person. Justice considers spirits people, even if they're not mortals.

He doesn't see the point in verbally expressing his discomfort, though, so he lets it pass.]

Its experiences must have changed it. I doubt they were harmful changes. Any spirit committed to its virtue would remove any changes that would threaten it with corruption. [And Justice still believes that the spirit must have remained a spirit, even if it was an odd spirit. The idea of a spirit being able to become mortal sounds too outlandish to consider.] The mortal world is a strange place for us. It does not surprise me that it was curious.

[Baaaaad phrasing on ~~the mun's~~ her part, unfortunately.]

Not so much in his case. Cole liked learning about people, and he wanted to help, but sometimes he overextended himself. There was one incident that he nearly teetered into Despair, but I was able to talk him down. It scared him, but he never forgot it.

It what?

[All other thoughts fly from Justice's head as he leans forward, his frown deepening. No one had told him that the spirit had been carrying seeds of corruption.]

Tell me what happened.

[Maybe it's in Justice's head, a reflection of his own unease with the idea of corruption, but he's always found the demons formed from corrupted spirits to be far more dangerous than demons created whole cloth from vice. He doesn't like the idea of a spirit teetering along the edge of despair in a place with so many people unequipped to fight against it.]

[She wishes Cole was here to be able to defend himself and explain what happened, but alas. She'll have to do her best from memory.]

Someone in the fleet was... in a very dark place. Emotionally. Cole sought them out to help them, but the darkness overwhelmed him. Pain and suffering in his head and it reached out to Cole and just... nearly consumed him. Somehow he managed to pull back. The person wanted to die, but I... Maker, it was awhile ago, I'm a little fuzzy on the details. Cole almost killed him - to put him out of his misery, but stopped himself and got out of there. But all those emotions from that person were still eating him up, and he felt himself getting cold. There was frost. Like a Despair demon. So he reached out to the network for help. I responded, and he asked me to kill him so he wouldn't turn.

[That had been a rough ride. The details come back, the more she thinks on it.]

I agreed to meet up with him someplace secluded, and I brought my sword. When I spoke with him... he wasn't Despair. He was certainly frightened, but not a demon. We spoke for awhile, and I managed to calm him down. We both agreed he needed to stay away from that person. Nothing like that happened again.

[Justice listens to the whole thing, tension in every muscle of his body. His jaw clenches when Riona says the word 'frost'.

He's still tense even when she finishes her story.]

Corruption is not always visible. A demon does not always appear to be a demon, and a spirit does not always realize how deep the corruption runs until it is too late. It is not good that it summoned frost.

[But he can't bring himself to be angry that Riona resisted killing the spirit. It's in her nature to avoid unnecessary death. Her mercy and kindness are traits he admires in her, and she was just doing what she does with him: treating a spirit like her friend. She would never harm her friends if she could help it.

That doesn't mean that he doesn't disagree in this one case. The fact that Compassion requested that someone kill it makes him think that it didn't believe it could make itself forget, and Justice doesn't know how else it could uproot the corruption.]

I am pleased that there were no other incidents, and I hope that Compassion was able to make itself pure, but if the corruption was impossible to remove... it would not have been kind to let it live.

[He doesn't expect her to understand how horrible the concept of becoming a demon is. The idea of becoming the very thing that one's entire purpose is to fight against... it's unspeakable.

The implication should be clear. He can't say it, can't even think it explicitly, but if he is ever at that point, he doesn't want her to let him live. Saying it out loud or thinking on it too much would be an acknowledgment that he might be vulnerable to becoming a demon, and he can't stand the mere idea, so she'll just have to connect the dots herself.]

[The implication isn't lost on her, no, especially when he warns her about how corruption isn't always clear to a spirit until it's past the point of no return. It explains his own blindness to his becoming Vengeance, at least, but the thought makes her stomach turn uneasily.]

I think he learned a lesson from it, that's for sure. I'm not sure how it affected Cole long term. He's... not an ordinary spirit. Did Cyril tell you anything about Cole? How he ended up becoming Cole, as opposed to Compassion?

[She'd rather talk about this than the implications of a spirit becoming a demon. It just hits too close to home for her, with Justice standing in front of her and all.]

