Network Noise [CLOSED]

[djinnigenie]

[The feed kicks in with an accidental activation. Shuffling, loud, brushing noises herald a loud, muffled, angry, female voice.]

MORRIGAN! Where in the Maker's name am I? WHAT DID YOU DO?

[Slam! Rattle! Distortion. The louder words echo a bit in the cavernous space.]

WHERE AM I?

[Heavy breathing.]

You said I would live, but you didn't mention *this* - can you hear me?

[Deep breath. Calmer voice.]

Very well. I do not know where I am. This is not the Fade nor the Deep Roads nor anywhere I have seen in Ferelden.

[Muffled noise and scraping.]

Dear Andraste! Morrigan - please run, my friend. Loghain is going to be hunting you. Loghain... dear Maker.

CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?

Comments

[djinnigenie]

[Amusement twinkles in the woman's gaze at that question.]

I am neither mage nor helpless maiden. Considering the past several months of my life have involved walking along various roads of questionable safety, I am fairly certain that I can find this city of which you speak. Shall I ask for you at the gate, Loki Odinson? Or further inward?

[attention_wenches]

Well, if you really intend to seek me out, I can come to meet you, I suppose. Though I can tell you nothing that other old hands couldn't.

[He's so used to being off-putting that her relative enthusiasm strikes him as odd.]

I'm up to my neck in papers in the Vault just now, but I can put them aside. In any case, the city is easy to make out, as it surrounds a peculiar dome that I understand to be comprised of some sort of energy and acts as a fortress for those inside it. We're in the half collapsed buildings outside that.

[djinnigenie]

Interesting. [Now there is a phrase and tone she's learned from Morrigan.]

I do not wish to take you from your work, young Odinson, but you are the only soul that I know in this place aside from the woman who has gone quiet. Is there a guard at this half-collapsed city?

[attention_wenches]

[Yuck, responsibility. Well, that'll teach him to be passably civil and not just demand that Thor handle the fallout.]

There are local soldiers, but new arrivals from the ship are frequent. They won't bother you. If you ask anyone, they can send you to a building generally known as the Flop, where new arrivals are housed until and unless they find somewhere they prefer. That would be the easiest landmark where I might meet you.

[djinnigenie]

My thanks again, young ser. I shall gather my equipment and be on my way in less than an hour. Fare you well until next we speak.

[Another frown, another odd camera angle, and then Elissa seems to figure out how to turn off the communicator for all goes dark and silent.]

[Video] >> [Action]

[attention_wenches]

Just so, Milady.

[He nods, then packs up his work to go for a walk.]

[Waiting outside the flop, Loki looks even younger than he did over the communicator, since it's easier to see how short he is. Aside from a satchel stuffed with papers resting against his hip, he's perfectly unarmed and looks a bit bored, but at least in dress and manner he's not so unlike a Fereldan human as to be disquieting.]

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[djinnigenie]

[It is late afternoon when Elissa arrives in her Grey Warden armor. Loki may not immediately recognize her since her leather hood is pulled up over her hair. She is armed not only with a sword and dagger on opposing hips, but with a longbow in hand and a quiver upon her back. Dangling from her belt via a leather thong is a brace of rabbits, furry corpses tied around their back legs. There is even a small pack at the small of her back, denoting a woman who is used to traveling and packing light.]

[Drawing nearer, Elissa's eyes narrow.]

Loki Odinson?

[attention_wenches]

Indeed.

[Nothing about her appearance surprises him. She would do well at home. Better than he, most likely.]

Milady Elissa? Nothing particularly toothy beset you on the way, I hope?

[djinnigenie]

[She really ought to correct him on the title, but she's rather missed hearing it and no one here thus far knows a thing about the Grey Wardens. The boy earns a smile.]

Nothing terrible. Only this pair of unfortunates who crossed my path.

[She jiggles the thong holding the rabbits with a gloved hand.]

Tis a pleasure to meet you in person, Ser Loki, and I thank you for kindly gifting me with your valuable time. Perhaps you would accept these rabbits as my gift?

[attention_wenches]

[Loki, in turn, doesn't correct her. He may have given up on hiding his patronym (deserved or not), but he feels no inclination to announce himself a prince without prompting.]

