open

[acreage]

WHO: Holden, you!
WHAT: A catch-all for the month(?)
WHEN: After Satinalia and onwards
WHERE: Kirkwall, Gallows
NOTES: There'll be post-murderhaus stuff in here, so there may be references to some of the horror movie occurrences!

Starters will be in the comments! I'm sorry, I'll write a real log one day.

Comments

[highborn]

As if he would ever have the stomach for infirmary business — he waves it off with a quiet huff.

"Well, but there was little for me to bounce back from." Physically, anyway. He nods to his left forearm, though it's currently hidden under long sleeves, which had sported bloody bandages for a while. "A bit of healing magic, a few nights of sleep, and I'm fine. You, on the other hand, I understand became our standard for rating relative injuries."

Or maybe that was just him and Ellis.

1/2

[acreage]

It's not that he's unaware that he nearly bled to death and all, but also: wow, okay.

"Well, I'm honored."

[acreage]

"That's not exactly what I meant, anyway."

He taps fingers against the side of his cup, then goes on,

"That was a shitty experience for all of us. Even if you weren't hurt as badly, it was still a lot to go through."

[highborn]

The meaning is quite clear. Vanadi of a few months ago would shut this line of talk down quickly, an insistence of fine about all he was willing to part with — but Vanadi of today is, against all odds, on firmer ground. It takes a few seconds of deliberation, but with a sigh he decides to allow it.

"As a Rifter, it was a poignant reminder that I'm held in a very different regard here than I'm used to." A pause to sip his own cup, then a shrug. "Although I suppose really anyone could be made into a grisly puppet, elf or otherwise, if they're in the wrong place at the wrong time."

[acreage]

"He seemed pretty happy to use any person he found," Holden agrees, though it's hard to argue with the fact that almost all of the bodies they'd found were elves. Were they just easy prey in Medrod's eyes, or was there something else to it?

Best not dwelt on, though.

"Are things different for elves where you come from?"

[highborn]

"Ah, yes." Considerably. All those slavery statues in the Gallows had been pretty startling. "Most elves in my world were some form of aristocracy, or at least quite well-off."

[acreage]

"That has to be a fucking adjustment."

Though that's honestly closer to what he would've expected, in a world where real elves exist.

"Are there only elves in your world, or are there other kinds of people too?"

[highborn]

Oh boy, it sure was. But his polite smile maintains like a pro, and the idea gets waved off.

"Oh, certainly, all sorts, to the point that humans being the most populous around here feels a bit strange," he says, and adds, just in case, "No offense intended. And what about your world?"

[acreage]

"None taken," he says easily, briefly raises his hands to make the point.

It kind of seems like fair play, that there should be worlds with fewer, or even no, humans.

"All humans, more or less." He's only explicitly mentioned extinct alien races to one person, and he's not looking to change that now, apparently. "I'm sorry to say I'd never met an elf before a rift spit me out here."

[highborn]

This is the first he's learning of a world with only humans, and it sits strangely with him. What if it wasn't always human-only? He could see elves of this world dwindling down to nothing, given the right circumstances.

Not really a topic for today, though. Instead, "A human is really just an elf with tiny little ears and poor night vision, so I can't imagine it's been much of a shock. Now, qunari — have you seen any of them?"

[acreage]

He can't help a smile at that assessment of humans, lifts an eyebrow at the question.

"I've heard the name, but I haven't seen one. Why? What do they look like?"

[highborn]

"Tall, broad--" He gestures as he speaks, miming a large frame. It ends in a splay of hands over his head, maybe a bit incomprehensible until he adds, "Quite the racks, all of them that I've seen about." Or maybe that wasn't a terrible useful way to describe 'horns'. Nor does he have a very large sample size, and most of his experience is secondhand. Oh, well.

"There's at least one with Riftwatch. Though, interestingly enough, I hear he's a Rifter."

[acreage]

"On their head?"

Which is obviously what Vanadi's suggesting with those hand gestures, but also. He has some context for deer, not horned humanoids.

"I've heard about him," he says, and has to think on it for a second. "Loxley, right?"

[highborn]

"That's the one," he says with a nod. "I've not met him directly, but he's rather a handsome fellow. He's -- hmm, from a world similar to my last, I believe."

That's just a theory, and ... probably doesn't mean much, in the long run. He waves the thought away.

"And then there's dwarves, of course. Have you met any yet?"