It's a fool who plays it cool

[foolsmakeitcolder]

WHO: Jude & OPEN
WHAT: Arrival & settling
WHEN: Early Justinian
WHERE: First the Vimmark Mountains, then the Gallows
NOTES: Warning for giant ass wolf, giant wolf ass, nudity, violence.



Starters to come.

Comments

[foolsmakeitcolder]

"Was talking about you, but I see what you're getting at."

Jude offers an apologetic smile, takes a bite of his own. He chews thoughtfully, watching her face.

"Does that make us any less real?" he asks. "Even if we were our original selves, all the proof we have of the past is our memories."

He strokes the grain of the wood, thoughtful.

"It seems to me that we carry the important parts with us."

[youwonscience]

"Oh," she says, with a brief smile off his clarification. "I got you. But no, back home, my sisters are my sisters. I don't look at them and see sliding doors me. Maybe briefly when we first met, but... a couple of them were here, years ago. I think if you'd met them, you'd..." She makes a small sound, sort of a verbal shrug. "Helena would like you, you know. She appreciates a man who appreciates his food."

A brief pause, and then: "I think it makes us, if anything, more real. You know? There was a time, less so now, but a lot of rifters were like ... why should I fight Corypheus. Why should I care? But if this theory's right, Thedas may not be the only would remember, but it's the only world we'll know firsthand. It's our home too. Plus," a small digression, "it is kind of shit not to care if a world is destroyed just because it's not your world, but I don't know how to explain that part to people it's not self-evident to."

[foolsmakeitcolder]

Jude nods, caught up in the idea of sisters- because he would view it one way doesn't mean that another way doesn't also work, but it's still a fascinating concept. The rest, though:

A look crosses Jude's face, one of upset, disgust, confusion.

He's never understood the mentality of fuck you, I've got mine. It just doesn't compute. It's in part because of what he is, and it's in part because of who he is. A person can't live constantly wrapped in the thoughts and feelings of others and not care.

He tries to understand people who think differently, but ultimately he's not sure he ever will.

"Haven't met any of them," he admits. "And I'm glad for that."

[youwonscience]

"Yeah, it's an attitude that ebbs and flows, and thankfully we're on an ebb right now. But it's, you know, it can be hard to build much solidarity among rifters as a group when we're coming and going and there's sometimes a proportion of them that won't even bother to think about how their choices will affect people after they're gone. I think some of us who've been here the longest, like Madame de Cedoux, build more coalitions with native Riftwatch agents for exactly that reason."

She shrugs; it's speculation, but one based on observation.

"That said. I think I've met more people in Riftwatch who care than ones who don't. Our proportion's still pretty good."

[foolsmakeitcolder]

Jude pauses, something in his eyes that doesn't quite take shape in his mouth, though he parts his lips to try to figure out how to consider it.

There is no framing the questions he has. Not entirely.

"Are Rifters mostly human?"

[youwonscience]

She gives it a moment of genuine thought. "...I think the majority. Rifters are, or at least appear as, always one of the native Thedosian races when we come through a rift. We've got at least one each rifter elf and Qunari right now, there have been a couple other rifter elves come through. Granted, some of the humans can do things that, to my knowledge, humans in my world don't do, but that's true of Thedosian natives. Still human."