Firstfall Rifter Arrival

[faderifting]

WHO: New rifters & their rescuers
WHAT: Weird people fall out of a rift with demons! Again! But this time there are trees.
WHEN: Firstall 8
WHERE: A ruined fortress in the wooded region between Redcliffe and Haven.
NOTES: This log is OPEN to new rifters and to anyone who might have volunteered or been ordered to go retrieve them. Rifters: the log is intentionally backdated to allow you to also jump straight into RPing in Skyhold. It's safe to assume everyone lives.

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, you wake with a jolt when you hit earth and stone, dropped from above by a flaring, crystalline green rip in reality that hangs overhead. Beyond it the sky is dark, but the light from the rift is bright enough to illuminate the stone walls around you--a fortress, once, now a ruin, walls crumbling and beginning to surrender to the trees and vines from the surrounding forest. The air is cold enough to sting, but it's yet to snow here, and with the walls and trees sheltering against wind it isn't so bad. At another time, in other circumstances, it might be peaceful.

No chance of that now. The brief period of quiet after you fall is shattered by a hoarse shriek. Three hoarse shrieks. Three tall, spindly creatures with gasping mouths and too many eye sockets advance on you and the people lying around you, and beyond them, six flickering, ghostly wraiths begin to throw bursts of green magic that saps anyone hit of energy and strength. And there's a narrow splinter of light in the same sickly green as whatever brought you here, now glowing out of the palm of your left hand. It aches, a bone-deep pain that gnaws even through all the distractions.

But you're not alone. There's that. You've arrived with company. Scattered around on the ground with you are weapons--maybe one of them is yours--and it won't be long before more people arrive, armed and armored and not at all surprised to see you. Just a little late to get here. (Delayed by highwaymen, you know how it is.)

Comments

[blooded]

( elena's dead. that's his first thought.

really, it's his only thought. even as he vaguely processes being spat out onto the ground — when did he even lose consciousness? — and the chaos going on around him, the bulk of damon's brain is taken up with the knowledge that elena is dead. he doesn't know how or why, but elena was clear that her life was tied to ric's, and ric had fallen. suddenly, inexplicably, just... dead. there was only one thing it could mean.

for a long moment, damon stays where he landed on the ground. it's hard to care enough to push himself up to check his surroundings — it's hard to care about anything at all. but there's screeching noises all around him, green glowing at the edges of his vision, and a sword in front of him, and maybe he'll change his mind in an hour but damon doesn't want to die now. not until he knows how the fuck his brother got elena killed.

(it's easier to blame stefan than to think about the fact that she's gone. no vampire blood this time, no uncle daddy to give up his life for hers. she's just... gone.)

it takes a second, even after he's resolved to do it, but eventually damon grabs the sword in front of him and pushes himself to his feet. the battlefield is... not what he was expecting. it's hard to say what he was expecting, honestly, but... it's not what's in front of him. three unnaturally tall creatures with too much arm and too many eyes, and six shrouded creatures hurling green balls of energy at anyone they can see. not something he was prepared for, but damon's willing to fight, if only to find out where and why he is.

at least, he was willing until his ears pick up on a voice he's been attuned to for a year now. a voice he never expected to hear again. )

Elena?

( damon whirls around in the direction of her voice, back to the advancing monsters and not caring. he heard her, he did, where is she, he has to find her — )