faderift | OPEN: Cloudreach Event

OPEN: Cloudreach Event

WHO: Anyone at Skyhold
WHAT: Cloudreach showers bring weird shit.
WHEN: Cloudreach 15 onward
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: For information about the illness, its effects, and its cure, please make sure to also read the OOC Post.

This high in the mountains, snowstorms are to be expected. But this one is large and lingering, hanging over the valley and the fortress for days. In Skyhold, with its eternal spring, the snow becomes rain before it hits the ground, leaving inhabitants and visitors to wade through puddles and mud in the courtyards. In the valley, snow and ice accumulate under cloud cover—and worse, when the clouds finally thin, a whole winter's accumulation of snow begins to melt in the sunlight.

Within a day, the ground is sodden and mucky enough to give the survivors of the Fallow Mire (or Ferelden in general) unpleasant flashbacks, and those who live in tents are issued additional hastily-constructed wooden pallets to raise their floors above the mud. It is worse outside the fortress: streams and rivers have overflowed their banks, rapids run twice as fast as normal, and flash flooding has made even road travel treacherous.

On Cloudreach 17 a mudslide buries the pass into Skyhold from the west, and on the 19th a sheet of snow loosened from a mountainside collapses into the shadowed passage from the east. An Inquisition supply caravan is caught in the latter, scattering wagons and goods across the hillside and leaving a dozen people and horses in need of rescue and medical care.

Healers may find themselves stretched thin, as in addition to the usual rash of blisters and sniffles that come from days of rain and flooding, an illness begins to sweep through Skyhold's ranks from around the 16th onward. It's marked first by climbing fever, then by flashes at the edges of vision—green light and jagged formations that aren't there, beings of light and shadow gathering around people or clustering in corners—and distant voices, coherent for brief moments if you're quiet and still and not trying too hard to listen.

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Bruce makes it a point to keep his distance from Anders, mostly for his own sake. Things have been more than strained between them, especially with what they now know of each other. Bruce doesn't quite regret what he's done and said, but at the same time he knows he could have been better. Should have been better. But its hard to keep his cool when everything about Anders affects him in so many ways.

So he keeps his distance. And for the most part, that was the status quo. Until all of this happened.

Now with the illness rampant there is no time for personal vendettas. Anders is in the healing tents almost all the time and Bruce is too, and so he has to deal with that. He still tries to keep his distance but when he has to, he keeps himself polite and curt when he has to speak to Anders. And again: for the most part, it works.

Until today, anyway.

He only sees flashes of it but its enough; trapped, bound and caged - just the thought of those is enough to rouse the thing inside of him. Bruce stumbles back a few steps and hisses out a curse under his breath as he clutches at the side of his head. It's not real, he tells himself and tries to make himself believe that. It's not real. I'm out of there already.

The more Bruce avoids him, the better. Anders doesn't know what's going to happen when it comes out that Bruce is possessed. What happens if Bruce hurts people? But then, how can he really bring that up when he's possessed as well and few will bother with distinctions? Anders is stuck, and all he can really hope is that when Bruce loses it completely it's far away from Skyhold.

The cold avoidance on his end isn't entirely avoidable in the crowded healing tents, though, and here and there catching a little rest is something that has to happen. He wakes moments after drifting off, looking up blearily to... see Bruce freaking out? Anders knows the head-clutch gesture all too well, and any drowsiness is shunted to the side thanks to instant fear.

"Not in the tents." His voice is low and urgent. "Do not lose control in the tents, there are people here. Will air help?" He presses a hand to Bruce's upper back, trying to encourage the man and demon outside with him.

'If this is when he gives in to the demon and we destroy it, we will need space,' Justice comments, approvingly, and Anders sends a wave of annoyance at him. That's not helping.

'I help by staying vigilant while you sleep on desks.' Neither is that.

Bruce can feel it pressing at the corners of his mind, the vision enough to rose its ire and his own emotions. His mind flashes by with a series of images; chains, templars, swords and weapons and--

Not real. Bruce does his best to dispel those images before they become too prominent. He hears Anders speaking to him, and honestly Bruce just wants to shove him away and ignore him but he can't do that right now - can't afford to, anyway. He's in enough of a delicate position as it is.

"I'm fine," he says through gritted teeth. It's not entirely a lie, he would be fine--eventually. Once he had some time to keep everything back under control. It wasn't a big issue, but with all that's been happening recently he is a bit more on edge than normal.

"Right, you're just suddenly struggling in the middle of the healing tents, that's entirely fine." The sarcasm is ice cold, but it's also very quiet. He doesn't want to be overheard. "At the very least, sit down or something."

'Sitting down will not begin to address what he is and what a threat he poses.' The commentary is nothing new. Anders hears it constantly. Right now, though, others could hear it, and he sends a mental order to shut up to Justice... which is ignored. 'Allowing such a situation to remain is hardly just to those around us.'

Which is hypocrisy in itself, but he really can't do anything about it.

"Have your dreams earlier to thank for that." The retort comes out before Bruce can fully clamp that down, and as much as he wants to feel petty vindication for that mostly its just guilt that comes after those words. Clearly Anders has had a hard life - not that Bruce doubted that for a second, of course - but all the same it just makes it harder to try and stay angry with him, to equate the Anders he knows now with the Anders he had heard about before the Inquisition. The angry apostate who blew up the Chantry and sparked a conflict that swept across all of Thedas. The one who more or less set a real stigma for any sorts of abominations.

Last time, perhaps, there had been a shred of hope. Now there was none at all.