He told me that Compassion took a name from a mortal. He attempted to tell me the story, but it was not his area of expertise and he told me that Compassion would be able to explain more.

[To Justice, it sounds like a confused compassion spirit that's been away from home for too long and has picked up mortal mannerisms. A curiosity, to be sure, but not much more than Justice himself is at this point. Justice would like the opportunity to speak to it, swap stories, and understand their situations better.

It doesn't occur to him to call Compassion 'Cole.' Mortals are the ones that use names for everyone, and he's bad about calling mortals their names most of the time. Compassion is Compassion. Taking a name is strange and significant, but it doesn't change its nature.]

Cole did a bit more than that, from what he told me. The real Cole was dying in a Circle dungeon, and Compassion reached out to him to help. But Cole died, and then... something happened. Cole doesn't know, but after that, he forgot that he was Compassion and sort of took on Cole's identity.

[He thought he was a ghost or something. Riona remembers him mentioning that it took a man named Rhys and some time before he remembered what he was.]

But he didn't possess the real Cole. He just... took on his physical form. Something very strange happened in that moment, and I don't think Cole fully understands what it was.

Forgetting does not surprise me. We all make ourselves forget things if we believe that an experience may corrupt us. Being unable to do anything but watch as an innocent died would be traumatic enough to tempt Despair. Compassion clearly had a heavy hand when purging the experience from its mind, but it is better to be too aggressive than to be too timid in forgetting.

[Justice hasn't mentioned forgetting to Riona, but it honestly wouldn't occur to him to bring it up himself. This casual psychic self-mutilation is just a part of life to him, something he's never questioned, just as a mortal would never question breathing. Destroying every memory in one's mind is extreme, but no price is too little to continue service to one's virtue without corruption.

Although it seems in this case, Compassion forgot too much. And... apparently convinced itself to be physical?]

The elf told me that Compassion found some means to create independent physical form. I do not know how it could have done that, or if it could be repeated. [Because seriously, he would have loved to be able to just whip up his own form instead of walking around in a rotting body for months on end.]

You can... do that to yourselves? Just make yourself forget a whole swath of memories?

[Between Justice and Cole, she's gotten a rough idea of what spirits are capable of, and she knows they can pick up on and maybe even manipulate emotions to an extent. But memory loss like that? Even she had no idea. It's rather disconcerting.]

Cole insisted he didn't possess a body. I imagine it's similar to how you're standing here, in your own body. Obviously it didn't happen the same way, and I couldn't guess as to how he did it. But if he managed it, then surely it must be possible for it to be replicated.

Yes, we can. Most of us do it rather often, in fact. If I ever seem not to remember something, or if I seem disoriented, it is because I made myself forget. It is not a foolproof means of protecting ourselves, but it is effective.

[He does not see any way that may be alarming.

Although he hasn't been erasing his memories much since showing up in the mortal realm. There's so many things that he wants to remember that he's let it slide, and instead of forgetting sources of frustration or melancholy entirely, he allows his mortal friends to soothe him instead. The system has been working so far.]

Either way, I believe the only one who is likely to be able to provide answers would be the spirit in question. If it ever returns, I would like to speak with it.

I see. [She wonders... will it have to come down to that, when he learns about Kirkwall? Will he make himself forget about the conversation, to spare himself from the awfulness the news will bring?] Have you made yourself forget anything since you left the Fade?

[Well, admittedly, she'd like to forget the horror of The Mother sometimes, but in all seriousness, she's not sure how she'd feel if he made himself forget something, especially if it involved her or one of the other Wardens. If he did, she'll accept it, even if it might hurt.]

I cannot be entirely certain. [One of the side effects of forgetting things is the possibility you won't know you forgot something.] But I do not believe that I have. My time in the mortal realm is... special to me. I would like to avoid forgetting things about it if I can.

[So far, he hasn't found anything that had such egregious power to corrupt that he had to forget it. There have been bumps in the road, times when he has been angry or nervous or sad, but he's been able to deal with it without forgetting so far, to his knowledge. Due in no small part to Riona and the other Wardens of Vigil's Keep, to be honest.]

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sooner or later, god'll cut you down.

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