Open: Waking Nightmares in Skyhold (reaction log)

[faderifting]

WHO: Characters in Skyhold
WHAT: Before, during, and after the eruption and attack of an Abomination in Skyhold.
WHEN: Haring 11
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Please note that the actual subduing of the Abomination is being completed by mission volunteers. Use this log as a means to react to this event otherwise. You are welcome to be attacked by or attempt to attack the monster yourself, but please refrain from doing anything that would permanently affect it or interfere with the volunteers' plans.

It's so late that it's early when the Abomination begins its path of terror between the gardens and the main hall. It seems intent on heading for Skyhold's heart itself, a continual slow drag weighted down by the way it, for whatever reason, drags the body of a young made woman behind it, by the ankle. Seven foot tall, a twisted monstrousity of human and monster, made of tattered mage robes, bony protrusions, claws, and teeth. Behind it, it leaves a trail of smearing blood and gore over dirt, grass, rock, as well as blackened scorch marks.

It can be distracted, diverted, whether by mere movement or direct attack. It wields magical fire in inelegant gusts of flame, but is just as likely to lash out physically, impossibly strong, fingers twisted into giant claws, or make grabs and attempt to sink fangs into flesh. Always, it will return to where it last dropped the corpse, and make for the main hall.

Eventually, an explosion of flame and broken stone will destroy the connecting entryway between the gardens and the hall, under the onslaught of the Abomination's magic. A deep roar reverberates through the bones of the castle, inviting one and all to join in.

Comments

[savethecat]

Gorse went down when pushed. Part of it was simply the surprise of the action, but then when he saw that it was a move meant for protection and not harm, he let Taas get him down.

Ashaad,, Taas thought he was an Ashaad - Gorse felt pretty secure in the assumption that whatever had happened with the gaatlok, Ashaad hadn't made it.

With Taashath like this, Gorse couldn't exactly ask him permission to touch him first, and well... what with the full-body blocking, he'd have to hope it was okay. Gently, carefully, Gorse placed a hand on Taashath's (Karasaad's he remembered suddenly, that Taas had told him back when they first met) cheek to make the other look at him, look him in the eyes.

"Taashath - Karasaad - listen to me." Gorse tried to summon his mother's calm but firm serenity as he spoke to the other in qunlat. "Look around, look at the trees, the battlements, you're not in the north anymore."

[quietblade]

He turns his head as he's touched, worried that the Ashaad had words for him he couldn't hear. Instead he's face to face with calmness and gentleness from someone familiar. Black sclera, orange-brown irises.

Pale skin and a sweet face.

He knows that face. He knows the name.

"Gorse," Taas groans, closing his eyes for a moment and then opening them again. No, same person. Ashaad wasn't here. He was dead long ago. This was Gorse, and he could read those lips. He could listen.

Trees. Battlements. All southern style.

This was Skyhold.

He was Taashath.

"Shit."

[savethecat]

Gorse breathes a sigh of relief when Taashath says his name, looks at him and recognizes him and not some long-passed echo of a memory worn over with trauma and pain.

There was still chaos, but Gorse had to make sure Taas was okay, he sure as hell wasn't letting the other out of his sight.

"Just breathe, alright? It happens to everyone." Gorse wasn't sure of the relationship Taashath had with his flashbacks - this was the first he'd seen, after all. He knew Tal-Vashoth that were ashamed of them somehow, so he was always quick to remind them that they weren't uncommon, it wasn't something to be ashamed or embarrassed over. Of course, in his experience, more adults had them than not. "Do you remember where you are now?"

Taashath recognized Gorse and seemed to remember himself, but it didn't hurt to be certain. He was going to stick with qunlat until asked otherwise. No one else had to know what they were talking about if they were even paying attention. Trauma was private.

[quietblade]

Breathe, Gorse says, and Taas obeys, focusing on that. It was okay. He was fine, and this wasn't Seheron. That had not been gaatlok.

That had not been gaatlok.

"Fuck, Gorse. I'm alright. I'm fine," he says, both to the younger qunari and himself as he gently moves him back to get a bit of space. The kid was excellent at this sort of shit, it seemed. Talked him down and everything, and he felt... well, better than before.

(Once again, he'd damn impressed with Momma Hissera-Iss and her child-rearing skills for making such a good kid.)

He knew where he was, he knew his new name. He knew Gorse wasn't their Ashaad. Ashaad was dead, and that was a life he had left behind long ago. "Vashedan. I haven't had one of those in a while."

Rubbing his face, he looks around with a frown. "What is going on?"