faderift | [Closed] The Wrong Road

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[Closed] The Wrong Road

WHO: Kallian, Adelaide, Hermione, Ruby, Eirlys and Merrick with special guest appearances by Anders and Norrington
WHAT: Gathering supplies. What could possibly go wrong?
WHEN: Backdated to the beginning of Cloudreach
WHERE: The Hinterlands
NOTES: Warnings for demons, violence, injury and mages being outed, will be updated as needed.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to travel to the Hinterlands in search of supplies and rare herbs. Royal elfroot, in particular, is something that would be more than welcome, although extra supplies of regular elfroot, and blood lotus wouldn't go amiss. The air is warmer than it has been, carrying with it the promise of spring and renewal, and the journey there is easy, allowing for pleasant time spent enjoying a break from winter. The Hinterlands still aren't without their dangers - rebels and outlaws, packs of mabari and thin and hungry bears just waking from hibernation. You never know what you might find...

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Oblivious to the fact he's nearly startled her while she's working with sharp objects - something that might not have had the best result - he gives her a brief and slightly crooked smile in return.

"Oh, I know what electricity is." He says it off-handedly, as though he's been aware of it his whole life. This isn't strictly true. It's something he's only come into contact with the past few years, but he's learned enough about that he knows well enough what it can do, even if he likely couldn't explain that part of things very well to a lot of people here. "So those are ones'll give you a great shock if you happen to be too close when they go off, right?"

For a second he leans forward a little, rubbing his fingers together as if considering reaching out towards the device, but then he thinks better of it, and tucks his thumbs behind his the belt that holds his sporran in place instead.

"I've heard about those, but not seen them before. At least not up close. Are they very hard to put together?"

"You do?" Ruby brightens, at that. "And that's pretty much it exactly. Well, I'm working on these little guys to give any bears we might run into a nasty shock. They seem pretty resilient to the cold, so I figure it doesn't hurt to have some back up."

Grinning at his interest, Ruby picks up one of the books she is working from. "Here. It's got some pretty cool devices in there - lots of theory which is kind of dense to get through, but the diagrams are great. When I can figure them out, any way." She really, really needed to check in with Varric on the proper approach with some of this stuff later.

"They're probably easier to put together when you have a teacher. I've done my fair share of DIY and repaired dish washers and all, but this is a little different."

There's a flicker of a grin for a moment as he holds up his hand, the shard embedded in it glimmering a bit.

"Aye, I do. And I know about germs, too, and trains and those computer-y things. Also that it's a bad idea to stab a robot dog with your dirk."

That last one comes out a bit more ruefully than the others. It'd been a painful lesson, but not one that's easily forgotten. Still, it doesn't stop him from reaching for the book and giving it a look. It's more complicated than what he's been reading, but the diagrams help some.

"I've a friend who'd helped teach me a lot of things, back home. He likes putting together these wee sorts of gadgets. Well, different wee sorts of gadgets, because it's a different world, but I think he'd be interested in this sort of thing all the same."

Edited (go go hitting enter too early) 2016-04-14 18:10 (UTC)

Ruby grins at his enthusiasm, letting the contraption balance on her lap for a moment so she can work off one of her red leather gloves, and hold up her shard hand, as well. "We're practically twins," she replies, before huffing out a laugh. "My general rule is that it's bad to stab things in general, but I was raised the old fashioned way." A beat, and she nods to her bow and quiver. "Arrows, all the way, for all your long distance stabbing needs."

Anyway, Ruby scoots along on the log she's sitting on, offering Jamie a spot next to her. "I can't say I'm any kind of expert, but I can show you what I'm doing as I go, if you like. It's weird the stuff that can remind you of friends, huh?"

Her laugh is infectious, and as he glances over in the direction of her bow and quiver, he starts to chuckle.

"Is that so? Well, then. I'll not say as I've had the chance to have a twin before but it looks like those arrows could do a number on those bears just as well as those grenades."

While he has no problems going toe to toe with a bear if he needs to, he can appreciate being able to take beasties out from a distance - and the chance to get to see one of those things being put together as well. So when Ruby offers him a seat, he's more than happy to take it, adjusting his kilt as he settles in.

"And maybe it is a wee bit strange, but I'll not say as I mind something like that. Means I can hand you parts if you need them, so long as you explain what the complicated ones are."

"It's okay, I think we'll be naturals," she starts, so very serious. "And they're not bad. Maybe if I figure out a way to attack a grenade to an arrow and still have it shoot then I can really take it to the next level."

That is not an experiment she is ready to embrace, or even qualified, but hey. Why not.

"I have to admit, I am still learning a the names. Can you grab me the... uh, it looks like a piece of metal tube with a spring at the end? The metal's this kind of blue-purple colour?" With a bit of a smile, she gently elbows Jamie. "Clearly I am a qualified teacher and you're in really good hands."

As she waits for the piece, Ruby continues, "Are you from... Earth? Scotland, more specifically? I figured with the accent and the kilt, but... apparently they have similar accents here, so I didn't want to assume."

