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001

Who: Cassandra Pentaghast & YOU!!
Broadcast: Fleet-wide
Action: SS Marsiva
When: week of April 12-18

[When Cassandra wakes, she goes from sound asleep to alert in just a matter of a couple of seconds. She's out of bed immediately with a reflexive reach for weapons that aren't there. Naturally, this merits a frustrated growl, but no matter. She doesn't need a sword or shield to do some damage if she must to get out of...wherever this place is.]

[She scans the room with a little more scrutiny with a scowl before she notices the communicator and picks it up. Enjoy your new view of the ceiling, network, while she looks the device over in her hands because she doesn't understand why she has some vague sense of familiarity with it without ever having seen it before in her life. It's at least something to take her mind off the fact she has absolutely no idea how she got here in the first place.]

What is this?

[Answer her before books start getting stabbed, you guys.]

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[Oh thank every single elven god there is. By now Jove should know better, she should remember that not everyone comes from the same version of Thedas she does, but her immediate joy and relief just from seeing Cassandra, hearing that grumpy voice, it drives those thoughts away.]

I'm afraid you aren't in Thedas anymore, Cassandra. Even so, it's so nice to see you again.

[Cassandra balks for a moment before she is immediately and quite visibly suspicious. She doesn't trust anyone who knows her name and yet she does not know theirs. Even more so when there isn't anything about this woman that she immediately can recognize with even a hint of memory.]

Again?

[There's a reserve of questions milling about in her mind. Is this elf responsible for why she's here? Where is here exactly if not in Thedas? Is any of this even real? How did she get to be here even if the elf is not responsible for it? Why doesn't Cassandra remember her? Where is her sword? But she bites back the barrage of questions for the moment, exercising a little bit of caution and not acting on impulse. In a single word, she's asked at least a few of them anyway.]

Ah. Right.

[While she hadn't forgotten how intimidating Cassandra could be, it's not something Jove had seen directed at her in months. Really, after the first week Cassandra's tone had changed enough that it had been easy to let go of their first encounter, to build their relationship into a friendship that had been strong enough to see them through Haven, through the Fade, hopefully through everything. Cassandra had been like a sister, but this?

Jove feels like she's right back on her knees in a dark cell, hands bound in iron while humans pointed swords at her. For the first time, she finds herself glad people arrive on the Marsiva before being shuffled to their own ship.]

The people who brought you here did so to use you for entertainment. We're all here for that, and it seems they draw us from different versions of the same world at times. My name is Jove, of the Dalish clan Lavellan. I knew you in my own version of Thedas.

[Hey, she wouldn't point a sword at you, Jove.]

[...Because she doesn't have a sword to point at you right now, but that's not the point. Get it? The point? Okay, I'll stop.]

[Cassandra listens to Jove, but her expression remains unchanged. It doesn't soften, it just remains still and subtly scrutinizing. Is she looking for something familiar or is she trying to catch Jove in a lie? Maybe it's a little bit of both. What Jove is saying is madness. How could there be more than one Thedas? Any other would have to be an illusion, perhaps a byproduct of the Fade or some other form of incredibly powerful magic that the world has never known.]

I suppose that would make you the Inquisitor...in your world.

[The last three words come out of her mouth awkwardly. She's going along with what Jove is saying for the moment, trying to put the information into something that makes sense to her. She's seen the impossible over the last few months, even just days ago when Corypheus was finally defeated and Thedas could rebuild and renew itself. Maybe this isn't so far out of the realm of possibility, but.]

[Cassandra shakes her head.]

I don't know you. Whatever expectations you may have... [Her jaw tightens.] I suggest you forget them.

That's right. Dorian and Cullen are from my Thedas as well, but the others aren't.

[She's glad now that she'll have them to, for lack of a better word, vouch for her, but really it probably won't matter. This is more upsetting than Jove could have anticipated, seeing all that... creators help her, it's a look that's dangerously close to hate when Cassandra's jaw tightens. She knows the other woman well enough to know it's not that, it's just frustration and uncertainty and with time they'll have more civil conversations, but that doesn't make this less painful.

