( closed ) player plot: the stars go waltzing

[eviscerates]

WHO: Adelaide, Araceli, Avery, Bellamy, Bruce, Ciri, Cosima, Daenerys, Jamie, Korrin, Lexa, Martel, Merrill, Ruby, Sabine, Teren.
WHAT: catch all log; the capture of shardbearers, their rescue, and related shenanigans.
WHEN: Gently timey wimey for flexibility, Team Rescue arrives at the outpost on the 10th.
WHERE: Orlais/Nevarra borders (roughly halfway between the Fields of Ghislain and Trevis), and then a Creepy Place.
NOTES: Log for the missing shardbearers player plot; ooc here & here. Only the travel threads for teams one and two are going up for now, the rest will go up on Friday :]b And to clarify - when I say party style, what I mean is subthread to your hearts content!
WARNINGS: HORROR THEMES. Abduction, experimentation/torture, forced ingestion of lyrium, implied past deaths/murder, violence.

SPEEDY LINKS

• TEAM ONE: travel to Craintellier
• TEAM ONE: rift two attempt & Venatori attack
• TEAM ONE: dungeons
• TEAM ONE: escape attempt — Cosima, Jamie & Lexa only
• TEAM TWO: travel to Craintellier
• TEAM TWO: post rift investigation — Adelaide, Bellamy & Sabine, Bruce, Korrin & Teren, Ciri & Merrill
• TEAM TWO: take the outpost — Attack & Distract & Stealthy & Stealy
• TEAM TWO: regroup & into the dungeons — plus a Lexa-shaped guest star
• ALL: finding your shardbearers
• ALL: boss fight
• ALL: epilogue & return to Skyhold — tba

click for bigger version. full map of Thedas here.

East of Perendale and south of Trevis, next to a river's winding course, there lies the bones of a fortress. It is an old and almost forgotten place, a dramatic, clawed seeming thing reaching up into the sky, harsh against the the rolling hills.

It is an ancient place, dating back to 660TE, a testament to an Empire suffering after civil war and grasping to restore its wealth and influence after it had been so shaken. It stands as a memory of grandeur, rather than an icon of it, and bears the marks of devastation and scarring that so much of the land suffered during the First Blight. It was all but abandoned thereafter, host only to the desperate and the greedy, and never for long. Once ornate mosaics now only hold flecks of gold, flakes that stubbornly resisted the hands of looters trying to pry them away. Other colours, reds, whites, greys and blacks, they all remain.

The site was chosen for its riches, sitting atop a mine that once held immense wealth, seams of gold that would bring wealth back into the Empire and help restore stability. Opulence, the central Tevinter staple (aside from slavery and blood magic, some might say).

But they dug too deep, and when the First Blight came so too did the darkspawn.

It has a new master, now, and he serves the Elder One. Parts of this stronghold may be in ruins now, but remember: it is not what lies on the surface that counts, but what lurks beneath it.


AD VICTORIAM, AD GLORIA.

Comments

[youwonscience]

Cosima has more or less decided that the upside of Avery's abrupt manner is that Avery will not hesitate to chase her away if she doesn't want Cosima around. Unless and until that happens, she spends more than a bit of time in the cook's company - not necessarily trying to make conversation, just walking with the one person besides Ruby she feels she knows even a little. (She's met a couple of them before but... even so.)

Now that she's feeling better, her appetite has gone back to normal, though this is more walking than she's strictly used to. It probably doesn't help that she doesn't eat any of the meat on offer, frankly, though she's quick enough to take a double portion of beans when they're available. It's not something she comments on, though someone watching her eating habits would definitely notice.

[thecookery]

Oh, she's noticed! And while it might be a bit of an inconvenience, especially out on the road where meat is just such a large part of their fresh food supply and preparing multiple dishes at once isn't so simple, Avery hasn't said anything about it yet. Just quietly started doing her best with the preservables they've brought with them and whatever fresh fruits and things they've managed to find along the way.

And Cosima had better appreciate it too! Because Avery is pulling such a face as she hands it over half the time. Picky eaters, man. Am I right?

[youwonscience]

It takes Cosima a little longer to notice than it might, mainly because she's preoccupied with the mission part of the mission. (The "potential for demon attacks" part especially.) When she does, she waits until after dinner one evening and says casually, "Hey - I appreciate the extra work. Thanks. Is there anything I can do to make that less annoying?"

Presumably beside 'start eating meat.' She knows she may have to, eventually - at least fish - but those are maybe you're in Thedas forever thoughts and she tries to avoid them.

[thecookery]

Avery pauses in her efforts to pack away everything that had just finished being cleaned after the meal, giving Cosima a slightly dubious look before venturing, "Warn me next time? Could've been better prepared." Brought more of certain things, maybe?

She finishes her task and then stands up tall, stretching out her back after being hunched over for the last few minutes. "Oof... What's that about anyway?"

[youwonscience]

"I didn't know if it was common here, I didn't want to seem high maintenance." She does sound legitimately a little embarrassed that this seems to have backfired.

