PLAYER PLOT | Forgetti Catchall, now in the right comm

[wythersake]

WHO: Ennaris Tavane, Julius, Bastien, Viktor, Clarisse La Rue + OTA
WHAT: Strangers arrive at the Gallows.
WHEN: A week in Haring.
WHERE: The Gallows / elsewhere
NOTES: Check out this OOC Post for details.

This is a catchall post for threads with or about the forgotten characters plot. Feel free to thread about it elsewhere as well!

• OOC Info
• Rookery Post

 

Comments

[dirthsal]

As good as shemlen can be, [ probably sounds like he's agreeing with her, at least.

his smile turns from conspiratorial to soft in answer to hers. josephine is older than him, he thinks, though not so much it's terribly obvious. still, she's from the city, and no matter how many years she may have on him talin can't help but feel a fraternal urge toward care for his city-raised brethren. they understand so little of their birthright. ]

What gave it away, was it the accent? Do I not sound like I come from a city?

[ he puts on his best marcher accent. it's... fine. she's probably heard worse attempts, somewhere. ]

Would you believe me if I said I'm from Ostwick? No?

sorry it's been 84 years

[untiltheyarent]

[Her resulting smile is polite, but not necessarily with agreement-- some shem'len can be very good, in fact, but arguing the point right now is too exhausting a prospect.]

The language, [Fifi clarifies, her smile broadening a bit self-effacingly.] Lethallan. [When she says it, the last 'n' is a bit nasal, Orlesian: lethallaine.]

I would. [Believe it. She begins to walk slowly, toward the ferry.] I admit I don't know much about a fair number of places, or their accents. You could tell me you're from Orzammar and I'd probably believe you.

[dirthsal]

Lan, [ he corrects her, though not unkindly, ] lethallan. Means "friend". Lethallin, if you were a man.

[ he follows her, matching her slow pace, hands behind his back. ]

Technically I'm Orlesian, same as you. Born in the borders of, at least, so I can't be anything else.

But yes, [ after a pause, a breath, a far-away look in his eye, ] I am Dalish. Never been to Ostwick, or Orzammar. Clans tend to stay on the right side of the Deep Roads.

[ that is, above and outside of them. elves don't belong underground. ]

[untiltheyarent]

Lan, [Fifi repeats carefully, committing it to memory.]

Understandable. [The ferry is approaching, so she hurries her step slightly, but not so quickly that Talin can't keep pace,] what has brought you to Riftwatch?

[dirthsal]

Evil Vint magister doesn't seem like he'll care much for Dalish if he wins, [ is the practiced, part true answer. he's spared from having to consider if he wants to give her any more by their focused beeline for the ferry, and by the time they're aboard the boat he's mostly expecting her to have forgotten she'd even asked.

he waits a few moments to turn it around on her, letting them both catch their breaths and appreciate the salty air before he glances at her sidelong. ]

You, lethallan? Why'd you join up?

[untiltheyarent]

[She laughs drily. Yes, evil Vint magisters aren't known for that,]

A good enough reason as any, [she muses, pausing when he asks:]

Opportunity. Things weren't working out in my previous occupation, and Riftwatch needed staff. I thought, why not help the cause however I can?

[Crossing the gangplank onto the ferry, she smiles thoughtfully at Talin.]

I imagine it was difficult, leaving your clan?

[dirthsal]

[ that's not an unusual reason, but it is unremarkable enough to still feel incomplete—plenty of elves feel like things aren't working out in their occupations, they don't go haring off to join world-saving organizations of dubious efficacy. of course, talin's reasoning isn't any more complete. he won't prod her for details, at least not in public...

though maybe he should, if it would distract her from this particular line of questioning. he doesn't flinch from the question, or even twitch, but it's a long moment before he can bring himself to respond. ]

Yes and no, [ he says finally, leaning against the ferry railing. ] I miss them. Leaving them behind was not easy. It got easier when I realized I wasn't leaving them anywhere, though.

[ he presses one hand over his heart, closing his eyes, ducking his chin, turning his attention inward. the corners of his lips tug upward—but it's not a smile, really, not quite. ]

They're with me wherever I go, in everything I do. I couldn't leave the clan any more than I could leave my arm, or my heart. As long as I remember that, it's not so bad to be apart from them.