His next words, at least, are quieter after a pause, alongside it carrying on a hint of apology. "...I'll sit." After saying that he stumbles forward and gropes around for a chair or something where he can sit on - although if he does have to end up sitting on the ground its not as if that'll be an issue either.

He steps back, expression going entirely flat at the statement. Bad enough that people he care about are seeing those. People who judge, especially the ones who have utterly no ground in judging, are worse.

Bruce gets a chair shoved at him in utter silence. Even Justice has gone still, watching and waiting. Anders turns to grab blankets, not caring if the man lands on the chair or on the ground. Either way, one's tossed at him. If Anders is honest with himself, he hopes it lands in the man's face.

Justice's silence, though, makes Rage's stand out more, and Anders finds himself actually trying to listen to the demon, see what it's saying. If anything.

Bruce sits on the chair after its shoved at him, feeling just a little bit regretful at his unintended snap. Even if he wants to tell himself that Anders deserves it anyway... he really doesn't. Bruce knows he's the last person to judge but the anger just keeps getting in the way, especially when this whole issue is just too personal to him.

He takes the time after he's settled to calm himself, attempting to wash away the images that he saw earlier. Chains and darkness, caged and enclosed--the memories of those stir something inside of him that Bruce very much would rather keep hidden.

In the silence between them its easy enough to hear the warning growls of Rage lurking right underneath the surface, reacting to the sights and of Bruce's own memories that the man is now trying to suppress.

Blank anger. That's what he starts hearing. Noises and fury, and it's everything Justice is afraid of becoming. Everything Anders is afraid of becoming. He doesn't know how the man can deal with it. At least with Justice talking constantly there's an awareness of the divide between their opinions. Anders can't imagine it being an entirety of wordless moods. He'd never know what was him and what was the spirit... or demon, in this case.

'It is one difference of many,' Justice supplies, but Anders doesn't have the patience to really listen right now. He has his own rage to deal with - Bruce acting like Anders had forced his dreams on Bruce when all he'd wanted was to keep things to himself, to not show any times he'd been vulnerable, to not inspire others to think of ways to return him to that vulnerability.

'And you will not be that weak again so long as I am with you.' True and not. He's near impossible to kill, yes, but that's not all that strength means.

"You're ill, and at greater risk than anyone else here if the rumbling I'm getting is anything to go by. Sit. Rest a little. Before someone overhears that who has overheard Justice and wonders if there's something similar going on."

'Not similar. I am no-' For once, Anders cuts him off mentally. Neither of them can say for sure that Justice is not demonic at all, that he's not been compromised. In fact, it's more likely that he has been.

Bruce knows he shouldn't be entirely surprised that Anders could hear it, but it makes him pause all the same, digesting those words with a hint of uncertainty. He was probably thinking too much, but just what if--what if anybody else could hear it? He couldn't risk that; he didn't want to think of somebody trying to nab him and end up unleashing the demon inside of him instead. Nobody was going to benefit from something like that.

Its for that reason (and several others) that he doesn't snipe back at Anders, as much as he does want to, opting to keep his silence and respond with a small nod. Yes, fine, that was something he could make himself do. He liked being quiet anyway and sitting still wasn't an issue for him even though he'd rather go around to continue doing his work.

...which kind of just makes this all the more frustrating, but Bruce does his best to deal with it. His emotions could come later, when there were more important things to keep in mind.

The fact that Bruce doesn't argue, doesn't insult, and simply nods takes Anders a little aback. He'd been ready for... well. Nearly anything save that. Which means instead of simply going back to work and treating Bruce as an obstacle, Anders steps to the side and fills a glass with snow-melted water, offering it out. It's not a peace offering. It's not even a truce offering. But Bruce is feverish and fluids help, and the one instinct Anders has that has never lead him astray is that of a healer.

"Rest. Let me know if there's anything else you require." Bruce attacked Anders. But Anders can take that out of the equation by reducing them down to healer and patient.

Bruce isn't so foolish to assume that this was simply going to make things better - despite what they both felt they had bigger things to be concerned with... and Bruce had to admit that neither of them weren't willing to put others at risk. Which was something to think about, because the whole thing about Anders blowing up a Chantry wasn't that easy to shake off. It was just incredibly hard to reconcile the two halves that he had seen of Anders.

(And wasn't that ironic.)

He takes the glass of water offered to him and nods. "Sure." There's really not much he can say in response - nothing that wouldn't end up making this worse, anyway - so he'll just stay neutral and do his best to not incite any more further incidents. At least that part wasn't hard.

There's a massive divide between them. He's not even certain he cares to bother trying to bridge it ever. But right now he also doesn't want to dig it deeper, so Bruce gets a nod once he's taken the water, and Anders silently goes back to working through the notes various healers have made, sorting through to find a pattern. They have to figure this out sooner or later, and sooner is becoming more and more urgent as the healers struggle to stay upright.

He's not watching over Bruce exactly, but it's not coincidence that he lingers in the room as long as he can. If Bruce goes full abomination, someone needs to be ready.

At least Anders doesn't need to worry about that happening - Bruce has more than enough control despite Anders' belief otherwise, and even Bruce has no desire to put others at risk with his (or Anders') foolishness. Others don't need to suffer for their mistakes.

There really is not much to say between them now so Bruce just keeps drinking his water and dwelling on the myriad of thoughts in his mind as Anders hovers close by, pretending to be not watching but clearly is. Not exactly the first time Bruce has faced this sort of scrutiny, but it has been a while.

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OPEN: Cloudreach Event

dreamorooney

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another 30 rivalry points

on both their sides, whoops. Gonna take some serious feastday gifts...

yeeeeep...

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