MOD PLOT ↠ A THOUSAND WRONGS

[faderifting]

WHO: Everyone!
WHAT: Assisting with the aftermath of occupation
WHEN: August through Kingsway
WHERE: Field of Ghislain
NOTES: OOC post. Please use appropriate content warnings in your comment subject lines as needed.

The Fields of Ghislain are, as the name suggests, broad open plains, more flat than not, more grass than trees. There are famous orchards around Arlesans at the southern end, but they fade into grassland and farm land, wide fields of wheat and corn separating quiet farming villages and the occasional bustling market town, the even more occasional country estate.

High summer here has always meant long hot days, dusty roads, and preparations for the harvest. Now it also means recovery from the sudden end to the area's year-and-a-half of occupation by the forces of Corypheus. On first glance, the area appears to have escaped relatively unscathed. There are a few burnt villages here and there, a few new rifts, and the scarred valley where the Battle of Ghislain took place, but there are also crops growing strong in the fields and markets open for business, people going about their lives.

On closer inspection, there's more work to be done. The immediate threats are obvious: an unusual number of rifts and the general thinning of the Veil they signal, small bands of enemies—including bands of darkspawn with red lyrium growths—still marauding through the region, isolated patches of red lyrium to be destroyed and Blight to be contained.

Most places have at least one building that's been destroyed by fire or force, some practically essential—a grain store, an infirmary, a watch tower—some invaluable in other ways—a chantry, a mayor's office, a monument to heroic ancestors. Some places showed more resistance than others, and there whole neighborhoods or even entire villages have been gutted by fire and the ruins shoved over like block towers. Some survivors fled and now return to pick through the debris, while others remained, living in shanties in the ashes waiting for a chance to rebuild. Despite the crops ripening in the fields there are signs of malnutrition in many places as well, stories of crops confiscated to feed the invading troops and only meager rations returned, worse off even than those affected by shortages elsewhere in Orlais.

And it's not just the material that the enemy has taken or destroyed. Every decent-sized village has its missing, people who were arrested and taken away in wagons or simply vanished one day out of the blue. Where there was resistance there were executions to discourage it, and while the inhabitants have already taken down and buried the displayed bodies, there are a few places where there is no one left to do so, or where magic placed remains out of reach but always in sight.

There are opportunities too: the enemy lived and worked here for 18 months. They did their best to cover their tracks when they left, but it was a hasty and unexpected withdrawal, and there is a wealth of information to collect and work through. There are houses they occupied that haven't been entirely cleaned out, papers only half-burned in an abandoned office, a storeroom in an outpost basement they forgot to empty. And there are the people who have been forced to live and work alongside them all this time to be spoken with, the names they've learned and the conversations they've overheard, the training exercises held on their village greens, all to be teased out and taken down.

One abandoned operation commands particular attention: the site that Riftwatch—then the Inquisition—observed on the eve of the Battle might be a shrine to the Old God Dumat. At the time this was a newly-discovered ruin and little could be discerned for certain, but during their occupation the Venatori have undertaken massive excavations. They've uncovered not just a shrine but a significant temple complex, much of it underground. Exploration of the lowest levels will be handled by a particular team, but there is more to see and do besides. The warren of ruins and the remains of the camp outside them must be searched for clues as to the Venatori's purpose here, and a preliminary study made of the site's contents. There are also the slaves who did the back-breaking labor of digging out the complex and now need assistance. Many are locals, who simply need a ride back to their homes. Others the Venatori brought with them from Tevinter, and they will need to be interviewed and local communities persuaded to take them in.

It is an unimaginable amount of work, but Riftwatch isn't doing it alone. The Inquisition still has a large number of noncombatants, many of whom have been sent to help with outreach and rebuilding in particular. The Exalted March, too, has plenty of volunteers that aren't exactly fit for the front lines. There is enough ground to cover for everyone, but there will be times when Riftwatch agents will be working with—or at least alongside—those from the Inquisition and the Exalted March, and orders are clear that they are to maintain good working relations and not start any trouble.

In between all of this there will be long rides by horse or cart from this village to that one over dirt tracks with cicadas buzzing in the sun, sweltering afternoons broken up by sudden, drenching thunderstorms, warm evenings playing pétanque on the green with the locals over a pint of cider. There will be as many wary as grateful, but hopefully by the end of the summer Riftwatch can tip that balance a little bit.

Comments

[tender]

With a lingering pat to her pack, Derrica stretches out on the grass to look upwards where Athessa's directing. Some part of her stalls at this, warns at the arrangement of her body in relation to Athessa's, but once comfortably arranged, she gamely considers the indicated cloud.

"A goat," she offers, squinting. "There, you see, the horns..."

She sketches the outline lightly in the air, settling on her chosen creature.

[sulahnan]

"Oh yeah," she laughs, ignoring the twinge in her ribs protesting it. "I can see that. You know, some goats can scream like people? It's bizarre."

