EVENT: TRUTH BOMB

[faderifting]

WHO: Anyone
WHAT: TRUTH BOMB
WHEN: Bloomingtide 15-17
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: OOC information. Use appropriate content warnings in your subject lines, please.

It’s an ordinary day—so not a very pleasant one. The weather is dreary and muggy, and the day’s lunch is a soup that’s a little too watery and bland. The griffons are being their usual level of noisy and swoopy. The work is its usual level of urgent and difficult.

But in the storage rooms, something wiggles. Then it hums. Then it pops.

Outside of the storage room, there’s no actual sound, no shift in the wind, and no visible sign of a change. But the pop might be felt—like the moment something finally clicks, or two ideas suddenly fit together, except the opposite. In the heads of everyone in the fortress, something is suddenly not connected quite right.

The first sign of what’s gone wrong is that someone immediately stands up and tells the cook how bad the soup is.

A lot of people’s days are about to get exponentially worse.

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

He raises an eyebrow but says nothing. For once might mean that Benedict actually thinks about it sometimes, and that's actually more than he'd expected.

"It's all right. If it's any consolation, I share the sentiment. I've no protector here anymore with Nate gone, and still there are plenty of people that want me dead." It costs him nothing to admit his obvious vulnerability. "On the other hand, I find the mess hall fairly defensible. Toss the tables over and you've got some sort of barricade, and between you and me we could rain down a decent amount of magic on any invaders. I've even got Grey Warden stamina on my side."

It's a fair amount of babbling. Benedict is clearly on edge and probably could use a little rambling right now.

[altusimperius]

He thinks about it fairly often, especially in context of himself: Benedict is not well-liked, and he knows it. Being threatened in a way specific to mages even once is impossible to forget.

He almost smiles when Anders tries to reassure him, but just as quickly shakes his head. "I couldn't," he says before he can curb it, "I'd choke. I choke every time now."

[justice_is_blond]

Anders' expression goes serious.

"If you'd like to tell me what's going on, I'm here. I've some... experience with lingering issues after things go to the Void and back." He'd wanted to say he'd some experience treating others but while that's true it's apparently not accurate enough. "On the other hand, if you don't want to talk about it, pick something else and we can talk about that."

Best not to ask directly, right now.

[altusimperius]

"I don't know," comes Benedict's first answer, and then a quick shake of his head, adding, "I'm afraid." Then he winces, having not meant to say that, and shakes his head again.
"I don't want to talk about it," he decides, pushing his hair back away from his forehead.

[justice_is_blond]

Anders nods.

"Then we'll not talk about it. But I will say that I entirely understand fear, and if you do feel like talking about it, my door is open. Doors. Clinic, Infirmary, rooms, all of it." Fear is the mages' worst enemy. They're taught to fear themselves just as much as common people are taught to fear them, and it holds them down and back.

"There's going to be a fight after the battle with Corypheus, and perhaps you'll be clear of it in Tevinter but considering the state of the Chantry and new Divine it's possible no mages will be beyond its reach." No living mages, at least. "We can be here for each other."