faderift | You can't concern yourself with bigger things

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You can't concern yourself with bigger things

WHO: New rifters & their helpful rescuers
WHAT: People fall out of a rift and get attacked by stuff, it's pretty old hat by now (sorry Jefferson).
WHEN: Solace 7
WHERE: High in the Frostbacks, within a day of Skyhold.
NOTES: This log is open to any characters who would have volunteered to go welcome the rifters, whose arrival sites can now be predicted, thank you Solas. Rifters are also welcome to begin RPing at Skyhold as soon as they are ready.

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.

In this world, something has definitely died. But not you; not yet. When the afterimage left by a flare of too-bright, greenish light fades, you will find yourself in a pile of bones, stripped by teeth and weather, bleached almost as white as the snow that covers most of the rocky, mountainous terrain around you. Beneath its threadbare blanket, it's easy to pick out heaps of earth and stone and debris arranged in a rough ring-shape on the ground around you and the rift that just spat you out. Almost like...a nest? Whatever might once have lived here, it must have been very large, because the bones scattered about are the size of large livestock, at the least. Some of the bare rocks show what look like marks from very large claws, and where snow doesn't cover, the stone looks suspiciously scorched. There are no recent tracks, but maybe that's a good thing.

Less good: the cluster of demons that is emerging from the rift to take over the job of killing you. Some are tall, spindly stick-things with too many eyes, some hunched and hooded with no eyes at all, others mere wisps of greenish light. None look friendly or familiar. Also unfamiliar is the narrow splinter of light the same sickly green as whatever brought you here that now glows out of the palm of your left hand. It aches, a bone-deep pain that gnaws even through all the distractions. Hopefully you can set it aside enough to pick up a bone club and get to work in self-defense, because there is no immediate sign of road or path or settlement anywhere to be seen.

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"Hey." Ruby is a creature built for the cold. At least, that's what she tells herself as she's unfastening the crimson cloak that hangs from her shoulders, tossing it to the young woman as she places herself between the Rifter and the demons, with her back to the monsters for these brief moments. "I can fill you in on all kinds of weird stuff in a while, but we've got to deal with these guys first."

In her hand is a dagger - nothing special, nothing spectacular, but something, and she holds it out. "Run or fight. I've got you covered."

She speaks quickly, urgently, but not unkindly - though she does sneak a glance over her shoulder to make sure a demon isn't right on top of them before looking back to her brand new company. "You're going to be okay. Okay?"

Dany is taken aback by the newcomer, shirking from her sudden, outgoing presence, silver brows flitting at confusion. Even so, she takes the cloak, wrapping it around her bare shoulders, never stopping from watching the young woman who'd given it.

"I... can't fight," Dany says slowly, warily. She certainly can't fight these things, whatever they are. "Who are you?"

This is a dream, so the red woman must be an important figure of some kind to feature in it. A Red priestess? She swallows, reaching out to pull herself closer to the rock and farther from the fray.

"That's okay." Calm, reassuring - she hopes. The young woman really is young, it occurs to her, and ahe feels a sharp pang of sympathy. "My name's Ruby. I came here the same way you did."

Her hearing is sharp and she stands and turns, drawing an arrow, stretching the bowstring taught before loosing it. The Wolf generally doesn't come out for arrivals - people have enough to absorb without adding werewolf to the mix.

"There's... some magic in this world," she adds, over her shoulder, and it feels both wicked obvious and very necessary to say, both at once.

It is reassuring to a girl with no means of defending herself and alone in a very dangerous situation. Dream or... otherwise, there is another woman willing to help keep her safe, and she is quick to nod, not exactly sure of what Ruby means.

"The same...?" she trails off questioningly, glancing from Ruby to the small tear in the sky. At that, though, the rift flashes and her hand does so in turn. Dany gasps, pained, clutching at the affected palm.

"What is this?" she asks shakily, showing it to the stranger. "I have no magic, I... I don't know where it came from."

Does it matter, though, if none of this is reality? Her head spins and she's struck with the dizzy weight of confusion, swaying a little where she stands.

One demon down, and others are keeping some of the others distracted enough that Ruby can take a moment to crouch down next to the girl, quickly working the red leather glove off her left hand, just enough to reveal the glow of the shard.

"It's called a shard. Everyone who arrives here through one of the rifts gets one. Some people from this world have them, too. They don't always hurt, you can get through this. I promise, we'll get you out of here safe." She speaks low and calm, gaze only glancing away from the new arrival to make sure they aren't in danger. A moment of hesitation - this is never the easy part. "You've come to another world. It's... It's going to be hard to get your head around."

