Event Log: Is It a Wonderful Life?

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for Is It A Wonderful Life? event
Where: All over the city
When: Jan 4th-8th
Warnings: None

Throughout the next few days, you may find yourself plagued by visions and dreams of back home. The dreams will be lifelike and difficult to tell apart from reality, as the world will be constructed from what you remember of your world. However, unlike usual dreams, you won't be present, and will find yourself unable to be seen or heard by those around you.

The dreams are vivid reminders of what might happen in a world without you: a world in which you disappeared when coming to Hadriel, a world which desperately needs you back for some reason or another. You may see your parents putting up missing posters, your significant other moving onto their next relationship, or even your hated villain finally taking over the world without you there to stop them.

When the vision leaves, you're back here and nothing about the city has changed. Though maybe you have a different outlook on it now...

► This log covers January 4th-Januray 8th.
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you try a weird solution to make it back home, please let us know here.

Comments

[theladyofhighever]

...I killed a great many times. In self-defense. I don't feel badly about it [she lies to herself] because I know it had to be done. I had to survive, to kill the Archdemon.

[listens to the explanation of the police and nods slightly] Ah. Rather like the Guard, only the Guard operates without laws in place.

[itsnotaonesie]

Yeah. Guard, police, its the same idea.

[He opens his mouth to reply, closes it and just thinks for a moment, and finally replies]

I'm sorry, Archdemon? Your world sounds pretty intense.

[theladyofhighever]

[she looks thoughtful and maybe a little sad]

Yes. It is.

An Archdemon is an Old God which as been corrupted by the darkspawn, causing a Blight. A Blight is. . . the darkspawn surge to the surface, corrupting and killing everything in their path. If a Grey Warden doesn't kill the Archdemon, the Blight will never end. [a pause] I am a Grey Warden.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Damn, and all Peter has to deal with is purse snatchers and bike thieves. And the occasional murder alien.]

...I don't know what half that stuff means, but it sounds pretty hardcore. What is a Grey Warden? Aside from being the dude that fights the Archdemon?

[theladyofhighever]

[she tilts her head to one side slightly] Hardcore?

[a pause]

A Grey Warden is someone who devotes their life to the darkspawn. Hunting them, killing them, making sure they can do no harm to anyone or anything.

[itsnotaonesie]

[uuuuUUUHHHHH man how do we translate this into oldspeak]

Like, uh... Badass? No, no, um... like, like really awesome. Like, just whoooa, y'know?

[No Peter she probably has no idea]

Are they like, ghosts? Demons? Man, there are some spooky worlds out there, jeez.

[theladyofhighever]

[very carefully?]

I see.

[no, she doesn't]

No, we're human. Or elves or dwarves. The Grey Wardens may recruit whom they will, as they will it. Anyone who might prove an asset against the darkspawn.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Can't say he didn't try!]

Ohh, no, I mean the, uh. The darkspawn? Those sound kinda demon-y. But that's cool, you got like, elves and stuff? We just have humans where I'm from. Well, I mean on my planet. There's still like, aliens and junk.

[theladyofhighever]

Oh. [she blushes, feeling slightly foolish, then tries to recover]

The darkspawn are. . . according to Chantry legend, the darkspawn are descended from magisters of the Tevinter Imperium who gained enough power and enough hubris to think that they could unseat the Maker of all.

They breached the Fade and stormed the Golden City, the seat of the Maker. But the Golden City was blackened by their sin and the magisters were cast back down to Thedas as the first darkspawn. But not the last.

But, yes. We have elves and dwarves and the Qunari.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Don't even feel bad about flubbing in front of this guy, he's nothing but flubs. Like right now, he's absolutely flubbing right now because he has no idea what she's talking about. But it sounds cool??? he thinks?????]

Uh...huh. Okay, I think I follow. So, short version, they're bad news. Got it.

[That much he can make out. Bad news bears.]

Now, Qunari I've never heard of.