It would be wasted on me, I'm afraid. My brother and I are both dismal cooks. There is a trader in town who's always eager for game, I understand. It might be best to take them to him.

[He does appreciate the thought, though.]

[djinnigenie]

[A nod.]

Very well. Now, what can you tell me of this entombed sleep? Do you know why we were part of it?

[attention_wenches]

Little, I'm afraid. Twas a ship that traveled between worlds by means... different than those used by my people, so I cannot say much on that subject. It crashed here a hundred years ago, but just what bearing that has on the people in those tombs, I do not know.I know that people can return to the pods, that they wake unexpectedly, so the whole is a mystery.

[He does like to lecture. Being pedantic is such fun.]

[djinnigenie]

[The woman's face changes and, despite not being a helpless maiden, she suddenly looks as though she might need to sit down.]

One hundred... years? So, I have been here for that long? I mean, if I was already entombed at the time of the wreck... Twould have to be that way, aye?

[softly] Dear Maker.

[attention_wenches]

[He could see how that would be even more distressing for a human, with their short lives.]

Perhaps. Perhaps not. I did say that there are strange discrepancies. I mentioned my brother is here. He arrived by different means, and not only is he far more than a hundred years older than when last I saw him, but he remembers our history differently than I. There's more afoot than simple abductions, and time and events are apparently all out of their proper way.

[djinnigenie]

Well, that is better to hear. Perhaps I have not lost all that were dear to me after all. That would be a welcome thing. For all that I have endured, I have never been truly alone.

[Lifting her head, she slightly smiles.] I shall return to the ship on the morrow and search the tombs for my friends.

[attention_wenches]

You may have luck, but the place is vast and disorienting.

[Loki hadn't looked very hard. He had one Thor here, and if the one who belonged to him at home were in the ship, he was rather better off not knowing. He hated to think of his brother in that trapped, unnatural sleep, like Father's but so helpless.]

In the meantime, this world is certainly interesting.

[djinnigenie]

Ha! I suppose I shall see, shall I not? No doubt I shall miss Ferelden, but this appears to be my home now, so I shall do my best to love it.

[A glance is given to the rabbits.]

At least the hunting is good, so we are not likely to starve.

[attention_wenches]

There are rather more challenging beasts outside the city than that, I'm assured. I'm no hunter myself.

[An expert at getting tangled in bowstrings and feeling vaguely queasy about the whole thing, in point of fact.]

There are investigations underway to find a way home again, or at least uncover why we're here at all. But a certain resignation is likely wise.

[djinnigenie]

I am no stranger to upheaval.

[Unbidden, a flash of the fires and blood at Highever Castle and then Duncan offering her the cup at Ostagar come to her mind.]

Thank you again, Loki. It was kind of you to aid me and to meet me here. I shall not soon forget it. You say this building is where I may find rest?

[attention_wenches]

[The gratitude continues to unnerve him.]

There's plenty still to discover, but perhaps you'd rather absorb it? Yes, this building is open to new arrivals. I only spent a few nights here. There are abandoned buildings hereabouts, and if you can find a livable one unclaimed, you can take it over. If you prefer a lack of crowds.

[He certainly does.]

[djinnigenie]

[The gratitude is *genuine* and so is Elissa's faint smile.]

Crowds may prefer a lack of *me* during times of sleep. I shall try this inn for the night and then seek out other accommodations should I turn out to be a disturbance to others.

[attention_wenches]

[Trouble sleeping he can empathize with, and his expression softens a little. From very aloofly amused to only somewhat.]

I simply didn't find that there was much space for magic in there, and my brother has a way of taking up space. Fortunately, there's plenty to be found.

[djinnigenie]

[Elissa notices his change in expression and her own smile becomes less slight.]

Still, for now, this seems the best location for rest this night. There is always time to seek another place on the morrow. Perhaps, here, my nocturnal disturbances shall not trouble me as they did in Ferelden.

Also... do I smell food?

[Her stomach audibly growls.]

[attention_wenches]

Simple, but passable.

[Asgardian food, even for royalty, tends to the simple, so the local fare doesn't distress him the way it does some.]

And you don't even have a brother to eat it all before you get to it.

[djinnigenie]

[That pulls a laugh from her.]

I have an older brother named Fergus! I know of what you speak.

Well... had.

[And now that amused face falls into quiet sadness.]