faderift | boo, motherfucker

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boo, motherfucker

WHO: Church, YOU
WHAT: Forget your local pain in the ass Rifter? See him being a ghost? Holy shit.
WHEN: During Phase 3/Phase 4
WHERE: Around the Gallows
NOTES: Nothing yet

Being quarantined is unfortunate. But necessary. Bad enough he's sick and that people aren't quite sure if it's contagious or not. He doesn't need anyone freaking out, and he'd rather be around the job and around Christine while shit's figured out.

He can't stay with the healers forever if there's not much they can do, but he's around if tests need run, experiments done, blood sweat tears. He's always the first to sign up or volunteer whenever something needs tried. But otherwise he tries to do what jobs he can. Tries to avoid the kitchens after all the nonsense with the frying of everything.

It...becomes harder when people seem to forget he's even around, and sometimes he has to get in someone's way to even get their attention. He sometimes keeps Ponce with him when Christine can't have the pup underfoot, but...slowly, even Ponce doesn't seem to want to be around him, or even growls at him until the dog seems to remember for a little bit.

Things get interesting when he starts to slowly grow incorporeal. A moment of holding a mug, and it clatters to the floor. He pushes a door open only to have his arm go through it and his face hit the wood. It's concerning at first, then elating. This is familiar! This he knows! He's getting back to being the ghost (the AI) he knows--only, it's at random times, uncontrolled, and pairing that with the moments of forgetfulness? Maybe it's not to do with him. Maybe it's just a symptom. Then what does that mean?

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Her hand clutches tightly to his shirt and she repeats to herself over and over to look at his face and remember him. If only she'd thought to write out their story in a journal for the future, then she could keep it with her to read. But now she can't even look down to write on a scrap of paper without forgetting what she was planning to write about him.

"I am sorry. He loves you, you know. We both do." There are times to be practical and times to be sentimental, and this definitely falls under the latter. When all her memories of him slip away like smoke on the wind, she has to speak from her heart in these moments she remembers.

But what happens when his body slips away like smoke on the wind? She would gladly become a ghost too as long as they could be together and know each other. But she's not a Rifter and is still solid. Just one more difference between them that never seemed to matter before, but is now pulling them apart.

And yet, despite all this, he's asking after her. How can she tell him? There's hesitation on her face, but she can recall him saying to her that she can't hide things from him anymore.

"The episodes are growing in frequency," she says. "We think-- I mean, Inessa and I spoke about them. She has them too. As do other mages." She releases a shaky breath. Today shouldn't be about her. Not when Church keeps slipping away. "We think it might involve our phylacteries. But Church, I do not want to talk about that now. I want to be with you as long as I can. Until I pass out from exhaustion. I need to stay with you so I do not lose you."

There are things he knows about mages and things he's less sure of about mages. Back when he was trying to be a nerd in the Skyhold library, he'd come across the term before, phylactery, and what he'd found when he looked it up didn't please him. And now that it came up in this context, it set an icy pit in his stomach.

"You can stay with me and also talk about this, because this scares me. Losing you scares me more than me being lost. And it's stupid if we're both lost, cuz then we can't guide each other home, and why is this all happening right now? We can barely get the city to trust us and shit keeps happening. We don't get a break."

He has to take a breath, because it's definitely fear crowding his mind and his words and all else. "And...you have work to do. Important work. I shouldn't...keep you from it."

"I am scared too. It is why I do not really want to talk about it." Inessa's symptoms are different to Christine's, but all of them combined definitely seems like someone trying to control their bodies via blood magic. And until they can track down their missing phylacteries, they're stuck with their bodies sometimes acting outside their control. Christine gives her head a shake. "With so many working to try and solve this illness, I can afford to take a break. With you." She doesn't want to look back on her life and have regrets, and if she puts off spending time with Church, then he might disappear without her even realizing it. She can't let the last thing she says to him be, "I have important work to do."

"It will be difficult, but you must guide us somewhere and I must look at you the entire way."

"Do you need to see my face or just...keep looking at me in general? Because sometimes you look at me and you...look right through me. Not literally. I mean, at this rate, it'll be literal soon." Gallows humor in the gallows, haha!

"Please do not do that," she says in that all too familiar exasperated tone of hers. "I need to look at your face. I see a hand, a foot, and I forget who you are."

"Okay. Then I'm gonna walk backwards and try really, really hard not to trip on anything. 'Til I hit a chair or something."

Yep. Yep, this is happening. There's gotta be a place to sit that isn't too far that doesn't end with him falling over it. Or falling through it, He can't ask her to watch behind him either. Fuck.

"Do not be ridiculous," she begins, ready to add more, but whoops, he's off, and she purses her lips, following him with Ponce still held against her chest. The dog looks all about them from his perch, wondering why he can't be let go to run around the place.

"I can walk beside you and look up at your face. And you can prevent me from hitting anything."

His feet stop mid-pace. "...You're so smart. You are the smartest girlfriend, and I am the dumb ape man. Okay, keep watching me." Because now he'll actually look where he's going and oh thank god okay here's a room, and it's a room with some chairs, and it--is occupied right now, okay, keep going.

"I can't not be ridiculous. That's the number one thing I am. You know you love me for it."

She huffs out a weak laugh as he speaks, watching him as they move forward, stop, then move on from the room with voices.

"The number one thing? That is a bold claim. Are you not also handsome, brave, and kind?"

"Also all those, yeah." The smile he manages is much more genuine than previous attempts. "But the ridiculousness is definitely number one. Close call with the handsomeness, though, but I think ridic's gotta eek out there. I'm good for morale."

This room? It's quieter. He gives a quick knock. "Hey, this room taken?"

Someone, probably a scout from the outfit, looks up from a map at him, then at Christine, back at him. Wrinkles her nose. But gathers up her map with a sigh. "I'm not cleanin' up after ya, laddie."

"What--" he starts as she eases on by them. "Oh, god, that's not-? Hey, that's not what--!" Aaaaand she's not listening.

"...Anyway, we've got a place to sit, I guess, heh..."

Christine does an irritated tongue click at the scout, and nearly glares at her as she passes Church, but she manages to stay focused on Church and waits until the door closes behind them.

"Honestly, with everything going on, that is what she assumes? I do not even want to know what she thinks the dog is for." Said dog is let down carefully, with Christine getting down on her haunches to release him closer to the floor while her eyes remain fixed on Church's face.

"Help me sit?"

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