[theladyofhighever]

[darkspawn are cool if you like largely mindless killing machines that spread disease and corruption and death wherever they go, leaving entire swaths of land as waste where even the corpses don't go away because the darkspawn corruption went so deep, it even killed the maggots who'd feast on mouldering flesh?]

They are very bad news. Best hope that none ever find their way here.

[they have been known to corrupt bears, driving them mad]

Qunari are . . . complicated. It's both a race and a philosophy. Anyone can choose to follow the Qun regardless of race, but when I say "Qunari," I think of a companion I had. He was over seven feet tall, broadly muscled, with grey skin, white hair, and red eyes.

[itsnotaonesie]

[I mean Peter totally wouldn't dig that but I sure as hell do sign me UP]

Fingers crossed.

[The door has a way of just dropping that kind of shit into the colosseum with the newbies soooo... good luck future newbies maybe?]

Seven feet? Jeez, as if I didn't already feel short. That is huge!

[theladyofhighever]

[a darkspawn invasion of Hadriel?

and she'd honestly be surprised if they haven't shown their faces here in some way or another]

He was huge. And he had a greatsword that was almost as tall as he was.

[itsnotaonesie]

[good shit good shit

As far as Peter knows he hasn't seen anything like that and kind of hopes he never does]

See, I don't know a lot about swords, but I'm pretty sure I've never heard of them being like, that big. That's a lot of steel, that's got to be super heavy.

[I mean it probably wouldn't be for him, but it's helping him get a mental image of how jacked this dude must have been on top of being crazy tall.]

[theladyofhighever]

[as he should. an outbreak of Blight sickness alone could send the town to its knees]

It was. I had to retrieve it for him and the weight of it was extreme. He handled it as though it weighed nothing.

[Sten was tremendously well-muscled. he likely could have snapped her like a twig, but he followed her willingly after she proved herself]

[itsnotaonesie]

[MMMM NO THANKS things are already annoying enough around here]

This dude sounds absolutely jacked. That is awesome.

[he would totally arm wrestle him]

[theladyofhighever]

[wise. Blight sickness has no cure, aside from becoming a Grey Warden and there's no guarantee you'll survive that process.

and she looks confused again] ...what is "jacked?"

[Mariane would have to root for Sten. she is his kadan after all]

[itsnotaonesie]

Oh, uh. Like, all big and muscly.

[You'd think that by now he'd remember that some people don't speak modern slang, but hey.]

[theladyofhighever]

I see. That would describe Sten very well. Do you know that he spent twenty-eight days in a cage with no food or water and managed to survive until I freed him?

[it's all right, she's had a constant state of low-level confusion ever since she came here]

[itsnotaonesie]

Holy crap, that long? Okay, like, I know a human can go about three weeks without food, but you can only go like three or four days without water. He seriously went for that long without either?

[Color him impressed, that is unreal]

[theladyofhighever]

He did. He said he could have lasted longer, but I wasn't about to leave him in a cage when the darkspawn were about to overrun the village he was caged in. Not when he could be of aid against the Blight. Indeed, that was what he was sent to Ferelden to discover. "What is the Blight?"

[she misses Sten. can he tell?]

[itsnotaonesie]

Why was he even in a cage? If he was just trying to find something out like, why lock him up?

[O yeah, he can tell. But this dude also sounds awesome.]

[theladyofhighever]

[time for a bit of a shock]

Qunari are regarded with a great deal of suspicion in most of Thedas as their goal is to convert everyone to the Qun. By force, if necessary.

He was sent with a small battalion of other Qunari to investigate the Blight. They were ambushed and all but Sten were slain. During the fight, he lost consciousness and he lost his greatsword which carries a penalty of death among his people. When he awoke he . . . killed a number of people.

[itsnotaonesie]

Yikes, okay. That got dark quick.

[That was a lot more murder that Peter was prepared for, not gonna lie.]

[theladyofhighever]

I'm sorry. [and she sounds genuinely sorry] Such is my world. It. . . tends to spring unpleasant surprises often.

[like your father's best friend betraying him and slaughtering your parents along with everyone else in Castle Cousland]