[open] and when i wake up you'll be here

[laruetheday]

WHO: Clarisse
WHAT: Arrival + some quarantine stuff
WHEN: Now, ig
WHERE: Ferelden somewhere + the Gallows
NOTES: n/a

Arrival

Weird dreams are a near nightly thing for demigods, so Clarisse doesn't bat an eye when she finds herself waiting for the elevator at the top of the Empire State Building in her basketball uniform, other than to wonder what kind of weird symbolism it is and hope that it's not going to interfere with her midterms. Even when the doors open and she steps in and lands on nothing but empty air, she manages not to scream. It all happens too fast, anyway.

Clarisse only has time to think, oh shit, and then she hits the dirt hard. The breath gets punched out of her chest and she wheezes pitifully, wondering since when her dreams are realistic enough to hurt. She rolls onto her back, wipes at the dirt on her chin, and finds herself staring up at something she can't comprehend, much less identify. The air looks... torn open, and through the jagged green split, she can see patches of concrete and red rocks.

The view is interrupted by something moving—something humanoid but elongated, with a grin that spreads too far in each direction. That's comprehendible. She's not sure what she's looking at, specifically, but she knows bad news when she sees it. Clarisse pushes off the ground at a run, angling herself away from the whatever-the-fuck-that-thing-is and trying to put some distance between her and it.

Quarantine - Dining Hall

At least the food here looks... pretty normal. She should be thankful for that.

Clarisse is in the dining hall, sitting straight backed and uncomfortable and pushing a piece of beef (probably?) around with a fork. She looks a little bit miserable, but what else is new? Push, push, push. The fork never seems to actually make it to her mouth.

Finally, she can't stand it anymore, and says to whoever's nearby: "Is there a place around here I can make an offering?"

Quarantine - Training Yard

Maybe she'd been slacking off on training a little bit, before she'd fallen out of the fucking sky, but that's over. If anything, the practice gives Clarisse a sense of familiarity, even while she's stuck in a place that's the complete opposite. She knows the moves. She's done them almost every day, for years. Doesn't matter where she is.

For anyone who happens to walk by and see her, it's clear that Clarisse is no beginner with the spear. She handles it with practiced ease, and it seems like she'd have no problem showing anybody else what it's like to be on the other end of Maimer's barbed tip. But when she does notice somebody watching, Clarisse only gives them a terse nod.

"You waiting for the space?"

Comments

[notathreat]

"Weirdly, you're not my first demigod," Ellie grins back, feeling it sneak over her face. She wouldn't call Clarisse's grin infectious, but it's something.

"But most of 'em don't seem like they're in touch with their parents."

But Ellie pauses again, interested. "So does it like- shoot lightning? Or is it like a taser?"

[laruetheday]

"Taser," Clarisse says, but she's more focused on the other thing Ellie'd said. Weirdly, you're not my first demigod. She fixes her face, carefully moderating her expression so that it doesn't look too hopeful. It's been practically beaten into her never to get her hopes up too much—but her heart's beating faster all the same.

"You've met others? Are they here?"

[notathreat]

"Loki? Sure. He's all right."

She regularly breaks into his house as a form of affection, don't worry about it.

Ellie notices the way Clarisse is almost too casual about it, so she matches that. "He lives over in Hightown, but he comes around sometimes. If you want, you can ask for him on the crystals. He'll probably answer."

And Loki loves talking about himself, so make that a definitely.

[laruetheday]

"Oh." Not Greek, or even Roman. She should've expected that, and it's stupid to feel disappointed, she tells herself. Like she could actually turn a corner here and run into someone she knows. It was dumb to even ask.

"Yeah, maybe I will." The more words she says, the more normal her voice sounds. "That's Norse, right? It's not my pantheon. I'm Greek."

[notathreat]

"I only know all the Roman gods because they named a bunch of stuff in space after them," Ellie admits, shrugging apologetically.

But she frowns, chewing her lip.

"What god are you?"

Demigod, Ellie.

[laruetheday]

"I'm not a god," Clarisse says. "I'm a girl." It's not like they're mutually exclusive, but whatever, it gets her point across. "My father is Ares, the god of war."

Another person might leave it at that, but she can't resist getting a dig in at the Romans. "By the way, the Romans totally stole everything from the Greeks. They just gave all our shit a different name and called it a day." She's not bitter or anything! Who cares.

