Let No Soul Hunger For Justice: Nothing But The Truth

[justice_is_blond]

WHO: Adelaide, Alistair, Anders, Bethany, Nathaniel, Varric, Vasran, Velanna
WHAT: The Second Ritual
WHEN: 10th of Bloomingtide (May 10th)
WHERE: half an hour outside of Skyhold
NOTES: Plotting post.

They've kept to the same clearing as the last, because the location's good. Far enough away that no one could stumble upon them by accident, near enough in case something went seriously wrong, it works.

He has scarcely more hope this time than he did the last, but at least there's no singing involved. This can't go as strangely. In theory.

Comments

[doneisdone]

Aye, well, that's good. Hold this.

[She hands him a pincushion, which is now his responsibility to hold where she can find it. It likes to roll off the log she's sitting on, and it won't do to have it in the snow and mud.]

What will it take, do you think? Shall we beat you about the head until he gets tired of it and leaves?

[justice_is_blond]

[He blinks and takes the pincushion, looking down at it before back at her.]

Mm. No, that's likely to result in everyone in the vicinity dying except me. I'd like to not do that again.

[And maybe he didn't want that 'again' there, but it's too late now.]

I wish I knew what it would take. The fourth and fifth rituals, the ones that are the most risky, are the most likely to work. But we're traveling into entirely unknown territory. I've never heard of anyone going from possessed to unpossessed before.

[doneisdone]

[She casts him a brief glance at 'again', but doesn't question him on it. She has a feeling she knows, anyway.

She talks while she stitches, periodically knotting and biting off the thread to start on a new spot, her process as unconscious as breathing.]

To be honest, lad, I've never known anyone to get possessed before. You seem rather more in control of yourself than most people would imagine.

[justice_is_blond]

[He's a little grateful she doesn't follow up on it. Talking about how he'd killed a bunch of Wardens, despite how they'd been Wardens in name only and Templars in truth, isn't something he's eager to do.]

My secret to semi-success is that it's Justice and not some demon who was looking to come over. He didn't exactly ask to get ripped from the Fade and flung into a nearby corpse. Though when the corpse began to seriously fall apart we should have found him another, rather than hoping a joining would work.

[Anders sighs.]

Hindsight. We thought we had this figured out.

[doneisdone]

[Teren doesn't emote when she remarks:]

At least you didn't put him in a gurgut.

[justice_is_blond]

He would have stabbed me. Or, worse and more likely, lectured. For hours. Nonstop. As a gurgut. And then gnawed on everyone. Then again, he's lecturing nearly nonstop as it is.

[He pulls a pin out of the pin cushion and sticks it in the other side, starting to arrange them by color.]

[doneisdone]

Could he have?

[She slaps lightly at his hand before he can move too many pins-- she knows where she's put them, and he's making them harder to find!]

...I do suppose if a spirit can make a corpse talk, it can make a gurgut talk. [She bites off a thread again.] What does he lecture about? Anything interesting?

[justice_is_blond]

[He stops messing with the pins... after one more, just for the smack.]

Justicey things. What's right. What's fair. How sleeping in is sloth, how keeping a cat is akin to slavery, how being with anyone is giving in to desire, how if I'd just focus and work harder we could make even more of a difference, so maybe I really should skip lunch again and heal a dozen people in the time eating would take me.

[Anders shrugs.]

Some things I give in on. Some I do not. Skipping a meal is easy if it means I don't have to listen to him complain about ownership when I cuddle with Purrelden later. Everything is compromise.

[doneisdone]

[Teren snorts.]

It strikes me as odd that he wouldn't condemn ...Purrelden even moreso. Cats make it fairly clear who owns whom. [Slavery? Maybe, but Anders isn't the master.]

He sounds like a right drag, that Justice. Can he hear me now?

[justice_is_blond]

[She gets an almost-grin at that comment. Purrelden does own him.]

He can hear everything I hear, see everything I see, and so on when I'm in control. The reverse isn't true and I'm still not sure if that's simply how it works or if it's deliberate.

[doneisdone]

Well that's not fair.

[She leans toward Anders, looking into his eyes, narrowing her own slightly.]

Justice, is it? Seems to me you're a bit of a hypocrite.

[justice_is_blond]

[Anders stiffens, and the smile is gone as quickly as it had come.]

Teren. This could be a poor choice. Call me out as you'd like, but he's not always reasonable, and I don't always have as good control as I'd wish.

[doneisdone]

[As much as she operates by her own rules, Teren knows a sincere protest when she hears it. She leans back again, but for Anders' sake, not to spare Justice.]

Keeping a hold like that on a person is cruel, whether or not you're a spirit.

[She eyes him a moment longer, then looks back to her sewing, beginning to pick it up again.]

I say good riddance to him, as quickly as you can manage it.

[justice_is_blond]

[After a moment he relaxes again and looks down.]

That's what the rituals are about. Trying to send him home to the Fade and free me. He'll be better off there, too. This world is no place for black and white, and that's what Justice sees in.

[doneisdone]

No room for that whatsoever.

[Teren pauses to gave Anders a light, almost comforting pat on the arm, then goes back to her darning.]

If I can be of any assistance, you know where to find me. Nasty business, this.

[justice_is_blond]

[The pat isn't something he'd expected. Honestly, he's not sure what he had expected, but there's something about living here, among these Wardens, that makes him feel similar to how he had the first time he'd been a Warden, before the Templars had begun their harassment.]

Thank you.

[His voice is quiet.]

I don't know if this will work, but we're trying. What happens if none of them are effective I don't know. I appreciate the offer, though. And I'll keep it in mind.