You can't concern yourself with bigger things

[faderifting]

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.

Comments

[unsullies]

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.

[eviscerates]

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?"

[unsullies]

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.

[eviscerates]

"'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."

[unsullies]

'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.

[eviscerates]

"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.

[unsullies]

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."

[eviscerates]

"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?"

want to wrap this up? c:

[unsullies]

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.