OPEN: Cloudreach Event

[faderifting]

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.

Comments

[ombranera]

"What, my dying or Alistair being sad? It's a little late for the second." Duncan, the Blight, Jonas, Orlais, the whole possibly dying thing. Alistair's life may not be a complete mess but he is...not in the best place.

[rebelenchanter]

"Does he need another reason? We're already giving him one together, I suppose in a way it evens out," after all Fiona could not see how revealing herself to Alister could possibly make him anything but miserable in the end. He would either lose his mind or it would shut him down.

[ombranera]

"How would this make him sad? Well. Knowing he is half Orlesian may bother him a bit, he does so take joy in being staunchly Fereldan. Perhaps this will finally give me the excuse I need to convince him to let me oil his hair properly. He did not get your natural beauty." Is that a strange thing to say to your brother's mother?

It is, isn't it.

[rebelenchanter]

"It will be a weight on him, on top of all of the other burdens he has to bear...and..." she wanted to keep a stern expression with him, a stern presence in front of him, but she felt those stern features quirk and shook her head, "...and quit trying to be cute."

[ombranera]

"I do not try to be cute, I am cute." He was adorable. "If anything it should be news that comes with a meal. I will cook- all the more reason for this to wait until I am well. What dish says 'family reunion' in Ferelden or Orlais?"

[rebelenchanter]

Fiona raised her eyebrow at this skeptically, knowing well enough that this was someone who could have others eating out of his palm if he truly wanted to. In fact she was sure of it, "oh? Well if you are to prepare a meal then I might recommend something that can be served cold."

[ombranera]

"And why would that be?" A curious choice for a warm, family reunion. "Do you think he will throw it at you in a fit of anger? He is not quite that uncivilized, I promise."

[rebelenchanter]

"I don't believe him to be uncivilized, but I doubt this will be the warm, mother and son reunion you think it will be," and Fiona was quite certain of this, it was mother's intuition. If nothing else it would be a disrupt to his life, "if you will be joining us I expect you to brace yourself."

[ombranera]

"Oh, I would not miss this for anything." If only to be there and sooth either of them before...regrettable things might be said. Alistair has had the scorn oof more than enough people; earning the disfavor of the mages by snapping at their leader would do him ill.

[rebelenchanter]

Fiona wasn't about to blame Alistair for whatever feelings he chose to express, he would certainly have a right to them, in spite of her fear of how those feeling would be expressed. As for earning the scorn or disfavor of mages, she would not allow it, no matter what was said he was still her only child and protecting him had been her one wish, "like watching an explosion take place in the middle of a cavalcade, I am certain. Most amusing."

[ombranera]

"I was thinking less that and more Antivan Opera. A mysteriously surviving parent, a bastard prince, a dramatic reunion?" He quirked a brow. "All joking aside- whether for good or ill it will be an emotional moment for Alistair. I do not mean him to face such a shock on his own."

[rebelenchanter]

"So long as it is not Orlesian Opera I suppose," terrible in her opinion, "I suppose if it were you then you would want the same, yes? To know your long lost mother?"

[ombranera]

"My mother's loss is somewhat permanent, I fear. But were she yet living and wandering about Antiva perhaps I would want that same support." Death kinda puts a damper on such possibilities.

[rebelenchanter]

"I was speaking metaphorically, of course...but aside from the support would you want to know that she's alive?" She is looking for an angle of empathy in this, if She had to make this confession she wondered how well Zevran would be able to relate to Alistair.

[ombranera]

"I would." He would not know what to say to her, would not know what could be done- but to look into her eyes and take her measure? That would be worth...something.

[rebelenchanter]

"Thank you," Fiona said, reaching out to rest her hand gently on top of Zevran's head. She was still against doing this, still did not see what it would accomplish in the grand scheme of things, but she felt okay with it.

[ombranera]

"...come now. There are probably better places for you to rest and dream in peace than the tavern." He said, very much of the mind to do the same himself.

[rebelenchanter]

"Given what you've already seen I doubt sleeping is going to be an option," what if she dreamed about information that was more sensitive, not that this was not sensitive information, but the point still stood. Pinching the bridge of her nose and exhaling sharply, Fiona climbed to her feet, "I should probably return to the healing tents anyway."

[ombranera]

"I suppose I shall go with you, in order to keep my word." Even if he'd truly rather not. He was fine as he was, but she'd made a point to ask. Zevran pushed himself to his feet, rolling out his aching shoulders.

[rebelenchanter]

And Fiona was rather determined to make sure he held up on his end of the deal, charming as he was, she knew that charming people had a gift for getting out of things. He was already getting his way in this one thing, she was too stubborn, even when exhausted, to let him get away with too much, "you are such a good boy, if we had treats at the tent I would give you one."