The day has already been warm, and Derrica being so close only makes Athessa warmer, but she's determined to try, to make their friendship the priority over her own feelings. So what if her skin is on fire whenever they touch? At least they can exist near to one another. At least being touched, even innocently, is an option sometimes.

(It's a nice thing to tell herself, even if it feels like there's a vice on her heart.)

[tender]

"I did know that, actually."

Derrica props one knee up, crosses her opposite leg over it. There's grass tickling the nape of her neck, and she feels very far from the sea and the subjects of the memory teasing at her mind.

"Most of the crews I sailed with kept goats. It took me months to get used to the screaming."

Not that she'd never seen a goat before, but she'd never had occasion to stick around long enough to hear all the kinds of noises they made. She points lazily at a greying cloud to the right of them.

"That one. Tell me what it looks like."

[sulahnan]

"Oh gods. Screaming like that coming from below decks on a ship sounds terrifying."

That's probably where a lot of stories of ghost ships come from, now that she thinks about it. A ship with rolling through the fog before the sun has come up, the creaking and screaming echoing out over the water...spooky.

Athessa looks over, focusing on the cloud that Derrica's pointing to rather than how the tip of her head brings their faces closer. She squints, tracing the cloud's shape with her eyes.

"Looks like... a face, blowing that other cloud away. See the cheeks are there, like--" She purses her lips and puffs out her cheeks the way children do before they understand how to blow out candles without spitting.

[tender]

It's a fair assessment. Derrica squints anyway, as if giving it some great consideration, as she lets her hand fall back over her head to the grass.

"Whose face? You have to decide on someone so I can judge fairly."

Did they have enough people in common for that? The whole of Riftwatch, yes, but Derrica isn't sure anyone in Riftwatch has been caught making that particular kind of expression.

[sulahnan]

Does Athessa know anyone other than herself to make such a face? She thinks on it for a moment.

"Matthias, maybe? That bit could be his floppy hair, and the light that's breaking through is the flush he gets when he's embarrassed."

It is, at best, a bit of a stretch, but amusing enough to titter at regardless.

[tender]

Lightly, Derrica knocks her foot against Athessa's ankle.

"No!"

But Athessa isn't wholly off-base. Derrica's objecting more on principle, as if Matthias could emerge from the trees to hear them.

"His face is too sweet. Maybe the new Captain of the Guard?"

[sulahnan]

The tittering gives way to a wheezing laugh which does her still-sore ribs no favors but cannot be helped. Imagining Dumas making that face is far too easy, and far too accurate to what she knows of him.

"Oh no! You're right!" She tries to stifle her giggling, similarly as if Dumas might loom into sight, called forth by the sound. "He looks even more like a Big Turnip in cloud form!"

Maybe her nickname for him is a little...obscure.

[tender]

"Big Turnip?"

Derrica shifts, re-situating herself to prop onto one elbow and better squint at Athessa in bemused interest. Her passing knowledge of Dumas brought to mind a number of potential comparisons, but turnips—

"What made you think of that?"

[sulahnan]

"The first time we talked was when I asked the network who stole my stuff," she explains. "He kept calling me Bath Oils because of it, so I needed to call him something in turn, and he said he was fresh off the turnip cart."

She draws her teeth over her bottom lip and shrugs. "And he's a big guy. It's stupid but it stuck."

[tender]

"Now I'm going to have to try and pretend I don't know this when I see him."

Derrica stretches, then sighs.

"I need to get up. I still have to carry those supplies to the healers in the next town."

And they shouldn't lay here for too long together. Derrica has the sense of tempting fate, or skirting the kind of thing that'll make Athessa quietly miserable later on.

[sulahnan]

Athessa play-acts a groan. "Just five more minutes?"

If she doesn't stop grinning like an idiot her face is gonna start hurting, unused to the strain of late.

"D'you want company? I'm free and clear 'til morning." When she looks past Derrica at the supplies she mentioned, Athessa can't help her gaze from drifting back to Derrica's face.

It'd take barely any effort to lean over and kiss her.

[tender]

The weight of Athessa's gaze feels almost like a tangible touch. Derrica draws in a sharp breath, before she reaches to swat lightly at Athessa's shoulder, before she pushes herself to her feet.

"No, you don't need to take on extra work just for me," Derrica tells her. There's a few stray pieces of grass stuck to her leggings, and she bends to pluck them away, an excuse to avoid Athessa's eyes for a few moments and gather herself. "You looked comfortable enough before I came along."

Which is true in a variety of ways.

"I'll see you tonight, I'm sure."

[sulahnan]

As is expected with pretend punches or kicks or swats, Athessa plays up her reaction, reeling as if Derrica had dealt a major blow. She recovers fast, though, watching Derrica prepare to leave, pushing herself up to lean back on her hands, and giving a slight smile.

"You know I don't care about taking on extra work," she defends, but doesn't press. She knows a turn-down when she hears it. She also knows the sudden lack of Derrica beside her will weigh more heavily than if she'd never been there, but...well. Maybe in time she'll get used to that.

"But yeah. I guess I'll see ya later, then."