"You'd have to make it so it balances, I'd say. Otherwise you'd have a grenade at your feet and what would happen then?"

She doesn't need to answer that, of course, because it's meant to be more rhetorical than anything else - an off-handed statement that he throws out there as he turns to look for the part she's described. Her not knowing the names of the pieces isn't really a problem for him. Most of the time he needs the description to find what he's been sent to look for anyway, and her telling what it looks like without going into the name just saves them both a step. There's a couple of pieces that look tube-like to him, but only one with both that particular color and the spring, and after a moment's consideration, he reaches over to pick it up.

"Aye, I am, although you'd be surprised how many people think I'm from Starkhaven anyway, even with the kilt." Or the mix of more modern clothing that he still sometimes wore with it, but the longer he's here the more he's finding pieces that work with the kilt. His shoes are still the sturdy hiking boots he'd had when coming here, however, and the watch he'd had upon coming here is something he still wears on his wrist even if it's no longer working properly. It's easy enough to see the thick leather band as he hands the part to Ruby. "I'm guessing you're from Earth too, then, if you know what it is. American, maybe?"

And she accepts the piece with a quiet thank you.

"American, yeah. From Maine," she offers. "North East, right on the coast, just shy of Canada. Technically I guess I'm Canadian, sort of. Canadian-American." It's a ramble, and it's a little ridiculous, but this feels like the right sort of conversation for a ridiculous ramble. "Maybe it's kind of like... there's so much weird stuff going on, anything that could be familiar is just assumed to be familiar. Makes it kind of easier of process, or something."

She's probably guilty of that. This place had enough in common with the Enchanted Forest that sometimes she could pretend it was familiar, even if it was very far from that. If she said that she tried not to dwell on it... well. That'd be a big lie, and not even a convincing one. Lying has never really been her strength, anyway.

"Maybe," Ruby starts, leaving the mechanism on her lap for a second, and picking up a couple of arrows, twisting one in her fingers to pass it to Jamie, feathers first. "You could have a pressure point or something on the tip, but the explosive mechanism or something running along the length of the arrow. Thing would be whether it was too heavy altogether or if you'd need to use a different type of bow, or... yeah, I don't know."

Maine isn't one of the places he's all that familiar with, but luckily Ruby already seems to have an explanation as to where it is ready to go, which he's privately grateful for. It saves him having to either have to ask questions or pretend like he knows what she's on about. Well, beyond 'being from somewhere in America', anyway, which is really all he knows without her help. The ramble? He doesn't mind at all.

And it does make sense - people here do have a lot to deal with, given the rifts and the demons and Corph-whats-his-name. Choosing to go with what they're familiar with when it comes to the rifters probably is easier, all things considered.

"Aye, maybe so. I know I've done that a time or two in the places I've wound up in." When she offers out the arrow, he takes it, holding it away from him while he peers down the shaft, lips pursed as he considers how to best to get the explosive mechanism to work on something like that. After a moment, he shakes his head and turns the arrow around so he can offer it back to her, feathers first. "Wish I'd seen something like that one of those places, but all I can think of is that the whole thing'd be easier if it was in some sort of gun, and as far as I can tell those don't exist here."

"And I am still working on mastering the stuff that actual geniuses designed. I'm getting the hang of pressure stuff with these, but I bet if there's something that works that way, Varric'll know how it works. No need to reinvent the wheel, right?"

Accepting the arrow back, Ruby idly spins it between her fingers before returning it and the one she was already holding back to the quiver.

"I think I'm pretty okay living in a world without guns," personally, she muses. "I'll keep you updated on the whole exploding arrow concept. Oh, but-- speaking of stuff from home, is there anything you really miss? Like the weird things that you took for granted?"

And she's picking the mechanism and the thingamajig Jamie passed her, glancing very briefly back to the diagram before retraining her focus on him.

Ruby's right when it comes to Varric knowing that sort of thing. If there's anyone out there who might have an idea on how pressure stuff could work to get something to explode and manage to fit it on an arrow, it'll be him. Guns would probably still be better, as far as he's concerned, but given he'd fairly certain there's not going to be any turning up any time soon (barring a rift spitting them out), there's no point in debating that with Ruby.

Instead, he peers over her shoulder at the diagram as he tries to see if he can make heads or tails out of it, but it looks fairly complex to him. Enough so that it doesn't take long before he focuses his attention back on her in return.

"Aye, well, I miss Scotland. The Doctor kept saying he'd get me back there, but the TARDIS has a mind of his own. I've not been back there in years." There's a wistful note there that he doesn't bother to hide - not only for missing Scotland, but because he misses travelling in the TARDIS as well. "You never know where you'd wind up, or what you'd find there. Or what'd happen after that, even. Suppose you could say that was a weird thing I took for granted."

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[Closed] The Wrong Road

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but of course. 10% royalties on that shall be yours

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