The battle seems to rage on, and Ruby's hand goes to reach for another arrow as a shade drift towards them.

It isn't so concerning to hear that she's come to another world, not with the place's status as a dream or vision solidified in her head. Dany nods meekly, looking from her own 'shard' to the other woman's, listening intently.

"Are they coming after us for these shards?" Dany asks, once Ruby has ended the shade, sending its glowing remains drifting back toward the rift in the sky. "What is our purpose here?"

What is all this meant to tell her?

"They go after pretty much anyone," Ruby replies, crouching down in front of the girl. "But we can use these to close rifts, so I'd say they aren't exactly excited about that. As for our purpose... that's a little more complicated. Kinda nebulous, even."

Wherever they are? Ruby's not a huge fan of the smell, inhaling deeply, looking around at the scorchmarks, the bones. "Come on. We should get you something warmer, the others can handle this." She's not completely sold the girl isn't in shock. And, actually--

"What's your name?"

They're all in danger, Ruby says, and that... doesn't exactly make it better. Dany's brows flit at deep concern, a faint unwillingness to go with the other woman, but... what else can she do? She has no weapons or allies, at least not that she can see, and the monsters are obviously a danger.

She chews briefly on her lip, considering if there's any danger in giving her name, if there could possibly still be assassins from the Usurper in this place as there had been in the market so recently.

"Daenerys, of House Targaryen," she says quietly. Ruby has been nothing but helpful, and if she means to kill Dany, then there won't be much she can do about it. Even so, her heart thrums stubbornly, ready to fight with rocks and her hands, if need be.

"Daenerys," echoed, committed to memory. Ruby is maybe 90% sure she'd screw up writing it up on coffee cup, but that doesn't exactly matter. She offers a smile, gentle. "Come on. I think there's some tea."

She knows for a fact there's mulled wine, but given that Daenerys is definitely not twenty-one and Ruby has twenty-eight years of Granny breathing down her neck about age limits ground into her, it's not her first option. (One of the others fells another demon, and she offers Daenerys her hand.)

"I came through a rift.... I think maybe four months ago? It's still weird to get my head around, honestly." Also weird is ignoring the ongoing fight, but leaving the poor girl in the snow unnecessarily doesn't make much sense.

Tea is fine enough for now, and because she isn't verbally denied the wine, Dany doesn't need to argue in favor of it. Truthfully, wine would be more soothing in this moment, but Dany nods mutely and glances past Ruby to watch the fight. There are others, some with the same mark as the pair of them, but some who seem more at home and certainly more confident in fighting the monsters. She swallows, brows twitching at concern, trying constantly to quell the fear that's building in the pit of her stomach.

"Four months?" But it bubbles up anyway, spilling into her words. "And you still haven't found a way to go back?"

She can't stay here for anywhere near that long. If this... has really happened, then the khalasar, Jorah, her bloodriders, would surely notice her absence. She thinks of her dragons, too, and her heart goes out to them, left abandoned on the Dothraki Sea.

"I need to go back," she stresses.

She would stop, if not for the whole, you know, demon battle. Her gaze is sympathetic and apologetic and whatever other -tic sounds suit. Empathetic? Sure, throw that in, too.

"I know it sounds— bad." Probably more than sounds bad, but she's trying to optimism here. "But there's really smart people researching the Rifts and our shards and trying to figure it out."

In between trying to avoid the end of the world; she doesn't get into that part, yet.

"We're all trying to get home. No matter what, we're going to keep trying. You aren't going to be stuck here."

Oops, okay she has to jump down a bit of a ledge, and looks back to Daenerys. "We're in this together. I know that doesn't mean all that much from a stranger, but... we are."

Yes, it sounds bad. It has her stomach tied up in worried knots and her head spinning at the possibility that this might not be a dream. Dany staggers briefly, swaying on the spot, but gives a solid shake of her head and tries to focus, at least for the moment, on this conversation. One thing at a time.

"How can I trust you? Any of you?" she asks, standing on top of the ledge, not yet going down to Ruby's side. "We've just met, and what you're saying--"

Is insane. Isn't it?

"You'll understand my suspicions if you arrived the same way that I did," Dany says, still eyeing the other woman. "What you ask is... hard for me to give."

"I know."

God, she knows. Ruby remembers how impossible so many things had seemed, but they'd all been true - being the Wolf, the Dark Curse, all of it. She looks up at Daenerys for a moment, and her expression is a strange mix of sadness and empthy and compassion.

She huffs out a quiet breath; the heat of it mists the air, and hangs visibly for long moments. "I don't think I have anything I can tell you that'll satisfy you, because nothing about this should be possible. This world and the space between worlds? They're full of power magic, the lifes of which I've only rarely seen before, if ever."