[untiltheyarent]

[Fifi's expression is sympathetic, a small and wistful smile twitching onto her mouth as he explains.]

Sometimes that's how it has to be, [she agrees gently,] but... well, Riftwatch has eluvians, and it's never been faster to visit home.

[Her smile brightens,]

I've been able to return to Val Royeaux, just to say hello from time to time. You'll find they don't have to be so far away. Also,

[she nudges her head back toward the receding Lowtown,]

the Alienage always needs help and hands. They're not your clan, but you can come with me sometime if you just want to be around others.

[dirthsal]

[ his answering smile is amused, secretive—the smile of someone who is not at all telling the whole truth, but talin doesn't offer any clarification as to what it is fifi's said that's so funny. ]

Yes, [ he says, nodding, ] I still can't get used to how easy it is to get around Thedas. So many corners of the world unseen since the time of Elvhenan, suddenly open to us again...

[ it's an insult that so many of these eluvians are in the hands of shemlen, that they will never even consider giving them back to the elves for whom they are a birthright. it infuriates him sometimes if he thinks about it too long, so he chooses not to think about it. ]

I've been working in the Alienage already, with the Templar Cedric. I'd be happy to spend more time there to help our People more.

[untiltheyarent]

Oh! Cedric is a good sort.

[Folding her arms to rest on the railing of the ferry, Fifi casts a cautious look out over the water before resolving to focus on Talin instead-- if she noticed any strangeness in his smile, she doesn't comment on it.]

You've seen the trees? [she asks, lowering her voice secretively,] in the Crossroads.
[She breaks into a grin.]
I've never seen anything like it.

[dirthsal]

[ talin hums, though whether it's agreement he's intimating with the noise isn't quite clear—cedric is certainly a sort of something. quality on that one's unclear, chantry as he is. that's easily set aside, though, and talin's focus draws back to fifi from the water he's been considering, his smile turning conspiratorial. ]

They're beautiful, aren't they? The whole place is. It's almost enough to make you feel bad for the shemlen.

[ almost. not quite, though, at least not talin. if anything, he looks a little pleased to have something that the humans not only don't, but can't. ]

[untiltheyarent]

[She smiles back, but with a faintly rising discomfort; it's not that Fifi doesn't have as much axe to grind with humankind as anyone else, but to have them brought back to the focus several times now begs the question:]

They've wronged you terribly?

[Asked conversationally, with sympathy. No elf can really be blamed for feeling such a way.]

[dirthsal]

Haven't they wronged us all terribly?

[ it's a quick, easy response, for all it doesn't answer the question even slightly. he considers fifi for a moment, assessing, before looking back to the horizon with a chagrinned sort of look. ]

It's still strange to me to be surrounded by them everywhere I go. For most of my life I only heard of humans in fire-side tales told to scare little Dalish children into being good—behave or the shemlen will take you away, that sort of thing.

I must sound so foolish to someone like you.

[untiltheyarent]

[Fifi eyes widen for a moment-- it's quite a loaded question-- but she relaxes as he settles into an explanation.]

Not foolish, [she offers, giving him a gentle, reassuring pat on the arm,] just unused to a new situation. I've never had a life apart from them, but I imagine it's a shock when that's all you know.

[A little shrug,]

some are good and some aren't. But they're just people, like anyone else.

🎀

[dirthsal]

[ he smiles at her, relieved. ]

You're too kind, lethallan... But thank you.

[ naïve as it might be to consider shemlen equals to the people in any way, fifi is at least not seeing him with eyes any cannier than she turns on the humans. that can be forgiven; she was raised among them, blinded to her birthright and carefully taught to accept their lies and justifications... and still, she's as frustrated by the world they live in as any in fen'harel's ranks. with the motivation to turn that frustration into action...

when they reach the gallows, talin stays on the ferry. he'd come this far to escort her back to the safety of their little island, but he actually has business in lowtown that he's late for. he waves off any apologies she tries to make, and extracts a promise instead: that she'll come to him whenever a human gives her any trouble.

fen'harel didn't send him to riftwatch to recruit, but he didn't tell him not to, either. ]