video

[veilstrike]

Who: Leilani
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Blue Fish, later
When: Now!

[ The feed opens with the camera focussed on someone's back - it takes a moment to settle, but then Leilani peers over her shoulder, a soft smile on her face. What she's showing off is quite clear; where her skin was once bare, there's a winding tattoo that covers her spine from the small of her back up to her shoulders.

The centre is a green stalk, like a plant, with roses of bright Fade green and blood red surrounding it, coloured in a watercolour style. Weaving through the stem of the flowers is a bright purple snake that seems to have... Bull horns on the top, and a pair of red, glowing eyes. The stem branches out into curves and patterns across her back: anyone familiar with Dalish vallaslin will recognise the design. ]

Leilani grins, even though it makes her wince a little - the tattoo is fresh, and it's red and a little sore from where it's starting to heal. At least she has the decency to make sure she doesn't flash anything by holding a shirt over her chest. ]

I used to have tattoos on my face. For my people, blood writing - the vallaslin - was a sign of becoming an adult. You would get the markings of one of the Gods placed on you, and you would have to sit in silence or you would not be allowed to be given the writing at all.

[ She takes a deep breath, quiet, before she breathes it out. It's obviously hurting, both the ache from the tattoo and the loss of her actual vallaslin. ]

I lost my vallaslin, so I thought it was time to get something new, something for myself rather than for the Gods. [ She finally smiles properly, tilting her head. ] And I'm fishing for compliments, now. I'd like to hear what you think - Loyalty.

[ She ducks out of view before she can finish the sentence, and whoever is holding the camera ends the feed as she goes. ]

Comments

[bryces_pup]

She is. A very talented mage with some... anger issues. [To say the very least. Some of it's justified, mind, but still...]

I... see. [One of her companions, if she recalls correctly. But there's something to her tone, and the hesitation that accompanied the words that has her pausing as well.] What truth?

[veilstrike]

I’m given to understand that’s true for many of my people. Our lives are not always the happiest, but we make do. [ She had been angry herself, with Solas, with her people, all that she had learned.

Breathing out, she bows her head. ] We were taught that our tattoos were signs of adulthood, of worship to our Gods. Solas informed me that they were originally brands, slave markings to show ownership.

[bryces_pup]

I don't envy a lot of what the Dalish have had to endure. [She hopes someday things can turn around, but that's going to be a long, uphill battle.]

Oh. [...oh. Given the elves' history, that's a double whammy.] Wow, I - I'm sorry, Leilani. That must have been incredibly difficult to take in.

[veilstrike]

No one does. My people have suffered more than anyone can guess. [ Given what Solas had taught her, all the things that her people had been through, all the things they lost... It breaks her heart.

Swallowing, Leilani bows her head. ] I suppose it wasn't as bad as him breaking up with me right after.

[bryces_pup]

Maker's breath, that happened right before did that?! [What. An. Asshole.] What a colossal, unrepentant prig. Is he still a part of your circle in the Inquisition?

[veilstrike]

[ Leilani just laughs, fiddling absently with the wolf jaw around her neck. ]

I never said that he made the best decisions. But, no, he left after Corypheus fell.

[bryces_pup]

No, he clearly doesn't. That was obvious from the start, the heartbreaking little bastard. [He ever shows up here he's in for a reckoning.] I'm not sure if I want to say I'm sorry or good riddance. I suppose it made things less awkward with him no longer around. But still, on the other hand, he could have stayed to at least help out for awhile longer. Surely there were plenty of things to do?

[veilstrike]

Our main objective was done, but there were some small wars and such to take care of. [ Leilani shrugs absently before she breathes out. ] He had... Many secrets, some of which I didn't learn until I confronted him later. It was unfortunate.

[bryces_pup]

[Uh.... oh. Something akin to a chill crawls down Riona's spine, though there's something also like dread that accompanies it. Her gut's not usually wrong, either.] I... don't suppose those secrets were something like 'he had an unusual taste for Orlesian underground fetish theater' and went and pursued that?

[veilstrike]

[ Leilani laughs, quiet and sad, very deliberately looking away. ] Perhaps that would have been preferable to finding out the man you loved was both the one who gave Corypheus his power and the Dread Wolf.

1/??

[bryces_pup]

Well, yes, that-

[And then it sinks in what she just said. And Riona's, admittedly, gobsmacked. Her eyes widen and her mouth drops as her brain shuts down for a brief moment.