When Solas and Cole hadn't known her, she'd had cheerful smiles for them all the same. Cassandra doesn't get that, because Cassandra is too serious a person for anything other than complete frankness to be appreciated at the moment. In time, that can change. For now? Seriousness.

No disgusted noises from Jove, though.]

I don't expect anything, Seeker, but if there's anything I can tell you that might help this be less confusing I'd like to try. I've been here a few months now, so I should be able to help you.

[Cassandra appreciates the steps Jove is taking for her sake, though not on a conscious level. She's still listening to Jove with careful attention where she's not just listening to the words, but to the cadence and tone with which they are delivered to her, the microexpressions that accompany them. She can't read Jove's mind, but Cassandra notices that the exuberance with which Jove had greeted her has receded. It's a respectful seriousness now, one where Jove appears to be choosing her words carefully while making her meaning plain, clear, and to the point.]

[It's all things that Cassandra appreciates in a person; she just doesn't know how much of that is intentional and how much of it is a natural reflex to speaking with Cassandra as she is now. It matters some, but Cassandra only relents a little. Some of the tension drops out of her shoulders for the moment, but her expression is still guarded. She's still waiting for something to stand out enough that it proves any of this to be untrue.]

That's not necessary, [she says, less dismissive and more stubborn than anything else. She'll figure the rest of her situation out with time, or so she assumes. At this point, Cassandra is like a dog with a bone at the notion of more than one Thedas.] Tell me about your Thedas. I want to know what else is different.

[That should be easy. It should be so simple to list every thing she's done, the way she left Thedas before coming here, and it's even something she has done before.

But it isn't easy this time. This time it's Cassandra looking at her like she's a threat and it makes Jove feel more uncertain than she's used to, and if she's honest with herself she hates that feeling. She's the Inquisitor, a stranger with the face of one of her best friends shouldn't be shaking her up this badly.

Cassandra can't see her hands because they aren't in the shot, but they're clenched into fists and resting against her knees. This is almost too much.]

Well, when I was last there I was just leaving the Temple of Mythal. We had allied with the mages and the Wardens are still... well they aren't in high standing but I didn't banish them. Celene is alive. I'm not... I'm not sure what exactly you want to know, beyond those things. If you have a specific question...

[Cassandra will trust that Jove is telling the truth about what has transpired for her. There may be some motivation to lie, but how could she possibly have the information necessary to fabricate similar choices to the Inquisitor Cassandra knows and has come to see as a close friend. Choices that, for the most part, she has...approved of. Even if not approved, always supported.]

[Some of that is reflected in Cassandra's expression, but as quickly as it's there, it's gone again. Cassandra straightens and remains firm in this line of questioning.]

What happened at the Temple of Mythal?

[The flash of approval, that has Jove looking away for a moment. How many times has she been in a position in this place where she missed Cassandra, the way she cut to the root of a problem and said things plainly, the support the other woman gave her with just a glance? It's happened so often, and now she's here and Jove wants that support now.

It's held away from her by the only person who can give it simply because whoever selects the people to bring here for better ratings chose a universe that didn't have Jove in it. It seems cruel, now, when she hadn't ever given it much thought before.]

I did my best to honor the Temple, so I followed Morrigan's suggestion and did the elven rituals. Abelas stayed on our side and in the end it was... I drank from Well. I wouldn't let Morrigan take the risk, not when she had her son and not when it was the history of my people in question. When we were chased from the Temple, I leapt through the mirror and found myself here instead of in Skyhold.

[Cassandra looks down for a moment, thoughtful and uncertain of how to proceed. Jove isn't the Inquisitor that Cassandra knows, but the similarities are... They are striking, to say the very least. So, more than the question of whether or not to trust her is the question of whether or not to tell her what awaits her.]

