CLOSED: Drakonis Rifter Arrival

[faderifting]

WHO: New rifters & Solas
WHAT: Arrivals and returns
WHEN: Drakonis 20
WHERE: The Dales
NOTES: This log is slightly backdated and closed to new rifters and Solas. However, it is safe to assume that everyone (a) survives and (b) is led by Solas to Skyhold by Drakonis 25, so you're free to make new logs and begin playing at Skyhold when you're ready to do so.

You were asleep--deeply or fitfully, for the last time or just resting your eyes for a moment-- and then you were not. And wherever you were was not, anymore, replaced by nothing but the sensation of falling, tumbling into endless, bottomless nothing. If this were still a dream, you would wake before you hit the ground. You can't die in a dream, they say. In some worlds.

But there's no waking here, just a flare of green-white light and a jarring impact onto cold dirt and long grass. When your breath returns and the light's after-image fades from your eyes you will find yourself beneath a canopy of trees, illuminated deep green by moonlight in the distance and brighter green by the crystalline tear in reality hanging suspended above you.

You are also not as you were: in the palm of your left hand there glows a narrow splinter of light the same sickly green as whatever brought you here. It aches, a bone-deep pain that gnaws even through all the distractions. Like the fact that you're being attacked. Surrounding you and the rift through which you arrived is a circle of six ghostly, humanoid figures, shifting colors in the dark like iridescent gems and throwing fire, ice, and bursts of physical force at whomever catches their attention.

Luckily, you are not on your own. Around you others are rising from the ground, equally confused, with the same green lights flaring from their hands. And not far is a lone figure, coming to help.

Comments

[singularwill]

"I suppose exciting is a way to describe it," Solas replied, offering the man a smile. He had noticed that the stranger had been rubbing his shard, which was no surprise, really. It was all offering them pain.

"Another, perhaps, would be distressing. But you seem relatively no worse for wear. May I see your hand?"

[universal_charm]

It was a more Vulcanese answer than he had been expecting, but mentally he shoved himself. He was off balance and trying to slot this new man into a persona be understood, but that was both stupid and unkind.

For a brief second he hesitated. The man had saved them, it was true, but there was that touch of doubt. He didn't look as if he had been the one to bring him here, but since he had no idea how he'd gotten here that meant nothing. And he had saved them. If he wanted them dead, letting them get torn to bits would have been easier than jumping into the fray himself. And Kirk liked to trust people anyways. His gut said the man wasn't a threat, and that was all he really had to go on at the moment.

"Do you know what this is?" He asked him, mentally wondering how he'd understood the other, but it was something for later. He held out his palm, the edges around the gem puffy and red and clearly swollen. "Can you get it off me?"

[singularwill]

"Yes, and No." Solas answered, gently grasping Kirk's wrist as he looked down at the shard. Carefully, he pressed his fingers upon it and they glowed - first with the green light of rift magic, and then the pale blue of healing magic, for the flesh.

"That should calm it, for now. As for what it is - it is a broken piece of an incredibly powerful magic. The Anchor. How you came to possess it is what I hope to determine, and whether or not we can remove it..." He let go of Kirk's wrist and raised his eyes to meet his. "The original, unbroken Anchor was impossible to remove, save in death. I had thought then, that it was truly destroyed, but obviously it is not. Hopefully, in this lesser form, more can be done."

Hopefully, it wouldn't kill everyone who bore one.

[universal_charm]

Kirk had to take a moment to swallow that, because for the first time the words sounded like so much gibberish. Anchor. Shards. Rift. None of it made sense and he could feel the headache rising at the peak of his temples.

"News just keeps getting better and better," he said, taking his wrist back and rubbing it as he glanced around them once more. He had many, many more questions, but this might not be the place to get into that deep of a discussion. "Are we going to moving from here soon? I'd rather not invite another attack by hanging around."

He would feel better at least, and that was a start.

[singularwill]

"Once you are all recovered, we shall move. But there will be no more demons, here. The rift is closed. This place, for now, is safe. But we will have a long way to travel, once we can, and I would like to start as soon as possible."

His body language echoed the verbal assurance - his staff returned to its holster on his back, his gestures easy and measured. He was watchful, always, but for that he offered Kirk a smile.

"Of course, we must always be cautious of bears."

[universal_charm]

He wanted to believe him, he did, but he was still to on edge to take him at his word. However, he had no supplies, no way of knowing where he was or where to go, and when he checked his tricorder and communicator were dead and useless aside from being potential blunt object weapons. His best chance of survival was staying with this man and the others, and he resigned himself to that.