"Pretty sure NASA named moons and shit after the Greeks, though," she adds. "Like Charon. And Phobos and Deimos."

[notathreat]

So Mars? Ellie wants to say, but she won't, because she's finally started to grow a few braincells. She thinks it, though.

"Shit. You're right.

"Okay, so your dad is some souped-up wargod. What's that mean for you?"

[laruetheday]

A couple seconds pass without Clarisse answering. Nobody's ever asked her that before—well, most of the people who know about her father are also demigods, so they wouldn't need to—and at first she's at a loss for how to describe any of it. It's just... her whole life, her identity. It means everything.

Her dad's a war god, and it means when she was eleven she got ripped away from her mom and her home and had to make her way across the country so she could learn how to fight monsters. It means she has a list of dead friends, and bad dreams way more often than good ones. Her baby godson is a satyr, and once the Oracle spoke a prophesy on her, and she burns a piece of her dinner every night as an offering for a father who barely ever thinks about her at all.

That's not what Ellie's asking, though. She means what can Clarisse do.

"Means I'm strong and I can fight." Slowly, her furrowed brow smooths out. "I can call down curses onto weapons, and I can summon the dead. I mean, I could. It isn't working here, since I fell through the rift."

[notathreat]

Ellie watches things pass over Clarisse's face, behind her eyes. It's interesting what she chooses to share. Nothing about her godly dad. Dadly god? Or them together. Just a list of what she can do, like she's reading off a skill sheet.

Like it's a recitation. Like she's had to explain not the god stuff, but what she can do.

"Summoning the dead seems way more like a... Hades thing?" that was the other name for Pluto, right?

Far be it from her to poke holes in her story. She sounds way more curious than accusatory. She's seen so much weird shit she doesn't bother questioning it anymore. If Clarisse says she can summon the dead, Ellie believes her.

[laruetheday]

“It is,” Clarisse acknowledges. “Pretty sure a child of Hades could summon anybody they wanted. I can only do people who died fighting on the losing side of a war. They owe a debt to Ares for losing.”

Plucked out of the fields of Asphodel, most likely. Everything about themselves faded and forgotten except the idea that there is something to fight for, and somebody’s orders to follow.

[notathreat]

"One last kick in the balls," Ellie mutters.

It's fucked up enough, really, but here in Thedas, it's a little bit more than that.

"There's a lot of weird baggage around anything like blood magic and necromancy in Thedas. Most people in Riftwatch won't care, but outside it, they really do."

[laruetheday]

“Oh,” Clarisse says.

She has picked up on that vibe, a little. The necromancy thing is something she’s only brought up a couple of times, when someone asked about her powers, but it’s gotten a reaction. Or more specifically a non-reaction, which is just as telling.

Maybe she’s wrong, but she gets the impression that Ellie’s telling her to watch herself without actually saying that. Clarisse appreciates it more than if she’d come right out and said not to mention it directly. And she’s not going to say thanks or anything because that would be dumb, but she nods.

“Good to know.” She picks up the brush again and goes back to brushing the mare.

[notathreat]

Ellie's not one to shut anybody down from talking about themselves, and in her opinion the people who'd judge Clarisse on it are dumbasses, anyway. Clarisse is a Rifter, a completely different box from blood mages here, and doesn't play by the same rules.

But she doesn't want somebody to have a hard time, either. She nods in acknowledgement. It doesn't sound like a thank you, but she never expected one. Instead she puts up the currycomb and takes out a regular comb, moves to brush the bits of hay and dust out of the mare's mane. She's relaxed now, leans into the affectionate touches.

"There you go," she murmurs under her breath, fond. "Better now?"

It softens the gruff edges of her voice, makes her sound younger -- gives away that the lower register of it isn't completely natural, just habit.

"I've thought of a name," she says, suddenly.

[laruetheday]

There's no real physical resemblance between Ellie and Silena, but something about the way Ellie's voice softens as she talks to the horse makes Clarisse feel like she could close her eyes and be right back in the stables at camp, pretending to be bored while Silena worked. She wants to lean into the feeling just as much as she wants to turn her back on it, and so in the end she does nothing. It's a relief when Ellie speaks to her again.

"Yeah? What is it?"

[notathreat]

Ellie nods to her bow in the corner.

