[open]

[thereneverwas]

WHO: Barrow, Fifi, Benedict? and you
WHAT: March catch-all
WHEN: whatever this month is called
WHERE: hither and thither
NOTES: slowly piecing this together, if you want a bespoke starter please yell at me in some form

[watch this space for open prompts I promise they'll happen]

Comments

[untiltheyarent]

She steps through.

The world changes in an instant, the Gallows giving way to open road and mist and mirrors. Fifi goes still, her face a mask of silent wonderment, only her head and eyes moving as she takes in the strangeness of the place like a prey animal surveying an open meadow.

"It's beautiful," she whispers to her companions, finally taking a delicate step forward, and another, until she stands beneath the nearest tree.
Lifting her hand to lightly stroke the underside of a small, low branch, she marvels at it.
"I've never seen leaves this color."

[cozen]

Behind her, Bastien is having a less pleasant time. The light is wrong and queasy. A little like trying to read through warped glass. A little like looking too near to the sun—not at the sun, but too close, enough to leave spots and require some blinking to get everything into focus. Something he can see through and even get used to, but in an hour or two he'll have a headache from it. And the atmosphere is heavy. Or his bones are.

If anyone else were here he'd endeavor not to seem to mind. But it's only Byerly and Fifi, so there's a little squinting wince to his otherwise pleased smile.

He can't see what she's seeing, with the leaves. Everything's muted and grey. But he's read the reports. He knew she'd see things they couldn't.

So, "What color?" isn't skeptical, purely inquisitive.

[untiltheyarent]

"A deep red. Almost purple," she explains, with an odd little glance at Bastien-- you mean you can't see them?-- and then a similar smile to herself.

Stepping away from the tree, she goes to the center of the walkway to simply look around, a hunch slowly looming in the back of her mind: it's not often she encounters something that's just for her, even if in this case it means people like her. With the Dalish experience being so foreign from her own, with such wildly different concerns and priorities, she hasn't had much occasion or reason to consider her own ancestry.

That may be what she's doing now, as she stands so still and simply looks.

[bouchonne]

Byerly lost his ability to see color, and as such, the disparity between what she's seeing and what he sees doesn't strike him as odd - not until Bastien asks that question. And then he turns and frowns curiously at him, and then at Fifi.

"This is an...elvish ability?" he asks. Discussions of the Crossroads, magic, all of that, never really stuck much in his head, but he does feel like he's encountered something along these lines.

[untiltheyarent]

"Is it?"

Fifi glances between Byerly and Bastien, quizzical.

[cozen]

Bastien nods.

"Elves see it differently. And it's less—" He gestures. "—miserable."

Gesture completed, his hand snakes around Byerly's waist to cinch him in against Bastien's side, because it counterbalances the mild but persistent discomfort of existing here.

"It was made for you. Or it was made—not for us."

A bit of a chicken and egg situation, perhaps, but is this a natural consequence, the Crossroads designed for and by elves and everyone else lacking something necessary to see them properly? Or is there something in everyone else that's being guarded against, to put off trespassers?

[bouchonne]

"Thanks for letting us humans stop in to visit," By says, leaning his head against Bastien's. His nose itches to a nearly painful degree, and he reaches up to scratch it.

[untiltheyarent]

She smiles, not unkindly, but with a touch of amusement: Fifi never wishes harm on anyone, of course (of course?), and especially not her friends, but there is something a little bit funny about how offput they are.

"All the kinder of you to bring me here," she remarks sincerely, and turns back to step toward them again, hands folded in front of her. "We can go back, if it troubles you so."

[cozen]

"No," Bastien says, the need to insist perking him up a bit. "No, we are here all the time for much stupider reasons than letting you see it. Do you want to take a look around? I told Yseult we wouldn't wander very far. There are spirits and things. But we could wander less than very far."

[bouchonne]

"As long as you narrate what you're seeing." Byerly winks at her. "Let us in on what we're missing out on."