faderift | ★ OPEN

You don't know what I want.

( and whilst her stubbornness can tell gwen much her want to be released isn't so she can be out in this world. not entirely, anyway. rowena wants to get back to that forest and the rift she fell out of, to study it and see if she can get back to her world with it. she doesn't realise that the rift was closed, already drifting by that point and not remembering it after.

she doesn't, however, argue the quarantine after that explanation. it's understandable caution after that, particularly when they're dragged from different worlds. and injured as rowena was they don't know if she'd been sick, how she'd gotten injured, and many other questions. things she wasn't inclined to share )

Did you come out of a... tear in the sky?

( gwenaëlle gives her a dry look at that first remark— and that’s why they have a quarantine, and don’t just trust people to act in their best interests because it’s the most intelligent thing they should do.

she’s just digging her heels in because she’s sore and annoyed, but there’s always one fucking idiot who really might try, just to prove a point about their own agency. she’s met several of them. it was annoying every time. )

No. ( she glances, briefly, at her own hand— ) My anchor-shard did. You caught one on the way out, I was in the wrong place when one opened.

The head healer did, though. We call them rifts, specifically.

( asher called them sky-cunts, and there’d been a moment where she’d nearly said queefed instead of expelled. )

( rifts, tears, portals, they were all the same, though knowing how they were referred to here would probably help her )

Well, rifts like these are nothing new, even if it's not a common thing.

( not for the sheer amount of power that it took to open a rift. rowena had needed strong archangel grace as an ingredient in the one that she'd opened, god had had a tantrum and ripped his to hell. it took power. and magic )

And the man that met me there certainly didn't open one. Neither did I.

( from her side, anyway )

So why are they occurring more frequently here?

( who or what is being that powerful to continue it? )

An ancient madman ripped a hole in creation, ( is delivered with honestly more of a shrug than that kind of news usually warrants—

but it’s been like, ten fucking years. gwenaëlle was twenty-two when she was sent to skyhold, and will be thirty-two by the year’s end. rowena’s right: it’s nothing new.

it’s been most of her adult life. )

The rifts are tears in the veil, which is what separates Thedas, ( a gesture about them: you know, the world, ) from the fade. People like you come here,

( a little shrug, a physical one this time, not verbal, )

dreamed into being. If I’m following you, ( that she specifies she hadn’t opened a rift because it’s worth specifying because that’s something she’s hypothetically capable of doing, ) you should be aware that it’s very likely magic no longer behaves the way you expect it to. The body you have now belongs here. Means it’s following different rules.

( it should be noted that the first thing that gwenaëlle says gets no more reaction from rowena than a slight shrug of her mouth. of course he did, effectively. it sounds like a tuesday. and also like something that god would do. he's the creator of worlds, all worlds, all universes. of course, she's blaming him.

(she'll probably blame him even if she gets corrected on that)

except dreamed into being is new. considering her resurrection... perhaps it's just phrasing, though she figures that god (or death) could resurrect her in such a way if they chose. not that either would. could another being of great power? it's likely is where she settles on. and gives her a point to look up: powerful beings and the magic of this world, particularly when the phrasing differs )

I'll worry about my body.

( y'know, when she's not in quarantine. it's certainly not the first time she's had it rebuilt from death and nothing. why is this her life, honestly?

as for her magic? she'd try that when she was stronger. she'd already cast one spell here, one that had worked if weaker. but she was weaker )

Are you a witch?

( the bar is so low — in hell, one might say — that rowena’s reaction is perfectly acceptable lacking as it does outright argument. it’s minimal time wasted and that serves; she’s taking the time to ask questions to learn about her new circumstances, which is a good sign, and how she feels about the answers she gets is her own concern.

there are other people in riftwatch, kinder, gentler, more patient. gwenaëlle’s answers are honest as she understands them. )

No. ( she’d refrained where it was unnecessary, but now it seems factually relevant: ) Your condition isn’t urgent enough to warrant mage healing. Riftwatch isn’t in a position to be careless with resources.

( underresourced, understaffed, overworked—

it’s not any newer or more exciting a story than ancient horrors unleashed. it’s only the part they tend to leave out of the stories, afterwards, when everyone’s survived. )

( she rolls her eyes at the woman's answer )

I didn't ask about healing. ( this time, considering that rowena had already made a comment about inadequate healing when gwen had first walked over )

You're talking about magic. Obviously, you know the world, but do you use magic?

( are you a fucking witch? the question didn't change, the answer needed to )

( the pissiness earns her a skeptical look, unimpressed— fine, she’s not interested in context or conversation— )

Maybe we should check you for a head injury as well, ( she says, dry, ) or you can explain to me what it is that ’no’ means in your language.

( the answer doesn’t change. )

Apparently many things.

( she'd taken the answer as combined when the woman had tacked on the second part, focusing more on the misdirection about healing than fully recognising what she'd said. pain, recovery, many things were distractions )

You know enough about magic for someone not a witch.

( growing up around it? studying it? it hasn't yet slotted into place that magic isn't secret here despite the demons and bullshit of the rifts )

Uh huh.

( it’s not a question, and thus far, volunteering information to this woman has got her no where but snide ingratitude; she’s not a woman of endless tolerance. frankly, she’s not even a woman of much tolerance — it’s plenty that she simply studies her work for a moment, satisfied with it once she’s secured the new dressing in place.

it’s not personal — either her willingness to offer, or her disinterest in continuing to do it when it’s clear rowena is just going to be like this regardless. it’s not personal, so she doesn’t look vexed or irritated, more—

it’s not personal enough to waste her time on, either. )

Your dressing will be checked again in six or eight hours, ( she says, as she cleans her hands, the bright-sharp scent of sanitizer in the air, ) and changed then if necessary, or tomorrow if not. Someone will bring you what you’ve been judged able to keep down without interfering with your healing in two.

★ OPEN

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