"Bears. Of course. Just to be sure - the bears are nothing like those things, are they?" he asked, because he wasn't sure he could take that. That was just one to many unlucky things stacked on top of each other right away.

[singularwill]

Solas laughed, and shook his head.

"No. They are merely bears, not creatures of the Fade. The ones that you fought - that appeared when you did - were spirits, ripped from one plane of existence to this one, and forcibly altered - scarred, twisted - into mindless creatures intent only on death and destruction. They are aberrations, here. They come with the Rifts, and with the Rift closed, they will not appear. Bears, though dangers, have only teeth and claws to harm you with, and will generally keep their own council, unless they feel threatened."

[universal_charm]

He took it as a sign he might want to reconsider certain life choices that the description of the creatures didn't necessarily phase him. The universe, big as it was, was bound to have all sorts of creatures he had never heard of, and he already knew different dimensions existed. So, of course, why couldn't there be creatures brought from one world to the next?

At least the bears sounded normal. Not that he wanted to meet one to check, but it was surprising how comforting that thought was.

"Well I have no intention of threatening anything with teeth and claws if I can help it," he huffed, wrapping his arms closes, the adrenaline fading enough now for him to feel the chill in the air. "So - where did you say we were going again?

[singularwill]

"Good. Then as long as we keep our distance, we should be fine." He delivered it with a smile, as if it were a joke, because the bears had a reputation, but - he was still self assured.

"Skyhold," he answered amiably. "It is a fortress, in the mountains, currently occupied by the Inquisition. They - along with the Herald - were the ones to attempt to seal the Breach in the first place. They have been, I have been told, attempting to gather all those with the shards," he said, nodding at Kirk's hand. "It is the safest place you could be, in the current political climate."

[universal_charm]

He hopes so, because as much as the demons had been terrifying, a bear seemed more so. He couldn't say why, but it might have had something to do with the way the man seemed so cautious of them, even more so than Kirk was inclined to be.

Blue eyes narrow at the term 'Inquistion', however briefly. It was not a nice word from his perspective, but he reminded himself in was a stranger in a strange land and that assuming the word meant the same was not fair to these people or smart.

"I think you'll have to catch me up on a few things," he said with a trace of amusement in his voice to hide the frustration and not a little bit of worry. 'Attempting to gather' could mean quite a few things, and as much as he wanted to believe it was for the good it could easily be something less benign.

"But from the sounds of it we have time."

[singularwill]

"I will answer what I can, from what knowledge I have," He offered.

"But yes. It will be several days of hiking, before we will make it to fortress. I am sure we will have time to cover whatever questions that you have."

[universal_charm]

"Just to prepare you, I have quite a few," he blew out a breath and once again took in the landscape around them - nothing but wilderness. He had training in how to survive situations like these, but even so, it seemed a daunting task.

"Maybe we can start with what, exactly, the Inquisition is and why they want us 'shard bearers' with them?" he asked, though he was fine if the other put him off til they camped. But, with the sun in the position it was, he assumed they could spend a good deal of time walking yet, and he hoped that it would not all be in silence.

[singularwill]

Solas looked up at the sky, to where it was torn with a great green slash.

"The Breach threatens the very nature of the world itself," He explained. "If Corypheus manages to open it, and walk into the Fade - it could mean the end of everything. The Inquisition's purpose is to stop him, to heal the breach, and restore order to Thedas."

He turned back to Kirk, and nodded down toward his hand. "That shard you bare... That piece of the anchor. That, and others like it, is all we have, in hopes of defeating him. I was hoping there would be something else, something that would work in its place -- but no. We need those shards, desperately. And thus we need the people who bare them."

[universal_charm]

Well, that was quite the tale. He thought it a touch fanciful, but what did he know, right? He had just gotten here, and certainly something was not right about that slash in the sky. He wished he had equipment to try and take readings, to understand it better beyond 'that's the thing I supposedly fell through'.

His instinct was to instantly agree to help, but he could not quite shake an uneasy feeling about it all too. He clenched his fingers around the shard as if to hide it. "And what exactly do they do with us once they have us - us shard bearers?"

[singularwill]

That got an eyebrow lift.

"Do with you?" He asked, as if the thought had not occurred to him. Of course, it had, many times, but he knew Cassandra better, now. Or so he hoped.

"Ask for your assistance, I imagine. I admit that it has been some time since I was there myself."

[universal_charm]

"Assistance," he said slowly, not because he didn't believe Solas but because he had no idea how he could possibly help. He had no idea what was going on, much less why there was a shard in his hand. If anything, he was the most confused person there along with the other people who had come through with them.

"Well, sounds like this will be an adventure for us both then."