"It's a couple things. Partly that I feel better when I abstain from meat and partly that the way we obtain meat where I'm from is pretty messed up. I don't want to support that system. Here it's different, but..." She shrugs. "I guess I'd feel a little less me. If I stopped. That probably sounds pretty weird."

[thecookery]

Trying to imagine how exactly the people of Cosima's world could obtain meat in a way that is so horrible it would literally drive her away from eating it for the rest of eternity, Avery nods. "Aye. It's pretty weird."

She eyes her up and down for a few seconds before asking, "It's really that important to you, though?"

[youwonscience]

Cosima's expression flickers with a smile, subdued but unapologetic. "Yeah, it really is. I mean, I've thought about it, and it's not like refugees get to be picky about their diet so I'm bending a little where I need to, but... it's important to me that I try to keep it up, at least."

[thecookery]

"Well, you picked a fine time to say something. I'm not exactly swimming in ingredients out here," she responds, as tactful as ever. Though it's not delivered unkindly, really.

"Like I said before... when we get back, if you've any recipes, bring them by the kitchens. Even if I'm not there, you can just make some sad eyes at Burly, and he'll probably make you anything you want. Can't say no, that one."

...was that an accident or just a joke in very poor taste? Hard to tell.

[youwonscience]

"I figured I'd eat meat on the road if I had to," she says, apologetic. "And, in fairness, I didn't say anything. You noticed."

You know. Just. For the record.

"But... thanks. I'll talk to you next time. And I promise, there's nothing else - I eat eggs and milk and... you guys probably don't have vegans here, but just take my word for the fact that people where I come from have much more restrictive diets sometimes."

She really didn't mean to make Avery grump. More than usual.

[thecookery]

I mean, really, she's taking it pretty well, for her at least.

Sure, she's complaining, but there's no real bite to it. She's just being difficult because it's in her nature. She's still in a decent mood about this whole trip so far.

"Well," she says after a moment, "if one of them pops out these rifts before we close them, I'm shoving him back in. I'm not dealing with that."

[youwonscience]

It gets Cosima to laugh, at least. "All Berkeley hipsters need not apply. Man, I wonder if that would work. Just pushing people back in instead of trying to mess with them."

She's joking. Mostly.

[thecookery]

"Doubt it," Avery answers with an easy shrug. "Could be worth a shot though. We'd at least learn something."

She smirks, ever so slightly. "You want to give it a try? Maybe end up stuck in the Fade or some other Rifter's world? I've heard some are pretty exciting."

[youwonscience]

"Oh hell no, that sounds like the worst game of roulette ever," she says, still laughing a little. "I could end up somewhere where, I don't know, everyone where awful gray unitards or where there are no pretty women or where they've never heard of pie."

[thecookery]

She tries not to react. She really tries. But Avery can't help a slight shift in her posture, a slightly sharper focus to her gaze at the comment on "pretty women." Something Cosima totally would not take notice of at all, right?

After a moment, she comments, "You never know, I suppose."

[youwonscience]

Cosima's smile is a little crooked - she's not entirely sure what to make of that reaction, but it's not bad, at least, and she was casual about it for a reason.

(It's not as if she hadn't said something publicly over the crystals. It's not as if Delphine isn't back at Skyhold and she's going to have to deal with all that eventually. Maybe the unitard joke was just confusing with no context.)

"I think I'll take my chances staying here unless I know the place I'm going is home, all in all."

[thecookery]

"Probably a good call."

Avery glances toward the fire, crosses her arms, scuffs the dirt with her boot, uncrosses her arms. There's clearly something she wants to say. It's written all over her face and her fidgeting, but she seems to be struggling with the words.

Eventually, she just blurts, "So... pretty women, is it? That's a big draw in a new home?"

[youwonscience]

Cosima doesn't blush, but she does make eye contact. "I guess that's kind of shallow, huh?"

It's warmly said, but a little quieter all the same.

[thecookery]

"Probably," Avery says again, with a little twitch of a smile. "Understandable though. I guess."

[youwonscience]

The smile warms Cosima's own expression. "I guess. As long as you're not judging me too hard for it."

[thecookery]

"Only a little," she assures her, and then... is not sure where to go from there? This is a very strange interaction.

[youwonscience]

"If I specified they should also be smart and funny, is that better or worse?" she offers.

[thecookery]

Avery stops and thinks about it for a moment. "I'm not sure. It's less shallow, but more picky, yeah?"

Is one of those objectively better than the other?

[youwonscience]

Cosima laughs, startled and pleased. "Well, fair enough. What about you, picky, shallow or a better person than me?"

that icon wouldve caused a very dramatic turn in this conversation

[thecookery]

"Ah..."

A little embarrassed, Avery awkwardly shrugs and answers, "I don't know. It's been a while since I was, um, involved? With anyone. I'm not very good at... people."

[youwonscience]

"Okay, well, fair enough. If it makes you feel better, my last two relationships were actually people trying to spy on me and I fell for it twice, so it's not like I'm an expert."

She says it lightly, but doesn't seem to be joking.