The Dread Wolf. Wait, isn't that-]

2/??

[bryces_pup]

[Yep, he's one of the elven gods. "Make the Dread Wolf take you". Which one was he again?? Shit, does it even matter?

But, if he's an elven god, and he exists, then that means the others existed too.

Oh boy, if Velanna catches wind she'll never hear the end of it-

BUT THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT.]

3/???

[bryces_pup]

[BECAUSE LEILANI APPARENTLY DATED AND, ASSUMEDLY, SLEPT WITH AN ELVEN GOD. LIKE, WHAT EVEN.

AND WHAT'S THIS ABOUT HIM GIVING POWER TO CORYPHEUS? AS IF HE WASN'T ALREADY ENOUGH OF AN ASSHOLE. WHAT IN THEDAS MADE HIM THINK THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?

IN CONCLUSION-]

4/4

[bryces_pup]

What the fuck?

[veilstrike]

[ Even though she’s sore, emotionally and physically, Leilani can feel the laughter bubbling up inside of her. She waits for the emotions to play over Riona’s face before the other woman speaks — then she does laugh. ]

Yes, that seems about right.

[bryces_pup]

Seems?

[It takes a lot to break Riona's brain. It really does, but that about did it.]

I - where do I even start? He's one of the elven gods? The ones that disappeared how many ages ago? And you know this for certain?

[veilstrike]

They weren’t Gods. They were more akin to Magisters than Gods, we just remembered them wrong. They didn’t disappear as much as he sealed them away for what they did to Mythal.

[ But that’s an entire other story, for another time? She thinks. ]

I know it. I visited elven ruins through the eluvian and saw the truth for myself. Spirits don’t lie, and he told me himself, in the end.

[bryces_pup]

Hard to imagine elves acting anything like magisters, but they must have been quite powerful and notable if people are remembering them as gods. That's not something that happens lightly.

[Wasn't Mythal one of them, too? Sweet Andraste this is making her head spin.]

That's... wow. And he gave Corypheus his power? Why?

[veilstrike]

They were powerful enough to call themselves Gods. It’s almost a little too frightening to think about.

[ She sighs softly. ]

He was asleep for a long time and when he awoke he wasn’t strong enough to use his Foci, so he hoped Corypheus would unlock it and die in the process. He didnt, and since I interrupted the ritual I was given a gift.

[ The hand with her Anchor wiggles. ]

[bryces_pup]

So not actually gods but they called themselves as such, and that's how they got remembered. The wrong details were passed down.

[It makes her wonder what history has forgotten about Andraste, and those around her during her life.]

Never count on darkspawn to die easily. Thedas nearly paid for that little error of judgment of his, and you especially. [She shakes her head.] So, now that he's awake and has power and whatnot, what's he going to do? Lead a revolution for the elves? Surely he's not happy with their lot in life.

[veilstrike]

Yes. The people who remembered them hated Fen'Harel, so they remembered them as Godlike beings.

[ It's obviously something that weighs on Leilani a lot. ]

He's... [ She bows her head, staring at her hands. ] He plans to tear the Veil down and return Thedas to how it was when Arlathan existed.

[bryces_pup]

[That's rather unfortunate.

But not nearly as unfortunate as Solas's next plan of action. Which, honestly, is like the worst thing she's ever heard. The Veil, torn down? How? How was that possible?]

He - but how can that be possible? If he does that, there'll be nothing stopping the demons from attacking everyone and everything. How would that help anyone?

[veilstrike]

He decided not to tell me how.

[ Leilani sighs, clearly on edge and a little uncomfortable. She might love Solas - and, oh, she does, she loves him so much it's physically painful sometimes - but that doesn't mean she accepts what he does. ]

It'll destroy Thedas either way. That's why I have to stop him.

[bryces_pup]

[To say this is alarming is like saying a horde of darkspawn charging at you is a bit off putting. Everything she's done since she left Highever that awful night, and everything she's planning to do... all of it will be for nothing if he succeeds. Everyone and everything will be in danger. It'll be more cataclysmic than a Blight.]

You don't plan on doing this alone, are you?

[veilstrike]

[ She's sad and uncomfortable, and when she looks at Riona it's with abject misery on her face. Clearly, this is the last thing she'd wanted to admit and it weighs heavily on her. ]

No. I have my friends with me.