[There is no guarantee that it will be the same for Jove. There are many similarities, but it's not exact. There's still a chance that it may vary. Which is why Cassandra struggles with what to say. If she were tell Jove what is to come, what impact would that have? Would it place more pressure on Jove's shoulders? Would it bring her comfort? Could things find a way to go differently in her world and Cassandra would just be instilling her with a false hope? Is it even Cassandra's place to tell her anything?]

[She lifts her gaze. It's not her decision to make.]

Inquisitor, I don't know how much I should tell you. Or how much of it will come to pass exactly as it has for me. But the events at the Temple are in the past for me. A recent past, but the past all the same.

How much you wish to know... I leave that for you to decide.

I'd rather not know, if I'm honest. There's a lot that could change between here and there, and I'd like to hope that what we do here, what we learn and what we do with that knowledge, can carry over to what we have when we return. There are a lot of people here who I never would have met if it weren't for this strange experiment and I think a lot of them have changed me for the better.

[She's thinking of Anders primarily, because she has to hope that knowing him now can have some effect on the things he'll do in the future. Maybe it won't, but maybe he'll remember the kind Dalish elf who trusted him to be better than the path he was already on.

More than that, Jove is afraid to know what happened in Thedas. Solas and Cole both know more than her, and now Cassandra as well, and that's a little terrifying. They'd know if she dies, or one of her friends does. None of them have acted that way and that is a relief, but not knowing is safer. In far too many ways.]

And if it's easier on you, you can just call me Jove. It must be strange calling a woman who isn't your Inquisitor by that title.

[Cassandra only nods once, respecting Jove's decision not to know. It's not as though she cannot change her mind in the future, should she wish, but Cassandra can more than understand her decision not to know. Especially after the ordeal in Redcliffe. In fact, probably especially because of what she experienced in Redcliffe after a brush with a future they managed to prevent.]

And yet you have earned the title all the same, have you not?

[It's both a matter of respect and a means of keeping a careful distance between them. Cassandra cannot say that she will fall in line behind Jove as readily as Jove might hope and expect, but she can still afford her the respect she deserves if nothing else. And until Cassandra can truly gauge the sort of woman Jove is based on her own merits, titles are safer. Easier. Cassandra is a woman of rules and structure. It's where she's most comfortable and knows how to navigate. Without them, she feels more at a loss than she'd ever care to admit.]

[Sure, she earned it by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, making an impulsive decision based on the desire to help a human she didn't even know, and then had the blind lucky to survive what was thrown at her by Corypheus, the Venatori, and a mountain until they reached Skyhold.

Yes, she certainly earned that title of hers. That title that Cassandra wanted to give two people before her. Still, Jove just smiles.]

I did, at that. It's one that's come to mean a great deal to me, but I didn't want to presume.

[Cassandra, of course, is not referring to how coincidence and circumstance brought Jove to where she is. The title was given to her, but she also still had to earn it. She was likely making decisions before she became Inquisitor if she were truly at all similar to the Inquisitor Cassandra knew. Even after taking the position, she had to embody all that the Inquisition would stand for. ]

[That does not simply just happen.]

Even if it were mine to take, I wouldn't take it from you.

Well, that's a relief. I'd have to fight you for it and I don't expect it would go at all well for me.

[She's trying to take a page from Dorian's book here, make it a joke and pretend this isn't as bad as it is for the sake of appearances, but whether it works or not is entirely up in the air.

In truth, she's going to need quite a lot of drinks to make this feel less horrible.]

[There's a brief moment of confusion before oh right, that's a joke. Because this is awkward and uncomfortable for both of them. Whoever the hell is getting entertainment out of any of this had best hope they never cross paths with Cassandra.]

Most likely not.

[Cassandra is not as good at making a joke to smooth over awkward social situations and so her tone is not exactly light without really intending to be. Basically, Cassandra can't read Dorian's books or vice versa, but what else can you do?]

I would like to speak with you another time, Inquisitor.

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videos aggressively

whoa! ease up there, toto!!

no!!!!!!!

gdi yes!!!!

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Inquisition spoilers within!!!!

more inquisition spoilers impending possibly maybe most definitely

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