It might be stupid and a little bit dramatic, but it's one of the first legends she learned when she came here, digging around in the books about constellations. She nods to her bow in the corner.

"Eluvia," she says.

The sacrifice.

[laruetheday]

The name doesn’t mean anything to Clarisse; it just sounds cool. Still, that’s as good a reason as any, and besides, she’s sure it does have a meaning, to Ellie at least, and so she gives her an approving nod.

“Nice. What’s it mean?”

Also, stupid and dramatic are both things she loves, so.

[notathreat]

The corner of Ellie's mouth twists, and she bites down on it, framing out her answer as she works over the horse's mane.

"It's the name of a constellation here in Thedas," she says. "It's of a girl with her head in the clouds."

Another pause, because she could leave it there, but.

"There was this... guy, a mage, who wanted to hurt her. So her dad sent her to live in the sky. The mage got angry, and killed her dad. And she became the constellation."

She pauses again.

"It's also called The Sacrifice."

[laruetheday]

Clarisse is nodding, even as she bites her lip in an almost unconscious mirroring of the expression on Ellie's face. The whole thing sounds like it could be straight out of a Greek myth... all tragic and weird.

She's deliberately not asking why Ellie'd want to name her bow after that very specific constellation. The unasked question sort of hangs there between them for several moments.

"It's a cool name," she says, finally, to break the silence. "You like all that shit? Constellations and planets."

[notathreat]

Ellie holds her breath while Clarisse chews over that information, and it breaks good. She's glad she won't have to explain that one. She's not sure how she'd begin.

She decides that she likes Clarisse. There's a strange aura of home around her, not the place but the attitude. Of someone used to profoundly shitty things but still kicking out of spite, still surviving even when everything converges to make it a nightmare to do so.

Ellie still doesn't know very much about her, but she's all right.

"Thanks," she says to start, and then a grin breaks across her face, making it obvious that this is her favorite thing, actually.

"Yeah. I love that shit. It's- kinda dumb, but when I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up."

Ellie tugs the comb gently through a snag. "And when I came here, Wysteria lent me her telescope. So I've been studying the sky here ever since. Learning all the stories and stuff."

[laruetheday]

It doesn't sound dumb to Clarisse. Somebody's gotta grow up to be the astronauts of the world, after all. Not her, of course. She's almost positive that there was some kind of mist-related fudging of her college applications. But somebody like Ellie? Sure, why not.

"You still could," she says, sounding completely serious. But she can't help grinning as she adds, "Bring Thedas into the space age. Come on."

Maybe she could figure out how to warp them home, or something.

[notathreat]

"Sh'yeah, I could bribe Tony to build me a rocket," Ellie snickers, a smile peeking out before she knows what to do with it.

Head out there just to see the sunrise."

[laruetheday]

"Fuck that." Clarisse is still smiling, but it takes on a little bit of an edge. "I'd watch the sunrise and then get the hell out of here."

She's still so new. The denial hasn't totally worn off yet. Part of her still thinks this is some kind of fucked up punishment from her dad, and if she suffers through it long enough, he might pluck her out of here and send her back home.

[notathreat]

"But you'd still stop to watch the sunrise," Ellie points out, grinning wider.

"I would. I've seen pictures of it. I don't think anything's gonna compare to the real view."

As she talks, her smile eases into something more thoughtful.

"Is your world that great?"

[laruetheday]

"Yeah!" Clarisse admits. "I would do it so I could tell people I did." Not because she thinks sunrises are pretty or something.

She almost answers Ellie's question without a thought. Yeah, her world is great. She's the daughter of a god. But if she takes a second to think about it, okay, yeah, there are plenty of shitty things about the place she comes from. She shrugs one shoulder. "It's not that it's perfect. It's mine. This place is just, I don't know. I don't fit here.

Besides, like. My mom is there." This is sort of an afterthought, though. Clearly.

[notathreat]

Ellie nods to herself, taking it all in. It's a serious answer, a serious question, even if she hadn't thought she framed it that way.

Shrugging one shoulder, she rubs her hand along the horse's back, getting rid of the loose stray hairs. She's all clean, but she's just loving the attention now.

And maybe Ellie's quiet for a touch too long.

It's mine, Clarisse says, and it makes Ellie wonder if any place is hers, now. If any place ever really was hers.

"Your mom?"