Ruby swallows, then. "When I got here, I arrived with a friend. And she disappeared a couple months ago. No sign, nothing. I... haven't found anything that makes for a good argument." But she holds the dagger out again, handle first. "I really hope you don't stab me, but I'm going to give you a free shot because, honestly, this was scary as hell with a friend. I can't imagine what it's like without one. But, if you want, I'll be your friend, and I'll have your back."

She can't accept allies so easily, let alone friendship. Not after all she's been through. Even so, Dany accepts the blade slowly, violet eyes on Ruby, watching for any sudden moves.

"I don't understand all this as much as I'd like, and I can't accept it." Yet. "... But, you haven't given me reason to distrust you, and I'm alone here, as far as I can tell. That isn't a very good way to stay alive."

She's always had people at her side, protecting her. Even after the pyre, she'll have her khalasar, her blood riders, and Ser Jorah. Maybe this woman is just the next to take that place, at least for as long as Dany is in Thedas.

"What is it you want in exchange?" she asks in a practiced weariness.

It always really sucks when there's someone as young as Daenerys seems so aware of danger. Not necessarily something all that unusual in the Enchanted Forest, especially not in the wake of the Curse, but ultimately? Still kinda made of suck. Ruby sighs very slightly, and just watches for a moment as she weighs up how to reply.

"I don't want anything from you." Spoken gently, and offering a slight smile, though she figures it's not going to be that simple. "But, if it sets you more at ease, how about we just agree to watch each other's backs? You can call the shots, with me. Okay?"

She isn't sure if she believes this woman - Ruby - but she doesn't have many choices at the moment. As such, Dany nods curtly, still eyeing Ruby with a wary, violet gaze.

"Will there be more of them?" That seems like another immediate concern and Dany flicks her eyes toward the demons, the rift, and the fighting. "How many of those things are there?"

She can only avoid battle for so long and, with only one ally... the odds aren't very good that she'll survive in this.

"'Probably' and 'I don't know,' respectively." It'd be really nice to actually have something helpful to tell her, but Ruby's coming up empty. That's the thing they never tell you about in fairy tales: no one actually has any idea what they're doing, and all the cunning plans require a whole lot of trial and error and disasters, first.

"But it's okay. We aren't the only ones here, I mean— it's more than just this group. The Inquisition... I've been with them a few months, and they take in people like you and me in. They have a Keep and a lot of really smart people. And also barracks now, actually."

So Dany, unlike Ruby, won't need to sleep in the barn for four months. "It seems pretty grim, but we'll figure it out. I have faith in that."

'The Inquisition.' It's all just unfamiliar words, the reassurances of a stranger, and it doesn't do much to assuage her many fears. Dany is visibly stiff and uncomfortable, but she nods anyway, filing away the information for whenever she'll need it (likely, soon).

"And they are trying to keep those creatures at bay?" she assumes. "To... close these rifts?"

They must have always had travelers with glowing, green hands, then, unless she's misunderstood and there's another method by which they can silence those breaches.

"That's part of it. They're trying to fight an enemy that's responsible for the rifts, kinda this whole save the world deal. Fighting the demons and sealing the rifts is a big part of that."

She tilts her head in the direction they need to go. "Want to give them a shot?"

It feels very simplistic and very demanding, asking a young woman to just throw her faith behind this, but— it's the best option Ruby has to offer, right now. Maybe one day they could get compelling, colour brochures printed. Probably the brochures would be hard to read while being chased by demons, though.

The demons are enough of a threat, she thinks, and fear flutters in her heart.

"Give - Sealing them?" She looks surprised, despite that they'd just been talking about it. She swallows, expression softening, hesitant, but... then she nods.

"All right. If you can keep the demons away." After all, she isn't a fighter, as the other woman knows by now. "I'll do what I can."

"I've got your back." Ruby smiles, bright for all that it's gentle, and holds out her hand, balled into a fist though her arm is bent and her wrist is facing upward, in a slightly ridiculous estimation of a fist bump.

If there's one thing Ruby can do, it's fight. It's not exactly her favourite of her skillsets, but she's strong and she's fast and she has a sharper gaze and grasp of the surrounds, and she can do this. She can keep Daenerys safe.

"Ready?"

Dany is frankly unsure of what to do with the fist, so she blinks at it, peering from the hand to Ruby's face.

"... Ready," she replies solemnly. There isn't much she can do in this world at the moment aside from listening to those who know it better, from relying on them for protection.

For now, it has to be enough.

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want to wrap this up? c: