faderifting: (Default)
Fade Rift Mods ([personal profile] faderifting) wrote in [community profile] faderift2018-04-11 12:45 am

Cloudreach 9:44 Rifter Arrival

WHO: New rifters & their rescuers.
WHAT: Welcome to Thedas.
WHEN: Cloudreach 10, 9:44
WHERE: Amaranthine
NOTES: This is the arrival log for all new rifters, open also to current characters who would participate in their recovery. New players can also assume everyone survives and arrives back in Kirkwall within a couple of days, but please note there will be a brief quarantine period when they won't be permitted to leave the Gallows, to get them up to speed while ensuring they're not diseased or otherwise going to kill anyone, before they're set loose on the city.


You were asleep—whether deeply or fitfully, falling unconscious for the last time in a pool of blood 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 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, bathed in the light of a flare of too-bright, greenish light you will find yourself hitting mossy cobblestones with an unforgiving smack. You're alive, and you're fine, except for 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.

Above you is a shifting, crystalline tear in reality; beyond that, gray clouds and a sea breeze, framed by the high walls surrounding the city you've landed in. There are people on the walls, some of them armored and armed, all of them briefly and collectively paralyzed by the sight below.

Don't let their terror go to your head. It's not you that has them intimidated, nor is it any of the humans (or Qunari) who are sprawled out on the ground around you, nor is it the assortment of unfamiliar—to them, not to you, perhaps to you it's very familiar—junk that's spilled out as well, most notably some flaming metallic debris and a giant wooden cross.

It's the beings that are coming out after you, almost as if in pursuit. Two are drifting, spindly things with six spidery limbs in addition to grasping skeletal arms, eager to grab hold of anyone who comes too close and fill their field of vision with swirling darkness and corner-of-the-eye glimpses of whatever frightens them. Several more most closely resemble trees, perhaps, with half-melted squids for heads—which might not sound particularly scary, fine, but their ability to dive into the ground and resurface anywhere with rasping screams helps on that front.

All of these things would like to kill you, and the people around you, and the people on the walls, and perhaps the other people screaming and scurrying into taverns and shops for cover. But you're not alone. Out of those same taverns and shops come people who do seem to know what they're doing; many are wearing a symbol that looks a bit like a hairy eyeball being pieced through by a sword, and at least a couple of them seem to know what they're doing. Almost like they've been waiting for you. In fact, exactly like they've been waiting for you.



AFTERWARDS, the grateful citizens of the City of Amarenthine might provide a drink, a meal, or a place to tend to wounds before everyone sets back toward Kirkwall. It's not a long trip, but one that requires boarding a ship to cross a narrow sea. It will be a rough, stormy journey, but there won't be any demons.
thirtysilver: (Upset)

[personal profile] thirtysilver 2018-04-12 08:32 am (UTC)(link)
Well, there's a sliding scale of 'okay' that's extremely relative. Is he particularly injured as a result of what happened? No. The other kinds of not-okay Judas is is frankly not anyone's business.

And what kind of name is Church? Is that supposed to be ironic? At least they're on the same page that those things were definitely demons. So Rifters, that is the lost souls then? Apparently. Judas remains quiet for a moment, trying to process, then finally asks the question that's been on his mind this entire time.

"Is this Hell?" Because, look, he didn't expect Hell to have moments where you could stop and catch your breath. Much less drinks.
motherfucking_ghost: (really shouldn't add to my confusion)

[personal profile] motherfucking_ghost 2018-04-12 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
What? No. No? No, this isn't Hell. It's Thedas. Which, I know to some people it can totally feel like hell, but, trust me, it's definitely not. It's just...another world. Another world we fell into through a magical hole in the sky, granted, but it's not more than that.

[He takes a seat, drumming his fingers on the wooden tabletop.] I mean. There are people here who will think we're like demons because we fell out of the same thing. Not everyone likes us. We've got some weird green power to our hands. Makes people antsy. But not everyone. You'll be okay.
thirtysilver: (Crying)

[personal profile] thirtysilver 2018-04-13 02:19 pm (UTC)(link)
That entire explanation is completely outside of Judas's comprehension for the time being. He's not sure where to even begin. Pretty much everything before "you'll be okay" didn't even properly register right now, because there's just no way to process it. For the moment he's just going to... pretend like this is all some weird dream, and just try and deal with situations as they come.

He drops down into a seat himself, putting the crown on the table, then looks down at his bloodied hand with a disgusted frown. He's tries to wipe it off on his sleeve, but turns out vinyl doesn't really absorb fluids, so it mostly just ends up smeared there. It's already bright red, so you can hardly tell. Then he buries his face in his hands, closing his eyes. He doesn't care that he smears some of that blood on his face instead.